Jesus is alive? They didn’t believe it or didn’t recognize him.
For the next two weeks, we’re studying Luke 24 together as the church. Luke 24 is Luke’s description of the events following Jesus’ resurrection.
We’re studying this chapter for 2 reasons: 1) this is the time of the year when the church typically focuses on the resurrection, and 2) we’re preparing for a chapter-by-chapter study of the book of Acts. (See my post “We’re about to begin studying the book of Acts together.“)
As I read through Luke 24, I noticed a recurring theme: the people who had spent time with Jesus did not believe that he had risen from the dead or did not recognize him, even after hearing personal testimony from others who had seen him alive (in some cases).
For example, in Luke 24, some women find Jesus’ tomb empty. Instead of finding his body, they find angels who tell them that Jesus has risen from the dead. (By the way, the angels also remind the women that Jesus had told them that he was going to be crucified and rise from the third day.)
When the women returned to tell Jesus’ other disciples what they had seen and heard, the others did not believe the women. In fact, they considered this idea that the women had seen angels and that Jesus had risen from the dead to be “idle talk.”
Cleopas and another disciple walked with Jesus on the way to Emmaus. But, they didn’t recognize him either. They knew that some people had claimed to see Jesus alive, but their words indicated that they did not believe it. Even while Jesus was teaching them from the OT Scriptures, the two did not recognize who Jesus was.
Once the two recognized Jesus and returned to the other disciples in Jerusalem, they were all still surprised when Jesus stood before them. They still had trouble believing that Jesus was physically alive, and thought that he must have been a spirit or a ghost.
So, these people had lived with Jesus for years. They heard him teach. They also heard him explain that he was going to die and be raised on the third day. He had told them this several times. But, when it actually happened, they did not believe it.
For the most part, they did not believe that Jesus had risen from the dead until they actually saw him, touched him, ate with him, or some other personal interaction with Jesus proving that he was both alive and human (i.e., not a ghost). For the two disciples walking to Emmaus, even a perfect description of Jesus from Scripture was not enough for them to believe, until their “eyes were opened.”
Why are we surprised that people today do not believe that Jesus was raised from the dead? Why are we surprised that people come up with other explanations for the empty tomb?
Yes, like the original disciples and Paul and other evangelists and apostles in Scripture, we proclaim the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But, we must also understand that people will not believe until they also have a personal interaction with Jesus Christ.
Replay: What’s the big deal about church discipline?
Five years ago, I had just started publishing this blog. One of posts that I wrote during my second month of blogging was called “What’s the big deal about church discipline?” Even then I was recognizing the importance of real relationships among the church. I’d love to hear what you think about this post.
————————————
What’s the big deal about church discipline?
I’ve read several books concerning church discipline. Most of them discuss the various purposes of church discipline (God’s glory, restoration, reconciliation, purity of the church, etc.) and the various reasons that would lead to church discipline (divisiveness, sexual immorality, blasphemy, false teaching, etc.). I understand the proper motivation (love and restoration) and the proper procedure (from Matthew 18). However, one thing has always concerned me: Why should the one undergoing church discipline be concerned about it? In other words, why is church discipline a deterrent?
If I understand the scriptural teaching concerning church discipline, undergoing church discipline should be a major deterrent to sinning, or at least to unrepentance. However, as I’ve seen church discipline practiced, most people who undergo church discipline either continue “attending” church meetings with very little ramifications, or they simply begin attending another “church”.
So, what is the big deal about church discipline?
Well, I’m finally understanding what the “big deal” is. Last night, as I sat among a group of believers, I thought to myself, “What would it mean to me if this group told me that they would not fellowship with me any longer?” It would be devastating! Even if I could continue to “attend” meeting… even if I could continue to “attend” Bible studies and prayer meetings… if my brothers and sisters told me that they would no longer associate with me, it would certainly cause me to stop and evaluate my life. It would be a deterrent to an unrepentant attitude.
What was missing before? Why have I just started understanding church discipline? Because I have only just begun to understand what true fellowship is – and it has nothing to do with occasional “pot-luck” dinners. I am finally beginning to understand what it means to share my life with others, and to share their lives.
Church discipline is meaningless without true fellowship.
We can’t just replace one set of traditions with a new set
Dave Black has written many things that made me think about my life in Christ. Recently, on his “unter-blog” he wrote about a particular chapel on the campus of Southeastern Seminary (Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 6:25 p.m.). He was encouraged at the number of people who were going to Asia to proclaim the gospel and build up the churches there.
However, he pointed out that Christians in America do not seem that interested in leaving their way of life (American way of life, not Jesus way of life). Then, he made these statements:
Frankly, I don’t believe the evangelical church in America is ready for this. Our churches, as they operate today, lack the fidelity to Scripture that is needed to face the challenge of the Great Commission. We’re going to need massive breakthroughs in our understanding – and application – of the New Testament to our churches…
The upside to all of this renewed interest in the church is that more and more of them are questioning the traditions of their elders; the downside is that this questioning often leads to the creation of what might be called “church planting fads” and a new group of elites arrayed in their blue jeans and sporting their goatees, men who are just as committed to church growth fads as their parents were.
Have no doubt, merely replacing one set of human traditions with another set of human traditions won’t cut it.
I think we need to seriously consider Dr. Black’s words. We cannot merely replace one set of traditions (which we might call outdated) with another, newer, fresher set of traditions.
Instead, as he urged, we must return to the source. In Scripture, we see men and women willing to give up everything in order to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ and in order to travel from place to place to build up the churches formed by the disciples who received the gospel and were indwelled by the Spirit.
This is the only program that we need. Give up everything else and serve the Lord Jesus Christ through the opportunities that he gives us.
Is the church in America ready for that? Is that too “radical”? Perhaps, as Dr. Black says above, the church in America is not ready for that.
So, if “we” are not ready, how do we help one another grow towards that way of life?
We’re about to begin studying the book of Acts together
Last October, we finished a long study of the book of Genesis. For the last five months or so, we’ve been doing some topical studies and shorter studies of the books of James and Colossians.
For the next two weeks, we’re going to study Luke 24 concerning the resurrection. We picked Luke for the study because beginning in May we are going to start a study of Acts. Each week, we will read and discussion one or two chapters of Acts (depending on the text, not necessarily the chapter divisions).
Believe it or not, even though we have had many discussions about the church as a community, we have never studied Acts together. This should be a very exciting time for us.
There are several topics that I’m looking forward to investigating: 1) The continuing work of Jesus through the Holy Spirit; 2) the service of several individuals and groups of believers; 3) the interactions between the churches in different areas; 4) the faith of those early Christians particularly in the area of proclaiming, going, sending, and serving; 5) the reactions of nonbelievers to the message of the gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit through his children.
Of course, as we study together, I also expect to find even more interesting topics and themes in this book.
However, I’m not only interested in studying Acts from a historical perspective. Yes, Acts is descriptive, but I do not believe that Luke wrote Acts only so that we have a good description of the 30 or so years following Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. In the same way, I don’t think Luke (or Matthew, or Mark, or John) wrote their Gospels as narrative just so we we would have an historical account of Jesus’ life.
No, instead, I believe that while these books are descriptive, they are also intended to be normative. Luke wants us to know how those early Christians lived, evangelized, shared, served, suffered, went, discipled, gathered, sent, and died so that we could learn from their examples.
What are we going to learn? What will we do based on what we learn? Well, if I knew that, then there would be no reason to study the book of Acts.
I think that we will find some examples in Acts that we are following faithfully. I expect that we will find other examples in the narratives of Acts where we fall short.
The question we will be forced to answer is this: Will we continue in our customs and traditions, or will we be willing to change our way of living in order to follow the examples that Luke provides?
What about you? Have you ever studied the book of Acts? Have you ever studied it in community with other believers? Were surprised at anything you discovered? Did the study cause you to change any aspects of the way you were living?
April Synchroblog: Living the Resurrected Life
This post is part of a Synchroblog for the month of April. The Synchroblog is called “Do You Live Under a Rock?”
The purpose this synchroblog is to consider the importance of the resurrection to the church today. But, to be honest, the title of the synchroblog was a little confusing to me: “Do you live under a rock?”
So, instead of thinking about the title, I used the description as a guide:
As Christians we say we believe in the resurrection but sometimes it seems like we are living under a rock instead of living a resurrected life. As Easter approaches take some time to reflect on what it means to live out the resurrection. Does the resurrection make a difference in the here and now? Have you seen evidence of the resurrection in the land of the living? Would/Could resurrection life change anything/everything in the world/your community? What does it mean to practice resurrection?
In particular, I decided to focus on this part of the description: “Would/Could resurrection life change anything/everything in the world/your community?” Since I tend to write about the church, I want to consider community ramifications of living the resurrected life today.
To begin with I want to state without qualification: I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God; that he is completely human; that he lived, died, was buried, and actually, physically rose from the dead. For me, the resurrection is not a metaphor or a theological concept. It is a real, historical event that happened about 2000 years ago. Plus, I believe that the resurrected Jesus continues to live today through the lives of God’s children as his Spirit indwells them.
Thus the church community – that is, the inter-relational fellowship between brothers and sisters in Christ – depends directly upon living the resurrected life. Or, to put it another way, the only way that we find fellowship with one another is if the resurrected Jesus Christ lives his life through us.
Our community just finished a study of Colossians. One of things we noticed is the importance of Jesus’ resurrection and his ongoing presence to the community life of the church. For example, considers these statements that Paul makes only in the book of Colossians:
1. The presence of Christ is hope for us. (Colossians 1:27)
2. If Christ is Lord (he’s a risen Lord), then it will affect the way we life. (Colossians 2:6)
3. The fullness of deity dwells in him, and he fills us. (Colossians 2:9-10)
4. Since we are raised with Christ, we can think thoughts that come from Christ. (Colossians 3:1-2)
Throughout the book of Colossians, Paul first exhorts his readers to trust Christ (only), and then describes what a life in Christ would look like. If we take this out of order, we turn the gospel into a exhortation to try harder. However, Paul’s instructions were not “try harder,” but “trust Christ.”
This is best illustrated in the sentence that begins a long teaching section (Colossians 2:6-4:6): “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.” It is only when Christ is Lord, that we have the ability to walk in him – or, to use the language of this synchroblog, we are able to live the resurrected life.
So, what is the answer to the problem of not living the resurrected life? What if our thoughts are fixed on physical, “earthly” things instead of spiritual, “heavenly” things? What if we are not “putting off” things like anger, malice, and slander, or what if we are not “putting on” thinks like kindness, humility, and meekness? What if our community is filled with division instead of peace? What if we do not care if we teach and admonish one another? What is the answer to these problems?
The answer is to turn back to the only one who can live the resurrected life through us. If these issues are showing up in our life, they are not indicators that we need to try harder. Instead, they are indicators that we are not properly submitting to our Lord.
So, the resurrected life would change everything in our community. It would change our relationships with God, with one another, and with the world around us. Our lives would make a difference – a dramatic difference – to the people around us.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Check out the other great posts for this month’s synchroblog:
Phil Wyman at Square No More – Apocalyptic fervor spurs benevolent giving
Marta Layton at Marta’s Mathoms – Getting Out From Behind The Rock
Mike Victorino at Simply A Night Owl – Crawling Out From Under A Rock
John Paul Todd at E4Unity – Still Asleep In the Light
Patrick Oden at Ravens – A Resurrection
Brambonius at Brambonius’ blog in english – hiding the Resurrection life like a candle under a bucket?
George Elerick at The Love Revolution – (for)getting the resurrection
Liz Dyer at Grace Rules – I Will Answer That Question In A Minute, But First, I Want To Talk About Jesus
Jeff Goins at Jeff Goins Writer – Resurrection
Tammy Carter at Blessing the Beloved – Rock and a Hard Place
Kathy Escobar at the carnival in my head – little miracles
Christen Hansel at Greener Grass – Resurrection Rhythm
Alan Knox at the assembling of the church – Living The Resurrected Life
Christine Sine at Godspace – Palm Sunday Is Coming But What Does It Mean
Matt Stone at Glocal Christianity – Living The Resurrection
Steve Hayes at Khanya – Descent into Hell and penal substitution
Bill Sahlman at Creative Reflections – Do We Live Under a Rock of Belief?
“I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger”
The title of this post reflects the words of Paul, not Alan. I have not learned the secret yet, but by God’s grace, I hope that I’m learning.
I was reminded of this struggle for contentment in my own life last night. Keith at “subversive1” wrote a very good post called “For Richer or Poorer?” His post has nothing to do with marriage.
Instead, Keith is writing about trusting money for contentment. Early in his post, he writes this:
However, Jesus confidently assures us that, if we will change our perspective, we can enjoy exactly the same sort of life right this very minute. He tells us that we already have all that we need for our life today. God has already provided each of us with our daily bread. Just as God cares for the daily needs of sparrows, He cares even more for us.
Yes. Only God is the source of true contentment. And, he cares about us. He truly cares about us.
How awesome is that? Why am I not content in know that God is with me. He is enough.
So many things (thinks of this earth) vie for my affections. I need to be reminded constantly. Thanks for the reminder, Keith!
Replay: Thoughts on community development: Intra- and Trans-Community
Two years ago, I wrote a post called “Thoughts on community development.” The post is built on the foundation of two other posts. You’ll find links to those posts below. In this post, I examine both intra-community and trans-community leadership and relationships as found in the New Testament.
————————————-
Thoughts on community development
There was a reason for my two previous posts: “Speaking and Serving” and “Local and Itinerant“. The reason was to get to this post. In this post, I am going to talk about community development – specifically, Christian community development.
We see several Christian communities in the New Testament. Similarly, I think we see patterns for Christian community development. In fact, I suggest that we see four different groups working together to develop a single Christian community.
Itinerant Leadership
In Scripture, Christian community often begins with someone bringing the gospel into an area for the first time. These itinerant workers would move from place to place in order to announce the good news of the kingdom of God. As people became interested in their message, they would gather these people together in order to teach, serve, and help them develop into a Christian community. However, this was not the only reason for itinerant leaders. Often these leaders would return to an area specifically to strengthen a community, to help a community recognize their leaders, or to deal with community problems. But, while these itinerant leaders were very important for community development, they always recognized their role as temporary. They would only stay in an area for a short time (relatively short), either until that community was developing well, or until another community needed them more. These leaders relied on the Spirit of God to tell them when to move on to another location. We see several examples of these itinerant leaders in Scripture: Paul, Barnabas, Timothy, Titus, John Mark, Luke, etc.
Trans-Community Relationships
Second, community development was often enhanced through trans-community relationships. (I talked about this briefly in a post called “The trans-congregational church“.) The Christian communities in the New Testament recognized their interdependence on one another, and they developed and maintained relationships with believers in other communities. However, they did not develop these trans-community relationships simply to demonstrate their interdependence. They developed these relationships because they WERE interdependent, and they recognized the necessity of these relationships. In fact, they believed that the Gospel brought them all together into a single community (church), while this community was manifested in various local communities. We can see these trans-community relationships in the way that churches in one city would help churches in another city (i.e. the collection for the church in Jerusalem, or churches in one city sending support to Paul so he can work in another city). We also see trans-community relationships when the church in one city would send someone to another location for a short time. Similarly, we see these trans-community relationships in the way the believers in different churches were encouraged to greet one another (Romans 16, Colossians 4:15) and share correspondence with one another (Colossians 4:16).
Intra-Community Relationships
This is perhaps the result of community development. But, also, the internal relationships with one another within a community demonstrates the extent of community development. Furthermore, with Christian community, these relationships cannot be directed internally (toward one another) only. Christian community also reaches out to those outside the community in order to invite them and welcome them into the community. The Gospel is once again the basis for the relationships (love of God and love for others) as well as an explanation for how God is bringing different people together into one new people. Those within the community recognize that service and love for one another is actually service and love demonstrated to God. This aspect of Christian community development is perhaps the most prevalent in Scripture. For example, the “one another” passages point to this kind of relationship.
Intra-Community Leadership
Finally, intra-community leadership is important for community development. Notice, however, that in Scripture leadership comes after intra-community relationships. The communities are instructed how to recognize or appoint their leaders after living with them and examining their lifestyles. Leadership is important to a Christian community both as a mature member of the community and as a catalyst for further community development. In Scripture, intra-community leaders are recognized based on their maturity and ability to live in a manner worthy of the Gospel. Similarly, they demonstrate that they are worthy to be followed based on their service to the community. As Jesus told his disciples, their leaders should be servants. According to Scripture, recognizing and following community leadership is an important part of community development.
Further thoughts
The first aspect of community development, “Itinerant Leadership”, is a function of those who are gifted for itinerant work. As mentioned previously in this post and a previous post, this is a temporary role within the community, although it may be a permanent role for the leaders. The other three aspects of community development depend upon those who are gifted for local work. Similarly, both speaking and serving are necessary for each community development aspect.
As I look at these four aspects of New Testament community development, I see the church focusing on only one of the aspects: intra-community leadership. In fact, the church is often defined by its leadership. External, itinerant leadership and trans-community relationships are often non-existent, shallow, or even hindered by the church. Churches tend to live as if they are dependent or, perhaps, only interdependent within their own community. This tendency has hampered Christian community development.
Also, we often view community development backwards. “Churches” begin with the leaders – sometimes layers of leadership – before there are any other people involved. Recognizing leadership is no longer a part of community development. Instead, the community is expected to accept the leadership that its given, often with no questions asked. The “leadership” is the church, and the community is expected to form around the leadership.
Finally, when a community does recognize leadership, it often does so based on non-scriptural requirements: education, training, speaking ability, etc. Rarely is maturity or community service considered, primarily because this is unknown. I believe this is another symptom of our top down (backwards) view of Christian community.
So, what do you think? Do you see these four aspects of Christian community development in the New Testament? Am I missing an aspect? Do you agree or disagree with my thoughts on modern community development? What would you add?
The waiting is the hardest part
Have you ever noticed how often the authors of Scripture exhorted their readers toward patience?
Here are a few examples:
Love is patient… (1 Corinthians 13:4 ESV)
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love… (Ephesians 4:1-2 ESV)
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. (Colossians 3:12-13 ESV)
And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. (1 Thessalonians 5:14 ESV)
When we think of patience, we often think of waiting out trials or sufferings. And, there are passages of Scripture that encourage us toward that type of patience and perseverance.
However, the passages above have something in common: they all relate to being patient with one another.
Which do you think is easier: 1) being patient for God to work in the middle of difficult circumstances, or 2) being patient for God to work in the lives of the people around you?
Becoming family in Christ together
As I’ve mentioned several times on this blog, I believe that the authors of Scripture used familial language when speaking to and about other Christians for one important reason: they recognized that they were truly family with other believers.
This was not simply the use of familial language for the purpose of rhetoric or persuasion. Instead, they recognized that they were all in a new relationship with God as their father, which automatically placed them in new relationships with one another. Since God was the father of all of them, then they were all truly brothers and sisters.
All of us have, from time to time, found it difficult to live as family with other believers. All of us – regardless of what “type” of church you are part of, or how you meet together, or the type of leadership involved, or what kind of organization and structure exists in the church.
Thus, we can all use help in learning to live as family with one another. Obviously, the work of the Holy Spirit in each of our lives is necessary for us to grow in our relationships with God and with one another. So, the Spirit’s role in becoming family is extremely important.
There are also some very practical steps that we can take to provide opportunities to share our lives with other people and, therefore, to start living as family.
What advise would you give to someone who told you that they wanted to learn to live as family with other believers?
An unbiased reading of the New Testament concerning the church?
Art at “The Itinerants” has answered one of my questions in his post “New Wine for New Wineskins (revisited).”
In the post, Art responds to this question that I asked in my post “In the NT there is no distinction between clergy and laity“: “What would it take for churches and Christians today to move towards this way (all believers serving, not just some) of life in Christ?”
Art’s answer is quite complete. So, I invite you to read the whole thing. However, I want to highlight the start of his post:
It is VERY hard to divorce from our heads all that we “know†about the church already from experiencing what we have grown up with, and to NOT read into the scriptures reinforcement for these (mis)understandings by twisting scripture, pulling single verses completely out of context, etc.
Think about that just a moment. Whatever your current understanding of the church might be, when you read Scripture, you will naturally read that understanding into what you are reading. This is true for everyone. We all read Scripture (and anything else) with bias.
Let me say that again: We all read Scripture with bias.
Trying to remove that bias is very difficult. However, it is beneficial to begin by recognizing your own bias before critiquing someone else’s bias.
Just something to think about…
(By the way, I like what Art has to say in his blog post. But, then, I’m biased.)