From Part One

The best people to send on a rescue mission are those who blend trust with training.

There’s a fascinating story tucked away in Genesis 14 about the time Abram’s nephew Lot got caught in the middle of a tribal war.  He (and his entire family) was taken captive as a POW by the conquering kings.  When Abram got the bad news, he “called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit” (Genesis 14:14).  Dividing his men into two groups, Abram’s small army attacked at night, routed the enemy and recovered Lot.

On the way back home, Abram is met by a king named Melchizedek who blesses Abram for his daring rescue and praises God “who delivered your enemies into your hand” (14:20).

So let me ask you a question, “Why was Abram successful in his rescue mission?”  Was it because of his 318 trained men or because of God’s timely intervention?  The Bible’s answer is “both.”  The passage emphasizes the fact that Abram had men who were trained for battle.  They knew how to handle weapons.  They could be deployed strategically.  But above and beyond that, the Bible credits God with winning the day.  As Proverbs 21:31 says, “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the Lord.”

The church is engaged in a massive rescue mission.  People all around us are spiritual POWs, held captive and unable to deliver themselves.  As we mobilize to help liberate them through bringing the good news of the gospel, we will need to deploy men and women who trust the Lord and who are trained for service.

From Part Two

We are commanded to love God with all our minds.

Shortly before He was arrested, Jesus faced a series of challenging questions from Jewish religious leaders (Matthew 22).  The Pharisees asked whether it was kosher to pay taxes to Caesar (22:17).  The Sadducees laid out a convoluted case study about a lady who’d been married seven times.  “Now then,” they asked, “at the resurrection, whose wife will she be?” (22:28).

Finally, an expert in Jewish law inquired, “What is the greatest commandment in the Law?”   Jesus replied with these well-known words:  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).

We know we are to love God with all our hearts, but what does it mean to love Him with all our minds?  If you study Jesus’ responses to the questions He faced that day in the Temple, you’ll get an answer.  Loving God with your mind involves:

• using discernment to see through hypocritical questions
  “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?” (22:18)

• using reason to expose erroneous conclusions
  “you are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God” (22:29)

• using logic to lead people to new insights
  “If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” (22:45)

And most of all…

• using Scripture as the final authority in life and death
  “But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living” (22:32-33)

A Bible school education can help a Christian dig deeper into Scriptures to grow in the knowledge of God.  It can assist a  student in developing a Christian mind and a biblical worldview.   It can shape and sharpen the skills needed to engage in serious theological reflection and answer hostile theological objections.

• The Jews understood that the temple was the one place on earth where heaven and earth intersected.  It was the extension of the garden of Eden, the playground of angels and humans.  Jesus was God and man.  He was the joining together of God’s dwelling and the dwelling of humans.  Jesus is the reality of Bethel, the “house of God,” which is marked by commerce between the heavens and the earth.  (Recall Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28, where angels ascended and descended from heaven to earth, and Jesus’ words to Nathanael in John 1 that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s house.)
• Jesus identified Himself as the tabernacle of God, the fulfillment of the tabernacle of Moses, where God’s glory rested.  The words of John 1:14, He “dwelt among us”, literally mean He “tabernacled among us.”  In the same text, John went on to say “and we beheld his glory.”
• In John 2:19, Jesus said to the Jews, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  John then informed us, two verses later, that Jesus was speaking of the temple of His body.
• In Matthew 12:6, Jesus announced that he is greater than the physical temple.  The physical temple was a signpost.  Jesus is the reality.
• In Colossians 2:9, Paul says that all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Jesus in bodily form.  In other words, Jesus is the dwelling place of God.
• In John 20, Jesus breathed into the disciples.  They were now a new creation.  He then gave them the word of proclaiming forgiveness to sinners.  Forgiveness was the rule of the temple in Jerusalem.  The temple afforded forgiveness of sins by the sacrifices that were offered there.  Now Jesus, the real Temple and the real Sacrifice, offered forgiveness.  And those who were part of the Temple, His disciples, declared it as well.
• In His ministry in Galilee, Jesus was acting and living as though He were the temple itself.  He was fulfilling all of the temple’s functions.  To have your sins forgiven in that day, you had to go to the temple.  Jesus was subverting this system by offering forgiveness Himself.
• After the temple of His body was destroyed, Jesus rose again on the third day.  Fifty days later, at Pentecost, thousands of Jews were converted to Christ.  They were the “living stones” that were “hewn out of the one Rock,” which is Christ.  In Mark 14:58, one of the witnesses at Jesus’ trial said, “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this man-made temple and in three days will build another, not made by man’”.  These living stones became the building blocks for the house of God.  Jesus, the real Temple, had increased.  Now the church has become the temple of God on earth.
• In Acts 2, an unusual event occurred on the day of Pentecost in the city of Jerusalem.  The Spirit of God fell on 120 disciples of Jesus.  They spoke in tongues, and tongues of fire appeared on their heads.  The real temple of God was being born right in the midst of the old physical temple.  The tongues were the reverse of what happened in Babel.  At Babel sinful men tried to achieve unity by creating a tower to reach the heavens.  God judged their effort and confused them by scrambling their languages.  At Pentecost the Spirit of God united them, they spoke in other tongues, and they understood one another.  The fire on their heads is reminiscent of the fire that fell from heaven on the temple when it was dedicated.  The new temple of God is not built with human hands.
• The temple was a signpost of a future reality.  It was God’s dwelling place.  It was the place of forgiveness, redemption, restoration, and wholeness.  It was the place of God’s presence on earth.

The Name

Like the Father, Jesus is God. He always was, always is, and always will be. But unlike the Father, Jesus is also a human being. Though  charged with blasphemy and crucified for claiming to be one with the Father, Jesus’ resurrection validates his claim to be God’s Son in a unique way. When we confess our belief that Jesus is the Son of God, we share in the love the Father has for the Son, becoming adopted children of God.

Though Jesus was the Son of God, he was also the Son of Man, a title that emphasizes both his lowliness and his eventual dominion. Near the end of his life, when the high priest asked him whether he was the Son of God, Jesus no longer avoided the title but said that he would one day “see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 26:64).

When you pray to Jesus as Son of God and Son of Man, you are praying to the One who is your Brother and your Lord.

Key Scripture

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.” Matthew 16:15 – 17

Praying the Name

In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God. . . .’ ” And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!” Matthew 27:41 – 43, 50 – 54

The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. Deuteronomy 33:27

Reflect On: Matthew 27:41 – 54 and Deuteronomy 33:27.

Praise God: For sending his beloved Son.

Offer Thanks: Because God considers you his child.

Confess: Your faith in Jesus as the Son of God.

Ask God: To deepen your sense of being his son or his daughter.

Have you ever played a game in which you let yourself fall backward into someone else’s arms? It’s difficult not to hedge your bets, not to sneak a look around to see whether the other person stands ready to catch you. Now imagine a more difficult challenge. This time you stand with your back toward an open grave and your task is to fall backwards into it. Your friend has assured you he will be there to catch you as you fall. The success of this venture depends on two things: your trust and your friend’s ability to keep his promise.

I imagine that Jesus’ death must have been something like that. Though he was God, he had to fall back helplessly into a human grave, trusting that the Father who loved him would raise him up. To do this, Jesus had to have been absolutely secure in his identity as God’s Son. In fact, Jesus never called God by any other name than Father, except once, when quoting directly from a psalm. Over and over, it was always “Father”:

* Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?
* Father, protect them by the power of your name.
* Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am.
* Abba, Father, everything is possible for you.
* Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.
* Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

Jesus was crucified for one thing — for claiming to be God’s Son. So it is interesting to note that when the earth shook at the moment of his death — the exact moment when the Son, falling into the grave, had need of his Abba’s all-powerful arms to raise him up — the centurion and those with him guarding Jesus exclaimed in terror: “Surely he was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:54).

Abba, a word derived from baby language to describe Almighty God! A word that would have sounded shocking to pious Jews! This is how Jesus expressed his relationship with Yahweh — as my Daddy, my Dear Father. It is the way he wants all of his followers to think of God.

Listen to what Paul says to the Galatian Christians:

“Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father’ ” (Galatians 4:6).

Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” How much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! If you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Because of what Jesus our Brother has done for us, we too have become children of God. As his sons and daughters, we can be absolutely confident that underneath our deepest griefs will always be the everlasting, ever-loving arms of God our heavenly Father.

Related article on the Humanity of Christ.

You could accidentally betray a confidence:

¹⁹ A gossip betrays a confidence;
so avoid anyone who talks too much

Your prayers could become a religious formula:

⁷ And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

Your words could simply get lost in the sea of communications:

^12-13 But regarding anything beyond this, dear friend, go easy. There’s no end to the publishing of books…

You could simply look foolish:

²⁸ Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent,
and discerning if they hold their tongues.

You could even say something to God you might regret:

1 Peter 5:6-11  So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time He will lift you up in honor.

7  Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you. 8  Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 9  Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are.

10 In His kindness God called you to share in His eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, He will restore, support, and strengthen you, and He will place you on a firm foundation. 11  All power to Him forever! Amen.

As Peter comes to the close of his letter to the churches in Asia Minor he gives them a summary of how to live and what their attitude should be as they wait for Christ return. It is a message that is just as relevant to us today.

Humility

One of the biggest struggles that we have is with humility, God knew that we would have a challenge in this area, so the importance of humility is taught throughout the Bible. Humility is required for salvation, we need it in order to see ourselves the way that God sees us, without humility we will not turn to God and ask for help. From that point on our lives should be known for humility, once we see ourselves the way that God sees us, we should find it difficult to view ourselves as much without him.

It can be difficult to yield to God’s plan and humbly allow his power to work in your life, he may bring calamity and difficulty for a season in order to bring glory to himself or the hard times may be there for your spiritual growth, sometimes it might look easier to take the controls and do things our way.

Here is a statement that I found in a commentary on these verses: “If we do not humble ourselves under God’s grace then he will humble us under his judgments.” Either we will humble ourselves voluntarily or the day will come when we will be humbled by God.

Trust

It is difficult to trust in this world that is full of selfishness and pride, we all try and get our way and look out for ourselves but there is a place and a person that you can put your trust, a place where we can unload without fear. We can go to the cross where we are completely accepted by God and we can trust him to lighten our load.

What more can anyone wish for than to know that the great and merciful God of the universe thinks about you? Not only does he think about you but he also cares! Amazing thought isn’t it?

Stay Alert and Stand Firm

Watch out! Satan will try to use any opportunity to make our lives useless for God. Initially he is out to destroy you by making you a prisoner to death but once you are a child of God and you are no longer under the curse of death his next plan is to make you useless for God.

Satan will try to make you fearful and ineffective but we can stand our ground if we stay alert to his schemes. Our best defense against that “roaring lion” is to stay close to God. It seems to me that the devil must hate God and be repulsed by him and the last thing that he wants to do is hangout close to him. So if I am staying close to God then the devil won’t want to come close to me.

Perspective

It is best to live with your long term goal in site. Do you have a long term goal? Every child of God has one but too often the stuff of this world will try and take our focus from the eternal glory that we will share with Jesus and get our focus on the short term problems around us.

God has called me to greater things than I can imagine! God will take care of every need for this life and he will provide for my eternal destination. The devil will use the pain and trouble of this world to try and get me off track but I will choose to “fix my gaze on things that cannot be seen.”

Thank you Lord for teaching me how to get through this world, thank you for loving me and giving me a new perspective on how to live, help me to keep my eyes on the eternal.

Ephesians 2 contains two verses familiar to many of us:

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. (NIV)

But someone will say, “But what about James 2:24?” That’s the verse many of us memorized as “Faith without works is dead.” The variety of translations we usually utilize here doesn’t clear this verse up because a good translation won’t interfere with what the original text actually says. Clarification of difficult passages is for footnotes, commentaries and Bible handbooks. But the CEV tries to provide us with the verse in a way that doesn’t trip us up vis-a-vis the Ephesians passage.

²⁴ You can now see that we please God by what we do and not only by what we believe.

Or moving from the CEV to the CEB:

²⁴ So you see that a person is shown to be righteous through faithful actions and not through faith alone.

which is almost word-for-word the same as the NLT.

But the other translations use words like “justified,” or “made right,” which implies a works based salvation.

It must be difficult to be a Bible translator — trying to stay loyal to the reading of a particular Greek section — but knowing the whole compendium of scripture and, in this case, knowing that salvation is a work of grace.  Here’s how the NCV approaches an earlier verse (italics added):

²² So you see that Abraham’s faith and the things he did worked together. His faith was made perfect by what he did.

The Reformation Study Bible notes:

None of our deeds are worthy of ultimate justification in the sight of God. Only the merit of Christ avails for that kind of justification. Only by trusting in Christ alone can we be made righteous in the sight of God. Here James attacks all forms of antinomianism that seek to have Jesus as Savior without embracing Him as Lord.

…I think a good passage to bring into this discussion is one that isn’t usually considered in this context, the story of the woman who anoints Jesus’ feet and washes his feet with her hair in Luke 7: 36-50.  I’m going to assume that most people reading this know that story, but if not, click the link.

A parable about a debtor is taught within the narration of this story, the point of which is to show to Simon, the host of the party, as to how grace plays out in the real world. The conclusion is:

⁴⁷ “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” (NLT)

⁴⁷ This woman has been forgiven much, and she is showing much love. But the person who has shown little love shows how little forgiveness he has received. (The Voice)

Impressive, isn’t it? She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful. If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal.” (The Message)

Works flow naturally, organically out of the overflow of the heart. Works are response to what we already received by grace, by faith. If a person isn’t finding some area of response to God, I think we’re safe in questioning the authenticity of their faith experience. 

Is your Christian service a laborious exercise done out of obligation, or is it a joy-filled response of a recipient of a level of grace that you know you could never deserve?

How do people change? There are a myriad of ideas about what change looks like, and lots of proposed solutions are offered to what ails us. But as a Christian any solution I offer to others, or any that I claim for myself, must be rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is the real center of all true, lasting change for humanity. But what does this mean: gospel-centered change? Paul gives us a picture of this kind of change in Colossians 2:20-3:5. By studying this passage we can learn how the gospel applied to our struggles can affect real change.

In the letter to the Colossians Paul is writing to a church beleaguered by false teachers who are promoting a sort of mystical Jewish/Christian amalgamation over and against the gospel.  So Paul urges them to remember the preeminence of Christ, resist the empty philosophies of others, and pursue the example of Jesus. The specific passage we are looking at discusses how to “put on the new self.” It states:

If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” referring to things that all perish as they are used—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

To understand how this passage instructs us on true, gospel-centered, change let’s break it down.

Paul begins by warning us that self-discipline, in and of itself, is not enough. The Colossians had lists of things not to avoid, regulations and rules that were designed to keep the world at a distance. “Don’t handle,” “don’t taste,” “don’t touch.” They would say. The developed their own form of legalism to make themselves pure. But legalism can never achieve real growth in godliness. Following a list of rules, apart from the gospel of grace, leads naturally either to arrogance or depression.

If you succeed in keeping all the rules you become an arrogant jerk. You’re proud of your accomplishments and you pat yourself on the back. You compare others to your own standard of “godliness” and condemn those who don’t match your level. After all, you pulled yourself up by your bootstraps, why wouldn’t you expect everyone else to do the same. But, of course, we can never attain true purity this way.

As the reality of our imperfection manifests itself to us we become depressed. Legalism tends to produce depressed and ashamed Christians who are constantly frustrated and downcast because, after all, no one is perfect and they can’t keep the rules. So we are constantly aware of the slightest failing and sure that God must hate us for it. Rule keeping, and self-restraint alone, are not the pathway to our transformation.

That is not to say that self-discipline is not important. It is very important. And Jesus gives us rules to follow. But self-control is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), not merely something we conjure up of our own will. Self-discipline apart from the gospel and apart from the Spirit of God leads to legalism, not to change.  I like how J. Alasdair Groves summarizes Paul’s point:

Paul’s point is simple: you are not going to overcome your sin by beating yourself into shape and keeping the outside world at arm’s length. Trying harder and being your own drill sergeant has “no value in restraining sensual indulgences.” You’ll feel better for a while if you establish a list of rules, an exercise regimen, and a plan to do more school work so you won’t have much time to be tempted. But it will never be enough. Rules (in and of themselves) simply cannot stop the flesh, and the world (and the devil). Looking to rules or your own effort to change is insufficient and opposed to how God works to redeem us. (“Exposing the Lies of Pornography and Counseling the Men Who Believe Them” in The Journal of Biblical Counseling, 27.1. p. 20)

Paul says that such things have an “appearance of wisdom,” that’s why so many legalists still exist. But ultimately this approach to transformation is “of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” We want real change not merely an exchange of “indulgences.” Legalism tends to help us abandon one sin only to pick up another (like arrogance and pride, or judging others to name two examples). Real change must go deeper than our external behaviors. Real change must get at the heart, and that’s where the gospel takes us.

If you want real change you have to address more than our behaviors. That is why “solutions” that only ever address external behavior don’t affect lasting or real change.  The gospel doesn’t ignore our external behavior, but it treats us as whole people (spiritual, physical, emotional, mental, relational, etc.). Next week we’ll unpack some more of what Paul says about real change to the Colossians, but spend some time this week reflecting on the failure of rule keeping, and ask God to help you address more than just your actions. Pray and ask him to expose your heart, in order that you might find real transformation.

Continue reading other parts of this series:

• The Power of the Gospel for Real Change: Reflections on the Process of Sanctification from Colossians 2:20-3:5 (Part 2)
• The Power of the Gospel for Real Change: Reflections on the Process of Sanctification from Colossians 2:20-3:5 (Part 3)

I wrote about that in a blog post that has actually run twice here, sharing a popular verse of scripture, II Tim 3:16,  in three translations and then ending with my paraphrase:

All scripture has its point of origin in God’s mind, and

• shows us the path God would have us walk
• highlights when and where we’ve gotten off the path
• points the way back to the path
• gives us the advice we need to keep from wandering off the path in future

But while this list includes four benefits of studying the word, it is not inclusive. The point is that whatever we think of when we think of the Bible, it is always so much more.

In Ps. 23:4 we read:

Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
    for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

What is the ‘rod and staff’ spoken of here?  Most translations, including The Message preserve this imagery:

Even when the way goes through
    Death Valley,
I’m not afraid
    when you walk at my side.
Your trusty shepherd’s crook
    makes me feel secure.  (The Message)

Matthew Henry affirms that this imagery is pertinent to the phrase that precedes it; that the protection of the Lord described here is that needed in the face of death:

It is a comfort to the saints, when they come to die, that God takes cognizance of them (he knows those that are his), that he will rebuke the enemy, that he will guide them with his rod and sustain them with his staff. The gospel is called the rod of Christ’s strength (Ps. 110:2), and there is enough in that to comfort the saints when they come to die, and underneath them are the everlasting arms.

Ultimately, our comfort is God Himself. The Voice version, which tends to add things to the text, simplifies it in this verse:

Even in the unending shadows of death’s darkness,
I am not overcome by fear.
Because You are with me in those dark moments,
near with Your protection and guidance,
I am comforted.  (The Voice)

This echoes Psalm 46:1

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. (KJV)

a verse which in many ways parallels the first verse of Psalm 23:

The Lord is my Shepherd…

This itself echoes Psalm 121:2

My help comes from the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.  (NIV)

This comfort should sustain us at all times; not just as we reach the end of life; though it is often at the end of life that people turn to God.

Now going back to where I started, many times in my day, both here and in my personal Bible study time, I find myself engaging scripture more as an intellectual pursuit than to seek comfort, solace and strength from its pages. My faith is way up in my head somewhere and isn’t penetrating my heart.

Or there is also the “This is really deep stuff; who can I share this with?” mentality that sees the truths about God more as a type of theological email forward to be sent on to ten people who must promise to send it ten others.  “This is so good, I must send it to Bob.”

The result of this is what I am experiencing as I write this: In times of anxiety, stress or fear, I sometimes feel I have woefully inadequate resources at my immediate internal disposal because I have not “banked” the truths of God’s comfort and life-giving strength. I find myself totally broken because I have studied God’s Word enough to know the comfort of God is there to be taken, but living in the middle of a disconnect, not being able to draw on it as I should.

I don’t need God’s rod or staff to drive away 3rd party oppressors as much as I need to be hit over the head with it as a reminder, “Hey…I am right here; I am the strength you need.”

Do some of you resonate with this? Is it possible you’re attracted here to the “201″ nature of this page — perhaps even looking for Christianity 301 or Christianity 401 — but are missing the “Christianity pre-Kindergarten” principle that Jesus loves us?

Yes, we need to search the scriptures and study to know the core doctrines and history that we learn from its pages. But we also need to know how to find comfort from the Word; because in those times, all our Bible knowledge and ability to explain theology will not hold us up. We need to know the reality of  “still waters” spoken of elsewhere in the 23rd Psalm.  

I know I do.

If we’re gonna talk about the End, we need to begin with what Jesus said about it—not in Revelation, but in the gospels. So let’s start with the first gospel written, which would be Mark.

Jesus introduces the subject by discouraging his followers from prematurely assuming the End has come.

Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, facing the temple. On their own, Peter, James, John, and Andrew were questioning him: “When will this happen? What’s the sign when everything is about to end?” Jesus began to tell them.

“Look, don’t let anyone lead you astray. Many will come in my name, saying this: ‘It’s me!’—and many will be led astray. When you hear war, or what others say about war, don’t freak out; these things happen. But it’s not the End yet! One ethnic group will come against another ethnic group; kingdom against kingdom. Places will shake. Recessions will take place. They’re early birth-contractions.”

—Mark 13.3-8 NLT

Despite these instructions, Christians still freak out over every major world event. Our nation goes to war; Christians proclaim the End. Israel goes to war with its neighbors; Christians proclaim the End. The economy shakes and shudders; Christians proclaim the End. The economy prospers and Christians proclaim the End. We look for signs everywhere, and anything can be a sign of the End. We’re worse than the superstitious.

And in fact that’s precisely what many of us have become when it comes to the End: Superstitious. We worry that any little thing might show up and take away all our worldly possessions, all our personal freedoms, all our temporary stuff. We stockpile food in case we have to hide, stockpile gold in case we need to buy things, stockpile weapons in case we have to fight—and put our trust in them, and not in Jesus. We live in fear. Not in confidence. Not in patience. Not in trust. Not in faith.

When Jesus talks about the End, he deals in very specific images. They’re apocalypses, so they’re not literally what’s going to happen, but they’re meant to be easy enough to figure out if we have half a brain—and if we’re using that brain to recognize the times we live in, instead of allowing our fears and paranoia to run wild.

So let’s deal with each of the things Jesus tells us to expect as part of the natural order of things, and not as part of the End Times.

The wrong leaders.

I’m not sure many people are interpreting Jesus correctly when he warns about the people who will lead his people astray. The most common interpretation is Jesus is talking about fake Christs—people who claim they’re Messiah, and aren’t. They take this from when Matthew repeated this story.

Jesus told them, “Don’t let anyone mislead you, for many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah.’ They will deceive many.”

—Matthew 24.4-5 NLT

Here’s the problem with this interpretation. These so-called “fake Christs” come, as Jesus pointed out, in his name. Not their own names. They’re claiming to have Jesus’ endorsement to make these claims about themselves. And here’s the problem: How many fake Christs come in Jesus’ name? Darned few. Jesus is their competitor, not their ally; they pay him a little bit of lip service, but pretty much everything else they do is in their own name, which they seek to glorify. Not his.

So this is why I translate the Matthew passage thus.

In reply, Jesus told them, “Look, don’t let anyone lead you astray. Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I’m anointed!’—and many will be led astray.”

—Matthew 24.4-5 KWL

We too often forget kristós means “anointed one.” It can be translated either “Christ” and “Messiah”… or “anointed one.” It doesn’t mean these preachers are claiming to be fake Christs. It means—as we all too often see—these preachers are claiming Jesus anointed them to be the leaders of his people. But he didn’t, and they’re leading Christians astray.

All too often, self-anointed leaders are demanding very inappropriate degrees of honor and privilege and loyalty because of it. They want us to obey without question, and misquote, “Touch not the Lord’s anointed” lest we dare stand up to them. They want to be treated just like we should treat Jesus. Yet they know better than to use the sacred title Messiah… so they stick to “anointed,” and hope we never notice. And we often never do. And we are led astray.

Any preacher who makes too much of their own anointing needs to be watched carefully. Any preacher who’s surrounded by followers who make too much of their preacher’s anointing, likewise needs to be watched carefully: Some of these folks are clever enough to stay humble in public, but they deliberately surround themselves with suck-ups. A truly humble preacher will discourage people from puffing them up, lest they start to seek praise, and not Jesus, as their reward.

So watch out for fakes. Look for fruit. Stay away from fruitless Christian leaders. Yeah, it might be okay to listen to their podcasts or radio shows—after all, Jesus told his students it was okay to listen to the Pharisees, but don’t follow their personal examples. (Mt 23.2-7) After all, hypocrites can preach the truth. They just won’t live the truths they preach. (Of course, defending their bad behavior might worm its way into what they preach, so remember to listen to them skeptically.)

The wrong harbingers.

As a superpower, the United States doesn’t really know how to worry about war. Our worries are that war is too expensive and kills our soldiers. We don’t worry at all about foreign armed forces invading and destroying our nation. We haven’t had to fight on our own soil since World War II, and haven’t encountered a serious conquering foe since the Civil War. Americans have more fear of our own government—which, considering how much it lets us get away with, just goes to show you how overly secure we are.

That’s not the case with most other countries. An invading army can destroy their nation: Overthrow their government, kill their soldiers, murder and rape and enslave their citizens, and wipe out their way of life. Israel has been on the receiving end of such wars far too often. God bailed them out a whole bunch of times—though not against the Assyrians, neo-Babylonians, or Romans. Still, when Israel’s enemies look enviously at it, and try to actually start something, many Christians will flinch at those events and claim, “There we go. This is it. This is gonna bring about the End Times.” And then we go lining up which anti-Israel opponent corresponds with which apocalyptic vision, and start publishing books.

No, said Jesus; they’re only early birth-contractions.

Wars happen. People get angry, and pick fights. Diplomats try to diffuse the disagreement, but too many people on either side are far more interested in vengeance against their enemies than in reconciliation, and too often they silence their diplomats and start shooting. It doesn’t mean the End is near; it only means people, as usual, are sinning.

And contrary to popular belief, sin doesn’t bring about the End. Jesus does.

This is going ahead in the narrative a bit, but the End comes because Jesus has finished sending out invitations to the Kingdom. It’s not because the world gets as evil as it’s ever gonna get. Ever since humans started sinning, it’s always been evil; it’s been in periods of great darkness, and with God’s help it’s been in periods of great light. But evil never forces God’s hand. He’s Almighty. He does as he wants. He’s going to make sure the good news reaches every single person he wants, and then the End will come. Not before. And not because of war, or antichrists, or persecution, or economic depression, or anything other than God’s will.

Till the End, Israel is always gonna have enemies. As will Christians. Big deal. Concentrate on loving them and making friends of them. Stop looking to the newspaper so you can fearfully catch signs of the End, and concentrate on lovingly bringing it about by sharing Jesus.

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. – 2 Corinthians 5:1-5

I don’t want to be naked, not naked like Paul is describing it above, at least I don’t want to be that kind of naked for very long. Though Paul is mixing the metaphor a bit, what he is getting at is that we’re not souls in a physical body which we’ll be released from when we die. A disembodied soul is what he means by being “naked.”

[click to source blog for picture]

This is from the TV movie “The Littlest Angel” which is about a shepherd boy who goes to heaven and becomes and angel. I remember it from my childhood but now I see how wrong it was.

When I was a kid, the idea you got from movies and TV was that when we die we go to heaven to become angels. Sometimes we have to earn our wings by doing something to help the living so what we really become is guardian angels. That sounds nice and makes for okay TV movie plots, but in reality it is a far cry less than what really awaits us.

According to Paul’s terminology here, we have a “tent” that is our earthly home. But it isn’t a flesh spacesuit we take off when we die. It is imperfect and, whether we know it or now, we long for the heavenly version of it. But that heavenly version isn’t clouds, halos, harps, white robes and earning wings and becoming angels. No, we will judge the angels (1 Cor 6:3) and what we have is what the angels long to examine (1 Pet 1:12).

We get something much better than what the angels get. When some of the angels rebelled, God created hell for them (Matt 25:41) and appointed a day when they’d get sent there (Matt 8:29) to be punished for their rebellion. He didn’t make a way for their sin to be forgiven. Angels won’t be redeemed.

But God decided to redeem a portion of humanity even though we’re a little below the angels (Heb 2:7). The cost to accomplish this, the eternal Son to set aside his glory, took on a real human body and human soul so that he could die a real human death. And what did Jesus gain for us? Clouds and halos for eternity? No, that would be boring. Jesus no only got us an escape from hell, which would be very good, but he also gained us new life. That new life consists of a new heart in this life and a resurrected body for eternity. The taste we get new pales in comparison to what it will be like for us in the resurrection. That’s what Paul is getting at in the quote above. What is mortal will be swallowed up in life, not in long white robes and not disembodied spirits floating around either.

So what happens after death and before the resurrection? We are with Jesus (2 Cor 5:8) which is better (Phil 1:21). According to the parable of Lazarus in Luke 16 we will be comforted with the saints, not tormented with the sinners. But according to Paul above, we still long for our resurrected bodies. We’re not complete if we’re just a spirit and we’ll long for the completion.

I shall sleep sound in Jesus, filled with His likeness rise,
To love and to adore Him, to see Him with these eyes:
’Tween me and resurrection but Paradise doth stand;
Then—then for glory dwelling in Immanuel’s land.

– The Sands of Time are Sinking, Anne R. Cousin