When Is It Time To Turn Your Back On Someone?

I’ve been preaching through the Epistles of John and trying to balance the demands for Christians to love while also separating themselves from certain individuals. So, when is it time for a Christian to separate themselves from someone else?

In the early church, we see the Apostles ordering the church to turn their backs on false teachers who distorted the Gospel and, if we are reading 2 Peter correctly, attempting to fleece Christians for money and seduce women.  Brushing over the tricky feat of identifying false teachers, I would imagine that no one would argue that it is wise to kick predators to the curb.

During my tenure as a pastor, wisdom has also dictated that I advise a handful of women to separate from abusive men.  I don’t know of many who would disagree with that advice.

But what about emotionally abusive people? What if they are spouses? Children? Church staffers? Siblings? Parents? What do you do then?

I’ve had to counsel committed followers of Jesus who battle depression, anger, anxiety, etc. because of those close to them.  What happens when such treatment lasts for years with no end in sight? What if such treatment is seriously damaging the person’s ability to follow Christ and make disciples?

The family is something truly sacred to most cultures but if parents, even those who call themselves Christian, use their children, emotionally battering them in the process, at what point should even a disciple of Jesus shake the dust off their sandals and walk away? 

In the Gospel of John, the inspired author writes that Jesus said and did many more things that were not written down but there are times when I wish someone had bothered to do so, because even after prayerfully consulting our Lord, it is tricky and messy to deal with situations where the truth is not so easy to grasp.

Sermon Notes: Love, Sex, Money and AntiChrists (1 John 2-5)

1 John 2-5 “Love, Sex, Money and Antichrists“

We saw last week that 1 John is structured poetically as a “chiasm”, which means everything hinges on the center, which is 1 John 3:11-17.
 
The structure looks like this:
 
A. Prologue (1:1-4)–Eternal Life
  B. Making Him a Liar (1:5-2:2)–Walking
      C. A New Commandment (2:3-17)–Love
          D. Antichrists (2:18-27)
              E. Confidence–Do Not Sin (2:28-3:10)
                  F. Love One Another (3:11-17)
              E. Keep the Commands (3:18-24)
          D. Antichrists (4:1-6)
      C. God’s Love and Ours (4:7-5:5)
  B. Making Him a Liar (5:5-12)–Testimony 
A. Conclusion (5:13:21)–Eternal Life

John talks about our struggles for we are people who fight to “walk” in light but slip into darkness.  Yet, fortunately, we are truly forgiven when we do slip (2:2).  
 
John goes on to remind us that the central “command” for us is “to love” (2:13-17 & 4:7-5:5) but that we are to be wary of “antichrists.”  He makes it clear that these are people who arose from within the congregations and, eventually, left (2:19).
 
John has not suddenly gone “Left Behind” on us, but is concerned with those who simply oppose Jesus and his goals.  
 
In response, we are to love and esp. to love one another. Let’s look at 1 John 3:11-17.
 
But how do you know who to love and who are the “antichrists”?
 
At Revolution, we believe there are core beliefs or “closed fist” beliefs that we will not budge on like the Bible is God’s word, Jesus is the son of God who died in our place for our sins and rose again conquering death and will return one day but most other beliefs or doctrines we hold as debateable and choose not to divide over.
 
This is a difficult line to walk to be sure, but in the early church scholars like David deSilva argue that there was a group who were heavily influenced by Greek philosophy that came into the church looking for nothing but sex and money!  
 
We may debate about different doctrines but we cannot abide those who use the name of Jesus to grow rich or to use people.  These are truly “antichrists.”  These are people that need to be removed from a community of faith committed to being instruments of redemption.

Shamefully, they are not removed but celebrated in large circles of Christianity today.  In fact, several of the largest churches in the world teach that God wants you to be rich. 

I get really angry when I see these people yet I am reminded that the mark of a true Christian community is supposed to be love.  We are called to love even those who hate us. 

That means we are called to love those who we disagree with even when we must ask them to step away. This is also a difficult line to walk but it must be done. 

You may object, “Hey John is using the term ‘antichrist’ to describe these people, so maybe we don’t have to be so kind!” 

It is important to keep a few things in mind: (1) being rather “passionate” about disagreements was culturally more acceptable to those in the ancient near east than to us and (2) the term “antichrist” did not carry the same weight it does today and (3) these were probably shameless predators who had already left the community. 

As Christians, we must draw lines sometimes but we must do so with grace.  Always with grace. 

After all, the “health & wealth” crowd suffer from the same disease we do…sin.

This Sunday MORNING at Revolution…

This Sunday please join Revolution for our first morning service! 

We will continue our study of 1st John with a talk entitled “Love, Sex, Money and AntiChrists.”

After that, Ryan Rolfe & The World’s Most Dangerous Praise Band will lead us in worship.

Coffee & Community (complete with free hot chocolate and donuts) will kick off at 10:30 and worship will begin at 11am and end promptly by noon.

Also, you can preview our new kid’s space next door.

Hope to see you there.

Everyone is welcome.

Come as you are.

Revolution: It’s Not Just A Church, It’s A Movement!

Dexter, Don Draper and Emotional Distance.

I’m addicted to the cable TV shows Dexter and Mad Men but I’m not sure why. I’m not sure there is a likeable character on either show!

The lead character on Dexter is a forensic expert who is also a serial killer. Dexter confesses that he is able to kill easily because he lacks any semblance of emotion.  

The protagonist on Mad Men is Don Draper, a Korean war veteran who assumed the identity of a fellow soldier in order to start his life over again. In order to do so, Draper had to leave his family behind, including a younger brother.  He does this by purposely emotionally distancing himself from others.  He even advises a coworker to abandon a child stating, “You will be shocked by how easy it is to leave this behind.”

Why do millions of people tune into to be with characters who seemingly lack any sense of empathy?

Is there a part of us that admires the ability to wade through life without feeling anything?  I meet a lot of people who try to shelter themselves this way out of fear of being hurt.

Or maybe are we fascinated by such characters because every once in a while we encounter one?  How many of you have had bosses or even family members that seemed to care less about you or, at best, seemed to be faking it?

Christians are called to be instruments of redemption and, as Henri Nouwen put it, we cannot ease suffering without entering in to it.  This can be overwhelming and many are tempted to push themselves into a type of self-absorbed stoicism. 

Yet, the life of Jesus is a stark reminder that we must fight any such urge. We are to go to the broken hearted and openly risk our own hearts in the process.

It may be fun to watch Don Draper fire people without a second thought or Dexter knock off a criminal without emotion but such a path is not an option for a follower of Jesus.

And The Result?

I’ve been reading Thomas Sowell’s new book Intellectuals and Society and early on he ponders the oddity that intellectuals often don’t suffer any consequences for being wrong. 

Sowell sets forth Ralph Nader as an example.  Nader shot to fame by penning the book “Not Safe At Any Speed.”  He used the fame from the book to become an icon of the left.  The only problem is that there is overwhelming evidence that Nader’s book was full of poor conclusions. Yet, Nader continues to be a political force, why?

Would we still listen to a CEO who bankrupted a company? So, why do we treat intellectuals any different?

That got me thinking, how do we treat theologians and church leaders?

I’ve been reading Karl Barth’s massive Church Dogmatics and here and there I’ve gleaned something worthwhile but then I asked myself if I should be plowing through 9000 pages of densely written theology if Barth is simply not that instrumental in making true disciples of Jesus?  Has Barth, or any of his neo-orthodox (i.e., somewhat liberal, somewhat conservative but more of the former) compadres, with the possible exception of Bonhoeffer, ever produced disciples of Christ that produced more disciples of Christ?

Shouldn’t the end product be at least part of evaluating an idea or a theology? Especially if we are indeed broken, fallen creatures with limited intellectual capabilities? 

As Sowell pointed out, Einstein did not just demand that his theory of relativity be accepted but that it be evaluated in the field.  Why should theology be any different?

Why not take closer looks at communities like The Simple Way in Philadelphia that goes without so many of the comforts we take for granted or at the Amish community that forgave the murderer of their own children?

Please understand that I’m not advocating just blindly following these communities but certainly there may be aspects of their beliefs and practices that can help all of us grow closer to Jesus.  I personally want to learn more about how Shane Claiborne came to his level of everyday commitment even if I disagree with him politically and I defintely need to learn how to forgive as the Amish forgive even if I believe there is no need to shun the outside world to the degree that they do.

I know it is safer to evaluate ideas over coffee but who says being a Christian is supposed to be safe or easy?

Read Along with Pastor Matt: Simply Christian–”Believing and Belonging”

Bishop Wright asserts that “the church is the single, multiethnic family promised by the creator God to Abraham.  It was brought into being through Israel’s Messiah, Jesus; it was energized by God’s Spirit; and it was called to bring the transformative news of God’s rescuing justice to the whole creation.”

The early members of the church indeed saw themselves as the new Israel called to be God’s redemptive instrument as well as a close-knit family who cared for each other.  They called themselves “brothers” and “sisters” because they were all the adopted children of God, who had become their true Father.

This new family is also held together by “faith,” which is often regarded as belief as in “I believe Jesus is the son of God the same way I believe that water is wet and the sky is blue” but the Greek word translated as “faith” is much deeper than that. 

Bishop Wright argues that faith includes belief but also confidence in-, trust in- and loyalty to-, which is why Jesus’ great disciple Paul can speak of “the obedience of faith” in his letter to the Roman church.

It is by faith (belief, trust, loyalty, etc.) that we are “justified” or declared to be in right relationship with God (although the particulars of Wright’s definition of “justification” have been questioned by a wide range of scholars).  

It is in gratitude for this declaration that, as a church family, we worship God and work for his kingdom in the world.

We enter into this family through a public declaration of this faith evidenced in part by baptism. 

Wright doesn’t spell this out but it is important to note that baptism in the ancient world was always “in the name” of something.  The “name” was not some magical formula but was a way of speaking about identifying with a person or god and pledging loyalty to their goals and desires.  Thus, to be baptized “in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit” is to publically leave all former loyalties behind by symbolically dying with Christ and raising again to a new life of worship and redemption.

As Wright puts in his massive tome “The Resurrection of the Son of God”, the church is to live the future reign of the Messiah now!

So may it be. 

Next week, we will wrap up Simply Christian and then, in the Wednesday ahead, briefly sketch out Wright’s arguments in his books, “The New Testament and the People of God”, “Jesus & The Victory of God” and “The Resurrection of the Son of God.”

Until then, grace and peace.

The Blog Tribes

I’ve been reading Jaron Lanier’s book “You Are Not A Gadget” and it will be the first book this year that I read twice.  It is a brilliant, though at times densely written, manifesto regarding the dire consequences of- and possible hope for “Web 2.0″ (Google it).

One of the facets of the current state of the net that bothers Lanier is the ability for those online to post anonymously.  He believes this has led to a depersonalization that fed a savage tribal mentality online.

Lanier points to such extreme cases as celebrities who have committed suicide after being viciously attacked online by packs of anonymous users, which is apparently called “trolling.”

I have noticed the brutal behaviour of anonymous bloggers even on several well-known Christian blogs.  For example, if you criticize the more progressive wing of the emerging church movement or if you critize the Young, Restless & Reformed bunch then you had better prepare yourself for at least a few barbed comments.  In fact, if you criticize one of those two tribes then don’t be surprised to be automatically tossed in to the opposing tribe. 

Now, It doesn’t surprise me that those who comment anonymously on blogs act atrociously.  There are days when I think the doctrine of total depravity is for optimists!  Yet, shouldn’t those who possess the Holy Spirit of the Triune God be kinder?

I know that Jesus hit Israel’s religious leaders pretty hard and that Paul had little patience for Judaizers but they also had a relationship with the people they were speaking to, had authority to speak as such and did so in ways that they believed were wise. 

Can any of us today really pull that off?

I’m not saying we shouldn’t stand for what we beleive in but can’t we do so with grace? Isn’t that the wisest course of action? How many people have you seen shouted down that repented and believed in your theology?

Can we as Christians online help redeem the blog tribes? 

We do worship a God that raises the dead, so I suppose that even gracious, peace-filled blogging is possible!

Thanks for stopping by this blog.

Grace and peace.

Sermon Notes: Where Justice and Mercy Meet (1 John 1:1-2:2)

 

Sorry that the corporate schmucks won’t let me upload the Tribute video but you can find it at Youtube.

Songs are strange vehicles to tell a story but they are effective ones.  They strike the heart and the mind and they stick with us longer than say…sermons!  You will remember the story from the Tenacious D song longer than you will remember most sermons. 
 
The authors of Scripture understood this and used inventive ways to get their point across as well.
 
Scholars have long struggled with how the letter 1st John should be outlined.  It just seems really random, unless you look at it with 1st century Jewish eyes.
 
The Jews used a form called a chaism, which is a way of arranging something in a parallel pattern with the meaning at the center.  They also arranged poetry and songs this way.
 
One scholar outlines 1st John like this:
 
A. Prologue (1:1-4)–Eternal Life
  B. Making Him a Liar (1:5-2:2)–Walking
      C. A New Commandment (2:3-17)–Love
          D. Antichrists (2:18-27)
              E. Confidence–Do Not Sin (2:28-3:10)
                  F. Love One Another (3:11-17)
              E. Keep the Commands (3:18-24)
          D. Antichrists (4:1-6)
      C. God’s Love and Ours (4:7-5:5)
  B. Making Him a Liar (5:5-12)–Testimony 
A. Conclusion (5:13:21)–Eternal Life
 
Thus, it is a chiaism.  You begin to wonder if the writer had some help?
 
The center of the chiaism is what would have truly stood out like a catchy chorus to a hair metal song.  So, if there is nothing else you take from 1 John it should be 3:11-17, to love one another.
 
But building up to that we have 1 John 1:-2:2, let’s take a look:
 
1 John 1:1-2:2:

¹ That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. ² The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. ³ We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. ⁴ We write this to make our joy complete.

 ⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

    ⁸ If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

^2:1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. ² He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

 
Most of us, on any given day, don’t feel like “Christians.”  We don’t feel “pure”.  We feel like failures.

We pray to God but then are left depressed and puzzled when our sin continues to haunt us and pull at us.  Why do we go to church and worship but fail to grow? Why do we read the Bible and pray but continue to struggle with the same sins?

Would you believe me if I told you that those feelings are, to a degree, good news because people walking in darkness don’t care.

But then would it upset you if I suggested that it still largely our fault?

How much time and energy do we put into doing something we really care about? If you want to run a marathon then you will spend a year working hard, eating right, sleeping well, etc. 

But when we approach our relationship with God, we treat it like if we just say, “abracadabra” then He should just fix it and we can get back to catching up on back episodes of Lost on Netflix. 

Does that really make sense?

How seriously do we take our relationship with God? If we really wanted to grow in holiness then would we just spend a few second on prayer here and there and 90 minutes in a church service on Sunday? Or would we attack it like we were preparing for a marathon?

Yet, even then, we will screw up.  Look at 1 John again, even if we are walking in light and say we have no sin in us then we are liars.  There will always be dark, unevangelized corners of our life and when we fall, even when we are giving it our all, we have to trust that God will truly forgive us.
 

Brennan Manning in his book Ragamuffin Gospel tells the following story:

Four years ago in a large city in the far West, rumors spread that a certain Catholic woman was having visions of Jesus.  The reports reached the archbishop.  He decided to check her out.  There is always a fine line between authentic mystic and the lunatic fringe.
    “Is it true, m’am, that you have visions of Jesus?” asked the cleric.  “Yes”, the woman replied simply.  “Well, the next time you have a vision, I want you to ask Jesus to tell you the sins that I confessed in my last confession.”  The woman was stunned.  “Did I hear you right, bishop?  You actually want me to ask Jesus to tell me the sins of your past?”
    “Exactly.  Please call me if anything happens.”
    Ten days later the woman notified her spiritual leader of a recent apparition. “Please come”, she said.
    Within the hour the archbishop arrived.  “You just told me on the telephone that you actually had a vision of Jesus.  Did you do what I asked?”
    “Yes, bishop, I asked Jesus to tell me the sins you confessed in your last confession.”
    The bishop leaned forward with anticipation.  His eyes narrowed.  “What did Jesus say?”
    She took his hands and gazed deep into his eyes. “Bishop,” she said, “these are his exact words: ‘I CAN’T REMEMBER.”

 How do you balance the absolute demands of a Holy God and the stark reality that we are sinners? We take it to the cross. We confess and live in gratitude that we have a King who pleads our case for us and is never denied his request from the Father. 
 

We need to take this sacred, eternal relationship more seriously and we have to accept forgiveness when we stumble.

This Sunday at Revolution…

This Sunday at Revolution we continue our new members/small groups class.  “I Believe in the Insurrection” class begins at Revolution at 6pm.

Coffee & Community kicks off at 6:30.  Come hang out for snacks, drinks and good music.

Worship begins at 7pm with a new sermon series on 1, 2 and 3rd John.  This weekend’s talk is entitled “Where Justice and Mercy Meet.”

After the talk, Ryan Rolfe & The World’s Most Dangerous Praise Band will lead us in worshipping Jesus.

Revolution meets every Sunday night at 315 Chillicothe Street, Portsmouth.

Everyone is welcome.  Come as you are.

Revolution: It’s Not Just A Church, It’s A Movement.

Theology & “(500) Days of Summer”

Here is the trailer to (500) Days of Summer.   Take a look:

The flick is about a dude who believes there is A person for everyone.  Not a rare belief.  The idea of “The One” pervades our society.  A kind of Gospel according to Uncle Rico from Napolean Dynamite!

But is it true?

Matt Chandler, the lead pastor of The Village Church in Dallas recently stated that as much as he loves his wife, “she is just a girl. I could have married someone else and been happy.  I’m just a boy and my wife could have married another man and been happy.  Men and women are not gods.  The Jerry Maguire “you complete me” line is idolatrous nonsense!”

Is he right?

Chandler did soften his statements but asserting that “the reason I know my wife is for me is I MARRIED HER!”

Whether you agree or disagree, followers of Jesus should carefully examine their view of relationships.  How much weight do you expect a boy or girl to bear? Do you put so much time, energy and emotion into a vision of a storybook romance that it has become a false god to you?

Back to Chandler, he argues in the same sermon that “boys make lousy gods!”  Amen…and so do girls.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  Love is awesome. My wife is grace upon grace to me. 

Romance is good too.  If you’re a married dude then please don’t take this as an excuse to sit on the couch, drink, eat Fritos and watch Sportscenter while your wife wants your attention but don’t make the opposite error of thinking that a human relationship will make you completely happy.  It won’t.  They can’t save you.

This myth that even a brief romance can fulfill your life is sold to us in movies like Titanic (which is really an overly long bad soap opera with good special effects). 

Now, if you haven’t seen the movie then SPOILER ALERT Leo DeCaprio’s character dies (because Kate Winslet’s character can’t find another piece of driftwood!) but the movie shows her as an old lady who lived a full life thanks to her weekend fling with a struggling artists from Wisconsin! 

As a pastor, I have counseled many girls who tried this approach (even on a cruise) and found that it just made them feel dirty and cheap!

Love is a good thing but, as Tim Keller reminds us, “Idols are good things that we make ultimate things.”  Love and romance are awesome.  Finding a boy or girl that is fun, cool and cute is sweet! But they can’t save you…even if they’re as cool as Zooey Daschanel!