Abiding Joy

 

 

“But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves” (John 17:13).

 

“These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may abide in you, and that your joy may be made full” (John 15:11).

 

Jesus is speaking so that we may have the fullness of His joy abiding in us. He is speaking as He is about to be betrayed by one close to Him. He is speaking as the shadow of the Cross envelopes the Upper Room. That Jesus speaks of joy before His impending crucifixion should not surprise us, for we see that Jesus, “For the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2).

 

As we ponder John 15:11 and John 17:13 (see also 16:20 – 22), I hope we recognize, once again, the unity of John chapters 13 – 17; this is a tightly woven tapestry that calls us to stand back and meditate, allowing its patterns to penetrate our hearts and minds and souls, calling us to enter into it and inviting us to allow it to enter into us.

 

Jesus speaks not simply of joy, but of the fullness of joy, a joy that is completed and perfected – God desires no less for us in Christ, He promises no less. Jesus speaks not just of joy, but of His joy abiding in us, living in us, taking up its dwelling in us. In Christ Jesus we have abiding joy. Joy is our Way of Life. We see the theme of abiding throughout the Upper Room, the Holy Spirit abides in us, the Father abides in us, Jesus abides in us, we abide in the Vine, the joy of Jesus abides in us – abiding is a motif of the Upper Room tapestry.

 

Jesus’ promise to us is, “No one will take your joy away from you” (John 16:22).

 

Just as the love of God abides in us, so the joy of God abides in us. I am reminded of Zephaniah 3:17, of God exulting over us with joy, rejoicing over us with shouts of joy. Can we be quiet long enough to hear God singing and shouting? Will we allow Him into our churches with that kind of behavior? Will we know Him in the quietness of His love?

 

The joy of Christ within us is a state of being, just as the love of God within us is a state of being. It is possible to sing and dance and shout and play music, but never really know the joy of Christ, for the joy of Christ is a state of being, for God is joy just as God is love.  It is also possible to know inexpressible joy in the depths of inexpressible quiet, and in the midst of inexpressible sorrow and suffering (see again Hebrews 12:2).

 

We may express the joy of Christ in many ways, offering God’s joy in Christ back to Him in worship, sharing it with others – both quietly and exuberantly – and drawing on it as we pass through fire and flood.

 

Love, peace, hope, faith, joy; these are all elements of our state of being in Jesus Christ, they are all His…they come from Him, they abide in us, we return them to Him, we share them with others as we are Christ’s Presence on the earth.

 

Jesus speaks so that we may have His joy, that we may find joy in His Word. Do we? When we read the Bible, are we encountering Jesus Christ and His joy? Is the joy of Christ abiding in us as His Word abides in us?

 

As you ponder the Upper Room (John 13 – 17), where are you encountering joy?

 

Is it in Jesus washing our feet so that we may wash the feet of others?

 

Is it in loving others as Jesus loves us, laying down our lives for our brothers and sisters?

 

Is it finding that place in Christ that He has prepared for us, as He comes to us from the Father?

 

Is it in the coming of the Holy Spirit to abide in us?

 

Is it as the Father and Son come to make their home in us?

 

Is it abiding in the Vine?

 

Is it in realizing that our Father has given us to Jesus Christ and that we are secure in Jesus?

 

Is it in knowing that Christ sends us just as the Father sent Him?

 

Is it in the knowledge that the Father loves us even as He loves His Firstborn Son, Jesus Christ?

 

Where are we finding joy in the Word of Jesus?

 

How is the joy of Jesus abiding in us as our Way of Life?

 

Please do not misunderstand me, I love music and I love Biblically-grounded lyrics and I love singing soft and I love singing loud, and I love quite music by which to meditate and pray; but the joy of Christ Jesus is a state of being, it can be expressed in action, but it need not be external action since it is an inward Way of Life. In fact, there is a sense in which we can have singing and shouting and dancing that is not seen with the natural eye, for it occurs within our hearts and minds and souls and spirits…it never ceases. Sometimes we may be playing the drums and symbols in our hearts, other times a gentle flute. We may be sitting in a chair in a doctor’s waiting room while playing the tambourine and dancing in our souls…and praying for those around us.

 

Paul writes of “singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19). What are we playing in our hearts? What melodies are flowing from our innermost beings? Yes, yes, there may indeed be times when our outward actions rekindle the embers on the hearth of our hearts, but surely this is not to be our way of life, for Jesus is our Way of Life and His joy has become our joy, his joy abides within us.

 

How is the joy of Jesus being completed and perfected within us…today?

 

If I were to knock on your door this evening, would you answer me with a song of joy?

 

Morning Dedication

 Good morning, 

I have shared this prayer before, and it seems like a good time to share it again. It is a wonderful prayer to make your own, adding your own form and thoughts to it. For example, I add the words "and the best day of my marriage” to the conclusion. It also lends itself to memorization. 

Love and blessings…Bob

Morning Dedication

Holy Father,

As I cross the threshold of this day, I commit myself, soul, body, affairs, friends to thy care; Watch over, keep, guide, direct, sanctify, bless me.

Incline my heart to thy ways; Mold me wholly into the image of Jesus, as a potter forms the clay; May my lips be a well-tuned harp to sound thy praise; Let those around see me living by thy Spirit, trampling the world underfoot, unconformed to lying vanities, transformed by a renewed mind, clad in the entire armor of God, shining as a never-dimmed light, showing holiness in all my doings.

Let no evil this day soil my thoughts, words, hands. May I travel miry paths with a life pure from spot or stain. In needful transactions let my affection be in Heaven, and my love soar upwards in flames of fire, my gaze fixed on unseen things, my eyes open to the emptiness, fragility, mockery of earth and its vanities.

May I view all things in the mirror of eternity, waiting for the coming of my Lord, listening for the last trumpet call, hastening unto the new heaven and earth.

Order this day all my communications according to thy wisdom, and to the gain of mutual good. Forbid that I should not be profited or made profitable.

May I speak each word as if my last word, and walk each step as my final one.

If my life should end today, let this be my best day.”

The Valley of Vision, pages 220 – 221, Arthur Bennett, editor, Banner of Truth Trust.

Note: The prayer in the book begins “Almighty God,” but I seldom address our Father that way, He is our Father, My Father (see John 17:11, 25; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6; and of course Matthew 6:9). 

End Note

 

END NOTE:

A concluding thought on the concept of worship in our gatherings:

 

The term “worship leader” is, I think, unfortunate. It reinforces the view that worship only occurs, or primarily occurs, during the musical portion of our gatherings. This is not good thinking or modeling; it sends the wrong message and conditions people to think in a way that is harmful.

 

Anyone who stands before a congregation is a worship leader, for we gather to worship and our focus is first on God and then on one another in Him. We gather in the Presence of Jesus Christ, the Lamb. Therefore, we should really have worship leaders throughout our gatherings, a collective group of men and women who lead us throughout our gatherings in worship.

 

Ministers of music? Yes.

 

Worship leaders, in the sense we’ve been using the term? No.

 

How we think about these things matters. Words form our thoughts and mold our souls and inform our actions.

 

Worship is to be our Way of Life in Jesus Christ.

Living in Jesus, Abiding in Him (34)

 

“These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be [“abide” in Greek] in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:11 NASB).

 

“But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.” (John 17:13 NASB).

 

The joy of Jesus is not dependent upon outside circumstances. The same is true for His peace. “Peace I leave with you; My peace do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27). Jesus speaks of His peace when He will soon be betrayed, tortured, and crucified.

 

When Jesus approached the Cross, He was so focused on “the joy set before Him” that He “despised the shame” of the Cross (Heb. 12:20). The joy and the peace of Jesus make no sense to the natural man. How can a person be peaceful and joyful amid suffering and reversal and grief and loss? This is beyond understanding.

 

Peter terms our joy “inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Pt. 1:8). Paul writes that the peace of God “surpasses all comprehension” (Phil. 4:7). Suffering for Christ and the glory and joy of Christ are themes of 1 Peter. Suffering for Christ and rejoicing and peace in Christ are themes of Philippians, written from prison.

 

Our joy and peace in Christ Jesus are not outwardly oriented. Paul and Silas sang praises to God in prison (Acts 16:25). Do we want to teach people Biblical joy in Jesus Christ, or do we want to make people dependent on their feelings and outward expressions? What is the foundation of our teaching and practice? Upon what are we building?

 

If our joy and peace are in Jesus Christ, then all is well; but if Jesus is simply a mascot, if He is akin to Colonel Sanders, if He represents a lifestyle, if He is our therapist or motivational speaker, if He is our public spokesman – then we have a problem. Jesus is God and He calls us to a way of life that requires self-sacrifice and obedience to Him. As Bonhoeffer wrote, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”

 

“Rejoice then in the Giver and his goodness, be happy in him, O my heart, and in nothing but God, for whatever a man trusts in, from that he expects happiness.

 

“He who is the ground of thy faith should be the substance of thy joy.” The Valley of Vision, page 278.

 

Is my faith in Jesus, or is it in a way of doing “church”? Is my faith in Jesus, or is it in a certain way of having a Sunday morning “experience”?

 

If our churches were closed next week (and why should they be for we are hardly a threat to anyone), would we still gather? Would we still gather to worship and to edify one another, whether in small groups or larger assemblies? If our power grid collapsed so we could no longer have amplified speaking and music, would we still gather? If our pastors and lead musicians and singers were no longer available, would we gather to worship and share His Word? Would we have joy?

 

When things are tough at work, at school, in society, in family – do we worship, do we know His joy and His peace?

 

Jesus desires that His joy be perfected within us – this is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that surpasses circumstances and our surroundings. The joy of Jesus is grounded in koinonia with Him and with one another, it is a Way of Life, it is His Way of Life in the Father.

 

Now I’m sure I’ve been misunderstood in what I’ve written. I deeply believe in the organic expression of the Body of Christ, and I love music that emanates from His Body. I think that it would probably be good for quiet churches to learn to let loose now and then, and I think it would be good for churches accustomed to exuberant expression to just be quiet occasionally. There is a lot we can learn from one another. I have a tambourine that I love to play when I can, and I have danced in church a time or two and I have found that a good shout of “glory!” and “hallelujah” to our Lord is wonderful. I also know what it is to be so overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit that to speak seems like profaning the moment.

 

So to remind us, if we think that “worship” is what happens when we have a band play during our gatherings, if we confine our thinking of worship to that particular part of the service, then we have departed from the Biblical view of worship. Of course worship ought to occur when we engage in singing and music – but Biblical worship is so much more, it ought to encompass all that we do when we gather, it ought to encompass all of life in Christ.

 

In our worship, we will know joy; in our joy we will know worship.

 

In both we will know Jesus.

Living in Jesus, Abiding in Him (32)

 

“These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be [“abide” in Greek] in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:11). NASB

 

“But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.” (John 17:13). NASB

 

Please note that in John 15:11 we see, once again, the theme of “abiding”. In this instance it is the joy of Jesus abiding in us.

 

(Why, O why, our English translations are not consistent in their translation of certain words in the same passages I do not know – other than for “stylistic” reasons in English, which seems to me a poor justification. Certainly the Holy Spirit knew what He was doing when He inspired the human authors of Scripture – can we not trust the Holy Spirit?)

 

In John 15:11 and 17:13 we have the idea of Jesus’ joy being “made full” in us.  What does this mean and what does this look like? What is the source of this joy? Is the joy of Jesus being made full within us? As individuals and as His People, His Bride?

 

I want us to ponder this, to explore it, and not to gloss over it. Jesus deeply desires us to have His joy made complete within us; He wants us to live in His joy and for His joy to live in us, no matter where we are in life. Consider, that it was Jesus “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2b).

 

Jesus not only wants us to know His joy, He wants His joy to fill us and to be made complete within us. Peter writes that even in the midst of our faith being “tested by fire” that we can “greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory” (see 1 Peter 1:3 – 9), and let us not forget that it was from prison that Paul wrote, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” (Phil. 4:4).

 

Let me state two points, and then we’ll explore them. The first is that we cannot manufacture the joy of Jesus, we cannot produce it, we cannot “make it happen.” The second is that Jesus, forever and always, is our source of Divine joy and in Him our joy is made complete. To quote from a prayer that we’ll return to, “He who is the ground of thy faith should be the substance of thy joy.” (The Valley of Vision, page 278).

 

These two points are in line with the Vine and the branches – apart from Jesus we cannot bear fruit, and that includes the fruit of joy (John 15:4 – 5).

 

Do we truly believe that Jesus must be the source of our joy? Do we really believe that we cannot manufacture joy?

 

The way we use words matters, and the way God uses words in Scripture especially matters. One of the tragedies of our age is that language is being desecrated in an orgy of deconstruction and destruction – we are destroying the beautiful gift of language that God gave us, and we don’t seem to care. We are now at the point where we are surrendering our God – given creative abilities to AI and we are unable to discern the frontiers and dividing lines of the issues at hand. We don’t even see that there are issues, and we continue to be agents and pawns of our own destruction – within and without the professing church.

 

In John 15:11 we read “that your joy may be made full.” Then in 17:13 we have “that they may have My joy made full in themselves.” In both passages joy is not something that we produce, it is a work that is being done within us. The Greek words in both instances for “made full” are passive verbs, meaning that we receive the joy rather than produce the joy (πληρωθῇ in 15:11 and πεπληρωμένην in 17:13).

 

Perhaps two passages from James can help us with this.

 

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2 – 4).

 

When James writes that we should “let endurance have its perfect result” the picture is of a work being done within us to bring us to a place of maturity – we are to submit to the Divine working, we are not the originators or sustainers of the Divine working. (Consider Galatians 3:1 – 5).

 

Similarly we read in James 1:21, “Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.” We receive the word of God, implanted within us, and the growth and action of this Word will save our souls (see also 1 Peter 1:22 – 25; Phil. 2:13).

 

I am attempting to make this point about our source of joy and our inability to manufacture joy because I am not sure we understand it. We have become so good at choreographing our gatherings (our Sunday morning “experience” as I have seen it termed), our music has become so professional, that we don’t really need the Holy Spirit any more than popular performers – and we call what we do “worship”…but is it really? Can we tell the difference between having a good time, responding to music and lyrics and group excitement, and the worship of the True and Living God?

 

Let me be quick to say that this principle also applies to teaching and preaching. I realized early in my pastoral ministry that I was so well trained in preaching that I didn’t need the Holy Spirit to present a good sermon – and that was a sobering and frightening realization. I don’t know why we weren’t cautioned about this in seminary. 

 

(I have seen Christians sing lyrics that not only make no Biblical sense, I have seen them sing lyrics which go against clear Biblical teaching – how can this be? And how can this pass for Biblical worship? God does not ask us to leave our discernment behind when we gather, nor to subordinate sound wisdom and teaching to the excitement of music and pop culture conformity.)

 

When we use the term “worship” today it tends to be isolated to the musical element in our gatherings, and that is a problem that we don’t realize, so accustomed have we become to this use of the term. Life ought to be worship – all of life, and all that we do in our gatherings ought to be worship, for we ought to be offering ourselves and our actions to God, receiving from Him, and all that we do ought to be holy to the Lord.

 

Since in worship we find joy and receive joy, since in worship we know the Trinity as our source of joy, I am touching on this as we consider John 15:11; for if we associate the “joy” Jesus speaks of with momentary experiences, rather than as an abiding character of our life in Him, then we will be confused about His joy.

 

Perhaps we can know if we are worshipping on Sunday by how we truly live Monday – Saturday. Are we sharing Jesus Christ as our Way of Life? Is witnessing our Way of Life? Are we loving one another as Jesus loves us, laying our lives down for one another? Are we loving God with all that we have and all that we are? Are we living holy lives as our Father is holy? Are we communing with God in His Word? Are we interceding in prayer for others? Do our calendars and bank accounts testify to Jesus Christ? At work and in school and in our civic lives, are we known as disciples of Jesus Christ?

 

Well, a blog has its limitations, one of which is length. The Lord willing, we’ll pick this back up next time…

 

“He who is the ground of thy faith should be the substance of thy joy.” (The Valley of Vision, page 278).

 

Heavenly Mindedness (60)

 

“Finally the highest thing that can be spoken about this city is that it is the city of our God, that He is in the midst of it. Traced to its ultimate root heavenly-mindedness is the thirst of the soul after God, the living God. The patriarchs looked not for some city in general, but for a city whose builder and maker was God.

 

“It is characteristic of faith that it not merely desires the perfect but desires the perfect as a work and gift of God. A heaven that was not illumined by the light of God, and not a place for closest embrace of Him, would be less than heaven. God as builder and maker thereof has put the better part of Himself into his work. Therefore those who enter the city are in God. The thought is none other than that of the seer in the Apocalypse:

 

“I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof. And that city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God lightens it, and the throne of God and the Lamb are therein: and his servants shall do Him service, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads.”

 

“And the faith is the faith of the Psalmist, who spoke: “Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.” Here it is impossible for us to tell how truly and to what extent our relation to God is a relation of pure, disinterested love in which we seek Him for his own sake. There, when all want and sin-frailty shall have slipped away from us, we shall be able to tell.

 

“It was because God discerned in the souls of the patriarchs, underneath all else, this personal love, this homesickness for Himself, that He caused to be recorded about them the greatest thing that can be spoken of any man: that God is not ashamed to be called their God, and that He has prepared for them the city of their desire.” G. Vos

 

This is the concluding quote from Vos’s sermon, Heavenly – mindedness. I thought it would be good to include this lengthy conclusion so that we could meditate on the many threads that Vos ties up and weaves together. While we will drop back and look at these elements, for now, as you ponder the above, what do you see? What is the big picture? What does the forest look like and what are the trees you see in the forest?

 

How does Vos’s description of the heavenly – mindedness of the Patriarchs compare with our lives? With the way we think and feel and live?

How does our life - orientation compare with the Patriarchs?

 

Please take some time pondering Vos’s conclusion. What are the final images and thoughts he wants to leave with those who first heard him speak this at Princeton Seminary? What are the thoughts and images that Vos wants to leave with us?

 

Heavenly Mindedness (53)

 

In the word that God speaks we can taste all his goodness and grace. Hope itself is spiritualized, remaining no longer the hope of imagination but grasping in God the ideal root from which the whole future must spring and blossom in due time. The heavenly world does not appear desirable as simply a second improved edition of this life; that would be nothing else than earthly mindedness projected into the future. The very opposite takes place: heaven spiritualizes in advance our present walk with God. Each time faith soars and alights behind the veil it brings back on its wings some of the subtle fragrance that there prevails. G. Vos.

 

Continuing to ponder: “Each time faith soars and alights behind the veil it brings back on its wings some of the subtle fragrance that there prevails.”

 

I find it difficult at times to speak of some elements of my own life in Christ, of our life in Christ, and of the life in Christ which those who have influenced me have had – both because there are so many facets to living in Christ and because misunderstanding seems to come with the territory. I am so thankful that men and women of many Christian traditions have influenced me, from Roman Catholic, to Eastern Orthodox, to most all Protestant groups, to Pentecostals. Perhaps this is one reason why I continually look to the Scriptures, and to Christ in the Scriptures, so that in Christ these many influences can find their integration and harmony.

 

There is a subtle deviation from Scripture in the idea that we go “behind the veil.” Can you see it? To be sure this deviation is understandable, considering the baggage that most of us have inherited. Also, in one sense this idea of “behind the veil” may be classified the same way we’d classify the phrase “sunrise” or “sunset” – more a matter of optics than astronomy. Nevertheless, I think it important enough to spend some time on it, because if Vos can make this deviation in the midst of his glorious message on Heavenly Mindedness, a message that we’d all do well to meditate upon and absorb, then what deviations might I be unconsciously making? What is particularly interesting to me is that the deviation in Vos’s message on Hebrews 11 comes right after Hebrews 10:19 – 22 in which, as we saw in a previous post, we are taught that the veil is no more – there is no longer a barrier separating us from the Holy of Holies. Therefore, to speak of going “behind the veil” is to speak of something which it is impossible for us to do – other than in our minds, for the veil no longer exists.

 

To be sure, the phrase can express entering into intimacy with the Trinity, but it is, nevertheless, not an accurate phrase – after all, much of the point of Hebrews is that the veil has been removed and we are living in a New Covenant, we are living in the reality of which the Old Testament Tabernacle was but a reflection. Alas, we are so accustomed to thinking of barriers between us and our heavenly Father, we are so accustomed to living in the Outer Court, or on a good day in the Holy Place, that we cannot consistently conceive of living in the Holy of Holies as a Way of Life.

 

And yet, Jesus Christ calls us to live in union with the Father as He lives in union with the Father, He calls us to be in the same place in the Father that He is. In John 13 we see the Laver of the Tabernacle in the Outer Court, the washing; in John 17 we find ourselves in the Holy of Holies, and in that Holy of Holies we hear (John 17:24), “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”

 

When Jesus prays “be with Me where I am,” He is not praying that we would be in Jerusalem, or in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, but rather that we would be with Him in His relationship with the Father. “…that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved me” (John 17:21 – 23).

 

O dear friends, as long as the veil remained, separating us from the Holy of Holies, the heart’s desire of Jesus Christ for us to know the koinonia of the Trinity could not be fulfilled, but He made a way on the Cross and the curtain, the veil, the barrier in the Temple has been torn in two from top to bottom! When the earthly veil was rent, it signified that the heavenly veil had been rent – what was accomplished in the heavens was manifested on earth; what happened in the Heavenly Temple was announced in the earthly Temple.

 

Prior to the rending of the veil we might be excused for living outside the Tabernacle, we might be excused for living in the Outer Court and only occasionally entering the middle space known as the Holy Place; but O dear friends, now our calling is to live in the Trinity as the Trinity lives in us (John chapters 13 – 17) – and in the Trinity we are called not to live from the outside to the inside, but from the inside to the outside. We are not born again from the outside in, but from the inside out. We are not made new creations from the outside in, but from the inside out.

 

Why then do we spend so much time in the Outer Court? Why do we focus on the natural? Can we not hear Jesus saying, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6)? Can we hear Jesus saying, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24)? Listen to Jesus when He says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63).

 

“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:14 – 15).

 

Do we desire to live in the natural? Having met Jesus Christ do we still insist on living from the outside to the inside? Then let us hear Paul, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3). Do we insist on living as children, as infants, playing with the things of this earth when we could be living in intimacy with our Heavenly Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the blessed Holy Spirit?

 

How will it sound, when we leave this life, instead of hearing, “Well done good and faithful servant, blessed son! Blessed daughter!” Instead to hear the words, “Where have you been?”

 

The veil is no longer! Christ has wrought a perfect and complete and glorious salvation for His brothers and sisters – He calls us to come know the Father, to live from the inside to the outside, to be in Him a source of light and life to others.

 

“I am writing to you, fathers, because you have known Him who bas been from the beginning…” (1 John 2:13).

 

“He said, ‘It is finished!’” (John 19:30).

Heavenly Mindedness (52)

 

In the word that God speaks we can taste all his goodness and grace. Hope itself is spiritualized, remaining no longer the hope of imagination but grasping in God the ideal root from which the whole future must spring and blossom in due time. The heavenly world does not appear desirable as simply a second improved edition of this life; that would be nothing else than earthly mindedness projected into the future. The very opposite takes place: heaven spiritualizes in advance our present walk with God. Each time faith soars and alights behind the veil it brings back on its wings some of the subtle fragrance that there prevails. G. Vos.

 

I want to conclude our consideration of the above section of Vos’s message on Heavenly Mindedness by looking at, “Each time faith soars and alights behind the veil it brings back on its wings some of the subtle fragrance that there prevails.”

 

The image invoked by “behind the veil” is, of course, that of the Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple of Solomon (along with its subsequent rebuilding). For simplicity’s sake we’ll look at the Tabernacle of Moses because the Temple in its various permutations is structurally complicated. The Tabernacle had three spaces, three areas: the Outer Court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies – that Most Holy Place. We may recall that there was a veil separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies and that only the High Priest could go into the Holy of Holies, and he could only do so once a year, on the Day of Atonement.

 

The Holy of Holies represented that Place where the Presence of Yahweh dwelt in a particular fashion – for while God’s Presence was certainly in the Holy Place and in the Outer Court, as well as beyond the Tabernacle with the People of Israel – His Presence was in the Holy of Holies in a most particular fashion. Within the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant with the Mercy Seat as its covering, or lid, with two cherubs with wings outstretched on the lid of gold. Within the Ark was Aaron’s rod, a bowl of manna, the Ten Commandments, and the Law as given in Deuteronomy. When the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement he brought sacrificial blood with him, to atone for his own sins and for the sins of the people.

 

Now there is much we could say about the above, for it all speaks of Christ and His glory, but the thing I’d like us to ponder is the image that the veil was a barrier to the Holy of Holies; not only could not the average person enter the Holy of Holies, but the average priest also couldn’t go inside it. Only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies, but even he could only go into it once a year, on the Day of Atonement. In other words, access to the Personal Presence of Yahweh was barred by the veil, just as, in a similar sense, access to the Garden of Eden was blocked by cherubim with a flaming sword (Gen. 3:24). (Note that cherubim were embroidered on the veil of the Holy of Holies, Ex. 26:31).

 

The average Israelite probably would have never considered the possibility of entering the Holy of Holies, just as the average priest would have never considered the possibility. Yahweh was holy and there was a barrier between Yahweh’s particular Personal Presence beyond the veil and the people of Israel. Generation after generation lived with this mindset, God lived in the impenetrable, He could not be approached beyond the veil. This was the Law of Moses, this was the way people were raised, this was the way the priests ministered, and anyone who suggested otherwise would have been thought a fool, a blasphemer, and a candidate for death as a false prophet.

 

(I need to parenthetically point out that the religious sentiments of Israel and Judah were hardly pristine and faithful to Yahweh; there was idolatry, human sacrifice, and idols were even brought into the Temple of Solomon – so the preceding paragraph does not encompass all the sentiments and practices from Moses to Christ, though it may be fair to say that after the Babylonian Captivity rampant idolatry was not likely to be tolerated.)

 

With the above as a backdrop, one of the first teachings of Jesus Christ is about communing with God in prayer, and it begins with “Our Father.” What must have some people thought when they heard those words? What must have His disciples thought as He told them that the Father would come and live within them? Consider the words of intimacy with the Father that Jesus uses throughout the Gospel of John, an intimacy first used of His own relationship with the Father, and then with our relationship with the Father in chapters 14 – 17. What must His hearers have been thinking?

 

Some of His hearers thought His language blasphemous and attempted to kill Him, finally succeeding. Perhaps we should not judge these people too harshly, after all, they were conscious of the veil barring the way to the Holy of Holies, who was this man Jesus that He should presume to speak of intimacy with God? Another reason for our caution in judging them is our own attitude, our own experience – for do we really believe that we are called to know the Father in such intimacy? Do we readily experience this, share this, and confidently affirm this as a core element of the Gospel? Is this the tenor of our worship gatherings?

 

Matthew writes, “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom…” (Matthew 27:50-51a; see also Mark 15:38). What does this mean?

 

“Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water,” Hebrews 10:19 – 22.

 

While we may not understand this, the veil in the Tabernacle represented the body of the Incarnate Son of God, and when Jesus Christ completed His perfect sacrifice on the Cross, as the High Priest who did not need to make an offering for His own sins – for He had none (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; 7:26; 1 Peter 1:19) – the veil of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom, opening the Way for us to enter into the fulness of the Presence of God through Jesus Christ. (See Hebrews for an exposition of the glorious priesthood of Jesus Christ and the surpassing greatness and glory of the New Covenant).

 

Ponder the words of Hebrews 10:19 – 22: “confidence,” “full assurance of faith,” “a great priest over the house of God,” “let us draw near.” Earlier in Hebrews 4:16 we read, “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

 

There is a great chasm between the Old and New Covenants, and sadly much of what passes for Christian thinking and teaching today has its roots in the Old Covenant, the Law of condemnation and death (2 Cor. 3:4ff). The New Covenant sprinkles our hearts from an evil conscience, while the Old Covenant maintains a message of sin and guilt and distance from God our Father. Old Covenant thinking wants to motivate us to sew the veil up, again and again and again. It is akin to the perpetual sacrificial system of the earthly Tabernacle and Temple, with sin consciousness pervading the minds and hearts of the people. How blessed we are to have a Great High Priest who, by one sacrifice, in which He is both Priest and Offering, has sanctified us “once for all” (Heb. 10:10).

 

This is the heart of justification and our being made holy and set apart for God – this is the heart of our transformation from sinners to saints, this is our invitation and calling to live not outside the Tabernacle, nor in the Outer Court of the Tabernacle, not even in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle, but to live in the koinonia of the Trinity beyond where the veil once was – for there is no more veil!

 

Sadly, many of us insist on sewing the veil up week after week, while others preach a message that acts as if there never was a veil, that denies the Atonement and the justice and judgment of God and the penalty of sin – both of these messages fall short of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The former message keeps people in a prison of sin consciousness; the latter promises people a deceitful freedom which leads to the bondage of the self. All the while the Father calls us to Himself through Jesus Christ, all the while the Father desires us to know koinonia with Him, with the Son, and with the Holy Spirit. We are called to live within the Holy of Holies as our way of life.

 

I will come back to this in the next post in this series.

 

A Strange, And Not So Strange, Story (8)

 

Judges Chapters 17 & 18

 

“When these went into Micah’s house and took the graven image, the ephod and household idols and the molten image, the priest said to them, ‘What are you doing?’ They said to him, ‘Be silent, put your hand over your mouth and come with us, and be to us a faither and a priest. Is it better for you to be a priest to the house of one man, or to be a priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?’ The priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod and household idols and the graven image and went among the people.” Judges 18:18 – 20.

 

Is it possible that churches want chaplains and that pastors would be just fine serving as chaplains or social workers? That is, is it possible that what “we the people” really want is someone to dedicate or baptize our children, someone to marry us, someone to bury us, and someone to tell us nice things on Sunday morning? Is it possible that pastors are fine with serving in the foregoing capacity? Is it possible that even those pastors who enter ministry with a passion for Jesus Christ, a desire to see Christians actually become disciples of Christ, and a determination to see others come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, are eventually worn down to the point where they lose the sharpness of their calling and give in to the weight of the status quo?

 

The Danites say to the Levite, “We have a bigger and better job for you, how can you argue with our logic?” This sounds an awful lot like our religious reasoning today – “Bigger is Better” is the Great Commandment and the Great Commission merged into one. Of course, on the other end of the spectrum we have, “We don’t want new wine, we want to preserve our old wineskins.”

 

What happened to the Levite’s relationship with Micah that we see in Judges 17:11? “The Levite agreed to live with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons.” When “bigger is better,” relationships take a back seat. I’m sure there are exceptions to the norm, but how many times have we seen pastors leave one church to serve a smaller church? How often do we take a cut in pay to make a job move?

 

However, let me be quick to say that this mentality of “bigger is better” is not the fault of any one group of people, it is the result of many forces, of many areas in which we acquiesce to the world around us, to the spirit of Babylon. It is what happens when we desert the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ. After all, “bigger is better” and inviting money to be our arbiter is really the spirit of the Great Whore – Babylon the Great (Revelation chapters 17 – 18). John Piper titled a book, “Brothers, We Are Not Professionals”; I agree with the thought behind the title, but I’m just not sure we can extricate ourselves from the spider’s web in which we are entangled, it is difficult to function while living in Babylon. What I am trying to say is that we ought not to give ourselves a pass when reading about the idolatrous and mercenary Levite of our passage, either as vocational ministers or as congregations.

 

“When they had gone some distance from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah’s house assembled and overtook the sons of Dan. They cried to the sons of Dan, who turned around and said to Micah, ‘What is the matter with you, that you have assembled together’?” (Judges 18:22 – 23).

 

Can we see the sorry result of Micah’s idolatry? Can we see that his neighbors were seduced by his idolatry to the point that they pursued the Danites in an attempt to recover the idols? Micah’s idolatry was a cancer, first spreading to his neighbors and then being perpetuated in the tribe of Dan. The partnership between Micah and his mother was evil, and its fruit poisonous. The Levite added a false sense of legitimacy to the evil, and the evil spread not only to Micah’s neighbors, but then to an entire tribe, affecting others beyond that tribe. How are we influencing our families and neighbors? How are our congregations affecting other congregations?

 

While there are seminaries who remain faithful to Christ, for many generations there have been seminaries which have graduated men and women who reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Bible. A seminary degree or an ordination certificate do not mean that the person holding them is a Biblical Christian, preaching and teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And so as not to be misunderstood, there are many who do not have a formal theological education who are also propagating idols within the Temple of God, the Church of Jesus Christ. Just because a person is the equivalent of a Levite, or of the family of Aaron, does not mean that he is teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

False teaching and idolatry have been a threat to the Church since its inception, as a result we have the New Testament letters, including the letter which we call Revelation. O dear friends, when Paul writes of a great “apostasy” (2 Thess. 2:3) and of “deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1) and of “difficult times” in which “men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…having a form of godliness” (2 Tim. 3:1 – 5) let us remember that these evil elements will appear Christian, very very Christian. The music will purport to be “Christian,” the written material will purport to be “Christian,” the teaching will purport to be “Christian.” Just as Micah and his mother and the Levite used the language of Yahweh, false teachers and idolaters today use the language of Jesus Christ and the Bible.

 

As we conclude this series on Judges 17 and 18, where would you like your name recorded? Alongside the idolatrous Levite and his family in Judges 18:30 – 31? Or alongside those faithful to Jesus Christ in Hebrews Chapter 11?

 

 

A Strange, And Not So Strange, Story (7)

 

Judges Chapters 17 & 18

 

In the previous post I wrote that the Danites polluted the ground of their sacred inheritance. Please bear with me as I attempt to explain what I mean.

 

Occasionally I’ve written of my friend, George Will (not the columnist). I first met George in 1966 in Greenville, SC; I last spoke to him around ten years ago. George spent most of his life serving Christ in the Mediterranean, primarily in Italy. In Christ, my life would not be what it is without Christ Jesus using George to influence those early years, indeed, to influence all of my years. While George introduced me to historical mentors who have been with me throughout my life, such as Andrew Murray, Watchman Nee. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A.W. Tozer; he also modeled something for me which only as I write this can I give a name to: simplicity in Christ.

 

When I first met George he was quoting 1 Corinthians 1:30 – 31, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, Let him who glories, glory in the LORD.” When I last spoke with George, some forty-five years later, he was still quoting 1 Corinthians 1:30 – 31. (I assume George is in the Presence of Christ since I haven’t heard from him for so long.) In fact, some of his last words to me were, “I am nothing, Jesus is everything” (see 1 Cor. 1:28).

 

George did not pollute his inheritance in Jesus Christ, he lived his life “looking unto Jesus,” (Heb. 12:2), yet another verse that he was always quoting. I think George could say with Paul, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).  George had a simplicity in Christ that was constant, an anchor, and that humbled me. I have known a few people like George, not many, sometimes I have realized it at the time, but usually I’ve been too dumb to see that I was in a special place with a special person. Anna Nichols was another such person, perhaps I’ll write about Anna sometime, I may have done so around 2010.

 

How do we pollute our inheritance? While I’m sure there are many ways we can do so, such as making merchandise of God’s Word, profiting off insights and understandings which were never ours to begin with, which never belonged to us – going one of the ways of Balaam; more often than not my sense is that we pollute our inheritance when we substitute the inheritance for Jesus Christ, for His Person, for an intimate relationship with Him – a relationship so intimate that the Bible uses the image of a Bride and her Husband.

 

Consider that each tribe of Israel was given a specific inheritance in the Promised Land. As it turned out, much of that inheritance was never fully occupied as the Israelites often sought accommodation with the pagans, a policy in disobedience to the Word of Yahweh. (Aren’t we foolish when we think we know better than God?) In virtually all instances, the tribes of Israel did not hold their inheritance as a trust from Yahweh, but rather as something that they could do with as they pleased, whether that be accommodation with pagans and their cultures, or, as in the case of the Danites of Judges 17 and 18, the establishment their own form of idol worship.

 

If we think of insights we have gained in Christ, of experiences we’ve had, of our various theological and ecclesial traditions – is it possible that in our identification with these experiences and ways of thinking that we have left the simplicity that is in Christ? (See 2 Cor. 11:1 – 3). Paul’s concern for the Corinthians was that their “minds will be led from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”

 

Might it be that when we substitute elements of our inheritance in Christ in the place of devotion to Jesus Christ, that we pollute our sacred inheritance? Might this be the equivalent of “I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ” (1 Cor. 1:12)? And note that the trajectory of this passage leads us to 1 Cor. 1:30 – 2:5.

 

 In a recent post in this series I raised the question of whether we speak of Jesus Christ to one another and to our world, or whether our language and conversation is about God/god and church. If our language is of god and church it may be that we have polluted our inheritance, because our inheritance has become our center of gravity, it has become our primary identity. If this is the case, then might we have crafted attractive idols for ourselves and others? Might we have taken a blessing from our Father in Christ and turned it into a platform for self-righteousness, of self-identity – turned it into something it was never meant to be? Might we have convinced ourselves that our experience must be everyone’s experience - no matter where on the experience spectrum we may be?

 

Might we have become so identified with our way of thinking that we assume it doesn’t need critique or adjustment or alignment with the holistic Bible? Have we closed the door on mystery and paradox and enigma and asking the Holy Spirit to not only search our hearts, but to search our minds and our doctrines and dogmas and practices?

 

Over the past few years, when I have done pulpit supply on Sunday mornings it has usually been within a certain denomination. One question that often comes up when I’m in a Sunday school class or in conversation with individuals is, “Are you of our denomination?” (I’ll not use the name of the denomination). They aren’t asking me about my testimony, or about my relationship with Christ, or my calling as a preacher, or about my qualifications to preach – they aren’t asking me about things of the Kingdom, they simply want to know if my identify is their denominational identity – and they want to know this because this is their identity.

 

Now, pretty much wherever I have preached there has been an assumption that I believe the doctrinal distinctives of the place where I am speaking. This is interesting to me, for it indicates what closed systems we live in, how introverted we are; and I understand this because I’ve been there, and am probably still there in some respects. There have been seasons of my life when experience or particular thinking has been my primary identity, rather than the Person of Jesus Christ.

 

This is one reason why the concepts of Mere Christianity and The Great Tradition are important to me, and it is why the simplicity in Christ that George Will modeled has been a North Star for me throughout the years; when I have steered off course I have, by Christ’s grace, been pulled back to the glorious and blessed Trinity.

 

There have been times when I have polluted my inheritance, when I have been so enamored of an experience or a “revelation” or perspective, that I have shifted my love and affection and devotion from Jesus Christ to these other things.

 

Is it possible that you have had, in your own way, this experience also?

 

O how I want to live life in the simplicity of Jesus Christ.

 

What about you?

A Strange, And Not So Strange, Story (6)

 

Judges Chapters 17 & 18

 

“Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people who were in it living in security after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was no ruler humiliating them for anything in the land, and they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone. When they came back to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers said to them, What do you report? They said, Arise and let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. And will you sit still? Do not delay to go, to enter, to possess the land.” (Judges 18:7 – 9 NASB).

 

Consider the words, “And will you sit still? Do not delay to go, to enter, to possess the land.” We could place an exclamation point “!” at the end of this exhortation to emphasize what the five spies were saying, their excitement at the land they saw, and their sense that their tribe needed to move fast, to take advantage of the situation, for the people of Laish were accustomed to living in peace, without conflict, and they were unprepared for an attack.

 

Now here is a thing that we ought not to lose sight of, while Laish (also known as Leshem in Joshua 19:47) was a place of idol worship when the Sidonians lived there, it would remain a place of idol worship when the Danites moved there, for the Danites would bring their own idols with them, particularly the idols of Micah along with the priest of Micah. That is, after the Danites destroyed the Sidonians living in Laish, along with their Sidonian idols (I really don’t know whether we can assume they destroyed the Sidonian idols), “The sons of Dan set up for themselves the graven image; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. So they set up Micah’s graven image which he had made, all the time that the house of God was at Shiloh” (Judges 18:30 – 31).

 

Note the comment, “…all the time that the house of God was at Shiloh.” Yahweh had established His Tabernacle and Testimony at Shiloh, Shiloh was to be the place where the People of God worshipped, yet the Danites had established their own place of worship, and they turned their inheritance from Yahweh into a center of idol worship. (We would never do that…would we?)

 

The tribe of Dan had “exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures” (Romans 1:23). The People of Yahweh polluted the sacred ground of their inheritance, and this pollution would continue “until the day of the captivity of the land.” Let us not be so foolish as to ignore the warnings of the Risen Christ that He will remove candlesticks (Rev. 2:5).

 

In years to come, the tribe of Dan was a natural place for Jeroboam to set up one of the two golden calves that he made for Israel to worship (1 Kings 12:25 – 33). When the Danites of Judges 18 changed the name of Laish to Dan, in order to honor their ancestor, the son of Jacob, that was hardly an honor – giving the name of their ancestor Dan to a place that would be associated with idol worship until its destruction in the judgment of Yahweh. What fools we can be as we glory in our idols!

 

Do we do the same things? Do we honor those who have gone before us by bestowing their names on idolatrous practices? What might Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Wesley, Hus, or Francis of Assisi say were they to visit the places and peoples and practices upon which we’ve bestowed their names? What about our recovery of Divine Truth in our lives and “movements,” have we taken what was to have been a portion of our inheritance and turned it into an idol, taking the place of our Lord Jesus Christ?

 

Can we hear the disciples saying, as the woman breaks the vessel filled with precious and costly ointment to anoint Jesus Christ, “Why this waste?”? Can we hear Peter saying, “Let’s make three tabernacles”? Can we see Jesus Christ among the candlesticks of Revelation chapters 1 – 3? Do we see the distinction between the two women of Proverbs Chapter 9? Do we see the difference between the Bride and the Whore of the book of Revelation? Do we sense the concern of Paul when he writes:

 

“For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds” (2 Cor. 11:13 – 15)?

 

Idolatry is often attractive and seductive. We might even apply the foolish question heard in popular songs, “How can this be wrong, when it feels so right?” Let’s not forget, Micah and his family, as well as the Danites, were not far removed from Moses or from Joshua; they were not far removed from people who actually saw the plagues of Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, the wonders of manna, the judgments and miracles of the Wilderness, the parting of the Jordan, the victory at Jericho.

 

Let us not forget that the letters of the Apostles reflect our tendency and predisposition to leave the simplicity of a monogamous relationship with Jesus Christ and fall into myriad forms of false teaching and idolatry, nor let us be so foolish as to think that the warnings of Revelation chapters 2 and 3 are not for us.

 

I know of no remedy for this, or protection, than to love, and abide in, the Person of Jesus Christ in fellowship with one another and in faithfulness to His Word as it has been confessed through the ages, and as it is embodied in the Nicene Creed. Dear friends, there is no book in any bookstore, nor available in electronic form, as pertinent to our lives and times as the Bible, and within it, the strange and not so strange chapters of Judges 17 and 18. These chapters do not portray some weird thing than happened in centuries long past, they paint of picture of the way we are today, a day in which idols proliferate both within and without the professing church.

 

We ask, “Will this be successful?” Instead of, “What is Jesus saying about this?” We ask, “Will this work? Will this pay for itself? Will we have a return on our investment?” Instead of asking “Where is the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ in this?”

 

We ask, “Will this offend anyone? Will this advance my ministry? Our ministry?” Rather than, “Where is the call of God in Christ?”

 

We ask, “Will people be comfortable with this?” Rather than, “Are we willing to die to our agendas, our preferences, our comfort, so that others may live in Jesus Christ?”

 

May I say, “I love Jesus Christ, and I pray that I will love Him with all that I have and all that I am.” However, having said this, I cannot say that I have never bowed to idols, nor can I say that I have never propagated idols. I found the temptation to idolatry much stronger in vocational ministry than in business, much, much stronger. For you see, in business you can often see idols for what they are, seductive enticements to put yourself first, to accumulate honor and material things. O but in ministry the idols are religious, they look so reasonable and good – what can be wrong with the accolades of peers? Of church growth? Of well – planned and seamless worship services? Of increased offerings? Of music on a professional level? Of excited congregations? Of meeting the felt needs of others? What can be wrong with substituting dumbed – down curricula for the Bible?

 

Don’t get me wrong, I think we owe our Lord Jesus and others our best; but I am also aware of how easily I can substitute the expectations and standards of this world, including the religious world, for the Word of God and the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

 

As a pastor I recall the realization that I was so well – trained in preaching that I could construct a sermon without relying on the Holy Spirit. Not only that, but it occurred to me that in my preaching classes we never once, as far as I recall, talked about dependence on the Holy Spirit, nor about guarding against self – reliance when preparing sermons. Once again, don’t misunderstand me, my preaching classes have been very helpful to me in proclaiming and teaching God’s Word, but I would be a fool not to ask Jesus to save me from myself. My point is that well – prepared sermons can become a religious idol.

 

(This is not an argument against theological education, nor is it an endorsement of ad-hoc preaching, or preaching without preparation – though we ought to be ready to witness and preach at anytime…to be sure…I am simply trying to illustrate how easy it is to follow after religious idols).

 

Again, as a pastor, how many times did I look at congregations and compare us to what the church world expected of us; rather than view my congregations as an organic people in Jesus Christ, with Jesus Christ as the Head? How often did I substitute the standards and paradigms of the church world for the Bible? I am simply trying to demonstrate how insidious false images can be and how they can infiltrate our lives and ministries and congregations.

 

Well, I’ll conclude this now because I may be rambling, and we’ll return to Judges 17 and 18 in another post. Please don’t miss the point that Judges 17 and 18 may seem a strange story at first, but maybe it isn’t all that strange…not really.

 

A Strange, And Not So Strange, Story (5)

Judges Chapters 17 & 18

 

“In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6). “In those days there was no king in Israel…” (Judges 18:1a).

 

When Jesus Christ is not acknowledged as King in the Church, we can expect confusion and chaos and cacophony. When Jesus Christ is not served and submitted to, when we do not bow our hearts and knees before Him, we will do what is right in our own eyes. When Jesus Christ is not our King, we can anticipate much of what we see in Judges to be replicated in the professing church.

 

In Judges 18 we see that the tribe of Dan has yet to fully possess its inheritance and that it has sent five men to spy out the region of Laish (see also Joshua 19:40ff). “When they were near the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young man, the Levite; and they turned aside there and said to him, “Who brought you here? And what are you doing in this place? And what do you have here?”

 

We’re not told how the men of Dan knew the Levite, but they must have known him fairly well to have recognized his voice, or the Levite must have had quite the distinctive voice. In any case these five men, who had yet to enter into their inheritance, sought direction from the Levite, who had abdicated his inheritance for idol worship. The Danites knew the voice of the Levite but they did not know the Voice of Yahweh. O that we would know that the fulness of our inheritance is in Jesus Christ and that we will not find it in idols, in syncretistic Christianity, in the ways of this present evil age…no matter how successful these ways may appear.

 

The Danites ask the Levite, “Inquire of God, please, that we may know whether our way on which we are going will be prosperous.” The Levite responds, “Go in peace; your way in which you are going has Yahweh’s approval.”

 

The Danites see Micah’s idols, they see the Levite acting as a priest in Micah’s idolatrous household, and yet they want the Levite to inquire of God concerning their plans – they want to know if they will be prosperous. The Danites have forgotten the Law that Yahweh gave through Moses, they have forgotten their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – or perhaps more accurately, they have chosen to ignore Yahweh’s Law and to reject their heritage.

 

Now while I suppose we ought to be careful about putting too much emphasis on this, I want to point out that the Danites want to know what “God” thinks about their mission, they do not use the name Yahweh, the covenant name of the God of Israel. On the other hand, the Levite does use the name Yahweh when he tells the five men that they have “Yahweh’s approval.”

 

Is our conversation and thinking centered in Jesus Christ? Is it centered in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Or is our conversation and thinking centered on “God”? Do we speak of an ambiguous God, or do we speak of our Lord Jesus Christ? Do we speak of the Father who gave His Only Son? Do we speak of the Holy Spirit who lives in us? Or do we speak of a nebulous God who has been created in myriad images by mankind?

 

Dear friends, the name Jesus Christ is that Name above all names, “…there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Concerning Christ Jesus Paul writes, “For this reason, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9 – 11).

 

We are called to explicitly and unambiguously preach, teach, and share Jesus Christ with others. As the Church, we are called to be monogamously wedded to Jesus Christ. If we are indeed in a relationship with Jesus Christ we will speak of Jesus Christ to one another in the Church, and to others outside the Church.

 

Now to be sure, there are pseudo-Christians who use the name Jesus just as the Levite used the name Yahweh. There are seminary professors and pastors and authors who attempt to remake Jesus Christ into their own image, thus leading others into darkness. Having said this, I ask the question, “Are we speaking to one another of Jesus Christ? Or…do we speak of “things” and “activities” and such? Are we more likely to talk to others about “church” or about Jesus Christ? Are we more likely to use the ambiguous term “God” when speaking to others or do we speak to others of Jesus Christ…doing so as a result of our relationship with Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ, and through Jesus Christ?”

 

This is really only one question, phrased in different ways – is Jesus our all in all? Is He our everything? We can talk of “church” forever, we may speak of a nebulous “god” forever, and no one will hear of the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Jesus Christ; no one will hear of the marvelous and wonderful love of the Father for men and women and young people, no one will hear the call to confess their sins, repent, and enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ.  

 

O dear friends, we like to be safe; speaking of church is safe, speaking generally of a god with pithy sayings and cute maxims is safe – but speaking of Jesus Christ is never safe, for the message of Jesus requires us to die to self and live to Him, and it requires us to bear His shame and His rejection – for the sake of a lost and dying world. Tell me now, what do you think, what is the point of a person gaining the entire world but losing his or her soul? (Mark 8:34ff). Are we known as a people who speak of Jesus Christ? Or are we known as a people who talk about morality, politics, church, god, success? Just who do we belong to?

 

Can we say with Paul, “I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself” (Acts 20:24a)?

 

The Danites wanted to know if they would prosper in their way. Does this sound like our preaching today? The Danites had forgotten that true prosperity is to know the Word of Yahweh, to walk in that Word, to meditate in that Word, and to never allow that Word to depart from our hearts and minds (Joshua 1, Psalm 1).

 

When “everyone does what is right in his own eyes,” everyone has idols; personal idols, family idols, regional idols, national idols. When “there is no King,” we do what we want, when we want, and how we want – not just Monday through Saturday, but on Sunday mornings, for we are accountable to no one and we can bring idols into the Temple as long as they bring us success, otherwise they will not be accepted.

 

Idolatry was normative for Israel, for everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Is it normative for us?

 

O dear friends, to know Jesus is to belong to Jesus; to no longer belong to ourselves. To follow Jesus is to surrender our lives to Jesus Christ, to learn His Way of Life, the Way of laying our lives down daily for Him; to glorify Him and so that others might know Him.

 

The Apostle John concluded his first letter to Christians with these words:

 

“Little children, guard yourselves from idols.” (1 John 5:21).