Bowling Green Covenant Church

The Traveler’s Advisory

Friday 25 August 2006

“Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.” — 1 Peter 2.12 [NIV]

Recently, Christianity Today asked the following question of subscribers to its Internet newsletter: How do you most often respond when friends voice their skepticism of Christianity? Of the choices offered, the majority (36%) of those who responded selected, “I answer each challenge point by point.” Second place (28%) went to, “I try to win them through my actions.”

Sometimes you cannot answer each challenge point by point. You may not have the time, the knowledge or the skills needed to enter that debate. Sometimes the best way to respond to people who voice their skepticism of Christianity is to win them through your actions. That is Peter’s counsel in the verse quoted above.

However, the concept of winning over skeptics through our actions is not original to Peter. Like any preacher he borrowed his idea from another, more skilled preacher, but not just any preacher. Peter borrowed his idea from Jesus. In Matthew 5.16, Jesus said, “So let your light shine before others, so that they may see you good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

What Jesus taught to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Peter and they passed on to us: God receives glory when His people act like Jesus. When words are lacking we can always resort to what we do as a means of telling people about Jesus. When we practice what Jesus preaches we can change the way people think. If we can change the way people think we can change the way they live. If we can change the way they live we can change our culture. But it starts by God’s people behaving like God’s people—behaving like Jesus. God is glorified when we try our best to win people to Christ through our actions.

We are called to practice an unchanging truth in a twenty-minute world. We do this by living according to values rooted and grounded in the unchanging, eternal character of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. It is not as though people who do not know Jesus lack values. They do. The problem is this: the values of people who do not know Jesus are not based on the absolute and unchanging foundation of Truth.

And what is Truth?

The Bible teaches that Truth is a Person—the Lord Jesus Christ. In John 14.6, Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” The definite article is in italics since by its use Jesus defines Himself as the ONLY way and the ONLY truth and the ONLY life. He is not a way and a truth and a life. He is THE way and THE truth and THE life. More importantly, since Hebrews 13.8 tells us “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, yes and forever,” it is possible to say that since Jesus never changes then we can say the truth never changes. And the truth is no one comes to the Father except through Jesus. People will come to the Father when His people behave like His Son. God is glorified when His people practice what Jesus preaches as they try to win people to Christ through their actions.

Even people who do not follow Jesus value the truth. And they value people who tell the truth and practice the truth. They value people who treat others with honor, respect, mercy and grace. They notice husbands who love their wives the way Christ loved the church. They notice wives who respect their husbands by submitting to them as the church submits to Christ. They notice children who obey their parents and parents who do not exasperate their children. They notice employers who treat their employees with dignity. They notice workers who show respect for their boss as well as their co-workers.

The truth is pagans like it when we treat them with respect. They like it when we behave like Jesus. They may not understand it, but they like it.

And if they do not?

Ignore them and keep on behaving like Jesus because God receives glory when His people behave like His Son.

You think about that.

MM

The Traveler’s Advisory

Friday 18 August 2006

“A voice says, ‘Cry out.’ And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’ ‘All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.’” —Isaiah 40.6-8 [NIV]

The first time I read these words was on the title page of the first Bible I ever owned—a paperback New American Standard Bible. I was a very young Christian at the time, having confessed faith in Christ a mere two weeks prior to the purchase. They are arresting words. They are sobering words. They are encouraging words. The arresting part of Isaiah’s words is not that you and I are like grass. The sobering news of his text is not that we are like flowers that fall. To the contrary, the arresting, sobering and encouraging news is that “the word of our God stands forever.” It requires no faith at all to believe in the mortality of humankind. The evidence is all around us. Witness Iraq, Lebanon, even Bowling Green. Have you read the obituary section in the newspaper? Driven by a cemetery? Our mortality is undeniable. Ah, but equally undeniable is the eternity, the “foreverness,” of God.

We may not enjoy being compared to grass that withers, or flowers that fall, however the fact is we are only on this earth a very short time. We grow, we blossom, we fade, we wither and we die. The bad news is we are temporary. The good news is God is forever.

It’s like the song that says, “We are a moment, You are eternal.” Our hope for eternal life rests securely in the eternity of God. Specifically, our hope for the present and the future rests securely in the eternity of God’s word. In his commentary on Isaiah, John N. Oswalt observes,

“The Spirit that breathes destruction for all human pride is the same Spirit who speaks the eternal Word of life over all withered and faded human hopes. Here is the paradox introduced at the beginning of the book: if I insist I am permanent, then I become nothing; if I admit that God alone is permanent, then He breathes His permanence on me.”

The cry of Isaiah 40 is an open call to confess faith in the permanence of God. It is a declaration that we only have some many breaths to take in this life before we wither and fall—a limited time before we pass into eternity. Unless the Spirit breathes His permanence into our being, we have no hope for life beyond this life.

The message of Isaiah 40 culminates in verse 31, “but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not grow faint.”

Sometimes we must state the obvious before we see the obvious in a new light. We will wither, fade and die. But if our hope is in the permanence of God and His Word, the Spirit breathes eternity into our being. And so filled with His presence we have assurance that even though we die; yet we shall live.

You think about that.

MM

The Traveler’s Advisory

Friday 11 August 2006

“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” “’This is My body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me…This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” —1 Corinthians 10.16; 11.26 [ESV]

There is something comfortable about familiarity. There is also an element of danger. Familiarity with Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, can lead to neglect with respect to its importance and purpose. We eat the bread and we drink the cup because we are commanded by the Lord to do so in remembrance of His sacrifice.

As followers of Jesus Christ in the Reformed tradition we acknowledge two sacraments: Communion and Baptism. We recognize these as sacraments because (1) the Lord Jesus commanded us to baptize all those who confess faith in Him and become His disciples (Matthew 28.19-20); and (2) Jesus commanded us to eat and drink the Communion meal in remembrance of Him (Luke 22.19). Baptism and Communion encourage our faith because, as sacraments, they are means of grace. When we, by faith, participate in these two sacraments the Lord Jesus Christ communicates His grace to us.

As a sacrament, Communion is a sign and seal of Christ’s work on our behalf. As a sign, Communion symbolically represents the death of Christ. Jesus’ words, “My body” and “My blood” make it plain that His was a sacrificial death. It also symbolizes our participation in Christ the crucified Messiah. We do not merely look at the bread and the cup. We eat and drink. By so doing we partake of the blessings and benefits secured for us by Christ’s death for us. And following Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 10, Communion symbolizes our “communion” with one another as believers in Jesus Christ.
As we receive the elements of Communion we enter into fellowship with Christ and with one another. As a seal, Communion reminds us that we have been sealed by great love of Jesus Christ. We know this from His words, “This is My body which is for you.” Inasmuch as Christ died to redeem the elect—those predestined to be His from the foundation of the world, He died for individual believers; for you and for me.

Furthermore, Communion comforts us with the assurance that all the blessings of salvation are available to us through faith in Christ because it was for us He gave His body to the Cross and His blood to be shed.

When we receive Communion we confess again our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior and pledge our loyalty to Him as our Lord. We renew our commitment to follow Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life. It is worth noting that when we celebrate Communion Jesus Christ is spiritually present among us. Throughout Communion the bread remains bread; the wine remains wine.

However, whereas the elements remain unchanged we should not. “The body and blood of Christ, though absent and locally present only in heaven, communicate a life-giving influence to the believer when he is in the act of receiving the elements,” (L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, p. 653-654). We believe it is the Holy Spirit who communicates this influence and that our experience of Christ’s presence depends upon our faith as we eat and drink. As a result, we should leave the Communion table changed people.

A friend once said, “The Communion table is tailor-made for people who walk with a limp.” Those who come in faith to eat and to drink experience the presence of Christ so that when they leave His table they are not as they were before they ate and drank.

We may walk away from the table with a limp, but let us not walk away as those who have no hope.

You think about that.

MM