“To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily-satisfied religionist, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart.”
(A. W. Tozer in The Pursuit of God)
New City Catechism – Questions 1-3
Each Monday I will post a link to the New City Catechism question of the week. This is a great resource that can be used in several ways: 1) Parents can use this to help disciple their children. By talking about this one question/answer each week you will be laying a solid theological foundation for your kids spiritual lives. 2) You can also use this on your own to help strengthen the foundation that has already begun in your life. It is worth your while to check it out. (Under the settings icon – it looks like a wheel (see pic below)- you will find both an adult mode and a child mode. So you can customize the way that the catechism is presented.)
You can read a short introduction about “why catechisms” by clicking HERE – it will give you some thoughts about why this is such a helpful tool for you and/or your family.
Since I did not start this the first week of the year I am using this post to play a little catch up. I have included the links for the first 3 questions of the catechism. Feel free to look at all 3 or just start with #3 this week and keep going.
Question 1: What is our only hope in life and death?
Question 3: How many persons are there in God?
Take some time to familiarize yourself with the site. It is not at all complicated and will give you several ways to help teach the doctrinal truth each week: Q and A, a short video (V), a short commentary(C), and a prayer(P).
It’s good stuff. Holler if you have any questions about how it can help you and your family.
Pondering John 1:19-34
You can click HERE to read the passage.
If John the Baptist ever applied for a job I have no doubt that he would list Jesus as one of his references. This is what Jesus had to say about John: “Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist.” (Matthew 11:11). Now keep in mind that Jesus and John were cousins. And their moms were close. Presumably they spent a lot of time together as kids. Just imagine what that would have been like for John – having a cousin/playmate who was literally the “perfect kid.”
Even with all the time that they spent together growing up John was clueless about who Jesus was. It was not until God revealed to John at Jesus’ baptism His true identity that John began to put two and two together. Imagine John’s surprise. Like most Jews, John was on the lookout for the Messiah. In fact, John knew that God had called him to be a “voice” to prepare people for the coming of the Christ. He just didn’t know who, when, or where.
And then one day while John is baptizing, his cuz shows up to be baptized as well, and something happens that thoroughly convinces John that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah. And from that point his message changed from “the Messiah is coming, get ready” to “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
Here are two takeaways for me from this passage:
1) Am I thoroughly convinced that Jesus is the Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? And if I answer yes to that question, does my life and lifestyle reflect that conviction? It is a question that deserves serious, intentional reflection. It is one thing to say that I believe that Jesus is the Christ. It is another thing entirely to live out that belief with authenticity, courage, humility, and perseverance. This is what John the Baptist did.
2) To what degree am I a voice preparing the way for people to receive and believe that Jesus is the One that they have been longing for? Most of us will not be a voice like John the Baptist. But how are we giving voice to our convictions and to our excitement that Jesus is the satisfier of our souls?
“Father, would you empower me, by your Spirit who dwells within me, to boldly live out my convictions and to give a clear courageous voice to what I believe.”
Next Week’s Passage: John 1:35-51
Pondering John 1:1-18
You can click HERE to read the passage.
There is much that is ponderable in this passage and worth commenting on. My attention was grabbed by two words that were repeated together in two verses:
Verse 14: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Verse 17: For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Grace and truth. Jesus embodied both. He was grace incarnate. He was truth incarnate.
Grace – God had always been a God of grace, but His grace had become overshadowed because of the Jews emphasis on the Law. Again and again God had treated the Jewish people in ways that they did not deserve because of their disobedience and hard-heartedness. Over and over again He showed them grace. But the law had become their taskmaster and they did not readily recognize how full of grace God was. Enter Jesus! In Jesus, through the life He lived, His death on the cross, and the power displayed at His resurrection, God’s grace was manifest in an abundantly clear and amazing way.
Truth – Truth is the compliment to grace. God was gracious but He also demanded obedience to His Word. He was forgiving but He but He was not a cosmic pushover. Jesus incarnated truth. We will see in this gospel how Jesus never backed down from speaking truth. In fact, he angered people because He told the truth – to the point that people wanted to kill him. It was because Jesus told the truth and people did not like what they heard that He was crucified.
Typically, people are either grace people or truth people. Jesus was both. He “came from the Father full of grace and truth.”
Next Week’s Passage: John 1:19-34
(Please “Leave a Reply” below with your own observations and thoughts on this passage)
Sermon Notes on Introduction to Gospel of John
(Here are my notes from the message yesterday. Note that these are notes – not a manuscript of the message. They do not say exactly what I said. For those of you are planning to ponder the Gospel of John with me this year these may help you as you begin reading the book. If you missed yesterday and need a copy of the handout that was available you can click here. (Pondering Schedule). It will give you the passage breakdown for the year as well as some pondering tips.)
Intro: I love to read. Some great books I’ve read. I’m going to challenge you this morning to read a great book.
Who wrote the Gospel of John? What do we know about him?
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fisherman
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brother named James
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Nicknamed sons of Thunder (Boanerges) Mark 3:17 Why? Luke 9:49-56,
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inner circle (Peter, James and John)
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son of Zebedee and Salome (Mt 27:56 and Mk 15:40) – Salome request Mt 20:20-23
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beloved disciple – Peter asked John to ask Jesus about who the betrayer was (Jn 13:24)
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the race to the tomb (Jn 20:3)
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Also wrote 1,2,3 John and Book of Revelation
Why was this gospel written and how is it distinct from the other gospels?
John 20:30-31
“Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
Different from synoptic gospels: Not as event oriented, more meaning of events. Example Feeding of 5000 – in John is followed by sermon on “The Bread of Life” – John 6
Contains no parables. Only 7 miracles – 5 of which not recorded elsewhere.
Written probably in the 90’s. John was living in Ephesus – where he located after destruction of the temple in AD 70. (All other gospels and letters of Paul already circulating)
Strongly theological – deals particularly with the nature of Jesus person and the meaning of faith in Him. The I AMs.
Why so theological? – Heresies – one of the main ones Gnosticism. One of the premises of Gnosticism is that matter is inherently evil and spirit is good. For Jesus therefore to be human meant that in no way could He be God. So Gnosticism denies the Incarnation of God as the Son. In so doing, it denies the efficay of the atonement since if Jesus is not God, He could not atone for all of mankind and we would still be lost in our sins.
John was writing in part to make sure that believers did not fall prey to the false teachings of the day.
What if John were writing today – what false teachings would he be dealing with?
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Easy believism (antinomianism) – “against the law”. The apostle Paul dealt with the issue of antinomianism in Romans 6:1-2, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” The most frequent attack on the doctrine of salvation by grace alone is that it encourages sin. People may wonder, “If I am saved by grace and all my sins are forgiven, why not sin all I want?” That thinking is not the result of true conversion because true conversion yields a greater desire to obey, not a lesser one. God’s desire—and our desire when we are regenerated by His Spirit—is that we strive not to sin.
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Moralistc Therapeutic Deism
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– A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.
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God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
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The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
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God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
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Good people go to heaven when they die.
It views God as “something like a combination Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist: he’s always on call, takes care of any problems that arise, professionally helps his people to feel better about themselves, and does not become too personally involved in the process.
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Theistic evolution holds that religious teachings about God are compatible with modern scientific understanding about biological evolution. Theistic evolution, which accepts that evolution occurred as biologists describe it, but under the direction of God.
It perverts and denigrates the Word of God.
John 1:1-5
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Why refer to Jesus as The Word?
For hundreds of years in the Older Testament God had been telling His people about the Messiah. But they didn’t get it. So he decided to say the same thing… in a different way.
Don Hewitt, creator of “60 Minutes,” on his special talent as a journalist: My philosophy is simple. It’s what little kids say to their parents: “Tell me a story.” Even the people who wrote the Bible knew that when you deal with issues, you tell stories. The issue was evil; the story was Noah. I’ve had producers say, “We’ve got to do something on acid rain.” I say, “Hold it. Acid rain is not a story. Acid rain is a topic. We don’t do topics. Find me someone who has to deal with the problem of acid rain. Now you have a story.”
The issue was “Messiah”. The story was Jesus.
What do these verses teach us about Jesus?
John is writing down what the early church already believed – he is not introducing new doctrine. The two theological concepts mentioned here are 1) the incarnation and 2) the trinity. I’m not going to try to prove to you why the incarnation and the trinity are true – but I do want to point out why it is important that we exult in these two great doctrines of our faith.
A few quotes:
“The incarnation is “a kind of vast joke whereby the Creator of the ends of the earth comes among us in diapers… Until we too have taken the idea of the God-man seriously enough to be scandalized by it, we have not taken it as seriously as it demands to be taken.”
“The Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as this truth of the Incarnation.” – J.I. Packer
A father put his four-year-old son to bed. Having finished prayers, stories, and all the little bedtime things, he kissed his son and turned the light off. His son started sobbing, “Don’t leave me. I’m scared and don’t want to stay here alone.” The father tried to encourage the little boy by reminding him of God’s presence and reminding him that they had had devotions. The little boy said, “I want somebody with skin on.” This is the great message of the Incarnation! Jesus came in flesh!
Many are willing to believe that Jesus was a real live living person – but not that God took on the form of a man. For others, it is ridiculous to even suggest that the man Jesus was God.
“…the Word was with God and the Word was God.”
On the trinity – “If Jesus Christ is not God, he could not accomplish your salvation (Hebrews 2:14–15). And his glory would not be sufficient to satisfy your everlasting longing for new discoveries of beauty. If you throw away the deity of Jesus Christ, you throw away your soul and with it all your joy in the age to come.” (Piper)
What applications can we take away from this passage?
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Regarding John: Acts 4:13 – unschooled, ordinary. Like John we are just ordinary folk. What made him extraordinary was that he really knew Jesus – and it changed him. The same could be true for us.
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Regarding the book – great book to read, study, PONDER!
It will help you to know God better.
Draw you closer to Jesus.
Help you understand the Holy Spirit.
Help you know how to share the gospel.
Help you to be able to defend your faith.
Help you find fulness of life and experience joy.
Help you learn to pray.
Whet your appetite for heaven….
but wait, there’s more:
It will teach you to think biblically
It will help you to think deeply about the Word of God
It will fuel you with compassion, and boldness.
It will help you to believe what you say that you believe
It will help you make wise decisions about difficult life choices
It will empower you to worship
It will free you from sin that entangles you
It will equip you to go to war against the evil one
It will enable you to love others more deeply
Introduce pondering project – sheets available in the back
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Regarding Theology
Don’t shy away from stuff that challenges you and makes you think and question. Lots of heresies out there that will weaken and destroy your faith. John 10:10 – the devil’s subtle approach. Growth Initiative challenge. Right Now Media. Great books.
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Regarding our understanding of God as Triune
God the Father – reconciles, redeems, rescues, rewards, regenerates, revives
God the Son – God came near. Came to seek and to save the lost. Demonstrated humility, servanthood, compassion, sacrifice, love.
God the Spirit – leads, directs, comforts, teaches, convicts, enables, empowers
Let 2014 be the year that revolutionizes your life as you get to know our great and gracious God even better than you do. The Gospel of John is a great book. I hope you will ponder along with me.
Our 2013 Reyner Christmas Letter
If you are interested in reading our annual Christmas letter you can click on the link below. Much grace and peace to all of you this Christmas. This time of year is a great time to ponder the implications of the incarnation.
Brick #49 – Ephesians 3:14-19
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
“For this reason” – Which reason is Paul talking about? Why is it that Paul is not only compelled to pray for his Ephesian friends but determined not to miss this opportunity to come to the Father on their behalf? Go back to verse 12: “In Him and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” Paul is absolutely confident that God will not only hear his prayers but also answer his prayers. And what’s not to answer…
I mean look at what Paul is praying – he is praying that the Ephesians would be strengthened with POWER so that they would be fueled by faith and grasp how glorious is God’s love for them. What’s not to answer in a prayer like that. He is not praying for their safety or their health or their financial situation or their employment status or that they would be happy. He is praying that these Christians in Ephesus would experience from God something that would transform their lives on the inside not just change their circumstances on the outside. He is praying that the Ephesian believers would be radically changed so that the watching world would stand up and take notice.
I do not meet many believers who are fueled by the power of God and daily live faith-filled lives. I do not meet many believers who who have such a thorough, all-surpassing grasp of the love of God that that they are “filled to the measure of all the fulness of God.” I want to be one of those kinds of believers. What about you?
Brick #48 – Psalm 27:4
One thing I ask from the Lord,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
and to seek Him in his temple. (Psalm 27:4)
This verse always puts things in perspective for me. It shows me how far I am from God and reveals my sinfulness and selfishness. Why? Because I know that if I could ask for ONE THING, it would not be what David asks for.
I might ask for good health or protection for my kids or wisdom in decision making. I might ask for salvation for a friend or family member or God’s blessing on our church or peace in the midst of turmoil. I might ask for God’s power to fuel me or His presence to refresh me or His grace to overwhelm me. All of these are good things to ask for. But they are very different from what David asks for.
In point of fact, David does ask for some of the things that I might ask for – just read the rest of Psalm 27. Hear me (v.7). Be merciful to me (v.7). Don’t reject me (v.9).Teach me (v.11). Lead me (v.11). Protect me (v.12) But if he could only ask for one thing it would be to be with the Lord and to be able to gaze upon His beauty. Note what David says in v.8, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” David is seeking God’s face first and foremost. I tend to seek His hand and what He can do for me.
This Psalm indicates David’s complete confidence in the Lord despite what might be going on around him. “The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall i fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid”. (v.1) “I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” (v.13) His confidence flows out of his relationship with God and is a result of the time that he spends in the presence of God.
A lesson I need to learn. What about you?
Pondering Romans 16:21-27
Here is how Paul’s letter to the Romans winds down…
21 Timothy, my co-worker, sends his greetings to you, as do Lucius, Jason and Sosipater, my fellow Jews.
22 I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord.
23 Gaius, whose hospitality I and the whole church here enjoy, sends you his greetings.
Erastus, who is the city’s director of public works, and our brother Quartus send you their greetings. [24]
25 Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, 26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith— 27 to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.
Paul’s letter to the Romans would prove to have very practical value in the years following its writing. A fire raged throughout the city of Rome in AD 64, seven years after Paul wrote this letter. When Emperor Nero rebuilt the city in his honor, many blamed him for setting the fire. Needing a scapegoat, Nero blamed the Christians and initiated widespread persecution and execution of them. Christians were torn to death by dogs and used as torches to light Nero’s gardens and parties.
Although Nero’s reign ended in 68, the persecution of Christians continued. The great Colosseum was built between 75 and 80 – and while it was built for sportive entertainment showcasing gladiatorial combats, many Christians were also thrown to the beasts there.
It is very likely that Paul’s letter helped many believers resist the temptation to turn away from Christ in the face of persecution and rather to press on toward the goal for which God called them.
Perhaps knowing what lay ahead for the Romans, this book would give them the theological foundation to enable them to stand firm. But it is interesting that as theological as the book is, Paul wraps it up with a doxological flourish.
“Now to Him… the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.”
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I will continue my pondering adventure in January. The 2014 pondering project will be the Gospel of John. You are invited to join me as we work our way through this premier gospel and explore the life and teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. See you in a few weeks.
Brick # 47 – Matthew 9:36-38
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.””
Jesus has been traveling from town to town preaching and teaching and healing. As a result He had attracted quite a following. But gathering a large crowd was not what mattered to Jesus. People mattered to Jesus. He was overcome with emotion as He looked over the crowd and recognized their plight.
Webster defines plight as “a difficult or precarious situation.” This is what the people were facing without even knowing it. This is what we are facing as well. This is what sheep face everyday and why Jesus chose this metaphor. Jesus recognized that…
Sheep (we) need protection – Not only do we find ourselves exposed to the dangers of this world which are bad enough, but we are also susceptible to the dangers of the supernatural world. Our enemy, the devil, is always on the prowl “looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8). And it is a danger that we are almost completely unaware of. We need protection – whether we know it or not.
Sheep (we) need leadership – Sheep tend to wander without really paying attention to where they’re going – this is not unlike a large percentage of our population. Many people are just wandering through life without any clear direction or purpose. People crave strong leadership – and yet there is such a void of strong, godly leadership in our culture that people have fallen prey to charismatic leaders who are only looking after their own interests, not the interests of the people.
Sheep (we) need green pastures and quiet waters – According to Psalm 23 this is what a good shepherd provides for his sheep. We need food that nourishes and water that refreshes. We need a diet that strengthens and satisfies our soul. We don’t need spiritual pablum. We don’t need a diet that makes us feel good about ourselves we need a diet of Truth that causes us to exult in the greatness of God.
As Jesus perused the crowd and saw their great need He turned to His disciples and challenged them to pray for workers. But inherit in the challenge to pray was also a challenge to go and be one of those workers. Jesus was training His men for a mission. And that mission was incumbent upon recognizing how much people matter to God.