How can you be punished for disbelieving something that is “unprovable”?*

*Question raised on a “Christmas” website!   

 

    Unprovable!? How can Jesus be unprovable? Over 500 people saw him alive and many were still alive when Paul wrote this in 1 Corinthians 15:6. His resurrection was proved then, and a 2000-year gap doesn't disprove it or make it necessary to prove it again.

     But for the convinced Christian, there is better proof. The Bible says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psa.34:8)

     A child learning to bicycle knows exactly when she “has it”. So does a new swimmer when he changes from sinking to successfully staying up and breathing. We sometimes call this an “epiphany”.  The new cyclist may need to learn other types of bicycles and even motorcycles. The swimmer needs to learn new strokes and different conditions of water, such as a pool or open sea.

     It is the same with becoming a Christian---what we know within us confirms that we are in the right place. We don't get all the answers. The new Christian “just” needs to learn more of Jesus. But the initial step has been taken—Christ is proved— and there is no going back.

Why? Tell me, why??

         On vacation recently, my wife and I sat through a Sunday morning sermon in which the main point was, “Accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour!” After thirty minutes and twenty repetitions, we did indeed get the point. The preacher used all his authority as a pastor of 50 or 60 years’ standing, to enforce the command, over and over. But his reasons were vague or non-existent. Why not, “Accept Confucius”, or “Accept Joseph Smith”?  I accept only Jesus! But to avoid any doubt or confusion, I want to lay out a few reasons for accepting Jesus.

Some background is necessary, however, so here are a few scriptures to set the scene:-

·         “Anyone who comes to [God] must believe that he exists.” Hebrews 11:6. There are many false gods but only one true God.

·         “You created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” Revelation 4:11. That ‘true God’ created us.

·         “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. We have failed him.

·         “The one who sins is the one who will die.” Ezekiel 18:20. Because we have failed we have to die.

·         “Unless you repent, you too will all perish.” Luke 13:3. Unless we turn back to God we will perish.

·         “There is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.” 1 Timothy 2:5. Jesus is the only connection we have to God.

·         “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Acts 16:31. Only Jesus will make things right.

With these seven scriptures as a basis, here are three reasons to accept Jesus Christ as Lord:-

1.      To avoid punishment for our sins. Since God is infinite and one sin is infinitely evil, the punishment must be infinite, that is, eternal! Trusting Jesus for this reason is good, but sometimes we just call it “fire insurance”. The rich man in Luke 16 never trusted the Lord and ended up in Hades.

2.      Because we are desperate, and don’t know what else to do. This was Peter, sinking in the sea: “Lord, save me!” Matthew 14:30. This was my own position—I reached out for Christ like a drowning man.

3.      Because we love him. “We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19. This is worship—Jesus loves us enough to die for us. We want to say thank you and give ourselves back to him.

There are wonderful and profound reasons for trusting Jesus. He rescues us from punishment and great loss, but he also comes to live with us and puts his Holy Spirit inside us. We will never be alone again. And one day we will see him face-to-face. As the second last verse of the Bible says, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”

Blessed be Your Name!

      Paul says, “No one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus be cursed’.” (1 Cor.12:3) Do you get tired of hearing the Name of Jesus Christ trampled in the dirt like that? No one ever does that with Allah or Buddha or Confucius. I can only believe that Satan doesn’t care about these other names.

      I sometimes think that if an alien landed in Burlington and heard the name of Jesus, even in blasphemy, he would wonder, “Who is this Jesus?”; and he would inquire until he found out. Except for that curse, he might never hear the Name.

      And so is fulfilled (by ways we would never choose), the apostle Paul’s blessing, “What does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached.” (Phil.1:15-18).

Great News and Really Good Choices!

 

       “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”—an amazing announcement from an angel of the Lord, then an amazing choir in the night sky. (Luke 2:11) Nothing was commanded; perhaps nothing was expected of those shepherds. But they knew a promise— “You, Bethlehem Ephrathah…out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel.” (Micah 5:2)

       In that moment, Bethlehem became the centre of the universe, and those shepherds were spectators at the central event of the ages—the incarnation of the Son of Man. What would they do? After the first shiver of awe and joy, would they turn back to their sheep? They conferred—and without any compulsion, they decided— “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened.” (Luke 2:15) A Child had been born who was the Mighty God and the Prince of Peace. And they got to meet Him in the flesh.

       Thirty years later some Greeks in Jerusalem came to His disciples and said, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” We believe they DID see Him. (John 12:21)

       How can we bring this into our own day? How can we meet Jesus? He said, Himself, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29) The prime meeting place for us now is in the Scriptures. Sometimes we will see Him there, sometimes in prayer, sometimes in worship, sometimes through a godly speaker, sometimes most blessedly, in one of His own, standing right beside us. As the apostle Paul said, “I want to know Christ…becoming like him…” (Phil.3:10)

The Gospel according to Isaiah

Church Growth

          I had an interesting experience the other day. I was sitting in Tim Hortons on Guelph Line at New Street, sipping my coffee and reading my book (which happened to be Basic Christianity by John Stott), when I became aware of a conversation at the next table. A gray-haired but youngish pastor seemed to be consulting an older ex-pastor about church growth. The pastor had tried a number of programs already, but unsuccessfully.  The older man represented a group or organization that encouraged conversations with and surveys of, the congregants. He even mentioned Autopsy of a Deceased Church by Thom Rainer, which I had read. In 15-20 minutes of conversation, God was mentioned twice and prayer twice, but never Jesus, never conversion, never salvation.

        This turned my mind to my own thoughts on church growth. I never interrupted, I never found out what church they represented. I don’t know where they expected to draw any new members from. It seems to me that there can be only two sources—either new believers, freshly saved, or old believers, swiped from another fellowship! At Shoreacres, we aren’t interested in the latter. That means we want to see new converts, and that means we have to get the claims of Christ in front of non-believers. How to do that is the big question! Perhaps by word of mouth is best.

        In that regard, another book I’ve enjoyed is 50 People Every Christian Should Know, by Warren Wiersbe. One story that impressed me and has also affected my attitude in prayer is that of Samuel Chadwick (1860-1932). Let me end by quoting from his story:

        “The town drunkard, Robert Hamer, showed up at the meeting. He was known as “Bury Bob”, and there was hardly a sin or crime that he had not been involved in one way or another. People had seen him eat glass, fight rats with his teeth, break furniture, swallow knives, and fight policemen. That night, he asked for a Band of Hope pledge card, signed his X, and vowed he would never drink again. The following Sunday, Bury Bob was converted, and his life and home were so transformed that it led to the salvation of many others.

        “What the congregation did not know was that behind the scene their youthful pastor had been praying that God would stir things up by converting some notorious sinner. Chadwick had been studying John 11 and 12, and had noticed that the resurrection of Lazarus had led to the conversion of many people. “That’s the solution!” he said to himself. “We need a Lazarus!” God answered his prayers; Bury Bob was his Lazarus, raised from the dead and given new life in Jesus Christ. From that time on, in every church he pastored and every evangelistic crusade he conducted, Samuel Chadwick asked God to give him a Lazarus.

        “If God is at work week by week raising men from the dead,” he said, “there will always be people coming to see how it is done. You cannot find an empty church that has conversion for its leading feature. Do you want to know how to fill empty chapels? Here is the answer: Get your Lazarus.”

A High Priest Forever

      The story of Melchizedek has always fascinated me. He appears in the scriptures, has major influence on Abraham, and is gone just as quickly. Where did he come from? How did Abraham know him? What was his status before God? (See Gen.14:18-20)

     I knew a man many years ago, who believed that (or at least wondered whether) Melchizedek was Noah’s son Shem. This sounds a bit oddball at first, but if you make calculations from the genealogical tables of Genesis 9, 10, and 11 (and assume there are no gaps), you will find that Shem outlived Abraham by 35 years. Even if this is a wrong understanding of the genealogies, it’s still true that Melchizedek was much greater than Abraham.

     The writer of Hebrews says “without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life”, but then he goes on to say “this man”. To be “this man”, we really expect him to have a father and mother, so we may have to understand that they just weren’t recorded. This has been the usual explanation.

     On the other hand, maybe this was a theophany, and he really had no father or mother. (Heb.6:20-7:17). For Melchizedek to be “king of righteousness” (Heb.7:2) is almost too much to be true of any mere human. It reminds me of Abraham and the three “men” he met at Mamre (Gen.18:1-33) and Joshua and the “man” he met outside Jericho. (Joshua 5:13-15). In fact, Hebrews 7:8 says that Melchizedek “is declared to be living”; and verse 16 compares the life of Christ to the life of Melchizedek: “on the basis of the power of an indestructible life.” This seems to discount the possibility of Melchizedek’s being a simple mortal. And if “without beginning of days” also applies in actual fact to Melchizedek, he could only be a theophany of Christ Himself.

     The writer of Hebrews has drawn our hearts and minds out in wonder, first at a very great man; then we realize it is Jesus Himself and suddenly we worship! He has come to us out of eternity past, and He has “the power of an indestructible life” to carry us into a wonderful eternity to come.

Firenze - Il Cupolone -April, 2016

Ponte Vecchio - April, 2016

Ecclesiastes to Malachi: 19 More Clues from the Old Testament

How much is a talent? A mite? A “piece of silver”?

     When we read all these strange units of measurement in the Scriptures, we often don’t know what they are. We miss the real power and dynamics of the story. For instance, I might buy a can of cola in Canada for one dollar but in Mexico I may have to pay 10 pesos—is that a good price or a really bad one? I need to know the conversion factor.

     When we dig into the stories Jesus told, or events in His life, we still need those conversion factors. Look at the shepherd who loses one sheep. (Matthew 18:12). Out of 100, that’s only 1%. But what is the value of a sheep (aside altogether from his duty to keep the flock intact)? I looked up the current selling price of a sheep —about $300. Definitely worth a bit of trudging through the wilderness.

     Then there is the woman with ten silver coins (drachmae or denarii), who lost one of them— how much was that, supposing a salary of $30,000? One denarius was about one day’s wages so calculating 300 working days per year, that is $100. Again, worth sweeping the floor for. (Luke 15:8)

     While the Lord was at the temple, He watched a woman put two mites into the collection box—all she had to live on. (Mark 12:42) We might put $5 or $10 or $20 into the collection and think nothing of it. What did she have? Her two mites (or lepta) were worth only one sixty-fourth of a denarius! She had $1.60, and she gave it all.

     Another example might be the ruler who gave his three assistants five, three, and one talents (i.e., bags of money). The NIV footnotes indicate that a talent was “about 20 years of a day laborer’s wage”, so that means $3,000,000 to the first servant and $600,000 to the third. The first and second servants were committed to their master, worked hard, and doubled their money (to six million, in the first case).

     Finally, look at what Judas got for his treachery—30 pieces of silver. (Matthew 26:15) Sometimes we think it was a pittance—30 quarters or even 30 silver dollars. But this was the value of the life of a slave if someone’s ox gored him to death. (Exodus 21:32) These pieces were possibly staters, so 30 of them would represent four month’s wages. So, in terms of our $30,000 salary, Judas got $10,000.

     We should take it to heart that these stories, whether involving $6,000,000 or $1.60, all seem to have the common threads of personal integrity, and faithfulness to the Master (or lack thereof). “If we are faithless, he remains faithful.”

“In this world we are like Jesus”

     1 John 4:17

     We wish we were. We want to be. John seems to give us the benefit of the doubt that we are. But just how would this show through in practice? Scanning back through John’s letter, here are a few characteristics of Jesus “in this world”:

·    He walks in the light. If we do this, we have fellowship with one another; and we love our sister and brother. 1:7; 2:10.

·    He loves his Father. If we live as Jesus did, we know we are in him. 2:5.

·    He does the will of God. If we do this, we will live forever. 2:17.

·    He is righteous. If we do what is right, we know that we have been born of him. 2:29; 3:7.

·    The world does not know him. So it doesn’t know us either. 3:1.

·    He is pure. We should purify ourselves. 3:3.

·    In him is no sin. We must not keep on sinning. 3:6.

·    He laid down his life for us. We ought to lay ours down for our brothers and sisters. 3:16.

·    He loves us. We must love our brother and sister. 4:19.

     The writer of this letter, the apostle John, seems to have been the sweetest, gentlest of all the apostles. He was very specifically “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, he is the one to whom Jesus entrusted his own mother, he is the only one who lived to a great old age and died a natural death. Somehow advice from a man like this, a “gentle” man, seems easier to take—we really want to be like Jesus out of love.