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Category: ethics

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Published on 1 Comment on Feeling on top of the world? Hebrews 12:14-29

Hebrews 12:14-29 Sermon.  Audio here.  Text below.

Mountains are often thought of as spiritual.  A mountaintop experience is a spiritual experience.  People say they often feel closer to God or closer to spiritual things when they’re on a mountain.

And the bible begins in Eden which is described in Ezekiel 28 as “the holy mountain of God.”  Genesis 2 says that rivers flowed out of this mountain garden and down to the rest of the world.  So humanity began on high.  And the fall, was literally a descent down the mountain, away from God’s presence.

If anyone were to get back into God’s presence, not only would they have to get past the guardian cherubim, these angelic bouncers with their flaming swords barring the entrance.  They would have to ascend the hill of the LORD (Psalm 24).  And that’s just commonly the way the bible speaks.

The bible speaks of Jesus having descended from the heights.  And as He lived among us He lived the perfect life.  The life of other-centred love and sacrifice that you and I should live but don’t – Jesus did it.  And then He died the perfect death as our sacrifice for sins.  And then, when He arose, He ascended back into the Most Holy Place – heaven itself – and He went there as our perfect Priest.  We have a Friend in very high places.

That’s the argument Hebrews has been making for the last 12 chapters.  Jesus has come and lived our life for us.  He’s entered into the depths of our suffering and struggle and He’s lived the faithful life we never could.  But He did it FOR US.

And then He died the perfect sacrificial death on the cross.  And He did it FOR US.  You and I deserve to die in the depths because of our filth and uncleanness.  But His godforsaken death in the depths is counted before God FOR US.

And then He has ascended as the perfect Priest into heaven FOR US.  We don’t have the right to be in the holy presence of God, but He is there on our behalf.  He represents us in the highest place imaginable.

If we trust Jesus then we get joined to Jesus.  And His life is our life, His death is our death, His ascension to God is our ascension to God.

And after 12 chapters of this kind of argument, the writer says in this section: “Don’t you know where you are?  Do you have any idea where Christ has brought you?”

You are on the mountaintop.  You have reached the summit.

These verses are here to wake us up to our mountaintop experience with God.  And once we realize where we are – where Christ has brought us – then this passage will tell us how to move out into the world from these height.

That’s how we’ll study this chapter.  We’ll begin on the mountaintop.  We’ll appreciate where we are – secure on the high ground.  And then we’ll consider how we’re meant to walk out into the world

But first the mountaintop experience.

...continue reading "Feeling on top of the world? Hebrews 12:14-29"

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Published on 5 Comments on Triune Glory is Cruciform Glory

A meandering waffle...

Recently I've written about the glory of the triune God.  This glory is His other-centred love.  When He acts for this glory it's not because He or His glory are self-centred.  No He is other-centred and His glory is His grace.  But just because this is so, when God acts for the sake of His glorious grace He is simply determining to be Giver.

From eternity the nature of the triune God has been deferral and other-centred praise.  When faced by creatures, even creatures who would ignore and spurn such love, this God determines to love with an almighty 'nevertheless'.

It's like the mother who is faced by a naughty and manipulative child.  She could cave in to the tantrum or she could withdraw and ignore the child altogether.  But she condescends in love, not because the child is good (he's not) and not because she's weak (she's not).  She acts in accordance with her gracious motherliness, to love the child in spite of himself and in this way to lift him from his misbehaviour.

Put it another way, it's like the man who is struck on the right cheek by an aggressor.  By nature his instincts are fight or flight - strike back or withdraw.  But instead he stands his ground and offers his left cheek also.  He opens himself out in grace and continues the offer of relationship.  This is God-like glory.

Put it another way, it's like Christ crucified.  He might have remained in heaven or merely sent us to hell.  Instead He acted for the sake of His glory.  He absorbed our blow and rather than retaliate He offered reconciling love.

The cross was the triune love laid bare.  And this is not simply because the Persons demonstrated how much they love and act for one another.  More than this, they demonstrated how the glory of grace encounters what is outside this love.  In costly sacrifice the triune glory suffers what is outside in order to draw it in.

How do we respond to this glorious God?  Well we rejoice in the grace of Jesus shown to us - the terrible children and violent aggressors.  And we pass on the divine glory we have received.  Out of the fulness we have received we empty ourselves (which is precisely the dynamic we have seen from the triune God in the cross of Christ).  Out of the strengthening of Christ's Spirit we will adopt cross-shaped love towards others and in every circumstance imaginable practise costly cheek-turning.  (More on cheek turning here, here and here).

In this sense "What would Jesus do?" is exactly the question to ask in every ethical situation.  Just make sure your answer is always: To receive the grace of the Father and lay down our lives for the unworthy.  Once you're looking for opportunities, it's surprising how often you'll be able to apply the wisdom of the cross in daily, practical cheek-turning.  And this is what it means to 'glorify God.'  The glory of the cross lived out is the glory of the triune God applied.  Because the triune glory is the cruciform glory.

It's a wonderful thing to participate in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).  But the very essence of it is taking up your cross and following Christ (Mark 8:34)


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Published on 15 Comments on Discipleship?

It's only just occured to me - discipleship is not in the bible.

The word I mean.

Disciple is.  Obviously.

But not discipleship.

Is that significant?

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The Cambridge online dictionary describes the 'ship' suffix as...

having the rank, position, skill or relationship of the stated type

So a lord has the rank or position of lordship.

Scholarship denotes the skill of scholars.

Membership refers to the relationship of members.

So what does discipleship mean?

Is it a rank or position?  Well that's not really how we use it.  We usually just call someone 'a disciple' if we want to refer to their position.

Is it a relationship?  Well maybe.  Discipleship might occasionally describe how we relate to the lordship of Jesus.  Very occasionally.

But most often we use 'discipleship' to refer to the skill of being a disciple.  It's disciple-craft.  It's the art of following Jesus.

And my question is just this - why talk about the craft of following Jesus?  Why not just talk about following Him?

Or to speak more literally (the greek 'mathetes' is where we get the word 'mathematics' - it's about knowledge) - why not just talk about learning from Christ.  We're not primarily interested in the craft of learning from Jesus.  Shouldn't the focus be on the actual learning/following/walking/obeying?

We could study disciple-craft all we like.  We could be extremely knowledgeable in the art of discipleship and actually never be a disciple.

So maybe we should forget about discipleship.  Maybe we should just be disciples.

Or have I just shot my mouth off in total ignorance / irrelevance?

There's always that....

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Published on Leave a comment on Should I tell him? The marriage could never survive it

Sad businesswoman

A friend of mine was counselling a woman who'd been cheating on her husband.  She ended the affair and resolved never to tell her husband about any of it.  She said "If I told him it would put a bomb under our marriage."

What would you reply?

My friend's answer was inspired:

"The bomb has already gone off.  You've already exploded it.  It's torn through the heart of your marriage.  There are people bleeding to death and you're wondering whether you should tell someone?"

Maybe you're reading this and you're the one who's set off the bomb.  You must tell.  It's the only way forward.

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Published on Leave a comment on 12 Disciple-thoughts

A Disciple is a learner.

Mathetes is the greek word for disciple (from which we get 'mathematics').  It's a term for learners. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom 12:3). 

To be a disciple is to be Jesus' family

Matthew 12:49

To be a disciple is to be included in Jesus' ministry to the world

Matthew 15:36

There are disciples of all sorts of Teachers, a disciple of Jesus must switch allegiance

John 1:37; 9:28; Acts 20:30

'Disciples' often turn back from following Jesus...

John 6:66

But true disciples abide in Jesus' word

John 8:31

We show ourselves to be disciples by loving one another

John 13:35

Discipleship is about reflecting the Lord's glory. 

2 Cor 3:18 - from the Lord outwards to the world

Evangelism makes disciples...

Matt 28:18-20 - we do not aim for converts merely but for disciples.

...and discipleship makes evangelists

The 12 disciples become 12 apostles (sent ones).  The call to Christ is the call to be a fisher of men - 'I believed therefore I spoke'.

Discipleship is not about getting people to do what they don't want to do.

Contrary to how it's often preached, the true learner is called to live out their new nature, not simply stifle their 'true desires'. 

The call to discipleship is not gradual

We think of ramping up our expectations for discipleship over time.  Jesus calls us to die from the outset  (Luke 14:27,33).  The little stuff follows. 

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Published on Leave a comment on How Jesus views the collection plate

41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. 43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything--all she had to live on."  (Mark 12:41-44)

The way we usually carry on you'd imagine that Jesus watches the collection plate like a hawk, biting His nails to the quick, hoping against hope that we'll give enough to finance His kingdom aspirations.  That's basically how we think anyway.

But Jesus is not like that.  Actually He's watching us.  He's not bothered about what we throw in so much as what we hold back.  For Him it's not the amount but the sacrifice that counts.  Because - honestly - He's not on edge waiting to see whether His gospel agenda is financially viable.  He's interested in the givers not the gift.

I was once staying with some millionaires in the States.  They had a massive house, massive swimming pool, even a man-made lake stocked with fish.  They called it a pond.  It wasn't.  It was a lake.  My friend was also staying there and one night I wondered aloud to him how much the kingdom would benefit if they gave their wealth away.  My friend was wiser.  He said 'Maybe.  But if they gave away more of their money, the real benefit would be for them.'

Jesus is not watching the missions giving fund.  He's watching the givers.  That's where His real concern lies.

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Published on 17 Comments on 1 Corinthians 13 sermon

bubblebath

Sermon Audio Click Here

How do you think of 1 Corinthians 13?  Is it a warm, relaxing bubble bath?  Does it make you forget your cares and give you the warm fuzzies?

antiseptic

I'm here to tell you, this chapter is not a bubble bath.  It’s a scalding hot bath full of antiseptic!

And we are covered in cuts and bruises and deep wounds.  And 1 Corinthians 13 hurts.  It hurts!

That’s the kind of wake-up call Paul wanted the Cornithians to have.  No Corinthian read this chapter and thought, ‘How sweet!.  They thought ‘Yikes!  I am in deep, deep trouble here.’

There are three paragraphs in this chapter.  Paragraph 1 will put the fear of God into us, paragraph 2 will make us despair of ourselves, but only then will paragraph 3 give us some hope.

There’s hope in the end, but Paul wants us to soak long and hard in some painful truths.

Listen here.  Or keep reading...

...continue reading "1 Corinthians 13 sermon"

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