Practice The Fruits (Not The Counterfeit Or the Opposite)

Children, don’t let anyone deceive you. The one practicing (poeio) righteousness is just imitating Jesus, the Righteous One.  The one who practices (poeio) sin belongs to the diabolical one, who has been all about sin from the beginning. That is why the Son of God came into our world: to destroy the plague of destruction inflicted on the world by the diabolical one.

No one who has been born into God’s family practices sin as a lifestyle because the God’s children are the spiritually generated offspring of God Himself. Therefore, a child of God has the power to reject a life of persistent sin.  So it is not hard to figure out who are the children of God and who are the children of the diabolical one: those who do not practice righteousness and those who don’t practice agape love for one another do not belong to God.

‘Practice’[1] in this passage is poeio: to make or make ready, to prepare, to acquire, to produce, to do a thing well. 

As I noted last week, practicing is not in opposition to the reality that God’s gifts are, well, gifts.Something can be given to us freely, and we still have to practice, like the recorder my parents got me one Christmas and then quickly regretted. 

I think that’s true also of the gifts from God the Bible calls the ‘fruits of the Spirit.’ Here are a few places the Bible talks about the idea that we invest sweat equity into the gifts of the fruit:

·      Seek and pursue the fruit of peace  (Psalm 34:14) as much as it depends on you (Romans 12:18).

·      Consider it the fruit of joy when you face trials (James 1:2), or when we share in Christ’s suffering (1 Peter 4:13)

·      Choose the fruit of love (Luke 6:27 “But to you who are willing to listen…”)

·      Be patient (James 5:7-8) like a farmer waiting for crops, imitating the saints before us (Hebrews 6:12)

·      Make every effort to add to your faith goodness and self-control (2 Peter 1:5-7)  

·      Clothe yourself with gentleness and kindness (Colossians 3:12)

So these things are all gifts from God; they are all part of the fruit our lives bear when the Holy Spirit is the sap in these people trees. In that sense, they are not something we demand or we earn or we are even responsible for having. But…we are responsible for poeio. For practicing, cultivating, looking for opportunities, do the things that someone like us is made and empowered to do. 

This morning I want us to begin looking at how to do this. Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus:

“At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:8)

I’d like to offer something to help us discern whether or not we are a walking in the light in a way that pleases the Lord. Think of it as a Self-Assessment Fruit Test. We are going to get better at what we practice. Are we practicing righteous fruit like we think we are? 

Love (agape). I like Ken Boa’s definition: “a love not of emotions or feelings but of the will and of choice. This type of love can be defined as the steady intention of the will to another’s highest good. It is an ongoing benevolence—willing (-volence) what’s good or best (bene-) for another.”[2]

Agape love is is serving people for their intrinsic worth, not for how they make us feel or what they give us in return. It is a love that seeks first to give rather than be given. It’s what one popular song calls “reckless”[3] love. I don’t know that I like that word to describe the kind of love that originates in God,[4] but I think it’s meant to reflect what God’s love looks like to us. Extravagant. 

·      It’s a bottle of tears or a ridiculously expensive jar of perfume poured on feet as an act of love[5]

·      it’s leaving the 99 to get the 1[6]

·      it’s an innocent man paying the penalty on behalf of the world’s guilt.[7]

·       It’s the physical body of Jesus[8] and then the spiritual body of Christ (the church) being spiritually broken and spilled out for even the mockers and haters. 

 Poeio. Practice that. 

The counterfeit of agape love is selfish love or lust, where you care for others because of how they make you feel about yourself or because it benefits you. Instead of willing the best for the other even at cost to yourself, it’s willing the best for yourself at the expense of the other. It’s an easy love, really, a love that is all about you and what makes your life easier, and that’s not love. It’s actually a “love” that has no problem harming others for the sake of “love.” 

I call this Twilight love. “I love you, but in order for us to be together I am going to need to kill you and turn you into one of the undead.” Yeah, not love.  

The opposite is hate or indifference. That’s why we can murder people with our hands and in our hearts.[9] It’s the same spirit behind them both. Someone’s life is not worth caring about at best, and at worst is worth hating. “I hope terrible things happen to them” is not that far apart from  “I don’t care if terrible things happen to them.”  You’re on the same page.   

·      “I don’t want to have to care about you” is practice. 

·      “I don’t care about you,” means your practice is working. 

·      “I hope nobody cares about you.” It just keeps going. 

·      “I wish someone would harm you.”

·      “I wonder if there is some way I can harm you?”

The fruit of the Spirit is love. 

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (I John 4:9-11)

  Poeio. Practice it. Watch the love from Jesus in you to others do a miracle in this broken world.

 Joy is a delight focused on God for the sheer beauty and worth of who He is. It is independent of our circumstances.  

·      Joy does not come from personal comfort or emotional highs. “Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” (2 Corinthians 6:10)

·      Joy is not us-centered; it’s God centered. It only comes from a focus on Christ. “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:8-9) 

·      Joy looks to the future in spite of the present. “The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing.” (Proverbs 10:28) For the joy set before him Jesus endured the cross.[10]

·      Joy happens when we set our eyes on things above, and not on things of this world. Habakkuk 3:17-19, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The joy of the Lord is the thing that gives us strength.[11]

Because joy is dependent not on you but on the source of your joy, it is always available.

 The counterfeit of joy is happiness. You feel good as long as you have money, health, affirmation, success, and a schedule that’s just like you want it. Happiness is fine, but it’s fleeting. Happiness is a terrible task master.  It will drive you and the people around you into the ground. You cannot sustain happiness. Every vacation picture on FB shows you happy people (maybe). Do you know how many of them came home miserable? Happiness ain’t joy. 

A song we sang as kids made this confusing: “I’ve got joy down in my heart…and I am so happy.”  Sometimes that’s true. But you can be happy and not joyful, and joyful and not happy. In fact, happiness is not a biblical word. Seriously. If your translation has the word “happy” in it, it’s a bad translation. It should read “blessed,”[12] which comes from a root word meaning to walk in a straight path, which is an apt depiction of righteousness.

 “Some glad morning when this life is over…just a few more weary days and then…to that home on God’s celestial shore.” Whoever wrote that song[13] was not happy, but they were loaded with joy. 

The opposite of happiness is probably depression; the opposite of joy is despair. Despair happens when there is no hope. There seems to be nothing to set our eyes upon. Not only do we find our situation terrible, but we don’t see a future where it is not, and we certainly don’t believe anyone can save us. 

 So how do we practice joy?

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 

10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of  faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. 

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4)

 Peace is an internal groundedness that comes from a right relationship with a God whose sovereignty we trust. This, peace, as a fruit of the Spirit, seems to be something different than the peace that Jesus made possible between us and God through his death and resurrection like we read about in Romans 5. This has more to do with the John 14 kind of peace, which addresses Jesus’ gift of peace to address times of trouble and fear in our lives.[14] 

Peace is not controlling the storm; it’s offering our situation to Christ in the midst of it. We often seek peace through power or control. If I can just control the storm; if I can get my way; if everybody else could just understand how smart my ideas are; if you do that and this goes there, I can finally relax because I have properly ordered the world. Then I will have peace. 

Now, I’m not talking to ya’ll who are wired to be organized. I don’t understand what that’s like, but it’s a gift to be able to bring order from chaos. I’m also not talking to those with OCD-type tendencies. That’s just a thing. Carry on. I’m talking about the idolatry of order and control, the kind of thing that reflects a heart that does not trust the sovereignty and Lordship of Christ. 

I’m talking about how we respond to the storms in our lives. Do we have to walk on the water – do we have to have the power to control cultural, relational and spiritual elements around us - to find peace, or is it enough to know that Jesus is reaching his hand toward us? The peace that comes from controlling the world around us is like happiness: it’s fleeting. Peter didn’t walk on the water for long.[15] The world is never ours to control. If it was, we wouldn’t need Jesus. And if we think it must be, the inability to control it will eat away at us like a cancer. 

Here is one way the peace of God passes understanding: We remember that God is sovereign, and that He wins in the end, and that focus on the source of our hope-filled joy sustains us through the times when we don’t feel peace in the midst of chaos that we cannot control.

The counterfeit of peace is indifference or apathy. People think you are calm; really, you have just stopped caring.  You have become numb and it feels like a win. “Dude, nothing rattles me.” Yeah, because you’ve checked out. You don’t have the heart of Jesus for the world because you barely have a heartbeat. That’s not a mark in your favor.   

·      “Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.” (Proverbs 18:9) 

·      “Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever. On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them.” (Obadiah 1:10-11)

It’s a small step from apathy to complicity. At some point, doing nothing makes us partners with those who do something. Sometimes, “I just don’t get worked up about things” is a terrible sign. If you lived in the antebellum South during the time of slavery, or during Jim Crow, or read about the shooting of Ahmad Arbury, or saw this past week the story of this Snapchat group in town that had set up a slave market on line for black students in TCAPS, and someone asked, “How are you so chill about these issues of racial hatred?” and you said, “Guys, I know about these things, but it’s just not something I care about,” that would not be a mark in your favor. 

In fact, that’s how evil flourishes: when good people do nothing. And good people tend not to do something about evil either because they don’t know about it, they don’t realize it’s evil, or they just don’t care enough to get involved. It doesn’t mean we all respond in the same way, of course. But to shrug it off so that our peace is not disturbed – that’s not biblical peace. 

The opposites are worry, greed, or dissention. 

·      Worry links with lack of control (Take no thought for tomorrow…”[16]) 

·      Greed is what takes root in us when we must have what we do not have. That’s not just boats and lovers; that’s power and control. “Like ravenous dogs, they are never satisfied.They are shepherds with no discernment; they all turn to their own way, each one seeking his own gain.” (Isaiah 56:11)

·      Dissention is what we sow that robs those around us of peace. You’ve heard the phrase, “Hurt people hurt people?” Well, unsettled people unsettle people. If one my chickens panics, they all panic. It’s that idea. If even just one of them stays chill, the others will calm down. 

So how do we practice peace?

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 

 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:4-9)

 Patience is persistently enduring without blowing up, giving up or lashing out. You can face insults, for example, without lashing out. You can watch your kids screw up without blowing up. You can navigate hard seasons in relationships without giving up. This is sometimes translated as “longsuffering.” Yep, suffering for a loooong time. 

This isn’t encouraging enablement of passivity in harmful situations (see previous point about passivity). I mean, Jesus was patient and confrontational, patient and in-your-face as the situation required; patient and still comfortable with telling his disciples there are some places you will have to leave when they attack you.[17] You find your stability in knowing that God is sovereign in both circumstances and timing. 

I think this has to do with what we would call not ‘flying off the handle’, not jumping to conclusions, not giving in to immediate emotional outbursts, not rushing God’s timing in our lives and the lives of others. And if we must shake the dust off our feet and move on from a situation in life, it’s not a poorly thought out, emotional, knee-jerk reaction because someone pushed our buttons. It is a thoughtful, prayerful decision, likely after we have received counsel, following Matthew 18’s recommendation. 

 The counterfeit of patience is cynicism. You don’t blow up, lash out, or quit, so you look like a patient person, but really you expected the worst anyway and you are kind of watching things fall apart because it proves you right. You're the one in heated arguments that is cool, calm and collected not because you have peace, but because you think all of them are fools, and you figure time will prove that you were indeed the smartest one in the room because you knew this was all a fruitless joke.  

The opposite is impatience/resentment. 

  Impatience:

·      “I do not have time for this. How many times have I told you to stop pulling the cat’s tale! Twice? You’re 1 ½ now. Grow up!“ 

·      “I have to show you this again? How do you not know how to tie your shoe/change your oil/pack your own lunch?” 

·      “You said God was working with you about your impatience and it’s been what, a week already, and yet here you still are with your impatient self!” 

·      “This COVID stuff is dragging on forever! AAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!” 

·      “How have we not started fixing the fire damage yet!!!” 

   If our timetable is shorter than God’s, he’s not the one who needs to realign his outlook.

Resentment: “How dare you…

·      make me wait

·      disrupt my vegging in front of the TV

·      take so long to become just who I want you to be

·      not show up on my terms yet again

·      still not agree with me!  

So how do we practice patience?

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 2: 22-25)

Up next week…the rest of the fruitJ

______________________________________________________________________

[1] Philippians 4:9 has a word for ‘practice’ similar to poeio that more directly means doing something over and over. John uses a word that referred to individual acts, but in his context he makes clear these should be done over and over.

[2] https://kenboa.org/living-out-your-faith/five-loves-greatest-agape/

[3] Cory Asbury, “Reckless Love”

[4] Precise doxology, ya’ll J

[5] Luke 7

[6] Matthew 18; Luke 15

[7] All the gospel narratives of the crucifixion of Jesus

[8] 1 Corinthians 11:24

[9] 1 John 3:15; 1 John 4:20; Matthew 5:21-22

[10] Hebrews 12:2

[11] Nehemiah 8:10

[12] At least two translations use the word “happy” in the Beatitudes. Nope. It’s “blessed.”

[13] Turns out it was written in 1929 by Albert E. Brumley J

[14] https://biblehub.com/commentaries/john/14-27.htm

[15] Matthew 14

[16] Matthew 6:34

[17] Matthew 10:14

Practicing Righteousness (1 John 3:4-10)

We tend to use the word “practice” two different ways. 

• First, we might refer to how we do things. “It is our practice to….” That’s why attorneys practice law or doctors practice medicine. 

• Second, we do something over and over to get better at it (think learning a sport or a musical skill). 

John is going to use the word poieo (poy-eh-o) numerous times in today’s passage, a word often translated as “practice.” I think that the two meanings for practice put together capture what he is trying to say: poieo is how we do things, or it’s something we do over and over and get better at it. Keep that in mind as we read. 

 Everyone who practices sin (lives a life of habitual sin)[1] is living in moral anarchy. That’s what sin is.[2]  Jesus came to take our sins, but there is not the slightest bit of sin in Him. The ones who live in an intimate relationship with Him do not persist in sin, but anyone who persists in sin has not seen and does not know the real Jesus.[3] 

“Taking on our sin” has an interesting image associated with it. It’s the idea that someone picks something up and takes it with her, like what the lame man did with his bed (Matthew 9:6), or like a transferred yoke from one cow to another in farm work (Matthew 11:29). Remember how Jesus asked people to take his yoke upon them?[4] He was asking them to “take” his mission, to join him in where he was going. More on this later, so keep that image in mind. 

Children, don’t let anyone deceive you. The one practicing righteousness (persistently doing the right thing and getting better at it) is just imitating Jesus, the Righteous One.  The one who practices sin (persistently doing the wrong thing and getting better at it) belongs to the diabolical one, who has been all about sin from the beginning. That is why the Son of God came into our world: to destroy the plague of destruction inflicted on the world by the diabolical one. 

No one who has been born into God’s family practices sin as a lifestyle because the God’s children are the spiritually generated offspring[5] of God Himself. Therefore, a child of God has the power to reject a life of persistent sin.  So it is not hard to figure out who are the children of God and who are the children of the diabolical one: those who do not practice righteousness (what God approves) and those who don’t practice agape love for one another do not belong to God.

 Practicing righteousness vs. practicing sin.  

 Poieo.  

 Getting better at righteousness vs. getting better at sin by doing them.

Last weekend I was talking with a young man from Russia (one of Braden’s friends.) I was reminiscing about how last summer he cooked us borscht. I thought I was doing pretty good with my English pronunciation, but when he started rolling those r’s to show me how it was really pronounced, I was in trouble. He was good at it because he grew up doing it. He got better and better because he’s done it millions of times. I, on the other hand, have not. I have practiced ‘hard’ r’s, and I’m good at those. 

 Poieo.

I was watching a new series on Neflix. In episode one, a boy hides from bullies. A nun tells him, “If you want to be the kind of boy who runs from bullies, you might last until you are 20.” It was harsh world. She was probably right. It morphs into a scene 10 years later where he is fighting the equivalent of MMA, taking on all comes, with a reputation of a guy who was not afraid of anything. 

Poeio. Practice.

This is not in opposition to the reality that God gives us gifts. It’s in conjunction with the reality that God gives us gifts. Something can be given to us freely, and we still have to practice.

My dad gave me a basketball, a bike, a BB gun. I still had to practice to get good at them. I had good singing voice when I was younger. I had the ability to find the rhythm with a bass. I could speak in front of others without fear and trembling. I could write good – sorry, I could write well J I had the genetics to be relatively successful at a few sports. I did not earn any of these things. They were in some sense given to me. I had to practice if I wanted them to grow. 

It’s Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour/10 year rule. You do something for 10,000 hours, you are probably really, really good at it. The more poieo, the more accomplished you become at. It begins to feel natural because you get used to it and the exercise of that gift becomes more and more natural. 

John does not claim we earn our righteousness. Biblical writers are clear that our being declared righteous is a free gift from God. But he still says we must practice it. And our practice is guided by our yokes.

Eventually, you get used to the yoke you wear. You get better at following the direction of the yoke, fulfilling the mission of the yoked.

The yoke is something farmers would hook up to two oxen for plowing a (hopefully) straight line. There were good combinations and bad.  Ideally, they moved in a straight line toward a common goal. We yoke with something or someone for everything. We have all picked something up and taken it with us wittingly or unwittingly; we have all willingly joined the formation or course of our life with something or someone else.  

•  I was an Auburn fan when I was a kid for no reason other than somebody got me an Auburn jacket. Then, when I moved to Ohio, I (by the grace of God) became a Buckeye fan.

•  I like food you find in the south because I grew up in the south.  Boiled crawdads and fried catfish and grits, man. I even like dried okra.

•  I speak English - for a while with a good Southern accent. 

 Those are all things I unwittingly took on. It was just a natural thing based on the social ecosystem in which I lived. There are other things – yokes, if you will - I chose wittingly: 

•  I became a Christian – I took on that yoke.

• When I got married, Sheila and I yoked together.

• When we started coming to church at CLG, we yoked with the people here. 

We constantly ‘put on’ things, and when we do, poieo will follow. We will inevitably practice. From the moment we get out of bed, every day, we are practicing righteousness or sin based on who or what shares our yoke. 

Paul addressed this reality with the church in Corinth. When Paul first went to Corinth, he had apparently warned them about associating with people who were sexually immoral. Unfortunately, they did not understand what he was trying to say.  In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul clarified his command: “I didn’t mean people who aren’t following Christ. You would have to leave the world.” In other words, of course you are going to have friends and relate to people who don’t agree with you or live like you.

In his second letter, he gives them a little more clarity on how not to be “of” Corinth even while they live “in” Corinth:

“Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers. What common interest can there be between goodness and evil? How can light and darkness share life together? How can there be harmony between Christ and the devil? What business can a believer have with an unbeliever? What common ground can idols hold with the temple of God? For we, remember, are ourselves living temples of the living God.” (2 Corinthians 6:14 - 7:1)

You may have heard this passage used about marriage, but it’s not about marriage specifically (it applies to all relationships). Everybody yokes. Be careful with whom you yoke.

There are some things that will either guide us on a straight path in the Kingdom of God or try to pull us around into a different Kingdom altogether. Every yoke works with us or against us as we move toward a goal. If we want to practice righteousness well, we must yoke with the righteous. Be careful who shares your spiritual yoke.

During the Roman persecutions, Christians were commanded to cast a little incense on the altar of a pagan god. They refused to do it, and thousands were killed.  Just a little incense. Why was this such a big deal?This was a question of allegiance and partnership. It seemed like one small thing, but it was practice. It was the first step in poeio.

This is the idea behind the imagery of the infamous “mark” in the book of Revelation (as I understand it). What marks you? What are you known for? Where is your allegiance? With whose identity does your practice yoke you and thus mark you?[6]

·    Who gets your conscious, deliberate sacrifice?  Not of incense, but of time, money, energy, thoughts, priorities? Who yokes you into supporting them in thought or in practice? And how does that mark you? If something is going to give in your schedule during the day, what gives? Poeio. If something is going to give in your week, what is it? Poeio.

·    For whom or what will you go out of your way, rearrange your schedule, bump other things?  Who or what yokes you into prioritizing them, and their agenda, and their schedule? Poeio.You are practicing something that will make you a particular kind of someone. 

·    With whom are you willing to unite to avoid hardship or discomfort or get what you want? How much are you willing to compromise for pleasure and comfort? Will you walk into or away from tension with others? Poeio. 

·    Who or what forms your view of world events, and thus orders your thoughts and speech and actions? Who yokes you into thinking like they do?  You can find out what leading Christian thinkers say about it first, or you can start with leading politicians or talking heads on TV. Every one is poeio. You are practicing. 

John has already told us the importance of yoking with Jesus, with the Word, with God’s people, through the power of the Holy Spirit. For the rest of the book, John is going to tell us how yoking in this way will mark as one of God’s righteous children. The mark is the practice of showing the righteous love of the Father to others. [7]  Those who practice righteousness and those who practice agape love for one another belong to God (v.10). We bear the mark of Christ when we live the love of Christ.

·      1 John 3:11  “For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.”

·      1 John 3:14  “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other.”

·      1 John 3:16: “We ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”

·      1 John 3:23: “And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.” 

·      1 John 4:7  “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.”

·      1 John 4:11  “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

·      1 John 4:21  “Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”

·      1 John 5:2  “This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.”

That which leads us to practice a greater righteousness and display the fruits of the Spirit (starting with love) is of God; that which leads us to practice sin and show contempt, disdain, or hatred to others is of the devil. 

You want to know with whom you are yoked? Are the fruits of the Spirit growing or fading, beginning with love?[8]

When we survey the cultural landscape and see all the things that stand in opposition to the Kingdom of God, are we marked in our internal and external response by the fruits of the Spirit that proclaim us to be a child of God and a practitioner of righteousness, and does it call out of us a desire to agape love those both near and far from Christ? 

When we watched or read the coverage of George Floyd’s death, and then the trial of one of the officers this past week, and then news stories with an intersection of violence and race, what increases in us? Was it a practice in righteousness? Did our thoughts, emotions, or words bear the mark of Jesus and show that we have partnered with him in spirit and in truth? Did it call out of us a desire for all those involved to experience the agape love of Christ, beginning with the embodiment of that love as displayed in His people?

As COVID rolls on with all of its devastation and frustration, are we increasing in peace, joy, hope and love, or are we increasing in anger, bitterness, judgment and fear? Is our voice and presence stabilizing and soothing a tumultuous world, or inflaming it?  Is the love of Christ for others growing in us for all of the following:

·      maskers and anti-maskers

·      COVID vaxxers and COVID anti-vaxxers

·      lockdown fans and lockdown opponents

·      people who have lost loved one; people who have lost jobs

·      exhausted health care workers in hospitals

·      people longing for unmasked faces – or masked faces

·      people wrestling with mental health issues more than ever

·      politicians whose decisions will always put them in somebody’s sights

·      that person walking through this church door that we think is living in fear because they wear a mask or don’t get a vaccine, or living in arrogance because they don’t wear a mask or brag about their vaccine

Do you feel it after that list? Something is rising within you? Are the fruits of the spirit bubbling up more than ever?  Did you feel agape love?  Did any of that take your joy?  Are you at peace even if something on that list triggered you?  Are you planning how you can show patience, kindness and gentleness to “that person?”  Were you considering how your presence around others on this list can be characterized by faithfulness and goodness?  Is your self-control being tested? What’s winning?

Is the love of Christ moving in us so that we are seeing all of these people as Christ sees them, thinking of them as Christ thinks of them, speaking to and of them as Jesus would speak if they were here? 

“How can we avoid sin? By keeping the commandments of Christ. And what is that commandment? It is that we should love. Love, and sin is undone.” (Augustine) 

Keeping the commandment of love. Poeio. 

Practice love, as one who has passed from death into life (1 John 3:14). 

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[1] A. “The present tense of the Greek suggests behavior that is characteristic or usual. In this way John acknowledges, but does not excuse, the possibility of occasional sin. Another possibility is that John has in mind the specific sin of apostasy, mentioned in 2:19 (cf. also 5:16–18). If so, John means that true believers will not totally abandon their faith.”   B. “John is not teaching sinless perfection (see 1:8, 10; 2:2). He speaks here of habitual practice of known sinful acts. The true believer’s actions will conform to the character of his true father, either God or Satan. The person born of God will reflect this in his behavior.” (Both quotes from commentary on Bible Gateway.)    C) “Christ in himself is most pure, and he came to take away our sins, by sanctifying us with the Holy Spirit, therefore whoever is truly a partaker of Christ, does not give himself to sin, and on the contrary, he that gives himself to sin does not know Christ. (Geneva Study Bible) 

[2] That moral anarchy is disregard of known law, or acting as if one has no law when if fact the law is known. (Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges)

[3] “Hath not seen him - It is no unusual thing with this apostle, both in his gospel and in his epistles, to put occasionally the past for the present, and the present for the past tense. It is very likely that here he puts, after the manner of the Hebrew, the preterite for the present: He who sins against God doth not see him, neither doth he know him - the eye of his faith is darkened, so that he cannot see him as he formerly did; and he has no longer the experimental knowledge of God as his Father and portion.” (Adam Clarke)

[4] Matthew 11:29

[5] “3:9 God’s seed. A daring metaphor employing the word “seed” (Greek sperma) to depict the Spirit’s work in believers. Unlike the children of the devil (in this case the secessionists), the children of God do not go on sinning because the Spirit dwells within them. There is an apparent contradiction in 1 John concerning sin in the believer’s life: those who claim not to have sinned are liars (1:10); those born of God do not and cannot sin (3:6, 9). A possible resolution is that, in context, 3:4 defines the latter sin as “lawlessness” (Greek anomia). In the NT this word refers not to breaking the law but to rebelling against God (like the devil’s rebellion). If this is the case, John is saying that those who claim to know God and yet sin in this way certainly do not know God and are, in fact, in league with the devil. This is the sin that those born of God do not and cannot commit. It is possible for believers to sin in other ways, as 1:8—2:1indicates.” (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)

[6] Question to the Bible Project guys: Is there a relationship between the engraving of Yahweh’s holiness on the golden plate of the priest’s turban in Exodus 39:30 also described in Exodus 23:28 as a mark on Aaron’s forehead, and the mark of God’s name on his bondservants’ foreheads in Revelation 7, Revelation 22? ? And is there also a counter relationship to the mark of the beast?

Their answer: “The descriptions of priests’ attire in the Hebrew Bible specify that priests are to wear the phrase “belonging to Yahweh” on their foreheads. And all Israelites are instructed to bind the words of the Shema, a prayer they learned to recite morning and night, on their hands and foreheads (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). In Ezekiel 9, there’s another instance of Israelites having their foreheads marked. In this case, the mark is a sign of people who are grieved by the idolatry of Babylon and therefore spared from Yahweh’s judgment. John had all of these images in mind when he described the forehead markings of God’s servants in Revelation, which are indeed an anti-mark to the mark of the beast.  (https://bibleproject.com/podcast/mark-priest-or-mark-beast/).

[7] All disobedience is contrary to love; therefore sin is the transgression of the law, whether the act refers immediately to God or to our neighbor. (Adam Clarke)

[8] “No man is of God who is not ready on all emergencies to do any act of kindness for the comfort, relief, and support of any human being. For, as God made of one blood an the nations of men to dwell upon the face of the whole earth, so all are of one family; and consequently all are brethren, and should love as brethren.” (Adam Clarke)

Seeing, Being, Doing, Becoming (1 John 2:28 – 3:3)

So now, my little children, abide and endure in Him, so that when He is revealed when he returns, we will have trusting confidence and not have to shrink back and hang our heads in shame before Him. If you know that He is just and faithful, then you also perceive[1] that everyone who lives faithfully and acts justly in conformity to his will[2] has been born into a new life through Him as one of his children.[3] 

 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the people of the world do not comprehend us is that they do not know him. 

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see[4] him (spiritually perceive him) as he is.  All who have this hope in him purify themselves from moral defilement[5], just as he is pure[6].

Seeing – Being – Doing – Becoming

There is something about this pattern embedded in what we know about life starting with when we see something. 

• “I’ve been watching you dad, ain’t that cool. I’m your buckaroo; I want to be like you.” “Watching You,” Rodney Atkins

• “You, I wanna be like you, I want to walk like you, talk like you, too. You’ll see it’s true, and ape like me can learn to be human too.” – “I Wanna Be Like You,” The Jungle Book

• See someone working (fireman, when I was a kid) and we want to be like them (brave, strong, capable) and do what they do (put out fires and save lives).

 We SEE them; we want to BE like them so we can DO what they do and BECOME a particular kind of person. This is the pattern John unfolds in this chapter. 

• We SEE Jesus (the previous verses from last week’s message show us how Scripture allows us to do this with the guidance of the Holy Spirit)

• We want to BE with him by being born into new life in God’s family

• We want to DO things in conformity with his will

• We will increasingly BECOME like him 

 See. Be with. Do. Become like. That’s the order, the progression. So let’s look at these one at a time.

SEEING 

“Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away.[7] But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 

 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (from that veil).[8] And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”  (2 Corinthians 3:12-18)

In other words, “the more clearly we see him, the more we become like him.”[9] The Israelites in Paul’s day saw God through the Old Covenant in the Old Testament (“when Moses was read”), but they did not have the Holy Spirit’s illumination for what they were reading. The people of New Covenant do, and as we read “with unveiled faces” we are transformed into his image as we contemplate his glory. Jesus himself established this pattern after his resurrection when he was on the road to Emmaus with two guys who didn’t recognize him:  

“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself… “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:27-32)

Of course, Jesus was still there in the flesh, and so while he started with Scripture, he made sure they recognized him in the flesh later.  I mean, when Jesus was here, he was always the finale. But once he ascended, we see the pattern he used continued in Acts when Philip encounters the Ethiopian eunuch: 

“Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.” (Acts 8:35)

In this case, Jesus was not there in the flesh for the Big Reveal; instead, the Holy Spirit illuminates the Scripture. 

God has ways of making his presence known when there are no Bibles around.[10] But when you have access to a Bible, study the Jesus in Scripture. The Holy Spirit will do the work of turning knowledge of Jesus into an encounter with Jesus, but we need to see the Jesus we are encountering. 

I recommend the Bible (obviously), The Jesus I Never Knew (Phillip Yancey), The Chosen (TV series), the Bible Project videos, and Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (Kenneth Bailey), The Case For Christ (Lee Strobel) and Advent: The Once and Future Coming Of Jesus Christ (Fleming Rutledge) as starting points.

BEING

Tertullian noted that under the reign of Tiberius, children were sacrificed to Saturn; across the empire, children were killed “by drowning, or by exposure to cold and hunger and dogs.” [11]How different is God the Father, who has “lavished” love on his children (3:1) 

•  “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4)

•  “transformed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

•  “children of God” (John 1:12–13; 1 John 3:1-2).

•  brothers and sisters of our Savior (Romans 8:29; Hebrews 2:11-12) 

This is about identity. This is about our new state of being once we are in the family of God. He has lavished us with the privilege of being in his family. We are now a child of God and a spiritual brother or sister of Jesus.  If we have become something new, it’s because we first saw and responded to the One who can make us new. “I see who you are; now I want to be near you. If I am in the family, I want to bear the family resemblance.”

We can’t be another Jesus – there is only one God/Man – but we can be like him through a process called sanctification.  We’ve talked before about the image of baptism as similar to when a cucumber becomes a pickle. A cucumber is immersed in brine and ferments; over time, a cucumber becomes a pickled cucumber, but we just call it a pickle because that’s its primary identity now.  

When we commit our lives to Jesus, we ferment “in Christ” – we read the Word, the Holy Spirit works in us, we are in a family of God’s people, the power of God our Father and Christ our brother does a supernatural work in us.  In this state of being – in this new identity - we find rest, confidence, stability, purpose, dignity, value, hope, love. The first answer to the question, “Who am I?” is, “I am a child of God, invited into His family by great grace and at great cost because God wants me as His child.”

DOING

We do what we are. A cucumber does what a cucumber does (ever seen Veggie Tales?); pickles do what pickles do. We do what we are. 

·      If you fish a lot, it’s because you are a person who fishes a lot.

·      If you watch sports a lot, it’s because you are a person who watches sports a lot. 

·      If you find that you argue a lot…

·      If you give to others generously and quietly…

·      If you say things that tear people down…or build them up…

·      If you pray for your enemies or curse them…

We do what we are. Luke wrote that there is a treasury in our hearts, and we bring forth good or evil things from it.[12]

But now we are children of God. The lavish love of the Father moves God’s children to purify themselves, “just as he is pure” (3:3) because we want to do everything we can to honor the family. If we will do what we are, then if our hearts have been made newly righteous at salvation by God, we will do the things that people who love righteousness and holiness do. This is what it means that by our fruit we will be known.[13]

The Old Covenant Jewish worshipers went through purity rituals before approaching God or entering His temple.[14] Notice how the practice of purification continues in the New Covenant, but in a different way and for a different reason. 

“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.”( 1 Peter 1:22)

Now, we don’t purify ourselves in order to be worthy to approach the house of God, because we are already in the family of God. We purify ourselves because we are in the house of God, with his family, and we don’t want to track dirt into his house and get his family grimy.[15]

There is a huge difference between creating our spiritual identity by what we do vs. displayingour spiritual identity by what we do.  We can create a cultural identity by what we do – we can be known for something – but in the Kingdom of God, our identity is given to us, not created by us, and what we do displays that identity.  

•  I don’t try to love my enemies because I want to be a child of God; I do it because I am a child of God. That is what children of God are intended to do. 

• I’m not honest on my taxes, or kind to my wife and kids, or forgiving to those who wrong me, or gentle with my speech, or generous with my money, or careful with my sexual purity because I want to be a child of God; I do those things because I am a child of God, and that is what children of God are intended to do if they want to bear their Father’s image as He intended.

 A word of caution here. We want those outside the family of God to live as if they are in the family of God. Often this is because we see the wages of sin with clarity and our hearts break, or we have so experienced the goodness of the path of righteousness that we want others to experience it. Fair enough.

We want to live in a culture that shares our family values. They don’t. Why? They aren’t in the same family. What is the solution? They must see Jesus. Right now, that’s through His Word and through His people. 

If there is a cucumber side of you that feels like you were born to help bring order to that cultural chaos through politics or activism of some sort, cool.  It’s not like we can’t seek to offset the effects of sin while introducing people to Jesus. But don’t forget that your primary identity is that you have been pickled into the Kingdom (man, I love that I get to use that phrase in a sermon.) 

Right now, if I would ask the people who know you, “Talk to me about that person,” would their first, gut-level response have something to do with the new, pickled you – that is, the child of God soaked in the brine of the Word and the Spirit and the blood of Jesus, who is now characterized by Christ in you – or the cucumber you? 

I can think of a number of things that I increasingly worry characterize how people might identity me. I have been involved in a lot of things I am passionate about as a teacher, a blogger, and pastor who loves engaging the church and the culture in the pursuit of truth. 

But if my legacy among those who know me well starts with anything other than the equivalent of, “That dude loved Jesus and it permeated everything he was and everything he did,” what am I doing? 

You are welcome to say anything else at my funeral eulogy. You can say how much I bugged you, or how I talked about Crossfit too much, or how unorganized I was, or how I picked too many arguments, or how I imperfectly tried to start conversation on politics and ethics and cultural issues. You can say I talked too much instead of listening. You can say that I let you down or failed you, because if I haven’t already I will, and you can be honest in my eulogy. You can be nice, and talk about whatever cucumberish things you admired about me, and I mean, that would be cool too. 

But none of that matters if my legacy as a child of God is not defined by being known primarily as a child of God who saw the Father, and wanted to be in His family, and then lived as a child of God that just kept looking more like his Father.   

Everything else fades away. Only what’s done with Christ and for Christ will last. 

BECOMING

What are we becoming? There is coming a day when Christ will “transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philemon 3:21) and we will be as fully as possible like him, because we will fully and clearly see him as he is. That is who we are intended to become.  There are a lot of ways to talk about heaven. Here is one way. In heaven,

• We will see God fully and clearly. 

• We will be completely in His unfiltered presence. 

• We will say and do (doxology and worship[16]) whatever we say and do in the New Heaven and New Earth in perfect accordance with what God made us to do.

 The hard, messy work of sanctification will be over because our transformation into the image of Jesus will be complete. Finally J

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[1] There is a change of verb from ‘if ye know’ (ἐὰν εἰδῆτε) to ‘ye know that’ (γινώσκετε ὅτι). The former means ‘to have intuitive knowledge’ or simply ‘to be aware of the fact’ (1 John 2:11; 1 John 2:20-21): the latter means ‘to come to know, learn by experience, recognise, perceive’ (1 John 2:3-5; 1 John 2:13-14; 1 John 2:18). ‘If ye are aware that God is righteous, ye cannot fail to perceive that &c.’ Comp. ‘What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt understand (get to know) hereafter’ (John 13:7); ‘Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou perceivest that I love Thee’ (John 21:17): and the converse change: ‘If ye had learned to know Me, ye would know My Father also’ (John 14:7; comp. John 8:55).  Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges

[2] díkaios (an adjective, derived from dikē, "right, judicial approval") – properly, "approved by God" (J. Thayer); righteous; "just in the eyes of God" (Souter).  See 1343 ("dikaiosynē). ["Righteous" relates to conformity to God's standard (justice). For more on the root-idea see the cognate noun, 1343 /dikaiosýnē ("righteousness").] 1342 /díkaios ("righteous, just") describes what is in conformity to God's own being (His will, standard of rightness); hence "upright."  HELPS Word Studies

[3] gennáō – properly, beget (procreate a descendant), produce offspring; (passive) be born, "begotten." HELPS Word Studies

[4] horáō – properly, see, often with metaphorical meaning: "to see with the mind" (i.e. spiritually see), i.e. perceive (with inward spiritual perception). HELPS Word Studies

[5] 1 John 3:3. The duty which our destiny imposes. ἐπʼ αὐτῷ, “resting on Him,” i.e., on God as Father. Cf. Luke 5:5 : ἐπὶ τῷῥήματί σου, “relying on Thy word”. ἐκεῖνος, Christ; see note on 1 John 2:6. ἁγνός also proves that the reference is to Christ. As distinguished from ἅγιος, which implies absolute and essential purity, it denotes purity maintained with effort and fearfulness amid defilements and allurements, especially carnal.

[6] hagnós (an adjective, which may be cognate with 40 /hágios, "holy," so TDNT, 1, 122) – properly, pure (to the core); virginal (chaste, unadultered); pure inside and out; holy because uncontaminated (undefiled from sin), i.e. without spoilation even within (even down to the center of one's being); not mixed with guilt or anything condemnable. HELPS Word-studies

[7] “Some think that Moses’ veil was to protect the Israelites from being harmed or frightened by the brightness. More likely, the veil was to keep them from seeing that the glory was fading away because of the temporary and inadequate character of the old covenant (Ex. 34:29–35). By contrast, Paul needs no veil, for the glory of the new covenant ministry does not fade away.” (ESV Reformation Study Bible)  The Old Covenant offered transient glory. (King James Study Bible Notes)

[8] “Wherever this Gospel is received, there the Spirit of the Lord is given; and wherever that Spirit lives and works, there is liberty, not only from Jewish bondage, but from the slavery of sin - from its power, its guilt, and its pollution.”  (Adam Clarke)  Charles Stanley adds we are free from struggling to “become righteous through self-effort.”

[9] Expositor's Greek Testament.  The Orthodox Study Bible adds more detail:

The work of the Holy Spirit brings liberty (v. 17), freeing us to behold God and have open access to Him. Created as the image of God, we see His uncreated image, the Son, the glory of the Lord (v. 18; see 4:4–6)… through the Son's deified humanity (see 1Co 13:12; Jam 1:23–25… in the power of the Spirit. As we behold Him, we become what we were created to be. 

[10] “When Muslims Dream Of Jesus.” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/muslims-dream-jesus/

[11] Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary of the New Testament

[12] Luke 6:45

[13] Matthew 7:15-20

[14] John 11:55 and Acts 24:17-18

[15] “Only he who habitually does righteousness is a true son of the God who is righteous; just as only he who habitually walks in the light has true fellowship with the God who is light (1 John 1:6-7).” Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges 

[16] Hat tip to last week’s message :)

The Christ and the anti-Christs (1 John 2:18-27)

I’m going to write today’s passage as if it were a letter –which, uh, it was J This letter draws from the passage, as well as the commentary that helps to unveil things that were written 2,000 years ago. The underlined portions are the heart of the text itself. Once we finish the letter, I will focus on an aspect that seems central to the entire discussion.

Dear friends, I don’t “know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority”[1] but I do know this: we are between the first and the second comings of Christ, so we are in “the last hour”[2]or “the last days”, the last era in God’s spiritual timeline before He wraps up history. And one of the things we know will happen in the last days is the rise of the anti-Christ.[3]

This is the one Paul calls the ‘man of lawlessness,’[4] the person who is the ultimate example of a leader who claims to be God in the flesh and/or leads people away from the church. This will be the greatest enemy to rise against God’s kingdom. Meanwhile, you are going to see a lot of anti-christspaving the way through the course of history (I'm talking to you, Antiochus Epiphanes[5]), some worse than others for sure, but all standing in opposition to Jesus.[6]

But the category of anti-christ is broader than you might think. The reality is that many anti-Christs are already here – and they have been rising from within the church rather than attacking us from the surrounding culture. You know who they are because, like all false teachers (as Paul made clear in his letters to Timothy[7]), they refuse to have their false teaching and corrupt lifestyles reined in. Fortunately, they have left. 

Their desertion tells you they were never truly part of our family. If they were truly our brothers and sisters, they would have  remained until the end with us,[8] accepting accountability and correction as their teaching and lives were held up to the Scripture. They would have endured with us as family members united around the true faith and the teaching of the apostles in spite of our other secondary differences. But when they left, they made it ever so obvious that they were not part of us.

I know it’s hard to go through this, so consider this analogy that I guy people call the Venerable Bede will eventually make in about 700 years. In the body of Christ we all wrestle with a form of spiritual sickness; that is, we all struggle with sin-sickness in these corruptible bodies. We keep opening the door to the sin that crouches outside.[9] However, we have sought and are surrendered to the healing of the Great Physician. 

God has begun a good and transformative work in us so that we increasingly bear the likeness of  Jesus, though that process will not be fully completed until the age to come.[10] But… there are also those who are malignant tumors. They too are sick, but this sickness is not surrendered to the Great Physician, and it is toxic to the spiritual and relational health of the church.  When tumors are removed, the body is spared. The departure of such people is actually of great benefit to the church.[11]

You know how priests and prophets in the OT were anointed to receive the gifts needed for them to perform their offices? You have been given an anointing too. It’s the ongoing reality of the indwelling presence and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, who works in every member of the Church to help us all defend, keep and live in the truth.[12]  You know the truth, because the Holy Spirit guides you into the truth of what is in the Scriptures: the Old Testament, as well as what the Holy Spirit inspired Jesus’ disciples and the apostles to record of his life and teaching.[13]

I am not writing to you in order to correct you because you do not know the truth; I am encouraging you because you do know it. Don’t let that knowledge be compromised. A lot of confusion is generated by false teaching[14] even among those of you who have the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit enables you to discern rightly by leading you to the truth of the Holy Scriptures that have been given to you. There, you will be able to discern good teachers from evil ones.

You are people of the one who said, “I am the Truth.”[15]  No lie belongs to the truth. All anti-Christs are liars[16] and deceivers[17] who deny that Jesus was God in the flesh, fully God and fully man.[18]The liars who left you are saying things like this:

 “Jesus might have had an anointing placed on him, but he wasn’t the Anointed One by nature. He’s just human. We could have been Jesus if we had gotten the same anointing![19] Or (they say) maybe think of his body as just like a shell, hosting the REAL Jesus inside, like a deity ghost in a meat machine. Anyway, I’ve got lot’s of cool alternative ideas about who Jesus could have been. Follow me on Twitter @gnosticandgnarly.”

This is the anti-Christ you should be worrying about: the one showing up in church circles denying or distorting the nature of both the Father and the Son. Yes, that’s right, anyone who denies the nature of the Son does not know the Father.  Because God is revealed in the incarnational Jesus, it is not possible to know God personally and truly without fully acknowledging  Jesus for who he is. Then, the one affirming the Son as He really is enjoys an intimate relationship with the Father as well.

Let the good news, the gospel, the story you have heard from the beginning of your journey following Jesus, live in and take hold of you. If that happens and you focus on the good news, then you will always remain in a relationship with the Son and the Father. This is the beginning of experience what He promised us: eternal life. New life begins now, in this age and hour, and continues into the age to come.

Back to my warning: there are still some attempting to deceive you. But you have an anointing of the Holy Spirit that illuminates the truth you have been given. You received this promised Comforter from Jesus,[20] and His spirit remains on you. If you follow the Holy Spirit into the teaching you have been given, you have no need for another teacher claiming to be an apostle or disciple when they are not, or claiming to have some new, previously unknown revelation from God. 

The anointing you have been given points you toward and instructs you in all the essentials you have been given: the truth of the ‘faith once delivered,’[21] uncontaminated by darkness and lies. If you follow and learn this teaching and let it transform your life, you will remain connected to Him.”[22]

* * * * *

One thing that stands out to me in this passage is the spiritually stabilizing effect of seeing and knowing Jesus as he is truly is. It’s the heart of our faith. When the Holy Spirit guides us into truth about Jesus, it is truth about Jesus that is revealed in Scripture. At the end of the day, as we sort out competing voices, or we stumble through a confusing world, the focal point that sets our eyes and steadies our hearts is Jesus.

The less we know Jesus, the more our lives and our words will detract, distort, or even actively undermine the message of the Gospel. The more we know Jesus, the more our words and our lives will function as a prophetic witness to the world.

Last week, I stumbled my way through a phrase connecting orthodoxy with doxology. I got some of the language wrong, so let me correct that this week. What I should have said was more like this: 

True theology (study and knowledge of God) is necessary for accurate doxology (expressions of praise to God) and righteous worship (lifestyle of loving obedience to God). [23]

God is not concerned with just one of those things. They are all deeply intertwined. 

Theology without doxology and worship is dead. It’s just true stuff in our heads that hasn’t moved into our hearts. True theology is necessary, but not sufficient for godliness. We can be the smartest person in the room when it comes to theology and have the least impact in the world if all we have is knowledge that puffs us up.[24] Even demons believe and tremble.[25] If what we know of Jesus does not lead to the fruit of the Spirit in our words and our lives, what’s the point? 

True theology (the study of God) is necessary for right doxology (expressions of praise to God) and righteous worship (lifestyle of loving obedience), but it is not automatically sufficient.

True theology must be accompanied by surrender to the Lordship of Christ (salvation) and the embrace of the work of the Holy Spirit (sanctification) in the community of the church (fellowship) so that we display the fruits of righteousness as we are transformed into the image of Christ. 

Doxology (expression of praise to God) without good theology can very quickly drift toward idolatry. Why do I say this? Because we can sing an expression of praise or repeat a teaching not informed by the truth of who God is. When we do, it’s worship – but not the kind of worship we think it is. And it will be formative in our thoughts about God. Let me give an example from a popular CCM song.

There is a song called “The Devil Is A Liar” (true) which contains this lyric: “Don't be dancing with the devil, don't believe a single word, 'Cause when we get to Heaven, we gon' sing and watch him burn.” No, friends, we will not do that. We will not take pleasure in heaven from the punishment of Satan. Even God says, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.”[26] This distorts who God is. This doxology trains you to believe that God will reward the faithful by entertaining them for eternity with the punishment of others. That is not an accurate representation of God. That is the beginning of an idol that shares a name (God) bot not a nature.

 This example highlight my concern about drifting toward idolatry that isn’t just true about music. It’s true about any verbal expression that claims to make true statements about God but distorts and re-creates in some way.

 I know idolatry is a strong word, but surely a false God includes a false image of God. It’s why we offer criticism of the theology of groups like Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses. As well intentioned as they may be in their attempt to worship the God of the Bible, it’s not the same. They are sincere believers with a false image of God. And if you are not worshiping God in truth, it’s not enough. It’s why at times we will talk about false teaching that is becoming popular in the American church. 

 The Psalmist says we become like our idols.[27] It is possible to fill ourselves with teaching from within the church and slowly begin to look less and less like the Jesus of the Bible and more and more  like the new Jesus we are constructing. 

And now, worship. If worship is a lifestyle of response to the God we serve, a lifestyle in which we walk in the footsteps of Jesus and are transformed into His image by His Spirit and His Word, then the more we know and speak of Jesus rightly, the more we truly worship “in spirit and in truth.” And this is why right theology (the study of God) and true doxology (expressions of praise to God) are sooooo important. If I am called to walk where Jesus walked, and have a heart and mind attuned with the heart and mind of Jesus, I have to know the actual path of Jesus, and what he thought and felt. 

Back to the song to show how what we think (and say) about God will impact our worship (lifestyle of response to God):

If part of our reward for eternity is to gloat over the punishment of Satan, why not take pleasure now in the punishment of those who do evil now? Finding pleasure not in justice but in punishment would just be us snacking right now on a reward that will one day be a feast. But that must mean God even now also enjoys watching the wicked be punished. And we forget about that pesky verse about “no pleasure in the death of the wicked” because we are starting to find pleasure in that exact same thing. I mean, when others experience it for their sin.  

You might think I am exaggerating. I might be J I am trying to make a point. Theology, doxology, and worship are deeply intertwined. Why does all this matter?

The goal as a Christian is relationship and connection with the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit grounded in God’s Word and experienced in the company of God’s people. 

* * * * *

This brings us full circle back to Jesus as the foundation. The goal is to know Jesus so that we know the Father. Everything centers around knowing, loving, and worshipping Jesus.  

• Does Christianity just feel functional and cold to you? Get to know Jesus as the Bible reveals him.

• Do your prayers feel empty? Get to know the Jesus in the Bible.

• Does your heart feel hard? Get to know Jesus.

• Do you struggle with giving in to temptation? Get to know Jesus.

• Have you given up on life? Get to know Jesus.

• Are you thoughts vile? Get to know Jesus.

• Do you harbor bitterness and unforgiveness? Get to know Jesus.

• Do you think our church family needs more mature believers? Get to know Jesus.

• Do you want to know the heart and mind of Jesus concerning all kinds of cultural controversies? Get to know Jesus.

•  Do you want the worship of people far from Jesus to look more like the worship of Jesus? INTRODUCE THEM TO JESUS.

 This is the start to everything, spiritually. This is the cornerstone[28] on which our faith and our lives are built. 

QUESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION

Are you confident that you are building true theology? Why or why not?

What does it look like to be conscious of the doxology of our lives - songs, prayers, etc?

Can you think of examples how the worship of your life (a lifestyle of obedience to God) has grown or changed as you have gotten to know Jesus (and understand His Word) better?

_______________________________________________________________________________________

[1] Acts 1:7

[2] Acts 2:17; 1 Corinthians 10:11

[3] A term only John uses in the Bible: 1 John 2:18, 1 John 2:22; 1 John 4:3; 2 John 1:7. 

[4] “Let no one in any way deceive or entrap you, for that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first [that is, the great rebellion, the abandonment of the faith by professed Christians], and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction [the Antichrist, the one who is destined to be destroyed].” (2 Thessalonians 2:3)

[5] He butchered a pig on the altar of the temple. 

[6] 2 Thessalonians 2:3–10; Revelation 13:11–18

[7] Here’s an example: https://www.clgonline.org/sermonblog/2021/1/24/itching-ears-2-timothy-41-5

[8] “The early church obviously had severe debates, with significant differences of opinion being expressed. Yet as far as we know, no one thought that "separation from the congregation" was an option for anyone professing faith in Jesus. Departure, like Judas's going out from the community of disciples, pointed to betrayal, denial of faith, and separation from God's grace. That is why John acknowledges that those false teachers, whom he now designates as antichrists, had been regular members of the congregation. "They went out from us," he says, but hastens to add, "they did not really belong to us." Like Judas, they had been nominal members of the community and had never truly shared its fellowship.” Expositors Bible Commentary

[9] Genesis 4:7

[10] Philippians 1:6

[11] Entire paragraph is a paraphrase from commentary on this passage by the Venerable Bede. 

[12] John 14:26; 16:13–15.  I. H. Marshall defines the anointing as “the Word taught to converts before their baptism and apprehended by them through the work of the Spirit in their hearts (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:5f).” The Epistles Of John

[13] “This unction, then, predisposes John’s readers to recognize and respond to God’s truth, but not to arrive at it independently of the biblical and apostolic Word. Had the readers been capable of knowing all things apart from written and spoken instruction, 1 John would not need to have been written.” – KJV Study Bible Notes

[14] Mattheew 24:24

[15] John 14:6

[16] 1 John 2:4, 22

[17] 2 John 7

[18] 1 John 4:1–3; 2 John 7

[19] Mormonism, for example, claims that “all the Father’s children (including humans) possess the same potential to become gods (like the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost) since they are of the same species.” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/9-things-you-should-know-about-mormonism/  “Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Jesus was created by Jehovah as the archangel Michael before the physical world existed, and is a lesser, though mighty, god... when Jesus was born on earth, he was a mere human and not God in human flesh.”  https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/the-11-beliefs-you-should-know-about-jehovahs-witnesses-when-they-knock-at-the-door/

[20] John 14:16

[21] Jude 1:3

[22] “Ye need not that any man teach you - The Gnostics, who pretended to the highest illumination, could bring no proof that they were divinely taught, nor had they any thing in their teaching worthy the acceptance of the meanest Christian; therefore they had no need of that, nor of any other teaching but that which the same anointing teacheth, the same Spirit from whom they had already received the light of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. Whatever that taught, they needed; and whatever those taught whose teaching was according to this Spirit, they needed. St. John does not say that those who had once received the teaching of the Divine Spirit had no farther need of the ministry of the Gospel; no, but he says they had no need of such teaching as their false teachers proposed to them; nor of any other teaching that was different from that anointing, i.e. the teaching of the Spirit of God. No man, howsoever holy, wise, or pure, can ever be in such a state as to have no need of the Gospel ministry: they who think so give the highest proof that they have never yet learned of Christ or his Spirit.” – Adam Clarke

[23] This idea comes from black evangelical hip hop artist Shia Linne, “Doxology Intro,” in Lyrical Theology Part 2: Doxology

[24] 1 Corinthians 8:1

[25] James 2:19

[26] Ezekiel 33:11

[27] Psalm 115:8; Psalm 135:18

[28] Ephesians 2:19-22

Silent Saturday: The Days We Wait

The Bible is full of ‘three day stories”[1]: Jonah in the big fish; Joseph’s brothers in jail in Egypt; the plague of darkness in Egypt; Rahab hid the spies for three days. Jesus was in the tomb for three days. On the third day is when the bad stuff ends. That’s the day we celebrate, and rightly so. But Third Day stories aren’t clear until the Third Day. On Day One and Day Two, it’s not yet clear how the story will end. The First day of Third Day story is often a brutal one.

Crucifixion Friday was the First Day of a Three Day story.  We talked last week about how Jesus understands our First Days. His entrance into the human condition showed that God is not a distant, uncaring and cold God. God understands us.  But there is still Saturday before Sunday. It’s not the day when the tragedy occurred; it’s not the day that Resurrection brings hope and life. It’s that troublesome (and often very long) middle day. 

Here’s what the Bible records the followers of Jesus were doing between Crucifixion Friday and Resurrection Sunday. (This is a combination of the details as they appear in Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20).

At the rising of the sun, after the Sabbath on the first day of the week, the two Marys and Salome came to the tomb to keep vigil. They brought sweet-smelling spices they had purchased to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. Along the way, they wondered to themselves how they would roll the heavy stone away from the opening…

[They encounter the Risen Jesus] 

They brought this news back to all those who had followed Him and were still mourning and weeping. They recounted for them—and others with them—everything they had experienced. The Lord’s emissaries heard their stories as fiction, a lie; they didn’t believe a word of it until Jesus appeared to them all as they sat at dinner that same evening (Resurrection Sunday). 

 They were gathered together behind locked doors in fear that some of the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem were still searching for them. Out of nowhere, Jesus appeared in the center of the room and said, “May each one of you be at peace.” 

 What do we see the closest followers of Jesus doing?

·      Keeping a vigil of mourning

·      Planning how to perfume the body of the dead Messiah

·      Hiding in fear

·      Mourning and weeping

·      Refusing to believe that Jesus was alive

It’s not a great resume builder, really. You would think that the biblical writers might want to put a better spin on what happened here. “As the disciples were praying and rejoicing over Jesus’ impending Resurrection, Mary returned and told them the good news. And they said, “Of course! We knew it all along! This is why there are BBQ wings on the table! It’s a party!”

No, they were mourning the death of their long awaited Messiah. They thought he was gone. They thought he had failed – and in that failure had shown that he was not, after all, the promised deliverer. As far as they knew, he was never coming back. 

Crucifixion Fridays are hard, but Silent Saturdays may be even harder. Funeral days are hard, but they are at least full of adrenaline and crisis management and we are surrounded by support. But then the next day, when family drifts back home, and friends go back to their routine… that’s when Silent Saturday sets in. The loneliness and the emptiness…

It’s hard enough when it involves earthly things. But what about when our relationship with God is best described as a Silent Saturday kind of relationship? What if there is a spiritual loneliness and emptiness, a sense that God is aloof at best and gone at worst. What about the times when the heavens seem empty, and our prayers just seem to drift off into a void? What about the times when God is silent?

ANDREW PETERSON – THE SILENCE OF GOD

It's enough to drive a man crazy, it'll break a man's faith
It's enough to make him wonder, if he's ever been sane
When he's bleating for comfort from Thy staff and Thy rod
And the Heaven's only answer is the silence of God

It'll shake a man's timbers when he loses his heart
When he has to remember what broke him apart
This yoke may be easy but this burden is not
When the crying fields are frozen by the silence of God

And if a man has got to listen to the voices of the mob
Who are reeling in the throes of all the happiness they've got
When they tell you all their troubles
Have been nailed up to that cross
Then what about the times when even followers get lost?
'Cause we all get lost sometimes

There's a statue of Jesus on a monastery knoll
In the hills of Kentucky, all quiet and cold
And He's kneeling in the garden, as silent as a Stone
All His friends are sleeping and He's weeping all alone

And the man of all sorrows, he never forgot
What sorrow is carried by the hearts that he bought
So when the questions dissolve into the silence of God
The aching may remain but the breaking does not
The aching may remain but the breaking does not
In the holy, lonesome echo of the silence of God

John Ortberg tells the following story:

“From the time she was a young girl, Agnes believed. Not just believed: she was on fire. She wanted to do great things for God. She said things such as she wanted to "love Jesus as he has never been loved before." Agnes had an undeniable calling.  She wrote in her journal that "my soul at present is in perfect peace and joy." She experienced a union with God that was so deep and so continual that it was to her a rapture. She left her home. She became a missionary. She gave him everything. And then he left her. 

At least that's how it felt to her. "Where is my faith?" She asked. "Deep down there is nothing but emptiness and darkness …. My God, how painful is this unknown pain … I have no faith." She struggled to pray: "I utter words of community prayers—and try my utmost to get out of every word the sweetness it has to give. But my prayer of union is not there any longer. I no longer pray." 

She still worked, still served, still smiled. But she spoke of that smile as her mask, "a cloak that covers everything." This inner darkness continued on, year after year, with one brief respite, for nearly 50 years. God was just absent. Such was the secret pain of Agnes, who is better known as Mother Teresa.

So what do we do with the Silent Saturdays of our lives? I want to offer a number of suggestions not so that you will be immediately aware of God’s presence, but so you can be purposeful and grow from this kind of season of your life. 

1. Be honest with God. The Bible gives us permission to voice our hearts during Silent Saturday. Look at a few of the Psalms:

·      Psalm 6:2–3  “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing. Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. My soul is greatly troubled, but you, O Lord, how long?”

·       Psalm 13:1–2 “How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?” 

·      Psalm 90:13–14 “Return, O Lord. How long? Have pity on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love.”

·      “I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me.” (Job 30:20)

There is even a Psalm where David longs to bash the heads of the children of his enemies on rocks.  That is a terrible idea, of course, and God did not sanction that, but David wasn’t afraid to say it, as if he knew that God knew, and there was something important about naming the anger within. The psalms give us permission not to hide, as if we could anyway. Bring it into the light.  

A friend sent me a psalm of lament, full of anger and frustration that she had written as part of her process of coming to grips with why God had allowed what He did in her life. It was raw and beautiful, and it was bold. Those are good things. God knows your heart and mind; he already knows your deepest internal struggles. Voice them. God is big. He can handle it. 

2. Keep the vigils

In the spite of the pain of their loss, the Marys did what they had always done, which was part of the ritual life of living in Jewish community. What Jewish people believed and what they did in almost every aspect of life were so intertwined that it’s hard to imagine that the vigil was not considered part of what God called them to do. There is something to be said for keeping the faith through an active commitment to obedience and faithfulness. I would like to offer four vigils I believe are helpful.

A. Pursue Church community. Don't forsake gathering together (Hebrews 10:25). The disciples did at least one thing right: they hung together in the midst of their grief. It’s important that we remain connected and not withdraw. In community, others came back and reported their experiences with the Risen Christ. Even in the midst of doubt, there was hope. We stay in community so that we can be challenged, encouraged, and held close. We need to feel the nearness of God’s people when God feels distant. We need the hope that lives in others when our sense of hope is gone.

B. Pray and Read Scripture. I don’t know that there is a formula for the best way to do this. There are all kinds of cool ideas about how to read through the Bible or how to pray. I don’t think they are bad; I just don’t think there is a one-size-fits-all kind of approach. 

·    Listen to or read the Bible. 

·    Pray alone - or get together with others.

·    Pray for a block of time - or throughout the day.

·    Sing. There are theologically rich songs that    

     are good reminders of the hope we find in Jesus.

C. Dive Into Devotionals (podcasts, books, teachings, even songs). This is one way to experience the community of the church. It’s also a good way to find clarity about the Scriptures and to hear the testimonies of others. What did they do when they were in the First and Second days of their stories? 

D. Practice Obedience. One of the greatest dangers we face is giving up and saying to God, “You know what? If I can’t feel your presence, I am going to live as if you’re not there.” We shake our fist at the heavens and begin to sow sinful things that can be forgiven and healed but will nonetheless be harvested (Galatians 6:7). 

 The Bible describes the way of obedience as “the path of life” (Psalm 16:11). There is something about faithful obedience that is not just healthy; it is wise and stabilizing. This, too, is sowing actions that you will one day reap – but this time it won’t be the wages of sin. It will be the fruit of righteousness.  Also, I believe obedience is one of the ways we are conformed to the image of Christ – and in that conforming – as we begin to see what it means to ‘be like Jesus’ -  we begin to appreciate the wisdom of the One who guides our life. 

3. Learn to wait

·      Psalm 37:7  “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way.” 

·      Psalm 27:14  “Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord.”

 I’m not good at waiting. I want problem resolution. Give me a task! Sometimes that is what God calls us to do, but many God does not work that way. I like what Jon Bloom wrote in an article entitled, “When God Is Silent.”

Why is it that “absence makes the heart grow fonder” but “familiarity breeds contempt”? Why is water so much more refreshing when we’re really thirsty? Why am I almost never satisfied with what I have, but always longing for more? Why can the thought of being denied a desire for marriage or children or freedom or some other dream create in us a desperation we previously didn’t have?  

Why is the pursuit of earthly achievement often more enjoyable than the achievement itself? Why do deprivation, adversity, scarcity, and suffering often produce the best character qualities in us while prosperity, ease, and abundance often produce the worst?

Do you see it? There is a pattern in the design of deprivation: Deprivation draws out desire. Absence heightens desire. And the more heightened the desire, the greater its satisfaction will be. It is the mourning that will know the joy of comfort (Matthew 5:4). It is the hungry and thirsty that will be satisfied (Matthew 5:6). Longing makes us ask, emptiness makes us seek, silence makes us knock (Luke 11:9). 

Deprivation is in the design of this age. We live mainly in the age of anticipation, not gratification. We live in the dim mirror age, not the face-to-face age (1 Corinthians 13:12). The paradox is that what satisfies us most in this age is not what we receive, but what we are promised. The chase is better than the catch in this age because the Catch we’re designed to be satisfied with is in the age to come...  It’s the desert that awakens and sustains desire. It’s the desert that dries up our infatuation with worldliness. And it’s the desert that draws us to the Well of the world to come. 

Sometimes, the best way to hand over the weight of the world is to wait on Christ.

4. Don't confuse what you feel from what is real

I heard a wise man say once, “You will either judge truth by your feelings, or you will judge your feelings by what it true.” What is true is that God may feel absent, but He is not. God is with us always. Why does He feel absent? I don’t know. It could be that you are in rebellious sin. It could be that you are tired. It could be that God has removed the sense of His presence as part of transforming you into the image of Christ. It could be that you are distracted. I don’t know. 

But I know that God is near and faithful no matter how we feel. 

___________________________________________________________________________________

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

·      “Three Lessons to Learn When You’re Stuck in the Hallways of Life”  - Sarah Coleman


·      “When God Seems Far Away”  - John Ortberg

·      “When God Seems Silent” -  Jon Bloom

[1] I got this idea from a brilliant teaching called “Saturday: Living Between Crucifixion and Resurrection,” posted by Richmont Graduate Universityon youtube. I don’t know who the speaker was. You can access the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U90EKNZPKCU

The Days We Mourn (A Liturgy Of Lament fo Crucifixion Friday)

The Bible is full of ‘three day stories”[1]:  Jonah; Joseph’s brothers in jail in Egypt; the plague of darkness in Egypt. When the Israelites left Egypt, they traveled three days into the desert before they found water; Rahab hid the spies for three days; plagues of judgment against Israel often lasted three days.  Jesus was in the tomb for three days. 

On the third day is when the bad stuff ends. That’s the day we celebrate, and rightly so. But third day stories aren’t clear until the third day. On Day One and Day Two, it’s not yet clear how the story will end. The First day of Third Day story is often a brutal one.  

It was the First Day -  Crucifixion Friday, or Good Friday -  that Jesus died.  His followers did not know this was a Three Day story. All they had on that Friday was the First Day. They had seen so many failed messiahs by this point[2]. They did not understand the prophecy that pointed toward Jesus’ resurrection. They were afraid and in despair.

Crucifixion Friday reminds us that Jesus knows what it means that all of creation groans (Romans 8:22) and how the very land mourns (says Jeremiah 12:4). When the prophet Isaiah wrote of the coming Christ, he wrote, “Surely he has borne our grief’s and carried our sorrows; He was stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53:4) 

Jesus understands our First Days. His entrance into the human condition showed that God is not a distant, uncaring and cold God. God understands us.  As an advocate, he empathizes with us.  

“God’s beloved Son, leaving the echoes of His cries upon the mountains and the traces of His weary feet upon the streets, shedding His tears over the tombs and His blood upon Golgotha, associating His life with our homes, and His corpse with our sepulchres, shows us how we, too, may be… sure of sympathy in heaven amid the deepest wrongs and sorrows of earth.” - Edward Thomson.

“The psalms of pain and protest shock Christians who are not used to this way of talking to God. Yet they have an explicit place in the New Testament. Jesus uses the phraseology of Psalms 6 and 42 in Gethsemane, and on the cross utters the extraordinary cry that opens Psalms 22. Nor does Jesus pray these prayers so that we might not have to do so, for a lament such as Psalm 44 appears on the lips of Paul (Romans 8:36). In the New Testament, believers grieve and protest. To refuse to do so is often to refuse to face our pains and our losses.” (John Goldingay)

 So today, we are going to begin our journey toward the Third Day - Resurrection Sunday – but settling into the reality of First Days in our lives, and the importance of clinging to a Savior who understands even the most terrifying and tragic days of our lives. 

In ancient Israel, mourning was a community event. Family and friends showed support by participating in the rituals of lament with the mourner (e. g. Job 2:12-13). To fail to show solidarity in such a situation was to deny the shared covenant. The lament was so formalized that Zechariah gives directions about how to do them in proper order. (12:11-14).  I think Nicholas Wolerstorff, in his book Lament for a Son, captures the reason why well. 

“What I need to hear from you is that you recognize how painful it is. I need to hear from you that you are with me in my desperation. To comfort me, you have to come close. Come sit beside me on my mourning bench.” 

On Resurrection Sunday, we are going to talk about the primary reason Jesus died: to forgive our sins and save us from the penalty of eternal death. That will also be a part of this morning as well, but first we are going to focus on a different part of the story that the church has commemorated for 2,000 years (at least the more liturgical churches have). Esau McCauley says[3],  

“To mourn involves being saddened by the state of the world. To mourn is to care. It is an act of rebellion against one’s own sins and the sins of the world.”

We are going to sit on the mourning bench with each other as we offer our suffering to a Savior who suffered and died so that we could live.

_______________________________________ 

READER: As the soldiers led Jesus away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned for him. Jesus turned and said to them, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children.’”  (Mark 15:1-15; Luke 23:13-28)

It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining...  Then Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.” Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.” Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.”  (Matthew 27:45-50; Luke 23:44-47)

Pastor: Jesus entered a world that was broken, suffering, and full of pain. He grieved the loss of his friends; he wept for his people. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He entered into a lonesome, weary world in desperate need of the light of hope and peace to bring the promise of God's everlasting presence and love. 

 “ I WILL ARISE AND GO TO JESUS” (Julie Miller)

I will arise and go to Jesus, he will embrace me in his arms,

In the arms of my dear Savior, oh, there are ten thousand charms.

Come, ye weary, heavy laden, lost and ruined by the fall,

If you tarry 'til you're better, you will never come at all.

Come, ye sinner, poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore,

Jesus ready stands to save you, full of pity, love, and power.

 Pastor: God, you have given us reason to celebrate, but we often find the days cold and our hearts hard.  As we await our resurrection into the new life in the world to come, it’s sometimes hard for us to lift up our hearts. You understand the grief of this world; meet us in our aching hearts we pray. Hold as we walk through darkness.

Congregation: Help us. Embrace us. Heal us. 

READER:  “He was despised and forsaken by men, this man of suffering, grief’s patient friend.
As if he was a person to avoid, we looked the other way; he was despised, forsaken, and we took no notice of him. Yet it was our suffering he carried, our pain and distress, our sickness-to-the-soul.


We thought that God had rejected him, but he was hurt because of us; he suffered for us. Our wrongdoing wounded and crushed him. He endured the breaking that made us whole. His injuries became our healing. We all have wandered off, like shepherdless sheep, scattered by our aimless pursuits; The Eternal One laid on him, this silent sufferer, the sins of us all. (Isaiah 53:3-6)

Pastor: Jesus knows the feelings of abandonment, anger, and loneliness we sometimes feel. Jesus knows the depths of our broken hearts, and He alone has the power to bring beauty from the ashes in our lives. We long for the day when His work will be completed in us and in a world that groans as it awaits redemption.  

Congregation: Meanwhile, we weep with those who weep, and we mourn with those who mourn.

READER: The Psalmist wrote in the 88th psalm: O Eternal One! O True God my Savior! I cry out to You all the time, under the sun and the moon. Let my voice reach You! Please listen to my prayers!My soul is deeply troubled, and my heart can’t bear the weight of this sorrow. I feel so close to death… You crush me with Your anger.
You crash against me like the relentless, angry sea. Those whom I have known, who have been with me,
You have gathered like sheaves and cast to the four winds.
They can’t bear to look me in the eye, and they are horrified when they think of me.
 I am in a trap and cannot be free… Are You the miracle-worker for the dead?
Will they rise from the dark shadows to worship You again? Will your great love be proclaimed in the grave or Your faithfulness be remembered in whispers like mists throughout the place of ruin? Are Your wonders known in the dominion ofdarkness,
or is Your righteousness recognized in a land where all is forgotten? But I am calling out to You, Eternal One.
My prayers rise before You with every new sun! Why do You turn Your head
and brush me aside, O Eternal One?
 Why are You avoiding me… I am desperate. Your rage spills over me like rivers of fire; Your assaults have all but destroyed me…  You have taken from me the one I love and my friend; darkness is my closest friend.

Music Inspired By The Story – “Job”

Broken Praise, Todd Smith

If one more person takes my hand and tries to say they understand

Tells me there’s a bigger plan that I’m not meant to see;

If one more person dares suggest that I held something unconfessed

Tries to make the dots connect from righteousness to easy street.

Well I, I won’t deny I’ve relied on some assumptions

A man’s honest life entitles him to something

But who am I to make demands of the God of Abraham?

And who are You that You would choose to answer me with mercy new?

How many more will wander past to find me here among the ashes?

Will you hold me? Will you stay so I can raise this broken praise to You?

Who else will see my suffering as one more opportunity to educate;

to help me see all my flawed theology.

If one more well intentioned friend tries to tie up my loose ends

Hoping to, with rug and broom, sweep awkward moments from the room.

But I, I can’t forget. I have begged just like a madman

For my chance to die and never have to face the morning.

But who am I to make demands of the God of Abraham?

And who are You that You would choose to answer me with mercy new?

How many more will wander past to find me here among the ashes?

Will you hold me? Will you stay so I can raise this broken praise to You?

But You were the One who filled my cup

And You were the One who let it spill

So blessed be your Holy name if you never fill it up again

If this is where my story ends, just give me one more breathe to say

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

PASTOR: In the midst of the brokenness of this world, we have reason to say, “Hallelujah.” Because even when we are tempted to give up, even when we have lost that which brings ‘life’ to our life, even when the comfort of our friends has brought us nothing but ashes, God does not abandon us. 

READER: “At different times and in various ways, God’s voice came to our ancestors through the Hebrew prophets. But in these last days, God’s voice has come to us through His Son, the One who has been given dominion over all things and through whom all worlds were made.” (Hebrews 1:1-2)

Pastor: God of light and life, you speak even when we do not hear. You are present even when we do not sense you are near. In the midst of darkness and silence, we listen for your voice and long to feel your comforting grace. 

Congregation: God of the desperate, draw near to us as we draw near to you. Open our eyes so we can see you; open our ears so we can hear.

READER: The prophet Jeremiah wrote: “My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick… For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.  Is there no balm in Gilead?  Is there no physician there…?  O, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night…”  (Jeremiah 8:18,21-9:1)                     

Pastor: In this place, we join with the prophets in freely admitting our pain, our loss, our fear. Though the light of God’s mercy illuminates our tears, we mourn without shame. Here, among God’s people, we are welcome even if we're cynical, even if we're angry, even if we scoff at the mention of hope and meaning. Here we can bare our hearts to those who will help us to bear our burden.

Congregation: Here we, the followers of a weeping Savior, bear one another’s burdens. 

Pastor: Here, in the company of those who follow the Prince of Peace, let us be at peace.  

 Congregation: May we, the church, be a sanctuary of God’s peace for those in need of shelter.

Pastor: We will cast our sorrows upon Christ, for He cares for us. 

READER: The Psalmist wrote: “My soul is dry and thirsts for You, True God, as a deer thirsts for water. I long for the True God who lives. When can I stand before Him and feel His comfort? Right now I’m overwhelmed by my sorrow and pain; I can’t stop feasting on my tears. People crowd around me and say, “Where is your True God whom you claim will save?” With a broken heart, I remember times before When I was with Your people. Those were better days.  I used to lead them happily into the True God’s house, Singing with joy, shouting thanksgivings with abandon, joining the congregation in the celebration. Why am I so overwrought? Why am I so disturbed? Why can’t I just hope in God? (Psalm 42:1-6)

“WORN” (10th Avenue North)

I’m tired I’m worn, my heart is heavy

From the work it takes to keep on breathing

I’ve made mistakes I’ve let my hope fail

My soul feels crushed by the weight of this world

And I know that you can give me rest

So I cry out with all that I have left

Let me see redemption win let me know the struggle ends

That you can mend a heart that’s frail and torn

I wanna know a song can rise from the ashes of a broken life

And all that’s dead inside can be reborn

Cause I’m worn

I know I need to lift my eyes up but I'm too weak

Life just won’t let up and I know that you can give me rest

So I cry out with all that I have left

My prayers are wearing thin (Yeah, I’m worn)

Even before the day begins (Yeah, I’m worn)

I’ve lost my will to fight (I’m worn)

So, heaven come and flood my eyes

Though I’m worn.

Yeah, I’m worn.

READER: Though we are worn as we wait for all that is dead to be reborn, we can agree with what David wrote in Psalm 42: “ I will believe and praise the One who saves me and is my life… in the light of day, the Eternal shows me His love. When night settles in and all is dark, He keeps me company—His soothing song, a prayerful melody to the True God of my life.” (Psalm 42:7-8)

Pastor: As we lift our broken hands toward the only One who can heal us, we light the darkness of our memories with candles that help us to remember that though our grief is real, our hope burns brightly with the light of the True God of life. 

The First Candle

We light our first candle to recognize that at times we participate in the sufferings of others. We do not simply mourn the sins of the world. We mourn how our own sinful desires have caused us to hurt, use, and exploit others. We mourn what we have done to contribute to the darkness of sin. We light this candle, representative of the light of Christ, as a symbolic act of resistance in which we long for the light of God’s truth, forgiveness and grace to overcome not only the darkness around us, but within us. 

Congregation: Be merciful to us all, God of mercy and grace. 

The Second Candle 

We light our second candle to acknowledge the pain of loss: the loss of relationships, the loss of jobs, the loss of health, the loss of family unity, the loss of normal life in times of pandemic . We take the pain of the past, offering it to God from whose nail-scarred hands we may receive the gift of peace. We light this candle for the light of love to illuminate that which was lost in the darkness of our history. 

Congregation: Renew us, God of light and joy.

The Third Candle 

We light the third candle to remember those who have died. We remember their name, their face, their voice, the memory that we carry with us. We remember the times we laughed, argued, loved, hugged, smiled, and wept. The valley of the shadow of death can seem relentless, so we light this candle to commemorate the memories of a life once shared, and to illuminate with comfort the path of those of us who mourn.

 Congregation:  May the light of a dying and risen Savior’s eternal love surround us.

The Fourth Candle

We light the fourth candle for our attitudes, our mindset, our hidden, inner times of darkness.  We acknowledge the times of disbelief, anger, despair, and frustration, the times we have compromised our integrity and lost our innocence. We bring God’s pure light to the depth of our flawed mortality. With this light, we also remember the family and friends who have stood with us, and the Savior who is faithful even when we are not.

Congregation:  Let us remember that Christ brings the light of life.

The Fifth Candle

We light the fifth candle to remember those who feel alone, who feel isolated from loved ones, far from home, far from friends, far from a God they believe is unconcerned with their suffering. We light this candle to remember that the God who guided His people through a wilderness with fire can illuminate the way of those captive to the darkness of loneliness and disillusionment. 

Congregation:  May Jesus, who was despised and rejected, comfort the lonely and brokenhearted.

The Sixth Candle                                                                                                                          

 We light the sixth candle to remember those who are in the midst of hardships that threaten to overwhelm them. For the poor, the persecuted, the hungry, the homeless, the sick, the forgotten, the oppressed. We lift up those who suffer the pain, indignity, and bewilderment that accompany a broken body, spirit or soul. We pray that God, who lit up the night to guide wise men to the healing Christ, will light the way today to a Risen Savior.  

Congregation: O God, light our path; bring hope to the hopeless; make us new.

The Seventh Candle

We light the seventh candle to remember our faith and the gift of hope. We remember that God promises those who love him a world with no more pain and suffering. We light a candle for courage in the darkness. We confront our sorrow, our loss, our confusion. With God’s Spirit and the presence of his people, we bring the light of comfort to each other, bearing each other’s burdens, and praying for hope in our broken world.

 Congregation.  Let us remember the One who draws beauty from ashes, brings the truth, and offers us hope.

READER: The Apostle Paul wrote: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.”  (2 Corinthians 1:3-7)

Pastor: It is through the suffering of Christ that we find comfort in the midst of our suffering as well.  On the night Jesus offered himself up for us he took bread, gave thanks, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." When the supper was over he took the cup, gave thanks, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Drink from this, all of you; for this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Congregation: Because of Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection, we have been delivered from the power of sin, death, and despair. In the light of Gods’ Word, the sacrifice of Christ, and the presence of God’s Holy Spirit, may we endure with hope and faith.

COMMUNION

Pastor: It was in His parting sorrow that Jesus asked His disciples to remember Him. May we, the church, be united in the fellowship of his suffering so we can experience the power of his resurrection. 

READER:  “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes.  Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’  And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’  (Revelation 21:1-5)

Pastor: In the promise of God’s never-ending love from which nothing can separate us, we claim peace. We long for the day when there shall be no more tears, no more sorrow, no more sickness, no more death. Even when we see only a glimmer, we know the light of your love is overcoming all darkness. 

Congregation: Christ himself is with us.  He is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” 

Pastor: Hear the good news:  God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. One day, Christ who died and rose again will wipe all tears from our eyes. He will make all things new. 

Congregation: All Honor and glory to the only One who can bring us peace.

Pastor: As we wait for Resurrection, we lift up our broken hearts. May the God of Comfort be with us.

Congregation: May the God of Resurrection be with us all.

Carrollton’s “Death Has Lost Its Way”

I seem to live in valleys where death is always waiting

for me to come home. I am a wandering soul;

no place to ever call my own, nowhere to lay my head.

Oh, You have found me; You took my heart and breathed in life.

Oh, You've always known me; You took my darkest days and brought me Light.

I've come to lay at Your feet, find comfort in Your shadow, and here I find rest.

We join with heaven's chorus with those who've gone before us

They're singing death

has lost its way. 

____________________________________________________________________________________

[1] I got this idea from a brilliant teaching called “Saturday: Living Between Crucifixion and Resurrection,” posted by Richmont Graduate Universityon youtube. I don’t know who the speaker was. You can access the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U90EKNZPKCU

[2] http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12416-pseudo-messiahs

[3] In his excellent book Reading While Black

The Fruit Of Our Love (1 John 2:12-17)

“To be human is to be animated and oriented by some vision of the good life, some picture of what we think counts as “flourishing.” And we want that. We crave it. We desire it…. What if you are defined not by what you know but by what you desire? What if the center and seat of the human person is found not in the heady regions of the intellect but in the gut-level regions of the heart? We are oriented by our longings, directed by our desires. 

The author of The Little Prince succinctly encapsulates the motive power of such allure: “If you want to build a ship,” he counsels, “don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” I want something, and want it ultimately. It is my desires that define me.  In short, you are what you love.  (James K. A. Smith)

This is a biblical notion, as we will see in this passage today. We begin with some verses in chapter 2 that read like a poem or a song (which is probably what it was). Some versions of the Bible will set it apart in a quote form that shows that.  I am using Anthony’s Amplified Version again to embed all the hyperlinks the original audience likely made, so it’s going to look different than the typeset in your Bible, and it’s going to read slightly different as I turn it into prose rather than poetry. 

12-14 I am writing to you, who are all my children in this new faith, because your sins have been forgiven by the authority of His name. I have written to the youngest of you, new converts, because you have known the Father. 13 I am writing to you, Founding Fathers[1] (and mothers),[2] because you have known God the Father, Creator, and recognized Jesus as that same Creator, as the One who started everything. I have written to those of you who, though young in the faith, are full of vigor and life because the voice of God remains and the Word of God is heard among you. Remember that you have conquered the evil one by the power of God.[3]

Okay, that’s the song part that I made less songy. Don’t get hung up on the differences between what John says to the age groups. It seems to be a framework on which to fasten what God is building in the church: You know God through Jesus; your sins have been forgiven by him; God’s Word and power are making you victorious in your fight against the evil one. Well done, church. Then, the caution.

15 Don’t fall in love with the sinful ways of the world or worship the corrupt things it can offer. Those who love (agape) its corrupt ways don’t have the Father’s love (agape) living within them.

16 All the things the world can offer to you—the lust[4] of the flesh (unreasonably excessive desire for sinful indulgence) the lust of the eyes[5] (covetous passion to have things[6]), and the pride of life (pompous sense of superiority and craving for recognition)—do not come from the Father.[7] These are the rotten fruits of this world. 17 This corrupt world is already wasting away, as are its selfish desires. But the person really doing God’s will—that person will never cease to be, but shall abide in the Kingdom of God forever.[8]

Our eyes have the potential to help us see the world as God sees it, so eyes are not the problem. Our flesh has the potential to then go to places our eyes revealed and do Kingdom work in a floundering empire. Our senses aren’t the problem. It’s our hearts. 

• lust of the flesh – unreasonably excessive desire for sinful indulgence; a nurtured desire to do something it is not in God’s will for us to do (at least not in the way we want to do it)..

•  the lust of the eyes - covetous passion to have things; a nurtured desire to have something it is not in God’s will for us to have (at least not in the way we want to have it)..

• the pride of life - pompous sense of superiority and craving for recognition; a nurtured desire to have earthly power and glory that it is not God’s will for us to wield (at least not in the way we want to wield it).[9]

If you want to see two other places in the Bible where these three things are grouped together, check out Eve’s temptation in the Garden and Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.[10]

* * * * *

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. (Proverbs 4:23) We are what we love. So let’s talk about love and desire that produces fruit that either fades away like “wood, hay and stubble”[11]  or endures forever.

The desires which God has placed in the human body are in themselves not sinful; they are God-given and essential. God made us with eyes and flesh – 5 senses, for that matter. It is not inherently sinful to use them or find pleasure in using them. We are designed to desire food, warmth, shelter, friendship, sex, affirmation, happiness, fulfillment, purpose, rest, relaxation, pleasure….

God made us. He designed us with loves and desires for all kinds of things. When rightly ordered, they reveal the love and care expressed by God in the order of his creation, and we worship God when we properly enjoy God’s creation. It’s when our lives become disordered that they become harmful. Warren Wiersbe wrote: 

"These fundamental desires of life are the steam in the boiler that makes the machinery go. Turn off the steam and you have no power. Let the steam go its own way and you have destruction… These desires must be our servants and not our masters; and this we can do through Jesus Christ.” [12]

I heard the first part a lot growing up. I didn’t hear the second part enough when I was young: Desire is a gift from God. Being human involves wrestling with the fact that we have desires/loves outside of God’s will that should not be satisfied vs. having desires/loves inside of God’s will that can and perhaps should be satisfied. 

The desire to have or experience the beautiful and good things in God’s beautiful and good world aren’t in and of themselves bad. I am afraid sometimes that we can become suspicious of pleasure, as if the only truly godly life is one in which we are always at least slightly miserable, or we feel guilty about really enjoying life. Jesus’ first recorded miracle was to make an already significantly pleasurable wedding feast even better. That says something. 

•  If you have sexual desire, there is not something wrong with you. God designed you to have sexual desire. It just need to be your servant not your master. 

•  If you love a good meal and really look forward to the next one, good for you. You are supposed to want food, and God designed your taste buds to enjoy good food more than bad food. 

•  If you like long walks on the beach, good movies, beautiful art and music, the ability to travel and see the world… awesome. I think we are supposed to desire so experience these things. God’s creation ought to pull out that love in us. 

•  If you wish your life was more ‘sensually’ rich – and by that I don’t mean sexual, I mean that your 5 senses are pleased rather than offended – that’s not a sinful desire. That’s a desire to experience the world in its original creation glory, when God saw all that He made and declared it good. Wanting to experience that goodness is not a cause for guilt or shame. 

 It’s not that we desire, love or enjoy some thing or someone or some place that is a problem. It’s how we love them, why we desire them, in what ways we properly steward the desires that arise (do I nurture it or banish it?), and what kind of world we create on the other side of expressing our loves.  

The lust of the flesh and the eyes isn’t simply desire. It’s nurturing an unreasonably excessive desire for an indulgence that will be sinful.  The problem is not the things which are desired; they are likely part of God’s good creation. The problem is that in a fallen world desire itself is broken. We can love good things poorly, love true things falsely, and at times even love things we shouldn’t. Simply saying “love is the answer” has never been true, because how we love, and why, and to what end we love matters. 

If… 

• evil is the harmful distortion of good things, and

•  sin begins with a lust for this harmful distortion (James 1:14)

Then… then the solution to our inordinate desire for sinful indulgence is not eradication of the desire that God created and called good. The solution is redemption that frees us from desiring the distortion.

•  If you struggle with gluttony - nurtured, unreasonably excessive desire for something withinlimits for you - the solution isn’t for God to take away your desire to eat. You would die. The solution is for God to redeem the brokenness in a desire He designed you to have. 

•  If you struggle with sexual lust – that is, the nurtured, unreasonably excessive desire for someone who is off limits to you – the solution is not for God to take away your sex drive. The solution is for God to redeem your sexual desire so that it is a properly ordered desire for someone who is the righteous focus of your desire. 

• If you struggle with control issues – the unreasonably excessive desire to be in the position of power in everything – the solution is not to take away a love of order, organization and structure. The solution is that your desire be redeemed so it is righteously reasonable such that you and those around you flourish.

•  If you struggle with orienting your life around pleasure – anything to feel good, to not be annoyed or discomforted – the solution is not for God to take away your 5 senses. The solution is for God to redeem and reorient your craving for sensual fulfillment toward His design.  This is why it is important to clarify if is Jesus or the world that we love. Everything flows from our heart.[13] 

* * * * *

So how do we avoid the pitfalls of disordered loves? How do we experience a reformation of our desires? Through a re-formation of our desires and loves. We need to acknowledge, surrender, respond righteously, and test the fruit of our desires and loves.

1.    Acknowledge our desires. It does no good to ignore them or pretend they aren’t there. The unreasonably excessive ones must be named (ideally, in a community of accountability, but certainly before God). God knows what you the distortions of your desire already. He knows your heart. It does no good to ignore what you both know is there.  Step one is to admit you have a problem (if the loves are sinful or disordered). 

2.    Surrender our desires. Once we acknowledge what we love and desire, the next thing to do is view it through the lenses of Scripture. Will this desire, if nurtured, lead me further into God’s will or further away from it? If into it, pray for more. If out of it, pray for God’s help to change the loves of your heart. It will require a miraculous intervention, no doubt about it. Pray hard.

3.    Respond righteously to our desires (resist or nurture?) If we have surrendered them, we should know which path to take after we feel a desire God intends for us to feel. Big Picture: follow the path of the fruit of the Spirit. If you follow a desire you feel in the direction you want to go, will it rob of you of the fruit of the Spirit or bring you a harvest? Practical example: If my wife looks at me and thinks, “That is one fine man,” and has an increasing desire to, um, “know” me, that’s a desire solidly within the biblical framework of God’s will for marriage. She can nurture that rather than resist it. If she looks at another man and the same process begins, that’s one she has to resist. Same starting point, but one requires stepping immediately onto a path of resistance while the other allows her to follow a path of nurturing. 

4.    Test the fruit. “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” (Matthew 3:8). This is “a way of life consistent with the Kingdom of God”[14] that reflects a love of righteousness, not simply outward conformity,[15] and in which the fruit of the Spirit finds a natural home.

I want to leave you with 4 questions to consider. 

Is the desire I have for this pleasure consistent with the design of God? “Did God intend for me to have this kind of desire? Should I resist it all together or is there a place to nurture it?”

 Is my desire unreasonably excessive? (Did God intend for me to feel it this strongly? If not, what is going on?)

Is the end of this desire found within the will of God? (Is there a place in the Kingdom of God where this desire finds holy fulfillment?)

Will the person I become increasingly reflect a transformation into the image of Christ? Will nurturing and acting on the desire increase my fellowship with God and others?

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[1] “By fathers it is very likely that the apostle means persons who had embraced Christianity on its first promulgation in Judea and in the Lesser Asia, some of them had probably seen Christ in the flesh; for this appears to be what is meant by, Ye have known him from the beginning. These were the elders and eye witnesses, who were of the longest standing in the Church, and well established in the truths of the Gospel, and in Christian experience.” (Adam Clarke) 

[2] Stresses the historic origins of the faith and the growth of the personal knowledge of Christ that comes only with experience.

[3] “Fathers, πατερες· those who had been converted at the very commencement of Christianity, and had seen the eternal Word manifested in the flesh. Young Men, νεανισκοι· youths in the prime of their spiritual life, valiant soldiers, fighting under the banner of Christ, who had confounded Satan in his wiles, and overcome him by the blood of the Lamb. Little Children, παιδια· disciples of Christ, not of very long standing in the Church, nor of much experience, but who had known the Father; i.e. persons who had been made sons: God had sent the Spirit of his Son into their hearts, whereby they cried Abba, Father! Beloved Children, τεκνια· the most recent converts, and particularly those among young men and women who, from their youth, simplicity, openheartedness, and affectionate attachment to God and his cause, were peculiarly dear to this aged apostle of Jesus Christ… These four classes constituted the household or family of God. (Adam Clarke)

[4] Think “inordinate desire for something forbidden.”

[5] The "lust of the eyes" can refer especially to sexual lust, but can also mean everything that grabs our eyes and brings about greedy desire.

[6] Or…. “the lust of the eyes.  The desire of seeing unlawful sights for the sake of the sinful pleasure to be derived from the sight; idle and prurient curiosity. Familiar as S. John’s readers must have been with the foul and cruel exhibitions of the circus and amphitheatre, this statement would at once meet with their assent. Tertullian, though he does not quote this passage in his treatise De Spectaculis, is full of its spirit: “The source from which all circus games are taken pollutes them … What is tainted taints us.” Similarly S. Augustine on this passage; “This it is that works in spectacles, in theatres, in sacraments of the devil, in magical arts, in witchcraft; none other than curiosity.” (Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges)

[7] The world's awful anti-trinity, the "lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," similarly is presented in Satan's temptation of Eve: "When she saw that the tree was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise," Ge 3:6 (one manifestation of "the pride of life," the desire to know above what God has revealed, Col 2:8, the pride of unsanctified knowledge). (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary)

[8]  ‘For ever’ is literally ‘unto the age’, i.e. ‘unto the age to come’, the kingdom of heaven; the word for ‘age’ (αἰών) being the substantive from which the word for ‘eternal’ (αἰώνιος) is derived. He who does God’s will shall abide until the kingdom of God comes and be a member of it. The latter fact, though not stated, is obviously implied. It would be a punishment and not a blessing to be allowed, like Moses, to see the kingdom but not enter it. The followers of the world share the death of the world: the children of God share His eternal life.”  (Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges)

[9] “To the pride or boasting of life,— all that belongs to the outside of existence, houses, lands, whatever exalts a man above his fellow,—to this head we must refer the oppressor’s wrongs. (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges)

[10] There is more reality in the parallel drawn between S. John’s classification and the three elements in the temptation by which Eve was overcome by the evil one, and again the three temptations in which Christ overcame the evil one. ‘When the woman saw that the tree was good for food (the lust of the flesh), and that it was pleasant to the eyes (the lust of the eyes), and a tree to be desired to make one wise (the vainglory of life), she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat’ (Genesis 3:6). Similarly, the temptations (1) to work a miracle in order to satisfy the cravings of the flesh, (2) to submit to Satan in order to win possession of all that the eye could see, (3) to tempt God in order to win the glory of a miraculous preservation (Luke 4:1-12).

[11] 1 Corinthians 3:12

[12] (Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor)

[13] And this is where the Pride of Life comes in. The pride of life isn’t merely taking satisfaction in a job well done. I think we are designed by God to feel that. When we hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” I don’t think we will respond with, “Aw, shucks. It was nothing.” I think we will respond with “YES! THANK YOU!” WOO HOO!” The problem is when it becomes the foundation of our identity, the thing we love in ways God never intended. The Pride of Life is a pompous sense of superiority and craving for recognition. If the lust of the flesh is the desire to do something apart from the will of God and the lust of the eyes is the desire to have something apart from the will of God, the pride of life is the desire to be something apart from the will of God.

“It describes a pretentious hypocrite who glories in himself or in his possessions. If one's public image means more than the glory of God or the well-being of one's fellow human beings, such pretentiousness of life has become a form of idol-worship. ‘Pride of life’ will be reflected in whatever status symbol is important to me or seems to define my identity. When I define myself to others in terms of my honorary degrees, the reputation of the church I serve, my annual income, the size of my library, my expensive car or house, and if in doing this I misrepresent the truth and in my boasting show myself to be only a pompous fool who has deceived no one, then I have succumbed to the pride of life. (Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges)

[14] Orthodox Study Bible

[15] Reformation Study Bible

Love, Offense, and Fellowship (1 John 2:3-11)

Rather than taking the time to have a separate conversation about the context and commentary that helps to explain today’s verses, I am embedding them into the verses. Think of this as Anthony’s Amplified Version :)

3 We know we have joined Him in fellowship because we live out His commands. 4 If someone claims, “I am in fellowship with Him,” but this big talker doesn’t live out His commands, then this individual is a liar and a stranger to the truth. 

5 But if someone responds to and obeys His word, then God’s love has truly taken root and reached its ‘end stage,’ its final act; it’s love for God functioning at full capacity. This is how we know we are in an intimate relationship with Him: 6 anyone who says, “I live in intimacy with Him,” should walk the path Jesus walked.

7 My beloved children, in one sense, I am not writing a new command for you. I am only reminding you of the old command (to love your neighbor as yourself). It’s a word you already know, a word that has existed from the beginning. 8 However, in another sense, I am writing a new command for you (to love one another as Jesus loved you[1]). The new command is the truth that He lived by laying down His life; and now you are living it, too, because the darkness is fading and the true light is already shining among you.

9 Anyone who says, “I live in the light,” but hates his brother or sister ( everything from detests them to esteems them less than they deserve, or even simply devalues them as image bearers of God) is still living in the shadows. 

10 Anyone who loves his brother or sister lives in the light and will not trigger a self-made trap of sin because his conscience is clear. 11 But anyone who hates his brother is in the darkness, stumbling around with no idea where he is going, blinded by the darkness.

John is going to say a couple chapters from now (3:23):

“And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.”

Here’s where we are landing today: Knowing doctrinal truth about God without expressing love and esteem for others is worthless.

The skin and the soul are connected. Our bodies express the priorities of our heart. 

Two caveats that must be said.

•  #1. Sometimes the sin done to us is so impactful – it lands so hard – that we act out in ways that do more to reflect the dark priorities of other people’s hearts that they have imposed on us. We can feel caught, or trapped, or so broken that we do things that we despise. We don’t lose our free will – this is a sermon for another time – but sometimes we choose things we loathe. I’m not talking about that when I say that our bodies express the priorities of our heart. 

• #2. This cannot mean perfect obedience all the time. That is an impossible goal while living in corrupt and unglorified bodies on this side of heaven. But it must mean that our lives are characterized by a dedication and passion for obedience where what we do in our skin connects with a genuine commitment we have in our soul for the things of God.

So, in that context, hear: our bodies express the priorities of our hearts.

Remember those pesky Gnostics from the intro to 1 John? Among many problematic things, they insisted that knowledge of God required neither obedience nor love of others. John rebukes them sharply: love is demonstrated by obedience that manifest in love of others. God’s commandments are an expression of His love (His commands are for our good), and our obedience is an expression of our love. We abide in his love when we walk in His path. The Venerable Bede[2](I love that name) once wrote:

“In vain do we applaud Him whose commandments we do not keep.” (Bede)

When we keep His commands, we are in the light of God’s love, like spiritual solar panels, absorbing God’s light of truth, salvation, holiness, etc. and then shining with the same. This is why loving God and walking in His light (fellowship) is so closely related to loving others. Bede, once again, who had a lot to say about this issue:

“[We] cannot in any way have put off the darkness of [our] sins when [we do] not take care to put on the fundamentals of love.”[3]

Adam Clarke unpacks verse 9 a bit more:

And there is no stumbling block in him; he neither gives nor receives offense: love prevents him from giving any to his neighbor; and love prevents him from receiving any from his neighbor, because it leads him to put the best construction on every thing.

Okay, wait. 

• You mean that walking in the light not only leads me to the kind of love that gives the best to others, but assumes the best from others? 

•  It not only constrains me from putting stumbling blocks in the paths of others – it requires me to assume that others are trying really hard not to put stumbling blocks in my path? 

•  Love demands I give others the benefit of the doubt for as long as possible? 

•  Love demands that I climb up on the altar as a living sacrifice[4] not just before I interact with people, but after they interact with me?

I assume I am just doing my best to get through life with difficult people. I think, more often than not, loving others and esteeming/valuing them properly requires me to walk away from my interactions with others thinking, “I suspect they are doing their best to get through a difficult life with difficult people like myself.” 

When I have conversations with other people about Trump and Biden and mask wearing and vaccinations and how churches should or shouldn’t be meeting right now and how the Holy Spirit works today and what we should do about immigration and how we deal with racism and as Christians and how we best respond publicly to Christian leaders who fall and how church should be run and how old the earth is and how End Times will unfold… 

When I have those super fun conversations, I assume that other people who love me ought to give me the benefit of the doubt about my heart, my intentions, my love for God while I am struggling to express myself wisely in a complicated and fallen world. Barring a habitual history that proves otherwise, I believe that's a biblical expectation. 

So….. barring a habitual history that proves otherwise, I suspect I must also give the benefit of the doubt about their heart, their intentions, their love for God struggling to express itself in a complicated and fallen world…. 

Loving them and esteeming them require that I do the same for them that I want them to do for me.[5] #goldenrule 

Is it possible that I am actually committed to getting up on the altar and “dying to self” only half the time (before something I do) while I’m expecting others to do it all the time (before something they do and after I do something)? 

Because the altar was made for both of those things: actions and reactions. 

Jesus’ love wasn’t just demonstrated on the cross by what He extended to us. Jesus’ love was demonstrated on the cross by what He endured from us.  When Jesus demonstrated His love toward us,

• He absorbed our sins and extended life

• He took our unholiness and gave us holiness

• He carried our grief and sorrow and gave to us hope and joy 

If we are to live in the light of what Christ demonstrated by His life, we must live in this place. When we take up the cross of Christ, we “die to self” as an act of a grace-filled carrying of the sin done to us and a love-motivated offering of the costly grace of Christ passed on through us. To be sure, abuse and sin must be confronted and not glossed over. We can love mercy and do justice at the same time. I’m not talking about helping people avoid consequences. I am talking about how we position our hearts.

Back to the altar analogy of presenting our bodies as living sacrifices.

I am realizing I almost exclusively think of it in terms of how I surrender what I am planning to do: my words, by attitude, my actions, by presence. If I want to love my wife as Christ loved the church, for example, I give my life for her proactively by purposefully ‘dying to self’ before I instigate something. I get that. 

But being a living sacrifice is also required when something is done to me, at the times when I do things reactively. If I want to love my wife as Christ loved the church, I must climb back up on that self-dying place when she interacts with me from a place of darkness and draws darkness out of me. 

It’s not just marriage. 

Church, we live in a world full of darkness, but it is not God’s plan that it will overcome the light. The reverse is true. The true light is shining among us. We know how to live in the light of Christ. So, I wonder what it looks like to present our lives as spiritual sacrifices 

• before and after we come to church

• before and after we go on Facebook

• before and after we have coffee with friends who, “bless their hearts,” push all our buttons some days

• before and after we read commentary about that politician who is an idiot (as best we can tell)

• before and after we watch coverage of CPAC meetings and Black Lives Matter rallies

• before and after we turn on sports matches where some people kneel and some don’t for the national anthem

• before and after we speak out for the pro-life stance

• before and after someone attacks our faith

• before and after EVERYTHING THAT tempts us to detest people or esteem them less than they deserve or even simply devalues them as image bearers of God.

 Now, if we see ourselves in this list, where one of those situations tempts us to detest people or esteem them less than they deserve or even simply devalue them as image bearers of God in our actions or reactions, then we have some repenting to do.  

“Love prevents us from giving offense to our neighbor; love prevents us from receiving offense from our neighbor.” 

What if God’s love inspired us to minimize the possibility of giving offense to our neighbor, and maximized our effort to not only remain unoffended by our neighbor but to move even closer to them? 

What if we esteemed and valued people more than they deserved when the going was good  - and worked even harder to do the same when it was not?

What if laying down our lives as an act of love for the sake of Christ never stopped?

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[1] John 13:34

[2] A Benedictine monk from the 700s.

[3] From St. Athanasius Academy of Orthodox Theology, quoted in Bible Gateway’s resources.

[4] Romans 12:1

[5] (SIDE NOTE: That’s not to say there is no place for hard conversations about hearts and intentions and actions. I point you back to the past two weeks of sermons. When we sin – and we will – we need loving confrontation. There are times we need out hearts and intentions and actions challenged in light of God’s Word. For more on that, honestly, listen to basically every sermon so far in 2021 this year. Repentance and confession has been a theme because sinful darkness is a big deal. Today’s focus is different. I’m talking about another aspect of love that John focuses on: those who hate their brother or sister (and I mean everything from detests them to esteems them less than they deserve, or even simply devalues them as image bearers of God are living in the shadows, not the light. This is about our hearts.)

Confess, Keep, Live (1 John 1:5-2:6)

 5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

2 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

 3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him:  6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

The Process Of Moving Into The Light

1.    Confess our sins. Bringing our sins into the light. This is personal (confessing to God) and corporate (confessing to others). There may we be a public reckoning depending on if our sins are known or unknown. This can be like my experience at the top of the ski slope – embracing humility for the sake of life. 

2.    Keep God’s Commands. Repentance is ‘turning around.’ We commit to being law-keepers instead of law-breakers. We plan not to sin (to quote Tom Gordon) – we enter accountability, create purposeful boundaries, etc. 

3.    Live As Jesus Lived. Purposefully following in the footsteps of the Master.

The Result Of Living In The Light:

1.    Love For God Will Be Made Complete. It is the fullness of the love of heart, mind, soul and strength. One way of getting to know God is through obedience. 

2.    Fellowship With God And Each Other Flourishes. True community grows when we are fully known and fully loved. This obviously begins with God (who knows us fully and yet loves us); God’s plan is that His people follow the standard he Has set by creating a loving community in which people want to fully know others and are willing to be fully known – and are determined to show God’s love and grace in the midst of it all.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Instead of questions this week, I encourage people to share stories from their lives about how God moved them from the darkness of sin into the light of His holiness and grace.

Walk In The Light (1 John 1:1-7)

Probably between ad 85 and 95, John [1] wrote to the believers near Ephesus, in present-day Turkey.[2] The persecution under Nero had come and gone, killing even Paul and Peter. John was the last  apostle, looking back at what had been happening in the early church. 

1 John 1:1-7

We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us— we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship (koinonia) with us; and truly our fellowship (koinonia) is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that our[3] joy may be complete. 

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship (koinonia) with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship (koinonia) with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

In his opening, John seems to be responding to the Gnostics, who thought there was no way Jesus was incarnate (“in the flesh”) because matter was evil.  John makes it clear that he was.  The incarnate Jesus could be seen, heard, and touched.

Then he explains how our relationship with Christ brings us into the family of God. We can have genuine fellowship with other followers of Jesus because our fellowship is grounded in our fellowship with God (1 John 1:3). The result is joy.

Fellowship flows from knowing God, who is “light.” In God there is “no darkness at all” (1:5) Light suggests purity, honest, goodness, righteousness, truth. There are no shadows or dark sides to God (James 1:17); he is perfect and free of sin (Psalms 145:17; Matthew 5:48).[4] Jesus said, “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness”(Matthew 12:46). So if genuine fellowship comes from being in the light, the breaking of our fellowship comes from walking in darkness (1 John 1:6). 

Our profession of faith must be backed up by our practice (1:6). Children of the light walk in it (see John 8:12; Eph. 5:8; Col. 1:13; 1 Pet. 2:9.[5]

For John, fellowship with others follows faith in God and displays itself in works that build fellowship with God and others. Life from Christ exhibits characteristics of life of Christ. This is how we know we are ‘in the light’ with Him (1 John 2:5–6): we will increasing resemble Jesus.”[6]

* * * * * * * * * *

“God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship (koinonia) with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true.” 

I've been hearing a lot of discussion about Christians should be responding to recent scandals among Christian leaders. I want to walk into this with fear and trembling, because I am well aware that when sinners talk about other sinners there is a danger of unrighteous judgment and pride. And yet we can’t shy away from this. We must wrestle with how it is that professing Christians  leave the light and head toward the dark, and how we get back out. Our fellowship with God and others is on the line. So I offer some (imperfect) thoughts meant to inspire us to wrestle with this. A lot of the discussion centers around some version of two common phrases: 

·      “There but for the grace of God go I.” 

·      “We are all sinners saved by grace, and so we are all in need of God's forgiveness.” 

There is truth in both of these, but it's a truth that can be misunderstood or misapplied. While it’s an important part of a broader biblical truth, they need to be situation within that broader biblical truth. #context  That's what I would like to explore today.

I think the foundational question is this: are all sins equal in the eyes of God? My question is: Equal how? In eternal consequence? In impact to humanity? In affecting my sanctification? From that follows other questions:

·      Do we all walk in the same kind of darkness? 

·      Are some in shadows while some are in inky, blinding darkness, and does that distinction even matter? 

·      Do all sins have an equal impact on our fellowship with God and others? 

Let’s start to build a framework. 

First, the unholiness of all sin is incompatible with the holiness of God. All sin happens in and contributes to the same darkness of evil’ all sins do something negative to our fellowship with God and others. All sin at minimum “misses the mark” (hamartia) of our holy calling, and at maximum just wreaks sinful havoc in the world (asebeia, parabasis).[7] In Christianity, every sin is fatal to us. That isn't intended to minimize the impact on victims, but to maximize the responsibility of perpetrators - and to remind us that, to vary degrees, we are all perpetrators.

All sin leads to spiritual death; all sin requires a price to be paid that we cannot pay ourselves; all sin requires repentance the leads to forgivenss that will be an act of God’s grace through Christ. 

“ But if you show favoritism… you’ll be sinning and condemned by the law. For if a person could keep all of the laws and yet break just one; it would be like breaking them all.  The same God who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also says, “Do not murder.” If you break either of these commands, you’re a lawbreaker, no matter how you look at it.  So live your life in such a way that acknowledges that one day you will be judged.” 

 (James 2:9-12)

“The wages of sin (hamartia – “missing the mark”) is death.” (Romans 6:23)

Just as “the love of God, which builds up the City of God,” is the source and root of all virtues, so too “the love of self, which builds up the City of Babylon,” is the root of all sins. (Augustine in De Civitate Dei)

 We all walk into the same kind of darkness.  The sinner pays either with his own life or Christ's, but death is due. There is a death my sin brings to me, as it ripples out to others: death of relationship, death of trust, death of innocence. These are not the same death kind of death, but they are real burdens borne by those around me. It requires the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse us from the penalty of sin and the impact of sin, and move both perpetrators and victims into the same kind of light. 

So in that sense, when we say that the ground is level at the foot of the cross, that's what we mean. All of us kneel there. That is the great humbler in Christian theology. We all kneel. We are all dead in our sins without the life of Christ (Ephesians 2; Romans 6). We all require the grace of God given through Jesus, who paid the eternal penalty of death so we can have eternal life. 

But the temporal implications of sin are handled in a different way biblically than the eternal implications of sin. In other words, the great leveling in the spiritual realm stands arm-in-arm with a gradation of the wickedness and severity of sin in the physical realm. 

Starting at the Old Testament we see that God establishes a system of responses to sinful behavior that does not treat all sin the same. There is a principle of sowing and reaping. If you sow a lot, you reap a lot. That’s true of doing good and doing evil. And God will not be mocked. We will sow what we reap.  

·      Genesis 18:20 states that the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were unusually grievous.

·      Jeremiah 16:12 tells the Israelites they have done worse than their fathers.

·      Exodus 32:30-31 “Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great[8] sin…and have made them gods of gold.”

·      2 Kings 17:21 “Jeroboam drove Israel from following the LORD, and made them sin a great sin.”

·      God revealed the sins of Israel in three stages to Ezekiel. And in each stage Israel’s sins were “more detestable” (Ezekiel 8:6-16) than the previous ones.

·      In Numbers 15, the Bible contrasts sin done unintentionally and sin done “with a high hand,” meaning sin done willingly while shaking one’s fist at God. 

·      Scripture also speaks of “sins that cry out” that God himself will execute judgment because humans and government officials have acted unjustly towards others (e.g., Gen. 4:10; 18:20; 19:13; Ex. 3:7-10; Deut. 24:14-15).

 In the Old Testament, there were escalating temporal responses to violations against others and against God, from escalating fines to being cut off from the people (exile) or being put to death. God applied different temporal penalties to different sins. A thief paid restitution; an occult practitioner was cut off from Israel; one who committed premeditated murder was sentenced to death. In addition, 

“Distinctions are made between different levels of clean and uncleanness requiring different sacrifices (Lev. 11-15, cf. chs. 1-8), and especially between “unintentional” and “intentional” sins (Num. 15:22-30). Unintentional sin can be atoned for (e.g., Lev. 4), but certain intentional sins, specifically “high handed” sins are so grievous that they cannot be atoned for and they require the death penalty (Num. 15:30). This kind of distinction makes no sense unless we think in terms of degrees of sin.”[9]

So while everyone went to the temple to offer a sacrifice for the forgiveness of their sins, great or small, not everything played out the same in their community life.  Even Jesus talks about greater and lesser sins.[10]

·      Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above [higher up – from Rome]. Therefore he who delivered Me over to you has the greater sin.”  Matthew 23:14 

·      Jesus, speaking to the Pharisees and scribes, said they shall receive greater damnation because of their hypocrisy. Some sins are called gnats, others camels (Matthew 23:24).

The New Testament writers felt the same way.

·      1 John 5:16-16 “6 In this regard, if you notice a brother or sister in faith making moral missteps and blunders, disregarding and disobeying God even to the point of God removing this one from the body by death, then pray for that person; and God will grant him life on this journey. But to be clear, there is a sin that is ultimately fatal and leads to death. I am not talking about praying for that fatal sin, 17 but I am talking about all those wrongs and sins that plague God’s family that don’t lead to death.”

The Catholic tradition makes a distinction between venial and mortal sins,[11] but we are not Catholic, so let’s see what the Reformers thought –which is that there is a difference between lesser sins and what they called gross and heinous sins.  

“The Reformers did not deny degrees of sin, but they did reject the mortal-venial distinction, especially as it was worked out in Rome’s sacramental theology. For them, all sin is “mortal” before God, and our only hope is that we are united to Christ in saving faith and declared justified in him. For fallen creatures to stand before God, we need Christ’s perfect righteousness imputed to us and all of our sin completely paid for by his substitutionary death. 

 Also, for the believer who is born of the Spirit and united to Christ as our covenant head, since our justification is complete in Christ, there is no sin that removes our justification, and ultimately thwarts the sanctifying work of the Spirit by the loss of our salvation. Yet, although we should reject the mortal-venial distinction as taught by Rome, this does not entail that we should reject a distinction between all sin as equal before God and various degrees of sin in terms of their overall effects on the person, others, and the world.”[12]

But what about this? 

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment… You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:21-28) 

Both scenarios reflect a dark heart that God sees; both are sins that have eternal implications. Both deserve judgment. Both require repentance. But they do not land in the world temporally in the same way. Jesus himself has other teachings that make that distinction. Not all sins have the same impact on the image-bearers around the sinner the same way. The sins of the heart deserve condemnation; the sins of the hand deserve a greater condemnation. Think of it this way:  

·      If sins were in every sense equal, in every sense not different, the person thinking about killing someone they hate might as well just do it, if these sins are not in some sense different, because Jesus says someone who wishes someone else dead is as guilty as if they had murdered them. 

·      If someone would say to me, “I might as well go ahead and commit adultery because I’m already guilty of lust. I can’t be in any worse shape in the sight of God, so I might as well finish the deed.” My answer? “Oh yes, you can be in much worse shape in the eyes of God and others.” The “sowing and reaping” judgment of actual adultery will be much greater than the harvest from internal lust. 

·      If abusers would restrain unrepentant lust in their minds, the people around them might be creeped out when they are around them (“Something’s not right with that guy”), but they would not be abused. It’s a foolish thing for a person who has committed a misdemeanor to say, “I’m already guilty; I might as well make it a felony.” God forbid that we should think like that.[13]

I was watching Knives Out, and there is scene where the villian, who had killed two people, tries to kill a third. “In for a penny, in for a pound.” This is a terrible idea. Killing three people is worse than killing two, and actually killing them was worse than if he had just thought about killing them.  

Both the Bible and our experience make a distinction between the severity of things. We can simultaneously recognize that all of them are bad – all of them are a walk into the valley of the shadows of spiritual death at minimum -  without having to level the impact that they clearly have on the world and on others. It's like cleaning up after a heavy wind storm versus a heavy hurricane. Both are storms; one leaves of disaster unlike the other.

There's a temporal difference between taking one step off the path and having taken a hundred. All the steps must be dealt with, surrendered, and repented for because they all traffic in darkness. But some of them rock the world and ways that other ones don't.  I think we ignore that difference at our spiritual and relational peril.

Justin Bieber[14] and Shawn Mendez sing a song in which they ask, “What if I trip? What if I fall? Then am I the monster?” Well, no, but if you land where monsters grow, you’d best get out. If you don’t, you will be. That’s how monsters start. If you track their lives back far enough, all monsters at one point looked a lot like us.

* * * * * * * * * *

I don’t make this point so that we can look at our sin and say, “It’s just a step into the shadows. I’m not like THAT person, who sprinted there and made a home there.” If that’s where your mind is going, you are missing the point and are further in darkness right now than you realize.[15] If you use the temporal severity of someone else’s sin to give yourself a pass, you need a serious revival in your heart.  

I read a book once that talked about the ripple effect of our sin. It’s like the Butterfly Effect. We see huge sin and the immediate temporal impact and think, “Terrible sin!” and that’s a correct judgment. But we don’t realize our smaller sins are stones cast in the water that ripple out and lead to sins we will never know about but may well be devestating.  We need to get over ourselves and our self -righteousness. It’s like filthy rags if we could see it.[16] 

I make the point  about the temporal gradation of sin for two reasons. You need to hear both reasons before you react to my first reason.  

The first point: if we are not careful, saying, “We are all sinners in need of forgiveness” can sound like a minimization of the terrible impact of what happened, as if stealing  a pencil the same as rape. It can make fail to pass a righteous judgment on what happened.  

Please. Pass a biblically appropriate judgment on all sin. We are allowed to weigh in on fruit. Please, don’t let the fact that we are all sinners stop us from lamenting the horrible nature of escalated sin. Don’t refuse to condemn sexual abuse because you have had lustful thoughts. Repent of your lustful thoughts, and then echo the OT prophets, who were certainly not perfect, and who had no problem calling out the abuse of God’s image-bearers, especially when the sin was committed by those who claimed to be God’s people. 

The second point: we must take seriously the truth that “We are all sinners in need of forgiveness,” and “There but for the grace of God go I.” I don’t mean we all would inevitably end up where some people have. I mean we all have the capacity to step into the shadows and keep going. We know this already in our own ways in our own lives. Even if we didn’t go so far as to become monsters, we know what it is like to at least explore lands of darkness where the monters looked attractive. 

People don't wake up one morning and think, “I'll be a serial sexual predator, or a mass shooter, or start Enron.” I suspect it was something much, much smaller, something that might even feel insignificant in the overall scheme of things but which was a step down a path that veered off the path of righteousness. 

Unless I am intentional and lean on God's grace, I will wade into the water of sin until a point that I am taken terrible places by the relentless undertow I helped create – and I will surely take others with me. It doesn't matter what the sin is - we can all drown accidentally because we went wading on purpose.

I read a book once by the lead detective in the Jon Benet Ramsey case. Something that has stuck with me is that from a police perspective they are not worried about the person who snaps and kills someone else. That person always confesses because their conscience can't handle it. It's the person who is slowly become more violent that they worry about, because by the time they get to killing people they just don't care, they're conscious doesn't bother them, they're not haunted by their sin.

“Sin is of an encroaching nature; it creeps on the soul by degrees, step by step, till it hath the soul to the very height of sin. ...By all this we see, that the yielding to lesser sins, draws the soul to the committing of greater… Ecclesiastes [says] ‘The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talking is mischievous madness.’ ...”  Thomas Brooks

That's applicable to all of us. There, but for the grace of God. we take that first step and keep going, and eventually we end up somewhere very, very dark. So, what do those steps look like? 

·      It's entertaining rather than fighting those lustful thoughts because hey, nobody will know. 

·      It's not reporting that one source of income because it can't be that big of a deal and it's not that much taxes and it's not worth the hassle. 

·      It's clicking on that link because it's just one picture that will get my adrenaline pumping. 

·      It's making demeaning jokes about the opposite sex because they're funny, right? 

·      It's accepting that Facebook friend request from someone who likes to post racy pictures and who has no mutual friends with you because hey, why not?  

·      It's sharing that meme that yeah, it's a little harsh and maybe even a little unfair, but this is the time for it. 

·      It's listening to angry people on podcasts, TV shows and YouTube videos and thinking that they're probably too angry, but this is entertaining. 

·      It’s sharing prayer requests that are gossip. 

·      It's slowly moving from generosity to greed in just the smallest of ways.

·      It’s telling a slight untruth about someone else because it makes us look better.

·      It’s hiding that small sin from the accountability of others because it’s not that big of a deal.

There is the start of a path that, but for the grace of God, we go. And but for the grace of God, we'll keep going. I don't think it's fair to say that we would all end up at the same place with the same kind of sin. What is fair to say is that we will all walk to terrible places of some sort if we do not deal with each step that is taking us there.  

But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

That which is hidden must come to the light.  This is the only way we have fellowship with God and others. We must walk in the light as Jesus was in the light. 

We don't usually sprint to sin,  at least not at first. We usually wander or walk. The speed comes when momentum is built over time. I remember once when I went skiing and I was feeling really confident at the end of the day, so I went up to one of the larger hills. I started down and it only took about 10 feet before I just threw myself to the ground and stopped all of my momentum because I knew it was not going to end well.  I took off my skis and crawled back up while everyone on the ski lift watched me. It was humiliating, but it was better than the alternative. That momentum was going to break a leg, or crash me into people. 

This is why it is so crucial to stop the momentum. The grace of God has given us his Word, his spirit, and his people. These are all meant to stop this momentum and move us back into the light. Part of the grace that God gives us are means of sanctifaction that are right in front of us. Things like accountability and community. Things like honesty and transparency.

I'd like us to think and pray about a few things this week.

·      Do I have a trajectory that is taking me toward darkness or light? 

·      Am I already in deep darkness in need of a blinding light? 

·      How much of my life is hidden? Particularly, what am I hiding? 

·      Am I being honest before God and others about what is happening?

·      What does it look like to turn around?  

·      How will repentance benefit my fellowship with God and others?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

[1] John was the one “whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23). He wrote five books in the New Testament: three letters, a gospel, and the book of Revelation.

[2] “His special vocabulary tells the whole story: To remain/continue/abide (24x) in the truth (9x) means to believe in (9x) or confess (5x) the Son (22x), to whom the Father (14x) and Spirit (8x) bear witness (12x); it means further to be born of God (10x), so as to walk (5x) in the light (6x), to hear (14x) and to know (40x) God, to keep (7x) the commandment (14x) to love (46x) the brothers and sisters (15x), and thus to have life (13x), which is from the beginning (8x), and finally to overcome (6x) the world. All of this is in contrast to the lie (7x), deceit (4x), denying Christ (3x), having a false spirit (4x), thus being antichrist (4x), walking in darkness (6x), hating (5x) one’s brothers and sisters but loving the world (23x), thus being in sin (27x), which leads to death (6x).”  (How To Read The Bible Book By Book, Gordon Fee)

[3] Other oldest manuscripts and versions read "OUR joy," namely, that our joy may be filled full by bringing you also into fellowship with the Father and Son. (Compare Joh 4:36, end; Php 2:2, "Fulfil ye my joy," Php 2:16; 4:1; 2Jo 8). It is possible that "your" may be a correction of transcribers to make this verse harmonize with Joh 15:11; 16:24; however, as John often repeats favorite phrases, he may do so here, so "your" may be from himself. So 2Jo 12, "your" in oldest manuscripts. The authority of manuscripts and versions on both sides here is almost evenly balanced. (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary)

[4] “1:5 God is light. The connection between God and light begins in the opening verses of Genesis (see Ge 1:3) and continues in the Psalms (see Ps 27:1; 36:9; 104:2) and the Prophets (see Isa 49:6; Mic 7:8). The coming Messiah was also thought to bring God’s light (see note on Jn 1:4–13). Matthew and Luke used Isaiah’s image (Isa 9:2) that the coming Messiah would bring light to those in darkness to point to Jesus (Mt 4:16; Lk 1:79). There are numerous references to light and darkness in the Gospel of John (Jn 1:4–5, 9; 3:19–21; 8:12; 9:5; 12:35–36, 46). Outside of the New Testament, the Dead Sea Scrolls community called themselves the “sons of light,” playing on the same theme of God as light (see note on Lk 16:8).”  (NIV First Century Study Bible)

[5] Vines Expository Bible Study Notes

[6] “John challenges us to find in the mirror of our everyday lives clearer reflections of Jesus and to disregard the teachings of those who, like vampires, have no reflection at all and seek to suck the life from those who do.” How To Read The Bible Through The Jesus Lens

[7] https://www.theopedia.com/greek-and-hebrew-words-for-sin

[8] This particular word has to do with orders of magnitude greater. https://biblehub.com/hebrew/1419.htm

[9] https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/degrees-of-sin/

[10] Some common markers theologians use to talk about what makes a sin “greater”: Awareness of breaking God’s law; rebellious motivation; puposeful intent to do harm to others; habitual revisiting of that sin; degree of impactful on others.

[11] https://catholicstraightanswers.com/what-is-the-difference-between-mortal-and-venial-sin/

[12] https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/degrees-of-sin/

[13] https://www.ligonier.org/blog/are-there-degrees-sin/

[14] That’s right. I quoted Justin Bieber. 

[15] You may be wondering if this leads to the kind of judgment the Bible warns against. The Bible is clear that it is not our place to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart. That's what God sees. But what the Bible does make clear is that we can know people by their fruits. What people do is something that is an outward expression of something inside and yes, we can reach conclusions about whether what things people do are holy or unholy, whether they are steps in the path of righteousness into the light or steps away from the path of righteousness into the darkness. Ravi has already had conversations with God about the state of his heart. That's not mine to figure out. What I can do is figure out how what he did aligns with what God calls us to do. And that was a pretty easy one to figure out. 

[16] Isaiah 64:6