Category: Band

Jesus is teaching the crowds with a sermon that, today, we call the Sermon on the Mount. He has called his disciples and now he is teaching the people what it means to live as one within the kingdom of God.

As he is wrapping up his teaching, Jesus admonishes and warns the crowd that they shouldn’t just listen to what he has to say and move on. No, instead, they should go and do what he said, and if they do, then they will be building their lives on a strong foundation:

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

Luke 6:46-49

I have a couple of thoughts on what Jesus is saying here:

First, as the crowds frequently noted, Jesus teaches quite differently than the Pharisees or teachers of the law. Jesus says that the people must do what he says. Note the emphasis here. Jesus isn’t just reading the scripture and telling the people to do what it says. He is telling the people directly, using his own words, what they must do.

This is very different than what a regular person would do. This is different from what a teacher would do. And furthermore, this is very different from what a true prophet would do! Each of these would recognize that there is an authority much greater than themselves and that they are simply a teacher or a carrier of a message instead of the authority themselves.

But that is not how Jesus speaks. He speaks with authority. He says that the people must put his words into practice. This is not how a teacher teaches. This is how God speaks. He speaks with authority. He is the Sovereign. He is the Lord, and when the Lord speaks, that is what must be done.

So there is an issue of identity for Jesus in what he is saying here. Jesus truly is Lord. He is God who has come to earth to show himself in the flesh, amongst his people. He is Immanuel, God with us.

Second, Jesus says that we must do. We must act. We must put his words into practice. That is how we can stand upon a firm foundation. We don’t stand firmly because we have a good philosophy, or even because we understand all of the right teachings. The knowledge of Christ will give you a good start. It helps you know what to do. But the practice is what will allow you to have the foundation upon which you can stand.

Jesus says that you can weather the storm. You can stand even when you are beaten down. But you can only do these things if you know Jesus’s words, and you do Jesus’s words. If you put them into practice. Only in this way can you truly stand upon a foundation that will not move. Otherwise, if you know what Jesus says but you haven’t actually put them into practice, you will be destroyed. The sands will shift underneath you and you will collapse. And you will be destroyed.

So, let’s not simply call Jesus Lord, Lord. Instead, let us be a people who do what he says, who put into practice what Jesus has called us to do, and in this way, when the storms come, we will stand.

Luke has written an account of Jesus’s life, but as we already saw in Luke 1, even before Jesus, Luke wrote about John the Baptist, who would play a critically important role in Jesus’s ministry. John’s role was to prepare the way for Jesus to come.

Luke quotes Isaiah, saying that John was the one that Isaiah wrote about in Isaiah 40 when he said:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
the rough ways smooth.
And all people will see God’s salvation.’”

Luke 3:4-6

Isaiah had written this originally to the people of Israel in Isaiah chapter 40. Just before he had written that, though, in chapter 39, Isaiah had written about the coming of the Babylonians who would come to destroy Jerusalem and conquer the Israelites, including, this time, the Kingdom of Judah, the southern kingdom of the two Israelite kingdoms. The Babylonians were to come as a punishment upon the Israelites for their infidelity to God and for the sin that was rampant amongst them.

Yet now, in Isaiah 40, Isaiah says that the Israelites should be comforted. They should know that the Lord is coming. Their sins have been paid for, twice over in fact, and their Lord is coming to them. It is a picture of a coming king, a conquering king. One who is worthy to have all imperfections of the road upon which he is striding be prepared and repaired prior to him coming so that his travel will be smooth and his glory to be clearly seen. This is the king that will be coming to the Israelites.

And yet now, Luke says that John is the one that Isaiah is speaking of when he talked about the one who would come. John is the one who is announcing that the Lord is coming. He is the one calling for the valleys to be filled in. He is the one crying for the hills and mountains to be made low. He is the one shouting for every crooked road to be made straight.

But what does that mean? Did that ever happen? Did John get the Romans to go out and knock down the hills? Or fill in the valleys? Or make the windy roads of Israel straight?

No, this is a reference to the spiritual reality of our lives. John’s message was of repentance. He called the people to repent, to leave behind their wicked ways, to leave behind the sinfulness of their lives. John called them a brood of vipers and he called them to come to God in repentance.

By repenting, the hills and mountains in their lives would be made low. By repenting, the valleys would be filled in. By repenting, the crooked paths of the people’s lives would be made straight. And by repenting, the way of the Lord would be prepared so that he could come. Jesus would come to the people who have prepared the way for him to come, in repentance. And Jesus’s glory would be made known both within them as well as through them.

This, in fact, was the same message that Jesus gave to the people as he came:

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Mark 1:15

If we want to prepare the way of the Lord, there is one way to do it. It starts with repentance. It starts with leaving behind the sin of our lives. It starts with declaring that we no longer want the things of this world, but instead wanting God himself. We prepare the way of the Lord, the coming of Christ in our lives, in one way: through repentance.

Yesterday, I noted and wrote about the fact that God had given John the Baptist his name. I learned that the name John means

Yahweh is gracious.

The angel Gabriel had come and announced John’s birth to Zecchariah, the father in John’s case. But in Jesus’s case, Gabriel comes to Mary, the mother, to announce Jesus’s birth.

Reading in Luke 2 today, I noted the reference back to Gabriel’s discussion with Mary where Luke says:

And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Luke 2:21

God, through the angel Gabriel, has now named both John and Jesus. He is clearly sending a message to his people. The name Jesus means

Yahweh saves.

So there is a clear message. God’s people have been rebellious toward him, but God is sending John, a man who will prepare the way for the Messiah, and his name means Yahweh is gracious.

But what is even more, and of even greater importance, is that the one who will save the people from their sins will be named Jesus whose name means Yahweh saves.

God named both of these children before they were conceived. They were given the names that God himself had given them so that the Lord’s message is clear. God is coming. Yahweh himself. He is gracious. And he is here to save his people.

This is the same message that we receive today. Just a few days ago, we celebrated Christmas, the celebration of Christ’s birth, the celebration of God’s entrance into the world in the form of a man, in the person of Jesus. This is the reality that we live within today. Jesus has come and so we must look to him, give ourselves to him, and live for him. His name and its meaning, as well as that of the name of John, is clear. Yahweh has come, and if you will let him, he has come to save.

We haven’t even come to the worst yet. Even though the seventh seal has been opened and four of the angels have blown their trumpets…

Even though fire and blood have been hurled onto the earth…

Even though a third of the earth was burned up…

Even though a third of the seas were destroyed along with the fish and creatures within them and the ships upon them…

Even though a third of all of the fresh water sources, the rivers and the springs of water, were destroyed…

Even though a third of the moon, a third of the stars, and a third of the day and the night were now without light…

As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!”

Revelation 8:13

…Despite all of this, in his vision, John saw an eagle fly over and heard him crying out woes upon the earth in advance of the last three angels yet to sound their trumpets.

What could be worse? The earth and the universe are not only destroyed, those that are left are suffering because of the lack of one-third of the entire ecosystem required to maintain balance and live. It is gone and nothing will work correctly. And yet there is more to come?

Woe to us here on the earth that won’t heed God’s direction and acknowledge him for who he truly is, the creator and king over all things! God’s judgment and wrath are coming. Let us be prepared for it in Christ!

Following the opening of the six seals, John remains in the throne room where he sees 144,000 people, 12,000 from each of the various tribes of Israel, who have been sealed as servants of God.

Beyond this, suddenly, he also then sees a multitude of people from each of the other groups of people across the world, all in white robes. An elder from that throne room explains to John that these are people that have come from the great tribulation.

The Lamb, Jesus himself, in Revelation 6, has just opened six different seals which unleashed this tribulation upon the earth, the wrath of God that came as a wave upon another wave. Now, those who have come from that time have arrived in the throne room in these white robes:

Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes —who are they, and where did they come from?”

I answered, “Sir, you know.”

And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Revelation 7:13-14

It is a type of paradox that, having washed their robes in blood, they could turn out white. Blood on clothes would stain them red, but yet in the blood of the Lamb, it is made white.

Those that are standing in the throne room praising God, serving him night and day, sheltering in his presence and being led by the Lamb, these people are the ones that have washed their clothes, making them white, in the blood of the Lamb.

We can do the same. We can be cleansed. We can be made clean and white as we stand before God by placing our faith in Jesus. We can come to Christ with our dirty garments, those that have been made dirty by our disobedience, our rebellion against God, our sin, and we can wash them in the blood of Christ. By placing our faith in his sacrifice, we can be cleansed of our sins and be reconciled with God. If we want to be among those who are able to stand in God’s presence one day, we can be washed, making our clothes white again, in the blood of the Lamb.

In Revelation 5, John saw a vision of a Lamb who had come forward in front of the throne and before the elders and creatures in heaven, a Lamb who had been slain so that people from every tribe, tongue, and nation could become priests in the kingdom of God.

So this is a beautiful, conquering, and mercy-filled vision that John had received, but unfortunately, it is not the end of the story.

The Lamb had come forward because he was worthy to open the seals of the scroll, the scroll of the wrath that was to come upon the world.

And so as we read forward into Revelation 6, we see that is what happens. The Lamb begins to open those scrolls and the wrath of the Lamb begins to be poured out upon the world.

Upon opening the sixth seal, the sky became black, the moon like blood, the stars falls to the earth, the sky vanished, and the mountains and islands were removed. And what is more…

Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

Revelation 6:15-17

The leaders of the earth placed themselves in caves. They preferred that the rocks fall down upon them rather than even seeing the face of God, rather than even see the wrath of the Lamb. It would have been a terrible sight.

John’s vision is a vision of the future. It is a vision of what is yet to come. This is a time that is coming for us.

We often prefer to think of Revelation 5, where the Lamb comes to gather the people for his kingdom, but we rarely speak of Revelation 6, where the Lamb comes in wrath.

This is what we mean when we say that we are saved. Saved from what? Saved from the wrath that is coming. The Lamb will unleash the wrath of God upon the earth, in fact upon the entire universe, and those that are not found within the kingdom will not be saved. Like the kings and the generals mentioned in the passage above, they will be destroyed as a result of the coming wrath.

So let us place our faith in the one who promises salvation. Let us not be so proud to think that we can stand up to the wrath of the Lamb or that it will not come. It will come. Let us instead place our faith in the one who was slain and has paid the price to allow us to be part of his kingdom and enter, saving us from the coming wrath of the Lamb.

One of the most common things that I hear from Christians is the need to be able to give a “good testimony”. Another way that we might say that and explain to someone is that we need to have a good reputation as Christians within our community. In this way, so it is thought, we won’t be accused of something that we have done wrong. Or we won’t bring disgrace to the name of Christ because of the sin that we have committed.

And I can, of course, affirm that this is correct. As we follow Christ, we need to leave behind our life of sin, both sins that we commit publicly as well as privately, and move forward to a life that completely honors Christ, both within the church as well as to the rest of the community.

But while affirming this idea, I can also say that I don’t believe that it is complete. We can easily have a good testimony, or a good reputation, within the community while still being far from God. We can be known as a church that is constantly meeting, constantly worshiping, constantly preaching, and still have people within it that hate one another. We can be a church that seems to be alive, and yet in reality is dead.

As John writes down Jesus’s words to the church in Sardis as he tells them exactly this:

I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

Revelation 1:1-3

The church in Sardis has a reputation for being alive.

Thinking about this statement, we can first of all say that the church has a reputation. They are known within their community. In many places today, a church would be happy to know this, that they they are known within a community. They have a reputation. Great news, the people around us know that we are here!

And what is more, the reputation is good. The church has a “good testimony”. Wow, that is even better news! We are not only known, but we are known for being alive. Wonderful!

But now Jesus finishes the statement and says what is actually true about this church. While their reputation, their “good testimony”, says that they are alive, in reality, they are dead.

How are they dead?

Jesus doesn’t say exactly, but how could we possibly have a reputation for being alive but in reality we are dead? Let me pose a couple of possibilities.

First, as mentioned previously, we can have a lot of activity, and yet at the same time, the activity is with people who actually hate one another. They hold animosity toward one another. They don’t actually like to be together.

From the outside, it looks like they are alive, but in reality, they are dead. They could never be the people that Jesus called them to be because Jesus’s command to his disciples was to love one another. And yet, they are dead because instead of love, there is hate.

I think that there is a second, very important way, in which we could say that we are alive, but instead, we are actually dead. Jesus has called us to be about his work. He intends to redeem the whole world to himself. People from every tribe, tongue, and nation, reconciling them back to God. And yet there are churches that do not join him in his plan.

We hold meetings. It looks like we are busy. It looks like we are alive. We have a “good testimony”, and yet we aren’t actively doing what Jesus said that we should be doing.

What is more, we don’t necessarily do anything about it either. We don’t teach people about God’s mission. We don’t teach people about Jesus’s redemptive priorities. We don’t teach them how to do the work that Jesus called us to do.

While these are two ways in which this can be a reality in our churches, there are many, many other ways that we can have a reputation for being alive and yet we are dead.

Our “good testimony” only goes so far. Our “good testimony” assumes that other people in our community are our judge. Our “good testimony” is only a reputation. It is not a reality.

We need to make sure that we are looking in the mirror. We need to to confirm that we are going beyond a “good testimony” or a good reputation to truly living in the way that Christ has called us to live. To be the community of believers that Christ has called us to be.

In short, we need to wake up. Just as Jesus told the church in Sardis, we must wake up. We need to stop saying that we are OK with having a “good testimony” and that is enough for us, but instead determine that we are not finished until we are living as Jesus has called us to live. We need to complete the work that he has called us to do. Fully complete the work, with no deeds left unfinished. All that he has called us to be and do, that is what we must pursue. Not someday. Not in some fashion. Fully and completely. Now.

We may very well believe our own reputation. We might be thinking that we are alive because of what others have said about us. But that is not enough. Jesus knows whether we are truly alive or actually dead. So let us examine ourselves fully and determine whether we are truly alive. And if not, let us repent. Let us wake up.

We will all come to an end. Every one of us. Death waits for each of us.

Yet death isn’t truly the end. While our bodies may physically end, we intuitively know that life is more than our physical body. There is that person, that being, that is within us that is more than just our body. We are more than just what we can physically touch. I am me. I am not just my body. I am the life that I have been given.

And so we must then ask: If my physical body isn’t all that I am, what happens when the physical body does die? Because it will. But what comes next?

Jesus’s physical body died. He died on the cross after thirty-three years on the earth. He died here on this earth.

But that was not the end. He went on to rise from the grave three days later, defeating death. He overcame death to go on and live forever. Jesus is alive now. He is at the right hand of his Father in heaven. He is there now. And he will live forever.

And this is what he said of himself as he gave John the revelation of the time that would come:

Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

Revelation 1:17-18

John had fallen down before Jesus when he saw him, fearing for himself based on what he had seen. But Jesus told him not to be afraid. He told John that he is the first and the last. The first in that he created the world. The last in that he will judge all things in the end.

Jesus explains that, Yes, he did die, but he is no longer dead. In fact, he is alive and will be alive forever. He will not die. He will go on living and will continue to hold the keys to death and to Hades.

Frequently I have talked about the meaning of following Jesus. As his disciples, we must do what he did. We must do what he has commanded us to do.

However, following Jesus also has additional significance. By following him, we also get to experience what he has experienced. In this case, we can follow Jesus through the process of death into eternal life.

Living forever and ever.

A life that will go on. Without end. A life that will allow us to stay in relationship with God. A life that will bring glory to Jesus forever.

Jesus is the first one to have experienced this life. He is the “firstfruits” of the life that defeats death. We also, though, will experience the fruit of his work. The fruit of his life.

As his followers, as his disciples, we do not just look forward to and end of our physical life. We follow him, looking forward to a life that will continue on forever and ever.

Jude focuses his letter on this difficult reality, that there are people within the church who pervert the grace that Christ has given us so that they live in any way that they would like, regardless of what God has said or who he has called us to be:

For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

Jude 1:4

Jude’s original desire was to send a letter about the salvation that they had received. It was intended to be a celebration, a letter full of joy. But instead, he found himself compelled to send a letter about the need to persevere and contend for their faith.

I hear this objection, both from Muslims but not only them… But it seems like you have allowed Jesus to pay for your sins and you can just continue to go on doing whatever you want, to live in whatever way you like.

And it is true. We do have many people like that. I could probably say that I was counted among them at one point.

Jude is clear about what these people are doing, though. They are perverting the grace of our God. They are mocking the death of Christ and turning it into a license, permission, to live in whatever way they would like to live. This is far from the way that God has intended us to live. Instead, Jesus has purchased us with his blood away from the kingdom of darkness to enter into the kingdom of God, not continue to live in darkness!

What is the justification for doing this, for living in whatever way they want while also saying that they believe in, and follow, Christ? It is their own dreams. Their own ideas. Their own desires:

In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings.

Jude 1:8

They believe that their dreams, their ideas… in fact, we might say, their own truth, is what leads them to decide that this is right. They will refuse living with the authority of God over them, but will instead live in the way that they believe is right, that which is right in their own eyes, based on the strength of their own ideas, their own dreams.

In the end, these are people who will bring division amongst God’s people. They will insist that they know what is right, regardless of what can be clearly understood from the word of God.

And so, Jude calls us to persevere. He calls us to contend for the faith. He calls us to stand firm, being built up through prayer and by listening to the Holy Spirit, not to our own fleshly desires and thus perverting the faith.

Love isn’t necessarily easy to define. In fact, the Greeks have, depending on who you ask and how you are counting, as many as eight different words for love, each to try to define a type of love, or a way to love:

1. Eros – Romantic, passionate love
2. Philia – A friendship type of love
3. Agape – A selfless type of love, the unconditional love of God
4. Storge – The love of a family member
5. Mania – An obsession. Becomes stalking or co-dependency
6. Ludus – A playful or flirtatious type of love
7. Pragma – A long-term, enduring love based in commitment
8. Philautia – The love of oneself

Agape is the word that John uses when he speaks of how God revealed his love to us:

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

1 John 4:9-10

This is the definition of love, the love that God had for each of us. His love was to sacrifice himself so that we might live.

And he demonstrated this love without us loving him. We didn’t love him, but he loved us. He gave himself for us. What an incredible love that is!

Jesus came to be an atoning sacrifice. To atone means to make amends or to reparations. That is what Jesus did. His sacrifice is a sacrifice that was offered by God on our behalf so that, if we put our faith in him, we can live. Our relationship with God can be repaired. We can have amends made for us. Jesus bore the weight of the punishment on our behalf, an incredible expression of agape love.

This truly is the love of God for each of us.