gospel

The End

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After journeying for an entire year through Scripture, we’ve finally reached the end of the story, but what we’re looking at today is not another story from history that’s already occurred, but instead the future we look forward. We can look forward to this future with hope because we’ve seen God make good on his promises throughout the entire story found in God’s Word.

Here it is, the end of all things:

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.””
-Revelation 21:1-8

Rather than provide a lengthy reflection on this passage, which is my temptation every time I read these incredible words of hope, I want to simply encourage you to reflect upon the implications of our future hope.

-Both heaven and earth are finally made new for eternity.

-Our future home is a dwelling place with God.

-We look forward to a day when suffering and evil cease to exist.

-The experience of this future hope is completely free for any who would take it.

-Those without this hope have a drastically different destiny.

Reflect upon these truths, and ask: How do these truths impact the way you live right now?

The Need for Renewal

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When I was in high school, I ran cross country. Granted, I wasn’t very devoted to it because I could never really understand why people would run for the sake of running, which is why I took up soccer my sophomore year. But still, I ran cross country.

I found one of the keys is discipline and consistency throughout the race. The only problem is I always started way too fast. I jumped off the starting line like the mobs on Black Friday when the doors finally open. I raced hard out of the gate and ended up winded just a half mile in. Slowly but surely, I settled into the middle of the pack as a result.

How many of us have the same experience when it comes to our walk with Jesus? We started like a blazing fire for Jesus, and now we are barely glimmering embers after hitting the realities of the world around us. Temptations and persecutions have slowly worn us down.

This is exactly where many of the early churches found themselves only a few short years after being planted by Paul. In fact, most of these churches begin with incredible faithfulness and passion for Jesus, but it’s not long until Satan begins to attack and the churches need renewal. The letters in Revelation are meant for just this purpose: spiritual renewal and encouragement.

In Revelation 2:1-11, we find Jesus addressing two churches. First, the church at Ephesus has apparently experienced just the issue that we’ve been talking about. They remained doctrinally faithful, but the passion and love that used to flow from that doctrine has slowly died away. They are no longer living lives that are fueled by the Gospel. Their love for Jesus and others has dwindled, and as a result, Jesus is calling for them to return to their love for Him rather than be satisfied merely with right doctrine.

The Ephesian church needed a renewal of the love and practice of their faith through repentance, and Jesus encourages them toward this end through the hope that they have in Jesus: eternal life with God.

The second church is Smyrna. The problem they face is from the outside: persecution. This persecution threatened their spiritual well being, too. Jesus encourages them with promises of the hope that is beyond this present life.

Both these churches were experiencing threats to their spiritual vitality: one from within and the other from without.

Whatever is threatening your spiritual life, you can find hope and renewal in the Gospel. Return to the words of Jesus. They are for you, Christian. Experience the renewal of your passion and burn brightly for Jesus once again.

The Hope for Peace & Reconciliation

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No matter where you are from, what kind of cultural or ethnic background you possess, or what side of hot topics you land on, the lack of peace and reconciliation in our country is obvious. In fact, the distance between people seems to only be growing as sides continue to move to the extremes. The problems we face can be so overwhelming that we begin to feel they are insurmountable.

But, thankfully, we have a hope that can overcome all barriers to peace: the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Certainly, in case you think I’m being trite, the problems we face have no easy, overnight solutions. But the truth is that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1:16), and this extends beyond a mere individual experience.

In the next stage of the story of Scripture, we see this reality come to life. Since the day of Pentecost, the Gospel has been spreading throughout Israel (Judea & Samaria) even to Paul who had been persecuting the Jewish believers. But something new was about to happen: the Gospel was about to exhibit it’s power to overcome barriers between peoples in a way that no one saw coming, not even the apostles.

In Acts 10, God breaks down Peter’s assumptions about who can and who can’t experience God’s salvation. In case you think you’re slow to learn, be encouraged. Peter took three visions to finally be convinced of what God was doing through the Gospel: He was bringing salvation to every single person who would repent and believe in the Gospel no matter their ethnic or cultural background.

In Ephesians 2:11-22, Paul explains that this is possible because of what Jesus did on the cross. He establishes not only peace with God but also peace among humanity because he provides a common bound that supersedes anything in this world. We are all made children of God by grace through faith.

The glorious thing is that the Gospel brings peace in the midst of differences rather than by destroying the differences. Our ethnic and cultural backgrounds uniquely proclaim the glory of God, and the Gospel doesn’t destroy those identities but brings out their beauty even more.

We can enjoy diversity and experience peace because Jesus provides us ultimate unity through our identity in Him as children of God.

Yes, we still have a long way to go in realizing this reality. The church has often represented this reality very poorly to say the least. But as we ground ourselves in our mutual hope and identity in Christ, we can pursue peace and diversity with an expectation that Jesus has enabled our reconciliation.

Gospel Community

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Last week, we read of the Holy Spirit coming in power on Pentecost and essentially creating the church. What happened to all those people after they were saved? Did they just go on living the same lives they always lived? No, something changed. In fact, there whole lives were turned upside down.

Here’s what happened:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the templetogether and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
-Acts 2:42-47

Luke explains that the church was devoting themselves to four things: apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers. Some of these are more obvious than others. The apostles teaching is both Old Testament Scriptures and much of what would become our New Testament. The fellowship is the living out of the “one another’s” that we often talk about: love, care for, rejoice with, rebuke… one another. The breaking of bread is gathering for the taking of the Lord’s supper, and of course, prayers meant… praying together.

Essentially, the church can be summed up as devoting themselves to: Scripture, Fellowship, Worship, and Prayer.

Every church will do these things to one degree or another. Some are strong in areas that others are weak. The key is that a healthy church will be pursuing faithfulness in each of these. Certainly, it may look different than the context of Acts 2, but all these things serve as the foundations of a healthy church.

So take some time to reflect on your church or small group community.

How are you living out a devotion to Scripture, fellowship, worship and prayer? How can you begin pursuing these things and leading others to do the same?

The Cross: Our Hope for Reconciliation

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After three years of teaching and ministry, Jesus heads to the climax of the story: the cross. It’s toward this point that the entire story and most every promise has pointed, and it’s from this point that every blessing flows.

Jesus’ entire life and ministry have headed toward this single work. He would die to bear our sins and God’s just wrath toward us. The gifts that he offers us as a result of his sacrificial death on the cross are beyond compare. Possibly the greatest blessing he provides for us through faith in his work on the cross is a reconciled relationship with God.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
-Romans 5:1-2

Jesus overcame the greatest injustice there ever was: our sin against a holy God. We deserved to be the who experienced God’s punishment for our sins, but instead, Jesus took that on and brought peace to our relationship with God.

Not only does this radically change the way we relate to God, but it also shifts the way we approach relationships. Certainly, we have all been wronged by someone else in our lives. Whether its a simple insult or a significant betrayal, we’ve all experienced this kind of relational pain, and to varying degrees, those relationships are broken once we experience that pain. But this incredible blessing of the Gospel reminds us that there is hope for reconciliation.

If Jesus and his work on the cross can bring us peace between us and God, then certainly He can do the same between two broken human beings. Sure, it will be painful. And it will definitely take time, but the reconciling power of the cross gives us hope for every broken relationship in our lives.

May we seek reconciliation and approach our relationships with the same grace, love, and forgiveness that Jesus did toward us.

The Gospel & Helplessness

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The story of Ruth is an incredible story of God’s grace and redemptive love in his care for the helpless. Ruth and her mother-in-law have just lost their entire hope of survival: their husband’s provision. In the ancient world, that was practically an automatic sentence to poverty. And to top it all off, Ruth was heading back to Israel as a Moabite, a people who were long time enemies of God’s chosen nation. She was completely helpless apart from the grace of God.

But God, like so many instances throughout all of Scripture, had a beautiful providential plan to provide for Ruth and her mother-in-law. Through Boaz, a distant relative of Ruth’s mother-in-law, God would care for these ladies, and even more remarkable, use Ruth has a link in the family lineage of Jesus!

Boaz could have sat back and allowed others to do their duty. But instead, he saw the helplessness of Ruth and went to work, showing grace and compassion in abundance. Reflecting on this story, we can learn a great deal about how God wants us to view and respond to helplessness.

In NYC, the helpless or the oppressed are all around us. Whether one considers the rampant human trafficking or the overwhelming homelessness in our city, one can’t help but see need all around. So how should we respond?

When we see the helpless, we should be reminded of our helplessness apart from Christ. This should lead us to two things: Gratitude for Grace and Grace for Others

Gratitude for Grace – We should be rejoice that God looked upon us with compassion, sent Jesus to die for us, and made a way for us to experience freedom and life in Him. We should be led to praise our Savior who helped us when we were utterly helpless.

Grace toward Others – Then, with the same compassion of Jesus, we should be moved to action that we might show the same uninhibited grace that Jesus showed us to the helpless we encounter in our city. And just as God the Father planned how he would meet our needs, we should strategically plan to meet the needs of those around us as well.

May we be a people who see the helpless around us and are moved to radical acts of gracious compassion for the fame of Jesus.

Dry Bones Live

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In the midst of Israel’s exile, God uses Ezekiel to provide his people a message of hope, and he does this through some amazing events. One instance paints a powerful picture of several Gospel truths. Check out the story of the dry bones from Ezekiel 37:1-14 below:

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.

What an incredible picture of God’s life-giving power!

God is teaching us three primary truths through this passage:

  1. We are dead.
    -We aren’t simply broken or weak spiritually. We are dead, deader than a doornail, and there’s no doubt that we are dead because all we consist of are dry bones. We are beyond even the slightest signs of life.
    -Spiritually, we are dead. Sin has destroyed our ability to pursue God apart from a miraculous intervention, but that is just what God provides…
  2. God must act & sustain.
    -God is our only hope. Dry bones can’t move on their own, so God must act to give us new flesh, a new life, a resurrection. He must breathe into us the breath of life: this is the resurrection life we experience in salvation. God is the actor in our salvation. We simply receive and respond to the life he gives with faith and repentance. It’s totally and completely a gift from him (see Ephesians 2:1-10 as well).
    -Also, he must continue to sustain that life through his breath. He not only resurrects us but he sanctifies us as we see at the end of the chapter when God identifies himself as “the Lord who sanctifies.” He enables us to grow and continue in the holiness that he has given to us when he saved us from our sin.
    -We can’t resurrect or sanctify ourselves. God must act first and continue to sustain us.
  3. We must preach these truths.
    -God used Ezekiel as his means for raising the dry bones to life, and he has called each of us to share the gospel as the means for raising our friends, our neighbors, and strangers throughout the world.
    -If we don’t preach these truths that have the power to raise people from the dead, then no one will experience the eternal life that we have come to experience in Jesus (Romans 10:13-17).

We’ve been given a huge stewardship. May we be a people that carry this life-giving message to everyone we meet for Jesus’ fame.

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!

Christmas: A Message of Joy and Peace

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Few times throughout the year in NYC evoke a unified theme throughout this great metropolis. Such diversity that exists throughout our city provides a constant flow of variety. But it’s as a result of this rich diversity—certainly something to be celebrated—that the city experiences few events that impact almost everyone in the city. Even when hosting the Superbowl this past January, the city practically continued on like normal. But there are a few holidays and events that supersede much of this diversity. Memorializing 9/11 is certainly a somber example. On the other end of the spectrum, Halloween is basically a city-wide extravaganza—kids to adults of all ages.

One other holiday overtakes this city: Christmas.

Decorations have filled stores since just after Halloween. Midtown is covered in lights, trees, and ornaments. You can find Christmas trees for sale on practically every street corner. Everyone is brought into the cultural fervor around Christmas: Christians and non-Christians alike (although, there are certainly many who are celebrating other holidays this time of year).

As a result, we have a huge opportunity to easily bring the message of the Gospel into everyday conversations. Why?

The message of Christmas, the reason we celebrate, is a message of Joy and Peace.

The angels in Luke 2:8-21 clearly declare this message.

The message of a baby in a manger is one of eternal joy and peace. Sounds crazy, but it’s so true. When Jesus came his mission was to make a way out of the brokenness of this world, a way to reconciliation with our God, and thus, ultimately, a way to joy and satisfaction in God and who he made us to be.

He also came as a King to bring peace. He accomplished peace by the blood of the cross (see Ephesians 2:11-22). He made a way for peace between God and man and among humanity itself. He didn’t establish a political peace, but one day he will provide eternal and complete peace when he returns and makes all things new (Revelation 21).

During Christmas, everyone is talking about the holidays. People are talking about their traditions and asking others about theirs. We have an opportunity to share this message of joy and peace by asking simple questions that can spark conversations.. We can ask why Christmas is such a big deal? We can simply talk about our traditions and how Jesus is involved in those.

Take advantage of this season when people are connected to such a Christian event, and use conversations about Christmas as bridges to the Gospel.

Know & Share the Gospel

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We’ve been focusing a whole lot on sharing our faith lately. We can talk strategies and provide tools for sharing the Gospel all day long, but if we do not know the Gospel deep inside our hearts, then we will not be able to share the Gospel in a natural and contextually appropriate way.

So, this week’s resource is Tell the Truth by Will Metzger.

This is a heftier resource than normal, but it’s worth every moment of investment. Metzger not only provides a thorough explanation of the Gospel and common misconceptions, but he also provides great insights on how to share the Gospel as well. It’s a holistic resource for evangelism, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Check it out here.