Posts tagged ‘Religion’
Making the Most of Marriage
At the end of each year, major news outlets publish their lists of the year’s top news stories. For 2011, Osama bin Laden’s death and Japan’s earthquake and subsequent tsunami were the top news stories according to the Associate Press. [1] Interestingly, it is not only mainstream news outlets that provide such lists. Religious news outlets, editorial writers, and bloggers are now following suit. I have seen lists of 2011’s top religious news stories in Christianity Today [2] and the The Huffington Post. [3] But it is a top ten news story in the Gospel Coalition blog that really caught my attention. It is titled “Marriages Need Help.” Collin Hansen, who penned this list, explains why this story made his top ten:
This story could have appeared in my 2010 list, and it might warrant an encore in 2012. Same-sex “marriage,” legalized by New York state in 2011, continues to grab the headlines. But here’s the bigger story: a growing number of Westerners have abandoned the institution altogether. The Pew Research Center recently revealed that a record low number of Americans – 51 percent – are married. The rate dropped 5 percent in just one year, between 2009 and 2010. [4]
If that statistic from the Pew Research Center does not make your jaw drop, it should. At an increasingly rapid rate, Americans are either (A) getting divorced, (B) never getting married in the first place, or (C) living in lifeless, loveless, romance-less marriages. It is worth noting that the statistics from Pew do not account for those in category C.
In his book, The Meaning of Marriage, [5] Pastor Tim Keller distinguishes between two kinds of relationships: consumer relationships and covenantal relationships. A consumer relationship lasts only as long as the needs of the partners in the relationship are being met satisfactorily. As soon as needs stop being met, the relationship falls apart. These kinds of relationships, then, are inherently self-centered, for they exist merely to gratify their participants. Covenantal relationships, on the other hand, are binding relationships in which the good of the relationship trumps the preferences and immediate needs of the individuals in the relationship. These relationships are based on a continual commitment rather than on a consumer-fueled contentment.
Part of the reason marriage is on such a sharp decline, Keller argues, is because we have taken what should be the covenantal relationship of marriage and have turned it into a consumer relationship. In other words, many marriages last only as long as the partners are having their needs met. As soon as a marriage hits a rough patch, or as soon as one spouse or both spouses feel as though their desires are going unaddressed, divorce all too quickly ensues. Indeed, this is why many people don’t get married in the first place. They don’t want to bother with the kind of covenantal commitment that marriage inevitably brings – at least from a legal standpoint, if nothing else. As a pastor, I have heard more times than I care to remember, “We don’t need a piece of paper [i.e., a marriage license] to tell us that we love each other. We don’t need to get married!” This kind of statement breaks my heart. For what a person who makes such a statement is really saying is, “I don’t love this person quite enough to make things as permanent as a marriage makes things! I don’t love this person quite enough to enter into a covenant with them!”
Jesus’ words about a Christian’s life apply equally as well to a spouse’s life: “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it” (Matthew 16:25). Self-sacrifice is the way of the gospel…and the way of marriage. Marriage is not about getting your needs met. It is about sacrificing selflessly for the sake of your spouse. And yet, through such willing sacrifice, Jesus promises that your needs will indeed be met, even if ever so mysteriously. You will “find your life,” Jesus says. But take heed of Jesus’ warning: If you enter a relationship with a consumer mentality, looking only to your own needs, wants, and desires – if you try to “save your life” – you will only wind up sorely and sadly empty. You will only wind up losing your life. Fulfillment in marriage – and in life – begins with emptying yourself in service.
So if you are married, but times are tough, in almost every instance, except those instances in which a family member is in danger, the road to recovery begins with serving your spouse. If you are not married, but you’d like to be, selfless service is the path to your future spouse’s heart. This is the help our marriages need.
[1] David Crary, “The top ten news stories of 2011,” The Associated Press (12.30.11).
[2] “Top 10 News Stories of 2011,” Christianity Today (12.28.11).
[3] Paul Brandies Raushenbush, “Religion Stories of 2011: The Top 11,” The Huffington Post (12.8.11).
[4] Collin Hansen, “My Top 10 Theology Stories of 2011,” The Gospel Coalition (12.28.11).
[5] See chapter 3, “The Essence of Marriage” in Tim Keller with Katy Keller, The Meaning of Marriage (New York: Dutton, 2011).
Reflections For A New Year
As we begin a new year, it is useful to take a moment to reflect on our lives – where we are, where we have been, and where we are going. Reflecting is important not only for the realms of finances, family, or fitness, but also for the realm of faith. For above all, we must realize and recognize who we are in relationship to our Creator. To this end, the British theologian N.T. Wright has written a set of five questions every Christian must answer – or, better yet, simply remember the answer already given – in order to appropriately and insightfully take stock of his or her life. I relay these questions – and their answers – so that you may remember who you are in God’s sight.[1]
Who are we?
We must never forget that, as the apostle Paul writes, we are “in Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:22). This means our identity and purpose must always and only be founded and grounded not in the things, titles, or accolades of this world, but in the cross of our crucified Savior. This is certainly where the apostle’s identity is found: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:14). If we find our identities in anyone or anything else other than Christ and His cross, we are called to repent and turn back to Him.
Where are we?
N.T. Wright explains: We are “in the good creation of the good God.” Sometimes we can forget, especially when life becomes dark and difficult, that when God created the world, He created it “good” (Genesis 1:25). Yes, not all is right with creation. Yes, there is pain, suffering, and tragedy – none of which were part of God’s dream and design. But try as it might, evil cannot utterly destroy the goodness of God’s creation. Indeed, God promises to restore the complete goodness of His creation on the Last Day: “The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). For all of its brokenness, we are still in a good place. Thus, we ought to celebrate and appreciate the creation in which God has given us to live.
What’s wrong?
In a word, “sin.” Indeed, this is why God’s good world appears so marred and messed up. And sin is what is wrong not only with our world at large, but with each of us individually and personally. Each of us is born into sin. Because of Adam and Eve, the effects of sin plague us all. This is called “original sin.” Each of us also commit sin. We transgress God’s laws and do not do what we are commanded to do. This is called “actual sin.” In a sense then, we are the problem. We are the ones who make God’s good world a mess through our injustice and iniquity.
What’s the solution?
In a word, “Jesus.” Jesus is God’s remedy to sin and redemption from sin. The apostle Peter explains: “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18). It is important to note that not only is Jesus God’s solution to sin, Jesus is God’s only solution to sin: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). This means that all other attempts to deal with sin – be they moralistic or legalistic or liberalistic or relativistic – will ultimately fail. If Christ is not your Forgiver and Redeemer, your sin has not been solved. Period.
What time is it?
In the Scriptural view, time is not marked by the days on a calendar, but by the acts of our God. In other words, what matters about the new year is not that we have transitioned from 2011 to 2012, but what God has done for us in the past and will continue to do for us into the future. N.T. Wright explains cogently the time in which we live: “We live between resurrection and resurrection, that of Jesus and that of ourselves; between the victory over death at Easter and the final victory when Jesus ‘appears’ again.” This is finally what makes 2012 special. For we are another year closer to the coming of Christ and the salvation of our souls. And that sure and certain hope makes this year a year worth celebrating!
[1] The questions and quotes in this blog can be found in N.T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003) 275.
Christ was there. Christ is here.
A couple of weeks ago, I was having lunch with a friend and he shared with me a dark time he had gone through years ago. He was in the midst of a spiritual crisis, and he decided to move overseas and explore the world. Unfortunately, his move away from home only precipitated his fall. He fell in with the wrong crowd, he did the wrong things, and, one night, he found himself at a point of despair. Walking alone along a dark street, he cried out, “Jesus, if You’re there, I really need You to show up right now.” After making his way to a phone booth, he fumbled through the phone book inside, deposited his change, and called the first church he could find. The pastor of the church answered. The next day, the two of them had lunch. And thus began my friend’s re-awakening to the glory of God and the grace of Christ. My friend felt all alone on that dark night. But he wasn’t. Christ was there. In that phone booth.
One of the texts that has long been compelling to me is 1 Corinthians 10:
For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:1-4)
Paul is here recounting the history of Israel during the Exodus. And he uses Israel’s history to warn the Corinthians against the dangers of unrepentance:
Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.” We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did – and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test the Lord, as some of them did – and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did – and were killed by the destroying angel. (1 Corinthians 10:6-10)
In the midst of the unrepentance, evil, and rebellion of the Israelites, Paul says, Christ was there. In that rock. The same rock which poured forth water in the wilderness for the Israelites to drink (Exodus 17:1-7). What a strange place for Christ to be! And yet, Christ was there.
The other day, I was reading an article by a prominent evangelical theologian, who was bemoaning the dangers of inserting Christ recklessly and relentlessly into every page and phrase of Scripture. He wrote, “Christ cannot be found under every rock.”[1] I would agree – in part. It is dangerous to present Christ in ways that the biblical text does not mean present Him. For instance, the Church Father Origen, famous for his excessive allegorizing of the Bible, reads Exodus 17:9 – “Moses said to Joshua, ‘Choose some of our men and go out to fight’” – as “Moses said to Jesus,” since the Hebrew name for Joshua, Yeshua, comes to us in English as “Jesus.” Origen comments:
Up to this point the Scripture has never anywhere mentioned the blessed name of Jesus. Here for the first time the brightness of the name shines forth. For the first time Moses makes an appeal to Jesus and says to him, “Choose men.” Moses calls on Jesus; the Law asks Christ to choose strong men from among the people. Moses cannot choose; it is Jesus alone who can choose strong men; He has said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you.”[2]
Origen’s words here certainly strain the bounds of responsible biblical exegesis. To so immediately equate Joshua with Jesus presents a whole host of problems, not the least of which is that Joshua was flawed and fallen (e.g., Joshua 9:1-14), something which Jesus was not. Thus, we must be careful in how we interpret biblical texts. However, there is a sense in which, contrary to what this scholar says, we can indeed find Jesus under every rock, for Jesus is the center, focus, and locus of the Scriptures. Indeed, in 1 Corinthians 10:4, we don’t just find Christ under a rock, He is the rock! Indeed, this is the very doctrine of the incarnation: that Christ shows up in the strangest of ways and places – even under rocks. Christ was there. In the phone booth of my friend. Christ was there. In that rock. Christ was there. In the manger. Christ was there. On the cross. And Christ is here. In the pages of Scripture. Christ is here. In the waters of baptism. Christ is here. In the bread and wine of Communion. Christ is here. In our hearts.
Christ was there. Christ is here. This is the mystery and glory of the incarnation – and of Christmas.
Want to learn more? Go to
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[1] Ben Witherington III, “Towards a Biblical Theology – Part Two” (11.21.11).
[2] Origen in Sidney Greidanus, Preaching Christ from the Old Testament: A Contemporary Hermeneutical Method (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1999) 86.
ABC Extra – How Firm A Foundation
Some of my fondest memories as a child are of our family trips to the beach. The sun, the white sand, the clear blue water. Wait, check that. I grew up in Oregon. It was always cloudy, the sand was rocky, and the water was murky. But I loved the beach nonetheless. And even in the rocky sand, I loved to build sandcastles. I would always make sure I had my pail and spade in tow, ready to create an impenetrable fortress right there at the base of beach. Except that, inevitably, my fortress would always be penetrated – and washed away – by the water. For sand castles, no matter how well you build them, never last. They always succumb to the relentless pounding of the surf.
This past weekend in worship and ABC, we were introduced to one of history’s most infamous rulers – Herod the Great. Known for his ruthlessness and megalomania, Herod would stop at nothing to protect and extend his reign and rule as “king of the Jews,” a title bestowed on him by the Roman Senate in 40 BC. He was married to no fewer than ten women over his life, most of whom he married out of political expediency rather than out of love. He banished his first wife, Doris, because he wanted to marry his second wife, Miriamne. He eventually had her executed after they got into a fight. He also killed his mother-in-law, brother-in-law, as well as three of his sons under suspicion that they were trying to usurp his power. Herod was a tyrant indeed.
But for all of Herod’s tyranny, he was also a monarch of great skill and vision. Most notably, Herod was a master builder. He built a whole city called the Caesarea Maritima, situated on the banks of the Mediterranean Sea, which had a breathtaking manmade harbor spanning more than forty acres. He built himself a palace which included baths, a pool, a colonnaded garden, and a 600 foot long terrace. He named it, modestly, the Herodium. But most famously, Herod rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem bigger and better than ever. He plastered it in marble and gold. It ascended higher than a fifteen-story building. It was truly a monument to Herod’s skill as an artisan. Herod began his work on the temple in 19 BC. It was not completely finished until 68 years after his death. If Herod died, as the German theologian Emil Schürer asserted, in 1 BC, that means the temple was finally finished in AD 67. In AD 70, the Roman general Titus laid siege to the city of Jerusalem and destroyed its temple. Herod’s completed temple stood for only three years.
Like my sandcastles on the beach, Herod’s building projects weren’t as enduring as he thought they would be. His crowing achievement, the Jerusalem temple, was destroyed only a few years after it was completed. His architecture succumbed to the relentless march of human history.
Jesus once told a story about the fate of building projects:
Everyone who hears these words of Mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. (Matthew 7:24-27)
Jesus warns that man’s building projects can and do fall. The only way to make them last is to build them upon a firm foundation – and that firm foundation is Christ. Herod never learned this. Indeed, we learn in Matthew 2:16 that he wanted to kill Christ, not build his life and legacy on Him.
What are you building? And more importantly, on whom are you building? The things you build to your own fame will inevitably fall. But what is built on the rock of Christ and to His glory will endure. Do you build on the rock of Christ at your job, with your family, and throughout your life? Or, like Herod, are you only building monuments to your own greatness, which are really no sturdier than sandcastles? As the apostle Paul warns, “If any man builds…his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work” (1 Corinthians 3:12-13). May our work not be found wanting – not because of our skill, but because of Christ’s foundation.
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 – You Need A Break!
Yes, this is a picture of me. This is when we were at the rodeo in January, seeing MercyMe in concert. Well, our friends and my wife were seeing MercyMe. I, on the other hand, was a little tired that evening. So I took a little nap in the middle of a big concert.
I am one of those people who can sleep anytime and anywhere. If I’m tired, my eyes begin to close and my head begins to nod. It doesn’t matter if it is at night or during the day, at a public place or when I’m at home. I can even doze at a rodeo. My wife, on the other hand, needs everything to be just right before she can fall asleep. The room must be pitch black. The ambience must be dead quiet. Even the slightest noise in the middle of the night can startle her awake.
This past weekend in worship and ABC, we talked about gift and glory of rest. But in a world full of appointments, tasks, meetings, and errands, rest can be hard to come by. Especially during this holiday season, when we have parties to host and presents to buy and relatives to visit, the specter of a restful Christmas can seem to be nothing but a cruel illusion.
So how do we get the rest we need when the world around us never seems to slow down? First, to rest, we must intentionally slow ourselves down. I shared this quote in ABC, but it is so insightful, I want to share it here again. It concerns the biblical day of rest, otherwise known as the Sabbath:
Most people mistakenly believe that all you have to do to stop working [and rest] is not work. The inventors of the Sabbath understood that it was a much more complicated undertaking. You cannot downshift casually and easily, the way you might slip into bed at the end of a long day. As the Cat in the Hat says, “It is fun to have fun but you have to know how.” This is why the Puritan and Jewish Sabbaths were so exactingly intentional, requiring extensive advance preparation – at the very least a scrubbed house, a full larder and a bath. The rules did not exist to torture the faithful. They were meant to communicate the insight that interrupting the ceaseless round of striving requires a surprisingly strenuous act of will.[1]
Resting “requires a surprisingly strenuous act of will.” In other words, rest isn’t easy! It must be intentional. You must schedule rest, prepare for rest, and then stubbornly take a rest, even if it spites a calendar which clamors for your every waking moment.
Second, to rest, we must examine our hearts. The apostle John writes, “We set our hearts at rest in God’s presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything” (1 John 3:19-20). Rest, John reminds us, goes deeper than just how many appointments we have scheduled. It goes down to the state of our hearts. Thus, even when our schedules are packed full and our lives are running at high speed, our hearts can be at rest because our hearts are held by the Lord. The stress our world does not have to ruin the rest of our hearts. Thus, even when we feel as though our hearts are overwhelmed by this world’s demands, we can cling to this promise: “God is greater than our hearts.” God’s power and grace far outweigh, outlast, and outdo the anxiety and unrest we can harbor in our hearts. So find your rest in Him. He’s just the break you need.
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] Judith Shulevitz, “Bring Back the Sabbath,” The New York Times (3.2.2003).
ABC Extra – “Jesus was born of a…”
When trying to understand a particularly puzzling or perplexing passage of Scripture, it is helpful to turn to other interpreters and study how they have interpreted the passage. This is especially helpful in the case of Isaiah 7:14, a famous prophecy about the birth of Jesus: “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel.” This passage became a source of heated debate and disagreement when the Revised Standard Version of 1952 famously translated, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Traditionally, this verse has been taken as a prophecy of the miraculous conception of Christ as one who was born of a virgin girl named Mary: “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18). It was the Holy Spirit, Matthew says, who planted the Christ child in Mary’s womb. Mary, therefore, was still a virgin when she had Jesus. But the RSV changed the traditional translation of Isaiah 7:14 from “virgin” to “young woman.” Why the change?
The crux of the debate centers on the Hebrew word for “virgin,” or, as the RSV translates, “young woman.” The word is almah. And although almah does generally refer to a young woman who is a virgin, there are limited instances where it may refer to a young woman not in a virginal state, the most famous being Proverbs 30:18-19: “There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden.” The Hebrew word for “maiden” is almah. In this instance, the word seems to be referring to a woman already married and, hence, no longer in a virginal state. This is why the translators of the RSV opted for a more general translation of almah – “young woman” – rather than a more specific one – “virgin” – in Isaiah 7:14. The difficulty with this translation, however, is that Christianity’s critics have quickly pounced on this translation to undermine the Christological implications of this prophecy. Rather than foretelling the virgin birth of Christ, these critics maintain that this prophecy points only to events in the Isaiah’s own day.
This debate, then, leads us to this important question: Which translation of almah is correct? “Virgin” or “young woman”? And make no mistake about it: At stake here is far more than trifling lexical nuances. At stake here is a prophecy which the gospel writer Matthew says is fulfilled finally and fully in Jesus Christ! Indeed, Matthew cites this prophecy in his birth narrative: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’—which means, ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:22-23). Did Matthew misquote, misunderstand, or, worse yet, purposefully misuse this passage from Isaiah 7:14 when he applied it to the virgin birth of Jesus?
It is here that it is helpful to turn to other interpreters and see how they have understood this particularly puzzling and perplexing passage of Scripture. One of the oldest interpretations of this passage comes to us via an ancient translation of the Bible called the Septuagint. The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Old Testament, commissioned in the third and second centuries as more and more Jews, after Alexander the Great undertook his project of radically Hellenizing the whole world, were no longer able to speak and understand Hebrew fluently. This Septuagint was a way for the Jews to maintain their religious Scriptural heritage in a language they could read and understand. And in Isaiah 7:14, the Hebrew word almah is translated as the Greek word parthenos. And although there may some limited linguistic ambiguity in the meaning of the word almah, there is no such ambiguity in the word parthenos. It means “virgin.” Thus, ancient Jewish translators, living before the birth of Christ, interpreted this prophecy Messianically, referring to a miraculously virgin born Messiah. And Matthew, in his account of Jesus’ birth, picks up on the Seputagintal translation of this prophecy and too uses the word parthenos. Interestingly, later Jewish Greek translations of this verse from the second century AD translate almah as neanis, meaning “young woman,” no doubt in an attempt the mute the Christian interpretation of this passage. But before the birth of Christ, the Jews were expecting nothing less than a miraculously born Messiah – a virgin born Messiah.
Thus, this particularly puzzling and perplexing prophecy stands as it has traditionally been interpreted. And this particularly puzzling and perplexing prophecy is puzzling and perplexing no more. For it has been fulfilled in Jesus.
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 – “Rejoice…Always!”
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice” (Philippians 4:4)! This verse has always frustrated me. Not because I think it is somehow incorrect. Quite the contrary, I believe the command to rejoice is a divine and a good command. No, this verse has always frustrated me because I’m no good at it. The command is clear: I am to rejoice in the Lord always. I, however, seem to manage to rejoice in the Lord only sometimes. There are plenty of moments when I either find my joy in something other than the Lord or I lose my sense of joy altogether. I fail miserably at following this command.
It’s far too easy, when reading a verse like this, to chalk up Paul’s language here to a bit of hyperbole – a bit of overstatement just to make his point. “Surely Paul wasn’t being rigidly literal!” we might whisper to ourselves. “As long as I rejoice in the Lord sometimes, or even most of the time, I’m sure the Lord will be content with my best efforts.” But when our God gives commands, He does not hand out “A’s” for effort. He actually expects us to follow His mandates. And this mandate is clear: We are to rejoice in the Lord always.
But how can this happen? On the one hand, we must confess that it doesn’t happen – at least on this side of heaven. As I admitted above, I certainly fall short in the joy department. But I can rejoice that God forgives me through Christ for my lack of rejoicing. As with every other command of God, this is a command which we do not – and, because of our sinful natures, cannot – follow. On the other hand, it is important to note that Paul does not give this command to rejoice without offering us a roadmap to joy when he writes, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6). In verse 4, when Paul exhorts us to rejoice in the Lord always, the Greek word for always is pas. In verse 6, when Paul tells us address everything with prayer and petition, the Greek word for “everything” is pas. Here, then, is how we are to rejoice in the Lord during everything – we are to encounter everything with Him through prayer and petition. That trial that we face – we are to face it with the Lord. That triumph that we enjoy – we are to enjoy it with the Lord. That question that we have – we are to ask it to the Lord. We are to live our lives with a keen awareness that we live with the Lord. For as long as we are with the Lord, we always have reason to rejoice. This is why Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord always!”
Rejoicing, then, begins not with an effort to conjure up joy, but with an awareness of God’s continual presence. It begins with an awareness that, as Paul states, “The Lord is near” (Philippians 4:5). He is near in time – for His second coming is imminent. And He is near in space – for He promises to always be with us. And when you are aware of God’s presence and closeness, which is an indication of His care, concern, and compassion for us, it’s hard to anything but rejoice…always.
Want to learn more? Go to www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s message or Pastor Krueger’s ABC!
ABC Extra – Christ Alone
Human beings tend to be attracted to either legalism or antinomianism. Legalism describes when a person adds to the Law of God, creating rules, regulations, and stipulations which God has neither commanded nor forbidden. Antinomianism is when a person subtracts from the Law of God, claiming autonomy to do whatever he wants. In the Bible, the Pharisees are legalists. They continuously add their own laws to God’s law (e.g., Mark 7:3-4), creating “heavy loads and putting them on men’s shoulders” (Matthew 23:4). Satan, on the other hand, is an antinomian. In the Garden of Eden, he calls into question the veracity and gravity of God’s law. After God warns Adam not to eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil under penalty of death, Satan declares, “You will not surely die” (Genesis 3:4)! Satan seeks to subtract from what God has said.
Interestingly, legalism and antinomianism often go hand in hand. The legalist Pharisees, at the same time they add to God’s law, also “let go of the commands of God and hold on to the traditions of men” (Mark 7:8). In other words, given the choice between holding to their own legalist traditions and letting go of the true law of God, they always choose their own legalist traditions. They subtract from God’s law at the same time they add to it. The antinomian devil, at the same time he rejects God’s law, also initially tempts Adam and Eve with a question: “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’” (Genesis 3:1)? God did not say this. He only forbid eating from one tree in the garden, not every tree. Satan adds to God’s law at the same time he subtracts from it.
Ultimately, legalism and antinomianism make the same mistake – they trade the law of God for the will of men. And this is the problem in Philippians 3, our text from past weekend in worship and ABC. In this chapter, Paul addresses a group known as the Judaizers, who, while being believers in Christ, nevertheless insist that a person must be circumcised according to Jewish tradition in order to be saved. They fall into the error of legalism. And Paul has a harsh word of warning to the Philippians and against the Judaizers: “Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh” (Philippians 3:2). Paul describes legalism as “dogged” and “evil.” And he says that an insistence on circumcision for salvation is nothing less than a mutualizing of the flesh and of no value to the soul. Legalistically insisting on regulations and stipulations, no matter how pious or holy they may sound or seem, is wicked and heinous. It harms faith rather than helping it, for it seeks to add the work of men to Christ’s work on the cross.
Tullian Tchividjian, the senior pastor at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Florida, preached a sermon series a couple of years back with a title that succinctly explains the glory of the gospel while countering every specter of legalism. It was titled, “Jesus plus nothing equals everything.” Legalism tries to add something to Jesus. Antinomianism seeks to subtract something from Jesus. But Jesus will not be added to or subtracted from. He alone is sufficient. Thus, we are to find our joy, our hope, our meaning, our purpose, and our salvation in Him alone. He is to be our everything because He has given us all that we have and promises to provide all that we need – even our eternal lives.
Do you add to Jesus with your own pious rules and regulations? Do you seek to subtract from Jesus with, engaging in what he forbids and chasing after the own sinful lusts of your heart? If you answered “no” to either of these questions, you’re not being truthful with yourself. We all do these things. But by God’s grace, we are continually called back to Christ and Christ alone. Today, thank God that you have everything in one thing – Jesus Christ.
Want to learn more? Go to
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and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s
message or Pastor Zach’s ABC!
ABC Extra – Let Slavery Ring!
“Men desire above all things to be free and say that freedom is the greatest of blessings, while slavery is the most shameful and wretched of states.”[1] So said the first century Roman philosopher, Dio Chrysostom. Although philosophers are known for writing convoluted and delicate treatises, there is no convolution or delicacy here. Freedom is great. Slavery is wretched. The end. Dio could not be clearer.
The reason Dio does not need to speak of slavery delicately is because, in ancient Rome, slavery truly was a wretched state. Consider this description of slaves from Apuleius, a Roman author from the second century:
What scrawny little slaves there were! Their skin was everywhere embroidered with purple welts from their many beatings. Their backs, scarred from floggings, were shaded, as it were, rather than actually covered by their torn patchwork garments. Some wore only flimsy loincloths. All of them, decked out in these rags, carried brands on their foreheads, had their heads half-shaved, and wore chains around their ankles. Their complexions were an ugly yellow; their eyes were so inflamed by thick dark smoke and the steamy vapor they could barely see.[2]
According to Apuleius, slavery was so intolerable that he could not bear even to look at slaves without gasping. Seutonius, in his history of the Roman emperors, describes Augustine’s policy of, with few exceptions, allowing only free men to serve in his army:
Except as a fire-brigade at Rome, and when there was fear of riots in times of scarcity, [Augustus] employed freedmen as soldiers only twice: once as a guard for the colonies in the vicinity of Illyricum, and again to the defend the bank of the river Rhine; even these he levied, when they were slaves, from men and women of means, and at once gave them freedom; and he kept them under their original standard, not mingling them with the soldiers of free birth or arming them in the same fashion.[3]
No one wanted to be a slave. Everyone wanted to be free. And this is what makes Paul’s words in Philippians 2 so striking.
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant” (Philippians 2:5-7). The Greek word for “servant” here is doulos, meaning not only a servant, but a slave. Jesus, being in very nature God, became a slave! And He did so willingly. No one coerced, cajoled, or compelled Jesus into slavery.
Jesus’ willingness to become a slave is especially gripping when one considers that Philippi was a town filled with veterans and soldiers. Thus, those who lived there prided themselves on being free men, for, as Seutonius explains, only free men could serve in the Roman army. So Paul writes to a town full of people who prided themselves on being free about a man who willingly let go of His freedom to become, of all things, a slave.
Jesus’ willingness to let go of His freedom for the state of slavery can serve us a model for us. After all, Paul regularly identifies himself as a doulos of Christ (e.g., Romans 1:1, Philippians 1:1). Like his Lord, Paul is happy to be a doulos to his Lord.
How about you? Do you pride yourself so much in your freedom that you forget that you are called to be a slave to Christ? Slavery, when it is to the things of this world, is indeed wretched. But slavery to Christ is glorious. For serving Christ is hopeful and heartening. In a world that is obsessed with freedom, we rejoice that we are slaves to our Savior!
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 – Pain, Suffering, and the Gospel
"The Apostle Paul" by Rembrandt
As a pastor, I have been at the bedside of more than one person nearing the end of their life. And it always breaks my heart to see how much pain they must often endure as their body slowly shuts down and the sickness they have been valiantly fighting slowly takes over. This kind of suffering is truly sad. But suffering is not only physical. Just as heartbreaking for me to watch is the woman who is being emotionally abused by her spouse or the young boy who is made an outcast by his peers. Emotional, psychological, and spiritual suffering can leave very real scars on a human heart, soul, and life just as physical suffering can.
In our text from this past weekend, we read how the apostle Paul was a man who, like Jesus, was “familiar with suffering” (Isaiah 53:3). As he preached the gospel, he encountered persecution after persecution and pain after pain. In Philippians 1, we learn that Paul is encountering physical suffering. He is imprisoned in Rome for preaching the gospel, awaiting a hearing before the Roman emperor Nero, who is not exactly a friend and fan of Christians. And yet, even in the midst of this suffering, and his impending martyrdom at the hands of a ruthless emperor, Paul has hope and joy. He writes to the Philippians: “Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel” (Philippians 1:12). Paul says his suffering advances the gospel. And it does! He goes on, “It has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ” (Philippians 1:13). As I mentioned in ABC, the “whole palace guard” could have numbered between 13,000 and 14,000 men. That’s a lot of men who have become aware of Paul’s suffering “in chains for Christ!” Apparently, Paul is sharing the gospel with the very men who are presiding over his suffering in chains. He is sharing the gospel with the guards.
Much like our suffering, Paul’s suffering is not merely physical. Paul goes on to speak of those who add to his suffering: “It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry…supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains” (Philippians 1:15, 17). Paul has such vehement detractors of his ministry that they want to kick him while he’s down – they want to cause him trouble while he is in prison, as if being in prison isn’t trouble enough. Thus, through their envy and rivalry, they add to Paul’s physical suffering emotional suffering as well by preaching Christ for all the wrong, selfish reasons. And yet, even as Paul suffers, the gospel continues to spread.
The gospel has a funny – and even miraculous – way of spreading in and in spite of adversity and suffering. In Paul’s case, the gospel continued to spread thanks to his witness to the palace guard. Even today, adversity often serves as an unwilling and unwitting catalyst for the truth of the gospel to reach ears it might not otherwise tickle. I think of the Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, which was so popular and controversial when it first hit store shelves in 2003. Rife with ecclesiastical conspiracy theories, it became a flashpoint around which detractors of the Church and her message could rally. But its shoddy history, theology, and ecclesiology was made quick work of by the brightest and best Christian scholars who knew the theories put forth in this book were utterly unsubstantiated. It was only titillating conspiracy coupled with fantasy. However, because of the big questions this book raised, many people began to study Christianity – its history, theology, and ecclesiology – and found its teachings and truths to be on much more solid ground than they might have previously expected. Thus, the faith of many in Christ was strengthened and bolstered – and all this through a book antagonistic to Christianity.
What trials are you currently encountering? What suffering are you currently bearing? Is it physical, emotional, spiritual, or psychological? Whatever form your trials and suffering may take, pray to God – that He might give you strength to endure and that He might strengthen your faith in and through your suffering.
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!
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