The Church's Mission

Many churches today seek to be all things to all people. Does that sound familiar? Didn’t Paul say something similar in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23? Shouldn’t the church be willing to meet people where they are and to first address their felt needs in order to win them to Christ? Biblically the answer to these questions is an emphatic, No!

When Paul said, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1Cor. 9:22b), he was speaking of his willingness to adhere to cultural standards when doing cross-cultural evangelism insofar as those standards were consistent with the law of Christ (1Cor. 9:21). In other words, Paul did not demand kosher food when preaching in Gentile communities, nor did he exercise his liberty to eat bacon when ministering in a Jewish context. But this willingness to personally accept limitations the apostle might otherwise have ignored in no way redefined the mission or strategy of the church.

The church exists to glorify God by exalting him in worship (Psa. 95:6-7), edifying the saints (Eph. 4:11-12), and evangelizing the world (Matt. 28:18-20). But these functions must be carried out under God’s authority and instruction. He has told us how to worship him, how to build up his people, and how to reach the lost, and he has warned us in every age not to disregard or modify his instructions (Deut. 4:2; Prov. 30:5-6; Luke 6:46). We dare not compromise what God has said in order to accomplish what God intends.

The apostle Peter exhorted his readers and us all:

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:10-11)

God’s will, done in God’s way, as a stewardship of God’s grace, gives God glory. We must constantly bear this simple principle in mind as we plan, pray, and perform the ministry which God has given us. Am I serving as a steward of God’s grace? Am I speaking according to his word? Am I serving in his strength? Or am I instead trusting in and promoting my own agenda? May God help us to do his will. -JME

Sin, the Law, and Speed Traps

Well, it finally happened. It is not surprising really. The truth is it could have (and probably should have) happened a hundred times before. After driving in this country for over twenty years, I received a speeding ticket. The fact it came just four weeks after remarking in a sermon that I had never received one (see here starting at 14:00 http://youtu.be/8KySvRQbSfI?t=14m) makes it all the more embarrassing. I knew I was tired as we neared the end of a 37 hour cross-country drive with five kids in the van, so I was using my cruise control almost exclusively. But it happened anyway. I passed through a small town in Arizona with a reputation as a speed trap. I never noticed (and still have no idea) when I crossed from one zone into another, but a week after arriving back home, I received a citation in the mail and a picture of my offense from a traffic camera.

I suppose this would be an opportune moment to reflect on the use of traffic cameras in general and the unfairness of their use in this case, but that would detract from the larger lesson to be learned and probably say more about my self-justifying sinful nature than the inequity of the system. The truth is I broke the law. Whether I intended to do so and whether I like the way my transgression was dealt with, the fact of my guilt remains. Since I am preaching through Romans in 2014-2015, Paul’s use and interpretation of the law is frequently on my mind. My own transgression and its disclosure in this case is an interesting illustration of something the apostle makes clear in his epistle to the Roman saints.

John Stott in his excellent commentary on Romans points out the law reveals sin, provokes sin, and condemns sin (The Message of Romans, IVP: 1994, 202-205). This three-fold relationship between our sin and God’s law is amply demonstrated in chapters 3, 5, and 7 (e.g. 3:19-20; 5:13-14, 20; 7:7-13). Sin is transgression of God’s law (1John 3:4). Thus the more law is revealed, the more sin there will be. This is not to suggest that ignorance of the law is any excuse. On the contrary, sin existed even apart from the explicit, written revelation of God’s laws to Israel (Rom. 5:13-14). But once the law was given, and as individuals become personally aware of it (cf. Rom. 7:9), the nature and extent of our sin becomes apparent. If we only have the law, our inability to keep it due our inherited depravity leaves us without hope and subject to eternal separation and despair (Rom. 5:12-21; Eph. 2:1-3). The law can expose our sin, but it is ultimately without power to save.

What does all of this have to do with my tripping a traffic camera and receiving a speeding ticket? The latter is an apt illustration of our experience with God’s law and sin. We are driving along, blissfully unaware of our actual relationship to God’s law. We feel confident we are doing pretty well. Maybe our moral life is a little over the limit, perhaps five miles or so, but we feel sure we are well within the buffer of grace. We become complacent. We disregard the signs. Then suddenly, we find ourselves smacked in the face with proof of our own disobedience. How do we respond? Do we seek to justify ourselves? Do we protest the unfairness of it all? Do we lament the weight of the penalty? I did all of these, if not verbally, at least in my mind, when I received my citation in the mail. But these responses, while perhaps understandable in the context of a speeding ticket, are deadly when offered in response to our violation of God’s law.

The gospel is not difficult to believe and accept because of the good news of free grace in Christ. It is difficult to believe and accept because of its universal and absolute condemnation of humanity and its testimony of my personal, desperate need for God’s grace. The good news of the gospel is only good news for those who hear, believe, and accept the bad news of what we really are apart from Christ, and that is something unregenerate and rebellious people do not want to hear, including plenty of unregenerate and rebellious people in churches. I know I am a sinner, but I need to be reminded of it, often. I cannot rightly understand God’s grace without first coming to terms with my condition without it, and I certainly will not appreciate what Christ has done until I know why He had to do it.

I wish I could say a speeding ticket was enough to convince me once and for all that I am a sinner and need God’s grace, but it is not enough. My defensiveness upon receiving it is ample proof there is still far too much self within me and far too little self-denial. I need the law to reveal and condemn my sin, even though it provokes my sinful nature to sin still more. I love God’s law, not only for its moral beauty but also for its convicting clarity. May God help us to listen to His law and see ourselves more clearly in it. -JME

Longing To Be At Home

My family recently drove from Arizona to Alabama and Georgia to visit family and friends. We had a wonderful time, though there never seems to be enough time to spend with those we love. Many people who knew about our trip asked if we were going home. The truth is it was a trip to see family, not a trip home. Arizona is our home now, as much as any place on this side of eternity can be, because that is where my wife and children are. Places are not home, at least, not for me. I am not attached to dirt or trees or houses. Home is wherever those I love most may be.

In 2 Corinthians 5:1-9 Paul speaks of his longing for the resurrection and the eternal state with Christ. He says, “We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord…” but “…we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (6, 8). The word translated home in these verses is endēmeō, a compound word that refers to being in your own country or people. For Paul, to be at home means to be with the one he loves most, Christ. Being with Christ was not merely what Paul hopes for at the end of his life. To be with Christ is to be at home, and that is always where Paul would prefer to be.

Many Christians seem to think of heaven strictly in terms of a place and going there after death simply as the better of two options. But this flattens the biblical doctrine of the eternal state so greatly as to actually pervert it. What makes heaven heavenly is the fact that Christ is there. It is home for the believer because it is where the one he loves most resides. Christians should not, primarily, hope to go to heaven because they do not want to go to hell, nor should the hope of heaven be merely the desired experience once there is nothing left to enjoy in this life. Paul told the Philippians, “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Php. 1:23). Every believer wants to go to heaven, but some seem not to want to go right now. To remain in this world may be necessary, for a time, that we might faithfully perform the duties God has assigned us and bear fruit for His glory and the good of His people (Php. 1:22a, 24-25). But this world has nothing with which to woo us if we truly love Christ, no pleasure that should ever detain us from longing to be with the one we truly love (1John 2:15-17). -JME

One Year of Changes and the Convictions That Led To Them

Our family moved to Arizona and began working with the church here one year ago. It has been a very busy, very blessed time. The congregation has seen a lot of changes. Worship on Sundays has changed. Sunday School and children’s education have changed. The preaching and teaching ministry has changed. The composition of the church has also changed. These changes have seemed overwhelming to some, especially our older members. But there is a rationale behind it all, a reason for everything we have done and continue to do. We have diligently tried to explain those reasons, but I believe the one year anniversary is a good time to review.

First, we believe the gospel is primary, that everything we are and everything we do as the people of God must flow from and always connect back to the gospel of God’s grace (1Cor. 15:1-11). It is my personal conviction most churches today lack a clear, biblical presentation of the gospel. We are committed to affirming the gospel clearly and consistently.

Second, we believe that God’s glory is both the reason and goal of our existence (Isa. 43:7). This conviction governs our approach to worship, the hymns we select, the elements we choose to include (and exclude), and the overall theme and emphasis given to it.

Third, we believe the church is a family of regenerate (born again) people following Jesus under the authority of scripture and the leadership of elders (Acts 20:28). This is not a social club, and though our closest friends are believers, what binds us together is our fellowship in Christ and mutual commitment to His mission.

Fourth, we believe the word of God contained in the Bible is the necessary, sufficient, and final authority for the church and that the systematic and faithful exposition of it is God’s plan for the edification of the saints (2Tim. 3:14-4:5). It is not up to me to decide what people want to hear. We are bound to preach God’s word. May God give us ears to hear it! -JME

The Daily Discipline of Discipleship

...or How Following Jesus is Like Punching Yourself in the Face
 

The Christian life is more than a profession of faith made once or a religious ritual observed at regular intervals. To be a Christian is to know, learn from, and follow Jesus Christ (1Cor. 11:1). It is to yield in obedience to Christ as Lord (Luke 6:46; John 8:31). It is to struggle and strive for holiness in the midst of unholy impulses and an unholy world (Heb. 12:14; 1Pet. 1:13-21).

The apostle Paul described his own experience of the daily discipline of discipleship when he said, “I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (1Cor. 9:27). The Greek word translated discipline in this verse is hupōpiazō. It literally means to strike under the eye, or in other words, to buffet, beat, or subdue. We could quite literally say Paul described the daily discipline of discipleship as punching himself in the face, though that rendering would not express very well the spiritual sense being conveyed. Paul is not saying that we become more spiritual by abusing our physical bodies, but he is using a violent figure of speech to make a very important point (cf. Mark 9:42-50). Discipleship is tough. It is a fight with one’s self. It means war.

Paul is not saying disciples go to war against other people. Our warfare is not physical; our weapons are not of this world (2Cor. 10:3-5). Our warfare is primarily internal, in our hearts and minds, as we struggle to bring our sinful desires in subjection to the Lord. We cooperate with the Holy Spirit in this work, and indeed, without the Spirit’s help we would never have any success (Rom. 8:13). But cooperation is crucial. We have a part to play in the progress of our sanctification (Php. 2:12-13). We do not work to be justified (Eph. 2:8-9), but we can and must work to be practically sanctified so that our lives begin, by grace, to reflect the spiritual reality Christ has already accomplished for us (Rom. 6:1-23; Eph. 2:10).

Paul says he disciplined his body to “keep it under control” (1Cor. 9:27). That last phrase translates doulagōgeō, a word used in ancient literature to describe leading away a conquered foe as a slave. In this case the enemy that Paul seeks to conquer is himself, and his aim is to bring every part of his body, life, and mind into captivity to Christ (2Cor. 10:5).

This is discipleship: the intentional tethering, taming, and training of ourselves for the glory of God and service to Jesus Christ (1Tim. 4:7-8). We continue to resist the new life God has placed within us, falling back into sinful patterns of thinking and acting, behaving selfishly and proudly, failing even to see the many ways in which we fall short. But God is gracious, merciful, and patient, and he continues to work within us to expose our shortcomings and to increase both our faithfulness and fruitfulness. Is this what discipleship looks like in your life? -JME