ETERNAL LIFE IS NOT MERELY A MATTER OF TIME

 

Caleb was baptised a couple of weeks ago. Whenever we baptise a new believer we always ask them to share their testimony, and while each of our baptism candidates on the day Caleb was baptised gave inspirational testimonies, many people considered Caleb’s testimony one of the best they had ever heard.

Caleb is 11-years-old. He shared his story of being raised by a mum and dad who taught him the truth of God’s Word and to love God. He then shared that his testimony could be summed up by his favourite bible verse, John 3:16 — which is probably also the most favourite verse of most Christians today. In the years ahead, Caleb will come to increasingly understand more about the depth of his favourite verse—in deeper and richer ways. Of course, the beauty of John 3:16 is that it is plain and simple enough for even a young person to have their life changed by it. A child can well understand that in John 3:16 God is inviting all people to turn to His Son as their Saviour by simply trusting in Him and that this qualifies a person to avoid hell and to enjoy heaven for eternity. 

What Caleb will one day come to appreciate about John 3:16, is that when it refers to eternal life it is not just speaking about where a person goes after they die, or even for how long they will be there. Caleb will come to appreciate that eternal life is a part of the dimension where God dwells; it is where Christ ultimately dealt with all human sin, and that eternal life reflects each of God’s attributes.

The opening four words of this verse tell us something profound about God. It does not say, For the gods so loved. At the time John 3:16 was written, the Greco-Romans had already developed many mythical gods (some of which we find referred to in Acts 14:12-13). These man-made gods were selfish, capricious, vengeful, sexually immoral, and indifferent to the plight of humans. But the One and True God so loved. A few years after John had written John 3:16, he wrote to the Ephesian churches an echo of John 3:16 when he described this love of God and what it involved:

In this the love of God was made manifest among us,
that God sent His only Son into the world,
so that we might live through Him. In this is love,
not that we have loved God but that He loved us
and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
First John 4:9-10

While God is the subject of John 3:16, the world is the object of it. The pagan gods of the Greco-Roman world were largely territorial. But the God of John 3:16 is the God of the whole world. He alone is worthy and glory and the credit for creating everything. Unlike the territorial gods of the Apostle John’s gentile world, the True God actually cared for people—but just with mere sympathy—but with an unconditional practical love for all people: the world. While the pagan gods could be cajoled into assisting a human if the right sacrifice or ceremony was offered, the love that the True God has for everyone around the world (including those not yet born) even extends to those who despise Him and wilfully disobey Him!

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person
—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—
but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:7-8 

The false gods of the Greco-Roman world were not givers. They were takers. They demanded things of people. But the True God is a giver. The God of John 3:16 is not a minimalist giver. He is a generous, lavish, giver. All that anyone could rightly give Him is their thanks.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
James 1:17

It was claimed that the Greco-Roman gods sired earthly children after having sex with human women. Allegedly, Caesar Augustus was sired by Zeus. This is why, just above Caesarea-Philippi, near the beginning of the assent up Mount Hermon, there was a temple to Caesar Augustus where he was worshiped as the son of Zeus. But the True Son of God was not sired as the result of fornication or lustful misadventure by a wayward deity. He took on the form of a physical human (“a zygote”) with the genetic material of Mary’s ovum. She was a virgin when she miraculously conceived Him, and importantly, she was also a descendant of King David.

¶ Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.  And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Matthew 1:18-21

Significantly, it was not this event which made God a father. John 3:16 states that God sent His Son –  that is, God the Father was eternally the Father and therefore must have always had an eternal Son. He was sending His Son, not someone who would become His Son. Early in the fourth century there was a monk, by the name of Arius, who taught that Jesus was a created being and was formally Michael the Archangel. The Church called its second ecumenical council to discuss whether this was a heresy (a false and dangerous teaching). Eventually, it a young north African bishop’s assistant, Athanasius, who convinced the council meeting at Nicaea that Arius was wrong and this doctrine (which “Jehovah’s Witnesses” today perpetuate) was heresy. His arguments for demonstrating this included pointing out that if God is the Eternal Father, He must have had an Eternal (uncreated, always existed, self-sufficient) Son. The result of the council’s decision was the Nicene Creed.  The fact that God the Father had always been in relationship with His Son, and that together they had also share am eternal relationship with the Holy Spirit 

Do you say of Him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world,
‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?
John 10:36

John 3:16 announces a remarkable offer. Whosoever may approach the throne of God and seek mercy, pardon, and forgiveness for their sins! It doesn’t matter what anyone has done, how many times they have done it, who knows what they’ve done, or how many they have hurt, they can still come humbly before God and accept that the punishment they deserve has been paid for by Christ. As a result, they will live beyond the grave when Christ raises from dead all those who have turned to Him for pardon. 

For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who looks on the Son
and believes in Him should have eternal life,
and I will raise Him up on the last day.”
John 6:40

To believe in is to put trust in. For a Hebrew trust resulted in action. All anyone has to do to become a follower of Christ is believe in Him. The action this produces is confession of guilt and a request for pardon. This was assurance that Jesus gave the penitent thief on the cross beside Him. This thief clearly did not have any opportunity to do anything particularly religious to deserve God’s pardon in his final hours of life.

The consequence of rejecting God’s offer of eternal pardon is to eternally perish. C.S. Lewis described this rejection of God’s offer of salvation as being eternally confined to perpetual loneliness surrounded by others who were also eternally isolated from others in the doom of eternal loneliness and abandonment. But this need not be the case. But it is the risk that anyone takes in rejecting God’s offer of eternal pardon which can only be accepted in this life.

And these will go away into eternal punishment,
but the righteous into eternal life.”
Matthew 25:46

The kind of new life that a forgiven, pardoned, adopted, newly-identified, follower of Christ receives is described as eternal life. It is the kind of life that God enjoys. It is a life of perfect contentment, perfect fulfilment, perfect happiness, perfect peace, and perfect bliss. It brings a child of God into the full expression of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) for eternity. It is not about time or place –  but relationship with God. It is a dimension that only God and those He authorises can move into and out of (which explains how some heavenly creatures can be sent from God’s presence into this dimension of time and space). It also explains how Christ’s death on the Cross meant that He could eternally atone for the sins of mankind (even those yet to be committed) because He could present His life as an atonement for sin in the eternal dimension and then return into His lifeless-body on Resurrection Sunday in this dimension all those years ago. Yes Caleb, there will be much more that you will come to appreciate about your favourite bible verse over the coming years.

The beauty of John 3:16 is that it is so simple it can be understood even by a child; and yet, as a believer’s knowledge of God and His Word grows, he or she will come to discover that there is a wealth of spiritually-satisfying treasure to be mined! In its simplest form, Jesus died so that all those who turn to Him in trust will go to heaven after leaving this life. Dig a little deeper though, and you also discover that the eternal life on offer is not merely about a location (‘heaven’) or a duration of time—but a quality of life and status of existence that elevates the believer into a glorified state with God Himself (Rom. 8:17; 1John 3:2). Our lives are now the training ground for our status as co-regents and co-rulers with Christ over all of His redeemed creation (1Cor. 6:2-3)! 

But, as it is written,“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him”
First Corinthians 2:9

Your pastor,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.

What would you do if you found a newborn baby at your doorstep?

 

What would you do if you found a newborn baby that had been left at your doorstep? Hopefully your answer sounds similar to “I’d take care of him or her.” What if it wasn’t a baby? What if it was a helpless young child or a teenager, or an adult, who turned up at your doorstep requesting your assistance? I hope that each of us would also be prepared to help whoever it was. What if it was not an abandoned child, youth, or adult? And what if it was not your front door? Instead, how might we each respond if it was a spiritually abandoned and spiritually needy person who turned up at your church seeking the ultimate help: how to be saved? While you might feel a similar compassion as you might have felt for the abandoned child at your doorstep, you may not be as confident in how you would spiritually help this person seeking a connection with God through Jesus Christ. “Where would I begin?” “How could I be an effective discipler of a new believer?” you might ask. Well, I’m glad you have asked. For any Christian to effectively disciple a new believer it must involve an individual, a small group, and a congregation.

By this My Father is glorified,
that you bear much fruit and
so prove to be My disciples.
John 15:8

WAYS OF DISCIPLING A NEW BELIEVER

I. Discipling by an individual

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk,
that by it you may grow up into salvation—
First Peter 2:2

Every believer is called to disciple and is empowered by the Holy Spirit to do so. Our feelings of inadequacy are often the result of our underestimating just how much God has done in us and how much we have spiritually grown as a result. Compared with a newborn believer who desperately needs spiritual nourishment and care, who knows next to nothing about God and HIs Word, you are a veritable source of perpetual spiritual sustenance.

In fact, if you have already been associating with pre-Christians, you may have already been discipling unawares. This is because discipling a new believer often commences not when he or she gives his or her life to Christ but when you become his or her friend! In this way, a person can be discipled to Christ. This might involve a period of time when the pre-believer has watched how you handle life’s difficulties. It might also have included discussions you have had together about the bible or God. Your friend may have also had questions about why you think Jesus is the only way to God and the only way to be forgiven of our sins. Your friend may have accepted your invitation to attend your church, or a Christian meeting, and, despite outward appearances, left that meeting with ‘a spiritual stone in their shoe’. Then the day may have come when the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in their formally dead soul becomes obvious. It seems to be demonstrably true that by far most people who become Christians do so because of a personal invitation from a friend.

A trusted friend can lead a new believer to Christ and lay a foundation in their soul of understanding that salvation is by faith in Christ as an act of God’s grace (Eph. 2:8-9). This does not require a textbook or a special workbook or even formal bible study notes. Much of my discipling of spiritual newborns has taken place in a café and on the back of a paper napkin where I have doodled an explanation of the gospel. Meeting for a coffee or a light meal is where the newborn can be shown that salvation is not just a moment, a decision, or an event—salvation also brings a new identity, a new attitude, a new lifestyle. This new life comes with a new “life map” called the bible. By simply reading through one of the Gospel stories together each week and then asking two key questions after a minute or two, the newborn believer is being discipled. As they begin to understand their new life that can be shown that it is confirmed and represented by water baptism which pictures the believer’s old life being buried in the waters of baptism and their new life in Christ being represented by coming up and out of the waters (Rom. 6:1-4).

We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that,
just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
we too might walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:4

II. Discipling by a small group

Every disciple is called to be a part of Christ’s body of believers. When each of our children were born, Kim and I were both there to greet them. As our little family grew each of our subsequent children were soon introduced to their siblings, then their grandparents, then their aunts and uncles. So it is spiritually. The initial discipleship of a newborn believer is most naturally commenced one-on-one. But as soon as possible the new believer must become acquainted with their brothers and sisters in Christ in a regular small group meeting.

¶ For just as the body is one and has many members,
and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
¶ Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
First Corinthians 12:12, 27

It is within the regular small group meetings, the microcosm of the new believer’s larger church family, that they learn to participate by sharing and praying with others, being prayed for, observing how to study God’s Word, asking questions, being corrected, witnessing how to repent, and increasingly how to know God.

As a member of a small group, even if you are not the small group leader, you are still contributing to the discipleship journey of a new believer in how you model your walk with Christ and your brothers and sisters in Christ.

 

III. Discipling by a congregation

Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly,
teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom,
singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Colossians 3:16

Every member of a small group of disciples is called to be a part of Christ’s larger body of believers – the church congregation. Disciples of Christ must be tamed and taught to live within a community of believers. Sin separates people but Christ brings people together. Our carnal natures crave being the centre of attention placing ourselves in the middle of our little world. But our new nature longs to connect with brothers and sisters in Christ where we each together make Christ the centre of our now enormous world! We do this by: meeting together and giving heed to the preached Word of God; singing our worship of God together with “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs”; offering up prayers of thankfulness to God;  and regularly celebrating the ordinances of Christ, especially the Lord’s Supper. As the church congregation assembles it also enters into a time of larger fellowship where teaching and admonishing take place – often in a very indirect way.

If I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.
First Timothy 3:15

It is in the larger congregational worship and teaching assembly that a new believer is indirectly discipled by the example of other believers. This is why when you gather (or do not gather) together with your church family on the Lord’s Day you are teaching a new believer a very profound lesson about the importance of obeying Christ’s command not to neglect to gather together (Heb. 10:25). New believers notice when and how you worship God, how you listen to the preached Word, and how you pray in public. In my early years as a Christian teen I noticed that before the service had started, an elderly gentleman in our church would always stop and bow his head in prayer whenever someone in the church building began to pray. He would then wait for them to finish praying before he would continue on his way. No one taught me to do this. But I was deeply impacted by this unspoken and indirect example of this mature disciple of Christ. It has remained my practice to this day.

 

CAN YOU HELP?

Over the past few weeks we have actually had spiritual newborn babies “dropped off at our church’s doorstep” so-to-speak. I need people who can be spiritual parents/brothers/sisters to these newborn believers. Ask any parent and they will tell you that being a carer takes time and patience. Newborns can be messy. Newborns can make mistakes. Newborns can seem to be slow to learn. But remember, you were a newborn once. Each of us can play a role in discipling a newborn believer. You already know more than enough to start. For some you, your newborn disciple will be your own children or grandchildren. For others it will be your friends or even your new friend. To disciple someone one-on-one all you need is time together and paper napkin (the café and coffee are just bonuses). To disciple someone in a small-group all you need to do is to invite them along and let them observe what intimate fellowship with other believers looks like. To disciple someone within a congregation all you need to do is: sincerely worship God; attentively heed the preaching of God’s Word; engage in fellowship after the service (hopefully by introducing your invited friend to others – or by introducing yourself to the invited friends of others); and, serve wherever and however you can.

As we approach the Tasmania Celebration with Will Graham weekend at the end of May we expect that we will have even more newborn believers to disciple. This is why we are going to have a church dinner on the Sunday after the Celebration (on June 5th) and then follow it up for the next three Sundays with Christianity Unpacked which will be a supper, a testimony, a brief presentation, and a time of discussion around tables. All this is designed to connect newborn believers with a one-on-one discipleship opportunity, an invitation to join a small group, and an introduction to the larger congregational meeting. This is how we will disciple a new believer and what we would do if the Lord left a newborn spiritual baby at our church’s doorstep. Will you join me?

Your pastor,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.

THE OLOGIES

 THE OLOGIES

This Sunday I conclude the BECAUSE HE IS series. Each of the six instalments of this series has dealt with a truth about God. My hope throughout the series so far has been that I might introduce those unfamiliar or less acquainted with God to experience a richer, deeper and more intimate knowledge of Him. My motive for doing this has been to lead someone who had never loved God to come to gladly love Him — and for those who were in like of God to become besotted with their love for God. I have repeatedly said throughout this series so far that I have not wanted this to be merely a series of lectures or just interesting information for your fancy. (Added to this, I have confessed that Kim has forbidden me from lecturing this series!) But now, as I prepare to conclude this series this Sunday, I want to give you some of the theological background behind what I consider to be one of the most important series of sermons I have delivered. There was a time when theology (the study of God) was considered the “the Queen of the sciences” from which all knowledge flowed making every other ’ology a subset of Theology.

Therefore you are great, O LORD God.
For there is none like You,
and there is no God besides You,
according to all that we have heard with our ears.
Second Samuel 7:22

ONTOLOGY

The first part of this series was simply called Because He Is. If I was to have lectured on this topic it would have been on the topic of ‘ontology’ – a philosophical-theological lecture. Ontology comes from two Greek words, ontos – which means “being, person, is”; and logos – which means “reason” from which we get the English suffix –ology (‘the study of’). Ontology is therefore the study of (the ultimate) reality. When Thomas Aquinas, a Medieval theologian, developed a set of proofs for the existence of God, he began with ontology. He reasoned that because anything was it must have had a being behind it. Since we can all verify that this world is, we can verify what Aquinas stated – that there must be a Being behind it. We can also verify that this world is operates on certain principles such as fixed chemical reactions, gravity, decay, objective moral laws, planetary order. We refer to something that is obviously true or factual as “ontologically true”. Therefore, for Aquinas, the answer to the philosophical question, “How do we prove God exists?” was, “We know God exists because He is.”

And Asa cried to the LORD his God,
“O LORD, there is none like You to help, between the mighty and the weak.
Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on You, and in Your Name
we have come against this multitude.
O LORD, You are our God;
let not man prevail against You.”
Second Chronicles 14:11

 

THEOLOGY PROPER

The study of who God is, His nature, His unique attributes, His unique acts, His character, and His essence, is known as Theology Proper. I have spent the best part of the last four decades focusing on the study of this academic discipline, and yet, I still have much more to learn. The preeminent quality of God from which each of His afore mentioned aspects flows out of, is holiness. God is holy. Before we think of God as love, almighty, just, or wise, we must appreciate that He is holy — not like the human attribution inappropriately given to cities or landmarks or so-called shrines or false religious leaders — God’s holiness is almost incomprehensibly unique. God is holy means that He is: distinct, sacred, special, impeccably pure, infinitely uncommon, perfectly good.

“Who will not fear, O Lord,
and glorify Your Name?
For You alone are holy.
All nations will come and worship You,
for Your righteous acts have been revealed.”
Revelation 15:4 

 

ECCLESIOLOGY

When French theologian and lawyer, John Calvin, sought to correct the flagrant misrepresentations of  his day about God and His deeds, he based his research on the Apostles’ Creed, the Scriptures in their original languages, and the works of several ancient Church Fathers, especially Augustine of Hippo. The result of his research was a mammoth four-volume work known in English as The Institutes of The Christian Religion. He divided his work into four sections: (i) About God The Father as Creator and Redeemer; (ii) About God The Son as Saviour and Revealer of the Father; (iii) About God The Holy Spirit as the Agent of Redemption through raising Christ from the dead, and regenerating the redeemed; and, (iv) About the Church as the Spirit-empowered community of the redeemed. To understand God necessarily leads to understanding that He is the Redeemer by whom we can only be, and must be, saved from our sin, reconciled to God, and be eternally pardoned. To accept God’s offer of rescue is to be delivered from the darkness of our alienation into the light of our adoption and fellowship with God and the community of the redeemed. This community is known as the Ecclesia – the Church. The theological study of God’s redemption plan is known as ecclesiology.

Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace…And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Ephesians 1:4-7, 22-23

 

DOXOLOGY

God is the Source of all goodness and blessing and is therefore worthy of all glory and praise. The Greek word for glory is doxa. In some church worship services they will close by pronouncing the doxology which literally means “words of praise”. For the one who comes to know God there is a reflex to want to worship God with praise and adoration. Human beings are created by the All-Glorious God to worship Him. Sin distorts this uniquely human characteristic by deceiving people into worshiping the created rather than the Creator.

For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. ¶ Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonouring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
Romans 1:21-25

The closing book of the Bible paints a picture of the culmination of redemption where the redeemed give God glory by attributing to Him every blessing they have received, by singing – 

Saying with a loud voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”
And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and
under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,
“To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
Revelation 5:12-13

 

EPISTEMOLOGY

One of the Greek words for knowledge is ‘episteme’ from which we get the term epistemology which is the study of how we come to know. In the realm of theology, although episteme does not occur in the Bible, epistemology pertains to how we know the truth about God. The Bible declares that God is the true God and that He is the Source of truth. This truth can be known by: (i) reliable testimony; (ii) verifiable accounts, particularly found in the Scriptures; (iii) direct encounters; (iv) direct revelation including hearing the voice of God or divine dreams; (v) philosophical contemplation such as considering creation needing a Creator (and similar to what Aquinas did); and, (vi) otherwise inexplicable answers to secret prayers to God. 

And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
John 17:3

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
John 14:6 

The Christian claims about God are true — not a different kind of ‘true’ to what a reasonable person would consider true, but the kind of true that is, as Francis Schaeffer described as — true truth! Therefore, Christianity’s historical truth claims can be verified. Christianity’s philosophical truth claims can be reasoned. Christianity’s subjective truth claims can be experienced. Christianity’s scientific truth claims can be tested.

 

SOTERIOLOGY

This Sunday I conclude the Because He Is series with Because He Is Life. Soteriology comes from the Greek word soterios which is translated into English as ‘salvation’, thus, soteriology is the study of salvation.

With each of the messages in this series there has been a “so what” element. When I map a sermon series out, often months before I preach it, I always ask the “So what?” question as I sketch it out. As you can see from the picture of my sticky-note in my Bible, next to the start of First Peter, for this series I actually began with the “so what” elements of each instalment. These “so whats” are the implications of each of these ‘ologies’ in the Because He Is series. Because He is holy, the Apostle Peter tells us we should be holy.

But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written,
“You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
First Peter 1:15-16

This Sunday, perhaps one of the greatest “So what?” moments that any church could hope for will be publicly demonstrated as baptise people who have accepted God’s offer of forgiveness and redemption. You will also notice that I have mined just one passage from First Peter to draw out each of these ‘ologies’. It is my hope that as you hear my heart to convey the richness of the treasure of knowing God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, your confidence in the God of the Bible will be buttressed not just by good theology grounded in Scripture, but in the fact that you have come to know Him in truth for yourself. This Sunday will not be a lecture, and perhaps by now you can see why, and we may all humbly say along with Job – 

I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees You; therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.”
Job 42:5-6

Your pastor,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.