At the Heart of Jesus' Religion

Friends,

Tim Smith offers this -- Gary Morsch is the founder of Heart to Heart in Kansas City. As a physician, he has done magnificent work around the world taking medical supplies to low income people. Many years ago, he took a trip to Calcutta and Mother Teresa's House for the Destitute Dying. He took 90 volunteers and 12 million dollars of medical supplies.  As he made the trip, he thought to himself, "A lot of these people don't have to die. I can save their lives, and maybe we can turn it from the House for the Destitute Dying to the House for the Hopeful Living." He was going to make that happen.  When they arrived, Sister Priscilla began to assign everyone their tasks. As this was happening, Gary put his stethoscope around his neck to let Sister Priscilla know he was a doctor.  Everyone got their assignment and Gary found he was the last person.  She directed him to come with her. They went to the woman's unit and didn't stop to help anybody. They kept going and went to the men's unit and he thought this is where he was going to begin to help. But instead, they walked into the kitchen. He asked, "What do you need for me to do here?" She said, "Just follow me."  They walked out the door, and he sees a huge pile of putrefied trash.  She hands him two plastic buckets and a shovel and saw. "What we need you to do is haul this garbage to the city dump just down the street two blocks away. You can't miss it." Then she smiles at him, turns and walks away.  He is standing there thinking, "Did she not see my stethoscope. I'm a doctor! Doesn't she understand what I can do with these hands?"  In a silent shock and a bit of self-pity, he began wondering what to do. But there was only one thing to do. So all day, he carried buckets full of putrefied trash to the city dump, and by the end of the day having moved that entire pile, he was a sweaty, sticking mess.  He walked back into the building and saw this sign from Mother Teresa: "We can do no great things, only small things with great love."  He said, "At that moment, my heart wilted. On this day, Mother Teresa pierced the armor I had worked so hard to construct. And my life was changed by the act of hauling garbage down the street and becoming a servant for others in need."

In essence, this is what Jesus communicates to some of the religious people of the day who are following Him and asking questions.  In this section of Matthew (9:9-17), Jesus presents two pictures…one is concerning the physician and the other is the bridegroom.  Each picture comes in response to questions from those in His audience.  The Pharisees are already in full opposition mode as they come to Jesus’ disciples to ask them a “religious” question.  The question is intended to trap them, because if they are good religious Jews, and most of them appear to be, then they should only be able to come up with the one answer required…the one that pleases the Pharisees.  Jesus, hearing this question, intercedes on His disciples’ behalf and makes a statement that would cause the religious leaders to have to pause for a moment in the midst of their attacks to consider what He is saying.  And what is it that Jesus is saying?  He is not making a case for a religious argument that people should go to a doctor if they are sick as opposed to staying home hoping for some miracle.  He wants the Pharisees to consider the big picture concerning what god they really serve.  Do they really serve the God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe…or a religious symbol of a god that they choose to serve in the name of God?  If they would understand and serve the one true God, then they would know Jesus, and that He came in order that sinners might have a relationship with Him and His Father.

So, Jesus quotes a basic and critically important principle from the Old Testament (Hosea 6:6) to show to them that right religion has always been about people more than about “principles”.  Or, that our principles should be about helping people rather than keeping laws that prevent us from helping people.  And this is certainly the prevailing thought that continues in this section, as Jesus entertains a question from John’s disciples.  On the surface, this portion of the passage might appear unrelated to the first part, but they walk hand in hand.  Continuing with the theme of adhering to the law, the disciples of John notice a difference between themselves, the Pharisees and Jesus’ disciples concerning fasting.  They all (the Pharisees and John’s disciples) would keep regular fasts by which they would dedicate themselves to the keeping of ritual traditions.  John’s disciples would be in mourning, because their leader is being detained in prison. But, the allusion to the bridegroom is Jesus speaking about Himself, and that while He is with them, they should be rejoicing at having Him.  So, Jesus indicates that “fasting” is a matter of joy not sorrow. He has come to put a new face on their religious traditions. The Christian life is a feast not a funeral. 

Much as he does with the Sabbath and other traditional practices, Jesus wants them to understand that there is a larger picture that they need to grasp. This is why He moves into the illustration concerning the wine and the wine skins. Jesus comes to fulfill the law of the Pharisees and John and bring “spiritual wholeness.”  Jesus did not come to “patch us up” religiously, only to have us fall apart. He comes to fill us to the full…and to overflowing.  The Jewish religion was a worn-out wine skin that would burst if filled with the newness of the Gospel that Jesus is bringing.  He knows that the old ways, or old paths of the old law are not going to be sufficient in order for newness and wholeness to take place.  This is His purpose in coming…to fill us up and make us mature in Him.

Ken Pell from the First Church of the Nazarene in Broken Arrow, OK shares this -- There is not much you can do about it. Once you have been around it everybody else knows. I’m talking about the red dirt of western Oklahoma. It’s caused by the iron in the soil that, after being oxidized, turns to rust. It seems that nothing can erase or clean the stain from that red dirt on your shoes once you have walked there. If you have new shoes – everyone knows -- because they are not red ... yet. If you are from the city (OKC or Tulsa, for example) and you make your way into the western ranch lands everyone can tell "you’re not from these parts" simply by looking at the color of your shoes. The inverse is also true; if you go to the city and are wearing shoes that you have previously worn out "out there" everyone knows where you are from.  It’s not a judgmental thing. The cities in Oklahoma are intimately connected to the ranches and open lands; no one thinks they are better or inferior; it is simply a recognizable and distinct line of demarcation. There is simply no getting around it.  Godly love (Agapé) is like that too. It is such a contrast from the world’s love that it becomes immediately recognizable and "different." The world looks at the sacrificial, serving, grace-filled love of God and says "You’re not from around these parts." It cannot be duplicated, at least not for long, it can be "faked" for a little while (vv. 1-3) but even the masquerade is evidence that it isn't Godly love. When it has been poured into your hearts it cannot be hidden; that’s the nature of God’s love. It's just there and influences the lives of those it touches.

False religion in the name of Christianity is suspicious, protective, distrusting, critical, and prejudiced…whereas the freedom that Christ brings liberates us to love completely, be at peace, serve with vigor and be willing to learn and thrive in fellowship together.  This is the point that Jesus is trying to make concerning the attitude of the Pharisees, and even John’s disciples, as compared with those who would be His disciples…there is supposed to be a BIG difference.  And so it is amazing that believers today will still settle for a watered down gospel that is inept in order to empower their lives or make any real significant difference in this world, because it is more focused on keeping relatively meaningless regulations than on being like Jesus.  Jesus does not want us to settle for the old wine skins that we have in our lives that are incapable of producing love, joy and peace…but, wants us to be filled with the Spirit who can bring these virtues alive in us.  Jesus does not want us to settle for the old traditions, such as the illustration of keeping a regular fast for the purpose of keeping a regular fast, and miss the genuine life that He has to bring.  Jesus didn’t intend for us to do the same thing day after day, week after week, settling into a rote system without hardly lifting up our heads to breathe the spiritual air that is there for us to breathe.  Jesus did not intend for us to go through the motions of so as to miss out on what it is that He is really wanting to do in and through us!  This passage is the essence of Jesus’ religion…we need to consider and reconsider what it is that Jesus expects from us.  We have a mission here on this earth to fulfill, and we need to continue to invent and reinvent the wheel as it relates to what it is that Jesus wants us to discover in relationship to this.

Blessings, Don

Baptism in a Box…or Maybe Not

Friends,

*This post is a follow up to the post from June 16th, "The Need for Christian Baptism".

I wanted to comment on a teaching concerning a passage a Scripture that I referenced some weeks ago.  Acts 8 and 10 are confusing chapters for many believers, including myself.  This is, in part, because…as we often have done with Acts 2:38-39, John 3:1-8, people try to discern and understand passages that are spiritual (involving the Spirit) in nature with a certain set of glasses on.  As I shared concerning Acts 19, it is very difficult to sort out passages from a strictly legal perspective, if the Holy Spirit is the primary force and motivator involved.  I tried to sort out such passages “legally” for a long time…and none of the above passages every made any genuine sense to me.  There are just some Scriptures (such as Romans 8, for example) that require different lenses in order to see them as they should be understood. And so, it is with this in mind, that I want to delve into this subject simply as a student of the Word of God.

As I have mentioned previously, if baptism is an entirely “legal” event, then we are forced to see it through one set of lenses, and one set of lenses only.  The result is often a misunderstanding, and a misinterpretation of certain passages, such as Acts 2:38-39, where the Spirit of God is not only theologically, but practically, diminished…if not dismissed from the conversation altogether.  I think it is easy to try to sort out Acts 8 and Acts 10 with the same type of understanding.  An easy way to dismiss what is taking place in Acts 8 is to say that Paul is somehow conferring “some sort of spiritual gift” upon the Samaritan believers, rather than the loosing of the Holy Spirit Himself.  It is certainly somewhat complicated that the Samaritan believers had already received “a baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”…which would still necessarily distinguish it from the baptism of John. But, one of the purposes concerning what is taking place in this section of Acts is in order for some who were disbelieving (in this case, Simon), might come to faith in Jesus Christ. Some would say that (and call) this some sort of “Holy Spirit Baptism”, but I believe such a concept runs in contradiction to the purpose and practice of Christian baptism under the New Covenant. I also believe that such language is confusing for people, as they try to understand what Christian baptism is and what it is not.  As related in previous messages, Christian baptism is “a water and Spirit birth” (John 3, Acts 19, etc.) where there are elements of water and Spirit involved.  The Spirit is the agent who brings cleansing through the blood of Jesus and new life to the believer who has made such a commitment. Seeing this through one set of lenses would indicate that the only explanation that can be provided for a person becoming a believer is that water and Spirit necessarily have to engage at the precise same moment in order for cleaning and salvation to become complete. This is to put conversion/baptism “in a box”…or as one friend of mine calls it, it is -- a “sacramental view” of baptism. Now, it is certainly very true that what I have described above can and does take place…but, to say that this is the only way that conversion to Christ can take place, might very well limit what is genuinely taking place (that it is often, more so, a process) when a person comes to and is converted to Christ.  As I mentioned previously, it seemed entirely normal for those in the first century to come to Christ in a manner that was not entirely consistent with what we would discern from Acts 2:38-39. But, we have no “rest of the story” episodes where believers who might have received the Holy Spirit after baptism (in the case of the Samaritan believers in Acts 8), or before baptism (in the case of the Gentile believers in Acts 10) being “rebaptized” because somehow Philip or Peter “got it all wrong.” In fact, Peter indicates that the “common believers” were receiving the Holy Spirit “just as they did” (Acts 10:44-48).  There is no indication, whatsoever, that the Samaritan believers or the Gentile believers were somehow being ordained with some special gifts of the Holy Spirit.  It simply states that they “receive the Holy Spirit.”  That should suffice, in my opinion.  To say otherwise is to add words where there are not any.

Now, this is a different experience than what takes place with the Ephesian believers in Acts 19.  There, it is apparent that the believers have not received a Christian baptism, and Paul administers that to them, whereby they receive the Holy Spirit when they believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (19:2-5). What takes place in verse 6 is indeed unique in that the believers there do receive some special spiritual gifts (tongues and ability to prophesy, in this case) via the laying on of hands by the Apostle Paul. I believe it is important to make the distinction between what these believers experienced, and what is taking place in Acts 8 and Acts 10.  There are instances where certain disciples do receive a special dispensation of power via the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands. (See Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:14, for example). In fact, the disciples themselves receive a special dispensation of power from the Holy Spirit (John 20:22-23) in order to perform the tasks that were about to come.  We also see evidence of this on Pentecost in Acts (1:5, 8; 2:1ff).  The question that comes to mind with some regularity is – why do we have no record of the disciples become apostles being baptized with Christian baptism (water and Spirit birth) that we have discussed?  And the answer is – we don’t know.  There are many spiritual events that apparently take place in the Scriptures, concerning which, there is no record.  In fact, in that same John 20 passage (vs. 30-31), John tells us that much more could have been written concerning Jesus' mission and work, but it is what is written that matters – it is primarily for people to come to believe in the Lord, Jesus Christ.

All that said, I think we may very well limit what God the Holy Spirit is seeking to do with disciples because of our limited thinking.  I do believe that it is easy to exercise a view of the Scriptures, have a philosophy or world view, where “there can only be one answer” -- it is either/or.  This is nice and tidy for those of us who have a tendency to want to control.  If there is only one possible way that something can be understood or accomplished, it makes it much easier for us to decide "who is in or out." This was how I was raised and taught to believe. I had to come to grips with this as I began to grow and understand that there were other Spirit-filled believers "out there" who may or may not have crossed all of their "T"'s and dotted all of their "I"s precisely as I did as it related to the subject of conversion.  I believe that the Lord would us rather have a “both/and” view of certain passages, subjects.  Such a perspective, understanding certainly clarifies certain passages of Scriptures that were at one time excused or dismissed as “not fitting the paradigm concerning other matters that I believe.”  Once again, I am certainly not “infallible” and have made plenty of mistakes as it relates to trying to understand life and godliness…but, per normal, I just ask that we prayerfully study. 

Blessings, Don

Known by the Scars

Friends,

While flipping through the channels on the television one time, I happened upon a rerun of Everybody Loves Raymond.  I have not watched this show all that many times, but I stopped for a moment because I heard one of the characters mention God and the Bible.  Knowing that most sitcoms disparage God, Christianity and the Bible, I was, nonetheless, stuck with curiosity as to what would be said.  There was some predictable poking of fun at matters concerning the Faith, but I had to take pause concerning a serious question that was raised.  The question – “what is the meaning of life?”  They were looking half-heartedly at the Bible for answers, (with the irony being…the Bible really does have the answer to this question).  One of the characters came up with the agreed upon answer that – “the meaning is in the pursuit itself.”  This is rather vague…although, it is true in a sense.  But what is that pursuit?  Glorify God and keep His commands.  Yet, this is only half of it, because there is not only the pursuit, there is also the discovery!  Jesus Christ, the Son of God is Savior and Lord!  This is where purpose and discovery meet with eternal destination.  Pretty important stuff they were talking about…and they didn’t realize the half of it.  And this is why I am here to tell all of it…the whole story.  This is really part two of John’s resurrection story, following Mary Magdalene, Peter and John at the empty tomb.

Following Jesus’ resurrection, the news that Jesus is alive begins to spread among His followers…at first with hesitation, but then with enthusiasm. (John 20:19-29)  Even the disciples do not believe the first reports, but whenever people are confronted with the reality of the resurrection, their lives are transformed.  The Lord turns the fear of the disciples into courage.  How so?  First…He comes to them.  We do not know where these men were, but Jesus finds them…and it is amazing how it happens.  In His resurrection body, Jesus is able to just appear among them without ever opening a door. Yet, He has a solid body which can be touched, as we will see.  What we realize is that Jesus’ spiritual body is not limited. And it causes us to realize -- you could never really play “hide and seek” with Jesus. :-)

It is somewhat amazing that these men are actually afraid.  The women reported to them that Jesus was alive and the two Emmaus disciples likely added to their witness.  Jesus’ first word to them is the traditional greeting – shalom, (peace).  He could rebuke them for their unfaithfulness and cowardice, but He doesn’t.  He reassures them – He shows them His wounded hands and side, giving them the opportunity to discover that He is indeed their Master and not some sort of phantom.  The wounds mean more than identification – they are also evidence that the price of salvation has been paid and that man truly can have peace with God.  When Jesus sees that the disciples’ fear has now turned to joy, He commissions them (v.21)…this being His dedication of His disciples to the task of world evangelism (Matthew 28).  It must have given these men great joy to realize that, despite their many failures, Jesus still entrusts them with His words and His work.  Finally, Jesus enables them through His Holy Spirit, giving them a portion of power (v.22) in order that they should continue to grow in wisdom to be able to witness with power.

Now we come to the big question?  Why is Thomas (called Didymus – twin) not with the other disciples when they are together?  What we know is that Thomas is a man of courage (John 11:16), and is spiritually-minded, asking questions of Jesus (14:5).  Still, there seems to be this underlying “pessimism” to Thomas.  Many call him “doubting Thomas.”  Perhaps, this is too harsh of a designation…since he is looking for assurances.  Jesus does rebuke him, but it is not for doubt, as we call it, but unbelief.  Doubt is often an intellectual problem – we want to believe, but faith is overwhelmed by problems and questions.  Unbelief is a moral problem of the will – we simply refuse to believe. So, it is important to separate the two.  And this raises another question…what is it that Thomas does not believe?  Apparently, the reports of the other Christians that Jesus is alive. And this may be why Thomas had not been with the other disciples.  He reasons like a man – “seeing is believing.”  On the one hand we can admire Thomas for wanting personal experience.  On the other hand, we must fault him for laying conditions for the Lord to meet!  The other ten disciples had told Thomas that they had seen the Lord’s hands and side (v.20), so Thomas makes this his test.  Thomas’ own words help us to understand the difference between doubt and unbelief.  Doubt says, “I cannot believe”…there are too many problems.  Unbelief says “I will not believe unless you give me evidence.”  After one week, Jesus deals with Thomas and his unbelief.  The grace of our Lord is amazing, if you consider – he stoops to our level of experience to lift us up!  He grants Thomas’ request.  There is no record that Thomas accepts the Lord’s invite to touch Him, but his response seems to indicate such.  When the time comes to prove his faith, Thomas steps up.  Jesus’ next words are, literally, “stop becoming faithless, but become a believer.”  Jesus has seen a dangerous process at work in Thomas’ heart and He wants to put a stop to it.

One day, a group of agnostics asked a Christian scientist this question: "As a person rooted in science, how can you believe that God will raise the dead from the dust?"  Working quickly, the scientist mixed a few handfuls of sand with the smallest of iron shavings. Then he challenged the unbelievers, saying, "Before I answer your question, let me ask one of my own: Which of you can take this pile and separate the particles into two groups?"  Taken off guard, the unbelievers didn't really think their answer through.  This is what the Christian scientist did -- he took a high-powered magnet and held it over the mixed pile. In a second, the filings "jumped" from the desktop onto the magnet.  Turning to the unbelievers he then challenged them with this thought: "If the Creator establishes the laws which give such powers to a magnet, how can you believe He does not have greater powers Himself? I believe if the unseen power of the magnet can pull iron shavings out of the dirt; my God can use His almighty power to call forth bodies which have turned to dust."

How many disciples were in the room when Jesus first arrived?  That is right, ten.  Judas did not make it. Number eleven, Thomas, nearly did not make it.  I am thankful that he did not choose to continue on in his unbelief and have the same fate as Judas…and as so many others who live in this world choose.  We have every spiritual opportunity in Christ, just as did Thomas, to make the right decision about Jesus.  This is why Jesus says at the conclusion – “blessed are those who have believed without seeing.”  The Lord has a personal interest in each and every one of us.  In every way, He wants to strengthen our faith and include us in the blessings He has for us!  Thomas’ unbelief represents the “scientific approach” to life – I need proof.  It may be where some are today, but as with Thomas…it doesn’t work.  Only faith works…belief and assurance concerning what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us.  We must understand that we are saved by the grace of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, and our obedient faith response to Him.  He is the basis for all peace; He died for all people – rich and poor, black and white, male and female, old and young, Jew and Gentile.  He rose from the dead victorious over Satan, sin and death for all time – and now He lives for us…and in us through His Spirit.  God has given us a most precious gift – our souls.  How can we not trust Him who made us, saves us, and knows us better that we know ourselves…with or souls?  In this we fulfill the pursuit…we have the discovery, and our lives have meaning!

Blessings, Don