Drawing Near

Sunday, November 22, 2015

The Bible Project's Animated Read the Bible Series

Genesis 1-12

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Recomended Posts v2

Three Ways Movies Are Searching For The Gospel - G Ortlund - 12/8/2015

O Come Again Emmanuel - Wax - 12/3/2015

Why Celebrate Advent? - Boswell - 11/29/2015

A Prayer For The First Sunday Of Advent - S Smith - 11/29/2015

Prepare Him Room - Bloom - 11/29/2015

Only One Black Friday - Tripp - 11/27/2015

A Prayer For Thanksgiving Day - S Smith - 11/26/2015

Alone With God - Chan - 11/24/2015

A Prayer For Marinating In The "In All Things Goodness Of Jesus - S Smith - 11/21/2015

It Is Finished - Chambers - 11/21/2015

We All Need Help - Piper - 11/19/2015

Four Reasons Why Some Preachers Get Better And Others Dont - York - 11/18/2015

A Prayer Of Lament - S Smith - 11/14/2015

Saturday, November 7, 2015

May (youu) have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. - Ephesians 3:18-19

Father, as I consider the multi-dimensional love of Christ, I would ask for your help to know and grasp just how big you are, how powerful you are, how holy you are, how majestic you are and how loving you are. The immesity of these qualities are really beyond my grasp and I need your Spirit to anchor them into my heart and soul.

On top of this, oh Lord allow the expanse of your sovereignty to soak into my bones. Grant me the privilege to really believe that you are able to do all things, that you are active everywhere accomplishing purposes that you have established since the foundation of time, and that you really truely know what you are doing. May this reality strengthen and establish my trust and faith in you.

In addition, dear Jesus, give me the eyes to see the depth to which I had fallen. I am not there anymore, which is a praise to your glorious grace, but I need to reminder that I am sustained solely and completely by your steadfast, faithful, ever-enduring love. Also, help me begin to begin to comprehend the depth to which you lowered yourself in order to redeem a people to yourself. The creator steping into creation, the eternal one stepping into time, the sovereign one stepping into dependence and the holy, righteous one stepping into a broken, sinful. fallen world. All of this was not to rule or reign, but to suffer and to die. For me. Oh God when I consider this, I am undone.

And finally Father, graciously give me a glimpse of the breadth of what you are accomplishing by your Spirit. My vision is so small. My mind is so simple. My heart is so weak. My faith is so frail. But you are doing things in every home, in every community, in every nation around the world. You are calling people to faith in Christ even as I pray these words. You are pushing and proding people to serve you today in ways they may have never considered before. You are allowing people to suffer today for your glory and their ulitimate good. You truely are a good, good Father. Help me, help all your beloved children, to see this truth and transform us today even more into the image and likeness of your dear Son Jesus, in whose name I always and forver pray.

Amen.

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Monday, July 20, 2015

Reliant on God through Prayer

(link to audio here)

Ephesians 3:14-21

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

In his book "Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God", Pastor Tim Keller states, "[Prayer] is the way we know God, the way we finally treat God as God. Prayer is simply the key to everything we need to do and be in life. We must learn to pray. We have to." Elsewhere Keller says: "To pray is to accept that we are, and always will be, wholly dependent on God for everything."

Both of these statements by Tim Keller expand, to some degree, LEFC's value statement: We are reliant on God through prayer. However, if you're like me you a statement like this probably leads to some questions. What does this look like in real life? Does this apply to all things or just the "big" things? Does this affect us all the time or just on Sundays, at meals and when the in-laws visit?

But, perhaps your questions go a little deeper. How should I approach an all-knowing, all-powerful, perfectly holy God? Can my prayers really be effective if God is truely sovereign over all things and knows the end from the beginning? Does God really care about my small time needs when there are so many bigger issues around the world (and even in this congregation)? The questions go on and on.

As you can probably sense, these are just a few of the prayer related questions I have wrestled with over the past 24 years. And, I have to admit that I'm still wrestling. I'm still learning and growing especially in regard to prayer. It seems every book I read on prayer or sermon I heard about prayer, while they may answer one question, the usually raise 2 or 3 more. But, what I've come to realize and rest upon, is that there is a foundation for prayer presented in Scriputre that we can rely upon despite our questions. This is the beginning. This is where we need to start. So, my singular goal for today to describe this foundation to you.

The text God has for us this monring is Eph 3:14-21. While there may be a few other passages that help lay the scriptural foundation of prayer, I was drawn to Paul's prayer in Ephesians for a couple of reasons. First of all, Ephesians is a fairly concise book. Paul has 3 chapters of theology followed by 3 chapters of application. This prayer sits at the hinge point between the theology and the application. Because of this, Paul is fairly clear that both our doctrine and our practice are dependent on prayer. That theme plays out in the prayer itself.

On top of this, and perhaps more importantly, is the nature of Paul's prayer here in Ephesians 3. He doesn't dance around. He doesn't even worry about specific issues. He goes right to the bedrock reality of our true spiritual need. So I want to help us lay a foundation for prayer based Paul's approach here in Ephesians 3.

As we dive into the text this morning, I think it will be helpful if we break it down into 4 basic elements. While each of these aspects may not be present with each and every prayer we pray, upon reflection we should be able at least identify how their presence could improve our prayer lives. The four facets of prayer that flow out of this passage are 1) the reason for our prayers, 2) the one to whom we are submitting our prayers 3) the nature of our prayers and 4) the anticipated result of our prayers.

The first aspect of any prayer is the reason it is offered. We can see this clearly in verse 14. Paul is not offering this prayer in a vacuum. He is looking back at what he has just described in verses 7-13. Consider for a moment what Paul has on his plate. He is called to preach to the Gentiles. He is called to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. He is called to proclaim the now revealed plan of God. He is called to help the church display the manifold, multifaceted wisdom of God. Just one of these assignments would probably drive any of us to despair, but all four? Are any of us surprised that Paul is focused on prayer?

However I don't believe the lesson here is to say "Oh look how profound Paul's ministry was, no wonder he needed to be reliant on God through prayer" Rather it should be "Look how profound our ministry could be, if we were reliant on God through prayer" And, perhaps more importantly, "In God's hands all ministry is profound, therefore we must be reliant on God through prayer"

Paul's reason for praying is also intimately tied what makes our prayers possible in the first place. Our access to God and our confidence that our prayers are heard and responded to are grounded in Christ. Think of Isa 6. How could Isaiah stand before a holy God? Because his sins were atoned for. And the same is true of us.

And yet, the reason we pray can easily slip from our grasp. I won't ask for a show of hands, but I want you to consider whether you fall into a similar trap to the one I can fall into. God calls me to do something out of my confort zone, perhaps even out of my real skill set. Because this is out of my zone, I pray. I seriously, fervently, relentlessly pray. God blesses both the obedience and the prayer. Because of this blessing, I'm asked to continue in the ministry, but now I have experience and knowledge. My prayer wanes. And slowly my fruitfulness does as well. Finally I put the ministry "on the shelf", because I feel that I am no longer called or gifted.

Does this sound familiar? What's happened? Did my calling or gifting change? No. What changed was my reliance on God through prayer, because the reason I was praying changed. I started praying because I was desperate. But once I gained some self-confidence, I prayed because I wanted God's blessing and perhaps this even devolved into simply praying because that's what good Christians do. But what I've found, and perhaps you've found as well, is that Jm 4:3 is true. We ask and don't receive because we ask with wrong motives.

So, the first aspect of building a good foundation for prayer is getting our motives right, that we're desperate and dependent on Christ. But Paul doesn't stop there. He moves on in verses 14-16 to identify the one to whom he is praying. Consider these descriptors: God as Father, God as the originator of every human family and God as the one who has the riches of glory. These three descriptions are not meant to be an exhaustive portriat of God. But each one has a key element in solidifying our prayers.

The whole image of God as Father is especially powerful and helpful in how we approach God in our prayers. You see, we are not bartering with God when we pray. And we are not badgering God when we are in prayer. Rather we are coming to our loving, compassionate Father who wants what is best for us and for all his children. Add to this reality that God is not just our Father in a relational sense. He is also our Father in the creational sense. You see, Christians we have all been adopted into God's family. But that's not all. We've also been created and designed to be in God's family. That means we were meant to be here. Because of this, all that our Father has is ours.

And, the stunning thing about our praying to God is that his riches proceed from his glory. God's riches aren't something he posses, like you or me. I own a car. If I give that car away to some one, it is no longer mine. My riches have been depleted. God is different. His riches are part of who he is. As such he can give super abundantly and never dent his reserves. He is as rich today as he ever was or ever will be.

There is one final item related to this aspect of prayer that I think is important to draw out. Tim Keller points this out in the book I referenced earlier. It is the fact that we are praying to an actual person. We need to be careful, I need to be careful, to not slide into the trap of thinking of God as the Force, or that because he is spirit that somehow he is not a relational person. No, we are praying to a real person, a person who knows us and loves us and enjoys (yes enjoys) spending time conversing with us.

What we've seen so far from Paul is the importance of our reasons for praying that we are desperate and dependant on Christ and the significance of knowing that we are praying to a loving Father whose riches never end. He moves from laying these planks in the floorboards of our prayers to the third plank which is the prayer request itself. Paul's prayer request has multiple layers, each of which depend upon and feed off one another.

The initial prayer request is for strength in verse 16. This is not a prayer for physical strength but rather spiritual strength. In fact, this is strength that only the Holy Spirit can provide. Specifically he is praying on behalf of the Ephesians that they would have the spiritual strength so that Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith (verse 17). We'll come back to this in a minute, but notice how the next layer flows from this one.

Paul almost presupposes the answer to the first aspect of his request as he makes the second. Since the Ephesians are rooted and grounded in love, presumably because Jesus is dwelling in their hearts through faith, Paul now asks for more spiritual strength. This time the use spiritual strength is two fold. First is to be able to grasp the length and the breadth and the depth and the height (verse 18). The second is to know the unknowable love of Christ (verse 19).

At this point you're probably asking "what was Paul actually praying for?" or "how in the world could Paul's prayers ever correlate to my prayers?" Well, I'm glad you asked since those are the sorts of questions we should be asking every time we read or study our Bibles.

First, we need to remember that the Ephesians were already believers. The first two chapters make this abundantly clear. Thus, Paul is not praying for their salvation in the first part of verse 17. But, if not salvation, then what? Paul is asking for the strength for us to continue on in our Christian walk. You see Paul knows what we sometimes forget. Salvation is not just a point in time event.

For those of us who are Christians, there was a moment when the Holy Spirit broke into our lives, our need for Christ became suddenly real to us and we cried out in desperate need. But that was just the beginning. From that moment on, God the Holy Spirit has been working with us and working on us to be more and more conformed to the image of Christ. Call this sanctification, if you'd like. And even though the Sprit is doing all the heavy lifting, our growth in Christ doesn't happen without our cooperation. This requires faith and this requires strength.

But, how does this help us in our own prayers? I would submit there are at least three ways Paul's prayer requests can positively influence our own. The first would be via simple imitation. How do we learn to talk? We imitate the sound we hear around us. How do we learn walk? We imitate the people we see around us? How did my kids learn to love dogs and swimming? They saw Sally and me enjoying these things and imitated us.

How do we learn to pray? We imitate that prayers we read in Scripture.

Additionally, I think Paul is continuing his theme of our incredible dependence on God to accomplish anything of kingdom value. It is possible that our prayers need to reflect less asking of God and more leaning on God. And that is what Paul is doing here.

One other lesson for us is one of priorities. As important as our present moment needs may be, Paul reminds us there are other, more pressing priorities, spiritual priorities, kingdom priorities. Perhaps the foundation of our prayers can be strengthened as we consider, remember and imitate not only Paul's style, but also his requests.

Interestingly however, as Paul moves into a second part of his prayer for spiritual strength, He basically assumes God's favorable answer from his prior request. Based on this, the next portion of his prayer is to ask for strength for the Ephesians to comprehend the length, the height, the breadth (verse 18). Now if you're reading the ESV, the NASB or the NKJV you will notice that these translations don't have an object to the four dimensions. The simple reason why is because there is no object recorded in the best manuscripts.

So what do we do? To what is Paul refering? The NIV takes the tact of most commentators and inserts the love of Christ. This is certainly a legitimate assumption to make since the 2nd part of this request also has to do with the love of Christ. However, I personally like the ambiguity and here's why. Is the love of Christ multi-dimensional? Absolutely. And we need spiritual strength to even begin to grasp it. But what about the grace of Christ? Isn't it equally boundless? Don't we need the same quantity of spiritual strength to plunge all of its dimensions? And then there is the mercy of Christ and the compassion of Christ and faithfulness of Christ. We need spiritual strength to simply begin to comprehend each of these attributes of Jesus.

Notice also that Paul inserts the reality that we cannot fully comprehend much of anything about Christ or the gospel in isolation. Paul prays for the Ephesians that they would come to this comprehension together with all the saints. And not just the saints in Ephesus, but with the saints in Jerusalem and in Rome as well.

How are we doing in this regard, La Crescent? I'm not asking about corporate prayer or our willingness to share our prayer needs at a bible study or small group, as important as those are. I'm wondering how often do we allow our prayers to grow beyond ourselves? Beyond our families? Beyond our close friends? Beyond our church? Beyond our gender, race, political party and tax bracket? I don't know about you, I still have a long way to go.

And then there's Paul's prayer request that the Ephesians would know the unknowable love of Christ. How do we process such a request? Is this even possible? According to Phil 3 the answer would be yes. Its there that Paul states that he wants to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. In one sense then, this is Paul offering a supreme prayer request for the Ephesians. You see, if we know the multi-dimensional, boundless love of Christ and by this knowledge are filled with all the fullness of God, what else is left? And yet, in another sense, Paul continues to demonstrate our complete and utter need to be reliant on God through prayer.

Thus far we have seen how the bedrock of our prayer needs to be formed by a right motive (our desperate need and complete dependence on Christ), a true sense to whom we are praying (our loving Father who has boundless riches) and the biblical nature of the requests themselves (we need spiritual strength to really know the unknowable love of Christ). That brings us to the result. What is the biblical model for waiting on God? We could go elsewhere in Scripture and find different authors who approached this aspect of prayer somewhat differently. The most notable of these are David, Job and Jeremiah. But all things considered, verses 20 and 21 are a stellar example of how our hearts are to be tuned toward an expectant answer from God.

Let me read these verses slowly again and allow the words and the thoughts to soak into your hearts and minds.

Consider with me what Paul is stating in these verses:

First: Not only can God answer our prayers, not only can he answer all prayers, not only can he answer all prayers that are simply unexpressable groans, he can do so beyond our ability to ask or even ponder. You see Paul's theology of a sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient God didn't thwart his prayers; his view of God energized his prayers.

Next: The answer to our prayers will primarily come through the Holy Spirit working in the midst of the people of God. Think about that brothers and sisters. We are the instrument, via the power of the Holy Spirit, by which God provides answers to most of our prayers. Shouldn't this affect how we pray? Shouldn't this affect why we pray? Shouldn't this affect for what we pray?

Finally: Perhaps it goes without saying, but I always seem to need the reminder, that the end goal of prayer actually isn't us. Even though we are the recipents of the answers and we are blessed as the pray-ers, God's glory is the end goal. But notice how Paul frames this statement of God's glory. It is his glory both in Christ and in the church. As we pray, and as we offer our requests, let's keep this end goal in mind. If we have a need or a burden, Scripture is clear, we are to lay them before the throne of grace. But let's do so with a heart attitude that wants not just the answer, but the glory of the God who graciously gives the answer.

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I want to close with a prayer of Charles Spurgeon because we can all learn from those who are ahead of us in the school of prayer:

"O Lord, that we would cling to you more firmly than ever we have done. We trust that we can say we love you Lord, but Oh that we would love you more! Let this blessed flame feed on the very marrow of our bones. May the zeal of your house consume us; may we feel that we love you Lord with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, with all our strength, and hence may there be about our life a special consecration, an immovable dedication unto you O Lord alone...

"O Lord Jesus, deepen in us our knowledge of you. We would that the Word of God were more sweet to us, more intensely precious, that we had a deeper hunger and thirst after it. Oh that our knowledge of the truth were more clear and our grip of it more steadfast. Teach us, O Lord, to know the reason for the hope that is in us, and to be able to defend the faith against all comers. Plough deep in us, great Lord, and let the roots of your grace strike into the roots of our being, until it shall be no longer we who live, but 'Christ who lives in us' "

Thursday, June 4, 2015

The Real Good Samaritan

(link to the audio here)

Luke 10:25-37

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

D.A. Carson, New Testament scholar and co-founder of the Gospel Coalition has said, mastering God's Word is one thing; being mastered by it is something entirely different.

This morning we have a very familiar passage of scripture before us. I would dare to say that if I took a quick survey almost everyone in this room knows about the parable of the Good Samaritan. I would also dare to say that most of you think you know the punchline to this sermon already. And maybe you do since this is one of the most culturally referenced parts of Scripture. And yet, this is God's Word. We may be masters of it, but even today, as familiar as this passage is, we still need to be mastered by it.

Prayer

My goal this morning is to look at this passage on two different layers. As I just mentioned, the first layer will be very familar to most of us. Still, in that familiarity, I trust God will speak to us and use his word as a sharp, double edged sword. The first layer we will consider is the point and pupose of the parable in its immediate context. Following that, I would also like to look at this parable in the sweep of middle section of the book of Luke. From 9:51 to 19:44, Jesus is on this relentless journey to Jerusalem, teaching both disciples, bystanders and opponents both by lesson and by example, what going to Jerusalem really meant and why it was necessary for us all.

Before we dive in, I think it will be helpful for us all to remember a couple of things about parables. Parables, of course, are stories. They are illustrations Jesus and other teachers of that day used to hammer home a point that may not have been obvious to the immediate audience. Thus in Matthew many of Jesus' parables start with the phrase "The kingdom of heaven is like..."

One guiding principle we must keep in mind is that since parables are illustrations, they have one main point which takes us outside of the parable and into a spiritual reality. Thus, the parable of the lost sheep is not about diligent shepherding, but rather about the unstoppable love, grace and mercy of God. Additionally, since parables have one main point, they are not meant to say or communicate everything that Bible has to say on a topic.

Another reality about parables is that most were given with the intent that the audience would find themselves within the parable. I realize this is risky because by human nature we will want to place ourselves as either the hero or the villian. But, if we have ears to hear, if we really listen as the Spirit speaks God's word to us, I am confident we can see who we are in this parable.

The final item to consider is the combination of these prior elements. These aren't just stories like Age of Ultron or Cinderella or even Pilgrim's Progress. Jesus used parables both as challenging calls and stinging rebukes. He openned vistas of God's magificent grace so that we might believe and he presented spirtual realities so that we would see the exclusivity and preemince of his own life, death and resurrection. You see parables have one main point and we find ourselves in them so that the Spirit can move us forward in our faith.

With all of that being said, what is the stage that this parable is playing on? Look with me at Luke 10. Verse 25 sets it up for us nicely. An expert in the Jewish law is seeking to test Jesus' view on salvation. Of course, much could be said about the scribes and Pharisees and other Jewish authorities, but what has always intrigued me is the phrasing of the question. "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Do? Inherit? These words don't seem to go together, do they? An inheritance, almost by definition, is something done to you. So this question is in essence asking "what can I do to be born into Bill Gates family?"

But it also betrays where the lawyer's heart really is. Intrinsically we go here by default, don't we? What can I do? What can I do to fix my marriage? What can I do strengthen my kids? What can I do to improve my walk with God? What can I do to prepare for the next stage of life? High School, College, First Job, marriage, Kids, empty nest, grand children, retirement, nursing home, death. And so many more. What can I do? Many of us in this room are asking this very question. It seems to be the fundatmental human question.

Notice though, how Jesus responds. Those of us who have a theological defense mechanism might have arched our backs and cut loose on the lawyer. But not Jesus. Jesus, the master teacher and superb discussion guider responds with a question of his own. Its a question right up the alley of this Jewish legal scholar. In fact, some would say its was a high arching softball pitch intended for an easy answer. So Mr legal scholar, how would the Law answer your question?

Jesus' approach here is helpful for a couple of reasons. First, it reminds us that God is never out to trick us or trap us. Even though this was the lawyer's goal, Jesus' actually wanted him to learn something, to grow in his faith, to put his trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord. And, he's asking the same thing of us. He knows we all have this "I can do it myself" attitude. So he asks us, "What does the Bible say?"

But there's another, less obvious thing as well. Jesus is underscoring the reality that the Jews could know how to be saved from just their Old Testament scriptures. Think back to last week, how Steve showed us so clearly that Naaman's healing and even life circumstances point us to Christ. Remember, the Old Testament is all this guy had. Its all Nicodemus had. Its all Peter and Paul and John and James had. We are blessed with the New Testament, but the point here is that the Old Testament has always pointed to Jesus.

The lawyer responds with a classic "sabbath school" answer. He quotes two Old Testament verses Dt 6:4-5 and Lev 19:18. To pharaphrase his answer he says love God supremely and love people sacrificially. Bam. Out of the park. Home run.

Now, if I could step into the story at this point I would. The lawyer had just dialoged with Jesus and even if he did not regard him as the Messiah, most people saw him as a teacher worthy of respect. Even Nicodemus, "Israel's teacher", approached Jesus with deference. To engage in a conversation with Jesus and receive such a positive reponse was incredible. So if I could, I would step in say to the lawyer "stop talking", "just leave it alone", "don't say another word".

Fortunatey for this lawyer and fortunately for the rest of us, I was not there and God allowed the lawyer to speak out of the overflow of his heart. You see he did what we so often do. He had recited a creed, but this creed had never become a confession. He knew that God's word said in his head, but what it meant never really made it down into his heart. Think about it. Even without Luke's commentary, the question "And who is my neighbor?" betrays the real god of this man's heart.

How often do we fall into the same pit? How much to I have to give? How often to I have to go? How long do I have to serve? We seem to have this insatible need to put limits and caps on God's call in our lives. Why? Because, as Tim Keller would say, "We need to protect what is most important to us." You see, where we draw the lines, where set up the limits, that demonstrates where our true allegiance lies.

Now, before we move into the parable itself, let me hit the pause button for just a few seconds. This is the moment where we all need to be careful. At the risk of sounding over dramatic, I believe we are on dangerous ground. We are treading on the ground of familiarity. In fact for this parable it could actually be called the ground of over familiarity. I am not going to ask you to forget what you know and I won't ask you to pretend like 2 millenia of cultural baggage doesnt affect how we read this parable. But, I will ask and have been praying that you read and listen with fresh, attentive minds and hearts. By doing this, I am trusting that God may bless us and allow his word to master us.

One thing we need to capture is how this parable probably unfolded to the original audience. You see we know (or think we know) the punch line. In fact, we, not scripture have titled the Samaritan "good", as if the parable is about him. By contrast, most of us view the priest and levite as "bad". I would dare say, those first two guys were normal and doing what was culturally expected. And the Samaritan? He would have been viewed as the least likely to help and certainly the least likely to be the hero of this story.

Now consider with me what Jesus is saying in this parable as it plays out in verses 30-36. An unknown man is robbed and left for dead. Two religious men pass by onthe other side of the road, doing their duty to the Law, but not to the man. A third traveler, one who would be least likely to help and probably would not have been helped by the man who was robbed if the situation was reversed not only helps but goes above and beyond the immediate need. In this little story are at least three things we are meant to see.

First, loving God supremely and loving people sacrificially requires more than religious obedience. Remember the conversation that triggered this parable. Jesus and the lawyer agreed that to have eternal life one must love God supremely and love people sacrificially. But the lawyer wanted to know the limits on this mandate. In essence he wanted to make it a religious system. The parable does the exact opposite; blasting open even the preconceived limits the lawyer already had. This is demonstrated in the first two travelers. As I said, they were doing their religious duty. They were obeying the Law. They were keeping themselves pure for service to God. And yet, Jesus' implication is that they didn't do what was most honoring to God nor what was most loving to the man. Would there have been a sacrifice in crossing the road? Absolutely. Seven days to become rituallly clean again. But what is that compared to saving someone's life?

And we can do this too, can't we? Choosing something good over something better. Helping ourselves rather than helping others. Using our religious structures and traditions to limit the scope and call of Holy Spirit in our lives. Here is one simple example: I have been meeting for years with a couple other guys for breakfast once a week. Most weeks we have some pre arranged material to kick start our conversation. But I also desire to pray for our time before we meet. Sometimes, however, when I get to the prayer time I realize I am unprepared for material. At the point I typically abandon the prayer for the prep, even though I know that it is God, through prayer, that really makes our time effective.

A second thing to see in this parable is what we most often connect with, that loving God supremely and loving people sacrificially cannot be limited by our social constructs. The Jewish / Samaritan divide was what was in view here, but in reality Jesus has any such barrier in view. Male / female, rich / poor, strong / weak, white / black, straight / gay, American / foreign, Christian / secular. And on and on.

To be candid, the more I've reflected on this, the more God has pressed me. If the extent of my love for God is measured by the scope of my love for people who are different from me then perhaps my love for him isn't as deep or broad or wide or deep as I thought. Thankfully, God's love for me is not contingent on my love for him, but yet the upward call of Christ keeps pressing and pulling and urging and calling us deeper in. And, just to add some fuel to this fire, none of this exempts from serving and caring and loving those who are closest to us.

The third thing that Jesus is pointing out to the lawyer and to us about loving God supremely and loving people sacrificially is in regard to the expanse and extent of this love. Notice the Samaritan doesn't just stop with checking on the traveler or cleaning up his wounds. He also took him to a place where he could recover and he provided for the expense of not only his stay but also his care. And, he promised to pay for any extra costs that might be incurred. To steal a line from a older strong, "His love was extravagant"

So there it is. To love God supremely and to love others sacrificially requires us to put our religiosity away, that we go beyond our social constructs, and that we allow the boundless love that we have received from God through Jesus to flow freely to those around us.

As awesome and as challenging as it is to see the depth of Chirst's call in this parable, there is another layer of the parable of the Good Samaritan that we need to consider. You see, just like the parable itself doesn't occur in a vaccum and is in fact an answer to a question, the entire encounter between Jesus and the lawyer doesn't occur in a vaccum either. Jesus is on a somewhat circuitous journey that starts in Luke 9:51 where Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. This journey culmunates with the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem followed by Jesus' entry into the temple in Luke 19:44. Along the way Jesus' mission to seek and save the lost, to redeem a people for God, to fulfill all of the Old Testament promises continued to gather steam. Each stop along the way was like a tributary flowing into the river of his mission and pupose.

With this perspective in view, let's consider again the encounter between Jesus and the lawyer. The lawyer's own answer to his original question was that eternal life is bound up with loving God supremely and loving people sacrificially. As true as this is, how many of us could have claimed to do this before we were Christians? Personally, God was there to serve me and people were simply in the way. And so, here we have the same dilemma we have throughout the Bible: we are stuck in a deep hole with only a shovel to get us out.

So, is Jesus' response to the lawyer meant to cause us to despair? Is there no way I can love God supremely and love people sacrificially? Since we can't do this perfectly, since no one can do this completely, are we to give up and simply languish in our sin? Or, is this actually meant to give us hope? We are correct to realize we cannot live out the affirmation of the lawyer, but we dare not stop there. We need find the one man who can.

In this sense, when the lawyer asks, who is my neighbor, we need to read the question backward. Not just who is my neighbor to love sacrificially, but who is my neighbor who loved me with the ulimate sacrifice? If we see the parable at this 2nd level then the charaters and the parable itself take on an added dimension.

First, who is the victim? In the immediate context we saw the victim was anyone we are called to love sacrificially irregardless of whatever differences we may have with them. But now we can see that at a spiritual level, at the level of Jesus setting his face toward Jerusalem, we are the victim. We are the one who was bereft of resources. We are the one who was been left for dead. We are the one people avoided in the name of religion. We are the one who was naked and alone. We are the one who was without hope.

What about the first two travelers? We could play some games and say one is legalism and one license or one is religion and one is worldly wisdom. While those would be cute, the real point is that there is nothing, no system, no individual, no power, no possession that is able or even willing to save us. I think this is important to note and remember. The first two travelers didn't try to save the beaten, bloody victim and fail. They went to the other side of the road so as to even avoid the attempt. The same is true with anything you can dream up that might rescue us from our desperate condition. Nothing can save us and nothing is even willing to try.

That leaves us with the third traveler. He is the one who binds our wounds. He is the one who treats us as a friend, even though we would likely consider him our enemy. He is the one who took us out of the domain of our trouble. He the one who clothed us with clothes we couldn't afford. He is the one who provided a safe place for us. And, he is the one who promised that if any expense is incurred for our care, he would pay for it.

Does this sound familar to anyone? I would hope so. It is Jesus!

Let me botton line this for you. As Andrew made clear a couple of weeks ago, we are all on this spectrum of a spiritual journey. Because of that there are different aspects of this parable that may press upon you differently depending on where you are and what God is moving you toward.

For those who are here that have never trusted in Christ for your salvation, who when you hear all that Jesus has accomplished for his children and say "I wish that were true of me", let me say this: It can be. Today is the day of salvation. Don't wait another day or hour or even minute. Stop your striving, stop your performing, stop your attempts at self salvation and rest in Christ. Trust that God is willing and able to save and rescue and redeem and that he has done so through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Now, for those of us who perhaps are stuck in neutral in our Christian life, who hear Jesus describe what it looks like to really love God supremely and love others sacrificially and sigh and say: that's not me, what do we take from this passage? First is this: know that Jesus is the real Good Samaritan. Since Jesus loved God supremely and others sacrificially, we as his brothers and sisters inherit that obedience. By this we are freed and empowered to begin loving God supremely and loving others sacrificially. Remember, as Matt Chandler is fond of saying, God's not looking for perfection, but progress. And second, beware of putting limits on God's claim on your life. We all do this, to some degree, but Jesus, via this parable, is saying since I withheld nothing to save you, you should withhold nothing to serve those I bring across your path.

And for those who see the mandate of this parable and are seeking by the power of the Spirit to live it out, I would say praise God! You are where God wants you to be. Keep up the good work that God was prepared in advance for you to do. But you also need to remeber, along with all of us, that there is no arrival. We must always be growing and we need to continue to grow. Grow in faith, grow in dependance, grow in praise, grow in knowledge of God, grow in reliance on the Spirit, grow in communion with God.

Finally for all of us who consider ourselves followers of Jesus. We need to praise God for what he has done, what he continues to do and what he will ultimately do. We are caught up in the entire sweep of redemptive history from the promise in Gen 3 to the triumphant wedding feast in Rev 19 and this reality alone should cause us to simultaneously weep and shout and stand dumb founded. And, one day we will realize that God has actually given us way more than we could possibly ask or imagine. May that realization begin today.

To God Alone Be The Glory

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

The Gospel In My Basement Stairwell

This morning I found a mouse at the base of our basement stairwell. Fortunately for all (me, Sally and especially the mouse) it was still outside and I was coming down the stairs, not openning the door from the inside. So as I stood for a moment eying up this little creature, I decided in all my humanitarian kindness that I would rescue this poor thing.

Certainly, some kind of rescue was required. This mouse was doomed. He had no means of escape. The stairs are poured concrete and the walls are basement block. There would be no climbing. There would be no jumping. The little animal did not having the ability to save itself. On top of this there was no material for it to build a ramp or ladder or any other means of escape. In fact, even if I had thrown it the raw materials for a ladder, I doubt the mouse had the skills to construct the ladder. And to add to its dilemma, even if I could have explained how a ladder might be built, I am doubful that its paws could even do the work.

It was then that I realized that I would provide the means of its escape. I would simply place a small bucket on its side and let the mouse run (ok walk or wander) into the bucket. Its salvation would be a cooperative effort. I would provide the means and it would provide the will. And yet, it wanted nothing to do with my freely offered rescue. It had been trapped for most of the night; didn't it want to be free? Couldn't the mouse tell that I only wanted what was in its best interest? Wasn't it obvious that its rescue was contingent on it willfullly choosing to get into my freely offered bucket?

Well, the answer to all these questions was No. It didn't just avoid the bucket. It ran to the opposite corner. As much as the mouse probably hated the stairwell and at some level knew it was trapped and doomed, it clearly hated my bucket even more. It had an instinctual fear and "knew" that nothing good could possibly happen by going anywhere near that bucket.

At that point, my experiment with the free-will salvation of this mouse was over. It was time for some irresistable grace. I retreived a broom from the garage and proceed to attempt to "sweep" the mouse into the bucket. It took more than a few swipes and more than a few laps around the strairwell. It also resulted in a battered little mouse as he ran away from my rescue for every second...until it landed in the bucket and realized it was safe.

From there I carried the bucket, with the mouse bruised and tired, but very much intact, to a field near our house. I released the little creature into a new home, a home much more fit for him than the one he had been trapped in. He has been delivered, not by his own works or merit or skills or even desire. Instead, salvation came by grace, from the outside, unexpected, unwanted and yet in the end graciously received and joyfully embraced.

And if I, one who would just a quickly set a trap or leave out poison, would do this for a mouse that has no lasting value, how much more will the perfectly loving, gracious, merciful and compassionate God save and rescue and redeem and deliver us?

To God Alone be the Glory