Author: Ryan Hale

I have a Tunisian friend who, as a Muslim, had a very difficult time understanding how it would be possible that our great God would, or even could, become human. How is it possible that we could say that the God of the universe would become a man here on the earth and live amongst us? It seems impossible in so many ways.

My friend told me that his friend, a pastor in Tunisia, explained it to him this way:

Imagine a little bird – a sparrow, let’s say – is looking for a shelter to come inside out of a storm. A human being sees the bird and goes to the bird to show it a place where it can find shelter. What would the bird do? It would fly away, of course. The bird cannot relate to the human. In fact, it is scared of the human.

However, suspend reality for a moment and imagine that the human being had the ability to become a sparrow, just like the little bird who is caught in the storm. In this way, the lost little bird would not be afraid. He would only need to trust that the other bird, who was needing shelter himself, knew the way and knew where the shelter could be found. In this way, the first little bird could follow the second little bird and they could go to the place where they could find shelter together.

When I first heard this story from my friend, I’ll admit that I nodded along and smiled, but in my mind I may have been rolling my eyes a little bit. Sort of simplistic, isn’t it?

Yes, it is a simplistic way to explain the story, but the more that I thought about it, the more that I realized that the essence of the story, what it was intending to communicate, made sense to me and even helped me to conceptually understand what God did for us through Jesus.

Jesus, as God, did take on the form of a man to bring a message to people using a form that we could understand. Yes, that is the case and that is true.

However, he didn’t only do this, but he took on the form of a man to be able to offer himself as a sacrifice in the form of a man so that he could take the punishment as justice for the sins of the world. He lived a sinless life, not deserving punishment, and was therefore able to take on the punishment that we deserved, allowing us to put our faith in him so that we also could live with him as God’s children and his human brothers and sisters.

And so this is what the writer of Hebrews is talking about when he says:

For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Hebrews 2:17-18

Jesus became fully human to serve and glorify God. He gave himself for the sins of all men, if they would accept his sacrifice and the forgiveness of their sins by faith. And he suffered in the midst of temptation, helping us to overcome temptation and sin, both at that time and even today.

God became human in the form of Jesus so that we both could know him, hear from him, and be saved by him. God chose to become who we are, part of his creation, so that we could return to be with him, live for him, and glorify him for the rest of our lives and into eternity.

Can you imagine having a conversation with God, listening directly to him? It is possible. You can have the very words of God, if you know how to listen properly.

The writer of the book of Hebrews talks about Jesus, the Son through whom God has spoken in the last days, and he says that Jesus is the exact representation of his being:

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

Hebrews 1:1-3

Jesus was a man who walked here on the earth about 2000 years ago.

But he was no mere man. Not only a man, but much, much more.

Jesus is also the radiance of God’s glory.

What does that mean? The radiance of God’s glory.

The word radiance means emittance. God’s glory has been emitted from God and that is who Jesus is. He is God’s glory that was emitted here upon the earth. God’s glory means his high renown. That he is praised and magnified because of who he is.

And he displays his glory through his incredible acts. In this case, it says that the Son – Jesus – is the radiance of his glory. He provided purification for sins which finished the work. No more work needed to be done…by anyone. Not by Jesus. Not by God the Father. Not by any of us. No, instead, the work was finished and purification for sins was now offered and available to anyone who would receive that purification.

And so that is what Jesus did, and that is who he is. He is the radiance of God’s glory, the high renown of God made known throughout the earth through Jesus’s sacrifice for the purification of sins.

Yet at the same time, Jesus is also the exact representation of God’s being. He was not only a representation of God’s action. He is a representation of his being. He is God, but God who came in the flesh. He represented God’s being, his essence, here on the earth.

In Jesus, we have God himself.

And now, while previously God spoke through prophets and angels, he now speaks to us through Jesus. Why can we say this? Because he was on the earth! God was here! In the form of Jesus, God came here onto the earth and he spoke to us. We can know what God has to say if we read the words of Jesus. We can hear from God and understand him if we will learn and know what Jesus said.

And yet there is one more step further that we must take because Jesus was not only here then, he is here with us now. Jesus promised his disciples that he would be with them until the end. He is with us even now!

Through the Holy Spirit that we have received as believers in Jesus, we also have the Spirit of Jesus Christ within us. In several places within the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is referred to as the Spirit of Jesus or the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is a Person of the trinitarian God, living within us, and speaking the words of Jesus to each of us who believe in in him.

So while we have the words of Jesus written down from the time that he was here on the earth, we also have the words of Jesus spoken to us through the Holy Spirit even today. Listening to the Holy Spirit, you can hear the words of God.

Do you want to hear from God? The place to start is Jesus. Knowing him. Understanding him. Understanding what he wants to tell us.

We need to understand his plans. His goals. His desires. And if we will do this, we can much more easily distinguish the words of God through the Holy Spirit. We will know for what we must listen. We will know the types of things that the Spirit is speaking about and we can continue to both cry out to him and hear from him each day.

In continuing his letter to Titus, Paul instructed him on the types of things that he should be teaching the people on the island of Crete. Paul had left Titus there to finish the work that they had started together, going from one group of believers to another, from town to town, to appoint elders and leave leaders behind within the churches.

Among other teachings, Paul admonished Timothy to be sure to return back to the Gospel, to return to the truth that God had done the work of salvation, for those who would accept and allow Jesus to be both Savior and Lord over them, that would change their lives completely.

First, in chapter 2, Paul explains it this way:

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

Titus 2:11-14

Paul says that God has been gracious and merciful. In his grace and mercy, he offers salvation to everyone. It is an offer, like any other offer, that can be accepted or denied. We can say No to the world and instead accept God’s offer, living godly lives now. Or we can choose, instead, to prefer the world that we are living in, living based on the passions that are within our flesh and that we seek to satisfy through the things of this world.

This is the offer. God has done the work. We cannot work harder. We cannot do more religious acts. We cannot do things that will make God more happy with us and therefore allow us to enter into heaven. No, it doesn’t work like that. God has done everything that needs to be done already. Now, in faith, we either choose to accept his offer or not. We choose Jesus. We value him. We put him above all other things. Or not.

But if we do, Paul later describes what will happen. He says that we will have eternal life. We will live forever with Christ. He has gathered a people for himself through his death and resurrection. He paid for our entrance into the kingdom of God through his death on the cross, and so we will not only live physical lives now, we will live spiritually forever with Christ even after our physical death. Here is how Paul describes it to Titus in chapter 3:

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

Titus 3:3-7

Paul is clear that we are not saved because of what we have done, but because of the grace and mercy that God has had upon us. God gives us his Holy Spirit because we have believed and live for him. He washes us. He changes us. He renews us. He justifies us because of his grace.

Because we have received the Holy Spirit of God, we can live, despite our circumstances, producing the fruit of the Holy Spirit, full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. That is the ongoing choice that we make, to listen to and live for God, and he produces this fruit within us.

But even further, we get to live with Christ both now and into eternity. We get to move one day from a hope for eternal life to a life eternally with Christ.

It was a work in progress. Paul, at some point – we don’t exactly know when as this trip isn’t mentioned in the book of Acts – had gone to the island of Crete with Titus. Some historians believe that it would have been after the story of Acts ended because there is evidence that Paul left and later made another trip after his initial imprisonment in Rome.

In any case, regardless of when this happened, we can see that Paul had traveled through Crete, meeting a lot of people, evangelizing and reaching many. But the work wasn’t complete. Yet at the same time, Paul continued on into other locations so that he could continue to reach more.

The work was unfinished because there was more to do in teaching, and as Paul specifically notes, leaders to put into place. Titus would stay there in Crete, going from one town to the next so as to appoint elders, leaders over each of the churches that had been formed.

The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.

Titus 1:5

The point here is that there are stages to the work. Sometimes we find ourselves at the point of departure. Other times, we have started because we have shared the Gospel, but there are people with whom we must continue to follow up and make disciples. There are also points at which we need to prepare to leave by working with those who are local so that they can carry on the work that we have started after we have left. And finally, a time comes when we will need to move on, continuing to do the same work in other locations.

Doing the work of an apostle, which Paul both clearly is and whom he has identified himself as in the beginning of Titus 1, we will have different perspectives of the stages of the work, depending on where we stand. Paul knew that it wasn’t enough to evangelize and leave, to share the Gospel and just move on. Instead, he worked to make sure that the local people could continue the work that he had started. This required the formalization of the communities, including discipling the believers and appointing the elders who would lead those communities. This wasn’t easy, nor always a clean process, but as an apostle doing the work, it was the process that Paul was following as he traveled from place to place.

As missional workers ourselves, we should follow his example, both sharing his goals as well as an understanding of the process that we will go through as we do the work that has been given to us.

You would think that living according to God’s ways would give you an advantage. You would think that speaking and living honestly, trying to do what is right would allow you to move ahead in this life.

But while it might give you a good reputation, living in a godly manner may not actually help you advance in any particular way that the world might consider to be good in this life.

Paul admonished Timothy to continue to live a godly life, but he also warned him that, even as Timothy lived in this way, he would likely not be the beneficiary of wealth, fame, power, or anything valued by the world. Instead, he would be persecuted. Instead, those who are of the world and are set on doing evil would both show themselves for who they are, and what is more, would get away with the evil that they were doing for their own gain.

In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 3:12-15

It doesn’t seem fair, but this is the reality. If you live a godly life, or even just wanting to live a godly life, you will be persecuted.

But Paul tells Timothy to continue on just the same. The point to which we should be aiming is not one in this world. It is not even one that this world would appreciate. The point to which we should be aiming is to salvation in Christ. We are looking to eternity. This is a short time, but that will be forever. This time is only for now, but that time will last for eternity.

And to live into eternity, we must live a godly life. We must throw off the old life. As Paul said elsewhere, we are dead to that old life. We must get rid of it. Instead, we must live according to the Spirit, living a godly life.

And yes, we can expect that persecution will come. Yes, it is correct that it will not seem fair. But it is also correct that we will be living for eternity. Not for today, but for the greatest prize that we can possibly imagine. Life forever, living with Christ and enjoying the one who created us. That is what we must live for, enduring even the evil that we see today so that we can see tomorrow. Even if it doesn’t seem fair today, we have so much more that we are living for tomorrow and forever.

Paul encourages Timothy to continue in his faith, making disciples of people who will go on to teach others. As Christians, instead, we often think that our job is to teach someone else. Pass it on. Help our brother.

And this is right. We must do this.

But it is also incomplete. Paul says that Timothy must teach others to teach others.

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.

2 Timothy 2:2

So how can we describe the chain of disciples that we see in this case? We can see it like this:

Paul has already taught Timothy in the presence of many people.

Timothy should now go on to teach others, the “reliable” people.

And those reliable people will be taught to such an extent that they can go on to teach others.

So in all, we see four generations of disciples in this example:

1. Paul
2. Timothy and witnesses
3. Reliable people
4. Others

This generational disciple-making is really no different than what we see in other places in Jesus’s teachings as well. For example, as Jesus was praying for his disciples just before going to the cross, he said:

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message

John 17:20

Jesus is referring to his disciples, but he says he isn’t just praying for them. He is also praying for those who will come after them, those who will believe through their message.

Or we could even also look at the Great Commission:

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Matthew 28:19-20

Jesus tells his disciples to go and make disciples, but then he says that they are to teach those disciples everything he has commanded his disciples to do.

And what had he just commanded his disciples to do? To make disciples! So the disciples are not only to make a disciple, but they are to make disciples who are to make disciples. They must not only be disciple makers and make disciples, but they are to make makers of disciples.

Making several generations of disciples is the pattern that we see both in Jesus’s teachings as well as that of Paul, so we should ask ourselves: How does that happen?

This only happens by making disciples in a way that is Biblical and reproducible.

We must follow the teaching of the Bible. The examples that we see in the Bible are both what we must teach as well as a pattern that we should follow. We should seek out both the message as well as the method of teaching. At the very least, we should take principles from the method so that we can do the same.

It must also be reproducible. The teaching that I give must be able to be done, and done fairly simply, by the person that I am teaching. They must be done in the way that the next person can reproduce them with yet another person.

In these ways, ways that are Biblical and reproducible, we can see disciples of Jesus that are made from one person to the next, from generation to generation.

Here in Sicily, if you are grilling with charcoal, the most common type of charcoal that is used is wood that has been burnt into charcoal that has just been broken up into small pieces. Unfortunately, this often also creates, beyond the larger chunks, a bunch of additional little pieces that, when you put it into the grill, prevents the flow of the air through the charcoal once you have lit the charcoal with fire. Therefore, instead of the air flowing through the fire, as you might think if you were to have larger chunks such as with charcoal briquettes, the air is stopped and the fire must be continually stoked by blowing or fanning additional air into the flame burning within the charcoal.

The result is that you typically have the person who is starting the fire in the grill standing over the charcoal, fanning it with a paper plate or some other instrument, hoping to keep the fire going enough to heat the charcoal to a white hot fire, enough to grill the meat that they have sitting nearby.

I was reminded of this picture in my mind as I read Paul’s admonition to Timothy:

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

2 Timothy 1:6-7

Paul had called Timothy to come and travel with him on his second missionary journey through Lystra, but now, as he is writing Timothy this letter, he finds himself in prison. He will soon be executed and he is writing back to Timothy, who is serving in Ephesus, to encourage him to keep going. Paul wants Timothy to be bold, to preach the Gospel, to not be ashamed, and to carry on what he had originally learned from Paul.

Paul had laid his hands upon Timothy to impart to him both the gift of the Holy Spirit as well as the gift to continue as an evangelist so that others might hear. So now, Paul wants Timothy to continue to live deeply in the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ, living so that others might hear.

Paul calls Timothy to suffer. He calls Timothy to live the life of Christ, to live for Christ. This is Paul’s desire for Timothy, that he would continue to fan the flame of Christ that was put within him so that it would burn bright, burn hot, and he would be full of passion for the Gospel.

For each of us, there are times that we must do the same. We must fan the flame that was placed within us through prayer and through reading the Word of God.

And also we must go and do. We must intentionally do what the Word says. That which we have read, that which we have heard through the Word and in prayer, we must go and do.

By combining these things, by praying and listening to the Word, and then by doing, we see God powerfully work both within us and through us. We see the reality of the Word of God come alive. That which is smoldering under the surface comes alive as a flame and burns within us.

Often, to see that which is smoldering within us burst into flame, we must go beyond our fear. We are frequently timid. We often shy away.

But we must look beyond our fear to the one who has called us, and the one who walks with us. Jesus himself says that he will go with us. He is the one who has the power. He is the one to whom we must listen. And by doing so, both in the quiet moments as well as in the moments that we must overcome our fear and be bold, we also can fan into flame the gift that God has given to us, just as Paul called Timothy to do.

Who is the faithful servant?

Or as Jesus asked the question: Who is the faithful and wise servant?

The faithful servant is the one who is doing what the master has told him to do while he is gone.

In the parable, Jesus says that this servant is watching over the others, feeding them, and making sure that they are receiving their food at the proper time.

What is he not doing?

He is not simply believing that the master exists.

He is not simply waiting for the master to return.

No, he understood what the master said to do and he is carrying out the master’s instructions.

Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 24:45-51

The servant that is, instead, wicked realizes that the master has been away a long time. He becomes lazy. He begins to beat up on the other servants. He begins to spend with people who are not from the house, doing what those other people are doing instead of what he is supposed to be doing as a servant in the master’s house.

We need to pay very close attention to these parables because we in the church may be in danger of this exact situation. This parable should be a warning to each of us who believe. Are we serving the master in the way that he has called us to serve him? Or are we doing what we prefer to do, having substituted our master’s plan for our own?

Have we adopted the ways of the world, enjoying the pleasures of this world instead of serving our master?

Just before telling this parable, Jesus’s disciples had asked Jesus what the sign of his coming would be. Jesus explains to them how the end will work and how the Son of Man – he himself – would come, how he would return to earth.

So Jesus is punctuating this discussion by telling this parable about the master and the servants. He is explaining that he is the master and he will be returning. He expects that his disciples – the servants in this parable – will be at work. He wants them to be doing what he has told them to do.

They shouldn’t just be waiting. They shouldn’t be lazy. They shouldn’t be adopting the ways of the world. They – actually, WE – should be at work for the Lord, remaining faithful to him. Otherwise, destruction will come because we have been unwise and unfaithful.

The Pharisees and teachers of the law had made a human hierarchy out of their little society. They were a group of people that studied the Law diligently to be able to enter the group that would become the teachers of Israel. They would make their name based on their position within this group. They would derive their place in society based on what they had done in their career as a teacher of the law.

And this would cause them, ironically, to do things that would even go against God’s heart and desires. They would even go against God’s commands.

They would not extend justice nor mercy to the people, despite the fact that they would diligently, even religiously, measure out a tenth of their spices as an offering to the Lord.

They would not help other people to come to the Lord, come to know him, but instead would give the people heavy burdens, setting up hurdle after hurdle before they could possibly know God.

Those that they taught, they taught to do as they did, which caused the people that they “saved” to go even further away from the Lord and his heart, not to mention the essentials of his commands, than they were.

The Pharisees did this, and much more, while walking around with an air of importance about them. They considered themselves to be very important, and they liked it that other people considered them to be important as well:

Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.

Matthew 23:5-7

But Jesus points out that this is clearly not the attitude that they should have. They shouldn’t be taking the position or place within the society. The place of honor should never have been their desire. Instead they should prefer and want the place of the servant:

But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Matthew 23:8-12

If they were to be the servant, they would be humbled before the Lord.

If they were to be the servant, they would not be seeking honor from people, but they would only be seeking honor from the Lord.

If they were all brothers, they would consider themselves equal, the same amongst themselves and amongst all of those that they are serving.

So Jesus turns to his disciples, as well as the people who were in the crowd and explains that they should not be like the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. They are to lead the people in a new way. They are to lead them in a way that will humbly serve others. They are to humbly teach the people. They are to be the lowest and desire that position, because the Lord will, at some point, lift them up. They will, one day in the future, be exalted.

This should be a constant reminder for any person who is leading others in the faith. We are to be servants who lead as a servant. We are to be servants who teach as a servant. We have one to whom we should look to receive approval: The Lord, and him only. We should not seek honor from those around us. That honor is temporary. But we should seek honor from the Lord, which is eternal.