A Gospel Presentation - Part 6 (Culmination/Cure)

Previous Posts in this Series:
A Gospel Presentation: Part 1 (Two-Age Worldview)
A Gospel Presentation: Part 2 (Creation/Curse)
A Gospel Presentation: Part 3 (Covenant/Commitment)
A Gospel Presentation: Part 4 (Confirmation)
A Gospel Presentation: Part 5 (Charismatic Witness)

"After all of this I will pour out my Spirit on all kinds of people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your elderly will have prophetic dreams; your young men will see visions. Even on male and female servants I will pour out my Spirit in those days. I will produce portents (wonders) both in the sky and on the earth - blood, fire, and columns of smoke. The sunlight will be turned to darkness and the moon to the color of blood, before the day of the Lord comes - that great and terrible day! It will so happen that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered. For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who survive, just as the Lord has promised; the remnant will be those whom the Lord will call." (Joel 2:28-32, NET)

"Then the angel showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Jesus), in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There will no longer exist anything that is cursed [because sin and illness and death are gone]; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve and worship Him [with great awe and joy and loving devotion]; they will [be privileged to] see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be night;  they have no need for lamplight or sunlight, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign [as kings] forever and ever." (Revelation 22:1-5, AMP)

I chose these two Scriptures to open this last post because they capture the essence of what all of time and history is leading up to: The Day of the Lord, followed by the restoration of the Kingdom of God. As I have mentioned many times during this series, our Great Hope and the essential, fundamental message of the full Gospel, is that God is working out a plan to restore all things (Acts 1:6, 3:21).

Thought of the Day - When is Jesus Not Jesus?

I am reminded of this question from time to time, but today I have been thinking about it again - the question is simple: If we change anything about who God or Jesus are, at what point do they cease being the actual God/Jesus and instead become idols of our own making?

I've been very clear, if you go back and read past posts, about my own sinful history. For most of my life, I struggled with pornography. It is always something that will be there crouching at my door - like an drug addict is never truly free from addiction, so this will follow me around the rest of my life. With that being said, I used to read a verse like 1 Corinthians 6:9 ("Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God") and I think "surely that can't mean someone like me."...as if what I was doing wasn't sexually immoral and therefore disqualifying me from the kingdom. To be clear, I know there is a lot more to it that this simple statement, but nevertheless...my point is, mentally I was trying to make Scripture into something I wanted, rather than something that is objectively true and requires me to change me life in response to it.

We have no problem conceiving of Jesus as a kind-hearted, loving, jovial person. What we often fail to recognize, however, is that sometimes his words were very direct and difficult. "Many will say to me 'Lord, Lord, did we not (insert great things here) [...] and I will say to them, 'away from me you evildoers, I don't know you.'" (Matthew 7) or "He replied, "I tell you that everyone who has will be given more; but the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. And these enemies of mine who were unwilling for me to rule over them, bring them here and slay them in front of me." (Luke 19)

"My Body, My Choice"? Stop.

A few years - I was talking with a friend of mine about the death penalty. He asked me if I was pro-life and I said, "yes, of course". He said, "well, then you can't be in favor of the death-penalty". He went on to say that if you are pro-life, then you uphold life in all of its forms, regardless of the circumstances. That is the only intellectually honest way to look at it. It is one of the rare times in my life where my opinion on something was truly changed. I no longer support the death-penalty, no matter how much I think it might apply in a given situation.

Recently, I have seen Christians and others who are against vaccine/mask mandates using the slogan 'my body, my choice'. That phrase, of course, is 'stolen' from the pro-choice movement. While I do not disagree, ideologically, with the message the anti-vaccine mandate folks are trying to send - I think that kind of messaging is intellectually inconsistent. First, it is legitimizing of their argument. If you are pro-life, you don't even recognize that 'my body, my choice' is the right argument. After all, in the VAST majority of abortions, the baby is being killed simply because the mother doesn't want the inconvenience of a child. The choice was made, well before a child was conceived, to engage in sexual relationships. That was the choice - the baby was the consequence. It is never one's choice to prematurely end the life of another, whether that life exists within the womb or otherwise.

Second, it is sending mixed messages. If you are staunchly against abortion, and argue against 'my body, my choice' when its about something you disagree with, but then embrace the phrase when it is convenient for the argument you're trying to make, then you've muddied the waters and watered down what you believe in. Regarding an issue as grave as abortion, we cannot afford to water down our convictions.

The Importance of Good Theology

I struggled to name this post - wasn't sure whether to use 'theology' or 'doctrine'. Both are probably important, but I digress. What I mean is - the importance of a) knowing what is True and b) having a firm foundation built upon what is True. It strikes me that if Yeshua is coming back in our lifetimes, and I believe that He is, that things are going to get much, much tougher before that happens. I have Matthew 24 on my brain today:

"Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will again. Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short." (Matthew 24:17-22, NASB)

You might say, "that's silly, He is not coming back in our lifetimes..." I would reply, "The Disciples all thought Yeshua was coming back in their lifetimes and they lived accordingly." I believe that the vagueness of the timing of His return was intentional, to keep everyone who would follow Him focused on what is to come. When we have a theology that is motivated by what is coming, we have a unique ability to cut through all of the noise and remained focused on what is important. There are many things happening in the World today that suggest His return is not that far off. Satan knows what is going to happen as well - and my personal sense is that the Great Tribulation, spoke of in the verses above, is Satan's last gasp at getting people to give up on God and His promises.

I think about what is coming - more craziness and government oppression...you know it's coming... Will I lose myself in fighting against it, or will I realize that suffering is THE hallmark of this present Age and keep my eyes focused on the promises of God? Will Western Christians keep the faith when our livelihoods, way of life, and perhaps even our lives, are threatened? Yeshua, in the Sermon on the Mount, talks about two kids of houses - one built on sand and the other built on rock. I believe He was talking about how fully we are committed to God and to His promises. Everyone is building a house, and everyone will face a storm, whether that be something on a personal level, or the certain trouble at the end of this Age. What will our house be standing on and how will we respond to the storm? These are the questions we need to ask ourselves as a matter of self-examination. The heat is just now starting to rise, let's all take advantage of this moment to really consider where our faith is, while the temperature is still bearable.

The Body and Soul

Saw this today and wanted to share it because I found it to be profound.

The story is called the Two Watchmen, it comes from the Talmud, a Rabbinic Midrash of Rabbi Judah HaNassi (Talmud Sanhedrin 91 a-b):

"Antoninus said to Rabbi Judah HaNassi: The body and the soul can each absolve themselves from judgement. The body can say: "It is the soul who has sinned. Why, from the day it left me, I lie like a dumb stone in the grave!" And the soul can say: "It's the body who transgressed. From the day I departed it, I fly about in the air like a bird!"

Said Rabbi Judah: I will tell you a parable.

Once there was a king who had a beautiful orchard with splendid figs. He appointed two watchmen for his orchard. One watchman was lame, and the other one blind.

One day the lame man said to the blind man: "I see beautiful figs in the orchard. Come, I will ride on your shoulders, and we'll take them and eat them." So the lame man rode on the shoulders of the blind man, and they took the fruits and ate them.

Some time after, the owner of the orchard came and inquired of them, "Where are those beautiful figs?" The lame man replied, "Have I feet to walk with?" The blind me replied, "Have I eyes to see with?"

What did the king do? He placed the lame watchman on the shoulders of the blind watchman, and judged them together."

I found this to be such a beautiful picture of the body and soul. It reminds me of two things - the first is the story of Adam and Eve and the whole scene of them eating the forbidden fruit. Both of them utter an excuse (Eve: the serpent tricked me, Adam: the woman gave it to me and I ate it). After that thought was how much of a dancer God is. There is seemingly always this dance at play, on a number of levels; (some of the things that come to mind) between the flesh and the spirit, between the chosen-ness of Israel and the provocation of Gentile faith, or between a narrow path or a broad road, between building on sand versus building on rock...

A Gospel Presentation - Part 5 (Charismatic Witness)

Previous Posts in this Series:
A Gospel Presentation: Part 1 (Two-Age Worldview)
A Gospel Presentation: Part 2 (Creation/Curse)
A Gospel Presentation: Part 3 (Covenant/Commitment)
A Gospel Presentation: Part 4 (Confirmation)

“By all reason and logic, there is no reason that Christianity should have gone forward. It was a marginal Jewish sect that proclaimed a crucified Messiah and everything about it is contrary to the ways of the World; it has no power, no power base, it contradicts having a lot of money and storing up wealth…it contradicts all of the things that make a movement happen, historically speaking. The cross itself contradicts it all. And so it should have faded into oblivion long, long ago, rather quickly. Yet, it’s the Holy Spirit that continues to bring it forth and bring it to the forefront, in the midst of every way in which the spirit of the world contradicts it.” – John Harrigan

 

"We gave you very strict orders not to continue teaching in this name," he said. "But look! You have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are set on making us responsible for this man's blood!" "It is God whom we must obey, rather than mere men," Peter and the other apostles replied. "The God of our ancestors 'raised up' Jesus, whom you murdered by having him 'hanged on a tree.' This man God has exalted to his own right hand as Ruler, yes, and Savior, to give Israel opportunity to repent and receive forgiveness for her sins. We are witnesses to these things, as is the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to those who obey him." (Acts 5:28-32, BHT)

The Spirit Present at Creation

In many ways, the Holy Spirit is the glue that holds everything in this Gospel presentation together. If you read Christian theology, you will get a lot of different takes on the Holy Spirit, but what I present here is fairly simple. At the beginning of the Gospel of John, there is the famous passage, “In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. The Word was with God in the beginning. All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.” Looking back at Genesis, we see that this is true. Genesis 1:2, “Now the earth was without shape and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the watery deep, but the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water.” Job 26:13 and Isaiah 32:15 also speak of the Holy Spirit’s presence and activity at Creation.

‘Spirit’ in Hebrew is ‘ruach’ which could be translated as ‘breath’, ‘wind’ or even ‘mind of’. In my mind, a straight-forward understanding of the Holy Spirit is that of the ‘voice’ or ‘proclaimed will’ of God. I’ll leave it to the theologians to debate the essence of that voice and will.

 

A Gospel Presentation - Part 4 (Confirmation/Cross)

Previous Posts in this Series:
A Gospel Presentation: Part 1 (Two-Age Worldview)
A Gospel Presentation: Part 2 (Creation/Curse)
A Gospel Presentation: Part 3 (Covenant/Commitment)

"For I say that Messiah has become a servant to the circumcision in behalf of the truth of God, to confirm the promises given to the fathers, and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy..." (Romans 15:8-9, NASB)

In some ways Jesus is the easiest part of this narrative to write about, and in other ways, He is the hardest thing to write about. On the one hand, few are confused as to who Jesus is and what He has done. Those of us who have grown up in the Faith have heard about Jesus all of our lives and heard the wonderous stories of his life; the miracles, the teachings, his death and his resurrection, etc. many times over. On the other hand, the layers of meaning run endlessly deep - the possible avenues for discussion and commentary could (and have) fill volumes upon volumes. In Evangelical circles, the 'volume' on Jesus is turned way up, and I don't seek to change that in any way. When speaking of Messiah Jesus, he deserves to have the volume all the way up. What I have hoped to achieve with these writings is a turning up of the volume in some other areas as well, to present what I believe is a full Gospel, ala Acts 18:24-26. What I want to do here is communicate how Jesus fits into the narrative I have been speaking about throughout this series.

Jesus as Messiah/King

A good starting place in speaking about Jesus, is his role as 'Messiah'. In keeping with some of what I brought up in the last post, I will point out that 'Messiah' is a thoroughly Jewish term. There was a whole 'messianic expectation' that had formed prior to Jesus' appearance, mostly in the Intertestamental Period (the ~400 year period between the end of the Hebraic Scriptures, Genesis through Malachi, and the beginning of Matthew). This expectation centered, in part, around the Davidic Covenant and the Jewish hope of one who would come to sit/rule on the throne of David forever. It is critical to understand that at the time of Jesus birth, the primary expectation of a 'messiah' within the mind of a Jew, was the expectation of a coming King. A political figure, to put a modern context to it. This is clear when we look at what the Magi say when they come to find the one they are searching for:

"After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him." (Matthew 2:1-2, NIV)