There is an intimate relationship between joy and hope. While optimism makes us live as if someday soon things will go better for us, hope frees us from the need to predict the future and allow us to live in the present, with the deep trust that God will never leave us alone but will fulfill the deepest desires of our heart. Joy in this perspective is the fruit of hope. When I trust deeply that today God is truly with me and holds me safe in a divine embrace, guiding everyone of my steps, I can let go of my anxious need to know how tomorrow will look, or what will happen next month or next year. I can be fully where I am and pay attention to the many signs of God’s love within me and around me. (Henri Nouwen, Here and Now, p.33)

I like what Nouwen has said in this paragraph but I also believe his last statement is much broader than joy. We need to look for the evidence of God’s love in the smallest and largest of things because our greatest need is to truly believe we are deeply loved by our Father and our Creator. The thing that keeps nibbling away at my faith and that keeps me from asking for outlandish things is that I’m not sure that he loves me enough to keep me safe and do those things for me.

The thing that keeps me from embracing my position in heaven and walking confidently in the gifts of the Spirit is my awareness of my failings and my doubt that God loves me all that much because of those failings. I then live with the sense that if God doesn’t love me all that much he won’t give me the gifts I hunger for nor be there for me when I try to exercise those gifts. I fear he will be an absent or indifferent father to me.

The other huge thing my doubt affects is my ability to love. My experience tells me that we can’t love others if we doubt that we ourselves are loved by someone significant to us. Knowing that God loves me is everything. Noticing all the ways he loves me confirms that love in my heart and when I have love I can give love.

We can easily become like the older son in the parable of the prodigal who is so caught up in the day to day business of life that he failed to notice how his father loved him and provided for him every day. Then, when he realized he hadn’t been given a big party, he decided that his father didn’t love him at all. So often we ignore the myriad of things God does for us and then decide in one moment that he has never loved us when one disappointment comes our way.

Think about the little things. Smell the roses and the coffee. The little prayers that were answered as well as the big ones. They are both from God. Thank him for every little thing and the big things will take care of themselves. When I come to truly believe that the God of Heaven loves me deeply and thinks about me continuously, I will walk across this planet with hope, joy and the confidence of knowing that I am his.

One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.             Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. (Acts 3:1-10)

This account of Peter and John healing a man at the temple gait contains a principal that we need to remember as we minister to the world around us. There are things that we can do for people in our own strength that will satisfy their apparent need but there are things we can do in the power of the Spirit that will go far beyond what they can imagine.

This is the story of a man whose vision for life was to accept his disability as inevitable and then to live with his limitations by getting bits and pieces of what the world could offer him. His view of life was that the best he could hope for was enough money to buy food and drink for a day.   He had someone, on whom he was dependent, carry him to the temple gate each day because he believed that his best hope for charity was from those who were going up to worship God. His view of that was correct but his view of what God could or would do for him was limited to the flesh. His hope was simply that God would touch a heart to share a little money for the day. Perhaps, he saw his hope that God would provide his daily bread every day for the rest of his life as faith pleasing to God and, perhaps, it was.   The problem wasn’t the faith it was the vision.

That is true for many of us. We have been taught that God will only work through natural means to meet our needs or to advance the kingdom. So we pray for doctors to do their best. We pray for a good job to meet the needs of our families. We pray for rain when the skies are already full of clouds. There is nothing wrong with these prayers except that we are asking God to guarantee what would likely happen in the natural even without his intervention. Sometimes our view of the miraculous is only one shade different from the natural. I don’t deny that God often works in the natural but I also believe he wants us to have a greater vision than that.

When Abraham and Sarah were told that they would give birth to a son in their late years they eventually defaulted to pursuing God’s promise in the natural. Growing impatient with God’s timetable, Abraham fathered a child with Hagar, a servant of Sarah’s who was a younger woman. When Ishmael was born, Abraham wanted to call God’s promise good but God rejected Ishmael because he was not the child of promise. In other words, the birth of Ishmael was not beyond the scope of what could happen in the natural. Older men had fathered children before. But what about a woman long past menopause? That would require a miracle and so in God’s timing Abraham fathered a son through Sarah. That was Isaac, the supernatural child of promise.

In the story of Peter and John, the man asked for a contribution to the poor. What he got was far beyond his vision of what God would do for him. Instead of a pocket change, he received a new set of legs. Peter and John’s vision of what God was willing to do set the stage for a miracle that brought praise to God because only God could have done what the crowds witnessed with their own eyes. Too many of us serve God in our own strength and ask him to simply bless what we do. That’s not bad but there is something much better. That something is to ask God to do through us what only he can do – something that is impossible for us to do in our own strength and in our own talents.

Even the world can do amazing things in its own strength – remember the Tower of Babel. Even atheists and worshippers of false Gods can build great buildings, feed the poor, fund research, and entertain us in amazing ways. Certainly followers of Christ should provide great architecture, feed the poor, and fund research but at the same time we should ask for more and ask God to do things through us that no man can do. That is what separates Jesus from every other name. That is what identifies Jesus as the only name under heaven by which men can be saved. Our view is that silver and gold given to good causes is a good thing but God is willing to go far beyond that when our vision goes far beyond that.

Today, lets ask God to not only empower men to do the possible with excellence but let’s ask him to do the impossible so that men will give him praise and the name of Jesus will be exalted.  Today’s word – Expect miracles.

We do a lot of equipping in the arena of spiritual warfare. Paul tells us that the church in his day was not unaware of Satan’s schemes. In other words, the mature followers of Christ in Paul’s day had an understanding of how Satan worked and how he laid traps for God’s people. We should have the same awareness, so we equip believers with that knowledge.

The downside of that equipping is that some people then begin to see every event in their life as an attack from Satan. A flat tire is an attack. A cold is an attack. Sugar ants in the kitchen become another harassment from the enemy. Let me be clear. I do believe and teach that many things in our lives that others see as simply events in the natural realm have roots in the spiritual realm and that we are targets of the enemy. I believe that in many cases we should look for spiritual causation before addressing causes that might rest in the natural realm. But, as in most theology, balance is important. The truth lies in the center of the road. Muddy ditches lie on either side.

The balance is that although Satan is real and that demons show up in many situations, we should not give Satan too much credit nor should we fear him. The New Testament teaching is that we should be wise and cautious regarding the enemy but not afraid. Peter tells us to be self-controlled and alert since the devil prowls around like a roaring lion. He did not say to be afraid but to be alert. And he said to avoid the Devil’s reach by exercising self-control. In other words, don’t get caught up in sin and don’t act in impulsive or foolish ways and the devil is not to be a big concern.

God’s word actually portrays Satan as being on the defensive and demonstrates the power of Christ’s authority over the enemy time and time again. Remember that Jesus declared that the gates of Hell would not be able to prevail against his church (see Mt.16:18). The image is the gates of a walled city under siege. The gates of Hell will not be able to withstand the assaults of God’s people. In scripture, gates usually represent power or authority. Jesus clearly says that the power and authority of the kingdom of darkness is no match for the kingdom of light. When Jesus sent out the twelve and the seventy he gave them power and authority over the enemy, disease, and sometimes even death. He has given the same authority to us. John reminded the church that he that is in us (Jesus) is greater than he that is in the world (1 Jn.4:4). Jesus declared that the prince of this world (Satan) had been condemned (see Jn.16:11) and that he would be driven out (see Jn.12:31).

When we begin to speak to a person about deliverance it is not unusual for that individual to begin to experience anxiety, fear, or even panic. They are simply sensing what the demonic spirit is experiencing as that spirit knows that he will not be able to withstand the authority of Jesus coming against him for very long….the gates of Hell shall not prevail. Remember the encouragement of James who declares that if we resist the devil he will flee from us (James 4:7).   When a spirit flees he is afraid.

When our lives are aligned with Christ and we have removed those things that might give the enemy some temporary authority to harass or afflict us then we need to be alert, we need to be self-controlled, we need to be submitted to God, but we do not need to be afraid. When I stand in the ranks with the Commander of the armies of heaven and pray for his protection over me, then I should expect it and not believe that everything that disrupts my life in a fallen world is demonic. If it is, then Christ can’t or won’t protect me. Christ can and will protect me because his name is above all names and he has all authority in heaven and on earth.

I will agree that there may be times when Jesus allows the enemy to harass me but it is so that I can learn to fight…not just for me but for others and, more importantly, so that I can experience the victory that is ours in Christ. In the first part of the book of Judges we are told, “The Lord had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua. These are the nations the Lord left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath” (Judges 2:23-3:3).

God left battles for the Hebrews not only so they could learn the tactics of war but so that they could be strengthened in their faith. It is in the midst of battle that men learn that a faithful God partners with his people for victory. God can do all things without us but he typically gives the victory through us using our hands, our prayers, and our commands to overcome the enemy. In the process we mature and learn over and over again that he is faithful and that he that is in us is greater than he that is in the world.

So there are times when we will have to stand against the enemy while at the same time we must remember that the victory is assured. The enemy has been defeated. We are simply left to enforce and enjoy the victory that has already been won. The enemy loves to cast a large shadow and growl and boast of his power but when we stand against him with the power of heaven he flees.

Be wise, be aware, but don’t be afraid and don’t give him too much credit. You are in Christ and Christ is in you. When you know that then the devil is on the run.

Jesus left few traces of himself on earth.  He wrote no books or even pamphlets.  A wanderer, he left no home or even belongings that could be enshrined in a museum.  He did not marry, settle down, and begin a dynasty.  We would, in fact, know nothing about him except for the traces he left in human beings.  That was his design. (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p.228).

As I reflect on Yancey’s words, I have to agree.   In fact, it occurs to me that God has operated in much the same way.  There is little left of what God has done that can be put in a museum.  The Ark of the Covenant has not been seen by the crowds since Babylon sacked Jerusalem in 586 B.C.  One short stretch of wall stands in Jerusalem that may have been part of Solomon’s temple.  People claim to have found Noah’s ark but that still is uncertain.  Others claim to have bits and pieces of the cross or the cup from which Christ drank the night of his arrest or the shroud in which he was buried but these are all speculative.

As a culture we strive to preserve every artifact we can find related to the birth of our nation, wars we have fought, even tragedies we have experienced.  We catalogue them, put them in history books, and carefully display them in impressive buildings.  But God and Jesus seem to have done just the opposite.  Little, if any, hard-core evidence exists of God’s intervention on earth.  Why has he chosen to camouflage himself in such ways?  I can think of several reasons.

First of all, the nature of man seems to seek out objects of worship and even makes the things that should simply remind us of God into little gods themselves.  We’re told that the bronze staff that Moses lifted up in the wilderness to save the people from a plague of serpents was destroyed because Israel was worshipping the staff rather than the God who had empowered the staff.  The cross, in some cases, is worn like a good luck charm rather than a reminder of the one who died for us.  For many the Wailing Wall is Jerusalem is seen as a point of contact with the God of Israel who does not dwell in temples or in walls.  If God had left the relics of his supernatural moves on the earth many would be worshipping them instead of the God who wielded them.

Secondly, the absence of such things reminds us that the museums of heaven are worth far more than the museums of earth.  Jesus left little physical evidence of himself because he was not invested in this realm but in the spiritual realm.  He was laying up treasures in heaven rather than building grand pyramids on earth. His concern was the applause of his heavenly Father rather than the crowds who had wanted to make his king one day and cried out to release Barabbas a few days later.

More than that, however, is that Jesus chose to leave the evidence of his existence in the hands and hearts of men.  In a sense we are the evidence that he came, died, and ascended. We are his museums that carry the faith and the power of heaven.  We are the temple of God and the evidence of his reality must be passed on from generation to generation.  Augustine said, “You ascended from before our eyes, and we turned back grieving, only to find you in our hearts.”  His church carries the evidence of the reality of Jesus having come to earth, having taught us about heaven and then having died for our sins and being raised again. The compelling evidence is not in our buildings or ancient cathedrals but in the lives of people who wear his name today.

It’s not that there is no external evidence that Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth. No serious historian doubts that.  But the questions arise about who Jesus really was…a carpenter, a philosopher, a Rabbi caught up in his own story, or the very Son if God who died for us and now lives in our hearts by his Spirit? Most men will not be convinced by relics in a museum, since they were not even convinced when Jesus raised the dead.  They will be convinced by the quality of life lived out by his followers and the love of Christ displayed through them.

I need to remember that and I need to ask myself how much evidence of the reality of Jesus will people see in me today? Will my words and my actions make them more or less convinced of Jesus?  May we all be compelling evidence to the people we encounter today that Jesus does indeed live.

We’ve been having an extended discussion among our pastors and elders about the nature of discipleship. When Jesus told the fishermen, “Come, follow me,” he was using an expression familiar to every Rabbi and every Jewish student who had ever studied at a synagogue.  It was, in essence, the acceptance letter from a Rabbi to a student who had asked to be admitted to the school of that Rabbi.  It was not, however, an invitation to come and learn everything the Rabbi knew.  It included that expectation but it was much more than that.  It was in an invitation to follow the teacher and become like him in every way and to do everything that he did.  It was an invitation to come and imitate his life and character to the fullest extent possible.

In the American church, we have tended to define discipleship as learning more and more about Jesus and about the Bible.  That is a praiseworthy goal but it stops far short of the biblical idea of discipleship.  The biblical idea of discipleship means to do as much as it means to learn.  For the most part we have been big on learning all about Jesus but not so big on living like he lived or doing the things that he did.

The paradigm for discipleship has often been to learn until we know everything there is to know about a certain element of the Christian life and when we have become “experts” then we will begin to do the things we have gained extensive knowledge about.  The problem is that there is always more to learn and as we study, read, attend more conferences, and belong to one more study groups we begin to serve God vicariously through the books we read and the studies we participate in.  Because we have read about it or talked about if we feel as if we have done it.

A disciple then may become much more of a learner than a doer. We are always waiting until we know a little more before we step out and activate our gifts or the authority we have in Christ.

As a friend of mine put it, “I never felt qualified so I kept putting off the doing until I could learn some more.”  God has more “qualified” people than he needs now.  He doesn’t need qualified people; he needs willing people.  In the business world companies recognize that what works on paper rarely works in real life.  So they take highly educated college grads and retrain them for the real world of business or production.  It is the experience that qualifies them not a greater accumulation of facts and figures.

God is the same.  He advertises for willing men and women and as they step out in faith to do things in which they have no expertise, he trains them and qualifies them himself.  Gideon protested loud and long that he had no training or pedigree in leadership or warfare.  God simply said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand.  Am I not sending you?” (Judges 6:14).  Nearly everything we do in the kingdom is going to be OJT!   Many of us do not develop out spiritual gifts because we are waiting to learn more before we exercise them.  We keep waiting for one more book, one more class or one more seminar before we begin to pray for impossible healings, begin to prophecy, begin to command demons, or begin to share out faith.

I’m not saying we don’t need a little training but most of us are so over-trained so that we begin to trust in technique rather than in the presence of God or the move of the Spirit. In doing so, we pray or command with little power and authority, get few results, and are then convinced we need to learn more.  I’m convinced that we need a little more Nike theology that would say, “Just do it.”  Discipleship is more about doing than learning and as we do it, God will teach us what we need to know.  If you’ve been waiting to read your fifth book on a topic you are way overdue.  Just do it and see what God does through you.

In his life on earth, Jesus healed only a relatively small number of people on one small patch of the globe.

• He left the rest of them to us.

In his life on earth, Jesus preached the gospel to a few thousand on the hillsides of Israel.

• He left the other seven billion to us.

In his life on earth, Jesus cast demons out hundreds of spiritually oppressed Jews.

• He left the defeat of the tens of thousands remaining servants of darkness to us.

In his life on earth, Jesus went about doing good and condemning  injustice in the world.

• There is plenty more of that work to be done by us.

In his life on earth, Jesus reached out to the poor and destitute of a very small nation.

• He left the rest of the starving and naked in the world to us.

In his life on earth, jesus forgave those who nailed him to a cross.

• He left the rest of those who need to be forgiven to us.

Jesus intends to finish his work.

• He just intends to do it through us.

How much of what he left for us did we do today?

One other thing…In his life on earth, Jesus died for every lost person who ever lived to will live.

• He left none of that for us.   That’s the good news.

Philip Yancey continues to be one of my favorite authors for his insights into scripture and his ability to put flesh and bones on Biblical truths that sometime seem abstract or are simply overlooked.  In his book, The Jesus I Never Knew, Yancey gives a chapter to the resurrection and makes some interesting observations that in all honesty I had missed.

We who read the Gospels from the other side of Easter, who have the day printed on our calendars, forget how hard it was for the disciples to believe…Author Frederick Buechner is struck by the unglamorous quality of Jesus’ appearances after resurrection Sunday.  There were no angels in the sky singing choruses, no kings from afar bearing gifts.  Jesus showed up in the most ordinary circumstances:  a private dinner, two men walking along a road, a woman weeping in a garden, some fishermen working a lake. (P.214).

Yancey goes on to point out that as far as we know Jesus made no post-resurrection appearances to unbelievers but only to those who had already believed.  He then says, “The resurrection is the epicenter of belief. It is, says C.H. Dodd, ‘not a belief that grew up within the church; it is the belief around which the church itself grew up.’” (P.217).

It’s true.  Paul said that if there were no resurrection then we are fools to be pitied for living our lives for Jesus. So why did Jesus not march into the Sanhedrin or up Pilot’s steps Sunday afternoon?  Why did he not appear in the temple courts and show the thousands of unbelievers there the holes in his hands and the gash in his side?  Although angels appeared at the tomb, they only appeared to a few and then were gone with no angelic voices trumpeting the risen Lord.   Why leave the world guessing instead of offering irrefutable proof his resurrection and his deity?  Why does God so often seem to tantalize us with evidence of his existence but not irrefutable proof?  Why was Jesus so resistant to giving the Pharisees the irrefutable signs they so often asked for and why did he call them wicked for doing so?

Jesus probably summed it up when Thomas saw the irrefutable evidence of Christ’s scars and believed.  As Thomas came to faith Jesus said I’m glad you have finally believed but, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  Evidence appeals to logic  which rests in the mind and believes that all its questions have been answered.  Faith, on the other hand, rests in the heart and can live with some unanswered questions.  God has always been more interested in our hearts than in our heads.

The truth is that nothing rests on absolute, irrefutable evidence. Even if we think science has proven something beyond a shadow of a doubt we cannot prove with absolute certainty that something else is not there that has not yet been considered. We can’t prove with absolute certainty that our system of logic does not contain some minute flaw that leads us astray.   We cannot even prove with absolute certainty that the scientists who have “proven” their theory are not merely figments of our imagination or part of some eternal dream like The Matrix.  Everything requires a measure of faith and a willingness to believe something for which we might not have all the answers. When we demand that God make total sense to us or that every mystery in the Bible be explained before we believe,  our problem is not a problem of evidence but of a heart that refuses to let God sit on the throne rather than self.

Faith, indeed, is the currency of heaven. Faith believes on the basis of sufficient evidence rather than overwhelming evidence.  Even in the face of overwhelming evidence, some hearts won’t believe.  The Pharisees saw miracle after miracle – even the raising of the dead – and would not believe.  Faith believes in the nature of God even when what we see doesn’t compute.  When we pray with all of our hearts and a loved one dies out of time, faith does not require answers before it continues to believe that God is good. When we pray with all of our hearts and a marriage dies anyway, faith does not demand God’s explanation to continue to believe that God is love.  When we have seen others healed and other marriages saved, then we are confronted by the mystery of why our marriage wasn’t saved or our loved one wasn’t healed.  The power of faith is not that it has all the answers but that it continues to believe in the goodness and faithfulness of God in the face of mystery and disappointment.

That is the heart that God values and that is the currency of heaven.  Faith does not measure God by what he has not done for us but by all that he has done for us.  When we wonder what God is like in the face of personal disappointment, we simply look at Jesus who told Phillip that if we have seen Jesus then we have seen the Father.  Jesus didn’t heal every sick person in Jerusalem but would we say that Jesus was not loving?  Jesus did not set every slave free but would we say he is not merciful? Jesus didn’t raise every dead person but would we say he was indifferent?  Then why would we say that about God?  There are mysteries that faith cannot answer but what it can answer is “what is the heart of God towards people?”  The cross surely answers that.

When we doubt, Jesus will probably not send kings with gifts or angelic choruses but will show himself to us in plain and ordinary ways.  It we will be open to him that will be enough.  Have faith today without having all the answers and be blessed.

He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters. “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order.              Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. (Luke 11:23-26)

Neutrality is a dangerous place in the spiritual realm.  I’m reminded of a scene in the movie, “O Brother Where Art Thou?”  In that scene Tommy (a young black guitarist) has just been picked up and given a ride by the three principle players in the movie – Ulysses, Delmar and Pete who had escaped from a prison chain gang a few days earlier.  The three asked Tommy what he was doing alone in the middle of nowhere and he told them that he had met the devil at a crossroads the night before and sold his soul for the ability to play guitar.  Delmar and Pete had just come upon a camp revival and had been baptized so that all their past sins and crimes could be forgiven.  As they rumbled down the road Tommy explained, “I had to be up at that there crossroads last midnight, to sell my soul to the devil.”  Ulysses then commented, “Well, ain’t it a small world, spiritually speaking. Pete and Delmar just been baptized and saved. I guess I’m the only one that remains unaffiliated.”

Many people have the idea that they can take a neutral or unaffiliated position in the spiritual realm and somehow stay out of the conflict and even enter heaven because they weren’t bad people.  Jesus spoke to that idea when he said, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.”  Some actively and intentionally serve Satan while others make no commitments and remain uninvolved.  Jesus places both of those positions in the kingdom of darkness.  The truth is that everyone starts out on Satan’s team. Only those who choose to play for Jesus get to change uniforms.

The idea that I can pursue nothing spiritually and be okay because I’m not  pursuing evil things ignores the reality of the spiritual realm.  The enemy searches the world looking for vacancies and when he finds one he moves in.  Wherever he finds a heart or a life not filled with Jesus he camps there.  When a man encounters Jesus and spiritual freedom for a season but does not fill his life with the things of God….the enemy will return and bring others with him. He has the right to bring more because this man has tasted the things of God but not pursued them.  To fail to pursue the things of God is the same as rejecting them.

The warning and the encouragement is to never stop pursuing and filling your life with the things of God and his Spirit. The Spirit, like water in an old barrel, tends to leak out and must be replenished.  When enough of the Spirit that we once hungered for and pursued has leaked out, then a vacancy is formed in our soul and we become vulnerable to the enemy.  Paul instructs us to be filled with the Spirit (see Eph.5:18) because when we are filled we are fruitful but we also leave no room for the devil.

Back in my youth when I was faster and fifty pounds lighter, our football coaches always told us that the guys who were always moving and hitting hard didn’t get hurt.  The guys who were coasting or standing around on the field were the ones who got injured.  That was true most of the time and I believe it is true spiritually.  Keep moving, keep growing, keep serving, keep seeking, and keep filling up on God and there will be no vacancies or vacuums in your life that attract the enemy.  And remember, there is no one in the car who is unaffiliated because if you are not actively for Jesus  then you are against him.  No retirement in the kingdom, no coasting, no neutrality. We can all rest when we get home!  Be blessed today and fill up!

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power.  Have nothing to do with them.  (2 Ti.3:1-5)

Although these descriptors perfectly match our culture, the apostle Paul penned these words to his young protégé Timothy nearly 2000 years ago. The phrase ”last days” does not necessarily mean the end of times since biblically we have been in the last days or the last age since the day of Pentecost when the church was launched. In Peter’s sermon on Pentecost he quoted Joel who said, “In the last days I will pour out my Spirit on all men…” The “last days” began with that pouring out.  More likely Paul was warning that their would be times and seasons during this last age before the return of Messiah when cultures and men would be corrupt and that such corruption would seep into the church.

When I read those descriptors my first thought was that Paul was describing  unbelievers in a fallen world.  But in context he seems to be warning Timothy that there would be individuals in the church who also fit that description and it was those whom Timothy was to avoid.  The final quality of these men reveals that they will have a “form of godliness but will deny its power.”  What exactly does that mean and is it a warning for us today as it was for Timothy in the early years of the church?

The word “form” here seems to mean “an outward appearance.”   These individuals would have an outward appearance of godliness or religion but would secretly deny its substance.  These could be church leaders who simply lead portions of the church for the financial gain, status, or the praise of men that leadership role offered. Behind closed doors they would treat their role as a job, an opportunity or a “gig.”  There faith would be in themselves and they would use and discard people to accomplish their own ends and to build their personal empire.   Ultimately they would view God, judgment, and the Holy Spirit as a kind of myth that they would espouse publically but not take seriously.  Behind closed doors they would love money, comfort, and hidden immoralities.  Ultimately these men are always exposed but the exposure brings reproach on the church and sends hundreds or thousands of disillusioned believers into the streets wondering if any Christian leader  can be trusted.

This paragraph could also point to leaders of culture: education, business, politics, etc. who might publically claim to be followers of Christ and, therefore, moral  – but behind closed doors in backroom meetings are as worldly and cynical as those who make no such claims. These men use God as a prop but deny the power of the kingdom of God.

Each of these groups may believe in a God in some vague way but do not believe that God will ultimately judge the wicked or judge nations. They believe they can act without consequence and that true believers are really just suckers living in world of delusion.  Neither do they believe that there is a God in heaven who orchestrates lives and nations and that watches over the truly godly with his power and even entrusts his power – real power – to those who love him.  I believe we live in a season where both groups are profoundly represented in our society.   Not only that, but many believers who are moral believe that we are to serve God in our own strength and expect no miraculous interventions from heaven. The power of godliness for them resides only in the past.  Unfortunately, many unbelievers define Christianity by these people who carry the banner but not the reality or substance of the kingdom.

It is times like these that the power of godliness operating in the church is more critical than ever.  This power begins, of course, with faith but is also sustained by holiness. In Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira treat the Holy Spirit as inconsequential and bring deceit into the church. As a result God judges them and they die  -in church – in front of everyone.  We are told that great fear seized the church following that episode but also that great signs and wonders abounded and the church exploded with growth.  We also see the church being very countercultural and when political leaders told them that they could not teach or preach in the name of Jesus they simply prayed for boldness because they were committed to please God rather than men. We are told that after times of prayer and fasting when the church prayed for boldness to stand against the culture, God shook the earth and displayed his power through the church.

We live in a world where homosexual athletes and celebrities who have “come out of the closet” are celebrated and treated as heroes while sincerely committed Christians who play on the same fields and stand on the same stages are ridiculed and discriminated against.   We cannot slip into a form of godliness but deny the power of godliness ourselves by simply rolling over and giving in to the culture.  Holiness, faith, and a total commitment to please God and speak up for him must become the descriptors of this generation of believers or this nation will continue to slide into the abyss and at an accelerated rate.  So today be bold, be holy, count on the power of God and be blessed  in His name.

In order for someone to find freedom in Christ, that individual must recognize and acknowledge the sin in his/her life.  Unrepented sin gives the enemy legal access to our lives because in those areas that we have roped off for ourselves and our flesh, we are in agreement with Satan.

To help people find their freedom in Christ we must learn how to help people deal with the sin that is usually so apparent to others but not always apparent to them.  In addition, we must do so in love.  In everything we do, we must follow the lead of the Savior of all men and the one who has shown us the heart of the Father.  As we look at the life and ministry of Jesus, however, we find two or three general responses to sin and at times they seem to be quite contradictory.

Most of us love the response of Jesus to the sins of the woman at the well (Jn.4:1-26) and the woman taken in adultery (Jn.8: 1-11).  In both of those settings Jesus encounters women whose lives have been marked with sin.  The Samaritan woman of John 4 seems to have had a reputation in her village that had gained her the status of outcast. She had lived with a number of husbands and was simply living with her latest lover.  According to John, Jesus was resting at the well about noon when the woman showed up to draw water.  Traditionally the women of the village would have come to the well in the cool of the morning and the evening rather than in the heat of the day.  Perhaps, she came at noon to avoid the other women of the village. The woman described in John 8 was a woman caught in the very act of adultery who doesn’t bother to argue her innocence even when her life is on the line.

In both cases the gentleness and mercy of Jesus is almost overwhelming. In both cases Jesus acknowledges the sin in the lives of each woman but almost in passing.  Instead he emphasizes the grace and forgiving nature of God.  He points them to a better life but in no way shames them or condemns them as they go on their way.  That is the Jesus most of us love and are comfortable with – the Jesus who says little about sin but just points people to the grace of God.

But in his gospel, John describes another moment when Jesus heals a man who had been lame for thirty-eight years.  This man had spent his days begging at the pool of Bethesda.  In a moment of compassion, Jesus saw the man and healed him.  It is such a quick moment that the man doesn’t even discover who has healed him.  But John tells us that later in the day, Jesus found the man in the temple area and privately warned him to “stop sinning or something worse may happen to you” (Jn.5:14).   In this case Jesus gives a private rebuke to a sinful man so that he might find eternal life and not lose the healing he had received for “the kindness of God calls us to repentance” (Rom.2:4).

Finally, we are all aware of the sharp confrontations Jesus had with the Pharisees. With these men he was not gentle nor did he give a private rebuke.  He scolded them in public and called them sons of Satan (Jn.8:44), a brood of vipers (Mt.12), blind guides (Mt.23) and  more.

So how do we reconcile these encounters if we are to do all things in love? If Jesus came to seek and to save the lost why is he gentle with some and scathing with others?  I believe that the common ground of each encounter was the redemptive motive of Jesus.  His goal for all three types of sinner was redemption and that goal was motivated by love.  Remember, we are called to love even those we don’t like.

To the women, Jesus took on a priestly role of dispensing hope, gentleness, grace and forgiveness. These women were quite aware of their sins and already carried their own burden of shame for the lives they had been leading.  Jesus had no need to convince them of their sinfulness. He needed to convince them that the great and holy God of Israel was willing to forgive and embrace them despite their sinful past.

That was the message they needed to hear. To the lame man Jesus seemed to take a middle ground of demonstrating God’s mercy but then confronting his sin in a personal way so not to humiliate the man. In a sense, this man needed to be reminded that God’s mercy was not released into his life so that he could continue to be the man that he was before he was healed. He needed to be reminded that the grace of God call us to a different life.    In that case, Christ took a position somewhere between priest and prophet and brought grace with a word of warning.

When facing the Pharisees who trusted in their own righteousness and who were blinded to their sins by a spiritual arrogance, Jesus came in the spirit of the prophets with a get-in-your face rebuke and a call to repentance.  Though it was harsh it was still an attempt to redeem these men.

So in helping men and women deal with their sins there are times to be very priestly, times to be very prophetic, and times to stand somewhere in between.  For many, it will be very apparent which approach to take in order to help them find freedom.  For others it will take a clear leading of the Spirit.  One approach will easily fit our temperament while the other will be very foreign to us but discernment and flexibility is key.   Jesus did not love some and hate others.  He simply knew which approach was most redemptive in the moment – not only to the one he was dealing with but to the ones who were watching.

However, we do it, we must help people discern and acknowledge their sin and their brokenness if they are to be healed and set free.  Think about what is most needed and the spirit in which it must be ministered the next time God puts someone in your life that needs the grace and the healing touch of Jesus and may the Lord bless you today.