The Morning Watch

Mimeograph Copies

2012-01-25T11:15:00.001-08:00

Thus it was necessary for the copies of theheavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly thingsthemselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not intoholy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but intoheaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was itto offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places everyyear with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedlysince the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for allat the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just asit is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ,having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time,not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

(Hebrews 9:23-28 ESV)

Back in the 1980s, as I began building a small non-profityouth ministry, I inherited a mimeograph machine. They were already becoming obsolete, thoughmany churches still produced their weekly bulletin and newsletters onthem. The principle of mimeography wasthat ink was contained in a rotating drum and fed through an absorbent pad thatdelivered the ink to a “screen” which the author of a document had created bytyping on a special sheet that would be the basis for making multiple copies of whatever you weretrying to reproduce.

Mimeography was messy; there were a lot of lost sheets ofpaper on any run, but if you knew how to speak kindly to the machine, you coulddo alright. All mimeographs knew their“owner” and responded to his or her touch. They were nearly living beings. The problem with mimeos was that if the ink ran low, you’d get dimmerand dimmer copies over time until you ended up reproducing nearly blankpages. On the other hand, get too muchink flowing, and you’d get so much “bleed” as to make the type almostillegible.

Here in Hebrews 9 we’re being told that the Templesacrifices – in fact the whole temple itself – was nothing but a poor mimeo ofsomething very real. The priests wentover and over and over to the altar through the curtain, into the Most HolyPlace. They were going through thescreen and trying to use watered-down ink to make an impression on God. The more they tried to atone for the sin ofthe people with the blood of bulls and lambs, the dimmer the impression got. That is, until the blood of one priest made aperfect impression on the altar. Jesus,in offering his own blood for the sin of the World, forever stamped “Saved” onthe altar of God for anyone who believes him.

I can try to make an impression on God or I can let someoneelse do it. I can keep squeezing my inkthrough the screen until I am dry to the bone, and all I’ll be doing is makingan ever-fading image on the Mercy Seat. I can also let Jesus do what he does best: make one perfect image thatwill never fade from the very heart of God.

“Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; yourwalls are continually before me.” (Isaiah 49:16 ESV)

Jon

In the Most Holy Place

2012-01-24T06:39:00.001-08:00

But when Christ appeared as a highpriest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and moreperfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he enteredonce for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats andcalves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. Forif the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with theashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much morewill the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himselfwithout blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve theliving God.

(Hebrews 9:11-14 ESV)

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners'gain: 

Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadlypain. 

Lo, here I fall, my Saviour: 'tis I deserve Thy place; 

Look on me with Thy favour, vouchsafe to me Thy grace.

n attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux (12^thC.)

The Writer to the Hebrews has just finished reviewing how theTemple Sacrifices were done, as prescribed in the Law. His conclusion is that the annual visit bythe High Priest into the Most Holy Place with a blood sacrifice couldn’tpossibly address our sin as fallen people, separated from a holy God. The thinking is that, if God needs to beplacated because we have sinned, it is irrational to imagine that theimposition of the ashes of the burned carcass of a cow would in any way pay thedebt we owe. He uses the words “defiledpersons” to describe us.

Okay, so I’ve been out in the world and during the day I didsome work in the garden and then fed some farm animals. I worked on my house and barn for a whilelater in the day. When I come insidethat evening, I’m going to be stinky and dirty. The best way to clean all that muck off me is: A good sprinkling of cowash. Right? So if that’s not sufficient for cleaning mydirty body, how could it ever clean my soiled soul?

In another place in Hebrews, the Writer tells us, “ Foron the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness anduselessness (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a betterhope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.” (Hebrews 7:18-19 ESV)

Then what value wasthe Law? Simply to demonstrate to usthat we were separated from God? Toprefigure Christ’s Sacrifice? The Lawmay well have been perfect in itself, but in the hands of sinners the Lawbecomes ineffective. And so one perfectpriest satisfied the Law with his own blood (something none of us would havebeen willing to do), not simply substituting for a humankind that would beunwilling to come and do what he did, but in order to bring us to God. He doesn’tmerely go into the Most Holy Placealone and then return to where we are to soil himself again. Jesus takesus into the Most Holy Place with him, spills his own blood on the altarthere, and then invites us to stay!

The Most Holy Place is now ours, because one died for all.

As I review what I have written I know the explanation isinadequate. I’m struggling to explainhere the most profound thing: dirty as I am, at great cost to himself (whateverthat means – I don’t understand it), Jesus has found a way to welcome me wherehe and his father are.

Glory to God in the highest!

Jon

What an idiot

2012-01-23T09:25:00.001-08:00

Behold, the LORD hasproclaimed to the end of the earth: Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, yoursalvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense beforehim.” And they shall be called The HolyPeople, The Redeemed of the LORD; and you shall be called Sought Out, A CityNot Forsaken.

(Isaiah 62:11-12 ESV)

I worry sometimes that, as “disciples” go, I’m not a verygood example. It isn’t that I don’t loveGod. It is that, well… lifehappens. And I know there are attitudesand fears and sins in me that just don’t reflect a life of dependency onGod. This passage brings me up short inthat kind of thinking.

Isaiah has spent much of his great prophecy warning Israelabout their idolatry, their unfaithfulness, and their marrying outsiders. And yet, here, almost at the end his writing,the major thing God is proclaiming – publishing – in the 7^th C. BCversion of The New York Times, “I have a love-note for Zion.”

Every once in a while some ardent lover takes out afull-page ad in The Times as a way ofproposing to his beloved. Imagineopening the newspaper and seeing “I LOVE you! Marry Me, Darling” in huge, bold print. Did you ever wonder what a full-page ad in a major daily costs? Believe me, it isn’t cheap. Every time someone does that, I laugh my headoff. What an idiot: spending that kindof money on a proposal. They could havegone on a honeymoon for what it cost him to buy that ad.

Here’s the message God has for “the daughter of Zion” (read:Israel): “Your salvation comes!” God sent his only son at great cost tohimself to accomplish salvation for you and me. Buying himself the ability to publishsalvation was, to God, as costly as taking out a full-page ad in The Times would be for you or me. Honestly, if saving you had cost me my life,I don’t think I’d be talking about youas “my reward.”

What Jesus “got” in exchange for going to the cross was…ME? And the worst of it is that hedidn’t get some idealized, perfected ME. He got a messy disciple who can’t seem to get “discipleship” right; whoprefers, as C.S. Lewis says, “everythingelse to Him.” Somehow, remarkably, Godlooks at me (warts and all), and calls ME “The Holy People, The Redeemed of theLORD; and you shall be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.” I especially love the last two: Sought out,and Not Forsaken.

God is seeking youout too. He has not forsaken you. To reverse the Lewis quote, he really doesprefer you to everything else. And Godwill be mocked and become a laughingstock for love of you. He has published my salvation and yours at the highest cost in the most obviousway. What an idiot! What love!

Jon

Lord's Day Message: The Beginning of Evangelism

2012-01-22T10:59:00.001-08:00

The Beginning ofEvangelism (Simon, Andrew, John & James)

Mark 1:14-20

14 After John was putin prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “Thetime has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe thegood news!”

16 As Jesus walkedbeside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a netinto the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “andI will make you fishers of men.” 18 At once they left their nets and followedhim.

19 When he had gone alittle farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat,preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left theirfather Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

Introduction

If you were with us the last couple of weeks you heard twovery specific challenges in our series on beginnings. The first was the challenge that the Beginning of Vision comes when a churchengages in specific, on the ground mission, and the second is that the Beginning of Discipleship comes whenthe individual goes beyond simply recognizing who Jesus is and begins to yearnto go deeper with Christ. Both of thosefall under the overall Master Plan of Jesus: Go out and find twelve people, train them to be disciples, and thenunleash them on the world.

We need to double back on those challenges for a moment tomake sure that we understand that while those things are true and are notmerely idealistic – the first really ishow God transforms churches and the second really is how God transforms individual lives, and Jesus really did have one simple plan that heexecuted – we looked at these things at the beginning in order to know whatwe’re aiming at long-term. There are some things this church can begin todo now that will develop vision and will aim us toward the goal of becoming achurch on mission. There are some things each of us can do thatwill begin to produce a church made up of disciples of Jesus.

But I do not want you to become discouraged because you’vebeen part of this church for years and have wondered how a church like this can engage in significant mission beyond ourdoors. We need to seriously engage withthe issues before we’ll be able to become that church. And we need to slowly begin to engage withthe world around us before we can become a church on mission.

A few of you stopped me at the door last week and said thatyou believed God had tapped you on the shoulder and was calling you to reallybegin to get under way in your walk with him. But a few of you also stopped me at the door and told me you didn’tthink you were ready for the kind of discipleship we looked at. God never calls the “ready.” God calls the willing. We’re not talking about a huge stepforward. We’re talking about taking asimple, single step with Jesus. When you look at how he called his originaltwelve, you immediately see that Jesus placed no grand vision before them andhe never asked if they were prepared. Remember who some of his disciples were. One was a tax collector – an outcast in Judaism. Four were relatively un-sophisticatedfishermen, and at least four had been involved in what we would probably todaycall a cult.

For the next few minutes, let’s look at how Jesus typicallycalled his disciples and what kind of challenges he put before them. We’re in Mark, chapter 1, beginning at verse14.

Effective Evangelism

There are five things that work together almost any time aperson begins to respond to the gospel. And so the question before us is, WhereDoes Effective Evangelism Begin? Idon’t know if this has ever happened to you, but I have “shared Christ” manytimes; gotten to the end of my presentation of “the gospel” and said, “So,would you like to know Jesustoday?” And had the person I wasspeaking with shrug their shoulders and say, “No. I don’t think that’s for me.”

The reason they respond that way is because one or more ofthese five things hasn’t come together. Before evangelism will be effective you need

1. The Right Voice (sharing)

2. The Right Message (at)

3. The Right Time (in)

4. The Right Place (with)

5. The Right Response.

Where Does EffectiveEvangelism Begin? Look at verse 14:

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee. John the Baptist had been preaching a baptismof repentance for the forgiveness of sins. But when we looked at what he was doing last week we said that the forceof John’s ministry was both backward, toward the Law and forward, towardChrist. That means that John’s was notthe voice we needed to listen to. His ministry was to proclaim that theright voice was on its way. And so, After Johnwas put in prison, Jesus went intoGalilee. What did God say when Jesuswas baptized by John? “This is mybeloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17) And at the Transfiguration, God spoke thesame words but also underlined how we are to receive Jesus, “This is my belovedSon, with whom I am well pleased; listento him.” (Matthew 17:5 ESV) The voice of Jesus is the right voice. Effective Evangelism always begins with usgetting out of the way so people can hear the right voice.

After John was put inprison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. Effective Evangelism always begins withthe right message. In the 20^th century alone therehave been so many agendas in the western church that have purported to be thegood news. When I was a young believerin my 20s, the good news was “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for yourlife.” That morphed in the 1980s intothe good news that “If you have enough faith you can ask of God and he willgive you whatever your heart desires.” One whole wing of the Christian church bought solidly into that thoughtand the companion idea that verges on Christian Science when it says that alldisease is from the enemy and that Jesus healed every person who came to himfor healing and so the good news is that God wants you well. It goes on to say that the only reason you’renot well or happy or healthy is that you haven’t got enough faith.

In the 1960s one line of thinking was that the good news isthe God of Possibilities. In this one,prayer is cast as possibility thinking, and the power of positive thinking willyield you a more happy, more fulfilled self. Fully grown, that line has been taken up by many voices: YOU are themost important person to God. The goodnews is that if you just have a positive attitude all will be well.

We don’t have the time here to review this fully, but therehave been wars fought over nuances of doctrine as minute as whether baptism isfor adult believers or for the covenant children of the church. In the name of the good news people have beenburned at the stake, shunned by family and friends, told who they could marry,sent on mission to destroy whole cultures under the guise of the goodnews.

So what is “TheGospel?” At the beginning of his letterto the church in Galatia, the Apostle Paul writes, I am astonished that you areso quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turningto a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some whotrouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or anangel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preachedto you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: Ifanyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let himbe accursed. (Galatians 1:6-9 ESV)

I think the simplest presentation we have in Scripture is 2Corinthians 5:17-19, “Therefore, ifanyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, thenew has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himselfand gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God wasreconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them,and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-19 ESV)

In Jesus, in his birth, life, sufferings, death,resurrection, ascension, and reign in glory, God’s purpose was to reconcile,through tragic, costly forgiveness, rebellious humankind to himself. If you are not reconciled to God today youcan be sure that his offer of grace – his gift in Christ – is available to youat this very moment. If you have neverknown the assurance that you are his very own possession, his beloved child,his bride, you can know that assurance in the next 30 seconds. Trust him that Jesus came reconcile you toGod. It is not God who is holding you atarms length. It is your own rebellion. Beloved, when you ask Christ he will give youin that moment salvation and his own spirit as a guarantee of all that willfollow. And what will follow won’tnecessarily be health or happiness or riches or personal fulfillment. What will follow will be a life lived in theknowledge of his presence with you.

I just returned from a conference in Los Angeles thisweek. I was privileged to be in thepresence of a group of about 30 young church planters from across thecountry. They are planting churches inplaces as diverse as Calumet, Michigan; North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;Salem, Massachusetts and Hudson, Minnesota. No two of those church plants look the same. No two of the planting pastors were alike. But they all held one unshakable conviction:the irreducible core of the gospel is “Love God, Love People, and MakeDisciples as you go.” That’s what newcreations in Christ look like.

The Right Voice withthe Right Message can still beineffective if the Spirit of God hasn’t prepared the way. Paul tells us to “preach the word; be readyin season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with completepatience and teaching.”

(2 Timothy 4:2 ESV) He tells us to be patient because he knows we don’t preach the word inorder to get results. We preach the wordsimply because our lives have been transformed by Christ. We preach the word because we have beenreconciled to God and we love people and just like Philip who called Nathanielor Andrew who found his brother Simon, we want everyone we meet to have thesame joy of knowing Christ.

And yet we don’t know when the season is right in aparticular person’s life. We don’t knowwhen God has prepared a heart and the light bulb is about to come on in theirlife. We are not called to convert. We are called to speak the word oftransformation that was spoken to us. GOD was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. “All this is from God, who through Christreconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18 ESV)

And so Effective Evangelism always begins at The Right Time. In our text in Mark 1 Jesus said, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near.” The Letter to the Hebrews begins this way,“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by theprophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom heappointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”

(Hebrews 1:1-2 ESV) Romans 5:6 says, “At just the right time, when we were still helpless,Christ died for the ungodly.” EffectiveEvangelism is not about you getting results. It is just a byproduct of your love for God and for people. The timing of the Day of Salvation isentirely God’s.

Finally, Effective Evangelism always happens in The Right Place. “AfterJohn was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the goodnews of God.” Why didn’t Jesus go to Jerusalem to preach thegood news? That was the center of Jewishlife. That was where the Temple was. The only clue we have about Jesus’ earlyyears after his birth is a single paragraph in Luke 2 that tells how, when hewas 12 years old, Jesus left the caravan his parents were part of after thefamily had taken a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. They finally found him in the Temple teaching the Elders. When they challenged him as to why he hadleft them Jesus said, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s House?” But twenty years later, when Jesus began hispublic ministry, that’s not where he went. The Temple wasn’t the right place.

Why didn’t Jesus go to Rome? That was the place where he could have received world-wideattention. If the gospel was not justfor the Jews, and Jesus himself tells us that it isn’t, why not unveil themessage of the gospel in Rome? Romewasn’t the right place.

The Right Place,it turns out, was way up in the North Country. Galilee of the Gentiles was on the margins of Jewish life andculture. Galilee was on the fringe. The people Jesus would come in contact withthere were mostly simple fishermen. Andthe crowds that would follow Jesus in much of his public ministry came from notonly all over Judea, they came from neighboring Samaria. They came from Syria and Jordan. Ultimately Jesus did take the message to Jerusalem,and he did teach in the Temple there many times. But where Effective Evangelism began forJesus and where it will likely begin for us is in the small places, theforgotten places. Effective Evangelismmost often begins with small, forgotten people.

When The Right Voicecomes with The Right Message at The Right Time in The Right Place, all that is left is for God to produce in people The Right Response. Jesussaid. “The kingdom of God is near. Repentand believe the good news!”

You always have two choices when confronted by Jesus’ ownvoice. When Isaiah had a vision of beingtaken into the presence of God he tore his robe and said, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwellin the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, theLORD of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5ESV) But strangely, that isn’t always aperson’s response. I have troubleunderstanding how anyone could stand in the presence of Jesus and not repent and believe. It is as inconceivable as someone standing onthe rim of the Grand Canyon and saying, “Eh… That’s not so special. I can take it or leave it.”

But we don’t simply take or leave Jesus in that casualway. He comes to us with an unequivocalmessage of salvation. He offers us acompletely reconciled relationship with God and a life lived in his very presence. To walk away and say, “I’m not ready.” Or to say, “Maybe later on, butnot now,” to Jesus is to make a huge decision. And the remarkable thing about Jesus is that even when we turn away andtell him he’s not worthy of us giving our life to, he still pursues us.

Beloved, Jesus will not force his love on you. But if you have heard The Right Voice with TheRight Message at The Right Timein The Right Place, and if this isthe Day of Salvation for you, don’t delay another moment! Not because something awful might happen toyou or because you don’t know if you’ll ever have another chance. I know Jesus, if he is anything, he is theGod of second and third and fourth chances. But if God is speaking to you today,respond today: Jesus, I hear your voice. I want to become a new creation in you, today.

Conclusion

The passage we’ve been looking at this morning has two morethings to show us. The first is verses16-18. We’ve just seen how Effective Evangelism works and whatit is. Now, quite immediately, Jesusdemonstrates Effective Evangelism. Lookat it:

1. The Voice (As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee…)

2. The Message (Come, follow me…)

3. The Time (casting a net into the lake [at work]…At once they left)

4. The Place (into the lake…)

5. The Response (they left their nets and followedhim)

Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if Mark had gone on tochronicle in that detail all the myriad stories that must have taken place asone after another Jesus called his disciples? He doesn’t though. He sums it allup in Mark 3:13, “And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whomhe desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also namedapostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preachand have authority to cast out demons.”

(Mark 3:13-15 ESV)

But that pattern is being repeated everywhere Jesusgoes. It is begin repeated right here atPCC today. And in the months and yearsahead, if we as a people will adopt the pattern of the way of Jesus, The Right Voice with The Right Message at The Right Time in The Right Place letting God bring about the Right Response, we will become participants in the irreducible coreof the Gospel, to Love God, Love Others, and make Disciples as we go.

AMEN

The Jesus Diet

2012-01-21T08:02:00.001-08:00

Meanwhile the disciples were urginghim, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you donot know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought himsomething to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him whosent me and to accomplish his work.

(John 4:31-34 ESV)

As someone who has struggled all his life to eat the rightthings at the right time, this passage is very disconcerting. I just came back from a conference in LosAngeles this week. The subject of theconference (I published my notes on this blog at www.the-morning-watch.blogspot.comif you want to see them) was church planting. But the subtext -- the thing that kept coming up in conversation -- was food. It seemed we were always discussing where the best Mexican or Asianrestaurant was in Los Angeles, where to get the best burritos or Koreanbar-b-q. Three of the young men at theconference had recently lost a combined 170 pounds. Each in their early-to-mid 30s, they wereprime examples of our cultural quest for the perfect body. And they were achieving their goals!

There were other men at the conference built more likeme. I remember when I was a teenswearing in my own thoughts that I’d never let myself weigh more than 160. At one point just before I had my gallbladder out last year I weighed 260. I’ve been hovering around 240 for the past year, and I’ll admit that thediscipline these young men displayed in losing the extra baggage they werecarrying have inspired me. Now all Ihave to overcome is the principle of inertia: bodies at rest tend to stay atrest.

Enter the story of the Jesus and the Woman at the Well (John4). The chapter begins by saying Jesus “leftJudea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria.” A quick look at any map will tell you thatyou don’t have to pass throughSamaria (North WEST of Judea) to get to Galilee (North EAST of Judea). In fact, that’s probably the last way any self-respecting Jew wouldtake to get home to Galilee. Still, itwas good exercise. You have to cross thehill country of Judea to get over to Samaria, which lies more along theMediterranean. The usual way people gotto Galilee was by water, traveling up the River Jordan – much easier on the ol’legs.

Once Jesus got to Sychar (a kind of first century touristtrap because Jacob’s Well was there), he sends his disciples into town to buyfood. When he meets the woman, they talkabout water:

A woman from Samaria came to draw water.Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into thecity to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew,ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings withSamaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it isthat is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and hewould have given you living water.”

You know, the woman never did get to fill her waterjar. And as the text we started withattests, Jesus never did get his lunch.

How many times have I sat down to read the Bible in themorning and been diverted by making breakfast or putting the coffee on andnever gotten back to God’s Word? Arepancakes or an egg sandwich all that much more interesting than Isaiah or thePsalms? Would I ever choose to take thehard way to get somewhere just because it might mean that I’d run into someoneI could share Christ with? Would I walkinstead of drive just because it would bring me in contact with people veryunlike me? Would I be willing to misslunch in order to walk the streets of Frog Hollow (a poor and very dangeroussection of Hartford where a middle aged white would be very out of place)? The sad fact is that I might go there, but my reason would be to takein the food at El Sarape (931 Broad St., near the corner of Ward St.)

Jesus combined diet, exercise, and mission (going toSamaria), and won not only a woman, but many from the town of Sychar over. Now there’s a diet I could really getbehind. Lord, help me to overcome myinertia.

Jon

The Nineveh Project, Day 2 Evening, Day 3 Morning

2012-01-18T10:54:00.001-08:00

The Church PlantingPastor

Terry Walling, presenter

(formerly with Christian Resource Ministries)

The most important thing that is happening in your church iswhat God is doing in you. Themost important thing is what’s going on in your journey with him and in yourshaping and development. You are beingjudged by all kinds of things that are not necessarily Jesus. Those judgments tend to be church dogma.

The Shaping of a Life

God has always been at work shaping you. Do you have the capacity of seeing that Godhas been shaping you and how he has gone about shaping you. Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship,created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that weshould walk in them.” God has beenpreparing you for a time such as this. The difference between leaders and followers is perspective. In particular, perspective on you.

Personal renewal precedes and leads to corporatechange. Mentoring and discipling are themost important things you can be doing. If you just talk to your congregation, they’ll only remember 15% of whatyou say. If you can get your people totalk to one another, it’ll jump to about 60%. If you pour your life into one ofthem, it’ll jump to 80 or 90%.

Who have been the mentors in your life who really changedyour life? Now, look in theScriptures. Who is your Biblicalmentor? What character in the Scriptureshas taught you more than anyone else?

Book: The Making of aLeader, by J. Robert Clinton

Matthew 25:14-30 Willyou take the things that God has done in your life and entrusted to you andinvest in the future? Not many finishwell. About 1 in 3 will finish more inlove with Jesus than when they started. Character formation Mark 3:13-14, Psalm 78:72. The tension in leadership is between beingand doing. Skills and knowledge vs.Character and journey.

Influence

Spiritual Authority

Character Formation

Wounding

Calling moves to Contribution. Contribution moves to Convergence.

A leader is someone who understands who they are(self-defined) and has a non-anxious presence.

What are the 7 defining moments, 5 key decisions, and 3 mostinfluential people in your life?

Pathway toConvergence

Age 20-30 A lifecommitted and dedicated to living and carrying out God’s purposes and call,which issues in clarity of:

Age 30-40 Firstand second order call and the surfacing one’s unique values and vision.

Age 40-50 It movesonto the discovery of one’s major role, effective methodologies. These insights then begin to call for…

Age 50-60 A seriesof strategic, life choices and decisions that begin to point to one’s ultimatecontribution, positioning

Age 60+ Aleader for the potential to experience convergence, the brining together who aleader is (being) with all that a leadr does (doing) and resulting inconvergence.

Pathway to Burnout

The sense you are running on empty, followed by

Actually running on empty but you’re still going because youcan’t stop

The body is still going, but the heart has shut down

The body shuts down and you quit

What Causes LeadersNOT to Finish Well?

Few leaders make a single, once-and-for-all, disqualifyingdecision

Most “Finishing Well” failures result from a series ofsmaller , incremental failures, that happen over time, and erode a lifetime ofdevelopment, values, and goals.

Barriers are the inappropriate use of: Finances, Family,Pride (lack of self-awareness), Sex, Power (and its abuse). These, combined with a Loss of the Word, andPlateauing.

Five Enhancements toward finishing well: Repeated times ofRenewal, Lifelong Learners, Lifetime Perspective, Dynamic Calling, IntentionalMentoring

“He who began a good work in you will bring it to completionat the Day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:6

The Nineveh Project, Day 2 Tuesday Morning

2012-01-17T10:33:00.000-08:00

The Context of ChurchPlanting

On the contrary, when they saw that I hadbeen entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had beenentrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for he who worked through Peterfor his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mineto the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars,perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowshipto Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to thecircumcised. Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I waseager to do.

(Galatians 2:7-10 ESV)

THEVISION

See the one, glorious, true,historic, singular, unchanging gospel contextu- alized within distinct peoplegroups to the glory of God.

THECHALLENGE

Holding tightly on one hand to theessential elements of the one gospel and on the other to the ever-changingrealities of context leads to tension.

The danger of Church Planting is to either over contextualize on the one hand, and under contextualize on the other.

POTENTIALERRORS

Under Contextualizing

Under contextualizing can be understood if we look atIslamic evangelism. Those who wish toconvert to Islam are told that Arabic is the proper language if you want toknow God, for example. The culturalcontext of Islam is seen as the correct context. No innovation is allowed; no even minoralteration is tolerated.

Our American and English missionaries in the last centurywent to India, China, and Africa and brought our language, our music, ourcustoms, our practice of liturgy to those places. We required people from these cultures toadopt our ways in order for them to know Christ.

This is not God’s way. God in his grace has always been contextualizing. The Son of God – the Incarnation – IS Godcontextualizing. God became a man. In the Old Covenant evangelism was centripetal – the nations coming toJerusalem. Proselytes were to becomeculturally Jews (ie: circumcision, adherence to the Law)

Over Contextualizing

Figure out what people want to hear and then go back to thegospel and amend it so it is popular. The “prosperity gospel,” the gospel of health, wealth, and happiness isan example of over contextualizing.

In 21^st century American life we no longer preachthe Word of God, we no longer preach the atonement, we no longer preach somuch as we “dialog”.

FAITHFUL CONTEXTUALIZATION

1. Get the Gospel down

• Know what the doctrines are, unchanging• Know what the rhythms are, unchanging • Know what the means of grace are,unchanging

First, you need to know whatTHE GOSPEL is. What elements are eternaltruth and what is negotiable? Whatthings carry over into any context ofthe church and are universal? As aplanter, get the gospel down. Understand and embrace and hold tightlyto what is non-negotiable.

2. Get your people group down

• Know how they function • Know theirbiblical literacy • Know their cultural icons • Know their sin • Know how theyhave been sinned against • Know their fears • Know the lies that they have beentold

3. Contextualize

• Preach repentance of their sin • Donot make gospel issues out of non-gospel issues • Be willing to shutdown/replant your church when your people group doesn’t exist anymore

At the same time, getyour people down. Know who livesaround your church and what the content of their lives is so you can engagewisely with the people group you’re approaching. Get to know the cultural icons of the peopleyou are approaching. (like talking aboutthe Red Sox with your people because they know what it means to be under anunbreakable curse for 86 years and then experience the thrill of victory whensomeone breaks the curse; and then relate that to Jesus). Get to know their sins (prejudices, morays,etc.), get to know how they’ve been sinned against (culturally, ethnically,sexually, etc.), get to know their fears, get to of

There comes a time in the life of every church when thecontext we began with no longer exists. Every church needs to evaluate the context around them over and over andover to be sure that the context they were planted to reach is still there to be reached.

REPENTANCE LEADING TO REFORMATION

1. Non-contextualizers

• Pride (your culture is superior toothers) • Fear (gospel will be compromised if contextualized) • Laziness • Lackof love (for your people group)

2. Over-contextualizers

• Ashamed of the gospel (fear or want approval of culture) •Lack of faith (in the sufficiency of the gospel)

We pastors and planters need to repent of our pride, our fear,our laziness, our lack of love if we tend to be non-contextualizers. The pride that says “I know how it should bedone” is a killer. The fear thatsomething important will be lost if I go to the context of the people grouparound us. The laziness that says “I’vegot my system down. I don’t need tolearn the next context.” The lack oflove for a people group. We need torepent of these. Those among us whoover-contextualize must not be ashamed of the gospel or edit the gospel just toclaim a people group. We also need tohave faith in the sufficiency of the gospel and believe that Jesus way is stillthe best.

The Nineveh Project, Day 1, Monday Night

2012-01-17T09:33:00.000-08:00

The Nineveh Project

This week I am in Los Angeles, CA at meetings with about 30church planters and leaders from all over the US. We have people here from Maine,Massachusetts, Connecticut, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, and California. The purpose of the time is to focus on whatchurch planting is and how healthy church planting takes place.

I thought it might be encouraging to many of you to see thenotes I’ve been taking. They’re notmeant to be complete or necessarily connected thoughts. But some of the things that are being saidare really challenging. If any of thempiques your interest and makes you ask questions, give me a call or email me sowe can dialog about it!

Session 1, MondayNight

The Driving Motivebehind Church Planting

The driving motivation for church planting flows from God’slove and grace for those who need a relationship with Jesus Christ.

The Parable of theLost Sheep

Now the tax collectors and sinnerswere all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled,saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

So he told them this parable: “Whatman of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leavethe ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, untilhe finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, sayingto them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, Itell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents thanover ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

(Luke 15:1-7 ESV)

Jesus’ entire life and ministry is reflected in thisparable. Most Christians today thinkthat Paul was the first church planter. But actually, Jesus was the first “church planter.” Jesus told Peter it was upon a faith like histhat he (Jesus) would build his church.

Focus on the rightnumbers. What would you do if 1% ofyour church were to wander off? Whatnumber really matters to you? How many people from your church are involvedin a discipleship process? How manychurches has your church planted? Thegood shepherd in the story discovers that one single sheep out of 100 haswandered off. His first impulse is to goand search for it. Do we let peoplesimply wander in and out of our churches?

Book Title: TheAmerican Church in Crisis, by David Olson.

Venture into theright places.

What places are you venturing into in order to bring thegrace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ? Where is the center and focus of our ministry? Disciple-making ministry is not about gettingpeople to come to church, but in taking the message of Jesus Christ to thepeople.

Neal Cole, in WebEvangelism Bulletin, April, 2011: “If you want to win people and the worldto Christ, you’re going to have to sit in the smoking section.”

Restore people in theright way.

The shepherd finds the stupid, stubborn sheep and joyfully puts it on his shoulders andgoes home. We have every reason to beangry with sheep who stray. Our angerthough would be against them because they had done something to us. That makes the correction about the shepherd,not the sheep. A good shepherd finds thesheep and is overjoyed because he can now save the sheep from ravening wolvesand other predators. He rejoices becausehe knows what the sheep has been saved from.

Find joy in the rightthings.

There are a lot of things we don’t know about heaven, butone thing we do know is that when ONE sinner repents, there is great rejoicing in heaven. Our large stadium events (sports, concerts,or religious gatherings) are only a small fraction of the cheering and wildrejoicing in heaven when one sinner repents.

In the 1980s there was a surge of church planting across theUS. Peter Wagner said, “The single mosteffective move of the Spirit of God is church planting.” It is easier to bring a baby into the worldthan to raise the dead. New churcheswith 100 people in them are 16 times more effective at winning new people toChrist than mega-churches are.

The CCCC has joined other Christians in our nation in makingextraordinary followers of Jesus through a church planting movement that raisesup new churches that love God, love others, and make disciples.

“The Conservative Congregational Christian Conference hasjoined other Christians in our nation in making extraordinary followers ofJesus through a church planting movement that raises up new churches that loveGod, love others and make disciples.

We believe that by the year 2020 over one-half of the memberchurches in the Conference will be healthy reproducing churches started by theCCCC in the 21st Century. A majority of these new churches willbe planted in major metropolitan areas and will reach people from everygeneration and ethnic group. They will be diverse in their approachto ministry representing various expressions of the movement of the Spirit inthe local church.

We believe that other churches will be born in rural andsuburban settings as daughter churches of existing CCCC member churches thathave rediscovered their mission to make disciples and impact theircommunities. We envision that every CCCC church will know the joy ofbirthing one or more daughter churches."

--CCCC Church Multiplication Vision Statement,2010

Jon

Lord’s Day Message: The Beginning of Discipleship

2012-01-15T19:34:00.001-08:00

John 1:43-51

The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. FindingPhilip, he said to him, “Follow me.”

Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town ofBethsaida. Philip found Nathanael andtold him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whomthe prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanaelasked.

“Come and see,” said Philip.

When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Hereis a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.”

“How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under thefig tree before Philip called you.”

Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; youare the King of Israel.”

Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you underthe fig tree. You shall see greater things than that.” He then added, “I tellyou the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending anddescending on the Son of Man.”

Introduction

Beloved in Christ.

Last week we began what I believe may be the most importantseries this church or any church could embark on, because the things we willlearn over the next six weeks will set the course for our ministry togetherhere from the beginning. The reason is that these are the foundationsof a healthy ministry together. We needthese building blocks in order to grow an effective ministry.

In case you weren’t here last week, or especially if you were here, I want to remind you where webegan in this series on beginnings. The Beginning of Vision comes when you go out and find twelve people, train themto be disciples, and then unleash them on the world.

But the moment we say that: “go out and find twelve people, train them to be disciples, and thenunleash them on the world,” we have to ask the next question. What does it mean to make disciples? What IS a disciple anyway? What does real discipleship look like? How can I know if I am a disciple?

Brace yourself and listen carefully for a moment.

“Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake ofChrist. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth ofknowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of allthings and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be foundin him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but thatwhich comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends onfaith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share hissufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I mayattain the resurrection from the dead.”

Paul of Tarsus, AD 62

Paul was beheaded at Rome around 67 AD. What could possibly make a man like Paul saythat knowing Christ was better than having anything else in the world?

"Now I begin to be a disciple. I care fornothing, of visible or invisible things, so that I may but win Christ. Let fireand the cross, let the companies of wild beasts, let breaking of bones andtearing of limbs, let the grinding of the whole body, and all the malice of thedevil, come upon me; be it so, only may I win Christ Jesus! I am the wheat of Christ: I am going to beground with the teeth of wild beasts, that I may be found pure bread."

Ignatius of Antioch, 108 AD

Ignatius was thrown to the lions in the Colloseum at Rome,108 AD. What could possibly make a manlike Ignatius choose to be torn apart by lions rather than deny Christ?

Polycarp of Smyrna, around 160 AD

Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, fed the guards who apprehendedhim. He then asked them for an hour inprayer, which they gave him. He prayedwith such fervency, that his guards repented that they had arrested him. Still,he was carried before the proconsul, condemned, and sentenced to be burned inthe market place.

After being tied to the stake the proconsul gave him onemore chance, saying, "Swear, and I will release you; --reproachChrist."

Polycarp answered, "Eighty and six years have I servedhim, and he never once wronged me; how then shall I blaspheme my King, Who hathsaved me?"

Polycarp of Smyrna was burned at the stake and stabbed todeath when the flames failed to consume his body, AD 165. What could possibly make a man like Polycarpchoose to be burned rather than reproach Christ?

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in thename of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them toobserve all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to theend of the age.”

Jesus of Nazareth, around AD 33

Jesus was beaten, flogged, nailed to a Roman Cross, andfinally stabbed, around AD 33. Whatcould possibly make a man like Jesus choose an ignominious death for himselfand for those who would truly choose the way he chose?

These few stories of people who chose Jesus over everythingin the world and over being in the world itself have been multiplied hundredsof thousands of thousands of times over the last 20 centuries. But those are the extremes. Those stories are the END of discipleship. Before we can find that kind of commitment,that kind of fidelity in ourselves, we have to know where discipleshipbegins. And for that, we have to go backto the beginning of the gospel, back to John 1:43-51.

Discipleship beginswith invitation

Paul, Ignatius, and Polycarp all had one thing incommon. None of their lives began withanything like this kind of devotionto Christ. Paul set out to be the verybest Jewish scholar and Roman citizen he could be. You see, disciples are not born that way. Just as you weren’t born a Christian – noneof us is – a Christian isn’t born adisciple. They have to decide at somepoint that is the life they want to live.

In Colossians 2:6 and 7 Paul says, “just as you receivedChrist Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him andestablished in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” You received Christ by an act of yourwill. You came to know him by abandoningyour claim on your life and turning it over to him. And so discipleship isn’t automatic. Living in Christ is just like coming toChrist. It is a decision and anabandonment that always begins with a two-fold invitation.

John 1:43, “The nextday Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Followme.” Philip, like Andrew and Peter, wasfrom the town of Bethsaida. Philip foundNathanael”

The discipleship of Philip began with Jesus invitinghim. “Follow me.” But make no mistake: the discipleship ofPhilip also began with Philip inviting Nathanael. The great moment doesn’t come just becauseyou hear the voice of Jesus saying, “Follow me.” That is a miracle in itself. But the really great moment comes when youhear your own voice say to another, “Follow Jesus.”

In 1986 I was a young youth pastor over in Berlin, CT. I had just begun my ministry at theCongregational Church there, and one day I mentioned to one of the kids in myyouth group that I played racquetball. Iwas trying to find some common interest that would give me the opportunity toshare Christ with some of these kids. The kid’s name was Steve. Stevesaid he thought it would be fun to go to the YMCA in New Britain where the gamewas invented and play. So we set a dateand went and played a few games.

A couple of weeks later, Steve asked if his friend Davecould come along and play. After thatset of games Steve and Dave and I all went out for ice cream atFriendlies. That afternoon Dave began toask questions about angels and that led to a discussion about Jesus.

The next week Steve was busy and wasn’t able to come. In fact, Steve rarely came to playracquetball again. But Dave kept ourappointments. And over the next threeyears Dave and I played weekly down at the New Britain YMCA. When he was 17 Dave went on a youth ministrytour with us. One night as we camped outat a church in Bedford, NH, Dave gave his life to Christ. That would have been remarkable enough afterthree years.

The really amazing thing happened that fall when we decidedto start a weekly Bible Study at my house. That very first week Dave brought his friend Pete. Right at the beginning of the Bible StudyDave said, “Tell Pete what you told me.”

Right there. That wasthe beginning of Dave’s discipleship to Christ. Jesus had invited Dave and Dave had invited Pete. “Follow me.” And can you see that the only thing Philip, Andrew, Peter, and Nathanaelseemingly have in common is that they were all from a little berg on the northend of the Sea of Galilee? The onlything that Steve and Dave and Pete had in common was that they were all fromBerlin, CT. They were from quitedifferent family backgrounds. They haddifferent interests and different plans for their lives. Today Steve is in finance, Dave is amissionary working in Irian Jaya, and I don’t really know what Pete isdoing. But the thing they really had incommon was that Jesus invited each of them, and he also used another personfrom their own town to invite them.

Discipleship beginswith affirmation

Discipleship also begins with a two-fold affirmation thatJesus is the one the Law and the Prophets all pointed to. Look at the text again: Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We havefound the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets alsowrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

Now this is tricky. You don’t need to know anything other than Jesus himself in order to become a Christian. Jesus never asked anyone to pass a theologyexam before they could know him. It is after you begin to know him, whendiscipleship begins, that he begins to teach you how the whole history ofIsrael was miraculously, inexorably about him.

Over and over again as Jesus moved through his ministry withhis disciples, he unlocked the Scriptures to them, telling them in the plainestterms that the Christ should suffer and die and on the third day be raised fromthe dead. He showed them the OldTestament Scriptures that pointed to the coming of one who would sit on thethrone of David and who would save his people from their sin.

Beloved, you can become a Christian and sit in the pew weekafter week, year after year, and never really learn anything about the historyof Israel or any of the prophetic things that were said about the comingMessiah and how all that history and all those prophecies pointed toJesus. But those who choose a life ofdiscipleship dedicate themselves to be learners. They want to know everything they can fromtheir Lord and about their Lord. Discipleship begins with learning. Discipleship begins when you are able to affirm that Jesus is the Onespoken of in the Law and the Prophets and when you begin to really know therichness of all that was said about him.

Discipleship beginswith contemplation (questions)

The next place where discipleship begins is tightly alliedwith the last. You see, the momentPhilip told Nathanael Jesus was the One spoken of in the Old Testament,Nathanael started to ask questions. Thereally remarkable thing about making the decision to become a disciple of Jesusis that, contrary to what you might think,discipleship isn’t the end of your questions about God, it is really just thebeginning.

It has been said that you can not own the answers until youown the questions. Any good teacherknows that what is taught by rote is never really learned. It is only when the student asks a genuinequestion that he ever learns something. Nathanael’s first question is an “I don’t get it” question of the firstrank.

“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?”

Clearly, Nathanael had beento Nazareth. The place was a kind ofbackwater, second-rate town up in Galilee of the Gentiles. There was no Old Testament prophecyconcerning Nazareth. The town is never mentioned in the entire OldTestament record. Nathanael’s questionis a very logical one. A lot of yourquestions are very logical ones.

Beloved: God loveshonest questions. “Why is there evil inthe world if God is in control of all things?” “How come my friend or loved one died?” “Can God really be like that?” There are only two things God can’tstand. He can’t stand your silence andhe can’t stand your apathy. No one everbecame a disciple who didn’t ask questions. And no one ever became a disciple who didn’t do the work and ask hard questions.

When Nathanael asked, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” He was really bothered by something about whatGod might be doing that he didn’t understand. Are you bothered enough to ask a genuine question?

I’ve got a shock for you: your pastor is not the theologicalanswer man. My job is to get you to askyour own questions. God’s is the one whowill wrestle with you until you ask the questions. The role of a pastor in your life is toshepherd you to a place where God can feed you, to teach you to be a goodlistener, and to help bring around you others who are asking hard questions soyou and they can live in community together while you sit at Jesus’ feet.

Nathanael followed his first question with another. When he finally met Jesus, he said, “How doyou know me?” What bothered Nathanaelwasn’t just that Jesus had read his proverbial mail. What bothered him was that Jesus really didseem to know him. That is also thebeginning of discipleship: when you realize just how thoroughly God knows youand it bothers you. The scariest, mostterrible thing a disciple can discover is that they are known by God, not justin the general sense or even with the recognition that God knows I’m asinner. But in the thorough sense: everymotive, every thought, every desire, every sin, every joy, every ambition,every sorrow, every pain, every loss, every way in which someone has hurt youor helped you, God knows.

Nathanael asked two questions, “Can anything good come outof Nazareth?” and “How do you know me?” And the answers to those questions changed his life.

Discipleship beginswith investigation

You see, discipleship begins with investigation. The only way Nathanael was going to find outif anything good could come out of Nazareth was if he did what Philipsuggested. “Come and see,” Philipsaid. What would have happened ifNathanael had stayed wherever he was when Philip found him? When someone comes to you and says, “I thinkI’ve had an encounter with Jesus. Wouldyou like to come to the Bible study; would you like to come to Iron SharpensIron; would you like to come to youth group; would you like to come to worship– do you know what happens to you when you say to them, “I don’t think thatwould be for me. I’m too busy justnow?” Do you know what happens to you?

Nothing.

If you are soapathetic – you’ll mask that by saying you’re too busy or too tired – toactually come and actually see, you’ll never begin to ask the questions thatare on your heart. You’ll forever be toobusy or too tired to really investigate. Most of you come to church eachweek. Maybe you’ve got that down. But if that’s all you do it will become foryou like signing up for English 101 and spending eight semesters repeating thesame class. You’ll be going over andover the mechanics of English that you learned the first semester and neverencounter Chaucer or Shakespeare. If allyou do is get in the habit of going to church you can sit here week after week,year after year and never look deeply into the things of God.

You have to come and see to find out if anything goodcan come out of Nazareth. And if youcome and see Jesus will always be there with deep things you could never haveimagined. And when he speaks to you, nomatter what he says, it will drive you to the next question and the next: “How…do… you… know… me?” You willask. And it won’t just be a rhetoricalquestion.

Discipleship beginswith declaration

Finally, discipleship begins with declaration. Nathanael said, ““Rabbi, you are the Son ofGod; you are the King of Israel!” Thatwas the beginning of discipleship for Nathanael. Thomas declared, “My Lord and my God!” afterhe touched the nail prints in Jesus’ hands. His discipleship really began after the resurrection. Peter’s declaration came when Jesus began toask his followers who they thought he was. Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Conversion can, and often does happen much less dramaticallythan that. Conversion isrecognition. Discipleship begins withdeclaration. You may not be able to picka Christian out of a crowd because so many Christians today look exactly liketheir unbelieving counterparts. Nothingabout their habits or patterns looks anything different from those of theirfriends and co-workers in the world. Butyou will know a disciple because he or she has made that dramatic,earth-shaking, life-altering declaration.

Nathanael called Jesus Rabbi. Teacher. Not just someone’s teacher. MYteacher. My Rabbi. He also suddenly realized that Jesus wasn’tjust a teacher, that he was the very offspring of God, the promised one spokenof in the Law and the Prophets, the one who would sit eternally on David’sthrone. And with that declaration, forNathanael, there was no turning back. Ifhe didn’t go with Jesus from that day forward he would have turned away incrushing sadness over the missed opportunity.

Beloved in Christ. Haveyou heard God’s invitation to you today? Are you ready to affirm that Jesus is who the Law and the Prophets claimhim to be? Are you here with yourquestions – with your questions, notjust the rote answers you’ve learned from years of Church? Are you ready to come and see Jesus? Have you had that moment of declaration thatcauses the dividing between everything about how you lived before and how youwill live with Jesus?

If so, there’s work to be done. The Master’s Plan is still the same as ithas always been: go out and find twelvepeople, train them to be disciples, and then unleash them on theworld. Last week I said that ifthere were twelve of you who were ready to do the work and move forward withJesus, I wanted to know your names. Jesus already knows your name. Long before I called you, He saw you sitting under your own figtree. Jesus knows you and he wants youto be his disciple. Last week I saidthat if there were twelve of you who were ready to do the work and move forwardwith Jesus, and not one person stopped me after church to say, “I think youmeant me.” Maybe you thought I wasspeaking rhetorically. Maybe you thoughtthat was just pulpit talk to get you thinking.

NO, I wasn’t. I reallymeant it. Just like Jesus really meantit when he said, “Follow me.”

If you’re really interested; if you’ve really heard Jesuscalling you today, then come and see. We’ll work out the details as we go, but I need to know who youare. All you have to do is walk up tome after church or at coffee hour or call me on the phone and say, “I want tobe his disciple.”

The Morning Watch: Star Wars

2012-01-09T07:04:00.000-08:00

Long ago, at many times and in many ways,God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spokento us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom alsohe created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exactimprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of theMajesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he hasinherited is more excellent than theirs.

For to which of the angels did Godever say,

“You are my Son,

today I have begottenyou”?

Or again,

“I will be to him a father,

and he shall be to me ason”?

(Hebrews 1:1-5 ESV)

Do you remember the opening credits to the 1977 movie Star Wars? The words, “A long time ago, in a galaxy far,far away…” appear on a silent, black, void. Suddenly the audience is translated into the midst of an alternativeuniverse filled with strange beings, superior technology, and amazing universalconflicts. For a moment, older audiencemembers will think, Flash Gordon. But this universe goes far beyond BusterCrabbe’s galaxy of the 1930s art deco, and we immediately forget that all thishappened eons ago and not in some far distant future.

The distant, long ago world of Hebrews 1:1 was itselfpreceded by an even more distant world and one before that. How well we humans can know God has not beengetting better over time, it has been getting worse. Doesn’t that seem to be backward? We talk about “salvation history” in thechurch and about the progressive revelation of God through the OldTestament. But what we forget is that ifGenesis 2 can be trusted (and I believe it can), the earliest human beings whoknew they were people at all had ultimateknowledge of God. Genesis is quite clearthat the man also had ultimate knowledge of the creation around him. It was built into him. Thus, he was able to name every bird, animal,and plant. Even Einstein wouldn’t havebeen up to that task. The man did not need to discoveranything. That knowledge was innate inhim. He also did not need to discoveranything about God. All that could beknown about God was known to him.

The introduction of sin into the world began a rather quickslide down a reverse “bell curve,” wherewith each succeeding generation less of the knowledge of God was availableuntil by the 300s BC prophecy had ceased altogether, and the world was plungedinto a deep spiritual darkness similar to what happened in “our” westernhistory during the Dark Ages. Onto thatblank canvass, God wrote “A long time ago…” as the only light in that vast darkness. “This is what light is like. Thisis what knowing me is like.”

What did Adam and Eve experience? The language of belonging was there from thebeginning. Total trust, completehonesty. But the Sons of Adam and theDaughters of Eve (to borrow from C.S. Lewis) broke with their parent and chosenot to know what could be known. Theywanted to know on their own. Broken relationship is always the beginningof darkness. One, searching for truthinstead of basking in knowledge.

And so it became necessary for God to speak more and moreloudly into our self-imposed deafness. Stars in the heavens (Psalm 19), a voice whispered in the wind, aburning bush, prophets, angels, and finally, a son.

As long as it is called “today,” God will have yet more tospeak. But he has spoken as loudly as hewill about how we may know him. Singer-songwriter Michael Card told us, “his final word was Jesus, heneeded no other one.” And on the lastday of history God will speak once more and set things right. For now, you can reverse the bell curve andknow Jesus. But you don’t need to gosearching. The knowledge of God coversthe earth, the prophet Habakkuk says, as the waters cover the seas.

Jon

Lord's Day Message: The Beginning of Vision

2012-01-08T08:35:00.001-08:00

Lord’s Day Message: The Beginning of Vision

Acts 19:1-7

While Apollos was atCorinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. Therehe found some disciples. and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit whenyou believed?”

They answered, “No, wehave not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

So Paul asked, “Thenwhat baptism did you receive?”

“John’sbaptism,” they replied.

Paul said, “John’sbaptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the onecoming after him, that is, in Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized intothe name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spiritcame on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve men in all.

Introduction

We turned a major corner in the church year this week. This past Friday was the celebration of TheEpiphany, which commemorates the revealing of Jesus to the world. Most Christian traditions link thiscelebration with the coming of the Magi, which is why Jan had us sing “We ThreeKings” as part of our worship this morning. But really, the function of The Epiphany in the church year is to bringus out of the beginning that is Advent, with its focus on the birth of Jesusand into the public ministry of Jesus that began when he was around 30. This gives the church from early Januaryuntil the end of March to really look deeply into the gospel accounts of Jesus’life and finally the journey to the Cross leading up to Easter.

But the corner we, as an individual church need to turnbeginning this week means laying before us the most significant challenge I canthink of putting before any church. Howyou respond to the challenge that is going to unfold over the next six weekswill likely set the entire course of our ministry together. I chose this series on beginnings because Iknew that mid-January would be the end of our first six months together. To this point we have been getting to knowand hopefully trust one another; to figuratively “kick each other’s tires” andget used to the feel of what it is like to be together.

Now we want to begin to ask some hard questions and makesome serious decisions. That’s why it isgoing to take six weeks to place this challenge before you. This morning is nothing more than theintroduction, and because this is communion Sunday and the Worship Team is backwith us after their Christmas break and Sunday School is starting back uptoday, I have only about 10 minutes in which to pique your curiosity.

Please take the time to dialog with me over the next severalweeks, whether in person, or via email, or on the phone, because we’re going tobe asking fundamental questions about who we are as a church and where we’reheaded, and it is vital that we understand each other so that together we canmake the decisions we need to make to set this church on a course that willhonor God as we move forward.

In the King James Version, Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where thereis no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” Our modern New International Version puts itthis way, “Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint; but blessedis the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction.”

The question I keep hearing as I go from church to churchand talk with other pastors, and really the number one question I hear righthere at PCC is always some version of, “Why has the church seemingly implodedhere at the beginning of the 21^st century?” Why has the air gone out of the balloon? What happened to all the evangelism anddiscipleship programs we used to do? Howcome people aren’t excited to be part of a local congregation these days? How come the church seems to have run out ofgas? What happened to that sense we allhad that we were going someplacereally important?

We will find the answers in a mid-sized city built on ahill. It could be Hartford, the onlydifference being that the city overlooks a sea and not a river. It could be San Francisco, except that thiscity is the seat of regional government. It is a place with wonderful cultural centers. It has a great theater and a marvelousgovernment hall that may be the finest ever built. If you are seated among the State Senators,when someone is standing at the podium speaking you are treated to a view ofthe main commercial street with the docks and the Seashore just several hundredyards behind. The city also has one of the finest librariesin the country, if not the world, and beautiful homes that radiate out from thecenter of town on broad, tree-lined streets.

Sadly, just like Hartford, this city is also a cosmopolitanhotbed of prostitution, legal and illegal gaming, drug abuse, and collusionbetween government and religious leaders, convinced of their ownself-importance. Just like Hartford,there are plenty of Christian churches just a few miles out from the citycenter, but there are not many who believe there’s anything of any value to bedone in the city itself. It is too lost,too corrupt, to large, and has too many needs to really do anything to changethe situation.

The city I’m talking about, of course, is Ephesus, in SouthWestern Turkey. What happened there willgive us six quick clues to how we can gain the vision we need to see where Godis going and go there with him. Ifyou’re not already there, turn to Acts 19, starting at verse 1.

This first sentence tells us so much. “WhileApollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived atEphesus. There he found some disciples.”

You see, it wasn’t so much that no one had ever preached atEphesus. In fact, both Apollos and Paulhad been there before. But the firsttime Paul went there he didn’t stay. Instead, he left Apollos to preach there and he himself had gone on topreach in several other towns in the Anatolian Plain, what is today CentralTurkey. But verse 1 tells us thatApollos himself had moved on and gone to Corinth, Greece, and Paul thought,“I’d better go and find out what’s been going on in Ephesus.

So the first thing for us as a church to see is that vision comes when you go on mission. The city of Ephesus was right there, close athand. Paul was only about 350 milesaway. That may seem like a longdistance, but it is just the same distance as from here to Washington, DC, andhis heart was drawn to the City. Wehere in Windsor don’t have just one Ephesus nearby. And life in the 21^st Century movesa whole lot faster than the three miles an hour one could travel on foot or bycaravan in the First Century. We here inWindsor have not one, but ten major cities within 300 miles of us. Boston, Providence, Springfield, Hartford,New Haven, Albany, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington all liewithin that distance.

Take your choice, church. You may say, “we are ill equipped. We can’t afford to mount a mission trip to most of those places.” Okay, then let me ask you a question: whenyou need a hospital, where do you go? When you want to see a major symphony orchestra play or go to a good artmuseum, when you need to engage with state services or go to a really goodrestaurant, where do you go? If youranswer is Hartford, then since you have the time to take from the city and usewhat the city has to offer, when’s the last time you gave to the city? It isn’t 300 miles from Poquonock toHartford. It is 11 miles. You want this church to come alive? Engage with the City. Give back to the City. Go on mission to the City. Sending a check will not do. visioncomes when you go on mission.

Next, vision comeswhen you are in community. Verse 1says that when Paul went to Ephesus he found some disciples there. There are well over 100 churches withHartford addresses. You won’t have anytrouble finding a church in Hartford to engage with. In fact, most of the churches of Hartfordwould be shocked if a suburban church came to them and said, “we want to bepart of what is going on in Hartford, and we’d like to bless you and be blessedby you. How would you like to become oursister church in the City?” Buildingcommunity like that isn’t hard. Imaginehow much more connected we would be to the city if every week we were had theirprayer list and they had ours. You sayyou don’t know what needs to be done in Hartford or how to address theneed? When you decide to go to Hartfordon mission, find some disciples there. Visioncomes when you are in community.

Vision also comes when you share your faith. Look at verse 2. Paul asked the disciples he found in Ephesusa simple question, “Did you receive theHoly Spirit when you believed?” Christians are no different than anyone else in one respect: we tend towant to hang out with people who look and sound like us. That’s the biggest obstacle to growth you eversaw. You want to get involved in amission that will teach you nothing? Then go out and find a church in Hartford that is an older middle-agedgroup of white reformed protestants. You’llhave everything in common with them. You’ll gripe about the same things and embrace the same ways ofworshiping. If you compare notes, you’llprobably discover that you know some of the same people. It is only 11 miles, after all. But go and find a group of disciples whereyou have to ask them about their views on the ministry of the Holy Spirit, gofind a black church, an Hispanic church, a Pentecostal church, a poor church, ayoung church, a church that is renting space in a storefront or school anddoesn’t have its own building and you will be entering into the adventure of alifetime as a church. The only caveatis: go find some disciples. Go find somepeople who care more about Jesus than they do about being with people just likethem.

The next three verses are a wonderful interchange betweenPaul and the disciples he found in Ephesus:

“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when youbelieved?”

“No, we have not even heard that there is aHoly Spirit.”

“Then what baptism did you receive?”

“John’sbaptism,” they replied.

“John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance.He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.”

You know what that is called? That’s called having a dialog. Vision comes when you talk about theimportant issues of your faith and life. Vision comes when you are a learner. Most important, vision comes when you dialog about Jesus. If each of you made just one intentionalappointment each week where you were going to have a discussion with someoneabout their faith and yours, the things you would collectively take away fromthat would radically alter our life together. Vision comes when you dialog.

Verse six says, “WhenPaul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke intongues and prophesied.” There arereally two things to note here. We beganby saying that Vision comes when you go on mission. The important thing about that is thehands-on nature of it. Paul placed hishands on these disciples.

When John wrote his first letter he began it this way, “Thatwhich was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with oureyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the wordof life.” You will never gain vision aslong as all you do is listen to sermons and go to Bible studies and attendconferences. Vision comes when you see, when you touch, when you handle the Wordof Life. The text says they began to speak intongues and prophesy. Yes, but that wasa by-product. The ministry of the HolySpirit was unleashed when Paul went to the City, and entered into community,and shared his faith, and dialoged with them and saw and touched andhandled.

There it is. That’sGod’s solution to the problem. That isGod’s answer to how to revitalize churches and how to revitalize the faith ofthe people in them. And just to furtherentice us, the writer of the book of Acts adds just one more little thing. He says, speaking about the disciples Paulfound in Ephesus, “There were abouttwelve men in all.” How many apostles did Jesus have? Twelve. How many patriarchs were there in ancient Israel? Twelve. Not only has he told us how to really get a church going, how to really give a church vision, he’s told us how toorganize the effort. Jesus changed theworld beginning with just twelve men. His plan was simple. Go out andfind twelve people, train them to be disciples, and then unleash them on theworld. Vision comes when you use the Master’s Plan.

That, Beloved, is the beginning of vision.

AMEN

ENFP

2012-01-03T12:55:00.001-08:00

Perceiving then that they were aboutto come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to themountain by himself.

When evening came, his discipleswent down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum.It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became roughbecause a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or fourmiles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and theywere frightened. But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Then theywere glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the landto which they were going.

(John 6:15-21 ESV)

ENFP.

Beginning with his first miracle in John 2 (the Wedding atCana), Jesus has been progressively building to grander and grandermiracles. Here are two or three insuccession. But it isn’t the miraclesthemselves we want to focus on today, as amazing as they are.

You may be familiar with the Myers-Briggs TypeIndicators. They help people who work aspart of a team learn how to work closely with others without being driven crazyby the differences in personality styles. ENFP is short-hand for “Extrovert – Intuitive – Feeling – Perceiving.” Look at what the disciples experienced about Jesus:

That Jesus was an Extrovert may seem like anunderstatement. Here were the crowdstrying to take him by force to make him king! Jesus had no problem standingup in public and speaking boldly. Heloved people, and was rarely alone. Jesus was also intuitive. He wentoff alone when he needed to in order to get in touch with deeper things. Sometimes that combination can be verydisarming. Here’s the Master who isalways right out there in front of everyone and all of a sudden he disappearsand heads up a mountain to be alone.

Did one of us on the team offend him? What did we do wrong?

Feeling. Jesus feltdeeply the things he felt and attuned well to the feelings of others. He must have come to the disciples for areason when they were out in the middle of the Sea. We never really find out what that reasonwas. But the first thing he says tothem when they see him on the water is, “Don’t be afraid.” He felt no fear walking on water in themiddle of a storm at sea. He didn’t wantthem to feel fear either.

The passage begins with the word “perceiving.” He could see into people’s motives andplans. Sure he was extraordinary thatway, but really that part didn’t take a miracle. He just perceived that they were going to tryand force kingship on him.

Maybe you’re an ISTJ as part of Jesus’ team. AnIntrovert – Sensing – Thinking – Judging person would have a tough timeunderstanding how an ENFP works! I’m noexpert on Myers-Briggs. In fact, even inwriting this sort of tongue-in-cheek assessment of Jesus I’ve probablycompletely misrepresented Myers-Briggs. But if you’ve ever felt like you can’t relate personally to what you’reexperiencing of Jesus in the Gospels, it may be that you’re trying to apply theway you’re wired to Jesus.

He isn’t remote. Heputs himself right out there. He hasgreat intuitive ways. He feels deeplyand loves deeply. And he is notprimarily here to judge. Maybeunderstanding that will give you the peace to be who you are in hispresence.

Jon

PS… any big Myers-Briggs people out there who want to set mestraight… feel free.

Lord's Day Message: The Beginning of Identity

2012-01-01T18:51:00.000-08:00

The Beginning ofIdentity

Luke 2:21-35

21 On the eighth day,when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel hadgiven him before he had been conceived.

22 When the time oftheir purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph andMary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written inthe Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”),24 and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of theLord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”

25 Now there wasa man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waitingfor the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 It had beenrevealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen theLord’s Christ. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When theparents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Lawrequired, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

29 “SovereignLord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace.  30 For myeyes have seen your salvation,   31 which you have prepared in the sightof all people,  32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to yourpeople Israel.”

33 The child’sfather and mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 Then Simeon blessedthem and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the fallingand rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierceyour own soul too.”

Introduction –defining “a good name”

A good name is to bechosen rather than great riches,

and favor is betterthan silver or gold.

(Proverbs 22:1 ESV)

“Good news travels fast. Bad news travels even fasterand seems to hang in our collective consciousness longer. The Tiger Woodssex scandal that began unraveling in November, 2009 may hang around for sometime, with far reaching financial implications for his family, friends,business associates and the world of golf. In addition to a tarnishedreputation, Tigers’ cumulative financial losses may stick around a long time.

To understand the effects of the scandal in financial terms,lost revenue affects business partners, sponsors and broadcasters which to dateare estimated at 48.8 million, and that is not counting his own personal lossof income as his ranking slips and endorsements wane.

[In the world of brand names,] “Woods is one of the fewhuman brands.” Unfortunately his human behavior also led to hisdownfall. Regrettably, the Woods’ scandal also occurred during aneconomic downturn. Although revenues may have dropped during this periodwithout the scandal going public, Woods is receiving negative press for theselosses.

After reviewing internal documents, a confidential source atCNBC reported that Woods’ management company, IMG, lost $4.6 million incommissions on Tigers’ endorsement deals. The $4.6 million loss on Tiger’s endorsementswould mean that the golfer himself lost in between $23 million and $30 millionin deals last year.

Although advertisers ING, Mercedes-Benz, NorthwesternMutual, RBC are sticking with Woods thus far, last year his departure from thegame from November until April of this year reportedly cost $35 million in lostrevenue sponsors. Canceled title sponsors include Verizon as thetitle sponsor of the Masters in Hilton Head, S.C. and UBS for sponsorship ofthe Players Championship. Accenture, AT&T and Gatorade also got coldfeet. However, the impact of these changes might not be felt forsome time. Hopefully we have all learned a lesson from Tiger. Thevalue of a good name is priceless.

Excerpted from MadameNoire, an upscale fashion magazine for African/American women, August 2010.

Besides pointing out the obvious economic disaster that hascome upon Tiger Woods, the author uses the term “human brand” to describe howcompanies have capitalized on selling the very person of Woods himself. This isn’t the first time this has happenedto a sports figure. Michael Jordanalmost single handedly madeNike.

Leave the sports world and you begin to see the real valueof a good name. Honorary “Colonel”Harland Sanders, Chef Ettore Boiarde, and travel editor Duncan Hines all hadgood names, not to mention Betty Crocker, the brunette housewife from middleAmerica, who never actually existed.

A good name is not easy to come by. There’s a lot about reputation and history ina good name. Preserving a good name iseven harder, as Tiger Woods found out. But what we want to look at this morning is what it takes to have, notjust a good name, but the best name.

The Best Name is AName Given at Circumcision (conforms to the law)

In Judaism, in order to have a name at all, every male childhas to be circumcised according to very strict guidelines. The rite of circumcision (brit milah) isperformed on the eighth day of a boy's life.

Circumcision is commanded in Genesis 17 as an outward signof a man's participation in Israel's covenant with God, as well as a sign thatthe Jewish people will perpetuate through him. The commandment is incumbentupon both father and child - fathers must see that their sons are circumcised,and uncircumcised grown men are obliged to perform the rite.

Those who are not circumcised suffer the penalty of kareit,which curiously enough means “excision,” no matter how otherwise observant aJew they may otherwise be. Perhaps in part for this reason, circumcision is themitzvah or command most likely to be observed by otherwise non-observant Jews. To be excised means to be cut off from yourspiritual source, cut off from Israel, and cut off from God. So in circumcision, God is giving people achoice: either the foreskin is cut off or the whole person is cut off.

Circumcision is so important that it may be performed on theSabbath or a holiday, despite prohibitions of drawing blood on those days. It is only after the boy is circumcised that he is given a name.

And so, Luke 2:21 says, “Onthe eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, thename the angel had given him before he had been conceived.” But because of what we now know aboutcircumcision we know that what the passage meansis “On the eighth day, after he was circumcised, he was named Jesus.”

The Best Name is AName Given by an Angel (given by order from God)

A Jewish boy in ancient times was always named by hisfather. In fact, Jewish boys were partlynamed after their father. Jews also have maintained the practice ofnaming their sons after either a living or dead relative. This not only gives a sense of familycontinuity, but it is thought to spiritually bind the child to the covenantthrough connection with the “spirit” of the observant relative. The interesting thing is that Jewshistorically rarely name their male children after their father.

Both Matthew’s gospel and Luke’s gospel offer us pieces ofJesus’ genealogy. If we assume that thegenealogy given in Luke is Mary’s genealogy and the one in Matthew is Joseph’s,it is at least 27 generations back before we find a Joshua, the Hebrew of thename Jesus. So it seems like a realstretch to think that Joseph would go that far back in Mary’s genealogy to namehis first-born son. Of course, thatassumes that Joseph was Jesus’ birth father. Even under the extraordinary circumstances of John the Baptist’s birth, thoughElizabeth is the first to say what John’s name is, all the onlookers stillappeal to John’s father, Zechariah, for the final naming, and he had beenrendered unable to speak throughout the pregnancy.

The father alwaysnamed the son. In the normal course ofthings, Jesus might have been named “Joshua ben Joseph,” that is Jesus, son ofJoseph, but there is no place in any ancient account where he is calledthat. He is always simply Jesus, whichmeans, “God is salvation.”

What is extraordinary is that Jesus was given his name by anangel by direct command from HIS father – by direct command from God.

The Best Name is aName given before you were conceived

Psalm 139 tells us,

Foryou formed my inward parts;

you knitted me togetherin my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully andwonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it verywell.

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in thedepths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every oneof them,

the days that wereformed for me,

when as yet there wasnone of them.

(Psalm 139:13-16 ESV)

Those of you who have been parents know how difficult it isto come up with just the right name for your child. Jama and I discussed back and forth for weekswhether to call our daughter Hannah or Elizabeth. The middle name was easier, as we knew wewanted to honor Jama’s mother and call her Rowena, a great old Englishname. After some thought, I had decidedthat if we had a son we would name him Timothy, after Paul’s young disciple,and give him the middle name James, after Jama’s father. Elizabeth means “House of God,” and Timothymeans, “Honoring God,” two great prayers to pray over your unbornchildren.

Most parents discusswhat they’ll name their child. Sometimesthey even discuss what to name a “proposed” child who hasn’t beenconceived. You know, “if we have anotherchild, what might we name him or her?” But the best name is one that is given to a child who has been promisedby God. THIS child was very definitelygoing to be born, and even before he was in Mary’s womb, God knew there wasonly one proper name for him, “God is Salvation.”

After Jesus birth and circumcision and naming, when hisparents brought him to the temple in Jerusalem to present him to God, the oldman Simeon, who didn’t know who Mary and Joseph were or what the baby’s namewas, picked Jesus up and said, “My eyes have seen your salvation.” There was only one name by which Jesus couldever have been called, and his Father gave him the name eternally before he wasconceived.

The Best name can beyour name

The best name is one that brings you into conformity withthe Law of God. The best name is onethat is given to you directly by God. The best name is one that is given you before you were conceived byGod.

Beloved, the beginning of identity is knowing who you arebefore God. The best name in the worldis Jesus, because your salvation is wrapped up in that name. God is Salvation wants to bring you into conformitywith the Law of God by giving you a name that conforms to God’s law. God is Salvation knew you before you wereconceived and has a name he wants to give you by divine command.

When you walked in here this morning, you may have only beenconscious of being whatever name your parents gave you, and that may have beena good name. But Beloved, that name isinsufficient. That name alone is notgood enough for you to know God. Youneed a new name. You need Jesus, “God isSalvation” to really understand who you are and whose you are.

We’re in the middle of a series on beginnings on this NewYear’s Day. If you’ve never yet beensure of your identity, is there a better day than the first day of the year foryou to begin a life with God as your Father? The best name in the world can be your name too. It is his delight to give it to you.

AMEN.

Love one another

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Beloved, let us love one another,for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this thelove of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into theworld, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we haveloved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for oursins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No onehas ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love isperfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in himand he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen andtestify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoeverconfesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So wehave come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, andwhoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

(1 John 4:7-16 ESV)

The first thing that ought to jump out at you when you readthis is that word “beloved.” Itpractically screams relationship from the page! The word appears first in John’s letter back in chapter 2. John calls his readers “beloved” six times infour chapters.

1 John 2:7 Beloved,I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had fromthe beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard.

1 John 3:2  Beloved, we are God's childrennow, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appearswe shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 

1 John 3:21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;

1 John 4:1 Beloved,do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are fromGod, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love oneanother, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knowsGod.

1 John 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, wealso ought to love one another.

Six times in four chapters. And yet the identity of John’s audience remains a mystery to us. Maybe that’s because John knew he was writingto a wide, general audience. For thatmatter, there’s nothing in the text to prove that this was written by theApostle John. Tradition holds that Johnwas an old man when he wrote this letter from Ephesus (about 40 miles from themodern city of Izmir, Turkey). Thewriting certainly sounds like John, though there isn’t any direct reference tohis relationship with Jesus, and that seems a bit strange.

I like to think that whoever this man “John” was, he hadknown the joy of living in community with a specific group of believers he hadcome to call “beloved.” That takes time. John isn’t just offering us a cliché. I think he really means it.

The six times he calls them “beloved” each address adifferent issue.

· The old commandment is what Jesus called thesecond commandment, “love your neighbor as yourself,” and comes fromLeviticus 19:18.

· What will we be like when we are finallyperfected in Glory with Him?

· How do we keep our relationships healthyin Christ?

· How do we guard against hereticalteachings?

· Where does our love come from?

· What makes us beloved?

John asks his questions about love in the context ofcommunity. He never says, “I told you what you need todo.” He always includes himself in thediscussion. “Let us love…”

What can we learnfrom John and his church? Iparticularly love the second question he discusses: “What we will be has notyet appeared.” That isn’t just an EndTimes question. Like all the rest, it isa question for right now. What wouldhappen if we (you and the church gathered around you) actually loved oneanother the way God first loved you –with deep, passionate, self-sacrificing love? What would happen then? Whatwould we start to look like if we actually did that?

What would we look like, as a church, if we conducted ourrelationships in such a way that we never needed to repent of anything we hadsaid or done with each other? What wouldwe look like if we set out to become so spiritually discerning that we, as afellowship, would be able to know the difference between teaching we need topay attention to because it is so godly, and teaching we need to watch out forbecause it is false?

How different would we appear if we really realized that thelove we’re talking about, though supernatural, is not impossible oridealistic. It is real andattainable. Why else would John beginhis letter by saying, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard,which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched withour hands, concerning the word of life?” I always took it that this was John the Apostle being self-referencingabout his relationship with Jesus. Butthe emphasis he places on “we” and “our” is so clear! “The Word of Life” has been manifest among us. Jesus was not here once. Jesus IS here now!

Beloved (and many of you who read The Morning Watch arebeloved to me), if God loved us the way we know he did, I’ll be bold like Johnand say, “we ought to love oneanother” the same way. If the impendingNew Year is a time for new beginnings, no matter what your fellowship haslooked like until now, take the time to reassess. Take the time to let Jesus put into practicethe kind of love he demonstrated on the Cross and in his life. Begin to say to one another, “God so lovedthe world… what can I do for you?”