And while some were talking about the temple, that it was adorned with beautiful stones and votive gifts, He said, "[As for] these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down." Luke 21:5-6 (NASB) Hymn: "The Love of God" F. M. Lehman, Claudia Lehman May Recently, a man named John Allen Chau was apparently killed on North Sentinel Island after attempting to evangelize to the people who live there. I witnessed a great many responses that showed a very clear lack of understanding about what it is missionaries do and how they do it and even who they are, which has prompted me to start working on a post on missions. That will be finished at some point, but today's reading brought the whole matter to mind because of one very specific claim that was being made about missionaries. The statement that had been made, and showed up a few times, was that Christians (or at least Evangelical Christians) believe Christ cannot return until every people group is reached and therefore missionaries are actively attempting to bring about the end of the world.
Now, there's a lot to unpack there, and we really should start with the fact that what they're talking about is a very specific read of Dispensationalism that is not shared by all Evangelicals, and even then it is being somewhat misunderstood in this context. But this is a devotional, and the thought that came to mind as I was reading today in Revelation 14 and Jesus' prophesy about the destruction of the temple in Luke 21 and the rather violent promises in Psalm 110 and even a chapter of Ecclesiastes (which is always such a cheerful experience as it is) was about how much we really do suggest to the world that the end is our whole focus. See, because, it is easy to read passages about angels reaping the Earth in which human lives almost seem to lose all individual meaning and forget to view it through the Biblical mindset that people matter. It's easy to read Jesus' words quoted above and just kind of take them as though He is reprimanding the disciples for appreciating the beauty in something that will not last. Even just the tone of voice used in the rare occasions I've heard this passage read aloud belie this innate sense that Jesus is really saying, "Don't bother with any of that, it's coming down anyway" rather than considering that Jesus may also think it's beautiful and maybe, just maybe, He's mourning what He knows about it. We can see the promises of God to deliver the peoples into the hands of Christ as the final judge and king of all the world, and divorce it from the knowledge that Jesus defeats death on the cross and that God shows a consistent desire that none should perish. It's so easy for us to look at the world around us and cry with the Preacher, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!" We are told about the end for a reason. It is good that we know about the full extent and power of God's victory. It is good to view this world with some awareness of what awaits us in the age to come and how our actions today impact that. But we are not told about the end so that we can spend all our time there. We are told about the end so that we can live our lives appropriately now. We can have hope now because we know that Christ has taken the victory and that it will be fulfilled. But what do we do? We talk endlessly about the end times. We invite people into salvation as though it applies to getting into Heaven but not as though it changes us now. What does the world see when we compare world leaders to the Antichrist and talk about this earth passing away as a shroud and do not broadcast that this religion is something that matters every day as we walk this Earth, and not just something that we sign on to now and then get to enjoy later? We are not pre-ordering salvation! We are being asked to lay down our lives, our entire lives, right here and now and let God decide what we will look like going forward. We are commanded to give everything over to Him and let Him decide how much of it will be given back and what we will do with it. How often do we invite people into that? How often do we take seriously that this might include dying for Christ, but it will absolutely include living for Him? And how often do we show that seriousness of purpose to the people around us? When we look at passages about the end times, or what is to come in general, let us be a people who read it seeking to know what that means for us today rather than sacrificing our today to dwell on the future.
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I am a companion of all those who fear You, And of those who keep Your precepts. The earth is full of Your lovingkindness, O LORD; Teach me Your statutes. Psalm 119:63-64 (NASB) Hymn: "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind" John G. Whittier, Frederick C. Maker Regardless of whether or not one believes we have a choice in becoming a Christian in the first place, the Bible is abundantly clear that the Christian life is made up of frequent and consistent decisions. At the core of most of these is actually just one question: will we prioritize God, or the world? The world, in this matter, can take a variety of forms. In Luke 9, Zaccheus is shown choosing to honor God over money, and the people watching are invited to choose to be where Christ is rather than submit to social norms concerning the tax collector. In Psalm 119:65-72, the author chooses to trust in God's purposes over comfort, safety, and riches. At the end of Matthew 10, Christ urges us to follow him even at the cost of one's own family, even if it puts us at odds with earthly authority, even if we lose our very lives. Conversely, Hosea 13:4-14:3 is a scathing condemnation for choosing to trust in earthly security over serving God, complete with a warning that if we will not know God as Lord, we will know Him as judge.
But consider the promise that comes with this! Christ proclaims of Zaccheus, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:9-10 NASB). To the church of Laodicea He promises, "He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne" (Revelation 3:21 NASB). But more importantly, He promises throughout scripture that He will be with His people. Those who seek Him shall find Him, those who choose Him will have Him. In His strength, for His glory, let us find our joy in choosing God above all else. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. The LORD said to Satan, "From where do you come?" Then Satan answered the LORD and said, "From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it." The LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil." Then Satan answered the LORD, "Does Job fear God for nothing? "Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. "But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face." Then the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him." So Satan departed from the presence of the LORD.
Job 1:6-12 (NASB) Hymn: "Speak, My Lord" George Bennard One thing the Bible is very big on reminding its readers is that more of the story is happening behind the scenes than on the worldly stage. Today's reading included parts of Daniel 11, where King Darius is informed by Daniel that God has a great deal of the future planned in detail and knows who will be doing what; as well as the encounter between Zacharias and Gabriel, where the former is told about the coming birth of John the Baptist. Both of these sections highlight that God has a plan, and that what we see of this life relies on actions taken where we cannot see. But few books can match Job, a chapter of which was also in today's reading, for making our physical reality seem like a very small part of a much larger story.
Job spends the first couple chapters flipping back and forth between the spiritual conversations that govern what will happen in Job's life and Job's actual experiences. Then the book zooms in on just Job and his friends and briefly his wife, which seems very important and the focus of the whole story until God shows up at the end and reminds everyone involved that they have only a small fraction of the information about what is going on. And we, the readers, can get very comfortable with the idea that we really do know what was going on, because we got some glimpses at the scenes in Heaven. But we really have little more than Job did, if we're honest. We never get any more of an answer to Job's suffering than Job himself received, and even the brief glimpses at causes are only brief glimpses and we get nothing of that sort for most of the book. Do we think this was only true back then? We so often look at our lives as if the answers will be apparent some time soon or that we have basically all the information about what is happening. We see something successful at a church and break down all the details on their programming and their personalities and the spiritual gifts and think we have a pretty decent idea on what made it work. We read book after book on how God is moving in our age on the assumption that anyone except God really knows much about it. We have no idea what God is up to, and how much of it will become visible in our lifetimes. How much do we rest in the knowledge that God knows far more than we do, and has a much larger plan than we can see? How often do we recognize His authority and control over circumstances without expecting an explanation? Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have [its] perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 1:2-4 (NASB) Hymn: "At Calvary" William R. Newell, Daniel B. Towner Jesus knew what awaited Him in Jerusalem. Luke tells us that "he set his face to go to Jerusalem," knowing full well what would happen there (Luke 9:51b, ESV). We know that He knew, not only because we trust in His divine foresight, but because He told His disciples what was coming. And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's." And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it." Mark 8:31-35 (NASB) In Mark 8, cited above, Jesus asks the disciples who everyone else says that He is, then asks who they believe He is, then celebrate's Peter's recognition that He is the Christ. Then He begins to explain what lies ahead, and Peter stands against it, and Jesus condemns that response and resumes teaching. Now, I don't actually believe that Jesus was changing the topic when He began explaining His upcoming death. What I mean by that is that, while it is widely recognized that this was all one conversation, I've heard very few attempts to connect Jesus' coming death with His questions about everyone's perception of His identity. I submit that this is what Jesus was talking about the whole time. His questions highlighted the expectations of the people around Jesus, and how He was subverting them. He wasn't living up to what people expected of John the Baptist, but He was kinda close. He spoke like a prophet but seemed to have authority beyond theirs. He met some of the expectations of the returning Elijah, but even that didn't quite stack up. He slipped into a number of categories of what the world was expecting, but He didn't quite fit in any of them, and so people didn't know what to do with Him. The answer, of course, was that He was the awaited Messiah, but there was a reason that didn't make the list of outside interpretations: the Messiah they were expecting really had very little in common with the Jesus that walked among them. And this is where the next part of the conversation goes. Peter, having confessed that Jesus is the Christ, is suddenly being confronted with the realization that even his own ideas of what that means are being subverted. He was close enough to see the Christ in Jesus, but not yet close enough to realize what that meant for his notions of a Christ. Jesus sets about removing false notions and replacing them with truth, Peter pushes back, and Jesus makes a very firm rebuke that forces him to listen. He then continues subverting expectations, talking about laying down one's life, taking up crosses, standing beside the Christ not in worldly victory but in suffering. And we can enter into that suffering without shame, looking forward in joy. James notes above that our trials should be treated as occasions for joy, not because of what they are, but because of who we will be on the other side of them. Jesus, who set his face "as flint," as described in Isaiah 50:7, can also claim the surrounding lines that He would not be disgraced or ashamed; even when tortured, put on public display, stripped, hung on a cross as a reproach both from the Romans and from His religious environment (after all, any hung from a tree were accursed), Jesus could come through without disgrace because He knew what awaited on the other side. "There I will cause the horn of David to spring forth; I have prepared a lamp for Mine anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame, But upon himself his crown shall shine." Psalm 132:17-18 (NASB) Jesus knew what death awaited Him, and He knew what victory He would claim over it. And as such, He could go forth, confident in the knowledge that no trial or disgrace He faced on this earth would surpass the riches in glory He would receive after it. And we, who have died with Christ and share in His sufferings and His victory, can look forward with the same joy and confidence that He had, regardless of what shame the world tries to lay on us, because we too shall some day be on the other side of death.
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not [merely] look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, [and] being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:3-8 (NASB) Hymn: "Praise to the Lord, The Almighty" Joachim Neander, trans. Catherine Winkworth If I had a dollar for every person who I've seen hurt by the church, or who told me about how a similar hurt drove them out of Christianity, I could likely begin my future missions work today with little, if any, fundraising. Now, there is a certain degree to which the severity of pains suffered at church are inflated simply because of the nature of the church. This is a place that people invest deeply in, where we are encouraged to consider each other family, where we look at the love described of Christ and then find our fellows to fall so short of that mark. But rather than belittling these concerns, this should highlight the fact that the blows do happen, and they stand in stark contrast to Jesus' description that "by this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35 NASB). But what can we do? In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul is explaining that there are some things the mature Christian can do and environments they can enter because they have come to know Christ well enough to discern a healthy way to do so, but there are other Christians who may, even if mature in other ways, struggle with those particular things and environments. Now, this is not the specific nature of the examples I gave above, but the principle he then describes still applies: we, as Christians, need to consider the spiritual well-being of those around us as more important than ourselves. Neither I, nor Paul, argue that we should let sin reign in the church just so we can hopefully keep the people comfortable with that sin around long enough that they might catch religion. But when someone who needs a word of advice or correction is approached in a painful way because the one approaching is not comfortable doing it in a way that is healthy for the recipient, that is a problem. When the deacon puts the goals and expectations of their own little area of ministry over the needs of the body or even the needs of an individual within that body, that is a problem. When we drive someone out and openly condemn them because they, while holding sound doctrine and a visibly growing relationship with Christ, don't practice Christianity in the exact way we want it practiced, that is a problem. We have this understanding, that I've heard attributed to a number of church fathers, that withholding resources that we have in abundance is the same as stealing from those who need those resources; is that not true also of withholding a word of comfort or an apology or a promise to correct errors, when we have the full power to do so and a brother or sister is in need of it? Paul tells us to put others in the body before ourselves, to the point that we may even have to give up things that we know we don't do in sin, if it helps someone else not fall into sin. And he tells us in Romans that this is done in line with the example set by Christ. Consider: Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not [just] please ourselves. Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, "THE REPROACHES OF THOSE WHO REPROACHED YOU FELL ON ME."...Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God. Romans 15:1-3, 7 (NASB) Christ gave up Heaven, He gave up all status and glory and authority to accept us. In the end He regained all of it, but Christ gave up everything that was rightfully His in order to accept us. If we are to accept our brothers and sisters in Christ just as Christ has accepted us, then we need to set aside our preferences and our desires and our comforts whenever they would hinder the spiritual health of those around us. But the example Christ gave isn't even limited to those in our family of faith. After all, everyone Christ died for was an enemy of God when He died. Following the example of Christ means spreading this love even to those who are not in the church, even to those who would oppose the church, even to those who would kill us given the chance, just as Jesus loved those who mocked Him as He hung on their cross. Jesus, having just told His followers to love even their enemies, observes: If you love those who love you, what credit is [that] to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is [that] to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is [that] to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same [amount.] But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil [men.] Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Luke 6:32-36 (NASB) It is not enough to simply try to do these things, however. We cannot love each other perfectly, but Christ can love perfectly through us. We cannot build the perfect church through our own efforts, for "unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it" (Psalm 127:1a NASB). We must allow God to change our hearts, guide our relationships, love those around us with our hands and our mouths and our feet and our resources. Do I glorify God by how I treat the people around me? Do I reflect His love for them in all my dealings? If not, may I be quick to repent and place these things in the hands of the only One who is truly capable.
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Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation
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