Unto Us - A Light Has Shined

Special Advent sermon series at The River church: "Unto Us - Christ Has Come"

Series Text: Isaiah 9:1-7 (NKJV)

November 27: Unto Us - A Light Has Shined (Salvation to all through Jesus)

December 4: Unto Us -A Child is Born (Incarnation of Jesus)

December 11: Unto Us - A Son is Given (Crucifixion of Jesus)

December 18: Unto Us - A King is Anointed (Resurrection of Jesus)

This week's focus text: Verse 2

The people who walked in darkness 

Have seen a great light; 

Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, 

Upon them a light has shined.

It all started with a man named Jacob. No...

It all started with a man named Abram. No, wait...

It all started with a man named Adam. No. Dang, that's not it either...

It all started with God. Ah, yes... that's it! "In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth... And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:1-2). 

But wait. There was someone else present in creation too... right?

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it" (John 1:1-5).

Okay, now I get it... in the beginning was the Godhead, i.e., the Father, Son, and Spirit. All things were made by Him, through Him, and in Him.

And humanity was God's special creation... the crowning achievement, in that He (representing all humans) was made in God's own image. Man is uniquely creative. Of all creatures, only man contemplate the existence of God, ponders his place in the universe, and wonders about the afterlife. And only man worships deities. Indeed, man is special. But thanks to the sin of Adam (and Eve)... man is also cursed. As a result, he has been kicked out of the garden, left to wander and stumble in the darkness... hopelessly lost and confused.

But God had a plan to deal with the curse of humanity (and all of creation). Admittedly, it took awhile to unfold (and is still unfolding). But nevertheless, it is a beautiful and worthwhile story. In fact, it is the most powerful and true story ever told... anywhere.

After the fiasco with Adam - and a reshuffling of the deck with Noah - God raised up a man named Abram to be a mighty nation. He promised Abram (later changed to Abraham) that his descendants would be as numerous as sands on the seashore. And the nation that would be formed by God through Abraham would be a light to the Gentiles. This new nation would be blessed by God, and they would exist to be a blessing to the whole world. In other words, God would reveal Himself to every person on earth through His chosen people, letting His special creatures know He loves them and wants to forgive them of their sins and re-connect them to their original purpose and divine design. 

God wanted Abraham's descendants to share the good news of salvation to the other nations of the world. And sure enough... God blessed Abraham, making him the father of the great nation of Israel. Actually, it was Abraham's grandson, Jacob, who had twelve sons (through four different women), that became the infamous 12 tribes of Israel. And it wasn't until the time of King David many, many centuries later that the nation truly became great in size, strength, and international influence.

However, there was only one problem with God's plan to use Israel to be a light to the other nations (Gentiles). They didn't quite understand the fine print on God's covenant with their ancient patriarch, Abraham. You see, God wanted to bless Israel so that they would be a blessing to the other nations... but ultimately they decided they wanted to keep it for themselves. So they sort of conveniently forgot about the part about being a blessing. After all, they were God's "chosen people", so why waste the message of God's salvation on non-Israelites?

I know the Old Testament is more complicated than that, but hey, I'm giving the cliff notes here! Anyway... rather than sharing the goodness of God with foreigners, Israel hoarded the good news for just their own nation... and ended up worshiping all kinds of false gods along the way. Yahweh Himself actually lived among them and spoke through His prophets, but nevertheless, the Israelites missed the truth of His holy Word through their disobedience. (Hmmmm... good thing we're not like that today, huh?)

Anyway, here's the mysterious and surprising aspect to this story: None of this took God by surprise. Nothing about the roller-coaster, weak-willed faith of the Israelite people shocked the Lord of all creation. Disappointed? Perhaps... but not surprised whatsoever. He knew they would fail... and He knew that in the fullness of time, He would need to step in and do what we couldn't do for ourselves. How else could we know the depth of man's failure if not for Israel's example?

Anyway, God knew that eventually He would need to send His Son to be the sacrificial Lamb... to bring salvation to everyone... to reverse the curse of sin... to rescue the oppressed... to pardon the guilty... to purchase our freedom... to reveal the Truth of God's unending love... to be the Light of the World... to shine in the darkness so once and for all we could know the Way and the Truth to everlasting Life. 

God sent His precious Son to complete the plot line of the story that began o so many years before when everything went wrong with Adam in the Garden. That was a horrible day - when humanity was forced to leave the sanctuary of fellowship with God and trudge along in a dark and dangerous world. 

God knew His Son would be born Jesus of Nazareth before the foundation of the world... but perhaps He waited until we were ready to accept the fullness of Truth before executing His plan. Maybe He waited until we'd experienced a few centuries of failure in trying to save ourselves... and cried out for deliverance.

"But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons."   Galatians 4:4-5

I've heard it put this way before: God sent the Son of God to our world to become the Son of Man, so that sons of men could become sons of God.

Hmmmm... aren't you glad Jesus is the Light of the World?

Get Up and Walk!

Text for this week's sermon at The River: Acts 3:1-11

The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some money. But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”

Ellensburg is full of them. They are everywhere you look.

Seattle has them too... so does Kansas City, and New York, and Pittsburgh, and Seoul, and certainly in Shanghai.

Tragically, every city and town and village and neighborhood in the whole world has an overabundance of them. In fact, they are by far the majority in terms of world population.

What am I talking about? Spiritual cripples.

People who don't know the Truth of salvation through Jesus Christ.


Oh, they know about Jesus... at least in the Western hemisphere. They know the "fable" about the baby in the manger... the "fairy tale" about feeding 5,000 people and walking on water... the "myth" that he was crucified, then raised from the dead. They know the sound bytes... but they don't know the real Truth of God's amazing grace.

Ya, they've heard how they need to be "saved" and "born again" or risk going to hell. Many of them have read the Bible (or at least they've started Genesis a few times), and a good number of them have attended church at one time or another. They've been introduced to the religious aspects of Christianity.

  

But here's the sad truth. Though some may experience a little taste of real life here and there...  most people never encounter the fullness and brilliance of Jesus Christ the Author of Life.. and our divine healer.

Physically, they may be fine... at least most of people. But spiritually, they're stuck... immobile... thoroughly and completely handicapped. They have legs, but they simply don't work... they have no strength, and they don't function as they were designed to do. Sin has crippled all of us.


They need to be healed... and healing is available. But I'm convinced most people don't even know they're crippled.They're too busy trying to make it on their own to even think to ask for help. Too proud to acknowledge their need. Too busy trying to make a buck, like the beggar in this story. Too intelligent to believe Jesus is for real. Too enlightened to buy this religious garbage.

Christianity... i.e., faith in Jesus is just a crutch for weak-minded wussies... right?


And so they live their spiritual lives in a state of perpetual stasis... worshiping the creation (i.e., themselves) rather than the Creator, who longs to set them free, and give them the ability to walk and run and jump and dance.  He has the power to transform lives, but nevertheless, He won't heal anyone who lacks faith... anyone who refuses to ask for help. 

What a shame. We were designed for mobility and freedom... but so many people on this earth are content with living the life of a hopeless beggar. We were designed to live in fellowship with God, but instead, many scoff at the idea of "organized religion" and choose to remain spiritually motionless.

This past weekend, I got to see men of all shapes and sizes, all ages and stages, all degrees of religious backgrounds... get up and truly dance before God.

I've never encountered a more beautiful thing in my whole life. Grown men... strong men... proud men - becoming utterly and completely broken by their spiritual crippled-ness. Coming to terms with the ugliness inside their soul, and crying out to Jesus Christ for healing and transformation.


And heal them He did. Like watching popcorn pop... I watched in holy awe as one man after the other got up and confessed his sins... the heavy duty, ugly, acts and attitudes that completely controlled their lives... and as they offered their heart and soul up to God, He poured out His Spirit on everyone in attendance. You couldn't see Him, but trust me, everyone felt His holy presence. And we felt His forgiveness... and for about a four-hour period... every man in that place felt thoroughly and completely alive - thoroughly and completely healed... thoroughly and completely loved. I don't think any of us wanted the service to end.

It's as though we all heard the voice of God telling us, "In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”

I want to experience that kind of reality more often. Oh God, I want to hear your voice more often... become immersed in that kind of healing more often.

I don't care if the world thinks we're damn fools... I don't care if they think Christians are stupid or weak or gullible. I don't care if they like me or hate me. I don't care if they confuse godly love with judgment and condemnation. I just want to see spiritually crippled people who recognize their great need to cry out to the Lord and become healed. I want to give hope to those who hunger for real life... eternal life. I want to be an agent of God's divine touch. I want to see God's powerful hand at work in my world... in my town... in my church... in my family... in myself.  Frankly, I want to be like Peter and John... brave enough and more than willing to boldly proclaim the healing power of Jesus Christ of Nazareth to anyone who will listen... regardless of what it may cost me. Ya, I just want to keep dancing till He returns.

What about you?

Devoted

This week's blog was written by Cole Harmon

Text: Acts 2:42-47 (ESV)

When people read Acts, something happens. It’s really hard not to be inspired by, and even jealous of the early Christians. Early on in the book the reader might think it must have been so easy to be them. Wouldn’t Christianity be so easy if we could just prove God’s existence with miracles and wonders without limit?  We might think to ourselves if God equips us like he equipped the apostles this whole thing would be a breeze! I want you to take a look at the circumstances facing the early church, and then your own.   

Daily they faced severe persecution. Getting beaten to a pulp, facing hunger, Death, stoning, demons, prison and a host of other obstacles were all in a days work for the Apostles. What is your worst fear? What is the worst possible thing that could happen if you took the gospel to the streets? People would look at you like you have tentacles coming out of your mouth sure, but would they hit you? Would they throw you in jail? Would they kill you?

My question is why aren’t we sharing the gospel with everyone we know? Is it just me, or is forgiveness and salvation from an eternity of death worth talking about? How about the fact that Jesus can heal us of any and all afflictions? How about becoming a child, friend and heir of the almighty infinite God of the universe?  How about an eternity in the uninhibited presence of an unfathomably loving and holy God? Does ANY of this seem important? Then why oh why do we leave it in the walls of the church? Why do we nod our heads, sing songs, confess our undying love and then go home where we barely manage to read his love letter to us? I think the problem we face is complicated. 

The key word in Acts 2:42 is DEVOTED. I may say I’m devoted, but if my life has little to no indication of this, am I devoted? What does it mean to be devoted? It means standing your ground when people mistreat you. It means suffering through people’s name calling, and their hatred because HE suffered first. It means reading our bibles. My goal here is not to tell everyone that they suck. I think we all completely understand how short we fall. Acts is an inspiration, but seeing those great men of faith compared to our faithlessness can be overwhelming and discouraging. I want to find the solution. HOW do we become devoted? How do we get sold out for Jesus? How to we get radical, earth shattering, mountain-moving faith? Devotion. How do we get devoted? Is it by trying our hardest, going all out, and doing as many good things as we can? Nope, because these things flow from true devotion. 

The secret to getting radically devoted is to fall in love with the resurrected Christ, by ENCOUNTERING him. He is so glorious that one glimpse is all you need to go from cowardly fisherman to fearless proclaimer. The love part will take care of itself. You do have a part though! The way to we experience him and get DEVOTED is by getting off our butts and seeking him as if it were our last hour EVERY hour. It’s not easy, but it’s simple. Seek him, and he will find you. It’s time to get devoted. There is a world out there that needs him, he will equip us for everything we’ll ever need if we SEEK him.

What's the Big Deal? Addendum

"Lean on me, when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
'Til I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on"

- Bill Withers

I met with a good friend who goes to another church here in town recently. As he recounted a story about his pastor's lack of love, I became increasingly agitated. Why would a pastor act that way toward the people he or she cares for? But as my friend continued, I slowly came to the cold realization that I am equally guilty of the very same crimes.

See, my friend does a lot for the church he attends. In the past, he used to make incredible sacrifices for the sake of the body, and for his pastor. But then he got hurt, unable to help for several weeks. During his recovery, did his pastor give him encouragement? No. Did he let my friend how much he has appreciated his willingness to step in and get things done over the years? No, unfortunately not. In fact, he did just the opposite. He called my friend up a day after his surgery and asked him when he thinks he'll be able to get back to work at the church. No empathy. No concern. No compassion... he just wanted to know when he was getting his work-horse back on the job. Hey, glad you're better... 'cause I need you!

Somewhere along the way, this pastor looked right past the person -  a person with feelings, and pride, and wounds, and desires, and faith, and deep passion for God - and (at least for a moment) saw nothing more than a tool... a means to an end... a resource to keep his ministry going smoothly. And in the process, he may have chased my friend away for good. At the very least, he has weakened their fellowship in Christ.

Sad, huh?

And way too familiar. Now, I understand: men and women are called to serve for the sake of Christ in the church, not for the recognition of men (and women). Nevertheless, it seems like a nice gesture (heck it's a no-brainer) for a pastor to take a moment to recognize the hard work  folks have done for the benefit of the church... and perhaps even show them some heartfelt appreciation.

But pastors don't always seem to get it, do they? We're in the business of crisis management... the here and now. Forget about yesterday, we got holes to plug, and roles to fill, and work to do. I'd like to say interacting with, and witnessing to people living in darkness is always our highest priority... but I'm not so sure too many of us are as concerned about reaching the lost as we are about getting through the week without a major disaster in our worship service.


So on behalf of well-intentioned pastors everywhere... or at least the one sitting here and typing this blog...

THANK YOU to all who have offered a helping hand to God's Church. Thank you for the big projects... thank you for the mundane tasks... thank you for your willingness to give of yourself, even when your gift is under-appreciated, or criticized, or changed in midstream, or just plain forgotten in the grand scheme of things. We may not remember to say it very often... but trust me, we couldn't do it without you. So thank you. And please forgive us when we flake out, okay?

We are all too human. But, just like you, we're working on this love thing. Good thing we have each other to lean on and walk with, and root for. Good thing we have the ecclesia... the community of church. 

Otherwise, we would just be isolated and alone. That would be sad... and lonely.

Church: What's the Big Deal?

Text: John 17:20-26

So... what exactly is the Church? Have you ever thought about that?

I mean, church is a place you go, right? Or is it something you do? Or is it gathering on Sundays? Is it a building? What constitutes a real, live legitimate church? I can hear you now, "I don't know... it's... well, stuff." You know, familiar stuff like greeters, bulletins, posters, contact cards, pews, pastors, Bibles, prayers, sermons, classes, songs, guitars, PowerPoints, illustrations, fellowship, coffee, donuts, ... as well as baptisms, Communion, baby dedications, altar calls, mission trips... and of course the all-important Offering... (dramatic pause). Now THOSE are the things of church, right?

Well, ya... maybe. But let's strip everything away for a moment, and ask, a simple question: What are the essential things that form and foster authentic Christian community? Let me ask it another way, How does Jesus want us modern-day Christian disciples to live in community with one another, in a way that most powerfully reflects Him and His earthly ministry? Yet another way: How can we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength... and love our neighbor as ourselves?

Good question(s). Got any answers?

Way too often, I can see that Sunday morning church at The River does not accomplish what we so hope for... work for... and pray for. It lacks the energy necessary to worship God in His temple. The Word falls flat on deaf ears. The sermon (try as I might) sucks. There is a failure of hospitality. There is a complete lack of fellowship. People seem to be going through the motions. Way too many mistakes are made. Sometimes it seems as though nothing goes right. Besides, especially in the case of a church-plant, we don't offer all the necessary spiritual services that other churches offer... nursery, children's ministries, Sunday school, youth group, etc.

So why bother? What's the point of going to church, especially if it doesn't always function smoothly? Why invest in something that sometimes comes across as sub-par? Why do we go to church Sunday after Sunday... especially if it seems to have no impact? What's the big deal anyway?

Recently, I was told by someone close to me that church doesn't really do anything for them anymore. Another person told me it's just not a high priority to them. They come when they can, but they're busy people... and they're not going to revolve their busy schedules around church attendance. Yet another person told me they're just no longer church-goers at this season in their life. Too busy.

Wow, those are hard things for a pastor to hear... especially by people to which they are (or at least once were) very close. But no one said pastoring was easy. Nevertheless, those comments have stirred my thinking all over again these past few days... is church really as important as we pastor-types like to claim it is? Or are we really just trying to line our pockets and create job security?

What are the benefits of church attendance... really? Why should it be of higher importance than say, family time, or natural worship experiences like time hiking in the mountains? Why should getting together with other Christians (and hopefully, non-Christians) to spend 1-2 hours in a worship service once a week be so necessary? Why not just do a Bible study/prayer time with your family? Why not just participate in a home group without all the drama, all the politics, and all the hoopla? Where does the Bible ever command us to go to church... as in a place with religious bells and whistles?

Actually, I can only think of one semi-explicit place church-attendance is ever mentioned in the Bible - Hebrews 10:25 - and even that could be interpreted to mean small groups over any forms of liturgical corporate assembly.

  

I've come to believe that church attendance is kind of like the Trinity. It may not be explicitly commanded in the Bible - and it may not be easy to fully comprehend - but once our eyes are opened to the concept, we can't help but see it is the Truth of God's Word. We can debate it its usefulness, argue its relevancy, criticize its shortcomings... but with one full contextual reading of the Scriptures (Old Testament and New), it becomes abundantly clear that we were wired for deep, penetrating and formational, Christ-centered community. We were designed to worship God together His temple... that is, in corporate settings. We are shaped into the image of Christ as we live in fellowship with people not just like us (and whom we often find irritating). We may not even be able to grasp what we "got out of it" from week to week, but when we discipline ourselves (and our family) to seek something bigger than ourselves... and worship someOne much greater than ourselves - over time, something good and wonderful and beautiful begins to occur. Toleration becomes acceptance. Acceptance becomes desire. Desire becomes worship. Worship becomes servanthood. Servanthood becomes authentic. Authentic becomes love. Love becomes holy. Holiness transforms and resurrects that which was in a zombie-like state of walking death.

Family is important. Small groups are important. But neither one functions in full blossom according to the Way of Christ in a vacuum, apart from the ecclesia... apart from the Church. It may be imperfect from week to week, but the Resurrection Sunday corporate gathering of the saints is the ordained community of Jesus Christ. If you don't believe me, read the book of Acts. Besides, you're not "getting anything out of church" then you're probably not investing anything into the church either. (I'm not talking about money... I'm talking about your heart). Let's face it, spiritual gifts were meant to be opened up and shared with others in the family of God. What do you do with yours?

I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.

It's taken me awhile to come back to this conclusion... but with the help of brothers and sisters in Christ (especially you, Craig)... I have rediscovered that the Church really is the beautiful Bride of Christ. She is in fact, gorgeous in spite of her many flaws. But rather than ragging on her and criticizing her every fault... I want to once again tell the world how beautiful she really is. If the disciples of Jesus all sought to love and appreciate her virtues more...  then perhaps the world would come to know that God really did send His son... because they can see that we truly love one another.