As we wrap our last day at Camp Wesley Pines, I want to share with you my last two Biblical and Star Wars comparisons. First, we’ll look at last nights, and then we’ll look at today’s. The Biblical character we … Continue reading
Sometimes in life, it’s easy to think that nothing good can come from someone. They have gone too far, they are beyond redemption, God can’t possibly use them, much less forgive them. When you think that way, listen to what … Continue reading
Barnabas is one of my favorite characters in the Bible. He’s one of the people in the Bible that is so very important, but we really don’t know a lot about him. But here’s the truth, without Barnabas we wouldn’t have … Continue reading
I talk a lot about grace. I believe that grace is really the underpinning of all that we do, all that we believe, all that we are as Christians. Grace really is everything. But where do I get this from? … Continue reading
When we think of great people in the Bible, we are all going to have our favorites. Characters that appeal to us, that speak to us, that mean something to us. Moses, Noah, David, Ruth, Ester, Mary, so many names of people that may speak to us.
But one of the names that is one many of our lists is Paul. Paul has a dramatic conversion story, travels the world preaching, and wrote many books that make up the New Testament.
Paul is one of the most important figures in the Bible and in world history. He was the first to take the Gospel into Europe. He started churches across the world. He brought the Good News to Gentiles. Through His love of devotion to Jesus, he literally changed the world. Look at what he says, though, in 1 Corinthians 2: 1-5, is important to him:
When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. 4 My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
Yesterday Erin Hicks, our Associate Pastor here at St. Matthew’s shared a quote from John Wesley that this passage reminded me of. Wesley said this -. “If we could once bring all our preachers, itinerant and local, uniformly to and steadily to insist on those two points, ‘Christ dying for us’ and ‘Christ reigning in us,’ we should shake the trembling gates of hell.” That is the truth of the Gospel. Jesus dying for us (and being raised for us) and reigning in us every day, through the power of the Holy Spirit. That is what truly counts, that is what is all about.
And that is what Paul preached over and over again. As he says in this text – I decided to know (or preach) nothing Jesus crucified.
Paul says, I didn’t worry about the mysteries or these lofty words. Jesus. Crucified. Resurrected. Returning. As we as part of our communion liturgy -as we proclaim the mystery of faith: Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.
And this mystery, it is a knowable mystery. We don’t “understand” it, who can really understand the power of resurrection and the cross. But we can know it. Because it is true. And this truth sets us free.
In other words, all of this is to say what matters most. Not mysteries that none but God truly know. Not opinions, no matter how well thought out. Not preferences or likes or dislikes. Not the worry and fears of this world. Paul didn’t focus on any this.
He focused on Jesus. He loves us. He died for us. He will return for us. That’s the truth of the Gospel.
The folks all around us, their need is not really the answers to all the mysteries of the world. Their need is Jesus. Christ, and Christ alone. That’s our hope, and the hope for the world.
Today, may we know Jesus, and Him crucified. And may we know that nothing compares to that.
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Today in Phillippians 3: 4-11, we see Paul talk about what really matters:
4even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Paul in this part of Phillippians is talking about how he (and we) have to trust more in the grace of Jesus than we should in our own works. He is talking to a group of Christians that are tempted to rely more upon their works and the law than they are on Jesus.
So, Paul lists off all the stuff that he has done. Stuff, that if you could earn your salvation by what you have done, would surely earn him a place in eternity. Look at what he has done. He was as righteous in the law. He had done all the “right” things. Paul was about as holy as one could be by the law.
And look at what he says – he considers that all rubbish when compared to knowing Jesus. He has found in Jesus a righteousness that he could have never found through the law. He discovered a salvation that doesn’t come from one’s works but comes only through the gift of God’s grace.
He wants to know Jesus. To know His life. His death. And His resurrection.
Paul found this. He found what really matters wasn’t what he had done. What really mattered was what Jesus had done. When compared to the goodness of God, the grace of God, the power of God, the life of God, the stuff of earth just can’t compare.
Paul learned grace. And here’s what’s cool about grace, especially in the world we live in. In this world of pressure and work and stress and results and performance reviews. Grace is not about you. It’s about Him. And we can rest in grace.
Rest. In grace.
Rest. In Jesus.
Rest. In His power.
You are loved. Not because of anything you’ve ever done. But because of all that He has done. Paul considered everything rubbish compared to knowing Jesus. He wasn’t saying that was bad. He was saying that Jesus was better.
Paul found what really matters.
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One my mentors said this once, and it’s always stuck with me. Jesus isn’t hard to understand, He’s just hard to follow. That’s one of those statements that’s alway just kind of hung there with me. Forgiving your enemies isn’t complicated. It’s just hard to do, and something we can’t do apart from Him.
The Gospel isn’t necessary complicated. It’s actually simple. Listen to what Paul writes today in 1 Corinthians 2: 1-2:
When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
When Paul comes to Corinth to preach, he says this – I will preach this simple message. Jesus loves and died for us so that we could be brought back home to God. He didn’t preach anything overly complicated or mysterious, just the simple word of God.
First, the Gospel at its core really is simple. We are all broke and in need of saving. God sent His son to die our sins and brokenness so that we could be saved. By accepting Him and following Him, we will know life now and life forever. We need Him, He came to us, He brings us to Himself.
We can debate lots of stuff about the Bible. Lot’s of stuff about faith. Lots of stuff about everything. But this core, simple message of our need for God and the efforts He went through to save us, that’s the very heart of the Gospel.
That’s the simple message that Paul preached.
And second, is this. It’s easy to worry about and fuss over the mysteries. We can debate them all day long. But here’s what I really believe. I believe that God is not as worried about what we don’t know, as He is worried about what we do know, and what we do about it.
Do we know all the mysteries? No. None of us do. But we do know this. We are called to love and to follow Jesus with all that we are. We are called to forgive. To serve. To be faithful. To show grace.
We don’t know the mysteries. But we do know these simple things.
Today, do we focus on what divides us the things that we don’t understand? Or do we focus on the simple truths of God and live into those?
Today, may we keep it simple.
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I am not writing a post about 50 Shades of Grey, seeing as how I haven’t actually read it and I’m probably not the target audience. I do my best not to comment on something unless I have some sense of actual familiarity with it. I don’t want my opinion on something to be based off what someone else said, I’d like actually to know what it says.
That said, I think the popularity of the book, as well as the forthcoming movie (especially, apparently in my home state), says something about the notion of sex in our culture, as well as in the church culture. It’s interesting; the 50 Shades of Grey movie has done something that I’ve not seen done in the life of the church in a long time. It has brought conservative/evangelicals together with liberal/progressives. Both sides are saying that this book/movie speaks to something deep in our culture.
The thing that I keep coming back into in my mind, however, is how 50 Shades of Grey, as well as other shifting mores on sexuality, stake their territory in the notion of empowering individuals. We can be told in this culture that it is up to us to make our decisions, claim our rights, and own our sexuality. (By the way, this notion is true not just of sex, but about anything that people desire). Who is society/the Church/anyone to tell me how I should live, what I should do? That is a form or repression or corrosion. We are called to be empowered to live as we want, to do as we want, and to claim the life that we want to live.
We should not be told how to live. We must live.
And that sounds tempting and good. It does sound empowering. It does sound like something that may be appealing.
But here’s the thing. I’ve been thinking about something I read about Dean Smith this week. Smith is the form coach at the Univeristy of North Carolina. He lived a truly amazing life, and he wasn’t just a coach. He was really a coach/philosopher/theologian. He said this in an interview.
“Years ago, Dr. Seymour gave a sermon that made so much sense to me. It was called The Paradox of Discipline, and I had it mimeographed. He made the point that the disciplined person is the one that’s truly free. The student who says, ‘I could make A’s if I tried,’ but who doesn’t have the discipline to sit down and do it, is the one who’s shackled. The disciplined student is free: He has the choice of making an A or D.”
I’ve been thinking about that in regards to 50 Shades of Grey, and really all forms of “self-empowerment.” We want freedom by claiming what we want. To deny yourself of a pleasure, or of anything, means that you aren’t able to fully be you. We want that empowerment.
And here’s the catch for Christians. We aren’t called to be empowered. We are called to be humbled. To be servants. To deny ourselves and take up our cross.
As Paul says of Jesus and how He lived in Philippians 2: 4-9:
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name
For us as believers, freedom or empowerment doesn’t come from our desires. It comes from discipline. Self-control. And that’s not something we just have. That’s only a fruit of the spirit. It’s a gift of grace. It’s an act of God.
And that only comes from, not seeking our will. But from seeking His. That only comes from submitting ourselves to Jesus.
The older I get, the more I come to believe that my only shot at freedom, at peace, a full life doesn’t come from me and my “stuff.” It comes from submitting myself to my Lord.
That’s so counterintuitive to this culture. But it is truth. There are many things I can’t speak to. I am a quickly graying soon to be middle-aged white male. I would be considered in our culture a conservative/evangelical. I get it. I’m not a prude; I just act like one.
So maybe I’m biased, maybe this is my perspective alone. But I know that freedom doesn’t come from me seeking what I want and what gives me pleasure, above all else. It comes from most often from denying those urges and doing the “right” thing. And then, freedom comes because I’m not controlled by those desires. As a believer, I would say that I’m controlled by the Holy Spirit.
Today, seek freedom. As Paul writes, it is for freedom you have been set free. But seek truth freedom. Not cultural freedom. Because to be free in Christ is to live. And honestly, is that what we all want?
I like things that are simple. The older I get, the more I really want things to be simple so that I can understand; see the big picture, a see what is really at the heart of the matter. Simplicity is a good, good thing.
We often look at the Bible, look at issues of faith, and think that they can be too confusing. They are too complicated. They can’t really be understood. And there are many, many things in the Bible, many things in faith that are hard to understand. One of the things that we can struggle the most to understand is this. What does it mean to be a Christian? What does the Christian life look like, what are we supposed to do as Christians.
Paul in the book of Galatians spends time going to the heart of the matter for the Christian faith. He really wants to simplify the understanding of what the Christin life should be. Look at what he writes today in Galatians 5: 13-14:
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Yep. That’s a good, simple word. He gets to the heart of what the Christian life should look like in regards to how we are to treat others. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. All the laws about how we are supposed to treat each other, all these things, they are simplified here.
Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
That’s it. That’s the heart of the law. That’s the heart of the faith. As Jesus reminded us, the greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all of our mind, our soul and strength, and love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
That’s the heart of what this whole Christianity thing is about. Love God. Love neighbor. That’s the Gospel, that’s the law, that’s the faith, simplified.
Today, don’t worry about the complicated things that you can’t understand. Focus on this. Love God. Love neighbor. The rest will take care of itself.
Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones, and you thought our app, you can now watch our worship services from Asbury too!
Ok, today’s reading is one of those passages that you need to get. Really, this is one of those readings that is just key. Understanding this is so important to your faith, to your life, to your view of God, your view of yourself, everything, everything, everything.
Listen to what it says in Ephesians 2: 8-10:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Dr. Barry Bryant was one of my main professors in seminary. And Dr. Bryant used to always tell us this – “You tell me what you think about grace, and I can tell you what you think about everything else.”
Grace is so key to faith. It is so key to understanding God, us, our calling, our salvation, our Christian walk. Everything.
Look at what it says today. We are saved by grace. Not by works. So no man can boast. We are not saved by anything that we can do.
Seriously. You need to understand that. You aren’t saved by your actions. You don’t have to “do” anything. “Doing” something isn’t the key, isn’t the point.
If there was something that you can “do” to save yourself, Jesus came for nothing. It’s all on Him. All on Him. All on Him.
Not your actions. Your faithfulness. None of this. It’s all grace.
We are saved by grace through faith. You have to understand that.
But then, look what it says. We are created for good works. Wait, what? We aren’t saved by works, yet, we are created for them?
Yep. You were created; you were made for a relationship with God. That relationship starts with grace. You are saved by grace.
And then, once we come to saving (or justifying) grace, grace doesn’t end there. Grace isn’t just God’s mercy of salvation towards us. Grace is the empowerment of salvation.
So, we are saved by grace (not by works) but when we come to faith that same grace that saves us then compels us to be faithful. To chase after God. To know Him. Serve Him. Follow Him. We must. We have to.
Grace demands it! We need to understand that, as well!
We are not saved by works, but we are created for works.
We are saved by His grace and saved for His work. All by His grace.
His grace saves us.
His grace calls us.
His grace empowers us to work.
Grace.
You tell me what you think about grace, and I can tell you what you think about everything else. Grace. It all comes down to grace.
Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones, and you thought our app, you can now watch our worship services from Asbury too!
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