Tag Archive for 'discipleship'

Following the Unclear Blatant God

Published
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Dan
on 9/21/2008
in Bible Study
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There is something about this discourse on bread that makes me not so much want to talk about bread and what the bread means or what it means to eat His flesh, but just about the more general idea of how Jesus taught. These parables almost put you to the point that you could know every single parable and even know the interpretation of it but still not have any understanding or idea of what He was talking about.

It seems like the Father wants people to come to Him that care about getting to know Him. People that will take the time and trouble to learn from Him. He makes things unclear at first, and then if people don’t want it explained, he moves on to other people.

When the disciples were sent out, they were to declare peace to a place, and if it didn’t rest on that place, they got took their peace and went home. As I put that with “the heavens declaring the glory of God” and “Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?” it seems like God is constantly hiding Himself in all that we do, hoping that we’ll see that He’s been there and wants to be chased. It’s not a greedy or vain chase for the sake of frustrating us though. It’s almost like a lover’s pursuit or a mentor’s trail.

We follow him, and he leaves us clues for the journey. Sometimes when we’re in trouble, He hides out and shows us how to get through, then He darts off in our sleep, leaving more clues.

Preach the Gospel in a Clearly Confusing Riddle

Published
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Dan
on 9/20/2008
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“Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.”

(John 6:52-57 NIV)

I think the bigger the crowd Jesus spoke to, the more cryptic his language.

I have a friend that works at a sort of camp/retreat center. He said that when they had the chance to expand and enlarge their ministry space, they decided not to because whether they had 150 people or 350 there, only about 3 people would ‘get it’ and be able to take part in the one-on-one ministry that they value.

3 people!

I don’t think this is all that crazy as I look at the way Jesus taught. “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” That’s crazy talk if you just listen like a monologue.

But Jesus wasn’t into monologues, he was into teaching.

Matt. 13:9 He who has ears, let him hear.”

Matt. 13:10 ¶ The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

Matt. 13:11 ¶ He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.

Matt. 13:12 Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.

Matt. 13:13 This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

Matt. 13:14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.

Matt. 13:15 For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’

When Jesus told a parable, it weeded out a lot of people. The people that were there to see a show would become frustrated. “This guy talks nonsense! How can we eat his flesh? How is the kingdom of God like a mustard seed! That’s so tiny!” and then they would leave. After all of those people left, there would be a few that would say, “Jesus, explain to me what you meant by that….” and they were the ones that would be His disciples.

In a lot of world cultures, age equals authority. If there is a man with 10 years experience in electricity, and an older man walks up and says “put those two wires together” it would be a great dishonor to not do it. I have heard stories of men in ancient Persia that let their hands be scalded rather than tell their father he grabbed the teapot to wash their hands and not the pot of cool water.

It takes a lot to admit you don’t understand something. It takes even MORE to ask someone to explain it to you. You are at their mercy. You are putting them in a position of authority over you. When Jesus tells a parable, he is sifting. The people that are too proud to try to understand the Kingdom, the people that are too hardened to hear something new, get sifted out. The humble ones that aren’t afraid or too proud to ask come closer and learn more.

A lot of people think they know it all. They have life figured out and there isn’t much mystery or wonder in it. The pride of life keeps them from following Jesus even today. Western culture ESPECIALLY guides us against asking for explanations or help. In the workplace you can’t show any ignorance or weakness, for fear of getting a bad employee review or worse-getting fired and replaced.

There is a LOT more I want to say about this, but I’m out of time. I think if we explored this a little more, we’d see why the modern church has gotten into so much trouble with the pride of know-it-all-ism.

When the church is the know-it-all about creation and evolution and when life begins and why the earth is flat…we begin to take on the appearance of the world, not our riddle-telling Master. When we begin to talk in a way so that everyone understands, using cute stories, and pleasing chicken soup tales and poems, we actually stop teaching in the way Jesus taught.

My point in that is this. If our teaching is too easy, and off the point of what Jesus taught (Jesus didn’t address creationism, but taught about the PEOPLE in need that God created; Jesus didn’t address the horrible horrible act of leaving children out on the mountainside to die if they were unwanted, but told the disciples to let them come to Him and not hold them back)

If our teaching is too easy and off the point of what Jesus taught, we will have a lot of people with a head knowledge and even a belief of all of the tertiary things that Jesus may or may not have believed. They will fight for issues and ideas, but not know Jesus.

Matt. 7:21 ¶ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Matt. 7:22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’

Matt. 7:23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Matt. 7:24 ¶ “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

Matt. 7:25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

These people KNEW about the Lord, and even knew how to work miracles in His Name, but did not know Him.

May we NOT make a bunch of disciples that know all about Jesus and all of our temporary movements for which we stand, indivisible and all-knowing.

I heard a story of a priest in south america that was a missionary. Unable to convert a tribe to catholicism, he snuck into their temple and hid a cross behind their golden idol. “Now,” he said, “Now they are bowing down to worship the savior.” I think that is exactly what we do today when we try to convince someone of a certain issue or get them to come to church without first bringing them to Jesus.

May we speak in riddles, display God’s power, and be surprised at the things that we need explained to us. May we join with the people that find Jesus’ teaching confusing and want Him to explain it, and not waste our time changing Jesus’ message to reach people too proud to receive Him.

The Work of God Without Fillers, Hormones, Steroids, or Programs

Published
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Dan
on 9/7/2008
in Bible Study
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John 6:27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
John 6:28 ¶ Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
John 6:29 ¶ Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

It’s funny how my distractions play right into my Bible study time. I was reading various blogs this morning and some different church planting movements in America right now and got kind of burnt out on the whole “trying to make our church appealing so people will come” idea. Trendy marketing and catchy 5-week sermon series based on the current trendy TV show or dramatic one word sentences (ie. “with.” or “in”) wore me out as I was distracted before getting to my Bible.

Then I read this passage. Just like today, the masses were looking for the formula or list of what to do to get God’s big red checkmark of acceptance. When they asked “what must we do” they were waiting for a list. John doesn’t have a “sermon on the mount” section in his gospel. Rabbis often had a set of teachings that they could recite, and this might be what the people were expecting from Jesus. They would often ask “what is the most important law” which would sort of tell the listeners what rabbinical denomination a teacher was in.

Jesus completely steps out of what they were expecting for an answer. His list contains one item, and that one item encompasses every aspect of life. It is not easy, it is not even CLEAR, and it requires a lot of time-a long span of life, to draw near to it. It can also be done in an instant, and completed in a momentary act, which would then just be continued on for your life.

The other day I was talking to a guy in my neighborhood about missionaries and he got ‘that look’ on his face. That looks that says “those people destroy culture and brainwash people” and is often hard to really talk about to people that don’t know about missionaries. I think the same thing would happen if you looked at too many websites of contemporary mega-churches. They have all kinds of happy faux-hawk young men and happy mothers of 2 doing numerous demographically strategic activities. Small groups, food shelters, and video of the weekly sermon are all things you would want to know about and participate in.

Long ago, when the Jewish people were cast into exile, the leaders believed it was because they were not following the Torah, or God’s way (law). They developed a commentary on that Law, which detailed even more laws that, if followed, would definitely keep everyone far far away from breaking God’s Law. They came up with 1,500 rules to prevent them from breaking God’s single statement, “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.” And eventually, all of these rules became laws too, equal in severity and punishment to God’s original law. That commentary turned to law is called the Mishna. The Mishna took on equal standing to the Law, and the Pharisees forgot the point of God’s Torah and began to make the Mishna the point of their lives.

Which takes me back to John 6.29. I think the leaders of our day have written their own Mishna that has taken us away from Jesus, the source of all life. Now you can be in a small group, volunteer in outreaches (that consist of simply inviting someone to come and listen to someone else talk about God) and attend worship every week and think you are doing the “works God requires.” It’s almost like someone said, “Jesus said to believe in the one God sent. What does that look like?” and somebody made a list. After making that list, they forgot what the question was, and tacked those answers onto a different question: “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

I would like to reset and unlearn what I have learned. I would like to trash my whole list, even though for a long time I have been a marketer and promoter of such lists. I want to be connected to the original answer and not the commentary on the questions about the answer. I want to see what happens to a life that doesn’t have any additional baggage, but simply believes in the One God sent.

Is this Jesus Guy the Best Teacher Ever or What?

Published
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Dan
on 9/6/2008
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25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”
John 6.25-27 ESV

Jesus doesn’t waste any time at all w/ small talk. He calls them flat out on why they are there. I think Jesus is so blunt sometimes that we just can’t even comprehend what it would be like to be so blunt. There is no discussion of the weather, no complimenting clothing, just BAM! Maybe that’s just how they wrote it, or maybe that’s how their culture was in that day…no tellin’.

Jesus confronts them directly but doesn’t send them away. I could just hear someone say “you are seeking me because you ate your fill of the loaves, now go away” but He doesn’t do that. He recognizes our weakness but still gives us a prescription to get strength. He doesn’t just write us off. The people didn’t plan ahead and were out in the wilderness with nothing to eat. It was their fault, but he didn’t condemn them, he fed them. Now they are chasing after him for more food (it’s a new day so they need a new supply of manna) and He exposes the truth in them but keeps them nearby to learn what to do about that truth.

The Father dos not become disgusted w/ our shortcomings. He does not reject us for our immaturity. The masses were there our of immaturity, but the disciples were there out of maturity. But even that maturity they had was a gift from The Father.

Every one of those people that were fed and ‘ate like pigs’ was now hungry. They all know what bread that perishes is all about, because the miracle that happened 18 hours earlier had vanished. The leftovers might even be gone by now. That opens the perfect opportunity for Jesus to explain bread that perishes and bread that lasts.

They have worked hard to get to Him today. They had to go around the lake or call over some boats and track him down. Surely they would be worn from the trip, and ready for some more food. Jesus tells them not to sweat and work so hard for barley bread and sardines. It’s not worth it. You should work for the eternal life food.

(according to Google Earth, if he was in Bethsaida, or on the coast near there, it would be about 4 miles to Capernaum across the water. That route will be important in a few days)

How often does the Father take the opportunity that shows up in our normal life and desires to teach us something about Himself? I think about fasting and how hungry you can be for food, and to realize that you don’t even live off of food, but off of God. Or the yearning of a man for his wife in the days leading up to their wedding, how small a yearning that is compared to God and His Bride! Or the yearning for justice that we have when we see or experience the darkness of oppression, either by people or powers, and the deepening trust that we have that at the end of time God will put all things right.

Jesus’ Nature and His Temptation

Published
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Dan
on 9/5/2008
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I have still been amazed today that Jesus really was tempted to bow down to Satan. I was talking about it at lunch and Andy G and I began talking about how it was a real temptation for Jesus to turn the rocks into bread. Andy said a good one, “He probably had to deliberately prevent Himself from doing that.”

If something is in your nature, you do it based on your instinct. You do it as a reflex. When I’m hungry, I eat something, when I’m thirsty, I get up and get a drink. When you can take a rock and POOF make it into bread, you have to be deliberate about not doing it. This is where being made into a new creation comes in. I do NOT live any longer, but Christ lives in me. The life I live I live in Him. That is what works in us to put off old destructive habits and develop holy ones; habits that are in the likeness of Jesus’ habits.

These habits are NOT what make us Christian or saved or anything. These habits are how our rebirth shows up and manifests itself. To do these habits out of obligation or law is to prop up a dead body and move it around acting like it’s alive.

Let our righteous acts come out our of the recreation of our habits. May we develop a heavenly nature that by reflex does what the Spirit wishes, as we deliberately walk in His ways.

Notes from the day: Church Culture and Jesus’ Teaching Style

Published
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Dan
on 9/3/2008
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Good conversation at the Donut Bank today, talking about how the culture and the church is moving the way of companies and business…away from the powerful CEO that makes all of the decisions and his trickle down approvals. The church is becoming more entrepreneurial, smaller and more agile. Instead of the monstrous IBM church a newer, leaner, Facebook church with smaller staffs and less control is emerging. The church is less like a giant mainframe where everyone has to be plugged in to do anything (like join a group to do outreach or be in a men’s group to talk to men about the bible) and more like handhelds and flash drives, plugging in all over and doing outreach wherever and whenever and talking about the Bible in the midst of ordinary life.

There was also some good conversation about my post yesterday on the tithe. As I spent my tithe on strong drink (dark roast at the Donut Bank) Andy G. brought up giving as an act of submission to authorities and leaders in the church. That is good, but I’m not sure I’m ready for that yet.

At lunch I had more goodies w/ John 6. I talked to Rick about how Jesus asks questions and then shows in His actions what the answer is. He did a lot of teaching that involved showing all of the puzzle pieces and then letting God put them together in a person. He didn’t rebuke Philip for saying it would 8 months wages to feed those people. Philip was thinking like men depending on men think, not like a Man that depends on God. Jesus didn’t rebuke him though, He just sort of said, “Watch and learn, Philip.”