I Beg of You, Be Disciples

Romans 12:1-2

There are people who have made a mark on this world, not because they were powerful or wealthy, but because they were faithful followers of Jesus Christ.  Often they shook the structures of their time for the single reason that they were people who belonged to the Kingdom of God instead of the kingdoms of this world.  And even though many of them faced (and still face) the persecution of this world and the fate of martyrdom, they are the heroes of their stories.  Their discipleship was stronger than earthly might, and their lives shine brighter than the candles of kings and kingdoms.

The difference is discipleship.  And Paul pleads with us to be disciples of Jesus Christ.

“I appeal to you, therefore, brothers.”

Paul’s appeal is strong.  This is Paul’s deep desire for followers of Jesus Christ.  This is, in many ways, his life’s work for them.   What Paul wants more than anything else for these followers of Jesus Christ is that their lives would reflect the image of Christ to an ever increasing degree.

When Paul writes to the Roman Christians he appeals to them to be disciples in a culture not made for Christian disciples.  The empire of Rome was not built around making it easy for Christians to deny the state gods and religious practices.  When someone converted to Christianity, the rest of their lives became harder.  And, of course, we all have the images of Christians in the Coliseum in our minds as we think of Rome and religious tolerance.  And yet, Paul pleads with them to look more like Christ instead of less.

While Paul pleads with Christians to become disciples, he tells us it happens by the mercy of God.  Discipleship is first and foremost a matter of engagement with God.  We do not strive and achieve to make our way into discipleship and the image of Christ by fixing the small, loose ends of our lives or tidying up the messy corners of our personality we haven’t gotten around to fixing yet.  Discipleship is a lifestyle of engagement and surrender to God.  The disciple surrenders what is destructive and engages with God in order that his Holy Spirit can, by his power, build in him the virtues of Christ.  It is complete surrender; it is constant engagement.  The disciple learns to turn their attention to Christ more often than not, and in the end, their attention can be completely occupied and colored by the presence and wisdom of God.

Discipleship is not a 12-step program or a formula that can be applied in each and every situation.  It is a daily decision to belong to God; and that daily decision can turn into a lifestyle, and that lifestyle really can turn into the life of Jesus Christ.  Paul has already told us and the Romans that God has predestined each and every believer to be conformed to the image and likeness of his Son, Jesus Christ.  Paul now pleads with each and every one of us – present yourself to God so that you may begin to look like, act like, and think like, Jesus Christ.

Discipleship is a new life and it is a life available only through the powerful mercies of God.  Please, I ask of you, follow Jesus Christ. 

Provision in the Desert

Deuteronomy 8:1-10

In this life temptation will come. It is inevitable. It is the very nature of the world. But not every season in life and not every temptation is the same. There are unique temptations that come in the difficult and desert seasons in life. We struggle with things we are not able to overcome and over issues we feel are noble but don’t seem to bring anything but pain. We feel as if God has abandoned us or may even actively be against us. These are real seasons in life with God, and can be some of the most difficult, but God has some things to say about the temptations of the desert.

Though the language is stark, it is nonetheless true – God led his people in the wilderness and even tested his people through the trials they faced there. Moses says, “And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness , that he might humble you, testing you” (vs. 2). In the desert God’s people faced some very real and difficult things, beginning with hunger and thirst. Adding to the natural difficulties is the fact that God did the leading into the desert with a few things in mind for them including humility, obedience and testing.

The inclusion of humility here is powerfully instructive. They were the children of generations of slaves and had spent their entire lives wandering in a barren wilderness. Do they really need humility? Hasn’t life been difficult enough on them? It turns out, however, that God’s most-used descriptor for them is not “humble,” but some form of “stubborn” or “stiff-necked.” Neither the ignominy of slavery nor the difficulty of the desert made them humble. Humility is not a function of our physical or material position in life, but of the position of our heart with God. The most destitute can be proud; the wealthiest among us can be humble.

In addition to humility, they needed to learn where their source of all sustenance came from. Moses says that God did these things, “that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (vs. 3). They wandered in a desert where there was no bread, so God provided bread from heaven. They had no meat, so God sent quail. There were no water supplies easily at hand, so God cracked open a rock and water flowed. There were no major cities along the way where they could buy new clothes for the ones that were wearing out in the wilderness wanderings, so God kept their shoes and clothes from growing thread-bare. These needs were met, not by what we might recognize as normal or natural means, but by the voice of God commanding that their needs be met.

Possibly the deepest fear we face when we wander through a desert is that we simply will not be taken care of, that our needs won’t be met. We are accustomed to working to pay the bills and applying our own skills and talents to our lives so things go as smoothly as they can. But when we are met with the barrenness of a land with no food or water, our abilities run out quickly. And often this is the only place where we learn – really learn – that the voice of God is our only source of provision.

And then we know that the abundant provision of the Promised Land is the voice of God working to provide for his people. “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land” (vs. 7).

To drive the point home, when he was hungry after forty days of fasting in the wilderness, Jesus Christ rebuked Satan’s temptation to turn stones into bread by quoting from Deuteronomy 8. Jesus refused the bread of temptation in favor of the food that can only come from the voice of God himself.

Hope

Romans 8:23-25

Hope is a powerful desire deep within every human being. All of us hope for the better, the good, the resolution of tension and difficulty. All of us anticipate and work for the betterment of our own conditions and those of the ones we love. Hope is such an important part of the human make-up that its loss is devastating and often fatal. When a human gives up hope, or has enough of their hopes dashed, all meaning and purpose to life can slip away.

In Romans chapter 8 Paul speaks of the Christian’s hope of the glory of God and the kind of hope we have in a broken world. If the glory of God is far greater than the suffering and pain in this world (vs. 18), then what does it mean to hold onto the hope of this glory in a decaying and difficult world?

First of all, it is undeniably true that we groan under the weight of this world. “And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (vs. 23) And though we groan, we do not suffer meaninglessly; we have the foretaste of the glory of God living and breathing in us. We have the firstfruits now of the feast of God’s glory to come because the children of God have been given the Spirit of God. We know there will be complete forgiveness because the Spirit is at work forgiving now. We know there will be a complete transformation of the human soul because the Spirit is at work transforming now. We know there will be a complete healing of body and soul because the Spirit is at work healing body and soul now. We know the feast is coming because we are eating the appetizers.

And into this hope, Paul says, you were saved. (vs. 24) We were given a firm and true hope when we became children of God.

False hope is a dangerous and manipulative tool. Because every human being is built to hope, there are people and ideologies that will play on that hope and destroy lives, draining them of every effort and energy in order to get their way. These people and ideologies promise the world and simply do not have the power or intelligence to make good on their promise. In false hope, human lives are utterly ruined.

But the hope of God is founded on the truth and power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. When you were saved you exchanged all the snake-oil of this world for the truth of the hope we have in Jesus Christ. His kingdom will come and his will will be done on earth just as it is in heaven, and followers of Jesus Christ partake in that kingdom here and now. Just as false hope ruins lives, the true hope of Jesus Christ restores them. It gives meaning and redemption even in suffering and pain. It provides the taste of the glory of God in a world that causes so much groaning.

It is true that we “wait for it with patience,” (vs. 25) but we can wait in truth and security because we know the power and the glory of God. God has not orphaned us here in this world – He has sent his Spirit to be a Counselor, Teacher and Guide, and even the firstfruits of the glory of the kingdom of God.

Lose every hope you have in the people and structures of this world. Do not lose your hope in the truth and the power of the kingdom of God. For you were given this hope when you became a child of God.

The Death and Life of Baptism

Romans 6:1-4

The freedom and forgiveness in the Christian life can sometimes be misunderstood as an excuse to continue in a life of sin and rebellion. And what is true today, it turns out, was true in Paul’s day. Paul had to confront the notion that if God’s grace is a good thing, then we need to continue to sin so God has more chances to display his forgiveness. This idea displays a radical misunderstanding of what God does to the human heart, and, surprisingly enough, baptism proves Paul’s point.

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (vs. 3)

In certain parts of the early Christian church baptism was a rite that was earned and not simply given away. When a person became a Christ-follower, instead of being immediately baptized they were put through a sometimes lengthy process of education and life transformation. The church needed to be sure the convert knew what they had done and that their life reflected that change. Only when they were sure of these things did the church allow baptism.

While very few churches would treat baptism this way today, this practice highlights what is being demonstrated in the act of going under and coming out of the water. It is true that one of the clearest symbols of baptism is that our sins are washed away – we go into the water as a sinner, we come out a forgiven and cleansed child of God. But Paul takes us a couple more steps down the path of what the act means. As it turns out when we go into the water we are participating in the death of Jesus Christ. We lie in the grave with him, as it were. As Christ died, so we die.

And we die to a way of life. The life ruled by my dysfunctional passions and severely limited abilities has gone away in the death of the believer in Christ Jesus. I am dead now to sin.

But death is not all there is. As we go under the water and die with Christ, so we come out and now live in the new life that Christ offers. Just as Christ was raised from the dead, so now we can “walk in newness of life.” (vs. 4) It is telling that Paul does not say here that Christ rose from the dead that we might live with him for all of eternity. Though that is true, the point here – the point of baptism – is that we walk in the resurrection life here and now.

The resurrection life is not just about what happened to Jesus Christ 2000 years ago when he walked out of the tomb, and it is not just about what happens to the believer when they die and go to be with him. It is also about what I do when I wake up every morning. It is about the power of God living and breathing in his children so that we may live his kind of life in this world. We die to sin and we come alive to the life of God.

If you were put in that early church where they required a developed knowledge of Jesus and evidence of a transformed life, would you be baptized by now?

Unashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Romans 1:16-17

Paul has never been to Rome, but he is anxious to visit. He is looking forward to encouraging the church and to proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. He hopes, more specifically, that there will be a harvest among his brothers and sisters in Christ and among the Gentiles. Paul knows the gospel is powerful when it is shared among believers, and powerful when it is shared with people who don’t yet know and love Jesus Christ. In fact, under no circumstances is Paul ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

When Paul writes this letter he has already been around most of the Mediterranean world preaching and receiving mixed results. In some places he is heartily received by an excited set of new believers. In some places he is barely noticed, and in some places he is run out of town on a rail or stoned. But in all places Paul is unashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The gospel of Christ is true, powerful, beautiful, transformative, holy and glorious – all on its own. It is all these things without my help or contribution. The gospel is untarnished by human error or cultural corruption. Though it steps into our lives and histories and has the power to change us, we cannot change it. The gospel does not need my help to be attractive, my strength to stand in our world, my intelligence and cleverness to be true or triumphant. It is not within my abilities to make it what it is and always will be – the power of God for salvation.

There is no good reason to be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But there are a lot of bad reasons.

It might be peer pressure of some sort. The crowd I find myself in may be put-off by Jesus’ story, or they may find it a quaint belief for some small set of people who don’t have the wherewithal to stand on their own two feet. We may even recognize that the crowd we want to fit into looks down on what they think is the childishness or lack of sophistication of the gospel. They are all wrong on all counts, and these are bad reasons to be ashamed.

I may simply be a spiritual sloth – a lazy bum when it comes to my relationship with God. How is this being ashamed? Will a lazy believer stand for the truth of their belief when the pressure is on? What about when there is a better offer from another point of view? Will they know how to address the skeptic who confronts them or the pains of life when they assail them? They won’t, and while the spiritual sloth may carry their faith lightly on good days, they will drop it quickly on the hard ones. Laziness is a bad reason to be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul writes these words maybe 15 years before he is able to actually visit Rome. We know Paul backs up these words with his deeds when he writes them. But when he actually gets to Rome – when his wish of visiting them is fulfilled – he arrives in chains. By then he is a prisoner for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. When he raises his hand to hug his friends they are in shackles. Paul lives unashamed of the gospel and arrives in Rome unashamed of the gospel.

There is no good reason to be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the very power of God himself.

My Introduction

Romans 1:1-7

There is a lot we can learn about the Christian life from the way the apostle Paul introduces himself in his letters. Though these sections often feel like simple boiler-plate, they contain far more than inconsequential pieces of information about Paul. They become doors of insight into some of the goals of the Christian life. They challenge us to be able to introduce ourselves in the same way with the same level of authenticity.

“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ.” Paul likes describing himself as a servant, the word means a willing slave, to Jesus Christ. We cannot confuse his sense of servanthood with our notion of slavery, however. When we encounter the concept, we tend to think of people carried across the world against their will, and the best thing we could do for them is set them free. The best thing for Paul, as far as Paul is concerned, is his willing slavery to his Savior. Paul has subjected himself to Jesus Christ as a servant on purpose. Have I?

“Paul…called to be an apostle.” Paul is called. This means God has done something with Paul. For most of us it could be said that we are doing something with ourselves, but that leaves us in the position of being subject to our own shortcomings and failings. A calling by God means there can be a divine purpose for our being and our doing instead of just my purposes for being and doing. As Paul will make clear over and over, being called by God means we are called to salvation for occupation. God does the work of making us His own, and then we are to live for and work for Him.

Paul is an apostle. In its simplest form, the term means he is a messenger. Paul travelled the Mediterranean world taking the Gospel to people who had never heard. And though Paul is one of the original, and probably unique, apostles, we are not exempt from the task. Before his introduction is over he tells his readers that “we have received grace and apostleship” (vs. 5).

Paul also addresses all of his readers, as he does in so many of his letters, as saints. He says the Romans were “called to be saints” (vs. 7). If we conjure up images of “saints,” our heads might be filled with half-remembered paintings of people with halos, and stories of special devotion to God under harsh and trying circumstances. And though those people may legitimately be saints, such images have the unfortunate effect of separating the rest of us from the calling of saint.

Paul says you are called to be saints – every one of you. If we strip away the caricatures, we see that people called to be saints have a new life running through their veins that is not tarnished or overcome by this world. We see that people who are called to be saints are anchored and secure in Christ. Saints are not people whose lives are free from storms, but people whose lives are safe and secure in every storm. And people who are called to be saints are not sedentary – they change things for the Kingdom of God.

You are called to be a saint. Anything less is beneath your dignity. Anything less is beneath who God created you to be.

The God of Fear and Mercy

Habakkuk 3:1-2

The prophet laid his heart – his broken and frustrated heart – out to God. Habakkuk saw evil and injustice around him and prayed for God’s presence and justice. In his anger the prophet cried out, and in His wisdom God responded. The first two chapters of this intense little book are a back-and-forth between the prophet and his God about where God is and what a holy and good God will do with a world like this. At one point God tells Habakkuk that He will indeed show up, but the prophet won’t like it when he does. But the prophet remains steadfast in his desire to hear from God and continue his “complaint.” But something changes the prophet’s perspective – God speaks, God explains, and God shows who He is.

And as a result, the complaining ceases and the prayer begins.

Chapter three is not the continuation of a complaint, but a psalm of prayer and worship. Not only is it something the prophet writes to express his personal reaction to the glory and power of God, he writes it for the whole congregation to sing. The “Shigionoth” is likely a form of music, and at the very end Habakkuk notes, “To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.” We are all supposed to sing this prayer together because we all live in the same world, are beset with the same kinds of frustrations and evils, and because we all worship the same kind of glorious and powerful God.

The prayer begins with Habakkuk telling us where he now stands with God. In the beginning he stood in complaint against God crying out to the heavens without any response. Now he tells us God is great and deserving of our fear and awe.

“O Lord, I have heard the report of you, and your work O Lord, do I fear.”

In essence, Habakkuk says, “I have heard about you and have seen what you can do, and now I am afraid of you.” It is entirely appropriate and right for the believer to realize the God they worship is worthy to be feared. He is not a small and swayable god who exists to do nice things for us and to make everything “OK.” He is the God who can level mountains, dry up seas and destroy entire empires. We need to relearn how to come to God with the right sense of fear, awe and reverence. The right worship of God necessarily includes reverence.

But He is not an arbitrary tyrant in the sky who cannot be approached. Habakkuk does not move from an expression of the fear of the Lord to a plea to an oppressor. Instead, he turns to God in prayer for his people. This revered God is a God who hears His people’s prayers.

“In the midst of the years revive it.” Habakkuk prays that God will, even now, bring life to a rebellious and dead people. May it be today!

“In the midst of the years make it known.” Habakkuk prays that God will make himself and his work known in a world that rejects and ignores his counsel. May it be today!

“In wrath remember mercy.” Habakkuk will behold the ravaging destruction of his people. It will seem that wrath will have the last word, but he prays that God will remember and return in mercy, as he in fact does. May it be today that the mercy of God will prevail, many will come to know him, and his glory will be seen!