jesus repulses and draw

Great article below by Tim Challies on varying reactions to Jesus. What about you, does your life demand a decision by those around you?

I think we all love the story of the Garasene Demoniac, don’t we? It is the story of a poor, pathetic, hopeless, demon-oppressed man and his life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ. And there is something in the story I find particularly fascinating.

Though at one time in his life this man had been a normal person with a normal life, at some point demons had begun to oppress him. Maybe he was a young man still living in his parents’ home when something about him began to change. Over time his parents and family saw him start to exhibit erratic and downright scary behavior. Or maybe he was a married man and it was his wife who first began to notice that strange behavior. He began to act in ways that were out of character. He began to cry out in weird ways. Though he used to love his kids and cuddle them and tell them stories and play with them, over time he became distant, then even dangerous. Soon she had to protect the kids from their own father.

Eventually his behavior became so outrageous that the people around him acted in the only way they knew how—they chained him and locked him up. But then he grew so strong that he could break those chains and attack anyone who approached him. So they did the only thing left to do and drove him away. By the time we meet him in Mark 5 (and parallel accounts in Matthew and Luke), he is living in the tombs, roaming the hills naked, cutting and brusing himself, crying out in agony of body, soul and spirit. He can go no lower.

And then Jesus meets him. And then Jesus frees him. Jesus sends that horde of demons into a herd of pigs which immediately rushes into the sea and drowns. And then we come to a part of the story I find absolutely fascinating. The nearby townsfolk come running to see what has happened, to see this oppressed man in his right man, to see thousands of dead pigs floating in the water. And we see two very different reactions to this encounter with Jesus Christ.

When this man has been freed by Jesus, he begs Jesus to be able to go with him. Please let me remain with you, let me learn from you, let me serve you. Where you go I will go. This man saw Jesus and wanted Jesus more than anything.

When this crowd of villagers saw this man freed by Jesus, they had a reaction that was exactly opposite. They begged Jesus to leave. Please go. Get back in your boat and leave and don’t come back. They saw Jesus and wanted Jesus less than anything.

The people wanted Jesus as far as possible, this man wanted Jesus as close as possible. And in those two reactions we see something fascinating: Jesus repulses and Jesus draws. Some people encounter Jesus and find him the most dreadful thing in the world; some people encounter Jesus and find him the most desirable thing in the world. Some beg him to leave and some beg to follow.

When we preach Jesus today, we preach for a response. And there is always a response. Jesus repulses and Jesus draws. But an encounter with Jesus never accomplishes nothing

thinking missionally

Great bit of wisdom by Robby McAlpine on thinking missionally

These book covers are representative of dozens, hundreds — nay, perhaps multitudes — of books that all basically point to the same thing: Christians need to engage our culture.

For example:

1. How To Give Away Your Faith, by Paul Little, written in 1966
2. Brethren, Hang Loose, by Robert Girard, written in 1972
3. Out of the Saltshaker, by Becky Pippert, written in 1979
4. Lifestyle Evangelism, by Joe Aldrich, written in 1981
5. Power Evangelism, by John Wimber, written in 1985
6. Becoming a Contagious Christian, by Bill Hybels, written in 1996
7. The Celtic Way of Evangelism, by G.G. Hunter, written in 2000
8. Missional: Joining God in the Neighborhood, by Alan Roxburgh, written in 2011

Yes, of course, the methodologies advocated by each of these authors varies widely. Bob Girard was all for destructuring church down to house groups; Joe Aldrich advocated a friendship evangelism approach; John Wimber encouraged people to combine “proclamation and demonstration” via the use of spiritual gifts; Bill Hybels is the guru of the seeker-sensitive attractional model; Alan Roxburgh is one of many voices advocating the most recent “missionary to your own neighbourhood” approach.

And here’s the inconvenient truth: all of these methods have, and continue to, bear fruit.

Not perfectly, to be sure. Not entirely in a “one size fits every church or denomination or city or local neighbourhood” manner. But if we take an unfiltered look (ie. without wearing jaundice-coloured glasses or our-way-is-better blinders), we should be able to concede that God hasn’t exactly been handcuffed, waiting until we finally get our methodology just right.

One of the most helpful additions from the recent emphasis on being missional has been the focus on “what is God already doing in your neighbourhood”? (Similar approach to Joe Aldrich’s question: “What’s in your toolbox already?”, only from a different starting point.) Jesus once said, “My Father is always working” (John 5:17), and as the example of Peter being sent to Cornelius’ house as a result of Cornelius’ prayers (Acts 10:30-33) demonstrates, God is constantly on the move, and we get to participate with Him.

The focus on discerning what God is already up to in our cities and neighbourhoods is a good one; no doubt about that. But sometimes — and I’d like to quickly point out that it’s probably unintentional — there seems to be an unspoken assumption that everything that current churches have done and are doing, is ineffective. Perhaps even counter-productive.

Or at the very least, kinda lame and out-of-date.

So here’s my missional plea:

If we believe that it’s possible for us to discern how God is already at work outside of our churches, and therefore we can learn how to cooperate with what His Spirit is up to, why shouldn’t we equally expect that God is already still at work inside our churches, and seek to wed the two.

Look again at the publication years from the small sampling of books at the top of this post. In the five decades that I’ve been alive and on Planet Earth – without exception – books have been and are being written to encourage Christians to be culturally engaged as apostolos (sent ones) of Jesus Christ.

Missional is no more the “magic silver bullet” than seeker-sensitive or power evangelism. We don’t need to poo-poo one approach to bolster the validity of another. If we’re wise, we’ll learn from many streams and — with the guidance of a Holy Spirit who is far more invested in this project that we could ever be — craft something that fits our church, our neighbourhood, and our city.

Two quotes to ponder and apply, from the old boys’ club:

“Take the best, and go.” (John Wimber)

“I prefer my way of doing it, to your way of not doing it.” (D.L. Moody)

preaching

Two pretty good posts on preaching.

The first by Don Carson highlights the benefits of expository preaching:

1. It is the method least likely to stray from Scripture.
2. It teaches people how to read their Bibles.
3. It gives confidence to the preacher and authorizes the sermon.
4. It meets the need for relevance without letting the clamor for relevance dictate the message.
5. It forces the preacher to handle the tough questions.
6. It enables the preacher to expound systematically the whole counsel of God.

The second by Michael Kruger proffers preaching in a way that will reach our postmodern world:

1. Preaching is Word-Centered (in a world that is people-centered).
2. Preaching is Authoritative (in a world that is anti-authority).
3. Preaching is Proclamation (in a world that wants ‘dialogue’).
4. Preaching is Corporate (in a world that prefers individualism).

Read the full posts here and here.

distinctively christian

Too many churches and small groups teach but are not distinctively christian. Great explanation by Trevin Wax.

Distinctively Christian :: Gospel Centered Teaching - Trevin Wax.

satan v. jesus

From Tim Challies:

Satan bears many names. Satan has many schemes. Satan wears many hats. Satan comes in many disguises. And through it all, one of his favorite tactics and one of his most successful tactics is to be an accuser. The book of Revelation assures us that night and day he stands as our accuser.

accuser (noun) 

1: one that charges with a fault or offense
2: one that charges with an offense judicially or by a public process

Satan is an Accuser and you know his accusations. You have heard him charge you with a fault, you have heard him proclaim your guilt. You have heard it in the courtroom of your heart and mind and conscience.

You commit a sin. You fall into that same old sin you've been battling, that sin you swore you wouldn't commit again. You discover a new sin and for a time revel in it. And then you hear the accusation. “You are guilty. You have committed an offense and need to be punished. You have offended God and he wants nothing to do with you. You have sinned beyond his grace. Give up.”

Satan stands between you, the offender, and God, the offended, and cries out that you are guilty, he cries out that you must be punished, he cries out that you deserve to have the consequences of this crime heaped upon you.

There is an Accuser.

There is also an Advocate.

John, who wrote the words of Revelation, also wrote these words (1 John 2:1-2): “My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin; but if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; he is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”

advocate (noun) 

1: one that pleads the cause of another; specifically : one that pleads the cause of another before a tribunal or judicial court
2: one that defends or maintains a cause or proposal
3: one that supports or promotes the interests of another

When we sin and stand in that courtroom, there is one who cries out that we are guilty. And if he were the only one speaking about us before the judge we would be lost. We would be without hope.

But there is another. When this Accuser, this prosecuting attorney has finished speaking, another man stands. He is an advocate, a defense attorney. His job is to plead another person's cause, to stand between the offender and the judge.

He cannot plead that the offender is guiltless. That would be a lie. He will not speak what is false and he will obscure the facts. He will not deny what is irrefutable. Instead he will make this one plea: expiation. He will turn to the judge and say, “Yes, he committed the offense. Yes, he did what the Accuser says he did. But he is not guilty. He cannot be guilty, because I have already served the sentence for that offense. I served that sentence to the full so that your wrath against that offense was expiated. No guilt remains. There is nothing left to punish.”

The verdict is, and it must be, innocent. For justice has already been done.

Still, day after day, year after year, the Accuser stands in that courtroom and speaks of our guilt. And day after day, year after year, the Advocate speaks a more powerful word.

But some day this courtroom will be unnecessary. It will be dismantled. Before long Satan as Accuser will be no more. Satan the Accuser will be thrown down and destroyed. “I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God’.” Do you look forward to that day?

good news

Jonathan Parnell proclaims everyone's invited:

Not everyone will believe the gospel, but everyone should be invited.

We know from Scripture, and experience, that not everyone will trust in Jesus and be saved. In fact, many will not. Many today sitting in churches across this country are cold to Christ, harboring impenitent hearts, deceived into thinking their works will get them to heaven. And even more not in churches. They will refuse Jesus, so why should we invite them to trust him?

Why should the gospel go to everyone? Here are three reasons.

1. We don’t know who will or won’t believe.

This relates to God’s two ways of willing. There is God’s “will of command” and his “will of decree” — that is, what God desires generally (his published will) and what he sovereignty effects (his mostly hidden resolve).

We know two things: 1) that God desires all people to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4), and 2) that God has mercy on whomever he wills and hardens whomever he wills (Romans 9:18).

The latter truth is a secret to us. We cannot look at someone and know whether his or her heart will be hardened. Indeed, the gospel — with its knock-Saul-off-his-horse power — demands we never presume to know that. God desires for all to be saved, and that’s what we are about. J.I. Packer writes, “We are to order our lives by the light of his law [his will of command], not by our guesses about his plan [his will of decree]” (Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, 96).

We offer the gospel universally because as far as we can discern, every person we encounter could believe. God knows whom he will draw (John 6:44). Jesus knows who will hear his voice (John 10:27). We don’t, so we just preach.

2. Jesus really can save anybody.

The invitation to believe the gospel, writes Packer, “is God’s summons to mankind generally to come to the Savior and find life” (92). And anybody who does that — who comes to the Savior — will find life.

“Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). This verse tells us two things about “everyone.” First, it is not simply everyone, but everyone who calls. Everyone will not be saved, but everyone who calls on the name of Lord will certainly be saved. Second, part of the “everyone who calls” can be anyone at all. It doesn’t matter how messed up your life is, or what mistakes you’ve made, or how dismal you see your tomorrow. If you — hardened criminal, zealous abortionist, reckless teen — if you call on the name of the Lord, you will be saved. It doesn’t matter what language you speak, or what color of skin you have, or how much money is in your bank account, if you turn from your sins and trust in Jesus, you will be saved.

And therefore, since Jesus can save anybody, we offer this message to everybody.

3. Everyone can afford free.

This point is another angle on the previous one. The focus there is on the whosoever-ness of faith. The present point is the free-ness of grace.

If grace is free, then it is the market for everyone who can’t pay, and everyone cannot pay. Every human being fits that bill. And therefore, because every human owns the criterion of emptiness, every human is in the condition to hear the offer of free grace. Every soul is thirsty, every soul is broke, and so it goes for every soul when God says, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1).

Grace, in this sense, is the great equalizer. It is the only way that anyone can be reconciled to God. The kid who grows up in church, nourished by a gospel-centered stay-at-home mom, and the strung-out crack addict downtown — if they will belong to God, it will happen by the same way: grace, grace, grace.

We Invite Everyone

These three reasons explain why we invite everyone to believe the gospel. But the root of these reasons is in what Jesus did. We offer this news to everyone because of the foundational certainty that Jesus accomplished. John Piper captures it well:

By his death and resurrection, Jesus has acted out God’s discriminating, definite electing, regenerating, faith-creating, every-promise-guaranteeing, new-covenant love, and thus has purchased and secured irreversibly for his elect everything needed to bring them from deadness in sin to everlasting, glorified life and joy in the presence of God. (Does God Desire All to Be Saved? 54)

Because we don’t know who will or won’t believe, because Jesus can save anybody, because everyone can afford free, today this gospel goes to everyone.

beauty from above

Francis A. Schaeffer in The Church before the Watching World:

If we stress the love of God without the holiness of God, it turns out only to be compromise. But if we stress the holiness of God without the love of God, we practice something that is hard and lacks beauty. And it is important to show forth beauty before a lost world and a lost generation. All too often young people have not been wrong in saying that the church is ugly. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we are called upon to show to a watching world and to our own young people that the church is something beautiful.

Several years ago I wrestled with the question of what was wrong with much of the church that stood for purity. I came to the conclusion that in the flesh we can stress purity without love or we can stress the love of God without purity, but that in the flesh we cannot stress both simultaneously. In order to exhibit both simultaneously, we must look moment by moment to the work of Christ, to the work of the Holy Spirit. Spirituality begins to have real meaning in our moment-by-moment lives as we begin to exhibit simultaneously the holiness of God and the love of God.

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doing god's will

From John Piper, Don't Do God's Will Like an Atheist:

After my message to the Liberty University student body last week, a perceptive student asked this clarifying question: So you don’t believe that altruistic acts are possible or desirable?

I asked for his definition of altruism so that I could answer what he was really asking. He said, “Doing a good deed for others with no view to any reward.” I answered: that’s right, whether or not it’s possible, I don’t think it’s desirable, because it’s not what the Bible teaches us to do; and it’s not what people experience as genuine love. Because it isn’t genuine love.

When God Is Glorified

I had said in the convocation message: Doing right for right’s sake is atheistic. Christians should do what’s right for God’s sake; because the Bible teaches us to do everything for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). But God is not glorified if we leave him out of account, and say that doing a right deed is its own justification. Nothing is its own justification, if God is left out.

Christians should do what God says is right because in doing it we enjoy more of God. Jesus was motivating us to be generous to others when he said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). I’m simply saying that this motivating, promised “blessedness” is not mainly more money, but more God. God delights to reveal more of himself to the generous than to the stingy (John 14:23).

This motive glorifies God. God is glorified when he is desired as a treasure. If we want a deeper fellowship with him because he makes us happier than anyone else, we glorify him. So to be motivated to do right by the desire for more of God glorifies God.

How Jesus Motivates

Jesus said that when we are slandered as Christians we should rejoice (Matthew 5:12) and love our enemies (Matthew 5:44) “for great is your reward in heaven” (Matthew 5:12), and “so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:45). The motivation he appeals to is that the path of sacrificial love leads to an increase of joy in our relationship to God as Father.

Jesus motivated us to “invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind” to our feast “because they cannot repay [us].” Then he added: “For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:13–14). In other words: Be generous; make sacrifices in this world; because great is your reward in heaven.

This reward, of course, includes everything in God’s inheritance. You will be an “heir of the world” (Romans 4:13). “All things are yours” (1 Corinthians 3:21). The meek “shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). Yes, the reward includes earthy things. But in that day there will be no danger of idolatry. The earth and the heavens and all things will declare the glory of God, and the essence of our joy in them will be joy in him. What makes our reward truly great is the greater fullness of our fellowship with God: “in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

This “fullness” and this “forever” are behind the motivation of the early Christians when they did what was right and suffered for it. They visited fellow Christians in prison because they saw this reward: “You had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one” (Hebrews 10:34). They rejoiced in persecution because their reward was great in heaven. That’s where they got the courage to risk their lives: It “had great reward” (Hebrews 10:35).

So I answer again: “Doing a good deed for others with no view to any reward” is unbiblical and atheistic. It dishonors God. He offers more joy in his fellowship to those who do right “for his sake” than “for right’s sake.” If we don’t embrace the offer of this reward in doing good, we belittle him. But if do embrace the offer, we show him as our supremely desired treasure — above all the rewards of doing wrong.

Our Joy in Loving Others

Finally, I said to the student’s good question: Not only does trying to do right for right’s sake dishonor God, it doesn’t show love to others. People don’t experience it as love. But why would they experience the good we do for them as love, if we are seeking our greater joy in God? Aren’t they just being used?

No. It’s because part of the greater joy we seek in God, by doing them good, is the inclusion of them in our joy. Our joy in God would be expanded by their joy in God. We are not using them for our greater joy. We are wooing them into our greater joy, and desiring that they become part of it.

But doing right for right’s sake does not have this effect. Suppose I go to visit Ethel in the hospital, an older lady who just had a heart attack. I lay my hand on her tiny arm and she opens her eyes and says, “O pastor, you didn’t need to come.” Suppose I respond, “I know, but it was my duty to come. It was the right thing to do for its own sake. So I came.” That answer does not make Ethel feel loved.

But suppose I say, “I know, but it always makes me happier in God, Ethel, to bring some encouragement to you, and lift you up into what the Lord has promised.” Ethel would never say, “You are so selfish. All you ever think about is what makes you happy.” She wouldn’t feel this, even though I did say, “It always makes me happier. . .” And the reason she wouldn’t is that my pursuit of more joy in God by doing good to her, and wanting her to be part of it, is what genuine love is.

May God protect us from the atheistic notion of doing right for right’s sake. And may he make us into the kind of strange and wonderful lovers who deny ourselves the “fleeting pleasures of sin,” and “choose to be mistreated with the people of God,” because we “look to the reward” (Hebrews 11:25–26).

imperatives and indicatives

Keep your eye on the indicatives! Sinclair Ferguson in Our Holiness: The Father's Purpose and the Son's Purchase:

The great gospel imperatives to holiness are ever rooted in indicatives of grace that are able to sustain the weight of those imperatives. The Apostles do not make the mistake that’s often made in Christian ministry. [For the Apostles] the indicatives are more powerful than the imperatives in gospel preaching. So often in our preaching our indicatives are not strong enough, great enough, holy enough, or gracious enough to sustain the power of the imperatives. And so our teaching on holiness becomes a whip or a rod to beat our people’s backs because we’ve looked at the New Testament and that’s all we ourselves have seen.

We’ve seen our own failure and we’ve seen the imperatives to holiness and we’ve lost sight of the great indicatives of the gospel that sustain those imperatives. Woven into the warp and woof of the New Testament’s exposition of what it means for us to be holy is the great groundwork that the self-existent, thrice holy, triune God has — in Himself, by Himself and for Himself — committed Himself and all three Persons of His being to bringing about the holiness of His own people. This is the Father’s purpose, the Son’s purchase and the Spirit’s ministry.

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More here.

preach the cross

John Calvin in Institutes of the Christian Religion:

The whole human race perished in the person of Adam. Consequently that original excellence and nobility which we have recounted would be of no profit to us but would rather redound to our greater shame, until God, who does not recognize as his handiwork men defiled and corrupted by sin, appeared as Redeemer in the person of his only-begotten Son. Therefore, since we have fallen from life into death, the whole knowledge of God the Creator that we have discussed would be useless unless faith also followed, setting forth for us God our Father in Christ. The natural order was that the frame of the universe should be the school in which we were to learn piety, and from it pass over to eternal life and perfect felicity. But after man’s rebellion, our eyes—wherever they turn—encounter God’s curse. This curse, while it seizes and envelops innocent creatures through our fault, must overwhelm our souls with despair. For even if God wills to manifest his fatherly favor to us in many ways, yet we cannot by contemplating the universe infer that he is Father. Rather, conscience presses us within and shows in our sin just cause for his disowning us and not regarding or recognizing us as his sons. Dullness and ingratitude follow, for our minds, as they have been blinded, do not perceive what is true. And as all our senses have become perverted, we wickedly defraud God of his glory.

We must, for this reason, come to Paul’s statement: “Since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of preaching to save those who believe” [1 Cor. 1:21]. This magnificent theater of heaven and earth, crammed with innumerable miracles, Paul calls the “wisdom of God.” Contemplating it, we ought in wisdom to have known God. But because we have profited so little by it, he calls us to the faith of Christ, which, because it appears foolish, the unbelievers despise.

Therefore, although the preaching of the cross does not agree with our human inclination, if we desire to return to God our Author and Maker, from whom we have been estranged, in order that he may again begin to be our Father, we ought nevertheless to embrace it humbly.

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orthodoxy of community

Francis A. Schaeffer in The Church before the Watching World:

One cannot explain the explosive dynamite, the dunamis, of the early church apart from the fact that they practiced two things simultaneously: orthodoxy of doctrine and orthodoxy of community in the midst of the visible church, a community which the world could see. By the grace of God, therefore, the church must be known simultaneously for its purity of doctrine and the reality of its community. Our churches have so often been only preaching points with very little emphasis on community, but exhibition of the love of God in practice is beautiful and must be there.

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riot evangelism

More and more I'm of the mind that we've swung the pendulum to far away from street preaching and the concepts in the following post by Mark Driscoll. Remember, we are ambassadors not diplomats. And the Kingdom we represent is in conflict with the one of this world.

We live in a day when everyone is okay with your Christian faith as long as you keep it private. But the Apostles in Acts do the opposite, offending many with their public testimony about Jesus. Welcome to riot evangelism.

And as [Peter and John] were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand. – Acts 4:1–4

I’m not against relationship evangelism. Maybe buying muffins and hugging people will eventually convert them to saving faith in Jesus Christ, and if so, feel free to make more muffins and give more hugs.

But my preference is riot evangelism. As we read the book of Acts, we see that the church comes into being through a Spirit-empowered sermon by Peter on the day of Pentecost (Acts 4:1–4) and not through some guy spending six months playing checkers with people, hoping to somehow earn the right to share the gospel.

HUGS OR RIOTS?

The New Testament church continued growing in large part through preaching Jesus to groups large and small. Virtually the only chapters of Acts that do not include preaching record seasons when the preachers are in prison for preaching and therefore temporarily unable to preach.

What we do not see in Acts is Paul taking years or decades to befriend people before he feels he has the right to tell them about sin and Jesus. In short, he does not have a lot of relationships. In fact, he has more enemies than friends and seems to initiate far more riots than group hugs. But he does win a lot of converts because he preaches and God blesses.

In short, the Apostles’ strategy in Acts seems to be:

1. Pull into town and say something controversial and offensive. [My add - or demonstrate the Kingdom of God, i.e., signs and wonders]
2. Wait for a crowd to show up.
3. Preach the gospel and call people to repent of sin and trust in Jesus.
4. Get out of town before being murdered.
5. Send in people like Timothy and Titus to straighten things out and establish a local church by gathering the converts.
6. Repeat the process.

At our church, I do riot evangelism while our people do relational evangelism. Either way, however, in order for people to meet Jesus, we have to tell them about Jesus.

PUBLIC FAITH VS. PRIVATE FAITH

We live in a day when everyone is okay with your Christian faith as long as you keep it private. This is a tragedy, because it means we are withholding Jesus from people who are hurting, suffering, and dead in their sin.

Do you talk about Jesus on social media? Does your family know you are a Christian? You may attend church, but do your co-workers know where you spend Sunday morning? Are you a student in a university class? When the topic of Christianity comes up and the conversation is not very positive, do you speak up and maybe say, “Since you brought it up, I’d like to talk about Jesus”?

Some of us don’t go public with our faith because we don’t want to be persecuted. I get it. Peter went public, and he was crucified upside down. But here’s the big idea: someone went public for you. Someone took the risk of offending you and told you about Jesus.

WORTH THE RISK

The goal of life is not to escape without getting persecuted for your faith. As Christians, we want to finish this earthly life with converts who will join us with Jesus in heaven. In order for this to happen, our faith has to be public. You don’t need to be rude about it, but you do need to be honest.

You never know when you are going to have an opportunity to talk to people about Jesus, so be prepared. The Christian life is a series of pop quizzes. In Acts 3, Peter didn’t have time to prepare an outline or write out his sermon, but it’s obvious he had studied up—and the Holy Spirit blessed that.

Study, study, study. Pray, pray, pray. Expect God to open doors to opportunities, and be faithful to walk through them.

TAKE COURAGE

To be sure, it requires a lot of courage to speak up—whether that’s in front of one person or one thousand. Thankfully, God has provided us with the example of Peter for encouragement.

Early on in his life, Peter was a real coward. He flat out denied Jesus because he was afraid of the repercussions (Matt. 26:74). In Acts, however, we see Peter preaching boldly to massive crowds. In the end, as I mentioned, he courageously died a martyr’s death. What made the difference over the course of his life? The Holy Spirit.

We live in a culture that is increasingly hostile towards Christianity. We need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. As we obey the Scriptures, repent of sin, and walk in humility, we will learn to trust the Spirit. Talking about Jesus may never feel safe and easy, but speak up and the courage will come by faith.

Open your mouth, talk about Jesus, and trust the Holy Spirit to do his work. Then, take your beating and “endure hardship as a good soldier” like Paul told Timothy (2 Tim. 2:3, NKJV). Jesus never said he’d be handing out medals in the end for good and faithful cowards.

ambassadors

A thought sadly missed by many ... Hugh Thomson Kerr, quoted by George W. Peters in A Biblical Theology of Missions:

We are not sent to preach sociology but salvation; not economics but evangelism; not reform but redemption; not culture but conversion; not progress but pardon; not a new social order but a new birth; not revolution but regeneration; not renovation but revival; not resuscitation but resurrection; not a new organization but a new creation; not democracy but the gospel; not civilization but Christ; we are ambassadors, not diplomats.

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compelling conversion

Good take by Mike Wittmer on Rosaria Bhampagne Butterfield's The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert.

1. Evangelism is a violent activity
2. The homosexual community often excels at hospitality in a way that puts some churches to shame
3. We need to saturate our interaction with gay people with love

Read his full post. My only add - this is not limited to our interaction with those in bondage to this particular sin/temptation.

some will not be convinced

J. Warner Wallace posts:

Why Some People Simply Will Not Be Convinced

I spent last week with Frank Turek (at the CrossExamined Instructors Academy) and Bobby Conway (the One Minute Apologist) training and talking about the evidence for God’s existence and the reliability of the Gospels. The three of us have dedicated ourselves to helping people overcome their skeptical objections to the Christian worldview, but all of us recognize that some people will simply not be convinced by our arguments and presentation of evidence. In fact, I know that most people will not be convinced. Why? Because (as I’ve written inCold Case Christianity) there are three reasons why someone will “shun” (reject) a truth claim:

Some Reject Ra”shun”ally

Sometimes folks simply have rational doubts based on the evidence. You’ll recognize this form of resistance when you hear someone say something akin to, “I need more evidence. I’m not convinced.” For those of us who have taken the time to prepare ourselves as good Case Makers, this is the kind of skeptic we are hoping for; someone who’s resistance is grounded in a lack of information. Unfortunately this seldom the kind of person we encounter.

Some Reject Emo”shun”ally

Many people have doubts that are purely emotional. You’ll recognize this form of resistance when you hear someone say something like, “I know a lot of hypocritical Christians. If that’s what Christianity is about, I want no part of it.” Some skeptics have been injured or offended by Christians and now struggle to overcome negative feelings that prevent them from evaluating the case fairly.

Some Reject Voli”shun”ally

When I was an atheist, I denied the truth for volitional reasons. I was willfully resistant and refused to accept any argument offered by Christians I knew. In fact, I actually hated the idea of God and all it represented. I was happy running my own life; I was stubbornly independent. People like me typically say things like, “I don’t care if it is true, I’m not changing my life.”

If you’re a Christian trying to make the case for what you believe, recognize that your jury is filled with all three kinds of people, and only the first group will probably be willing to listen to your presentation. I’ve discovered most people actually fall into the third category; their willful resistance to the truth actually prevents them from fairly examining the case for Christianity. Frank Turek offers an excellent example of this in his “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist” presentation. As part of his four step argument, he engages the issue of miracles, and offers a brief example of how a volitional presupposition can actually prevent you from recognizing a miracle, even if one occurred in your own life.

  

David Hume famously argued against miracles, on the basis that we humans have no “uniform experience” of such events. But if we start with a volitional presupposition against the miraculous, this willful foundation will prohibit us from any fair, rational inference from our observations. In other words, we know the experience against miracles to be “uniform” only if we accept all reports of miracles as false. And we know all reports to be false only if we begin from the position miracles have never occurred. In essence, our volitional resistance leads us to reason in a circle.

While you and I can do our best to present the evidence to our unbelieving friends, there is clearly a foundational, presuppositional problem in the heart of man. Our own desires and love of autonomy (our rebellion from God) typically stand in the way of our investigation. I am an evidentialist; I believe in the power of the evidence when presenting the case for God’s existence. But I know that God had to do something with my heart before I could see the evidence fairly, and no friend of mine could accomplish this with his or her evidential presentation. So as I share the case with my skeptical friends, I begin by praying God will remove their enmity so they can hear my words with clarity and interest. I know volitional and emotional resistance is often the reason some people will not be convinced.

gray matters

A teaser for Brett McCracken's Gray Matters: Navigating the Space Between Legalism & Liberty.

fruit inspection

We just studied Mt 7.13-20 in small group and v.16, "by their fruit you will recognize them" generated no small amount of discussion. The following post by Mike Breen articulates some clear thinking on the topic.

Perhaps we became more concerned with success than fruitfulness. Jesus says we evaluate things in the Kingdom on their fruitfulness…but somewhere along the way it became about the size of your tree. Now having a big tree is a fine thing. Just know you’re only successful in evaluating yourself against the size of other trees, and God has never been terribly concerned about tree size. Just fruitfulness. That’s it. The point of a tree isn’t how big your tree is but how much fruit you have. It’s about fruit! And in the Kingdom, fruitfulness is always about reproduction. (Specifically, reproducing disciples…multiplying Jesus’ life into the life of others who can then go and do the same.)

My experience tells me having a big tree doesn’t mean you have a lot of fruit. In fact, what I’ve seen happen a lot more often is people going after the big tree and hoping to get fruit, rather than going after fruit and knowing you get the tree along the way.

Choose the best, and you always get the good. Choose the good, you very rarely get the best.

Are we trying to start or lead churches, create Kingdom movements and aspire to all the breakthrough Jesus saw apart from the way Jesus did those things? Am I trying to make Jesus like me or do I honestly believe he was the best in the Kingdom business?

The Reformation was a significant moment because among other things, it put the Bible back in the hands of the people. But when we look at the church of the last 100 years, I have to wonder if we have been more influenced by the Enlightenment than the Reformation.

This is the gut check question: If you had to choose between being known as a movement leader but not really having one, or actually being a movement leader but no one knowing it…which would you choose?

Tree or fruit?

Here’s the good news: I believe we are on the cusp of a new Reformation, one that sees the kind of fruit we saw from Jesus’ ministry, because we, once again, embrace not simply what Jesus did on the cross but the way he led and made disciples. Yes. I think we are on the tipping point of a new Reformation and it is about putting discipleship and mission back into the hands of ordinary people. Because when we equip the people of Jesus with the patterns, practices and way of Jesus, it will once again be ordinary people equipped to do extraordinary things.

The key is to embrace the mission of Jesus AND the way of Jesus. He’s just the best there ever was!

Hopefully you hear what I’m trying to convey clearly. I’m not suggesting we should go after a new Reformation. I’m suggesting it’s already happening. And maybe we don’t see it on every street corner yet, but I see it happening all around. A small group of communities, ready to be bloodied in going through the wall first, who are getting the beachhead of breakthrough for the rest of the church.

It’s already happening!

At the end of the day, I don’t want a big tree. But I don’t want a small tree either. I want an orchard. I want a Kingdom movement where reproduction of Jesus’ life within individuals and communities is happening on every level. I’ve seen this happen before. I know it because I’ve seen it. And I think we are starting to see glimmers of this reality again. Lord, may it be so! May we see a Kingdom movement wash upon these shores.

an evangelistic church culture

Michael McKinley post the following:

I’m convinced it’s better for your church to have an evangelistic culture than just a series of evangelistic programs.

In a church with a program-driven approach to evangelism, sharing the gospel can become something mostly for certain people at certain times, like when the evangelism team goes out visiting.

But in a church with an evangelistic culture, each member is encouraged to play a role within the larger church’s effort to reach the people around them with the message of salvation in Jesus. It becomes a part of every believer’s life.

THREE INGREDIENTS OF AN EVANGELISTIC CULTURE

If you are looking to create an evangelistic culture in your local church, here are three ingredients that may help.

1. The Gospel: the Fuel for an Evangelistic Culture

The gospel message is the fuel that feeds an evangelistic culture in a church. We all naturally share the things that excite our hearts. If the Philadelphia Eagles ever won the Super Bowl (I know…), you wouldn’t have much luck shutting me up about it. In the same way, if we want to create cultures in our churches where it’s natural for members to talk to about the gospel message with non-Christians, then we need to help our members fall deeply in love with the gospel.

That means they must understand the gospel message. It also means that the beauty of the gospel message must be put on display week in and week out in our churches. When Christians truly grasp the depth of their sin, the wonderful holiness of God, the perfection of Christ and the depth of his suffering for them, the power of his resurrection and the gift of eternal life for all who repent and believe, our affections for Christ will grow.

The gospel message also frees Christians from motivations that might lead them to dislike evangelism. The gospel says that we don’t have to evangelize in order to earn God’s love. Our position in God’s family isn’t dependent on how often or how well we share the gospel. Instead we can be certain of God’s love, which frees us from the overwhelming concern for the opinions of people around us that makes us afraid to speak up about Jesus.

2. Prayer: the Power of an Evangelistic Culture

Second, a church that is sharing the gospel must be committed to prayer. Evangelism seems a hopeless task. We are calling spiritually dead people to embrace life. How are we going to equip and encourage people for that work? It seems utterly futile.

That’s why an evangelistic culture must begin with a culture of prayer. In prayer, Christians go to the Lord with a confession of their insufficiency for the task of evangelism and his sufficient strength. God alone can make the seeds that we sow spring up to eternal life in our hearers, and so we must begin with prayer.

In our church, this particularly happens on Sunday evenings. We gather together as a congregation to pray that the Lord would spread his gospel through us. People share gospel conversations that they’ve had during the previous week, or opportunities that they hope to have in the coming week.

This prayer time serves a few purposes. First, it commits these things to the Lord, who normally has us ask before we receive in these matters (James 4:2).

Second, it involves the whole church in the work of sharing the gospel. It’s not a burden or a project that we undertake alone, but we have brothers and sisters to pray and encourage us.

Third, this sharing makes it clear that evangelism is the work of “normal” Christians. The people asking for prayer aren’t usually pastors or elders or gifted evangelists. They are just believers who have embraced their calling to share the good news with the people around them.

Finally, this prayer time gives people a good place to begin reaching out to their neighbors and co-workers. If people are nervous or uncertain about sharing the good news, we encourage them to begin with prayer. They can pray that the Lord would give them opportunities, and that he would bring people who need the gospel to their attention. That’s a much less intimidating first step than rushing out with a tract in hand.

3. Training: the Blueprint for an Evangelistic Culture.

A third ingredient is training, the blueprint for an evangelistic culture. Remember that the goal is for our churches to have evangelistic cultures rather than merely evangelistic programs. But that doesn’t mean that there is no place for church leaders to organize and equip people to share the gospel. In fact, a love for the gospel and prayer may not be enough to motivate Christians to a lifestyle of evangelism.

While evangelism will come naturally to some people in your congregation, there will be many people who love the gospel and pray faithfully but still need to be equipped to share the gospel. Here are a few ways church leaders can equip the congregation:

Recommend good books on the topic. J.I. Packer’s Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God and Mack Stiles’Speaking of Jesus are two of my favorites. Read these books with the people you are discipling, give them away to people who will read them, or make them available through you church library.

Bring people with you when you have a chance to share the gospel. When I am invited to give an evangelistic talk, I bring a younger person from the church with me. It’s a good opportunity to model for them how to share the good news.

Address unbelievers in your sermons. Your people will grow from listening to you engage people who don’t know Jesus with the claims of the gospel. Take time to thoughtfully consider the questions or objections that an unbeliever might have to your sermon’s message, and then speak to those issues.

Run evangelistic meetings where people can bring friends and get help sharing the gospel. If your church can host an evangelistic coffee house meeting or a program like Christianity Explored, you will give opportunities for your people to invite their friends and observe how they can share the gospel as well.

BETTER THAN THE BEST PROGRAM

There is no program that can create an evangelistic culture in your church. Instead, it will require church leaders to teach, model, and pray until members of the church realize that sharing the gospel is their privilege and responsibility. A church with such a culture will be far more fruitful and effective than a church with even the most effective programs and strategies. 

who will stand

Great testimony on saving babies ... and others.

Thank you John Barros.

becoming a christian

An interesting thought on presenting what it really means to become a Christian by Tony Payne:

... if you had the opportunity to open up one simple Bible passage, and briefly explain to someone what it meant to be a Christian, where would you turn?

I would turn to 1 Thessalonians 1, verses 8-10:

For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

And with all the boldness, fluency and clarity that I wish I had in real life but only ever have in scenarios, I would read the passage with my new friend, and then say something like this:

This part of the Bible is a letter written by one of the early Christian teachers (named Paul) to some people who had become Christians after he had shared the Christian message with them. And as he writes to them, he reminds them exactly what they did to become Christians. So it gives us a very neat summary of what the Bible says it means to become a Christian.

It basically meant doing three things.

The first thing that these people did was to turn away from their religion and culture. They used to worship idols — fake gods. But then they turned their backs on all this. Becoming a Christian requires you to turn away from your old life, from all the things that are not really god that you used to worship and live for.

The second thing follows on from the first. They stopped serving and living for false gods, and started serving the true and living God—the one, real and true God, who made everything and who is in charge of everything. To become a Christian is to put yourself at God’s service; to acknowledge that he is the one and only God, and that you are one of his servants.

But there’s a third aspect. Even if they turned back to God to serve him, why would he accept them? After all, they’d been worshipping the opposition, ignoring him, sinning against him. He would have every right to be angry with them. So why should he accept them back? Because of what it says there in verse 10: God’s Son Jesus died to deliver them from the anger that was to come (that’s what ‘wrath’ means).

That’s what it means when Christians talk about Jesus ‘dying for our sins’. It means that when we stand before God at the end, and give account for our lives, we don’t have to fear God’s anger or judgement, because Jesus died to deliver us from that. So these guys were waiting confidently for the end, for when Jesus would return, knowing that he would rescue them and save them when they stood before God.

So there you go—a quick summary of what the Bible says it means to be a Christian: turn your back on the false gods you used to worship, start serving the true and living God instead, and put your trust in Jesus who will rescue us from God’s anger.

Now when you said to me before that you were a Christian, is that what you meant?

(ht)