Tag: Travis Peterson

Galatians 1:10

 

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

 

            With the rise of theological liberalism in the nineteenth and twentieth century’s, American Christianity found itself in danger of losing the biblical gospel.  Any student of that age can document how scholars, first in Europe and then in the United States, began to question the Scripture and its teachings until an entirely different gospel emerged. 

 

            What most do not consider, however, is that these men who denied the atonement and the necessity of mankind to have personal, saving faith in Christ, they were not trying to destroy the gospel in the process.  No, if one reads the writings of these men or sees transcripts of their messages, one will find that these men actually believed that they were saving the gospel.  They were updating the message of the Bible for a new, enlightened humanity who believed more in science than superstition.  Liberals did not intend to destroy the gospel at all; instead, they wanted to save the church.

 

            The problem is, the gospel does not itself need to be saved.  Any tweak of the gospel in order to make the message of Jesus Christ more palatable for the lost is actually going to end up stripping the message of, well, the gospel.  The cross is foolishness to the lost.  The blood of Jesus is an offense to those who do not know Christ and have not come to him for grace.  Anything that will sweeten the gospel to the lost is very likely a removal of the heart of the gospel.

 

            I’m not here speaking of contextualization, speaking the gospel to people in words and ways that they can understand.  I’m not saying that missionaries cannot learn to dress and speak like the people to whom they are witnessing.  But when the changes come in the fundamental message of the gospel, the changes are devastating to the cause of the missionary.  As Paul said, trying to please man makes one no longer a servant of Christ.

 

            The gospel is very simple.  God is.  He is our Creator and Judge.  God is holy and loving.  We have all rebelled against him, failing to live up to his standards.  We have earned, through our rebellion, his wrath for our sins.  God must punish our sins because he is perfectly just.  God sent Jesus Christ, God the Son, to earth as a man to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Jesus took our place, paid the penalty for our sins, and satisfied the wrath of God for our rebellion.  Anyone who will believe in Jesus and turn from their sins will be forgiven by God—salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.  This is the gospel, and it must not be changed.

2 Samuel 6:20-22

 

20 And David returned to bless his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, “How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants’ female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!” 21 And David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord—and I will make merry before the Lord. 22 I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be based in your eyes. But by the female servants of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor.”

 

            Some passages of the Bible become known more for their legend than their fact.  Such a passage is the above event from 2 Samuel 6.  When David finally followed the biblical instructions for moving the ark of the covenant, what did he also do?>  Did he, as some people still readily claim, dance naked before the Lord and the people?  I think it likely that you will have heard someone make this claim, but is it truth?  Or, as is so often the case, is the story of David’s Full Monty performance actually more like the warping of a secret in the old telephone game, becoming more and more corrupt as it is retold by careless people?

 

            It seems, from a cursory examination of the passage and a few commentaries, David did not dance in the buff.  Instead, he was wearing a linen ephod, a priestly garment.  “And David danced before the Lord with all his might.  And David was wearing a linen ephod” (2 Sam 6:14).  Part of the point of priestly garments, if you recall, is to keep them from exposing nakedness (Exo 28:42-43).  Thus, David did not show off anything that would be inappropriate to see.

 

            David’s wife was embarrassed by his behavior, not because David was lewd (though that could be implied in her accusation), but because he behaved in a manner that she did not feel was befitting his station as king.  She did not like the idea of the king taking off his symbols of authority and dancing around like a commoner.

 

            Add to this discussion the idea that David was “undignified” in his actions.  This is not saying that David was out-of-control, mad, or crazy in any way—regardless of what some popular worship songs have suggested.  No, the point is that David would not hold himself aloof as king and refuse to worship the Lord and celebrate the Lord’s glory.  The call is not for us to be silly in our worship services or to be chaotic or disorderly in any way; the call is, rather, that none of us assume that we are of too lofty a station in life to humble ourselves before God in the same way as the poorest person on earth.

 

            Oh, and while I’m poking at this story, let me also say that I do not believe that this passage is in any way an argument that dance should be used in modern worship services.  The dancing that was done was akin to the kinds of dancing that might occur as celebration in any event.  People dance in the aisles of a stadium when their team wins a game.  David and others seem to have spontaneously danced for joy.  IT was not programmed.  It was not an attempt to interpret a song for the benefit of the congregation.  It was simply dancing for fun, out of overflowing joy at the presence and honor of God.  Such need not be programmed.  I’m not calling dance wrong.  I’m simply saying that this passage is no argument for the inclusion of programmed dancing in our formal services of worship.

 

            So, stripping the legend from the facts, we still can learn a great deal from David’s actions.  He was the king.  He did not, however, assume that his kingliness prevented him from humbling himself before the Lord.  IT is good for the people of God, when they come to worship, to let go any thought of social rank and to simply, as one body and family, offer praise to God as humble servants of the King of kings.

1 Samuel 15:8-9

 

8 And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.

 

            Have you ever found yourself almost willing to obey?  Have you ever thought that you were going to follow God to a point, but not to go too far?  Have you ever wanted to tell God that you would do one thing, but not another?  If so, you were disobedient.

 

             1 Samuel 15 is the account of King Saul’s final disobedience before God told him through Samuel that he would lose the kingdom.  God had charged Saul with destroying an enemy people completely.  Saul was willing to obey to a point.  He was willing to destroy the things he wanted to destroy.  But, when it came to destroying treasures and spoils that Saul wanted to keep, he turned up his nose at the command of God.

 

            You know, it is very easy to think like King Saul.  It is easy to obey God when you want to.  It is hard to obey in areas where, well, obeying is hard.  It’s sort of like a child who finds eating chocolate cake easy, but broccoli hard.  However, to be obedient to God, we must be determined to follow him when following is easy and when following is not.

 

            This would be a good place for you and me to take time to think pretty clearly about how we obey.  Where is obedience easy?  Great, keep that up.  Where is obedience hard?  Where are you tempted to tell God, “I won’t give you that much?”  In those places, remember what disobedience cost Saul.  Remember that partial obedience is disobedience.  Ask God to grant you the heart and character to follow him all the way.

2 Corinthians 2:14-16

 

14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

 

        For many years of my life, I went to New Orleans to share the gospel with revelers during mardi Gras.  This was always a fascinating time of ministry.  We were not, by the way, the harsh guys with the bullhorns and cruelly worded signs.  Instead, we often had our most productive conversations with people who were walking away from those guys. 

 

        One year, in New Orleans, I remember thinking to myself, “What possible good am I doing here?”  People were not responding very positively to our presentations of the gospel.  No one was being radically saved on the Bourbon Street sidewalks.  Instead, everything we did seemed to meet with as much apathy as anything.

 

        At some point in thinking this issue through with other brothers in Christ on the street, we stumbled upon the truth of the verses above.  We first worded it this way:  “We are being a witness, either to someone’ salvation or their condemnation.”  What we meant was that our sharing of the gospel to the inebriated masses in the Crescent City was not empty.  Either a person would be saved, eventually, and look back and perhaps remember that they had heard the gospel truth in New Orleans as one step on their path to conversion.  Otherwise, a person would not be saved, and as they eventually would stand before God, they would remember that they did hear the true gospel at least once on the streets of New Orleans.  Either way, that gospel witness would be recalled in their story of salvation or condemnation.

 

        It was interesting, then, to happen across the same sentiment in the life of Paul in 2 Corinthians 2.  Paul talked of his gospel witness as a smell.  To some, the message of the cross stinks.  To others, it is glorious.  To some, the cross will lead them to death, as the cross is the center of their rejection of God and is love.  To others, the cross is beautiful, as it is the place where they find God’s mercy and become his child.

 

        Christians, right now, you are a smell.  So, make as much smell as you can.  Tell people about Jesus.  Share the gospel.  You might see people saved.  You might not.  Either way, it is your job to be faithful.  Perhaps your presentation of the cross and the risen Savior will stink to them and be one more charge against them on judgment day.  Perhaps your witness will only be one more way in which the Lord will tell them that he put his grace in front of them to receive.  Or, perhaps your presentation of the cross will smell sweet.  Perhaps your gospel presentation will be one part of what God uses to plant a seed, water it, or harvest a saved soul.  Either way, you are used by God to accomplish his will for his glory.

1 Samuel 7:12

 

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us.”

 

“Here I raise mine Ebenezer;

Hither by Thy help I’m come

And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,

Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,

Wandering from the fold of God;

He, to rescue me from danger,

Interposed His precious blood.”

 

            Have you ever sung the above verse of “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and caught yourself thinking more of Ebenezer Scrooge than of the word of God?  This is a gorgeous line of poetry, but it only has weight in our lives if we remember what the hymn writer is saying.

 

            In 1 Samuel 7:12, Samuel has just seen God bring great deliverance to his people.  After a particular victory over their Philistine foes, Samuel sets up a stone in memory of the fact that God has faithfully protected his people.  The point of the stone was to remind the people, every time they saw it, that God has always been faithful in the past and surely will continue to be faithful in the future.

 

            What about you?  Do you have an Ebenezer?  Can you look back to a point in your life where you have seen God be faithful to you?  Have you marked down that place and said, “I know God has been faithful to me here, and I will trust him with my future?”  If so, great.  If not, think back over your life.  Think of a time when God has taken care of you.  Mark it down.  Remember it.  Then, when you find yourself tempted to despair, look back at your marker stone, your Ebenezer, and sing out those glorious lines:  “Hither by Thy help I’m come, and I hope, by Thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home.”

1 Samuel 3:11-13

 

11 Then the Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. 12 On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. 13 And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.

 

            There has been in recent years a revival of the understanding of biblical church discipline.  Whether it be in national denominations or among smaller groups, Christians have been doing a great deal of talking about and writing about the issue of how churches must be more responsible for those who are members.  Groups such as 9 Marks have called Christians to do their part to obey Jesus’ commands in Matthew 18:15-17.

 

            In my own experience, conversations about church discipline are often met with a push back from folks who argue that confronting church members about their sin or even removing them from church membership simply does not work.  These folks tell stories of how they know of people who were confronted in their sin and who chose never to again darken the door of the church.  I don’t doubt the genuine desire in these people to not “drive away” wayward Christians.  However, I do think that a mistake is being made.

 

            In God’s message to Samuel in 1 Samuel 3:11-13, we see one aspect of discipline that is often neglected by those who do not want to see churches confronting sinful, wayward members.  Eli did not confront his children.  He knew of their sin, and he did not confront them, at least not with any consequences for their actions.  God responds to Eli’s neglect of discipline by tearing the priesthood away from Eli’s family forever.

 

            Why would God take something away from Eli for the sins of his sons?  It makes sense pretty easily.  Eli knew of sin in his sons.  However, whether it be due to his desire not to upset his sons or out of fear that his actions would not make a difference, Eli did not go far enough to try to put a stop to their evil.  Eli did not show that he cared enough about the glory of God to do everything in his power to keep these young men from defaming his worship.  And it appears that God is acting in this instance out of a desire to protect his holy name.

 

            It is certainly true that Galatians 6:1 and even Matthew 18:15-17, classic church discipline passages, are focused on the restoration of the believer.  But it is also true that discipline in churches is also necessary for the sake of the glory of God and the reputation of the church.  When we fail to confront the wayward, we do damage both to the believer and to the local church and the glory of God.  If we fail to confront a wayward believer, he or she assumes that his or her actions are acceptable or at least not a big enough deal to rouse the concern of the local congregation.  By failing to confront, we build walls of a false privacy around the sinner and offer him or her no real help.  On the other hand, failure to confront this believer also shows the community at large that god is not concerned about the sin of his people, and that the church is not at all different than the world around us.

 

            Yes, it is possible that confronting someone with their sin might only serve to drive them further from the church.  Yes, it Is possible that confronting someone in their sin might make the church look judgmental to the local community.  However, it is also possible that these things will not happen.  It is possible that a person may be convicted and that a community might see the high view that the church takes regarding God’s word.  Either way, if we are pressed with how to respond, as believers, we should respond with the pattern given us in the word of God.  For the sake of the believer and for the glory of God, we should lovingly call one another to turn from sin and follow God with all our hearts.

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

 

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. 6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

 

        There are many preachers and teachers out there who would try to argue that Christians, as children of God the king, are destined for lives of peace and ease.  These prosperity preachers say that Christians will not suffer, and those who do suffer are simply lacking in the faith to claim victory.  Such teaching is false, dangerous, disheartening, and in direct contrast to the clear writing of Scripture in 2 Corinthians 1:3-7.

 

        As Paul opens his letter to the church at Corinth, we see a word repeated time and time again.  The word “comfort” finds its way into the passage some ten times.  The point that Paul is making is simple.  God comforts us in our afflictions.  Because we are comforted by God in our afflictions, we can then use what we have learned to comfort others who are suffering through similar afflictions.  The teaching is not that Christians should expect not to suffer.  Rather, the teaching is that Christians who suffer and who experience God’s comfort in their suffering will be equipped to serve others who suffer as well.

 

        A year or so ago, I had the opportunity to experience some of this passage at work in my life.  I was born legally blind.  I have never had normal vision.  God has, however, blessed me with the kinds of technology that I need to make it through life and to serve him as a minister of the gospel.  I am very much grateful to God for what he allows me to do in his service.  And, on occasion, God will allow me to impact the lives of others who are learning to deal with their own limitations.

 

        As I said, a year or so ago, I encountered a lady who had lost her sight in her struggle with cancer.  She found herself discouraged, feeling alone and helpless.  While I do not consider myself special in any way, God used me and my experience to offer hope to this lady.  In a very real sense, I was allowed to share in the joy of comforting her with the comfort with which I was comforted by God.

 

        What about you?  Where have you suffered?  Who comforted you?  Where have you gone through tough times?  Have you ever stopped to think that God may want to equip you to comfort someone else?  Perhaps it would do you well to think through the story of how God has comforted you so that you will be ready to share with others more easily.

 

        Are you presently going through a hard time?  How is God presently comforting you?  Perhaps it would be good for you, instead of praying only that God would get you out of your hardship, to pray that he would comfort you with a comfort you will be able to share with someone else.

 

        It is not God’s plan that his children will never go through hardships.  Such a view is childish for how narrow it is.  God has never, neither in Scripture nor through church history, made it his top priority to keep his children from ever having to go through hardships.  Instead, God has always used our hardships to display his glory and love to the entire world.  God is good.  It honors him when his children show that he is more than enough for us, regardless of our circumstances.

1 Corinthians 15:1-4

 

1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. . .

 

            It’s funny that, though many fuss over what is the gospel, the Bible seems to make it plain.  As Paul wraps up his letter to the Corinthians, he reminds them of the content of the gospel, and that content is very simple.

 

What is the gospel according to 1 Corinthians 15:1-4?  The gospel is Christ dying for our sins, being buried, and rising from the dead.  Now, to grasp the gospel, one must grasp the details behind those elements, but the gospel is simple.  Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, is the central character of the gospel.  The gospel is not about you or  me.  The gospel is not about God’s wonderful plan or purpose for our lives.  The gospel is about God—both the Father and Son who are one God.

 

        Jesus died for our sins.  Again, there is debate or discussion to be had on this element.  What does it mean that Jesus died for our sins?  Some say one thing, and some another.  The simplest and most biblical understanding is that Christ died as a sacrificial substitute for our sins according to the Scriptures.  God punished Jesus for the sins of his children.  Jesus paid the price for our rebellion against God.

 

        Jesus was buried, really dead, and he was raised from the dead.  These are the hopeful elements of the gospel.  Jesus did not die as a sacrifice who stayed in the grave.  Yes, he was really dead.  Yes, he was really entombed.  But he also really came out of that tomb, and is really alive today.  Jesus rose from the grave, completing his task of redeeming a people for himself.  His resurrection points us to the future of all of God’s children.  Everyone for whom Christ died has their sins forgiven and their eternity secured in his own eternal life.

 

        These things are the gospel.  May we never waiver from it.  may we never be confused by it.  may we cease to complicate it.  May we never adjust it.  Let the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ remain of first importance.  It is because of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus that we can live.  Apart from that grace, we are doomed.