Christianity isn’t about knowing and saying the right things its about experiencing and then giving the touch. July of 2012 at NorthLake Church.
Archives For Stories
This is my defense of youth ministry which I delivered to the people of NorthLake Church in Camas, Washington, July 24th, 2011. The text is Luke 1:5-1:80.
Paul’s collection for the Jerusalem church occupies significant portions of his letters (1 Cor 16:1–4; 2 Cor 8:1–9:15; Rom 15:14–32). It is so important to Paul he is willing to face hostility (Romans 15:30-31) and is indeed arrested in Jerusalem in part because of it (Acts 24:17). What compelled Paul to raise funds among his gentile converts for the poor in Jerusalem? Why did he feel this money would be better spent on the Jerusalem poor than on the poor gentiles surrounding the communities where he collected it? What did he hope this offering would accomplish?
In short, Paul sees his outreach to the Gentiles as a ministry to Israel (Romans 11:12-15). God promised Abraham that in his seed all the nations (Gentiles) of the world would be blessed (Genesis 22:18; Galatians 3:15). And Isaiah prophesied
In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. (Isaiah 2:2)
Paul’s understands his ministry and particularly this offering as a fulfillment of God’s promises. Through this offering the Gentiles are journeying to Jerusalem to worship the God of Israel and in so doing offering themselves as proof to the Jews that Jesus is the one Christians claim him to be.
In Galatians, the origins of the offering appears as a important bridge between Paul’s Gentile ministry and Peter, James and John’s ministry to the Jews. To see this we need to understand the context in which the mention of an offering first appears.
Paul wrote Galatians to defend against Jewish Christians who taught that Gentile believers in Jesus needed to follow the traditions of the Jews. Paul is resolute in his hostility to such a doctrine, eternally condemning any who preach a message other than the one he delivered to them (Galatians 1:8-9). To give context to his opposition, Paul recounts his own history; his former zeal for these traditions, his conversion and his subsequent relationship with the Jerusalem church who are presumably the source of the present conflict.
Paul claims to initailly have been extremely zealous for the traditions of his fathers, alluding to God’s commendation of Phineius who killed an Israelite man in the very act of fornicating with a Gentile woman (Numbers 25:1-8). But a revelation of Jesus and Paul’s call to the Gentiles changes all that. Without consulting anyone (once again presumably leaders in Jerusalem), Paul journeys to Arabia (2:17) and possibly even Mt. Sinai (4:25). Its only three years later that Paul briefly meets some of the apostles, Peter and James, in Jerusalem. In all this Paul stresses that his message came from God and not from any man.
14 years pass before Paul feels compelled to consult with these leaders in Jerusalem again. Paul presents the message he preaches among the Gentiles privately to them in the hope that they will see it from his point of view. Peter and James agree that they should go to the Jews and Paul should continue his outreach among the Gentiles. The one thing they ask is that he “continue to remember the poor.”
This last phrase, “continue to remember the poor,” appears to refer specifically to the poor in Jerusalem. Paul gives ample evidence to a serious tension that existed between Jewish Christians in Jerusalem and his ministry among the Gentiles. That this meeting and agreement occurred “in private” likewise suggests that Peter and James felt apprehensive in giving Paul the right hand of fellowship. A financial offering from Paul and his Gentile converts would certainly help to smooth out any difficulty that might develop among the believers in Jerusalem.
There are also other reasons to see this phrase as a reference to the poor in Jerusalem.
James and Peter’s request that Paul “continue to remember the poor” indicates that this something Paul is already doing. If Galatians is written prior to the Jerusalem council (Acts 15), than this meeting occurred when Paul delivered aid from the church in Antioch to the famine starved church in Jerusalem (Acts 11:27-30).
Paul claims his offering for the Jersualem church is for “the poor among the saints in Jerusalem” (Romans 16:26).
His audience would presumably understand the shorthand reference since they themselves had been instructed about Paul’s collection (1 Corinthians 16:1-2).
Paul’s commitment to the poor in Jerusalem does not originate with Peter and James. It’s an idea which appears to be fundamental to his understanding of his ministry among the Gentiles. This can been seen in his letter to the Romans.
Scholars are apt to point out that Paul wrote to the Romans to prepare for a further missionary trip to spain (Romans 15:23-24). But what we often overlook is that Paul’s occasion for writing is more immediately connected with his journey to Jerusalem where he will finally deliver this gentile offering. (Romans 15:26-32). And it apparently weighs heavily on his mind (Romans 15:31).
Read in this light, the theme of Jew and Gentile makes a great deal more sense. Romans is a meditation on Paul’s gospel and what he hopes to achieve through his ministry to the gentiles. In Romans 11:13-14 Paul states
I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them.
It appears highly likely that Paul saw this arousal as coming from the prophetic fulfillment of a later day worship of God among the Gentiles.
How do we find God’s direction? The answer is in Scripture, of course! But Scripture typically doesn’t have the simple answer we’re looking for. Should I buy that car or not? Yes or No? That’s because the Bible, despite our expectations, isn’t primarily a how-to-manual or a list of applications. Instead, it’s mostly a book of stories, forming one BIG story. And stories, for a variety of reasons, are not easily copied.
Because of that, I’ve found it more helpful to read the Bible as the essential contours of an on-going narrative, a narrative that God wants to see continued in us, rather than a script which we must woodenly re-enact. Finding and then following God’s direction is more liked heeding the situational prompts in improv. Remember Whose Line is it Anway? In that show, a group of performers were given a scenario and then based on their cues, worked out what happened next. That’s a simple picture of the situation we find ourselves in now.
God has laid out some clear applications and commands in the Bible. But mostly he’s given us the better part of His story, a story that explains where we are right now. He’s established the stories course and pointed to its consummation. And now He calls us to work out our lives in ways consistent with its trajectory.
So what are the contours of God’s BIG story? How can we know if we’re getting the direction right?
Here’s the seven biblical prompts you and I must heed to find God’s direction.
1. The Kingdom is the Mission. Jesus called his followers to acitvely participate in the Kingdom of God’s arrival here on earth. Jesus’ summarized the whole of his message and ministry when he said: “the time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel (i.e. the good news!)” (Mark 1:15, Matthew 4:17). He taught his disciples to proclaim the same thing (Matthew 10:7). According to Jesus, the Good News is the near arrival of the Kingdom.
And that is good news! Because this kingdom has been promised ever since the opening chapter of Genesis. In the beginning, God created man (male and female) not like one of the beasts, but in his own image, as extensions of his own rule in the world (Genesis 1:26-28). But sadly man surrendered to a beast and abandoned this right to rule (Genesis 3:8-19).
God’s mission, beginning with Abraham and then through the people of Israel, was to reestablish His reign in and among people (Genesis 12:1-3). And yet Israel also failed by worshipping foreign idols. God, however, promised a future ruler, resurrection and exaltation of His people over the idolatrous and beastly kingdoms of this earth (Ezekiel 37:1-14, Daniel 7:1-28). This is the kingdom that Jesus proclaimed as about to break out.
Is your life proclaiming the arrival of God’s Kingdom?
2. Christ is the Means. A kingdom needs a king, of course, and Jesus is that king. It may seem odd that Jesus proclaimed the near arrival of this kingdom some 2,000 years ago, especially if we equate the kingdom with heaven, which can seem very far away. But it makes sense when we recognize that Jesus actually inaugurated this kingdom in himself.
Jesus was born as the perfect image of God (John 1:1, 14) and as such he was and is the ideal ruler which God promised in the Old Testament. Jesus acted in ways consistent with the monarchs of Israel and His followers recognized this and acclaimed him with Jewish royal titles, such as “the Christ”(Psalms 2) “Son of David” (2 Samuel 7) and even the “Son of God” (2 Samuel 7). But of all titles, Jesus preferred to refer to himself as the Son of Man. Why? It’s the Son of Man in Daniel 7 who establishes God’s eternal kingdom.
Is Jesus the king of your life?
3. The Cross is the Moment. Jesus’ crucifixion is His coronation, the moment He received His Father’s kingdom in redeeming his people. There is no kingdom without a king. And there is, of course, no king without subjects. I know we in America don’t like the idea of being subjected to anyone. But Jesus’ reign, established in the cross, is unlike any reign of a king we have ever heard.
Jesus told his disciples, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among must be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45).
And this is what we indeed find in the cross of Christ. Jesus is crowned king in becoming the despised subject of a Roman crucifixion. Look at the references to Jesus’ coronation in Mark 15:16-27. The cross is an ironic reversal of what it means to rule. Those who rejected Jesus’ right to throne actually placed him on it. Through his death, Jesus purchased a people for God, a people over which he now rules (Titus 2:14).
Because Jesus became the least, God raised him from the dead and gave him “the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:5-11)
Have you received the gift of the King?
4. The Cross is the Model.. Where the King leads, his subjects must follow. Jesus said, “a servant is not greater than his master, nor is the messenger greater than the one who sent him” (John 13:16). In the cross, Jesus blazed a new and living way by which he calls us to follow.
The cross is not just something Jesus did for us that we can’t do for ourselves. It is that. But it is also the pattern we are now commanded to live. Jesus demonstrated the way of salvation. He taught us, “if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35).
If King Jesus rules as a servant who are his people to do otherwise.
Are you living in the manner of King Jesus?
5. The Church is the Movement. It’s the expanding ghetto or community of God’s kingdom people. With Jesus’ resurrection and exhalation to the right hand of God, he has begun to rule by pouring out the Holy Spirit upon his people. Through His Spirit he has united his church and empowered them to advance His reign (Acts 1:8, 1 Peter 2:10).
For those who have received Jesus as king and have become partakers of the Spirit, the kingdom of God has already begun to reach earth. The Church is the beachhead of Christ’s earthly rule.
Daily the Church practices the lifestyle that Jesus has called them to and extends the boundaries of the kingdom in teaching and witness. Weekly, they gather together to celebrate the kingdoms arrival. They gather around the throne, the feasting table, or what we call communion, to remember the sacrifice and share the living food that Christ has given to them. In the presence of him who bore our sin, they lose all bitterness and forgive as Jesus the king has forgiven them.
Are you united with the King’s people?
6. The Commission is the Method. The reign of King Jesus is spread through the commission Jesus gave to his followers. Jesus called his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching them all that he had commanded (Matthew 28:18-20). The Church advances the kingdom by calling people to make a decision for Christ in baptism and teaching them to live as Christ has lived and taught us to live.
Are you inviting people to the King and teaching them to live like Him?
7. The Coming is the Motive. The eternal kingdom which Jesus inaugurated and over which he now rules is not complete. We, his subjects, continue to pray as he taught to pray, “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)
The Gospel, or Good of News, according to Jesus is the arrival of the Kingdom! The kingdom is both now and not yet. It’s arrived in Jesus and is presently being lived out in the confines of the Church. But the future completion, and the arrival of Jesus in bodily form is what we continue to hope and pray for. And thus its something we ceaselessly work towards.
Jesus has equipped and empowered his church to bring about the unification of heaven and earth. And as we live His kingdom, we will see Christ exalted and Him come again.
Are you longing for and working towards the King’s arrival?
I think that’s simple enough. In fact, simple enough to memorize.
- The Kingdom is the Mission
- Christ is the Means
- The Cross is the Moment
- The Cross is the Model
- The Church is the Movement
- The Commission is the Method
- The Coming is the Motive
This is God’s BIG picture! Your God-given-direction is found in living a life consistent with this trajectory.