What is church?

Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck have written an important book, Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion. See their promo video on YouTube. They finish by saying, "Jesus loves the church. We think you should too."

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Yearning

C. S. Lewis said,

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."

(quoted in John Piper, The Dangerous Duty of Delight, p. 8).

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Soul Food

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4, ESV).

“More to be desired are they [i.e., God’s words] than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb” (Psalm 19:10).

The Word of God is a priceless gift we have in our hands: do you cherish it? Do you go to the Scriptures for soul food? Do you study and meditate, do you listen to the Lord and respond in prayer? Is the Bible sweet to you—is it treasure? There is more to the Christian life than joyfully diligent Bible study, but never less!

Satan is always at work tempting us to bypass God’s Word:

• "There’s no time for serious Bible study in my schedule"
• "I’m no scholar—it’s too hard to understand"
• "The Bible doesn’t inspire me—it’s not relevant to my life"

Satan has a lot of lies, those are just a few. And people fall for them! I hope you don’t. You make time for food, right? Skipping the Bible leads to spiritual starvation. The daily news is relevant, right? How much more pertinent to your life and eternal joy is the news of God’s greatness and grace?

The bottom line is that authentic Christianity involves trusting in Christ—we’re saved by faith (Eph 2:8-10). How is faith gener­ated and sustained? “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17). Reading and wrestling with the Bible is how we grow in faith; as we spend time with Jesus Christ via the pages of Scripture, the Lord arouses faith / trust / devotion in our hearts. By contrast, failing to dig deep in God’s Word and study it carefully destroys faith.

Let’s be candid: Does the Bible receive your undivided, eager attention on a regular basis, and are you involved in groups or classes that help you dig deep into the treasure of Scripture? Or are you walking away from Christ? It’s one or the other.

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Multi-Site Churches and the Future...

Jonathan Leeman offers thought-provoking reflections about where the multi-campus church trajectory may lead: click here.

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Summer Struggles

Now that we’re into the thick of summer, I encourage you to be on the lookout for certain temptations that come with the season.

For one, there’s the unspoken but pervasive pressure to let your priority on church involvement slide due to summer’s special attrac­tions: away at the shore, on vacation, gone camping, off to see relatives, going to a game, etc. Of course, it’s good to get a break—we all need it. And it’s good to keep up with loved ones living far away. But a reasonable summer break can quickly morph into a vanishing act in which your church family hardly gets a glimpse of you. Don’t shrug off the church this season; the body needs you and you need the body all year round!

Another trap along the trail has to do with summer apparel. Are you prepared to glorify the Lord by dressing with modesty and discretion? Modesty may not always be the top fashion, but if you mean business about following Jesus, then there will be more important things than conforming to trends. People who want to grow deeper in trust toward Christ find it a great relief when those around them don’t make their bodies “exhibit A.” So ask God to search your heart (Ps 139:23-24): deep down, are you trying to catch other people’s attention through your summer style? And a related question (especially for guys): are you prepared to honor the Lord this summer in the way you use your eyes—and do you realize that “just looking” isn’t just looking (Matt 5:28)? Fix the eyes of your heart on Jesus (Heb 12:2) for true satisfaction!

A third summer threat is the tidal wave that can wipe out your devotional life. Predictable schedules in other seasons encourage consistency of spiritual practices (e.g., Bible reading, prayer, fasting, meditation): we’re creatures of habit, and that has its advantages. But summer rolls in and regular patterns are thrown to the wind as we dive into so much “enrichment.” I hope you have a very refreshing summer. But don’t lose your bearings: first things first. Plan ahead and build protected “space” into your schedule (including time for the family together) so your spiritual life can flourish. You can’t afford to put spiritual life on hold for a season!

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Fame and Death

Both Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett departed from this life on Thursday, June 25. Both were superstars in their own ways, and both of their stormy lives have been receiving major media attention the last few days. I’ve noticed a couple ironies amidst the whirr of all this coverage.

First of all, it’s obvious that famous people get the limelight not only in life but also death, whereas the other 99+% of humanity comes and goes from this world in relative obscurity. The media didn’t pick up on the parting of Mary Binnig, Joe Dent, or Henry Wright (other than to print their death notices in the obituary section of the Philadelphia Inquirer on 6/26/09), nor did it make much of the hundreds who’ve died in Somalia in the recent months’ unrest or of fatalities from cholera in Zimbabwe. Fame grabs our attention, pushing the unknown aside—we’re not interested in them. And yet, all people, deep down, are equally made in the image of God (Gen 1:27). All people alike are formed by God (Ps 139:13-15) with the capacity to know him and revel in his radiance forever. Jesus specialized in loving the unlovely, the outcast (e.g., Luke 5:27-32; 7:36-50; 15:1-2).

Dostoyevsky’s famous novel, Crime and Punishment, tells the chilling tale of an experiment in murder. Raskolnikov brutally kills two women—people he sees as “no account” figures, “useless” lives. But he cannot escape the reality that a life is a life and that human existence has meaning and dignity quite apart from one’s stature in society. The image of God in every person cannot be shrugged off. Eventually he can’t keep from confessing to his crimes, so heavy on his heart is the destruction of these “nobodies.”

Secondly, the way our popular culture processes death involves a couple irrational and contradictory notions. On the one hand, it’s assumed that anybody’s loved one who dies is now “up there looking down on us.” This was Jermaine Jackson’s assump­tion when he announced his bro­ther’s death. Sad stories on ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” are similar—lost loved ones are always “with us” and “watch­ing us,” etc. On the other hand, in ordinary days it’s almost never taken seriously that there is a life to come that’s real and important and grand, and that this present existence is but a prelude to eternal exper­ience either in the presence of God (basking in the wonder of his glory) or in the absence of God (suffering the just punishment of unforgiven sin). It’s as if the life to come can be entirely ignored while we’re healthy and strong, and then conveniently brought out in the moment of grief— though always, of course, assuming a positive outcome.

We need to help each other avoid these errors by doing two things: keep the reality of heaven and hell in view at all times (don’t let these looming eternal facts slip off your mind’s radar screen), and take Jesus seriously that, apart from trusting in him (John 3:16; 14:6; etc.), people follow their hearts down the road to destruction (Matt 7:13-14). In other words: live now in light of eternity, and live now in a way that accepts and acts upon the sobering reality of hell.

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Look Up!

We’re all painfully aware that the mood of our day is downcast. We’ve been shaken by the collapse of trusted financial institutions and Fortune 500 corpor­ations. Slip-sliding global markets have sent us scurrying home to stuff the few dollars we have left into the mattress. And job security is a thing of the past. This propels us into a panic and guard-the-fort mode—and followers of Christ are not immune to this temptation.

And that’s exactly why we need the Lord’s gracious help to look up—look up from our dismal doubts and worst case scenarios, and look into his radiant face. Here’s the bottom line: in hard times, God is NOT honored when we sink into fear, circle the wagons, and ignore his powerful presence. Look up: “Lift up your eyes!”

“I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven” (Ps 123:1). “Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing” (Isa 40:26). “Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God!’” (Isa 40:9).

So times are tough—that’s true, humanly speaking. And you need help? So do I. We all need help to avoid falling into the swamp of self-preservation; we all need help to look up and rivet our heart’s attention on the all-sufficient, all-satisfying Lord: “I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth” (Ps 121:1-2). “One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple” (Ps 27:4).

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Making Sense of "Church"

What is the church? Just a group of people with a common interest (like a book club or bowling team or community service agency)? The Bible’s answer is emphatic: NO. As the body of Christ, the church is a living, supernatural spiritual organism—and there is nothing else like it in the entire universe. The church is a colony of heaven; it’s a fellowship of travelers on their way home. The church is the very fullness of Christ (Eph 1:22-23), exhibit “A” of God’s wisdom to angels and demons (3:10-11), the theater of his glory (3:20-21), and the beloved, radiant bride of Christ (5:25-27).

Such a stunning, lofty vision of God’s church, however, often doesn’t make it all the way from words we acknowledge to truth that soars in our hearts. Instead, we find ourselves vulnerable to a thousand pressures to devalue and “horizontalize” the church, and so we lose sight of the mind-boggling reality of the body of Christ (it’s as though a veil falls over our eyes…) and we shape our lifestyles that make the church “just one more thing to do.” Please pray with me for deliverance from this God-dishonoring, joy-draining practice!

When we stand in awe of what the Lord has done and is doing in his church, we’ll find ourselves joyfully giving the body life and mission of GBC a strong priority. I appreciate Paul Tripp’s recent comments on what hinders the cultivat­ing of community in the American church. Here are some excerpts (from a blog post at the Desiring God site):

“…we’ve bought an unbiblical definition of the good life of success. Our kids have to be skilled at three sports and play four musical instru­ments, and our house has to be lavish by whatever standard. And all of that stuff is eating time, eating energy, eating money. And it doesn't promote community.” … “I’ve talked to a lot of families who literally think it’s a victory to have 3 or 4 meals all together with one another in a week, because they’re so busy. Well, if in that family unit they’re not experiencing community, there’s no hope of them experiencing it outside of that family unit.” … “We have families that will show up at our church on Sunday morning with the boys dressed in their little league outfits, and I know what's going to happen. They're going to leave the service early. Now what a value message to that little boy! Do I think little league is bad? I don't think it’s bad at all. I think it's great. But they’re telling him what's important as they do that.” … “You can’t fit God’s dream (if I can use that language) for his church inside the American dream and have it work. It’s a radically different lifestyle. It just won’t squeeze into the available spaces of time and energy that’s left over.”

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Picturing Heaven

How do you envision the life to come? Revelation 21-22 paints a picture of the glorious new heavens and new earth: the ultimate wedding celebration (21:2, 9); no more tears or grief or pain (21:4); we drink at the fountain of life (21:6); the New Jerusalem is radiant, massive, gleaming—and in that world there’s no night: the glory of God is its light (21:23-25).

As the Apostle John scrambles for images and metaphors to help us imagine what he saw in the definitive revelation of what’s to come (1:11, 19), it begins to dawn on us—if we’ll just be quiet and sit still and take it in—that the future world for all who eagerly await Jesus’ return (Heb 9:28) will be awesome beyond belief!

Romans 8:18 makes a similar point but from a different angle: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth com paring with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Today’s trials, even Paul’s manifold, gut-wrenching afflictions (see 2 Cor 11:23-29), are minimal-miniscule-inconsequential when compared to the glories of heaven. This is not to minimize the real pain of suffering—not at all. Rather, it’s to underscore how mind-boggling and category-demolishing are the wonders of the life to come.

Let this sink in. Think of our world’s most grave tribulations—as in Hebrews 11:35-38 (torture, scourging, stoning, being sawn in two). Think of AIDS and cholera and earthquakes and suicide bombings and serial murders… Let the sorrow and horror of these things wash over you like a great wave: yes, they’re wretched beyond words. But then remember that the degree of heaven’s splendor makes the degree of misery in such suffering seem like nothing. Do the math: if being sawn in two scores -10 on a scale of 1 to 10, heaven scores +1,000,000. That’s why Paul can call his mountain of trials a “slight momentary affliction” (2 Cor 4:17).

Are you facing pain, are your loved ones suffering? Let today’s adversity catapult your imagination God-ward—let it help you envision the joy awaiting all who love Jesus. Because today’s misery is not even worth comparing to the glories of heaven!

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Resident Aliens

So you’re taking the family road trip, and America’s interstate highway system is the pathway to your destination—to Niagara Falls, the Outer Banks, or Acadia National Park. After a few hours scrunched in the car, it’s time to stretch the legs at one of those wonderful Rest Areas.

Here’s what you DON’T do at the Rest Area: unload the trunk, haul in the bags, lock the car, and settle in. You DON’T unroll your sleeping bags, put on pajamas, and curl up for the night at the Rest Area. Of course not; it’s just a quick stop. The Rest Area isn’t your destination.

So too, this world is NOT our home, we’re only passing through. We’re citizens of another “country,” a heavenly kingdom. Our passport may be stamped to show we’ve visited this world, but it’s not our final destination. You could say we’re “resident aliens” here. According to the IRS, resident aliens are “non-U.S. citizens currently residing in the United States.” They live here, but they have citizenship elsewhere. So too, Christians live in this world, but our citizenship is in heaven (Phil 3:20). That’s why it’s so ridiculous when Christians unpack and settle in here at the Rest Stop—how bizarre to act as if this were our final destination!

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"If my people..."

It gets messy sorting out the believer’s allegiance to God and country. Let’s take the “If my people” text as case study. “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chron 7:14). My people… their land… How is this word to ancient Israel relevant for God’s people in the world today?

In Old Testament times God’s people lived under “theocracy”: devotion to God and allegiance to government were one and the same thing; there’s no separation between religion and public life, between “church and state.” American Christians are at times prone to think we should have a theocracy today—that the rule of God can somehow be restored in the U.S.A. But that’s not a biblical hope. With the coming of Christ and his giving of the Great Commission, the Lord brought theocracy to an end.

God’s people today is an inter­national, inter-racial, worldwide people—called the church—that can’t be con­tained in any one nation-state. So a promise about the “land” of ancient Israel cannot be neatly transferred to our country today. Rather, the application of 2 Chronicles 7:14 would center on the church—that group who, today, are God’s people: “my people.” If we as Christians scattered in fellowships all around the world repent and pray and humbly seek God, then he will respond and renew his people—the church. And so, the text relates to the revival of the church, not the improvement of living conditions in any particular country.

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Scripture Twisting

On April 14 President Obama, in a speech at Georgetown University, used--i.e., misused, abused--the Bible in an effort to promote his economic plans:

Now, there's a parable at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that tells the story of two men. The first built his house on a pile of sand, and it was soon destroyed when a storm hit. But the second is known as the wise man, for when "the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock."

It was founded upon a rock. We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand. We must build our house upon a rock. We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity -- a foundation that will move us from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest; where we consume less at home and send more exports abroad.

I suppose there's a kind of conventional wisdom that says, "Lot's of people view the Bible positively, so why not borrow some Bible-talk to add a little credibility to my message?" But the result, in so many cases, is a brazen disregard for the word of God and for God himself.

A reading of Matthew 7:24-27 reveals this: the one who builds his house upon the rock is the person who hears what Jesus teaches and obeys it. The whole point of the parable is to exhort listeners/readers to hear and obey Jesus Christ. Founding your life upon the rock means trusting Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

But, alas, a little ripping of the text out of context, and you can (mis)use the Bible to make it say anything.

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Hope in Christ "only for this life"?

God’s word of Easter hope from 1 Corinthians 15 is glorious—hundreds of eyewitnesses confirming Christ’s resurrection, and as the “first-fruits” of victory over death the risen Lord prom­ises that all “who belong to him” will rise again to true, eternal life (v 23). This is “good news” (v 1)—the greatest news! But 15:19 still reverberates in my mind: “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” Is it possible that we could fall back into that pitiful state?

“This life” stands in contrast to life beyond the grave (remember, you were made for forever, Eccl 3:11). Human experience includes our here-and-now “three score and ten” (or so) in which we walk this earth, but it also includes one’s eternal destiny (i.e., heaven or hell). All who are in Christ will put on imperishable, immortal resurrec­tion bodies for the everlasting joys of heaven (15:26, 54-57).

But what would it look like to hope in Christ “only for this life”? On the one hand, it would mean regarding Christ as being able to bring some relief of today’s troubles. But on the other hand, it would mean disre­gard­ing and devaluing (or even rejecting) his promise of resurrection life and all the wonders of heaven! How sad—pitiful, actually—that some at Corinth fell for this incomplete, twisted, unbiblical theology (vv 12-15).

In our day a hot trend in certain cutting edge church circles is to turn to Jesus for comfort and peace and justice and relief of earthly suffering. Sometimes this is called “kingdom” ministry (as if the kingdom of God had to do with improving our living situation here and now but had little or nothing to do with life after death). Frequently those who wave this flag think they’ve found the way to make Jesus “relevant” to a broken world. Typically they present Jesus as a model of radical justice and love to be followed, but not as the Sovereign Lord to be believed and worshipped. Commonly they divert the historic mission of the church from making disciples among all the people groups (Matt 28:18-20—loving whole people, body and soul) to meeting physical needs today.

God calls us to be discerning and courageous as we follow his Word, and thus refuse to limit Jesus’ message and ministry to present-world woes. Hoping in Christ only for this life would be pitiful! But can I point fingers without also being guilty of such offenses? Is the looming reality of heaven impinging every moment on my mind and my way of life? Is my hope in Christ riveted on the promise of resurrection? Or do I, too, shrink Jesus, ignore heaven, and live to maximize earthly comforts?

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The Wonder of Resurrection

Easter makes the stunning assertion that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. Various efforts have been made to discount that claim (e.g., “He wasn’t really dead”; “The disciples stole his body”—see Tim Keller’s chapter on the resurrection in The Reason for God for a careful response to such ideas). But Roman soldiers weren’t novices in the execution business, and they made sure Jesus was definitely dead (John 19:34). Further, the risen Jesus appeared to over 500 people (1 Cor 15:6), and to make sure his followers understood that he was really there “in the flesh,” the risen Jesus let Thomas to touch his wounds (John 20:27) and he ate with his disciples (Luke 24:43). This was a bodily resurrection!

Let’s turn from the fact of the resurrection to its meaning: what was accomplished that first Easter Sunday? 1 Corinthians 15 is a long essay about the resurrection’s vital importance. Here are some key points:

• Christ was raised “according to the Scriptures” (v 4)—in the mind of God, Easter was pre-planned.
  
• Without the resurrection, Christian preaching and all sharing of the Gospel message are useless, “in vain” (v 14).
  
• So too, Christian faith would be “futile” (vv 14, 17): no point believing in a dead “savior.”
  
• And there’d be no remedy for sin (v 17)—we’d never know if Christ’s death would have satisfied the Father’s holy wrath.
  
• But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead (v 20)!
  
• Christ’s resurrection is the “first fruits” (vv 20, 23) of a coming general resurrection of all who belong to him.
  
• The final outcome of Christ’s resurrection is the destruction of death (vv 26, 55-57): the curse of Genesis 3:19 will be reversed.
  
• Our resurrection bodies will represent a vast improvement over our present, temporal, flawed physical bodies (vv 42-44).
  
• Our resurrection bodies will be imperishable, immortal (vv 53-54).
  

So where do YOU stand with Christ this Easter? Do you see the blazing importance of the resurrection? Are you trusting Christ for the forgive­ness of sin and the solid hope of resurrection life? Don’t let this Easter slip away if you have yet to come to terms with Jesus Christ!

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Palm Sunday

I find Palm Sunday unsettling.

Of course, outwardly the picture of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem is exhilarating. Crowds of followers with visions of victory cheer the arrival of royalty: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (Luke 19:38). But do his fans see that Jesus weeps for the unrepentant city (19:41)? Probably not—too busy celebrating.

But then, consider their deafening silence in the days to follow. The cheering crowds, the festive throng casting palms and coats on the road before King Jesus—where do they go? As the soldiers march out to the Garden of Gethsemane in a plot to abduct Jesus, where are all his followers, and where are their energetic praises? As Jesus prays, where are his trusted men, the inner circle of Peter, James and John? Answer: sleeping (22:45). As the grim events of the week unfold, the only shouts are from enraged masses crying out, “Crucify him!” (23:21).

Hymn writer Henry Milman picked up this dissonance (1820):

Ride on, ride on in majesty
As all the crowds “Hosanna!” cry:

Through waving branches slowly ride,

O Savior, to be crucified.

Ride on, ride on in majesty,
In lowly pomp ride on to die:
O Christ, your triumph now begin
With captured death, and conquered sin!

Ride on, ride on in majesty—
The angel armies of the sky
Look down with sad and wondering eyes
To see the approaching sacrifice.

In fact, this seemingly innocuous event, Palm Sunday, pierces to the soul. It’s a subtle rebuke of my fickle faith and your fair-weather discipleship. Receive the Lord’s rebuke today, his good discipline. For the Father disciplines those he loves (Heb 12:6).

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How to wait for Jesus' return

Christians have often gotten tangled up in disputes over the details of various end times scenarios. But I wonder if it wouldn't be better to focus on what to do in the meantime--on HOW to wait for Christ's return. This was the topic of a recent sermon series by Don Carson. Here are his "how to" answers based on Matthew 24-25:

Wait for the Lord Jesus…

1. As those who do not wish to be surprised at his coming (24:36-44).
   
2. As stewards who must give an account of their service, faithful or otherwise (24:43-51).
   
3. As those who know their Master’s coming may be long delayed (25:1-13).
   
4. As slaves commissioned to improve their Master’s assets (25:14-30).
   
5. As people whose lives are so transformed by the Gospel, that they unselfconsciously serve brothers and sisters in Christ in self-sacrificing ways (25:31-46).
   

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David Wilkerson's Urgent Message

Just recently David Wilkerson posted an urgent message.

I have a variety of questions in response to this word of warning, one of which is this: if indeed the New York City megaplex is to be struck with an "earthshattering calamity" and engulfed by a thousand fires from Connecticut to New Jersey, wouldn't it be a fitting response to encourage believers to prepare for this catastrophe by taking measures beyond self-preservation in order to be ready to love their neighbors amidst such tribulations? Wouldn't it be wise to put believers on the lookout for elderly and disabled citizens who would be most vulnerable in the coming chaos? And wouldn't it be appropriate, as a way of loving enemies, to launch Christians out with compassion even for neighbors who oppose Christ and his followers?

Accordingly, something just doesn't sit right about the advice to God's people, "If possible lay in store a thirty-day supply of non-perishable food, toiletries and other essentials." Surely such an ominous threat should also elicit from church leaders an outward-oriented call to loving witness and service.

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Mar. 17: see the recent CT article in response to Wilkerson.

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