Receiving the Light - Part 1

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."  John 8:12

Effective teachers do more than convey information.  They ask questions.

Jesus was famous for asking questions.  As a matter of fact, He made answering a question with a question somewhat of an art form.  That’s because Jesus understood an important principle: Asking a person the right question often has far greater benefits than simply handing him the right answer.  Questions require thinking and analysis.  They push people toward an answer – toward a decision.  And Jesus is all about decisions.

The eleventh chapter of Luke paints an interesting scene.  Beginning in verse fourteen, we see a crowd of people witnessing an exorcism.  Jesus is confronting a demon that has silenced a man’s ability to speak.  I imagine that was something to see.  But unlike some of Jesus’ other demonic encounters, we don’t get a lot of details on the exorcism itself.  Instead, Luke’s focus is on the varied reactions of those present.

Some questioned Jesus’ power and authority saying that they came from Satan himself.  Some people marveled – they were intrigued by what they saw.  While others wanted more of a show – they wanted Jesus to show them more miracles.  They were curious, but they wanted more proof.

People respond to Jesus in similar ways today – marveling, questioning, and even demonizing.  But according to Jesus it’s not enough to marvel at the miracles He performed.  Nor is it enough to like Jesus or to enjoy listening to His teachings.  Surprisingly, it’s not enough to publicly praise Jesus (Lk 11:27,28) or even to be freed from demonic possession (Lk 11:26).  Jesus pushes his hearers beyond all of these things.  Jesus pushes those who would listen towards one goal: the decision to receive Him.

In this passage, Jesus likens himself to a lamp that has been placed high on a stand for all the world to see.  He has come to enlighten the world to spiritual truths that cannot be perceived with the naked eye or understood with bare human intellect.  And one of these truths is the very real existence of two unseen, spiritual kingdoms:  One a kingdom of darkness, the other a kingdom of light. One the kingdom of Satan and the other the Kingdom of God. One the kingdom of Hell, the other the kingdom of Heaven.

In Luke 11:21-22 Jesus tells a short parable of a king and his kingdom. He describes this king as a strong man, fully armed guarding his own palace.  His army and his kingdom have been secure and at peace – that is until one stronger than he arrives and attacks his kingdom.  This stronger man overpowers the king, overthrows his kingdom and divides the spoils of battle.

In this parable, the “strong man” is Satan and the palace he was guarding is this world.  Jesus is the one who is stronger – the one who has attacked Satan’s kingdom and has overcome him.  Jesus’ miracle proves the point:  The man with the demon is evidence of the reality of Satan’s kingdom and the exorcism is proof that Jesus is “one stronger than he.”  Satan is overcome by Jesus and the kingdom of darkness is overcome by the light.  The kingdom of God has arrived and Jesus is the Commander in Chief.

Jesus has both the power and the authority to overthrow Satan’s kingdom but, as in any war, the people must choose sides.  Which kingdom and army will they support?

Jesus asks the question and then adds, “Whoever is not with me is against me.”  Whoever does not choose to side with Jesus remains on the side of the enemy.  There is no middle ground (Lk 11:23).

Too often, people want to sit on the fence.  They want to avoid making a commitment, making a decision to receive Christ.  But Jesus warns us that the unseen battle is real, though we cannot see it.  The lines between these two kingdoms have been drawn though we cannot always perceive them.

We must choose sides.  We must answer the question:  What are you going to do with Jesus?  What are you going to do with the light?  Will you join him?  Or will you be part of the resistance?  An insurgent for the kingdom of darkness?

The default setting on the human heart is darkness.  We all begin there for that is the kingdom we are born into.  The question is, “Where are you today?” The answer to that question makes a world of difference – the difference between heaven and hell. 

There is only one way to know: Have you received the light?  Have you chosen to receive Jesus and the redemption that He offers?  It is the only way out of the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of Hell. 

If you are not with Jesus, you are against Him (Lk 11:23).  But to all who do receive Him, who believe in His name, He gives the right to become children of God – children of the kingdom (cf. John 1:12).  Receive Him today.

"I'm sending you off to open the eyes of the outsiders so they can see the difference between dark and light, and choose light, see the difference between Satan and God, and choose God. I'm sending you off to present my offer of sins forgiven, and a place in the family, inviting them into the company of those who begin real living by believing in me.”  Acts 26:17-18 (The Message)

“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”  1John 5:20

The Grammar School of Faith

“The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” Romans 3:22

It is a strange thing indeed and might be an oxymoron were it not true. How knowing more about Jesus can lead to forgetting about Him. And how followers of Christ can often leave their leader behind. Neither makes sense. And both are owed to a conflict within us – the battle between the flesh and the spirit, the physical and the transcendent.

John Bradford, a sixteenth century English reformer and martyr, was well acquainted with this very human phenomenon. Bradford described what he called “Christless talkers.” Those who seemingly forget the elementary principles of faith and repentance. He was well acquainted with those who were full of “a bare head knowledge of sound words [that] availeth nothing.” Christless talkers. A moniker we would do well to avoid.

The constant challenge of the Christian life is to take a great journey of faith without forgetting the starting point. To walk a great distance with Jesus without ever getting far from the cross. For his cross is the source of his grace to us, and his grace is the source of our life in him.

This journey is not without its pitfalls. It is a journey with Jesus, but our flesh is always along for the ride. This flesh that would rather do than be. This flesh that would rather achieve than receive. The flesh that desperately wants a righteousness of its own rather than a righteousness that comes through faith.

And that is why a bare head knowledge of Jesus will never do. Because head knowledge often leaves the heart untouched. In this way it offers a sense of well-being, but fails to confront the pride-filled flesh. Paul noted a group of people in his second letter to Timothy whom he described as “always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth” (2Tim 3:7). Knowing about Jesus. But not knowing Jesus. Giving lipservice to him, but serving ourselves.

If we want to be more than “Christless talkers,” we must remember the lessons from return regularly to what Bradford calls “the grammar school of faith and repentance.” We must return frequently and remember where it all began for us – where it can begin for you today – with a Savior on a cross and a sinner on his knees. It began with a heart crying out and Jesus answering her pleas.

This vision of Savior and sinner, the Righteous and unrighteous, must be woven daily into the very fabric of our hearts, lest we forget our need for him.

I speak from experience, because my struggle is not in knowing that I have been saved by grace through faith (Eph 2:8). Neither is my struggle in knowing that justification is a free gift (Rom 3:24). I have been taught that many times and read it countless more.

No, my struggle is in convincing my pride-prone heart that I need Jesus as much today as I did the day I met Him. My struggle is in remembering that today – in my own flesh – there is nothing to commend me to God (Rom 7:18). My struggle is in remembering that it is only by grace that I have been saved. And that is not my own doing. That is the gift of God.

My best days are the days that I live with an awareness of this fact: I am still an empty sinner in need of grace.

I like the way Roy and Revel Hession frame this in their classic work, We Would See Jesus:

“Grace permits us to come (nay, demands that we come) as empty sinners to be blessed: empty of right feelings, good character and satisfactory record, with nothing to commend ourselves but our deep need, fully and frankly acknowledged… The struggle, of course, is to believe it and to be willing to be but empty sinners to the end of our days…”

Empty sinners. To the end of our days. Seeing ourselves as empty sinners will keep us closer to the cross. Closer to the place where Jesus can be found. And closer to the source of his grace.

As Roy and Revel put it, when “our deep need (is) fully and frankly acknowledged… Then grace, being what it is, is drawn by that need to satisfy it, just as water is drawn to depth (by gravity) that it might fill it.”

How long has it been since you have allowed the grace of God to plumb – and replenish – the depths of your heart? Taking some time for a clear picture of your Savior in light of your sin can do wonders for the soul. Return again and again to the cross, in both humility and gratitude, and drink your fill of His glorious grace.

---------------------------------------

A bare head knowledge will lead us away from Jesus,
blind to our need for Him.
But a heart that is mindful of its own poverty will keep us returning to the cross and the source of his grace,
that we might be filled again and again with the person and character of Christ.

For the Spirit says,
“I am the vine and you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

A Storm of Peace

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the Law… the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. (Rom 3:21-22)

If the Apostle Paul were an artist rather than a writer, if he had applied brush strokes to canvas rather than pen strokes to parchment, the early portions of the book of Romans would paint a very dark scene indeed. Paul opens his letter with a beacon of hope as he proclaims the Gospel to be “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,” (Rom 1:16) but ominous clouds quickly form on the horizon – and on the canvas – as Paul describes the human condition – the reason why everyone must believe.

The wrath of God will be poured out against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (Rom 1:18). Through a well-crafted series of arguments the conclusion sounds forth: All are under the condemnation of sin. Before a holy and perfect God, no one will be able to stand. Every mouth will be stopped, every would-be attorney and strategy of defense silenced, as the whole world is held accountable to God (Rom 3:19). Accountable to the God who will judge not only actions, but also the secrets of men (Rom 2:16). Silence will reign. Like the calm before a storm.

Wednesday morning’s broadcasts brought more news of tragedy and painful images of destruction as violent twisters swept through Tornado Alley once again. In Chickasha, Oklahoma, an entire neighborhood was leveled in a matter of moments. What man had spent years of toil constructing and maintaining, a storm summarily destroyed in seconds.

A news crew on the early morning scene showed a family rummaging through debris that, only hours before, had been Home Sweet Home. The home that had once provided a sense of safety, security and well-being was now a flattened mess of two by fours, dry wall and household goods strewn as far as the eye could see.

In contrast to the tempest-ravaged home, an intact storm shelter lie just a few short paces from the debris pile. Here four adults and three children had taken refuge from the storm. In the face of nature’s fury they wisely abandoned a large, well-constructed home for a tiny underground chamber. As warning sirens blared and winds picked up, they placed their faith in something tried and true. They took shelter where shelter could be found.

Like the skies in Chickasha, the scene on Paul’s canvas had been growing dark. As menacing clouds increased their threats and hope seemed to fade to black, Paul declares a break in the weather. “But now,” he writes (Rom 3:21). Two small words that make a big difference. Two words that represent the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. Two words that represent the change in atmosphere brought about by his sacrifice.

This “But now,” is no small break in the clouds. It is a storm of peace. A wall of blue skies rushing in from the east. “But now.” Where destruction once threatened, peace now reigns. Where darkness once loomed, the Son now shines.

"But now" the free gift of righteousness through Jesus Christ, the free gift of reconciliation with God, has been proclaimed to the world (Rom 3:21). “The righteousness of God for all who believe.” Man need not depend on his own righteousness, the record of his good deeds over his bad deeds, because the righteousness of Jesus Christ is now offered to all. Freely. As a gift. Through faith in Jesus Christ. Not the calm before the storm. But the calming of the storm.

Paul says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift.” Justified. How are we to understand this gift? How do we remember what “justified” looks like? “Just-if-ied” is God treating me "just-as-if-I’d" never done anything wrong. "Just-as-if-I’d" never thought anything wrong or wished anything wrong. God treating me and you "just-as-if" we’d never sinned at all. That is justification through faith in Jesus Christ.

The judgment of God that will be poured out against ungodliness and unrighteousness is in fact just. His perfect justice and even our own sense of justice demand it. Yet God sent His Son to take the wrath for us. What we could never earn or do ourselves, God has done for us in Jesus Christ – bringing a storm of peace and blue skies of reconciliation between us and God.

Where darkness once loomed, the Son now shines.

“In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2Cor 5:19-21)

The Good of Good Friday

I don’t know about you, but I generally do my best to avoid pain and suffering. I don’t even like the way those two words go together so smoothly… pain and suffering. Pain. Suffering. They are seemingly effortless. And unavoidable. Distasteful realities of the human condition. Realities that most of us wouldn’t wish upon our enemies.

Someone may boast a “No pain, no gain” philosophy in reply, but that speaks not of true pain, neither of true suffering but rather of a mentality of meritorious hard work. True, it may involve some degree of physical pain and even a type of suffering, but always at a level that the individual can withstand and always with the ability to make it stop. Those who extol this philosophy would likely see their pride extinguished when presented with an opportunity to truly suffer – like chronic hunger and malnutrition for a lifetime, or the sudden loss of the person closest to them, or a debilitating disease that brings a slow and agonizing death. No one chooses these things. Rather they seem to choose us – with their limitless levels of pain and no “Off” switch in sight.

It is in our DNA to avoid true pain when at all possible. Even a newborn infant expresses her displeasure at the slightest pain with the most insistent cry she can muster. And those cries continue right through old age when aches and pains manage to dominate a person’s thoughts and talk about the weather gives way to discussion of the latest and greatest analgesics.

Fifth graders know something about avoiding pain too. I observed them closely this past Sunday as we discussed the arrest and trial of Jesus in Sunday School. A few winced at the abuse and humiliation Jesus endured at the hands of the Sanhedrin – as they mocked and beat him (Mk 14:64-65; Lk 22:63-65). More recoiled at the description of the scourging Jesus would have endured prior to his crucifixion (Mt 27:26; Mk 15:15). But all eyes opened wide as their teacher produced a thorn-laden branch like those in the crown of thorns that was pressed into Jesus’ head (Mt 27:29; John 19:2). The branch made its way around the room, being passed from student to student with the utmost care. The passing student steadied the branch while the receiving student carefully selected a hold among the menacing thorns. More than twenty students handled the branch. No piercings. No bleeding. Mission accomplished.

Yet Jesus defined success very differently. Before the foundation of the world, pain and suffering figured prominently in his purpose statement. From the very moment he left heaven, they had their sights set on him. And when the crown of thorns came his way, he neither summoned ten thousand angels nor sought to find a safe hold, but rather grabbed on with both hands. His suffering and our salvation were inexorably linked. He achieved one by means of the other, grasping the thorns and his cup of suffering with both hands as they nailed him to the cross. There would be no other way.

Pierced. Bleeding. Despised. Rejected. Stricken. Afflicted. Wounded. Crushed. Cut off. Oppression. Grief. Sorrow. Judgment. “It was the will of the LORD to crush him.” (Isa 53:10).

“For all we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned – every one – to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” [Isa 53:6]

Mission Accomplished.

It is in the picture of Jesus’ suffering that I am reminded of the ugliness of my own sins – all of them. Sometimes we trade in ugly sins for prettier ones. Unacceptable sins for acceptable ones. And blatant sins for veiled ones. But even the prettiest of sins is a thorn in his crown. A whip on his back. A nail in his wrist.

Why do we remember Good Friday and the suffering of Christ? What is the purpose of this graphic image of pain and suffering? Why grieve ourselves by remembering it? As the Apostle Paul wrote, “godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret.” [2Cor 7:10]

Salvation without regret. I don’t know about you, but I have enough regrets in my past – I don’t need any in my future. When I stand before Christ I long to hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant… Enter into the joy of your Master.” [Matt 25:21]

I pray that this Good Friday would be a reminder of the One who grabbed on with both hands because of the enormity of his love for us. It was for the joy set before him – bringing you and me back to himself – that he endured the cross (Heb 12:2). Oh, the wonders of the cross!

And I pray that we would be reminded of the ugliness of even our “pretty” sins. May the Holy Spirit unearth the sins we have quietly allowed back in. And may our sin grieve us for a godly grief that leads to repentance and salvation without regret.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely,
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us...

...looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is seated
at the right hand of the throne of God." [Heb. 12:1-2]

Grab on to Jesus today. With both hands.

--------------------------------------------------

If music speaks to your heart, take a few minutes to meditate on the words of this song by Sidewalk Prophets.