New Thoughts (11/30/04-12/6/04)
A Correction (12/1/04)
First, a quick correction to something noted in looking at Caiaphas. I had said he was probably still high priest when the nascent church was being harassed by the Temple authorities, but he wasn’t. ISBE makes it clear that it was Annas, son of Annas who held the office at that point. It is interesting to note that there were likely five or six holders of that office alive at the time. This, for a position which God had declared as a singular, lifetime position.
Rome had successfully co-opted the faith of Israel in this. They had made show of appeasing the people, but they had simultaneously made the priesthood a branch of government politics The office of high priest no longer had much of anything to do with God’s law, with Aaronic descent, or with moral fitness for the job. It was simply a matter of Roman appointment. It was a favor to be given and taken away by the governor at his whim. This was doubtless not the first time Rome had played this particular game, and it certainly wasn’t the last. The Christian church would undergo that same coercion a few short centuries later, would even embrace it as it brought with it an end to the persecutions that had so buffeted the faithful. It would take years for the real effect to be felt, but it would be felt. The Church would once more become just another branch of government. Indeed, in time, it would become a contender for the leading role. The pope would come to hold such power that he could contend with kings and win, that he became the one who appointed emperors, and the one who removed them from their positions. By all appearances, it might look like the church had won, had reversed the situation seen in the Temple hierarchy in Jesus’ day. But they had lost so much more than they gained. They had cast aside God and His kingdom for the sake of earthly power. The effects of that capitulation are still felt today.
We, who have this history from which to learn, must be careful that we do not fall into the same trap. There are many efforts in the Church today to effect social change, to establish a legal system in keeping with faith. There is nothing wrong with Christians pursuing a course of social change. However, to walk in the halls of power is to open oneself to the ways of power. Is it impossible for faith to stand up to that? No. But, faith is contained in vessels of flesh, and the flesh is weak. History has displayed the effects of state religion. Call it what you will, but seeking to enforce righteousness through the legal system is seeking to slip a state religion in under the constitution. There was a reason that the founders of this nation made provisions against such a thing. It was not, however, to keep faith and God out of politics. It was to keep politics out of the Church! I rather doubt they ever envisioned the religious and pseudo-religious landscape of modern America, which has used their good sense to allow any crackpot with a particular vice to protect to declare himself a religion, where many religious establishments are nothing much more than tax dodges, or cover for less than legitimate activities. I rather doubt they envisioned establishing the worship of gods anathema to true faith.
Oh, I know. Many academics will tell us how little faith had to do with those who established the government, will downplay the role of faith in establishing the nation, but the fact remains unchanged by their post-modern opinions. Faith – Christian faith – a desire to pursue God unfettered by the politics of what were then the established, official versions of the church, were of paramount import to a good portion of the population that came to the shores of what would become America. Certainly, there were any number of colonists for whom the matter was strictly temporal, a matter of profits to be made, or criminal charges to be evaded. These were not, however, the founders, not the strength behind the colonies. The strength was to be found within the people who came to these shores for something more than money. They came to worship God. They came to live godly lives. They came to establish what could no longer be established in Europe. Politics had invaded the Church too thoroughly to allow for it.
In time, politics invaded the American church as well. The Church was not intended for temporal governance, and every time it has tried to move into that sphere, it has been to the detriment of the Church. The simple fact of the matter is that only God can legislate morality. Only He is fit to determine morality, and only He is competent to judge morality. The purpose of the Church is not to stand as the enforcer of Holy Truth, but to stand as the beacon. How can we think to force people to live in righteousness when it is such an impossible task even for us! No, the purpose of the Church is to declare the kingdom of God. It is our purpose to make clear who He is, what He has defines as righteousness, and our utter inability to comply without His aid. It is to make sin so plainly understood, and the weakness of our flesh so plainly understood, that the good news will be understood as great news indeed by people who recognize that they are drowning in their own filth.
Revival never came through politics. Revival never came through making God presentable to the surrounding culture. Revival, when a land has been blessed by it, came when God was presented as God and sin was presented as sin. There’s a song that Charlie Peacock sang that says, “You don’t ask a drowning man if he wants to be saved.” That’s true enough. However, if you throw a life preserver to somebody who doesn’t think himself to be drowning, don’t expect thanks. Don’t expect that he’ll be bothered to lay hold of the safety you’ve thrown his way. He may be drowning. You may know beyond doubt that he’s drowning. But, if he isn’t aware of the fact, then a flotation device is of little use to him.
This is becoming a problem for the church today. We’re throwing out safety devices to scads of people who don’t feel a need for them. We don’t talk to them about why they need the device, we just hand it to them and tell them they need it. Is it any wonder if their response is negative? How have we responded to this? We haven’t been willing to tell them why they need it. That might turn them off. No, instead we tell them what fun God is. We show them an entertaining good time. We use all the advertising gimmicks that we have learned from watching the world in action around us. We have not made disciples, we’ve merely entertained the inmates for a time. When it’s no longer entertaining, they’ll move on to something else that is. They may, if it’s not too much bother, take that safety device with them when they go, but it’ll probably wind up a conversation piece left on the table, and when the flood comes it will have done them no good.
God help us! Give us the backbone to stand out from the ways of the world. Give us the wisdom not to be bothered trying to make You look good. You are good. You are the very definition of good. We pray that things would be done on earth as they are in heaven, and then we try to present a heaven that looks like earth. Forgive us. Wake us up to the foolishness of our ways. Restore us, Holy Spirit, to Your purpose. Give us the strength of will, as You work in us, to make the drowning aware of their danger. Show us, Lord, how to preach Your Good News as You intended.
Crisis – Moral Emergency (12/2/04-12/3/04)
We tend to look at Pilate and see only the bad guy, the villain of the Gospel story. It has not always been so. I read that in the Coptic Church, he is actually declared a saint. This is based on stories of his later conversion. Whether those stories are true or not is impossible to determine, but they reflect something in this man that Scripture also reflects. What is reflected about him is an internal conflict familiar to most people. Although the outcome of that conflict is on a scale unknown to most of us, it is not really so different than we like to believe. Here’s the crux of it, as the ISBE summarizes this man: “He knew what was right, but for selfish and cowardly reasons refused to do it.”
Notice this about Pilate, he ran reasonably well for a time. True, he had Jesus beaten, but this was more or less in keeping with methods of interrogation common to that time, especially one accused of being an enemy of the state. However, having found nothing to the charges, he sought to release Jesus. He recognized innocence. The challenge was not over, though. An incited crowd insisted on punishment of this One who threatened the powers that be. He may not have been an enemy of the Roman state, but He was assuredly an enemy of the local power brokers. Pilate tried to slip out of the snare of his dilemma by sending Jesus to Herod. Pass the buck, as it were. If Herod chose to fulfill the Jews’ wishes, Pilate was not to blame for it, at any rate. That didn’t work, either. Herod rendered no judgment, left it up to Pilate to decide what to do.
Here was his dilemma. He knew Jesus’ innocence. He knew what Roman law, the law he represented, indicated should be done. He also knew the danger of the crowd which the Sanhedrin had incited. He had a mob on his hands, and one that could easily turn to riot. Rioting natives were the bane of Roman governors. It was a sign of failure in office. This is part of why riots were so quickly and brutally put down. The pax romana must be preserved. That was first and foremost. To allow a breach of that peace threatened the income of the Empire, and that would not be tolerated. So, Pilate had a problem: break the law he was intended to enforce and thereby preserve the peace, or uphold the law and quite possibly destroy the peace? “He knew what was right, but for selfish and cowardly reasons refused to do it.”
We look at this, and we shake our heads. Shameful. He should have known better. He did know better. It was the action of a spineless man, that he should let go of justice because of the rabble outside his doors. He had the army on his side. They were not a threat to his safety, only to his livelihood. This is what he was trying to avoid, but in the end, it is exactly what he lost. “Those who seek to save their life will lose it.” Thus had said this One he condemned to death.
The quote from ISBE continues its summary of Pilate as follows: “He was faced by a great moral emergency, and he failed.” Now comes the hard part. We can shake our heads over Pilate’s failure, but we do better to look to our own lives. What was said of him could just as easily be said of every person in that crowd outside Pilate’s fortress. What was said of him could just as easily be said of Peter, could be said of all the disciples, who fled the garden rather than be caught with the Innocent Man. What was said of Pilate can, I suspect, be said of every last one of us. We each of us have faced moral crises. We each of us have failed in the face of some of these crises. Where we have not failed, we have only God’s grace to thank for it.
God, I ask Your forgiveness. This morning, I was thinking of some events in my own past, events that came before I had come to know You, but are no more forgivable on that account. There have been any number of moral emergencies in my own life that I know, knew even as I blew it, I failed as miserably as Pilate did. But, oh! The wonder of Your love for me! You knew these things about me. You knew who I was, what I had done and failed to do, and yet, You were willing to pay the cost of my failures, to forgive me my sins, and to make of me something new and wonderful. You know and I know that I would likely have looked down upon such as myself in wrath were I in Your place. Yet, You are greater than I. You have looked beyond what I was and determined what I shall be, and I can only bow down in worship to You, for You have been so incredibly good to me. Who am I, Lord, that You should love me so? What can I ever hope to do for You that would repay so great a kindness? Yet, Holy One, I pray You find me doing what I can from a heart that knows what You have done, and wants only to please the One who has done so much!
All glory be to You, Lord! Oh! Let me never forget, never lose sight of the enormity of what I have received in the light of what I have deserved! Let me never cease to grow in strength as You work upon this weak flesh. Let me ever be able to look back and say, “Look what God has done!”
Minority Report (12/03/04)
The numbers, if one wishes to believe the surveys, will tell you that the majority of Americans still claim to be Christians. What would you say, though, if it were your survey, a survey taken not by asking the question, but by observation? I can tell you that, in the place where I work, there are very few who would lay claim to the title of Christian. I could count them on one hand. There are those who make open and blatant display of their claim. Thankfully, their example does not generally belie the claim they are making. There are others more stealthy in their faith, yet even if profession is not loud on their lips, it speaks volumes from their behavior.
In other settings, the situation might be different. A survey by question would, perhaps, find a great number of people claiming their Christianity. But, what if the questions went beyond that? What if the questions begin to probe what it means to be a Christian, how it impacts their daily lives? You know what? It has once more become popular for politicians to declare their connection with faith. Both candidates in the last election made that claim. Both could trot out evidence for the public to consider. However, in many cases the evidence that was offered was no evidence at all. Being a Christian amongst a roomful of Christians, being righteous within the walls of the church, is all well and good if one goes on being the same way when one leaves. But, if things change the moment we are back outside, if we slip God back into His book cover and put Him away until next time, what have we to do with the kingdom of heaven?
I tell you, this describes the majority of American Christianity today, and it is an abomination in the sight of God! Meanwhile, because this has become so prevalent in the Church at large, we don’t expect anything more than that. If a politician claims to be a Christian, if he can show that he’s attended church regularly, and prayed every now and then, then we’ll accept his claim. After all, that’s about all we do ourselves, and we’re certain enough of our own Christianity. This is not what Christ called us to! This is not what God paid for! We need only look at John to understand that.
John was ‘a voice in the wilderness.’ He had a ministry to perform, and that ministry was not a matter of making God look good to the people around him. His job was to present the God that is. We labor to make the church look enticing to the world, but if all the world around us is chasing after sin, what’s going to make church enticing? Are we really so foolish as to think that by making God look sinful, we can attract sinners to holiness? We’ve done no such thing! We’ve only succeeded in tarnishing His image. We’ve joined forces with the enemy in opposing the Source of Life. We need to look again at what John was doing. He stood in the midst of incredible, pervasive sin, and shouted out the word of holiness. The official church of Israel was corrupt. Politics had poisoned the moral leadership of the nation. The faith of Israel’s youth was corrupt. No longer interested in the God who chose them, they chose other gods, who looked to provide more fun. Thus, the Hellenistic Jews, thus the Herodian party. They looked to the Herods and saw, rather than something to be abhorred, something to emulate. Look! They were getting ahead, they were getting whatever they wanted. Clearly, that’s the way to go! The Temple of God wasn’t offering anything really different. It was just the means some had chosen to get what they wanted.
The Church in America today is, in many cases, in that same place. It has become another tool by which the upper ranks of the hierarchy gain the power and prestige they want. How many denominations still speak about the holiness of God? How many even accept His Word as Truth anymore? When the voice in the pulpit is preaching that immorality is not only acceptable in God’s sight, but that He actually wants these immoral ones to serve Him, what has Truth to do with it? How can they claim to be servants of the Word when they deny the very Word they claim to serve? “Oh, it doesn’t mean that! It only looks that way because of the way it was translated.” Right. “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination” (Lev 18:22). That’s pretty ambiguous isn’t it. What is more disconcerting is this: “The men of the land who have been before you did all these things, defiling the land. So, the land will cast you out, should you do such things, just as it cast out those who were there before you” (Lev 18:27-18). Don’t tell me how the Old Testament doesn’t apply anymore! That’s not what Jesus says! He says that not one least bit of it will fail, that not one bit of it has changed. The Law remains in force. The definition of holiness is not going to bend to fit our wishes.
On the American landscape, the Church, because of this willingness to embrace immorality, has become just one more choice amongst a plethora of choices. When Christianity is reduced to what is presented to the public today, there is really no difference left between Christianity and Mohammedism, between Christianity and Buddhism, between Christianity and New Age nonsense-ism. It’s as false as any other claim to faith. We have allowed this. We have allowed the Truth to be lost in our words. We speak only what might be acceptable and interesting to the culture that surrounds us, and in this, we are forever going to be outdone by those more practiced in the presentation of sin. Sin will always look better than what we have to offer, if we attempt to wrap our offer up in worldly fashions.
John chose a better way. He cried out in the wilderness. He did absolutely nothing to make God more presentable, to make himself more presentable, nor to make his message more palatable. He spoke the Truth, the bold, bald Truth. In the midst of a nation sunk in sin, he spoke holiness. No adornments of fine speech, no slick presentation materials, just a simple message, “God is near. Prepare yourself! Holiness is come to judge, put away your sins!”
That was a message that stood out. That was a message that simply could not be ignored, because it was undisguised Truth. The Truth cannot be ignored, though we in our sinful flesh may try our best to ignore it. Our spirit, however corrupt the vessel it is in, cannot help but recognize that Truth when it is heard. When all around is sin, the lone cry of holiness cannot be ignored.
This is what fuels revival. We have all heard of revival movements rippling about the countryside. I tell you plainly, though, that the majority of these are little more than entertainment phenomena. They don’t last. They sell some books, they sell some music, they make some extra profit for a time, and people get all excited. People want to go visit these places ‘because God is moving, there.’ Yet, the kingdom is not increased by this, only attendance. When God is really moving, it is not through entertainment. When God is moving, there is a voice of holiness crying out, “Repent, for the kingdom draws near!”
That is the message that fueled the Great Awakening. Because it fueled, the Great Awakening, we might reasonably go so far as to say that is the message that led to the founding of this nation. That is the message that fueled the Welsh Revival. That is the message that fueled every great move of God that has blessed the history of mankind. It is the message borne by every prophet of God in the history of Israel. It is the message of every true minister of the Word in the history of the Church. That is the message God gave John to preach. It’s the message God gave Jesus to preach, and it’s the message that Jesus gave His disciples to preach. When we go to make disciples of all nations, what message do you suppose He gives us to preach?
Does He tell us to inform the world that God is love? No, although that is Truth. Does He tell us to go out and preach doom upon all that is false in the world? No, although that is Truth. Does He tell ask us to be His advertising agency, to see if we can’t think up some way to make Him presentable to the people of our time? No. What need has He who made us in His image to be made presentable and relevant to His creation? Why would the One perfect in wisdom and knowledge, the very source of wisdom and knowledge, be looking to us for advice? Who do we think we are?
No, He has laid out a very simple plan of ministry. First, tell them He is righteous. Second, make very clear to them that they are not. Declare the Truth. Declare His eminence and His imminence. When they have recognized that Truth, then – only then – are they prepared to hear the Good News. We need to understand better what John was preaching, and what He was doing. We need to see that the ministry of John and the ministry of Jesus were not competing camps, but a unified ministry. We need to get ourselves back on message, if we really want to see His will done on earth as it is in heaven.
Baptism of Repentance (12/4/04)
If we are going to recover a ministry in power, we need to really consider what it was that the first minister was ministering. I think Luke’s introduction of John gives it to us best: “He came [...] preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Consider the power of that simple statement. He came preaching a baptism. Now, we know John was baptizing folks in the Jordan River, but that was, I think the result of his preaching, not the content. Before his hearers could be convinced to take a dip in the Jordan, they first needed to be convinced there was a reason for it.
It wasn’t a requirement of Judaism, so that was not sufficient cause. It didn’t carry any great social benefit, so there wasn’t peer pressure to convince them to participate. It was something else, something more irresistible, and irrefutable. The baptism John performed in the waters was symbolic of what had already occurred in the life of the one he baptized. This is no different, really, then what baptism is intended to be today. What did John’s baptism symbolize, though? This is different. Baptism, according to one portion of the lexical definition, is ‘that which overwhelms.’ This is the thing that was at the core of John’s preaching – the inescapable conclusion that we are, as Jonathon Edwards would later declare, sinners in the hands of an angry God.
Hearing how good God is will not overwhelm us with a sense of our need for Him. Hearing how holy He is, and recognizing once for all how unholy we are, that might begin to give us a sense of need, but only if we can be convinced that God is near enough to be a threat to our unholy selves. These are the first hurdles that must be overcome by the Christian minister today. Before we can cause a man to be baptized in repentance, we must first of all convince him there is a god, and not just any god he may wish to choose, but one God who alone out of all the vast array of gods available on the menu is truly God. Having established that, we must move on to declare God as He truly is, a holy God; just, merciful, loving, patient, yes, but as truly as these attributes are His, so too is His holiness. He is pure and undefiled, and He is powerful enough to remain that way, to destroy anything and anybody who would seek to threaten such defilement.
There are still many who, having been convinced that there is a God, and a God such as we have described, would still not be overwhelmed by their situation. There are many who believe in God today, but believe Him so far removed from His creation as to be irrelevant. This is the group that will accept that He is, but will then go on to declare that He is not here. He’s found other things to pursue, and left us on our own to do the best we can. This misconception must also be overcome. Thus, we read the core message that flows from John to Jesus to the disciples to us: “The kingdom is at hand.” That is the thing that will finally bring realization that we are truly overwhelmed by our own condition. That is the thing that brought Isaiah to his knees, declaring ‘woe is me! I’m undone!’ That is the baptism that John was after.
Only when that realization has completely set in, is there going to be real repentance. What is that repentance? It’s a change of mind, yes. It’s an about-face in the course we’re on, yes. But, what has caused that change? The answer lies in the word itself. To repent is to change based on new knowledge. The knowledge required to bring about such change is precisely that which I have been talking about: God is, God is holy, God is near, I am sinful, His holiness cannot and will not tolerate sin to continue in His presence. If He is near, and I am who I am, I’m undone. I’m in mortal danger! Time is limited for me to do anything about this, and if I have realized this whole thing, I’m going to be anxiously seeking whatever means I can to bring about a reversal of my condition. Yet, part of what I’ve realized is that I’m guilty of the whole penalty of God’s Law, and the whole penalty is my death! It is beyond me to remit my way into holiness. It is impossible for me to reverse my previous actions. There is no way out! Now, I am truly suffering a baptism of repentance. I understand the situation, I know real regret for the way I have been, but I am drowned by it, because as well as I understand that, I also understand that the outcome is inevitable. There can be only death.
Now, I have a heart prepared for the Gospel, for the Good News of Christ Jesus, my Savior, my Redeemer! Until I was overwhelmed by realizing the course my life had pursued, I had no need for this news. Until I was drowning in the despair of my inescapable guilt before God, I had no use for His mercy. You may not ask a drowning man if he wants to be saved, but I’ll tell you what: if he thinks he is swimming strong, he’s not going to appreciate the life preserver you throw his way! This is our mistake! We have satisfied ourselves with throwing the life preserver out, and we wonder why nobody takes hold of it. We have not yet brought them to the point of recognizing their peril! What reason have they to look for safety if they think themselves safe?
But, one who knows he is drowning, now that’s a different story! Now, he’ll gladly grasp at any hint of aid. We must be swift to get the one thing to him that can truly save him. There are others around who will throw him things that look like life preservers, but they are defective, and will fail him, leaving him further from help, and drowning nonetheless. For the moment, we have before us a heart prepared for the Gospel, and shame on us if we don’t shout out to this drowning man, “Wait! There’s great Good News! Your crimes, all of them, One has come and paid your debt! You don’t have to die, He already did!” It’s the same cry that the father shouts to his wayward son, “All is forgiven, come home.” This is the thing that causes the baptized to rise up again from the waters! Drowned by their own sins, they have found Salvation!
Forgiveness is there. It is always there. But, until we know our real condition, our sinfulness and the hopelessness that comes of it, we will never seek the forgiveness that is ours for the asking. This baptism, the baptism of repentance, requires us to recognize ourselves, and requires us to recognize God. In both cases, we must recognize the reality, we must cut through our preconceptions, our misconceptions, and our outright delusions. Somewhere along the way, we must let go the idea that we have of ourselves as basically good people. We might, perhaps, be better than some of those around us, but good? No. There is only One good, and he’s not impressed by our marginally better than the worst status.
Repentance Prepares (12/5/04)
John’s ministry was that of the forerunner. He was charged with preparing the way of the Lord. The baptism of repentance was precisely the preparation God called for, and still is. Consider the prophecy which announced John’s purpose. “Fill up the ravines, level the mountains, straighten the highway, and make it smooth.” The ravine of unbelief is deep indeed. It requires a lot of filling before an atheist can be made an agnostic, let alone a believer. The mountains of sin that we have piled up in our lives will require great effort to level out. The thing is, God being God of Truth cannot go around our obstacles, cannot ignore the mountains of sin that we have piled up in His way. It may seem that way to us, but that is not the reality of the thing. He does not ignore our sins, He deals with them.
That is what repentance is all about. It is God beginning to deal with our sins. The very drowning sensation we feel when we come to recognize our standing before a holy God is the effect of the valleys of unbelief being filled in. It’s not water we’re drowning under, but dirt; the dirt of our own inevitable graves, if nothing more is done. For many, that’s going to be the end of it. The realization will come, but it will come too late. Every knee will bow, at the end of days. Every tongue will confess the truth that God alone is God. Every mind will be forced to the recognition that He is holy and we are sinful. The valleys will be filled in, and those caught in the valleys, like those caught in the flood, will perish from the land.
That drowning sensation is what pushes us to repentance. I really like what the ISBE says about John and repentance: “To John repentance was a very real and radical thing.” It was a very real thing. Repentance is always a very real thing. It’s not a matter of some momentary regret. It’s not the apology that finds its root in our having been found out. That’s not repentance, that’s just a child’s ploy for getting out of the consequences. Repentance recognizes that there is no way out of the consequences. We are guilty beyond all doubt, and have reached the place where we understand that the death sentence we are under is wholly just and wholly settled. Repentance isn’t so much concerned, then, with avoiding what can’t be avoided. Repentance looks forward. It’s a very real reaction to having seen who we are and not liking what we’ve seen.
So long as we thought we were good people, we felt no particular pressure to change our ways. That illusion has been shattered. Some will see the reality and then seek any way they can to return to their illusions. Others, by the grace of God, will burn with the desire to change, will pursue every possible means of changing. We must be clear on this: repentance does not really change our situation. Repentance will not, by itself, save us from condemnation. Repentance cannot level out those mountains of sin, but it brings to the scene the One who can.
Repentance is also a radical thing. How can it not be? It’s a complete change of thought process now that we have new and better information. Our whole life was spent pursuing a course based on the misinformation of a deluded mind. The mind has been cured of its delusions, for it has come face to face with holiness, discovered what good really is, and been forced to confess that what it thought was good was vile in the utmost. The mind still wants to chart a course for good. It is inherent in the mind to desire what is good. Darwin would perhaps see this as a case of survival of the fittest. One might even say he was right in that. However, what defines fitness in this case is the accuracy of one’s definition of good. The worst of criminals is still pursuing what seems good to him. The problem is not in his mind’s ability to chart the course, it’s that his definition of good is entirely incorrect, and the course towards the wrong goal is bound to lead the wrong way.
When the mind is suddenly made aware of this erroneous data, it’s going to shift in a radical way. The same worst criminal that was cheerfully pursuing his evil course, when he is brought to recognition that his course leads only to death and eternal condemnation will no longer pursue that course. No man willingly and knowingly pursues what is in his own worst interest. He may be deluded into doing so. He may be coerced into doing so, but he cannot and will not do so freely and well-informed.
If, having come to this faith in Christ, we continue on our previous path, we have not come to faith. If we think that we can believe in Jesus and continue living as we always have, we are dead men, and believe nothing. We may be attending church on a regular basis. We might even be serving in the church, may even stand in the pulpit. But, if we have never come face to face with our sinfulness and His holiness, if we have never experienced the radical reality of repentance, we have not yet become citizens of the heavenly kingdom. At best, we are living in our own delusions. At worst, we know our own charlatanry.
How can I say this? There was a time when I sat in the pews faithfully at every service, and didn’t believe a word of what was said and done in the church. I wasn’t there out of any desire for God, I was there to appease somebody important to me. I was there for social acceptance. To the eyes of many in that church, I was one of their number, but it wasn’t true. I was in a position of unbelief. I was somewhere between atheism and agnosticism, and frankly, the whole church thing didn’t matter that much to me. A few hours a week was a small price to pay to keep the peace, you see. Even in a charismatic church, although one might have to behave a bit more foolishly at times, it’s an easy enough charade to keep up. See, I had the religion, the ceremonies, and the trappings, but I hadn’t yet been baptized in repentance.
Looking back, I think I kept this up for a year or so before things changed, and though the hand of man was involved in that change, it was no man’s doing. God left me no choice but to believe Him. He spoke into the mind of this unbeliever, and He arranged a series of events that left no room for doubt. It would take somewhat longer before He brought me face to face with holiness. Weird, isn’t it? Belief preceding repentance. Yet, it was repentance that prepared the way. Without repentance, it is impossible that we should come to real, radical faith in Christ. How shall we hunger for Salvation if we don’t feel a need for being saved?
It’s an amazing mystery, this Christian faith! Repentance prepares the way for Christ to work in us, yet without the work of God upon us, we’ll never come to repentance. Truly, the faith that saves us is none of our own, but solely the grace of God towards us (Eph 2:8). Truly, it is all His doing, and yet we are called to active participation. We are called, in our own lives, to prepare His way by our radical repentance. He has given us to understand, and it is He who is at work in us both to will and to do what repentance demands (Php 2:13). So, at one and the same time, I must lean wholly upon my God, and I must also give every ounce of my own effort to the labor of preparing His way.
This is true on the personal level, but it is also true on the ministry level. John wasn’t called to lead only himself to repentance. He was called to call others. The disciples weren’t done when they came to faith in Christ. They were sent out to call others. That’s the greater significance of the call to prepare His way. Yes, we must first prepare Him a smooth highway through our own heart, but we are given a mission to extend that highway through those we know. Repentance alone can prepare that highway. It’s true for us, it’s true for those we present the Gospel to. If we have not first prepared the way with the baptism of repentance, the Gospel will not be seen as the great Good News that it is. It will be taken as just one more set of myths from the dusty past, and it will be rejected on the grounds of superior knowledge. Those grounds may be a delusion, but until our audience is delivered of that delusion, all we have to offer them is entertainment.
Keeping Ministry in Perspective (12/6/04)
What has so many ministries off course is that they’ve become all about preserving themselves, growing their numbers, increasing their take. But, the ministry itself is not what matters. What matters is the message. What matters is the God who speaks the message. John put no stock in his own ministry. He had no interest in developing a base of followers, of establishing himself as somebody great in Israel. He cared about speaking what God gave him to speak. He cared about being prepared for the One he was sent to announce.
You’ll find that same focus in all the prophets. They weren’t looking for popularity. They weren’t ‘seeker friendly.’ They just spoke fearlessly the message God gave them. It might not be pretty. It might not be welcome. But, it was always the word of God, and because it was His word, it was powerful. There is not one amongst the prophets that you will find thinking it was anything about himself that provided the power. Always, the power was God’s. The importance of their ministry was not the ministry, but the message.
Indeed, several of the older prophets speak directly of John’s ministry, and if we consider their prophecies, we’ll find that John was not the point, God was. John was not the power, God was. Consider those prophecies that are noted in parallel to the current account. Zechariah had declared a day when fountains would be opened for Israel, fountains whose purpose was to wash away the sin and impurity (Zech 13:1). Notice that Israel would not be establishing these fountains for herself. They would be established by Another on Israel’s behalf. Ezekiel looked upon God’s chosen people, and spoke God’s word to them. “I will clean you from the filthiness of your many idolatries. Then, when I have cleansed you, I will do heart surgery on you, give you a heart of flesh to replace that calcified rock of a heart you have now” (Eze 36:25-26). Jeremiah also joins the chorus speaking of the day that was unfolding in Israel as John picked up the message. “I will cleanse Israel from her sins against Me. I will pardon all her sins, and all the transgressions committed against Me and My Law” (Jer 33:8).
That promised cleansing was exactly what was occurring in John’s ministry, and who was doing it? It was not John who cleansed. He might declare the word, he might lower his hearers into the river and lift them out again, but it was not he who made them clean. It was God and God alone. John knew it. I will point out yet again that every real revival has shared John’s ministry. Every real revival has known that itself powerless, and God powerful. Every real revival has preached the God that is, declared Him in such a way that the coarsest unbeliever could no longer fail to believe He is. Every real revival has shown man to himself, made his sinfulness inescapably plain, and God’s holiness inescapably near at hand. “Behold! The kingdom of God draws nigh.” He who can tolerate no sin in His presence is coming, and you are far from ready! The importance of ministry is that one message: God is holy, you are sinful. There is only one hope by which you can survive the encounter that is to come.
The Boundary Line of Ministry (12/6/04)
History is clear, in fact the history contained in the Gospels themselves is clear. Others had come, seeking to take upon themselves the Messianic role. It still happens today as it did then, and it happens with predictable results for those pretenders, and for those fooled into following them. These are ministers with no end but their own glory. They claim great concern for God’s kingdom, yet it is their own kingdom they are working for. God is but a tool by which they seek to build their house of fame. Such constructions never stand long, and when they fall, their destruction is great.
Let us suppose, for a moment, a motive more pure for these imposters. Perhaps they really did have God’s kingdom at heart, but were unsatisfied with His schedule. Perhaps there were some among them who really did think they had His call upon their lives to do as they did. I find it doubtful, but perhaps it is true. Still, whatever their reasons for acting as God’s anointed, they could not possibly fulfill the vision God had cast. When God casts the vision, only those He has chosen can bring the vision to pass. Think about how long John’s ministry had been announced. Ezekiel and Jeremiah had been around to see the fall of Jerusalem back some 600 years prior to John’s first day of ministry. Six hundred years! How many do you suppose had tried to speed up the course of history a bit in those six hundred years?
How many have we read of, even in recent history, who are hard at work trying to speed up God’s timetable for the full establishment of His kingdom on earth? What is all the hype around rebuilding the Temple but an attempt to manipulate God’s schedule? How many false messiahs have come on the scene in the last few decades, and how many have they led to eternal damnation by their foolishness? Too many.
I tell you, though, that the danger posed by these anointed ones devoid of anointing is far greater than that. It is the same danger that led Israel to reject her King when He stood in her midst. So many became so good at rejecting the false claimants that when the real King came, they rejected Him out of hand. They moved from discernment to reaction. The first few, they considered wisely and recognized the absence of God’s power. With repeated discernment, though, they grew complacent. They reached a point where every claimant to the title was presumed false, and no further notice was given him.
The same thing plays out today. So many imitations of the miraculous have come that the majority of people simply declare anything that claims to be miracle a lie. Entire denominations have become so ‘rational’ that they can no longer even accept the miraculous in the Bible itself. It must be either a primitive misunderstanding of natural causes, or worse still, an error in inerrant Scripture. Oddly, all thought that maybe man is wrong and God is right has disappeared. These same churches seek to modify God’s plan and purpose by effecting social change. They establish programs. They modify their dogma to attract the outcasts of society. They pick and choose the part of Jesus they wish to emulate, and ignore whatever will not fit with their social agenda. In this, they have lost every shred of God’s power in their ministry, and thereby doomed their ministry to failure.
I am put to mind of the debate raging over an add placed by what was once a powerful denomination. That denomination, sadly, has gone so far off course as to be irrelevant now. They speak of a Jesus who would never reject any soul that came to Him, and in this, they find justification for accepting homosexuals into their ranks, for accepting whatever sin has become fashionable into their ranks. What they claim of our Savior is true enough. There was never a man so sinful that He would not welcome that one. But, His welcome was not a welcoming nod and a wink. He was never one willing to leave the sick unchanged. No, He is the great Physician. Of course He welcomes His patients. Our sin-sick condition is not going to put Him off, when we call on Him for healing. But, what physician would we say is good at his trade, if he simply welcomed the sick into his office, and then told them they were fine as they are. Who amongst us would go to a doctor who left us suffering from a mortal illness, all the while telling us we were fine?
These ‘open’ churches, so seeker friendly that they no longer offer anything worth seeking, are as guilty as any false messiah. They are as dangerous, if not moreso, than the Jim Joneses and the Koreshes that have played that game. They are more dangerous because they are not so obviously false, and they condemn more to a death slower, perhaps, in coming, but no less lethal for that.
The Ministry Call (12/6/04)
The message of the true Church has not changed. It is the exact same message John preached. “Repent, for the kingdom is come.” Look at the record of the Gospel. Jesus, having submitted to the baptism of repentance Himself, began His ministry with the very same message. “Repent, for the kingdom is come” (Mt 4:17). Later, when He sent His disciples out on their first mission, the message was still the same. “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 10:7). The fullness of time was come. The kingdom was being established from that very day. That was the Good News (Mk 1:15). The bad news was, as it always is, that we were not ready. That is the call to repentance. The kingdom is here, and you are by no means presentable. How, then, shall you stand before the King? There is a way – One way. There is One name by which you might be saved, cleansed of your sins, clothed in righteousness, and presented as a gift to bring the Father joy. There is one message given to man to declare, and that is it. “Repent, for the kingdom is come.” As we go forth and make disciples of all the nations, this is the only message that matters. The Good News of the Gospel cannot be received as good news, until that baptism of repentance has been experienced. Let us, then, be faithful to His message.
