Purpose for My People
There were many Jews in Rome and in the Roman church. They had been raised their whole lives believing that they were God’s chosen people by virtue of being descendants of Abraham. Theirs was the adoption, glory, Law, and covenants. But Paul has been preaching a Gospel that says that it is by faith in Christ alone that they are saved and the promises are applied. Where does this leave them? They find this Gospel outrageous. They find Paul a traitor to his people. Yet…he weeps for them. Despite their anger against him, Paul is sorrowed and anguished over his lost people willing, like Christ before him, to do whatever necessary to see them saved. Do we have that kind of love for our city, for our “people”?
Laodicea
The church in Laodicea was wealthy, growing, and doing all of the things they were supposed to be doing, but Jesus said that their faith was nauseating, causing Him to want to vomit them out of His mouth. Their faith was lukewarm. They didn’t think that they needed Jesus. They weren’t zealous for Jesus. They didn’t pursue Jesus. It’s far too easy to see the Gospel as a nice add-on to make us a little more awesome than we already are, but Jesus’ message is that we are poor, blind, and needy. We need Jesus desperately. On our best days and our worst days, we need Jesus and He stands ready to love us and provide for us with Himself.
Thyatira
The people of the church at Thyatira had fallen into believing that their feelings and desires determined what was good for them and what they could and should do, especially when it came to sexuality and sexual sin. The letter they receive is from a Jesus who sees their sinful actions and sinful thoughts and loves them too much to leave them with the death and destruction that they bring. For us today, we are tempted with similar sins and offered the same grace of repentance from Christ. The question that we have to ask ourselves, though, is are we willing to take it? Are we willing to put ourselves in a community that cares enough about us to push us to repentance? Are we willing to look to Jesus to see that He actually cares about both our holiness and our joy?
Pergamum
Pergamum was a city full of idols. You could worship the god said to rule over other gods, the goddess of knowledge and wisdom, the god of pleasure and entertainment, or the god of health and wellness. This was the context of the church at Pergamum that Jesus wrote to. Unlike Ephesus, this church hadn’t responded to the heresy and idolatry around it with hatred, but acceptance. Jesus’ call is to preach the Gospel against their heresy and sin, speaking truth in love. In our day, we still worship the same idols and believe the same lies (though maybe not by the same names) and we, too, live in a context of immense plurality and “tolerance.” What is Jesus’ call to us? How do we respond today to the pluralism and “tolerance” our culture calls us to uphold?
Smyrna
The second church Jesus addresses in Revelation is at Smyrna. In this letter, Jesus offers comfort and assurance to the church through the suffering and affliction they are going to encounter. Their hope and comfort is inheriting the crown of life that Jesus has promised to those who are faithful. This hope is secure because it is offered by the eternally existent God who knows His purpose and that he’ll carry it out.
Unshakable Claim, Unbreakable Chain
It’s really easy to read verse 28. We memorize it, write it down in journals, and print it on bookmarks. Verses 29 and 30 tend to get skipped. They seem a bit messier. But the whole section together makes such a beautiful and comforting truth! God is working all things for the good of those He loves. But what is that good? It’s far greater than our health or wealth and it’s far greater than any job or relationship. God works all things to make us more like His Son, a plan that has been in the works since before foundation of the world. And that is good…very, very good.
Future Glory
We all know that there is something terribly wrong with the world and this passage confirms that. We suffer, creation is just spinning its wheel futilely, and it is only getting worse. But in the midst of the pain, suffering, and frustration, there is a hope. It would be tragic to think of this as a trite kind of hope that gives us a small comfort. This is the only hope that can sustain us through the dark nights of our souls. It isn’t just that better days are ahead, but there have never been, in all of history, better days than the ones ahead. There is a glory waiting for us: a glory longed for by Creation, the Church, and God Himself.
Spiritual Living II
It’s not just that we have been saved from our sin, but we have been saved to life in the Spirit. Enter baggage. We have so many misconceptions about the Holy Spirit, church backgrounds that shunned talk of Him, and backgrounds that turned Him into the badge of Varsity-level Christianity and a ticket to emotional highs. But who is the Holy Spirit really? What does He do (and what doesn’t He do)? How do we set our minds on the Spirit and put to death the deeds and life of the flesh?
Good Friday
“It is finished.” These words are at once the words that brought to completion Christ’s death and the words that brought to fruition our new life. They draw our vision to the confluence of God’s righteous judgment on sin and His merciful love for humanity. They draw us to the cross where the God-man, Jesus Christ, brought to life all of our sinful thoughts, desires, and actions and bore them Himself. Few more powerful words have ever been spoken.
At War with Our Sin
We can all easily relate to Paul in this section of Romans. We all have some kind of sin that we just can’t beat. We all desire to present ourselves to the world and to God as Dr. Jekyll, but we continually do the deeds of Mr. Hyde. So how do we respond? We can despair at our inability to correct our behavior. We can resign ourselves to losing to sin and sin all the more. We can convince ourselves that if we try a little harder, we can still win on our own. Or…we can accept that we cannot win our war against sin—that we are wretched—but that Christ has won it already and we hope in His grace.