Power to the People!

Yesterday, I received a very poignant example of what it means to lead. It was long overdue. We, as leaders, so often think we’ve got it all figured out. I just pray that God will often, and consistently, remind me of how utterly helpless I am.

It’s funny, too, that the reminder would come this way, since I had been reading left and right about “how to lead.” Particularly, I was reading up on how to start and lead a small group, as we are quickly adding Home Bible Studies throughout our church. My book smarts were about to “hit the streets,” though, and become usable.

In comes my reality check. While I’m reading over and again how to “empower people for the ministry,” I was quietly wresting that power from one of my most dependable co-laborers. People want to serve; they want to be a part of something bigger. So often, we as leaders try desperately to “do it all,” when our role should always err more towards administering. So many leaders fail to lead because they fail to have followers, and it is very often because they have failed to empower their people for the journey.

We, as ministers of the gospel, are to “equip the saints,” are we not? And, yet, we more often “do it all,” and then wonder why no one is following, no one is helping, and no one (watch this!) is growing. It’s time we take what we’ve read, and apply it to our daily lives. It’s so easy to think you’ve got it all figured out. Really, we’d do our very best when others around us love us enough to tell us where we are screwing up. That’s a whole ‘nother message for the church, but, perhaps another time.

Leaders, check yourselves: are you “doing (all) the work of the ministry,” when you should be “equipping the saints” for it? Are you wresting control from your fully capable laity, perhaps without even noticing? I challenge you today to give them their God-given right to serve (“as the Spirit has given to each one diverse gifts”), and allow them to be invested in the Kingdom. Who knows? You may just find that those former “spectator Christians” are now spectacular!

Jude Study, Part 3

Jude 14-16
Quotes Book of Enoch
° Enoch (seventh from Adam) prophesied judgment on the ungodly in his 
     generation.
° The false teachers are just the same
           o Grumbling
           o Complaining (pride rejecting authority or complaining about minor
              issues, not addressing essential doctrine as the point of this 
              letter is to guard against such error)
           o Following their own passions
           o Proud
           o Flattering

Jude 17-19
These people were prophesied.
° They are worldly people, who don’t have the Spirit, and cause division
     based on error.
°  Acts 20:29 – wolves among the sheep
°  1 Timothy 4:1 – those departing from sound teaching will come.
°  2 Timothy 3:1-5 – Perilous times and perilous men to come.
°  2 Timothy 4:3-5 – People will not endure sound doctrine, teachers who teach only 
      what pleases others, turning from the truth and telling stories.
°  2 Peter 3:3 – Scoffers will come walking after their own lusts.

Jude 20-23
What should Christians do?
°  Jude 20: Build up your faith.  Read and study your Bibles!
°  Jude 20: Pray in the Holy Spirit.  Pray according to God’s will trusting His 
     Spirit to guide you into truth.
°  Jude 21: Keep yourself in the love of God.  Stay away from sin.  Sin upsets 
     God and he will chasten you if he must to purify his children.
°  Jude 21: Wait for the mercy of Jesus.  Look forward to the return of Christ 
    when the tares will be separated from the wheat, the wolves will be removed 
    from the sheep, and truth will ultimately triumph.

What do we do with the false teaching?
°  Jude 22: “Convince some who doubt.”  Some people are just being confused by 
     the teachers.  Simply answer the questions they have.
°  Jude 23:  “Save some, pulling from the fire.”  Be stern with some.  They are
     getting deep in the bad teaching and need to be told outright that they are 
     wandering from the truth and headed for hell.
°  Jude 23:  “Have mercy with fear, hating the garment…”  There are some who are 
     so entrenched in the false teaching that what you say probably won’t help 
     them.  Have mercy on them (don’t go burning them at the stake), but have fear
     of them (stay away).  If you get too close you may be influenced too much by
     their smooth talking.

Jude 24,25
Conclusion
°  God is in control despite the deceiving wolves among the church.  He is able to
    keep you from falling into error and present you blameless at the judgment.
           o When you repent and trust in Christ, he guides you through temptation,
              sin, persecution and bad teaching.
           o At the judgment, despite the vast number of sins you committed that 
              offend an infinite, holy God, Jesus presents you without blemish 
             (Gr. Anomas, meaning apart from the law).  You have broken every law
              of God, but you are presented as if you have kept it perfectly.
°  Jude 25: All credit is God’s.  He has all power and authority, glory and
     majesty, now and forever.

Jude Study, Part 2

The following are the notes that I compiled from my studies in the book of Jude that we are now discussing in our Tuesday night Bible study. It isn't put together in an easy read format and are simply posted here for you to take into your study and compare. Feel free to leave some comments for discussion of specific topics.

Jude 8-13
These are the sins of these false teachers.
Jude 8: defiling the flesh, rejecting authority, reviling the glorious ones.
 Examples:
 o Jude 9,10: reviling the glorious ones.
  -Assumption of Moses book
  -Michael the angel fought with Satan over Moses’ body.
  -Michael didn’t take Satan lightly but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”
 o Jude 11: Pattern of rebellion growing to rejecting authority
  -Cain showed his selfishness by killing his brother
  -In the story of Balaam, he showed his own greed and pride.  For riches he taught Israel to sin
 by introducing pagan women to seduce them and brought idols to worship.
  -Korah rebelled against Aaron and Moses' God given authority.  God separated them and
 the earth swallowed up Korah and his followers.
 o Jude 12,13: defiling the flesh
  -Love feasts (pot lucks) became more about themselves than about sharing with the body of Christ.
  -Imagery describing the uselessness of these people.

Stewardship of Souls - Consider Your Own

I really enjoyed Kevin’s sermon on Sunday on the Stewardship of Souls. It was both convicting and encouraging. Afterwards, Molly (my wife) and I were talking for a while on the application and impact of such thoughts. If you were in attendance, you will remember a couple of points he made that I have been pondering on a bit lately: we don’t really care about lost souls the way we should, and a person must understand their sin before they can understand God’s love.

I simply want to emphasize the importance of these two points. First, we must really understand our sin before we understand God’s love. Everyone knows John 3:16, “God loved the world in this way; He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life.” Consider also Romans 5:8, “God showed His love toward is, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” And look at 1 John 3:16a and 1 John 4:9, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us”; “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” Our love has nothing to do with God liking something so much in us that He just had to do something to help us. He loves us because He is love, despite the fact that we are the complete opposite. We have done nothing in our lives to merit His attention, yet he pours His grace on us by the second. Scripture says that He doesn't show His love by giving us a warm fuzzy feeling or by giving us better lives now, but He showed His love for us by dying on the cross in our place, rising from the dead, and offering us eternal life in His presence if we turn from our sin and trust in His sacrifice for righteousness.

The more you understand how desperately wicked your heart is, the more you will praise God for saving you despite your heart. My brother once told me he is uncomfortable at churches where people hold their hands up in the air while they sing with their eyes closed. He said he thinks it’s weird and doesn’t understand why they do it. I told him that many of those people are so full of joy because they have been redeemed so much. I said to him that these are people who know they deserve eternal punishment for their sin, but instead have been given eternal life, and they are exceedingly joyful. He didn’t think his sin was that bad (if we are honest we must all admit we don’t see our sin as God does), so he had no reason to see how wonderful God’s love is.

Many people today misunderstand the love of God (shown in much of contemporary Christian music), and believe that God sees some great potential in us and He wants to give us a hug to make us feel better. While the love of God does give us joy, it doesn’t solve all problems in this life (Jesus actually promised that it will cause division and bring persecution) and our immediate happiness isn't the reason Christ died for us. We must understand that when Scripture speaks of the love of God, it always refers to sending a Savior to people who don’t deserve it (who actually deserve the condemnation they stand under).

This I believe is the root of why we don’t care about lost souls enough to be more faithful in reaching them with the gospel. We don’t see our own sin as so evil and wicked that it angers God, that it deserves a just punishment of hell. We aren’t weeping over the sin in our own lives, so why would we care about the sin in other peoples lives. We should see how sin has dismantled God’s creation and have great sorrow, causing us to reach out to sinners in pity. They (as we once were) are in bondage to sin and sit under the wrath of God. All they know how to do is sin and they are so blind to it they don’t want to know how to get out of it. This should move our hearts (if not our eyes) to tears and our feet to action.

Listen to this testimony from a man named Paul Washer. Listen to him weep as he agnoizes over his sin and praises God for saving him from it.

He weeps over his sin because he knows how much God saved him from it. He gives God all the glory for pulling him from the wreck that was called his life. Is your testimony like this? When you tell others about what Christ did to you, do you tell them about the wickedness that God saved you from? Do you tell them Christ transformed you and made you a new creature that desires holiness and righteousness? Is your testimony about the love of Christ changing your sinful heart or about some guy named Jesus who makes your life more fun?

When you look at your life, do you see it as littered with sin that offends an infinite, holy God. Maybe you prayed a prayer and admitted, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” but do you know that your lies deserve punishment. Your lustful thoughts are adultery and deserve hell. Thoughts of hate are seen by God as murder. When you say, “Well I don’t think God is that way. I think God is this way,” you are making an idol in your mind. Sure we may say that we understand that the Bible says we are sinners, but do we truly believe it? Do you hate sin? Is it an ugly stain on your soul that tears you apart inside knowing that it offends God?

Why aren’t we better at evangelism? Because we don’t hate our own sin enough and we don’t weep over others who are caught in sin. May God make us weep over our own sin and make us humble in our evangelism because we recognize how much we have been saved from the wickedness of our own hearts.

Jude Study, Part 1

The following are the notes that I compiled from my studies in the book of Jude that we are now discussing in our Tuesday night Bible study. It isn't put together in an easy read format and are simply posted here for you to take into your study and compare. Feel free to leave some comments for discussion of specific topics.

Introduction
The name Jude is rendered from “Judah” in Hebrew and “Judas” in Greek.
In the New Testament, there are a few people mentioned with the same name. Some may be the same person and some are obviously different.
° Luke 6:16, John 14:22, Acts 1:13, brother of James (some versions say son of) also called Thaddaeus the apostle.
° Matthew 26:14 the disciple who betrayed Jesus.
° Acts 5:37 a troublemaker from Galilee
° Matthew 13:55 brother of James, half-brother of Jesus
° Acts 9:11 a person who lived with Paul.
° Acts 15:22 ambassador of church in Jerusalem who traveled with Silas.
It is Jude, the half-brother of Jesus, brother of James (author of book of James) who wrote this book. These brothers did not actually become disciples of Jesus until after Christ’s resurrection.

Based on indications in the text and on quoted texts, it is thought to be written around 68 AD.

As the news of Christ spread throughout the world, Jude wanted to write to some believers to encourage them in the faith. The church was under heavy attack from Roman persecution and spiritual infiltration from false teachers. This book is meant to warn believers to keep an eye out for false teaching and to encourage them to stay strong in the faith.

Jude 1:1
Greeting
Brother of James:
° Not offended to be identified as brother of… That is usually a hit to our pride because we want to be known as our own person.
° Doesn’t identify himself as Jesus’ brother

Jude 1:3,4
Purpose for the letter
He wanted to write about the common faith they shared, but a more pressing need was at hand.
He felt he needed to defend the faith, once for all delivered to the saints.
° It is important to be discerning, understanding right and wrong, truth and error.
° Our faith was not manufactured, but delivered by the Holy Spirit.
° The faith was delivered once for all, we don’t need to look to more secret revelation, prophecy or dreams to know what God wants us to do with our lives. The Bible is all that is needed for life and godliness.
° Saints are believers, not some higher status of Christians. The Bible was delivered to all Christians, not all “super-Christians.”
Professed Christians are teaching false doctrine.
° People have made their way into the church who are ungodly, who pervert God’s grace, and deny who Jesus is.
° They snuck in. They weren’t obvious haters of God, otherwise they wouldn’t have made it into the church. They were subtle in their teaching, which had quite a bit of truth.
° John Murray: “The difference between truth and error is not a chasm but a razor’s edge.”
° Charles Spurgeon: “Discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between what is right and wrong; rather, it is the difference between right and almost right.”
° False Teaching
o Changing the grace of God into a license to sin. Since God is so forgiving, we can sin more so He can forgive more.
o They would also say that as long as your spirit is right, it doesn’t matter what you do with your body (similar to people today saying, “as long as you love someone, it doesn’t matter what you do.”).

Jude 5-7
Though they are allowed to continue in their sin now, they will be judged.
3 Examples
° Jude 5: Israel saved out of Egypt.
o Judged naturally by dying in the wilderness, not being allowed into Promised Land.
° Jude 6: Angels thrown from heaven.
o Judgment reserved for future great day of judgment.
° Jude 7: Sodom and Gomorrah
o Judged immediately by destruction of the city.

When It's Naughty to be Nice

Beloved, it seems we have a problem. It turns out that the Western church is embroiled in a battle; a schizophrenic civil war, to be more precise. This shouldn't surprise you. Dating as far back as the penning of Romans 7, we have done, and continue to do, that which we shouldn't, forsaking that which we ought to do. Shoot, this dates back to the advent of the sin nature, then. More specifically, however, I find that, in my own life, in my reading, and in my daily experience, there is an inner struggle between what is "nice," and what is "holy."



It's a natural tendency, of course. The path of least resistance rarely, if ever, merges with the straight and narrow, and yet, it must be a four-lane highway, with all the traffic it gets. "Now, we don't want no trouble," do we? No, for our own self-preservation, the only thing we fight for is the lowest common denominator, a banal mediocrity that quietens everyone and pleases no one. Yet, when I consider the life of Jesus, I find that He very often was confronting the niceties of established religion, and was consorting with the rough rabble of prostitutes, tax collectors, and lepers. I think His most telling statement to this end was, "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners (Matthew 9:12-13)."

And, let's be honest. Doesn't even our neighbor see through our niceness? If we can see in each other our own insincerities, doesn't God certainly see through it, He who searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts (1 Chronicles 28:9)?" Sincerity of heart is what counts, not appearances. Jesus' track record with the Pharisees and religious leaders should well demonstrate that.

What lies at the root of our ingratiating desire to "just be nice," anyway? Do we fear our fellow man that much, that we sacrifice what we know to be right for what we know to be easy? Do you realize that the nicer your facade, the less relevant you become? Don't we understand that Christ made such an impact precisely because He moved past cliches, past the status quo, so that even the secular voices need respect His impact? People don't want packaged answers and glib diatribes nearly as much as they want honesty. Think back to when you became a follower of Christ. Were you responding to your deep-seated need to simply have a pleasant life? Of course not! You had found in Christ Jesus the answer to your deepest need, and a God big enough to handle any question, even if you can't understand the answer. Let's be real for once, because things aren't always nice. Wipe away the veneer; be geniune, and find true satisfaction.