GospelDrivenLife

Pastoral Weakness and Power

What do you admire in a leader?  What do you think makes a great leader? It is an age old question and one faced by the early Christians.  

 This last week, as I prepared to preach from 2 Corinthians, I asked those questions.  And I was a bit surprised by where I landed.

2 Corinthians may be the longest treatise in the Bible on leadership.  This is not Paul the Christian; this is Paul the apostle.  He argues against a secular view of leadership.

You see, Paul's critics in Corinth considered the apostle a less than adequate leader.  They believed leadership was a matter of charisma, powerful presence, strength and an air of triumphant confidence. They believed that real leaders were men on top of their game, especially leaders who preached the resurrection.  

Paul was weak. He changed his mind. He was not eloquent.  He suffered a great deal.  Surely, they concluded, this is not much of a leader. Paul argues quite a different perspective.  Gospel preaching leaders look like the Gospel.  Their lives and experience preach without words what they proclaim with words. This is where my world got rumbled.

You see, for Paul, and especially for Paul, a leaders’ life and experience and public persona are a constant display of their weakness and limitations and neediness, and a constant display of the power of Christ alone could accomplish much with such a person.

Christian leaders are not "wise men" with "brilliant and creative ideas."  They are certainly not celebrities.  They are the dregs of the earth, the humble caboose of the train.  They are the prisoners led behind the conquering general (2 Cor 2:14-17).

Paul discloses the pattern of ministry -- power in weakness,  sharing in the suffering of Christ, so that his comfort may be known as well.  

He defines what it means to enter into the suffering of Christ. 2 Cor 1:8-10 says it means being brought into circumstances so beyond us, so far above our powers, that we experience the sentence of death in ourselves.  This, Paul says, is so that we will not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead and thus experience his resurrecting power.

In other words, God designs the circumstances of leaders to reveal (to them and to others) their deficiencies, their emptiness, their neediness -- so that the work that is done is clearly a work of God.

Sometimes this means deliverance, sometimes not.  

In 2 Cor 12:7-10 Paul tells of the affliction God sent to him, a thorn in the flesh. I am not sure what the thorn is but I know it was some form of chronic pain.  It was a day in and day out reminder to Paul that he was mere dust, flesh and blood.  Migraines? Insomnia? Arthritis? Melancholy?  Those would be modern examples.

This thorn was designed by God, once again, to make clear to Paul and to others that God's grace is sufficient (therefore, Paul is not and we are not). This is to make clear that God's power is perfected in weakness, not in our strengths, or overcoming our own weakness.   Shockingly, power is most seen, not in healings, not in triumphant living, but in weakness and limitations and being in over our heads. 

The reason for this is simple: the treasure of the Gospel is located in earthen vessels (clay pots, brown paper bags) so it is clear to all that the pot is just a pot and the treasure is the treasure.  God designed leadership in the church to display his great power and glory. His ability to use such weak and broken vessels for his purposes of grace is remarkable. The skill of the workman is seen in what he can do with such limited tools.

And he designs the circumstances of leaders to remind them of their weakness again and again, and to display his sufficiency again and again.

The opponents of Paul looked on his suffering and weakness and said, "What kind of a leader is that? What is he hiding?  Surely the favor of God cannot rest on a man who suffers this much?"  

Paul says, "How can a man be a preacher of the Gospel and not experience such suffering and weakness? God displays the Gospel through words spoken and the life lived.  God alone saves in Christ.  So God makes that clear through the public display of the weaknesses and afflictions of leaders."

Leadership is a mix of God's glory and human frailty. As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor yet making many rich; as having nothing and yet possessing all things. (2 Cor 6:8-10)

In other words, God reenacts the Gospel in the experience of leaders so that the Gospel preached is matched by the life lived. "Always being given over to death for Jesus sake, so that the life of Christ may be seen in us" (4:8-10).

My surprise was this: I was more sympathetic with the opponents of Paul than with Paul.  I want strong and gifted and charismatic leaders.  I want to be a gifted leader, whose weaknesses and flaws are less obvious.  I want to lead with strength, not with weakness.  I want to fix my weaknesses, eliminate mistakes, hide my sin, or at least grow to the point where I am sufficient.  

In other words, and I paraphrase a friend, I want to get to the point in my life and circumstances where I am mature enough and gifted enough and skilled enough to no longer be desperately dependent on God. HA!  I want to preach the Gospel but not live by the Gospel.

And, I find around me people who want the same.  I find leadership idolatry.  I find people with very high expectations of leaders and people who get quite upset when leaders make mistakes and even more so when they do not see their own sin.  I understand.  What they desire is what I want and that forms an unholy co-dependency (co-idolatry is better to describe this).

It will not be so.  God seems to go overboard to make us as unimpressed with the heroes of the Bible as we can be.  Abraham -- the man of faith -- lied to protect his own skin.  Jacob, whom God blessed, was a cheat.  Moses, impulsive and easily angered, led the nation.  I could go on.

We come to the New Testament and we find Jesus with the twelve.  Now that is quite a contrast.  Peter, of course, is front and center, foot in mouth.  He is proud, self-confident, a selfish coward who denies his Lord.  Then, 15 years later, he denies him again in Antioch.  Hmmm, would I want as a leader a man who denied his Lord both before the crucifixion and did so again, years later, under pressure from his peers in Antioch? Yet he is an apostle.

I am not justifying sin.  Elders meet certain qualifications.  But read them again, that list is quite un-extraordinary.  And, given the background just noted, certainly not to be seen as a list of perfections. These are graces, marks of the work of the Spirit in their lives.

I think Bruce Winter (9 Marks interview) is correct.  We need to minimize our use of the word "leader" in our churches.  It is a good word, but is carries with it so much baggage, so many notions of power and skill and ability, that it corrupts our thinking.  I support his notion that the proper notion is people responsible to serve the church, to care for and love the people of God and the local church unto Christ. It is slave work, menial labor for the King.

 

The Weight of Glory, 2

As I was finishing the sermon for today I noticed indeed that Peter is always pointing these readers to the end of the story. He tells them where they are in God's purposes --- and he points them to the end of the story.  He does so from chapter 1 -- their inheritance which cannot be taken way -- to chapter 5 -- they are called to his eternal glory.  This theme has run through the book so I wanted to be sure to reflect on it.

The Weight of Glory, 1

Today we finished 1 Peter.  Over the last twenty years I have been a "fan" of Paul's, but I have to admit I have missed something here -- what a rich, Gospel saturated letter.  It seems to me that Peter has as much of a practical grasp of the meaning of Jesus suffering and death as Paul.  It is not that I think they are in competition, or that there is some lesser form of inspiration with Peter or Paul -- but their personalities come through so very clearly. Here is how I think Peter speaks to us today.

Peter and Gospel truth, Gospel story 3

Stories are necessary to press meaning into life.  Post-modern skepticism about a meta-narrative that makes sense of life is, in part, hostility to truth.  Truth gives meaning and truth also binds us.  I find it wonderful that the Bible is both propositions and facts AND a story.  I am finding that in 1 Peter again and again.  Last week it was in 1 Peter 2:4-10.

Peter and Gospel Truth - Gospel Story, 2

How do you motivate people to obedience?  Is it rooted in faith toward Christ or in moralistic, self-improvement?  Do you give people hope or do they leave feeling heavy hearted?  Peter has a great deal to teach us in his method and perspective.

Peter and Gospel truth, Gospel story, 1

For years I have been a student of Paul.  Much like my Reformed mentors, my heart was full of the logic of Romans and the magisterial words of Ephesians.  It was almost as though I had a red letter Bible and the red letters were not Jesus's words, but Paul's. 

I would reject any teaching that said one portion of Scripture was any more or less of God than another.  That is why I pay no attention to red letter bibles.  Yet, in practice, I esteemed Paul more highly than Peter or John. 

That has all begun to change with my study of 1 Peter.  How little did I know of Peter's rigorous  application of the Gospel to all of life! Peter calls the believers to whom he writes to apply the Gospel to their lives at every point.

The Holy Spirit

What us your understanding of the Holy Spirit?

My preaching on Sunday took us to the first section of John 14-16 where there is dense teaching on the person and work of the Holy Spirit.  Here is God the Son telling us about God the Holy Spirit. The focus on John 14 is the Holy Spirit and the believer.

What the text says:

1. It is about redemptive history.  Jesus is to be glorified, to head to the cross in obedience to the Father, and when he ascends in glory to God's right hand -- Psalm 110 -- he will continue his work on earth, and will do greater works in answer to prayer . . . . until he comes back for his own.  That is all of John 13:21-14:31.
2. It moves the work of the God the Spirit to center-stage in this time.  Acts 2 says we have come to the last days (end of the cursed age) and God has poured out the Spirit upon all flesh -- his work and gifting are universal in the body of Christ.
3. He is sent with a focus -- the application of the achievements of the cross and empty tomb in forming a new people -- to make real to them the manifest presence of the exalted Christ with all the fruit that comes from that.

Couple of implications:

1. The church is a work worthy of God and not humanly achievable.  The temptation is for it to degenerate into a sociological institution.
2. The Holy Spirit may be "modest" but Jesus does not say, "I will ascend to heaven and "something is going to happen."  He honors and points to the Spirit and so does the rest of the NT.
3. We are to honor the Holy Spirit by knowing His Person and work and by pursuing His work in us.  The text is unquestionably doctrinal AND experiential (you will KNOW . . . make our home with him . . .  peace).  Borrowing from Jonathan Edwards I told our people on Sunday that there is a difference between being fully informed about the ingredients and the chemistry in making a chocolate chip cookie -- and savoring the fragrance of the cookies as they bake in the oven.  The work of the Holy Spirit is BOTH for us.  Let us not be content with mere information.
4. We are to honor him by pursuing him DAILY.  We did not press our people to a one-time "get it all" experience but to a life of seeking the fullness of the Spirit.
5. The fruit of that seeking is clear in the text -- it is not willy nilly goosebumps -- it is awe before Christ, obedience, tender-hearted love to the Savior, obedience, knowing the truth.
6. There is NO basis from this text for any form of cessationism.  There is no hint of an apostolic era work of the Spirit to be followed by lesser outpouring.  v. 26 may speak of the place of Scripture but not solely that.  The hinge of redemptive history is the cross and empty tomb NOT the death of the last of the 12.

God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is at work to bring about the new creation. Let us worship Him.

Matthew, Christmas, and the American South

I married below the Mason-Dixon line. Emily's (my mother-in-law) greatest fear was just that – that her darling daughter would attend college in the North and marry a Yankee. It happened – 27 years ago.

Emily undertook to civilize me in the ways of the genteel south – from mint juleps that awaited my first arrival to sweetened iced tea for those warm summer evening outdoor suppers. I learned to appreciate the advantages of seersucker suits in a hot and sticky afternoon. My taste buds were acclimated to ribs and I feasted on tomato and mayonnaise sandwiches. But I never could get the genealogy thing. “Mark, I want you to meet Bill – he’s my second cousin’s brother’s uncle and his wife is the aunt of my best friend’s brother-in-law. Isn’t that wonderful?” She awaited my response of joy – but she always waited in vain. I needed Excel spreadsheet to figure these out. But it is part of the South and I learned to smile and act amazed.

Genealogies bore me. I am sorry to say this to all you online devotees of tracing back your family tree to the Mayflower. My wife actually has roots in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1640 – so I have reason to pursue this. But I do not.  I have no interest in ancestry.

But Matthew begins with a genealogy! “The genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” ! I used to sneer at this, read it quickly – "Who cares? Let’s get on with the real story of Mary and Joseph." No more do I sneer! Never have words been penned so full of meaning.

Matthew is simply rooting the lineage of Jesus and the Christmas story in the entire OT plotline. God reached into a fallen race of mankind and called one man, a pagan, to follow him – to leave his father’s house and go to a land he would show him. He promised to bless him and to make his name great and through him to bless all the nations of the world. This was right after the cursing of the world and the scattering of the nations at  Babel.

The man’s name was Abraham and the NT spends considerable parchment on him – that he is the beginning of the announced purposes of God – that it was all designed so that the heirs of the promise would be those of faith and not just physical descendents of Abe. Paul says he understood the promise to be that he would be heir of the world (it’s in Romans 4 as is much of this. Combine that with Galatians 3).

From Abraham came Isaac, then Jacob, and the 12 patriarchs – each receiving the promise again, in greater detail. Then off to  Egyptfor divine protection from the famine, there to grow into a large nation. You know the story – Pharaoh, Moses, the plagues, the exodus, the covenant at Sinai, the rebellion, the wandering, the conquest, the judges and then the era of kings. First there was Saul – clearly a man judged by the wrong metrics. Then came David, man after God’s own heart. In 2 Samuel 7 God makes a promise to David that his descendent would be the ultimate king of all. That promise is developed and enriched in the Psalms and the prophets – kept by God through the years of sin – clarified and sharpened until the captivity and the partial return.

When the OT is wrapped up, one thing is clear – the promised Messiah has not come – he is to be the son of Abraham blessing all the nations – the son of David who will conquer and rule. But he has not come and so they waited for 450 years.

All that is loaded into Matthew 1. The coming of Jesus was not some new thought – it was a consummation of God’s promises and purposes. Christmas is not about gifts and tinsel – it is about God sending his Son to rescue his people from sin and to put an end to this present evil age. His Son will do so, by humility and sacrifice of himself for sinners. He will rise in triumph and reign as the Son of David.

It’s all there in Matthew 1:1. That’s the story of Christmas. That’s a genealogy I love.

 

 

Gospel Saturated Simon Peter

I wish I could have been there for the greatest exposition ever given -- Jesus explaining how all the Hebrew Scriptures point to him (Luke 24).  While I wish I had been there, I still get the fruit of that instruction.  The benefit of his instruction is throughout the NT.  Apostolic writings are saturated in the OT.  Most recently I have seen that in 1 Peter.

Three themes run through this brief letter -- 1. the life of an alien as they 2. experience suffering in this world and 3. wait for glory to follow.  Peter, the simple fisherman, is steeped in passages like Isaiah 53 and Ps 110 (There is that text again!).  He knows Jesus is the Messiah -- the One who enters a fallen world and by his death and resurrection brings us to God.  As one "not of this world" he experienced opposition and suffering on his way to the cross -- and the cross was the ultimate expression of the world's hatred of him.  But he was also glorified -- 3:22 is a remarkable paraphrase of Ps 110.

He is building a new temple and the church is the new people of God (2:9-10 is filled with the language of the covenants with Israel).  He was rejected by the builders but is now the cornerstone. His life and death in the world is our example to follow -- of suffering for godliness.

His death and resurrection redeems us from sin and makes us his new people.  We are born of the Gospel --we call God Father -- we are now aliens in the world -- we are the new people of God -- we have a future inheritance that is glorious in Christ -- his coming at the end of the age is near.  There is a new age awaiting us!

In light of this future glory and the new creation we are in Christ -- we are to live for godliness, to live in holiness -- to live as people redeemed by blood -- to suffer only for the name of Christ and the quality of godliness.  All our suffering is viewed in light of this glorious new creation begun in the death and resurrection of Jesus.  And we have "inexpressible joy"! (1:8-9)

As I finished meditating on 1 Peter today I was struck by a couple of things: 1. Peter may be a simple fisherman but his letter is filled with links to both the OT and to the words and life of Jesus.  This man alludes to and quotes the OT multiple times. His mind is filled with the Bible and the story of redemption.  He reads his Bible in light of that story. He sees Christ in everything.  2. Everything he calls upon them to think upon and to do is rooted in the message of Jesus the Messiah, crucified and risen for sin. 

As you read each command, look back at the text and ask -- "why is he telling them this -- what motivation does he give?"  The answer is always some implication of living in the wake of the cross and the empty tomb.

The great challenge for me is this -- I so quickly return to getting philosophical about it all, or moralistic.  Philosophical says of suffering --"Life is hard, we all suffer, get used to it"  Moralism says, "Live a good life -- it's all that matters -- they can't take away your good conscience."  That is precisely what Peter does NOT do.  He fills them with a vision of the implications of the cross and then calls them to live in light of that.  As our Savior was an alien in the world, faced the hatred of mankind, was crucified and then glorified -- so we walk in his steps.  His suffering brings our salvation -- our suffering bears witness to the Gospel and our persecutors, in the day of visitation, will glorify God for the good works they saw.

The Book of James and the Gospel

It is a great evil to preach a sermon that leads people to think they can make themselves better.  If we encourage them to practical action, it must be rooted in faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ whose sacrifice and Spirit alone brings change, 

“Command what you will and grant what you command” is the wise word of Augustine.  We must look to God for the grace of obedience.  Our problem is profound – a sinful heart – our solution lies entirely outside ourselves, yet we are called to work out our salvation and apply the Gospel in the practicalities.

James is subtle about this.  That is where we stumble.  Reformed theologians are not noted for being nuanced or literary – but there are many ways to communicate truth clearly.  Jesus was certainly immensely creative and we do not find him giving theological discourses.  He told stories,

For example, it is possible to make the point about our desperate need of a Savior by pointing people to the power of sin and the impossibility of taming our own hearts.  That is precisely what James does in his discussion of the tongue.  He leads us to a conclusion but he does not make the conclusion for us.

1. 3:1-10  The tongue is a restless evil, untamed and uncontrollable!  This takes us to 3.11-12 where he asks how can this be?  There must be something wrong at the source of the stream!
2. 3:13-18 The fruit of words is an indication of the heart.  James takes two examples – he looks at a heart of strife and ambition and a heart of purity, reasonableness, and gentleness.  One he says is rooted in demons, the other is from “above.”  That’s the same word he uses in 1:17 and its context is about regeneration.
3. Thus, James leads us to a question – “If my heart must be changed for my tongue to be different, how can this happen?  How do I get a wise heart?”

That is how I would preach this passage.  If I simply exhorted people to watch their words and control their tongues (five steps to better tongue control), I would be missing the point.  This is not a moral harangue.  It is a passage that goes to the depths of our being and calls us to look upward for a changed inner man.