Who Are We? – 3/12/2017

WARNING PREACHY…  (unedited with bad grammar, incomplete and likely not very good - I hope you enjoy)

I just returned from a conference of minsters, it was a great time of seeing old friends and fellow workers for the faith.  The messages are always excellent because unlike the regular Sunday morning sermon at church, the speakers are not required to speak words for the unsaved but rather are free to boldly to the saved.  The alter-calls have a different purpose in these meetings.

This week started with two questions; “Who are we? And “Where are we going?”  The question addressed the churches, as they worked together, but also dealt with people individually as specific Christians.  While all the speakers dealt with this question in some way, the very first presentation gave the answer that hit home the most.

Who are we and where are we going?

Quite simply, who we are is a matter of identity and our identity is not something that we decide but rather is something that we receive.  Not what we decide but what we receive.

Matthew 9:14-15

¹⁴ Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”

¹⁵ Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.

We (the church) are the Bride of Christ because Jesus called himself the Bridegroom.  Simply, the reality of our identity is in relation to Him, and can only be determined in relationship with Him.  While the conference was dealing mainly with the identity of the church on the local and global scales, the reality of our individual identity being received from Christ is already determined and something we must receive from Jesus.

This has a huge impact.

As the Church, we are not free to determine our own corporate culture but rather we are to patiently wait on Jesus to inform us of what we shall be. (Acts 1:4)  Too often, however, we decide what we would like to be, what makes us feel best about ourselves, and what direction best fits our own theological and biblical ideals, and as a church we then develop ourselves.  Unfortunately, we as a church have become so consumed by our culture that we operate the church like any other man made business. 

Do you feel the rebuke?  Yeah, me too, and if the rebuke to our churches stings a little then the rebuke to us as individuals is more painful I think.

So the question for you and me is; who are we?  Are we persons who have decided our own identities or have we received our identities from the Jesus who’s influence is determined from the cross?

If you are like me, you’ll need to go back to Jerusalem and wait on the Holy Spirit.

The New You - 10/16/2016

WARNING PREACHY…

Have you ever read Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper?  It’s a wonderful story of a prince and a pauper boy who happen to look identical and they decide to trade places.  What happens is that when they swap, both boys learn that they are out of their elements and don’t really fit their new roles.  The prince was not prepared to have a drunken father who beat him and the pauper was not able to produce the attitude of the privileged child of royalty.  In both instances, the prince and the pauper had been told, from their births, a narrative of who they were.  The prince’s narrative made him stately and confident while the pauper’s made him live life as a commoner fighting for survival each day. 

The other day I heard a sermon where the preacher made reference to the fact that he is just a sinner saved by grace.  While his words are common lingo among Christians who understand that they were human sinners that had been captivated by the extreme grace of Jesus and his Cross, I cannot not help but recognize deception in his words that inadvertently takes the promise of the Christian identity right out of the new life in Christ.

Romans 8:11

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. 

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Please forgive me if I am splitting semantical hairs here, but it seems important that new Christians understand their new identities.  In The Prince and the Pauper, the two boys eventually went back to their respective positions in life and all was well again.  But in the Christian life, when you and I become Christians, we must understand that we have abandoned our positions as sinners when we took up positions as the Righteousness of Christ.  We no longer are what we were.  Paul teaches that we died to ourselves and were raised again in new life in Christ.  This is our current identity and our present narrative.  I was, at one time, a sinner but now I AM no longer – and neither are you. 

You my friend, if you have died to yourself in order to follow Jesus, then live your life in that reality.  You are, in all actuality, a prince and a child of the King.  You have been adopted as a son of God and your life is not at all what it was, but rather it is new and it is a privileged position of authority.  No longer think back and embrace the defeat of what you once were, but move forward and victoriously live in the reality that you now are.  You are NOT a sinner saved by grace, you ARE a Child of the Living God, a co heir with Christ our Resurrected Lord.

And I encourage you to reject anyone who would suggest to you otherwise.

Who Are YOU? - 08/07/2016

WARNING PREACHY …

Considering identity.

Who are you: do you know?  Many people may not.  Identity is not just a matter of designation (i.e. your name), but it is a matter of what you are (the essence of your being).  Because of this, your identity is more of a spiritual aspect of who we are than a physical one[1].  And because of this, when we have a wrong understanding of our own spiritual identities, we can experience many malfunctions in our physical lives.

Follow me here.

If all my life I am told by people that I am ugly, worthless, and good for nothing, does that make it so?  If my parents withheld love from me (which was not the case) does that mean I am unlovable?  If the devil whispers in my ear that I am no good and that God is angry at me because I have broken all of the 10 Commandments (twice), does that mean that I am no good and that God desires my destruction?  No, whether we believe something to be true or not does not make it so.  The only thing that matters is what is true, and our faith in that.

The Truth will set you free.

³⁰ Even as he spoke, many believed in him.  ³¹ To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  (John 8:30-32)

The Jews were held captive by the Law.  They believed that if they followed the 10 Commandments, and the religious duties of the Jewish religious system, that God would be happy with them.  All of their lives they were taught the Jewish religious system, and when Jesus came on the scene, proclaiming a grace that came from God alone, many would not hear of it.  Unfortunately, the Jewish story is actually so often the reality of us all.  Too many of us are held hostage by the wrong narratives in our own heads brought about by often well intentioned people who were dead wrong.

Your Identity.

So who are you?

As 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. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  (Ephesians 2:1-10)

Here is the truth of who YOU ARE.  You have been died for, forgiven, and redeemed.  This is the truth, if you will believe it.  You are not all those other things that this world has convinced you of, but you are loved by the resurrected Jesus.  And so I leave you with these parting words of Him who looked upon a woman accused of the great sin of adultery in Israel.

¹⁰ Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” ¹¹ She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” (John 8:10-11)

And so you see my friends, I don’t know what lies are running in your heads, but if you do not know that you are a redeemed child of the living God, you are living in a lie and being robbed while suffering in your flesh for lack of the truth.  You may indeed have had a thousand lying words that was stuck into your soul over the years, but I want to tell you just one simple and powerful truth -   you are redeemed and loved by our Holy and magnificent Savior Jesus Christ.  

And if you will believe it, you will be free indeed.

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  (2 Corinthians 5:17)

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[1] Thanks to my friend Bill for helping me to think this through a bit.