I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. (Phil. 1:3-5)
I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel… (Phil. 1:12)
What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. (Phil. 1:18)
One of the great themes of Philippians is the advancement of the gospel. We all know that we are supposed to care about the advancement of the gospel, but sometimes it takes rereading a book like Philippians to wake us up to this again. We need the reminder, because we forget how important this should be to Christians.
For a long time, it was possible (perhaps not wise, but certainly possible) to assume that almost everyone in America knew the gospel. But we no longer live in a country where we can safely assume this. People exist all over our community with no real understanding of what Christians actually believe. Many have a stereotype in their minds that is the product of the news, movies and TV shows, and political arguments, but lack actual awareness of the hope upon which our lives are built. In addition, many Christians are sensitive to the fact that others don’t want our beliefs rammed down their throats. Effectively, we think, “If they already know what we believe, and if they don’t want to talk about it, shouldn’t we wait until they ask us?”
The problem is what most of us know by experience—they almost never ask! There are people around us, in desperate need of the gospel, who don’t know enough to even begin to ask. They think they know what Christians believe (usually some amalgamation of moralism and political stances) and no Christian stands up to talk about the hope that we have in the death and resurrection of Jesus. That hope—that Jesus’ death and resurrection have brought forgiveness to us, conquered sin and death, and offer new life in the Spirit—remains beyond their reach, because Christians stay silent about the one issue we should be vocal about—the gospel!
Of course we need to approach people with sensitivity and listen before we talk! Of course we need to love with actions as we evangelize! Of course people are more willing to listen if we form friendships first! But if the church stays silent on the gospel, we are missing the calling of Christ! As a church, let us begin to pray that God would give us opportunity to proclaim the gospel, and let us begin looking for opportunities to do so!
Steven+
Reflections on Psalm 63
Psalm 63, which we prayed together this past Sunday, begins with the title, “A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.” In his distress, driven into hiding in the wilderness, David expresses such strong love for and commitment to his Lord that Derek Kidner, author of a wonderful commentary on the Psalms, is prompted to declare, “There may be other psalms that equal this outpouring of devotion; few if any that surpass it.” In verses 1-3 David tells us where his strength comes from:
“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.”
David desires to be with his God, he longs for him as for a dear friend; he values the love of his Father more than life! Do we know the love of our Father? Do we long for our Lord and King as for our dearest friend and best companion?
David links his longing for God and his knowledge of his love with looking upon him in the sanctuary, beholding his power and glory. Justin reminded us in his sermon on John 1:43-51 that we are fully seen and fully known—and still infinitely loved!—by our King. In this psalm, David leads us in looking upon God, an audacious move for a sinful king leading a sinful people. But as we see embodied in Jesus’ interaction with Nathaniel, God has looked on us first, has seen and loved us in the midst of our sin and human frailty. In the reading from 1 Corinthians, Paul tells us “he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him” (1 Cor 6:17), which is a profound mystery! It must at the very least, though, give us courage to follow David in looking upon our Lord in the sanctuary, in beholding his power and glory.
And who is this King of Glory? Paul gives us a beautiful picture in his letter to the Philippians. Speaking of Christ Jesus, Paul says (Phil 2:6-11):
“[...W]ho, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Behold our God seated on his throne; Come let us adore him!
Rebekah
A Meditation on Mark 1:4-11
In hindsight, Jesus’ willingness to associate with sinners in John’s baptism (Mk. 1:9-11) should not shock us. The cross, after all, reveals how far he was willing to go in this association. He did not simply join the group and let himself be categorized with them; he actually took their sins upon his shoulders, bearing the weight of shame and guilt, and gave himself as the offering for sin. Paul goes so far as to say, “For our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (II Corinthians 5:21).
We desperately need this message of grace. We need it for ourselves, because only when we realize that Christ stands fully beside us, even in our sin, will we have hope that we have been received by God. Because of Christ’s willingness to identify with us and shoulder the blame for our worst deeds, we stand secure. We also need this message of grace to train us to look at others rightly. Like Jesus, we are called to stand close to sinners (even those we dislike!), not pointing our fingers in accusation, but instead identifying with them, not ashamed to be associated with them. In doing this, we hope to draw them to the only one strong enough to bear their guilt and shame—Christ.
But Christ also will judge the sins of the world. This profound grace—Christ associating with sinners—is not a license to continue in sin or to justify sin. He calls us away from our sin and gives us the Holy Spirit to transform us into his own character. This transformation may be slower than we hope (and we need forgiveness every day in the process!), but we are still called to holiness and equipped in the Spirit to keep walking towards the Sun of Righteousness.
Some churches spend all their time talking about the call to holiness and rebuking sin where they see it, so much so that it is difficult to hear that God is patient and gracious, that Christ stands beside us in the river with compassion, and that we are truly forgiven. Others, erring in the opposite direction, so distort the message of grace that things that are actually sin are called good. We could call these two tendencies the errors of fundamentalism and the errors of liberalism (a theological, not political, use of the term!). In Martin Luther’s metaphor, we can fall off one side of the horse or the other.
The church should say “yes” to grace while still saying “yes” to holiness, because this is what Christ does. This “double yes” helps us view others rightly (Do we view our enemies as recipients of grace? Do we view our friends as called to holiness?), but it must first begin in our own lives and families. This means we must seek holiness with every fiber of our being. Yet it also means that we need not fear our failures, because Christ is more gracious than we have ever dreamed. Our hope is in Christ’s holiness, not our own (thus we rejoice that he gives us his own standing before the Father without us earning it), but we are stilled called to imitate him! In our struggle to obey God, Jesus meets us, neither excusing our sin nor rejecting our plea for mercy. Instead, he says to us in that moment, “I stand beside you in these waters, and I offer you my perfect life for your own.”
Steven+