Why Jesus Was Radical...
This is surely counter-intuitive. I wonder if we could be a counter-intuitive church? Instead of church being about "me", I wonder if I could make it about "you". Instead of church being about "you" and if we could make it about "us". Perhaps this doesn't start here, but at least it can start here, when we come together this Sunday, instead of waiting for someone to come to you, could you go to someone - especially someone attending for a first, second or third time? Perhaps go beyond striking up a conversation and offer to have them back for lunch. I know that some will respond with, "Why should I?! No one's ever invited me or my family for lunch!"
This almost counter-intuitive spirituality continues when Jesus teaches those who would follow Him that they must relegate what they want by helping others with what they want. "If someone asks you to go one mile, go two..." "Give to him who asks for a loan and do not expect any return..." It's as if Jesus is saying, whatever you want, give it away. Want love? Show love. Want attention? Give someone your attention. Want company? Give someone your companionship.What Jesus taught about developing godly spirituality- the kind of spirituality where a soul is connected intimately with God - sounds counter-intuitive. Jesus taught that authentic spirituality didn't "look" spiritual! In fact, He warned against spiritual parading. To be spiritual, Jesus taught, is to do some very practical things, like provide your parents, help out strangers, love your wife, be a part of a church community, demonstrate consideration for others, and bring all your needs to Father God in prayer each day.
This is surely counter-intuitive. I wonder if we could be a counter-intuitive church? Instead of church being about "me", I wonder if I could make it about "you". Instead of church being about "you" and if we could make it about "us". Perhaps this doesn't start here, but at least it can start here, when we come together this Sunday, instead of waiting for someone to come to you, could you go to someone - especially someone attending for a first, second or third time? Perhaps go beyond striking up a conversation and offer to have them back for lunch. I know that some will respond with, "Why should I?! No one's ever invited me or my family for lunch!"First John 3:11 ¶ For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
The problem with this type of thinking is that it is not just non-Gospel it is anti-Gospel! It is spiritually toxic! To think of others and do something that shows we care is at the very heart of the Gospel. Consider this:
Q: What is in the centre of "SIN"?
A: I.
And this one-
Q: What is in the centre of "CHURCH"?A: You Are (UR).Eph. 5:32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.I want to be a counter-intuitive Christian. I want to respond to the Christ who taught that if I want my life I have to let it go. This is the same Christ who taught if I want to find my life I have to lose it. The safest road, Jesus taught, was not the broadest road, rather it was the narrow road.
Living as Christ taught nearly always demands a counter-intuitive response. Our wife hurts us and we instinctively wait for them to apologise. But Christ's instruction to the offended is counter-intuitive! He instructs the offended to initiate forgiveness! (Matthew 18:15) When we are deeply betrayed the most natural thing to do is to rehearse over and over again the hurtful event. But in a shockingly counter-intuitive manner, the New Testament instructs us not to dwell on these events but to rather dwell on virtuous and excellent things (Phil. 4:8).
Bill Hybels constantly reminds us that the local church is the hope of the world. We get hope by giving hope. I know. That's counter-intuitive. This Sunday do something counter-intuitive, then do it again on Monday.
Ps. AndrewFather, I want my life to be more about You and less about me. I want to be a blessing to others especially when I'm desperate for blessing in my life. Help me to minister to others with what I have. Everything I have is Yours. Everything I do is for You. Everything I am is for You. I know that I am not yet what I will be. So Father, please change me and make me a fully devoted follower of Christ. Change the way I think, the way I speak, the way I act and the way I feel, so I can see others how You see them. May my heart be Your heart, in Jesus' Name, Amen.Eph. 3:21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
It's probably the most famous of Christ's stories. The story of the Prodigal Son. There are three obvious characters within this story: the father, the younger son and the older son.
As a paid-up member of the Older Brother Society, Jesus' story cuts me deep. It is actually quite scandalous what Christ is asking of me! He is asking me to welcome in to the community of our Heavenly Father's house the worst kind of sinners! He is charging me to not merely welcome such sinners back into the community of faith, but to celebrate their return! What?!
But if I am going to love the Father as Jesus is entreating me to, I'm afraid I have an announcement to make to the Society colleagues: I can no longer remain an Older Brother. I'm afraid to say that I can no longer just be dutiful to our Father - I must delight myself in what brings delight to our Father. And it seems that He takes great delight in not only welcoming home repentant sinners, but He actually wants such occasions celebrated!
There is a certain hang-over from Post-Modernism that makes the idea of the Book of Revelation being divinely vague very appealing. Post-Modernism relishes in the idea that nothing can be known for certain. It despises the notion of being 'right' and extols the notion of uncertainty. In presenting a case for how the Book of Revelation can be understood, Post-Modernist Theologians will protest that this is just one of the many ways that it can be interpretted. This dismissal fits their larger idea about how the Bible can be interpretted in a singular fashion. It promotes the concept that a Biblical text can be validly interpretted a number of diverse ways simultaneously. To hold a contrary view to this Post-Modern approach is to be accused with the worst name-calling a Post-Modernist can employ to belittle their objectors: narrow-minded and dogmatic. (Which ironically seems like a rather narrow-minded and dogmatic objection.)
Being a part of a God-worshiping, God-adoring, God-honouring, Word-enriched, faith-community is a part of building a margin into our lives. Attending congregational worship on Sundays is building a margin around our lives. It might look like a waste of time to the world. It may even seem like an unimportant priority when compared to kids' soccer games, AFL matches, car races, which coincide with it. But it is a necessary margin for the believer. No wonder the god of this world wants to keep the people of God from weekly re-establishing this vital margin.
The Epistle To The Hebrews warns its readers that certain ideas are incredibly spiritually destructive. The language of Hebrews is bold and strong. At times it is offensive to those who have the idea that Christianity is not about holy living ("Legalism!" they protest) or devotion to Biblical teaching. Offensive? Indeed! The unnamed writer to the Hebrews scolds his countrymen for being too easily swayed by false teaching. He pastorally urges them to use discernment which comes from correct understanding of Scripture, rejection of false ideas about Scripture and the application of Scripture leading to holy living.
The Epistle to the Hebrews is set against the backdrop of false teaching about Christ which had been gaining an increasing foot-hold among Jewish Christians. The writer to the Hebrews puts first things first:correctly understand Who Jesus is and What He has done. Get these two aspects wrong and your soul is in peril because it inevitably leads to unholy living (sin) and forsaking the truth.
The need for discernment by Christians is critical. The Epistle to the Hebrews stresses this. There are so many false teachers with growing platforms that reiterate the spiritually toxic venom of the Edenic Serpent- "Has God said...?" - undermining the Word of God and its teaching; and, "You shall not die!" - making a mockery of the consequences of unholy living and calling immorality "outdated". The writer to the Hebrews has some stern and strong words to say about this type of attack on sound Biblical teaching. But it takes discernment to sometimes hear the error behind sometimes seemingly plausible sounding "Christian" teaching. Asking the questions- "Where does the Bible say that?" and "Is that how the original audience of this Text would have understood it?" Just these two questions can help modern followers of Christ increase their discernment skills.
The local church is God's ordained plan for Christian community. "...not neglecting to meet together..." the simple act of meeting together to worship in singing, communion, and prayer, while giving heed to the preaching of God's Word, is designed by God to advance the growth of believers and to extend His Kingdom.
The Enemy sows discord. Discord between the believer and God. Discord between the believer and a fellow believer. Discerning the schemes of the Enemy and clinging to the Word of God, the House of God, and Ways of God, helps to guard against such discord. This is why the next time you hear a teaching that unsettles you, ask the Lord to help you discern it. Ask God to protect your mind, your soul and your closeness to Christ. When you hear a teaching that claims that teaching is wrong, discern the irony of such a claim and consult the Word of God to see if it lines up. Anytime anyone teaches the Bible, ask the two primary discerning questions- "Where does it say that" And, "Is that what this text in context really says?"
Christianity is principally a Charismatic religion. It is supernatural, spiritual, miraculous, and mysterious. These are words that sum up 'charismatic' which comes from the Greek word- "charis" which is most often translated 'grace'. Therefore, Christianity is principally a religion of grace. This makes Christianity unique among the world's religions.
Jesus spoke with the deepest respect about the Holy Spirit. In John 3 He said that it was the Holy Spirit who brought salvation to a human soul. In doing this the Holy Spirit removes an unbelieving heart and replaces it with the gift of a believing heart. He takes out the still-born spirit of a person and replenishes it with a God-enriched new spirit. He removes God-hating sinful desires and plants in their place the seeds of God-honouring desires. At first, Jesus said, the Holy Spirit would confront people. They would immediately recognise what they had previously been blinded to - their true condition before God. Jesus referred to this as conviction of sin. Without this initiation, the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit could not commence.
History cetainly verifies what Christ stated. From the mighty Medieval Italian street-preaching evangelist, Savonarola, to the great English outdoor preacher, John Wesley, to the erudite Australian public theologian and one of the greatest preachers of all time, F.W. Boreham, to the history-making American preacher, Billy Graham - the Holy Spirit has un-arrested the most unlikely people and set them ablaze with a holy passion for the Cause of Christ.
Each Sunday night we meet to pray for the people of the Tamar Valley to have the Holy Spirit blow upon them. And from George Town to Youngtown He is! We now have people from all over the Tamar Valley experiencing the breeze of the Holy Spirit across their souls. Every Sunday new attenders are drawn to our worship services with an alien curiosity about the things of God. As the Holy Spirit continues to blow across the formerly dead spirits of those He has wooed we can expect that the Unstoppable Spirit of God will ignore devilish, carnal pleas to desist, and will continue to interrupt people's lives with His saving grace.
The problem I have with discussing eating to be nourished is that it is such a foreign concept to most of us. Most of the time my eating is for pleasure rather than nourishment. While I've fasted a day here and there recently and experienced mild tummy grumbling, the notion of what two-thirds of the world calls "hunger" is largely an alien concept. But if I can be allowed the forgiveness to discuss the need for 'nourishment' I should like to draw from what our bodies may experience to what our soul's need.
Our souls need nourishment even more than our bodies do. A malnourished body can be dramatically revitalised by nourishment as Jonathan's was when he ate the honey that his father had banned his starving troops from eating while in long pursuit. Then Jonathan said, "My father has troubled the land. See how my eyes have become bright because I tasted a little of this honey (1Sam. 14:29). Jonathan's weary body was nourished and restored from eating wild honey. A nourished soul is a restored soul. In Psalm 23, David describes God as restoring souls ("He restores my soul...") and concludes with a picture of God's restoration of a soul as a banquet table set to to nourish ("You prepare a table before me...my cup overflows..."). Souls need nourishing.
Jesus knew how to nourish His soul. The way He did it was almost counter-intuitive. Do you know how to nourish your soul?
God is the only true Source of our soul's nourishment. Our spiritual fellowship with Him is the only sustainable means of finding nourishment. And there is much that connects our soul with Him - such as wonder at His creation, admiration of what He has inspired. I know of a man who would go to an art gallery each week and sit for an hour or so in front of a painting which the artist had done to the glory of God. This man found his soul nourished as a result. 
My hero, F.W. Boreham, had an interesting approach to proving God to unbelievers. He warned believers not to expend too much of their efforts attempting to prove God to a skeptic. Rather, he wrote, believers were more likely to be apologetically fruitful if they talked about God, who He was, what He had done, what He was doing. In fact, FWB wrote toward the end of his life that if he had his time over again as a preacher he would preach more about God than anything else.
Boreham argued that "proving" something that was obvious, could actually cause doubt about it. For example, imagining entering a majestic cathedral. The architecture is inspired by God's majestic transcendence. Its lofty ceilings, its tall stained glass windows, its artistically Biblical wall hangings, and its glorious timber beam trusses, all create a wonderful ambience for admiring the God Who rules the Universe. The Dean of the Cathedral, in the course of the worship service, may even draw the worshipers' attention to these elements of the old building. He may point out that the central part of the ceiling is dome-like and designed to point the worshiper to heaven. He may point to the very front of the Cathedral, the Chancel, to remind worshipers that we must draw near to God by means of approaching an sacrificial altar. But, if these objects and fixtures are pointed out in a cold fashion, their meaning is somewhat diminished.
But if the Ministering Dean was to go to great lengths to assure the gathered worshipers that the building they were in was "safe" and that there was no need to fear that the great timber beams they were gathered under would fall on their heads, and then proceeded to go to even greater lengths to describe in detail the material contained in the foundations of the Cathedral, he may actually be introducing an element of doubt into the minds of his listeners that was previously not there.
Instead, FWB encouraged, the believer was more likely to achieve their goal of helping seekers to believe if they spoke more of the One they believed in. By helping the visitor to use the Cathedral's majesty to help them worship the One the Cathedral was dedicated to, they could more likely help the seeker meet with God.
There are good reasons to believe in God and equally good proofs for Him, but the danger is that we spend more time proving our proofs than introducing the One we are proving to the one who is seeking. Once introduced to God, the unbeliever-turned-believer can now appreciate the proofs for God - in a similar way that a worshiper more likely appreciates a Cathedral and its sacred fixtures when they are experiencing it.
Of all the glorious things to which our Lord could have compared Himself, among other things He identified Himself with "bread". In fact, Jesus spoke of bread quite often. He said we should ask God for it daily. He said children should expect it from their fathers. And on that night when eternity intersected with time, He took bread and broke it, and said, "This is my body."
The resultant flour must then be mixed with oil. The anointing of the Holy Spirit is described in Scripture as being like "oil" poured over a person. As Christ entered Gethsemane, I suspect the anointing of the Holy Spirit "increased" upon Him. But this is not when He initially experienced the Holy Spirit. Clearly the Spirit was in Him from His conception in much the same way that we who are born again receive the indwelling Spirit of Life. But it was at Christ's baptism that the Spirit came upon Him. In a similar way we are saved when the Holy Spirit comes into us, but we are empowered by the Holy Spirit when He comes upon us. This is the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. For the flour to become bread, it has to have some oil poured over it then mixed into it. We too must have the Holy Spirit infuse every part of us. He renews our minds, cleanses our hearts, opens our ears, enlightens our eyes, fills our mouths. It is the Holy Spirit who causes us to bear fruit (Galatians 5) and enables us share our Lord's Word with the world.
What was once a single grain of wheat is now fused with inumerous other former grains into a new identity. In a similar way, the believer can not remain just a solo believer. He must be kneeded into the dough to become a part of a local body of believers which is ultimately kneeded into Christ Himself. Of course this kneeding process rubs us the 'wrong way'. We struggle to get along with people. We take offence. We experience pain from others. We all too easily yield to the temptation to withdraw and do Christianity on our own. But the wheat must be harvested, sifted (with its chaff burned), ground to flour, mixed with oil, salted, and kneeded together, to be transformed into what our Lord desires.
The next time you hear the words declared over the Table of the Lord, "and He took bread", pause to consider the impact of what our Lord is telling us. In this moment, consider that He, The Bread of Life, The Bread That Came Down From Heaven, calls us to be bread as well. This is one of the reasons why we take the time and especially why we take our time, to celebrate the Table of the Lord each week. For us this reminder is also an act of worship. It is not just a reminder of what Christ has done for us, but it is a reminder of what He is doing in us. As He declares to us, "take eat", He is transforming us into His bread and He is calling a hungry world to His table to "take eat".