Pilgrims and Strangers

 A friend sent me these lyrics, Petra used to sing them she tells me. It seems to me that we all ought to sing them...and live them.

"Not of This World"

We are pilgrims in a strange land

We are so far from our homeland

With each passing day it seems so clear

This world will never want us here

We're not welcome in this world of wrong

We are foreigners who don't belong

We are strangers, we are aliens

We are not of this world

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he left, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as a stranger in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. Therefore even from one man, and one who was as good as dead at that, there were born descendants who were just as the stars of heaven in number, and as the innumerable grains of sand along the seashore.

 

All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen and welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country which they left, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

From Hebrews 11.

Obedience In The Midst Of Rebellion

 

“For I am also a man under authority,” (Matthew 8:9).

 

“For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ,” (Galatians 1:10).

 

Yesterday, around 7:00 AM, as I was driving to the grocery store with little traffic, a car came racing up behind me and was soon on my bumper. I was in the left lane, a semi-truck was on my right, so I had no place to go. The road is one with traffic lights, retail stores, and residential communities – the speed limit is 40 MPH. I sped up enough to get in front of the truck and allow the car to zoom ahead. As is often the case, and I derive no little amusement from it when it happens, the speedster was stopped at the next traffic light.

 

When I drive I do so with the assumption that someone will run every traffic light, but I don’t think much about other reckless behavior such as this encounter, even though it isn’t uncommon. Perhaps this is because we seldom drive on limited access highways, nor do we drive at night as a rule, when minds are more likely to be altered due to certain activities. Nevertheless when it happens, as it did yesterday morning, I remind myself that the other driver and I live in two different worlds that overlap, that bump up against each other as tectonic plates.

 

Just as in the days of the Judges, today “everyone does what is right in his or her own eyes.” We do this on the road, we do this at work, we do this in politics, we do this in national and social policy, we do it in foreign policy, we do this in economics, and we do this in the professing church. Whether or not Darwin was right in his conclusions when examining the past may not be such an important question, when we consider that maybe he was prophetic without knowing it, maybe the “survival of the fittest” or of the most brutal, or the strongest, or the hungriest, or the most deceitful, was actually a prediction of where we were headed…just maybe.

 

However, for the servant of Jesus Christ, for the man or woman or young person who professes to know Him, to truly know Him, well...we belong to Another, we belong to Jesus, He has purchased us with His blood, called us to Himself through His love, and we are  His bondservants, we belong to Him.

 

And this means that as disciples we live lives of obedience to Him and service to others. It means we love and pray for those who oppose us and our Lord (Matthew 5:43 – 48). It means we lay down our lives for one another, just as Jesus laid down His life for us (1 John 3:16). It means that we reject demonic vitriol and hatred, self-aggrandizement (religious and political, indeed, in all areas of life), it means that we sow seeds of peace (James 3:13 – 18).  

 

It means that as the world is losing its mind, that we live in the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16; Phil. 2:5; Col. 3:1 – 4; Rom. 12:1- 2).

 

You and I are to be the Presence of Jesus Christ, every day, every moment.

 

We do not run from a world of evil, we stretch out our hands in peace, we bear our breasts, our hearts to the world, and we say, “Come to Jesus, come to Jesus, come to Jesus.”

 

“We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20).

An Irony of History

 

An Irony of History

 

I do not know when history as we know it will culminate. I do not know when Father Time will blow his trumpet and the Shadowlands will be no more. I do know that we see the ebb and flow of great rivers in the Bible, I do know that the headwaters of Genesis reach to Revelation, and I do know that Jesus Christ is the River that we ought to swim in – there is poisonous bacteria in all other rivers.

 

Should there be future generations, historians will look back at the irony that those professing Christians who made much of End Times teaching, who made much of the Rapture and the Beast and the Mark of the Beast, were deceived by the mystery of lawlessness into supporting and propagating the wickedness which they once warned against; they abrogated their citizenship of heaven for an earthly citizenship that enslaved their very own people. They brought the idols of the world into the hearts of their people.

 

Eschatology which is not centered in Jesus Christ has tragic consequences, just ask people here and abroad. Our religious playthings kill people.

 

Historians will note that whereas the early Christians stood separate from the Imperial Cult and suffered for their confession, that these professing Christians heartily embraced it, thereby denying the Lord who bought them with His blood. An ironic tragedy of history.

 

How is it that we think we can teach Matthew 24 without also teaching Matthew 25? How is it that we think we can teach about His coming to us and not teach His final Word on His coming? And what is His final Word?

 

“Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me. These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:45 – 46).

 

“I was hungry, and you gave Me  nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me, sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me” (Matthew 25:42 – 43).

 

Are those hospitality houses we’re building across our land?

 

When governments use the Bible in their propaganda, when they purport to represent Christ and the Gospel – and when they use the Bible to kill and destroy, and when they seduce and purchase the souls of religious leaders and their followers – O shame, shame, shame on us, on all of us for not speaking and living the truth and standing with Jesus Christ.

 

“Another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts” (Daniel 7:8).

 

“He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law, and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time” (Daniel 7:25).

 

“Out of one of them came forth a rather small horn which grew exceedingly great…It grew up to the host of heaven and caused some of the host and some of the stars to fall to the earth, and it trampled them down. It even magnified itself to be equal with the Commander of the host; and it removed the regular sacrifice from Him, and the place of His sanctuary was thrown down…and it will fling truth to the ground and perform its will and prosper” (Daniel 8:9 – 13).

 

“A king will arise, insolent and skilled in intrigue, his power will be mighty, but not by his own power, and he will destroy to an extraordinary degree and prosper and perform his will; He will destroy mighty men and the holy people, and through his shrewdness he will cause deceit to succeed by his influence; and he will magnify himself in his heart, and he will destroy many while they are at ease, he will even oppose the Prince of Princes, but he will be broken without human agency” (Daniel 8:23 – 25).

 

“Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods…” (Daniel 11:36).

 

“Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God (2 Thess. 2:3 – 4).

 

“There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies…and he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven” (Revelation 13:5 – 6).

The Most Beautiful Word You Can Hear From Jesus

 

 

“She turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!”” (John 20:14 – 16).

 

O to hear Jesus speak our name! To hear Him speak my name to me, for you to hear Him speak your name to you. Mary’s eyes did not know that she was looking at Jesus, she thought Him to be a gardener. But her ears! Her ears! She knew His voice!

 

How her heart leapt. How her face beamed. How her pulse quickened. How a fountain of joy and delight welled up within her soul. It was as if she, herself, was coming out of a tomb, a tomb of despair, of grief, of confusion, of a broken heart. While an angel rolled away the stone of the tomb where the body of Jesus lay, Jesus rolled away the stone of grief and despair from Mary’s heart.

 

Does not Jesus say in John 10:3 – 4 that the Shepherd of the sheep “calls His own sheep by name…and the sheep follow Him because they know His voice”?

 

O dear, dear friends. The most beautiful word you or I will ever hear from the lips of Jesus Christ is when He calls us by our name. He calls us by our name because He knows us and loves us and draws us to Himself. He calls us by name because we are His sisters and brothers (ought we not to know the names of our siblings?). He calls us by name because for the “joy set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame.”

 

O beloved, you are the joy set before Him, I am the joy set before Him, we are His joy and delight. Just as we love to hear Him speak our name, so He loves to speak our name – for we love to utter the names of those we love and who can fathom the love of Jesus for you, for me, for us?

 

 Can you hear the joy in His voice as He says, “Mary”? Can you hear the laughter, the delight, the glory? If we love to surprise people with good things and good news, how much more did Jesus love to surprise Mary with the Resurrection! Now my friends…there is indeed a surprise…and what a waste it would be if Jesus did not enjoy it!

 

Listen…listen ever so quietly…can you hear Him? Can you hear Jesus speaking to you? Can you hear Jesus saying your name?

 

When you do, you will realize that it is the most beautiful word that you will ever hear from His lips.

 

Listen.

Barabbas or Jesus?

 

 

“They cried out all together, saying, “Away with this man, and release for us Barabbas!” (He was one who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection made in the city, and for murder.)” Luke 23:18 – 19.

 

“The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to put Jesus to death.” Matthew 27:20.

 

From Palm Sunday to Good Friday is less than a week, we can measure the days. Can we measure the chasm between shouting, “Hosanna. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” and then crying out, “Crucify Him! Give us Barabbas and crucify Jesus!”? Can we plumb the depths of this chasm…the depths of our own souls?

 

How is it conceivable that the crowds who were shouting “Hosanna” on Palm Sunday and rolling out the red carpet for Jesus to enter Jerusalem, within less than a week were ushering Jesus out of Jerusalem onto the blood red way of the Via Dolorosa to Golgotha?

 

And what shall we say of the priests and elders? These holy men were, on the one hand, preparing to celebrate Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and on the other hand were lying and scheming to ensure the murder of Jesus.

 

These leaders of the people were inciting the people to cry, “Give us Barabbas! Crucify Jesus!” The religious and civil leaders were teaching the people to choose between the Lamb of God and a murderer and insurrectionist – they were calling the people to choose death over life, murder over peace, hate over love.

 

Pilate saw the insanity. Do we?

 

The challenge of celebrating Palm Sunday is to look in the mirror on Good Friday. Those who were shouting “Hosanna!” on Palm Sunday were crying out, “Give us Barabbas and crucify Jesus!” on Good Friday.

 

When we choose insurrection, we reject the Lamb of God. When we justify insurrection, we align ourselves with Satan. Jesus tells us that Satan is a murderer.

 

The chief priests and elders taught the people to cry, “Give us Barabbas and crucify Jesus!” on one of the holiest days of the year, Passover. How is this possible? How could they not see what they were doing?

 

Jesus says that “My Kingdom is not of this world.”

 

We say, “We have no king but Caesar.”

 

The spirit of Barabbas, the spirit of insurrection, is the spirit of the “man of lawlessness” (2 Thess. 3:3).

 

“Another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts” (Daniel 7:8).

 

“He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law, and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time” (Daniel 7:25).

 

“Out of one of them came forth a rather small horn which grew exceedingly great…It grew up to the host of heaven and caused some of the host and some of the stars to fall to the earth, and it trampled them down. It even magnified itself to be equal with the Commander of the host; and it removed the regular sacrifice from Him, and the place of His sanctuary was thrown down…and it will fling truth to the ground and perform its will and prosper” (Daniel 8:9 – 13).

 

“A king will arise, insolent and skilled in intrigue, his power will be mighty, but not by his own power, and he will destroy to an extraordinary degree and prosper and perform his will; He will destroy mighty men and the holy people, and through his shrewdness he will cause deceit to succeed by his influence; and he will magnify himself in his heart, and he will destroy many while they are at ease, he will even oppose the Prince of Princes, but he will be broken without human agency” (Daniel 8:23 – 25).

 

“Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods…” (Daniel 11:36).

 

“Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God (2 Thess. 2:3 – 4).

 

“There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies…and he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven” (Revelation 13:5 – 6).

 

I am puzzled how professing Christians can cry, “Give us Barabbas,” ignoring the fact that to do so is to also cry, “Crucify Jesus!”

 

On the Feast of Passover the religious leaders led their people to crucify Jesus by the hands of the Romans. The same thing can happen with professing Christians.

 

All but a few worshipped the golden image of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 3). Do we seriously think things are different today?

 

Can we not hear Jesus saying, “My Kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36)?

 

Perhaps the only real question on Good Friday is whether the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ is enough for us, whether He is our All in all. Perhaps the question is whether we belong to Jesus, and only to Jesus.

 

Yes, I think that is it.

 

Our Great Temptation

 

 

“From that time Jesus began to point out to His disciples that it was necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem and to suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and to be killed, and to be raised up on the third day. And yet Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You!” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s purposes, but men’s.”” Matthew 16:21 – 23.

 

The things we think are good can be bad, very bad.

 

“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate” (Genesis 3:6).

 

Suppose Jesus had heeded Peter’s words and gone along with Peter’s plan to spare Him suffering and death? Where would we be?

 

Look closely at Peter’s words. “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” Peter is both rebuking God and invoking God. In the Name of God Peter is opposing God. In the Name of God Peter is playing the role of Satan.

 

Consider that this passage is preceded by Peter’s glorious confession of Jesus as the Christ. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). This was revealed to Peter by the Father (16:17).

 

One minute Peter is receiving revelation from the Father and confessing that Jesus is the Messiah, the next minute Peter is playing the role of Satan invoking the Name of God.

 

Peter was tempting Jesus and Jesus responds, “You are a stumbling block to Me.” We may think of Jesus’s temptation in the Wilderness (Matthew 3), we may think of Jesus struggling in Gethsemane, but do we think of Jesus facing the temptation that Peter presents Him with in the words, “God forbid!”?

 

The temptation is to spare Himself. The temptation is to think that perhaps the Father has another way, a way other than the Cross. Maybe Peter has special insight, after all the Father has just given him revelation concerning Jesus as the Christ, maybe the Father is giving Peter insight into a way other than the Cross.

 

But Jesus knows the Way of the Father, the Way of the Cross; from before the foundation of the world He has been the Lamb slain, destined to be both Priest and Sacrifice. Jesus loves us too much to love Himself more. Jesus will become a curse for us so that we might be freed from death and live by the life of God. Jesus will be made sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus will “taste death for everyone” (Heb. 2:9) so that we may “pass out of death into life” (John 5:24).

 

Are we tempted to say to Jesus, “God forbid!”?

 

Is the idea that Jesus must suffer and be rejected by the religious leaders too much for us? Is the thought that Jesus is rejected by the national, political, military, economic, and social powers of this present age too much for us? Have we deceived ourselves into thinking that Jesus can be made palatable to the powers and authorities and peoples of the world – including to our own nation?

 

Let us be clear, “The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). The Gospel is a message of “foolishness” (1 Cor. 1:21); to some it is a stumbling block, to others it is foolishness (1 Cor. 1:23).

 

If we think that the economic and political and national powers of this world, if we think that any system in this world is endorsing Jesus, is following Jesus, is adhering to Jesus, then we are deceived. The Cross of Christ and the Christ of the Cross bring an end to all things, most especially our egos, our self-centered agendas, our self-glorification, our wars and fightings, our vitriol. The Cross is self-sacrificial, those who follow Christ live cruciform lives – this is not the way of the world, it is not the way of politics or worldly economics or the way of an imperial cult.

 

Nor is it the way of the world’s religion – just as the religious leaders who were supposedly the heirs of Moses engineered the crucifixion of Jesus, so those who are supposedly the heirs of the Gospel often do the opposite but with the identical motive – they seek to keep Jesus off the Cross so that they may keep their lives (and ours!) off the Cross, so that Jesus might not be an offense to them, to us, or to the world.

 

For what follows Jesus’ words, “Get behind Me Satan!”?

 

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what good will it do a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what will a person give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every person according to his deeds.”” (Matthew 16:27).

 

In other words, Jesus is saying that just as He is going to the Cross, so we are to go to the Cross (Galatians 2:20). And let us make no mistake, there is shame associated with the Cross of Christ, shame that is repulsive to the world and the powers of the world – shame that offends our religious self-righteousness. Hence the writer of Hebrews exhorts us to “Go outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Heb. 13:13).

 

Our great temptation is to spare ourselves the Cross. It is to avoid the Cross. The temptation of pastors is to spare themselves and their people the Cross, to avoid the call of Jesus that we must deny ourselves, lose our lives, and follow Him. We do not want the Cross to be our way of life, we want success and prestige and comfort and affluence and glittery self-affirming religion to be our way…why we may even fall prey to desiring theological constructs that appeal to our desire for knowledge but avoid the Cross and the Cruciform Life. 

We do not want a Jesus who hangs on a Cross in shame, who eschews the wisdom of the world, who serves the poor, the stranger and immigrant, the unclean, the disenfranchised. We do not want a Jesus who is not a showman.

 

Our great temptation this Holy Week, as it is every week, is to say with Peter, “God forbid it!”

 

“May it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).

 

 

 

 

The Cross - Our Way of Life (7)

 

 

“Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” Having said this, He breathed His last” (Luke 23:46).

 

We see fellowship restored, our High Priest has offered Himself (Hebrews 9:11 – 10:14), He is both Priest and Sacrifice. We cannot see what transpired when darkness covered the land, but we can see fellowship restored, for the Father has accepted the offering of the Son. Let us always be clear, that on the Cross Jesus was the perfect and complete sacrifice and reconciler, that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Cor. 5:19).

 

“He [God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might be the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). O dear friends, there has never been anything written as precious as this, never anything that so communicates the mystery of the Cross and those dreadful hours when holy darkness covered the land, never anything that comes so close to communicating, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

 

To think that “while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” (Rom. 5:10). To think that “having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life”! (Rom. 5:10).

 

O dear, dear friends, the love of God is overwhelming in its depth, its vastness, its Nature…no wonder Paul writes that he desires us to “know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19).

 

One day you and I will breathe our last. We do not know where we will be, we don’t know the day, we cannot discern the circumstance, we don’t know if the experience will be sudden or prolonged. We don’t know if we will be with friends and family.

 

But we do know two things. We will not be alone, for our Father and Lord Jesus will be with us, as will the blessed Holy Spirit. We also know that we can say, “Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.”

 

We know this because of God’s Nature, His character (if we can use such a word), His Essence. We know this because Jesus is our perfect and eternal High Priest. We know this because God is love (1 John 4:16).

 

When Jesus says, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit,” He says this not just on His own behalf, but He speaks for us all; He speaks with assurance of His Father’s love so that you and I may speak with assurance of our Father’s love. Does Jesus not teach us to pray, “Our Father”?

 

Paul writes that “We groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven…so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life…Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge” (2 Cor. 5:1 – 5). In other words, we long for that moment when we too will say, “Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.”

 

As our lives move deeper and deeper into intimacy with God, we sense what Paul was feeling when he wrote, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain…having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better” (Phil. 1:21 – 24).

 

Let us not think that we can be so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly good, this is foolishness. It is only as we are heavenly minded that we can be of true earthly good, for this world desperately needs to see heaven, to taste heaven, to sense heaven – which is all to experience Jesus. We are citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20), and as citizens of heaven we are called to live. We are children of another world, and as the children of our Father we are to live and we are to die, and dying is but a portal into our eternal home and glorious destiny.

 

One day the Spirit of our Father will call us home; whenever that day is, wherever we may be, whatever the circumstance, it will be a glorious call from the One who loves us beyond measure, from the One who desires us to be with Him and with our brothers and sisters, from the One who has prepared both individual and collective destinies for us – and we will see the Lamb and be enveloped in His glory and love and peace and joy, and every tear will be wiped from our eyes, and there will no longer be any pain…NO PAIN! O hallelujah!

 

And the Name of our God will be written on us, and the Name of the Lamb, and the Name of the Holy City…and O dear friends…O dear dear friends…and we will see His Face! O my, O my, O my…we…you and I…we will see His Face.

 

Now I ask you, how can we not look forward to that day? How can we not long for that glorious day?

 

When Jesus said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit,” He said it for Himself, He said it for you, He said it for me, He said it for us.

 

Let this be our daily prayer of consecration, and our daily prayer of expectation…yes?

 

“Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.”

 

AMEN.

The Cross - Our Way of Life (6)

 

“It is finished!”

 

“And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” (John 19:30).

 

This is, my friends, the watershed of the cosmos, of the ages, of our lives. Before these holy words, before this eternal declaration, this triumphal cry, was proclaimed on earth and in the heavens, you and I had no hope, no ray of sunshine, no possibility of returning to our Father, no remedy for sin and death and wickedness, no expectation that the Sun would arise over the horizon of eternity’s ocean and bring light and life and warmth to our cold dead souls.

 

But now we have the assurance that Jesus Christ has accomplished all on the Cross for us, for His Father; that a holy offering and transaction and healing and redemption has occurred that is beyond our comprehension, but not beyond our experience. Indeed, we are all invited into the experience, into knowing the love of God, the life of God, the mercy and grace of God, the joy of God, the peace of God in Jesus Christ. A Table has been spread and we are invited to live by the Bread of God, the Blood (Life) of God, the essence of God in God the Son, Jesus Christ (John 6:26 – 69).

 

“By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies are made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:10 – 14, NASB).

 

“And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant which I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put My laws upon their hearts, and write them on their mind,” He then says, “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will no longer remember.”

 

“Now where there is forgiveness of these things, an offering for sin is no longer required. (Hebrews 10:15 – 18).

 

Do we believe these words, dear friends? Do we believe that Jesus has done all that can be done? Do we believe that Jesus IS all that can be done? Do we believe that we can add nothing to Jesus Christ, nothing to His Person, nothing to His work?

 

Do we realize that “the one who has entered His [God’s} rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His” (Heb. 4:10)?

 

Did not Jesus constantly violate religious notions of the Sabbath in order to demonstrate that He is the true Sabbath? Jesus is our true and lasting rest.

 

Perhaps He challenges us in our own sabbaths? Might it be that most of us have practices or beliefs that we think make us more righteous than those who don’t have those beliefs or engage in those practices? Is it not possible that our distinctive beliefs and practices are sources from which we derive self-righteousness, thinking that God has bestowed a special righteousness on us because of our distinctives?

 

Naturally we would teach against any such notion (or maybe we wouldn’t), which would make the notion all the more dangerous, much like the person who rejoices in his humility.

 

O how I love Paul’s statement that “while we were without strength [while we were helpless!], at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6). We could not help ourselves dear friends; we could not help ourselves then and we cannot help ourselves now – we must trust Jesus Christ for everything. Our righteousness, sanctification, redemption, and wisdom are all found in Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:30; Col. 2:1 – 3).

 

We look to the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ for our source of life, our assurance, the ground of our being. Life flows from the Cross, forgiveness streams from the Cross, our old identity is killed on the Cross and we are clothed with the New Person of Jesus Christ (Romans 6; 2 Cor. 5:14 – 21; Gal. 2:20).

 

Our merciful and faithful High Priest is both our priest and sacrifice and His self-offering is completed and perfect – perfecting us in Himself – accepted by the Father, ushering in the “new and living way” into the Holy of Holies, into the koinonia of the Trinity (Heb. 10:19 – 25; John 17).

 

“Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28 – 30).

 

O dear friends, Jesus says to us, “I have done it all. I have paid the price for your sins. I have taken your sinful self into my holy Self and bestowed Myself on yourself to give you a new self, a new identity in Me. I have completed all for you because My Father and I love you and we are bringing you Home to where you belong – in relationship with Us; come Home My daughter, come Home My son, come Home my child.”

 

Is this not a good Day to come Home to Jesus?

 

Is it not a good Day to bring others along with us?

 

 

 

 

The Cross - Our Way of Life (5)

 

 

“One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” But the other responded, and rebuking him, said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our crimes; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”” (Luke 23:39 – 43, NASB).

 

“The robbers who had been crucified with Him were also insulting Him with the same words” (Matthew 27:44).

 

Consider the plea, “Jesus, remember me!”

 

Matthew tells us how this robber began, Luke tells us the rest of the story.

 

How can a person have the presence of mind, the clarity of heart and soul, in the midst of crucifixion, while spewing vitriol at Jesus, to realize that Jesus is more than a man, and yet a man – for He is being crucified? As life is ebbing and breath is ceasing and the end is near and the heart is approaching its last beat, how does this man, this robber, this person who has practiced evil, how is it possible for him to “see” Jesus the Christ and call out, “Jesus, remember me”?

 

Perhaps there was no presence of mind or clarity of heart and soul, perhaps there was only a recognition in the core of this man’s being that His Creator was dying alongside him…or at the very least, a recognition that Something or Someone other than humanity as he had known it was suffering as he, the robber was suffering. But not exactly as he, the robber was suffering, for the robber “saw” someway, somehow, that Jesus “had done nothing wrong.”

 

This man, the robber, who made the plea “Remember me!” also said to the other robber, “Do you not even fear God?”

 

God had arrived on Golgotha, God was suffering and God was convicting and God was continuing to save others even as He chose to not save Himself. Yes, and God was showing mercy, “Today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

 

The Roman soldiers will not be with Him. The crowds will not be with Him. The religious leaders who are preparing to celebrate Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread will not be with Him; but this thief suffering a shameful and horrendous death will indeed be with Him. This thief crucified in shame will soon know the holy clothing of the white linen of the very righteousness of the Son of God.

 

Since we know that Jesus died before the two thieves died (John 19:31 – 33), we can imagine Jesus welcoming the repentant man on the other side of death, and what a welcome it must have been! There must have been quite the hug, close and tight…and not a few kisses!

 

Christ meets us in our extremities, He speaks to us in the depths of our beings, He calls us to Himself in myriad ways in infinite circumstances. We may be in the midst of our daily occupations, such as the four fishermen; we may be at our accounting ledgers, such as Matthew the tax collector; we may be immersed in a political movement, such as Simon the Zealot…or we may be, we just may be, experiencing our own and upfront and personal crucifixion…but Jesus is there and He is there for us.

 

And here we see that, as with ancient Israel, we need only look to Jesus and be saved (John 3:14 – 15; Numbers 21:6 – 9).

 

But now my friends, let us look to Jesus and His calling in our own lives, for His Resurrection message is that “Even as the Father sent Me, so I send you” (John 20:21; 17:18).

 

If we are called to know Him in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering (Phil. 3:10), then we can anticipate the glorious opportunity not only to say with Jesus, “Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing,” but we can also look forward to serving those opposing us, persecuting us, taking pleasure in our sufferings (Matthew 5:43 – 48), and bringing them into the Kingdom of God in Christ so that they too  may be clothed in the white linen of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

 

All of us are on one of the crosses of Golgotha, some of us know what it is to be on two of the crosses.

 

Some begin on the cross of mocking God and remain on it, dying on it. Those who are not on the cross of mocking and unrepentance are on the cross which cries, “Jesus, remember me!”

 

Do we recognize that our cry is a gift which God has given us through Jesus? Do we acknowledge that our cry is not of ourselves? Not of our intellect, our will, our imagination, but rather of God? (John 1:12 – 13). This raw cry is God’s gift of salvation, akin to the cry of the father pleading for his son, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!” (Mk. 9:24).

 

O dear friends, there is an eternal transaction in the gut, in the depths of the soul, an indefinable and unexplainable bursting forth of life from the tomb within us, a coming forth of the image of God in Christ, that confesses, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” (Matt. 16:16).

 

“Lo, now You are speaking plainly” (John 16:29).

 

But here is the thing dear friends, the plain cannot be explained. We cannot explain love. We cannot explain joy. We cannot explain peace. We cannot explain this “thing” that happens within a woman, a man, a child when that person cries, “You are the Christ!” “Jesus, remember me!”

 

O dear pastors, remember this when Easter arrives – evidence may have a supporting role, but evidence without the appearance of Christ is evidence presented in a moot court.

 

Then there are those who know what it is to hang on two crosses on Golgotha. They begin on the cross of repentance, then in Christ they move to the Cross of the Intercessory Life, Life lived for Christ and others. As Paul writes, “Death works in us, but life in you.”

 

We learn to participate with Christ in His sufferings for the reconciliation of others (Col. 1:24; 2 Cor. 5:16 – 21). We learn to pray, “Father forgive them, for they don’t realize what they are doing.” We learn to say, “Today, you will be with Jesus in Paradise.”

 

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20).

 

As St. Augustine taught, as with the Head, so with the Body.

 

Shall we live as His Body today?

 

The Cross – Our Way of Life (4)

 

“Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine vinegar was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine vinegar upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth” (John 19:28 – 29).

 

In Matthew (27:48) and Mark (15:36) the sour wine vinegar is associated with Jesus’ cry of “My God! My God! Why have You forsaken Me?”

 

It was only the night before that Jesus was sharing the cup of the wine of the New Covenant with His disciples. He has gone from the intimacy of the Upper Room to the open shame of the Cross. The hands with which He broke the bread at the Table are now nailed to the Cross. Instead of lifting a cup of wine to His mouth at the Table, a sponge with vinegar is forced upward onto His lips.

 

Jesus inaugurates His ministry with the sign of turning water into fine wine. Jesus concludes His ministry with wine vinegar. Jesus gives fine wine to others; He receives sharp wine vinegar for Himself.

 

Jesus gives the woman at the well living water so that she will never thirst again. Jesus suffers thirst on the Cross.

 

Jesus clothes us with God’s righteousness, while His own body is stripped bear. Jesus is wounded so that our wounds might be healed. Jesus wears the crown of thorns that Adam and his race have woven, so that we might be crowned with God’s glory.

 

Jesus drinks the bitter, that we might drink the sweet.

 

This, dear friends, is the Way of the Cross, the Way of Jesus.

 

When Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6), He is speaking of us entering into Him and living by His Life. He is our source of life, our breath, our heartbeat; the way He lives is the Way we live. We learn to drink the bitter so that others may drink the sweet.

 

We learn to turn water into wine, we learn to give others the water that becomes a fountain of life within them so that they will never draw water from wells again, we learn to share the Body and  Blood of Jesus in holy Communion at the Lord’s Table, we learn to prepare that Table for others in the presence of their enemies, and we learn to have outstretched hands to the world in the Name of Jesus, and the drink the bitter and sharp wine vinegar that the world offers to us in order that others may live.

 

We learn to live in Jesus the Vine, as Christ toward others, as Jesus Christ lives within us; knowing that we “have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves” (2 Cor. 4:7). Let us make no mistake, we are speaking of a “treasure”! While we acknowledge the frailty of the earthen vessels, let us exalt and magnify the treasure, our Lord Jesus Christ. “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).

 

With Paul we are called to confess, “Death works in us, but life in you” (2 Cor. 4:12).

 

The Way of the Cross is the Way of drinking the bitter so that others may drink the sweet. It is bearing the sorrows and burdens and sufferings of the world, as we live in Christ and as Christ lives in us, so that others may live.

 

The Way of the Cross is living with our arms and hands outstretched.

 

When we appear before Jesus will He ask, “Show Me your hands”?  

 

 

The Cross - Our Way of Life (3)

 

 

“Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing”” (Luke 23:34).

 

Betrayed by one who has been near Him for three years. Abandoned by those with whom He has shared the intimacies of love, friendship, truth, kindness; whom He has invited into the depths of the love of the Father and the Son. Mocked, slandered, delivered for crucifixion by the religious leaders – the leaders who are supposed to be the guardians and transmitters of the covenant which He and His Father gave to Moses. Tortured and crucified by Rome, embodying the governments and powers of this world.

 

“The rulers were sneering at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One.” The soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine, and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!”” (Luke 23:35 – 37).

 

Can we hear the voices?

 

“If You are the Christ of God!”

 

“If You are His Chosen One!”

 

“If You are the King of the Jews!”

 

Can we hear the criminals in their suffering saying, “Save Yourself and us!” (Luke 23:39).

 

Now my friends, let me ask you, what proof would you have that Jesus is the Son of God as He hangs on the Cross, suffering, bearing our sins, bearing the iniquity of mankind in realms that we cannot comprehend? As God of very God hangs there in the suffering of His soul, what proof would you have?

 

Would you like Him to come down from the Cross?

 

Would you have Him call his angels (Matthew 26:53)?

 

What proof would you have that Jesus is the Son of God as He suffers and dies for you? What would satisfy you that you might give your life to Him and take up your cross and follow Him?

 

Behold the cruelty He is enduring! Behold the isolation! Behold the hatred! Listen to the vitriol! Sense the venom spewing from the mouths of the religious leaders! See how pleased they are to finally be rid of Jesus! (Does He not threaten their detente with Rome, with the Imperial Cult? Does not Jesus threaten their religious – political alliances? Does He not pose the same threat to us today?)

 

What proof must we have that Jesus is God?

 

Jesus is displaying what is perhaps the greatest evidence of His Divinity as mockery and hatred is hurled as Him, as His suffering body undergoes the torture of crucifixion, as His very soul bears our sins, our wickedness, our evil – personal and collective, as He moves toward a curtain of darkness, as the judgment of God falls upon Him as both Priest and Sacrifice…as all of this swirls around Him and within Him…

 

He is saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

 

Now, dear friend, what more would you have?

 

What more would you ask from Jesus?

 

The Cross - Our Way of Life (2)

 

 

“Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’” (Matthew 27:45 – 46).

 

“The cup that I drink you shall drink; and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized” (Mark 10:10:39).

 

To be called into the fellowship of His sufferings is to be called into depths of Divine mystery. Whether with the psalmist of Psalm 22, with Jesus on Calvary, or with Paul and his friends in their affliction in Asia (2 Cor. 1:2 – 11), we are called to places we will not always understand, places not always visible to the natural eye.

 

Paul writes, “We were burdened excessively beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead” (2 Cor. 1:8 – 9).

 

Paul knew that the sufferings he and his companions experienced were for the blessing of others. “We are comforted by God so that we may comfort you” (2 Cor. 1:4). “If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation” (2 Cor. 1:6).

 

“So death works in us, but life in you” (2 Cor. 4:12).

 

Do we not see our Lord Jesus in Paul?

 

“We are to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

 

There is, my friends, a shame associated with the Cross of Christ. We are told that we are to “go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Heb. 13:13).

 

Jesus was not ashamed of His shame; He despised it in the light of the joy set before Him. Likewise, we ought not to be ashamed of the shame that the world, the flesh, and even the religious world associates with following the Christ of the Cross, of being associated with the Cross of Christ, of hanging on the Cross with Jesus for the world to see.

 

Paul writes, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16).

 

The Gospel is foolishness in many ways to the world, it appears weak to the world (and to many professing Christians, which I suppose is why we employ the ways of the world), but we are to “know nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2; see also 1:17 – 31).

 

This foolishness of the Gospel extends from Jesus dying on the Cross to reconcile us to God, into the Way we live our lives for Him and others. Jesus says that if we are to follow Him that we must deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him. He asks the quite reasonable question, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his soul?” (Mark 8:34 – 38). Jesus tells us that we must lose our lives for His sake and the Gospel.

 

Paul writes, “He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf” (2 Cor. 5:15).

 

Whether we are seeing Jesus in the Gospels, in Psalm 22, Psalm 116, Psalm 118, Isaiah 53, or elsewhere throughout the Bible, we can be assured that the darkness will lift and the light of the glory of God will shine on His servant, on His Son, in glorification and joy and pleasure. This is true of the Body of Christ, and it is true of you and of me, it is true of us.

 

We are indeed called to be broken bread and poured out wine in the hands of Jesus for others. We are the fish and bread with which He feeds the multitudes. We are the lambs the Good Shepherd chooses to give their lives on behalf of others. O what glory to be chosen by our Shepherd, to know that we are in His arms and hands as He offers us up, just as the Father so loved the world that He gave His Son Jesus Christ. Can there be any more glorious fellowship?

 

Some Christians think that Jesus died so that they would not have to suffer, this is a lie. One of the reasons Jesus died on the Cross was that He might bear the wrath of the judgment of God for sin and sins; that our sins might be atoned for and that our sinful selves might be put to death on the Cross, buried with Him, and that we might be raised to newness of life in Christ Jesus – a New Man (Romans chapters 1 – 8).

 

Because we are now raised to newness of life in Jesus Christ, we are called to the life of the Cross, called indeed to suffer; not to suffer for our sins, not to suffer the wrath of God, but to suffer for the glory of God and the blessing of others. We are called to suffer as our Father transforms us into the image of the Firstborn Son.

 

One way to put this is that because of Jesus’ death on the Cross we do not suffer the wrath of God but are now called to suffer for the sake of Christ and others. Jesus did not die so that we might live life on earth in some kind of Christian Disneyland, but so that He could send us into a world of pain and suffering and chaos and hunger and death – so that we might bring the light and love and grace and mercy of Jesus Christ to others…so that the Cross of Christ and the Christ of the Cross might be seen in us and through us.

 

During this season of Lent, will we enter into the sufferings of Jesus Christ? Will we seek to know the fellowship of His sufferings (Phil. 3:10)?

 

Will we and our congregations become broken bread and poured out wine for others?

 

The Cross - Our Way of Life (1)

 

“But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold your son!’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ From that hour the disciple took her into his own household” (John 19:25 – 27).

 

This was a horrid and cruel scene; a violent and bloody and drawn-out torture of three men filled with taunts directed to the One in the center. “If you are the Son of God, save Yourself, come down from the cross!” When the veil is drawn back, we often see the world’s leadership for what it is, including its religious leadership – here we see the “heirs” of Moses and Abraham not as they purport to be, but as their hearts truly are. What about our hearts?

 

Whether we trace our inheritance to the Fathers, to a branch of the Reformation, to the Ancient East, to more recent traditions and distinctives, or even to the Apostles; what about our own hearts?

 

The mother of Jesus stands by her Son in His agonizing death. Thank God she is not alone, other women are with her, and the disciple whom Jesus loves is there. Amid the shouts, the jeers, the gambling away of His clothing (is anyone selling popcorn?), the life of Jesus is ebbing away, His blood is dripping from the cross; it is on the wood, on the ground…is the blood of Jesus on those gathered around Him? Are Mary’s tears intermingled with Jesus’ blood?

 

Where are the multitudes whom Jesus has fed?

 

Where are the lepers He cleansed?

 

Where are the many who followed Him?

 

Where are the few who were with Him in the Upper Room?

 

These are not questions that matter so much, the question that matters is, “Where am I?”

 

Where are you?

 

Today, it is not enough to ask, “Am I standing by the cross?”

 

I must ask, “If I am standing by a cross, which cross am I standing by?”

 

Am I standing by a cross that has a dollar sign affixed to it? Is it a cross with a national flag wrapped around it? Is it a cross used to budgeon, imprison, and trample on others? Is it a cross employed to gather votes? Has the cross I am standing by been wrapped in cotton candy and entertainment? Has it had a “do over” to make it attractive and tasteful and profitable?

 

There are typically only two types of crowds around a cross, one crowd is crucifying the Son of God, the other crowd is around a cross they have made to order – a Christless cross. Perhaps the only place we shall see a faithful crowd around the true Cross is in heaven…at least until heaven is manifested fully on earth.

 

If there is no reproach, no shame…there is likely no true Cross with Christ crucified.

 

We are taught that we are to “Go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come” (Hebrews 13:13 – 14). How tragic when professing Christians are made the servants and slaves of the powers, leaders, and agendas of this world.

 

The Cross is offensive, it is foolishness, it is a stumbling block – it always has been, in this present age it always will be (1 Cor. 1:17 – 2:2).

 

On Easter morning the message of His resurrection first came to those women who had stood by the Cross of Jesus. As we know Him in the koinonia of His sufferings, we will know Him in the koinonia of His Resurrection!

 

 

 

Confrontation in Nazareth (14)

 

“Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; My ears You have opened; burnt offering and sin offering You have not required. Then I said, ‘Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, Your Law is within my heart. I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation; behold, I will not retrain my lips, O LORD, You know’” (Psalm 40:6 – 9; see also Hebrews 10:5 – 10).

 

When Jesus says in Nazareth, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing (Luke 4:21), He is also fulfilling Psalm 40:6 – 9. We may hear five voices in Psalm 40: the voice of David, the Voice of Jesus Christ, the voice of the man or woman in Jesus Christ, the Voice of the Body of Christ, and the Voice of the whole Christ. In Christ, these voices are One, they are the Voice of many waters.

 

In Hebrews 10, Psalm 40 is quoted from the LXX, and here we have the notable, “Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for me.” As with the “voice” of Psalm 40, so with the “body” of Psalm 40. We see the body of King Daivd, the body of Jesus Christ in the Incarnation, the body of the individual man or woman in Christ, the corporate Body which the Father prepared for the Son – that is the Body of Christ, and we may also see the Body of the whole Christ – Head and Body.

 

I expect it may take us time to meditate on these things and to begin to “see” them in Christ, but that is as it should be, they cannot be understood or “seen” in the natural (1 Corinthians Chapter 2).

 

Paul writes in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

 

We all have a purpose and destiny in this life, and it has many dimensions and unfolds in many ways...none of which we can fully understand, such is the mystery of it all in Christ. We all are called to say, “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:4).

 

We are called to say this as individuals, as marriages and families, as local congregations, as the Body of Christ. As an individual I am called to not only say this for myself, but if I am married I have a calling within my marriage, if I have a family I have a calling as a member of my family, and I have a calling as a member of Christ’s Body, both locally and transcendently. I must not think solely in terms of myself, my calling and purpose and destiny is so much more than “Jesus and me,” it is about others, both those who know Jesus and those who have yet to meet Jesus.

 

Are we encouraging one another to discover and fulfill our callings in Christ Jesus?

 

Are we as husbands and wives seeking to discover and fulfill what has been written the book for us to fulfill?

 

Are our congregations viewing themselves as a people with a calling and destiny for their particular time and place that manifests itself in worship, the building up of the Body of Christ, and sacrificial mission to the world?

 

When our brothers and sisters venture out to discover their calling, do we, as the people of Nazareth say, “Who does she think she is?”

 

When someone in our midst speaks of the widow of Sidon or of Namaan the Syrian, do we respond with anger or with thanksgiving and compassion?

 

Should someone bring into our presence a Sidonian or Syrian will we embrace them, love them, care for them, and protect them?

 

Dear friends, in one sense until the Book becomes our book it is just a book. When Jesus reads Isaiah 61 in the synagogue in Nazareth He makes Isaiah His book. Yes, yes, for sure it has always been His Book, but in an incarnational sense He is consummating (or beginning the consummation) it when He reads it and then says, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

 

Now we know and believe that the words of the Bible are the words of God, the Word of God. We also acknowledge that this Word was delivered through human beings, and as such carries the flavor of the person just as wine carries the flavor of the cask in which it was aged. With this in mind, until the Word of God becomes your Word in Christ, until it ages within your heart and soul and mind and spirit, until it resides within you…you cannot call it yours, you can only call it something “out there.”

 

O dear, dear friends! The New Covenant is not “out there”! It is “in here.” “I will put my laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them” (Hebrews 10:16). Do we see that the Old Covenant is external, while the New Covenant is internal? Can we see that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit come to live within us in the New Covenant?

 

We are called to say, “This Word is mine in Christ. I will read this Word and live in this Word among my brothers and sisters. Together we will read this Word and live in this Word and manifest this Word to one another and to the world.”

 

I recall one morning in a small group about eight years ago. We were in John Chapter 14, the first few verses, about the Father’s House. There was much talk, much speculation, and the guys tended to talk over each other at times. As I listened I heard one of the men quietly say, “If it isn’t happening within you, if it isn’t real inside of you, then it doesn’t matter.”

 

I think I may have been the only one who heard what this brother said, and I have often wondered if I should have called a “timeout” and asked him to repeat himself. I wish I had done so.

 

Jesus invites us to know Him in the koinonia of His Word, to share His Life in His Word, to read Isaiah aloud, to read Psalms aloud, and to confess, “This day this Scripture is being fulfilled in my life, in our lives, in the Body of Christ; this day we are becoming one with the Word and the Word is becoming one with us.”

 

In the scroll of the book it is written of Christ Jesus, of you in Christ, of me in Christ, of us in Christ.