Embracing the Truth

August 18, 2013 in Bible - NT - 2 John, Ecclesiology, Heresy, Meditations
2 John 7–10 (NKJV)
7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. 8 Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. 9 Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him;
For the last two weeks we have explored John’s second epistle and seen that John unites things that many of us often attempt to divide. Today John tackles the topic of truth and informs his readers that truth matters and that Christianity has propositional content that enables us to evaluate false teaching.
The particular false teaching that John rejects was called docetism – docetists taught that the body is evil and that salvation is escape from the prison house of the body. They insisted, therefore, that Jesus could not have assumed a body – that would put him in the same dilemma as the rest of us. Jesus only appeared to have flesh and bones – he really was a spirit instructing us with secret knowledge on how to escape the body.
This, John tells us, is a damnable lie. If we do not get the identity of Jesus right, if we do not articulate the truth about Jesus, then we have neither the Father nor the Son. John informs us that the critical issue is not whether one believes in a person named Jesus but what one believes about him. Who is Jesus? Both Scripture and Christian tradition have always insisted that Jesus is God Himself in human flesh, the Second Person of the Trinity. He is “God of God; Light of Light; very God of very God…being of one substance with the Father.”(Nicene Creed)
Those who modify, twist, distort, or pervert this doctrine are neither Christians nor allies. Whether Unitarians who insist that Jesus was just a great man, or Muslims who insist that Jesus was just a great prophet, or Jehovah’s Witnesses who teach that Jesus was just the greatest of all god’s creations, or Mormons who teach that Jesus was just a man who earned his way to godhead – we are not to consider these nor their like as Christians or allies. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house [church] nor greet him [consider him your ally in the work of the Gospel].
Maintaining this stance is challenging in our day – we live in a religiously pluralistic society full of neighbors and friends who do not embrace historic Christianity and who consider such a devotion to truth out of touch. And so we often find ourselves tempted to compromise or downgrade Jesus’ claims. We are ashamed of the truth rather than embracing the truth.

So reminded of our call to embrace the truth and that we have at times compromised the truth instead, let us kneel and confess our sin to the Lord.

Truth and Love

August 5, 2013 in Bible - NT - 2 John, Ecclesiology, Meditations
2 John 1–3 (NKJV)
1 The Elder, To the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all those who have known the truth, 2 because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever: 3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.
The Apostle John wrote his second epistle to a Christian congregation whom he poetically calls “the elect lady.” His words to the congregation are in many respects a summary of his first epistle and help us to identify the author of both letters as the same man. In these first few verses John highlights his two primary concerns for this congregation – truth and love.
He loves this congregation “in truth” together with all those who have known “the truth” – because “the truth” abides in us and will be with us forever. Doctrine, John insists, accurate teaching about the Person and Work of Christ, is essential to the Christian faith.
But so too is love. John “loves” the elect lady and her children and prays that God would pour out “grace, mercy, and peace” upon them. Love too is essential to the Christian faith.
Unfortunately many have attempted to pit these two virtues against one another. On the one hand we have churches that are so committed to “truth” that they treat others mercilessly and harshly, failing to love them as they have been loved. On the other hand, we have churches that are so committed to “love” that they refuse to stand for the truth, refuse to stand for what is good and right.
But truth and love are not competitors – together the two shape and mould biblical wisdom as we see them displayed in our Lord Jesus. Truth and love are like the twin components of bones and flesh. Truth by itself is like a skeleton without flesh – stark, frightening, lifeless. Love by itself is like flesh without a skeleton – a big blob of goo with no structure. But together the two unite to form the living body of Christ.

So this is the challenge for us as a body of believers – to unite love and truth so that we be a light to the world and embody in our congregation the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. But often we pit one against the other – and so let us confess our distortion and pray that God would enable us to experience His grace, mercy, and peace in truth and in love.

Blessing Strangers

February 24, 2013 in Bible - OT - Exodus, Ecclesiology, Meditations, Responsibility

Exodus 23:9 (NKJV)
9 “Also you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
One of the most challenging things that many of us face in our daily lives is that of identifying honest and reputable businessmen. Our car breaks down; our sewer backs up; our computer crashes; our reputation or livelihood is threated by a lawsuit. We find ourselves strangers in a strange land – having to deal with problems we’ve never faced before. What we need is someone honest and skilled to assist us: to tell us exactly what’s wrong and then fix it for a fair price.  But what we often find instead are charlatans who expand the list of things wrong and charge far more than is fair to do the work.
Last week we observed in our text from Exodus that God expects us to be gracious and loving toward strangers which implies that we are to be actively welcoming visitors into our congregation. Today I’d like us to consider a second implication of the text: namely, we are to treat others justly. When others are dependent upon our expertise or knowledge in a certain area, we are called to use our knowledge to bless them rather than to take advantage of them. As strangers in a strange land they are entrusting themselves to us. So we are commanded to treat them justly and fairly. Moses reminds us:
Deuteronomy 10:17–19 (NKJV)
17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. 18 He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. 19 Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
God commands us to love strangers, to care for and protect them. He does this for two reasons. First, this is what God Himself does. He loves them and so we must. Second, we ourselves know what it is like to be strangers in a strange land. Therefore, we are to love them.
The principle embedded in this text is none other than that articulated by our Lord Jesus in the Golden Rule. “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Mt 7:12). When relying upon others’ expertise we would have folks treat us fairly and justly and graciously – assisting us in our need and not exploiting us in our ignorance.
So we too are to practice the same – especially in the realm of business. As a businessman I must beware lest I take advantage of another’s ignorance and so exploit them. My work should be done honestly and well – giving them an accurate assessment of their problem and charging them fairly for the work I perform.
Reminded of our obligation to be just and fair to others, let us kneel and confess that we have often used our knowledge to exploit others rather than to bless them.

Showing Hospitality to Guests

February 17, 2013 in Bible - OT - Exodus, Ecclesiology, Meditations

Exodus 23:9 (NKJV)
“Also you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
As our Scripture today reminds us, God commanded Israel to be hospitable, merciful, just and gracious to “strangers” – that is, foreigners or immigrants in Israel who were most susceptible to abuse and exploitation by those who understood Israel’s language and customs. God warns Israel lest they use their knowledge to swindle these newcomers or to humiliate them.
Note that in our passage today the rationale God uses to enforce his command is Israel’s own experience in Egypt. The Israelites were to remember that they had once been strangers and that, therefore, they knew what it was to be in a different land – unfamiliar with the language, ignorant of the customs, uncertain of the expectations, vulnerable to exploitation. Israel knew the heart of a stranger. Therefore, Israel was not to oppress a stranger.
This principle is repeated throughout the law. We read, for example, in Leviticus 19:33–34:
‘And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
Israel was to take special care that foreigners and strangers be treated justly and compassionately. So what does this command have to do with us? Much in every way. After all, Paul commands us in the book of Hebrews, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers…” As Christians we have an obligation to welcome and protect those most vulnerable to exploitation or humiliation.
There are numerous implications that follow from this principle – today let us consider one and we will address others in weeks to come. One implication is that we need to love strangers to our congregation. When there are visitors, we have an obligation in the sight of God to love and cherish these folks and to assist them to feel at home. We have a certain language and certain customs with which visitors are unfamiliar; we have relationships with one another that visitors don’t yet enjoy. So we have an opportunity to make visitors feel welcome, loved, appreciated, and included. This may mean assisting them with their bulletin or their hymnals; it most certainly means making sure that visitors aren’t standing around with no one welcoming them. Be courteous, be gracious, be hospitable, be welcoming. The goal is to make them feel at home – for you understand, do you not, the heart of a stranger? You know what it is to visit a new congregation of God’s people – you know that it is awkward and that when members of that congregation make you feel at home it is a welcome oasis in a barren land.
But often we are so consumed with our own troubles or our desire to be with just our friends that we neglect to think of these visitors in our midst. Rather than think of others, we primarily think of ourselves. This exhortation I would urge upon the youth as much or more than upon the adults. Look for opportunities to welcome visitors. Welcome them and make them feel at home.
Reminded of our obligation to welcome strangers and of our tendency to think of ourselves more than others, let us kneel and confess our sin to the Lord.

A Biblical Case for Infant Baptism

February 6, 2013 in Baptism, Ecclesiology, Old Testament, Sacraments

Our men’s group is currently reading Book IV of John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion. Finding ourselves in the midst of his defense of infant baptism, I decided to take the time to reformat a paper I wrote some years ago when I was still a credobaptist and moving toward paedobaptism. As Calvin makes clear in his defense, the linchpin of the argument for paedobaptism is the correspondence between circumcision and baptism. Being keenly aware of that I did a fair amount of meditating and wrestling with that very issue. This paper was the fruit of that meditation. I hope you enjoy it.

The Significance of Circumcision

My Church and I

October 10, 2012 in Ecclesiology

I visited my parents the other day and noticed an old display card in one of their rooms bearing the title, “My Church and I” by John Bunyan Smith, D.D. Curious I decided to read – and I was so struck by Dr. Smith’s words that I took a snapshot of the thing. Unfortunately my snapshot didn’t turn out too well – but I’ve transcribed what Dr. Smith had to say about the church here:

My church is the place where the Word of God is preached, the power of God is felt, the Spirit of God is manifested, the Love of God is revealed, and the unity of God is perceived.

It is the home of my soul, the altar of my devotion, the hearth of my faith, the center of my affections, and the foretaste of heaven.

I have united with it in solemn covenant, pledging myself to attend its services, to pray for its members, to give to its support, and to obey its laws.

It claims the first place in my heart, the highest place in my mind, the principal place in my activities, and its unity, peace and progress concern my life in this world and that which is to come.

I owe it my zeal, my benevolence and my prayers. When I neglect its services, I injure its good name, I lessen its power, I discourage its members, and I chill my own soul.

I have solemnly promised in the sight of God and men to advance its interests by my faithful attendance, by reading the Holy Bible, by never neglecting its ordinances, by contributing to its support, by meeting with my fellow members, by watching over their welfare, and by joining with them in prayer and praise and service; and that promise I this day renew, before God my Father, Christ my Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit my Sanctifier.

Calvin on the Necessity of Corporate Worship

June 15, 2012 in Ecclesiology, John Calvin, Worship

“Many are led either by pride, dislike, or rivalry to the conviction that they can profit enough from private reading and meditation; hence they despise public assemblies and deem preaching superfluous. But, since they do their utmost to sever or break the sacred bond of unity, no one escapes the just penalty of this unholy separation without bewitching himself with pestilent errors and foulest delusions. In order, then, that pure simplicity of faith may flourish among us, let us not be reluctant to use this exercise of religion which God, by ordaining it, has shown us to be necessary and highly approved.” John Calvin, Institues of the Christian Religion, IV.1.v.

Trinity Sunday

June 4, 2012 in Bible - NT - John, Ecclesiology, Meditations, Trinity, Worship


John 4:21-24 (NKJV)
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and Truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth.”

On Trinity Sunday for the last few years we have considered the words that Jesus speaks in this text and the way that they help us understand the Trinity. Unfortunately, this text is frequently misinterpreted. It is imagined that Jesus is contrasting the external, formal worship of the OT period with the heartfelt, internal worship of the New. At one time people worshiped externally, now all worship is “in spirit and truth” – that is, heartfelt and genuine.

The difficulty faced by this approach is not the insistence that worship must be heartfelt and genuine. That is most certainly true. The difficulty is that this was no less true in the OT than in the New. David declares in the psalter, “Sacrifice and burnt offering you did not desire, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”Heartfelt, genuine worship was to characterize the OT no less than the New.

What then is the change Jesus is anticipating in His words to the Samaritan woman? There are actually two changes. First, Jesus insists that the corporate worship of the people of God would be decentralized. Remember that in the OT God’s people had a central sanctuary located at Jerusalem. Three times a year every male had to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to Mount Zion, and worship at the central sanctuary, offering sacrifices, feasting with God’s people, honoring the Lord. The Samaritans, for their part, refused to acknowledge the centrality of Jerusalem but likewise had a central sanctuary at Mount Gerizim. Here the Samaritans had their collective feasts. The woman asks Jesus – You’re a prophet; so which is it? Mount Zion or Mount Gerizim? Jesus responds, “Neither! In the Christian era, during My reign, God’s people are not required to gather for corporate worship at a central sanctuary – whether in Gerizim or Jerusalem or Rome. Rather, wherever the people of God gather together in My Name and lift My Name on high, there is Mount Zion, there is the City of God, there is the central sanctuary.” In other words, Jerusalem in Israel is no longer the center of God’s dealings with man; the heavenly Jerusalem, Mount Zion, the Church is the center.

Second, Jesus informs us that not only would corporate worship be decentralized, it would be explicitly Trinitarian. When Jesus rose from the dead and sent forth His Spirit, the worship of God’s people was forever transformed. It became explicitly Trinitarian – worshiping the Father in Spirit – the very Spirit whom Jesus promised would come and lead His people into all righteousness – and in Truth – the very Truth who took on human flesh and declared to His disciples, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Today is Trinity Sunday, the Sunday the Church has historically emphasized the Triune nature of God. It is this that Jesus does in our text. Worshiping the Father in Spirit and Truth is not an exhortation to heartfelt, genuine worship – that exhortation had been given throughout the OT. Worshiping the Father in Spirit and Truth is to worship the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And it was this transformation that Jesus anticipated and announced to the Samaritan woman. “The time is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth.”

So what does this mean for us? It means that this morning as we gather together to worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth, as we gather to worship the Triune God, we are approaching the central sanctuary of God, the place where God dwells. Mount Zion is His dwelling place and it is this place to which we draw near every time we gather to worship the Lord together. Hebrews tells us, “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first born who are registered in heaven…” (Heb 12:22-23) And, like Isaiah, who entered into the presence of God in the Temple, the first thing that should strike us is our own unworthiness – in ourselves, we are not worthy to be here. And so let us kneel and seek His forgiveness through Christ.

Ascension Sunday

May 21, 2012 in Ascension Sunday, Bible - NT - Ephesians, Ecclesiology, Meditations

Ephesians 4:7-8, 11-13
7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.” …11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
Today is Ascension Sunday. Ascension Sunday celebrates – along with Christmas, Epiphany, Good Friday, Easter, and Pentecost – one of the most pivotal events in the life of Christ and, hence, in the history of the world. On this day, Jesus ascended into heaven and took His seat of authority at the right hand of God Almighty, ruling there as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And from this position of authority, He sent forth His Spirit upon His disciples – an event we shall celebrate next week in Pentecost.
In our text today, Paul indicates one of the implications of the Ascension for the people of God. When Christ ascended on high, was enthroned in state, sat down at the right hand of God Almighty, he was then the victorious conqueror, in a position to distribute spoil among his followers. “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.”
And what is the nature of the gifts he bestows upon His retainers? Ah his gifts are numerous and glorious – for His gifts are not merely objects but persons. He gave apostles and prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers – from other places we learn that he has given helps, works of mercy, humility, joy, contentment, peace, self-control, wisdom, virtue. Glorious gifts He has bestowed on His retainers.
Why? Why has he given these things? Here is the startling message of Paul. He has given them “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” In other words, the gifts that Christ has given to us are to be given in turn for the benefit of the whole body, for the Church.
So what does Ascension Sunday mean for us? First, we must take note of the gifts that our great King has granted to us. What gifts has the exalted and enthroned King bestowed upon you? He does not leave anyone out. If you have been baptized into Christ then you have a gift bestowed upon you by your heavenly King. Second, having acknowledged the gifts, our first response should be to thank the Giver. Jesus Christ ascended to the right hand of the Father and poured out gifts upon the Church; he has poured out some gift on each of us; and so our calling is to thank Him both for the gifts which He has given me personally and for the gifts He has given to my neighbor– our Lord Jesus thank you for calling the Twelve and giving them to the church; thank you for Paul, for Athanasius, for Clement, for Gottschalk, for Helena, for Ethelberga, for Zwingli, Bullinger, Peter Martyr. And coming closer to home, we say thank you for George and Freddy and Sally and  – for the gifts you have given them so they might bestow them on the body. Having recognized the gifts and given thanks to Him for the gifts that He has bestowed upon us and upon the rest of the body, our final task is to use the gifts He has given us for the body. Our calling is to imitate our King and give gifts in turn. We cannot serve Christ in isolation; we cannot serve Him apart from being integral members of a local church where we can use our gifts to bless our brethren.
But frequently our attitude and actions are far from this. Frequently, we complain that we have not been given the gifts that others have received and we endeavor to horde the gifts, increasing our own cache rather than blessing the body. Reminded of this, let us kneel and confess our sins to Him.