INCARNATION AND TRANSFORMATION

The incarnation of Christ may be one of the best examples of what it means to be involved in people's lives for the sake of the Gospel and to be the salt of the earth. Jesus entered into the messiness of humanity. He did not observe us from a distance but he came to us. Too many of us in the modern church have done just the opposite. We have tried to influence from a distance. We have sent our missionaries around the world but we have not walked across the street. We have mistakenly believed that God has called us to separation rather than incarnation. We live in a believer’s bubble, isolated and unengaged with the people who need Christ. Too often the Christian community lives in isolation. We falsely conclude that “not of the world” means no interaction, no relationships with the people of the world. This is hardly what John meant. Jesus spent the bulk of his ministry with sinners, those with whom the self-righteous religious leaders refused to associate. If we practice such isolationism, how will we demonstrate truth and transformation before the lives of those who need Christ? Salt accomplishes nothing when left in its container.

SEWING THE SEED WITH CARE

One of the things that interest me about the sermons in the book of Acts is their historical context. They do not begin with the crucifixion of Christ or even the life of Christ as he entered humanity through the virgin birth. These sermons or gospel presentations begin with the prophecies related to Christ given throughout the Old Testament. Peter refers to the prophecy of David, given in Psalm 16:8-11, concerning Christ’s resurrection. Stephen’s sermon began with God’s calling of Abraham and alluded to Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua and Solomon and ended with his condemnation of his listeners for killing Jesus Christ (Acts 7). Phillip explained Isaiah 53 to the Ethiopian eunuch and its relation to the good news of Jesus Christ (Acts 8:34-35). Paul, on his first missionary journey with Barnabas, began his first sermon with reference to God’s choosing of Abraham and how he worked through the people of Israel before speaking to them about Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection (Acts 13:16ff).

When I was ordained I was asked the question, "What is the least a person needs to know in order to be come to faith?" This is not an uncommon question at ordinations or in theological discussions, yet I find it disturbing. The apostles spent three years with Jesus, watched his life and listened to his words. If these men, who heard the final command of Jesus to take the gospel into all the world, went to such lengths to explain the redemptive story, why do we attempt to minimize the information we share with others about Christ?

The gospel is the greatest news ever given to humanity. We must be careful that we clearly and fully communicate its message to those with whom we share. Great care must be taken that we do not attempt to manipulate a person's response.

Paul explained to the Corinthian church that he had planted the seed of truth, Apollos had watered the seed, but God gave the growth. We may plant or we may water. It is God who creates the fruit.

THE GIFT OF SALVATION

God created us to manifest his glory and to give us eternal life in fellowship with himself, but our disobedience intervened and brought us under condemnation. As members of the fallen human race, we come into the world estranged from God and in a state of rebellion. This original sin is compounded by our personal acts of sinfulness. The catastrophic consequences of sin are such that we are powerless to restore the ruptured bonds of union with God. Only in the light of what God has done to restore our fellowship with him do we see the full enormity of our loss. The gravity of our plight and the greatness of God's love are brought home to us by the life, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. "God so loved the world that her gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

God the Creator is also God the Redeemer, offering salvation to the world. "God desires all to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth" (I Timothy 2:4). The restoration of communion with God is absolutely dependent upon Jesus Christ, true God and true man, for he is "the one mediator between God and men" (I Timothy 2:5). and "there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Jesus said, "No one comes to the Father but by me (John 14:6). He is the holy and righteous one who was put to death for our sins, "the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God' (I Peter 3:18).

R.C. Sproul, Getting the Gospel Right, pages 49-50.

MONEY AND AN ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE

Contentment is the result of having our perspectives determined by Scripture and that to which God has called us. Contentment means that the greatest gain in life is to come to the place where Christ is more important than anything: more than things, more than money, and more than accumulation. Christ satisfies me most. Paul says, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils (I Timothy 6:10). If we are controlled by our desire for things and money, what are we willing to do to obtain those things, and what does that do to our spiritual lives? Our love for Christ and our focus upon him is replaced by greed and covetousness. This is why covetousness is a form of idolatry. We love things more than we love Christ. We worship the temporary things we crave, things which will not bring contentment, while ignoring the one who can bring the greatest contentment, the one who is eternal. A Roman Proverb said, “wealth is like sea water, so far from quenching a man’s thirst, it intensifies it.” The more he gets the more he wants and more he is willing to do whatever it takes to obtain it. He becomes more and more willing to compromise his principles.

PREACHING WITH PASSION

This past week I took a continuing education class with a well-known theologian and seminary professor. He spoke of the Scripture's reference to that which is of "first importance" - the gospel (I Corinthians 15:3). He made this observation which he had learned in forty years of preaching and teaching. Those who come to hear him preach and teach will not remember everything he preaches and teaches. What they will remember is the passion of his heart which will come through in his preaching and teaching. What is most important to the preacher? Where is the heart of the preacher? The gospel is central in all of Scripture. May the gospel capture our hearts and be the passion of our lives.

SERVING WITH AN ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE

Yesterday I preached from I Timothy 6:1-2 on the subject, "Work as Worship and Witness." In his commentary on the pastoral epistles, Gordon Fee makes what I consider to be a very significant statement, that applies to much more of life than just our work: “The instruction that they ‘should consider their masters worthy of full respect’ tends to strike a discordant note to twentieth century ears, especially if such masters were pagans and unworthy of ‘all honor’…Paul’s instruction is quite in keeping with the entire New Testament understanding of Christian behavior as essentially reflecting servanthood (cf. Mark 10:43-45; I Corinthians 9:19; Galatians 5:13) and of Christian existence as basically eschatological – the form of this world is passing away; as an eschatological people, our present status is irrelevant (I Corinthians 7:17-24, 29-31). Therefore, precisely because it is essentially irrelevant, one may live one’s present status in loving obedience”

Gordon Fee, NEW INTERNATIONAL BIBLICAL COMMENTARY, I AND 2 TIMOTHY,TITUS, pages 137-138.

CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY

"Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this. Whether it be a brief, single encounter or the daily fellowship of years, Christian community is only this. We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ.

In this wise does one, whom God has placed in common life with other Christians, learn what it means to have brothers. 'Brethren in the Lord,' Paul calls his congregation (Philippians 1:14). I am a brother to another person through what Jesus Christ did for me and to me; the other person has become a brother to me through what Jesus Christ did for him.

The fact that we are brethren only through Jesus Christ is of immeasurable significance.

Not what a man is in himself as a Christian, his spirituality and piety, constitutes the basis of our community. What determines our brotherhood is what the man is by reason of Christ. Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us.

The more genuine and the deeper our community becomes, the more will everything else between us recede, the more clearly and purely will Jesus Christ and his work become the one and only thing that is vital between us. We have one another only through Christ, but through Christ we do have one another, wholly, and for all eternity. "

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together