Shining Like Stars

Friends,

If you have been watching the news, and you have an interest in science…particularly astronomy…then you are likely aware that astronomers believe that they have found a star and planet similar to our sun and earth.  The planet is called Kepler 452b (after famous astronomer Johannes Kepler). Both star and planet are slightly larger than our version of “home”, but this is interesting news for those who would like to escape this world. The universe is a really big place…so large, that we can’t really begin to comprehend it.  As one person shared…one way to try to grasp it is that the earth is like a grain of sand, and the universe of other stars, planets and galaxies would be all of the sand on all of the beaches of the world.  And even this wouldn’t even begin to be enough. That is difficult to wrap the mind around if you are a typical human being.  Some scientists try to tell us that everything that we know came into existence via some cataclysmic event called “the Big Bang.”  I experienced a big bang one time when I walked near a significantly large firework blast that went off by me when I was a kid. :-) What I do know, and understand by faith, is that God created the universe. And, if He chose to do so through the process of some sort of big bang then that is His business.  What I also know is that God created “light.”  And He has been sending His light into the world ever since.  He did so via the sun.  Then, at the appointed time, He did so through His Son.  Now, God sends us out as His instruments to be light to the world.  We do not have to light up the entire universe…but, you and I have the ability and responsibility to light our world.  As such, Paul tells the believers in Philippi that, as Jesus was the Light, they also must shine like lights in the darkness of the world.  We do indeed have the same responsibility!

Paul wants us to know that we need to continually strive to be like Christ.  This requires obedience and effort, or as he tells the Philippians…”work out your own salvation” (Philippians 2:12-18). This is not to be confused with any mistaken concept of “working for or to salvation.”  I knew a lady one time that when I explained this principle, it was like a light went on. She had never considered that she couldn’t do enough or be good enough to be a Christian.  This was sad in one sense, but good in another. She began to understand that it is all about what Jesus has done, and our connection to it.  There is no way that we can work for, do enough, be good enough in order to gain salvation.  It is the free gift of grace from God through His Son, Jesus Christ.  This is precisely Jesus’ point with the rich, young ruler (Matthew 19). 

Paul is dealing with people who are Christians already, but some seem to be struggling and have quit growing to be like Jesus.  He continues to help them, and all of us, to continue to meet the challenge of growing in Christ by contrasting the life of believers with those of unbelievers.  God’s purpose for us, His people, is to achieve Christ-likeness.  Church and Christian living is never to be about you or me or anyone else…it is all about Jesus. He is to be our all in all!  Paul says that those who belong to the world make it a course of their lives to grumble and find fault, but not those in Christ.  We are to rejoice and give thanks at all times.  How can this be so?  We understand that we are not working to grab hold of some sort of victory, but that we are living our lives in Christ striving from victory.  We have every opportunity to be able to enjoy our salvation with fellow believers…those we meet with on Sundays…and those who we meet with at other times.  We have the greatest principle in common -- grace and thanksgiving as the result of what Jesus has done for each and every one of us in setting us free from sin, death and the world!  We have a unity in this which no one can take away.

And what is even more interesting is that grace, thanksgiving and joy all have the same root in the original language – char.  This is where our English words charity, charisma, and character find their meaning.  In this, we continue to work out God’s purposes for our lives, spiritually, charitably living as His witnesses…shining in the world around us.  As we are confronted with the needs and the difficulties of real life, we continue to grow and become more Christ-like.  The struggles we face make us better, stronger for Him.  We can offer thanksgiving to the Lord for the opportunity to continue to grow and become more like His Son. 

Another principle that Paul wants us to understand is that it is God who is at work in us, and He must be doing this before He can work through us.  Some people obey God because of pressures from the outside (people, circumstances), and not from the power that comes from within us (the Holy Spirit).  And this is to be the power working in us, the Holy Spirit…God’s personal presence.  The power is at our disposal -- truly “greater is He (Spirit) who is within us that He who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).  God uses “tools” such as the Word, prayer, suffering and fellowship in order to bear fruit in the lives of His people. We discover that as we continue to grow that all of these virtues on earth are transforming our spirits in order for us to be ready for the glory in heaven being prepared for us.  We receive eternal life and joy because of our submission.  Just as Jesus submitted Himself to the will of the Father and was exalted, so will we be one day.

The beauty of the spiritual struggle is that we are not left to simply muster more of our strength, but we are invited to tap into His!  It is only through surrender to His will, and allowing His Spirit to work in us that we are able to grow and understand spiritual matters.  This all means that the victories and accomplishments that we have in the spiritual realm should be acknowledged as coming from the Lord…and we should give Him the glory.  We cannot do good enough or be good enough to achieve this victory.  But, we need to be surrendered enough, committed enough to be able to live out our Christian lives abundantly from victory.  When we have spiritual character, charisma, we understand that grace, thanksgiving, unity isn’t something that we do…it is who we are!  It all simply means that we can live the Christian life, free from negative attitudes such as fear, bitterness, self-sufficiency, because our dependence is on Him.  And this is precisely why we can be grace-filled, Spirit-filled, thankful, united people…because it is not about us -- it is all about what Jesus has done on our behalf! 

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

The Need for Christian Baptism

Friends,

*I have been away from the writing keyboard for a while…time to get back into the saddle with a really important topic.

One of the points of discussion that arose with the 5th grade class that I taught this past Wednesday at camp was, why did Jesus need to be baptized by John the Baptist?  I believe that there are some important reasons for this, one -- Jesus' baptism by John was the beginning of Jesus' ministry.  Mark 1:1 starts out: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" and then Mark starts telling us about Jesus' baptism by John. Obviously, for some reason, Jesus' ministry began with His baptism.  Here are some things to note -- at this point in Jewish history, water baptism served one of three purposes. First, there was the baptism of repentance. This was what John the Baptist was preaching.  Of course Jesus didn't need to repent, because He hadn't sinned.  The second kind of baptism was for people who desired to convert to Judaism.  It was a baptism of conversion.  If you were a Gentile who wanted to convert to Judaism, they baptized you in water. Once again, Jesus had no need to convert to Judaism. He already was one. He had been born a Jew.  So baptism in those days could be for repentance or conversion... and Jesus did not need to be baptized for those reasons. So, for what other reason would a person be baptized in water back then?  The only other people who experienced baptism - in the Jewish faith in that day were priests. The Law dictated that especially the High Priest was to "be washed with water." And the Temple had pools set aside for just that purpose. Jesus did fulfill this role, as He is our Great High Priest.  But, there are other important reasons for Jesus’ baptism – one, it sets a good example for those who were going to follow Him.  He had no sin, but his disciples did, and we do, as well.  And as one friend has pointed out, “it fulfills all righteousness.”  We need to see in Jesus’ action, an example of obedience. Likewise, we need to be obedient to the Father, a response in faith. Finally, after His baptism, the Father anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit as it descended on Him in form of a dove. And the Father put His mark of approval on Jesus by loudly declaring: "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17)  This signifies something for us as well, as we will discuss…the Holy Spirit comes upon us at our baptism and He helps us in our spiritual walk, ministry.

Jesus’ experience helps us to understand what Paul has to say as it relates to baptism with a certain group of disciples.  In Acts 19:1-7, Paul providentially connects with several disciples at the city of Ephesus. Just as Priscilla and Aquila apparently had discussed Christian baptism with Apollos (Acts 18:24-26), so Paul does here with these men. He asks them if they received the Holy Spirit when they believed, that is, were converted, baptized. Paul apparently already expects them to have the Spirit...and would this not be consistent with Acts 2:38-39 and every other Christian baptism in Acts?  But, these believers have received the baptism of John only, and as we discussed, this was “for repentance.” The message concerning baptism is clear here and Paul baptizes them; they receive Christian baptism -- a water and Spirit birth (see Jesus and Nicodemus, John 3:1-8). Paul goes on to give these disciples a special, exceptional dispensation of power from the Spirit for this time. But, the point is this -- these disciples still had the same conversion experience that every Christian has in coming to the Lord. (See 1 Corinthians 12:13).

It is interesting that the baptism of John was not sufficient for them, but why would it be? It was administered by John the Baptist under the Old Law. Christian baptism involves not only repentance, as did John's baptism, but also the receiving of the indwelling Holy Spirit. This is primarily what separates the two baptisms. It is awfully difficult to live according to the fruit of the Spirit or experience the gifts of the Spirit if we don't really acknowledge, understand, or trust the source.  I have known many Christians who talk about Acts 2:38, as Peter says "...be baptized for the remission of your sins..." and this is it. But, is it? Is the part concerning the Holy Spirit just an oversight? Is it assumed? Or, is it intentionally omitted? (Is it really even understood?)  Some believers may have received the baptism of John -- at least in language, hopefully not intent. Why take the chance? Is the power of Christian baptism not sufficient for us? It should be so. We need to consider it as Peter shares it right from the text -- there is nothing to lose, but everything to understand and gain as it relates to the Christian walk. I will say this, I wouldn't have an opportunity to walk upright, blameless or spiritually for the Lord without the help of His Spirit to guide me along the way. He is our guide -- not in an arbitrary, controlling sense -- but quietly, indirectly.  We are not robots, but free moral agents with freedom of choice. The Spirit uses the Word to teach us and help us (Ephesians 6:17), and helps us in our prayers (Romans 8:27). He also is our seal so that when the Lord comes again, He will identify those who are His by whether they have His Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14, etc.). There certainly had to be a wonderful transformation for Apollos and the Ephesian disciples as they would continue to grow in knowledge, wisdom and experience with and in the Lord…as it should be for all of us.

As I continue in my own study of this important subject, questions arise. This is a subject where it is easy to propagate answers, but I think we are better off not to be dogmatic (and I certainly used to be)…rather, we should be students, learners. There are indeed so many things that happen when we come to the point of baptism -- many that we do not have the maturity to understand at that point, (including "forgiveness of sins" and "receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit" -- both part of the "formula" described in Acts 2:38-39...and this, not to mention "repentance" and "confession"). At times, some have treated baptism as some sort of “an end of the road” after a disciple has been "taught" everything that he should know. For these, baptism has been a law to fulfill the requirements of certain passages...which is not much different than what we see regarding Old Testament theology and practice. There must be more to it than this. We need to consider Apollos. As much as he already knew about "the Scriptures" and about God, he was surely in for a spiritual rebirth and for a totally new experience when he received Christian baptism (cf. Acts 18).

I believe baptism is much closer to the beginning of our journey. It is truly a spiritual event in every way. La Gard Smith calls it "the believers wedding ceremony" -- a fitting description, I believe. How much can we know at baptism? (How much does a baby know at birth?) We barely understand the elementary things, but certainly not the deep things of God; these are revealed over time by the Holy Spirit. And how do we qualify or quantify His work? We cannot...it is discerned and appropriated by faith. This is a significant part of what comprises the heart of the new covenant. We do grow in our understanding of critical principles as we walk with the Lord. Consider the disciples as they became the apostles sent out with the mission of Jesus (Acts 1-2). The Spirit came and illuminated their minds and their eyes were opened to the experiences they had had with Jesus. He does the same for us as our Helper (John 14-16), if we are open and willing to study as we walk with Christ over the course of our lives.

In many circles of the fellowship I belong to, baptism has been one of the "most legalized" events, experiences, etc. in modern Christian practice.  It is easy to see why it is such, given a lot of people’s propensity to need book, chapter, and verse to explain everything about our faith and practices.  But, if the Holy Spirit is involved in it...then it is a spiritual event...and it no longer becomes something that we can “pigeon hole” as "this is precisely how it is supposed to be,” or “this is exactly what happens every single time." It certainly wasn't that way in the early church, as we discern from Paul's experiences in Acts 8, Acts 10. I respect that there are certain elements involved in it, and a number of Scriptures (some that we have discussed) that indicate what these are...but, at the end of the day, the most important "element" is what the Holy Spirit is doing through the blood of Jesus in the life of believer...however that is to be for each individual.  God’s blessings be with you as you continue on your journey of understanding the Lord’s will and this important subject.

Blessings, Don