The Trinity

Our topic of study last Wednesday night was the Trinity.  During the study we talked about the fact that there are some groups who call themselves ‘Christian’ but deny the Trinity.  One of the largest and most known of these groups call themselves Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW). 

If you have ever spoken with a JW, you know that they are very well versed in their beliefs – usually much more so than your average Evangelical Christian.  First of all, this should not be the case.  But second, this has implications for our dialogue with them.  We must be thoroughly prepared to engage with groups like this and be able to make our point from Scripture.

The JW evangelist will tell you that the Trinity is not found in Scripture.  He is right that the word Trinity is not in the Bible, but the concept is all over it.  Here is a simple series of Scriptures that you can walk through with a JW to show them why you believe in the Trinity.  (And you can let them read these Scriptures from their own Bibles!)  Just let them read the text, then point out what it is saying like I do below.

1.  Acts 10:39-40

And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.  They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear.

So, first we establish the fact that Godraised Jesus from the dead.  There shouldn’t be any argument about that.  JWs believe that.

2.  1 Thessalonians 1:9-10

For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Now we see that God calls Jesus his Son.  So that naturally and logically makes God Jesus’ Father.  And again, it states that God did it.  So God raised his Son, Jesus, from the dead.

3.  John 2:18-22

So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”  Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”  The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?  But he was speaking about the temple of his body.  When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

So we have established that God raised Jesus from the dead.  Then we established that God is the Father of Jesus.  Now in this passage, Jesus clearly says that he will raise himself from the dead – “I will raise it up.”  Clearly, Jesus is claiming the power to do what God does. 

4.  Rom 8:9-11

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.  Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.  But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Notice what these verses do.  Throughout this passage, the terms Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ, Christ, and Spiritare all used interchangeably.  Paul begins by talking about the Spirit of God dwelling in you.  Then, without changing the subject, he speaks of having the Spirit of Christ.  After that, he says simply that Christ lives in believers.  Clearly, Paul understands that there is a Spirit of God and of Christ that is both the same as them, but also distinct.

Using this paradigm to speak with JWs certainly does not guarantee conversion.  This is not a magic formula that you can use to make everyone see the light.  Only the Holy Spirit can work in their hearts and bear witness to the reality of the Triune God.  Mostly this simply helps us to have a quick, biblical, and logical explanation of the Trinity.  What I have done is write these Scriptures in the back of my Bible.  Beside the Acts passage, in the margin I wrote the location of the next passage, and then so on for the next two.  I hope this helps you have something good to say when you encounter someone who does not believe in the Trinity.

But in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.  -1 Peter 3:15-16

Pros and Cons: What Makes a Life Worth Living?

As we prepare for our daughter to make her introduction into the world (presumably on August 28), it has caused me to reflect on the issue of life.  I’ve always thought that it was an interesting case of semantics and posturing that both sides of the abortion issue identify themselves with what they are for rather than what they are against.  On one side you have those who are Pro-Life.  On the other side, Pro-Choice.  The reason for this is obvious – when advocating a cause, it always sounds better to the hearers if you are arguing not simply against something bad, but in favor of something good. 

Even though we identify ourselves as Pro-Life, I fear that we may come across as only anti-abortion.  Now, I don’t mind at all saying that I am against abortion.  I absolutely am.  I hate the fact that children are ripped apart and thrown away like garbage each and every day in the name of convenience and “choice.”  But my opposition to abortion cannot be my base position.  Rather, I am against abortion because I value life.  Therefore, I am Pro-Life. 

This may seem like splitting hairs, but it is a very important distinction.  My hatred of abortion only comes about because of my view of the sanctity of human life.  I think about the little girl that is in my wife’s belly.  Each night I get to feel her kick and roll and squirm as the day draws nearer that I get to hold her.  I can’t imagine how anyone could think it was okay to end that life.  I think this way because I value human life.

But that brings us to another point of examination.  Can a high value of human life be my base position?  Or must I be able to ground that in something even more basic and foundational? 

I think I must.  I can say that I value life, but why do I value life?  Because I have it and don’t want to lose it?  I don’t think that’s good enough – it’s too subjective.  If that were the case, then whoever doesn’t value their own life would have a basis for not valuing the lives of others.  My position must be grounded in an objective truth that is beyond myself. 

I hate abortion because I value life. 

I value life because of the One who gives life. 

My base position, or my presupposition, is God.  God is that eternal reality that exists independent of anything else.  God is the One who spoke and created the universe.  God is the One who thought up the idea of human life before the foundations of this world were laid.  God is the One who sustains everything that exists, including my life and yours.  God is the One who formed mankind in his own image, creating us as sons and daughters of the King.  I value the life of every human being, no matter how small, how intelligent, how sick, how old, or how needy, because I value their Maker more than anything.

I hope that this is our message.  What the world hears from the Pro-Life movement should not simply be anti-abortion, but it should be the Gospel.  We could prevent a million abortions, and though I think there is greatvictory in that, if we seek that alone without clearly showing the glory of our God, we have failed in our ultimate mission.  This is not a matter of mere semantics and posturing.  It’s not about winning the argument.  This is about fulfilling our mission, doing what we were created to do – glorify our great God and King.

What is God made of?

Last night in our Bible study, we talked about the doctrine of God – specifically the attributes (or characteristics) of God.  We found that God is holy, intelligent, living, personal, and infinite among may other attributes.  One particular attribute raised some questions, and it is one that can certainly be difficult to grasp, even impossible to really understand.

This attribute concerns the essence of God – what his being is made of.  Scripture says that God is not physical, but is spiritual.  Jesus made this clear in John 4 as he was talking with a Samaritan woman.  Toward the end of their conversation, Jesus said this – “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”  (John 4:23-24)

Also, in 1 Timothy, Paul speaks of the essence of God a couple of times.  First, in 1:17, he writes, “To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.  Amen.”  Then in 6:15b-16 he writes, “he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lords of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see.  To him be honor and eternal dominion.  Amen.”

So, Jesus said very plainly and clearly that “God is spirit” in John 4.  Then Paul also speaks of God as one who is invisible and has never nor will ever be seen, at least in the way that we know ’seeing’ here on earth. 

But here is something else that I think is important.  Paul describes God as one who dwells in unapproachable light.”  This is very similar to other stories in Scripture such as when Moses was in the presence of God and he saw light.  And Moses was even glowing with a heavenly radiance when he came down from the mountain after being with God. 

It seems that what God is getting at in revealing himself this way is that we cannot even comprehend the magnificence of his glory.  Our finite minds do not even have the capacity to receive it.  The light of the presence of God is so absolutely, unbelievably glorious that we cannot even take it in.  Just look at how Isaiah responded to getting a mere vision of the glory of God in Isaiah 6.  It’s breathtaking. 

This also ties into the reason that Israel was always commanded to not have idols like the nations around them.  God commanded them to not even make physical representations of Him, and I think one of the reasons is that a finite, physical representation of an infinite, spiritual God could do nothing but belittle him.  God is not bound by the physical – on the contrary, he created everything that is physical.  He is unlike anything that we as physical beings know.  But he is more excellent than any kind of physical existence.

This is a very difficult aspect of God for us to wrap our minds around.  But we must humble ourselves and submit to the fact that we can never exhaust the riches of the glory of God.  We can never finish knowing God.  He is limitless.  But the more we do understand of him, the more we think and contemplate God and his ways, the truer our worship is, the better we will understand ourselves, and the more we are able to glorify Him.

I Surrender All

This was the hymn that we sang at the end of the sermon last Sunday. 

I Surrender All

Those are heavy words.  Verse two says this…

“Worldly pleasures all forsaken, Take me Jesus, take me now.”

I fear that sometimes we can sing along in church to whatever song is being played in the same way that we we do when listening to the radio in the car.  But it’s not the same.  When we sing songs in church, we are singing them to God as praise.  They are an expression of our glorifying Him and seeking to honor Him in all that we do.  When we sing words like those above, we must pay close attention and not let them become empty and monotonous. 

This Sunday, these words will be particularly appropriate as we look at Philippians 1:18b-26. 

One song we are singing this week will be A Mighty Fortress is our God.  This is a wonderful old hymn that was written by Martin Luther, the main force behind the beginning of the Protestant Reformation and a man who was mightily used by God to recover a true vision of Scripture and the Christian faith.  I want to put the words to the song here so that you can read it before we sing it together on Sunday.  Read slowly and carefully, and ponder what you will be saying as we sing.

A mighty fortress is our God,

A bulwark never failing;

Our helper He amid the flood

Of mortal man prevailing.

For still our ancient foe

Doth seek to work us woe –

His craft and power are great,

And armed with cruel hate,

On earth is not his equal.

 

Did we in our own strength confide,

Our striving would be losing,

Were not the right man on our side,

The man of God’s own choosing.

Dost ask who that may be?

Christ Jesus, it is He –

Lord Sabaoth His name,

From age to age the same,

And He must win the battle.

 

And though this world, with devils filled,

Should threaten to undo us,

We will not fear, for God hath willed

His truth to triumph through us.

The prince of darkness grim,

We tremble not for him –

His rage we can endure,

For lo, his doom is sure:

One little word shall fell him.

 

That word above all earthly powers,

No thanks to them abideth;

The Spirit and the gifts are ours

Through Him who with us sideth.

Let goods and kindred go,

This mortal life also –

The body they may kill;

God’s truth abideth still:

His kingdom is forever.

 

I hope we can sing those words, specifically those at the end in bold, and truely mean them this Sunday.  They are not words of Scripture, but they reflect a deep biblical truth that we will examine this week.  What do you value most?  Luther lived his life not for his own gain, but willingly put his life on the line again and again for the sake of the gospel.  Can we live in the same way?

“They Being Dead, Yet Speak!”

Though I’m not sure if it was an original quote, the great “Prince of Preachers,” Charles Haddon Spurgeon, said this about the great saints that have gone before us leaving writings for our benefit.  Though men like Martin Luther, William Carey, Augustine, Jonathan Edwards, and Spurgeon himself have all died and we have no opportunity to ever hear them or meet them in this life, they have left for us amazingly edifying writings that Christians should not ignore. 

C.S. Lewis admonished all Christians to read old books.  He suggested that we alternate one book written in this century with one written in another.  This can be hugely beneficial for Christians in our day and age.  We tend to get so wrapped up in our own culture, our own time, that we actually can be blinded by the prejudices of our generation.  Reading books written outside of our century helps us to open our eyes to perspectives of godly men and women who can see things that we cannot always see.  Their wisdom and insight should not be forgotten as it is crucially relevant to our lives today.

A pastor named John Bunyan was one of these men.  I often refer to Bunyan as “my favorite dead guy.”  If you’re not sure who that is, maybe you are familiar with Pilgrim’s Progress, which is one of the roughly 60 books he wrote.  He is on my mind now because I was given a 3 volume copy of his complete works Sunday by a friend of mine at my ordination service.  Interestingly enough, I had already decided to use Bunyan as an illustration this coming Sunday in my sermon.  He is one you will surely hear more of as his life and works are full of great illustrations that I’ll use. 

If you are not in the practice of reading old books, I encourage you to begin.  Pilgrim’s Progressis a great place to start.  Every Christian should read this book.  It was written by a man who had only the equivalent of an elementary education, but has become the most widely read book in the world, only behind the Bible.  It is acclaimed by Christians and non-Christians alike as the best allegory ever written.  It is a brilliant description of life as a Christian using the English countryside and the 16th century city of London as the allegorical setting. 

Read old books.  I’ll periodically post suggestions about books that are particularly great and should be read by all Christians.  Do not neglect the gift that the saints of old are to us in 21st century America, because “they being dead, yet speak.”

May Your Abundance of Joy Overflow!

As we approach this Sunday, the day that we as a church have decided to take a love offering for Zwingli Church who sustained significant fire damage, I want to remind you of what Paul told the Corinthians about the giving of the Macedonians in 2 Corinthians 8:1-5. 

In urging the church in Corinth to give money to aid the struggling church in Jerusalem, Paul gave them the example of the Macedonians.  He writes that their “abundance of joy…have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.”  But that’s not the most shocking part of the story.  The rest of that sentence reads:  “their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity.”  So Paul combined “abundance of joy” and “extreme poverty” and he got an overflow of generosity. 

This would have been a serious rebuke to the church at Corinth.  They would have heard this and known immediately that what Paul is doing is pointing out their wealth and contrasting it with the Macedonians, who they surely knew to be quite poor.  The city of Corinth was a very busy commercial town, and many of the citizens had significant means.  They were pretty well off.  But what Paul does is jab them with the story of how the dirt poor Macedonians (I’m not exaggerating – he uses extreme poverty to describe them) gave above and beyond their means, sacrificing for their sister church in Jerusalem.  They even, in verse 4, begged to be given the opportunity to help with the relief effort.

This is a message that hits us exactly where we are, as citizens in the most prosperous nation in the world.  As we are thinking and praying about what to give to Zwingli Church, let’s think like Macedonians.  In fact, as we continue to give our regular tithes and offerings, let’s think like Macedonians.  They treasured Christ and his kingdom above all material goods.  They gave what they didn’t really have in order to care for their brothers and sisters and advance the gospel.  And in so doing, they were abundantly joyful.  Does that describe you when you give?

Thank You

Our first week here has been wonderful.  I can’t tell you all how much we appreciate the birthday party and baby shower you surprised us with.  You guys went above and beyond, and we truly feel loved.  It really means a lot to us that we just got here and you have done so much for us. 

Thank you.

The Words of Philippians

Above is a “word cloud” of the text of the book of Philippians. What that means is that the 150 most common words that occur in Philippians (except for connecting words such as “is” and “the”) are arranged randomly with the most commonly occurring words appearing largest. There’s a pretty cool website called Wordle that generates these automatically. You can change the font, color, and layout with simple push button commands, and images like this pop out!

But the reason I made this is to get a visual representation of what words Philippians emphasizes.  Words are very important.  There are some in our culture, especially among the intellectual elite, who want to say that words are inherently meaningless.  They want to argue that we can simply apply whatever meaning we want to the words that we read, thereby giving them whatever meaning we prefer.  But this runs completely counter to the intent of the Bible.  God tells us that his word is sharper than any sword, that it cuts us deeply and then binds up our wounds.  He says that when his word is sent forth, it never returns without fulfilling its purpose.  For God’s word to have this kind of power, what he says must mean what he intended it to mean.  And God tells us through the apostle James that our words are extremely powerful, both for good and for bad.  Words matter! 

This Sunday morning we’ll begin to walk through Philippians, and we’re going to examine the words that Paul wrote as he was supernaturally inspired by the Spirit of God.  These words carry with them the very power of God, for he has chosen to reveal himself to us in words rather than in pictures or sounds or anything else.  The most vivid and clear and glorious revelation that God has given us, he has given in words. 

Let’s not neglect the importance of the words that we read, hear, and speak.  Take a good, close look at the word cloud above and spend some time meditating on the words that God wrote through Paul to the church at Philippi…and to you.

At Youth Camp

I am away at summer camp with the youth group of Oak Park Baptist Church this week.  We left Sunday morning, I’ll be here until Wednesday afternoon (though the rest of the group will stay until Thursday night). 

I may not be posting too much this week, because, well, youth camp is just draining.  But we’re having lots of fun, and some great times of worship and teaching. 

Then, Thursday Jen and I begin the drive out to Crosspoint,  which we will finish on Friday.  So this week is pretty packed. 

I just wanted to let anyone know who may check the blog that I haven’t disappeared, I’m just either at youth camp or driving halfway across the country.  But Jen and I are very excited to be able to come up and spend some good time with everyone. 

Looking forward to seeing you all on Friday,

Pastor Justin

Discouragement, part 5: Sorrowful, yet Always Rejoicing

The Christian life is a life of paradox.  It’s all over the Bible.  Even Jesus makes some strange statements like, “So the last will be first, and the first last” (Matt 20:16), and “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matt 23:12), and “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt 16:25). 

We have a way of seeing things, as fallen humans, that we understand to be right.  But God has a way of seeing things that is right, because he is right and perfect.  It’s our task as Christians to spend our lives aligning, as best we can, our thoughts with God’s thoughts.  We want to think, not like sinful humans, but like God.  We want to understand the universe in a way that accords with the mind of God rather than the mind of man.

As we grow in relationship with Christ and gain wisdom and understanding, our lives will look more and more unworldly.  What I mean is that we will look like people who don’t really belong here, but belong somewhere else.  We will begin to live in this world, but not be of this world. 

So, in teaching people to think rightly, in a godly manner, Jesus spoke like this.  And following after Jesus, and being inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul wrote like this.  In 2 Corinthians 6:1-10, Paul strings a whole list of paradoxical phrases together describing how a life lived following after Christ looks.  One phrase in particular is helpful today – “as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” 

How can someone experience sorrow and joy at the same time?  How can two very different, and even opposing, emotions coincide?  The answer is simply, the cross. 

Hebrews 12:2 tells us that we should look to Jesus, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.”  He endured the cross, not because it was his duty, not because he had to, but because of joy!  What could this be that would make a man voluntarily experience one of the most tortuous means of execution ever devised by humans…with joy?  Jesus said that the whole reason he was here was to glorify the Father.  That’s what he does.  He reflects and points to the glory of God the Father.  Nowhere is God’s glory seen more clearly than when Jesus suffered and died on the cross and was raised three days later.  There we see, all at once, God’s justice, wrath, and judgment, along with his mercy, grace, and love, along with his righteousness, holiness, and beauty.  Because the cross would bring supreme glory to the Father, Jesus took joy in it. 

As we wrap this series on discouragement and suffering up, I want to emphasize that the main reason believers suffer is to display the glory of God.  As Jesus suffered, he knew his Father was magnified, and he also knew that on the other side of this was eternal joy in the resurrection.  Christians, we too share in the sorrowful, painful, and deadly joy of Christ.  Our joy in God may cause us to suffer.  It may cause us to lose things.  It even may cause us to die.  But, through all of the troubles we may have to endure on this earth, God promises that “if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Romans 6:5). 

Our suffering in this life urges us toward the next life.  It pulls our eyes and our hearts away from this temporary time of exile from the presence of God, to the promises he has given us as his adopted children, fellow heirs with Christ.  We live in a paradox.  The world will look at us and will not understand.  But that’s the glory of God – it is not by my strength that I do it, but by his.