Posts filed under ‘ABC Extra’
ABC Extra – Unbaptized Money
Though I’m almost sure it’s apocryphal, Martin Luther is credited with saying, “There are three conversions necessary – the conversion of the heart, of the mind, and of the purse.” Regardless of whether or not Luther actually spoke these words, this quote can serve to remind us of the importance our Lord places on faithful stewardship. What we do with money matters.
In his book The Money Map, Howard Dayton writes, “When the Crusades were fought during the twelfth century, the Crusaders purchased the services of mercenaries to fight for them. Because it was a religious war, the Crusaders insisted that the mercenaries be baptized before fighting. As they were being baptized, the soldiers would take their swords and hold them up out of the water to symbolize that Jesus Christ was not in control of their swords, that they retained the freedom to use their weapons in any way they wished.” Like Crusaders wielding swords in whatever unbaptized way they saw fit, many people wish to use money in whatever unsanctified way they see expedient. But God wants our money to be “baptized,” so to speak, in that He wants us to steward our money faithfully and well. And first and foremost, stewarding our money faithfully and well means being generous with others even s God has been generous to us.
In our text from this past weekend, Solomon writes, “A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed” (Proverbs 11:25). God wants us to be generous and refreshing toward others. Notably, the Hebrew verb for “refreshes” in this verse is rawah, meaning, “to water.” In Hebrew, this word is in the Hiphil mood, which is an intensive form of the Hebrew verb. Thus, when Solomon encourages us to “refresh others,” he encourages us to do so intensively. That is, we are to be as generous as we possible can be. And as we do so, we ourselves will “be refreshed.” This phrase “be refreshed” is in the Hophal voice, another intensive Hebrew verbal form. Thus, as we intensively refresh others through our generosity, God will intensively refresh us through His generosity.
Money that is not baptized by the gospel only causes harm and grief. Judas, when he sells his Lord for thirty pieces of silver, despairs and commits suicide (Matthew 27:1-5). Hezekiah, when he shows off his temple treasury to envoys from Babylon, seals the demise of his nation (Isaiah 39). And Ananias and Sapphira, when they duplicitously hold back some money from the sale of a field, claiming that they had given all the proceeds to the Church, are struck down by God (Acts 5:1-11). Money used apart from the purposes of God ends in disaster. Conversely, money that is “baptized” by the gospel can be used to illustrate the gospel itself! The apostle Paul writes, “You were bought at a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20, 7:23). What is this price? It is the price of Christ’s blood. The monetary picture of a price is used to describe our redemption. Indeed, the very word “redeemed” is monetary, for it describes how Christ purchased us “from the empty way of life” (1 Peter 1:18), that is, from the empty ways of sin, death, and the devil.
Do you allow the money with which you have been entrusted to be used at God’s pleasure and for His purposes? Or, are your finances an area in which you remain functionally “unconverted,” holding your pocketbook out of the water while the rest of you is baptized into Christ, too afraid to heed Christ’s invitation to steward your finances in a way that is commiserate with His Kingdom values? True financial joy and freedom is found only when your money is brought under the authority of Christ. Jesus has been generous enough to give you all that you have. Do you trust Him to be wise enough to use the money you have for your good and His glory?
Want to learn more? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s
message or Pastor Zach’s ABC!
Sermon Extra – Glorious Work
Work is a blessing from God. Do you believe this? I have talked to far too many people who do not believe this – at least if the way they talk about their jobs is any indication of what they believe. Complaints about the incompetence of co-workers, the ineptitude of the boss, and the inequity of one’s paycheck are all commonplace. Granted, even Scripture admits that work involves frustration and difficulty. This is a result of the Fall into sin. God tells Adam after he has eaten from the fruit of the forbidden tree: “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food” (Genesis 3:17-19). The Hebrew word for “painful toil” is isabon, which refers to both physical and emotional pain. And certainly this can be true of our work. There are days at the office, in the shop, or on the site that are not only physically exhausting, they’re emotionally exhausting as well. But it must be remembered that the isabon of work is a result of sin and not part of God’s original design and desire for work. Work was originally created to be a privilege and joy. Indeed, work was part of creation even before the Fall. Immediately after God creates Adam, God takes “the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15). God has weaved and woven work into the fabric of His creation.
Such a high view of work is unique to Christianity. Ancient pagan literature takes a much grimmer view of labor. The ancient eighteenth century BC Akkadian Epic of Atra-Hasis has its own account of the origin of human work. The epic opens: “Great indeed was the drudgery of the gods, the forced labor was heavy, the misery too much.” The gods, according to this epic, were tired of having to work. They considered it “drudgery.” How do the gods solve their drudgery dilemma? They declare, “Let us create, then, a human, a man. Let him bear the yoke! Let him bear the yoke! Let man assume the drudgery of the god.” In Atra-Hasis, humans are created to do the work the gods do not care to do themselves. Work, in and of itself, is, in this epic, an awkward annoyance, to be pawned off and passed off by any means possible. This, however, is not Christianity’s view of work.
According to Christianity, work was not originally created to be a burden, but a high and holy privilege. It was part of the authority God graciously allowed human beings to exercise over His creation. God says in the creation account, “Let man rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (Genesis 1:26). The work of ruling the earth was meant to be an awesome honor, not a cumbersome curse.
The German sociologist Max Weber coined the phrase “Protestant work ethic” to refer to the premium on which Protestants, and the Puritans especially, put on work. Unfortunately, Weber understood this ethic moralistically, glorifying the “self-made man” and trumpeting the tangible rewards of hard work, rather than understanding one who works hard as carrying out his divinely ordained vocation before God for his neighbor, regardless of the earthly rewards. The true “Protestant work ethic” is wrapped up in the doctrine of vocation, which sees every job, be it stately or homely, as a gift from God as long as it is not immoral in its nature (e.g., prostitution, drug dealing, etc.). Thus, work – all work – is a gift from God to glorify Him and to help one’s neighbor. Work – all work – is meant to impart dignity, not drudgery, to human beings. In the words of John Milton:
Man hath his daily work of body and mind
Appointed, which declares his dignity,
And the regard of Heaven on all his ways.
Heaven regards your work well. So praise and thank God for your work and stand honored at eternity’s acclaim.
Want to learn more? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s
message or Pastor Zach’s ABC!
ABC Extra – Wising Up with Christ
This past weekend in worship and ABC, we kicked off our summer message series called “Wise Up! Lessons from Proverbs.” The purpose of Proverbs is explicitly laid out for us in its prologue: “To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight” (Proverbs 1:2). The book of Proverbs was written so that we may read them, apply them, and so be wise. Of course, we do not always apply the Proverbs as we should. Even Solomon, the author of the bulk of this book, did not always follow his own advice. Solomon sings: “Rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love” (Proverbs 5:18-19). Later in his kingship, however, we read about how “King Solomon loved many foreign women…from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, ‘You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.’ Solomon clung to these in love” (1 Kings 11:1-2). Solomon did not remain satisfied with the wife of his youth. And the result was apostasy: “When Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods” (1 Kings 11:4). Thus, Proverbs ought to call Solomon – and all of us – to repentance. For none of us completely heeds its call to wise living.
Interestingly, at the same time Proverbs reveals to us our shortcomings, it also introduces us to one who is perfectly wise. Indeed, this person seems to be the very personification of wisdom. This person says:
I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion…The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His work, the first of His acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth…When He established the heavens, I was there; when He drew a circle on the face of the deep, when He made the firm skies above, when He established the fountains of the deep, when He assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside Him, like a master workman. (Proverbs 8:12, 22-23, 27-30)
This person named Wisdom is as ancient as God Himself. He was with God even as He laid the foundations of the earth. Who is this perfect personification of wisdom? The evangelist John gives us a clue: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:1-2). This incarnation of wisdom is none other than Jesus. He is wisdom personified and exemplified. The apostle Paul explains it this way: “Christ Jesus became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30).
A famous theologian of the Lutheran Church, Horace Hummel, offers one of my favorite definitions of wisdom. He describes wisdom as “the ability to cope.” I like this definition a lot, partly because there is a whole genre of biblical literature known as “wisdom literature.” This genre includes Proverbs, of course, but also books like Job and many of the Psalms. Especially in the case of Job, Hummel’s definition of wisdom proves to be spot on. For Job had to cope with tragedies and terrors on every side as his life fell apart around him. And yet, through it all, he coped and hoped in God. And at the end, He got to see God. I finally appreciate this definition of wisdom because Jesus is its supreme embodiment. For when we act in unwise ways – when we sin – Jesus, as wisdom personified – “copes” with our sin through His cross. He takes us foolish sinners and saves us. By His Spirit, He then gives us the capability to cope with the trials and tests we face with wisdom that comes from God and with wisdom that finally is God. For we cope with this broken world with Christ by our side. I thank God He is kind enough to share the wisdom who is His Son with a fool like me.
Want to learn more? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s
message or Pastor Zach’s ABC!
ABC Extra – Team Lifting
A few months back, I purchased a treadmill for my wife. The one we previously owned had worn out and it was time for a newer, more powerful, more advanced model. I was very happy with the deal I received on the treadmill. I got it for about 50 percent off the manufacturer’s suggested retail price! As I was paying for the treadmill, the customer service representative asked me, “Would you like to pay an additional $100 to have the treadmill delivered and set up?” I didn’t even have to think about it: “$100? No thank you, I’ll pass.”
A couple of days later, I returned to the store with my truck and a buddy to pick up the treadmill. It was going to be simple. We would load the treadmill in the bed of my truck, haul it home, set it up, and be done. The plan was perfect. That is, the plan was perfect until we tried to actually pick up the treadmill. It had to weigh 1,000 pounds! Thankfully, a couple of guys from the sporting goods store came out to help us. When we finally got it into the bed of my truck and drove it back to my house, we took it out of the box, piece by piece, to haul inside. After a whole lot of sweat and an aching back, I decided I should have paid the $100.
As I was trying, without success, to lug the huge and heavy box out of the sporting goods store to the bed of my truck, I noticed an icon the box’s side. It had two people picking up a hug box with these words: “TEAM LIFT for your safety.” When I saw the icon, I thought to myself, “Would anyone even think of trying to pick this box up by himself?”
In Luke 10:38-42, we meet two sisters: Martha and Mary. These sisters could not be any more different. Jesus and His twelve disciples are joining the sisters at their house for a supper, and Martha wants to make sure everything is just perfect for her guests. And so she goes about preparing a lavish feast. But with her recipe books strewn across the kitchen, pots and pans boiling over on the stove, and flour flung across the floor, Martha’s meal becomes more than she can bear. She need someone with whom she can “team lift” in preparing. But Mary, her sister, seems unable or, worse yet, unwilling to help. When Jesus and His disciples arrive, Mary simply sits at Jesus’ feet, listening intently to what He says. Finally, in exasperation, Martha complains to her Lord: “Lord, don’t You care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me” (Luke 10:40)! The Greek word for “help” is synantilambanomai. This one word is actually a compound word made up of the words: synanti, meaning “with,” or “corresponding to,” and lambanomai, meaning “to take up,” or “to lift.” Thus, when Martha asks for her sister’s help, she is asking her to do some “team lifting.”
Now surely, Jesus should empathize with Martha’s plight. After all, her hard work could break her back! But Jesus’ response to Martha is altogether surprising if not even offensive: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41-42). Jesus will not send Mary to “team lift” with her sister. Because finally, Martha doesn’t need a team lifter, Martha needs Jesus. Martha needs to learn from Jesus, like Mary. Martha needs to follow Jesus, like Mary. And Martha needs to rest in Jesus, like Mary.
Be it in friendships between children or marriages between adults, I often hear people complain that a partner in a relationship is not “pulling their weight.” These people explain that they are left all by themselves to do the heavy lifting of a relationship. Though it is true that friends and spouses certainly ought to help each other, before you complain that another person is not pulling their weight, perhaps you should first go to Jesus. Perhaps you should ask Him to heal and reconcile your relationship. Perhaps you should ask Him to give you the strength needed to maneuver your way through what can sometimes be complex and weighty relationships. Because before you need someone to “team lift” with you, you need Jesus. Because Jesus doesn’t just help you with some of your burden takes your burden and nails it to His cross. So find your strength – and your rest – in Him.
Want to learn more? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s
message or Pastor Zach’s ABC!
ABC Extra – A Father’s Love
One of my favorite country songs is by Rodney Atkins. It describes a father whose son seeks to emulate him, sometimes for good, but also sometimes for ill. As the song opens, Rodney sings about a non-descript curse word that his son learns…from him! Rodney confesses how ashamed he is that he, no matter how inadvertently, taught his son such language. As the song continues, however, we also hear about how his son watched Rodney pray and so prayed like his father. I love the song’s refrain, sung in the guise of Rodney’s son:
I’ve been watching you, dad ain’t that cool?
I’m your buckaroo, I want to be like you.
And eat all my food and grow as tall as you are.
We like fixin’ things and holding momma’s hand
Yeah, we’re just alike, hey, ain’t we dad?
I want to do everything you do; so I’ve been watching you.
With touching lyrics, this song expresses a simple truth about how a boy learns to be a man – he learns from his father.
Sadly, though a boy can learn good and magnanimous things from his father, he can also learn sinful and aberrant things. From his father, a son can learn how to cuss or how to pray. From his father, a son can learn how to abuse women or how to be faithful to one woman. From his father, a son can learn how to nurture his kids or how to neglect them. A father’s influence can hardly be overestimated.
With fathers carrying such a heavy responsibility to faithfully parent their children, to whom can fathers turn to learn how to be men, especially if they did not have good role models in their own fathers? The apostle Paul helps us answer this question when he writes:
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansingher by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. (Ephesians 5:25-28)
Two things are especially notable about this passage. First, though this passage does not describe the relationship between a father and his son explicitly, if a father wants to raise his children well, he should always have these verses about his relationship with his wife in the forefront of his mind. As Theodore Hesburgh reminds us, “The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.” A father’s most powerful example to his children of what love is and looks like is how he loves his wife. If he claims to love his children, but does not show love for his wife, that father’s positive influence will be greatly diminished. Thus, a father must love his wife well. Second, we learn from this passage that a father learns how to love his wife – and by extension, his children – by how Christ loves him. Paul says, “Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her… In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives.” Husbands are supposed to love their wives and children “in the same way” as Christ loves them. How does Christ love His men? He loves them with compassion and mercy and patience and bravery. Husbands ought to love their wives likewise. This way, when a son watches his father, he will see not only how his dad loves his mother, he will see how Christ loves him.
And so, fathers, love your wives and your children! For your kids are not only watching you, they’re learning from you. May they learn Jesus from you!
Want to learn more? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s
message or Pastor Zach’s ABC!
Sermon Extra – God’s Call On Men
In 1994, some Swiss researchers conducted a survey on how the worship habits of parents influence their children. The results were striking. These researchers found that if both a father and mother attend church regularly, 33% of their children will grow up to attend church regularly, while 41% will grow up to attend irregularly. Sadly, a quarter of their children will grow up not practicing their Christian faith at all. These researchers further found that if a father does not attend church while a mother regularly attends church, only 2% of their children will subsequently become regular attenders themselves, while 37% will become irregular attenders. Over 60% of these children will grow up and not attend church at all.
Now, here comes the shocking statistic. If a father is a regular churchgoer, but a mother does not attend church, 44% of these children will grow up to attend church regularly. That’s eleven percentage points higher than if a father and mother attend church regularly together! All told, between two-thirds and three-fourths of children with faithful fathers will attend church, be that regularly or irregularly.[1]
Clearly, a father’s role as a spiritual leader is vital to the spiritual health of his family. It is important to note that this does not in any way disparage or diminish the role ladies play in their families. I know many ladies who, in spite of their husbands’ lack of commitment to things spiritual, labor extensively and faithfully to teach their children about Jesus and His Gospel. I praise God for such women and trust that the Holy Spirit will use these ladies’ efforts to instill strong and lasting faith in the hearts of their children. These statistics do, however, reinforce the call and commission of Scripture that a father is called to be a strong, spiritual leader of his family (cf. Ephesians 5:22-6:4). Sadly, far too many men are derelict in this duty. And if these statistics are any indication, the results of such dereliction are disastrous. This blog, then, is meant to be a reminder to men of their God-given role!
As I discussed in my message on Sunday, there are many sirens of sin which entice men away from their role as the spiritual leader of their families. The apostle Paul discusses some of the temptations that men – and all people, for that matter – struggle against: “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like” (Galatians 5:19-21). How many men have fallen and failed as leaders because they have given in to temptations like sexual immorality or drunkenness or selfish ambition? Far too many.
So how does Paul tell men to war against such sinful temptations so they can lead their families faithfully? Does he tell them to try harder? Or work longer? Or fight fiercer? No. Instead, fully aware that no man, no matter how macho, is strong enough to resist the allures of the sinful nature, Paul continues: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Ephesians 5:22-23). Paul calls upon God’s Spirit to produce the fruit of righteousness in and through men. For men cannot produce this fruit themselves. Instead, they will fall into sin every time. It is interesting to note that while Paul speaks of the “acts of the sinful nature” in verse 19, he speaks of the “fruit of the Spirit” in verse 22. Sinful is how we act. Righteousness is the fruit the Spirit produces in us and through us.
So to the gentlemen, I would say this: Remember the call God has given you to be the spiritual leaders of your household. But do not try to carry out God’s call on you through your own efforts and with your own strength. You will fall and fail every time. Instead, implore the Spirit to produce in you and through you His fruit of righteousness. For this fruit will be a blessing to you…and to your family. And why would you want anything less for those you love most?
Want to learn more on this passage? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Zach’s
message or Pastor Krueger’s ABC!
[1] Robbie Low, “The Truth About Men and Church,” Touchstone Magazine (June 2003).
ABC Extra – Authority Issues
In seminary, I had a friend who loved the sitcom “Malcolm in the Middle.” He watched it religiously. I myself was not so big a fan, but the theme song for the show, sung by They Might Be Giants, was catchy and still sticks in my mind. Its chorus was clear and unambiguous: “You’re not the boss of me now. You’re not the boss of my now. You’re not the boss of me now, and you’re not so big.” What a message of fierce independence! Apparently, They Might Be Giants had problems with authority.
Problems with authority, of course, are nothing new. They are as old as the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve first rebelled against the authority of God and ate from the tree of which God warned, “You must not eat” (cf. Genesis 2:17). There is a seemingly innate tug on the human spirit to declare to God and everyone else, “You’re not the boss of me!”
Considering the difficulty so many of us have with authority, it comes as no surprise that many people try either to minimize or rationalize the Bible’s calls to submit to authority. Yet, the call of Scripture remains clear. The preacher of Hebrews declares, “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you” (Hebrews 13:17). There are a couple of especially notable features of this verse.
First, it is important to note that those in authority over others are themselves under authority. They “must give an account,” the preacher of Hebrews says, concerning how they exercised their authority. Specifically, they must give an account to the Lord. As I mentioned in ABC, all human authority is derived authority. That is, all human authority is given by God to certain individuals who are called to steward that authority faithfully and well. No human being has a carte blanche authority which is unaccountable to God.
Second, it is important to note that when those under authority willingly and joyfully submit to the authority of others, things tend to go better – both for those in authority and for those under authority! The preacher of Hebrews says that when people under authority submit to authority, the job of those in authority becomes “a joy, not a burden.” Likewise, to those under authority, the preacher of Hebrews says that rebellion is “of no advantage to you.” Submitting to authority makes things go well – for everyone!
Rebellion against authority often appears tantalizing. After all, it promises the alluring prospect of autonomy. But such autonomy is illusive and, finally, non-existent. For at the same time we seek to rebel out from under the authority of others, we end up rebelling into the authority of sin. And the authority sin wields is tragic and terrorizing. Paul calls the authority of sinfulness “weak and miserable.” He then goes on to ask, “Do you wish to be enslaved by it all over again” (Galatians 4:9)? The authority of sin leads to slavery. The authority of Christ, conversely, leads to freedom – not freedom from all constraints, but freedom for a joyful and righteous life. This is why Paul continues: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).
Though it is true that some authority is depraved and despotic and ought to be resisted, in general, we are called to submit to those in authority. For we need authority. We need authority to provide guidance, protection, and a safeguard against wickedness. Blessedly, God’s authority provides all of these things perfectly and fully. Submit to His authority. And submit to those He has put in authority over you.
Want to learn more on this passage? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s
message or Pastor Zach’s ABC!
ABC Extra – Question Everything, Just Question It Correctly
In his 1963 short story, The Sky Is Gray, Earnest Gaines tells the story of a young man who interrupts a worship service, imploring those gathered to “question and question and question…Question everything. Every stripe, every star, every word spoken. Everything.” When the preacher wonders if even God should be questioned, the young man responds, “Question Him, too…His existence as well as everything else. Everything.”
This past weekend in ABC, I invited you to do what the young worship service crasher in Gaines’ story demanded: I invited you to question everything. Indeed, I outlined three Greek words in the New Testament which are often translated as “question”: Erotao, which denotes questioning with a desire to acquire new information, aiteo, which describes questioning with the purpose of acquiring divine help, and deomai, the word for “prayer.” For prayers often consist of our questions. The Bible, it seems, encourages questioning. And we are free, it seems, to question everything.
And yet, even though the Bible encourages us to question everything, how we question everything can be just as important as the questions themselves. A person can question sincerely, an activity which is encouraged, but he can also question cynically, an activity which is very dangerous. This is the case with the first question in history. Satan slithers up to Eve and asks, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’” (Genesis 3:1)? Now, Satan knows full well the answer to his question. Satan knows full well that God did not forbid Adam and Eve to eat from any tree; rather, He forbid them to eat from only one tree – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For if they were to eat of it, they would die. Satan’s question really isn’t a question at all. Instead, it’s a trap, designed to lead Adam and Eve away from God’s truth into confusion.
Sadly, these same kinds of traps, masquerading as questions, are still launched against believers even today. To say to a Christian, “How could you believe what the Bible says when it was written by a bunch of male chauvinist pigs who had a mythical view of the world?” is hardly a question. It’s a statement of incredulity. Questions are good. Cynicism is not.
Thus, I present you with this question: How do you question? With antagonism or with acquisitiveness? With cynicism or with sincerity? The preacher of Hebrews directs us: “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart” (Hebrews 10:22). It is fine to question everything, even God, but we are to do so with a sincere heart. How we ask is just as important as what we ask. So be open. Be teachable. And prepare to be answered. For God is not silent. He answers. I hope you’re listening.
Want to learn more? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Zach’s ABC!
ABC Extra – Seven Tips for Reading Revelation Responsibly
In light of recent predictions that the rapture would take place on May 21 at 6 pm eastern time, Pastor Tucker and I thought it would be helpful to address what the Bible truly teaches about the last days and Christ’s Second Coming in worship and ABC yesterday. After all, there are clearly many unbiblical views of this age’s last days floating around, the May 21 rapture date being one of them. Pastor Tucker and I had a great time addressing head on the lies of this world with the truth of the Bible. In an effort to further cut through some of the confusion, I wanted republish an article I wrote a couple of years back for our church body concerning the Bible’s preeminent apocalyptic book: the book of Revelation.
Revelation is truly one of the most difficult books in Scripture to read and understand. If you’ve ever tried to read Revelation, you’ve encountered everything from dragons to beasts to horsemen, oh my! Saint John, who wrote revelation, has imagery that is overwhelming. He has metaphors which are befuddling. And his numerology is harder to crack than your college calculus course. So how in the world could we ever read, much less understand, such a confusing book?
Yesterday in ABC, I offered two tips to help you wade through Revelation’s mysteries. I figured that if two tips for reading Revelation are good, then seven tips must be even better. What follows, then, is what I like to call, “Zach’s Seven Tips for Reading Revelation Responsibly.” I arrived at these tips after writing a series of daily blogs on the book of Revelation.
It is important to note that these tips are not meant to offer a full-fledged interpretation of Revelation as a commentary might do; rather, they are meant to offer a hermeneutic – that is, a method of interpretation – to assist you as you read Revelation for yourself. They are, in some sense, meant to “teach a man how to fish” so that he can properly read John’s mysterious opus. So, with this in mind, remember these tips when you engage in eschatological inquiry with Saint John.
Tip #1: If it didn’t mean that in John’s day, it doesn’t mean that in our day.
Many interpretations of Revelation get real weird real quick. The Christian theologian and humorist G.K. Chesterton once quipped, “Though St. John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators.”[1] The reason so many people find so many wild things in Revelation is because rather than asking, “What was John actually thinking about when he wrote Revelation?” they instead try to arbitrarily connect John’s visions to all sorts of current events. Whenever we read Scripture, however, we should first try to understand the author’s own intended meaning rather than making up our own meanings. Old Testament professor Tremper Longman III explains cogently: “If literature is an act of communication, then meaning resides in the intention of the author. The author encoded a message for the readers. Interpretation then has as its goal the recovery of the author’s purpose in writing.”[2] When we read Revelation, we should first try to decipher John’s purposes in his imagery rather than our own. Sadly, many people fail to do this. For instance, some people actually think the infamous Mark of the Beast, 666 (13:18), is a code contained on computer chips which will one day be implanted by our government in our foreheads in a conspiracy to make us all lobotomized Satanists. The problem is, there were no computer chips in John’s day. Thus, John is probably not talking about computer chips here. And to say that he was is to claim that we understand John’s revelation better than John himself. This constitutes the height of arrogance and ought to be avoided.
Tip #2: Know your Bible.
John employs countless biblical allusions in Revelation that we can miss and misinterpret if we don’t know the rest of our Bible. For example, in Revelation 16, John writes, “Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon” (16:13). Huh? Frogs coming out of a dragon? Well, a “dragon” is John’s image for Satan (12:9) and “frogs” are classified as unclean animals in Leviticus 11:10. John seems to be saying, then, that Satan will speak unclean, deceiving, and blasphemous things about the Gospel. Now it makes sense! But you have to know the rest of your Bible in order to catch John’s point.
Tip #3: Know your history.
John wrote Revelation while exiled on the island of Patmos (1:9), a Roman penal settlement in the Aegean Sea. During John’s exile, Domitian was emperor of Rome. According to the ancient Roman historian Suetonius, Domitian demanded that the subjects of the empire worship him and even call him “lord and god.”[3] The German theologian and numismatist Ethelbert Stauffer writes of this emperor: “Domitian loved to hear…the cry of ‘Hail to the Lord!’…Other forms of acclamation…were the following: Hail, Victory, Lord of the earth, Invincible, Power, Glory, Honour, Peace, Security, Holy, Blessed, Great, Unequalled, Thou Alone, Worthy art Thou, Worthy is he to inherit the Kingdom, Come, come, do not delay, Come again.”[4] In Revelation 4:11, Jesus receives this acclamation: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they were created and have their being.” Many scholars believe that John is parodying the praises sung to Domitian in that day, saying that these praises to the emperor really belong to Jesus. But we only know this by knowing history.
Tip #4: If you feel like you’ve seen this before, it’s because you have.
Revelation tends to be more thematic rather than chronological in its organization. Indeed, when reading Revelation, you find that the world ends no fewer than four times (6:12-17, 11:15-19, 14:14-20, 16:17-21)! Following these four apocalypses, John then offers a detailed account of history’s conclusion in chapters 17-19. It is vital to recognize that all of these “endings” describe the same time period from different perspectives. It is not unusual, then, the get a case of déjà vu when reading Revelation. This is important to keep in mind Revelation’s thematic arrangement because if you try to read this book as a strictly chronological document, you can wind up with charts, diagrams, and maps detailing multiple returns and judgments of Christ that are so complicated, even Stephen Hawking can’t understand them. There is only one second coming of Christ. There are no third and fourth and fifth returns.
Tip #5: Don’t balance your checkbook using John’s math.
John’s numerology is meant to be interpreted symbolically, not literally. For example, in Revelation 7, John talks about a group of 144,000, sealed for salvation (7:4). 144,000 is 12x12x1000. The number 12 is associated with the church in Revelation (e.g., 21:14) and the number 1,000 is a Scriptural number for completeness (e.g., Psalm 50:10, 2 Peter 3:8). John’s point, then, is simply this: All who trust in Jesus are sealed for salvation! And just in case we miss his point, John continues by saying, “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb” (7:9). John’s 144,000 turns out to be innumerable.
Tip #6: John’s imagery is polyvalent.
Yes, I just used the word “polyvalent.” It’s a word I learned in seminary describing something that has more than one interpretation or meaning. And much of John’s imagery certainly has more than one interpretation or meaning. One example comes with the frogs spewing from the dragon’s mouth in Revelation 16:13, referenced previously under tip number two. In the interpretation proffered above, I mentioned that frogs are unclean animals according to Levitical law. Therefore, John is positing that Satan will speak unclean, deceiving, and blasphemous things about the Gospel. But that’s not all that John is positing. This plague of frogs, along with the other plagues in Revelation 16, parrot the plagues against Egypt in the story of the exodus (cf. Exodus 7:14-11:10). Thus, while the enemies of God are crushed by plagues of frogs (16:13), blood (16:3-4), sun and darkness (16:8-10), and hail (16:21), the people of God remain “blessed” (16:15). Thus, this chapter is also a chapter of comfort for God’s people as they are protected through terrible plagues. One symbol – more than one interpretation. John’s images, then, are not meant to be precise predictions, but general descriptions of both the sad state of wickedness in this world as well as the glorious promise of salvation we have in Christ. One image can have more than one referent. So even if you’ve cracked one code, there may be another lurking behind that same image.
Tip #7: Do not be afraid.
Too many people look at the second coming of Christ with fear instead of faith. They are scared of bloodshed, doom, gloom, and demise. But as John’s vision opens, he hears Jesus speak these words: “Do not be afraid” (1:17). In spite of a world full of trouble, Revelation is meant to offer us hope and comfort because it reminds us that Jesus wins over evil, as an elder in one of John’s visions says: “See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed” (5:5)! If Jesus wins, we have nothing of which to be afraid.
So there you have it: Seven simple tips to help navigate the labyrinth of mystery that is our final biblical book. Are you ready to take it on? If so, remember Revelation’s promise: “Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near” (1:3). Reading Revelation results in blessing. It will bless you. And that, at least for me, is reason enough to read it and, yes, even enjoy it. I hope you’ll read and enjoy it too.
Want to learn more? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s
message or Pastor Zach’s ABC!
[1] G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (New York: John Lane Company, 1909) 29.
[2] Tremper Longman III, Literary Approaches to Biblical Interpretation, in Foundations of Contemporary Interpretation, Moises Silva, ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996) 135.
[3] Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars, H.M. Byrd, trans. (Wordsworth Editions, 1997) 358.
[4] Ethelbert Stauffer, Christ and the Caesars (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1952) 155.
ABC Extra – The Danger of Loneliness
Loneliness is epidemic. An old Gallup poll from 1990 found that 36% of Americans report feeling lonely. And yet, study after study has shown that the feeling of loneliness and physical isolation are not always interconnected. Three social scientists from the University of Chicago, the University of California, and Harvard University recently conducted a study which noted that there is a “discrepancy between an individual’s loneliness and the number of connections in a social network.” These researchers concluded that loneliness is, at least in part, contagious. They point to a 1965 study by Harry Harlow on rhesus monkeys. Harlow noted that when an isolated monkey was reintroduced into a colony of monkeys, the monkey was driven away from the community. The researchers then noted, “Humans may similarly drive away lonely members of their species…Feeling socially isolated can lead to one becoming objectively isolated.” The idea, then, is this: Subjectively feeling alone leads to objectively being alone. But this is not a good thing. Indeed, the researchers open their study with this sobering statement: “Social species do not fare well when forced to live solitary lives.”
What three social scientists spent many years and thousands of dollars to study and discover, the Bible already knew. From the very beginning of creation, immediately after God created the first human being, Adam, God knew, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). As I mentioned in ABC, in a twist of cross-phonological irony, the Hebrew word for “alone” is bad. And when this word is applied to human beings, this is indeed the case. It is bad for a human being to be alone. And yet, at least at first glance, the case seems to be somewhat different with God.
“You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship You” (Nehemiah 9:6). “God alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea” (Job 9:8). “I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by Myself” (Isaiah 44:24). In each of these instances, the Hebrew word for “alone” is bad. And it is used, quite proudly I might add, of God. But when this word is used with regard to God, it is not so much used to describe God’s isolation as it is used to describe God’s uniqueness. It is God alone who created the earth and can use His creation as He desires. No one else has this privilege and prerogative. God is unique, but He is not isolated. Indeed, God’s very Trinitarian nature is evidence that He is not alone in the reclusivist sense, for He is in perfect communion with Himself.
As a reflection of the communion that God has within Himself, He had designed us to have communion with other people. For a human being to live life alone is indeed bad – in the English sense. This leads us, then, to some questions. Do we have deep, meaningful relationships where we know others and are known by others? If you are married, is your marriage strong and is your spouse you first and finest earthly companion, or are you merely two individuals who happen to be living in the same house? For those who do suffer from loneliness, do you seek to befriend others in Jesus’ name?
God is not alone. And we should not be alone either. This is why Jesus’ final promise was not one of isolation, but of presence: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). In Christ, we are never alone. And that’s a good thing.
Want to learn more on this passage? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s
message or Pastor Zach’s ABC!
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