The Mystery – 10/29/2017

WARNING PREACHY…

There is a mystery of God that people cannot comprehend, in fact, the robot on Lost in Space would say, “It does not compute.”  And because much of God doesn’t make sense to us, we men are prone to boil the sum of God down to a bunch of moral laws and regulations.  So long as we follow the 10 Commandments, go to church each week, give our weekly offering of cash, and jump through all the ritualistic hoops that our doctrines demand, we will go to heaven when we die.

Matthew 7:21-23

²¹“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²²Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ ²³Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

In doing this, we Christians can often appear to the rest of the world as a stuffy people who don’t have any fun, who want non-Christians to become stuffy and religious like us, and when people do respond to our evangelical efforts we bring them into our churches and teach them a bunch of doctrines, often making them more contemptible to God then ourselves.

Matthew 23:15

¹⁵ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

But where’s the Mystery?

Paul said that there was a Mystery of God, but I have never had a class on it in any fellowship I have attended.  I think this is because I have always been given manuals that explain every detail of God (backed up by many bible passages) and thus not leaving any room for any true mystery.  But God is bigger than the majority of doctrines, creeds, confessions, and commentaries that men can create, and if God has done anything miraculous then we humans should be left in utter awe of the vastness of His doing so. 

1 Corinthians 1:23-25

²³but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

And so as I write about the incomprehensibility of God, I do understand the irony of what I am about to do, I want to take a stab of writing about the Mystery of God.  To do this, I take Paul’s words from the letter to the Colossian church.

Colossians 1:27

…to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Christ In You…

   Are you saved?

      When were you saved?

        Are you born again? 

          Have you ever received Jesus?

The questions go on and are often meaningless to people who do not live by faith.  I suspect that what most people hear in these questions is simply “Do you want to give up your partying, your smoking, your drinking, your sexual escapades, and your fun to come to my church and give them your money?”  Maybe not, but that’s what I used to hear.

But then I realized my own mortality and cried out to the creator of our world to show me the truth.  And I didn’t care what the truth was, I just wanted to know what it was.  And within a few weeks I was presented with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

1 Corinthians 15:20

²⁰ But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

This was a mystery to me.  A man who was dead actually raised back to life?  Seriously?  Who claims this kind of stuff?  How does a religion even get started with such a ludicrous claim?  In my experience of the world, 1 out of every 1 person who dies stays dead.  But the claim was so preposterous that I had to investigate it.  And over time God revealed to my mind the reality of this human mystery of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

But now, there is a greater mystery that I still have not gotten my head around, and that is the Mystery that the Apostle Paul wrote above in Colossians 1:27: which is Christ in You!

The idea that Christ dwells in me causes me much internal struggle.  I’ve been wrestling with the reality that Jesus literally bonded with my soul and is one with me.  It’s one thing for me to read about the Virgin Mary being overshadowed by the Spirit of God melding with her physical body in order to produce the God/Man Jesus.  I can study it and roll it over in my mind but do I really get it?  Do I really get that just as God melded with the Virgin so also the Holy Spirit melds with me to create a new creation in this world?  The thought is boggling to me and shrouds me in wonder and awe at the very idea…

When I talk with people about the faith, I have gotten some flack from my fellow Christians because I don’t claim to know it all, and I don’t try to make people accept any certain denominational point of view.  I simply invite them to explore the greatness of a mystery that leaves my jaw hanging and seek truth no matter where that truth should lead them.  I am confident that people who seriously seek God will have their eyes and ears opened so that they too will see a terribly awesome Jesus who died for them, and invites them to be in fellowship with Himself and the Father.

A Final Thought…

I don’t particularly like the questions that ask a person if they have been saved, or when were they saved, because it muddles the Gospel in my estimation.  The Gospel message is not a question at all; it’s a statement of fact. 

YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN SAVED!

The very moment that Jesus died on the cross your sins were paid for.  Every vile thing that is hiding in your closet has been forgiven.  Not because you are anything special but because Jesus is.  And that is the gist of the Good News of Jesus Christ.  A person may not believe it, may not accept it, may not like it, but the reality is that it has been done by Jesus and we men have been once-and-for-all been redeemed from our world of sin and death.

Ephesian 2:1-9

¹As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³ All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. ⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.

And while this is indeed Good News, there is still the reality of the wrath of God to come.  And the wrath is not as much about sin as it is with not accepting the Son whom God sacrificed on the Cross in order to redeem us.  For in Jude 1:5 is a little focused on verse about the Israelites who were all redeemed from their slavery in Egypt, but some would not believe or accept that God did this for them.

Jude 1:5

⁵ Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.

And so I invite you today, if you have never explored the Mysteries of God in Christ, determine to do so for God has shed the blood of His son so that you might have abundant life.

Interested?  Leave a comment and we can talk.
 

O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing - 03/14/2016

WARNING PREACHY  

In 1994 I attended a Promise Keepers’ event in Keswick, New Jersey.  The Promise Keepers was a men’s event calling on men to live with integrity in their Christian lives.  I had been a Christian just a few months and the Promise Keepers were in their infancy of formation.  While the Promise Keepers’ events would eventually reach the size of hosting tens of thousands of men this particular event in Keswick hosted just 1100 men.  The event began with singing the first song O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing.  I remember it being a surreal feeling to be among 1000 men who all considered Jesus Lord as they sang with great voices in His honor. 

To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you [Greek Plural – you-all], the hope of glory.  (Colossians 1:27)

During this time of my life I was discovering a world that was previously unreal to me, a spiritual reality that connected this familiar physical world and connected it to a mystical one that was not previously visible to me without the baptized eyes of faith.  And to hear the voices of 1000 like-minded men in praise for this Jesus was exhilarating to me.  Their voices confirmed to me that I was not alone in my faith and gave me encouragement to continue on with my new life’s spiritual-discovery.

In O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing is the line “His blood availed for me.”

Up to this point my focus had been on myself and how when Jesus died on the cross he did so specifically for ME but in singing this song with 1000 other tongues I recognized that Jesus died not for me specifically but for WE specifically.  For this song helped me to realize the community of believers, the Church, and the great mystery is that Jesus’ blood availed for WE.  Sure, human bickering, politics, power plays, and egos exist in the church but that’s because the church is comprised of us humans.  However, the fact is the blood that Jesus poured out on the cross defeated sin for the world and I was simply and graciously invited into the community of those who worship this Jesus.

I think this is why I appreciate the a‘Capella worship of the Churches of Christ over the modern idea of worship with today’s praise bands; The one allows me to hear and feel the force of the WE while the other seems to drown out all but the ME.

Either way, though, a thousand voices giving honor to the man who sacrificed himself for us all is a mighty powerful thing.  If you haven’t you should take some time and consider Him today.

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O FOR ATHOUSAND TONGES TO SING…

O for a thousand tongues to sing
my great Redeemer's praise,
the glories of my God and King,
the triumphs of his grace!

My gracious Master and my God,
assist me to proclaim,
to spread through all the earth abroad
the honors of thy name.

Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
that bids our sorrows cease;
'tis music in the sinner's ears,
'tis life, and health, and peace.

He breaks the power of canceled sin,
he sets the prisoner free;
his blood can make the foulest clean;
his blood availed for me.

He speaks, and listening to his voice,
new life the dead receive;
the mournful, broken hearts rejoice,
the humble poor believe.

Hear him, ye deaf; his praise, ye dumb,
your loosened tongues employ;
ye blind, behold your savior come,
and leap, ye lame, for joy.

In Christ, your head, you then shall know,
shall feel your sins forgiven;
anticipate your heaven below,
and own that love is heaven.