bible study

Living as Exiles

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After many cycles of disobedient kings in Israel, God sent judgment, and the people of Israel became exiles under the rule of the Babylonian empire. God would eventually rescue his people once again, but until then, he called his people to live for his glory where they were. According to 1 Peter 2:11-12, as God’s people, we are now exiles, too. So we can learn a great deal from Israel during this time. But what does it mean for the church to be exiles, and what are its implications?

As exiles we are called to a…

1. Pilgrimage – As God’s people, this world is not our home. We are journeying through this life to a time when brokenness will be no more, and we will dwell with God forever. Our hope is not in what this world has to offer. So as exiles, we must keep our sights set upon our future dwelling place with God, and we do that by living for things that last beyond this life. We shouldn’t become consumed with material things, accomplishments, or fame, but instead, we focus upon bringing glory to God and sharing the hope of the Gospel with others.

2. Stewardship – As God’s exile people, we must be careful not to allow our focus upon our future home cause us to disregard the stewardship we have been given while we live in this world. We must not simply bide our time in this world as we wait for the next, but just as God called the Israelites to work for the good of Babylon while they were exiled (Jeremiah 29:7), we are called to work for the good of our cities.

Stewarding the resources we have been given for the good of our cities through building, sharing, serving, and engaging culture is part of what we’ve been made to do. As image bearers of God, we are called to create and have been sent to make culture as a reflection of our creative God. And not only will our stewardship for our cities’ good be for God’s glory, but it will also be for our good according to Jeremiah 29:7.

May we be a people that strike the balance of being on a pilgrimage and bearing a stewardship for the fame of Jesus in our city.

***To wrestle with this some more, I’d encourage you to spend some time reading and meditating upon the life of Daniel as well as Jeremiah 29:1-14.

The Creep of Idolatry

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Continuing through the story of Scripture after Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel splits into two. The next several hundred years are generally consumed with faithlessness and idolatry in various forms often stemming directly from the leadership of the kings. While we may not bow down to physical idols, we can learn a great deal about how our hearts tend toward them through a few passages in 1 Kings.

In general, idolatry doesn’t overwhelm us in one fell swoop. Instead, we fall to the creep of idolatry in our lives. Little by little, idols vie for more of our hearts’ loyalty. It’s like a bad smell that creeps in over time in your apartment. You may never even recognize it until someone comes over and its full power knocks them over. Idols creep in over time and we need God’s Word and His people expose them in our lives.

Three kings—Jeroboam, Asa, and Ahab—give us some insight into how idols may be hiding in our lives.

1. Rationalized Idolatry (1 Kings 12:25-33)

Having just become king over the newly formed split kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam is feeling the intense pressures of leadership. He had actually been called by God to lead this newly formed kingdom, so the weight of responsibility he felt was probably crushing at times. In order to lead the people of this new kingdom well, he believed they needed a place to worship God that was disconnected from the kingdom of Judah in Jerusalem. So he built places of worship and setup golden calves… big mistake. But how did it come to that point?

Jeroboam had rationalized that his calling to lead from God required this action or he would fail at what he was called to do.

How often do we find ourselves rationalizing sin, specifically idolatry, due to our “calling”?

2. Oblivious Idolatry (1 Kings 15:9-15)

Sometimes we become so caught up in the way things have always been in our culture or in our churches that we are completely unaware of the idolatry that is going on around us or we are actually joining in ourselves. This seems to be what happened to Asa. When he came to power, tons of reforms needed to happen, and overall, Asa did a great job leading the people back to the Lord. Yet, some of the high places remained (these were places of worship out of line with God’s intention). Since Scripture says that Asa followed God faithfully, the high places don’t seem to be an area of intentional sin but rather blindness.

Asa was oblivious to this vestige of idolatry continuing in his country because it had become so commonplace.

What idols or sins have become to commonplace that you are oblivious to their existence?

3. Ambivalent Idolatry (1 Kings 18:21)

Finally, in one of the most famous encounters between a king and a prophet—Elijah and the prophets of Baal—Elijah calls out the ambivalence of King Ahab and the people of Israel. They were “limping between two different opinions.” They tried to serve both God and Baal. The problem is, as Jesus points out in the Gospels, we can’t serve two masters. Going back and forth is not an option.

What idol in your life causes you to waver from following God?

The creep of idolatry is real and subversive. Will you recognize it in your own life and fight back against it for the sake of wholehearted commitment to Jesus?

The Attitude, Source, and Security of the Wise

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While Solomon is famous for building the temple, he is probably more famous for his wisdom. Everyone would recognize some of his writings in Proverbs like “iron sharpens iron.” Though not a narrative like much of what we’ve been looking at this year, Proverbs makes up a significant portion of the Old Testament wisdom literature. So as we walk through the Old Testament, we need to stop and consider the primary message of this book.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” – Proverbs 1:7

“For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” – Proverbs 2:6

“For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you.” – Proverbs 2:10-11

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” – Proverbs 3:5

From this small sampling of Proverbs, we find three characteristics of the wise: their attitude, source, and security.

The Attitude –
The wise will fear the Lord. This isn’t a fear like we get from a horror movie, but rather a humble reverential awe and respect that we get when we view the power of a natural wonder like Niagara Falls. The wise will feel insignificant when looking upon the Lord. They will respect his power by not leaning on their own understanding but trusting in his direction.

Just as one follows the signs that the parks department puts up at Niagara Falls in order to avoid likely death from the falls, the wise listen to the words of the Lord trusting that He knows best even when we don’t understand. It’s tempting to question God’s Word when we don’t understand the reasoning for a specific command, but Solomon is encouraging us to trust in the Lord’s Word even while we are still seeking to understand the reasoning behind it.

The Source –
As is obvious from the previous section, the Lord is our primary source for wisdom. And Proverbs 2:1-11 makes clear that we have access to this wisdom through God’s Word in Scripture. So the wise seek to drink deeply from the well of wisdom that is God’s Word on a daily basis.

The Security –
Wisdom can help with a ton of aspects of life, but the promise God gives to the wise in this passage is that the wisdom that comes from him will guard our souls and deliver us from evil. The pinnacle of wisdom is found in the Gospel: we are messed up creatures with no hope while leaning on our own works or understanding, but through trusting God, we can find life. What a great hope! We have ultimate life and security through the person of wisdom: Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 24, 30).

May we be a people of true wisdom, not the fading “wisdom” of the world.

Five People We Might Recognize in the Mirror

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Several years ago, I found myself frustrated by the story of Barabbas, the murderer who is given the freedom Jesus deserved. Certainly, I knew the cross is the path Jesus had to take to provide salvation, but the clear and total injustice of that moment left me stunned.

This year, reading through the Gospels, I found myself stunned again. How could so many people miss the fact that Jesus was the Messiah, and even those who did get it—Peter, for instance—blew it big time…

It’s at the height of my frustration that God brought the stinging blow to my pride: “You are each and every one of these apart from me.”

I’ve been Pilate— the man who believes he’s free from guilt. Confident in my own self-righteousness.

I’ve been the crowd—the people whose works put Jesus on the cross. In rebellion to what is clearly just and good, I enjoyed my own path, and it’s for my sin that he died on that tree.

I’ve been Judas and Peter—the men who walked closely with Jesus for so many years, yet in moments of great pressure and temptation, I falter in my faithfulness.

But praise God…

I am Barabbas—the man who deserves the highest punishment of all, but by the purposeful and gracious sacrifice of Jesus, I’m a man he came to save.

Just like everyone of the people in this story, we deserve condemnation. But the glorious truth of Easter is that Jesus came to take that condemnation on the cross, that we might live by the same power that raised him from the dead.

Yes, it’s offensive to recognize in ourselves the people who put Jesus on the cross. But it’s acceptance of that offense that leads us to enjoy the life Jesus came to give.

God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already.
-John 3:17-18

The Law and the Paradox of Grace

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After God reveals himself to Moses, He seeks to free Israel from their slavery and suffering by sending plague after plague upon Egypt until Pharaoh lets the them go. Moses leads the people into the wilderness on the way to the promise land, and they come to Mt. Sinai where a huge part of the Biblical storyline takes place: the giving of the Ten Commandments.

Most people have heard of the ten commandments, and many can probably name quite a few of them. But what implications do they have for us today? Aren’t they a bit simplistic? Do they have any relevance for us today?

Certainly, they are a summary of the law of God, and they don’t answer every moral dilemma we may face. However, there is much we gain by looking to the law of God both in the ten commandments and the rest of Scripture.

First, the law of God reveals his holiness and what he values. We learn that God values his relationship with us: we’re called to only worship him. Then, we learn he values human life: we’re told not to kill. Ultimately, the law shows us his goodness.

Second, the law shows us what it looks like to live holy lives and honor God.

But then it also reveals our sinfulness and our need for mercy and grace. None of us live up to this standard, and looking to the law will only bring pain and shame (that is, unless we are unwilling to see how far short we fall). The law of God shows us our need for what Jesus did on the cross, and that’s why Paul says it’s good in Romans 7.

We need to feel the pain of our sin or we will never fully appreciate the grace Jesus offers us on the cross. This is the paradox of grace that Rudolph Bultmann describes here: “This paradox of the revelation, that in order to bring grace, it must also give offense, and so can turn to judgment. In order to be grace it must uncover sin; he who resists this binds himself to his sin, and so through the revelation, sin for the first time becomes definitive.”

When we see our sinfulness in light of the law, we can truly come to see how great God’s grace is toward us.

May we look to the law that we might rejoice in grace!

Suffering & the Burning Bush

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Continuing through the story of Scripture, we’ve come to Moses and the burning bush. Yes, we did just skip about forty chapters of Genesis and went from Abraham beginning his journey to the promised land to about 400 years later in Egypt. It’s a long story, but basically, Abraham’s offspring eventually went to Egypt to survive a famine and stayed there. They grew to be the size of a small nation and were eventually enslaved by the Egyptians. And that’s where we find ourselves now.

Moses, an Israelite, has fled Egypt for the sake of his life and left behind his suffering people.

Suddenly, his life is turned upside down when he encounters a burning bush that’s not being destroyed. Many people reading this have probably heard this story 100 times growing up.

Unfortunately, we often miss the comforting message God is giving to us in our suffering through this story.

Three Truths about God that Sustain Us in Suffering

1. God hears us in our suffering (Exodus 2:23-3:7)

The people of Israel cry out to God in their suffering. I imagine many of their cries are out of frustration, anguish, and even doubt. They were likely struggling to believe the promises that were made hundreds of years ago to Abraham. Whether they had great or little faith, God heard their cry, and when He hears His people’s prayers, He responds for their good.

We can count on this promise, too. Jesus makes this abundantly clear in Matthew 7:7-11, for our God is a good Father who will give good gifts to his children. Will you cry to Him in your suffering?

2. God knows our suffering (Exodus 2:25 & 3:8)

But God doesn’t just hear our prayers about our suffering from some far removed location. He knows our suffering, not just intellectually like I know the score of last night’s Knicks’ loss (I would say game, but really, I’m pretty sure I can count on a loss no matter what day you’re reading this).

Anyway, God knows our suffering because He has suffered. The Father knew he would send Jesus to suffer on the cross, and that pained him even 1500 years before it happened. Our God is not one who can’t understand our pain, but he can relate to us in every hurt and temptation we could possibly experience (Hebrews 2:17-18 & 4:15-16).

Draw near to the God who understands perfectly the pain you are enduring.

3. God remains with us in our suffering (Exodus 3:8-15)

Finally, God reveals his great name to Moses in Exodus 3:14: “I AM WHO I AM.” This name, though pretty cryptic at first glance, communicates that God will always remain who He is: good, perfect, and true to his word. It also expresses the idea that He will remain with his people no matter what. These are huge promises for those who are suffering. We have a God we can count on, who will never fail us, and who has proven himself time and again through His Word.

If you’re suffering, remember that God hears, knows, and remains with you in your suffering. Be real in your cry to Him, and trust in His unchanging grace.

Deterred Faith- Three Types

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After the flood and Noah’s salvation, man begins almost immediately to seek his own way again by making a name for himself through building the Tower of Babel. Once again, though, we find God making good on His purposes and promises despite humanity’s stubborn sinfulness. This time God calls and makes a covenant with Abram (Abraham), for it’s him through whom God will create a people for Himself.

So much can be said about Abraham. His faith is an incredible example of trusting and following God.

But it’s Abraham’s father that has captured my attention as of late: Terah.

You’ve probably never heard of this guy, but right before God’s covenant promise to Abraham in Genesis 12, we have a few short verses about Terah.

Abraham and Terah stand in stark contrast to one another. One has persevering faith and another deterred faith (or a lack thereof).

What is easy to miss is that Abraham’s call and promise from God in 12:1-5 is given to him prior to Terah moving with Abraham to the city of Haran. Other places in Scripture help us in this. For instance, in Acts 7:2, we learn that God spoke this promise to Abraham while he was still in his hometown before he had moved to Haran.

So it seems that originally Terah was going on this journey of faith with Abraham. But while Abraham would persevere, Terah would be deterred.

We can’t know exactly why Terah was deterred. It’s possible that settling down and building wealth was part of it since 12:5 says the family had gathered possessions in Haran. But we can’t know for sure. Ultimately, what is held up in this passage and over the next few chapters is a faith that perseveres, a faith that lasts, that trusts God through thick and thin, and that follows God where he calls.

So what can deter our faith and hinder us from persevering?

Here’s three types of people with deterred faith:

1. The Comfortable – The security, peace, happiness, and comfort that the world offers is constant before our eyes. We will always be tempted to settle in and just enjoy the comforts that we can accumulate in this life. Building our own little kingdoms of material wealth and security may provide temporary pleasure or peace, but it will always fall short of the promises God has given us as we follow him to uncomfortable places. How has your faith been deterred by the temptation to be comfortable where you currently are?

2. The Distracted – Like Dory from Finding Nemo, we can often become distracted by every cool new opportunity that comes our way. Rather than focusing in on the pursuit(s) God has for us, we are constantly changing directions. These are often good things we go after, but are they the best? What is distracting you from God’s call on your life and how do you need to focus?

3. The Oblivious – Another way we end up with deterred faith is by simply being oblivious. As far as we know, Terah never heard a call from the Lord directly, so he likely never owned the call. He was blind or oblivious to the richness of the promise he could partake in through the journey with Abraham. Are you just following another person’s lead, or are you following God’s voice as he leads and guides you through his Word? Are you walking with God personally on this journey of faith, or have you never experienced God personally and know his voice in your life?

**Even if you don’t know the specifics of God’s call for your life, you can pursue his clear calling on every believer’s life that is laid out in Scripture.

Which one are you?

Avoid each of these, trust in God’s promises, and follow him as he leads each of us to take up our cross daily.

What Just Happened?!?

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Every good story needs a problem, right? Well, the Bible doesn’t take long to get right to the crux of things. After such a good start, everything seems to fall apart in one fell swoop.

In Genesis 1-2, we see a beautiful, good creation cared for by the powerful, yet personal God of the universe. Beginning in chapter three, everything goes wrong. The one boundary God set for humanity is questioned and undercut by the serpent, and Adam and Eve embrace the lie and seek to be like God—incredibly foolish considering they had already been created in the image and likeness of God. The boundaries were for their good, and having crossed them, the first couple experienced the tragic consequences that we still feel today.

Let’s briefly look at three things we learn from this passage:

1. The nature of temptation
Temptation strikes at our belief in God’s goodness. When we are tempted, we begin to question whether God’s Word is actually intended for our good. This is what happens to Eve. The serpent convinces her that God is forbidding something for no good reason. How often do we fall into that trap?

Our society constantly questions the validity of God’s commands in Scripture. For instance, God makes clear that sex outside of marriage is sin and outside of his plan for us. But how often are arguments made that “making sure you are sexually compatible is important,” or “if I know I’ll be with this person for the rest of my life, then why wait for something that is good?” These objections are questioning the goodness and validity of God’s command. Temptation leads us to ask “Is it really that big of a deal?” Sometimes, it may be hard for us to see why it is, but if we really believe in the goodness of God, then we’ll trust his Word and flee temptation.

—In what ways are you doubting God’s goodness in your life right now?

2. Our Reaction to Sin
What happens when we do sin? First, our reaction to sin, especially when we recognize the wrong, is a fleeing from relationships. Sin breaks our relationship with each other and God. As Adam and Eve, we feel shame and guilt, and we begin to experience a breaking of life-giving relationships. We begin to hide parts of ourselves from others, and as the level of authenticity breaks down, our relationships slowly become less and less meaningful. The community we were meant to experience erodes.

Additionally, we begin to flee from God. We don’t want to encounter his Word because we don’t want our sin exposed. We want to hide it from both God’s and our own eyes. So our relationship with Him breaks down.

3. The Response of God
Yet, the truth is, God sees our sin despite our best efforts to hide it, and He justly punishes it as we see in this passage.

But the incredible truth is that He also shows grace. Even in the midst of harsh consequences, God sows seeds of hope and grace. He points toward the promised Savior, who will crush the serpent’s head, ultimately destroying evil and sin. Then he provides a covering for the shame of Adam and Eve. God knows we can’t cover or remove our guilt and shame, so he made a way to wipe away our wrongs. Jesus came and lived the perfect life we were all created for, and then he died to take on the punishment we all deserved. Even in this terribly dark turn in the story, God has sown seeds of light and life!

—How is sin breaking down relationships in your life? Do you have a broken relationship with God? If so, admit your sin to Him and trust in his grace that he has given once and for all through Jesus’ work on the cross

***Another Big Question: If God is good and created all things good (as is seen in Genesis 1), why is there so much evil and suffering in the world? Here are two short articles that begin to address that issue:

     –Do Tummy Aches Disprove God by Joe Carter
     –When Atheists are Angry at God by Joe Carter
     -Also, you can check out The Problem of Pain by CS Lewis here.

In the Beginning, God…

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Throughout 2015, we are reading through Scripture together as a church in order to capture the whole, unified story. God used about 40 authors over hundreds of years to give us the story of his work of our redemption. Through the story, God shows us who He is and how we can relate to Him for His glory and our good. So we need to know the story, but we can’t stop there. We must also live the story, for we have been invited to experience the reality of these truths in our lives. Finally, we are called to share the story, so that others can experience God’s grace, too.

As small groups, we are going to dive into significant plot points throughout this story. This spring we are going to look at the Old Testament: God’s story of redemption. In the fall, we will study the New Testament by looking at the story of our redeemer and the story of the redeemed.

Every good story has a beginning, and for this one, we go to Genesis 1-2: “In the beginning, God…”

The story begins with God. – He is the central figure and author himself.

-The story doesn’t begin with us: humanity. We aren’t the main character, God is. Certainly, humanity is important, but the story begins with God to show us that He is the only all-sufficient, eternally existing being. This undermines our innate tendency to view the world as centered around us: our needs, our opinions, or our desires.

-A scientific explanation of creation is not the primary goal of these chapters. Wrestling with how current scientific evidence and Genesis 1-2 mesh is a valid pursuit (and many faithful believers disagree on this subject), but if this is where we focus, we’ve missed the point.

-Through the story of creation, God shows himself to be:

  1. Creator – 1:1
  2. Above and beyond all creation – 1:1-31 (Transcendent)
  3. The origin of all things good – 1:10, 12, 18, 25, 31
  4. The Giver of purpose – 1:27-28
  5. Personally involved with his creation – 2:7, 15-24 (Immanent)

***These truths are meant to give us hope in the midst of the chaotic world around us. How does God’s power, goodness, and personal nature change the way you look at a difficult situation in your life right now?

Humanity is unique in God’s creation. – The story may begin and center upon God, but humanity is clearly a special part of God’s creation and God’s story in the Bible.

-God makes us in His image. What in the world does that mean? Does that mean we look like God?

-No, not if we are talking about a physical likeness, for God is Spirit (John 4:24). Being made in the image of God means we reflect who God is through our purpose, characteristics, and relationships.

  1. Purpose – We’re called to “multiply and fill the earth” because God’s ultimate purpose is the spreading of His glory, and as people who reflect who He is, we spread his glory as we fill the earth. Also, as God reigns over all of His creation, we are given the responsibility to reign over creation (1:26-28). We are to do so with the same love, grace, and compassion as God.
  2. Characteristics – We have been created with creative, rational, and moral capacities that reflect God’s creativity, knowledge, and holiness.
  3. Relationships – “In the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” When God created humanity in his image, He made us in relationship with both Himself and each other. It wasn’t good for the man to be alone. Apart from relationship with others, the man was unable to fully reflect God because God has always existed in relationship as the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).

–So why is this important? Because as image bearers, our work, especially as it builds up society in a way that honors God, reflects God and fulfills our purpose as human beings. Our creative endeavors, our pursuit of better understanding of the world around us, and our pursuit of justice and mercy reflect who God is for His glory. And even our relationships are given a new life and purpose as they are meant for more than our mere pleasure.

***The drive to pursue these things is good, but as we will see next week, they are often out of whack because of sin. So pursue these things for God’s glory by relying upon God’s grace in Jesus.

Death by Silence

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Silence can be deadly. You’d think something as passive as silence would have very little effect on anything. For instance, think about when someone is getting bullied. Silently standing by can be just as harmful as actually bullying. Another example, if a doctor gets your results back from a test, yet fails to tell you anything, you could very easily be heading toward your death and never know it.

On an even more significant level, churches possess the life-giving message of the Gospel apart from which people will experience eternity apart from the glorious goodness of our great God. When churches are silent concerning this message, people will die, and ultimately, the church will die. This is made crystal clear with the church at Sardis.

G.K. Beale  argues that the church at Sardis has developed an incomplete witness. Based upon the introductory image, which alludes to the idea of witness, and the idea that the church has a good reputation but incomplete works, the church at Sardis appears to have failed to complete their witness and conquer.  (The Book of Revelation 273-274) In whatever form their compromise took, they clearly were lacking in their evangelistic witness to the world. Satan wants nothing more than for the church to fail in this area, and Jesus will not endure a church who refuses to repent of this sin.

The passage isn’t clear whether Sardis was lacking in their verbal or physical witness to the Gospel. Whether their words or their actions were silent does not matter, their witness was incomplete. We must recognize that our witness must be holistic. We cannot allow any part of our lives to be silent when it comes to the Gospel.

Without works that portray the Gospel, our message will likely fall on deaf ears.

But even worse, without the message of the Gospel flowing from our lips, our works will only provide temporary healing and lead people to eternal torment.

May our churches flee death by completely and boldly proclaiming the Gospel through our words and deeds.