Word of Life Church Podcast

Calling things by their names is the way of the God and the first vocation of man. In Genesis, Adam is instructed by God to gives names to all the animals. Humans are the ones who make Creation a community of the named and known and not just an impersonal collection of unknown and disassociated things. Without humanity, the universe is a cold and impersonal collection of objects. But humanity gives names to things and the universe becomes known and personal. Be wary of an overemphasis on numbers. Turning names into numbers, persons into statistics, and people into things is what the Beast does. It is the root of the beastly actions of totalitarian regimes.

If you want to sum up the Gospel in its most succinct form, this is it: Jesus is Lord! The Apostles actually believed that with the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, the world was now being governed by a new emperor, a new administration. The politics of Caesar and empire had been replaced by the politics of Christ. Through faith and baptism we become citizens of the kingdom of God, and we bring the culture of the Kingdom of God to earth through how we pray and how we live. This is what we mean when we say, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." For the baptized, our government is not from earth, but rather from heaven. Through the luck of our birth we may be American, or Chinese, or French, or Iranian. But if we are baptized, our allegiance is pledged to Christ and our citizenship is in heaven. Jesus is Lord, and Caesar is not!

Pastor Brian Zahnd interviews P.G. Vargis, missionary and founder of the Indian Evangelical Team (IET), a Christian missions organization spread across India, Nepal, and Bhutan, and is the fastest growing missons organization in South East Asia. Today, IET trains hundreds of indigenous men and women to be effective, godly church planters and Christian leaders through its regional Bible schools and its leadership training centers.

In the world after Easter the Apostle Paul is possessed by a radical new vision for the world. This is what compels him to travel unceasingly throughout the Roman Empire. Paul daringly proclaims that the true gospel of peace is not the Pax Romana (Peace of Rome), but the Pax Christi (Peace of Christ). In his deeply theological letter to the Gentile church in Ephesus, Paul describes his radical vision for the world-he calls it "one new humanity." For Paul, what is saved in the death and resurrection of Jesus is not merely individual souls, but human civilization itself- "the world." In the cross of Christ the evil phenomenon of achieving unity through groupthink hostility is killed. This accomplishment of the cross gives humanity the possibility of peace. Through the gospel of peace Jews and Gentiles (and every other division of humanity) can now overcome their hostility and be formed in Christ as One New Humanity.

The kingdom of God is salvation in its full expression, and it's all a gift. In the midst of the human catastrophe and civilization gone wrong from the very foundation, God has acted and given to us the Kingdom of God. We cannot build it or fight for it. We can only perceive the kingdom by faith and receive it as a gift. But because human history is mostly about building and fighting and constructing empires, that is cam only be done by faith is very hard for us to comprehend. We think all the great things are built and fought for. But that is a lie. The kingdom of God is the Father's gift to humanity, given in Christ. It's all a gift.

Fighting, arguments, and disagreements are a part of the human condition. Many times our disagreements are over small, insignificant things. We often need to step back and ask, "Does what we are arguing about really matter?" In his letter to the Galatians, Paul put all of our fighting in context by stating emphatically: what really matters is new creation! In Christ we have been rescued from old broken down creation and have been given access into God's new creation, where there is no more division based on race, gender, or social status. When we divide over these issues we fail to see how the world has changed since the resurrection of Jesus. In this new post-resurrection world, we respect everyone, recognizing everyone is loved by God.

The Bible contains some shockingly brutal stories. Some of them involve gang rape, murder, and dismemberment. These are not the stories that we tell our children at bedtime. Many of these stories involve a merciless mob of people. Sodom is primarily about group violence from a merciless mob inflicted on foreigners. They are many stories of public stonings. Even the crucifixion of Jesus was at its roots a mob lynching. Lynch mobs never think of themselves as evil. But in fact, the merciless mob is the manifestation of the satan in its fullest form! An angry crowd is cruel, merciless, and stupid, but most of all, it is dangerous. If you follow an angry crowd you will almost certainly be wrong. Even if you're not wrong in the issue you will be wrong in spirit. The crowd is antichrist. Jesus loves you, but he does not love your angry crowd. Jesus never calls his people to join a crowd, only a little flock. Jesus never leads anything other than a gentle, peaceable, merciful minority.

With the resurrection of Jesus Christ, death was defeated and new creation began. New creation can be perceived and participated in by the body of Christ right now! The world after Easter is not the same world as the world of Good Friday. On Good Friday, the world was under the old order of the old creation dominated by sin and death. The world after Easter is a world where new creation is already dawning in the land of death. This is why Paul says, if anyone is in Christ, Hello, New Creation!

With the resurrection of Jesus Christ, death was defeated and new creation began. New creation can be perceived and participated in by the body of Christ right now! The world after Easter is not the same world as the world of Good Friday. On Good Friday, the world was under the old order of the old creation dominated by sin and death. The world after Easter is a world where new creation is already dawning in the land of death. This is why Paul says, if anyone is in Christ, Hello, New Creation!

We are called to fight the good fight of faith. Last week in Part 1, Pastor Derek Vreeland described in detail the three primary enemies of our faith-secularism, individualism, and nationalism. This week, in Part 2, he continues by describing how the resurrection of Jesus delivers the final blow to these enemies. Our fight is with defeated enemies, which requires us to live a certain way, namely as sacred people, communal people, and intentionally Christian people.