Tag Archive for 'discipleship'

Jesus the Way

Published on 3/12/2010 in Bible Study. 0 Comments Tags: , .

- When Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” He is
  preaching the Gospel. He is covering every single thing that would be
  important to a 1st century Jew, and anyone else for that matter.
  God’s way was continually brought up in the OT–it was the entire way
  of life for the people. Sometimes the Law is also called the Way.
      “And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to
      fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to
      serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your
      soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am
      giving you today for your own good?”
      (Deut 10:12-13 NIV)
    – He also covers the Jews and the Greeks in this statement. The
      highest pursuit for a Jew was God’s way, and the Greek’s were
      lovers of truth (or so they said and wanted as their reputation).
      Basically Jesus is addressing these guys, and can tell they are
      getting a little uneasy, and wants to reassure them that they
      know everything they need to know by knowing Jesus. There are no
      surprises or tricks ahead of them.
    – The Father really wants us to be connected to Jesus as the source
      of all hope and life. By sending us a MAN to take us into God’s
      presence, all kinds of vain deeds and religious duties are blown
      away. So many religions are full of activities and actions that
      breed people with disconnected hearts. Hearts that are along for
      the ride while the flesh does a bunch of spiritual things, while
      the spirit of a man covets, lusts, lies, gossips, and is full of
      ambition.
      When a person does something because of Jesus, it is easy to
      explain, “This is what Jesus wants me to do.” But when someone
      does something because their religion calls for it, you can find
      that it is very difficult to stand by. “We don’t eat meat on
      Friday because it’s a fast. Well, we eat fish, because fish isn’t
      meat.”
    – The Father knew from the beginning that we couldn’t follow rules,
      and that it would be impossible to work our way up into His
      presence, so He did it for us. That is why Jesus Himself crossed
      over from being a direction-giver to being the directions
      Himself. We can’t do it without Him, and to think anything
      otherwise is to veer from the Way, the Truth, and Life.

Jesus is Preparing to Go – John 14

Published on 3/6/2010 in Bible Study. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .
““Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.””
(John 14:1-7 NIV)
Just as Jesus is having a hard time knowing that He is about to leave the disciples, they are having a hard time grasping and understanding that He’s about to leave them. Their worst fear would be compounded if not only did He leave them, but also if He didn’t come back for them and if He didn’t fulfill everything He said He would. Jesus is here reassuring them. Don’t be afraid that I’m leaving. There is a place for you in the kingdom, and I’ll come back and take you there, but you can’t come now.
William Barclay said that if you ask someone for directions they can either tell you to go down the street, turn left at the first corner, go two blocks, then turn right, blah blah blah, and you forget how to get there OR they can say, “Let’s go” and they can take you there themselves. As soon as they say “follow me” THEY BECOME THE WAY to where you are going.
Jesus spent His whole life giving directions, knowing full well that our eyes glazed over as soon as He said “love your neighbor as yourself.” Since He wants us to find our way there more than we do, He also said, “Let’s go.”
THE FATHER wants us to be in the Kingdom. He is not predisposed to keep us out, like so many people believe Him to be. He is Unalterably and UNbelievably Holy; no unholiness can be with Him, so He took away our unholiness on the cross. That was the preparation Jesus talked about in John 14:3. We have no place with God as long as we are bearing our sin. “I go and prepare a place for you.” is that place of forgiveness and redemption where we will live for eternity with God.
▼ v.3 “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” Jesus is ALWAYS wanting us to be with Him! The only times He went to be ‘alone’ was to go be WITH the Father! And then even after His death, He still can’t stand to be alone, but comes back to take all of His with Him. It is the source and life and overflow of the Father to constantly share life with those He loves.
When you see the character of God as displayed by Jesus, how can any of these lifestyle choices that Jesus made reflect to a God that predestined people to destruction? 2 Peter 3:9 says that God wishes for no one to perish, but for all to come to repentance & eternal life. Jesus never treated anyone like they were preset to not listen or not be saved. Not just that, but He wanted to be WITH people as He spoke to them. Too often we only want to share life with people in our same social-economic-political-race demographic. THAT is not a picture of the 12. Let us be ready to continue to be WITH the people that we come in contact with, no matter their background. If they come into the Body of Christ, or are already in it, they are family-more than that, they are a part of our body!
The Father loves company. He loves company and Jesus really wants the disciples to trust Him and know that His leaving is all for them. It’s a lot like me leaving for work in the morning. My 2 year old cries when he sees me go, but I leave so that I can work and get paid and feed him Grippo’s. My 9 year old knows that, so he is only bummed that we can’t play, but he knows that I’ll be back in the evening and we’ll be able to chow down and play.

““Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.””

(John 14:1-7 NIV)

Just as Jesus is having a hard time knowing that He is about to leave the disciples, they are having a hard time grasping and understanding that He’s about to leave them. Their worst fear would be compounded if not only did He leave them, but also if He didn’t come back for them and if He didn’t fulfill everything He said He would. Jesus is here reassuring them. Don’t be afraid that I’m leaving. There is a place for you in the kingdom, and I’ll come back and take you there, but you can’t come now.

Grippos-BBQ

William Barclay said that if you ask someone for directions they can either tell you to go down the street, turn left at the first corner, go two blocks, then turn right, blah blah blah, and you forget how to get there OR they can say, “Let’s go” and they can take you there themselves. As soon as they say “follow me” THEY BECOME THE WAY to where you are going.

Jesus spent His whole life giving directions, knowing full well that our eyes glazed over as soon as He said “love your neighbor as yourself.” Since He wants us to find our way there more than we do, He also said, “Let’s go.”

THE FATHER wants us to be in the Kingdom. He is not predisposed to keep us out, like so many people believe Him to be. He is Unalterably and UNbelievably Holy; no unholiness can be with Him, so He took away our unholiness on the cross. That was the preparation Jesus talked about in John 14:3. We have no place with God as long as we are bearing our sin. “I go and prepare a place for you.” is that place of forgiveness and redemption where we will live for eternity with God.

v.3 “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” Jesus is ALWAYS wanting us to be with Him! The only times He went to be ‘alone’ was to go be WITH the Father! And then even after His death, He still can’t stand to be alone, but comes back to take all of His with Him. It is the source and life and overflow of the Father to constantly share life with those He loves.

When you see the character of God as displayed by Jesus, how can any of these lifestyle choices that Jesus made reflect to a God that predestined people to destruction? 2 Peter 3:9 says that God wishes for no one to perish, but for all to come to repentance & eternal life. Jesus never treated anyone like they were preset to not listen or not be saved. Not just that, but He wanted to be WITH people as He spoke to them. Too often we only want to share life with people in our same social-economic-political-race demographic. THAT is not a picture of the 12. Let us be ready to continue to be WITH the people that we come in contact with, no matter their background. If they come into the Body of Christ, or are already in it, they are family-more than that, they are a part of our body!

The Father loves company. He loves company and Jesus really wants the disciples to trust Him and know that His leaving is all for them. It’s a lot like me leaving for work in the morning. My 2 year old cries when he sees me go, but I leave so that I can work and get paid and feed him Grippo’s. My 9 year old knows that, so he is only bummed that we can’t play, but he knows that I’ll be back in the evening and we’ll be able to chow down and play.

When Worship Becomes Profanity

Published on 2/26/2010 in Bible Study. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

And no, I’m not talking about saying cuss words in church…

Our best effort is not what the Lord wants,

Exodus 20:25 If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it.

Deuteronomy 12:8 You are not to do as we do here today, everyone as he sees fit,

1 Samuel 15:22 “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice,and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

So when we read verses like this, why in the world do we try so hard to be good and do good things without striving to hear from God?

We’ve GOT to step out of the Christian Lifestyle formula and live with and in and beside and through GOD. What if, whatever activity you did to worship God, was profane as soon as you tried to make it look good or fit better? That’s what Exodus 20:25 is all about. As soon as your worship of God is something you can be proud of, it is no longer worship of God. Of course, if you are disgusted with it and don’t like it, it’s not about God either.

I remember one time there were a group of us that wanted to sing worship songs. Someone blurted out, “But we can’t, because Eric Youngblood isn’t here.” He was the guitar player. He was the worship leader whenever we were together, and without him, that person thought we couldn’t worship. Thankfully, everyone scoffed at that and we sung and sung and sung for a good long time before he showed up.

Let us cast off our quality-control perfect worship mentality. Let us not strive to attract people with the quality of our show. Let’s live faithful to Christ and let Him do the rest.

John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Tough Truths about Finding a Community

Published on 1/15/2010 in Bible Study. 5 Comments Tags: , , .

I was at the ECLC today and realized that if you pray for God to put you into a community of people, you had better check to make sure you are humble enough to be a part of whatever community He puts you in.

I’m not sure I’m ready for Him to answer me, honestly.

Are you too proud to associate with homeless people? What about African-americans or Latinos or Whites or Chinese? What about crazy people? If you find that you’d rather not be around those kinds of people, then don’t pray and ask God to put you in community somewhere. Just find people you like to be around; people that will mirror your ideas, thoughts, and beliefs.

Go find them and die.

Giving and Receiving in Humility

Published on 12/31/2009 in Bible Study. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

John 13.8 “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”

There is a humility that is beyond the humility that somebody can tell me I need to have or that I can see and grasp. It’s beyond a virtue or anything that you can talk about, I think. Jesus doesn’t talk about being humble, whatever that means, but He always talked about the actions and the fruit of the humble.
humble yourself like a little child
the one who leads should be like one who serves
the greatest among you will be the servant of all
For he who is least among you all—he is the greatest.

If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.

There is no way at all that you can muster up humility in yourself and BING! be humble.

So being humble is an activity. It can be shown with activity, though that is never the point, and it can be cultivated with activity. At the same time, it can be shown and cultivated by receiving activity. Peter was NOT going to let Jesus wash his feet, but to talk that way to Jesus was the opposite of humility and submission to Him. Peter really shows off our pride of self-inflicted devotion at the Last Passover. If he really cherished and honored Jesus, he would let Him do whatever He wanted. If he really believed that Jesus was always right and wise, then he wouldn’t have argued when Jesus said, “all of you are going to fall away,” but instead he jumped in with great declarations of devotion that Jesus knew he wouldn’t keep.

There is a humility in just letting Jesus do His thing with us. It’s not found in us trying to show Him (or anyone else) how devoted we are or how GLORIOUS we think He is. It’s a humility that let’s people serve you and looks for the way to serve others and never notices either way.

I’m not there yet, but Jesus is, and I’m following Him.

We Think We’re All or Nothing, but We’re Really Just Selfish

Published on 12/29/2009 in Bible Study. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

John 13.6-9 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”

7

Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”

8

Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”

9

Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”

I can relate to Peter here. I will either deny Jesus’ help, with an attitude of “I can figure this out/ do this myself.” or with the opposite “DO EVERYTHING!” Sometimes it’s a little too easy to not submit to God and just tell Him what we think needs to be done, as if the point is really getting our feet washed. The great thing I see here from Jesus is that He corrects Peter but then continues with the plan anyway. He doesn’t say, “Since you didn’t listen, you don’t get your feet washed” or anything like that. God has a deep enough keel to continue on the course regardless of our distracting demands or selfish zeal.

Jesus is the Ultimate Untopper/Topper

Published on 12/27/2009 in Bible Study. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

All of the disciples are sitting around arguing about who is the best and who Jesus loves the most, all the time getting ready to eat the passover with dirty feet.

Jesus alone gets up to wash the feet, and surely nobody noticed what he was doing until He started, because no one questioned or protested until His activity was already in progress.

“How could they have not even noticed what He was doing if He undressed and wrapped Himself in a towel!?” you may ask. All I know is we miss a lot of what Jesus is doing when we are focused on ourselves.

Then Jesus begins to wash their feet, every one of them, and tells Peter, “Afterward, you will understand.” Jesus had told them that the greatest among them would be the servant of all, but they still hadn’t gotten it. They were still thinking like their contemporary rabbis–serving themselves. Life, today too, is so much about prestige and position and authority levels, that they still hadn’t gotten out of thinking about others as greater than themselves. They had to be shown how to do it.

Once you’ve washed a person’s feet, I’m speaking literally here, you have pretty much degraded yourself to them as far as you can go. Even in today’s culture. It’s a pretty humiliating thing.

While the disciples were racing to the top, Jesus, their teacher and rabbi, was racing to the bottom. And not an overly pious, condescending ‘least of these’ position, but the real, tangible, scandalous low position.

The flipping irony of this whole thing, though, is that I’m sure the disciples, just like me, would then say, “ok, that means if I want to be the greatest, I need to outserve everyone else!” and then there would be a fight over the basin and towel to wash feet. Jesus was racing for the bottom, but His eyes were on the goal of loving the Father above. He wasn’t racing against others, he was just rushing to get to the Father.

The Father draws us, and attracts us to Him, but always desires to remain the goal, the destination, the end. He does not take pleasure in activity for the activity’s sake. Peter’s clean feet didn’t change anything, and Jesus’ washing activity or exact method of washing didn’t make anything magical or mysterious happen. It was Jesus, following the Father’s lead to show the disciples that they should serve each other and love each other, that taught and transformed the start of that final Passover meal.

John 13:15-17 (ESV) I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

True Authority and Power on Display in John 13

Published on 12/14/2009 in Bible Study. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .
3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God;4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.
Here you go world, it’s not as if Jesus was slowly realizing who He was, as so many people write or imply. Jesus was fully aware of His position, of His origin, and of His destination. Jesus knew that He had full authority over the entire world, and in the very next verse He strips down to the most shameful costume of a servant. Not just a servant, but a footwasher. If anyone were to touch any unclean thing, they would become ceremonially unclean. If anything were to be found on the road that was unclean, it would have been on the bottom of Peter’s feet.
But here is Jesus, all authority in Heaven and earth and under the earth, and he bears himself more than would be normal for dinner, and begins to wash feet. Feet of men who were competing and arguing about who was the best. Men who had stolen from Him and the others. Men who had tempted Him to sin against the Father. Men who told mothers to get their children away from Jesus. Men who would later that night swear upon something greater than themselves that they had no connection with Him.
Here is what the Lord looks like. This is True Power. This is True Authority and Beauty.
“Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One.
“Let us break their chains,” they say, “and throw off their fetters.”
The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
the Lord scoffs at them.
Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, “I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.””
(Psa 2:1-6 NIV)
He will be installed at Calvary on a cross, and with it He will swallow up sin, death, and false authority for all time.

John 13:3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God;4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.

Here you go world, it’s not as if Jesus was slowly realizing who He was, as so many people write or imply. Jesus was fully aware of His position, of His origin, and of His destination. Jesus knew that He had full authority over the entire world, and in the very next verse He strips down to the most shameful costume of a servant. Not just a servant, but a footwasher. If anyone were to touch any unclean thing, they would become ceremonially unclean. If anything were to be found on the road that was unclean, it would have been on the bottom of Peter’s feet.

But here is Jesus, all authority in Heaven and earth and under the earth, and he bears himself more than would be normal for dinner, and begins to wash feet. Feet of men who were competing and arguing about who was the best. Men who had stolen from Him and the others. Men who had tempted Him to sin against the Father. Men who told mothers to get their children away from Jesus. Men who would later that night swear upon something greater than themselves that they had no connection with Him.

Here is what the Lord looks like. This is True Power. This is True Authority and Beauty.

“Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One.

“Let us break their chains,” they say, “and throw off their fetters.”

The One enthroned in heaven laughs;

the Lord scoffs at them.

Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, “I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.””

(Psa 2:1-6 NIV)

He will be installed at Calvary on a cross, and with it He will swallow up sin, death, and false authority for all time.

Whoever Loves His Life Will Lose

Published on 11/3/2009 in Bible Study. 2 Comments Tags: , .

1 v. 24-25  Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

• Jesus could be talking about two different things here. On the one hand, He could be referring to His death, which will bring about real life for Him and millions of others. On the other hand, He could also be talking about day to day life, in which we “take up our cross daily” and die to ourselves so that the life of God can be revealed in our lives (2Cor. 4:10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

2Cor. 4:11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. )

• Some of the loneliest people I know are people that refuse to be a part of Christ. They live, they die, and remain alone, not a part of anything. At the same time, I also know people that have gone through horrible heart-ache and God was all they had and they made it through just fine.

• Loving our life is the motto of this world. We are told every day to preserve it and enjoy it and to make long term goals to keep it. Many people in the church discouraged us from going overseas because of that very thing, so that we would not lose our lives! Spring break mission trips for youth groups are even marketed in such a way as to make hard things fun (get out of your comfort zone!)

The worst times of my life have been when I was living for myself. Upon taking my eyes off of me and my abilities (or the lack thereof) and looking to Christ for life, everything changes. Contentment, joy, peace, patience, kindness, all of these things do not come by an act of the will, as so many people may tell you. These things come as the life of Christ works inside of you as you die to yourself in the day to day. Some one that wishes to live for themself will never be able to say Gal 2:19-21

Gal. 2:19 For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.

20. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

21. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”


A Little More about Mary’s Foot Washing

Published on 10/30/2009 in Bible Study. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

The other crazy thing about this act is that while giving to the poor honors God and people can look on and honor you too for honoring God and doing this good deed, what Mary did honored God but brought DISHONOR upon herself. Anybody can do the good deed of giving a few dollars to a poor person, but to dishonor oneself and invite the homeless person into your house for dinner to eat your food and stink up your couch is a whole other story!

Mary’s act was a bridge burning act of devotion, because showing her hair, touching a man’s feet though she wasn’t a slave, and ‘wasting’ 10 months wages worth of nard on a man that was not her husband would have destroyed her socially.

She didn’t care and Jesus told them to let her do it.

Of course, she’s used to being at Jesus’ feet and other people telling Jesus to make her go away! But note that Jesus defends her each time, and never tells her to go do some activity instead of being at His feet.

I know there are things that God wants us to do, but there is never ever any substitute for being at His feet. Never ever.