He Commandeth the Unclean Spirits

  Life of Christ 44

          Today’s story in the life of Christ (Mark 1.23-34) finds us traveling with Jesus on His first preaching tour of Galilee. For some time now He has been moving from town to town, preaching in the local synagogues, and presenting His claim to be the Messiah. Along the way, He has recently picked up three additional disciples, Peter, James, and John.

         After preaching with great authority one Sabbath in the Capernaum synagogue Jesus was confronted by a demon. This demon clearly recognized Jesus for Who He was, the divine Son of God and Israel’s Messiah. Jesus tells the demon to hush, and then commands the demon to leave the man.

          The reaction is one of incredulous amazement. They were already astonished at His authoritative method of preaching, and now here He is exercising authority over unclean spirits. ‘And there were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! For with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out’ (Luke 4.36). The result of this public deliverance was another wave of fame, flowing out from Capernaum throughout Galilee.

          Leaving the synagogue, Jesus then takes the short walk to Peter’s house, and finds Peter’s mother in law sick. Out of sheer compassion, He performs a private miracle, healing her of her fever. Meanwhile, word has gotten around the area that He stayed in town that night, and once the Sabbath ended at sundown on Saturday, and people were free to travel, entire groups of them began showing up at Peter’s house. They brought with them their sick loved ones, and those they knew that were demonically afflicted or possessed. Jesus healed them all, including the demonically possessed, whom He continued to command to hush about Him. This persisted, hour after hour, late into the night.

          I freely confess that one aspect of this story used to trouble me greatly as a boy. If Jesus wanted to publicize His claim to be the Messiah why in the world would He instruct demons to be quiet when they brought it up? Wouldn’t allowing their testimony be a further, and very convincing proof, of His claims?

          The short answer is no. Looking forward, while the Pharisees could not deny the validity of His miracles, they could and did accuse Him of doing them in the devil’s power rather than the Holy Spirit’s power. A wise Jesus saw this line of attack coming. Allowing the demons to continue to testify of the accuracy of Jesus’ claims would have only established the Pharisees’ future attacks as accurate. No, Jesus would not have wanted Israel to accept Him on the word of unclean spirits; He wanted to be accepted on the basis of His own words and works and life.
          Mark Twain once famously said that the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince the world that he didn’t exist. After all, how can you win a war that you insist isn’t actually being fought? The psychiatrists of our day insist the demonic world doesn’t exist. At the very same time they are vigorously writing prescriptions to deaden the symptoms of demon possession in the minds and bodies of their patients. The medical professionals of our day insist the demonic world doesn’t exist. At the same time they are physically restraining their insane patients behind locked doors in the padded rooms of mental wards. The Chicago Police Department of our day insists the demonic world doesn’t exist. At the same they are striving to defend our citizens from crazed people, hopped up on drugs, who cut heads off and then sit down in the front yard to play an Ipad until the police arrive.

          I’m convinced that much of what happens in the natural world is simply an outgrowth of what happens in the spiritual world, and my study of the life of Christ has only intensified that belief. There are only two choices: either all this talk of demons and devils and unclean spirits was only limited to Jesus’ time, or they are still around today, afflicting, oppressing, and possessing people. I strongly believe the latter, not the former.

          How did these Jews to whom Jesus ministered become demonically possessed? Were they born that way? No, somehow that unclean spirit was invited into the life of that individual. Just behind my garage are five large trash cans lined up along the alley. They hold all the garbage that is produced in our church and in our home. Hundreds of other large trash cans line this same alley. We also have a plague of rats. Curiously enough, those two things often go together, garbage and rats, and where you have garbage piled up, and left uncared for, you always find more rats. As the Jewish society of Jesus’ day became increasingly filled with spiritual garbage it shouldn’t shock us at all that it drew more and more rats, so to speak.

          The same thing is true in our time. In my experience, there are numbers of people who not only allow heaps of unconfessed known sin in their life, thus drawing rats, but they also often open doors in their heart and mind to these unclean spirits. They do not, like the palm reader one block away from my church building, do so consciously, but even unconsciously those windows to the soul still open. Unclean music, for example, pours into your mind and an unclean spirit comes with it. Many other examples could be given.

          These things, these open doors and windows to the world of unclean spirits, have no place in the life of God’s people. ‘Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord’ (II Kings 23.24). Besides frequent proscriptions in the Old Testament we find even in the New Testament stories, such as the one in Acts 19, of God’s people eliminating such things from their lives.

          The solution, however, is not just to clean up the garbage and close the windows and doors of access to our mind. The solution now is the same as the solution then – Jesus. Unclean spirits are beings to fear, creatures from humanities darkest nightmares of the soul, but Jesus has more power than they do (Luke 4.36). This is the same Jesus in Whom we are, and Whom is in us when we are saved (I John 4.4). As we draw close to Him we will find the cure for the physical, mental, and emotional problems caused by demonic oppression. Medicine, psychiatry, and hospitalization cannot cure what are, at their roots, spiritual problems. Only Jesus can.

          What a word is this! For with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.

If you would like to listen to the audio version of this blog you can find it here on our church website. Just press 'launch media player' and choose We Preach Christ 19, 'Even the Unclean Spirits Do Obey Him.'

         

His Word Was With Power

  Life of Christ 43 

         The best homiletics textbook in the world is the Bible because in that Book we find the record of the best preacher, Jesus. One of the features that marked His preaching was authority (Mark 1.22, Matthew 7.29) and that authoritative preaching was powerful preaching.

          Jesus spent much of his first year traveling through Galilee and preaching in various synagogues of a Sabbath. One day, after preaching in Capernaum, Luke records that 'they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power' (Luke 4.32). This is the twin passage to Mark 1.22, and a careful student will notice that the word 'authority' is missing and has been replaced with the word 'power.' I believe every word in the Bible was carefully and purposefully chosen. In choosing to change those words from one gospel to another, God is teaching us that there is a direct connection between authoritative, scriptural preaching and powerful preaching.

          Preaching is supposed to be powerful. Paul said in I Corinthians 1.18, 'For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.' This kind of preaching has the power to produce in people a deep sense of specific sin. It has the power to move people to stop something, start something, change something, or decide something. It has the power to break through whatever walls and defenses the sinful heart of the listener had previously erected.

          John the Baptist preached authoritatively with power. 'And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord' (Luke 1.17).

          The Apostles in the early Church preached authoritatively with power. 'And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all' (Acts 4.33).

          Paul preached authoritatively with power. 'And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom; but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:' (I Corinthians 2.4).

          There are several different aspects to preaching with power, but one of the absolute necessities is a holy and fearless boldness based upon the fact that you aren't speaking your own opinion, but rather giving the people exactly what God has said. Wishy washy speechifying, in which everybody and their brother's opinion is presented as equally valid, changes very few people. By definition, there cannot be a trumpet clarion call to change when everybody is an authority. But confident, assertive preaching, grounded firmly on the authority of God's Word, changes all kinds of people.

          Beloved, don't fence your preacher in. Don’t tell him to quiet down. Don't tell him to relax. Don't tell him to lighten up. Don't get mad at him when he expresses a confident and assertive statement about something you are doing wrong that must needs be changed and fixed. When he challenges you, challenge yourself. Don't run from such authoritative preaching. Don't resist it. Instead, welcome it open arms, and embrace it warmly.

          Some will say, in response, 'But what balances this? In your scenario what prevents my preacher from becoming a dictator that essentially runs roughshod over everybody?' My answer is simple. You do. How? By constantly checking what he is preaching against the Book. When a church is filled with Bereans, who are always searching the scriptures whether the things they are hearing from the pulpit are so or not (Acts 17.11), the wrong tendencies of a preacher are held in check by the very thing that allows him such authority – the Word of God.

          Jesus was the best preacher the world has ever seen, and one of the great keys to this was that He preached with authority. Yes, it often rubbed people the wrong way, but it was tied tightly to Scripture, and it was powerful indeed.

If you would like to hear the audio version of this blog you may find it here on our church website. Just press 'launch media player' and choose We Preach Christ 18, 'He Taught Them As One That Had Authority'. 

If the Text Had the Smallpox

  Life of Christ 42

          The best homiletics textbook in the world is the Bible because in that Book we find the record of the best preacher, Jesus. One of the features that marked His preaching was authority (Mark 1.22, Matthew 7.29) and that authoritative preaching was tied to Scripture.

          Paul said to his preacher boy Titus, 'Preach the word' (Titus 4.2). In other words, the Word of God is to be subject of our preaching. There are some men who like the idea of being authoritative, but are either too lazy, too ignorant, too proud, or too sinful to tie their preaching to Scripture. Oh, they read a verse or two at the beginning of the message, but what follows is all manner of human opinion and philosophy. At that point, it doesn't matter if you preach authoritatively. All you are assertively emphasizing is mere human words, not God's words.

          It is my contention that God's people need to learn to identify preachers such as this so that they may avoid them. Authoritative preaching of mere human words inevitably, sooner or later, leads to unscriptural teaching on the part of the preacher, and that, just as inevitably, leads to unscriptural living on the part of the people.

          The old phrase says it well, albeit sadly, 'If the text had the smallpox the sermon wouldn't catch it.' Apparently this has been a recurring problem in the Church for centuries. Many a man simply uses the opening text as a springboard, launching himself majestically on flights of fancy, and never returning to the solid ground of God's Word. The Word of God sits on their pulpit, but other than that first perfunctory reading it is never referred to in the message again.

          Other men spiritualize the text, giving it a secondary meaning God never intended it to have. They wax long and eloquently about some wonderful 'truth' that isn't actually the point of the text. This preaching appeals to preachers very much for it lets them say anything they want from any text, and look rather cute (they think) while they are doing so. In reality, they have taken the authority for their sermon away from the Word of God, where it ought to reside, and placed it instead in themselves. At that point, both preacher and church are in deep trouble whether they realize and accept it or not.

          Other men find themselves unable to offer any authoritative messages because they don't actually think they have the Word of God in their hands. Oh, they believe it exists in theory, in the original manuscripts, but in reality all they think they have access to is a good guess at what God originally said. I reject that position whole cloth. No, for those of you that care, I do not believe in double inspiration, but I do not have to in order to believe my Bible is the actual Word of God. I believe in original inspiration and continuing preservation, and thus when I stand to preach I can do so with authority for I am confident that the words to which I refer are actually God's Word. Every. Single. Word.

          In my preaching I place great stress on individual words, and I do so unhesitatingly for the above reason. I have seen, on the other hand, that churches which refuse to take a position on the English version issue, and allow every man to do that which is right in his own eyes, cannot possibly place any authoritative emphasis on any particular word of the text.

          This was brought home to me on a recent vacation. I love to visit other churches while I am traveling. I find it incredibly educational, and on this particular trip I was not disappointed. I stumbled into one fine disaster in a start up Baptist church in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area that was meeting in an office park. When I walked through the front door I found myself in the auditorium where the worship band was practicing, and I knew I was in for a delightful evening. I followed their directions to a small back room where a group of about 15 adults were sitting around two tables preparing for the evening's Bible study. The people welcomed me kindly, and began the study. As it progressed the pastor, who didn't know me from Adam, asked all of us to take turns reading verses as he taught through a chapter of James. No, he didn't make the mistake of using a text as a launching platform and never returning, nor did he spiritualize it, but he still could not preach an authoritative message for one simple reason: everybody in the place had a different Bible. As each person read aloud the others were reading along to a different set of words. I noticed, in a way that only a fellow preacher can, perhaps, that this brother couldn't point with any authority to any particular word of the text. He couldn't pin anything down. It was fuzzy and gauzy and soft. I don't know what he called his performance that evening but I certainly couldn't call it a sermon. A lecture? A speech? A presentation? No, I think the right word is talk. Yes, that's it. It was a talk. He wasn't assertive or confrontational about anything, and the book of James is both of those in spades. But he couldn't be authoritative for he didn't have any specific words on which he could heavily lean.

          Beloved, the preacher must believe he holds in his hands the complete, inerrant, infallible, inspired, preserved Word of God. He must marry his messages to it with painstaking care. Only then can he preach with the authority with which he was designed to preach.

          After all, that is exactly what Jesus did.

Turn the Cat Around

  Life of Christ 41

          The best homiletics textbook in the world is the Bible because in that Book we find the record of the best preacher, Jesus. One of the features that marked His preaching was authority (Mark 1.22, Matthew 7.29) and that authoritative preaching often rubbed people the wrong way.

          I am the first to admit that there is a line between confidence and arrogance in a preacher. I want to hear a preacher confident in the truth he is setting forth, but not arrogant in his opinion or presentation. Having said that, there are whole groups of people who view a confident preacher as an arrogant one, no matter what he says or does to the contrary.

          Part of this is a direct response to the fact our society has embraced the idea that not only does everyone have an opinion, but that those opinions are equally valid. One could argue the relative merits of such a position, but it is inarguable that such a position is disastrous when it comes to spiritual things. If I had a dime for every time someone has brushed aside a clear and plain instruction from God with, 'Well, that's just your opinion' I would be a millionaire. If the preacher is using Scripture clearly as his support then he isn't offering his own opinion, rather he is asserting God's truth. If that is the case, he ought to be assertive with that truth, even if that confidence in God's truth comes across as arrogance to an ill-informed carnal Christian.

          Part of this is also cultural. As our societal breakdown continues, whether in the home, the school, the workplace, the capitol, the military, the locker room, or the church, the concept of men being confident and assertive and strong in their leadership declines. More and more, any kind of strength in male leadership is increasingly viewed with suspicion, and consequently authoritative preaching in our day rings all sorts of alarm bells for the average person. This is becoming an instinctive reaction in an increasingly feminized society, and the authoritative preacher is automatically suspect long before the actual content of his preaching is accounted for.

          Part of the problem, as well, that our society has with authoritative preaching is the general weakening of respect for the very idea of authority. Parents are taught not to be authoritative, but rather to suggest, befriend, and coddle their children. The boss at work can no longer tell the employee what to do. Instead, he must seek to motivate him or manipulate him into doing things the way he wants them done. The drill sergeant in basic training is no longer allowed to forcefully confront the soldier. The policeman (or, more commonly woman) has to draw upon all the arts learned in sensitivity training in order to negotiate with those being disobedient to the law. You may think I'm going far afield, but these are just illustrations of the wide ranging breakdown in respect for authority present in our day. Thus, when a preacher attempts to exercise his God given authority, even in a carefully prescribed biblical manner, shouts of 'dictator' and 'sheep abuser' are hurled at his head.

          But perhaps the largest part of the problem that people have with authoritative preaching is simply the presence of sin in their life. 'Don't tell me I'm wrong. Give me, perhaps, your opinion that I'm in some small error, but don't stridently assert that I am flat wrong. A mild opinion in the form of a talk from my life coach doesn't bother me near as much, and lets me continue on in my sin with an unhindered conscience.'

          If you look at Jesus' preaching you will find repeated illustrations of how it rubbed people the wrong way. But whether the response to His sermon was an attempt on the part of the Nazareth synagogue to kill Him, or whether it was received gladly (Mark 12.37) He boldly and authoritatively continued to preach the truth.

          Not only did He preach this way, regardless of who it rubbed the wrong way, but He handed the same approach to preaching to His Apostles. You can see this, for instance, in the response of the crowd to Stephen's sermon in Acts 7 or the response to Paul's sermon in Acts 14. They both authoritatively presented truth to a crowd of people that didn't want to hear it, and they paid for it with their lives.

          Billy Sunday was once confronted by an angry woman who wagged her finger in his face and said, 'Billy, you're rubbing the fur the wrong way.' The average person today would expect the preacher to immediately apologize, and see that it never happened again. Billy just looked at her and eloquently remarked, 'Well, then turn the cat around.'

          I know hundreds of preachers, and every single one of us wants to be liked. But that desire to be liked, while not inappropriate, cannot rise above the desire to please the Lord whose herald we are. We are commissioned with His message. We are sent with His instructions. Let us give it authoritatively, even if it rubs people the wrong way.

          After all, that is exactly what Jesus did.   

Jesus as Preacher

  Life of Christ 40

         Jesus was an amazing preacher. In an era in which men knew the Torah very well, having studied it full time in school from the age of 10, He knew His better. Every good preacher draws on a substantial knowledge of what makes people tick, and Jesus knew what was in man (John 2.25) better than anyone else ever has. I've heard some mighty orators in my day whose sermons left me cold simply because I didn't think they loved the people to whom they were preaching. Jesus never had that problem; His life was marked by compassion. Some preachers tiptoe through the tulips. Jesus, on the other hand, exhibited a holy boldness that feared no man, ever. Additionally, the power in a sermon comes from the life of the preacher and the outflow of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus lived a perfect life and the Spirit was given unto Him without measure (John 3.34). But aside from all of these aspects, one of the reasons Jesus was so strikingly different in His preaching ministry from other men of His own generation was His willingness to be authoritative in His preaching.

          The custom of the rabbis of His day was to do little more than quote a bunch of previous rabbis in order to lend authority to their scriptural interpretation and application. Only rarely did they ever express their own exposition forcefully. In fact, there are extant quotes in the rabbinical literature of the day in which certain rabbis assert with pride that they never had anything original to say. In a sense, there is wisdom here, for a preacher who always says things no one else has ever said is probably preaching error, if not outright heresy, and there is great profit to be gained by gleaning the studies of those who have gone before us. But the rabbis, as was their wont, took a good concept to a rather awful extreme. In the Jewish mind, the rabbi was tied to tradition very tightly. In fact, the rabbi's very credentials were directly tied to which rabbi had taught him, and ever back to another rabbi in a chain that supposedly went all the way back to Moses. This chain, and the weight of its tradition, was to them the safeguard of all good preaching.

          At the same time, there were certainly disputes among various rabbis, each with its own school of thought about a particular doctrine or issue. Thus, not only was the preaching of the day little more than the citing of some other esteemed rabbi, that same preaching often disagreed with another rabbi's teaching. This played out in excruciating detail over the most minute aspects of scriptural instruction. For instance, Edersheim illustrates this very well with the theological disputes in Jesus' day over how to properly say the blessing before a meal:

Bread was regarded as the mainstay of life, without which no entertainment was considered as a meal. Indeed, in a sense it constituted the meal. For, the blessing was spoken over the bread, and this was supposed to cover all the rest of the food that followed, such as the meat, fish, or vegetables - in short, all that made up the dinner, but not the dessert. Similarly, the blessing spoken over the wine included all other kinds of drink. Otherwise it would have been necessary to pronounce a separate benediction over each different article eaten or drunk. He who neglected the prescribed benedictions was regarded as if he had eaten of things dedicated to God, since it was written: "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." Beautiful as this principle is, it degenerated into tedious questions of casuistry. Thus, if one kind of food was eaten as an addition to another, it was settled that the blessing should be spoken only over the principal kind. Again, there are elaborate disputations as to what should be regarded as fruit, and have the corresponding blessing, and how, for example, one blessing should be spoken over the leaves and blossoms, and another over the berries of the caper. Indeed, that bush gave rise to a serious controversy between the Schools of Hillel and Shammai. Another series of elaborate discussions arose, as to to what blessing should be used when a dish consisted of various ingredients, some the product of the earth, others, like honey, derived from the animal world. Such and similar disquisitions, giving rise to endless argument and controversy, busied the minds of the Pharisees and Scribes.

          In an environment like this the preaching not only majored on minors, but unless the rabbi could fence himself in with a billion quotes from other rabbis he could not assert anything forcefully. The end result was sermons that were little more than the setting forth of various sides of an issue, and the reading of long quotations from other rabbis.

          But Jesus was remarkably and noticeably different in His preaching. 'And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes' (Mark 1.22). The classic example of this is found in the greatest sermon ever preached, The Sermon on the Mount. In it, Jesus often lays out an erroneous interpretation of some key commandment by saying, 'ye have heard that it hath been said' quoting the common rabbinic take of the day. He then contrasts it directly with what God actually meant by that particular commandment using the phrase, 'But I say unto you.' That pattern is repeated six times in that one sermon. Well, where did He get the authority to assert a completely different opinion than the commonly understood one of His day? From the Word of God. He did not go the rabbis or the fathers; He went directly to the source. He quoted Scripture at least 78 times directly the sermons of His that are recorded in the New Testament. This was a habit that the Apostles learned well, as they would quote Scripture directly at least 209 times in their messages.

          We can see, then, how Jesus established a new pattern, indeed, introduced a new paradigm even, into preaching. He untied it from an obsessive reliance on what were essentially commentaries, and retied directly onto the Word of God. I will say again and again this year in this blog that Jesus was a revolutionary, not a reformer, and one of the things He revolutionized was preaching. The difference between Himself and His peers in the ministry was not merely a matter of style, rather it was a fundamental shift regarding the source of sermonic authority. In a day filled with hesitant opinions, differing interpretations, and excessive citations, His was authoritative preaching tied directly to Scripture.

          In the immortal words of a previous pastor of mine, Jack Hyles, the rabbis of Jesus' day were ear tickling, penny pinching, nickel nipping, soft soaping, pink tea and lemonade kinds of preachers delivering wishy washy milk toast kinds of sermons. Jesus, on the other hand, was a barn storming, window rattling, shingle pulling, hell fire and damnation preacher of the type that hearkened back to the Old Testament prophets and their 'Thus saith the Lord.' 'For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes' (Matthew 7.29).

          No wonder 'the common people heard him gladly' (Mark 12.37)!

They Forsook All

  Life of Christ 39

Luke 5:11 And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.

          Before I leave this story of the calling of Peter, James, and John, I must draw from it one more lesson. This is a crucial lesson, indeed, not for the casual Christian, but then again, the casual Christian almost certainly isn't reading this blog. No, the casual Christian comes to Christ for what Christ offers him i.e. peace of mind about his sin, a home in Heaven, and an occasional happy emotional experience in a worship service. The simple truth is that to get all of those all you have to forsake is an inflated sense of yourself as you come to Christ alone for salvation. But to mature, to grow, to walk closely with Him, you must continually forsake aspects of your life that once were dear.

       When a diamond comes to light out of the African mud it doesn't look anything at all like what your wife wears on her hand. I vividly remember the first time I ever looked at a diamond closely. I had just gotten back from the mall where I purchased my now wife's engagement ring, and all alone, I lay on the floor of my church auditorium and held it up to the sun streaming through the window. How it sparkled and glittered as it threw light all across that high ceiling! But it only became that brilliant by yielding chunks of itself to be split off, splintered away, sanded down, and polished off.

          Jesus will take any sincere follower, both the distant and the close, but He will give Himself to those that are close, not just once, but again and again. However, you cannot become close if you hold on to what you already have. Paul said it this way, 'But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ' (Philippians 3.7-8).

          Some are called to forsake family. Some are called to forsake business opportunities. Some are called to forsake long cherished desires of the heart. Some are called to forsake free time and spare money. Some are called to forsake the good opinion of others. Some are called for forsake ease and comfort. Some are called to forsake their native land. …and, in return, they get Him.

          As a 15 year old boy I knelt in the far back corner of an enormous empty auditorium. Tears streamed down my face. I raised my hands and said, 'God, take it all; I hold nothing back. All I ask in return is yourself.' Not sixty minutes later, I sat toward the very front of that auditorium, and listened, spell bound, as a preacher said, 'There probably aren't five teenagers in this room that understand this, but when you give up everything God gives you Himself in return.' Please don't misunderstand me. There have been plenty of times in the intervening years where the living sacrifice of my life has crawled back of the altar and done its own thing, but I have never regretted, for one solitary moment, giving God everything.

          What did Peter, James, and John forsake? Two boats, some nets, one of which was broken, and the detritus that collects in the bottom of every boat I've ever been in, swishing slowly back and forth with the tide. What did Peter, James, and John get? Jesus Christ, and all that came with Him.

          What stands between you and closer relationship with Him? What do you need to forsake? Money? Fun? How you spend your time? Your choice of entertainment? Your pride? Your friends? What?

          If you give in, you will get a whole lot more out of it than it cost you to give up. You will get Him.

If you would like to listen to the sermon connected with this blog you may find it here on our church website. Just press 'launch media player' and choose We Preach Christ 17, 'They Forsook All and Followed Him.'

I Am a Sinful Man

  Life of Christ 38

          It isn't hard to spot people who don't know Jesus. They think they are pretty good people.

          In the sudden flurry that enveloped fisherman Peter, with entire schools of fish swimming straight for his breaking nets, and his boat in danger of being swamped by the sheer weight of fish, he didn't think about it. But the minute things calmed down it struck him like a boat oar – this man Jesus, the one my brother Andrew is following, is Who He says He is. He is the Messiah!

          Following that thought, like chain lightning, came the only logical next thought, 'When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord' (Luke 5.8). He instinctively knew He was in the presence of righteousness, and that he was the complete opposite of that righteousness. He was a dirty, rotten, no-good heathen and this Man Jesus shouldn't even be seen in the same zip code with him.

          Isaiah had the exact same reaction on finally seeing God revealed as He really is. 'Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts' (Isaiah 6.5).

          It is my considered belief that the more clearly we see Jesus for Who He is the more clearly we see our own sinful condition. People that think they are basically good don't know the Lord from a lawn chair. Knocking a few blocks of doors out soul winning shows you that relatively quickly. The Pharisees with whom Jesus would contend so often in His life had an inflated sense of their own righteousness. It was, of course, a hollow, empty self-righteousness, and He spent much time trying to get them to see the reality of their condition. But no matter how much He tried they simply refused to accept it (John 5.40) thus revealing they never did actually see Him for Who He was. No wonder they thought they were all that and a bag of chips!

          As a young preacher I was relatively enamored with several big-name preachers who evidenced an arrogance of spirit. I found it all terribly fascinating, and the macho strut with which they walked their Christian life and tangled with the common people was something to see. With great sadness, as the years have passed, I have come to realize that so much of what enthralled me with those men was really pride – pride of position, pride of success, pride produced by the praise of men, etc. and it is no wonder they made hash of their ministry. You see, if they really had known Jesus as they claimed to know Him they wouldn't be proud at all. No, if they really were close to Christ, seeing Him for Who He really is they would have seen themselves as wretched sinners, without a single redeeming virtue other than Christ in them, the hope of glory (Colossians 1.27).

          When you see Christ in His fullness you, at the same time, see yourself in your emptiness. And it is a painfully precious thing.

          May it ever be so, beloved, in your life and mine. 

Only Read This If You Need a Miracle

  Life of Christ 37

Luke 5:5 And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.

          Often, miracles happen to hard working people.

          Our God is a God of character. For instance, He always keeps His Word, and He is completely consistent in all of His actions. Character is important to Him. In His dealings with us we also see that He often rewards character. For example, He fed Israel in the Wilderness, raining manna down on them, but they still had to go do the work of gathering it each morning if they didn't want to starve. The book of Proverbs, alone, is filled with allusions to the rewards that come to those who do the hard thing, who do the right thing simply because they are supposed to do it.

          In my humble opinion, one of the greatly under-emphasized keys to the Christian life, as well as to life period, is just to work hard. 'Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth' (II Timothy 2.15).

          Here's what happens: We work hard at some aspect of godly character we are seeking to incorporate in our life, or some Christian grace that we are seeking to master. We work and we work and we work and we work. Gradually, we come to realize that no matter how hard we work we cannot fully internalize it or master it. In desperation, then, we cast ourselves before the Lord and ask for His help, completely convinced that it will not come any other way. He sees that we have given it everything we have, and He sweetly makes up the difference. The result of this system is that He gets the glory and we get the character. We don't earn it, beloved, no, it is His grace – but He isn't in the business of developing lazy people.

          Peter never would have seen that miracle, let alone been reached by Christ, let alone become one of the greatest men in the history of humanity, if he hadn't taken that boat back out onto the Sea of Galilee even though he was already tired.

          Do you need a miracle?

          How hard are you working at what He already told you to do?

The Biggest Number is One

  Life of Christ 36

          Often, our best work is done, not with crowds, but with individuals.

          We are now well into Jesus' first preaching tour of Galilee. He has done several very public miracles, and He has traveled and preached in synagogues all over the region, presenting His claim to be Israel's messiah. The response has been very good in the sense of attention and crowds. Traveling with Him, as well, is the little group of three or four disciples who transferred over to Him from John the Baptist.

          Our story today (Luke 5.1-11) finds us just outside the town that had become His main base in Galilee, Capernaum. Although He had lived in Nazareth almost all of His life Capernaum was both more receptive and better situated for His new life. It was centrally located in Galilee, and four main roads came together there. It also had the largest population in the area, and boasted a good economy. Additionally, it was a substantial port on the Sea of Galilee with some 4000 small boats and ships docking there.

          We find Him, as I said, just outside of Capernaum, walking down by the Sea of Galilee. Gradually, first one person and then another recognizes Him, and soon a small crowd forms around Him. This, in turn, draws a larger crowd. He is already known regionally, not just as a miracle worker, and as a man claiming to be the messiah, but also as an outstanding preacher, and soon several calls came from the crowd for Him to preach.

          As He is down by the shoreline, out of sheer necessity He jumps into an empty fishing boat in order not to be pushed into the water, and in order to place a little space between Himself and the crowd. He preaches a message, and then addresses the boat's owner, whom He happened to already know, Peter. (Of course, I do not believe there are any coincidences in the life of our Lord. I'm sure Jesus knew exactly what He was doing, and exactly whose boat He 'happened' to be standing by as the crowd formed.)

          Peter's brother, Andrew, had been a follower of John the Baptist, and was one of the disciples that transferred over to Jesus. Andrew had already tried to bring his brother, Peter, to Jesus, and although the two had met and talked briefly, Peter apparently wasn't very impressed in that first meeting. Now, months later, Peter certainly knew about the growing fame of Jesus and why it was growing. Suddenly, here He is, on the shore, with Peter's brother Andrew tagging along, and in urgent need of a boat. Common kindness as well as familial relation would have made Peter offer Jesus the use of his boat from which to teach.

          The Scriptures tell us nothing of the content of the message, but they do tell us that after the sermon was concluded Jesus tells Peter to take the boat back out onto the water toward the fishing grounds. Peter is initially resistant to this idea. It is morning, and Peter is tired, having just finished fishing for the entire night shift. Additionally, they hadn't caught anything at all, and the experienced fisherman inside of him didn't think there was going to be anything better to catch now that the sun was well up. But again, out of respect for Jesus or his brother Andrew, he reluctantly agrees.

      We all know this story backwards and forwards, don't we? The result is such a sudden and large and unusual haul of fish that Peter breaks his net before they are even out of sight of land. Hurriedly, he calls for his business partners, James and John, to rush their boat over and help. They eagerly comply, but the combined nets and boats are still not big enough to hold all of the fish, literally filling the boats so full they are in danger of sinking.

          Peter's response is instinctive (as so many of his response's in Scripture are) and telling. 'When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord' (Luke 5.8). I think this is the exact moment of Peter's salvation, and not only does he get saved, but he immediately yields Himself to Jesus' request to join Himself and Andrew as they fish for men with the Gospel. And, as a bit of a bonus, James and John come along too.

          Not bad for a day's work, eh? No, I don't mean all those fish. I mean Jesus' day's work. He added to Himself, in one morning, the three men who would become the core of His entire earthly ministry, both during His life and after it – Peter, James, and John. Jesus preached to the multitude but I'm convinced that all along He was aiming right at Peter. Often, our best work is done, not with crowds, but with individuals. We will see this aspect of Jesus' ministry exponentially develop. In fact, one could argue, that aside from the atonement, the most lasting thing He accomplished in His lifetime on earth, was the training of the twelve Apostles.

          I'm for preaching, and anybody that knows me knows that. I put a tremendous amount of time and effort into the preaching portion of my ministry, literally hundreds and hundreds of hours a year. But I have learned, partly from my own life experience, and partly from my study of the life of Christ, to also spend a whole bunch of time in one-on-one ministry with men.

          In my lifetime I've heard approximately 10,000 sermons. Many of them prompted me to make good and sound decisions. But if you pinned me to the wall and asked me what changed my life, from one aimed selfishly at pleasing myself to one aimed squarely at serving the Lord, I would tell you that it was a handful of men who personally and privately invested a great deal in me. Perhaps, at some later point, I shall tell you those stories in this blog, but for the moment allow me to pass over the specifics of my life, and let me just assure you that individuals, with the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, changed my life just as much, if not more, than preaching did.

          Did you ever stop to think what was the most lasting part of Paul's ministry? Was it the churches he started? No, and please don't hang me with that. I'm a tremendous believer in starting churches. I practically started one myself. But none of the churches that Paul started remain in existence today. I think, indisputably, humanly speaking, the most lasting part of Paul's ministry was his writing, but second to that was the product of his mentoring, men like Timothy and Titus. Where did Paul learn to do that? I don't think it was just cultural or instinctive. I think He learned it from Jesus.

          So many of you who read this blog have a ministry in which you serve the Lord. Often it involves a group of people, such as a pastor, staff member, youth director, Sunday School teacher, etc. Yes, you must gather a crowd if you are to have any kind of ministry at all, but I implore you to give yourself to mentor the teachable, investable person. Identify the ones that will give you a return on your investment and then pour your life into them. I mean your life outside the direct lines of your ministry. Spend time with them. Do things with them. Pour your teaching into them. Draw out their questions. Catch their tears. Attend the big events of their life. Take them to lunch. Bring them into your home. Challenge them to produce something better. Involve them in helping you with your ministry. Pray with them. Witness with them. Train them. Love them.

          Mother, you can change the world. Teacher, you can change the world. Soul winner, you can change the world – by changing the entire world for one person at a time. Jesus did on that beautiful Galilean morning, not with the message He preached to the crowds, but with time He poured into a frustrated fisherman afterward.

          Often, our best work is done, not with crowds, but with individuals.

A Synagogue Full of Wrath

 Life of Christ 35 

          Today's post finds Jesus in the first full bloom of His ministry. In Judea, He had been baptized by John the Baptist, tested with 40 days of fasting, tempted personally by the devil, and gotten His first few disciples from John. Coming home to Galilee He attends a wedding in Cana, helps out with their wine problem, and then returned to Judea to attend Passover in Jerusalem. There He drove the moneychangers out of the Temple, witnessed to Nicodemus, and stayed in Judea for a while doing miracles and preaching. After a short period He returned to Galilee, and along the way went through Samaria and won the woman at the well outside of Sychar. Upon arriving in Galilee He heals a nobleman's son from Cana, and this begins many months of ministry in that region.

      On a typical weekend, Jesus would enter into a town and prepare to attend a local synagogue on Saturday. In that synagogue service, which was run more loosely than modern church services, any man might stand up and speak if he chose to, and Jesus often chose to do so. One of the very first, if not the first, synagogue in which Jesus chose to attend and speak  was his home synagogue of Nazareth (Luke 4.14-30). He is borderline famous at this point, and the place was surely packed with people who had known Him all of His life and greatly wondered at what He was reported to have been doing lately. Taking part in the prescribed public Scripture reading, He was handed the scroll of Isaiah, and He chose to read what was clearly a messianic passage in Isaiah 61. He then probably spoke about it at some length for they marveled (Luke 4.22) at His speaking ability.

          Did you ever stop to think what it must have been like for Jesus to sit, Sabbath after Sabbath, for decades, in His local synagogue, not saying a word? To hear the Scripture read and commented upon, often in an ignorant fashion, and just to sit there, respectful and quiet? His hometown synagogue obviously had no clue that He was the world's greatest preacher (literally). After all, He was just the guy around the corner who built really good picnic tables. How in the world does this guy suddenly become a pulpiteer of the first order? He's just Joseph's oldest boy, right? No wonder they marveled!

          In His message Jesus publicly and plainly claims to be Israel's messiah, saying, 'This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears' (Luke 4.21). This was obviously hard for many of them to accept easily for they had watched Him grow up from a very young age. At the same time, they had also heard reports that a few miraculous events had happened in His presence, and they pressed Him to furnish proof of His claims by doing a miracle right there in front of them. Jesus refused, and gave as His reason that in prior days of miracles those miracles had not been done everywhere. He did not come to be a genie, popping out of a lamp to happily grant the bearer three wishes. No, Jesus came looking for belief.

          Both of the miracles He had done so far in Galilee had been prompted by people exercising belief in Him. Now Nazareth was demanding a miracle out of unbelief. Later, on His last visit to Nazareth, Scripture would say, 'And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief' (Matthew 13.58). It wasn't that He couldn't, for God is not dependent upon us to exercise His own power, but rather that He wouldn't. Belief is that important to Him, and you will hear much more in reference to this as this blog series progresses.

          In telling His lifelong friends and neighbors that He would not do a miracle from them for these reasons He was essentially telling them that they were included in unbelieving, apostate Israel. Think about that for a moment…

          "A young man has lived near me in Nazareth all of His life. He is a quiet but capable fellow, one that perhaps needs to get a wife and settle down, but a good guy nonetheless. He is faithful in attendance at synagogue, and really, nobody has any call for complaint about Him whatsoever. He is stable, dependable, responsible, teachable, kind, and rather unremarkable. Yes, His mother seems to think the sun rises and sets on Him, but what mother doesn't? Suddenly, and for no good reason that I know of, He vanishes for a couple of months and comes back trailing a handful of men, like a posse or something, with apparent pretensions of being a rabbi. Well, when did this happen? When did He decide this? With whom did He train? Whispers are that perhaps He even was baptized by that weird guy out in the wilderness, John. Clearly, He must have had some emotional experience or something, but it looks like He is taking it a bit too far. I hope this won't ruin His skill for He really does make the best picnic tables around. Next thing I knew there were wild rumors rumors going around, something about a wedding over in Cana and a whole bunch of wine, but He isn't around to ask because He went down to Jerusalem for Passover like any sensible young Jew should do. Then, what tale should make the rounds but that there was some kerfuffle with Him and the moneychangers in the Temple. What was all that about? And He actually traveled through Samaria on the way back? Horrors! What has gotten into the guy? And what's this about supposedly healing some high muckety-muck's kid from Cana? I mean, c'mon, the kid wasn't even in Cana; he was 25 miles away in Capernaum. I'll tell you one thing, the next time Jesus shows up here I'm going to ask Him a question or two, for sure. What's that? He's in town and He says He'll be at synagogue service Saturday? You bet I'm going. Maybe He'll make fire fall out of the sky or something. Yeah, right, lol.

          "Why is He reading that passage in Isaiah; that isn't on the rotation, is it? Whoa… listen to this guy preach. He sure is better than our rabbi. Where in the world did He learn to do that? That's the same kid, isn't it, or do my eyes deceive me? Yep, that's Joseph's oldest, all right. Wait a minute. What's this now? Is He saying what I think He's saying? That He's the Messiah? Really? Of all the nerve! I've known Him all my life. He built my picnic table. Messiah, my clavicle, that's just Jesus. Hey, let's ask Him to do one of those miracle thingies. After all, if He is He shouldn't have any problem producing on demand. Oh, and He says He won't. Thought so. What's this? Is He really saying that this is our fault? Of all the unmitigated gall! I'm not an apostate! I've been sitting in the same pew in this synagogue since He was in diapers. Who does He think He is! Why, I've got half a mind to teach this young whippersnapper some manners. Who here is with me? You guys in on this? Really, this is just appalling. It is completely unacceptable and I'm just furious right now. How dare He? He's going to get it!"

         

          'And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong' (Luke 4.28-29). Of course, He did not die, for it was not His time to die, and the manner of death was not that prophesied, but the larger point is that they wanted to kill Him. This is the first corporate rejection of Jesus' claims to be the Christ, and it happens in His own hometown. It happens in the synagogue He had attended all of His life, amongst His friends and neighbors. It is heartbreaking to me when I think about it. All He had ever done was everything exactly right for 30 years in that town, and they repaid Him with a public assassination attempt.

          What a great sadness there is in the display of a synagogue full of wrath.

If you would like to hear the audio version of this blog you may find it here on our church website. Just press 'launch media player' and choose We Preach Christ 16, 'A Synagogue Full of Wrath'.