Like Christ

Like Christ February 24, 2012

I am so frustrated as of late because I keep going back and forth between books and I cannot stay on one book. I have what my mother would call, ‘a nest,’ built in my living room. If you are an avid reader much like myself, and somewhat scatterbrained, then you may know what I am talking about. At the foot of the coach is a pile of bibles, commentaries and various other books that pertain to the 14 subjects I am currently studying. I don’t think it is bad studying that many subjects, it is just difficult to keep them all separated. *Authors note, I may have exaggerated a little bit with 14 subjects. After a quick count I have roughly five different studies going. One study on the Gospel of Matthew, one on the Gospel of John, one study on the book “Like Christ” by Andrew Murray, one study on the book “Not a Fan” by Kyle Idleman and finally a study on a book that I just received called “Song of Solomon for Teenagers” by Chris Ray. It would be easier to not read so many books at one time if I would stop purchasing books at such a rapid rate, but in my defense the authors also do not stop writing books, so what is a guy supposed to do? The Song of Solomon book came to me via email from youth specialties. So far it is a fabulous book where the author takes and breaks down the Song of Solomon into terms that are reasonable and giggle-free for teenagers. I am looking forward to developing this book into a study for my students. However that is not what I am blogging about today. I wanted to discuss another study I am doing on the book by Andrew Murray called “Like Christ.” Now I have spoken of this book before and I am a huge Andrew Murray fan. He really takes this idea of being a follower of Christ and takes it to the next level. On page 36 of his book Mr. Murray says “There is nothing that weakens the power of Christ’s Example so much as the thought that we cannot really walk like Him.” WOW! What an amazing thought. Not only are we fools to believe that we cannot be just like Christ, but we are actually weakening His witness by not walking as He walked! So while there will be those who call me self-righteous and arrogant for trying to be just like Christ, I can tell them that they are being terrible users of the gift that Christ has provided us with. To not be just like Christ is a waste of every last lashing that He took for our sins. Murray goes on to say “Jesus is my Example because He is my life. I must and can be like Him, because I am one with Him. Grant this, my blessed Lord, for Thy love’s sake. Amen!” I think that those words need no explanation only praise.

Andrew Murray also speaks about suffering as a process to becoming more and more Christ like. Again I find this timing a bit interesting, but he says this, “If one do well, and suffer for it, and take it patiently, this is acceptable with God; such bearing of wrong is Christ-like. In bearing our sins as Surety, Christ suffered wrong from man; after His example we must be ready to suffer wrongfully too. There is almost nothing harder to bear than injustice from our fellow-man.” He continues on, “In what our fellow-creatures do to us, it is not easy at once to recognize the will of God, who thus allows us to be tried, to see if we have truly taken Christ as our example.” Basically what he is saying is that God allows me to come into this trouble to see if I shall glorify Him in it.

I know that people love to say, “Well if God is such a loving God then why does He allow bad things to happen?” How about the fact that the worst possible thing that could happen to Him did. He sent His Son to die for us. So for us to get so depressed when our light bill isn’t getting paid or our water pump on our 1997 Ford Festiva goes out. Things happen in our lives, which we consider “bad” so that we can show our commitment to Jesus through our constant determination to make it through the storms of life. If life were one free flowing river of water then there would be absolutely no honing process, or no need to desire a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.

So what’s the point? What is the reasoning behind becoming more and more like Christ? Where does becoming a better person get me? You don’t have to be a “good person” to be in the government because a majority of those people are so immorally corrupt. So what point or reward is there for becoming a better person? Besides the fact that it is good for your own conscience, if we were all immorally corrupt what would our world look like? Nobody really knows that for sure, but if I believe what the bible tells me, at some point this world is going to face some terrible times and our ethics and morals may be tested to the fullest.

Theologia Crucis

Theologia Crucis February 23, 2012

The Cost of Being a Disciple

²⁵ Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: ²⁶ "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple.

William Barclay talks on this matter in his commentary simply titled “The Gospel of Luke.” On page 233 Barclay says, “When Jesus tells us to hate our nearest and dearest, He does not mean that literally. He means that no love in life can compare with the love we must bear to Him.” Barclay continues on and says that “there are two suggestive truths with this passage. (1) it is possible to be a follower of Jesus without being a disciple.” He continues by saying, “It is one of the supreme handicaps of the Church that in it there are so many distant followers of Jesus and so few real disciples.” (2) It is the Christian’s first duty to count the cost of following Christ.” In the Church of Scotland, the introduction to marriage ceremony is performed and the minister says this, “Marriage is not to be entered upon lightly or unadvisedly, but thoughtfully, reverently, and in the fear of God.” A man and a woman must count the cost in the same way we should count our cost in our relationship with Christ. Barclay completes his thought on this passage and he says, “If we are daunted by the high demands of Christ let us remember that we are not left to fulfill them alone. He who called us to the steep road will walk with us every step of the way and be there at the end to meet us.” You know, when I looked at this passage when I was a bit younger I thought that Christ must have been an arrogant tyrant that just wanted everyone to focus on Him and worship Him. I mean come on, hating my mother and father? It was only until I was called to ministry and I was asked to leave the comfort of my home in Holland, Ohio with my $32.00 an hour job to follow the path of Christ that I really began to understand. See my dad and I were at odds at the time. I knew that if I walked away from my job, that my dad had desired me to be at for so long, that he would surely disown me this time. However on that hot summer day that I received that phone call I somehow knew that everything was going to be ok. God had called me, “Tim, don’t worry about what your mom and dad will think. I have something far better for you.” From that moment on it wasn’t a matter of hating my mother or father. It was a matter of letting go of all insecurities of what my parents would think. Letting go of all worry and all hesitation to what my parents would be thinking, and place all of that concern and heaviness on my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and trusting Him alone. See, it wasn’t hate at all; it was a matter of trust. It was matter that I was worried about what their opinion would be of me. It wasn’t about hating my parents at all, I was growing up into the man that Christ wanted me to be and I was making a mature decision to follow the path that He has laid for my life. We know this because Christ adds at the end of verse 26, “Yes even his own life…” How is it possible to hate our own lives? Well it is not possible at all, but it is possible to put aside our own desires and to shed all of our own cares and worries about ourselves and to let Jesus Christ reign completely over every aspect of our lives. It isn’t about hate; I feel that Christ used the most extreme of circumstances to get us to realize the importance of our relationships with Him. I believe that this goes a lot deeper than what we really think that it goes. See because when Christ says, “Yes even his own life…” He uses an interesting Greek word for ‘life’ and that is psyche. The definition of this Greek word used in this text is “the soul as the vital principle.” So to my understanding, Jesus isn’t just asking us to hate our own lives, He is saying that we must despise the inner most parts of our souls. Again, putting aside the descriptive words “hate” and “despise” and understanding that He wants for you to understand that He wants control of every last ounce of your life. He wants for you to desire Him in the deepest parts of your soul. To love Him more than you love even your own parents, or your own children. Unconditional love.

²⁷ And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:27

Right before Jesus offers us a parable about the cost of being a disciple He says maybe one of the most popular bible verses that people quote constantly, “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Stunning words from Jesus, simple yet very powerful. So after a little bit of research on the Roman cross, it really puts this idea of “carrying your cross” into prospective. Wikipedia states that the average Roman cross weighed well over 300 pounds. Now, depending on which scholar you study, Christ may have carried the whole cross to His death or He may have carried just the top beam used to support the arms and hands. Now if that is the case, this beam weighed roughly 75-150 pounds. Either way, the journey that Jesus was forced to take with His “cross” was a painful one. I would gather from the extreme fashion that Jesus encourages us to live that He is speaking of carrying the whole weight of the cross. Now, again I realize that this is simply a metaphor for how we should live our lives, but if we take the actual example of what Christ was speaking of and paint a picture with it, and then it makes it easier for us to understand.

Further investigation of this subject finds some very good information. The Greek word for ‘cross’ is stauros and has two very interesting definitions that I feel pertain to Christ’s main point. (1) Refers to the cross as “an instrument of the most dreadful and agonizing torture.” Commonly Romans would punish Christians with crucifixion; first they were scourged and then made to bear their own cross to the place of execution. Now to touch on this point first, I believe that Christ is telling us that if we bear the weight of our own cross daily, it will at times be absolute torture. The gospel of John, chapter 15, verse 21 says this, “21 the people of the world will persecute you because you belong to me, for they don't know God who sent me.” (The Living Bible)

Jesus very much understood that there would be a price to following His name and claiming His will for your life. He knew that it would be so difficult that He compared it to His own miserable death on a cross. “The Christian who called his noisy neighbors the "cross" he had to bear certainly did not understand the meaning of dying to self.”—Bible Exposition Commentary - New Testament. Jesus followed His point with three parables about ‘counting the cost’ of your faith.

(2) The ‘cross’ denotes the whole passion of Christ and the merit of His sufferings and death. Ephesians 2:14-16 supports this thought.

“¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, ¹⁵ by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.”

Verse 14 and 15 define Christ as our ‘peace’ and then verse 16 tells how Christ became our peace, through death and destruction of hostility on the cross. You see, the cross not only represents a large wooden ‘T’ used to execute humans, it is also a metaphor for a way of life. So not only is it our responsibility to bear the weight of the ridicule and hostility of following Jesus Christ, it should very well become a way of life and the constant focal point of our lives.

Bread and Wine part 2

²⁸ Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"

Exploring the Gospel of John, by John Phillips, explains best this verse in John. On page 126 John Phillips says this, “All false religions have an answer to this question, “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” “Fast!” says Islam, as it sets apart the month of Ramadan for that purpose. “Do penance,” Roman Catholicism said for centuries, “earn indulgences, and say masses.” “Torture your body, perform prodigies of physical endurance,” says Hinduism. “Keep the law according to the tradition of the elders,” said the rabbis.” However, let’s take a look at how Jesus responds to this question in verse 29.

²⁹ Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."

The word ‘works’ (egra) in the original Greek refers to those acts that distinguish the peculiar abilities of some person. In this setting it refers to the works God requires of those who please Him. Jesus directed them to the gift of God that could be obtained by faith in Him. 1 John 3:23 says, “And this is his command: to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as He commanded us.” No real ‘work’ to be done at all, believe and love. So it is a fair statement to believe that if any other faith tells you that you must ‘do this’ or ‘do that’ in order to get to heaven or receive salvation; then they are false doctrines.

³⁰ So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? ³¹ Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.' "

Again, the crowd goes back to desiring to see more ‘work’ to be done. Most scholars believe that the people asking this question are the same people that saw Jesus perform a miracle the previous day by feeding 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two small fish. Just like in our own daily lives, we see miracle after miracle performed by Jesus and yet only desire to see more and more instead of being satisfied with what He gives us. The fact that the crowd of people revert back to the days of their forefathers and how God “provided them with bread from heaven,” is very much a fine example of the selfishness that we display in our daily lives today and our blindness to miracles performed all around us. To name a few miracles that I have personally witnessed myself as of late is teenagers getting up and walking away from auto accidents that should have very well taken their lives. Granted, they did sustain some injuries, but they are alive today to share their story. Great examples in our community of people who have battled cancer and defeated it by the power of the shed blood of Christ. And finally one that I get to witness day in and day out, teenagers who are deciding to not become a product of their community and the little it has to offer, and are living their lives differently than those before them. They are stepping out in faith and daring to be different, daring to be chastised and made fun of because of their desire to follow Jesus Christ. That to me, is an amazing miracle that I feel certain people are refusing to appreciate and refusing to accept as adequate enough to help them desire a stronger relationship with Jesus Christ themselves.

³² Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³ For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

Jesus quickly corrects their way of thinking and says that it is not Moses or man that supplies bread from heaven; rather it is God that provides the bread, physical or spiritual either way, God is the provider for all things. Jesus also defines the word ‘bread’ for the crowd as well in verse 33 so that the crowd is no longer confused as to what He is talking about. Jesus says that “bread is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (Emphasis mine) The Expositor’s Bible Commentary also says of this verse on page 75, that “This may be an oblique reference to Deuteronomy 8:3: “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” As physical food is necessary for physical life, so spiritual food is necessary for spiritual life.”

³⁴ "Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread."

Without missing a beat the crowd almost taunts Christ and says, “Well from now on, give us this bread you speak of.” The Expositor’s Bible Commentary on page 75 says this concerning this verse, “The request that Jesus should give the people the bread of life parallels the request of the Samaritan woman for the water of life (4:15). In both cases the petition indicates that the speaker did not understand Jesus’ real meaning and reveals a materialistic frame of mind.”

³⁵ Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶ But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. ³⁷ All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. ³⁸ For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. ³⁹ And this is the will of him who sent me that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰ For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

This is the first time that we hear one of Jesus’ great ‘I AM’ statements. Again Jesus, I believe, throws out a bit of sarcasm, along with a “No Duh” statement, as it’s called in youth ministry. Jesus says “I am the bread of life.” What is bread? Bread is solid food and it sustains life. We need food to live; Jesus is saying that He is the food we need to live. Hence during the last supper when Jesus refers to His body as “the bread” and His blood as “the wine.” Jesus is all that we need to sustain life. Jesus will provide everything that we need to live life to the fullest. When was the last time that we gave thanks to Christ for every last thing that we have. A school teacher friend of mine said one day, “Could you survive today, off of what you thanked God for yesterday?” It is indeed a beautiful thought if we really believe that Christ is the provider for all things. He says “He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty!” As I sat here dwelling over this text I realized that the brain is made up of 75-77% water. AMAZING! If we desire Christ, He will provide EVERYTHING for us!

So, let’s break it down into numerous arguments, 1. Bread sustains life. Without bread, life cannot go on. Bread is essential for life. 2. What is life? Life is far more than mere existence. Life has a purpose. 3. Life is a new relationship with God. 4. That relationship is only made possible through Jesus Christ. 5. This to say, Jesus gives life. Without Jesus life is impossible in the full sense of the term. Without Him life may be existence, but it is not life. 6. Therefore, if Jesus gives life, if He is essential of life, then He can be described as the bread of life.

Verse 40 Jesus says that it is His “Father’s will” that everyone who not only views Christ as Lord but also those who believe that Christ is Lord will have everlasting life. Praise be to God that He desires to have a relationship with us! God absolutely owes us nothing, but because of His desire to have a relationship with this broken and sinful waste of a man, He sent His only Son, to die to take the place for my sin so that I can have a relationship with Him, that my friends is grace. Kenneth Wuest says in his book titled “Word Studies in the Greek New Testament” this, “Now we come to the passages in the New Testament where aionios is used in connection with the life God gives the believer when He saves him. We have seen that this word is used in connection with the being of God, and it can only mean “eternal”…aionios never refers to a limited extent of time, but always to that which is eternal or everlasting”

Bread and Wine

Bread and Wine February 18, 2012

Jesus the Bread of Life

²⁵ When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"

William Barclay says in his commentary of chapter 6 this, “Now we must notice that to that question Jesus simply did not reply. This was no time to talk of things like that; life was too short for pleasant gossip about journeys. He went straight to the heart of the matter.”

²⁶ Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth; you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.

Jesus is telling these men that their eyes were turned to such simple things as bread and getting more filled up with earthly food. However our desire should be on the amazing miracles that God continues to do and worry not about earthly food, or bread, and worry only about the amazingly spiritual things that the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords does every day! Barclay echoes this point better by saying “It is as if Jesus said, “You cannot think about your souls for thinking of your stomachs.”” He is rebuking them for an earthbound point of view. They had received bread as bread and not as a gift from God.

²⁷ Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval."

There is a story of Napoleon. Once he and an acquaintance were talking of life. It was late at night and dark. Napoleon and his friend walked to the window and looked out. There in the sky there were distant stars, little more than pin-points of light. Napoleon had sharp eyes and the friend was dim-sighted. Napoleon pointed to the sky: “Do you see the stars?” he asked the friend. “No,” the friend answered. “I can’t see them.” “That,” said Napoleon “is the difference between you and me.” The man who is earthbound is living half a life. It is the man with vision, who looks at the horizon and sees the stars, who is the great man. In Isaiah chapter 55 verse 2 says, “² Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. There are two kinds of hunger, there is a physical hunger which physical food can satisfy; and there is a spiritual hunger that physical food will never satisfy. I would also like to point out that in the original King James text of the beginning of this verse; the original language is much more defining. The King James says, “²⁷ Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life…” See here Jesus refers to the food as meat. I believe that this can be foreshadowed to Paul’s words in Corinthians 3:2 where the King James says, “² I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.” I believe that the verse in John that Jesus is simply telling us that we must continue to desire to learn more and more about the Word of God and constantly desire more wisdom and knowledge of the deep things of God.