Things you can learn on a Friday night. Part 2

Jesus does not turn into a conquerer while He is seated on the throne making intercession. He does not turn from lamb to Lion as He sits next to God. The truth is that He has been a conquerer from the first, from before the beginning. This is what He does, who He is. He conquers all things, the external and the internal. He can overcome what we do and what we think. He sets us free from the inside out.

The act of creation itself is the conquering of the what did not exist. He turns nothing into something. He creates people and gives them authority to subdue all things. He gives all authority to a nation and tells them to conquer all other people. This is at the heart of all He commands.

When jesus leaves heaven to come to earth He is not coming to be the lamb. He has always been the lamb. This is our Jesus. The truth is that He is not lion on some days and lamb on other days. He is in fact a lion-like-lamb on all days. He is always conquering, always sacrificing. He overcomes all things through his life and through his sacrifice. When Jesus walks the earth He is at all times lion-like-lambing. He is teaching with authority, healing with authority, casting out demons with authority. And all the while He is meek and humble and feeding others and forgiving sins.

This Jesus is broken hearted for the broken and He is strong with the strong willed. The same Jesus who feeds the masses is the same one who patiently forms a whip to clear out the temple. There is no difference, no two sides of a coin. This is who He is.

It is surely amazing that He lives a sinless life. But equally striking is that He never once puts Himself first. (perhaps the key to sinlessness) He never once thinks "what would Jesus do." He is so fully selfless that He only does what He sees the Father do or what would be best for men. This is critical. Make no mistake: He absolutely puts His desire to see us come into perfection before His own desires. Jesus is driven to see that we would have what would be best for us. Now that is crazy talk. He goes to the cross and cries out "not my will but Yours." He does it because He does what the Father says in all things and He wants to do what is best for man in that same instant. He conquers the cross. At any moment He could have come down, saved Himself and given us the hell we all deserve. He is not defeated by the cross to then conquer death. That is an absurd teaching. He conquers all things. That is what it means to be lion-lamb-like.

Things you can learn on a Friday night part 1

Beholding the Father is not in competition with making disciples. The entire purpose of disciple making is to free the unbeliever into the realm of beholding the Father. We so often want to sell a new and better life where what we are really offering is the sitting in His presence. What can be more transforming than an afternoon with God? What can be more shocking than sitting in the presence of the mighty God. Who is this God? He literally shows Himself to us. This God actually lets us sit in his presence. What?

This is shocking. The mighty God literally beckons us to sit in front of Him, to dwell in His presence. This needs to be our cry to the world. We need to cry out come sit before the mighty God of israel and behold His beauty. Solve the sitting in His presence problem and we won't have to worry about the what really is a sin problem. It is absolutely true that we are called to do, to go make disciples of all nations. My heart is an absolute yes for that but for most of us the sitting in His presence is a fully foreign concept, something one might do before he eats food or goes to bed, but not something one might do for 9 hours on a Friday. Without beholding Him we are not ready to sing about Him or to tell others about Him for that matter. How will we tell them of His beauty if we don't know it for real in our core?

Tonight was a call to return to our first love, to sit before Him and behold Him. Nothing staggering when you are at ihop kc. Alter calls are for everyone here. But this one, this one. . . May this God give you the grace to sit before Him for hours at a time.

Baptism part 2

Noah and seven others were seen as righteous, found worthy, when God looked down and decided He was going to cancel the project, end the experiment. It is interesting that instead of bringing the eight up to live with Him He decided to keep them alive. He keeps them and 14 of each animal and everything else must die. In Hebrew He is ending all existence. It sounds more extreme than destroying the earth.

In my bible this is page 6. It is just three chapters since the fall. Clearly the devastation caused by sin cannot be taken lightly. In genesis 6:5-6 we are told, "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil, continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on earth and it grieved Him to His heart."

In 6:9 we are told, "Noah was a righteous man, blameless in His generation. Noah walked with God." So Noah is righteous and the rest of the people on earth are evil. This is the situation. We have eight against everything else so God will save the eight and destroy the rest.

In 6:13 God says to Noah, "I have determined to make an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold I will destroy them with the earth." Now this can be read several ways but I think it reads best that God will use the earth to destroy all things. Time for a quick lesson in microeconomics: There are 4 factors of production, land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurs. Now the factor we will focus on is land. You see land is everything on the land and under the land. Land is also water. In Econ water is land. So when God is saying he will use earth He is going to use the water part of earth to destroy the non water part of earth. Econ 101 free of charge.

Verse 17 reads, "For behold I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven." That right there is kind of a big deal because God is referring back to how all life emanates from His breath. He is killing off little pieces of Him so the depth of pain that this must cause Him can only be imagined.

So God makes it rain and completely covers all the land and even the highest mountains. Nothing is left visible except for the water. Everything dies except the eight and their crew of animals. Everything is dead . . . And then the water subsides and then it begins again.

1 Peter 3:20 says, "because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight persons were brought safely through the water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ." Whoa with your crazy talk Peter. God baptized the earth, killed all the living things save the righteous Noah and crew, (the righteous don't need to die to their old man. He's already dead) and this was no one time event? God keeps doing it over and over again. God actually uses water still in this destructive way to kill off the old man inside of us so we can live in the resurrection of Christ. Baptism is a real event that God used to kill all existence not just a symbolic event in the the life of a Christian?

God kills us with the earth. He uses water to kill off everything that breathes in the days of Noah and He uses water to kill off everything inside of us that has been corrupted and then places in us Himself, again. He kills off all existence in us and then we start to live... Now that makes sense.

Baptism part 1

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Why I love baptism

Something has been lost in the modern church. Some time ago baptism became an optional extra, something symbolic and nice, but not really necessary. We have come to treat baptism as something one does to show the other folks at church that you are also now saved, that you have indeed become a Christian. Even more incredible is that some churches actually use baptism as a way to join the church. For these churches it seems that baptism is a sort of club initiation. And this was my view of it while growing up. In fact, while growing up, it became pretty clear that being Christian didn’t really mean much at all to most people I went to church with. So because we created a church that really was pretty vanilla, kind of non-confrontational and user friendly,it is no wonder then that baptism fell into the category of sideshow.

Baptism is not an optional extra. It is made clear throughout the Word of God that it is in fact the thing that we are supposed to do. Let me be clear. Baptism does not save you.  We know that the thief on the cross was promised eternitywith Christ and he was not baptized. We also know Jesus promised several others eternity for faith and other things and there is no mention that they were baptized.  However, what we also know is that there are many accounts that saying yes to following was associated with baptism. So while baptism is not a saving moment, neither are the other things that we often associate with salvation.  Clearly professions of faith do not save us. Sinner’s prayers also do not save us. Saying yes to an alter call also does not save us.In fact, most things that we associate with salvation are things of man, things that bring us comfort for death but not necessarily eternal life.

Paul was clear that there was a race to be won. John was clear that we must overcome and be faithful to the end. In fact the Word of God makes clear that while salvation is freely given and not earned, it is given upon completion of the journey, not upon beginning it. We must go on believing,not just start.

So why we are baptized is not symbolic at all. It is a very real transaction between us and God. It is a very real death. Those who will follow, will desire to be buried in that water, to dive in and stay under untilthe old man has died and the new man has risen. Oh how I long to scream and shout for all to hear that it is real, that the death we die in that water is not symbolic and that all who think it is have not died and therefore do not live.

Our Savior was baptized. He came to John and humbled himself and in some weird way that we cannot understand He had to die in that water so that He could then die on the cross. Jesus does not mess around and He certainly is not being symbolic on that day when He went under the water. God does not cry out from heaven with joy because His Son has given us a good example to follow. God is overjoyed because Jesus has chosen to die in the water and then walk the death out for three and a half years. In Matthew 3:16we are told, “And when Jesus was baptized,immediately He went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him,and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him.”You are kidding me that this is just some tender trinity moment. This is a moment of great joy and as such when we see baptism we should shout from the mountaintops. If God is moved enough to open up heaven we can also be moved.Jesus rises from the water and begins to transform the world. He does this after He is baptized and not before. Who will we transform with our symbolism?We transform because we die and live in new life.

In Acts 2:38 Peter gives his first message  “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” Repentance is the first step. It is the beginning of all things in Him. We cry out for mercy and repent of our old man and then we jump in the water and die. And when we come out we are so utterly changed that we are not who we were moments ago. We are transformed and ready to go on believing.

In Romans 6:1-4 Paul writes, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? ² By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? ³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” What are you saying Paul? Why is it that we quote the first two verses but not the rest. Why do we say go and sin no more without saying jump in the water and die. Here Paul clearly puts the two together, clearly says stop sinning because you died in the water, you are new.

Why do I love baptism? Oh because I know what it is to die. I know what it is to be someone before the water and someone after the water and I am convinced that the water kills off all the old man when you go under it. I will never be the same again. The water did not save me. On the contrary, it killed me.

On Mission

The great commission: Laid out in the Gospels, played out in Acts, promised in Revelation

Back to this thing of Jesus wandering the earth and gathering some followers. Just what was the God Man up too anyway? He could have done so many different things. Heck, according to John He did so many crazy things that  “Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” Now that is crazy talk. Jesus did so many things that the entire world could not hold all the books that would be written. That is a lot of things. Three years of stuff that the world cannot contain. I am getting a headache just trying to think of that much stuff.

We do know one of the crazy things He was up to was gathering some followers and teaching them about the kingdom. He was resetting things and decided to train up some folks in His way. But here is the cool thing about God He is so into the details that He was not just showing/teaching He was making. Go figure, creator God and all. In Mark 1:17 He says, “Follow Me and I will make you become fishers of men.” Notice here that Jesus issues a call “follow.” He then issues a promise “I will make.” There is a transaction here that if we will do something, Jesus will then do something. There is an essence that the act of following will result in a transformation. He will make something (creator Jesus), not He will show how. That is super sweet. It is not left up to our skill set, our calling. We love to talk about our calling and skill sets as if God can’t do what He wants. He is the creator and He makes people into new people. Jesus emphasizes this by picking a bunch of mediocre types from different walks of life and makes them all do the same thing. You will all be fishers of men is what he tells them. Matthew was not Jesus’ accountant. He was his disciple. He was a fisher.

In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus gives a command to the crew who had been following Him around. They follow Him all over the place, but not too far away, and He teaches them the kingdom. When this kingdom teaching is done He gives them a task. He has made them fishers. Now He tells them to go fish. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” The order of things here is amazing: Make disciples, baptize them, teach them what I taught. See how it works. He says get some people who will follow. Get them baptized and teach them the kingdom.  See Matthew 5-7. When the kingdom living portion is understood or at least attempted or at least desired send them out to make more fishers. Pretty weird how Jesus keeps forgetting to have people accept Him as their personal savior or ask Him into their heart. He just keeps discipleing, baptizing and teaching the kingdom.

Fast forward. Jesus has left earth and taken His seat on the throne. He talks to the Father about us quite a bit. The crew is left alone, told to hang out and wait for the Spirit. So they did and that is pretty amazing right there. I hate waiting for my check at a restaurant. They waited and waited and then stuff happened. They got all wild and went out into the streets and started gathering a new crew. In Acts 2 Peter comes out of the room and starts preaching. Peter tells the masses, “repent and be baptized, everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Peter is feeling it now that he just got this very cool gift. It is interesting here that Peter does not promise salvation, he promises the Spirit, which we are told in other places leads us to the wilderness, or truth in others but always to Jesus. Salvation does not seem to be a moment but a movement not from something but rather to something. (Later topic. Not for now. The Spirit leads us to Jesus, not salvation. How many of us are seeking the wrong thing? Too crazy controversial. Note to self. I should drop this idea. It makes people uncomfortable.) Discpleing brings them to baptizing which leads to the Spirit, which leads to teaching. In verse 42  we are told, "and they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

So then we get back on topic and we are shown just what makes the disciples leave town, start going to the nations. In Acts 8:3-4 it says, “Saul was ravaging the church. Those who were scattered went about preaching the Word.” It seems the next phase of the commission is born out of escaping death and beginning the process of the commission wherever they ended up. This probably explains the slowing of the commission process because we found a place where we could stop running. In our desire to avoid all things uncomfortable we sought peace and safety. When we found peace and safety we sat still and forgot our job.

But here is the good news. This task of going to all nations and telling all tribes will be accomplished. We will once again go and that means the peace and safety net is going to wear out. It is made clear in Revelation 7:9 “And behold a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes.” Stunning, The great commission is a done deal. It is a promise. John saw it. At the end of the age the commission has absolutely been completed. (Another note to self. Revelation is actually in the bible. It might explain how this all turns out. Too controversial.) We know the job will get done and we also know it will only be done through us. So the only thing that is uncertain is when this will be finished.

We are told in 2 Peter 3:8-13 that we absolutely are going to make this thing happen and it is clear that we will determine if He returns in 5 years or 5000 years. In these verses there are references to time and how the Lord will bring about the conclusion of the age. Verse 9 speaks to God’s patience that all may hear and come to Him.  Verse 12 speaks to a hastening of the end of the age by not being sidetracked by things of the world. Specifically mentioned is that God demands lives of Godliness and Holiness.  Our pursuit of these two things will directly lead us away from safety and back to our job of fishing. Hastening is done through us accomplishing our assignment.  We are to make prayer and we are to fulfill the commission.

It seems clear that we will be made to be like Jesus. We will be baptized then we will be taught to do what He did. Wash rinse repeat. He shows us how it works and there seems to be a motivation in the going that has to do with escaping where you came from because we are tired of people trying to kill us So we move to a new place.. We are shown that this task is not just doable but it is promised, that it will be done. We are reminded that the faster we get it done the sooner He returns.  SWEET. This is simple stuff for a stiff-necked people. God’s people are always stubborn and forgetful. Going to the nations is nobody’s calling. It is a command. As my genius friend put it, our calling is to obedience. Most people are pretty unhappy with that calling, last time I checked.

Following

On that day when Jesus stepped out and began to choose disciples were Peter, Andrew, James and John the only ones fishing? It is a critical question. How we answer will probably go a long way to forming who we think this God is and How he goes about making decisions. We do know for absolute certainty that Jesus walked up and said for them to follow Him and they said yes. And off they went. We also know a few other things because they are not in scripture. We know that the four did not ask Jesus into their heart. We know Jesus did not ask them to pray a prayer. We know that they did not tell Jesus that they believe in Him and then go back to their jobs. And we for sure know that Jesus did not join them at their work. We know this because He asked them to come join Him at his work. And off they went. So we can conclude that either Jesus put the entire fishing economy of the region into a recession when the four followed Him or there were in fact other fisherman and Jesus never bothered to ask them to follow. In truth Jesus cruised the streets daily, going from town to town, and apparently He did not ask most of them to follow Him either.

There are all kinds of directions to take this. We could argue that not everyone is called to the apostle level. We could argue that some are just called to the disciple level or the spectator level. We could do that or we could ask what set these followers apart and how do we sign up for the set apart level because the set apart level at the very end were the only ones left walking with Him. The 11 and some other followers were still all in when everyone else had long gone back to doing something else, following someone else perhaps.

In John 15:16  Jesus says, "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide." That's good news isn't it? He chose and they said yes and He did it so they can bear fruit and that fruit will abide. In verse 5 He says, "I am the vine you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."

Here is what we for sure know. Peter, Andrew, James and John did nothing to be asked to follow. They were not special, they were not the best fisherman (fast forward to when they went back to fishing and caught nothing til Jesus showed up and told them which side of the boat fish hang out on.), they did not earn the call. They did say yes when they could very well have continued in their no. So it seems to work a little like this. Jesus says follow me and some of us say yes and some of us keep saying no. But long before we say yes or no we already know that He is God. The truth is that every single one of us, even those of us who say yes, used to say no. We all were rebels, we all were haters of God. We all made Him our enemy. We were all dead. And while we were all dead, while we all hated God we knew there was a God and we all said no. We know this is true because in Romans 1:18 and 19 we are told, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God had shown it to them."

Here is God's love: He has made himself known to every single person who has ever lived. He has revealed Himself to everyone who will ever live. He revealed Himself to the Jews and to the Gentiles alike. He showed Himself to Hindus who made gods to look like the things of god. He made Himself known to the Greeks who created a team of gods to explain all things. He revealed Himself to muslims and aztecs, to mayans and athiest. He has revealed Himself to everyone already. He has already called out to everyone and very few have said yes. But there are some, there are a few, who are wandering among us just waiting for someone to tell them what they already know.

We are like the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar in the matrix. We are offering to unplug all the no's and yet there are only a few yes's. And this is what we are made for. God could have done it an infinite number of ways and yet this is His way. He has made Himself known and all have declared themselves to be hostiles. But there are a few of us that are awakened in the mystery that is how God moves and we say yes. We say yes to the unbelievable and we do the unthinkable. We start trying to set all the captives free and sometimes they too awaken.

It makes absolutely no sense that this is how it works. And when my God makes absolutely no sense then I know I am following something so other than that it must be real.  There is none like Him.

Did Jesus cruise up and down that beach that day asking all the fisherman to follow? He didn't need to. Every fisherman already knew who God was. Every fisherman had already declared Him as enemy. But there were four who were about to say yes. There were four who were never going to be the same again. Jesus didn't need to ask all the fisherman to follow, just the four who were going to say yes. There are those among us who are ready to say yes and He already knows who they are. God has revealed Himself to everyone and everyone has said no. There absolutely is not a single yes to the revealing of God. Our task is to go to the no's (that is everyone) and we are to offer to unplug them. Here is the rub. Only the ones who are prepared to say yes will say yes. We won't talk them into their yes. They have always longed to be a yes they have just always been held captive by their no. Each and everyone of us who has said yes absolutely knows that we were a no longing to be a yes. Each and everyone of us knew there must be more than this.

We always ask the wrong questions. We are always asking if God this and God that then why this or why that. All we really need to ask Him is who is ready to be unplugged and then go do it. The why matters not at all. The why of God only distracts us from our unplugging job.

Enemies of the world

I have been reading Martyn Lloyd-Jones "Life of Christ: Studies in 1 John". So many crazy cool things he says. Here is but one: "John has some strong comments to make about this world. We must remember constantly that it is a very evil place. According to the bible the whole mind and outlook of the world is opposed to God; it is under the dominion of Satan and in the grip of the wicked one." I think we might do good to remember that the world, even when it is smiling, is opposed to God.

Not shocking on the surface but in practice, in reality it is a brutal reminder that we are in truth the enemy of almost every one who walks this planet. That is a reality that most of us do not consider. Those who are enemies of God (all unbelievers) have made us their enemies. They have made us their enemies, though they may not act like it. Because they don't always act like enemies we get confused and forget that they are in fact, followers of another god. So we try to tell them about the love of our God and how can they understand that when their god is doing a pretty decent job of showing them love? Jones and David Pawson both seem to argue that telling unbelievers about the love of Christ is a waste of time. Pawson calls it, "pearls to swine." He argues the love of Christ is not mentioned to an unbeliever once in the Bible. Pawson does a study where he shows that the love of Christ is only explained to followers in the Word. They both argue that we contend for their salvation with the truth of Christ long before we tell them of the love. We tell them who He is and we demonstrate in power.

1 John 1:1-3 seems to support this idea. In these verses John declares "that which we have seen and heard we proclaim to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." He is matter of fact. He wants the recipients of his letter to know that he has seen things and that he knows who the Christ is. Before we can know the fullness of His love we have to know what He has done. This is made clear in verse 4 when John explains why people must know what Jesus has done. "We write these things so that your joy may be full." The fullness of joy is after the knowing. Teaching the love or the fullness makes no sense to an unbeliever. They are lost in the happiness of the world. To tell them of the love of God leaves them relativizing this truth. They can only place the love of God in context with the love of the world. When we tell them of love we have placed the cart before the horse. We tell them of Jesus and then He makes their joy full and then they have revelation of the love of God. The order is simple but absolutely critical.

Today Me, Zoey and Anjin were hanging out in balboa park in San Diego. Set up among the main walk were an Athiest booth, a few psychics, a  crew of Krishnas and a crew of Jesus followers. I will tell you that the air was filled with the demonic and the Christ followers were rather sober or somber. I believe they were sincere in their message that "Jesus loves." The athiest crew was looking pretty happy, laughing and joking and the Krishnas were dancing as always. The psychics just looked super oppressed. Whose joy was full? Anjin was intrigued with the Krishnas. They had cool hair and sang and danced. I once loved the Krishnas. I would spend hours reciting the mantra and I even had the cool hair. I read the bhagavad-gita so many times. I fully believed the words. I never had the commitment level to take to the streets like they do. If you ask me did I worship Krishna I would have to say no. But then again if you ask most unbelievers if they follow Satan they would also say no.

We know this is a lie. This is a battle being waged between two followers. There is no neutral party and until we understand this we will never fight this thing well. 1 John 1:5-6 makes clear that "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness we lie." The world can see what I saw today and they might think the Krishnas are crazy but they are filled with song and dance. The demon who drives that group is strong. he mimics joy and he can only be contended with in the spirit realm. As we passed by them I began to cry out in the spirit. There  was a war to be fought. Anjin asked me who they were and I explained the nature of the demon they follow and the mimic of joy they walk in. I explained to her that when I was unsaved krishna made sense to me because there seemed to be so much joy and so much hardcoreness in them. I desired to have what they have.  I told her that I found in Jesus the fullness of joy and the hardcoreness i was searching for. I found the real and not the counterfeit.  A few minutes later Anjin began to weep. I asked her what was happening and she said that she loved Jesus and their music was making her cry. Her heart was breaking and the music for, and the worship of,  a demon was making her ache.

I am all over the place here but the truth is that if our message is not about the power of Christ, the realness of Christ, then our message looks no different than the message of the world. Which probably explains why the demonic power was great today and while there was a booth of Christians across the way I got the distinct feeling that I was fighting this thing alone. The only crew in worship were the Krishnas and me and two little girls. I kept thinking how does that make any sense? And then I remembered, "the world is a very evil place."