Tuesday, April 18, 2017

The Great Miracle

John 5:6c NIV
"Do you want to get well?"

Do You Want God to Fix Your Life?

In the national news there was a story that was sickening to read.  It demonstrated just how wrecked our world is and how ruined it is by sin.  A man was convicted recently of raping his sister at least once a week over a four year period.  He was nine years older than her and it began when she was only nine.  The girl’s parents were often away at work and entrusted the care of their daughter to their son who was a young adult living at home.  What kind of horrible inclinations led to this perversion we cannot say but it must be stated clearly that it had a devastating effect upon the girl.  Now an adult, she tells of her longstanding anger toward her parents for letting her stay with her brother, her anxiety attacks, the loneliness she feels constantly as a young woman alone in her pain and the psychological numbness that she endures which keeps her from being able to experience closeness and make attachments with those who try to get close to her.

In a world that is warped by sin and its consequences, there is a sort of universal feeling that a new pill, a good counselor or a government program can put all the hurting and troubled people back together and make them good as new. Yet we have not seen any real success in our efforts to place bandages on a wounded social order that universally struggles to find peace and joy.  If it were just one or two people in our city who were struggling with anxiety, depression, loneliness, burn-out, bitter feelings, deep-seated anger and addictions, we could just ignore it and say, “well at least it isn’t me or someone in my family”” but it is us and it is our family affected by the damage caused by sin.  Your heart and my heart and the hearts of those close to us are damaged by Sin and that damage causes us pain and all sorts of sorrows.

The problem we face is universally experienced and it is felt in every corner of the earth.  Sin damaged hearts are everywhere and we cannot begin to express how much pain these wounds cause.  At the very center of all the wreckage brought on by Sin is Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  It was Sin that brought such hatred against Him that the cries to crucify Him rung out in the court of the Roman governor, that the laughter of the Jewish priests and soldiers as his body was bloodied and His face pummeled by punches spilled out onto the hill where Christ was nailed to the cross and hung there awaiting death.  More than that though, the Bible tells us that Jesus died purposefully, to do away with Sin completely, to take it out of us and eventually take it out of the world.  He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24 NIV)  What does die to sins mean?  This is of course why Christ gave up His life on the Cross!  It is the total and complete reason why Jesus let Himself be crucified with His blood poured out at every wound He suffered.  It was to take the Sin out of us and make us thoroughly free from every part of Sin, its poison and its damage, its curse and its sorrow.  To die to Sin means that Sin no longer impacts us, no longer has a hold upon us.  What Sin works in us and how it works itself out of us, it all is dead to us through the crucifixion death of Christ.

Yet we still feel the lingering effects of Sin.  We may continue to suffer psychological and physical pain caused by Sin and we still commit sins often and regularly!  Pay careful attention to this single statement we find in the Bible because it is critical to your happiness.  Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed — not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence — continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. (Philippians 2:12-13 NIV)

When we are talking about God working in you, what do we mean by that?  We mean the Holy Spirit joined with you, a part of you.  You could never experience God as a part of your personality, in union with you if Christ were not raised from the dead.  Jesus talked about this great miracle again and again, that once He finished His work dying for the sins of the world, He would give them through the Father the Holy Spirit to be joined to them, bringing comfort, insight and direction.  By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. (John 7:39 NIV)  And later the Lord told the disciples, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.  On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (John 14:16-20 NIV)

How does the resurrection of Jesus Christ impact you directly?  It was only after He came up out of the dead that Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to His people.  He started with the Disciples the first Easter Sunday.  Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."   And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. (John 20:21-22 NIV)  Then on Pentecost the Holy Spirit continued to come upon God’s people and as they believed in Christ as the one who took away Sin, the Holy Spirit became  part of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.(Acts 2:4 NIV)   While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.  The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. (Acts 10:44-45 NIV) This great miracle of having God become joined to you is perhaps the most important news you will ever hear in conjunction to Easter.  God, who takes away Sin joins Himself to you as soon as you put your faith in Him to give you eternal life.

Now let us return to the matter of the change God wants to work in you.  For it to happen, you must work out your salvation yourself.  Pay careful attention to our verse.   …continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.  Consider this crucial discovery we have in Scripture.  You will find again and again the great miracles God worked for people did not take place until obedience occurred.  Naaman was not cleansed of his leprosy until he washed in the Jordan River.  The ten lepers were not healed until they left Jesus to meet with the priest.  Jesus did not raise Lazarus from the dead until the stone was removed from the front of the grave.  The lame man was not healed until he went ahead and picked up his mat.  If so many others could not be healed and their problems solved until they did what God told them to do, why should you think it would be any different for you?

Work out your salvation is not you making yourself saved.   It is not you taking away your sin.  It is you receiving from God the changes His death on the Cross provides for you.  There are hidden places in you, deep and dark places in you that take away your joy and peace as a result of sins committed against you and sins you have committed and the Holy Spirit, a part of you will get at them and heal them and take away the power they have over you.  But you must do something.  You must do what God tells you to do.  If it means loving someone you dislike, you must do it.  If it means acting kindly towards someone who does not deserve it, you must do it.  If it means putting down your phone and praying, you must do it.  If it means cutting off a relationship because it is turning you away from Christ, you must do it.  If it means reading the Bible when it seems boring, you must do it.  If it means stop criticizing others and judging them, you must do it.  If it means giving up a career that is making you greedy and discontented with God, you must do it.  If it means starting a kids club to help illiterate children learn how to read, you must do it.  If it means talking to someone about God and sharing the goodness of Jesus Christ, you must do it

With the Holy Spirit within you, Christ resurrected can heal any broken part of you and make that your strongest part but you must work out your salvation by doing what God tells you to do.  Perhaps the problem with your finances is that you are too afraid to trust God by giving Him a tenth of all you earn.  It might be that your depression is connected to your unwillingness to thank God for what He gives you when He gives it to you.  Your anxiety might be due to bitterness you hold in your heart toward someone you have never forgiven.  The peace of God is waiting for you to trust Him with your actions.  The Holy Spirit in you can heal even the deepest wound and give joy to you when you think happiness is impossible given your circumstances.


Our Lord admits that doing what He tells you to do may involve fear and trembling on your part.  You might be even ashamed to do what He tells you to do.  But if you just obey God, the miracle of Christ in you will make you happier and more peaceful and contented than you are.  Today I watched a crow peck at a bag near the fence.  Clearly he thought there was something in it he wanted.  Like those who do not work out their salvation, he tugged at the bag, flipped it over, pulled it out into the parking lot and pecked at it.  He put his foot on it and tried to tear at the bag with his beak but it was a worthless endeavor.  Finally, the crow quit, without any satisfaction for all his effort fighting with the empty bag.  At the same time, a hummingbird, like those who work out their salvation, when from lavender bloom to lavender bloom, getting nectar from the flowers and left satisfied.  What a worthless endeavor it is to go through life without trusting the Holy Spirit to work out of you all the damage Sin has done to your heart!  But, what gladness we have when we have given God all He wants of us and as a consequence He builds within us all the strength and joy and encouragement and contentment He has to give us as we trust Him with our lives.  

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

An Aching World



Psalm 49: 20 NIV
A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

What Do You Possess?

Last week I was in a high school class and I asked the students what particular strengths they possessed.  One mentioned that he was good at connecting with people, that he had the ability to look them in the eye and pay attention to them.  The rest of the class was either dumbfounded by the question or too shy to answer.  One young man, who I had gotten to know a bit had a strong speaking voice and I told him I saw that in him.  Several students gave examples of how his powerful voice would benefit him.  I asked another young man what a strength of his was and he could not give me an answer.  He could not think of a single talent or skill set that he possessed that was of any value.  In fact, he insisted that he was not good at anything.  Now I realize that the setting might have made it difficult for him to admit what he saw as something good about himself but it struck me what a tragedy it was for a person to have nothing to claim as a personal strength.  Perhaps there are many others who cannot come up with personal qualities that would benefit themselves or others.

Is it possible that you too really don’t know who you are, don’t know what lies within you that could be considered great or even spectacular.  What really are the strengths you possess?  Recently it was mentioned just how broken we are in places we aren’t even aware exists.  We don’t know the depths at which sin has damaged us.  Our heart is so vast and unexplored by us that we cannot really know what destruction our heart has incurred.  Yet there is another side to this discussion that must be considered and that is what sort of power we possess in Christ.  Are we certain we know what has been given us by God and the value of what we have?

Psalm 49: 20 declares the great loss there is to us if we possess riches that we don’t know we have.  A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.  There is a witlessness to us when we are not aware of what great possessions are ours.  It is like we are as dumb as an ox if we have never noticed the wealth we own.  Consider the immensity of the claim found in Colossians 1: 27.  To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (NIV)  The implication is that when Christ becomes a part of us, joined to us as a “new creation”, there are great riches abiding within us and it must be acknowledged that the vast majority of Christians have no idea what those riches are.  Is it possible that we live in nearly complete ignorance of what runs deep within us?

One of the most fascinating aspects to the relationship between Christ and the Father is the approach the Father took to the treatment Jesus received at the hands of those who despised Him. It was always the same.  Not everyone thought Jesus was a great man sent by God.  Many thought He was either a lunatic or possessed by demons.  Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat.  When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind."  And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, "He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons." (Mark 3:20-22 NIV)  How did the Father respond to this unfair criticism?  He did not do anything.  He let their hurtful comments go unaddressed.  The Father simply let our Lord absorb them without shielding Him from the blows.

At Jesus’ most vulnerable point when it seemed like the entire world turned on Him, the Father refused to defend Christ.  Without a bit of evidence to convict Him, the religious leaders tried their best to come up with some way of having Jesus put to death but the Father did not send a single person Christ’s way to help Him.  The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death.  But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward. (Matthew 26:59 NIV)   When Christ faced the terrors of Roman brutality, the Father left Him alone.  Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.  The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe  and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they struck him in the face. (John 19:1-3 NIV)  To the very end, the Father did nothing to ease our Lord’s suffering or humiliation.  Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him.  They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him,  and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said.  They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again.  After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. (Matthew 27:27-31 NIV)

How can we account for the Father’s total neglect of the Son in His horrific trials? What did He have to gain by His response to the Son?  Whatever supernatural signs the Father did to support His Son’s work were never associated with His suffering or humiliations.  The Son was left, if we can be so almost heretical sounding in this, without the resources of the Father to help Him with all He suffered.  He was in a sense “on His own.”  The great force of our Lord’s own personality faced the worst that Satan and the World could throw at Him and yet without a hint of bitterness, self-pity or lust for revenge, He endured it all.  The Father offered nothing supernatural at all to the Son for His endurance; He left it up to the power of the perfect Son of Man’s own will to love without hatred and persevere without quitting.

This must be processed thoroughly.  Jesus had within Himself the power to love the most hateful sinner, endure the most demeaning criticism without having to despise the critic or try to defend Himself against the unfair charges.  He was able to face any seeming defeat without becoming at all discouraged.  Whatever else we might contemplate regarding everything Jesus suffered to bring an end to Sin in the World, we must also consider just how much strength was contained within the scope of His personality to face it fully without hatred or despair!  It all reached a crescendo when He cried out from the Cross, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. (Luke 23:34 NIV)

If we simply take a step back from the primary work of Christ in bringing salvation to humanity on the cross, there is a secondary effect that we must see.  Think about the immensity of this statement regarding the state of mind of our Savior just before He was crucified.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2 NIV) Our Lord, by what He suffered and how He responded to His suffering, revealed what is possible within the human personality when it is joined to that of Christ.  If you have been born again, you have Christ in you and all He has within Himself to face any difficulty or trial, you also possess by Him being a part of you.  The problem, and this is a most troubling problem, is that you most likely don’t even realize what our Lord places within you when He joins Himself to you.  It takes a great crisis, a tremendous force of evil for you to see what it is you have in Christ.

When the Apostles faced the greatest trial of their lives, the arrest and crucifixion of Christ, they failed miserably.  They were cowardly, self-pitying and without faith.  How could they ever know just what power they held within themselves with Christ a part of them if all they had to assess it was how they acted during the last days of His life.  God gave them an opportunity to discover it in a way most of us would try our best to avoid.  After they had been boldly preaching about Christ, the Jewish priest and leaders of the Jewish religious community rounded up the Apostles.  They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.  Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. (Acts 5:40-42 NIV) How would they have responded to this horrid beating before Christ and His courage and joy had become a part of them?  Most likely in the same they did to Christ being arrested.  They would have felt sorry for themselves and quit preaching.  Not now though, not with Jesus and all His strength and courage and love a part of them.  Instead, they were happy the Lord found them worthy to be humiliated because they lived with Christ.

What we must face squarely is this supernatural strength of character to peacefully find joy and the ability to forgive even when faced with brutal, beastly treatment.  The effect of this supernatural response to terrible circumstances may not be immediately seen but that does not mean it will not work eventually in the hearts of those without Christ who witness it firsthand.  Without the sheer weight of the cruelty faced by Christ it might never have been known just how much power was contained in the heart of Christ.  Anything less than this great show of force could have been disregarded because it was no more miraculous than the work of a Gandhi or Socrates.  This response of Jesus and then of the Apostles to terrible difficulties and brutal treatment was as wondrous a miracle for those present as the parting of the Red Sea for it showed just what a real person has inside when Christ is living within.  There are monumental trials Christian people face and they are sometimes horrific and God does not deny just how terrifying and difficult they are.  But our Lord lets Satan initiate them for this one purpose.  In them the power of God is revealed in its full glory.  Those who could never forgive true evil, who could never love hateful people, who could not on their own be courageous in such circumstances are courageous and joyful because of Christ within and that is seen for what it is; a true miracle of God.  You cannot know the full extent of God’s power in you until you face overwhelming circumstances.  You will not know just how great the love of Christ is within you if you never encounter someone you cannot love on your own.  Who would have known what our Lord could do if He never was crucified and your friends and family might not know just how great and wonderful Christ in you is if you do not encounter a hardship only Christ in you can overcome and in that hardship have supernatural joy in the midst of it!