When I was in college, I read a book entitled The Leaven of he Sadducees, or Old and New Apostasies by Ernest Gordon. It was an old volume, published in 1926, long out of print. I wish someone would reprint it, because it is an important book. In it, Dr. Gordon chronicles the descent of modern denominations into Unitarian/liberal beliefs. Many long-standing bastions of Christian thought, such as Harvard, Andover, and Princeton became in a relatively short time secular institutions, indifferent or in most cases hostile to the Gospel. It is a lesson we today must still keep in mind.
However, It is not the only lesson we need. One thing that Gordon and others who have fought long and valiantly against encroaching secularism often fail to ask is what makes Christian institution susceptible to these influences in the first place?
Creeping liberalism, like most heresies and apostasies, more common in well-evangelized countries. The Third World, where Christianity is even today on the rise, seems to have little worry of it. It is Europe and America, where Christianity had long been held to be safe, that we see the rise of universalism and the devaluing of Scripture. If we suppose that this apostatizing trend is simply the work of the Devil, or some function of human depravity, then how do we explain that It mainly happens on one kind of Christian community--the ones which have mainly already been evangelized. Why don't we say the same trend among developing churches? They have other problems with apostasy, to be sure, but not this same liberalizing trend.
Think of apostasy as a virus. Viruses strike us, all, but they afflict some people more regularly. If we are already weakened, or our immunization system is suppressed, then we are more likely to get sick. If the spiritual life of the Body of Christ is weakened, then it is more likely to catch a spiritual disease, such as apostasy. In the wild, termites and other decay-producing organisms do not strike live plants, but dead ones. Where there is life there
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Church Signs
I was going to church last week and noticed a church sign I did not recall seeing before. It was a church called "Harvest Time Assembly of God." Harvest time I thought-- what an interesting name. I don't recall ever seeing a Presbyterian church named "harvest" anything. Somehow, it didn't fit to say "Harvest Time Episcopal Church" either. It's a good name, especially for a country church. But I wonder sometimes how an unbeliever might like being compared to wheat or radishes. We Christians know what it means, but does anyone else?
That got me thinking about church names. What do they say about the our congregations? We choose them because we want to say something about who we are and what we believe. But what are we saying?
Here are several kinds of church names:
Place names. This is by far the most common kind of church names, Oak Grove Methodist, Five Points Baptist, Grover's Corner Lutheran Church. These are "vanilla" church names. They can be used for any kind of church from Catholic to Jehovah's Witness. They are low profile names, sensible names, which say "Look, here is where we are. Other than that, we're not real sure what we are, either."
Number names. Every town has a First Baptist or a First Methodist. Usually a Second Baptist, too. Bigger towns may even have a third or a fourth, or maybe a tenth. I presume in most cases, they refer to the order they established, and not the quality of preaching or music. I wonder if first churches have big rubber hands in their pews so the congregants can hold them in the air and chant "We're Number 1! We're number 1!" I don't know, maybe the number refers to their flight order in the Rapture.
Biblical names. Most of them are pretty standard--Antioch, Smyrna, Shiloh, Bethany. Occasionally you run into a weird one. I have a friend who pastors Hephzibah Presbyterian Church. I'm not making that up. I wonder how many people ask what a "hephzibah" is.
Virtue names. "Faith", "Hope," "Fellowship," " Grace", "Peace." Of all the church names, these are my favorite. These names tell us what values they are attempting to display. When they work well, they give the outsider a little taste of what goes on inside.
This category of names does produce some of the funniest names. I once saw a church "Little Hope Baptist Church." What were they thinking when they named that one?
Some churches get carried away with this. They want to put their entire creed on their signs, such as "Fire-Baptized Church of he New Jerusalem and Eternal Security (Reformed)" There seems to be a rule somewhere that the length of the name is inversely proportionate to the size of the church. I can say this, being the pastor of Oak Ridge Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.
Saintly names. These are church named after saints. "St Thomas" "St Catherine" "St Giles." These churches probably have a reason for naming them after these saints, but unless you happen to possess a fairly detailed book of church history, no one can figure out what it is.
Catholics have a peculiar way of naming churches after Mary--actually, after lots of Marys. For example-- "Our Lady of Lourdes" "Our Lady, Empress of the Americas." Isn't she the same Mary?
Incidentally, this category produced my all time favorite church name in Central Florida --"Mary, Queen of the Universe." It sounds more like an action figure than the Mother of God.
Memorial churches. "Rogers Memorial" "Grier Memorial" etc. These names carry the important and inspiring message "Some rich dead guy may or may not have gone here." As church names, these names are a bust. They do make impressive tombstones, though.
Cool names. These are the latest thing in Church names--the contemporary church names. These names seem to have been run by a focus group for maximum audience appeal. The one rule about these names is that they must not have the name "church" in them. That's a no-no, because the goal of these names is to conceal the fact that they are a church until the last minute, when the sinner is caught and cannot get out. They are Venus fly-trap churches, luring the unsuspecting sinner into their web of holy deceit.
These churches names appear to be named by randomly opening a dictionary and pointing to a random word on the page. "Element" "Tapestry," Elevation," and "Communitas." Up the street from me is a church named "Five Smooth Stones." The biblically illiterate person who they are obviously trying to attract does not know if this is a church or a kidney.
Then there are a few churches with such totally weird and wonderful names, that they are in a class by themselves. There is one church in California which is actually named "The Scum of The Earth." One of my Friends wants to name his church "The Walking Dead." If that doesn't get your attention, nothing will! No one can accuse them of being stuffy and traditional.
The more I think about it, the more I think that "Harvest Time" isn't a bad name for a church. At least they show some interest in people outside their circle, or at least their crop circle.
That got me thinking about church names. What do they say about the our congregations? We choose them because we want to say something about who we are and what we believe. But what are we saying?
Here are several kinds of church names:
Place names. This is by far the most common kind of church names, Oak Grove Methodist, Five Points Baptist, Grover's Corner Lutheran Church. These are "vanilla" church names. They can be used for any kind of church from Catholic to Jehovah's Witness. They are low profile names, sensible names, which say "Look, here is where we are. Other than that, we're not real sure what we are, either."
Number names. Every town has a First Baptist or a First Methodist. Usually a Second Baptist, too. Bigger towns may even have a third or a fourth, or maybe a tenth. I presume in most cases, they refer to the order they established, and not the quality of preaching or music. I wonder if first churches have big rubber hands in their pews so the congregants can hold them in the air and chant "We're Number 1! We're number 1!" I don't know, maybe the number refers to their flight order in the Rapture.
Biblical names. Most of them are pretty standard--Antioch, Smyrna, Shiloh, Bethany. Occasionally you run into a weird one. I have a friend who pastors Hephzibah Presbyterian Church. I'm not making that up. I wonder how many people ask what a "hephzibah" is.
Virtue names. "Faith", "Hope," "Fellowship," " Grace", "Peace." Of all the church names, these are my favorite. These names tell us what values they are attempting to display. When they work well, they give the outsider a little taste of what goes on inside.
This category of names does produce some of the funniest names. I once saw a church "Little Hope Baptist Church." What were they thinking when they named that one?
Some churches get carried away with this. They want to put their entire creed on their signs, such as "Fire-Baptized Church of he New Jerusalem and Eternal Security (Reformed)" There seems to be a rule somewhere that the length of the name is inversely proportionate to the size of the church. I can say this, being the pastor of Oak Ridge Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.
Saintly names. These are church named after saints. "St Thomas" "St Catherine" "St Giles." These churches probably have a reason for naming them after these saints, but unless you happen to possess a fairly detailed book of church history, no one can figure out what it is.
Catholics have a peculiar way of naming churches after Mary--actually, after lots of Marys. For example-- "Our Lady of Lourdes" "Our Lady, Empress of the Americas." Isn't she the same Mary?
Incidentally, this category produced my all time favorite church name in Central Florida --"Mary, Queen of the Universe." It sounds more like an action figure than the Mother of God.
Memorial churches. "Rogers Memorial" "Grier Memorial" etc. These names carry the important and inspiring message "Some rich dead guy may or may not have gone here." As church names, these names are a bust. They do make impressive tombstones, though.
Cool names. These are the latest thing in Church names--the contemporary church names. These names seem to have been run by a focus group for maximum audience appeal. The one rule about these names is that they must not have the name "church" in them. That's a no-no, because the goal of these names is to conceal the fact that they are a church until the last minute, when the sinner is caught and cannot get out. They are Venus fly-trap churches, luring the unsuspecting sinner into their web of holy deceit.
These churches names appear to be named by randomly opening a dictionary and pointing to a random word on the page. "Element" "Tapestry," Elevation," and "Communitas." Up the street from me is a church named "Five Smooth Stones." The biblically illiterate person who they are obviously trying to attract does not know if this is a church or a kidney.
Then there are a few churches with such totally weird and wonderful names, that they are in a class by themselves. There is one church in California which is actually named "The Scum of The Earth." One of my Friends wants to name his church "The Walking Dead." If that doesn't get your attention, nothing will! No one can accuse them of being stuffy and traditional.
The more I think about it, the more I think that "Harvest Time" isn't a bad name for a church. At least they show some interest in people outside their circle, or at least their crop circle.
Becoming Light
In his later years, Albert Einstein came to America, and lived near Princeton University. Once a young physics student was walking in a park near the school, and came upon Einstein looking over a bridge at a stream.
What a wonderful opportunity. Here was the greatest genius in physics the world had ever known. What secrets were locked up in that brain! He desperately wanted to have a conversation with the great man. So he came and stood on the bridge next to him, and looked down in the water.
There are two great relationships in every Christian’s life. The first is a relationship with God. The second is our relationship with others. Without both of these, then the Gospel will die.
The Devil attacks us on two fronts. First, he tries to destroy our relationship with God. If that does not work, then he tries to wreck our relationship with others. If we want to have a private relationship with God, the Devil usually leaves us alone. He has already neutralized us into having an ongoing relationship with others. But if we have a vital relationship with God along with openness to people inside and outside the church, then the Devil has something to fear from us.
We looked at the first relationship, that divine relationship with God through prayer last summer. We presented a series of prayer skills that enable us to have a strong relationship with God. For the next few weeks, we are going to work on developing our second relationship—the horizontal relationships we have with other people so that our relationship with God can have a real impact on the world, and the relationship that others have in God can have a real impact on us.
We are going to start our study in the first letter of John. Though it is a little book, it packs a powerful wallop. It can revolutionize our walk with the Lord and our walk with others. I know, because it has had a powerful influence on me.
We don’t know much about the circumstances of writing this letter. We do not know when he wrote it, or exactly to whom. It is a general epistle, which meant it was written to be the whole church, not just a part of it. We think it was written fairly late in John’s life, after the rest of the New Testament. Many of the apostles of Jesus were already dead. The church was falling into doctrinal disputes and organizational debates.
John saw his mission to restore and poetic and mystic side of the church. He was not mainly concerned with the fine details of what they should believed. As long as people accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, they were in. He was more concerned with how they believed what they believed. We can believe right and live wrong. We can have the right goal but have the wrong attitude. If all we do is to believe in Jesus, and do not believe on Him we have not understood the Gospel. Without a living relationship with Jesus and others, we are nothing.
John gets right into a discussion of relationships in 1 John 1:1-4
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched — this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.
In verse 2 John tells us what he is talking about—the Word of Life. Not just the Word, but the life as well. The Word is not just propositional truth, but a living Person who we may know intimately. The word is Jesus, revealed by the Spirit in our lives.
John says four things about the word.
1. The Word has always been there. There is nothing new about it. The Word is like the stake you take out of your freezer and thaw for supper. All the ingredients are already there. It only takes the flame of the Spirit to bring it to life.
2. We have already heard the Word. Yes, the church already has its doctrine right. Christ is the God, the second person of the trinity. He died for our sins. John knew this, because he heard it from Jesus’ own mouth.
3. We have seen the Word lived before us. John saw this truth lived out by the Son of God. John did not have to wear a bracelet that said WWJD. He knew what Jesus would do, because he knew him personally.
4. We can still know the Word today. The eternal Holy Spirit is still with us, and is constantly revealing Jesus. John had the Holy Spirit with him constantly. His divine presence was revealed to him. He depended upon Him. He was his meat and drink.
So John intimately knew the Word of Life, and that life filled him with great personal joy. We write this to make our joy complete.
What do you do when you see a TV show or a movie you like, or hear a good song, or eat at a good restaurant? You can’t wait to tell someone about it. John is the same way. Once he has encountered the living presence of God in the Spirit, he wanted to share it with others, so that his joy—and ours—will be complete. Good things are so much better when there is someone we can tell about them.
John is not just joyful about the Word of Life—he is transformed by it.
In verse 5, John makes a “metaphorical leap.” He changes images. He no longer talks about the Word of life. Now he starts to talk about God as light. This is not really a change of subjects. A word is how we convey a thought or idea. The word we receive from God is more than a thought. It is a life. That life transforms us, and causes us to present a new word to others. The Word of Life becomes light not just to ourselves, but to others.
He has become a living container for the presence of God. Like electricity through a light bulb, the power of God was flowing through John, providing light to the world.
Who was John really? He was no one special. But the Word of Life in John was very special. God’s presence and power was inside of him. That made him very important indeed. He was part of God’s plan to occupy mortals, fill them with the Word of Life, until they illuminated the world.
In Matthew 5:13, Jesus said “You are the salt of the earth.” Their salt was mined from the Dead Sea in blocks. It was not pure salt, but had many inert materials in it. The substance the Bible calls "salt" is actually a complex substance, which contained salt, among other things. If the salt was not in the grain, then it was useless. If Christ is not in our hearts, we are no good to God.
In Matthew 5:14, Jesus said “you are the light of the world.” What good is a lantern without a flame? A light bulb is garbage when it no longer can burn. It is no good without a glow. It is God’s light inside that is important. That is why John says in verses 5-6
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.
Did you know that race cars have no headlights? They don’t need them. Some race cars have fake headlights, but they do not work. They are fake. Many Christians are fake, too. The light inside of them has grown dim. We do not see unbelievers converted, nor do we experience genuine spiritual relationships with other Christians. We are just pretending to have a fake light inside of us.
How do we really show others the Word of Life? There are only two things we need to do. First, we must have a clear relationship with God. Then we must have a clear relationship with other people. We have to be real and transparent.
God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. God hides nothing. He pretends to nothing. His is honest and true.
Somehow, we think that witnessing is something we must work at. We treat Jesus like a product to be sold. We treat Christian fellowship the same way. We dress up to come to church, put on a churchy way of talking and acting, because we are afraid to be ourselves. But if the Word of Life is really inside, we do not have to pretend. All we will need to do is to be Christian. We don’t have to hide our doubts and deficits and put on a pretend piety. If the light of Jesus is in us, we just need to get out of the way and let the light shine through. John says in verse 7
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
“Walking in the light” is how John describes our relationship to each other. All we have to do is to be honest, and we will win the world for Jesus.
Why is it so hard to have real Christian fellowship or witness? There are several obstacles that to being real with others. In upcoming weeks, we are going to look at five of them.
1. Distance—before we can be real with others, we must physically be with them.
2. Dishonesty—we must trust that God can use us even when we are not perfect He will shine as brightly through our failures as through our successes.
3. Rejection—we need to learn to accept people who are different, and who do things that are sinful, without judging them.
4. Resentment—it is hard for us not to want to hurt back but we must learn to forgive people who have hurt us. We cannot be salt and light to people we resent.
5. Indifference—the opposite of love is not hate but indifference. We cannot be salt and light without also being lovers of those whom God loves.
In order to answer these five blocks, we are going to offer five answers—hospitality, honesty, acceptance, forgiveness, and love. These traits are not something we learn one time. They are skills to be honed and practiced. The more we practice, the more we become the Word of Life in the world. It is not easy to do any of these things, but the closer we draw to Jesus, the easier it can become.
Come back next, week, and we will begin to learn what it means to walk in the light.
What a wonderful opportunity. Here was the greatest genius in physics the world had ever known. What secrets were locked up in that brain! He desperately wanted to have a conversation with the great man. So he came and stood on the bridge next to him, and looked down in the water.
There are two great relationships in every Christian’s life. The first is a relationship with God. The second is our relationship with others. Without both of these, then the Gospel will die.
The Devil attacks us on two fronts. First, he tries to destroy our relationship with God. If that does not work, then he tries to wreck our relationship with others. If we want to have a private relationship with God, the Devil usually leaves us alone. He has already neutralized us into having an ongoing relationship with others. But if we have a vital relationship with God along with openness to people inside and outside the church, then the Devil has something to fear from us.
We looked at the first relationship, that divine relationship with God through prayer last summer. We presented a series of prayer skills that enable us to have a strong relationship with God. For the next few weeks, we are going to work on developing our second relationship—the horizontal relationships we have with other people so that our relationship with God can have a real impact on the world, and the relationship that others have in God can have a real impact on us.
We are going to start our study in the first letter of John. Though it is a little book, it packs a powerful wallop. It can revolutionize our walk with the Lord and our walk with others. I know, because it has had a powerful influence on me.
We don’t know much about the circumstances of writing this letter. We do not know when he wrote it, or exactly to whom. It is a general epistle, which meant it was written to be the whole church, not just a part of it. We think it was written fairly late in John’s life, after the rest of the New Testament. Many of the apostles of Jesus were already dead. The church was falling into doctrinal disputes and organizational debates.
John saw his mission to restore and poetic and mystic side of the church. He was not mainly concerned with the fine details of what they should believed. As long as people accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, they were in. He was more concerned with how they believed what they believed. We can believe right and live wrong. We can have the right goal but have the wrong attitude. If all we do is to believe in Jesus, and do not believe on Him we have not understood the Gospel. Without a living relationship with Jesus and others, we are nothing.
John gets right into a discussion of relationships in 1 John 1:1-4
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched — this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.
In verse 2 John tells us what he is talking about—the Word of Life. Not just the Word, but the life as well. The Word is not just propositional truth, but a living Person who we may know intimately. The word is Jesus, revealed by the Spirit in our lives.
John says four things about the word.
1. The Word has always been there. There is nothing new about it. The Word is like the stake you take out of your freezer and thaw for supper. All the ingredients are already there. It only takes the flame of the Spirit to bring it to life.
2. We have already heard the Word. Yes, the church already has its doctrine right. Christ is the God, the second person of the trinity. He died for our sins. John knew this, because he heard it from Jesus’ own mouth.
3. We have seen the Word lived before us. John saw this truth lived out by the Son of God. John did not have to wear a bracelet that said WWJD. He knew what Jesus would do, because he knew him personally.
4. We can still know the Word today. The eternal Holy Spirit is still with us, and is constantly revealing Jesus. John had the Holy Spirit with him constantly. His divine presence was revealed to him. He depended upon Him. He was his meat and drink.
So John intimately knew the Word of Life, and that life filled him with great personal joy. We write this to make our joy complete.
What do you do when you see a TV show or a movie you like, or hear a good song, or eat at a good restaurant? You can’t wait to tell someone about it. John is the same way. Once he has encountered the living presence of God in the Spirit, he wanted to share it with others, so that his joy—and ours—will be complete. Good things are so much better when there is someone we can tell about them.
John is not just joyful about the Word of Life—he is transformed by it.
In verse 5, John makes a “metaphorical leap.” He changes images. He no longer talks about the Word of life. Now he starts to talk about God as light. This is not really a change of subjects. A word is how we convey a thought or idea. The word we receive from God is more than a thought. It is a life. That life transforms us, and causes us to present a new word to others. The Word of Life becomes light not just to ourselves, but to others.
He has become a living container for the presence of God. Like electricity through a light bulb, the power of God was flowing through John, providing light to the world.
Who was John really? He was no one special. But the Word of Life in John was very special. God’s presence and power was inside of him. That made him very important indeed. He was part of God’s plan to occupy mortals, fill them with the Word of Life, until they illuminated the world.
In Matthew 5:13, Jesus said “You are the salt of the earth.” Their salt was mined from the Dead Sea in blocks. It was not pure salt, but had many inert materials in it. The substance the Bible calls "salt" is actually a complex substance, which contained salt, among other things. If the salt was not in the grain, then it was useless. If Christ is not in our hearts, we are no good to God.
In Matthew 5:14, Jesus said “you are the light of the world.” What good is a lantern without a flame? A light bulb is garbage when it no longer can burn. It is no good without a glow. It is God’s light inside that is important. That is why John says in verses 5-6
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.
Did you know that race cars have no headlights? They don’t need them. Some race cars have fake headlights, but they do not work. They are fake. Many Christians are fake, too. The light inside of them has grown dim. We do not see unbelievers converted, nor do we experience genuine spiritual relationships with other Christians. We are just pretending to have a fake light inside of us.
How do we really show others the Word of Life? There are only two things we need to do. First, we must have a clear relationship with God. Then we must have a clear relationship with other people. We have to be real and transparent.
God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. God hides nothing. He pretends to nothing. His is honest and true.
Somehow, we think that witnessing is something we must work at. We treat Jesus like a product to be sold. We treat Christian fellowship the same way. We dress up to come to church, put on a churchy way of talking and acting, because we are afraid to be ourselves. But if the Word of Life is really inside, we do not have to pretend. All we will need to do is to be Christian. We don’t have to hide our doubts and deficits and put on a pretend piety. If the light of Jesus is in us, we just need to get out of the way and let the light shine through. John says in verse 7
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
“Walking in the light” is how John describes our relationship to each other. All we have to do is to be honest, and we will win the world for Jesus.
Why is it so hard to have real Christian fellowship or witness? There are several obstacles that to being real with others. In upcoming weeks, we are going to look at five of them.
1. Distance—before we can be real with others, we must physically be with them.
2. Dishonesty—we must trust that God can use us even when we are not perfect He will shine as brightly through our failures as through our successes.
3. Rejection—we need to learn to accept people who are different, and who do things that are sinful, without judging them.
4. Resentment—it is hard for us not to want to hurt back but we must learn to forgive people who have hurt us. We cannot be salt and light to people we resent.
5. Indifference—the opposite of love is not hate but indifference. We cannot be salt and light without also being lovers of those whom God loves.
In order to answer these five blocks, we are going to offer five answers—hospitality, honesty, acceptance, forgiveness, and love. These traits are not something we learn one time. They are skills to be honed and practiced. The more we practice, the more we become the Word of Life in the world. It is not easy to do any of these things, but the closer we draw to Jesus, the easier it can become.
Come back next, week, and we will begin to learn what it means to walk in the light.
The True Gospel
Galatians begins with Paul losing his cool. He and Barnabas had just returned from a missionary journey through Galatia, where for the first time he preached directly to the Gentiles. God responded and they witnessed a great move of the Spirit.
Nevertheless, Paul and Barnabas wanted to be sure that what he had done was of God. So he went to Jerusalem and met with the disciples. When they heard about it, they rejoiced. The Holy Spirit witnessed that this was from God.
But the Devil is always stirring up trouble. He was already trying to undo what God had done in Galatia. A group of false Christians called the Judaizers had heard what had happened in Galatia and went to the same towns Paul visited, preaching a different message. They convinced these young new believers that they were not yet good enough to be accepted by God. These people old them that they should be circumcised, keep the Sabbath, and all the other Jewish laws. In short, they were turning these young believers into legalistic Pharisees.
This group had a different Gospel. To them, the Gospel Paul preached it was too easy. They believed that Christians were just Jews with extra laws tacked on. They did not understand that as Christians they were free from the Law. If anything, they were more bound to the Law than the Pharisees Jesus condemned.
It’s not surprising that a group of people who grew up in the Jewish Pharisee community might adopt this view. What is surprising is that these Gentile believers would so readily accept it, too. Why should Gentiles so quickly accept the restrictions of the Jewish Law?
This question has a direct bearing on us. Legalistic religion has always had a strong appeal. You only have to look around us, and you will see that churches which emphasize legalistic practices attract many followers. Some of the largest churches in town are also some of the most legalistic.
The Gentile environment that the Galatians knew also had much legalism. Some religions required that mark your body with tattoos or piercings. Others required that you wear special clothing or underwear. Others required that you join a temple and make regular sacrifices to a pagan God. Other religions required their followers to give up certain foods, or worship on a particular day of the week. So the message of the Judaizers had a great appeal to them. Paul’s Gospel seemed too easy to them, too. Legalism seemed more natural.
I am convinced that faith is an unnatural act. It is natural for us to want to do something for our salvation. After all, when we do something, we are in control. Works put us in control. We decide whether or not God is worth following, and whether we will adopt the symbols of that faith. Faith requires that we do nothing except believe what Jesus has already done.
Faith has always been strange to us, because it requires the surrender of our control of our own life. People would rather do almost anything than to feel as if they are losing control.
In Exodus, when Israel fled from Egypt and into the desert, God led them by day and by night. He provided miraculous food from heaven. But God’s miraculous provision and leadership had a down side. The people were no longer in control. Every day they had to get fresh guidance and fresh provisions from God. They could not even store manna for more than a day!
It did not take long for them to grow tired of being helpless. They wanted to be independent again. They wanted to be somewhere –anywhere—where they did not have to depend on bread falling from the sky each night. People would rather live caged in slavery forever, than to live with uncertainty and freedom. They would rather endure almost in any circumstance however bad than to face the discomfort of feeling helpless.
Faith is being willing to trust in only Jesus, and follow where He leads. God doesn’t tell us what is coming next. He only tells us what to do at the moment. God doesn’t give us what we need tomorrow. He only gives us what we need today. Those who want security and regularity ought not to try actually following God. They will be disappointed.
Let me make this clear. There is nothing you can do to save yourself—nothing. You are not saved by church. You are not saved by tithing, you are not saved by grace before meals, any more than our country is saved by a prayer at a football game.
Have you ever been with a person who had OCD—obsessive compulsive disorder? OCD people have what seems to others to be meaningless rituals which make them feel safe. They horde things, because they feel that someday they might need them, even though it is nonsense. They will not step on a crack in the sidewalk. They think they must wash their hands over and over, even when they are clean. They do this because they believe that these rituals cause them to be in control and save. If they can stave off bad luck by not stepping on cracks, they have some control over the universe.
These rituals seem strange to us but how much stranger are they than some things that are done in church every week? What about the people who say that you have to be baptized in a full tank of water or you are going to hell? Or the people who say that if go to confession and say six “Hail Marys” God will automatically absolve you of your sins? Does it make any more sense to say that if you join a Presbyterian church or give ten percent of your income, you will automatically get what you want from God? Yet I know Christians who believe all those things.
So the Judaizers fulfilled a need in their lives—a need for regularity, order and control. In responses, Paul wrote them a letter to the Galatians. Here is how it begins.
1:1-2 Paul, an apostle — sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers with me, To the churches in Galatia:
Paul’s letter begins by letting them know he really is an apostle sent from God. An apostle is a messenger. He is saying to them. “Look, I’m not making this up, It comes from God. Those who are with him are the other apostles—the disciples plus Barnabas and others who preached the Gospel to them. Paul s reminding them that the others agree. As crazy at is may sound, God wants them to do nothing but trust Jesus. That’s grace through faith.
I know how Paul felt. I’m not making this up, either. It may not feel natural to you—in fact, if probably doesn’t. But listen anyway. You must let go even of that sense of being natural, and embrace the message of the Gospel.
What do you do when you when your car starts to skid? Turn in the direction of the skid. It seems unnatural. It feels like you should turn in the opposite direction. But do that and you’ll have a wreck. If you follow your feelings and turn the other way, you’ll be wrong.
Salvation is the same way. Our instincts tell us that salvation lies in doing something. God’s Word is that salvation lies in simply trusting. That’s because Jesus has already done all that is necessary for you.
3-5 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Christ died for our sins to rescue us from hell. More than that, He died to rescue us from hell on earth, too. Paul calls that hell the “present evil age.” The Roman Empire days were truly hell, too. There is not one of us who would last a week in all the disease, injustice, superstition, and oppression that people endured in Roman times. They did not know this, of course, because the people of the time did not know any better. But Jesus came to be with people in the middle of that chaos. He gave these people His Presence to help them through the worst of times. Ours is also an evil age. The only hope we have is to depend upon Him utterly.
That’s what Paul told the Galatians. But they left that teaching very quickly, as we can see from verses 6-7
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
I once got an ad in the mail that said “congratulations! You have been named to be a member of Young America’s Who’s Who. Now you are entitled to all the rights and privileges thereof. For the live of me, I could not find what rights and privileges went with this high honor, except the privilege of buying a book for the low price of fifty dollars. Beyond that, I know no other right or privilege to being in their book. This was a false good news. There were no privileges.
What are the “rights” and “privileges” of fake churchianity? We have the privilege of going to church. We have the privilege of tithing. Without communion with God, there are burdens, not blessing. We have the “privilege” of cutting out what we enjoy and replacing them with things we do not enjoy. We have the “privilege” of managing on our own, without divine intervention. Then we wonder why no one wants to join our church!
The real good news is actually good. It actually gives them a new, clean life. It does not put extra burdens on us, but relieves us of the burden that guilt and the false gospels of the world pile on our heads.
Paul is serious about this, as he shows in verses 8-9
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!
There is not another place in Paul’s writings where he is this angry. “Eternally condemned” in Paul’s native language was anathema maranatha—cursed until the end of time.
I am angry, too. I am angry with generations of people who have told the church one thing when salvation is another. Over and over again, in all the churches I have served, I have met people in the sixties, seventies, and even eighties, who still do not know that all they have to do is trust Jesus. They have been taught by preachers, Sunday school teachers, and even mothers and fathers that they are saved by following some rituals. They cannot conceive of God saving them without making them get baptized in a certain way, or joining a particular church. They live their lives in perpetual guilt, because they are afraid that there might be something they have left out.
Nevertheless, Paul and Barnabas wanted to be sure that what he had done was of God. So he went to Jerusalem and met with the disciples. When they heard about it, they rejoiced. The Holy Spirit witnessed that this was from God.
But the Devil is always stirring up trouble. He was already trying to undo what God had done in Galatia. A group of false Christians called the Judaizers had heard what had happened in Galatia and went to the same towns Paul visited, preaching a different message. They convinced these young new believers that they were not yet good enough to be accepted by God. These people old them that they should be circumcised, keep the Sabbath, and all the other Jewish laws. In short, they were turning these young believers into legalistic Pharisees.
This group had a different Gospel. To them, the Gospel Paul preached it was too easy. They believed that Christians were just Jews with extra laws tacked on. They did not understand that as Christians they were free from the Law. If anything, they were more bound to the Law than the Pharisees Jesus condemned.
It’s not surprising that a group of people who grew up in the Jewish Pharisee community might adopt this view. What is surprising is that these Gentile believers would so readily accept it, too. Why should Gentiles so quickly accept the restrictions of the Jewish Law?
This question has a direct bearing on us. Legalistic religion has always had a strong appeal. You only have to look around us, and you will see that churches which emphasize legalistic practices attract many followers. Some of the largest churches in town are also some of the most legalistic.
The Gentile environment that the Galatians knew also had much legalism. Some religions required that mark your body with tattoos or piercings. Others required that you wear special clothing or underwear. Others required that you join a temple and make regular sacrifices to a pagan God. Other religions required their followers to give up certain foods, or worship on a particular day of the week. So the message of the Judaizers had a great appeal to them. Paul’s Gospel seemed too easy to them, too. Legalism seemed more natural.
I am convinced that faith is an unnatural act. It is natural for us to want to do something for our salvation. After all, when we do something, we are in control. Works put us in control. We decide whether or not God is worth following, and whether we will adopt the symbols of that faith. Faith requires that we do nothing except believe what Jesus has already done.
Faith has always been strange to us, because it requires the surrender of our control of our own life. People would rather do almost anything than to feel as if they are losing control.
In Exodus, when Israel fled from Egypt and into the desert, God led them by day and by night. He provided miraculous food from heaven. But God’s miraculous provision and leadership had a down side. The people were no longer in control. Every day they had to get fresh guidance and fresh provisions from God. They could not even store manna for more than a day!
It did not take long for them to grow tired of being helpless. They wanted to be independent again. They wanted to be somewhere –anywhere—where they did not have to depend on bread falling from the sky each night. People would rather live caged in slavery forever, than to live with uncertainty and freedom. They would rather endure almost in any circumstance however bad than to face the discomfort of feeling helpless.
Faith is being willing to trust in only Jesus, and follow where He leads. God doesn’t tell us what is coming next. He only tells us what to do at the moment. God doesn’t give us what we need tomorrow. He only gives us what we need today. Those who want security and regularity ought not to try actually following God. They will be disappointed.
Let me make this clear. There is nothing you can do to save yourself—nothing. You are not saved by church. You are not saved by tithing, you are not saved by grace before meals, any more than our country is saved by a prayer at a football game.
Have you ever been with a person who had OCD—obsessive compulsive disorder? OCD people have what seems to others to be meaningless rituals which make them feel safe. They horde things, because they feel that someday they might need them, even though it is nonsense. They will not step on a crack in the sidewalk. They think they must wash their hands over and over, even when they are clean. They do this because they believe that these rituals cause them to be in control and save. If they can stave off bad luck by not stepping on cracks, they have some control over the universe.
These rituals seem strange to us but how much stranger are they than some things that are done in church every week? What about the people who say that you have to be baptized in a full tank of water or you are going to hell? Or the people who say that if go to confession and say six “Hail Marys” God will automatically absolve you of your sins? Does it make any more sense to say that if you join a Presbyterian church or give ten percent of your income, you will automatically get what you want from God? Yet I know Christians who believe all those things.
So the Judaizers fulfilled a need in their lives—a need for regularity, order and control. In responses, Paul wrote them a letter to the Galatians. Here is how it begins.
1:1-2 Paul, an apostle — sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers with me, To the churches in Galatia:
Paul’s letter begins by letting them know he really is an apostle sent from God. An apostle is a messenger. He is saying to them. “Look, I’m not making this up, It comes from God. Those who are with him are the other apostles—the disciples plus Barnabas and others who preached the Gospel to them. Paul s reminding them that the others agree. As crazy at is may sound, God wants them to do nothing but trust Jesus. That’s grace through faith.
I know how Paul felt. I’m not making this up, either. It may not feel natural to you—in fact, if probably doesn’t. But listen anyway. You must let go even of that sense of being natural, and embrace the message of the Gospel.
What do you do when you when your car starts to skid? Turn in the direction of the skid. It seems unnatural. It feels like you should turn in the opposite direction. But do that and you’ll have a wreck. If you follow your feelings and turn the other way, you’ll be wrong.
Salvation is the same way. Our instincts tell us that salvation lies in doing something. God’s Word is that salvation lies in simply trusting. That’s because Jesus has already done all that is necessary for you.
3-5 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Christ died for our sins to rescue us from hell. More than that, He died to rescue us from hell on earth, too. Paul calls that hell the “present evil age.” The Roman Empire days were truly hell, too. There is not one of us who would last a week in all the disease, injustice, superstition, and oppression that people endured in Roman times. They did not know this, of course, because the people of the time did not know any better. But Jesus came to be with people in the middle of that chaos. He gave these people His Presence to help them through the worst of times. Ours is also an evil age. The only hope we have is to depend upon Him utterly.
That’s what Paul told the Galatians. But they left that teaching very quickly, as we can see from verses 6-7
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
I once got an ad in the mail that said “congratulations! You have been named to be a member of Young America’s Who’s Who. Now you are entitled to all the rights and privileges thereof. For the live of me, I could not find what rights and privileges went with this high honor, except the privilege of buying a book for the low price of fifty dollars. Beyond that, I know no other right or privilege to being in their book. This was a false good news. There were no privileges.
What are the “rights” and “privileges” of fake churchianity? We have the privilege of going to church. We have the privilege of tithing. Without communion with God, there are burdens, not blessing. We have the “privilege” of cutting out what we enjoy and replacing them with things we do not enjoy. We have the “privilege” of managing on our own, without divine intervention. Then we wonder why no one wants to join our church!
The real good news is actually good. It actually gives them a new, clean life. It does not put extra burdens on us, but relieves us of the burden that guilt and the false gospels of the world pile on our heads.
Paul is serious about this, as he shows in verses 8-9
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!
There is not another place in Paul’s writings where he is this angry. “Eternally condemned” in Paul’s native language was anathema maranatha—cursed until the end of time.
I am angry, too. I am angry with generations of people who have told the church one thing when salvation is another. Over and over again, in all the churches I have served, I have met people in the sixties, seventies, and even eighties, who still do not know that all they have to do is trust Jesus. They have been taught by preachers, Sunday school teachers, and even mothers and fathers that they are saved by following some rituals. They cannot conceive of God saving them without making them get baptized in a certain way, or joining a particular church. They live their lives in perpetual guilt, because they are afraid that there might be something they have left out.
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