This Is How It's Done

This is perfect. Someone well outside our common fellowship gave my bride this as a tribute a few days ago.

This is who she is: the epitome of "do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing" (Matthew 6:3). The unspeakably countless people she has touched - the “seeds” she has planted - behind the scenes is a powerful testimony to me...and to many others, judging by how many I’ve seen give witness to her tireless care. This is how it’s done.

It seems that ministry has drifted toward branding or marketing: taking care at all times to make sure people know all the things we're doing for the Kingdom (it's not always clear whose kingdom). I'm certainly guilty. Paul, however, does speak of a "quiet life" (1 Thessalonians 4:11; 1 Timothy 2:2). My bride doesn't have to make much of her loving on others, but they surely know, even if others don't. I suspect she's more on track than the rest of us, who spend a lot of time constructing image, labels, slogans, graphics, and consider it vital to spread all of that as far as we can, seasoning our acts of serving others with a bit of self-serving.

I keep coming back to this simple little jar of mustard seeds. To steal a phrase from a popular show, "this is the way."

Revisiting the Highest Good

I have been a member of congregations in association with the Southern Baptist Convention most of my life. Most people don’t really understand what the SBC is, so I’ll give a little set-up before getting into the reason I’m writing. Local Baptist congregations voluntarily associate in local Associations, State Conventions, and the national Southern Baptist Convention. For Southern Baptists, the primary reason for this voluntary association is cooperation on missions, very loosely bound by basic doctrinal agreements. These associational groups have no authority over the local congregation. Annually, messengers from local congregations are sent to representative gatherings. Reports from various entities are given, preachers preach (it is a gathering of church folk, after all), necessary business is conducted, and resolutions are adopted that give voice to the general thought of the collective to the rest of the world.

 

I’ve stripped all the particularities of who and where from the following account. I’m not writing to put a spotlight on people or groups. This is here to make us ask ourselves how consistent we’re being in our ethics, and to revive a point made by a much better writer and thinker than myself eight years ago. File this under the “What Are We Willing to Do to Be Safe?” category.

 

At a Baptist State Convention’s annual meeting Monday night (October 26, 2020) there was a statement by the head of the Resolutions Committee that bothered me.

 

A pastor had proposed a resolution to the Resolutions Committee. That resolution had been rejected. The pastor then brought it to the floor in the form of a motion during a session called “Miscellaneous Business” between music sets: “As Southern Baptists, we are decidedly against abortion and fetal tissue research, as confirmed by many previous resolutions. This resolution that I’m putting forward is rejecting of any products derived from abortion or fetal tissue research. This resolution is important, so that we may be informed about what products are being made and marketing to us that are made from aborted babies. Please vote ‘yes,’ so that tomorrow we may have an opportunity to at least consider this resolution to support life.”

 

Since the Resolutions Committee had not brought the proposed resolution to the Convention, this motion would require a 2/3 majority vote to bring it to a vote the following evening (Tuesday, October 27, 2020).

 

The head of the Resolutions Committee then took to the stage and explained why the Committee had not carried the proposed resolution forward: “Thank you, Mr. President [of the State Convention]. As chairman of the Resolutions Committee, I wanted to give you a little background on why we decided not to report this to the Committee. Southern Baptists have long been opposed to abortion for the purpose of harvesting stem cells from fetuses for various types of research and product development. However, this resolution makes no distinction between existing lines and new lines that would, perhaps, be required for these things. There were a couple of areas that concerned us. Number one is, a lot of the vaccines that are commonly used today, part of the CDC’s guidelines – there is no alternative at this point that does not depend on existing lines of embryonic stem cells. The IMB, the International Mission Board, requires missionaries to be vaccinated with several vaccines…to which, to our knowledge there are no other alternatives other than those that are made from existing cell lines. Also, I would read – brother [the name of the pastor who was trying to bring the resolution to the Convention] just mentioned this – I would read, ‘we would not seek to preserve our temporal or earthly bodies at the sake of our spiritual souls, but instead reject the use of vaccines that were made from the exploitation of unborn human beings.’ We are in the middle of a global pandemic, we are anxiously all waiting for a vaccine that can render these things [holds up a fabric mask] meaningless for all time, and we can get back to some level of normalcy. We are certainly not encouraging new aborted - new lines to be established, but if existing lines can be used to get us to a COVID-19 vaccine, I think we’d want to be careful about something like this that could be perceived as being anti-vaccine in the hearts of [the State in which this Convention is being held] Baptists. Thank you, Mr. President.”

 

It was at this point my wife and I looked at each other. What had just been said?

 

A messenger to the Convention then spoke, pointing out that unless a stand is taken, there will be no alternatives. The speaker then observed that the Southern Baptist Convention as a whole contains enough numbers to demand an alternative.

 

The motion to consider the resolution the following night passed with the necessary 2/3 majority vote by the messengers in attendance.

 

The Committee clarified on Tuesday in discussion that it commended all of the Resolution except the “last resolve,” which spoke to rejecting even vaccines created from existing lines originating from stem cells from aborted embryos. The Committee felt like this would unnecessarily bind the consciences of Baptists in this state (remember that neither the State Convention or the resolution passed has authority over the local congregation or its individual members) – they viewed it as a liberty of conscience issue whether or not Baptists used these vaccines or not, derived from “old cell lines from fetal tissue.”

 

Another messenger, speaking in favor of the resolution referenced a few words of Jesus:

* “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).

* “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire. If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell” (Matthew 18:8-9).

 

One spoke concerned about the wording of the resolution. She asked if we were willing to stop sending missionaries from our state overseas to countries that required these vaccines. Can we continue support to support international missions, since missionaries from others states would be required to have these vaccines in order to enter certain nations?

 

A ballot count was called when the visual count wasn’t discernable. The resolution passed (242 yes, 175 no).

 

*******

 

On Use of Products of Fetal Tissue Research

 

WHEREAS, the Southern Baptist Convention has decidedly opposed elective abortion, resolved from many previous resolutions including On the Sanctity of Human Life at the SBC Annual Meeting [2015]; and

WHEREAS, the Southern Baptist Convention has decidedly opposed fetal tissue research and the sale of aborted baby parts, resolved from many previous resolutions including On Human Fetal Tissue Trafficking at the 2000 SBC Annual Meeting; and

WHEREAS, certain vaccines on the CDC schedule, certain potential SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, certain pharmaceuticals, certain artificial flavors, and certain health and beauty items are all products fetal tissue research; and therefore be it

RESOLVED, that we affirm our abhorrence of elective abortion; be it further

RESOLVED, that we affirm our disapproval of research using fetal parts from elective abortions;

RESOLVED, that we affirm our stance against the exploitation of unborn human beings through the sale of their body parts; and be it finally

RESOLVED, that we reject the use of any and all products of fetal tissue research including but not limited to: vaccines, pharmaceuticals, artificial flavors, and health and beauty items.

 

*******

 

The reasoning of the Resolutions Committee on not bringing this to the Convention reminded me of an article I read quite a while ago. The relevant takeaway is this: “Survival is not the highest good.” I can’t find a direct link to the article (the website on which it originally appeared is no longer active), so here’s the text:

 

“Christians and The Hunger Games”
Written by Douglas Wilson
March 23, 2012

 

     There are ethical dilemmas, and then there are the phony baloney ones. The famous National Lampoon magazine cover did not pose a genuine ethical dilemma - buy this magazine or we shoot the dog.

     Many years ago I was working on a television show with the local PBS station at WSU, and Nancy and I were invited over to dinner by the producer and his wife. They were very gracious, and we enjoyed our time with them. But one of the events of the evening that turned out to be a dud was when our host brought out a game which was called, I think, Scruples. Something like that. At any rate, the point of the game was that you drew a card that dealt you some kind of ethical thumb-sucker from a stack of ethical conundra, to make up a funny-sounding plural. If you are stuck in a lifeboat, and you will most certainly die if you don’t do something, do you eat the fat guy or the skinny guy first? That kind of thing. You were then supposed to say something like whoa, and think about it for a while, twisting in the wind. I can really see how a living room full of wealthy relativists in an upscale neighborhood in the eighties could really be flummoxed by the game, but we were no fun at all. There are certain things you just don’t do because the Ten Commandments were not suggestions, and the game is over.

     This said, The Hunger Games specializes in a similar kind of elaborate set-up for situation ethics. In this review, I will not be going after the book for stylistic faults. It does not open itself up for that kind of thing the way Twilight did. The writing in this book was competent enough, and the pacing delivers what it promises. The premise had a lot of potential - gladiatorial games meet reality television in a dystopic future.

     The country is Panem, set in a future and really messed up North America. The place is run by the Capitol, and there are twelve districts run by the harsh and cruel guys in the Capitol. There had been a war of rebellion sometime back, and the Capitol had won it, and now exacted a harsh and inflexible penalty on all the previously rebellious districts. Those districts have been utterly cowed.

     The book is written in the first person, and the protagonist is a young girl named Katniss Everdeen. Her father was killed some years before in a mining accident, her relationship with her mother is strained because of how her mother had collapsed after her father’s death, and the only person she really loves is her younger sister, Primrose. But then Prim, as she is called, is chosen by the lottery for the Hunger Games. Katniss volunteers to take her place, which is good and sacrificial and noble, and that is the point of the whole set up. We’ll come back to it.

      Every year, each district is forced by lottery to send one boy and one girl (between the ages of twelve and eighteen) as tributes to the Hunger Games, where they are all put into a closed off area, a vast outdoor arena, and forced to fight it out to the death. The arena is full of cameras everywhere, and everybody in Panem is forced to watch the games. As I said earlier, the premise is one full of dramatic potential.

     Katniss is tough and edgy enough to be a survivor in the Hunger Games (which means she will have to kill other people’s brothers and sisters), and soft enough to be likeable. The reader can begin to identify with her . . . if the reader takes his eye off the ball. I don’t like books that make me choose between the fat guy and the skinny guy.

     Suppose the Capitol bad guys had decided to set up a different required sin in their games. Suppose it were the Rape Games instead. Suppose that the person who made it through the games without being raped was the feted winner. Anybody here think that this series would be the bestselling phenomenon that this one is?

      In short, when you have the privilege of setting up all the circumstances artificially, in order to give your protagonist no real choice about whether to sin or not, it is a pretty safe bet that a whole lot of people in a relativistic country, including the Christians in it unfortunately, won’t notice.

      As the book progresses, the ethical problems are effectively disguised. The first way is by having a number of the wealthier districts send tributes who are semi-pro. In other words, they are not reluctant participants, but are eager for the glory that attends winning the games. When that kind of guy comes after you, everything is self-defense. Then there is the fact that there are a bunch of them out there killing each other, and Katniss doesn’t have to do it. And the third device, and the one that keeps you turning the pages, that the author does not reveal whether or not Katniss will be willing to kill when it gets down the bitter end, and her opponents are innocents like she is. In other words, you have a likeable protagonist who is fully expecting to do something that is perfectly appalling by the end of the book.

      There is a twelve-year-old girl named Rue that Katniss teams up with, and there is an expectation that later in the games the alliance will be dissolved . . . and you know what will happen then. Rue is the same age as Prim. There is a boy from her own district named Peeta who has been in love with Katniss forever, and who gave her family a loaf of bread a number of years before. Is he going to kill her or vice versa? I hear that spoilers are supposed to be bad, so I won’t tell you what happens.

     The Capitol is hateful, and cruel, and distasteful, and obnoxious, and decadent, and icky . . . but not evil, as measured against any external standard. The Capitol is to be disliked because the Capitol is making people do things they would rather not be doing. But nowhere is there a simple refusal. There is a desire to have it all go away, but everybody participates with an appropriate amount of sullenness.

     The story is told with enough detachment and distance that you feel like the participants really do have to cooperate. Resistance is futile . . .

     But think for a moment. Someone tells you to murder a twelve-year-old girl, or they will kill you. What do you do? Suppose they give the twelve-year-old girl a head start? Suppose they give her a gun and tell her that if she murders you first, and she will be okay?

     This is what situation ethics specializes in. Suppose a woman is in a concentration camp, and she can save her husband’s life, or her child’s life, through sexual bribes given to the guards. What should she do? Suppose you could save one hundred thousand lives by torturing someone to death on national television. What should you do? The response should be something like, “Let me think about it, no.” As Thomas Watson put it, better to be wronged than to do wrong. It is not a sin to be murdered. It is not a sin to have your loved ones murdered. It is not a sin to defend your loved ones through every lawful means. But that is the key, that phrase. Every lawful means only makes sense when there is a law, and that only makes sense when there is a Lawgiver. Without that, everything is just dogs scrapping over a piece of meat. And once that is the framework, there is no real way to evaluate anything. The history of the Church is filled with families being martyred together. Survival is not the highest good.

     Back in the Cold War, a joke was told about an admiral who was inspecting a destroyer, and was making the rounds while they were out at sea. He came upon a lookout, a lowly sailor, standing there with his binoculars. “Lad,” he said, “what would you do if a Russian destroyer appeared on the horizon there?” “Sir,” the man said, “I’d nuke ‘em.” “Oh,” said the admiral. “What would you do if ten of them appeared?” “I’d nuke them too, sir.” “I see,” said the admiral. “What would you do if the whole Russian fleet appeared there?” “I’d nuke them all, sir,” came the reply. “And,” the admiral said, pressing his point home, “where are you getting all these nukes?”

     “The same place you’re getting the Russians, sir.”

     When you are imagining some kind of scenario, it is easy to construct one exactly to the needs of your plot, and the sub-creating author can create a world in which it is not true that “God will not let you be tempted beyond what you are able to bear.” Your tributes are in the arena with a command to kill or be killed, and in this place it is not true that with every temptation there is a way of escape. For faithful believers, the way of escape might be martyrdom. Daniel’s three friends worked through it that way. They said that their God was able to save them, but whether He saved them or not, they weren’t going to bow down to the statue.

     If you hate spoilers, you can stop reading here. Katniss does survive, and she does so without doing anything perfectly appalling. But this only happens because of luck, not because she learned anything about how the world is actually governed. There is a functional omniscience that the Capitol has in the arena - everything is filmed - and she has real distaste for that functional omniscience, but without any sense that there is any other kind of omniscience. And she does kill one of the bad guy tributes right at the end, but as this is arranged in the book, it is a mercy killing.

     Out of five stars I would give this book three. In terms of holding your interest, Suzanne Collins gets four. In terms of keeping a sense of ethical tension in a world without ethics, she would get a five. That’s something that is hard to do. But in terms of helping Christian young people set their minds and hearts on that which is noble and right, we can’t even give it one star. We would have to assign, in this last category, one burnt out asteroid.

However It Ends, Father

I am not old. I know and love quite a few people around three decades older than I am.

 

Still, my beard has been gray for almost a decade…more and more so. I long for the day when it’s all white, but the Lord alone knows if that will happen.

 

My prayer has become this, increasingly so with every ache and niggle and change…Father, when this muscle in my chest quits contracting, let it be that my influence somehow contributes to the eternal reality that my wife, my children (grandchildren, even great-grandchildren, so on), and my dear local congregation…may it be that when this muscle in my chest quits contrasting that they all continue to the end faithful to You in Christ alone. Any way this goes down at the end, Father, let that one request be granted according to Your will and power, in Jesus’ name. That’s all I ask.

“In You, LORD, I have taken refuge;
Let me never be put to shame.
In Your righteousness rescue me and save me;
Extend Your ear to me and help me.
Be to me a rock of dwelling to which I may continually come…

…I have become a marvel to many,
For You are my strong refuge.
My mouth is filled with Your praise
And with Your glory all day long.
Do not cast me away at the time of my old age;
Do not abandon me when my strength fails…
But as for me, I will wait continually,
And will praise You yet more and more.
My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness
And of Your salvation all day long;
For I do not know the art of writing.
I will come with the mighty deeds of the Lord GOD;
I will make mention of Your righteousness, Yours alone.

God, You have taught me from my youth,
And I still declare Your wondrous deeds.
And even when I am old and gray, God, do not abandon me,
Until I declare Your strength to this generation,
Your power to all who are to come” (Psalm 71:1-3,7-18).

Christ's Three-Fold Office in Zechariah 1:7-17

The catechism of Baptist pastor Benjamin Keach (1640-1704) teaches us that Christ holds a three-fold office. 

Q. 27. What offices does Christ execute as our Redeemer?
A. Christ, as our Redeemer, executes the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in His estate of humiliation and exaltation.

We see these three offices on display in the first of Zechariah’s “night visions.”

“I saw at night, and behold, a man was riding on a red horse, and he was standing among the myrtle trees which were in the ravine, with red, sorrel and white horses behind him. Then I said, ‘My lord, what are these?’ And the angel who was speaking with me said to me, ‘I will show you what these are.’ And the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered and said, ‘These are those whom the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.’ So they answered the angel of the LORD who was standing among the myrtle trees and said, ‘We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth is peaceful and quiet’” (Zechariah 1:8-11). 

Zechariah sees “a man” who is also “the angel of the LORD.” In the Old Testament, the “angel of the LORD” speaks as the LORD, and those who encounter him declare that they have seen the LORD (Genesis 16:10,13; 22:11-12,15-18; 31:11-13; 48:15-16; Exodus 3:2,6; Judges 6:22; 13:21-22). It has traditionally been taught that this “angel of the LORD” is a pre-incarnate appearing of God the Son. In His incarnation it will be said of Him that He is the “image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:13; see also John 1:14; 14:9; Hebrews 1:3). Further, He “explains” the Father to us (John 1:18; see also John 3:34; 8:28,38). The Son is eternally divine, and is not a creature – He is, in other words, not an “angel” in the sense of the created heavenly beings that also have that name. The title “angel” means “messenger.” The Son reveals the nature and will of the Father to us in His very Person. When Zechariah sees this “angel of the LORD,” the prophet is seeing the Son. Further, the three-fold office of Christ is imaged in this vision, as well.

First, we see Christ as King. The angelic horsemen sent on patrol throughout the earth report to Him Who commands the heavenly armies of God (Matthew 13:41; 16:27; 24:31; 25:31; Mark 8:38; 13:27; Luke 9:26; 2 Thessalonians 1:7; Jude 14-15; Revelation 19:11-16).

Q. 30. How does Christ execute the office of a king?
A. Christ executes the office of a king, in subduing us to Himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all His and our enemies. 

After receiving the report of the angelic patrols, the “angel of the LORD” speaks to the “LORD of hosts” on behalf of the covenant people. 

“Then the angel of the Lord said, ‘O LORD of hosts, how long will You have no compassion for Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which You have been indignant these seventy years?’” (Zechariah 1:12).

Not only is Christ a King, but He is our Priest, interceding on behalf of His people before the Father (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25). All that we need is given from the Father through our Mediator (1 Timothy 2:5), the Son, by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

Q. 29. How does Christ execute the office of a priest?
A. Christ executes the office of a priest, in His once offering up of Himself, a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God, and in making continual intercession for us.

The “angel of the LORD” then receives a message of grace and comfort from the “LORD of hosts.”

“The LORD answered the angel who was speaking with me with gracious words, comforting words. So the angel who was speaking with me said to me, ‘Proclaim, saying, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and Zion. But I am very angry with the nations who are at ease; for while I was only a little angry, they furthered the disaster.’ Therefore thus says the Lord, ‘I will return to Jerusalem with compassion; My house will be built in it,’ declares the Lord of hosts, ‘and a measuring line will be stretched over Jerusalem.’” Again, proclaim, saying, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem’”’” (Zechariah 1:13-17). 

He is King, and Priest, but He has also given us the final, all-sufficient revelation of God to us through the Spirit-inspired apostolic authors of the New Testament (Hebrews 1:1). He is our Prophet. 

Q. 28. How does Christ execute the office of a prophet?
A. Christ executes the office of a prophet, in revealing to us, by this Word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation. 

In February of 519 B.C., a prophet from the priestly family of Israel had visions one night. In the first vision he saw a darkness deeper than the surrounding night (the Hebrew word here translated “ravine” usually refers to the depths of the sea). God’s people were in difficult straits at this time, discouraged and overwhelmed. In this darkness, though, the prophet saw One Who is Immanuel, God-with-us. This One is the King Who will command all the powers of heaven and earth to the ultimate good of His people in His perfect timing. This One is the Priest Who intercedes day and night for those who have found salvation through faith in Him alone. This One is the Prophet Who has given us the gracious, comforting Word that is so sufficient no further Word need be given.

This is our Lord Jesus.

“This office of mediator between God and humanity is appropriate for Christ alone, Who is the prophet, priest, and king of the church of God. This office may not be transferred from Him to anyone else, either in whole or in part. The number and character of these offices is essential. Because we are ignorant, we need His prophetic office. Because we are alienated from God and imperfect in the best of our service, we need His priestly office to reconcile us and present us to God as acceptable. Because we are hostile and utterly unable to return to God, and so that we can be rescued and made secure from our spiritual enemies, we need His kingly office to convince, subdue, draw, sustain, deliver, and preserve us for His heavenly kingdom” (The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith in Modern English, 8.9-10).

Not Forsaking

 “A tale of two sisters” seems a silly way to begin, but that’s what I’ve got. Let me tell you a little about them.

We have a couple in our fellowship that recently moved an hour away. I was pleasantly surprised when they told me they were remaining in the fellowship, making the commitment to commute. Sundays with four young children are long days – waking up early enough to make it to sound check for the worship team, staying through the afternoon, and making the hour-long drive home to put the little ones to bed. That’s a long day. This week, though, the schedule for our fellowship was busier. Monday the congregation began sorting pallets of donated food to prepare for a community distribution. The mom and her four kids showed up and worked hard. That was a blessing. Two days later, at our mid-week adult Bible study, she showed up again with those little ones. Beloved, it’s an hour to church and an hour back home. One of our senior saints whispered to me, “if we had dedication like that in the rest of the membership, can you imagine what would happen?” I can. I’ve seen it before, in a little church near the U.S.-Mexican border. We had several families driving 30-50 miles to attend worship then. It’s good to see that kind of commitment again. That’s one sister. Let me tell you about another.

My wife leads an online small group (they’re working through Glenna Marshall’s Everyday Faithfulness). One of the members of that group is in the hospital, two hours away from her husband and two little ones. Doctors are struggling to figure out exactly what’s going on with her. On her phone, from her hospital bed, she didn’t miss the online meeting.

It wouldn’t take much effort for me to recall dozens of stories like that from the last 25 years of ministry (and several from right now where we’re ministering). God the Holy Spirit sometimes works the grace of the Father in the Son through saints in such a striking way that others believers notice. I hope we notice, because this is a Spirit-wrought miracle. Saints with challenges, pains (physical, emotional, circumstantial), legitimate busy-ness, distractions, massive responsibilities…moved of God to rock-solid faithfulness that inspires the rest of the local covenant community.

You’ve heard preachers use this verse many times: “…not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Hebrews 12:25). We need (as always) to read beyond the single verse to get the full weight. Make the time to read 12:19-39 (after all, you’ve made it this far into a blog post…you’re in the upper percentile for attention spans in this day and age!).

Read it again.

Feel the glorious weight of the blessing we have in Christ, and the joyful responsibility to make much of that blessing (12:19-25).

Feel the danger to our souls before God if we prove to be faithless in light of that grace in Christ freely offered to us (12:26-31).

Look at how trivial our excuses for missing the gathering look in comparison to those original recipients of the letter to the Hebrews (12:32-34). Having their property seized because they were believers wasn’t a good excuse for skipping church, according to the Spirit-inspired author of this letter. If we can’t stand faithfully together now, how do we imagine we will when the long season of American Christian ease soon comes to an end?

Hear the encouragement to persevere (12:34-38). God the Spirit uses these warnings and encouragements to seal you in Christ…but only if you take time to read them and hear them.

Finally, may the confession of 10:39 be your confession. May it be my confession. May it be the confession of all those who gather as the true church in every place they may be found.

Go on to read chapter 11-12. We’re part of something so much bigger than our busy lives, so much grander that this brief moment. The saints of old have run their race and are now watching, waiting. Heavenly Zion itself beckons, and the first steps to answering the call is regularly gathering with other earth-bound (for now) saints in Christ.

No more excuses. Desire the grace of faithfulness to the local faith family where the Spirit's placed you. Pray for greater faithfulness. Commend examples of it that move you. Give thanks to God in Christ for the faithfulness you see there, and for the hope of that kind of faithfulness in you. No more excuses.

Preacher, Let God Speak

A few weeks ago I had the honor of preaching via video to a congregation in India. The congregants are not allowed to gather, so the meeting was held on an online conference platform. The pastor introduced me, then invited various members to sing, read Scripture, and pray. Something really special happened after I preached. In about a minute’s time, the pastor gave the congregation an overview of the sermon. Point by point, Scripture passage by passage. It was like he had my notes in front of him. I was blessed by the whole service, but this really impressed me. What a great practice! Over the years, I’ve had people come by the exit of the church, shake my hand, and say, “great sermon.” Some have complemented the sermon and given a one-sentence take-away that shocked me because it had nothing to do with anything I thought I had said (synopses like that keep me up at night fretting over my preaching). But this Indian brother had paid so close attention that he was able to shepherd his congregation into a quick reminder of all that was said. Oh, if we would all take notes and put careful attention onto the sermon like that!

 

One thing I try to do when preaching or teaching is to follow the scriptural text exactly. I don’t want there to be confusion about the sermon’s source, and I want the listener to be able to put his or her finger on the text as I’m preaching and follow along word-by-word or phrase-by-phrase. By the Lord’s help, the goal is to keep my from “chasing rabbits” or using the text to promote something important to me.

 

Here’s the thing: there’s a way to do this that completely misses the intent of the divinely-inspired author. I’ll use a passage from 1 Peter to illustrate what I have in mind:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Who according to His great mercy

has caused us to be born again to a living hope

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away,

reserved in heaven for you,

who are protected by the power of God through faith

for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3-5).

 

It is not expositional preaching/teaching if you strip the text down to a list of “important” words and go down the list talking about each in a way divorced from the flow and purpose of Peter’s words. To put it another way, I cannot create from this text a list of words I want to talk about:

1. Blessed

2. Father

3. Lord Jesus Christ

4. mercy

5. born again

6. living hope

7. resurrection

8. inheritance

9. heaven

10. power of God

11. salvation

 

I cannot take this list, go thematically down it speaking about each word separately, and consider this an expositional sermon/study.

 

God the Holy Spirit inspired Peter to give us many more words than the eleven picked out of those three verses. There are conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns. There are adverbs and adjectives. These “little” words matter so much because we learn how the “big” words fit together to give us the divine-intended meaning. I love doctrine and a good systematic theology, but if we’re so full of that stuff we can’t hear the flow of meaning in these words as they were given to us, then we’ve got a problem.

 

And I’m not even talking about getting into the Greek or anything too complicated. With a reasonably literal English translation, our first responsibility is simply to try to understand what the author’s purpose was in this three-verse sentence.

 

The passage is only peripherally about Jesus or us as believers. Who is it about? It’s about the “Father.” He is pronounced “blessed” (it’s an adjective, not a command to “bless” Him) because of what He’s done in securing salvation for us through Jesus Christ.

 

What has He done? Answering that is the point, with every phrase going back and pointing to the Father and explaining that this is why He is “blessed,” worthy of our praise and adoration.

 

Exposition is not word-study. It can involve that, but the word-study must never stand alone, separate from the purpose of the text. It needs to widen the view to phrases. There must be consideration of conjunctions and prepositional phrases. The longer I preach and teach, the more and more I pay attention to those “little words” as much as I do to the theologically loaded ideas.

 

Just as my dear Indian brother listened carefully to what I said and was able to repeat it back in short form with clarity and accuracy, we need to be able to read, preach, and teach the Bible in the same way. Preaching is proclamation – not proclamation of how much I can tell you about a list of words taken from the text, but a declaration of what the Spirit-inspired author is saying. “The preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God” (2nd Helvetic Confession of 1536, Article 1). At least, that’s the goal.

 

Don’t just focus on the words alone. See how those words fit together to produce the meaning. May we be diligent to preach the exact text, and may the beautiful Church respond with an equal diligence to follow us through the Spirit-given flow of His Word.

And So We Ascend

“A Song of Ascents.

Those who trust in the LORD
Are as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever.
As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
So the LORD surrounds His people
From this time forth and forever.

For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest upon the land of the righteous,
So that the righteous will not put forth their hands to do wrong.

Do good, O LORD, to those who are good
And to those who are upright in their hearts.
But as for those who turn aside to their crooked ways,
The LORD will lead them away with the doers of iniquity.

Peace be upon Israel” (Psalm 125).

As the pilgrims ascend to Jerusalem, drawing near to the LORD for feasting, the climb up the hills draws them toward this great truth. The city and temple exist as an illustration to what is real in the life of the believer: God keeps you firm who trust in Him alone.

When the wicked rule over us, we are tempted to wrong. But with King Jesus ruling over us, we are Spirit-filled to do the Father’s purposed works. We are good and upright in heart only by the good and upright One Who indwells us, we who are His eternal Temple.

A focus on the mountains, the city, and the temple must be a focus on the believing people who live and move to communion with their God the Lord. Peace be upon them. Not merely a peace that is an absence of war, but a completion, a wholeness, a fullness that is theirs in Christ…a satisfaction that comes only by being in that space-less space, that spiritual and heavenly reality that we taste here, that fellowship with our God.

Every day we ascend to new Jerusalem, heavenly Jerusalem, drawing near to the LORD for feasting. As we climb, we look up and long for that City which is untouchable by the troubles of the earth-bound, unchanged by cancerous Time. We look to that which is eternal and unshakeable, that which is in us by the indwelling Spirit Whose realm that is.

And so we ascend, Home soon.