Category Archives: Preaching and Teaching

God’s Blessing: Quit Asking, Start Living

Posted on June 13, 2013 | 1 Comment

Last Sunday I began a summer message series with the Columbia Church of Christ on the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew called The Blessed Life.  By speaking of blessing, I’m making a play on the word “blessed” (blĕs′ĭd) which begins each of the beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-12.  Since these beatitudes are declarations about who is privileged in the kingdom of God, they are pronouncements of divine blessing (Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, 33-34).  In other words, Jesus is declaring that in the kingdom economy, God has blessed the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for righteousness.

I believe the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount paint a picture of the life that is lived by those whom God has blessed.  In turn, such people, who are disciples of Jesus, become a blessing to others as they are a living expression of the kingdom of God among a rebellious world suffering under the consequences of sin and evil.

Yet I feel the need to press this a bit more because we live in a culture that seeks God’s blessing in many ways and for an array of activities.  Not only do we want God to bless our homes, our marriages, our children, our jobs, and so on, as an American culture, we want God to bless the nation.  Just wait until the seventh inning of nearly every Major League Baseball game when someone leads the civil assembly in singing God Bless America.

But here is an important clarification.  God has already spoken and has already blessed us, our marriages, our children, the nation, etc… by offering us his blessing—Jesus and the kingdom of God.  We receive this blessing by submitting in faith to Jesus and the kingdom way of life that he teaches us to live, a significant portion of which is taught in the Sermon on the Mount.  Such submission is to place ourselves under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  Do we really want this blessing?

This is the fork in the road moment where we must decide.  We are not created robots who must automatically do as God wills.  Out of his great love for us, God created us as human-beings who have the freedom of choice.  We can live the life which God has blessed us to live or we can live our own lives but we cannot receive the blessing of God apart from submitting by faith to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the kingdom way of life God blesses for us.  And to be perfectly clear, God is not blessing any other way of life.  For all other ways of life other than this kingdom way of life is rebellion, something God has sought to redeem the world from since the rebellious sin of Adam and Eve.

So unless we are willing to submit by faith to the blessing of this kingdom way of life, we should stop asking God to bless our marriages, our jobs, America, etc…  For that is like us asking someone for food and then refusing to eat once they offer us food.  Of course, when we receive the blessing of this kingdom way of life, we enjoy the blessing of God and so do our homes, the nation, the neighborhoods we live in, etc….  For among all of these places there will be disciples of Jesus expressing the will of God upon earth as it is in heaven.

So maybe, we should quit asking God to bless this and that and start living the blessing he has offered us—the kingdom way of life lived by submissive faith to the Lordship of Jesus Christ!

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* This post is a slightly modified version originally published as an article titled The Blessed Life in Connecting 28 (June 12, 2013), a biweekly publication of the Columbia Church of Christ.

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Posted in Churches of Christ, Columbia Church of Christ, Faith, Kingdom of God, Preaching and Teaching, Theology

The Blessed Life: Living the Sermon on the Mount

Posted on June 11, 2013 | Leave a comment

This past Sunday I started a summer message series called “The Blessed Life” from the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew.  For those interested in living the Christianity that Jesus had in mind, the instruction he offers in the Sermon on the Mount cannot be ignored.

What the Sermon on the Mount offers is instruction in the kingdom way of life.  Just as Jesus proclaims and demonstrates the kingdom of God (cf. Matt 4:23ff), so also Jesus is teaching his disciples how to live as people of God’s kingdom.  Below is a video of Jewish Musician Matisyahu’s song One Day.  The song captures the hope for shalom, for the peace of God to reign…one day  But Jesus believes that one day begins today as his disciples embrace this kingdom way of life that he is teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.

Yet this raises a problem I see as a minister.  In many churches, especially in the Churches of Christ, the Bible is studied for the purpose of knowing the content.  So when it comes to the Sermon on the Mount, the temptation is to spend time analyzing and analyzing each block of instruction.  Frankly, at some point this becomes counter-productive.  While there are a few places in the Sermon on the Mount where some moderate difficulty might arise, most, of the text is very easy to understand.  The difficulty comes in practicing as Jesus teaches in this sermon.  Of course, when we spend all our time studying, it can also become a subtle way of avoiding the changes (repentance) we know we must make if we’re to live as Jesus teaches.

Jesus preached this Sermon as a life to be lived, not a text to be studied.  Study is helpful, exegesis and theological work in the text is necessary but apart from living the life this Sermon imagines, all is rather in vain.  But I feel the need to say a word about the way we put the Sermon on the Mount into practice.  Too often what Christians have been taught is application.  The problem is that when we apply a text to our lives, what often happens is that we apply what works or fits with the basic shape of our lives while shying away from what doesn’t fit.  Jesus wants nothing of this for our lives.  Rather, Jesus wants us to live as he teaches which requires us to get rid of every aspect of our lives that doesn’t conform to the life imagined for us in this Sermon on the Mount.

So I close with this thought about the Sermon on the Mount.  We all want God to bless our lives and so we ask him to bless our marriages, our children, our work, our neighborhoods, etc…  But why do we keep asking God to bless our lives when God has already blessed a life for us to live?  As we live the life Jesus imagines in the Sermon on the Mount, I believe we will find our relationships blessed because we dare to live the blessed life.  So be blessed because one day begins today!

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Posted in Columbia Church of Christ, Kingdom of God, Preaching and Teaching, Scripture

Heading to the Pepperdine Bible Lectures 2013

Posted on April 29, 2013 | 2 Comments

I’m headed off to what is becoming a yearly trip to Malibu, California for the 2013 Pepperdine Bible Lectures hosted by Pepperdine University.  This year  As I always say with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, it’s a hard life but someone must live it.

All kidding aside, the Pepperdine Bible Lectures are always a great time of gathering among Churches of Christ.  Besides the great teaching, there is great fellowship as I catch up with many friends and colleagues and the time serves also as a small spiritual retreat for me.

As I mentioned last week on my blog, I’ll be teaching a class.  The class is titled God’s Masterpiece: The Church as the Magnum Opus of God.  The class will imagine what it means to live as as 21st century church in light of our missional identity and pulse from the text of Ephesians 2:1-10.  I’ll approach this subject and biblical text with an awareness that as the church, we are actors within God’s creative-redemptive story that’s centered in Jesus Christ and moving towards the coming of God’s reign.  If this interests you, the class will meet on Thursday, May 2nd at 1:30 PM in AC 286.  Below is the picture from the first slide on my Keynote presentation.

God's Masterpiece the Church

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Posted in Churches of Christ, Preaching and Teaching, Scripture, Theology

What Shall We Preach?

Posted on March 28, 2013 | Leave a comment

This Sunday is Easter and as we expect, there will be an increase in visitors at our church gatherings.  So what are we going to preach?

“The Gospel of Jesus Christ… the reason for Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection,” we say.

Of course!  I would hope so.  After all, it may be the only opportunity we have to tell these visitors about Jesus and his crucifixion and resurrection.  But this isn’t what I’m asking about.  Preaching is communication and that involves so much more than just words.  How we act and how the our church acts has every bit as much to do with what will be preached this Sunday as the message spoken during the sermon.

So what are we really going to preach?

Preach and When Necessary…

There’s a piece of ministry advise often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi that goes something like this, “Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary, use words.”  To often a false dichotomy between word and deed is created with this saying, as though preaching the gospel involves one or the other but not both.  Last February I wrote a blog on why the mission of God requires both proclamation and demonstration of the gospel or why gospel witness requires both word and deed.  So let’s refrain from creating an unnecessary dichotomy which isn’t the point of this little ministry maxim.

The point of preaching the gospel and when necessary using words is about recognizing the importance of our actions.  And we all know that what we do (or don’t do) speaks volumes… much more than anything spoken.  When it comes to preaching the gospel in spoken word (which is absolutely necessary if people are to hear the gospel story) what we do or how we act will either illustrate or undermine what is spoken.  That’s why our actions must proceed and undergird our words.

The Unspoken Message

So again, I ask, what are we going to preach this Sunday?  From the moment when the church begins gathering and visitors join in to the end, what message will our actions convey?

  • Will our actions speak a message to visitors that they are welcomed and have come to the right place where they are regarded as friends or that they are strangers and outsiders who are shown no more hospitality than the same culturally polite greeting that they receive every morning from the cashier at the coffee shop or gas station?
  • Will our actions speak a message to the visitors that this our church is truly seeking to follow Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, and full of both love and a life lived on mission with God or that our church is just going through the motions, checking off a set of legalistic traditions of a lifeless and uninspiring worship gathering?
  • Will our actions speak a message to the visitors that we are a community of healing and faith where there is true joy and peace from God or that we are drowning in the same insane dysfunctionalities that exist in many American homes, work places, etc…?
  • Will our actions speak a message to the visitors that we are a people who believe that God reigns supreme and has already won the victory over evil through his Son, Jesus Christ, who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords or that we still functionally believe the nations and rulers of this world along with their politicians and talking-heads have the power?

Our response to these questions and others that could be asked will be answered in large part by what we do.  In fact, we may preach the sermon of all sermons and have it all undone by a few bad actions (I could share many stories here).  So when the visitors come this Sunday, by all means tell them the story of Jesus dying and being raised but tell them also in the way we act towards them and around them.

May God the Father fill every church with the power of the Spirit to be witnesses of the Son, Jesus Christ, on this Easter Sunday!

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Posted in Christian History, Kingdom of God, Preaching and Teaching

Be A Missionary

Posted on March 14, 2013 | Leave a comment

I believed God was calling me to be a missionary and I wanted to be one.  After spending two weeks in Brazil on a short-term mission trip with college students helping two churches evangelize in the community, I returned to America certain that God was calling me to be a missionary.  The next summer I returned to Belo Horizonte with my wife and we stayed with a native family, which was an enjoyable experience, while I taught the Gospel of John in various small groups.  I was still sure about God’s call.

Obviously, my wife and I never moved to a foreign country to do mission work.  As most who know me know, before beginning seminary studies at Harding School of Theology, my wife and I had a son, Kenny, who died (you can read about it here, here, and here).  After joining a team preparing for mission work in Australia a couple of years later, we came to realize with some timely advise from a couple of seasoned missionaries that we were not emotionally ready to handle the stress of moving to a foreign culture yet due to our grief (yes grieving the loss of a child takes years, not months).  Consequently, I became a minister with a local church and continue to gladly serve in the vocation of church ministry today.  And I became a missionary too, I just didn’t realize it just yet.

What I quickly learned about ministering with churches on American soil is that the church now exists in a mission context.  The days of Christendom were (and are) disappearing fast as a more secular and pluralistic culture was ascending (and still is) in America.  This prompted me to start reading books by Bosch and Hesselgrave as well as Frost and Hirsch, opening what was then an emerging missional church conversation that is now gaining traction as sort of a movement.  I also discovered that God had given me the ability to think theologically and missionally about the gospel with a discerning mind toward the new post-Christian culture that churches were now in (= churches with a culture of modernism trying to grasp the new postmodern culture).  So even though there is a part of me that would love to move to a foreign country as a missionary, I understand why God, in his providential wisdom, has kept my wife and I in America.

However, I also want to say that this may be true for you.  Perhaps you have plans to go on a short-term mission trip somewhere like I did.  I hope you go and as you do, may God expand your worldview and shape you to be even more like Jesus as you serve others.  But when you return, know that you be a missionary where you live in America as well.

Allow me also to say a word about preaching and ministering with local established churches.  According to some research, 81% of today’s seminary students don’t have plans to preach and minister with a local church.  That leaves a lot of churches without gifted men and women (yes I hope more opportunities are opening up for women too) to come among them and help them learn to live on mission with God.  I know that some seminary students have plans to church plant missionaries in North America (which I applaud 100%) and others plan to serve as foreign missionaries (which I also applaud 100%) but I hope more seminary students will consider preaching and ministering with local established churches too because it is a mission work as well.

So go right here in America, in your town, my town, uptown and downtown, and in the neighborhoods as well…

Be a missionary!

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Posted in Churches of Christ, Faith, Missions and Ministry, Preaching and Teaching, Suffering

The Mission of God: Proclamation and Demonstration

Posted on February 22, 2013 | 3 Comments

The story the church lives in begins with creation.*  There, in the beginning, everything was good, especially humans who have been created in the image of God.  Though humans are still made in the image of God, things have changed since then.  The rejection of the Creator by those bearing his image has resulted in suffering which affects all aspects of creation.

The good news is that God is redeeming all of creation in Jesus Christ, reestablishing his kingdom reign over creation as he restores life to its created intent.  As people who belong to this redeemed reality, we follow Jesus on mission with God so that others may share in this good news.  This involves both proclamation and demonstration of this good news.  That should not come as a surprise since throughout his ministry Jesus was involved in both the proclamation and demonstration of this good news.

The question many believers seem to wrangle over is which of the two, proclamation and demonstration, should take priority?  Some Christians, particularly in mainline Protestant churches and Catholic churches, have given preeminence to good works and social justice as a demonstration of the gospel.  Among more Evangelical churches, including Churches of Christ, the emphasis has been on proclamation, hence the term “evangelical.”  Of course, I am overgeneralizing each group but you understand the point.

The problem is that this dichotomy is unnecessary and operates on a faulty understanding of the gospel.  The mission of God is not simply concerned with attending to the physical needs of people or saving people from their sins.  Rather, since the mission of God is the restoration of life to it’s created intent (as I believe), both proclamation and demonstration are equally necessary as people suffer spiritually, physically, socially, etc… as both victims of the fall and perpetrators of the fall.  In every way, people are slaves to the fall and so the mission of God includes every activity that serves to liberate humans from this slavery (Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 10).  This is why the question of proclamation and demonstration is not about primacy, what should take priority, but ultimacy (Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God, 319).

Practically speaking, the church following Jesus on mission with God may at times find itself engaging in more demonstration than proclamation as it’s unloving and unlike Jesus to ignore the pressing physical needs of people.  However, good deeds should never become a bait-and-switch gimmick offered just so that the church can evangelize.  Neither should good deeds absolve the church from it responsibility to preach and teach the gospel.

Someone once asked me which would I rather have if I were a starving person, an offering of food for my stomach or the message of Jesus Christ so that I could share in salvation?    The question creates a false dichotomy and presumes that offering food to a hungry person is not part of the good news, but I digress.

Any ways, I thought about the question for a minute and replied that I would rather have the kingdom of God because under God’s reign, my physical needs are cared for (cf. Matt 6:33) and I hear the good news that offers me salvation.  So I want nothing more than the good news of the kingdom of God — the good news that Jesus spoke about.  And there’s nothing more beautiful than the kingdom of God!

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* This is a slightly modified version of an article of the same title that I wrote and was published in Connecting, 28 (February 20, 2013), a biweekly publication of the Columbia Church of Christ.

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Posted in Churches of Christ, Columbia Church of Christ, Contemporary Culture, Kingdom of God, Missions and Ministry, Preaching and Teaching, Scripture

Faith, not Fear: Can God Get an “Amen!”?

Posted on January 22, 2013 | Leave a comment

As Christians, we believe in God.  Very good!  But do we believe God?  That’s a better question because there’s a big difference between believing in God and actually believing God.  The story of Abraham challenges us to actually believe God with such a deep trust  in the faithfulness of God that we respond in complete obedience to God.

In Genesis 15:1-7 we really discover how much faith Abraham will indeed have in God.  To understand better, there are two considerations that will help us read this scripture not just as a biblical story but as a word from God to us:

  1. As far as Abraham’s life matters, at this point he has left his country, people, and father’s household as God told him to do, with the assurance of God’s promise of future blessing.  Yet he is still without a son, something seemingly necessary for the promised blessing he has received from God which has yet to be fulfilled.  Added to this stress, Abraham finds himself in the middle of violent conflicts without an ally since he has rejected a deal with the king of Sodom.  So God’s word, “Do not be afraid…I am your shield” (v. 1) asks of Abraham to trust God and depend completely on him to persevere in life, and await for God to fulfill his promise in his own time and own way.  The question for us is can we learn to trust in God, depending on his providential guidance and provisions in life?
  2. As far as the canonical context matters, the book of Genesis begins with the story of creation which includes Adam and Eve, who, in the beginning, lived in faithful dependence upon God.  Of course, that changed when Adam and Eve chose their way over God’s way.  The full consequence of this choice is played out in Genesis 11 where humans completely reject God assume as they assume a divine role by attempting to make a name for themselves.  The story of Abraham begins as a reset button for creation in which God will once again gain a people who will live faithfully to God, beginning with and through the blessing of Abraham.  The question for us is whether we choose the way of those people from Babel, trying to make our own way, or the path of Abraham, as people who believe God?

This  begs the question of what does it mean to trust in God and believes God?  The answer to that question is found in the details of the story.

Can God get an “Amen!”?

Though Abraham is living in a hostile climate and has yet to receive the fulfillment of God’s promise, God only reaffirms his promise to Abraham.  What God does not do is say how he will fulfill that promise when Abraham still has a barren wife, when exactly he will fulfill that promise, and what will take place along the journey toward the fulfillment of that promise.  Yet Abraham “believed” God (v. 6)!

The Hebrew word for “believed”  in v. 6 is where we get our English word “Amen” from.  Abraham is giving his “Amen!” to God but what does that mean?  It doesn’t mean that Abraham understands everything about God’s promise.  It is more Abraham’s way of resigning himself to accept God at his word and go along with God even though he doesn’t understand everything.  So even though Abraham has every reason to be afraid, he is making a choice of faith that will now allow God to become “…the voice around which his life is organized” (Brueggeman, Genesis, 140.).  Said another way, Abraham has decided that he will live his life by the script God has composed.

Fear kills, but Faith lives!

This is where we must get real about the impasse between faith and fear.  This passage invites us to let go of our fears and believe God as well.  It’s an invitation to faithfully live into the script God has composed…a script that carries our cross as we follow Jesus, trusting God’s promise of eternal life in Christ.  And that takes a lot of faith….faith that gets obscured when fear is the voice we listen to.  So this passage also presents a challenge: will we believe God or fear the world?

With that in mind, let’s remind ourselves about the difference between fear and faith.  Fear is what we do when we live with the illusion that God is not in control and therefore we must take control.  Obsessing over national politics, the economy, protecting our rights to free speech and rights to bear arms is what we do when we are driven by fear.  Faith is what we do when we believe God is in control.

Thankfully we have a promise from God given to us in Jesus Christ, crucified and resurrected, that frees us to live in faith by the power of the Holy Spirit!

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Here is the message I spoke this past Sunday, January 20, 2013 before the Columbia Church of Christ (MP3 formatted): Genesis 15_1-9 _Believe!

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Posted in Churches of Christ, Contemporary Culture, Faith, Kingdom of God, Preaching and Teaching, Scripture, Theology

Unbelieving Christians

Posted on January 9, 2013 | 9 Comments

Sometimes the most unbelieving people we will ever meet are Christians.  Think about it for a moment…

When I say this, I don’t have any particular person in mind.  Rather, this is a realization I’ve come to from various conversations and other engagements I’ve had.  On the surface, they’ll appear as believers.  That is, they belong to a local church, own a Bible or two or three, live a morally upstanding life that’s at least acceptable in the eyes of their church peers, give to various Christian and charitable causes, and on and on the list might go.  But get beyond the surface and…

  • Instead of speaking truthfully from the depths of scripture, they’ll reverberate with their conventional wisdom sometimes called “common sense.”
  • Instead asking how Jesus and the the gospel bears upon particular issues in life, they’ll turn appeal to their old stand-by platitudes and political assumptions.
  • Instead of praising God for the bold and courageous vision given to their preacher, they’ll complain and say, “Don’t get too radical.”

Of course they believe but only up to a point.  Anything beyond that point which invites them to let go of their life and think deeper, believe bigger dreams, expect greater things, speak with gospel wisdom, pray the risky prayers, love more courageously, live fearlessly, etc…

Well, at that point, belief turns to disbelief.  These unbelieving Christians  become the source of great frustration and discouragement to any number of other Christians, preachers included, as they will say about anything to rebuff God from calling and speaking a word into their lives.  Perhaps that is why at the end of his first letter to Timothy, Paul reminded him to ”…guard what has been entrusted to your care.  Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have departed from the faith” (1 Tim 6:20-21).

Yes, it is true.  Sometimes the most unbelieving people we will ever meet are Christians.  So let us pray that we never meet such an unbelievers in our mirrors.

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Posted in Faith, Preaching and Teaching, Scripture

The Coming of Jesus

Posted on December 11, 2012 | Leave a comment

The Coming of Jesus Sermon SeriesI really enjoy this time of year from a Christian standpoint.  I am intrigued by the stories of Jesus’ birth told in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, as well as the other pertinent passages of scripture.  I love the hymns and even the liturgies, as they all captivate my heart with joy.  I suppose one of the reasons I am intrigued so much is because Advent and the story of Jesus’ birth was not celebrated in my Christian upbringing among Churches of Christ (thankfully that has changed much).  The closest we ever got was a visit to my grandmother’s Christmas Eve candle light service at the local Presbyterian Church.

Of course, I know that Jesus was born for a deeper reason than just so that we would have a neat story to tell during this time of the year.  That is why I am preaching a two week Advent series from two passages in the letter of Hebrews called The Coming of Jesus: Because He Has and Is.  The two passages that will be explored with the Columbia Church of Christ will be Hebrews 3:1-6 and Hebrews 12:1-3.  The first passage asks of us to consider the significance of Jesus’ coming while the later passage encourages us to endure in faith as we look forward at Jesus upon the throne, as we anticipate his second coming.

And if you have a few more minutes, then listen to this performance of the choral group Libera singing of my favorite “Christmas” hymn O Holy Night.  As you do, reflect on the significance of why Jesus came to earth and why he is coming back again.

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Posted in Churches of Christ, Columbia Church of Christ, Faith, Hope, Preaching and Teaching, Redemption, Scripture

Tagged ,

Preaching: Grace and Discipleship

Posted on October 9, 2012 | Leave a comment

The photo to the left is a picture of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore along Lake Michigan.  It is a really beautiful place to be in the summer.  I know that because I grew up fifteen minutes from the beach but I never knew this growing up.

Don’t get me wrong.  I visited the lakeshore a many of times when I lived near it but I took it’s existence for granted, having little appreciation for it’s grandeur and beauty.  Only once I moved away and came back for a visit did I realize what a gem this Mid-Western lakeshore is.

It’s unfortunate that people can live in the middle of something so beautiful and fail to see it.  I suppose this happens to most people at one point or another.  Still, it shouldn’t be that way.

So here’s my point.  Paul depicts the Christian as standing in the midst of God’s grace.  According to Romans 5:1-2:

…we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this GRACE in which WE NOW STAND. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

So by faith, according to Romans 5:1-2, the church stands in the grace of God.  But does the gathered church see it, appreciate it, and live into it?

Some do for sure and the rest of the church needs to hear their voices and see their witness.  But some in the church gather unaware of the grace of God they stand in.  Maybe it’s self-righteousness and idolatry.  Those are deadly viruses that will blind a person to God’s grace on the pathway to spiritual necrosis.  Others gather even though they secretly are so overcome with doubt or the shame of past sin to the point that the grace of God is out of focus.

So an important function of the preacher (and preaching) is to serve as a tour guide, helping the church to open her eyes and see the ocean of grace she is sailing in.  I don’t think this point can be overstated enough.

Elsewhere in scripture, Paul describes the “grace of God” as teaching people “to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age” (Tit 2:11-12).  So understand this: Grace and discipleship belong together and in that order.  Grace without discipleship becomes what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace.” Conversely, the attempt to form disciples apart from the grace of God becomes nothing more than fundamental legalism.

Yet to preach and open the eyes of the gathered church to the awesomeness, beauty, and joy of God’s grace…

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Posted in Preaching and Teaching, Scripture, Theology