Only God can Bring us back Home (Psalm 23:3)

In the last few years at West Loop UBF, our sermons were from:

• Matthew's Gospel [referencing Stanley Hauerwas].
• Parables of Christ [explained by Kenneth Bailey, who's book "Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes" won Christianity's book of the year].
• 1 Corinthians [commentaries by Richard Hays, Gordon Fee]; 2 Corinthians.
• Exodus currently [by Jewish professors Robert Altar and Leon Kass].

A few brief things we learned:

• "He brings me back" or "My life, He brings back" (Ps 23:3). The King James Bible popularized the phrase "he restores my soul." It has inspired and encouraged multitudes of Christians over the centuries. The NIV says, "he refreshes my soul." But it is a paraphrase from the Hebrew which literally says, "He brings me back" or "My life, He brings back." Just as the good shepherd [representing God/Christ] finds and brings the lost sheep back (Lk 15:1-7), and the woman combs through her house to find her lost coin (Lk 15:8-10), and the father who longs to bring back both of his lost sons (Lk 15:11-32), the psalmist King David confesses that God brought him back to Himself. We are encouraged to learn that only God can restore a lost sinner.

• Freedom from judgment. Consciously or not, we judge others and then insist that our judgment is unquestionably correct. But Paul says, "I care very little if I'm judged by you or by any human court...it is the Lord who judges me" (1 Cor 4:3,4). We learn that one is truly free when they live before the just judgment of God rather than the biased judgments of men.

• "New creation" (2 Cor 5:17). We incline toward doing things--even good things--habitually. But in Christ every single day, every single morning, every single moment is a brand new day, a brand new morning and a brand new moment, not the same old, same old boring habitual predictable routine.

• Liberation from...liberation for. As we now begin studying Exodus, we learn that God gives us freedom not to do whatever we want, but that we can now freely choose who to serve: Pharaoh [boss, leader, supervisor, a human being] or God alone.

My Story in Scriptures

"Up," the Pixar hit movie, began with an 8 minute montage of a shy young boy who married his rambunctious childhood sweetheart. But she became ill and died young without having any children. The movie then begins with him as a lonely, grumpy, unfriendly old man who had lost the love of his life. The montage was my favorite part of the entire movie, for it moved me more than the rest of the movie. I would have been quite satisfied if I had just watched the montage, which was itself well worth the price of admission.

My story as told by the Scriptures. As 2021 comes to a close, this is my story not in a montage of pictures, but in the Scriptures that have shaped and formed my life for the last 40+ years. Each verse has an entire story of how God worked behind the verses, so this is just a skeleton outline of a synopsis.

1. Emptiness (Gen 1:2): "The earth was formless and empty..." diagnosed and exposed my true condition in 1980.
2. God (Gen 2:17): "You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil..." opened my ears to hear a "voice" from heaven, saying, "God is God." It opened my eyes to "see" who God is and I became a Christian, as it revealed my sin of self[-sufficiency], which is living without God.
3. Depravity (Gen 6:5; Jer 17:9; Isa 64:6). "The LORD saw ... that every inclination of the thoughts of [man's] heart was only evil all the time." "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure." "...all our righteous acts are like filthy rags." These verses keep me in check and to not blame others.
4. Priority (Mt 6:33): "But seek first his kingdom..." addressed what should be of utmost importance to me.
5. Death (1 Cor 15:36): "What you sow does not come to life unless it dies." This is my very strange and awkward marriage key verse in 1981. It's rather funny that I had to die in order to marry Christy, the love of my life.
6. Self-denial (Lk 9:23; Mk 8:34; Mt 16:24): "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves..." ["If anyone would come after me he must deny himself"]. This helped me daily to do what I should rather than live based on how I feel.
7. Discipleship (Mt 28:19): "As you go, make disciples..." It was initially a church driven agenda, but I pray that it would be my daily motivation.
8. Peace (Jn 14:27; Phil 4:7): "My peace I give you." "The peace of God that passes human understanding..." I was surprised to experience for the first time, peace, serenity and tranquility--the 3 words that formerly tormented me because I lacked it and knew not what peace felt like.
9. Love (Jer 31:3): "I have loved you with an everlasting love" truly showed me that God's love for me was a constant and not at all dependent on how [good or bad] I was. This was at the lowest point of my life after I had just lost a million $ in 2004.
10. Sovereignty (Rom 8:28): "And we know that in all things God works for the good..." No matter what bad things people say and do, God is always good.
11. Harm (Gen 50:20): "You intended to harm me but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done..." Sticks and stones [and words] do not have to break my bones, for God is still in control.
12. Fear (Prov 29:25): "Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe." To my surprise, God showed me that I did not have to be afraid of any person, because my future was NOT up to them.
13. Sanctification (Phil 2:12-13). "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you..."
14. Control (Gen 3:5; Rom 1:21): "You will be like God." "They neither glorified him as God..." This led me to come up with what the root of sin is: The root of sin is the need to be in control.
15. Coinhering (Gal 2:20): "I am crucified with Christ and no longer live but Christ lives in me..." [To inhere is to exist together.]
16. Restoration (Ps 23:3): "He brings me back" or "My life he brings back" [literally from Hebrew] means that I am not able to restore myself. ["he restores/refreshes my soul."]
17. Being judged (1 Cor 4:3): "I care very little if I'm judged by you or by any human court..." There is no freedom if I am adversely affected and controlled by the harsh negative critical judgement of others.
18. Cross/Gospel (1 Cor 1:23; 2:2): "We preach Christ crucified." "I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." A theology of the cross cf. a theology of glory.
19. Discipline (1 Cor 9:27): "I discipline my body and keep it under control" (ESV). "I beat my body and make it my slave..." My nightly "rosary" to fall asleep as I inhale and exhale is, "You are my Lord. Have mercy on me. Not my will, but your will be done. Not for my pleasure, but for your pleasure. Lead us not into temptation, but seek first his kingdom."
20. New (2 Cor 5:17,21): "New creation." "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us." Every day and every morning must be a brand new day and a brand new morning, not same old, same old boring habitual routine.
21. Thorn (2 Cor 12:7):  "...in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me." I must be "okay" with being pricked or even tormented by any unbearable thorn.
22. Thanksgiving (1 Thess 5:18): "Give thanks in all circumstances," not just happy circumstances.
23. Joy (1 Thess 5:16): "Be joyful always," regardless of external circumstances.
24. Life (Ac 20:24,27): "I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the good news [gospel] of God's grace." I pray that this is the singular purpose for the rest of my days...to declare "the whole counsel [ will / plan / purpose] of God."

Faith is the highest passion in a man

Pains and Contradictions (Jean-PIerre de Caussade)

https://quotefancy.com/jean-pierre-de-caussade-quotes

Misery--a Cost of Being Chosen (Jean-Pierre de Caussade)

https://quotefancy.com/jean-pierre-de-caussade-quotes

The First Hour of Every Day

Chiasm of Matthew 6:24

• A. No one can serve two masters. 
• B. Either you will hate the one 
• C. and love the other, 
• C'. or you will be devoted to the one 
• B'. and despise the other. 
  
• A'. You cannot serve both God and money.
  

A chiasm is like a sandwich with the bread on the outside, the lettuce and pickles next and the patty (chicken, beef, fish) in the center.

What is the chiasm structure saying?

• C/C' the center essentially asks, "Who/what do you love and are devoted to?"
• A/A' on the outside makes a statement of truth.
• B/B' is the contrast of C/C'.

Chiastic structures are the "hidden" beauty of Hebrew narrative and poetry.

Imperatives, Indicatives and Ironies in Exodus 1-2

IRONIES (Read Exodus 1-2)

• The more Pharaoh tried to reduce the number of Israelites (Exo 1:9-11, 13-14), the more they increased in number (Exo 1:12, 7).

• Pharaoh wanted to drown the Hebrew males (Exo 1:22) but he and his army were drowned (Exo 14:28).

• Pharaoh feared the Hebrew men (Exo 1:16, 22) but it was the women who thwarted him (Exo 1:15; 2:1,4,9-10).

• Pharaoh tried to destroy Hebrew men, but he fully educated, trained, equipped and raised 1 Hebrew man Moses in his very own palace, who later delivered all the Hebrew slaves.

* Is God mentioned in the above? Is God involved? What do you learn? (Gen 3:5; 50:20; Ps 14:1; Prov 16:9)

• It was as though Moses belonged nowhere in this world. “Moses named him Gershom, saying, 'I have become a foreigner in a foreign land'” (Exo 2:22b). Moses was never at home anywhere...

1. ...not with his family and his own people though he was born a Hebrew.
2. ...not as an Egyptian, though he grew up in an Egyptian palace.
3. ...not with his Midianite family in the wilderness.
4. ...not in the promised land, for he wasn't allowed entrance.

• The Creator is not accepted or received by his creation. "He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him" (Jn 1:10-11).

• Jesus' birth. He was born in a manger, while Caesar ruled the entire Roman world (Lk 2:1,7). Yet Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Tim 6:15; Rev 17:14; 19:16).

• Jesus' death. "You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish" (Jn 11:50; 2 Cor 5:21).

• "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God" (Mt 19:24).
  

IMPERATIVES and INDICATIVES [Imperatives (commands) = what you should do {Law}. Indicatives = what God has done {Grace}. Christendom and evangelicalism often do not clearly distinguish Law / Grace, and misunderstands or confuses imperatives / indicatives, which confuses the church.]

• You don't repent and obey (and believe) [imperative] to be saved, but because you are saved (by grace) [indicative] you repent and obey [and believe] (Mk 1:15).

• The imperatives are based on the indicatives and the order is not reversible. [Law is based on Grace.]

• "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery [indicative]. You shall have no other gods before me [imperative]" (Exo 20:2-3; Dt 5:6-7).

• "For God so loved the world [indicative] that he gave his one and only Son [indicative], that whoever believes in him [imperative] shall not perish but have eternal life" (Jn 3:16).

• "The time has come," he said, "The kingdom of God has come near [indicative]. Repent and believe the good news [imperative]!" (Mk 1:15).

• "We love [imperative] because he first loved us [indicative]" (1 Jn 4:19).

• "...work out your salvation with fear and trembling [imperative], for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose [indicative]" (Phil 2:12-13).

• "...he saved us [indicative], not because of righteous things we had done [imperative], but because of his mercy [indicative]..." (Tit 3:5).

• For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Rom 1:17, NIV)

• For the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith, just as it is written, "The righteous by faith will live." (Rom 1:17, NET)

Enter the Thicket of the Cross (St. John of the Cross)

Pharaoh's Hardness of Heart

During the plague cycles there are 3 different ways Pharaoh's hardness of heart is expressed:

1. Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Exo 8:15,32; 9:34).
• "But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said" (Exo 8:15).
  
• "But this time also Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go" (Exo 8:32).
• "When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he sinned again: He and his officials hardened their hearts" (Exo 9:34).
  
2. Pharaoh's heart was hardened or became hard (Exo 7:13-14,22-23; 8:19; 9:7,35).
• "Yet Pharaoh's heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said. Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Pharaoh's heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go'" (Exo 7:13-14).
• "But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh's heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said. Instead, he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this to heart" (Exo 7:22-23).
• "...the magicians said to Pharaoh, 'This is the finger of God.' But Pharaoh's heart was hard and he would not listen, just as the Lord had said" (Exo 8:19).
• "Pharaoh investigated and found that not even one of the animals of the Israelites had died. Yet his heart was unyielding and he would not let the people go" (Exo 9:7).
• "So Pharaoh's heart was hard and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the Lord had said through Moses" (Exo 9:35).
3. God hardened his heart (Exo 9:12; 11:10; 14:8).
• "But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said to Moses" (Exo 9:12).
  
• "Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go out of his country" (Exo 11:10).
  
• "The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly" (Exo 14:8).

Liberation from Slavery (Exodus 1-2)

Exodus outline [chapters]:

1. 
   1-14: Exit from Egypt. In graphic detail God demonstrates his identity as Creator.
2. 15-18: Journey to Sinai. The people's slowly growing trust in God's provision for their daily needs: manna, meat, water, protection.
3. 19-24: 10 Commandments and the Book of the Covenant. Laws for a new society based on God's justice and mercy to maintain their newfound freedom. The 10 Commandments were placed in the holiest place at the center of the community.
4. 25-31: Tabernacle Instructions. God descends from the heavens and from Mt. Sinai and dwell in their midst to be present daily and to travel everywhere with them (Exo 40:38).
5. 32-34: Golden Calf Crisis and God's Forgiveness. God forgives sinful rebellious people and provides a 2nd exodus for them, an exodus from the bondage of their own sinful inclinations (Gen 6:5; 8:21). Ex 34:6-7 are some of the most critically theologically significant OT verses.
6. 35-40: Tabernacle Build and God's Dwelling Presence. The people's heartfelt willing response, bringing generous offerings and building the tabernacle. Exodus ends with God's visible descent to dwell on earth in their midst (Exo 40:34-38; Jn 1:14).

In summary:

• 1: God's deliverance of the people from forces of evil, oppression and bondage.
• 2,3,5: Living in true freedom must be in an ongoing relationship with God. God gives wilderness provision, builds trust from daily troubles, orders their lives by laws and teaches them to live as forgiven sinners. The laws, given by God the Creator, are critical in their role as a blessing to all nations: lifting the burdens of the oppressed, just courts, healthy ethical living, truth-telling and worship.
• 4,6: God's daily presence in the midst of their lives. The tabernacle creates space for God as well as a place to belong, to give generously and to experience the glory of the Lord.

Questions [m-memorize]:

1. What made the new king fearful and why (Exo 1:7-10)? What did he do (Exo 1:11,13)? Why did it not work (Ex 1:12, 7; Gen 1:28; 12:2; 18:18; 22:17)?
2. What is the king's next birth control strategy (Exo 1:15-16)? How did the midwives respond and why (Exo 1:17-19)? Why were the midwives named but not the king (Exo 1:15, 8, 18, 22)? Why should you fear God (Exo 1:20-21; 3:5; 4:24; Prov 1:7; 9:10 m; Ps 112:1; 2 Cor 5:11; 7:1)?
3. How ruthless is Pharaoh's policy of mass scale forced male infanticide (Exo 1:22; Ac 7:19)? Who would God eventually drown (Exo 14:28)?What is ironic about Pharaoh's fear of the Hebrew men (Exo 1:16,22; see next question.)? 
4. Who were the 5 women who defied Pharaoh's authoritarian decree (Exo 1:15; 2:1,4,9-10; 6:20; 15:20)? Why did Moses' mother do what she did (Exo 2:1-3; Heb 11:23)? What did Moses' sister do (Exo 2:4-9)?
• How is Moses' story a pointed allusion to the Flood story (Exo 2:3; Genesis 6-11)? [The basket Moses is placed in is the same word used for Noah's ark.]
• How does water play a thematic role in Moses' career (Exo 2:3, 10; 14:22,28; 15:25; 17:2,6)?
5. What is the time interval between Exo 2:10 and Exo 2:11 (Ac 7:23)?
6. What does Moses' first spoken words suggest about him (Exo 2:13)? What was good and bad about his actions (Exo 2:11-13, 17; Ac 7:24; Heb 11:24-26 m)? Why did he do this (Ac 7:25)? Was Moses "ready" to serve God? Why?
7. How did the Israelite respond to Moses (Exo 2:14; Ac 7:26-28)? Why did Moses flee to Midian (Exo 2:15)? What happened to him there (Exo 2:16-3:1)? How long was he there (Ac 7:30)?
• How does the women [or woman] coming to draw water follow the narrative convention of the betrothal type-scene (Exo 2:16; Gen 24:15-20; Gen 29:9-11; Jn 4:7,16,25-26,39)?
• What is bread the common biblical synecdoche for (Exo 2:20)?
8. Why was Moses a man who was never at home anywhere (Exo 2:22)?
• Do you sometimes feel as though you don't belong anywhere (Jn 1:10-11)?
9. What are the 4 verbs that describe God's consideration of the Israelites (Exo 2:24-25; 3:7)?
   
• Do you have a sense and awareness of God's presence and that God "knows" you personally (Gen 16:13; Gal 2:20; 4:9; 1 Cor 8:3)?
10. What is the time interval between Exo 2:22-23 and Exo 3:1-2 (Ac 7:30)?

Slaves Need Liberation (Exodus 1-2).

Exodus Introduction: Freedom and Obedience

• Take a few weeks to read through the book of Exodus (chapter 1-40). Is there anything that God by His Spirit is saying to you? Write it down.

• How does Genesis begin and end (Gen 1:1; 50:26)? How is Exodus a continuation of Genesis (Exo 1:1; Gen 46:8)?

• What are the 2 parts of Genesis [chapter 1-11 {the origin of the world}; 12-50 {the patriarchs}]? A simple 2 part division of Exodus [Outlines and divisions from every Exodus commentary is different.]:

1. The power of God in Egypt. Why is power needed (Rom 1:16; 1 Cor 1:18,23-24)?
2. The presence of God in the wilderness. Why is God's presence crucial (Mt 28:20; Gal 2:20)?

• What are the 2 prominent events in Exodus (Ex 14:29; 34:28; Ac 7:36; Heb 11:29)? How does it apply to Christians (Jn 8:36, 31-32;  14:15, 21, 23)? How does Exodus help you know the grace of God and to love God (Exo 20:2-3)?

1. Exit from slavery in Egypt [crossing the sea on dry land].
2. The Ten Commandments.

• Are you truly free or enslaved? How do you know (Jn 8:34; Rom 6:6-7; 2 Cor 3:17; Gal 5:16, 18, 24-25)? Why precisely does God want you to be free (Exo 3:12,18; 4:23; 5:1,3; 6:6-7; 7:16; 8:1, 20; 9:1,13; 10:3,7-8,11,24-26; 12:31; 13:21-22; 19:4; 20:5; 23:24-25,33; 24:1; 34:14; 1 Pet 2:9; 2 Cor 5:15)? How can you continue to live in freedom (Jn 14:15, 21, 23; Phil 2:12-13; Ac 20:19)?

• In God's eyes, freedom is entirely for the sake of worship/service ['abad {Hebrew} is translated in English as "worship" (NIV, NLT, etc) or "serve" (KJV, ESV, etc).

• What is the most important and famous moral code in world history and the central moral code of the Torah (Exo 20:1-17)? [What is the Torah?] What would the world be like if people just lived by these 10 "Ten Words" (Exo 34:28)? Why are we unable to do so (Gen 6:5; 8:21; Ps 14:1-3; 53:1-3; Eccl 7:20; Jer 17:9; Isa 64:6a; Jn 3:19; Rom 3:23)?

• The Ten Commandments.
• Torah means teaching or instruction [translated as "law" (Ps 1:2; 119:97)].

• What "rules" (laws/commandments) do you personally obey daily and/or regularly (Mt 6:33; Lk 9:23; Ac 20:24)?

Exodus Sermons:

1. Slaves Need Liberation (1:1-14). Women Power--resisting the authorities (1:1-2:10). A Nowhere Man. A man with no home (2:11-24). From a guerrilla to a fugitive.
2. http://westloop-church.org/index.php/messages/old-testament/55-exodus/659-god-wants-you-exodus-3-4 God Wants You (3-4). Meeting God on an Ordinary Work Day (3:1-10). God has a Name. The 1st 2 of 5 objections/protests by Moses (3:11-15). 7 points for the elders (3:16-22). Moses' last 3 protests (4:1-17). 5 short encounters (4:18-31).

 A more detailed outline of Exodus --  http://bentohwestloop.blogspot.com/2021/10/liberation-from-slavery-exodus-1-2.html

The Way to become Your True Self (Thomas Kempis)

"A man must go through a long and great conflict in himself before he can learn fully to overcome himself, and to draw his whole affection towards God. When a man stands upon himself he is easily drawn aside after human comforts. But a true lover of Christ, and a diligent pursuer of virtue, does not hunt after comforts, nor seek such sensible sweetnesses, but is rather willing to bear strong trials and hard labors for Christ." — Thomas a' Kempis.

What are you responsible for?

Only One Thing Causes Unhappiness

This is perhaps the major underlying motivation for adultery, infidelity, affairs, divorce and remarriage.

The reason our spontaneous human default is to "cling," is because "the human mind is a perpetual forge of idols" (Calvin, Institutes 1.11.8).

Anger (Mark Twain). Success (Gore Vidal).

Are compassion and criticism compatible?

Are you Seeking Comfort, Security and Safety?

Do you know how to stop?

How much are you affected by success or failure?

Forgiveness and Reconciliation. Desmond Tutu

"True reconciliation is not cheap. It cost God the death of His only begotten Son.

In forgiving, people are not asked to forget... Forgiveness does not mean condoning what has been done... It involves trying to understand the perpetrators and so have empathy, to try to stand in their shoes and appreciate the sorts of pressures and influences that might have conditioned them.

Forgiveness is not sentimental... Forgiveness means abandoning your right to pay back the perpetrator in his own coin, but it is a loss that liberates the victim..."

Bishop Tutu.

What John and Paul say about Christ (Jn 1:1-2, 14; Col 1:15; 2:9; Heb 1:3)

• "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. 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" (John 1:1-2, 14).

• "The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation" (Col 1:15).

• "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form" (Col 2:9).

• "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being" (Heb 1:3).

Lift Up Your Hands in Prayer (Psalm 88:9)

"...my eyes are dim with grief. I call to you, Lord, every day; I spread out my hands to you" (Ps 88:9).

Hold up your left hand.

1. The thumb is closest to your heart--your family and friends. Pray for them 1st.
2. The index finger points the way to Jesus and God's will--teachers and leaders be wise in their own lives.
3. The middle finger, your tallest finger--people in authority who influence society. Lead with integrity.
4. The ring finger is pretty weak--the vulnerable, elderly, suffering, hungry. Meet their needs/draw them closer to God.
5. The last finger, pinky--you. OK to pray for yourself...last! Don't start there. Pray for everybody else 1st.

Your right hand.

1. Thumb, closest to your heart--first thing you pray for is. Guard your heart, because it controls your life (Prov 4:23). Everything flows from the heart! Confess your sin to get your heart right with him.
2. Index finger signals the number 1--pray for your priorities and schedule. What's most important to make it a priority in your life?
3. Tallest middle finger stands out--your influence. People see how God has worked in your life. Be an example of his love.
4. Ring finger--pray for your relationships--your friends, spouse, children, colleagues, supervisors, ministry partners, neighbors.
5. Little finger--pray for material blessings—it's just not the most important thing, so it's the last thing you pray for.

Piper's concentric circle of prayer:

1. Myself--the most needy person. Family, kids, grandkids.
2. Ministry, leaders one by one.
3. Specific people.

The Crucifixion (Fleming Rutledge)

Fleming Rutledge Preaching the Cross of Christ (Jan 2021). The Crucifixion, Advent and Preaching (2020). 10 Reasons to read Fleming Rutledge’s ‘The Crucifixion’.

1. The Passover lamb, 
2. the goat driven into the wilderness, 
3. the ransom, 
4. the substitute, 
5. the victor on the field of battle, 
6. the representative man—

each and all of these and more have their place, and the cross is diminished if any one of them is omitted. We need to make room for all the biblical images.

• "You have not yet considered the gravity of sin." Anselm. Scandalous Cross of Jesus [Barron on Rutledge, 9 min, 2016].

• "Your sin is the biggest problem in the world. Do you hate it? Do you make war on it?" – 
  @JohnPiper.
• Karl Barth specifically notes that sloth [spiritual laziness which is the prime deadly sin of today] gives rise to
• callous indifference, 
• racism and xenophobia, 
• increasing competitiveness [jealousy], 
• excessive consumption [appetites], 
• the desire for total security from threats [fear], and 
• a willingness to use violence to achieve one's ends [anger].
• Paul Tillich speaks of self-complacent [satisfied] finitude.
• One mark of godly Christians is that you fear sin more than you fear suffering or covid.

• A narrative sermon has a plot. It has
1. a beginning,
2. a destabilizing center,
3. a resolution. The resolution should come as a surprise, as a welcome surprise. Living words for life in the midst of death--every sermon ideally should be that. It should take the hearer from death to life.

• Preach a sermon that summons the congregation to an apocalypse, a revelation, something revealed, something new, something transformative. The purpose of the narrative is to lead the congregation from depression, despair, indifference into an eye-opening new way of understanding what God has done. God is the agent.

• Do sermons as dramas. I believe in that. The sermon is a drama, not a teaching. People say my sermons had beginnings, middles and ends. That's the best way to do it because the gospel itself is a story. The story of Jesus Christ is a story.

• There's a Jesus kerygma [proclamation; announcement; the preaching of the apostles as recorded in the NT] and there's a Christ kerygma. The NT is a Christ kerygma, which we often turn into a Jesus kerygma. That means if we tell enough stories about what Jesus did and summon people to do what Jesus did, that's a Jesus kerygma. But that's not the same as the justification of the ungodly, the phrase Paul uses twice, which is the center of the gospel.
• The justification of the ungodly is NOT a message about how we should try to be like Jesus. It's a message about what Jesus has done and his ongoing life.

• Preach every Sun about the ongoing life of Jesus in the community: "Look what we can do because of this ongoing life of Jesus." NOT "Be like Jesus," but "Listen for his voice, his living voice; listen for the gospel; listen for what God is doing and has done and will do. Even through you, this little Christian church / congregation, God is working even through you, even in the midst of this terrible, demonic plague, God is still working through little bodies of Christians." Look at what is happening through these little bodies of Christians, NOT "go and do likewise," but look at what Jesus is already doing, what God is already doing, what the Holy Spirit, the Trinity is already doing. In other words, not exhorting, but enabling, not just teaching [what 3-point tends to do]. Sermon is not just teaching; it is enabling---and enabling not only belief, but enabling action that arises out of the belief. So when Jesus says, "Go and do likewise," he doesn't mean "Copy me." He means, "Here is my power, living in my vine, my beloved, my chosen."

7 Characteristics of Liberal Theology.

• Liberalism is a diverse, but identifiable approach to Christianity, one that differs significantly from historic orthodoxy, evangelicalism and fundamentalism.  Liberals believe they are making Christianity relevant, credible, beneficial, and humane. Evangelicals like J. Gresham Machen believe they are making something other than Christianity--the dividing line a century ago, and the division persists.

• Lifting Jesus’ teaching above any claims about his person. The true religion is the way of Christ. Asserting that Christianity is essentially a life, not a doctrine. Cf. Traditional Protestant orthodoxies place the substitutionary atonement of Christ at the center of Christianity.

• Liberal theology is defined by its openness to the verdicts of modern intellectual inquiry, especially the nature and social sciences; its commitment to the authority of individual reason and experience; its conception of Christianity as an ethical way of life; its favoring of moral concepts of atonement; and its commitment to make Christianity credible and socially relevant to modern people.

• 
  The idea of liberal theology is nearly three centuries old. In essence, it is the idea that Christian theology can be genuinely Christian without being based upon external authority. Since the 18th century, liberal Christian thinkers argue that religion should be modern and progressive and that the meaning of Christianity should be interpreted from the standpoint of modern knowledge and experience. cf. the view of scripture as an infallible revelation and theology as an explication [vs. explanation] of propositional revelation.

• The movement in modern Protestantism which during the 19th century tried to bring Christian thought into organic unity with the evolutionary world view, the movements from social reconstruction, and the expectations of ‘a better world’ which dominated the general mind. It is that form of Christian faith in which a prophetic-progressive philosophy of history culminates in the expectation of the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth.

𝙒𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙉𝙤 𝙎𝙚𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙨 𝘾𝙖𝙣 𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝘽𝙚 𝙃𝙞𝙙𝙙𝙚𝙣

Do you want: 

• All your desires to be known?
• All your secrets exposed? Or remain hidden?
• To sit through a video of every detail of your personal life?

None of this would be a revelation to God "to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid." 

𝒀𝑶𝑼, 𝑰, 𝑾𝑬 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘...

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑴𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆

Who is the sexiest man in the Bible? Put your money on King David. He's got it all. He's a real man's man, and a woman's man too: handsome, glamorous, magnificent in statecraft, a lion on the battlefield, a brilliantly gifted musician and poet, a flamboyantly physical presence yet deeply introspective and prayerful, a man of action and a man of contemplation ... just recounting these traits makes me go weak in the knees.

The final chapter of King David's life is as pathetic as the rest of his life is titanic. He has become so feeble that he cannot leave his room, and he shivers constantly. His servants and family pile covers on him, to no avail. Finally, in desperation, they resort to a stratagem appropriate to an Eastern potentate--they put a young woman into bed with him to keep him warm. This may sound exciting, but since he has become impotent, it is not even the last flickering of a once-brilliant flame, but a pitiful dying away into ashes--precisely the kind of death we all dread.

Excerpts from a sermon by Fleming Rutledge: God on the Move (Lk 1:26-33).

4th Sun in Advent 1996; St. John's Church, Salisbury, Connecticut.

Published in Advent. The Once & Future Coming of Jesus Christ, 2018.

How far can you go?

Practice God's Presence (Brother Lawrence)

"The holiest, most common, most necessary practice in the spiritual life is the presence of God, that is to take delight in and become accustomed to His divine company, speaking humbly and talking lovingly with Him at all times, at every moment, without rule or system and especially in times of temptation, suffering, spiritual aridity, disgust and even of unfaithfulness and sin."  [Practices necessary to attain the spiritual life.]

Critics of Paul in Corinth

Paul's critics/opponents in Corinth commended themselves and denigrated Paul according to their:

1. commanding presence (2 Cor 10:1, 10).
2. concrete displays of power and authority (2 Cor 11:19-20).
3. impressive speech (2 Cor 11:20-21).
4. worthiness to accept full compensation (2 Cor 11:7-11).
5. Jewish pedigree (2 Cor 11:21b-22)).
6. endurance of hardships (2 Cor 11:23-29).
7. mystical visions (2 Cor 12:1-6).

David E. Garland. 2 Corinthians. The New American Commentary. 1999. 454.

Graphe (2 Tim 3:16). Logos (Heb 4:12). Rhema (Eph 6:17)

—Graphe – (Written Word) – The Holy Scriptures. 51 x (1 Cor 15:3, 4).

¡"All Scripture [graphe] is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness" (2 Tim 3:16).

—Logos – (Meaning of the Word) – A Bible message. 331 x (Jn 1:1, 14; 5:24; 1 Cor 1:18; 2:4; 15:2; 1 Ti 1:15; 2 Ti 4:2; Jas 1:22-23).

¡"For the Word [logos] of God is alive and active.  Sharper than any two-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart" (Heb 4:12).

—Rhema – (Spoken Word) – A word God speaks to you from his written word.  A word that 'leaps off the page' into your heart. 70 x (Mt 4:4; Lk 1:38; 3:2; 4:4; 5:5; Jn 6:63, 68; 15:7; 2 Cor 12:4; 1 Pet 1:25).

¡"Take … the sword of the Spirit, which is the word [rhema] of God" (Eph 6:17).

Christ Crucified (Horatius Bonar, 1808-1880)