Christian Living

What is Truth?

Having pardoned the woman taken in adultery, confronting the Pharisees for their own sin and addressing their unbelief, Jesus then turned His attention to the people that believed on Him. In a word of encouragement, He said, “If ye continue in my word, then ye are my disciples indeed. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”

How amazing it must be to know the truth and to be set free by it. It seems simple, yet liberating. Easy, yet hopeful.

Then, questions arise in our souls. Questions like the one that plagued Pilate, “What is truth (John 18:38)?” And, “From what are we being set free?”

To answer these questions, lets travel back in time to the days of Christ. Israel was under Roman occupation, and the people faced oppression, not only from the Roman government and military, but from many of their own people.

From the publicans who enriched themselves by extorting tax money from the people, to the religious leaders who enriched themselves by seizing power through the religious institutions. For the people who followed Jesus, there were few points of hope, save for one… that the Messiah would come and set everything straight.

As Jesus walked the earth, the people had become hopeful. The timing of the arrival of the Messiah was nearing as predicted by the Prophet Daniel. John the Baptist fulfilled scriptures in Isaiah concerning the forerunner to the Christ, and John himself pointed out Jesus as being that Christ.

As Jesus taught and ministered, many of the people came to believe that He was, in fact, the Christ that had been promised to deliver Israel. Those who followed found salvation, love, compassion and deliverance in His words.

The people who were constantly being called upon by their own religious leaders to sacrifice more, to suffer more, and to obey more, were being told by Jesus, “Come unto Me, and I shall give you rest.” And, for a time, they accepted that invitation.

Jesus knew that there would be those who would follow for a while, and leave. Indeed, it is a common thing when one is overcome with the struggles of life to cling to religion, or a religious leader, in order to find some sort of answer or resolution. Often, when that resolution is found, or when hope of a resolution is lost, the follower will fall back to their old ways.

It was that pattern that Jesus spoke to when He said, “If ye continue in my word, then ye are my disciples indeed.” The ones who are truly the followers of Christ are those who continue to follow and trust Him regardless of outcome, who continue with Him until the end.

That level of dedication leads one to know the truth.

What is truth?

Truth is objectively true, and which is true under any consideration. Truth is real regardless of how men may perceive it.

Regarding the Lord, truth is the reality of the Gospel, and the blessing of hope that comes through the Gospel.

Jesus told His followers that if they continued in His word, then they would truly be His disciples. They would know the truth of the Gospel, Who He is, and the truth of God’s grace, and thus they would be freed from the oppression of the religious leaders and the anxieties of living under Roman rule.

For us today, continuing in the word means continually learning the truth of the Gospel from the scriptures. The more we do that, the better we know and understand the Gospel, the more we know the truth, and the more we are set free by the truth.

Being set free by the truth means being freed from fear of God’s judgment, from the questions of whether we’re good enough to get into Heaven, and freed from the fears peddled to us by cable news. We have been set free, because we know the One who holds tomorrow, the One who holds us, and we know that our eternal life and deliverance is in His hand, not ours.

And that is liberating.

One Focus, One Mind, One Church

In John 17, Jesus has just observed the Passover meal with His disciples. Having broken the unleavened bread and shared the wine, thus instituting the Lord’s supper, Jesus spent the next few moments preparing the disciples for what would come next. From John 13-16, He prepared His disciples for His arrest, trials, and crucifixion.

As He discussed these things with His disciples, He reminded them of God’s eternal plan through all of it, and how it would all work to their redemption. Still, things weighed heavy on the heart of our Lord, and on the hearts of the disciples.

So, in John 17, Jesus lifted up His prayer to God. In that prayer, He prayed for His own glorification, for the protection of the disciples, and then He brings the prayer to its glorious conclusion in verses 20-26 as He prayed for the unity and glorification of His disciples.

You read that right… the unity, and the glorification of His disciples.

Christ prayed that His disciples would be one, that they would be unified. Since verse 20 shows that Christ not only prayed for His disciples, but also for all future believers, we can conclude that He prayed for our unity as well.

This unity that Christ prayed for was not a generic hope that we would all be able to get along. Unity can only come from being centered around a central idea, theme, ethic or cause. There has to be a basis for unity.

In His prayer, the Lord prayed that we would be one in God. The basis for our unity is the Lord Jesus, and our Heavenly Father. In a broader sense, the basis of our unity would be in what Christ was about to accomplish on the cross.

Unity among believers can only happen if we are centered upon the Gospel. If we lose our focus on the Gospel, we will find ourselves preoccupied with different things, and those different things will divide us. Therefore, we must continually focus and refocus ourselves on the Gospel.

As Alastair Begg once preached, we must preach the Gospel to ourselves daily to prevent ourselves from drifting from the Lord, and placing our trust in ourselves and our own understanding.

Indeed, once we lose focus on the Gospel, we become more focused on the menial things of this world, and such drift more toward selfishness. This is the cause for most church divisions.

Show me a church that is divided over worship style, and I’ll show you a church that has lost its focus on the Gospel. Show me a church divided over carpet color, sanctuary decor, and programs, and I will show you a church that has lost its Gospel.

Show me a church building that has been placed on the market as the congregation it once housed disbanded, and I will show you a church that forgot the reason for its existence.

When we lose the Gospel, we lose unity, we lose purpose, we lose everything.

Jesus prayed that we would be one. That we would be united in will and understanding, that we would hold the same mission. That can only be accomplished through our unified focus on the Gospel.

Jesus then prayed that we would be glorified. Specifically, in His prayer He mentioned that the glory that was given to Him was also given to His disciples. This “glory” is translated from the Greek, Doxa, from which we get the title of the song, Doxology, which means to make renown, or to be well thought of.

Christ not only made His name great in the Earth by completing the Gospel, He lifted up the names of His disciples, too. This was done so that the disciples could turn around and glorify the Lord.

There are aspects to our transformation in the Gospel that make us stand out in this world. The purpose behind our standing out is to direct people to the Gospel.

The purpose of all of this is to effectively proclaim the Gospel and lead others to salvation. Is that a purpose we live by? Or do we get in the way with our earthly and selfish desires? To ensure that we do the former, and not the latter, we must be Gospel-focused.

Decoding the Parable of the Wheat and Tares: Satan’s Disruptive Antics

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Satan holds no power with God. He is not a divine opponent to our Heavenly Father, and he has no strength to truly battle with God. Satan was expelled from Heaven on God’s command, Satan is only allowed to operate within God’s permissive will, and Satan will ultimately be condemned to Hell for eternity by God’s divine order.

This is plainly seen in scripture as Satan had to obtain God’s permission before testing Job, as Satan had to obey the command of Christ to leave His presence in the wilderness, and as the demons cried out to Christ “Have you come to torment us before our time?”

Satan knows he has a limited time on this earth before his judgment is carried out and he is condemned to Hell for eternity. He knows he cannot win. So, his only recourse is to cause as much disruption as possible in an attempt to blunt God’s glory and to cause the Lord loss.

In God’s infinite power, Satan will find that to be an exercise in futility, because God takes all adversity and converts it to good, thus bringing Him glory.

In Matthew 13, Jesus gives the parables of the Wheat and Tares, the Leaven, and the Mustard Seed to foretell of Satan’s disruptive tactics among God’s people.

In the Parable of the Wheat and Tares, Jesus tells the story of a man who sowed good seed in his field. However, while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the good seed. When it was discovered, the man recognized the tares as the work of his enemy.

Prioritizing the safety of the wheat (the good seed), the man instructs his servants to allow all of it to grow, and that the tares would be separated out at the harvest. In Matthew 13:36-43, Jesus gives the interpretation of this parable, which enhances the interpretation of the parable of the sower and provides a greater framework for interpreting the other Kingdom Parables (Leaven, Mustard Seed, Pearl of Great Price, and Treasure in a Field). Further framework in interpreting the parables can be found here.

In the Parable of the Wheat and Tares, we find that the man that sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The good seed is the word, the Gospel. The field is the world.

As we learned in the Parable of the Sower, Christ sowed the Gospel to the entire world indiscriminately. He made the word available to everyone regardless of whether they would accept the word or not.

However, in the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, we find that an enemy (identified in Matthew 13:39 as the devil, Satan), sowed a false gospel. He sowed a false word. As a result, true believers (wheat) and fake believers (tares) grow alongside one another in this world waiting for the day of the harvest, when the Lord will separate the believers from the non-believers, condemning the non-believers to Hell while gathering the believers into His Heaven.

The result is that the “righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.”

The reason Christ shared this parable was to prepare us for the inevitable conflict and disruptions that will come from having believers and non-believers living side-by-side. He prepared us for such disruptions so that we would not be discouraged or disillusioned by them.

The presence of Spiritual conflict is evidence that God is working. The presence of moral and Spiritual failures validates the predictions made by Christ in the parables, and thus lend even more credence to His words. Neither of these things, Spiritual conflict or Spiritual failures on the part of the people should discredit the Gospel. Quite the opposite.

In this parable, there are a few other lessons we should learn.

First, we ARE NOT to try to figure out who the non-believers and false believers are. This is a very clear point to this parable. The man in the story said that if the servants tried to dig up the tares, they may accidentally dig up the wheat also.

Our efforts to identify the “tares” among us will result in an atmosphere of constant scrutiny, and will create a culture of judgment. Often, we will misjudge a true believer to be a false believer, and destroy the faith or testimony of the true believer thinking they were false.

For the safety and sake of the true believers, Jesus taught us not to judge, not to scrutinize each other, and to allow Him to sort it all out on the day of judgment. This lesson from this parable holds true to the teachings of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount to “judge not lest ye be judged,” and the writings of Paul in Romans 14:4, “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.”

Secondly, there is a dire warning to confirm whether you are a wheat or a tare. The wheat is gathered into barns. This is a picture of the saved being gathered and taken into God’s eternal Kingdom. The tares are gathered and burned in a picture of the eternal condemnation of Hell.

When I read the Lord’s interpretation of that part of the parable, it motivates me to check my faith and make sure my faith is in the true Gospel. It should be the same for you.

And thirdly, there is a message of hope. In that day, when the wheat and tares are separated, the “righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. (Matthew 13:43). The day is coming when the Lord will glorify us, and will give us the eternal blessing that He has promised.

We know for sure that we will inherit that promise, if we know Him as Savior.

Transformed by the Word of God (John 17:14-16)

As Jesus prayed in John 17:14, He made a profound statement. He said, “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”

This statement proclaims how Jesus Christ transformed His disciples by giving them God’s word. Because they were transformed, they were no longer of the world, meaning they no longer held the world’s mindset. Thus, the world hated them.

Now when Jesus said that He gave them God’s word, He didn’t mean that He gave them the scriptures. The disciples had known the scriptures from the time they were children. Starting at the age of five, they would have begun attending school, where they would spend several hours per day memorizing the Old Testament.

The Old Testament scriptures were so familiar to the disciples, that Jesus could say things like, “You have heard it said, (quotes Old Testament scripture),” and the disciples would know the scripture and where to find it. You find the same phenomenon with the Apostle Paul, who would write things like, “As it is written…” before quoting Old Testament scripture, with the expectation that the reader would know the verse.

However, just because one knows what the scripture says does not mean that they know the Word. Often it is that men know the scripture without knowing the heart of God. They know the verses without knowing the God Who inspired them. They know the words without knowing what they actually teach.

Scripture without the Lord is dead. Such was the case for the Pharisees and the Sadducees of Jesus’ day. They knew the entire Old Testament word for word, but they didn’t know God. They didn’t know the Gospel. They didn’t understand God’s master plan, which is our redemption and reconciliation to Him.

Thus, to the Pharisees and Sadducees, the Old Testament became an endless list of proclamations, rules, laws, ceremonies, commandments, and ordinances. Knowing these scriptures meant endless word studies, explorations of word definitions, and debating whether the words actually meant what they said.

This impacted the way the scriptures were taught as the disciples were growing up. So, when Jesus said, “I have given them thy word,” He was saying that He completed the word they knew by giving them the Living Word, Himself.

He accomplished this by speaking past the noise of doctrinal debates by going to the heart of what the scriptures addressed. While the Pharisees and Sadducees quoted the commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” before debating what the definition of “adultery” was, Jesus said, “If you look upon a woman to lust after her, you have committed adultery in your heart.”

In that teaching, Jesus pointed out that the sin in your heart is what separates you from God.

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Many people parse words from the scriptures to delude themselves into thinking that they haven’t sinned. They redefine terms, they make excuses or find exceptions. However, when we apply the teachings of Christ to the words of the Law, we find not only are we all sinners, but we still have sin in our hearts.

It’s a sentiment the Apostle Paul knew all too well when He wrote, “But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? ²⁵I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”

In Romans 7, Paul related how he struggled with sin, not doing the things he knew he should, while doing the things he knew he shouldn’t. It came to the point that even when he did the right things, he did those things with sin in his heart. It all came to the conclusion of Paul confessing his wretchedness and proclaiming his faith that Christ would redeem him from his brokenness.

Paul had this keen awareness of his broken condition because he not only knew the scriptures, but he knew the God behind the scriptures. Thus, in Galatians 3:24, he wrote that the “law is our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”

As we continue to hold ourselves up to the light of the scriptures and the sinless perfection of Christ, we continually see our need for his grace and forgiveness. Thus, we find ourselves continually trusting in His forgiveness, and as we do that, we find ourselves being transformed by the scriptures to the point that we become more aligned with the values, character, and mission of Christ.

When that happens, we are no longer of the world, as Christ said. And when we are no longer of the world, we no longer have its values and mindset, it rejects us and we become its enemy.

We should not fear this, however, as Christ went on to pray that God would not take us out of the world, but that He would protect us from the evil one.

Christ wants us to be in the world so we can lead others to salvation. However, He wants us to be protected from being overcome by the world, absorbed by the world, or destroyed by the evil one. Knowing that this was Jesus’ prayer for us, and that the Father answers Jesus’ prayers, this should give us confidence.

So, spend time in the word, get to know the Lord through the word, and let that transform you. Then, boldly carry that word to others.

Does Your Faith Have Roots? Decoding the Parable of the Sower

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Why do scandals rock the church? Why does Christianity seem to struggle to stay relevant? Why do church members seem so apathetic?

The state of 21st century Christianity does not surprise the Lord, Who not only foresaw it, but planned for it, and foretold it to us so that we would understand it and be able to function within it. That’s why Christ gave us the Kingdom parables in Matthew 13.

The Kingdom parables present the spread, rapid growth of, and far-reaching impact of Christianity, but they also chronicle the struggles that would accompany the growth of the faith. To paint the picture of this growth, and the growing pains that would come with it, He gave us the parables.

As with anything regarding the Christian faith, we must first begin with examining ourselves. Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount that before we try to remove the speck from our brother’s eye, we should first remove the beam from our own.

In 1 Corinthians 11, the Apostle Paul instructed each man to examine himself to see whether he were observing the Lord’s supper properly and for the right reasons, adding that if we judge ourselves, we should not be judged (1 Corinthians 11:28, 31).

The premise is that instead of being preoccupied with what everyone else is doing, we should be focusing on what we’re doing, and examining our own hearts and motivations. Only through that exercise can we find the sin from which we need repentance, and align ourselves with the Lord’s will.

Thus, it’s fitting that the Lord began His series of Kingdom parables with the Parable of the Sower, for the Parable of the Sower is a warning to pay attention to how we receive the Gospel, and whether we have truly allowed the Gospel to take root in our hearts.

In the Parable of the Sower, as recorded in Matthew 13, Jesus told of a man who went forth to sow seed in his field. As he sowed, some of the seed fell by the wayside, and the birds (fowl of the air) came and devoured them up. Some fell on stony places, and sprung up quickly, but withered when the sun came up because they had no root.

Some fell among thorns, which choked the seed out before it could grow. Still, others fell on the good ground, spring up, grew, and bore fruit.

The trick to understanding this parable, and all parables, is to understand the imagery, and where we fit in the story. In Matthew 13, Mark 4 and Luke 8, Jesus gives us the key to interpret the Parable of the Sower. For a full look at the Kingdom Parable Decoder Ring, click here.

In interpreting this parable, Jesus tells us that the sower is the Son of Man. The seed is the word of God (the Gospel). The field is the world. And by necessary inference, we understand that the different types of ground are the different people who hear the Gospel.

The seed sown by the wayside that is devoured by the birds is the seed that is intercepted by Satan’s messengers. As we will learn in the Parable of the Mustard Seed, where the Gospel is being spread, Satan will send his messengers to disrupt things. That’s also a lesson learned from the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares.

Basically, the seed (the word, the Gospel) is sown, but before the hearers can let it take root, Satan (the birds) steals it away so that it doesn’t convert the soul.

The seed sown on the stony ground are those who gladly receive the Gospel, and show a great amount of enthusiasm early after professing faith, but they never allow the faith to truly take root in their heart. They possess a surface-level faith only, and it never really attains any depth in their heart.

The rising of the sun in this parable symbolizes trial, tribulation and persecution that arise as part of the Christian life, and when that happens, the surface-level believer withers, because he lacks the deep-rooted faith needed to endure.

The seed sown among the thorns are those who hear the word, but are so preoccupied with the cares of the world, that the Gospel never takes root in their lives. These are those that are too busy, have other priorities, and seem to always be overwhelmed with responsibility. Because of their busyness, they miss out on the Gospel.

But when the seed is sown on the good ground, the ground that is prepared to receive the Gospel, it bears fruit. These are people who have opened their hearts to the Gospel, are ready to receive it, and allow it to take root in their hearts and their lives. These are the ones who have a great impact on the Kingdom.

In demonstrating the results of the sowing, Jesus has warned us to look within ourselves to see if we have allowed the Gospel to take root. Have we truly listened to it? Have we truly believed in it?

As He explains in His parables, there’s nothing wrong with the seed. The same seed that produced nothing among the stones or the thorns is the same seed that produced much fruit in the good ground. The issue isn’t with the seed, it’s with the soil.

Likewise, there’s nothing wrong with the Gospel. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and it has the power to convert the soul. The effectiveness of the Gospel has more to do with the hearer than it does with the message itself.

Furthermore, we find that the sower sowed the seed throughout the field, to the good ground and to the bad. He sowed the seed indiscriminately.

Likewise, Christ sowed the Gospel to everyone, to those who would hear, and those who would not. He sowed it to the believer and the one who would not believe. He spread the Gospel indiscriminately.

With that, we understand that the responsibility for how we receive the Gospel falls completely upon us, and if we leave this world without having believed the Gospel, then we “are without excuse” (Romans 1).

Therefore, before we examine the big picture surrounding the Christian faith, we must first examine the small one of our hearts. We must begin with a self-assessment. This is what Christ was teaching us in the Parable of the Sower.

So, before we continue further into our studies into the Kingdom Parables, ask yourself….

“When and How did I hear the Word?”

“How did I receive it?”

“Have I allowed the Gospel to take root in my life?”

Or, as Peter wrote, we need to make our “calling and election sure.”

So, heed the Lord’s warning. Assess your Spirituality. Believe the Gospel and let it take root. And watch how the Lord works wonders in your life.

Jesus Said Goodbye (John 17:11-13)

What if today were your last day on earth?

What if you knew, without doubt, that this was your last day to live. How would you spend your time? How would you live? How would you feel?

As Jesus prayed the High Priestly Prayer of John 17, He knew He was in His final hours. In a short amount of time, He and the disciples would retire to the garden on the Mount of Olives, and He would be arrested, stand trial, and be executed by crucifixion.

For our Lord, this death would actually accomplish His divine plan. Through His betrayal and death, Christ would bear the wrath of God for man’s sin, clear us of our guilt, and rise again, conquering death and winning us eternal life.

You see, God is the master conductor, who can make the symphony sound magnificent regardless of whether the members follow the sheet music. If the woodwinds get off tune, God can adjust the brass section to off-set their error and keep the symphony sounding amazing. If the brass lose time, God can adjust the percussion section.

Moreover, when man rebels against God, God not only corrects the sin and redeems man from the condemnation and destruction that follows, but He also has a way of using man’s misdeeds to further His cause. That’s one reason why Romans 8:28 says that “all things work together for good to them who love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”

So there Jesus is, in the upper room, with His disciples, having just observed the Passover and the first Communion, praying for them, as He prepared to go to the cross to redeem man from sin.

In His prayer, the Lord mentions that He will be leaving the world and going to the Father, so He prays that the Father will keep the disciples by His name, so that they will be one as Christ and the Father are one.

Jesus prayed that God would keep the disciples through His name. In this, we learn that we are not only saved by the authority of God, we are kept by the authority of God. Therefore, there is no danger of us losing our salvation.

Then, Christ prayed that we would be unified. That unity comes under God’s authority, and it comes from the Gospel. For a more in-depth look at John 17:11-13, see our pastor’s message posted above.

What Repentance Really Means

Facing death is an indescribable experience. We all know we are going to die, but we don’t know when, where, or how. There’s a moment of intensity you experience when all of those questions are answered.

Such was the case for the woman taken in the act of adultery in John 8. Here, she’s been thrown to the ground in front of Jesus, with a small mob of Pharisees accusing her of adultery and quoting Old Testament scripture in calling for her to be stoned to death.

The whole thing was a set-up to discredit Jesus and cause Him to lose followers. They intended on derailing His ministry altogether, but when you fight against the Lord, you lose every time.

John 8 records that Jesus wrote in the dirt, then told them that the one among them who had no sin could cast the first stone. Realizing their own hypocrisy, or maybe in an exercise in hypocrisy at its finest, they left.

Jesus then turned to the woman and said, “Where are your accusers, does no man condemn you?”

“None, my Lord,” she replied.

“Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more.”

As teachers of grace, we often harp on the first part of our Lord’s pardon of the woman, “Neither do I condemn you.” However, the latter part is just as important, “Go, and sin no more.”

However, is it possible to go through life without sinning? Romans 7 teaches us that it is not.

So, did Jesus tell the woman to do the impossible? He did not.

Going back to the original language, Jesus was telling her to leave the lifestyle of sin. And in that, He painted us a perfect picture of repentance.

Repentance does not mean you live the rest of your life perfectly. It does not mean that you go back and make everything right with everyone you’ve ever sinned against. Repentance is more than simple sorrow or regret over sin. The act of repentance carries with it the notion that we are leaving our sinful ways behind.

Jesus instructed the woman to leave her adulterous lifestyle behind. Likewise, scripture commands the drug addict to leave the dealer and the user-buddies behind. The porn-addict is to step away from his computer, and the prideful man is to step away from the spotlight.

In the late 1980s, there was a church in the Dallas area that ministered primarily to Hippies and Rock and Rollers. This church routinely went into the nightclub district to find those who were being swallowed up by the darkness of sin. When they found someone ready to turn their life around and trust the Lord for salvation, they not only congratulated them on their profession of faith with a church invite, they took concrete steps to help that sinner leave the lifestyle they were caught up in.

Drug addicts were found homes away from their influencers. Prostitutes were rescued from their pimps. Homeless people were given food and shelter. They were all given the tools and opportunities they needed to leave the sinful lifestyle. That church didn’t merely preach repentance, they led you to it.

So, with all this in mind, let’s do a little self-assessment. Have we left our sinful lifestyle, habits, choices, and the tools that fuel them behind? Or do we keep them in a side-pocket in case we need them? Have you truly repented?

And Now… the EPIC Moment!

The Greek language has a beautiful aspect to it… it puts the central thought of the message at the beginning of the sentence. So, when Jesus said in John 17:5, “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was,” the central thought was “And now…” meaning “This moment.”

Christ was asking God to glorify Him in that moment, not the same way an impatient child wants their birthday present “right now,” or the way I wish my download would complete “right now,” but rather, Jesus was saying, “In this moment, glorify Me.”

The moment Jesus was talking about was the Gospel, His death, burial and resurrection for our sins, according to the scriptures. It is in the Gospel that Christ is truly glorified, because in the Gospel, His mission is completed. In the Gospel, His claims of Messiahship are validated. In the Gospel, He has His complete victory.

The Gospel is the culmination of all the promises God made in the Old Testament. It is the fulfillment of the Law, and it was the subject of the prophets. It was the inspiration of the Psalms. When Jesus Christ died for our sins, redeeming us from condemnation and shame, completing that redemption with the resurrection, the disciples saw their faith become tangible. From that moment, they could keep silent no more.

Because of the Gospel, Jesus Christ is the central figure in human history. Secular history can neither deny the existence of Christ, nor can it deny His impact on the world. While secular history ingores the divinity of Christ and His redemptive work through the Gospel, secular history records how the teachings of Jesus have influenced the greatest philosophers ever since. The teachings of Jesus have also influenced Western literature, and if we are to be honest, the ministry of Jesus is the foundation for Western civilization.

You read that right.

Without Jesus, there would be no Western civilization, at least not as we know it. Northern and Western European peoples were barbarians before the conquest of the Roman Empire. Secular history records that fact. Furthermore, the Roman Empire was heavily influenced by Christianity. With the rapid spread of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire (much of it in that first generation after Jesus rose to be at the right hand of the Father,) Roman culture was heavily influenced by the faith. And when Constantine had his conversion a couple hundred years later, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.

The conquered barbarians were now civilized, living by Christian values, even if those values were forced upon them. The influence of Christianity then gave rise to literature, architecture, education, the Sistine Chapel, art, and culture.

It was Christianity which motivated the pilgrims to seek a new life in the new world, and serious historians cannot deny the influence of Christianity on the American colonies and the new nations emerging in the Americas. They may deny or disagree with the faith, but they cannot deny its influence.

With this influence apparent, it becomes evident that without Jesus, there would have been no Western Civilization. What more glory could the Lord ask for than to be the bedrock of our culture’s history? I tell you, it is to be the foundation of our faith, which He is. Hebrews 12 says He is the author and finisher of our faith.

Christ was truly glorified in the Gospel, in the moment that He asked God for the glory. Next, Christ will be glorified when He returns. When Christ returns, there will be no debate about Who He is or What He is. There will only be the decision to surrender to Him, or to fight against Him. And many, unfortunately, will choose the latter.

So, with that, the glory of Christ is truly that He is the turning point of human history, the beginning of Western Civilization, but more importantly, the foundation of our faith, a faith which looks to God for forgiveness and righteousness, and trusts Him for redemption when He returns to this world and establishes His Kingdom on Earth. That truly is epic.

What Sinks Most Christians

One of the most frustrating characters of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe was Edmund, the younger brother who suffered the stereotypical middle-child syndrome. Lured into Narnia to play with his younger sister, he denied its existence to avoid being associated with her immaturity when confronted by their older siblings.

Eager to obtain special treatment, he quickly abandons his siblings in a new, mystical world to seek the favor of the witch, who had previously fed him Turkish Delight. By the time Edmund reaches the following scene, a full-on war has erupted in his heart.

Edmund realizes that, at the witch’s side, he is on the wrong side of the coming battle, but his desire for self-preservation and the hope for possible future favors prevents him from undertaking his own escape. Ultimately, he has to be rescued.

Most characters who frustrate us onscreen do so because we see a little of ourselves in them. Edmund frustrates us because we see his struggle as our struggle. Trying to fulfill our own desires, we find ourselves trapped on the wrong side of the spiritual battle front. Our desire to be on Aslan’s side while simultaneously receiving Turkish Delight from the witch has rendered us captive, needing the Lord to rescue us by His divine grace.

This battle inflicts needless pain and anxiety upon us, as the struggle could easily be avoided simply by following the words of Christ in Matthew 6:24, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

Just as Edmund could have avoided the whole struggle by choosing loyalty to his siblings, the creatures helping them along, and pursuing the presence of the obviously good Aslan, Edmund tried to have it both ways. Such is the same mistake we make.

Most Christians want to serve God, but to a degree, we also want to enjoy the pleasures of this world. We envision a world where we can somehow live for ourselves while at the same time living for God. Jesus said in Matthew 6:24 that this is impossible. We will either serve God, or we will serve our own self-interests, seeking only to enrich ourselves with the pleasures of this world (serving mammon).

Any choice to try to accomplish both is actually a choice to serve the latter, with the added consequence of self-deception.

Therefore it is important to heed the words of Joshua as he closed out his service to the nation of Israel, “Choose this day whom you will serve… as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” This decision will lead to a powerful commitment, one Moses made which was chronicled in Hebrews 11:24-26, “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.”

What sinks most Christians is the desire to enjoy the things of the world while having God in their corner. The way of the narrow road that Jesus described is the commitment to serve God first in all things, and trust Him to bless you as a result. To commit to serve God first, and to live for Him and not self, we must constantly ask ourselves two questions. (1) To what have I committed myself today? and (2) Why?

As we continually ask ourselves those questions, while continuously committing ourselves to serving God, we will notice a shift in our priorities, and a shift in our motivations, to the point where we become the people God intended on us being, and we will see the blessings thereof.

So, whom will you serve today. God? Or Mammon?

The Power of Responsive Readings

Worship is the process of entering into God’s presence to proclaim His glory. This is something that God expects of each individual, and it is something that each individual will find a blessing in, if they participate in the worship.

Therefore, every element of the worship services at Life Point Baptist Church has a participatory element to it. We don’t put on a worship performance, rather, we worship, and we invite you to worship as well.

This is one reason we resurrected a timeless practice, once common in the early 20th century, but long forgotten… the responsive readings.

If your church still has hymnals, chances are you have noticed pages of scripture printed in both regular and bold face interspersed with the hymns contained in the book. These scriptures are designed to be read in unison by the congregation, with the worship leader reading the regular print, and the congregation joining in the bold print.

The result is not only a powerful exercise of hearing the word of God read in unison, but it also allows the heart of the worshipper to be centered on the Lord. Thus, makes our worship that much more powerful.

Therefore, we have reincorporated responsive readings to our worship, and we invite you to attend and take part. Feel free to come and experience the blessing of a church worshipping together.

The Point…

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