Obeying the Gospel

WANTING TO ASSOCIATE WITH FAITHFUL DISCIPLES (AUGUST 8)

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"And when [Saul] had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples" (Acts 9:26).

IN TODAY’S READING AND TOMORROW’S, I WANT TO RAISE TWO IMPORTANT QUESTIONS, BOTH OF WHICH HAVE TO DO WITH THE IDEA OF “CHURCH.” The first is this: when a person obeys the gospel, is it necessary to associate oneself with a congregation of Christians?

I’d be less than honest if I didn’t tell you that the answer is “Yes.” As far as the New Testament goes, there is no connection to Christ available to us that does not involve responsibilities to Christ’s people (1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 John 4:20-5:2; etc.). For one thing, we will need to partake of the Lord’s Supper every first day of the week, and in the New Testament, the Lord’s Supper was a congregational activity (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34).

But I must be honest with you on another point. The brief days in the New Testament when all congregations were holding to the truth of the gospel are long gone. Most churches now professing Christianity are practicing a religion that is not even a forty-second cousin to the first-century faith. So today, you will need to look carefully for a group that takes the lordship of Christ seriously.

Please know that I’m willing to help you. Wherever you live, I can put you in touch with brothers and sisters who are committed to the simple, unadulterated gospel found in the New Testament. Feel free to contact me, and I will do everything I can to assist you.

If you’re a new Christian looking for a faithful congregation, you may feel as if you’re looking for a needle in a haystack. It is sad but true that most churches claiming to follow Christ are not doing that — they’re following their own preferences about what “seems right” (Proverbs 14:12). But don’t give up. It took you a while to find the true Messiah, and in a confused world, it may take you a while to find the Messiah’s faithful people. Don’t be misled by the attractions of modern entertainment masquerading as religion. You are searching for the Lord’s people, so “examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21 NASB).

"It is scarcely possible in most places to get anyone to attend a meeting where the only attraction is God. One can only conclude that God’s professed children are bored with him, for they must be wooed to meeting with a stick of striped candy in the form of religious movies, games, and refreshments" (A. W. Tozer).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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CHRIST TO HIS PEOPLE: CONGREGATE! (AUGUST 7)

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"For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians" (Acts 11:26).

MANY THINGS ARE NOW SEEN AS UNNECESSARY (AND EVEN HARMFUL) THAT USED TO BE VIEWED AS ESSENTIAL. One of these is marriage. Chelsea Sullivan, a friend who used to manage a Starbucks in Vermont, said that when customers would hear that she was married, they would express shock and disbelief. “Yes, a committed relationship is okay, but at this date why in the world would a seemingly normal person like you want to be married?”

Another now-seen-as-unnecessary concept is “church.” When “organized religion” is spoken of today, it is usually not with admiration. As with marriage, many argue that the benefits can be enjoyed without the traditional obligations. “Yes, be a believer if you wish, but why would a spiritual person want to go to church? Nowadays, being spiritual doesn’t require you to be religious.”

First of all, I agree that the “institutional” concept of salvation is wrong. The church does not stand between us and God or dispense salvation on His behalf. But on the other side of the road is an equally dangerous ditch: the notion that there is no collective or “together” aspect of Christianity at all. Our vertical relationship with God is primary, but that doesn’t mean that a horizontal relationship with other Christians is merely optional. So let’s break this issue into two questions, the answer to both of which is “Yes.”

(1) DOES IT MATTER IF I “GO TO CHURCH” AT ALL? You can’t read what happened in Antioch in Acts 11:19-26 and imagine those people downplaying their duties to the Lord’s church in their locality. And this is not an isolated text. The entire New Testament assumes that Christians will be members of local groups of disciples.

(2) IF I GO, DOES IT MATTER WHERE I GO? In the first century, it wasn’t long before people began departing from the apostles’ teaching (1 John 2:18,19; 2 John 7-11). Today, the problem is even worse. So we need to be careful. Not every church we might check out is one the Lord would recognize as being true to Him. And studying the Scriptures is the only way to know what markers we ought to be looking for.

"The New Testament does not envisage solitary religion; some kind of regular assembly for worship and instruction is everywhere taken for granted in the Epistles" (C. S. Lewis).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

For more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH (AUGUST 6)

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"And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18).

PETER HAD JUST CONFESSED THAT HE BELIEVED JESUS WAS THE MESSIAH. When Jesus had asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” (v.15), Peter had spoken up and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v.16). Following Peter’s confession, Jesus said He would build His church on this “rock” — not Peter himself, but the truth confessed by Peter. This truth, that Jesus is the Son of God, is the secure foundation on which the church is built.

In the New Testament, the word “church” is a translation of the Greek ekklesia, which meant an assembly or gathering. Literally, it meant a “called-out” group, a convening of people who left whatever they were doing to answer the call to come together. So in Matthew 16:18, the Lord said that He would have a group of people who would be His church, His assembly — they would be separated from the world in order to belong to Him. We read in the Book of Acts about the fulfillment of this, where after the gospel was first preached following Jesus’ resurrection, many people were baptized and began living as members of the Lord’s church (Acts 2:1-47).

So the Lord did just what He promised He would do: He built His church. The very word “build” signifies solidity and permanence. The church’s foundation is the truth about Jesus — the truth that He loved us and died to forgive us so that we could become His people. And because this truth is indestructible, the church built upon it is indestructible. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Satan could not prevent God’s Son from accomplishing His mission, and he cannot destroy the church which the Son has built.

We err tragically when we minimize the church and fail to appreciate it. Shame on us if we think the church is nothing more than a topic that unbalanced preachers of a bygone era felt they needed to stress. If Christ built His church, it deserves our awe. Let us not “damn with faint praise” (to use Alexander Pope’s expression) that which ought to be gloriously and joyously exalted.

I love thy church, O God!
Her walls before thee stand,
Dear as the apple of thine eye,
And graven on thy hand.
(Timothy Dwight)

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

For more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD (AUGUST 5)

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". . . the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15).

THIS MEANINGFUL PASSAGE POINTS TO THE IDENTITY OF THOSE WHO ARE CHRISTIANS. Let’s look at it phrase by phrase:

HOUSEHOLD OF GOD. It is not the church building but the members of the family who make up God’s “house,” as made clear by the translation “household” in the ESV. This marvelous household is referred to elsewhere as “the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10).

CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD. The church is God’s. It belongs to Him and can rightly be called “the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). The “church of God” is not a denominational name; it is simply a description of ownership.

PILLAR AND BUTTRESS OF THE TRUTH. In a building, both a pillar and a buttress (“ground” in the KJV, or “support” in the NASB) serve a foundational purpose. But how does this relate to the church? It does not mean that the church is the source of the truth, for the authority of God’s truth is derived not from God’s people but from God Himself (John 17:17; James 4:12). The idea in 1 Timothy 3:15 is that the people of God exhibit the truth in a tangible way, demonstrating its power observably. The truth is not produced by the church, but the church is produced by the truth, in order “that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known” (Ephesians 3:10). As the product of God’s truth, the church shows just how true — and powerful — God’s wisdom is.

Doing this is the privilege of the church, the people who, like Israel, have been redeemed from slavery (not to Pharaoh but to sin). Paul urged his brethren to live consistently with the gospel in the midst of those who are still rejecting God, “among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15). And not just by their example, it is by their words that members of the “household of God” are to be “a pillar and buttress of the truth.” Paul said to the Thessalonians that “the word of the Lord sounded forth from you” (1 Thessalonians 1:8). This, then, is how God’s family “supports” the truth — by living it truly and speaking it clearly.

"No other organization on the face of the earth is charged with the high calling to which the church is summoned: to confront men with Jesus Christ" (J. W. Hyde).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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GRACE TO HELP IN TIME OF NEED (AUGUST 4)

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"Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).

FOR THOSE WHO HAVE OBEYED THE GOSPEL, THE THRONE OF GOD SHOULD ALWAYS BE THOUGHT OF AS “THE THRONE OF GRACE.” Needing help in so many ways and wanting our obedience to Christ to be steadfast, we can’t do without the confidence of which the Hebrew writer speaks. In order to keep from faltering in our faith, we’ll need to stay close to the throne of God’s grace.

It is a marvelous thing that we may have this confidence, but in Christ, that is the good news. As a gracious God, He wanted to save us from our sins, and to do so, He made a sacrifice of unimaginable love. Having done that, there is nothing else He wouldn’t do to help us, in whatever way we need Him. “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?” (Romans 8:32).

The character of God, then, is the key to the assurance of our salvation. God being who He is, we do not doubt that He desires for us to overcome every discouragement thrown at us by the enemy (1 Peter 5:8). God will give us the help we need — abundantly.

The prayer at the end of Jude’s letter to his embattled brethren is appropriate to our point: “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen” (Jude 24,25).

“A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” is one of the greatest hymns ever written. In it Martin Luther powerfully captured the essence of the Christian’s faith: “Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing; were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing: Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He; Lord Sabaoth His Name, from age to age the same, and He must win the battle.” It is, after all, a battle. But we do not doubt that we will “receive mercy and find grace to help.”

Beneath the shadow of Thy throne,
Thy people are by faith secure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone
To make the soul's defenses sure.
(Isaac Watts)

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

For more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

AFTER BECOMING A CHRISTIAN, THEN WHAT? (AUGUST 3)

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"Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love" (Ephesians 4:15,16).

THE MOMENT A PERSON PASSES FROM SPIRITUAL DEATH TO LIFE IS A GREAT MOMENT. No small part of the new Christian’s rejoicing is a sense of relief. He has escaped, by God’s grace, the greatest of enemies, and it is right to celebrate, just as it was right for Israel to celebrate when God brought them through the Red Sea and destroyed the armies of Pharaoh (Exodus 15:1-21). But after the singing died down, Israel’s question would have been, “What happens now?” It was great to be alive, but there was work to be done and a wilderness to be crossed before Canaan could be their possession. And so it is with the new Christian. The joy of deliverance is appropriately followed by the question, “What do I do now?”

The new Christian needs to understand that he has embarked on a process of spiritual growth. Yes, baptism marks the end of a person’s old life, but it is the beginning of the work God intends to do to remake that person’s character and restore it to the perfect image of His Son. Many texts speak of this, but none more clearly than Ephesians 4:15,16 where Paul says that “we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”

But Paul also emphasizes the importance of the church in the Christian’s life and growth. The body of Christ needs — and is needed by — every Christian. It is “joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

So to the new Christian, I say this: your relationship to God is your primary concern, and your relationship to the church is secondary. But don’t underestimate either of these parts of God’s plan. (1) Your contribution to the church won’t be what it ought to be if your individual, private walk with God isn’t rich and vibrant, but (2) your relationship to God won’t be what it ought to be if you don’t participate in the mutual strengthening that takes place in the church. There is no way around it: congregations are given for our good. They are part of God’s means of producing mature, heaven-ready individuals.

"Churches: Soulariums" (P. K. Thomajan).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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THE CHURCH MANIFESTS GOD’S WISDOM (AUGUST 2)

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". . . so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 3:10).

IF GOD’S GLORY IS SEEN IN THE HEAVENS, HIS WISDOM IS SEEN IN THE CHURCH. And as Paul points out, it is not just to human beings that the church reveals God’s wisdom; it is also “to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” To every being God ever created, even in the heavenly realms, the church stands as an exhibition of just how wise the Creator (and Redeemer) truly is.

THE PLAN OF SALVATION. When we see how God worked out His plan to save us, we stand amazed at the wisdom of it all. None of it happened by accident. Every bit of it was “according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord” (v.11).

THE LOCAL CHURCH. The design of the local church reflects God’s wisdom. The very idea that there needed to be such a thing as the local church was so wise that only God could have thought of it.

Incidentally, one of the most striking things about the church in the New Testament is its simplicity. Universally, it consisted of all of God’s saved people, with Christ as their head (Ephesians 1:22,23). And locally, it was simply the saints in a particular area, led by bishops and served by deacons (Philippians 1:1). There was no ecclesiastical hierarchy that stood between Christ and the local church: no pope, no collegium of cardinals, no denominational structure — in fact, nothing like the complex religious machinery of today.

The wisdom manifested in the church as God created it will not always seem wise to the world. As Joe Fitch observed one time, God created the buzzard as well as the bald eagle, and neither reflects the glory and wisdom of God any more than the other. It is only the wisdom of the world that would turn all buzzards into eagles. And so it is with the church. There are some things about God’s plan for the church that to our “common sense” seem unworkable, but those things reflect the “manifold wisdom of God” just as much, if not more so, than the parts we happen to like. Let us beware of trying to create the church along the lines of our own wisdom. It was meant to reflect God’s wisdom, not ours.

"The whole history of the world is discovered to be but a contest between the wisdom of God and the cunning of Satan and fallen men. The outcome of the contest is not in doubt" (A. W. Tozer).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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CHRIST'S AMBASSADORS (AUGUST 1)

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"Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20).

SPEAKING AS ONE OF THE APOSTLES, PAUL SAID, “WE ARE AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST.” This is a statement worth contemplating.

An ambassador is an authoritative spokesman for a government. When he speaks for the government that is behind him, his words carry the full weight of the government itself. In this way, the apostles were Christ’s ambassadors, commissioned to speak with His full authority as the foundation of the church was being laid (Ephesians 2:20). If you had heard an apostle present the gospel, there would have been no need to worry whether he got it exactly right. When the apostles spoke, it was as if Christ Himself were speaking, and they had the credentials to prove their ambassadorship: the “signs of a true apostle” (2 Corinthians 12:12).

So where does that leave us today? The apostles are dead, and Christ never said anything about a chain of apostolic succession. In the most important sense, however, we still have the apostles — we have their teaching in the New Testament. And that teaching is what everything must be measured against (Galatians 1:8,9).

But, someone says, aren’t all Christians ambassadors for Christ? Perhaps we could say so in a very general sense (just as we could say that every American is an “ambassador” of the United States when he travels, expected to represent his country well). But in an age when people tend to think there is nothing to the gospel except each person’s individual opinion, we need to keep the emphasis on the authoritative statement of the gospel by those who were, in the truest sense, the ambassadors of Christ.

Today, we would not be able to know anything definitive about salvation from sin if Christ had not made arrangements for there to be an authoritative deposit of the gospel in the writings of the apostles. So if someone tries to teach you and he says he’s an “ambassador” of Christ, be sure to test the conclusions his study has led him to against the teaching of Christ’s emissaries, the apostles. But if you are satisfied that what you have heard is, in fact, the gospel, then by all means obey it. Accept God’s offer. Do not turn it down!

"The gospel is not so much a demand as it is an offer, an offer of new life to man by the grace of God" (E. Stanley Jones).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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ISRAEL'S DAY OF ATONEMENT (JULY 31)

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"Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement" (Leviticus 23:27).

ONCE A YEAR, THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL WERE TO OBSERVE A “DAY OF ATONEMENT.” The Lord required them to make special sacrifices for sin on this day, and on this day only, once a year, the High Priest entered the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle with the blood of the sacrifices. All of the observances on this most special day of the year were detailed in Leviticus 16:1-34 and 23:26-32.

On this day, a day when Israel was vividly reminded of the seriousness of sin, the Lord said, “you shall afflict yourselves” (Leviticus 23:27 ESV). The Hebrew word translated “afflict” denotes various forms of self-denial. The NIV renders it “deny yourselves” and the NASB, “humble yourselves.” (See its use also in texts like Psalm 35:13 and Isaiah 58:3.) The most usual form of this self-denial would be fasting, of course, but it might involve other forms of abstinence that would reflect a deeply humble and penitent frame of mind. However much Israel might rejoice in the Lord’s salvation and be grateful for His blessings, on this day each year they were to ponder the seriousness of sin and afflict their souls.

The blood of the animals that were sacrificed on the Day of Atonement could not by themselves provide the forgiveness of sins. That would require nothing less than the perfect sacrifice of God’s own Son, a sacrifice that would reach back to provide their forgiveness just as it reaches forward to provide ours today.

The writer of Hebrews says, “For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Hebrews 9:24-26).

Israel was fortunate to have such a stark reminder of the price of sin’s atonement. And today, we lose much of the depth that should characterize our godliness if we never think of sin except to say, “Sin? It’s no big deal. God’s grace has got me covered.”

"One reason sin flourishes is that it is treated like a cream puff instead of a rattlesnake" (Billy Sunday).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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LOVE’S FIRE (JULY 30)

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". . . for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised" (Song of Solomon 8:6,7).

JESUS SAID TO HIS DISCIPLES, “IF YOU LOVE ME, YOU WILL KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS” (JOHN 14:15). This is not only a requirement that those who love Jesus must keep His commandments; it is a statement of result, i.e., what will happen if we do, in fact, love Him. The doing of Jesus’ will flows naturally from a heart that loves Him.

In a perfectly healthy spiritual state, our actions toward God would be moved by a beautiful blend of various motives. None of these motives would be insignificant or inappropriate. Yet while there are other honorable motives for doing God’s will, most people would agree that love is the highest. No motive is more noble.

But we can just as easily say that love is the most powerful motive in our relationship to God. It is no wonder that the poets have always compared love to fire. As Solomon described it, love’s “flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.” If you’re not a poet but an accountant or an engineer, you might prefer that Solomon had just said, “Love is very powerful.” But Solomon knew, personally as well as poetically, the fire of love’s power. (Tragically, he also knew how destructive that fire can be when it’s not rightly governed.) There is simply no force in the world more potent than love — and when love is a holy passion for God, it is a force that will move us to do what is right with fiery energy. “Love in its essence is spiritual fire” (Emanuel Swedenborg).

As we reflect on obeying the gospel, we would do well to ponder what it is that we most truly love. Perhaps we love God sincerely but have been ill-informed on what the Scriptures teach about how one becomes a Christian. If so, we need to act on our new knowledge — and then continue learning to love God more deeply. But maybe our lives are in the sad shape they’re in right now because, in all honesty, the love of God has not been our primary passion. If that be the case, it’s urgent that we learn to love God. If not, the lesser things we love more than Him will be the death of us.

"We are shaped and fashioned by what we love" (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

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