Grace For The Journey

The Bible says in Luke 15:20, “While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”

Most of us are familiar with this parable.  After having spent all of his inheritance on riotous living, the Prodigal Son was left with nothing but the memory of what he once had: a roof over his head . . . food to eat . . . a bed to sleep in.  Most importantly . . .

He had a father who loved him with all of his heart.

But he had turned his back on all that and set off to a distant country.  It did not go well for him there.  Now, sensing his overwhelming need, he imagined what it would be like to be back home, even if only as a servant rather than a son.  And so, with a heart filled with a godly sorrow for the way he had spurned his father, the Prodigal set out for home.  No doubt he was feeling some trepidation; when he had asked for his inheritance while his father was still alive, he was essentially saying, “I wish you were dead now!”

Take a second look at today’s verse; you will see that the father saw the son “while he was still a long way off.”  Do you see what that presupposes?  The father was looking for and longing after the return of his son.  Each day the father looked off into the distance, hoping that this might be the day when his son would return home.  Finally, that day arrived, and the father could not even wait for the son to walk up to the front door.  Filled with compassion, the father ran out to meet him.  Now, in the patriarchal culture of Jesus’ day, fathers just did not do this sort of thing!  It would be considered undignified and embarrassing.

As the father was running toward the son, you can be sure that the son’s anxiety was accelerating.  What kind of greeting was he about to receive?  Would his father scold him for his utterly foolish behavior?  He certainly deserved that.  Would his father rebuke him for his harsh, unfeeling words when they had last been together?  He certainly deserved that as well.  The son knew he had that coming – he deserved a good tongue-lashing!

But this was his great fear:

Would his father disown him

And order him to turn around

And leave at once?

The Prodigal had already rehearsed his apology: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men” (Luke 15:18-19).

But because the father in the story

Represents God our Father,

He did the one thing that

The Prodigal hadn’t expected –

What he hadn’t dared even to hope for.

The father threw his arms around his son and kissed him!  The son began to confess his sin, but his father interrupted him: “The father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him.  Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  Bring the fattened calf and kill it.  Let’s have a feast and celebrate.  For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” (Luke 15:22-24)

In other words . . .

The son would be received back

In the same capacity

In which he left –

As his father’s son!

This is what I call

The “Prodigal Promise.”

We are all prodigal children who wander away from our Father more often than we would like to admit.  We turn away from our Father’s plan and purpose for our lives, determined to blaze our own trail.  Perhaps it may seem like we made the right decision for a while.  But before long, we find ourselves in the same sorry circumstances as the Prodigal: empty, unfulfilled, and desperate.

There is only one thing left to do at this point:

Return to our Father.

That’s right;

No matter what we have done

Or failed to do,

The Prodigal Promise is offered

To all who will simply

Return to the Father.

(1 John 1:9)

How is it with you today?  Do you feel like a prodigal son or daughter?  Have you wandered away from your Father in heaven?  Fear not!  Your heavenly Father is waiting and watching for your return.  And please remember this: your Father will not wait for you to get all the way home.

The Bible says in James 4:8,10, “Come near to God, and He will come near to you . . . Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.”  While you are still a long way off, your God will come running with open arms and nail-scarred hands.  Your final steps toward home will find His kiss still warm upon your cheek.

Now that’s a homecoming worth coming home to!

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth! 

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

 

 

Grace For The Journey

The Bible says in Psalm 62:5,

“My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.”

One of the common denominators that comes up in many pastoral counseling sessions is “unmet” expectations.  The primary reason for this is due to the fact that . . .

We tend to put our expectations

Upon someone other than God.

Let me make something perfectly clear right up front:

No one other than God Omnipotent

Can bear the weight of our expectations.

Oh, the world will make multiplied promises,

But they simply cannot produce.

David knew this truth and centered his expectations on the Eternal One.

When our expectation is from Him,

We are never left with an unmet expectation.

 When we set our desires on nothing less

Than God’s perfect will in our imperfect lives,

Our expectations will not only be met,

They will be abundantly exceeded.

Jesus never had an unmet expectation because every moment of His life was spent in the eager expectation of the Father’s perfect will.  His life of prayer and constant communion with His Father caused Jesus to seek and savor God’s eternal plan for His life, which met His every expectation.

Here is the key

To unlocking the door

Leading to never having

Another unmet expectation.

It is not in lowering your expectations;

Rather,

It is in raising your expectation to God.

God has promised to meet your every need, but not your every want.  To be sure, God meets many of our wants along the way, but the promise is for our needs: The Bible says in Philippians 4:19, “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

God has never broken that promise

To anyone at any time.

He hears our prayers and answers them according to His plan and purpose for our lives.  As I often remind the members of the congregation God has blessed me to pastor, sometimes God says “Yes,” and our expectation has been met; sometimes God says “Wait,” and our expectation has been met; and sometimes God says “No,” and our expectation has been met.

How can it be that our expectation is met

When God’s answer is “Wait” or “No”?

Because when our expectation is from God,

We receive His response with joy and gladness,

Whatever it is, because we trust that

Our God always works in our lives

For our ultimate good.

Where does this find you today?  Have you been dealing with some unmet expectations?  If so, then you can be sure your expectation is not from Him.  You have put your expectation in something others than God, and it simply cannot support the weight of your expectations.

When your expectations are from Him, they will never go unmet.  That is true not only in this life, but in the next life also.  Heavenly glory awaits you and the joyful expectation of hearing the words, “Well done.”  If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, your room has already been prepared, but the door has not yet been opened for you to enter . . . which means that God still has work for you to do here!  So, do that work for His glory, and you can be assured that your expectations will be abundantly exceeded.

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

 

Grace For The Journey

I don’t know about where you live but here in Missouri we are getting more than our share of rain.  For the second time already this spring we have flood warnings.  There has been much flood damage already.  What we are getting now will make it much worse.  Continual rain for several days is not a good thing.  However, that is not the case in our spiritual life.    The Bible mentions God using a constant supply of water that is beneficial to our spiritual lives.  The Bible says in Ezekiel 36:25, “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and rom all your idols.”

Oh, what a word of encouragement this is for us today!  The Lord, who shed His blood on Calvary’s hill to pay the penalty for all our sins and bring us into the family of faith, has promised us the supernatural cleansing of the Holy Spirit.  Notice these words from today’s text: “and you will be clean.”  The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 1:20 that all of the promises of God are “Yes” and “Amen” in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20).  The promise in this passage ought to be like a cosmic cheer and encourage us to keep fighting the good fight of faith.

However . . .

I am convinced that this truth

Will cheer us only to the extent

That we understand

Just how unclean we truly are.

If we, like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, believe ourselves to be already clean and thank God that we are not like other men (Luke 18:11), this promise won’t mean all that much to us.  On the other hand, if we are like that tax collector who cried out, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner” (Luke 18:13), we will be supernaturally strengthened and encouraged to press on toward the goal.

Only the dirty can fully

Grasp and appreciate

What it means

To be truly clean.

Look at just how great this promise is.  God will cleanse us from all our impurities.  He will clean up our language; He will sanctify our desires; He will purify our thought life. But that’s not all!  God also promises to cleanse us from all our idols.  And who of you reading this right now can count the number of idols to which you have bent the knee and bowed your heart?

Perhaps you’re thinking, “Idols? What idols? I don’t bow down to some sacred cow or golden calf!”  No, in this culture we are far too sophisticated for that.  Instead, we bow to

• The approval and applause of others,
• The achievements we produce, and
• The assets we possess.

We make idols of our work, our families, our relationships, even our hobbies and recreations.  But the Bible tells us that God will send His Spirit to make us clean from our sins . . . and our idol worship too.

So regardless of where this finds you today, please be encouraged!

God has promised a supernatural showers

That will one day bring to completion

The work He has begun in you.

Until that day, keep looking to Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of your faith, knowing that He who has promised to cleanse you will not fail, regardless of the uncleanliness that still remains (Philippians 1:6).

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Grace For The Journey

Thursday and Friday of last week we look at “The Life Christ Gives – A Changed life.”  We saw from Ephesians 4:20-21 that there are there is a four-fold process of the beginning, continuation, development, and demonstration of this life that God gives us in Christ.  Paul’s point in these verses is that the changed life stems from the transformation that God works in us through the gospel.  When we meet Jesus Christ personally through faith, we are changed people!  Yesterday we began to look at what exactly are the changes are that Christ brings into our lives.   We will looked at Ephesians (4:22-24) to learn about three of these changes.

The changed life begins by coming to know Christ personally. It requires: (1) putting off the old life of corruption and deceit, (2) being renewed in the spirit of our minds, and finally,

(3) The changed life requires putting on the new man (4:24).

Again, I believe that the sense is that we did put on this new man once and for all at the point of conversion, but we must continue putting on this new man every day by making true in our experience what is actually true of us positionally.  In other words, we must live by applying the truth of the new man in every situation that we face.  Paul will make this very specific in 4:25-6:9 (i.e. When you face the temptation to lie (the old man’s way of acting), instead you speak the truth (4:25).

Note several things about this new man. First, while Paul is applying it individually here, it also has a corporate aspect.   He used the phrase, “new man,” in 2:15 to describe the church as the new creation of Jew and Gentile in Christ.  Whereas the old man lived for self, the new man considers others ahead of self.  Whereas the old man was full of racial prejudice and pride, the new man erases those distinctions and views others in the body equally as brothers in Christ.  This corporate aspect of the new man implies that if you are not involved with a local church, where you are being built together with other believers, then you do not understand a major part of the new way in which you are supposed to live.

Second, God is the creator of this new man.  The Bible says in Ephesians 2:10, “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  This shows that the changed life of the believer is not something that we must conjure up by our own will power.  God created us anew in Him.  But, at the same time, we must walk in the good works that He has prepared for us.

Third, God is the pattern of this new man.  It has been created (literally) “according to God,” or, as Specifically, Paul mentions “righteousness and holiness of the truth.”  (Righteousness and holiness are aspects of God’s character in Deuteronomy 32:4 and Psalm 144:17.  See, also, Luke 1:75; 1 Thessalonians 2:10; Titus 1:8.)  These qualities are essentially synonymous, but righteousness refers to living according to God’s standards, whereas holiness has the idea of essential purity.  Both qualities are the result of the truth, namely, the truth as it is in Jesus.  In other words, the truth of sound doctrine results in holy living.

Conclusion

We don’t all have a dramatic conversion, as the apostle Paul did.  Many of us that were raised in Christian homes may not know exactly when we came to faith in Christ.  But no matter what our experience of conversion, we ought to know that God has changed our hearts.

• Formerly, we did not know Christ, but now we do, however imperfectly.
• Formerly, even if we maintained an outward veneer of virtue, we lived for self. Now, we live for Christ, to know Him, and serve Him.
• Formerly, we were being corrupted by the evil desires of sin that deceived us into thinking that they would bring fulfillment. Now, we are new creatures in Christ, living for righteousness and holiness, which come from the truth that is in Jesus.

While it is a lifelong process of renewal, you should be able to see the distinct difference between the old person that you were and the new person that you now are in Christ.  You should be able to relate to the old Black preacher who said, “I ain’t what I want to be and I ain’t what I’m gonna be, but praise God, I ain’t what I used to be!”

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

 

Grace For The Journey

Thursday and Friday of last week we look at “The Life Christ Gives – A Changed life.”  We saw from Ephesians 4:20-21 that there are there is a four-fold process of the beginning, continuation, development, and demonstration of this life that God gives us in Christ.  Paul’s point in these verses is that the changed life stems from the transformation that God works in us through the gospel.  When we meet Jesus Christ personally through faith, we are changed people!  Today and tomorrow we will look at what exactly are the changes are that Christ brings into our lives.   We will look at Ephesians (4:22-24) to learn about these changes.

In this passage, Paul explains these changes with three infinitives (in Greek): “lay aside;” “be renewed;” and, “put on.”  There are different opinions about how these infinitives function.  In my opinion, the best view is that the infinitives explain the changes that took place when we trusted in Christ, but they also have the force of ongoing commands.  At the moment we trusted Christ, we did in fact lay aside the old life and put on the new life.  We began the process of inner renewal.  But, day by day we must continue to put off the dirty old life and put on the new life in Christ, as we are renewed in the spirit of our mind.

In other words, we must live daily in light of the truth of what God says we now are.  We are new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).  We are to live each day in light of that truth by decisively putting off the old life, being renewed in our mind, and putting on the new life.  Let’s look at each of these:

(1) The changed life requires putting off the old man (4:22).

Paul’s phrase is literally, “the old man.”  He identifies this as being “in reference to your former manner of life.”  So, the old man refers to all that we were before we were saved, when we were ruled by the evil desires and practices of our sinful nature (see 4:19; 2:3). Paul uses the same phrase in Romans 6:6, where he says, “our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.”  Romans 6 is really a longer exposition of what Paul says more succinctly here.

In Romans 6 (and in Colossians 3:9), Paul refers to the putting off of the old man as an accomplished fact.  When Christ died on the cross, we died with Him positionally.  When He was raised from the dead, we were raised up with Him.  We are to reckon these facts to be true in our daily practice, so that we will not yield to sin (Romans 611). Because in those passages Paul clearly states this putting off of the old life as a done deal, some argue that it is not something that we have to go on doing now.  They contend that it was a once and for all matter that happened at the cross.

But, although we died with Christ, in other places Paul commands us to put to death our members that are on the earth (Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5, literal translation).  Why do we need to put to death our members if we already died?

My understanding is that we must daily apply experientially the facts that are true of us positionally.  So, yes, at the moment we got saved, we put off the dirty clothes of the old life.  But, every day we must reckon that this is so by putting off everything associated with the old life and putting on the new life in Christ.

Martin Lloyd-Jones uses a helpful illustration. When Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, they were officially free from their many years of servitude, but some of them went on living as if they were still slaves. The President’s proclamation gave them legal standing as free citizens.  It was a done deal – they were no longer slaves.  But, out of habit and way of thinking, many of these poor people still lived like slaves.  So, they needed to live in accordance with the new facts.  When they were tempted to think like a slave, they needed to say, “No, the truth is I am now a free man!”  They needed to appropriate that truth into their daily experience.

Our old life involved a process of being corrupted by the lusts of deceit.  Sin deceives us into thinking that it will give us freedom and fulfillment, but it’s a lie.  Sin only defiles, enslaves, and ultimately destroys the person who is deceived by it.  When Christ saved us, He liberated us from bondage to sin.  We died to sin by virtue of His death on the cross.  We were raised to new life in Him.  Now, we must daily put off the dirty clothes of sin and put on the new clothes of righteousness and holiness in Him, because He freed us.  There is still in us a strong tug toward the old life, but we do not have to yield to it. The changed life involves putting off the old man.

(2) The changed life requires being renewed in the spirit of your mind (4:23).

“Be renewed” is a present passive infinitive, which means that it is an ongoing process that God performs in us as we cooperate with Him (see Philippians 2:12-13).  The renewing takes place “in the spirit of your mind.”  God does the renewing as we obey Him by saturating our minds with His transforming Word of truth.

God’s Spirit performs the work of renewal in us,

But we are responsible to use the means of renewal,

Namely, His Word, which renews our hearts

And thoughts as we submit to it.

Why does Paul here refer to “the spirit of your mind?”  Why not just, be renewed “in your mind” (as in Romans 12:2)?  Some interpret “spirit” as the Holy Spirit, but the phrase, “of your mind” doesn’t fit with this.  The Spirit isn’t a part of our minds.  Others take it as the human spirit, but Paul does not use “spirit” in that way anywhere else in Ephesians. Some think that “spirit” is in apposition to “mind,” so that it means, “the spirit, which is your mind.”  But, why would he say it that way?  Others take it to mean, “the attitude or disposition of your mind.”  Some say that it simply refers to your inner being.

Perhaps the best view is that it refers to the power and principle that regulates or controls the mind. In this sense, “the spirit of the world” (1 Corinthians 2:12) is the power and principle that controls the world, or makes it what it is.  Thus, the spirit of the mind is not just mental ability, “but the power that controls and directs the abilities.”  Paul means . . .

That our entire way of thinking

And what controls our thinking

Needs renewal.

We need to think in line

With God’s thoughts,

As revealed in His Word.

This means that true biblical change must not bypass the mind.  Sometimes, evangelists use emotional stories, music, or a dramatic setting and then appeal to people to make a decision for Jesus.  But they have bypassed the mind.  Such decisions, made on the basis of emotions, will not last.  God reasons with us through the truths of His Word (Isaiah 1:18).  The doctrines of Scripture make sense, because they are God’s truth.  When the Spirit of God opens a person’s mind to the truths revealed in the Word, the truth will result in changed emotions and changed wills.  Any change that bypasses the spirit of the mind will not last.

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Grace For The Journey

Yesterday, we began to look at what the Bible teaches in Ephesians 4:20-24 and how Christ changes our lives as a result of the Gospel.  In these verses Paul . . .

Gives us a brief sketch of the changed life

That every believer should be experiencing.

He’s saying . . .

The changed life stems from

The transformation that God works in us

Through the gospel as we put off the old life,

Are renewed in our minds,

And put on the new life in Christ.

We began by discussing Verses 20-21 that deal with (1) How Christ changes our life as a result of the Gospel (4:20-21).  We saw that . . .

The changed life begins when you learn Christ.

We saw that it is possible . . .

To know all of these facts

And more and yet not

To know Jesus Christ personally.

In John 17:3, Jesus prayed, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

The Christian life begins

When you receive

Eternal life from God

Through faith in Jesus Christ.

At that moment, you come to know Him personally.  That initial encounter with Christ is only the beginning of an eternal relationship with Him.  But . . .

If you have not entered into that personal relationship with Christ,

You are not a Christian in the true sense of the word.

You may be a theologian or a Bible scholar; but you are only like a historian who knows much about the President, but who has never met him or spent any time with him personally.

We also learn that . . .

The changed life continues when you hear Christ.

“If indeed” in Ephesians 4:21 does not express any doubt, but rather affirmation. Paul is saying, “I know that you have heard Him.”  Probably none of the Asian believers had heard Jesus in Palestine when He was on earth.  None of them had had a personal encounter with the risen Christ, as Paul did on the Damascus Road.  Rather, Paul means that when he and others had preached the gospel, these people had heard it as God speaking to them.  God opened their deaf ears so that they didn’t just listen to words, but they heard Jesus Christ calling them to Himself.

They heard

So as to obey

His call to faith

And repentance.

In today’s blog we will see two more ways Christ changes our lives as a result of the Gospel (Ephesians 4:20-21):

The changed life develops when you are taught in Christ.

The proper translation is not, “taught by Him, but rather, “taught in Him.”  The phrase “in Christ” sums up Paul’s view of what it means to be a Christian.  Paul wrote earlier in Ephesians chapter 1:

• The saints are “faithful in Christ Jesus” (1:1);
• We have received every spiritual blessing “in Christ” (1:3);
• God chose us “in Him” before the foundation of the world (1:4);
• “In Him” we have “redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses” (1:7);
• He made known to us the mystery of His will, which He purposed “in Him” (1:9);
• “In Him” we have obtained an inheritance (1:10-11).
• “In Him” we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise (1:13); and
• God’s surpassing power towards us was revealed “in Christ” when He raised Him from the dead (1:20).

These are just the references to being “in Christ” in chapter 1!  The blessings that are ours because we are “in Christ” keep piling up!

So, to be “taught in Him,” means “to be taught from the standpoint of this new relationship with Christ that entails this new position in Christ.”  Before, you stood outside, not understanding the things of God.  But now, because of God’s mercy and kindness toward you in Christ, you are “in Him” for time and eternity.

To be taught in Him

Is a lifelong process that

Begins at the moment of salvation,

But never ends.

Since Christ is the center of all of Scripture, to be taught in Him is to grow to know the glory of Christ in His person, His offices, and His work on our behalf.  Someday when we see Him as He is, we will be instantly changed to be like Him (1 John 3:2).  Meanwhile, we must engage in the process of being taught in Him.

The changed life is demonstrated when you know the truth that is in Jesus.

The phrase, “just as truth is in Jesus,” qualifies the preceding comments about learning Christ, hearing Him, and being taught in Him.  The reason that Christ is the focus of instruction is that He is the embodiment of truth (John 14:6).  The truth of salvation is only in Jesus Christ.  In Him, we learn . . .

• The truth about who we are,
• The truth about sin and righteousness,
• The truth about God’s purpose for why we are on this earth.
• The truth about how to love God and how to love one another.
• The truth about the coming judgment, and about heaven and hell.

All of the truth that we need for life

And godliness centers

In the person of Jesus Christ.

Note that Paul here makes a deliberate shift in how he refers to Christ.  In verse 20, he talks about learning Christ, but here he says that the truth is in Jesus.  This is the only time in Ephesians that he uses the name Jesus by itself.  Why did Paul not say, “just as the truth is in Christ?”

The name “Jesus” focuses on the historical person who was born of the virgin Mary, who worked as a carpenter, and who walked around Israel teaching and healing the sick.  He was crucified, raised bodily from the dead, seen by many of His disciples after the resurrection, and ascended bodily into heaven.  All of these historic facts lie behind the name, “Jesus.”

But, why does Paul want us to think of the truth that is in Jesus?  Because the Christian is not saved by a philosophy of redemption; he is saved by that historic Person, Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God! Some of the false cults talk about “the cosmic Christ,” or the “Christ principle within us all.”  But that is just metaphysical mumbo jumbo!  All of the world’s major religions are built around teachings and ideas.  But, in sharp contrast . . .

The truth of the gospel is rooted in history.

The Christian message is

The proclamation of certain facts

That happened in history

On the person of Jesus.

If the gospel accounts are fictional stories,

Then there is no salvation in Jesus!

If the historic person of Jesus did not die on the cross and rise bodily from the dead, as testified by many reliable eyewitnesses, then you are still in your sins (1 Corinthians 15:17).

Everything in the Christian faith

Rests on the truth being in

The historical person of Jesus,

Crucified and risen from the dead!

So, Paul’s point (in 4:20-21) is that the changed life stems from the transformation that God works in us through the gospel.  When we meet Jesus Christ personally through faith, we are changed people!

Monday and Tuesday we will look at what exactly are the changes are that Christ brings into our lives.   We will look at Ephesians (4:22-24) to learn about these changes.

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

 

 

Grace For The Journey

When it comes to the subject of changing our lives, we all feel the same as we feel about going to heaven: We’re all for it, but we’d rather not go through what you have to go through to get there!  The idea of change sounds good, but when it gets right down to it, we think, “You mean I actually have to live differently? No way!”

But the Christian life is

Fundamentally a changed life.

If you claim to believe in Christ, but are living just as you did before you believed in Him, you need to examine whether you truly believe in Him.  Becoming a Christian requires turning from your sin to God (repentance).  But repentance is not a one-time event.  It defines the lifestyle of a believer.  God changes us radically at the moment of salvation by imparting new life to us, but this is followed by a lifetime of changing into the image of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18).

In Ephesians 4:17-19, Paul paints a grim portrait of how unbelievers live.  While not all unbelievers are as bad as they possibly could be, they all live “in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart” (4:17b-18).

That bleak picture describes each of us

Before we met Jesus Christ.

But in Ephesians 4:20 Paul draws a sharp contrast: “But you did not learn Christ in this way.”

He gives us a brief sketch of the changed life

That every believer should be experiencing.

He’s saying . . .

The changed life stems from

The transformation that God works in us

Through the gospel as we put off the old life,

Are renewed in our minds,

And put on the new life in Christ.

Over the next four days we will learn (1) how Christ changes our life as a result of the Gospel (4:20-21) and (2) what those changes are that Christ brings into our lives (4:22-24).  Today we will consider . . .

1. How Christ changes our life as a result of the Gospel (4:20-21).

The changed life begins when we come to know Christ personally through faith and repentance (Philippians 3:9-10 – “That I may be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection …”).  Paul describes the changed life in four ways:

• The changed life begins when you learn Christ.

To “learn Christ” is an unusual phrase that occurs nowhere else in the Bible.  Paul does not say, “you did not learn about Christ,” but rather, “you did not learn Christ in this way.”  “This way” refers to the way of unbelievers that he has just described.

What does he mean, to “learn Christ?”  He is saying that to become a Christian is a matter of coming to know Christ personally.  Yes, you must know something about Who He is, as revealed in Scripture. The entire Bible testifies to the truth of Who Jesus is, that He is the Christ (Messiah, God’s anointed One), the Son of God.  He is the eternal God in human flesh.  You must also know something about the significance of what He did when He died on the cross as the substitute for sinners.  He satisfied God’s wrath toward our sin, so that we are free from condemnation when we trust in Christ to save us.

But it is possible . . .

To know all of these facts

And more and yet not

To know Jesus Christ personally.

In John 17:3, , Jesus prayed, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

The Christian life begins

When you receive

Eternal life from God

Through faith in Jesus Christ.

At that moment, you come to know Him personally.  That initial encounter with Christ is only the beginning of an eternal relationship with Him.  But . . .

If you have not entered into that personal relationship with Christ,

You are not a Christian in the true sense of the word.

You may be a theologian or a Bible scholar; but you are only like a historian who knows much about the President, but who has never met him or spent any time with him personally.

The changed life begins when you learn Christ.

• The changed life continues when you hear Christ.

“If indeed” in Ephesians 4:21 does not express any doubt, but rather affirmation. Paul is saying, “I know that you have heard Him.”  Probably none of the Asian believers had heard Jesus in Palestine when He was on earth.  None of them had had a personal encounter with the risen Christ, as Paul did on the Damascus Road.  Rather, Paul means that when he and others had preached the gospel, these people had heard it as God speaking to them.  God opened their deaf ears so that they didn’t just listen to words, but they heard Jesus Christ calling them to Himself.

They heard

So as to obey

His call to faith

And repentance.

In John 8:43, Jesus asks the Jews that were challenging Him, “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word.”  He goes on to identify the root problem, that they were of their father, the devil.  Satan had deafened their ears so that they could not hear Christ’s words of eternal life in order to believe and be saved.  The changed life begins when God opens your ears to hear Jesus Christ in the gospel and you respond with obedient faith.

Tomorrow we will look at two more ways Christ changes our lives as a result of the Gospel.

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

 

Grace For The Journey

  In an age of tolerance and compromise, the idea that there is only one way to do something is roundly rejected.  There are many voices today that disagree that Jesus is the only way to heaven.  Last year (Christian Today.com article, March, 2018), a mega-church pastor in New York City, “widely regarded as one of the most influential pastors in New York City,” made this statement in a sermon he preached, “There was a time when you would see people in the pulpit say, ‘Well, if you don’t believe in Jesus your going to Hell.’  That’s insanity in many ways because that is not what Jesus even believes.  And so, the key is you believe in God. And whatever your path is to God I celebrate that.  Personally, I celebrate that.”

According to this pastor, those words apply to anyone who believes in God, regardless of his or her faith background.  He explained that differences in faith have already created so many barriers between people, not only among Americans but those from other cultures as well.  He then reiterated that the focus should be on things that bring people together, not on those that create division.  The article stated that “the pastor’s words received applause from those who were listening to his sermon.”  Now that is alarming.  But it does not end there.  This pastor is also a Trustee on the Board of Directors of Chicago Theological Seminary.  The dean of that institution responded to reports about this pastor’s sermon by saying, “Institutionally, we do celebrate multiple paths to God and to God’s wisdom and truth and that’s what I understand also to be (his) position.”  

Today, declaring Jesus as the “Only Way” to God is considered narrow-minded, intolerant, inconsiderate, divisive, and now even insane.  So, it’s not surprising that the New Testament’s message of forgiveness through Jesus Christ alone is not received by many.

But we get another view when we take an honest look into the Bible.  A view from God Himself.  If anyone ought to know and be right about this issue, I think we would agree it certainly would be Him.

When we begin our search on what the Bible says about Jesus being the only way to God, we see discover that Jesus Himself said in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Jesus is saying there isn’t any other pathway

To the Father except through Him.

Peter confirmed that narrow point of view by saying there is salvation in no one else besides Jesus (Acts 4:12).

Peter, confirmed that narrow point of view when he says in Acts 4:12, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”  Peter is taking Jesus’s words and carrying them forward into the mission of the church by saying there isn’t any other name you can call upon in order to be saved.

Another amazing way Jesus addresses this is that He makes the embrace of Himself as the crucified and risen Messiah the litmus test of other religions.  If you are talking with somebody who has their set of religious beliefs and you want to test to see whether they have saving faith, put Jesus and His fullness on the table for them and see if they will embrace Him.  Jesus said in John 8:19, “You know neither Me nor My Father.  If you knew Me, you would know My Father also.”  In other words, knowing Jesus is the condition of truly knowing the Father, that is God, the creator of the world.

Jesus Himself is saying

There isn’t any other pathway

To the Father except through Him.

In John 5:23 Jesus said, “Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Me.”   Jesus makes Himself, the honoring of Himself, the litmus test of honoring the Father.  In John 6:45 Jesus says, “Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.”  If a person won’t come to Jesus as the Savior, as the One who died for sins, and as the One who rose from the dead, then Jesus says all their claims notwithstanding, they haven’t learned from the Father.

Let’s go to Paul in the New Testament.  One of the most amazing passages is Romans 5:12 and following.  There Paul sets up Adam as the head of the human race – all of us who have fallen and are under condemnation.  Christ is the second Adam – the head of a new humanity — so that in Christ we are now counted as righteous the way we were counted as sinners in Adam.

In Paul’s mind, the problem of the entire human race, every religion in the world, and every tribe and people in the world is the same: namely . . .

We are alienated from God in Adam.

Jesus comes into the world

As the answer to that problem.

So. Paul’s conception of the remedy from our human condition is Adam brought it into being and Christ is the only answer to it.

There isn’t another answer out there

Because

There isn’t another problem out there.

Paul’s conception of how to think about being remedied from our human condition is:

Adam brought it into being

And

Christ is the only answer to it.

Then Paul spells it out for church’s mission in Romans 10:14-15 where he says, ““How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?  And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard?  And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent?”  Then in Romans 10:17 he clarifies, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

I think that sequence is Paul’s decisive word about the church’s mission in regard to “are there other ways out there for people to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved?”

The Bible declares,

“No, there is one name; It is Jesus.

They have to hear about Him.  

In order to hear about Him,

There must be messengers

To share the gospel.”

That is the way faith is awakened.  And salvation comes through faith.

Finally, the writer of the letter to the Hebrews was not hesitant to make a “narrow” point about Jesus.  God led him to say in Hebrews 1:3, “When He (Jesus) had by Himself purged our sins, (He) sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

The writer of Hebrews

Spent the first ten chapters

Of his epistle

Pointing out that Jesus

Did what no one else

In Israel’s history

Had been able to do:

Provide salvation from sin,

Once and for all.

The writer is led by God to point out that Jesus was superior to the angels, to Moses, to the thousands of Aaronic priests, and to the sacrifices of those priests – “By Himself [Jesus] purged our sins [and] sat down at the right hand” of God – something no one else could have done.

If we honestly search the Scriptures regarding this issue our findings and final conclusion will be:

Yes, the Bible does present Jesus

As the One Way among all the religions of the world

Which is why there is such a weighty

Mandate on the church

To spread the gospel

To all the peoples of the world.

There is no salvation

Without knowing, embracing,

And believing Christ as the One

Who died for our sins and rose again.

Are you willing to embrace the Bible’s presentation of Jesus as the only Savior of the world?  It may not be popular, but it is true – Free justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

 

 

Grace For The Journey

  Last week in my blog, I looked at Acts 2:41-47 and presented five traits that determine if your church is truly Gospel-centered.  We certainly did not exhaust the truths found in those verses (i.e. we could have talked about the fact that the early church was committed to preach and teach the Word of God or that they were committed to worshiping the Lord in spirit and truth).  That will have to be left to another day.

There are encouraging signs today, amidst all the churches who are departing from the faith, that more and more churches are coming to better understand their biblical mission.  God is leading pastors to come to the realization that they are not preaching and teaching the gospel.  That seems like a strange statement – Christian churches that do not preach the gospel?   It might lead you to ask: “Are they teaching anti‐Christian doctrine?  Am I ranting against liberalism again?”  Often, it’s not that these churches have fallen into some gross heresy.  Most likely . . .

It’s just that over time,

They’ve let the gospel slip

In favor of another way

To try to draw people

And change people.

A few of the most prevalent things that can crowd out the gospel are:

Moralism – Using fear, rules, and commands as the basis for discouraging sin and

encouraging holy living.  This sadly results in increased pride and self‐righteousness among rule-keepers and absolute despair in those who are unable to live up.

Pragmatism – When, in an effort to reach new people, church leaders spend more time

teaching helpful techniques or useful how-to principles than actually pointing people to Bible truths, which is the only thing that has real power to change both hearts and lives.

Political agendas – Out of a desire to get involved in the public square and to influence policy, Christians of every political stripe often begin to equate the spread of the gospel with the growth of a specific political party or platform.

Social gospel – In the effort to “do what Jesus did” churches are getting in on meeting the social needs of people in their communities.  They major on meeting the physical, emotional, intellectual, and relational needs of others.  While this is an area that the Bible does that Christians will be concerned and involved with ministering to the poor and less fortunate in our society, the Social Gospel movement seeks to replace “gospel preaching/witnessing” with efforts to better the economic, moral, and social conditions of the poor.  The Social gospel movement teaches that “the duty of Christians is not a matter of getting individuals to heaven, but of transforming the life on earth into the harmony of heaven.”  The Social Gospel movement is driven by the belief that “the Second Coming of Christ could not happen until humanity rid itself of all social evils by human effort”. Followers applied Christian ethics to social justice issues, especially as it related to economic policy.

What’s tricky is that usually these “isms” start with a noble aspiration:

• A desire to help people change & grow,
• A desire to reach out to people far from God,
• A desire to use influence to change the way things are done.

Unfortunately, when something other than God is our primary goal, no matter how good that goal is, we will eventually start taking short cuts to get what we want accomplished.

A gospel‐centered church

Understands that change

Or transformation of any kind,

Especially authentic heart‐transformation,

Cannot happen apart from the gospel of grace

Which is proclaimed in the Word of God.

A gospel‐centered church roots and keeps the focus of all its activity – teaching, worship, outreach, social activism, and discipleship – honed in on the gospel:

The riches of the grace of God are available

Because of the sacrificial death of Jesus for sinners.

Because of this, a gospel‐centered church is committed to:

• Reading, teaching, and living by the entire Bible in light of the Gospel.
• Preaching the gospel to believers, not just unbelievers.
• Leaders applying the gospel to themselves first; church leaders are the first repenters.
• Cultivating a leadership and membership culture marked by ever increasing “gospel astonishment.”
• Being known for an atmosphere of grace; gospel‐centered churches are safe places for seekers, skeptics, and those outside of the faith – safe places where they are free and welcome to come and where they will hear “thus saith the Lord” regarding their lives.
• Producing people who don’t just know the doctrine of the gospel but who love the person of Jesus Christ.

These are the themes that we are committed to living together at First Baptist.  At the end of the day . . .

Grace isn’t just something we “get”

And the cross is not just some object in time.

These things hinge on a Person.

At the center of it all is a Person – Jesus.

In an age when His name is easily tossed around or relegated to some minor point of

doctrine used to win arguments and manipulate people, we long for the day when Jesus is seen for what He is: the glorious God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sovereign of the Bible!

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Grace For The Journey

 

Yesterday I wrote about a subtle, destructive, and unbiblical mindset that is rapidly gaining ground in many churches.  This popular movement has taken place in evangelical circles which has impacted the understanding of the words “gospel” and “gospel ministry.”

Couched in appealing language and ambiguous slogans, it finds kindling in a new generation steeped in a popular liberal mindset and ungrounded in sound Bible theology.  It is gathering droves of Christians who see it as a balanced approach to ministry.

In past years, it was called “the social gospel.”  Today, those who label this wildfire by that term, risk being viewed as unprogressive, compassionless, or throwbacks to an epoch of fundamentalist isolationism.  There is a version of the social gospel that is being revived today under the guise with new emphases on “mercy ministry” and “social justice.”

This new form of social ministry transcends any call to more involvement with the needs of society.  It is a theological system of its own, a worldview that defines the mission of the church, the kingdom of God, Christian living, and even the content of the word “gospel” itself.

Mercy ministry is plainly taught in the Bible as a gift and work of the Spirit and a necessary outworking of local church life.  Zealous efforts to help the poor are wonderful.  However, when such enthusiasm impinges on the meaning of the gospel or the mission of the church, we have a reason to become alarmed.

I want to share three fallacies that are the reasons for this grave concern:

Baptist theologian Walter Rauschenbusch famously preached these points in Christian opposition to the evils of capitalism and big business.  He firmly believed the Gospel promoted a form of Christian socialism that is somewhat reminiscent in some Emerging Church circles today.  In the early 20^th century, the Social Gospel movement was driven by the belief that the Second Coming of Christ could not happen until humanity rid itself of all social evils by human effort.  Followers applied Christian ethics to social justice issues, especially as it related to social economic policy.

Similar to the way Marxism twisted Scripture, the Social Gospel Movement was guilty of three major theological fallacies:

1) Man Is Not So Bad, And God Is Not So Mad.

In his book, The Kingdom of God in America, H. Richard Niebuhr criticized the liberal Social Gospel movement and described its message as, “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”

Rauschenbusch and his followers tended to blame sin on societal structures rather than human nature.  According to Kyle Potter in a Georgetown College article, they believed individuals “could not leave a life of sin until they were freed from the social and economic situation that drove them into sin in the first place.”  This view plainly contradicts the Biblical concept of original sin and the need for a Savior.

2)  Cultural Restoration Is The Gospel.

Social Gospel adherents seem to believe the Gospel is centered on cultural involvement: if people transformed culture, only then would Christ be revealed.  But this understanding of the Gospel is too narrow.

Christians are absolutely called to engage culture – that is the heart of the stewardship principle in life and over creation – but the Gospel is larger than that.  It is the story of God’s creation, the Fall, redemption, and the final restoration.  Rauschenbusch seemed to over-emphasize cultural restoration and minimize Christ as the agent of cultural transformation.

3) Social Salvation Is Superior To Individual Salvation.

Conservative theologians see redemption as a matter strictly between each individual and God; but progressives in the Social Gospel Movement, “hold that redemption could only be achieved collectively, by means of unified, social, and political activism.”

Though Rauschenbusch saw individual salvation as important, he always considered it secondary to social reform.  In a recent interview with Gospel Coalition, Tim Keller rejects this notion: “…individual salvation needs to be kept central.”

Though the Social Gospel movement has since fizzled, similar theology has appeared in Emerging Church circles today.   One well-known southern California pastor referred

to the Social Gospel, which is supported by many of the mainline churches, as “Marxism in Christian clothing.”  But this same pastor points out we, “shouldn’t choose between cultural restoration and personal salvation. The Gospel contains both with Christ at the center.”

So What Does It All Mean?

As we work towards developing a biblical perspective on social ministry, it’s important to keep in mind the above fallacies of the Social Gospel movement.  As we labor on behalf of the Kingdom, it’s easy for Social Gospel ideas to shape how we think about certain aspects of faith and ministry:

• Like the Social Gospel, it’s easy to start treating cultural transformation as an end in and of itself.

• If cultural restoration becomes our gospel, we begin to think that the Kingdom is built by us.

Regarding cultural transformation, the Social Gospel rightly recognizes that it is important.  However, it’s not the end goal . . .

Everything we do,

All the transformation we work towards,

Should point to the glory of God.

In his post “Kingdom Work,” Hugh Whelchel makes this point by quoting Bill Edgar: “Our cultural involvements are the reflection of the deeper reality of our relationship with God.”  This more nuanced view of cultural transformation strikes a balance between outward work and inner salvation.

Another common yet subtle idea implied from Social Gospel teachings is that God’s Kingdom is built by us.  It’s not!

Every part of the Kingdom,

From its establishment

To its construction

And eventual consummation

Is carried out by Christ.

He uses us as His tools in this endeavor.  It’s a subtle distinction.

We aren’t building the Kingdom;

God is building it and using us.

Simply put, it is best explained this way: Through the person and work of Jesus Christ, God fully accomplishes salvation for us, rescuing us from judgment for sin into fellowship with Him, and then one day He will restore the creation in which we can enjoy our new life together with Him forever.

In order for us to have a correct, biblical perspective on social ministry . . .

We need to understand that

Christ drives the process,

On both the individual and societal levels.

He “accomplishes our salvation,”

And will one day restore His creation.

My concern is not that the church is not ministering to the poor nor seeking to be good stewards of God’s creation.  My concern is that we will do it for the wrong reason if we are not led by God’s Word.

 

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”