As we will begin to see in Romans chapter 2, Paul’s style of writing is called diatribe. He answers questions and objections from an imagined critic. As Paul dictates his letter to Tertius, we can easily imagine him pacing back and forth, passionately relaying his case for the righteousness of God and interrupting himself to argue against imagined objections. It’s like his thoughts are racing faster than his words and certainly faster than Tertius’ pen. There are leaps in thought and even fragmented sentences and breaks in Greek construction as he gets passionate about his topic.
Verse 1. You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things.
Paul begins his diatribe with the moralist and the Jew. We mentioned Seneca as one of the most respected and noted moralists of the day. It is easy to imagine him saying, “But Paul, I agree with you wholeheartedly. How can you condemn me?” As we will see, Paul has an answer for these. Anyone who sets himself up in judgment without first inspecting his own shortcomings is passing judgment on himself. Sounds like the whole ‘if you point at someone you have 3 fingers pointing back at you’ thing.
In high school there I had a teacher who was the epitome of left over hippie. He and I had VERY different worldviews. I remember sitting with him after class and discussing my faith and how that affects my worldview and who I am. He was very respectful and we were having a great conversation when suddenly another female student over heard some of what I was saying and butted into the conversation to tell me how close minded I was and that I shouldn’t push my views on others. She was doing the very thing that she was accusing me of and didn’t realize that my thoughts were invited by my teacher while hers weren’t. In her judgment she was passing judgment on herself.
Let’s discuss judgment….As Christians, do we have the right to judge or don’t we?
Matthew 7:2-4
For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. 3 “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? 4 How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?
Luke 6:37 Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.
These passages are both from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is giving a lot of practical Christian living advice. It is full of the concept that you reap what you sow, what goes around comes around, and treat others the way you want to be treated. The idea here isn’t don’t judge between right and wrong, but don’t be judgmental. In this list of practical ways to live without being judgmental we could find: don’t make false accusations, be gentle in correction, have mercy and be forgiving, take into consideration a person's heart and motives more than their actions, assume the best of others, etc. I imagine that Christ would have in mind the people you see standing on street corners with signs that say ‘turn or burn’. They are right that a person with an unrepentant heart, living in sin will go to hell, but how is a ‘judgmental’ sign like that going to change anything? After all, Jesus himself hung out with tax collectors and prostitutes. He didn’t condone their sin, but he loved them and gently showed them the truth. The concept is if you harshly judge others you can expect that you will be treated the same way. My mom worked with a lady that was homosexual. The only thing the lady knew about my mom was that she was a Christian and the lady treated my mom so rude and harshly all of the time. My mom couldn’t figure out why because they had hardly interacted and my mom had been nothing but nice to her. At one point my mom was able to ask her why she seemed to dislike my mom so much and if she had done something to offend this woman. The lady verified that mom was a Christian and then said, “well you hate me because I’m a lesbian.” My mom was shocked and told her not at all. She didn’t agree with the lifestyle and according to the Bible believed that it was wrong, but she liked the woman and would still be her friend. This opened a huge door of opportunity for my mom to have a great friendship with her and witness to her on an ongoing basis. The woman who could hardly stand to be around men because of prior abuse even became friends with my dad. This woman had been ‘judged’ by Christians and so my mom was being judged by her.
James 4:11-12 Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. 12 God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?
This passage is talking about judging how someone else is carrying out the law. This was common for Pharisees. They created so many rules to support the laws that they made the laws a burden. For example you could only walk so far and carry so much on the Sabbath because you were supposed to rest on that day. They made a day of rest into a burden because everyone was afraid of breaking one of the rules. It is our job to obey the law not judge if someone else is upholding it the way we think that they should. In this case if you judge someone else you are really judging the law and how it applies to you and others and that is God’s job not ours.
Romans 14:10 So why do you condemn another Christian? Why do you look down on another Christian? Remember, each of us will stand personally before the judgment seat of God.
We still do this today. We look at other’s walk with God and we decide if they are doing it right or not. This is not talking about sin. This is being petty and legalistic. One may choose not to listen to non-Christian music and look down on the person who does. A personal conviction is between you and God and we need to leave others personal convictions alone and not decided that we are serving God better than they are.
Matthew 18:15-20 “If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. 16 But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. 17 If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector.
18 “I tell you the truth, whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.
19 “I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. 20 For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.”
People today say don’t judge me and they mean, don’t tell me that what I’m doing is wrong. This passage makes it clear that we are supposed to ‘judge’ or determine if someone is living in sin and approach them about it to help them get back on track. We are not supposed to publicly ridicule them or talk behind their back about it. We are supposed to lovingly and also firmly deal with the issue. The goal is restoration not mortification.
I Corinthians 5:1-5 I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother. 2 You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship.
3 Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit. And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man 4 in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church. I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus. 5 Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns.
I Corinthians 5:12-13 It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. 13 God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.
We discussed these passages a few weeks ago, but the same idea is here. We cannot judge those outside the church, but sin in the body of Christ is not to be ignored. It is to be dealt with and if the person refuses to repent we must be decisive in our actions, but if the person repents we are to forgive and help restore them (as the Corinthians were instructed to do with this man in II Cor 2) Non-Christians can't be judged for their actions because they don't adhere to the same set of standards. It would be like getting upset at a pig for being dirty. They don't know any better.
I John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.
This is an important one. We are instructed to judge in the sense of using discernment. We have to make sure that the ones we are listening to for spiritual instruction are speaking truth from God. We have the Holy Spirit in us to help us determine truth from lies. There are so many false prophets out there that use scripture and twist it or take it out of context to make it say what they want it to say. This is so dangerous and the sad thing is that tons of people listen to them. They hear some scripture and assume that it is being used correctly. We have to study and be familiar with God’s Word so that we will know if it’s being used incorrectly and listen to the warning of the Holy Spirit inside of us. If we stand back and say, ‘it’s not my place to judge’ we are opening ourselves up to being led astray. If we see others being led astray by false prophets we need to speak up and lovingly show them the truth through proper use of scripture.
In summation here are 5 guidelines to Christian judgment:
1.Every time the Bible commands us to judge it’s inferring on each other not on non-believers.
2.Check your attitude and motivation. A good question to ask yourself is how eager are you to confront?
3.Use Biblical commands not social expectations IE: personal convictions.
4.Judge the act not the person and be willing to forgive.
5.Examine yourself first and more stringently.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Humanity Diagnosed (Romans 1:18-32)
In vs. 15-17, as discussed in the previous blog, Paul used Habakkuk 2:4 as the premise for his letter. Before Paul goes on about God’s righteousness in the Gospel, however, he first explains the situation humanity is in. If we don’t know how bad off we are then we don’t see the need for the grace that is offered us. The rough overview is: We are in the wrong. We have broken God’s moral law. We now face the consequences of our choices and desperately need to be pardoned. We are unable to change the situation or save ourselves.
Paul begins by pointing to a group of people that all moralists of the day could agree were immoral; pagans. The term pagans is not used generally in this context to mean any non-Christian. Rather it is a form of religion that involves Animism and Polytheism. God was displaying Himself to humanity through all that He made and people were taking that glory and giving credit and praise to the created object instead of the creator. This is the definition of Animism and it is idolatry. It is clear from Greek literature and other contemporary writings of that time that paganism was out of control and disgusting. Seneca, one of the purest moralists of Rome, who died A.D. 65, says of his own time,
"All is full of criminality and vice; indeed much more of these is committed than can be remedied by force. A monstrous contest of abandoned wickedness is carried on. The lust of sin increases daily; and shame is daily more and more extinguished. Discarding respect for all that is good and sacred, lust rushes on wherever it will. Vice no longer hides itself. It stalks forth before all eyes. So public has abandoned wickedness become, and so openly does it flame up in the minds of all, that innocence is no longer seldom, but has wholly ceased to exist," (Seneca de Ira, ii. 8.)
Greek mythology and the great pantheon of gods that were worshiped show how immoral and misguided people’s religious thoughts were. Wisdom 14:12 (book written by King Solomon, but not in the Cannon of the Bible) ‘For the idea of making idols was the beginning of fornication, and the invention of them was the corruption of life.'
In vs 19-20 Paul’s talk about the visible creation being a source of knowledge about the invisible creator can be compared to his speeches at Lystra (Acts 14:15-17) and Athens (Acts 17:22-31). As we will see in this passage ignorance is not bliss. Men had the truth right in front of them but they chose to embrace the lie instead.
18. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
Why does the modern church have a hard time acknowledging God’s wrath/anger? In human terms anger or wrath gets carried out in a sinful manner. It most often springs out of pride or selfishness. With God, however, it is a response of His holiness to wicked rebellion. We are made in God’s image so every emotion we have comes from a pure form found in God. What kind of anger is ok in us? Righteous anger provokes us to make changes. It causes us to work for justice and to right wrongs. Ephesians 4:26 says, “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.
Although wrath is an aspect of God’s personality it is one that He is slow to act on. In the Old Testament it feels like God is more wrathful than in the New Testament. Has God changed? Isaiah calls God acting on his wrath as His ‘strange deed’ (Is 28:21). The Old Testament is a huge span of time while the New Testament is a focused time slot. God warns His people over and over and over to change their ways. It's not until they continue to rebel despite the warnings that God pours out His wrath. Even when He does, however, it is short lived and as soon as there is repentance God begins to restore His people. God’s wrath sets the stage for His work of mercy which we see Him pouring out more often on those who don’t deserve it.
The truth that is being suppressed by their wickedness is the truth about God as we will see in vs 25.
19. since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
(CF: Romans 2:14-15) There are two verbs in this phrase: literally ‘being understood and perceived’. One refers to physical sight and the other to intelligence. Basically, we have physically seen with our eyes and have been able to understand with our minds enough from nature to tell us that there is a Creator and that the glory is not in the created thing itself.
Psalm 19:1-4 says, The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
21. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
Folly doesn’t mean just that they were intellectually challenged. It means that they were moral idiots. There are some very “intelligent” people out there that are looking at the clear evidence of the existence of God and because they cannot stand to assent to a higher power are twisting the evidence to fit their pre-conceived notions. Nick went to listen to Richard Dawkins speak at IU last year. The guy had so much animosity against God fearers that he was making himself sound like an idiot as he ranted and raved and didn’t cover any facts or statistics. He was just name calling.
23. and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
There are many cultures both then and now that worship idols, but even the Israelites chose to trade in what they knew about our glorious God for a golden calf. Psalm 106:20 They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. There is a distinct reversal of the verses in Gen 1:20-26 where God creates the creatures from every classification and makes man in His image to rule over them. Here we are created in the very image of God and put in dominion over the earth to care for it and we instead begin to worship these creatures and even make idols in our own image.
24. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
(CF. vs 28) This language is used in several places in the Bible like in Psalm 81:12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. What does this mean? Is God causing them to sin? C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain (1940), pp. 115 says, the lost ‘enjoy forever the horrible freedom they have demanded, and are therefore self-enslaved.’ God will call us and pursue us, but when we continue to reject Him and demand our own way He will eventually allow us to dive head long into our sin. We begin to experience all of the consequences of that sin. We can see this happening to the Israelites over and over in the OT. What happened as a result? When they were no longer under the protection of the Lord and they hit bottom they began to turn their hearts back to God. While the choice to repent is still theirs, sometimes a person has to hit bottom in order to see their need for God. Another example of this is I Corinthians 5:5 where it says, 'hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord'. Paul is instructing the church to stop harboring a man who is blatantly sinning and is unrepentant. The hope is that if he is left to the full consequences of his sinful acts, the suffering will cause him to turn back to Christ. In this particular case it is also the act of excommunication that causes that man to recognize his sin and need for repentance.
25. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Some versions say, ‘they traded the truth’. This is not language that implies they were mistaken or tricked or accidentally believed a lie. They knew what they were trading in and they chose the lie over the truth. Why would they do that? II Thessalonians 2:10-12 says, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. They choose to ignore truth so God gives them the thing that they are seeking after and they begin to believe the lie and fall deeper and deeper into their own delusion. A good example (a la Jerry Springer) might be a husband or wife who so badly doesn’t want to admit that their own actions caused the end of their marriage that they start making up lies about the other person and eventually start truly believing their own lies. They cannot see that they are to blame.
26. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other.
Makes me think of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII did not disagree with the Catholic church’s teaching, he just wanted the right to divorce his wife Catherine and marry Anne. He began a new church just so he could marry Anne. Sexual desire isn’t the only reason that people choose to ignore the truth of God’s Word and believe a lie, but it is a very common reason. They do not want to be held accountable for their actions. They want to believe that they don’t answer to anyone, but themselves. In Greek literature even the pantheon of god’s themselves were promiscuous. If those are the gods you serve, why would you have to behave any differently? Pastor Ray Pritchard of Keep Believing Ministries in Elmhurst, IL. has an interesting comment:
"Why is illicit sex singled out as the first major step away from God? The answer is not hard to find. Sex is closely related to the human spirit. The way you conduct yourself sexually is a good barometer of what's going on in your heart. After all, what is sex but the desire to be worshiped by another person? Sound strange? It shouldn't. When two people come together, they are seeking much more than physical release. At a very deep level, they are looking for love, acceptance, fulfillment, freedom and meaning in life. By giving themselves to someone else, they hope (and secretly pray) that through this self-giving, they will discover a way to fill the void within. They "worship" through sex hoping someone will "worship" them back. Sex and worship are thus closely related in their ultimate purpose. It is as if God is pulling back the covers in order to show us how empty our hearts are without him. By turning to illicit sex, instead of fulfilling our dreams we only expose the emptiness within. It never works out like we hope it will. Immorality never satisfies because it always involves deception. We lie to each other, we lie to ourselves, and ultimately we lie to God."
27. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.
This speaks of the self-destructive nature of sin. While people look for fulfillment they receive emptiness, hopelessness, and disease. We are not saying that this sin is worse than all other sin or that it alone has physical consequences. All sin has consequences. The point is that the penalty is not just a spiritual one received after death. There are consequences for our actions now. Most of the time we have to live with those consequences for the rest of our lives even if we repent and come back to God.
28. Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.
While verses 26-27 point out a very externally obvious indicator that the pagans had rejected the truth of God displayed in creation and instead had believed a lie, verses 28-30 give a long list of other less immediately obvious, but just as damning evidence. Another good interpretation of the word ‘foolish’ thinking is ‘counterfeit’ thinking. It is not foolish in the sense of silly. It is a fake trying to impersonate the real thing. It is fraudulent. Verse 31 follows up with they refuse to understand. My mom used to say of her dad, “Don’t confuse him with the facts. His mind is made up.”
How interesting that disobeying their parents rounds out the list of evil behavior. In today’s society it sounds almost as silly as saying, ‘and they don’t wash their hands after using the bathroom’; distasteful, but not as serious as murder or hate. Why does this make the list? If we can't obey our parents then we certainly can't obey God and vice versa. It indicates rebellion against God given authority. The culture of this time was honor based. There was so much more than just concern for personal consequence. People weighed their actions by how it would affect their family's standing in society. To dishonor your family was a huge deal and so it follows that disobeying your parents was a huge deal.
32. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
Talk about hedonism! They know the consequences, but are so self-absorbed and devoted to self-gratification that they don’t care. It is not sin of ignorance. It is sin of blatant rebellion. It’s not uncommon to hear people say things like ‘live fast, die young’ in today’s society. Consequences mean nothing. Not only are they going to be held accountable for their own actions, they will be held accountable for leading others astray.
John Piper refers to this section as ‘Committing Spiritual Suicide and Taking Others Along... In other words, the end-point of depravity is not just the suicidal love affair with sin, but the desire to bring others with you to destruction. It's not just that people choose death for themselves in the passion of sin, but that they become Dr. Kevorkians (a medical doctor who advocated "euthanasia") at the spiritual level, and assist others in eternal self-destruction by approving their sin."! (Romans 1:28-32 Doing and Endorsing Evil)
Pastor Ray Stedman writes that...
Knowing that harm is coming from their wickedness, nevertheless they attempt to spread it more fully. They invade the field of education; they dominate the media; they seek legal status for their wickedness and defy all attempts at control. As you can well recognize, this is what is going on today. (Romans 1:24-32 The Deepening Darkness)
If I can make everyone around me join into my depravity and make society give it legal status then I won't feel guilty for what I am doing.
Isaiah 57 (The Message) fits very well with this description of society.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2057&version=MSG
Paul begins by pointing to a group of people that all moralists of the day could agree were immoral; pagans. The term pagans is not used generally in this context to mean any non-Christian. Rather it is a form of religion that involves Animism and Polytheism. God was displaying Himself to humanity through all that He made and people were taking that glory and giving credit and praise to the created object instead of the creator. This is the definition of Animism and it is idolatry. It is clear from Greek literature and other contemporary writings of that time that paganism was out of control and disgusting. Seneca, one of the purest moralists of Rome, who died A.D. 65, says of his own time,
"All is full of criminality and vice; indeed much more of these is committed than can be remedied by force. A monstrous contest of abandoned wickedness is carried on. The lust of sin increases daily; and shame is daily more and more extinguished. Discarding respect for all that is good and sacred, lust rushes on wherever it will. Vice no longer hides itself. It stalks forth before all eyes. So public has abandoned wickedness become, and so openly does it flame up in the minds of all, that innocence is no longer seldom, but has wholly ceased to exist," (Seneca de Ira, ii. 8.)
Greek mythology and the great pantheon of gods that were worshiped show how immoral and misguided people’s religious thoughts were. Wisdom 14:12 (book written by King Solomon, but not in the Cannon of the Bible) ‘For the idea of making idols was the beginning of fornication, and the invention of them was the corruption of life.'
In vs 19-20 Paul’s talk about the visible creation being a source of knowledge about the invisible creator can be compared to his speeches at Lystra (Acts 14:15-17) and Athens (Acts 17:22-31). As we will see in this passage ignorance is not bliss. Men had the truth right in front of them but they chose to embrace the lie instead.
18. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
Why does the modern church have a hard time acknowledging God’s wrath/anger? In human terms anger or wrath gets carried out in a sinful manner. It most often springs out of pride or selfishness. With God, however, it is a response of His holiness to wicked rebellion. We are made in God’s image so every emotion we have comes from a pure form found in God. What kind of anger is ok in us? Righteous anger provokes us to make changes. It causes us to work for justice and to right wrongs. Ephesians 4:26 says, “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.
Although wrath is an aspect of God’s personality it is one that He is slow to act on. In the Old Testament it feels like God is more wrathful than in the New Testament. Has God changed? Isaiah calls God acting on his wrath as His ‘strange deed’ (Is 28:21). The Old Testament is a huge span of time while the New Testament is a focused time slot. God warns His people over and over and over to change their ways. It's not until they continue to rebel despite the warnings that God pours out His wrath. Even when He does, however, it is short lived and as soon as there is repentance God begins to restore His people. God’s wrath sets the stage for His work of mercy which we see Him pouring out more often on those who don’t deserve it.
The truth that is being suppressed by their wickedness is the truth about God as we will see in vs 25.
19. since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
(CF: Romans 2:14-15) There are two verbs in this phrase: literally ‘being understood and perceived’. One refers to physical sight and the other to intelligence. Basically, we have physically seen with our eyes and have been able to understand with our minds enough from nature to tell us that there is a Creator and that the glory is not in the created thing itself.
Psalm 19:1-4 says, The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
21. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
Folly doesn’t mean just that they were intellectually challenged. It means that they were moral idiots. There are some very “intelligent” people out there that are looking at the clear evidence of the existence of God and because they cannot stand to assent to a higher power are twisting the evidence to fit their pre-conceived notions. Nick went to listen to Richard Dawkins speak at IU last year. The guy had so much animosity against God fearers that he was making himself sound like an idiot as he ranted and raved and didn’t cover any facts or statistics. He was just name calling.
23. and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
There are many cultures both then and now that worship idols, but even the Israelites chose to trade in what they knew about our glorious God for a golden calf. Psalm 106:20 They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. There is a distinct reversal of the verses in Gen 1:20-26 where God creates the creatures from every classification and makes man in His image to rule over them. Here we are created in the very image of God and put in dominion over the earth to care for it and we instead begin to worship these creatures and even make idols in our own image.
24. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
(CF. vs 28) This language is used in several places in the Bible like in Psalm 81:12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. What does this mean? Is God causing them to sin? C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain (1940), pp. 115 says, the lost ‘enjoy forever the horrible freedom they have demanded, and are therefore self-enslaved.’ God will call us and pursue us, but when we continue to reject Him and demand our own way He will eventually allow us to dive head long into our sin. We begin to experience all of the consequences of that sin. We can see this happening to the Israelites over and over in the OT. What happened as a result? When they were no longer under the protection of the Lord and they hit bottom they began to turn their hearts back to God. While the choice to repent is still theirs, sometimes a person has to hit bottom in order to see their need for God. Another example of this is I Corinthians 5:5 where it says, 'hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord'. Paul is instructing the church to stop harboring a man who is blatantly sinning and is unrepentant. The hope is that if he is left to the full consequences of his sinful acts, the suffering will cause him to turn back to Christ. In this particular case it is also the act of excommunication that causes that man to recognize his sin and need for repentance.
25. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Some versions say, ‘they traded the truth’. This is not language that implies they were mistaken or tricked or accidentally believed a lie. They knew what they were trading in and they chose the lie over the truth. Why would they do that? II Thessalonians 2:10-12 says, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. They choose to ignore truth so God gives them the thing that they are seeking after and they begin to believe the lie and fall deeper and deeper into their own delusion. A good example (a la Jerry Springer) might be a husband or wife who so badly doesn’t want to admit that their own actions caused the end of their marriage that they start making up lies about the other person and eventually start truly believing their own lies. They cannot see that they are to blame.
26. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other.
Makes me think of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII did not disagree with the Catholic church’s teaching, he just wanted the right to divorce his wife Catherine and marry Anne. He began a new church just so he could marry Anne. Sexual desire isn’t the only reason that people choose to ignore the truth of God’s Word and believe a lie, but it is a very common reason. They do not want to be held accountable for their actions. They want to believe that they don’t answer to anyone, but themselves. In Greek literature even the pantheon of god’s themselves were promiscuous. If those are the gods you serve, why would you have to behave any differently? Pastor Ray Pritchard of Keep Believing Ministries in Elmhurst, IL. has an interesting comment:
"Why is illicit sex singled out as the first major step away from God? The answer is not hard to find. Sex is closely related to the human spirit. The way you conduct yourself sexually is a good barometer of what's going on in your heart. After all, what is sex but the desire to be worshiped by another person? Sound strange? It shouldn't. When two people come together, they are seeking much more than physical release. At a very deep level, they are looking for love, acceptance, fulfillment, freedom and meaning in life. By giving themselves to someone else, they hope (and secretly pray) that through this self-giving, they will discover a way to fill the void within. They "worship" through sex hoping someone will "worship" them back. Sex and worship are thus closely related in their ultimate purpose. It is as if God is pulling back the covers in order to show us how empty our hearts are without him. By turning to illicit sex, instead of fulfilling our dreams we only expose the emptiness within. It never works out like we hope it will. Immorality never satisfies because it always involves deception. We lie to each other, we lie to ourselves, and ultimately we lie to God."
27. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.
This speaks of the self-destructive nature of sin. While people look for fulfillment they receive emptiness, hopelessness, and disease. We are not saying that this sin is worse than all other sin or that it alone has physical consequences. All sin has consequences. The point is that the penalty is not just a spiritual one received after death. There are consequences for our actions now. Most of the time we have to live with those consequences for the rest of our lives even if we repent and come back to God.
28. Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.
While verses 26-27 point out a very externally obvious indicator that the pagans had rejected the truth of God displayed in creation and instead had believed a lie, verses 28-30 give a long list of other less immediately obvious, but just as damning evidence. Another good interpretation of the word ‘foolish’ thinking is ‘counterfeit’ thinking. It is not foolish in the sense of silly. It is a fake trying to impersonate the real thing. It is fraudulent. Verse 31 follows up with they refuse to understand. My mom used to say of her dad, “Don’t confuse him with the facts. His mind is made up.”
How interesting that disobeying their parents rounds out the list of evil behavior. In today’s society it sounds almost as silly as saying, ‘and they don’t wash their hands after using the bathroom’; distasteful, but not as serious as murder or hate. Why does this make the list? If we can't obey our parents then we certainly can't obey God and vice versa. It indicates rebellion against God given authority. The culture of this time was honor based. There was so much more than just concern for personal consequence. People weighed their actions by how it would affect their family's standing in society. To dishonor your family was a huge deal and so it follows that disobeying your parents was a huge deal.
32. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
Talk about hedonism! They know the consequences, but are so self-absorbed and devoted to self-gratification that they don’t care. It is not sin of ignorance. It is sin of blatant rebellion. It’s not uncommon to hear people say things like ‘live fast, die young’ in today’s society. Consequences mean nothing. Not only are they going to be held accountable for their own actions, they will be held accountable for leading others astray.
John Piper refers to this section as ‘Committing Spiritual Suicide and Taking Others Along... In other words, the end-point of depravity is not just the suicidal love affair with sin, but the desire to bring others with you to destruction. It's not just that people choose death for themselves in the passion of sin, but that they become Dr. Kevorkians (a medical doctor who advocated "euthanasia") at the spiritual level, and assist others in eternal self-destruction by approving their sin."! (Romans 1:28-32 Doing and Endorsing Evil)
Pastor Ray Stedman writes that...
Knowing that harm is coming from their wickedness, nevertheless they attempt to spread it more fully. They invade the field of education; they dominate the media; they seek legal status for their wickedness and defy all attempts at control. As you can well recognize, this is what is going on today. (Romans 1:24-32 The Deepening Darkness)
If I can make everyone around me join into my depravity and make society give it legal status then I won't feel guilty for what I am doing.
Isaiah 57 (The Message) fits very well with this description of society.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2057&version=MSG
Thursday, March 24, 2011
The Gospel According to Paul (Romans 1:8-17)
8. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. Why through Jesus Christ? To the modern church this doesn’t stand out and we chalk it up to the way Paul talks, but for the early church this was a fundamental teaching about their new relationship with God. Grace was given to us from God through Jesus Christ and we also show gratitude back to God through Jesus Christ. He is our mediator. We no longer need to go to a priest to communicate with God for us.
9-11. God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you. I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—
12. that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. This verse shows that Paul is not looking to lord his apostleship over the Roman church and he’s not going there just to get something from them. He wants everyone to benefit from fellowship with each other. Have you ever noticed how encouraging it is just knowing that someone you work with or go to school with is also a Christ follower. Realizing that we are not alone gives us some strength and even boldness.
13. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles. Why couldn’t Paul go to Rome until now? Perhaps it was similar to the leading of the Holy Spirit we read about in Acts. People tried to stop Paul from going to Jerusalem because he was in danger and yet the Holy Spirit was directing him to go there anyway. Maybe he was giving priority to the needs and growth of the Gentile churches he planted and visited them a second time instead. Or maybe the Jewish expulsion from Rome mentioned in Acts 18:2 kept him away.
14. I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. Paul does not discriminate who he preaches the Gospel to. He is ‘obligated’. He cannot withhold the good news of Jesus from anyone. The Greeks called all non-Greeks barbarians or barbaroi. 'roi' is what you add to the end of a Greek word to pluralize it. There is thought that this word came about as a sort of imitation of foreign languages. So it's like saying everyone who is not American are flurdelurians (My imitation of another language, hee hee).
The Greeks take pride in their wisdom so all non-Greeks would be considered unwise in their estimation. Think of the Greeks in Athens who Paul addressed at Mars Hill (Acts 17:16-21). The Bible says that they spent all of their time debating new ideas. They were professional thinkers. So basically Paul is saying in two different ways that he must preach the Gospel to everyone.
15. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.
The Gospel According to Paul
The theme of the Gospel: The righteousness of God reveled (vs 16-17)
Paul’s basis for this next argument is the Hebrew thought process on Righteousness. It is not based on an intrinsic moral value. It is a legal status. They viewed right and wrong as if they were in a courtroom receiving a verdict. So righteousness (tsaddiq)= In the right and unrighteousness (rasha’)= in the wrong. In Exodus 27 Pharaoh says, "I have sinned this time. Jehovah is 'right'(righteous), and I and my people are 'in the wrong' (wicked)." The OT is the Law. It revels to us God’s righteousness and exposes our unrighteousness or wrongness because we are unable to keep His law. We are condemned. We can only be righteous if we are “right” in relation to his law. It is impossible to keep the law perfectly. The Gospel, however, revels God’s righteousness differently. It shows us that even though we are sinners, we can be righteous. God does this through the principle of faith. Paul will deal with this thought in detail here at the beginning of the book and later he will cover how God’s righteousness is shown or proved by making us, ‘the unrighteous’, right. Paul refers to Hab 2:4b as his text for his 'sermon' that we can be made righteous by faith.
16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: This is a figure of speech in the Greek. Paul is not just saying that he doesn’t hide the Gospel or if someone asks him that he won’t deny it. He is saying that he takes great pride and it is an honor to share the Gospel.
first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. The Jews were God’s chosen people. What does that mean? Do they have higher privilege? God chose to revel himself through a group of people. They were to demonstrate who God is to the rest of the world. It was this same group that God sent his Son to be born into. It is a great honor and an even greater responsibility. Romans 2:9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; Some pastors make the same mistake the Jews made and begin to see themselves as elite or somehow better than those they are sent to minister to. It is a huge responsibility and a great honor. There is great accountability involved. James 3:1 says, Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
Why does Paul choose to state the order of who the Gospel is revealed? This seems like a step in the wrong direction since he is constantly trying to level the playing field between Jews and Gentiles. Paul is not stating the order of importance, but rather the chronology. It would be like a suffragette saying, "We know how important voting is. It is a privilege and responsibility first for men and now for women."
17. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed— A passage from the Dead Sea Scrolls called Hymn of the Initiants expounds on this idea well. "By His righteousness my sin is blotted out...If I stumble because of fleshly iniquity, my justification is in the righteousness of God which shall stand for ever...By His mercy He has cause me to approach and by His loving kindness He brings my justification near. By His true righteousness He justifies me and by His abundant goodness He makes atonement for all my iniquities. By His righteousness He cleanses me from the impurity of mortal man and from the sin of the sons of men, that I may praise God for His righteousness and the Most High for His glory."
a righteousness that can be seen from faith to faith It can be seen from person to person who has faith. For example, having multiple crowns or swirlies in their hair is a Pridemore trait. Nick's daddy had more than one, Nick has 3, Calvin has 5 and Adison has 2. That trait can been seen from Pridemore to Pridemore. Similarly, each person of faith has this in common…that God’s righteousness is revealed in the Gospel.
just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” Hab 2:4 was used by Paul in Galatians 3:11 to prove that it is not the law justifies us before God. He uses the same passage in Hebrews 10:38 to encourage the readers not to give up. Faith in Hebrew is 'muna'. In Greek it is 'pistis': steadfastness or fidelity based on firm belief in God. In Habakkuk’s time God was promising that the evil would not go on forever and that eventually righteousness would win out. In the mean time the followers of God would endure the hardship by faith in God and what was to come. The word for life and salvation in Hebrew are the same word. Paul adds depth of meaning to Habakkuk’s words by saying those who are justified by faith will be saved.
And now I hear Amelia blowing spit bubbles in her crib. Hope to see you all next week!
9-11. God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you. I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—
12. that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. This verse shows that Paul is not looking to lord his apostleship over the Roman church and he’s not going there just to get something from them. He wants everyone to benefit from fellowship with each other. Have you ever noticed how encouraging it is just knowing that someone you work with or go to school with is also a Christ follower. Realizing that we are not alone gives us some strength and even boldness.
13. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles. Why couldn’t Paul go to Rome until now? Perhaps it was similar to the leading of the Holy Spirit we read about in Acts. People tried to stop Paul from going to Jerusalem because he was in danger and yet the Holy Spirit was directing him to go there anyway. Maybe he was giving priority to the needs and growth of the Gentile churches he planted and visited them a second time instead. Or maybe the Jewish expulsion from Rome mentioned in Acts 18:2 kept him away.
14. I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. Paul does not discriminate who he preaches the Gospel to. He is ‘obligated’. He cannot withhold the good news of Jesus from anyone. The Greeks called all non-Greeks barbarians or barbaroi. 'roi' is what you add to the end of a Greek word to pluralize it. There is thought that this word came about as a sort of imitation of foreign languages. So it's like saying everyone who is not American are flurdelurians (My imitation of another language, hee hee).
The Greeks take pride in their wisdom so all non-Greeks would be considered unwise in their estimation. Think of the Greeks in Athens who Paul addressed at Mars Hill (Acts 17:16-21). The Bible says that they spent all of their time debating new ideas. They were professional thinkers. So basically Paul is saying in two different ways that he must preach the Gospel to everyone.
15. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.
The Gospel According to Paul
The theme of the Gospel: The righteousness of God reveled (vs 16-17)
Paul’s basis for this next argument is the Hebrew thought process on Righteousness. It is not based on an intrinsic moral value. It is a legal status. They viewed right and wrong as if they were in a courtroom receiving a verdict. So righteousness (tsaddiq)= In the right and unrighteousness (rasha’)= in the wrong. In Exodus 27 Pharaoh says, "I have sinned this time. Jehovah is 'right'(righteous), and I and my people are 'in the wrong' (wicked)." The OT is the Law. It revels to us God’s righteousness and exposes our unrighteousness or wrongness because we are unable to keep His law. We are condemned. We can only be righteous if we are “right” in relation to his law. It is impossible to keep the law perfectly. The Gospel, however, revels God’s righteousness differently. It shows us that even though we are sinners, we can be righteous. God does this through the principle of faith. Paul will deal with this thought in detail here at the beginning of the book and later he will cover how God’s righteousness is shown or proved by making us, ‘the unrighteous’, right. Paul refers to Hab 2:4b as his text for his 'sermon' that we can be made righteous by faith.
16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: This is a figure of speech in the Greek. Paul is not just saying that he doesn’t hide the Gospel or if someone asks him that he won’t deny it. He is saying that he takes great pride and it is an honor to share the Gospel.
first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. The Jews were God’s chosen people. What does that mean? Do they have higher privilege? God chose to revel himself through a group of people. They were to demonstrate who God is to the rest of the world. It was this same group that God sent his Son to be born into. It is a great honor and an even greater responsibility. Romans 2:9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; Some pastors make the same mistake the Jews made and begin to see themselves as elite or somehow better than those they are sent to minister to. It is a huge responsibility and a great honor. There is great accountability involved. James 3:1 says, Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
Why does Paul choose to state the order of who the Gospel is revealed? This seems like a step in the wrong direction since he is constantly trying to level the playing field between Jews and Gentiles. Paul is not stating the order of importance, but rather the chronology. It would be like a suffragette saying, "We know how important voting is. It is a privilege and responsibility first for men and now for women."
17. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed— A passage from the Dead Sea Scrolls called Hymn of the Initiants expounds on this idea well. "By His righteousness my sin is blotted out...If I stumble because of fleshly iniquity, my justification is in the righteousness of God which shall stand for ever...By His mercy He has cause me to approach and by His loving kindness He brings my justification near. By His true righteousness He justifies me and by His abundant goodness He makes atonement for all my iniquities. By His righteousness He cleanses me from the impurity of mortal man and from the sin of the sons of men, that I may praise God for His righteousness and the Most High for His glory."
a righteousness that can be seen from faith to faith It can be seen from person to person who has faith. For example, having multiple crowns or swirlies in their hair is a Pridemore trait. Nick's daddy had more than one, Nick has 3, Calvin has 5 and Adison has 2. That trait can been seen from Pridemore to Pridemore. Similarly, each person of faith has this in common…that God’s righteousness is revealed in the Gospel.
just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” Hab 2:4 was used by Paul in Galatians 3:11 to prove that it is not the law justifies us before God. He uses the same passage in Hebrews 10:38 to encourage the readers not to give up. Faith in Hebrew is 'muna'. In Greek it is 'pistis': steadfastness or fidelity based on firm belief in God. In Habakkuk’s time God was promising that the evil would not go on forever and that eventually righteousness would win out. In the mean time the followers of God would endure the hardship by faith in God and what was to come. The word for life and salvation in Hebrew are the same word. Paul adds depth of meaning to Habakkuk’s words by saying those who are justified by faith will be saved.
And now I hear Amelia blowing spit bubbles in her crib. Hope to see you all next week!
Greetings to Rome
If you have not had a chance to join us the last couple of weeks at Resolved here is what we are learning.
Romans 1:1-7
Paul opens his letter to the Romans in the same way that was common for that time period. The general recipe is: ‘X to Y, greetings’. Paul uses this same standard, but expands on it. The skeleton is ‘Paul…to all God’s beloved in Rome…grace…and peace.’ His greeting, however, is expanded to seven verses. He adds great detail to each aspect of the greeting.
1. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—. Some translations use the word servant and some use slave, why? This same issue comes up in the Gospels. The centurion’s son/slave/servant was sick and Jesus healed him. The Greek word used is doulos =bondservant. It was common in that time to sell oneself of a child into slavery/servanthood for a period of time to pay off a debt or to give the child a better life. At the end of the commitment a bond had often formed between master and slave so that the servant did not want to leave. He felt like family. There was a custom in which the servant/slave could pin himself to the door frame of the house by putting a spike trough his ear. When the master of the house returned home he could remove the spike showing that the servant was accepted into the family and could stay with them permanently or he could reject the servant by leaving him there. This is where the term bondservant comes from. A bondservant is one who is in his position of slavery by choice. Paul uses this word very specifically because he is at his master’s complete disposal and yet he has chosen to be in servitude and he also has a family type relationship with God.
His apostleship (a delegate, messenger, one sent out with specific orders) came straight from God and not from man. Gal 1:1,15-16 Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. He was singled out and sought after by God to preach the Gospel.
2. the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures Paul builds on this idea that The Gospel was foretold in the OT in the rest of his letter. 1:17 “The righteous will live by faith.”(ref Hab 2:4b), 4:3 “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”(ref Gen 15:6) and many more. Even in his greeting he is setting the stage for the rest of the letter.
It is important to Paul that those he is writing to know that this Gospel he is preaching is not a new message. It is the fulfillment of a promise. He appeals to the OT very often because even though this is a mostly Gentile group it is still a point of reference that grounds the Gospel message and gives credit to it.
3. regarding his Son, What is this Gospel that was promised in the OT? It’s Jesus!
who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, This is a common topic in early Christian sermons and is brought up in many places in the NT. Jesus never mentioned his lineage or tried to lay claim to it, however. Why is it so important to the disciples and apostles then?
Ps 132:11 The LORD swore an oath to David,
a sure oath he will not revoke:
“One of your own descendants
I will place on your throne.
2 Chron 6:16 “Now, LORD, the God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father the promises you made to him when you said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants are careful in all they do to walk before me according to my law, as you have done.’
2 Kings 8:19 Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the LORD was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever.
2 Sam 7:12 When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom.
Unless Jesus is a son of David, He is not the Messiah. The apostles brought up Jesus' lineage regularly to help prove that He is the Messiah.
4. and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Does this mean that Jesus didn’t become the Son of God till He was resurrected? There are some that hold to the adoption theory which says one of two things. Jesus was just a man who God adopted as his son either at the baptism or when He raise Jesus from the dead. This is a dangerous theory! In college I heard Kenneth Coplan say on t.v. that had he lived during Jesus day he could have been adopted as God's son and died for our sins. Holy Crap!!! Talk about Blasphemy! The answer is: No, He has been the Son of God from the beginning. The resurrection put a stamp of approval for all to see on Him. It established His position in power. (vs 3-4)Jesus holds not only the physical right, but also the spiritual right to the claim of Messiah. His descent from David is a matter of glory for the earthly Jesus and His resurrection by the Holy Spirit is the greater glory of his exaltation.
The phrase ‘the resurrection from the dead’ is literally ‘resurrection of dead ones’. It is pluralized. In Greek this is type of phrase called a generalizing plural. Paul could have phrased it differently and just said His resurrection, but he chose this phrase to not only reference Christ’s personal resurrection, but also hint at the future resurrection of His people. It would be like saying, 'We know that so and so is the best football player by the draft picks' rather than saying, 'We know that so and so is the best football player by his draft pick'.
5. Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. This is a statement about the specific calling and purpose of Paul. He was called to be an apostle specifically to the Gentiles so that they would come to faith in Jesus.
6. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. This is an indicator that the church in Rome was predominately Gentile. What does it mean to be 'called' to belong to Jesus? The calling is the work of the Holy Spirit drawing each of us and showing us our need for a savior. This phrase shows how it is that one gets to Jesus; by conviction and the wooing of the Holy Spirit.
7. To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: If we are loved by God, then we are called to live holy lives. Here's an interesting tid bit. There are hints in the NT in various places that ‘the saints’ was a term that Jewish Christians reserved for themselves to set themselves apart from Gentile Christians. It was an indicator that they were to receive special recognition and authority from God. Paul uses this phrase specifically when addressing the Gentile Christians to further try and break down the segregation of the believers. He is constantly trying to make the church aware of the level playing field of all the believers.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a very common greeting from Paul accentuating the gift of love, favor, and rest given by God. It also reminds the reader of Paul’s single minded devotion to Jesus and desire for everyone to realize that Jesus is God.
Romans 1:1-7
Paul opens his letter to the Romans in the same way that was common for that time period. The general recipe is: ‘X to Y, greetings’. Paul uses this same standard, but expands on it. The skeleton is ‘Paul…to all God’s beloved in Rome…grace…and peace.’ His greeting, however, is expanded to seven verses. He adds great detail to each aspect of the greeting.
1. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—. Some translations use the word servant and some use slave, why? This same issue comes up in the Gospels. The centurion’s son/slave/servant was sick and Jesus healed him. The Greek word used is doulos =bondservant. It was common in that time to sell oneself of a child into slavery/servanthood for a period of time to pay off a debt or to give the child a better life. At the end of the commitment a bond had often formed between master and slave so that the servant did not want to leave. He felt like family. There was a custom in which the servant/slave could pin himself to the door frame of the house by putting a spike trough his ear. When the master of the house returned home he could remove the spike showing that the servant was accepted into the family and could stay with them permanently or he could reject the servant by leaving him there. This is where the term bondservant comes from. A bondservant is one who is in his position of slavery by choice. Paul uses this word very specifically because he is at his master’s complete disposal and yet he has chosen to be in servitude and he also has a family type relationship with God.
His apostleship (a delegate, messenger, one sent out with specific orders) came straight from God and not from man. Gal 1:1,15-16 Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. He was singled out and sought after by God to preach the Gospel.
2. the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures Paul builds on this idea that The Gospel was foretold in the OT in the rest of his letter. 1:17 “The righteous will live by faith.”(ref Hab 2:4b), 4:3 “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”(ref Gen 15:6) and many more. Even in his greeting he is setting the stage for the rest of the letter.
It is important to Paul that those he is writing to know that this Gospel he is preaching is not a new message. It is the fulfillment of a promise. He appeals to the OT very often because even though this is a mostly Gentile group it is still a point of reference that grounds the Gospel message and gives credit to it.
3. regarding his Son, What is this Gospel that was promised in the OT? It’s Jesus!
who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, This is a common topic in early Christian sermons and is brought up in many places in the NT. Jesus never mentioned his lineage or tried to lay claim to it, however. Why is it so important to the disciples and apostles then?
Ps 132:11 The LORD swore an oath to David,
a sure oath he will not revoke:
“One of your own descendants
I will place on your throne.
2 Chron 6:16 “Now, LORD, the God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father the promises you made to him when you said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants are careful in all they do to walk before me according to my law, as you have done.’
2 Kings 8:19 Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the LORD was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever.
2 Sam 7:12 When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom.
Unless Jesus is a son of David, He is not the Messiah. The apostles brought up Jesus' lineage regularly to help prove that He is the Messiah.
4. and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Does this mean that Jesus didn’t become the Son of God till He was resurrected? There are some that hold to the adoption theory which says one of two things. Jesus was just a man who God adopted as his son either at the baptism or when He raise Jesus from the dead. This is a dangerous theory! In college I heard Kenneth Coplan say on t.v. that had he lived during Jesus day he could have been adopted as God's son and died for our sins. Holy Crap!!! Talk about Blasphemy! The answer is: No, He has been the Son of God from the beginning. The resurrection put a stamp of approval for all to see on Him. It established His position in power. (vs 3-4)Jesus holds not only the physical right, but also the spiritual right to the claim of Messiah. His descent from David is a matter of glory for the earthly Jesus and His resurrection by the Holy Spirit is the greater glory of his exaltation.
The phrase ‘the resurrection from the dead’ is literally ‘resurrection of dead ones’. It is pluralized. In Greek this is type of phrase called a generalizing plural. Paul could have phrased it differently and just said His resurrection, but he chose this phrase to not only reference Christ’s personal resurrection, but also hint at the future resurrection of His people. It would be like saying, 'We know that so and so is the best football player by the draft picks' rather than saying, 'We know that so and so is the best football player by his draft pick'.
5. Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. This is a statement about the specific calling and purpose of Paul. He was called to be an apostle specifically to the Gentiles so that they would come to faith in Jesus.
6. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. This is an indicator that the church in Rome was predominately Gentile. What does it mean to be 'called' to belong to Jesus? The calling is the work of the Holy Spirit drawing each of us and showing us our need for a savior. This phrase shows how it is that one gets to Jesus; by conviction and the wooing of the Holy Spirit.
7. To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: If we are loved by God, then we are called to live holy lives. Here's an interesting tid bit. There are hints in the NT in various places that ‘the saints’ was a term that Jewish Christians reserved for themselves to set themselves apart from Gentile Christians. It was an indicator that they were to receive special recognition and authority from God. Paul uses this phrase specifically when addressing the Gentile Christians to further try and break down the segregation of the believers. He is constantly trying to make the church aware of the level playing field of all the believers.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a very common greeting from Paul accentuating the gift of love, favor, and rest given by God. It also reminds the reader of Paul’s single minded devotion to Jesus and desire for everyone to realize that Jesus is God.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Discipline of Silence
According to Bernie Krause, a man who records nature sounds for tv and film, in 1968 it took 15 hours of recording time to get one hour of natural sound with no interruptions such as planes or cars. Today to get the same hour of uninterrupted natural sound it takes him 2000 hours of recording time. Wow! I remember when I was younger and the power would go out. The house was so silent. The little background noises that you tuned out like the refrigerator and the furnace weren't even there. There was no humming or buzzing of any electronics. The silence was almost deafening. This last year when the power went out I was kind of excited to light candles and play board games and enjoy the silence till I realized that we still had phones, lap tops and Ipads with battery life. The noise could continue.
What kind of noise is in your life? Think about the visual "noise" as well. Are you the type of person that has to have the tv on at all times? Do you constantly have earphones in with music playing? Are you ever just quiet? Why do we fill every waking moment and space of our lives with noise? Why is the silence so hard to handle?
Are you ever alone or do you always need someone around you? Do you truly listen for God's direction for your problems or do you spend more time talking to others and worrying about it?
Do you ever wish that God would speak up? Is it possible that all of the noise in our lives makes it harder to hear God's voice? Matthew 11:28 says," Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." If I am not still and I do not listen, how is Jesus going to give me rest? I don't know about you, but it seems that even in my times of "rest" I subject myself to hours of tv and other noise and I don't end up feeling refreshed. Think of a time in your life where you felt that you could really hear God. I think for most they would point to a camp or retreat where they were away from all of the normal "noise" of life and out in the wilderness just enjoying God. It seems like it's so easy to hear Him in places like that. Then we come home, go back to our routines and chaos and wonder why God seems so far away.
Ps 4:4 says, "Search your hearts and be silent." When was the last time you spent in silence? Why do we avoid silence? Are we afraid of what we might hear? Luke 5:16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. These were regular disciplines Jesus had. Silence. Solitude.
What are some things you could change in your daily life to eliminate some of the noise? I know that I somehow feel guilty or unproductive if there is silence or stillness. I cheat myself out of quality time with God and good rest. Every moment is so full of noise and stimulus that I have trouble focusing on any one thing. For me, I need to schedule quiet time and give myself permission to indulge in it. I need to recognize that it has a purpose and is healthy. Why do you think that taking a vow of silence is a common practice in monasteries? Those men have committed their lives to knowing God. Apparently "being still" and "knowing God" go hand in hand. Is it possible that you've been searching for God in the winds, the earthquakes and fires and he's waiting to speak to you in the silence? I challenge you to spend a day, or part of a day being purposeful about silence. Unplug yourself. Close your mouth. Spend time listening and reading and writing and see what God says. Develop the discipline of Silence.
(Resolved discussion using Rob Bell's Nooma video called Noise)
What kind of noise is in your life? Think about the visual "noise" as well. Are you the type of person that has to have the tv on at all times? Do you constantly have earphones in with music playing? Are you ever just quiet? Why do we fill every waking moment and space of our lives with noise? Why is the silence so hard to handle?
Are you ever alone or do you always need someone around you? Do you truly listen for God's direction for your problems or do you spend more time talking to others and worrying about it?
Do you ever wish that God would speak up? Is it possible that all of the noise in our lives makes it harder to hear God's voice? Matthew 11:28 says," Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." If I am not still and I do not listen, how is Jesus going to give me rest? I don't know about you, but it seems that even in my times of "rest" I subject myself to hours of tv and other noise and I don't end up feeling refreshed. Think of a time in your life where you felt that you could really hear God. I think for most they would point to a camp or retreat where they were away from all of the normal "noise" of life and out in the wilderness just enjoying God. It seems like it's so easy to hear Him in places like that. Then we come home, go back to our routines and chaos and wonder why God seems so far away.
Ps 4:4 says, "Search your hearts and be silent." When was the last time you spent in silence? Why do we avoid silence? Are we afraid of what we might hear? Luke 5:16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. These were regular disciplines Jesus had. Silence. Solitude.
What are some things you could change in your daily life to eliminate some of the noise? I know that I somehow feel guilty or unproductive if there is silence or stillness. I cheat myself out of quality time with God and good rest. Every moment is so full of noise and stimulus that I have trouble focusing on any one thing. For me, I need to schedule quiet time and give myself permission to indulge in it. I need to recognize that it has a purpose and is healthy. Why do you think that taking a vow of silence is a common practice in monasteries? Those men have committed their lives to knowing God. Apparently "being still" and "knowing God" go hand in hand. Is it possible that you've been searching for God in the winds, the earthquakes and fires and he's waiting to speak to you in the silence? I challenge you to spend a day, or part of a day being purposeful about silence. Unplug yourself. Close your mouth. Spend time listening and reading and writing and see what God says. Develop the discipline of Silence.
(Resolved discussion using Rob Bell's Nooma video called Noise)
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Trials and denials. John 18:15-27
John 18:15-27
There are 2 main events in this section; Peter’s denial and Jesus on trial before Annas. These are happening at the same time, and that’s how John records it. But I want to discuss the trial first and then deal with Peter’s denials together.
Vs 19-24
-Does anyone see a contradiction in this section? There seems to be a contradiction concerning who is the High Priest. This was a position held by one person. So is it Annas or Caiaphas? It’s important that we investigate alleged contradictions in the scriptures since this is a reason more and more are giving for rejecting it’s authority.
At this time the High Priest was the highest office of respect and authority allowed in Israel. This being the case, the Roman governors and procurators decided who would hold this office. Annas was named HP by Quirinius in 7 AD. But the next procurator, Valerius Gratus didn’t like Annas and gave him the boot in 15 AD. Annas was an excellent politician and through diplomacy and probably some shady deals he was able to secure the HP office for all 5 of his sons and his son-in-law. That’s Caiaphas. These guys were just puppets. Annas no longer had the official title but he made all the decisions and he was still commonly called the High Priest. So, there is no contradiction and John knows exactly what he is saying. Caiaphas has the title, but is only a puppet to Annas, whom everyone sees as the actual High Priest. As a side note, his son Annas II had James put to death.
Now, about the actual trial. The people in charge don’t always get it right.
Acting on a tip, the Ontario Provincial Police broke down the door of a house in suburban Toronto. It was the middle of the night. They rushed into the bedrooms with guns drawn, and literally dragged the occupants out of bed. They forced a man, his wife, her aged father, and a couple of children to lay face down on the living room floor for a couple of hours. All of them were dressed or undressed for bed, cold, and scared. The police searched through their house for the criminal they had come to arrest. In fact, the house was ransacked and generally torn apart in the search for evidence. The police never did find anything linking the family to the criminal in question. It turned out the police were at the wrong house.
When the police rather shamefacedly left, the family never got an apology for being wrongfully terrorized. Rather, the police threatened to lay charges against them because a small package of a controlled/illegal substance had been found in their basement.
That’s a case where the authorities got it wrong, but it was on accident. What’s even worse is when the authorities are dead wrong and you find out it was on purpose. It’s disappointing and sickening when you hear a story of the people in charge actually purposefully trying to frame an innocent person. Like this:
In November 1988 a Joseph Burrows was arrested for the murder of an 88-year-old man in Sheldon, Illinois. No physical evidence was found to link Burrows to the killing, but he was convicted on the basis of testimony from two people who said they saw Burrows do the shooting. Burrows was convicted and sentenced to die. He spent more than 6 years on Death Row.
Burrows' defense attorney persuaded the judge to rehear the testimony of the two witnesses. Both of them took back their earlier testimony and said that police and prosecutors pressured them into testifying falsely against Burrows. Eventually, one of the witnesses even admitted to the murder.
-The trial of Jesus is a one of the disturbing cases where the authorities are so corrupt and concerned with maintaining their own power that they throw all decency out the window. According to Jewish law nobody can be arrested without formal charges. Jesus is arrested under no specific charges. According to the Torah, the highest Jewish law, no trial could happen without witnesses. Jesus points this out in sort of a sarcastic cutting way. Jesus points out their lack of witnesses by sarcastically telling them to “ask all your witnesses.” His tone was probably part of why the guard slapped him. I’m not sure why we assume Jesus always spoke as though he were thinking about something really sad, and with an English accent.
The charge Annas was trying to secretly get evidence for was heresy/blasphemy. Think about it. He doesn’t question him about what he did, where he went or any of his actions. He could have questioned Jesus about his relationship with the women who followed him, or taxes, or anything else we would consider more worthy of death than what he was questioned about. He questions him about his disciples and his teachings. The Bible talks about the severity of being a false prophet and that’s what they were trying to manufacture evidence about. Being a false prophet (speaking falsely on behalf of God) was the worst crime to be accused of and was more likely to bring the death penalty than others.
As a side note, thought, what does that say about how Jesus lived that even those who wanted him dead knew they wouldn’t be able to make up any questionable behavior and have it believed?
It’s interesting to me that through this entire process Jesus, knowing the verdict is going to be guilty, continually asks them for evidence. Why would he do this? It wasn’t in hopes that they would realize he was innocent and let him go. So, why?
Peter’s Denial: 15-18, 25-27
-It is most likely and commonly accepted that John is the other disciple. John shows great humility in that when he has the chance to write, “me me me, I was there” he instead writes, “another disciple” or “the disciple Jesus loved”.
This is one of the events so huge that all 4 gospel writers include it in their history. But John leaves out something the other 3 say. The others end this account with Peter going outside and weeping bitterly. The other 3 weren’t there, John was. Even Matthew, who was there for most events he writes, was not at this one. They got their info second hand, probably from Peter, who told the story in a way that emphasized his regret.
What impressed John as he was seeing it first-hand, though, was not Peter’s regret but the severity of Peter’s change. The way John tells his story he really emphasizes how Peter went from being willing to take on a small army by himself to cowering in front of slaves and servants. John probably heard Peter’s first denial and would have been shocked beyond belief.
Why is John so focused on the quick change in Peter? Is he angry or ashamed? Probably. But I think the bigger emotion is fear. Peter is known among the disciples as the bold one, the brave one, the leader. I think what’s so shocking to John about this is the thought, “If Peter can deny Jesus…can I?” To be clear, this is my opinion, but I think it’s worth considering. Regardless of whether or not John is thinking this, we should. We often think “How is it possible that Peter could do this?” when we should be thinking, “Is it possible that I could do this?”
There are 2 main events in this section; Peter’s denial and Jesus on trial before Annas. These are happening at the same time, and that’s how John records it. But I want to discuss the trial first and then deal with Peter’s denials together.
Vs 19-24
-Does anyone see a contradiction in this section? There seems to be a contradiction concerning who is the High Priest. This was a position held by one person. So is it Annas or Caiaphas? It’s important that we investigate alleged contradictions in the scriptures since this is a reason more and more are giving for rejecting it’s authority.
At this time the High Priest was the highest office of respect and authority allowed in Israel. This being the case, the Roman governors and procurators decided who would hold this office. Annas was named HP by Quirinius in 7 AD. But the next procurator, Valerius Gratus didn’t like Annas and gave him the boot in 15 AD. Annas was an excellent politician and through diplomacy and probably some shady deals he was able to secure the HP office for all 5 of his sons and his son-in-law. That’s Caiaphas. These guys were just puppets. Annas no longer had the official title but he made all the decisions and he was still commonly called the High Priest. So, there is no contradiction and John knows exactly what he is saying. Caiaphas has the title, but is only a puppet to Annas, whom everyone sees as the actual High Priest. As a side note, his son Annas II had James put to death.
Now, about the actual trial. The people in charge don’t always get it right.
Acting on a tip, the Ontario Provincial Police broke down the door of a house in suburban Toronto. It was the middle of the night. They rushed into the bedrooms with guns drawn, and literally dragged the occupants out of bed. They forced a man, his wife, her aged father, and a couple of children to lay face down on the living room floor for a couple of hours. All of them were dressed or undressed for bed, cold, and scared. The police searched through their house for the criminal they had come to arrest. In fact, the house was ransacked and generally torn apart in the search for evidence. The police never did find anything linking the family to the criminal in question. It turned out the police were at the wrong house.
When the police rather shamefacedly left, the family never got an apology for being wrongfully terrorized. Rather, the police threatened to lay charges against them because a small package of a controlled/illegal substance had been found in their basement.
That’s a case where the authorities got it wrong, but it was on accident. What’s even worse is when the authorities are dead wrong and you find out it was on purpose. It’s disappointing and sickening when you hear a story of the people in charge actually purposefully trying to frame an innocent person. Like this:
In November 1988 a Joseph Burrows was arrested for the murder of an 88-year-old man in Sheldon, Illinois. No physical evidence was found to link Burrows to the killing, but he was convicted on the basis of testimony from two people who said they saw Burrows do the shooting. Burrows was convicted and sentenced to die. He spent more than 6 years on Death Row.
Burrows' defense attorney persuaded the judge to rehear the testimony of the two witnesses. Both of them took back their earlier testimony and said that police and prosecutors pressured them into testifying falsely against Burrows. Eventually, one of the witnesses even admitted to the murder.
-The trial of Jesus is a one of the disturbing cases where the authorities are so corrupt and concerned with maintaining their own power that they throw all decency out the window. According to Jewish law nobody can be arrested without formal charges. Jesus is arrested under no specific charges. According to the Torah, the highest Jewish law, no trial could happen without witnesses. Jesus points this out in sort of a sarcastic cutting way. Jesus points out their lack of witnesses by sarcastically telling them to “ask all your witnesses.” His tone was probably part of why the guard slapped him. I’m not sure why we assume Jesus always spoke as though he were thinking about something really sad, and with an English accent.
The charge Annas was trying to secretly get evidence for was heresy/blasphemy. Think about it. He doesn’t question him about what he did, where he went or any of his actions. He could have questioned Jesus about his relationship with the women who followed him, or taxes, or anything else we would consider more worthy of death than what he was questioned about. He questions him about his disciples and his teachings. The Bible talks about the severity of being a false prophet and that’s what they were trying to manufacture evidence about. Being a false prophet (speaking falsely on behalf of God) was the worst crime to be accused of and was more likely to bring the death penalty than others.
As a side note, thought, what does that say about how Jesus lived that even those who wanted him dead knew they wouldn’t be able to make up any questionable behavior and have it believed?
It’s interesting to me that through this entire process Jesus, knowing the verdict is going to be guilty, continually asks them for evidence. Why would he do this? It wasn’t in hopes that they would realize he was innocent and let him go. So, why?
Peter’s Denial: 15-18, 25-27
-It is most likely and commonly accepted that John is the other disciple. John shows great humility in that when he has the chance to write, “me me me, I was there” he instead writes, “another disciple” or “the disciple Jesus loved”.
This is one of the events so huge that all 4 gospel writers include it in their history. But John leaves out something the other 3 say. The others end this account with Peter going outside and weeping bitterly. The other 3 weren’t there, John was. Even Matthew, who was there for most events he writes, was not at this one. They got their info second hand, probably from Peter, who told the story in a way that emphasized his regret.
What impressed John as he was seeing it first-hand, though, was not Peter’s regret but the severity of Peter’s change. The way John tells his story he really emphasizes how Peter went from being willing to take on a small army by himself to cowering in front of slaves and servants. John probably heard Peter’s first denial and would have been shocked beyond belief.
Why is John so focused on the quick change in Peter? Is he angry or ashamed? Probably. But I think the bigger emotion is fear. Peter is known among the disciples as the bold one, the brave one, the leader. I think what’s so shocking to John about this is the thought, “If Peter can deny Jesus…can I?” To be clear, this is my opinion, but I think it’s worth considering. Regardless of whether or not John is thinking this, we should. We often think “How is it possible that Peter could do this?” when we should be thinking, “Is it possible that I could do this?”
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Peacity Peace Peace
John 14:27-end
Peace
Jesus says he will leave his peace with us. Lets start by defining peace. Peace is more than the absence of war. Biblical peace is more than the lack of turmoil or chaos. That is part of it, but not all of it. The most common word used in the Bible for peace is the Hebrew word Shalom. This word encompasses several ideas that we use several words to convey. Shalom means the expected peace, rest, and calm. But it also means to be well, complete, whole, healthy, restful, safe. It conveys a feeling a familiarity, like when you walk in your house after being away for a long time and you smell your favorite dinner cooking and you think, “Ahhh, this is right.”
That’s Shalom. That’s what Jesus said he would give his followers. Just the fact that Jesus promises to give peace to his followers tells us a few things.
1. Stress, tension, worry, and anxiety (everything that is contrary to peace) have been around for a long time. Peace has never been something that comes natural to people. Even though this is the case it’s undeniable that stress and anxiety, or at least their effects on people, have increased dramatically in recent times. That’s really peculiar because of all the technology we have. There are thousands of gadgets that exist for the sole reason of making your life easier. Cooking takes too long, so we have microwaves. Changing the radio station is too tough, so we have remotes. There’s no way you can wait until you’re around a computer to check your email or Facebook, so it’s on your phone. They have self-cleaning litter boxes, automatic card shufflers, shoes that are mops, electrified fly-swatters, and robot vacuums, all advertised with the promise to make your life easier and stress free. But none of these seem to work. I mean, I’m sure the automatic card shuffler shuffles cards just fine, but they don’t seem to be relieving that much stress. And it’s not just gadgets. We have herbal supplements and sleeping aids and Dr Phil. It seems like all this stuff we’ve filled our lives with to take away our stress have only caused more busyness and stress.
But Jesus wants his people to have peace. From the very beginning it’s clear that peace is good. During creation everything was in chaos, then God brought order to it all. On the mountain Elijah watched as wind, fire, and an earthquake came by. But God wasn’t in those, He was in the whisper. God built rest and peace into His law making it mandatory that people do nothing one day a week. Then Jesus comes along and emphasizes the concept of peace all the more. Peace is not just something God has. Like love, it is part of who He is. It is ingrained in His nature. That’s why God is referred to numerous times in the scriptures as “the God of peace” and the Messiah is called the “Prince of peace.” And, like love, all true peace has its source in God. There is no Shalom apart from God.
2. The second thing we learn from Jesus promising us His peace is that believers are not exempt from the stressful situations in life. Think about it, if putting my faith in Jesus meant everything would perfect from now on, I wouldn’t need His peace. I would already have peace. We need His peace because we are still in a stressful world. In fact, 2 chapters over (16:33) Jesus says, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous, I have conquered the world.”
Contrary to what some preachers would say, suffering is not always an indicator of weak faith. It may be, but it may also be God’s method of refining and improving us. Or, I think most often, it is simply the reality of living in a broken system. In any case, Jesus said that in the midst of suffering we can have peace in him. Not just calmness, but completeness, rest, wholeness and goodness.
What do you think it means that Jesus doesn’t give in the same way the world does? The world (people and systems away from God) gives with the expectation of getting something back. It only gives for the purpose of what it can get back. Jesus has no selfish motives in loaning us his peace. He simply loves us.
Why is it so important that we have peace? I think there are 3 reasons. First, God wants us to have peace simply because peace is good and He loves us. Secondly, our having peace is proof of His Lordship over us. If we really believe God is all powerful, all knowing, and all good, and we if we believe we are completely His how can we be anxious or stressed about anything? Our level of peace is proportional to our level of trust in Jesus. If we trust Him as Lord, there is nothing to worry about.
The third reason is that our peace attracts others to Jesus. What does it do for others when we say we serve the God of peace who is in complete control of all things, but then we freak out about all the same stuff the world does (i.e. I don’t have enough money. What about this sickness? This politician is going to ruin America. But there’s a war in the Middle East. Why are they so mean to me? Etc.) The world is clearly looking for peace. We claim to have it, yet out lives show that we don’t.
It’s important to God that we have peace because our peace makes Him look good to others. John Piper said in his book Don’t Waste Your Life “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” When “things” are your treasure you have no peace because “things” come and go. When the eternal unchanging God is your treasure there is peace because He is absolutely constant. That’s a beautiful thing for the world to see.
Jesus going away.
Jesus again restates that he is leaving this world but will return. Why do you think he tells the disciples, “If you loved me you would be glad I’m going”? Its basic relationship stuff. Love always wants to the best thing for the other person. Merry is planning a trip to Cairo Egypt in the spring. I hate being away from her. Selfishly, I want her to stay. But I know that she is very excited and that going will make her happy, so I want her to go. The disciples could beg Jesus to say, but that would be selfish. Jesus is going back to the Father, which is in infinitely better than where he is now, so they should be happy for him and want him to go.
Jesus says he won’t speak much more because the prince of this world is coming. That should be understood as Satan in Judas. Jesus literally has only a few more moments before the crowd shows up to arrest him.
Peace
Jesus says he will leave his peace with us. Lets start by defining peace. Peace is more than the absence of war. Biblical peace is more than the lack of turmoil or chaos. That is part of it, but not all of it. The most common word used in the Bible for peace is the Hebrew word Shalom. This word encompasses several ideas that we use several words to convey. Shalom means the expected peace, rest, and calm. But it also means to be well, complete, whole, healthy, restful, safe. It conveys a feeling a familiarity, like when you walk in your house after being away for a long time and you smell your favorite dinner cooking and you think, “Ahhh, this is right.”
That’s Shalom. That’s what Jesus said he would give his followers. Just the fact that Jesus promises to give peace to his followers tells us a few things.
1. Stress, tension, worry, and anxiety (everything that is contrary to peace) have been around for a long time. Peace has never been something that comes natural to people. Even though this is the case it’s undeniable that stress and anxiety, or at least their effects on people, have increased dramatically in recent times. That’s really peculiar because of all the technology we have. There are thousands of gadgets that exist for the sole reason of making your life easier. Cooking takes too long, so we have microwaves. Changing the radio station is too tough, so we have remotes. There’s no way you can wait until you’re around a computer to check your email or Facebook, so it’s on your phone. They have self-cleaning litter boxes, automatic card shufflers, shoes that are mops, electrified fly-swatters, and robot vacuums, all advertised with the promise to make your life easier and stress free. But none of these seem to work. I mean, I’m sure the automatic card shuffler shuffles cards just fine, but they don’t seem to be relieving that much stress. And it’s not just gadgets. We have herbal supplements and sleeping aids and Dr Phil. It seems like all this stuff we’ve filled our lives with to take away our stress have only caused more busyness and stress.
But Jesus wants his people to have peace. From the very beginning it’s clear that peace is good. During creation everything was in chaos, then God brought order to it all. On the mountain Elijah watched as wind, fire, and an earthquake came by. But God wasn’t in those, He was in the whisper. God built rest and peace into His law making it mandatory that people do nothing one day a week. Then Jesus comes along and emphasizes the concept of peace all the more. Peace is not just something God has. Like love, it is part of who He is. It is ingrained in His nature. That’s why God is referred to numerous times in the scriptures as “the God of peace” and the Messiah is called the “Prince of peace.” And, like love, all true peace has its source in God. There is no Shalom apart from God.
2. The second thing we learn from Jesus promising us His peace is that believers are not exempt from the stressful situations in life. Think about it, if putting my faith in Jesus meant everything would perfect from now on, I wouldn’t need His peace. I would already have peace. We need His peace because we are still in a stressful world. In fact, 2 chapters over (16:33) Jesus says, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous, I have conquered the world.”
Contrary to what some preachers would say, suffering is not always an indicator of weak faith. It may be, but it may also be God’s method of refining and improving us. Or, I think most often, it is simply the reality of living in a broken system. In any case, Jesus said that in the midst of suffering we can have peace in him. Not just calmness, but completeness, rest, wholeness and goodness.
What do you think it means that Jesus doesn’t give in the same way the world does? The world (people and systems away from God) gives with the expectation of getting something back. It only gives for the purpose of what it can get back. Jesus has no selfish motives in loaning us his peace. He simply loves us.
Why is it so important that we have peace? I think there are 3 reasons. First, God wants us to have peace simply because peace is good and He loves us. Secondly, our having peace is proof of His Lordship over us. If we really believe God is all powerful, all knowing, and all good, and we if we believe we are completely His how can we be anxious or stressed about anything? Our level of peace is proportional to our level of trust in Jesus. If we trust Him as Lord, there is nothing to worry about.
The third reason is that our peace attracts others to Jesus. What does it do for others when we say we serve the God of peace who is in complete control of all things, but then we freak out about all the same stuff the world does (i.e. I don’t have enough money. What about this sickness? This politician is going to ruin America. But there’s a war in the Middle East. Why are they so mean to me? Etc.) The world is clearly looking for peace. We claim to have it, yet out lives show that we don’t.
It’s important to God that we have peace because our peace makes Him look good to others. John Piper said in his book Don’t Waste Your Life “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” When “things” are your treasure you have no peace because “things” come and go. When the eternal unchanging God is your treasure there is peace because He is absolutely constant. That’s a beautiful thing for the world to see.
Jesus going away.
Jesus again restates that he is leaving this world but will return. Why do you think he tells the disciples, “If you loved me you would be glad I’m going”? Its basic relationship stuff. Love always wants to the best thing for the other person. Merry is planning a trip to Cairo Egypt in the spring. I hate being away from her. Selfishly, I want her to stay. But I know that she is very excited and that going will make her happy, so I want her to go. The disciples could beg Jesus to say, but that would be selfish. Jesus is going back to the Father, which is in infinitely better than where he is now, so they should be happy for him and want him to go.
Jesus says he won’t speak much more because the prince of this world is coming. That should be understood as Satan in Judas. Jesus literally has only a few more moments before the crowd shows up to arrest him.
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