Andy Stanley's Dishonest, Deceptive, and Dangerous Teaching

This past Sunday I stayed up late to watch North Point’s Sunday morning service online, and once again, I found Andy Stanley’s sermon to be so shockingly bad that I feel compelled to write about it.  I remain convinced that this particular sermon series is going to have long lasting effects on American evangelicalism.  Stanley is not just a local church pastor, or even just the leader of a network of churches.  He is an influencer of the influencers in American Evangelicalism.  I am certain that we are going to see the content of this sermon series being repeated by other pastors around the country in the months ahead.

Stanley’s contention is that the early church got off to a great start, but throughout the history of the church there has been a tendency to return to what he is calling the Temple Model, which is characterized by sacred places, sacred texts, sacred men, and sincere followers.  It is absolutely true that the visible church has been corrupted time and again through the history of the church.  The church has an enemy, and that enemy will attack the church from without, through persecution and pressure to conform to the world, and within, through false doctrine.  What’s fascinating is that as you look back over the history of the church, what you see is that the greater the persecution against the church, the purer the church tends to be.  The freer the church is, false doctrine and corruption abound.  

The church in America has been the most free church in the history of the world.  It’s not surprising that we’ve splintered into thousands of denominations, and have spun off countless theological cults.  The Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the signs and wonders cults all originated in America.  There has been a backlash against this in recent years, but the problem is that people tend to correctly identify the problems and then offer unbiblical solutions.  The opposite error of an error is also an error.

With Stanley’s current sermon series, he has identified the wrong problems and is offering wrong solutions.  Some of those problems will be discussed below.

The Temple Model

The first problem is that Stanley has built his entire sermon series around combating something that he made up.  The Temple Model is not spoken of in Scripture.  In the history of the church, as far as I know, no one has ever identified the Temple Model as a threat or a corrupting influence on the church.  

It is particularly troubling that Stanley has repeatedly lumped the Jewish Temple system in with other pagan religions, as if there’s no difference.  I am certain that Stanley knows that God instituted the priestly system of Israel (sacred men), commanded Moses to build the Tabernacle and later allowed Solomon to build the Temple (sacred place), and instructed Moses to write down the Law and have it read to the people regularly (sacred text).  The people were commanded to obey all that God had instituted, which had they done so would have made them sincere followers.  The history of Israel is that for nearly 1000 years they disregarded almost everything God told them, and then after returning from exile the Pharisees developed over time and added to the Law, creating their own religious system in place of the instructions God had given them.  

So it is an egregious error for Stanley to present the Jewish religious system as something bad, or no different than Greek and Roman mythology and temples.  Hebrews tells us that the Tabernacle/Temple, priests, and sacrificial system were earthly copies and shadows of Heavenly things (Hebrews 8:5).  Jesus was the fulfillment of all those things.

What Jesus and the Apostles warned against was not a return to the Temple Model, but the leaven of the Pharisees.  Stanley said Sunday, “Paul said that a little bit of the Temple Model can ruin the whole thing.”  That’s false.  Entirely untrue.  Paul said nothing remotely like that. He did say a little leaven leavens the whole lump in Galatians 5:9, but the leaven he was referring to was not the Temple model, it was justification by keeping the Law as the Judaizers in Galatia were teaching. 

Where the Bible talks about sacred places, sacred texts, sacred men, and sincere followers, provided they are being obedient to what God has commanded, these things are always viewed in a very positive light.  

I don’t know why Stanley has chosen to present things this way.  I don’t know his heart motivations.  From where I’m sitting, it looks like he’s a man with an agenda, and that his agenda is not in line with God’s revealed will.

Church History

I’ve already written one post showing what the earliest non-Apostolic church fathers wrote to and about the early church.  Simply put, Stanley’s claims that the early church didn’t study the Bible are patently false.  He is not telling the truth, and he doesn’t even have to go outside the New Testament to know that the New Testament writings are important.  Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:15-16 that Paul’s writings are Scripture and believers should draw their doctrine from them. 

Writing around the year 150, long before Constantine and Nicea, Justin Martyr described what happened on Sunday gatherings of Christians: the public reading of Scripture, an exhortation by the pastor to the congregation to obey what they had heard read, taking communion together, and the collection of money which the pastor distributed to those who had need.  People gathered in a sacred place, read from a sacred text, listened to a sermon by a sacred man, and the sincere followers took communion together.  

Almost everything Stanley has said about the early church in this series is directly contradicted by the writings of the church fathers.  

NT Imperatives

My jaw literally dropped Sunday night when Stanley said that the New Testament imperatives were not rules for Christians to follow, but examples of how to love our neighbors.  In all my studies I have never come across one scholar or teacher who has taught this.  Not one.  I reached out to Dan Philips on Twitter Monday and asked if he had ever heard anyone teach that, and he said no.  I even did a Google search to see if I could find someone else who has taught this and found nothing.  As best as I can tell, this is something new in the 2000 year history of the church.  Stanley is on an island with this one, and that is not a good place for a pastor to be.

The Nature of Sin

What troubled me most Sunday was Stanley’s claim that Christian sin has nothing to do with God, but only concern for other people.  This borders on blasphemy.  In Stanley’s eyes, lying isn’t wrong because it’s sin against God, it’s wrong because it hurts another person.  He flat out said, “The reason you don’t (shouldn’t) lie has nothing to do with God.”  Sexual sin, he said, isn’t wrong because it’s sin against God, it’s wrong because it harms another person.  There is an element of truth in those statements; our sins do hurt other people.  But for a Christian pastor to suggest that our sin doesn’t offend God but only hurts other people is astounding.  When David committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband what did he say?  “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight” (Psalm 51:4a).  David basically forced himself on a married woman then had her husband murdered, and he said he sinned against God and God alone.  

Read what the author of Hebrews said about sin among professing Christians in Hebrews 10:23-31:

²³ Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, ²⁵ not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. 

²⁶ For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. ²⁸ Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? ³⁰ For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” ³¹ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

We were made in the image of God.  Every sin is a cosmic act of treason.  It has everything to do with God.  Unbelievers will suffer the eternal, terrible wrath of God because of their sin against him.  For believers, Jesus suffered God’s wrath on the cross in our place.  For Stanley to then say that what Jesus suffered to atone for has nothing to do with God is absolutely untrue, and incredibly dangerous.  

I said last week that Stanley appears to be embracing theological liberalism, and this line of thinking is classic liberalism.   

Stanley's concluding point of the sermon Sunday was that the Jesus model is centered on the you beside you.  No.  The Jesus modeled is centered on Jesus.  He is the author and perfector of our faith.  He is the one who can save us from our sins.  Our keeping of the Law, and loving our neighbors is Law, cannot save us.  

It is looking more and more likely that Stanley is set to depart from orthodoxy and embrace an aberrant theology.  I continue to pray for his sake and the sake of the thousands he influences that this doesn’t happen.    

  

The Truth About Sacred Texts and Sacred Men in the Early Church

I mentioned in my last post that I've listened to Andy Stanley's most recent sermon, titled Recycled, three times.  One of the things I found so frustrating about the sermon, among many things I found frustrating, was his distorted presentation of church history.  It would be impossible to give a comprehensive treatment of the history of the church in 30 minutes, but Stanley made several statements that are demonstrably false.  

Particularly troubling was his insistence that for the first three hundred years of the church, sacred men and sacred texts were uninportant in the church. The truth is the opposite. In the earliest non-Scriptural writings, the church fathers repeatedly quoted and referenced the Scriptures, and directed Chrsitians to obey their pastors. 

I've been reading the church fathers this year, and below are some quotes from the very earliest non-Apostolic church fathers.  Though not inspired Scripture, these writings give us a clear picture of what the early church actually believed and practiced.  Included below are quotes from Clement of Rome in his epistle to the Corinthian church, "Mathetes" (a disciple) of the Apostles to Diognetus, Polycarp to the Philippians, and Ignatius to the Ephesians and Magnesians.

Clement of Rome to the Church in Corinth

These are only three brief quotes from a very long letter, but even in these few words we see Clement instructing the Corinthians to submit to the authority of the presbyters (pastors) and to look carefully into the Scriptures, which are true utterances of the Holy Spirit.  You can't read more than a few sentences of Clement without finding a direct quote of the Scriptures or a reference.

Mathetes to Diognetus

Notice the doctrinal richness? Although Mathetes is not quoting a passage of Scripture here, he is compiling numerous phrases that do come directly from the Scriptures, Old Testament and New.  For this anonymous disciple the faith was grounded not in loving actions, but in the truth drawn from  Scripture.

Polycarp to the Church in Philippi

Polycarp was a disciple of the Apostle John, the beloved disciple who wrote one of the gospels, three epistles, and the book of Revelation.  Notice that Polycarp directly quotes 1 John 4:2 as authoritative truth.  Notice that Polycarp, a disciple of one of Jesus' twelve, taught that were beliefs that a person must hold to in order to be Christian - among them humanity of Christ, the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the coming judgment (Hell).  

Ignatius to the Church in Ephesus

Ignatius to the Magnesians

Ignatius, like Polycarp, was a disciple of John.  He was only one person removed from the words of Jesus.  Ignatius taught a respect for and obedience to church leaders that far exceeds anything ever practiced in America.  The problem in the American church is not giving too much authority to and trust in men who have studied and shown themselves approved, we give too little respect and obedience compared with the early church.  We also see Ignatius teaching that both beliefs and actions are important in the life of a Christian.  

Putting it Together

These are just a few selected writings of the early church.  It is true that the early church was known by outsiders for their love.  I can't remember the source, but it was recorded by one outsider that the Christians not only cared for their own poor, but also the poor outside the church.  Inside though, the church was characterized by study and teaching of the Old Testament and New and leadership by faithful men who were given an elevated position of authority.

Sacred texts and sacred men are not a corruption of the true faith.  They have been the foundation of the church from the earliest days of its existence.

What Andy Stanley is Teaching This Month and Why it Matters

I’ve listened to Andy Stanley’s most recent Sunday sermon three times now.  I watched the 9:00 AM service live online.  I listened to the download made available by North Point Community Church, which came from the second service and contains a few minor differences compared to the sermon I watched live.  Finally, I listened to Chris Rosebrough’s review of the sermon in the February 16 edition of Fighting for the Faith.

Why? I think what’s happening at North Point this month is going to have long-lasting effects on American, and even global, Christianity.

Andy Stanley is easily one of the top five most influential pastors in America, and maybe top 2-3.  It’s impossible to quantify such things of course, but it is easily seen if you pay attention to the broad landscape of American Evangelicalism.  It’s no secret that pastors around the country duplicate Stanley’s sermons and series, and there have been documented cases of pastors plagiarizing Stanley word-for-word.  Thousands and thousands of pastors around America and around the world look to Stanley as a leader and follow his teaching and methods.

Stanley is currently teaching a five week series titled Brand: New.  Stanley’s assumption is that Christianity has been corrupted by “Temple Model” thinking since the days of Constantine.  He defines the Temple Model as being controlled by sacred places, sacred texts, sacred men, and sincere followers.  

His definition of the true Jesus religion comes from half a verse in Galatians.  In the ESV, Galatians 5:6 in its entirety reads, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”  In his sermon series, Stanley has repeatedly quoted the NIV’s translation of the second sentence of the verse which reads, “The only thing that matters is faith expressing itself through love.” 

Stanley is attempting to build a doctrine of Christianity on half of one verse.  And his version of Christianity is one in which it doesn’t matter what a person believes or does, as long as they love their neighbors.  

In other words, Stanley is embracing theological liberalism.  Actually it might be better to say he’s no longer hiding his theological liberalism.

Three years ago Al Mohler asked, following an Andy Stanley sermon, if the megachurch is the new liberalism.  In that sermon, Stanley told the story of two men in his church involved in a homosexual relationship.  One man was divorced, the other still married.  Stanley told the congregation that the men were forbidden from serving in the church, not because they were in a homosexual relationship, but because one was still married and therefore committing adultery.  Many people questioned at the time if Stanley was signaling his approval of gay Christianity - the idea that a person can be actively involved in a homosexual relationship and a Christian.  

When I first read about what Stanley was teaching in the Brand: New series I thought he was going to come out as gay affirming.  After listening to the first and third sermons in the series I’m not convinced he’s going to make that explicit at this time, but I do believe he is laying the groundwork to do this in the future.  Based on comments made this past Sunday, it does seem likely that Stanley is going to endorse female leadership in the church in week five of the series.

All of this is significant because of Stanley’s influence.

If Stanley openly embraces liberalism in the name of bringing more people to Jesus, thousands of others will follow. It should be noted that liberals have been making the same argument for more than two centuries, and that every church that has embraced liberalism is now dead or dying, but the arguments keep being made and people keep buying into them. 

Liberalism has always denied essential doctrines of the Christian faith in order to make the faith more palatable to unbelievers.  The problem is that if people don’t believe in the God who has revealed in Himself in Scripture, if they don’t believe in the Jesus revealed in Scripture, they are not in Christ, no matter what they call themselves.  

The seeker-sensitive movement, in which Stanley is a major player, seeks to make Christianity as accessible as possible to the largest number of people possible.  Up to now, most seeker-sensitive churches have remained theologically sound on paper while functioning as liberal churches.  They’ve managed to keep their feet in both worlds.  

I think that’s about to change.

Stanley has been always been zeroed in on what’s happening in the culture.  Twenty years ago when he started North Point in the heart of the Bible Belt, he could not have survived by openly embracing liberalism.  The Bible Belt culture simply would not have tolerated a pastor who openly endorsed homosexual Christianity, female pastors, a denial of the Biblical account of creation, or any of the other hot-button issues of our day.

Things have changed.  Even among professing Christians today, very few still hold to those positions.  Stanley now sees that it is more costly to deny that a homosexual can be involved in homosexual sin and be a Christian than it is to embrace gay Christianity.  Even in the Bible Belt, it will be more costly to deny evolution than embrace it.  

So, he will say that it doesn’t matter what a person believes as long as they love.  

It was very telling, and honestly shocking, that it in this past Sunday’s sermon he indicated that it didn’t matter that Arius believed Jesus wasn’t eternal.  For 1700 years virtually every branch of religion that calls itself Christian; Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestantism has agreed that Arius was a heretic who was outside the Christian faith.  Stanley said Sunday that it was no big deal.  It doesn’t matter what a person believes, as long as they love.

The problem is that Jesus and the Apostles repeatedly warned against those who would proclaim a different gospel or a different Jesus.  A Jesus who is not eternally God, as Arius taught, is most certainly a different Jesus than the one revealed in Scripture.  The blood of a different Jesus can not atone for our sins.

I do believe that God’s grace is such that those who are unknowingly caught up in a false system can be saved in spite of what they’re being taught if they recognize their sinfulness and trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins.  But woe to those who preach a different gospel.  It’s ironic that Stanley is using a verse from Galatians as the foundation for his series.  In Galatians 1:6-9 Paul wrote:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. 

The immediate context of Paul’s letter to the Galatians was the Judaizers attempting to make circumcision a requirement for salvation.  Stanley is clearly not doing that.  But, in saying that the only thing that matters at the end of the day is how well we’ve loved our neighbors, he is coming dangerously close to preaching a different gospel and putting people back under the yoke of the Law, if he hasn’t crossed the line.  

The summary of the Law and the Prophets, according to Jesus in Matthew 22:37-40, is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  

Loving your neighbor as you love yourself is Law, and the Law cannot save you unless you keep it perfectly from the day you’re born until the day you die.  The problem?  We’re all born dead in trespasses and sins and cannot keep the Law.  We’re all guilty.  So telling people it doesn’t matter what they believe as long as they love others is actually putting people back under the yoke of the Law.

Should we love God? Absolutely! Should we love our neighbors? Absolutely!  But if we try to do so without being given new life by God’s grace through faith in the Jesus revealed to us in Scripture, we remain dead in our trespasses and sins and children of God’s wrath.  There is no salvation without repentance and faith in the true Jesus. 

I don’t yet know what Stanley is going to say in the final two sermons of this series.  I think we all need to be paying attention though.  Stanley’s influence is such that if he goes off the rails of orthodoxy and into apostasy, American Christianity as we know it will change forever.  I don’t think I’m exaggerating.  

The Greatest Love Story Ever Told

I was scheduled to preach today, but unfortunately flooding in Jakarta caused the cancellation of the meeting.  Below is the manuscript of the sermon I was going to preach. 

Just a couple of notes before you begin reading:

1) I normally wouldn't talk about myself and my story with Maggie as much as I do at the beginning of this message, but the theme for the meeting just a few days before Valentine's Day was love and the organizers asked me to talk a little about our story.

2) My manuscripts are usually a little more wooden than the actual sermon.  Writing it out in this form puts in my mind most of the words I want to say and keeps me on track during the delivery.  When I write the manuscript I don't always know everything I'm going to say, but having this gives me most of what I need and I can fill in the rough patches as I need to.

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Let me take a few moments to introduce myself since this is the first time I've ever spoken here.  I know you probably have some questions about how I ended up in Indonesia, why I'm here speaking today, and in light of today's theme of love - how did I come to marry a Chinese-Indonesian.

So I'll start about six years ago.  I went to China in August 2009 for what was initially supposed to be one year.  I was planning to go to seminary in the US, but wasn't sure exactly what I should study or what area of ministry I should prepare for. When my pastor met a man who was recruiting people to go teach English in China for a year it seemed like the perfect opportunity. I would go to China for a year, tell some people about Jesus, spend a year away from everything I know seeking direction for the future, then go back to the States and start seminary.

5.5 years later I'm still in Asia, having only been back to the US three times for a few weeks at a time.  There were three things that happened in China that led me to stay and ultimately led me here to Indonesia.  One, I learned that the international church in Beijing had a seminary program where I could could begin working on my degree. Two, I found a great community in that church in the young adults ministry and a small group I joined.  And three, the first time I went to the church I met Maggie from Indonesia.

The first time we met that was all I learned about her.  In that first meeting my first impression was that she had a really great smile.  I learned later that her first impression of me was only that I'm fat.  A few months later we ended up in the same small group Bible study, and I started getting to know her a little better.  After a few months I asked her for a date. It didn't go as I'd hoped.  I still remember the look of utter terror on her face as she said, "Oh no! Oh no! I'll think about it." So things really got off to a rocky start for us.

A few days later she said we could have lunch as friends, which we did.  The next few months were really confusing because I didn't know what Maggie was thinking, and I learned later that Maggie didn't know what she was thinking either.  Finally in August 2010 she said we could date. In February 2011, we came to Indonesia, my first time here. I met her family that week and asked her to marry me. She said yes, and on July 23, 2011 we were married in Jakarta.  

We stayed in Beijing for the first year and a half of marriage, then moved to Malaysia in 2013 so I could study full-time and finish my seminary degree.  Unfortunately we were having some trouble getting a visa for Maggie to stay in Malaysia, so after only six months there we relocated again, this time to Jakarta.  

We're now expecting out first child, due to be born in mid-June.  

Marriage is never easy, and for us being from such different cultures and backgrounds there have been some difficult times in these first few years. We've been honest with each other and and with others that if our marriage wasn't built on a foundation stronger than our feelings for each other we probably wouldn't have made it thorough the first couple of years.

There was a passage of Scripture that we had read at our wedding, and I would like to read that passage to you now.  This passage tells us about a love that is much greater, much better, than the love that Maggie and I have for each other.  The passage is found in Ephesians 5:22-33.

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

The apostle Paul wrote these words nearly 2000 years ago, and just a few years after the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  In these few sentences he reveals something pretty amazing about marriage.  He tells us that all the way back in the beginning of time, when the first man and first woman were created by God and brought together as husband and wife, that was designed to be a living picture of the coming union of Jesus and His Bride, the church, God’s people in all times and all places.  Let's be clear that Paul didn't simply choose marriage as an analogy that represents Christ and the church. God created marriage from the very beginning to be a real life picture of this relationship.  

So I want to tell you today about the love of Jesus for His bride, the Church.  But we need to notice something.  Paul says that Jesus loved the church by giving Himself up for her.  What does that mean? Why did He have to do that?  To understand that, to understand how amazing the love of Jesus is, we need to go back to that first man and first woman.  

The Bible tells us that God created the world in six days, and we're repeatedly told that God saw his creation and it was good.  On the sixth day God created man, and then woman.  Something was different about man and woman.  They were made in the image of God.  They were created to be the reflection of God on the earth.  They were made to walk with God.  They were made to subdue and have dominion over the earth.  We see in the second chapter of the Bible that God, in his loving kindness, made a garden with everything the man and woman needed.  God brought them together as husband and wife, and we're told they were naked and unashamed.

At the end of the sixth day we're told that God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Creation was perfect. There was no sickness, no death, no disaster.  The man and the woman lived without shame, without fear, without anxiety, without any relationship difficulties.  And above all, they were not separated from God.  It was very good.

But none of us would look at the world today and say it's very good.  With our smartphones we now receive almost moment by moment reminders that this world is not good.  Every day we are bombarded with news of natural disasters and tragic accidents.  Every day we see, in vivid detail, acts of evil committed by humans against other humans.  We ourselves from time to time receive news of the illness or death of someone we love.  It's not very good.  In fact, it's really bad.

So what happened? The third chapter of Genesis tells us.  God had told the man he could eat the fruit of any tree in the garden, but the fruit of the tree knowledge of good and evil he was not to eat, or he would surely die.  One day a serpent appeared to the woman and first twisted God's word, asking her if God said they couldn't eat any fruit in the garden.  The woman replied that they could eat the fruit of any tree but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that fruit that couldn't eat or even touch, or they would surely die.  Then the serpent denied the word of God, saying, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." The woman liked the idea of being like God, she saw that the fruit was good for eating and desirable, so she and her husband both ate.  

You might be tempted to think that God lied, because they didn't physically die.  They did remain physically alive for many years after, but what the Bible will later make clear is that though they remained physically alive, spiritually they died in that moment.  The moment they ate the fruit they went from being naked and unashamed to realizing their nakedness and trying to cover themselves, then hiding from God moments later. So as we're reading the story we can see that something changed.  The perfect creation was lost.  What we now call sin had entered into the world, and nothing in creation is unaffected by sin.  The whole creation now lives under a curse, the curse of sin.

God pronounced specific curses on the serpent, the woman, and the man.  The woman's curse was greatly increased pain in childbirth, and a desire to control her husband that would be met by his rule over her.  The man's curse was that he would work the earth with great difficulty just to survive, and then he would die.  The serpent's curse was that he would crawl on his belly and eat dust, and that there would be enmity between the serpent and the woman's offspring; that the woman's offspring will bruise the serpent's head, and the serpent will bruise his heel.

As we read through the Bible it doesn't take long to see the hideous nature of sin.  The woman's first son murdered her second son out of jealous anger.  In just a few generations we're told that God was grieved that he had made man because the wickedness of man was great and every thought and intention of his heart was only evil all the time.  God showed his wrath and anger towards sin by sending a flood to wipe out the earth.  But God had made a promise that a descendant of the woman would crush the serpent's head, so he kept one family alive.  Immediately though, we see the descent back into sin.  The human condition of every thought and intention of our hearts being only evil all the time didn't change.

Eventually God chose a people, Israel, to be His people.  He gave them His Law, telling them how they were to behave as his people.  The Law had no power to save them though, and for more than 1000 years they lived in a constant state of rebellion against the good, loving, faithful God who chose them to be His people, brought them out of their slavery in Egypt, and gave them the land He promised them.

It's very important for us to understand of all this.  We cannot understand the love of God, we cannot understand the love of Jesus for His bride, if we do not understand the human condition.

What the Bible tells us is that we are born physically alive, but spiritually dead. We are born under the curse of sin.  Our very nature is sinful from the moment we are conceived.  

Like the people of Noah's day, we are born with every thought and intention of our heart being only evil all the time.  We are born and continue all the days of our lives, unless God steps in and gives us a new heart, in rebellion against the good, loving, righteous, and holy God who made us.  We are born hating God.

If you don't believe me, consider my soon to be born child.  We're not going to teach him/her to disrespect our authority as his/her parents, but he/she will.  We're not going to teach him/her to throw a tantrum every time he/she doesn't get his/her way, but he/she will.  We're not going to teach him/her to lie, but he/she will.  We're not going to teach him/her to steal, but he/she will.  We're not going to teach him/her to bully younger or smaller children, but at some point he/she probably will.  We're not going to teach him/her to be selfish, but he/she will be.  All of these things are in a child's very nature.

God, in his goodness, gives parents, societies, and governments to curb these behaviors and keep us from being as bad as we could be, but let's be honest - if it wasn't for our parents, if it wasn't for society, holding us in check and correcting those behaviors we would all be savages.  It's in our nature.  It's who we are.  

It's who humanity has been since the first man and the first woman ate that fruit.  Psalm 2 describes the nations, the mass of humanity, raging against God in blind hatred and trying to overthrow him.  That's me, and that's you, at least as we were born.  God is not threatened by this, but he does have righteous and holy wrath towards sin and sinners.  He hates sin. He hates this rebellion against him and in that same Psalm and numerous other places in the Bible he promises to bring utter destruction, not just in this life but for all eternity, on those who rebel against him.

Once again, that's me and that's you, as we're born.  Paul says in Ephesians 2 that the people of the church were formerly children of God's wrath.   Psalm 14, Psalm 53, and Romans 3 all say that there is none who does good. Not one.  Psalm 5 says God hates all evildoers.  Hebrews 9:27 says it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.  Meaning, we are all going to die.  We are born spiritually dead, and one day we are going to physically die.  On that we will face judgment for our sins.  And left on our own, we will have no defense.  No one will be found guiltless.  Left on our we will be held to account for all our sins, suffering the wrath of God without end for all of eternity.

With all of that understood, let’s now talk about the love of God. From the very beginning of man’s rebellion against God, God made a promise.  Remember what he told the serpent?  That the serpent would bruise the heel of the woman’s offspring, but her offspring would bruise the serpent’s head.

As you read through the Bible you see God being faithful to that promise, and clarifying who that offspring would be.  We’re not talking about offspring plural, as in all of humanity.  It is singular.  One man was going to come and crush the serpent’s head to rescue his people from the curse of sin.

We follow the story from Adam and Eve through their third son Seth.  Through the generations to Noah, then through Noah’s son Shem to Abraham.  From Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to Judah.  Many years later King David was told that his descendent would forever be on the throne.  

Finally, around 2,000 years ago that promised Son came.  God in human flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ.  He was born of a virgin - which was not just a miracle but a very important fact.  He was born not of two sinful parents, but conceived by the Holy Spirit.  He was born without the curse of sin that every human from Adam and Eve forward were born into.  He was tempted. Where Adam was tempted in a garden with an abundance of food surrounding him, Jesus was tempted in the wilderness after 40 days of fasting.  Unlike Adam, Jesus didn’t sin.  He lived all the days of his life without sin.  There was never a moment in his entire life that he was not doing exactly what the Father wanted him to do.

At the end of his life the people of Israel and the Roman authorities conspired together to put Jesus to death.  He was mocked, beaten, spit on, had a crown of thorns placed on his head, forced to carry his own cross, and then had his hands and his feet nailed to a cross, lifted up, and left to die a slow, excruciatingly painful death.  The creator allowed his own creation to put him to death.

Why? To redeem his bride. God is just.  He could not simply overlook our sins against him.  The penalty of sin is death.  Someone had to die.  Someone had to suffer God’s wrath.  It should have been me.  It should have been you.  

But God is also merciful.  And God so loved that the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.  

God poured out the wrath you and I deserve on His Son Jesus.  If you want to understand how much God hates sin, look at the cross.  See what he did to his own Son.  

And If you want to understand how much God loves his people, look at the cross.  See what he did to his own Son.

It was the will of God the Father to crush his own Son. Jesus loved His Father and loved His bride, the church, so for the joy set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

See, the good news for us today is that Jesus didn’t stay dead.  Jesus didn’t deserve to die, Jesus lived a life that was pleasing to God.  So God raised him from the dead, never to die again.

The curse of sin and death has been broken.  God’s wrath towards sin and sinners has been satisfied.  Jesus has paid the price to redeem his bride.

Jesus had a simple message.  Repent and believe.  Repentance is turning from your sins, forsaking them and leaving them behind, belief or faith is trusting Jesus to forgive you of your sins.  Jesus said and still says today that all who do this will have eternal life.  Jesus gave up his life to rescue a sinful, rebellious people who hated him from their sin and rebellion, and make us his body and his bride.

The Bible says that at the end of time Jesus is coming back.  All those who believe in him will be resurrected to eternal life.  What was lost in the garden when the man and woman sinned will be restored.  We will once again walk with God in perfection.  The Bible calls this the wedding supper of the Lamb, the Lamb being Jesus who was sacrificed in his place.  He will be united with his bride, and all who believe will live with him forever.  It is the true happily ever after that we all long for. 

This is the greatest love story ever told.  Jesus giving himself up to save his bride from the wrath of God.  

If you’re here today and you have never trusted Jesus to forgive your sins I want you to know two things.  One, you are a great sinner.  You have rebelled against the good God who made you.  You are not innocent, and the wrath of God abides on you.  But two, Jesus is a great Savior.  If you repent and believe, he will save you from your sins and give you eternal life.

I know that many of you are believers already, and I want you to remember that God loves you.  Ephesians 1 tells us that God chose his people before the foundation of the world, predestined us for adoption, redeemed us with blood of Jesus, and has sealed us with the Holy Spirit.  If you are in Christ, you are securely in Christ. You have been purchased in a legal transaction that cannot be undone.  

There may be days when you question God’s love for you.  Maybe it’s because of your sin.  Maybe there’s an illness or a death of someone you love.  Maybe it feels like your whole world is falling apart.  Know this: If you are in Christ you cannot be separated from the love of God.

Paul wrote this in Romans 8:

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, 

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; 

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

If you are in Christ, you are securely held in the love of Christ and will be forevermore.  Christ has already paid the price of your redemption.  Your sins are washed away and the righteousness of Christ belongs to you.  God no longer calls you his enemy, but welcomes you to his table as a beloved daughter or son.  This is the great love of God.  

 

The Power of the Simply Preached Gospel of Jesus Christ

The first academic level book as a I read as part of my 2015 reading plan was Michael Rydelnik's The Messianic Hope.  Admittedly, I was predisposed to agree with Rydelnik's argument - that the Old Testament is primarily a Messianic collection of writings designed to reveal Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Israel, and Savior of people from every tribe, tongue, and race.  I am grateful for men like David Hallett and Mark Blair who taught me to read the Bible this way, and was actually surprised to learn that so few evangelical scholars read the Old Testament texts as Messianic.  

Most of the book was typically dry academic writing.  I don't say that in a negative way. Rydelnik was showing in chapter after chapter that the Old Testament predicted the Messiah's coming and the New Testament revealed him to be Jesus of Nazareth.  So when I say dry I don't mean uninteresting or boring, just that he primarily deals with facts and exegesis.  Surprisingly, he concludes the book with a personal story that moved me to tears sitting in my office during my Friday lunch break.  A few minutes later I reread the chapter, and tears flowed again.  

Rydelnik recalls an experience as a 16 year old recent convert to Christianity.  He is Jewish, and had become convinced that Jesus is the Messiah.  A large number of Jewish students in his Brooklyn high school were also believers in Jesus.  The leader of the school's Hebrew club invited a local Jewish graduate student to argue that Jesus was not the Messiah.  

On the day of the presentation Rydelnik listened, then at the conclusion of the presentation he stood up and asked about Old Testament text after Old Testament text that he believed pointed forward to Jesus as Messiah.  The speaker, who I believe is Dennis Prager based on the information given by Rydelnik, effortlessly deflected every text that Rydelnik brought up.  

For decades Rydelnik wished he had been more prepared, and wished he could have another opportunity to debate the speaker.  One day he was in California to give a presentation to a Messianic church.  A man who looked familiar began talking to him, and after some time Rydelnik came to realize that the man had been his high school music teacher.  The music teacher recounted his conversion this way:

The reason this moved me so is that I've been battling discouragement recently.  I take what the Bible says about preaching the word in season and out of season very seriously.  But when you preach/teach the word week after week and see virtually no fruit it's easy to become discouraged. The times when preaching the word are out of season are not much fun.

With Rydelnik's story I was reminded of the power of the simply preached gospel of Jesus Christ.  He was a sixteen year old kid who didn't speak with the authority or charisma of an incredibly gifted young man, and one who has gone on to make a career out of talking.  Yet, his simple insistence that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah planted a seed in his music teacher's heart. It took some time, but that seed eventually blossomed into saving faith.  

It's sad that the modern church flocks to gifted speakers who talk about anything but Christ crucified and resurrected for the forgiveness of sins.  Honestly, it can be discouraging for those who faithfully preach the word to see those who do not draw large audiences and build huge churches.  It's frustrating when I know that I could build a bigger young adults ministry if I would stop preaching the word and instead talk about relationships, money, and career advice.  It's been proven time and again that if you talk about such things, people will come. I wouldn't be faithful to my King if I do so though, and I would be building a following for myself. It wouldn't be Jesus building his church.

I was reminded last week that there truly is power in the preached word.  I was also reminded that a lack of visible, immediate fruit doesn't mean that Jesus is not calling His sheep to Himself.  

It was a timely reminder as I prepare to preach an outreach event next week.  As I began preparations I've battled doubts.  There's a part of me that says, "They won't want to hear the gospel.  Why bother?"  So why bother?  Because King Jesus have given me a message to speak, and I don't have the right to change it. Because the power is in the gospel, not in me.  Because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.  Because regardless of what people want to hear, what they need to hear is the gospel.

Maybe the message won't be well received.  Maybe I'll never be invited back.  Maybe I won't see any response to the message at all next Tuesday.

None of that matters.  What matters is that I faithfully proclaim Jesus as Lord and call on people to repent and believe, just as Jesus and the Apostles did.  That's all that matters for all of us who belong to Christ.  And we don't stop just because we don't see immediate results.  We sow the seeds, God causes them to take root and produce fruit.

February 2015 Prayer Needs

Baby

Everything continues to go well with the pregnancy.  At 21 weeks it has been as smooth and trouble free as possible.  Maggie's doing well and the baby appears to be developing normally and free of any noticeable problems at this point.  Please pray for the continued safety and development of our child as we anticipate his/her arrival in the middle of June.  We think we know the gender and have already chosen a name, but we'll wait a little longer before we make that known.

Work

Maggie continues to work for the time being.  We live much closer to her office now and she mostly works at a desk, so she should be able to continue working until the baby is born if no complications develop.  

Philip is also still working, but the move has made getting to and from work on Thursday and Friday much more difficult.  He's leaving at 6:00 AM and not getting home until 7:00 PM or later. There's only four hours of actual work both days.  He's going to talk to his employer soon and see if something can be changed.

Ministry

We're stepping back a bit from the active role in the young adults group that we've had for the last year and a half.  This is partially due to our schedules and time limitations and partially due to the fact that we just haven't been able to build any momentum with our weekly meetings. We're trying to figure out what to do next.  A centrally located international church in a mega-city like Jakarta presents many challenges. Please pray as we examine options.

On February 10 Philip will speak at a bi-weekly women's gathering.  It's a group of women that meets for encouragement and outreach every other Tuesday.  Being so close to Valentine's Day, the theme is love and Philip will be speaking on the love of God.  He will be telling the story of God's love for His people through the sending of the Son to redeem His bride.  Please pray that the message will be well received.  There is a great deal of nominal Christianity in Indonesia, along with prosperity teaching run rampant.  Such audiences can be just as hostile to the gospel, if not more so, than those who have never heard it before.  

Future

Please also continue to pray for us as we consider the future.  Philip took the only job that was offered last year, but it is not a long-term option.  The current job ends right around the time the baby is due.  Please pray as we explore options and make decisions.