One of my favorite approaches to the Bible is that of Narrative Theology: a way of looking at the Bible focused on the grand story that the Bible tells.
These guys doing The Bible Project put together this great video, which uses this approach. Check this video out; I think it’s awesome!
They have a bunch of other videos on their YouTube page which are worth watching too.
On Saturday, an apartment fire in NYC claimed the lives of 7 children. When you find out why it happened, you realize just how dangerous it can be to misinterpret the Bible…
Recently at White Fields church I have been teaching on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. This past Sunday I taught Matthew 5:17-30, where Jesus refutes the misinterpretation of the Law of Moses by the Pharisees.
The Pharisees made 2 basic errors in regard to their interpretations of the Law of Moses. On the one hand, they would add rules to the Law of Moses, to make sure they didn’t accidentally break any of the commandments. On the other hand though, they created a system of loopholes to circumvent the very rules which they themselves added to the Law of Moses. The purpose of this was so that they could claim that they had “technically” kept the Law, while still making sure they had ways to do all the things they felt the need to do.
Modern day Judaism has had to deal with technological innovations, such as electricity and motor vehicles, which has greatly complicated the question of what constitutes “labor” on the Sabbath. In broad terms, they have landed on the definition that the breaking or building of anything constitutes “work”. So, practically, they have determined that it is not permissibly to drive a car, since combustion happens in an engine, nor are they allowed to turn on or off electricity, because it breaks an electrical current.
To circumvent this rule, especially in cold places, modern ultra-orthodox Jews, have tended to turn on a hot plate or an oven the night on Friday afternoon, before the start of the Sabbath, and that way they can heat food and keep their residences warm without technically doing “work”.
During my sermon this past Sunday, I mentioned a news story about an apartment fire in Jerusalem in an orthodox neighborhood, where – because people considered it not forbidden to use a phone on the Sabbath – the fire spread to 2 surrounding buildings before fire fighters were alerted and got to the scene to put it out.
Right after church, someone told me about the tragic events which had happened for very similar reasons the night before in New York City, in which an orthodox Jewish family had left a hot plate on in the kitchen, a common practice for those who adhere to the “Talmudic fence” which Pharisaical Judaism put around the Law of Moses; when the hotplate malfunctioned and caused a fire in the middle of the night in the apartment which left 7 children dead and the mother and oldest child in critical condition.
This is a tragic example of how misinterpreting the Bible can lead to tragedy…
One of the saddest parts of the news report was the final line:
“We believe that being buried in Israel is important because all of your sins are then absolved,” [Rabbi Alon Edri] said.
These Jews, who take the Law and the Prophets (Old Testament) seriously, understand that the fundamental need of the human soul is for our sins to be dealt with and wiped away. The problem is that they have no way of obtaining this, especially since for almost 2000 years now they have had no temple in which to make the sacrifices of atonement prescribed by the Law of Moses. The idea that being buried in Israel will absolve one’s sins is not found in the Bible; it is something they have created to deal with the problem that they deeply feel and see: that they need their sins to be forgiven, yet they have no way of having their sins atoned for. They have done something similar with Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), on which, according to the Law of Moses, a sacrifice was to be made to atone for the sins of the nation – but instead of doing that, modern Judaism has settled for telling people to make “sacrifices of contrition” (read: feeling really bad about yourself and your sin) in order to make atonement. However, this, according to the Law itself, is not enough, for we know that “life is in the blood” and “there is no atonement of sin apart from the shedding of blood.”
Oh that they might come to see that Jesus came to fulfill all of the Law and the Prophets! That He is the atoning sacrifice which God provided for them.
We pray for this family, for the community and for the mother and daughter still in critical condition, that God would comfort them and that they would come to know the righteousness that God has provided for them apart from the Law, since “by the works of the Law, no one will be justified”.
Yesterday I taught on the famous sayings of Jesus to his disciples, that they are the salt of the Earth and the light of the world. (You can listen to that message here).
Jesus makes his point there, that no one lights a lamp and then hides it under a basket, but they put it on a lamp stand, so it can be seen by all. Just as a city on a hill can not be hidden, Jesus’ disciples are not meant to keep their faith a secret.
Yesterday in Pakistan, 10 more Christians were killed in the bombing of a Christian church. This makes for 25 total deaths of Christians in targeted attacks over the past few days. ISIS is going around systematically targeting and murdering Christians in the Middle East. Christians in the West have little concept of the implications of Jesus’ words for these Christians!
In the West, the greatest persecution we face for not hiding our Christianity, is that people will think we are religious fanatics. But for the most part, being a Christian is still a perfectly acceptable thing to be in our society. There is honestly not a great temptation, unless you are an extremely insecure person, to hide the fact that you are a Christian.
However, if being a Christian, and not hiding it, means that ISIS is going to come for you and your family, if not hiding the fact that you a Christian means that you might face fatal attacks at any moment, then the temptation is HUGE to want to hide your light under a basket – because if you put it on a lamp stand, then you become a target.
In the Beatitudes Jesus describes the kind of people who will be his disciples: they will be meek, they will hunger and thirst after righteousness, they will be peacemakers, they will be pure of heart. When you read those characteristics, you might thing: Wow, those sound like the greatest people in the world! That’s the kind of person I’d like to have as my best friend! But, surprisingly, Jesus then says that these kinds of people will be persecuted by the world. (Matthew 5:11-12) You might wonder: Who would want to hurt these kinds of wonderful people? But you have to look no further than Jesus. He embodied all of those wonderful characteristics, and people beat him and nailed him to a cross.
The situation with Christians around the world facing increased persecution, especially in Muslim-majority countries, should be a wake-up call to Western Christians – and should teach us something about the nature of what it means to be a Christian.
Western Christianity, in my opinion, faces a more insidious form of attack than the physical attack facing those in other parts of the world. Here, our culture pressures us to make Christianity a private thing, that we are free to do, but only behind closed doors. As a result, we have ended up with a form of Christianity that is very introspective and less mission-focused.
In other words, Western society has sought to domesticate Christians, remove their claws and potty train them. They are not trying to scare us into hiding our light under a basket, like ISIS and other radical Islamists do, but rather to coax us into putting a basket over our light, so as not to disturb others with it.
We must remember the words of Jesus: that to hide our light is to betray our very design and purpose as Disciples of Jesus in the world.
Tomorrow morning I’ll be teaching on Jesus’ salt and light metaphors from the Sermon on the Mount, as part of our CounterCulture series at White Fields.
I found this quote in a book by John Stott, about the social responsibility of Christians as part of our identity as the salt of the Earth. Since salt has a healing and preserving effect, the idea is that Christians should have a healing and preserving effect on society.
There are some who would say, What’s the point in trying to make society better? If Jesus could come back any minute, and this life is short anyway, then shouldn’t all our efforts be towards saving people out of this world, rather than “polishing a turd”, to put it crassly?
However, it seems to me that it is an inherent part of the calling of a Christian to make the world a better place, if for no other reason than to “let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)
Here is that John Stott quote:
Too often evangelical Christians have interpreted their social responsibility in terms only of helping the casualties of a sick society, and have done nothing to change the structures which cause the casualties. Just as doctors are concerned not only with the treatment of patients but also with preventive medicine and public health, so we should concern ourselves with what might be called preventive social medicine and higher standards of moral hygiene. However small our part may be, we cannot opt out of seeking to create better social structures, which guarantee justice in legislation and law enforcement, the freedom and dignity of the individual, civil rights for minorities and the abolition of social and racial discrimination. We should neither despise these things nor avoid our responsibility for them. They are part of God’s purpose for his people. Whenever Christians are conscientious citizens, they are acting like salt in the community.
As Sir Frederick Catherwood put it:‘To try to improve society is not worldliness but love. To wash your hands of society is not love but worldliness.’
Stott goes on to say that SALT is not all that the world needs. The world also needs LIGHT – the truth of God, ultimately found in the Gospel.
Following up on a previous post on why Christians worship on Sunday and the correlation between the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday, I recently read something I found interesting.
While many people assume that Christianity just took the Jewish idea of Sabbath and moved it to Sunday, it turns out the reason for the Christian Sunday is deeply eschatological.
Check it out:
Jewish Sabbath
Christian Sunday
Christianity was not just a rebranding of Jewish practices, but an eschatological fulfillment of them.
The Christian Sunday is more than a day of rest for Christians, it is a day of new creation. In it, we remember not only to rest from our labor, but we are reminded that with the resurrection of Jesus, we stand at the dawn of eternity – and that one day soon, the Son will break over the horizon and usher in the New Day. In the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we have witnessed the death of death and the birth of “the life that is truly life”.
I do my seminary studies in England, and I always find it interesting to read about American culture, politics, etc. from a British perspective.
This semester I’m taking a class on History of Christian Worship, and one part of this describes the development of different ways of “shaping Christian time” in worship.
Here’s an excerpt from my reading about the “Frontier Church model”:
Frontier or Revivalist Groups
This term is used by White to designate a type of Protestant worship widely recognised in North America which spread to the UK. As already indicated, it is a nineteenth-century form of the Service of the Word in which worship became simply equated with evangelism. Its roots were Puritan, Reformed and Methodist, and it was born out of a prevailing spirit of its Victorian times – didactic, stripped-down commonsensical. To meet the challenge of how to mediate Christian faith to the scattered and independent people moving west across the North American continent, evangelists developed a pragmatic, free-style, anti-tradition form. This kind of worship had one purpose and that was to make converts.
The service had a three-part form:
- the warm-up or preliminaries – easy-to-sing emotional hymns;
- the Word – the sermon, preparing for;
- the harvest – altar call, an emotional appeal for conversion.
Frontier-type worship is evident in evangelistic ‘crusades’ and in many independent church services and Pentecostal meetings.
Sound familiar? This gives interesting perspective to the “common” way of doing church in America today. I know that this is the MO of many mega-churches. However, the question is begged: where is the discipleship? I know of large churches which have no strategy for discipleship beyond their Sunday morning preaching times, which are focused on proclamation of the Gospel with a focus on evangelism.
On the other side of the spectrum, I was speaking this weekend with friends in Canada who told me that the services in their church are focused wholly on the people of God and are not at all evangelistic (something they regretted to admit).
This seems to be one of the big questions: Who and what is the church service designed for? Discipling believers, or preaching to unbelievers for conversion? But what if everyone is converted already? Do you just keep preaching the same invitation to receive salvation to the already saved, because there just might be 1 or 2 unsaved people? Or is it then always an invitation to “re-committ”? Where does the instruction of believers come in? Is that really “church”? BUT – if you never preach and invite people to respond to the call of the Gospel to commit themselves to following Jesus, then what happens when new people come? Is your service simply not for them?
Clearly every church is trying to find this balance. I find that teaching through the Bible systematically, like we do at White Fields, is one of the most effective ways of both instructing believers and giving calls to action and to repentance. I also believe that having Christian instruction outside of the Sunday morning gatherings is an important way of doing this too. One of the things I’d like to start at White Fields is something along this line, because after all, we are called to not only make converts unto Jesus Christ, but disciples of Jesus Christ, teaching them to observe all that He commanded us (Matthew 28:20).
I don’t know how many times I have heard it or read it before. People referring to this phrase that Jesus said:
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35 ESV)
But almost EVERY single time I heave heard or read someone refer to this statement, it is followed by commentary along these lines:
I spent this past weekend in Washington State and British Columbia. A dear friend of ours from our church in Hungary passed away, and his funeral was on Saturday in Langley, BC.
When I heard that this friend passed away, I called some friends in Everett, WA, where the husband is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Everett, to ask if they might be able to help me out if I were to try to attend the funeral. They quickly told me to go ahead and book the tickets and they would work out the rest: lodging, rides, etc. I also got in touch with people from my friend’s church in Langley to tell them I was trying to come, and they responded the exact same way.
This whole past weekend was spent with people from these two churches in Everett and Langley. A couple from the church in Everett picked me up at the airport and drove me to Everett, where a car and a place to stay the night were prepared for me. Of course, this was all done by people I had never met before
On Friday I drove up to British Columbia, and that night went to stay with a family from Christ Covenant Church. As soon as I arrived they welcomed me, and then I went with them to their church community group, where we ate, studied the Bible and sang and prayed together. Again, I had never met these people before, but they treated me like a long lost family member. There was something we had in common, a bond which was stronger than race, citizenship or accent (it was surprising how strong that Canadian accent can be!).
We went home and I ended up staying up until 2 AM conversing with the couple about so many things regarding our shared faith.The next day was the funeral, which consisted of 3 parts at 3 locations over the course of the whole day. During this time I got to see how well our friend’s wife was being cared for and loved by her church community there in Langley. And I felt loved and cared for by that community as well
I returned to Everett, where I preached at Calvary Chapel yesterday morning, and was once again loved and welcomed like a long-unseen family member.
This weekend left me considering those words of Jesus, and the commentary which is almost always attached to them – and it made me think: that’s what Jesus was talking about!
And to all those people bemoaning the perceived lack of love amongst Christians: I disagree with you. In my experience, the church has been the most beautiful, wonderful, true community. It’s something I want to be a part of. It’s something I believe in. Yes, it has its spots and wrinkles and blemishes, because it is made up of flawed people, but it is wonderful – and I come away from this weekend and the love that I experienced in amongst those Christians with the feeling of: THAT is what Jesus was talking about when he said that we will be known as His disciples by the love that we have for one another.
It doesn’t take a genius to identify weaknesses or problems or find fault; the basest among us is capable of that. To put it frankly: any moron can do that! But it takes nobility to identify beauty and light and goodness.
I talked to someone a while back, who, upon hearing that I was a pastor, immediately assumed that I would agree with her, that church is just the worst! She said that in her opinion, “Church is a necessary evil.” I told her that I couldn’t possibly disagree more! I love the Church! I believe in the Church! It is the most wonderful, most beautiful thing in the World! It is the Body of Christ, in the world, living out his mission and being his hands and feet.
How do you think this woman’s children are going to view the church as they grow up if she continues in this kind of attitude? Most likely, they will think of the Church as a “necessary evil” too. They might choose to attend when they are adults, but they will have been trained to look at it with a critical, cynical eye. I do not want that for my children! I want my children to grow up LOVING the church and seeing the beauty in it, and knowing it as the most wonderful, most loving community in the world – and one that they want to be a part of, not because they have to, but because it is so wonderful. And they should believe in it – because Jesus ordained it for OUR good, and for the good of the whole world!
And for this reason, my wife and I have determined never to speak badly of someone from church or discuss tension or bad things that people from the church have done in front of our kids, because we want them to love the Body of Christ rather than grow up cynical about it, considering it a “necessary evil”. (And may I say: far be it from any of us to use the word “evil” in reference to something ordained by our Lord! How can we call bad what the Lord called good for us and for the world?)
So, love the church! And keep on loving each other. And don’t always talk about how it’s lacking; recognize and acknowledge and rejoice in the beauty of this loving community, which is the Body of Christ, where Jesus’ disciples do indeed show love one for another, in a way that is a testimony to the world.
Do you remember being 7 years old? Most of us can.
I have a 7 year old — and there’s a sense in which I would much rather spend time with 7 year olds than 37 year olds, because the thing about kids at that age is that they are full of life and they are so incredibly full of hope! They aren’t jaded and cynical like a lot of adults you meet.
And one of the ways you see that hope, is how every child loves stories about HEROIC quests! About ADVENTURES — about SAVING THE WORLD
World-Saving Missions — that’s what all the great stories are about! The movies, the books, the fairy tales which most excite you — that’s what they’re all about: World-Saving Missions!
And children innately love and believe in world-saving missions, and when they think about their own future and what they want to do when they grow up — they think of it in terms of MISSION!
Earlier this year, my son had his Kindergarten graduation. And during that ceremony, each of the kids talked about what they wanted to be when they grew up. And you know, not one of them said: “I’m probably just going to work in data entry! I’m hoping to sit in front of a computer all day, in an office, pushing papers… If I get lucky, I’ll get my own cubicle…” No! It was: “I want to be a doctor! I want to be a soldier! I want to be a firefighter, a police officer” — one kid said he wants to be President!
Do you see how their focus is: “I’m going to make a difference! I’m going to HELP PEOPLE! I’m going to change things! I’m going to make things RIGHT!”
These children see their future in terms of mission!
And why do you think they want to help people and save the world? Because there is JOY in that!
You see — there is a link between Joy and Mission. Mission is a requirement for joy!
And as we grow up — throughout our teenage years, and into our twenties — high school, college — we hold onto this ideal, of doing something significant to change the world and make things better! Many people I know chose their major in college because they wanted to make an impact for good in the world! They had a desire to bring healing and justice and love and peace to the world! People who study to become teachers or pastors — they didn’t do it to get rich! All the teachers I know — they went into that profession because they wanted to make an impact – to change lives!
But what happens? We see all these adults, running the rat race, but they have no joy in it… They’ve got all the stuff — the house, the cars… but they’ve got not joy. And the reason they lack joy, is because they don’t have a Mission!
In our culture, when you become an adult — you are sold this philosophy which says that idealism and dreams of saving the world are fine for kids — but now it’s time to grow up. And in the real world, all that really matters is your own personal fulfillment and comfort. And a lot of people buy into that, and they trade that mission of changing the world and making a difference, for this new goal of Personal Fulfillment.
But the problem is: When you have no higher cause than making yourself happy and comfortable, then you no longer have a mission; you no longer have anything to live for or to die for or to sacrifice for — except yourself… And when you don’t have a mission, you don’t have joy, because mission is a requirement for joy.
A lot of people are lacking joy, because they are lacking mission. You need a mission! You are BUILT for mission! And when you are living for yourself, you have no mission — and inevitably you will lack joy, because having a mission is a necessary requirement for you to have joy!
Jesus says that very thing, in John 17 — as he sends his disciples out on mission. In John 17:13, Jesus says that he wants his disciples to have the JOY that he has. And that’s why he prays in Vs 18: So, just as you (Speaking to the Father) sent me into the world, so I am sending them into the world. Jesus is saying: “Father, I want my followers to have the same JOY that I have — so, in order that they might have my JOY, I’m giving them my Mission!”
In Hebrews 12:2, we read this incredible statement: it says there that for the joy that was set before him, Jesus him endured the cross, despising the shame. Jesus endured the cross for you. He bore your sin and your shame. That’s the story of the Cross. But this verse takes us behind the scenes. To where God the Father came to the Son and said: “I’m sending you on a Mission! A mission to bring truth and life and salvation to the world that is just broken and dying under the curse of sin and death! And you’re going to go and save them! But it’s going to cost you everything! You’re going to have to take all the punishment, and all the suffering — and it’s all going to fall upon you. And it’s going to crush you! It’s going to tear you to pieces… But as a result, people are going to be saved. Lives are going to be transformed and set free – forever! You’re going to redeem them.”
And as Jesus considered that mission — consider both the cost and the pay-off of this mission — His heart was filled with one thing: JOY! It was the JOY of knowing the final outcome, which carried Him through the difficult times — that made him able to endure the cross and bear the shame. And so Jesus says: I want other people to have MY JOY — and so I’m sending them out on mission — so that they might have fullness of joy.
The reason many people lack joy in their lives is because they are living only for themselves! They have no mission, they have no higher commitment than themselves.
The irony is: The more significance you give to yourself — the less significant your life will actually be. The more you live for yourself — the less you will make a difference and have an impact in the world!
But Jesus says: “I’m giving you a mission! And if you accept this mission, God will use you to bring truth and life and salvation and redemption into the World. Yes, there will be a cost! It will cost you time and energy and resources to fulfill this calling and do this mission. It may even cost you your whole life! But it is something which is worth living for and dying for and sacrificing for — because there is nothing more important in the world, than this mission.”
You need a mission. It’s a fundamental human need. It’s a basic requirement for joy. And the Mission of God is the only mission which is legitimately worth giving everything for, because it is the only mission which actually has the potential to save the world.
[This is an excerpt from a message titled “A Mission from God”, the whole of which can be listened to here]
A reader of this blog requested that I write a post about the symbolic significance of the Jordan River crossing in Joshua chapter 3.
This week I began teaching Bible class at Longmont Christian High School. This class is doing an overview of the Old Testament, and I picked up where the previous teacher had left off: in the Book of Joshua.
One of the concepts I shared with the students as we’ve been studying Johsua is Biblical Typeology, or how certain characters, events or places in the Old Testament function as types of New Tesament truths.
In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul writes this: For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. (1 Corinthians 10:1-6 ESV)
What Paul is talking about here are how the Old Testament stories are both historically true, and yet were also so masterfully crafted by God that He, in His divine providence, embedded them with symbolic meaning, that is only realized by us now as being a pattern or type or foreshadowing of New Testament truths, i.e. Christ and the Christian life.
For example, in Luke 24, we read how after Jesus resurrected from the dead, he gave the best Bible study ever given: he took his disciples through the Olt Testament, showing them how everything actually pointed to him.
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, (Luke 24:27, 44-45 ESV)
In other words, reading the Bible is a lot like watching the movie “The Sixth Sense”. If you’ve seen the movie, it’s about a boy who sees dead people. The boy starts meeting with a psychologist, played by Bruce Willis, who talks him through what’s going on, but at the end of the movie you realize something that changes everything: the psychologist is dead too – he’s been dead all along. And then, when you realize that, you can never watch the movie the same way again. In fact, you feel compelled to watch the whole movie all over again, because this time you see the whole thing in a completely different way: you realize that no one ever looks at the psychologist – people look right past him, because they don’t see him.
That’s how it is with reading the Bible too! Once you know the end of the story – that it was all building up to Jesus Christ, and you come to understand the Gospel, you can never read it in the same way again! This is what happened to the Apostle Paul! As soon as he came to see that Jesus was the Messiah, he could never read the scriptures the same way ever again (see Acts 13:13-41).
The whole Old Testament is full of such types of Christ and of the New Life in Christ. For example: Melchizedek (Genesis 14). Hebrews 7 says that Jesus is a high priest in the order of Melchizedek. What does that mean? It means that Melchizedek was an Olt Testament type of Christ. The name Melchizedek means: King of Righteousness. He was king of Salem, which means peace, and he gave Abraham bread and wine and Abraham gave him a tithe.
The Exodus narrative is another example of Biblical Typeology. Think about it:
Once you’ve read the book and seen Jesus, you can never read the book the same way again!
Dr. S.M. Lockridge and his famous message: “That’s My King”
Take a minute for this. It’s worth it.
Theology for the People 