7 Defining Moments in Your Sermon – Part Two

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As we work through this list of seven defining moments in the sermon, we have so far thought only about the unseen preparation of all involved and the first impressions before the sermon really starts.  Now let’s consider two that are part of the introduction to the message:

3. The motivation to listen – Most sermons will have the same elements: a beginning, a middle, an end, a Bible passage explained and applied, and some illustrative material to help communicate.  Now, all of these standard elements can be better or worse.  But they tend to be present.  However, the motivation to listen is by no means guaranteed.  It is not guaranteed from the listener’s side, and it is not guaranteed in the details of the sermon.  How could it be missed?  Easily.  Too many preachers assume that their listeners are interested in Elijah’s encounter with a widow or Paul’s answer to the church’s question.  And too many introductions offer something less than motivation. 

We can easily settle for familiarity or interest.  Familiarity introductions are the ones that refer to something we all experience – you know, going upstairs and forgetting what you went up to get.  Everyone smiles and relaxes a bit.  Then, the message continues as if that connection is enough.  Or interest introductions are the ones that raise eyebrows with an interesting tidbit – you know, that it is impossible to lick your own elbow.  Some knew that, some didn’t, some try it, etc.  And the message moves on.  Familiarity introductions and interesting introductions are probably better than just launching into 1 Kings 19 and its background, but better by far would be an introduction that makes listeners want to hear what is coming. 

Inasmuch as you are able, motivate listeners to listen.  Robinson used to talk about surfacing a need in your listeners that the passage would then be able to address.  Use your introduction to grab their attention, convince them that they need what this passage is going to show them, and win their hearts to be open to you as you lead them into the passage.

4. The overview – At the end of the introduction, it is easy to skip the overview.  Generally, you should not skip it.  Give people a sense of the shape of the message.  We are going to see the problem described, and then the solution.  Or Paul gives three truths that we will look at together.  Or the passage comes to us in two chunks, verses 1-5 and verses 6-9.  Or we will see the transformation we need is coming, the triumph over death is certain, and the therefore that changes how we live – the transformation, the triumph, and the therefore.  The overview can be detailed or a very high-level glimpse, but if it is missing, the listeners are slightly in the dark as to where the message is headed.  If your message is an inductive shape, then make sure the question that is going to be answered is clear: what is the critical ingredient that we need if we are to have a ministry like the master?

Feel free to comment about introductions – what works well?  What do you hear that doesn’t connect or help the listener?  Introductions are critical to the effectiveness of a sermon.  Next time, we will look at two more defining moments in the sermon.

7 Defining Moments in Your Sermon

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As you preach, there are numerous defining moments.  That is, pivotal decisions or moments that will multiply the impact of the sermon.  The whole sermon matters, of course.  You can’t expect one great line to do great work when it is packaged in fluff.  But while you work on the whole sermon, remember that there are some defining moments that could make or break it.

1. The unseen preparation (yours and theirs!) – Whatever happens during the sermon itself is really just the final part of a process.  There has been a whole lot of unseen preparation before the moment of delivery.  Of course, there have been the ups and downs of sermon preparation for you, the preacher.  The prayer, the study, the wrestling with word choices, the hunting for illustrative material, the interruptions, the storm, and the calm inside you and in your study.  The journey to the pulpit may have been arduous, or somehow serene, but hopefully God has been at work in you before he will work through you. And I am only describing the last few days, but God has been at work for years.  However, the sermon is not just about the preacher.  How has God been stirring the listeners?  Providential circumstances, carefully timed conversations, quiet questions inside, or overwhelming challenges without.  It is not unusual for a sermon to touch a nerve that was only sensitized in the preceding days.  “How did the preacher know that about me?”  Often, the preacher didn’t.  But someone did.  It is helpful to remember that a lifetime of preparation is brought into the sermon from all sides, and only God can be aware of that, let alone influential in it!

2. The first moments of the introduction – It is hard to overstate the importance of the first moments.  I don’t mean the introduction.  I mean the first impressions.  Do you seem comfortable, or nervous, or indifferent, or agitated?  Will listeners get the sense that you have something to say that is worth their focus and time to listen?  Will people who have never heard you before feel welcomed and engaged?  Will regular listeners sense that you are well prepared, or will they get the sense that you are somehow “off” this week?  Remember, humans are wired relationally.  When you sit at a table in a restaurant, you know whether you like the server before you have a chance to evaluate your first interaction.  Sometime, watch a video of yourself.  Watch up until your first word.  Prayerfully and conversationally evaluate (that is, ask God what he thinks, and ask someone else what they notice – don’t just trust your own perspective).  Then watch the first couple of sentences, and evaluate again. 

We will continue this list of defining moments in your sermon next time, but feel warmly invited to comment with any that are on your mind!

7 Defining Moments in Your Sermon Preparation – Part Four

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There are multiple defining moments in the sermon preparation process. We have thought about starting the process, shifting from passage study to message formation, becoming conscious of who will be listening, and the unplanned interruptions that seem to prevent a smooth preparation. There is one more defining moment left. It is one to add if it doesn’t happen naturally:

7. The realization of insufficiency.  You want to be a good steward of your opportunity to preach.  You desire to give your best, both in terms of exegetical rigour, and pastoral sensitivity in sermon crafting.  And perhaps the process has allowed better than normal focus, with more clear hours for preparation than you expected.  Maybe nothing broke at home, no hospital visits were necessary, and everything was unusually peaceful and supportive along the way.  Will you go into preaching feeling confident in your preparation, your skill, and your work of sermonic art?  I hope not.  When we feel we have “the best of sermons” then we tend to discover the false promise of self-sufficiency.  If God has not brought you to humble dependency through a log jam, or through an interruption, or through years of preaching experience, then it is totally acceptable to bring yourself to the place of total dependency.  Some combination of “apart from you, I can do nothing” prayer content along with a flat-on-your-face prayer posture is highly appropriate.  One of my teachers always prayed that he had a stick but needed God to come through as he threw it on the ground.  You want to be the most prepared preacher possible, but you must preach with a profound sense of your dependence on God.

What other defining moments do you recognize in your sermon preparation process?

Okay, here is a bonus one as I reflect on the list:

Bonus: The recognition of the coherence of the passage. Thinking back to the study of the passage, it is critical to arrive at the recognition that the passage holds together. It is easy to skip past this once you start to see some points that will preach. But actually, for your message to feel coherent, you need to recognise that the passage is also coherent. What unifies it? How does it hold together? How do the points and details relate to each other? Assume the Bible writer was not jumbled or scattered in his thinking, and keep thinking until you can see how it is a single unit of thought.

7 Defining Moments in Your Sermon Preparation – Part Three

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Defining moments are pivotal decisions that will impact the essential nature of your sermon. So far we have thought about getting started, and about the move from passage to message. Now let’s add a couple of unplanned moments that tend to show up quite often in the process:

5. The moment of breaking through a log jam.  Most messages are not a smooth journey from passage selection, through each sequential step, to a pulpit-ready sermon.  Somewhere along the way, there tends to be a log jam and we get stuck.  It could be the wording of the main idea.  It might be a needed illustration.  Or perhaps the sermon is ready, but the introduction feels bland and in need of a major overhaul.  Sometimes the whole thing might feel okay, but flat.  You are stuck and you feel it.  What can you do?  Sometimes the jam is the necessary reminder to really pray about the message – wrestling with God for some kind of breakthrough.  Sometimes the jam needs to break you free of your computer – stand and preach it out loud, then when it seems to flow better, go back and try to capture what you said into your outline.  Sometimes the jam will break only after you take a break – pray about it and leave the preparation for a walk, a night’s sleep, or a conversation with someone else.  I suspect new preachers will know the panic a log jam can create in your heart.  And I suspect that seasoned preachers will know how often a log jam occurs in the preparation process, and then proves to be a defining moment.

6. The interruption or even, the attack.  Maybe you have a nice predictable rhythm.  Perhaps you start preparing on a certain day, then take X number of sessions to study the passage, move on to shape the message on another day, and then have X number of hours to complete the message.  It may be nicely and neatly regimented by years of practice.  But then there is the interruption.  It is almost predictable.  The washing machine breaks, the family member’s computer goes down, the phone call from the congregant in a crisis, the thing that demands several hours that you do not have to spare.  It happens.  If it happens so often that you feel under-prepared every time, perhaps you need to review your standard plan for sermon preparation.  Perhaps it is time to lift some stress and get further into the process sooner in the week.  At the same time, it is good to recognize that God has used many sermons that felt under-prepared from the preacher’s perspective.  Sometimes the interruption, or even spiritual attack, is the necessary mechanism to push our dependence back onto God, where it belongs.

Do you experience variations of the log jam and the interruption? How often?

7 Defining Moments in Your Sermon Preparation – Part Two

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While the whole preparation process will shape your message, some defining moments will fundamentally change the outcome of the process. We started with two related to starting preparation. Now let’s think about two that tie into the transition between passage study and message formation:

3. The decision to transition from passage study to message formation.  The first half of the preparation process focuses on understanding the passage.  The second half involves formulating and writing a message.  The shift between these two phases is critically important.  If you shift too early, then you will be working on the message without really grasping the meaning of the passage.  If you shift too late, then you will have plenty of exegetical insight to share, but little time to craft a message that lands in real life.  Do you tend to fall in one direction or the other?  It is hard to see a lack of understanding in the mirror – we all tend to think we have a good grip on a passage when it may only be a superficial sense of the meaning.  Or you may be in a rut of sharing exegetical nuggets without crafting a message that is shaped to speak into real life.  And some, sad to say, neither know the joy of being gripped by a passage, nor the pleasure of crafting a sermon that hits home – they just use a passage as a launch point for some standard favourite content.  If that could be you, then it may be time for some candid conversations with some listeners, and for radical surgery on your ministry.  It will be worth it.

4. The realization of who will be listening.  At one level, this moment is fairly straightforward, as long as it happens.  That is to say, after studying the passage to understand the author’s meaning as accurately as possible, then you consciously introduce your listeners into your thinking as you move to crafting the sermon for their benefit.  You don’t want to be thinking too much about your listeners when you are studying the passage, because your concern is the original audience of the text.  Neither do you want to not be thinking about your listeners when shaping the message, because your concern has to be for them as the audience of the sermon.  That moment of introducing conscious consideration of your listeners should be a standard point in the process every time (and essentially the same moment as number 3 above).  But then there will be some sermon-specific moments in this category too.  You might realise how the message could hit very close to home for someone in your congregation.  You might be told that a certain person is going to be present.  You might be at church when someone walks in that you were not expecting (and you realise your message requires some tweaking for their sake – either to be more accessible, less provocative, or whatever.)

As this list continues to build, what defining moments do you recognize in your sermon preparation?

7 Defining Moments in Your Sermon Preparation

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

As you prepare your sermon, there are numerous defining moments.  That is to say, pivotal decisions that will impact the essential nature of the sermon.  The whole process is important, and every little detail of your preparation will build the character of the message.  But the defining moments will fundamentally change the outcome of your process.  Therefore, it is helpful to be especially aware of these key points in the process.

Here are seven defining moments in your sermon preparation:

1. The choosing of the passage.  If we genuinely believe in expository preaching, then the choice of passage will always be a key moment in our preparation.  Why?  Because that passage will be the boss of the message.  We cannot say whatever we want using any passage.  Some preachers do.  We must not.  If it is a series from a book, then the moment will primarily be the selection of the series, although the length of the next section to be covered will also matter.  If it is a one-off message, then the choice of the passage matters for the content of the sermon.  And also the timing of that choice will matter for how much time we can give to the preparation.  Some preachers make a good choice, but they make it so late that the preparation is adversely impacted by lack of time. 

2. The decision to start preparing.  If you have a tendency to procrastinate, and many of us do, then deciding to start preparing is important.  If your routine is established and it works well, then this may not be a key point for you.  However, if you find that life often presses in and the week is often eaten up before you even start the process, then this point is for you.  Decide to start early.  Just the first step.  For me, that means pasting the passage into a document and starting to recognize the shape of the passage.  Once you have started, even if only just, then the brain starts to collect and sort exegetical information, and the heart starts to bow to the truth of the text.  Some helpfully choose to get started, even if only just, more than a week before preaching.  Some even take some time to get started on every series, and even every passage, months before the time comes to preach.

In the next post we will continue the list of seven defining moments in the preparation of a sermon.

The Echo of Easter

/ Peter Mead / 3 Comments

I recently imagined a global tour that could be called the “tour of the tombs.”  That might not sound too exciting, but it would include great cities in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and North America!  Were we to travel that itinerary, we would see the burial sites of philosophers and Pharaohs, Kings and Emperors, religious leaders and mass murderers.  It would be quite the tour!  And along the way, we would get an inadvertent “tour of the troubles.”  After all, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, etc., are all marked by political protests, persecution, death, wars, and terrorism.  The world of today is not so different from the world of our history books.

In the first century, the events of one Sunday led to one of the greatest books ever written.  Imagine being John, possibly the youngest of Jesus’ disciples.  For three years, being with Jesus had transformed his life.  He was there when Jesus taught, healed, and shook the world.  John was there when Jesus was arrested and crucified.  He was there the day Jesus rose from the dead and met with his disciples.  John was there when Jesus met the group by the Sea of Galilee, when he uttered the Great Commission, and when he ascended into heaven.

The three years were over, but for the next six decades, John served his beloved Jesus.  He saw the gospel spreading in Jerusalem and the persecution that arose.  He saw his brother and the other disciples systematically slaughtered over the following decades.  He lived beyond the destruction of Jerusalem, the dispersion of the Jewish people, and the rise of nasty Emperor Domitian.  John lived for six decades serving Jesus.  And it was for preaching Jesus that John was sent to the penal colony of Patmos in his old age.

Then, one Sunday morning towards the end of the first century, John heard the voice of the risen Jesus (see Revelation 1:9-11).  The voice commissioned him to write everything he saw so that the Revelation of Jesus might be sent to the seven churches John cared about in Asia Minor.

If you look at the introduction to that book, the book of Revelation (1:1-8), you will find that John believed it to be a uniquely special book.  In a dark and troubling world, it offered grace and peace from the eternal God, especially the risen and victorious Son, Jesus Christ.  John underlined how Jesus revealed the Father, has risen from the dead, rules over the kings of the Earth, has rescued sinners from this world, and, in the future, will return.  The Revelation of Jesus Christ was exactly what the aged John needed.  It is what we need, too.

So what was it that John saw?  When we read through Revelation 1:12-20, how Jesus is portrayed is striking. 

The risen Jesus is impressively powerful.  He is impressively dressed, with a God-like description of his features.  There is the eternal wisdom seen in the white hair, the penetrating eyes, the judging feet and mouth, the thundering voice, and the brighter-than-the-sun face.  It might be really obvious, but this is no description of a corpse.  Jesus is very much alive and impressively powerful.  If we think of the tour of the troubles in this world, what hope do we find in the many tombs of emperors and kings?  None.  But one tomb is empty, and death has been defeated – Jesus holds the keys of death and Hades!  We all need to be gripped by the wondrous vision of Revelation 1.  But don’t skim through the description too quickly.  Jesus is not only impressively powerful, but he also explains the cryptic imagery of lampstands and stars that appear in that vision, leading us to reconsider all those powerful features.

The risen Jesus is intimately present. I wonder how many times John had remembered Jesus’ words, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)  Surely, those words had meant a lot during the difficult days when the apostles were being killed, when the Middle East was being rearranged, when John’s ministry in Asia was being opposed, when persecution was rising, and when John suffered on the prison island, kept away from the people he loved.  Jesus had promised to be present, and he was.  And now, this entire book was pointed in the direction of those seven churches.  When John turned, he saw Jesus walking in the midst of the lampstands, that is, the churches.  Jesus was present with John and with the churches.

Specifically, Jesus wore the clothing of a high priest (Rev. 1:13).  We can surmise that he was praying for the churches.  His features point to the purifying work of this high priest (Rev. 1:14-15) – the penetrating eyes, the feet ready to stamp out sin, etc.  And his thunderous voice proclaims boldly to the church (Rev. 1:15-16).  It is interesting that this is no whisper, but like the sound of many waters pounding on the shore – it makes me wonder how many of those churches had closed their ears to the words of Christ by closing their Bibles.  How many churches today are doing the same?

Jesus is risen; he is alive.  The Easter truth transforms our experience of this troubled world.  And the vision described in Revelation 1 declares a vital message.  The risen Jesus is both impressively powerful, and intimately present in the church today.  We need not despair at what we see around us.  We can look back to the empty tomb.  We can look forward to the return of Christ.  And we can look up, knowing that our great High Priest is praying for us, purifying his church, and proclaiming his word to this day.  Easter echoes down through the years. He is risen.  He is alive.  He is powerful and present.

Food and Following (Matthew 9:9-17)

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It seems like food is significant in every culture.  Whether a culture is known internationally for its food or not, something about sitting down together to eat carries more significance than the mere fuelling of the body or renting restaurant space for a meeting.  In Jesus’ time, it is evident that table fellowship mattered greatly.

In Matthew 9:9, Jesus called Matthew from the tax booth to a new life as a follower of Jesus.  That may seem like a familiar idea to us, but having such despised sinners as followers was a radical act by Jesus.  Who deserves to be his follower?  Who deserves to be his apprentice, learn from him, become like him, relate to him, and be launched into a life of ministry representing him?  Did Matthew deserve it?  Do you or I deserve it?  May we never lose the wonder of the call to be his followers!

Immediately, we read of Jesus reclining at the table with many tax collectors and sinners.  Luke’s account points out that Matthew laid out a “great feast,” although Matthew was too humble to mention that detail.  (Luke 5:29)

The Fellowship Question (Matthew 9:10-13) – The meal sparked a fairly obvious food-related question – who should Jesus eat with?  To the religious evaluators, it was obvious that Jesus should not be eating with tax collectors and sinners. Indeed, they were the ones who’d earned the invite to the special meal.

I was recently with a pastor whose church seeks to reach out to the marginalized and the maligned of society.  He took my family to dinner, and we enjoyed a wonderful meal together at his favourite restaurant.  He told us how, when his church had started, they hired this restaurant and filled it with people who may never have eaten in a restaurant before.  The feast was a gift.  The gift was not just the food; it was a fantastic way to get to know a Jesus who would sit and eat with societal nobodies like Matthew’s friends.

It is interesting how Jesus responded to the question.  He differentiated between those who are healthy and those who are sick.  It is the sick who know they need the help of the physician.  After all, whoever says, “Let me allow my broken ankle to heal, and then I will head for the hospital,” or “Let me wait for this abdominal pain to pass before I go and get checked out?”  It makes no sense to hold back when you know you need help.

Jesus called the religious to soften their hearts toward those who knew their spiritual need.

The Fasting Question (Matthew 9:14-17) – Matthew follows up with another food-related question.  Why do Jesus’ followers eat?  Some of John the Baptist’s disciples wanted to know about fasting.  After all, the Pharisees were promoters of the Old Testament Law and promoted fasting.  Then, they were followers of the final Old Testament prophet and were into fasting, too.  So, indeed, if Jesus were a step forward religiously, he would promote fasting even more.  The Law, the Prophets, and now came Jesus; therefore, his followers should be fasting extra!  But they missed something: Jesus was not just another step forward. He was the goal of it all!

Jesus spoke in wedding terms.  A wedding day is not a normal day.  You never walk into a wedding reception and expect to find people fasting.  It is a day of feasting!  It cannot be a typical day when the bridegroom is present! 

Jesus went on to give two everyday examples to make a point.  Nobody would put a piece of unshrunk cloth onto an old garment because it would self-destruct when it got wet and dried again.  Everyone knew that.  Likewise, nobody would put new wine into old, hard, shrunk, leathery wineskins.  Again, it would self-destruct when the wine fermented and expanded.  Everyone knew that, too.  So, to Jesus’ point – his work was not just another step forward in the Old Testament line of promise.  It was the launch of something profoundly new that could not be contained in the old framework.

We may not be from a Jewish background and tempted to try to squeeze the radically new gift of New Covenant life into the framework of the Old Covenant.  But actually, we are all tempted to try to add the new life Jesus offers into the old way of religious effort that always characterizes humanity.  It is so easy to think that becoming a Christian adds a few more responsibilities onto my to-do list of moral efforts for respectable living.  However, that is not how it works.  It is a radically new life.

Jesus came to transform our lives by his presence.  He calls us to live a radically new life as his followers.  We are called to be with him, enjoy time together, learn from him, and be transformed from inside to out.  We are called to feast in joy because he has come.  We are called to fast in earnest because he is currently away.  Jesus is not asking you to become more religious; he is offering something far more radical than that.

As our thoughts are drawn to the first Easter, remember the radical nature of all that Jesus has done for us.  And then don’t settle for a modified version of religious living.  We get to follow the risen Christ through the year ahead.  Jesus offers a radically new life to really needy folks like you and me.

Nowhere, Now!

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What is the greatest commitment we see in our world today?  Is it the commitment of a classical musician, or a sports professional?  They say it takes 10,000 hours of practice to really master any skill.  Apparently, it takes nine to twelve months of specialist training to be ready to attempt to climb Mt Everest. While the idea of commitment may be dismissed by so many in our society, there are still countless people dedicating themselves to various pursuits.

In Matthew 8:18-22, Jesus speaks about commitment at an extraordinary level.  After three chapters of the Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5-7), Matthew seems to be shifting to an all-action presentation of Jesus performing healing miracles.  He heals the leper, the centurion’s servant, and Peter’s mother-in-law.  It feels like we have left the teaching block behind and settled down for an action-adventure section of the Gospel.  But then we come to these few verses and two powerful sayings of Jesus about commitment.  

Essentially, Jesus declares that to follow him means to belong nowhere and the demand is to follow now.

Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 

Matthew 8:18-20

Belong Nowhere! – The scribe sounded so committed.  He would follow Jesus anywhere!  But Jesus pointed to the rhythm of creaturely life.  A fox?  It gets up and puts in a night shift touring its territory, marking the boundaries, catching a vole or two, enjoying some worms and bugs, even feasting on some berries if the opportunity arises.  Then, when its work is done, it returns to its hole and lays down its head to sleep.  Work done, it heads for home.

Just to reinforce the point, Jesus mentions birds too.  They wake up nice and early, some get in a singing practice before dawn, then head out and fly the skies looking for food.  Some catch flies mid-air, others swoop down for voles and mice, while others prefer seeds and worms.  Then, when their work is done, they return to their nest and lay down their heads to sleep.  Work done, they head for home.

Every creature is the same.  Including humans.  Wake up, work, head home, and sleep.  But not Jesus.  His work never seemed to be done.  When he finished healing Peter’s mother-in-law, then many more were brought to him late into the evening.  When he headed out early to a deserted place, he sometimes found crowds looking to get more from him there too.  And Jesus was not home.  We never read of him heading back to Nazareth for a home-cooked meal with mother Mary. 

To follow Jesus is not about a shift and then back to base for some relaxation and creaturely comforts.  To follow Jesus means to belong nowhere in this world.  It means we are not really at home in our home town, nor if we move to the other side of the world in missionary service.  If we follow Jesus, then our citizenship is in heaven, and our home town is still in the future (Philippians 3:18-21; Hebrews 11:13-16). 

These are challenging words, especially if we have grown too much at home in this world.

Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”  And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”

Matthew 8:21-22

Follow Now! – The disciple’s request seems reasonable.  Surely, Jesus is not against family funerals, is he?  I don’t believe he is.  The point here is a striking one.  Nothing can come before following him.  Not a funeral that is scheduled for next week, nor a Jewish reburial in a few months, or even an anticipated death in order to collect an inheritance (all are explanations given for this cryptic moment in the text).  As Jesus said elsewhere, if we are to follow him, then we must first hate everything we hold dear.  Jesus wants his followers to honor their parents and so hatred seems extreme, but that is the point.  There can be nothing that comes first.

How often we can fall into the same problem?  Not so much with funerals, but with other things.  “I will be completely committed to Jesus, but first I . . . “  What?  What comes first?  Career first?  Promotion first?  Payrise and then folks will see my dedication to Jesus?  Or maybe family first?  Once married, once there are children, once they are grown, then the commitment will show?  Of what about fun first?  So many say they will live a little and be committed to Jesus when only a little life is left in this world.  Bucket lists get elevated to the level of an idol as Jesus is left to wait his turn.

No.  To follow Jesus at all means that we need to follow him now.  Not later.  Not after.  Now.

Reasonable Demand? – How can Jesus be so demanding and expect us to belong nowhere and follow now?  The demand is so extreme.  But the key is to look at who is saying the words.

Jesus had no home in this world.  He left his eternal home and entered into this world in the most humble of circumstances.  He was born in a peasant town and laid in a manger.  He was an infant refugee in Egypt, then grew up in Nazareth – a place with a rubbish reputation.  Nazareth was a rest stop on the way to somewhere better.  And then, once he launched into his ministry years, he had no home of his own in this world. 

Jesus’ work never seemed to be done.  He had nowhere to lay his head, not only because of a lack of address, but also because his work demanded so much.  There was always another person to heal, another demon to cast out, another crowd to feed, another dispute among the disciples to unpick, another conflicted conversation to navigate.  His work, his mission demanded so much.  Actually, it demanded everything.

As we read through the Gospels we find that Jesus did eventually lay down his head.  When was that?  It was in John 19:30, when his mission was accomplished, when he cried out “It is finished!” and then lay down his head and gave up his spirit.

The reason that we should take Jesus’ demand so seriously is because his mission cost him everything.  Since he gave his all for us, his call is for us to give everything in response.  Belong nowhere in this world, and follow now.  Nothing else would make sense in light of who said it.

At Work in His Word

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

As we enter February, there will be many new year Bible reading plans that are fading away.  Perhaps the challenge of a full work schedule, combined with dark mornings, drains the motivation to be in God’s Word.  Or maybe the second half of Exodus and Leviticus is proving too great a challenge.  Whatever the reason, many will settle into a rhythm marked more by guilt than regular enjoyment of the Bible.

It is hard to relate to a God we cannot see, hear, or touch.  And while we know that the Bible is his glorious gift of communication to us, it can often feel distant and disconnected from our everyday lives.  How can we find motivation for a relationship with God that has the Bible at the centre?

The critical issue is right in the question itself.  Do we experience the Bible in the context of a relationship?  Or have we let the relational aspect drain away, leaving the Bible as an optional tool or merely an interesting document for our fascination with religious history?

In 2 Timothy 3:14-17, Paul gives us a critical passage on the nature of Scripture.  In these verses, Paul points to the role of Scripture in our salvation and our growth to maturity.  In these verses, Paul clarifies what Scripture is and how it works in us.  Let’s look again at these verses and remind ourselves that God lovingly works in us as we are in his Word.  To put it differently, the Bible is not just a “past tense” book for our studies.  It is a “present tense” gift for our relationship with God.  God lovingly works (present tense) in us as we are in his Word and as his Word gets into us.

Entering into a relationship with God, 2 Tim. 3:14-15.  As Paul wrote to Timothy to encourage him in the challenges he would face, he wanted him to remember where his ministry all started.  It started by coming to know salvation in the first place.  Timothy had learned and came to believe in the sacred writings of Scripture from his grandmother, his mother, and Paul himself.  His Bible exposure taught him about the wonder of salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.  Without the Bible, we would only be guessing about God, and our guesswork would never have led us into a relationship with him.  God has taken the initiative in our salvation, revealing his character, plans, and great gift.  There is no relationship with God if there were no Bible.  But since there is, let us not lose the relational nature of our connection to him!

So, what is Scripture? 2 Tim. 3:16a.  “All Scripture is God-breathed.”  What a way to describe it!  It comes from the very core of God’s being.  He made sure that the authors wrote exactly what God wanted to be written.  All Scripture, every last Word, was as he intended.  On a human level, the Bible is astonishing – so many authors, different languages, different types of literature, and yet an incredibly coherent and consistent collection of documents.  But the Bible is not written just on a human level – it is “God-breathed!”  That means it is unique – no other book is in the same category.  It also means it is a loving gift – God wanted it written for his people.  It is a purposeful gift – God intended it to achieve something in us.

Based on what we know of God, what might we assume his Scriptures would do?  Would God give us a mindless distraction to pass some time?  I don’t think so.  That does not fit what we know of his character. Indeed, he would want to work in our hearts since that is the core of who we are and the heart of all our problems.  Surely, he would want to instruct our minds since God made us incredible thinking beings.  And he would want to guide us in how to live since God had a good plan and we have so profoundly rebelled against him.  Is it a living communication designed to work in our hearts, heads, and hands?  That seems about right.

How does God work in us through Scripture? 2 Tim. 3:16b. Regarding our beliefs, the Bible is profitable for teaching and rebuking.  We need instruction to understand God, the world, and ourselves.  And since we don’t always think well, we must be rebuked, lest we persist in error and come to harm.  How many newcomers to Christianity put information together and end up with errant thinking, only to be corrected as they read the Bible?  For example, many think they have solved the complexity of the Trinity by assuming there must be one God who dresses up in three different outfits to suit the occasion.  Sometimes, he is a father, but other times, he shows up as a man, and sometimes, what we need is a more empowering Holy Spirit.  But then they might read about the baptism of Jesus, and suddenly, they are confronted by all three persons involved distinctly and simultaneously.  Oh dear.  Rebuked by Scripture.  Taught the truth.  This correcting rebuke might happen with logical ideas about salvation, eternal judgment, or whatever.  If we want “to overcome error and grow in truth … we must turn to the Scriptures!” (John Stott)

Regarding our actions, the Bible is profitable for correcting and training in righteousness.  We need to be set straight at times.  Perhaps we have drifted into an area of compromise and the Scriptures confront us as a mirror.  Or perhaps we have drifted from God and run up against Jesus’ letter to the church at Ephesus.  Maybe you have already been corrected by that passage?  So much about that church is so impressive, but “this I have against you: that you have left your first love!”  It can stop you dead in your tracks.  And then, it instructs you to repent and do the things you did at first.  A way back to the healthy reality of a real relationship with God.  The Scriptures train us in righteousness – growing us up in all areas of character, endurance, maturity, etc.  Do we hope “to overcome evil and grow in holiness?  Then it is to Scripture we must turn, for it is profitable for these things.” (John Stott).

What is God’s goal as he works in us through the Scriptures? 2 Tim. 3:17.  The goal is clear: you will be complete or mature, thoroughly equipped for every good work.  We know that God has good works for us in every stage of life.  But how can we be ready for them?  The answer is easy.  Get your nose in the Bible and get the Bible into you, relationally, so that God’s work will be done in your life.

Two Errors to Avoid.  Some Christians will come from a background that might be labelled “text-optional” – it is a divine-hotline approach to living, with an eager expectation that God will speak through my thoughts, feelings, and circumstances.  The Bible may be sitting there, but so is the red flashing phone that offers direct encouragement along the way.  If this is your background, then be sure to recognize that along with all the perceived blessings comes a tendency to leave the Bible sitting there.  But the Bible Ais not optional.  For a healthy relationship with God, we need to be soaking and swimming in his Word, enjoying the wonder of God at work in us passage by passage, day by day.

Other Christians will come from a background that might be labelled “text-only” – it is the intellectual curiosity approach to living with a Bible.  There may be an eagerness to study the Bible and a hunger to learn more and more, but often, there is too little expectation that God will speak to me as I read and study.  The Bible is open, and the study is focused, but somehow God is not expected to be at work.  If this is your background, then be sure to recognize that along with the blessing of study, there is also a tendency to stop studying before fully responding to God’s Word.  We should look at the text and learn what it says and means and consider how it is stirring us to love God and live for God in this world.  Engaging relationally is not optional. Again, for a healthy relationship with God, we need to be soaking and swimming in his Word, enjoying the wonder of God at work in us passage by passage, day by day.

Let’s move beyond “what is God saying to me through my thoughts and feelings” and “what is this text saying” to the relational reality of “what is God saying to me as I read or study this text?” 

God is at work in us as we are in his Word.  What a privilege.  A present tense, today, privilege.

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