John 3:16 "The Gospel in a Nutshell"

                There are some aspects of the Christian faith that are so widely known that even those who are outside of the church are familiar with them.  Most notably, certain days like Christmas and Easter.  Even those who are unchurched have heard of and celebrate these days; although I’ve often wondered what exactly someone who isn’t a Christian celebrates on these particular days.  However, there are also some parts of Scripture that they are familiar with as well.  Everyone has heard of the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule.  What’s really funny is that a lot of folks don’t realize that the Golden Rule actually has its origins in Scripture, but there it is, right there in Matthew 7:12 (So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets).  Then, there’s this verse, John 3:16.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  This is one of, if not the, most frequently quoted verses in all of Scripture.  I think it most certainly is the most quoted of the New Testament verses.  It has been given the title of being “the gospel in a nutshell.”  Even many non-Christians can quote this verse for us if we asked them to.  Its popularity is mind-blowing really.  It doesn’t matter what type of Christian you are (liberal or conservative) or what type of denomination you belong to, the power of this verse stands regardless of worldview or beliefs.  The question that I want to ask and hopefully answer today (and there are a number of ways we could go with this) is why this verse is so powerful?  What is it about this relatively short verse that seems to sum up the basics of the gospel?  And we’re going to accomplish this by really breaking it down and looking at what the words come together to say, but we’re also going to talk about what this verse doesn’t say as well. 

                Unfortunately, much of the reason for the popularity of this verse is because of the common misinterpretation(s) of it.  You see, this verse says that God so loved the world that he provided a means by which some (those who believe in Christ) might be saved.  The means that God provided was His one and only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.  However, the way that many in our culture today read and interpret this verse is by basically changing it to where it reads, “For God so loved the world and everyone in it that He gave His only Son so that everyone could be saved.”  Well, I don’t expect you to know Biblical Greek, but just take my word that there is no way to get such a reading from the original autographs.  You see, an interpretation of this verse along those lines is where we get the notion that many people live by that states that as long as they say that God is real and that Jesus died then that is all that matters.  They can conduct themselves in whatever manner they wish to without any responsibilities or obligations and they are fully entitled to the blessings of God because it says right there that “God so loved the world.”  However, they’ve taken the notion of belief completely out of the equation, but we’ll deal with that in a minute.

                So, let me hit pause on this line of thinking about what this verse doesn’t mean for just a moment and spend some time actually examining this text and looking at what it does mean.  I’ll come back to how we interpret it versus how we should interpret it in just a moment, but a few things need to be looked at before I do that.  First, when we say that God so loved the world, what is in view when we say the word world?  Well, it’s exactly what you may think is in view.  When John writes this commentary on Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, and he uses the word world, he doesn’t have in mind some select group, but the entirety of people living and all that was created by God.  John remains consistent with this usage of the word world throughout his gospel account.  Now, he’s not saying that eternal life is for the world, that’s part of the second petition.  All he’s saying in this first petition is that God loved the world and the creatures that He created so much so, that instead of destroying them He gave them the gift of His Son.  You see, the gift of Jesus is a gift for the entire world, even those who do not profess saving faith in him.  It’s kind of like how God promised Abraham in Genesis 12 that He would make Abraham (then Abram) a great nation so that he would be a blessing to the world.  Now, for those found outside of the person and lineage of Abraham, there was not eternal life, but there still were blessings to be enjoyed.  Don’t mistakenly think that John’s use of the word world here in terms of the giving of the Son carries over to the second half of this verse that speaks of eternal life and salvation.  Just look at Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer in John 17 for more evidence.  John makes a very clear distinction there that those found in Christ and “the world” are not one in the same.

                You see, this is where the major issue comes in in terms of interpreting this verse properly.  John very plainly writes that eternal life and not perishing is the reality for “whoever believes in him.”  He doesn’t say that as a result of sending His Son into the world that God is granting eternal life to the world and everyone in it.  No, this second petition narrows things down quite a bit from the original grouping of the world.  Now, it’s very important that we understand that this pronoun “him” is referring to Jesus.  In essence, this is where we look to a verse like John 14:6 for that clarification.  However, that’s also where the issues start to really come in for many people and where a lot of anger and hostility start.  If you want to make a non-Christian or even a pseudo-Christian upset then do this.  If you want to anger one of those folks that say that infuriating statement that all religions are worshiping the same god just in a different way, then just recite the words of John 14:6 to them.  “I am the way and truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  In other words, Jesus is very bluntly laying it out there that he is the only way to the Father, he’s the only way to eternal life in heaven, and he’s the only way of salvation.  We looked at the closing text of James last Sunday and we talked about Jesus being the only hope, the only way.  Now, it’s all good to read that and to say that we believe that, but we have to act like that as well.  We have to conduct ourselves in a manner that indicates that we believe whole-heartedly that Jesus Christ is the one true Messiah.  Now, I’m not calling for violence or the Crusades part 2.  I’m just simply saying that we have to believe that it is in Christ and Christ alone that we come to God.  There are no other means by which we are drawn near to the Father other than the Son himself.

                Now, as I said earlier, this is where the contention comes in.  Many people will be quick to tell us that God is love and that it doesn’t sound very loving for God to be so exclusive in how he saves people.  Well, two things; first, I can read 1 John 4 as well and it isn’t that God is only love, but that love comes from God.  Love is an attribute of God, but so are anger and wrath and righteousness, so that’s important to keep in mind.  We can’t promote one aspect of God so much that it mutes other aspects of Him.  That’s just us creating our own god.  I have to be completely honest with you and tell you that my skin crawls a little bit when people say things like, “Well, my god is a god of love” or “My god would never choose not to save someone.”  Well, when you say “my god” then you’re just admitting that you’ve created your own god.  You’ve taken the God of Scripture, the God of the Bible and you have reduced Him to something that sounds more pleasing to you, which is creating something entirely new.  If I told Amy that I thought she was beautiful except for her smile, nose, eyes, hair, etc., then I wouldn’t actually be telling her that she’s beautiful would I?  Secondly, the question that really ought to be asked, and I’m taking this from Dr. R.C. Sproul’s commentary on John’s gospel, isn’t “Why is there only one way? but “Why is there even one way?”  In other words, if we were to look back at the history of mankind and our relationship and obedience to God, why would God even provide one way for our restoration?  God created us in a world of perfection, and we fell in disobedience through Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit.  God then pulled out the one righteous person in the world in Noah, and after seeing him and his family through the flood we sinned and disobeyed again.  The same pattern continued through Abraham, the nation of Israel, David and Solomon, and on and on.  Then, despite being well past the point of being deserving of it, God sent His greatest gift into the world.  He sent His only Son into the world and we ridiculed and rejected and killed and crucified him.  Even after He rose from the grave there were/are still those who rejected him.  The question that we ought to be asking is not why would God only make one way, but why God would allow all of our sinfulness and shame to be placed upon the shoulders of His Son.   Why would God provide us with any way of being saved?  However, like I said earlier, we chose to think along the lines of “if God provides only one way of salvation then He really doesn’t love the world that much.”  Friends, any questioning along such lines quite honestly doesn’t have any clue about the depth and power of God’s love.  If any person out there would ask such a question, then they don’t understand God’s love, they don’t understand sin, they don’t understand debt, justice, or a whole host of other aspects of who God truly is and what He requires of us.

                Let me make this very crude analogy in terms of the way in which God’s providing any way by which we might be saved is so amazing.  Let’s say that you go in to get a loan and you’ve never really done any banking, but there’s no reason for you to be denied, so you’re approved.  However, you not only can’t pay that loan, but you file for bankruptcy.  Then, let’s say that you wait the couple of years after bankruptcy and you go and apply for another loan and you get approved again.  Well, history repeats itself and you not only default on that loan, but you file for bankruptcy again.  Let’s say that this happens for quite some time; let’s say that this cycle just keeps repeating itself for quite a while.  Now, eventually, the bank (every bank or lending organization) is going to basically blackball you and cast you aside.  They won’t even give you a loan with 100% interest, they won’t give you a loan at all.  They have every right to completely and totally cut you off and not provide even a glimmer of hope for you ever getting approved for another loan.  You’ve messed up so bad that even your great grandkids are given bad credit reports at birth just because they are related to you.  Well, that’s basically the position that we were in before Christ’s death, before the giving of the Son to the world.  The part where God’s love differs from anything that we can imagine is that God provided a way by which not only could we be partially resorted, but fully restored and our relationship with Him completely repaired.  Now true, this complete restoration of our relationship with God is a process.  Actually it’s a number of processes that are all working simultaneously called sanctification, salvation, and justification; and they take our entire lives to complete.  While conversion may happen in an instant, the process of our becoming holy just as God is holy isn’t.  We slip, we stumble, we fall, we stray.  That’s just life.

                However, and I want end by making this point clear, because we believe in Christ, we do not perish but have eternal life.  Now, we spent quite a bit of time looking at the book of James and we saw and pointed out the fact that belief or faith is something much more than acknowledgment.  That’s where a lot of the hang-up comes in our world today.  We can’t just say that we acknowledge God and His Son and call it belief.  Belief and faith are things that are to be lived out.  When we believe that Christ is the Messiah, then we conform ourselves to His commands and His will.  We don’t show belief by creating our own images of him or choosing which of his commands to obey and which ones to ignore.  True belief requires total acceptance and obedience of that standard.  Look, I’ll be honest with you, there are things in this life that I would like to do much differently but I don’t because I have to let Scripture be my guide.  My conscience, my desires, my heart, my feeling, my emotions, nor my opinions can be my guide in this life.  God and God alone is the means by which we must live our lives.  And we find God through prayer, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and through careful reading of His Word.  Yes, God so loved and loves this world that He gave us Jesus Christ, His one and only begotten Son.  And it is only through true belief and total acceptance, reliance, and adoration of that Son that we may hope to enter into eternal life in heaven.  Thanks be to God that He has provided that one and only way; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

James 5:13-20 "Take it to the Lord in Prayer"

                Today we bring to a close our series entitled True Faith Works, our series on the epistle of James.  Now, we’ve seen James deal with a lot of very important biblical doctrines and biblical truths during the past few months.  Sometimes it’s hard to believe that there’s so much stuff, so much information crammed into only 5 chapters (only 3 pages in your pew Bibles).  We’ve talked about the relationship of faith and works.  We said that faith produces works and that we are not saved by our works.  We’ve talked about sin and the severity with which we are to treat it.  Sin is no trivial matter.  We talked about how we are to go about fighting sin in this world.  We talked about the complete reliance that we must have upon God to overcome sin in this fight.  We don’t have the power to overcome it, that must come from God and God alone.  Last week, we saw James tell us that we have to be patient.  We saw him tell us that all of this hard work that we are going to be doing isn’t going to be easy and it’s not going to be a short process, but we have to keep going.  Even when we’re tired, even when we’re weak, and even when we wonder if we’re even making a difference, we have to keep going.  Well, now we come to the closing words of James for his Jewish-Christian audience.  Basically (and this is really simplifying it), James’ final words are that we should pray and praise God.  So, he follows up all of this hard work and suffering and patience and endurance with the sweet reminder that we are to pray and praise.

                “Is anyone among you suffering?  Let him pray.  Is anyone cheerful?  Let him sing praise.  Is anyone among you sick?  Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him…”  In other words, if you’re in trouble then pray.  If you’re in a time of blessing then pray.  If you’re sick (the Greek word literally meaning “weak”) then call the leaders of the church and have them pray with and for you.  Regardless of what your situation or your circumstances in life may be, you ought to be praying.  I often find it funny that many Christians only really pray when things are going poorly.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard stories about people exhausting every possible avenue of help and healing, so they went to God in prayer.  Now, we’ve all heard stories where people came to know Christ in those moments and I’m greatly thankful for them.  Maybe the story of how you came to know Christ happened in a situation like that; praise be to God.  However, I often get a little bit cenacle or upset feeling when I hear those stories.  Now, I’m not trying to say that God ought to not listen to those prayers.  God doesn’t need to be like us.  You know that person that calls you only when something is wrong and you don’t even want to answer it when their name comes up on the caller I.D.  “He must be in trouble now because he’s calling me.”  No, I’m thankful that God isn’t like that; however, I will often say that if someone is constantly in prayer, then maybe they wouldn’t reach the point that they are at when they have nowhere to turn.  When we are constantly engaging ourselves with the things of God through prayer and careful reading and study of His Word, then we are much more likely to stay anchored to Him.  However, bad things will still happen and that’s just the way it is.

                James follows up his charge for constant prayer by saying, “And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.  And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.  Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”  Now, one quick word of caution here; James is not saying that praying a particular prayer or having certain people pray and anoint someone with oil will heal everyone.  He’s not even saying that every follower of Christ that prays over the sick will see healing.  Remember, I told you that the word translated as “sick” actually means “weak” in the original Greek.  Well, there is a great deal of difference between sickness and weakness.  And this weakness that is in mind is a complete lack of strength, almost like that of being completely wiped out due to dehydration, starvation, or illness.  It’s really an inability to do anything.  Recently, Amy and I attended a funeral service for a distant family member of hers.  This guy was a devoted and devout Christian, but he had more health problems than all five members of my family put together.  He had been in bad health for as long as Amy has been alive; he had had heart issues for well over 30 years with his first heart surgery being in 1981.  And as if that wasn’t enough, he had even had several accidents while working his land involving large metal gates and massive tractors.  He couldn’t wear pants that fit him because they irritated the scars that he had as a result of so many surgeries.  Now, he was a faithful man, but God never healed him of his infirmities.  The Apostle Paul was never healed of his infirmities.  Paul very famously speaks in 2 Corinthians of his “thorn in the flesh” which is often seen as a physical injury.  However, in both the case of Paul and this man who had been in poor health, Mr. Cooley, God overcame their weaknesses and gave them strength.  He gave them strength to run the race that was before them to use more Pauline language.  You see, it isn’t about necessarily being healed of all physical infirmities (although God certainly has the power to do that), but about overcoming whatever your limitations may be and serving and honoring God.  That’s the healing that James has in mind here that we are to pray for.  Overcoming physical and spiritual maladies and being able to praise God through it all.  Overcoming the fallenness of this world and the way in which we are seen as the bad guys.  Overcoming the trials and hardships and continuing to strive forward for the kingdom and for the sake of Christ’s righteousness, that’s the true healing that is found in Christ.

                What we find next is a Biblical (Old Testament) example of a faithful prayer.  I don’t really use the term prayer warrior much, but if I did, then I would definitely classify Elijah as the Lieutenant General of that Army (with Christ rightly being the General).  James gives the story that we find in 1 Kings at the beginning of 17 and end of 18 about Elijah’s faithful prayers being answered and a 3½ year drought coming about and ending when he changed his prayers to be for rain instead of against it.  Now, one little thing that I want to point out here is that we might take the wrong impression from these words.  Now, this isn’t an issue with James, but an issue with us, that we might misunderstand what James is referencing here if we don’t properly or correctly understand what happened with Elijah and this drought.  You see, Elijah did pray for this drought, but it was also a vision given to him as well.  Before the drought ever began, we find these words in 1 Kings 17, “Now Elijah the Tishbite…said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.’  And the word of the Lord came to him:  ‘Depart from here and turn eastward…’”  Then God continues to give Elijah instructions as to how he should proceed.  The point of the matter is that God was using this drought to accomplish His purposes.  The will of God could be accomplished by this drought and so He consented to the petition made by Elijah.  God’s glory and power was shown through this drought.  Had Elijah’s prayer been outside of the sovereign will of the Father, then it would not have happened.  Some of y’all looked a few weeks ago at that petition in the Lord’s Prayer that says, “Thy will be done” or “God’s will be done.”  We have to understand that sometimes God’s will isn’t to heal everyone; it isn’t always God’s will to save every person.  I’m sure that there were those who looked to God during that drought and wondered why He wouldn’t cause it to rain.  The family member that I referenced earlier, Mr. Cooley, might not have been as devout of a Christian as he was had he been healed of all of his physical ailments.  Much of his faith came from his experience of going through life and dealing with his infirmities.  You might could say that his scars were what lead him to Christ.

                Now, the final words of James’ epistle almost seem to begin a new concept.  However, I want to read these words to you and then tell you why it is just a re-emphasizing of several of the themes that James has already introduced.  James says, “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”  Now, upon first reading this, we might be tempted to get the impression that one sure-fire way to gain eternal life is to find someone who is living in sin, apart from God, and to lead them to a saving faith.  However, we know that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven, and we know that because Jesus himself tells us that in John 14:6.  So, what do these final two verses mean?  Well, first off just because some of these folks are wandering from the truth doesn’t mean that they were ever even in the truth.  We know that once God claims us as His own, that we may stray, but we will never fall away.  However, just because we are members of a local church and part of a congregation, that doesn’t necessarily indicate membership in the invisible church.  Secondly, when James says that “someone” may bring him back, he is opening up the responsibilities of the community (i.e. the Christian community of the church), to all members and not just the leaders.  He’s letting us know that it isn’t about your place within the church, but about your place within Christ.  If you are a Christian, then you have a responsibility to seek out the lost.  It’s isn’t just the job of the pastor or the Elders to seek the lost, but it is the responsibility of the entirety of the church.

                So, the question still remains about what to make of this “save his soul from death” talk.  Well, let’s come full-circle shall we?  As I mentioned earlier, the epistle of James begins (in fact it really is the first half of the epistle) by really dealing with the notion of faith and works.  True saving faith produces good works.  Well, would you classify leading someone who is lost and wandering back into the fold of God as a good work?  I certainly would.  Well, working from James’ logic that he’s presented earlier, what must that “someone” who brings him back possess before carrying out this good work?  He must have a real, right, and saving faith.  As we’ve said, good works are indicators of true saving faith.  Well, being able to do the good work of leading others to a real faith is an indicator itself of a true saving faith, and that true saving faith is found in none other than Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.  It is because of Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection that this covering of a multitude of sins takes place.  It’s not because of the work of the person, but because of the work of Jesus that we find salvation, forgiveness, and reconciliation between ourselves and the Father.

                James is telling us here that basically everything that we have is because of Jesus.  We can seek out the lost because of the faith that is in us because of Christ.  We can be healed of, or overcome, all of our physical and spiritual afflictions because of Christ.  We can pray, cry out to God our Father in heaven knowing that He will hear us because of the work of Jesus Christ.  It is because of Christ that we have any standing with God that is not condemnation.  It is by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone that we have hope for our salvation.  Friends, everything that you have and everything that you claim as your own is because of Jesus Christ.  Yes, you have worked hard and made good decisions, but it is because of the sovereignty, providence, grace, and mercy of God shown and given to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ that we can enjoy them.  Let us continue to praise God, and thank him for giving us His one and only Son.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

James 5:7-12 "Patience is a Virtue...and a Discipline"

                It’s good to be back in the pulpit today after taking a week and spending some time with my family and not worrying about the stressors of life.  We had a good week spent with my family in Orange Beach, and Amy and I found it particularly refreshing to have built-in babysitters for a few days so that the kids weren’t completely our responsibility.  Now, that all came back to bite us when the what-should-have-been 5 hour trip home turned into about 8 hours due to traffic issues and we had to deal with three sleep-deprived kids in a car that wasn’t moving.  However, the time away was good for us and was refreshing.  And I even followed that up by letting Amy sleep almost every day this week, which she rarely gets to do, instead of waking her up.  Well, I’m going to throw all of that away today by poking fun at her.  You see, my wife hates the concept of working out or exercising more than you can possibly imagine.  Oh, she does it, but she just can’t stand it, primarily because there is no instant result (other than pain and sweat).  She also hates when things that should take a certain amount of time end up taking much longer than they should (like a car ride home from vacation).  Now, I will readily admit that I don’t have much room to talk in the field of lacking patience, but my wife puts me to shame.  However, I will give her credit and say that this lack of patience is due in large part to the efficiency at which she operates, and that she has inherited that trait from multiple members of her family, generations even.

                Now, of course, I’m speaking about patience in an earthly sense.  However, patience in a spiritual sense, as a spiritual discipline, is a different animal.  I think that the spiritual discipline of patience is an often overlooked and misunderstood aspect of the Christian faith.  Now, I know that we missed a week last week and that it’s been a little bit since we started this look at James entitled True Faith Works, so let me remind you what we’ve looked at thus far.  We’ve seen James talk about faith, true saving faith, being one that produces good works.  He’s not promoting salvation by works, but saying that a faith that leads to salvation also leads to the production and exhibiting of good works.  It’s the C.S. Lewis quote about faith and works being opposite blades on a pair of scissors that we’ve repeated throughout, neither one being of any real use without the other.  Then, James took some time in the middle of his epistle to deal with the concept of sin.  Now, an important part of our faith is learning to recognize true sin for what it is instead of just brushing it off as human nature.  We have to realize that human nature, as it exists naturally within us, is a road that leads only to condemnation.  We cannot allow ourselves to be motivated and led by the things of this world, but must instead be completely driven by God and our desire to be obedient to His will.  And finally, we saw a few weeks ago that we have to completely acknowledge that it is up to Him.  By that, I mean that we don’t have the power to do anything good, and that we bring nothing of real salvific value to the table.  We ended a few weeks ago with James reminding us about using our gifts and blessings for building up the kingdom instead of destroying it.  Well, before giving his closing remarks to this epistle, James has some words of advice or caution or warning for us about what we must do:  we must be patient.

                “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.  See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient until it receives the early and late rains.  You also be patient.  Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”  One of the most difficult things that we are asked/commanded to do as Christians is to be patient.  Waiting, something that seems so simple and easy, is one of the most difficult tasks to accomplish.  You heard last Sunday about a world that seems to be growing less and less inclined to being accepting of the Christian faith.  We see on the news constantly that Christians are being painted as closed-minded, racists, and bigots.  Many people will tell you that the most hate-filled folks they know are the Christians that they have encountered.  We seem to have a real problem (or at least we’re heading in that direction) when it comes to being Christians, biblically-sound Christians, in today’s world without being labeled as someone who spews only hate.  The only Christians who seem to be accepted in today’s world are those who are willing to let things like biblical inerrancy, the sinlessness of Christ, or orthodoxy fall by the wayside.  People ask me all the time what I think we need to do about the growing trend that seems to want to mute (if not destroy) the Christian faith.  My response is simple really.  I tell them to remember the Great Commandment, the Great Commission, and to be patient.  Now, I will admit that all of that is easier said than done.  However, if we truly believe the words of Scripture, all the words of Scripture, then we know how it’s going to turn out.  We know from the book of Revelation that Jesus ultimately wins don’t we?  Well, then let’s actually started acting like we believe those words to be true.

                Now, a word of caution or clarification that I need to give here about what being patient actually does and doesn’t mean.  Notice that in my answer that I said that I give to people about what we are to do, I gave you the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.  Both of these texts are direct instructions given by Jesus to his disciples during his earthly ministry.  Both of them also involve doing something, they involve action.  Being patient in the biblical sense doesn’t mean just sitting around and waiting for something to take place.  That’s why James gives the analogy of a farmer.  Farmers don’t just sit around and wait for crops to grow.  No, they spend hours and hours and days and weeks and months working the soil, watering crops, pulling weeds, and caring for the crops before they harvest them.  If a farmer were to just simply spread some seed and wait for something to happen then he would be sadly disappointed.  Nothing is ever accomplished by just sitting back and doing absolutely nothing, we have to always be working towards something.  James is simply calling us to be patient about the results.  Things don’t always happen as quickly as we would like for them to happen.  Just because you eat healthy and exercise for one week doesn’t mean that your pants are going to start fitting better.  Just because you’ve started reading your Bible every morning for a few months doesn’t mean that you understand and can remember all of Scripture.  Just because you’ve given something a little effort doesn’t mean that you’re seeing all that you’re going to see.  The words of advice from James here are in essence to just keep giving it more time, but also more effort. 

                To drive home his point, James gives the Old Testament examples of the prophets and Job to this Jewish-Christian audience.  Remember, James was writing originally to a group of Christians who had grown up in various amounts being Jewish and adhering to their religious tradition that largely worked off of a works/righteousness system.  He reminded them that many of the prophets of the Old Testament were constantly ridiculed and looked down upon.  Many of them had long since passed away (some being killed) by the time the heart of their messages came to fruition in the form of Jesus Christ.  Now, of course, there were some of their messages about contemporary things that came about, like Jonah’s sparing of Nineveh, but for the most part, the prophets spoke largely of future events.  Many of these events so far into the future that they never saw any of their prophecies (at least these “larger” ones) come to fruition.  However, that didn’t stop them from continuously proclaiming the messages that God commanded them to deliver to His people.  Also, remember the person of Job.  A man who had everything and lost it all, but continued to praise God throughout it all despite receiving constant encouragement from his friends to rebuke and denounce God.  However, Job never denounced God but continued to strive forward and persevere.  Eventually God restored what Job lost and then some.  You’ve all read the story of Job before and if you haven’t then I encourage you to do so because I certainly don’t have the time to do it justice this morning.

                Just remember that things are not always going to go the way that we want them to.  Scripture is filled with verses that speak to the wicked thriving in this life while the righteous struggle.  And we see that constantly in our world today.  However, that is not the way that things work on an eternity level.  I want you to look at what James says in between his call to be patient and his giving of the prophets and Job as examples of faithful patience.  James says, “Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.”  If you’re looking at your Bible, then you will notice that the title “the Judge” is capitalized.  This is the way that we treat words like one, savior, his, or him when they refer to the Triune God.  Also, by telling us that the Judge is standing at the door, James is conveying the urgency with which we are to treat the second coming of Christ.  I know that it seems like it’s been a long time since Christ first came.  I know that when we read James and when we read Paul that it seems as if they thought that Christ’s coming was going to take place any day.  I also know that many Christians today (maybe even you) have grown doubtful of Christ’s return.  Well, maybe you don’t doubt it, but you don’t treat it with any urgency either.  We act as if there is a certainty within us that we know that Christ won’t return during our lifetime.  So, we’ve largely grown cold and tired of doing the things that he commanded us to do until his return.

                I’ll put it like this, when I run I typically start out with a distance in mind.  I may have in mind 3 miles, 4 miles, or 5 miles.  After about 2 miles I can judge what kind of day it’s going to be.  If I’m struggling, then I can definitely tell that it’s not going to be a 5 mile day.  However, there comes a time in every run where I really don’t want to continue on, but I know that I haven’t reached my distance yet.  I have to tell myself to keep going until I reach a certain point.  Now, I usually don’t have trouble reaching that distance, but it’s primarily because I can see the end.  I know the difficulty that many people face when it comes to the Christian faith and continuing to be patient and do the works of missions and evangelism is that they can’t see the end.  In fact, as I alluded to earlier, many Christians will tell you that the finish line is getting farther and farther away as our world slips further and further into sin.  However, I would remind them that every moment, every second that passes by brings us one second closer than we were to the return of the Christ.  The popular contemporary Christian band Third Day has a song called It’s Alright that’s about 15 years old that I’ve heard I don’t know how many times.  However, I just heard it within the last few weeks again and couldn’t help but think how perfect it is for our text today and explaining this point.  It goes:  Your letter said that you were leaving; But you didn't know how long; I have never stopped believing; That one day you would return; And though waiting is the hardest; Part of everything I do; I do confess it's getting better; Knowing I will be with you.   It's alright, It's okay, I won't worry about tomorrow, For it brings me one more day, Closer than I was to you.  Now the question isn't “will you”; What I want to know is “when”; If it's one day or a million; I will wait for you 'til then; So I'm holding on to your words; And the promises you've made; There is not one you have broken; There's not one I didn't take. 

                Friends, that’s what biblical patience is all about.  It’s about trusting in the promises of God.  It’s about continuing to do the things that He commanded and instructed us to do until he comes again.  It’s about truly believing and acting as if we fully know without a shadow of a doubt that He indeed is coming again.  The elements on the table before us, as you will hear me say in just a moment, are given to us and we are told by Jesus to eat of this bread and drinking of this cup and proclaim the Lord’s saving death until he comes again.  Friends, he is coming.  We don’t know when and we don’t know what exactly it will look like.  To be honest with you, it’s really none of our concern because it doesn’t change our job or our responsibilities one bit.  You know that answer that you give your kids or coaches give players when they ask how many or how long…until I say stop.  Well, Jesus has given us that very answer.  He’s told us to continue to proclaim his name, witness to others, baptize in his name, love others as we love ourselves, and love God above all else until he says stop.  And he will say stop at the time of his second coming.  But until then, we are to remain patient, remain active, and the remain fully and completely devoted to seeing the spread and growth of his kingdom here upon this earth, and to see that everyone who has ears to hear has heard the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I know that it can feel like a never-ending task of proclaiming the gospel, but what is a lifetime of service upon this earth compared to an eternity in heaven with our risen Savior?  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Actually, I Do Understand What Coming Out Is Like

     Ok, so I'm sorry if the title of this little rambling is a bit misleading.  There hasn't been any earth-shattering news in my life as of late and I don't mean "coming out" like you probably originally interpreted it.  You see, to me, coming out can mean much more than just someone openly acknowledging their sexual orientation.  Coming out refers to the revealing of anything that is life-changing to people around you.  Yes, when someone tells their family that they are homosexual, that is a form of coming out.  However, telling your religious family that you're an atheist is just as much of a coming out as well.  In fact, that's how this whole idea for a blog entry came to me.  I was talking to a girl who I had only recently met and after finding out that I was a pastor, she began to tell me how she was an atheist but hadn't revealed that to her family yet.  At first I thought that it was odd (seeing as how I had just told her that I was a pastor) that she would divulge such information to me.  However, after I thought about it for a while it made perfect sense.  She had carried this weight around with her for so long that it was literally crushing her.  She felt like she really had nowhere to go with this life-changing admission that she needed to make.  I guess she also could have been using me as a trial run for gauging her family's reaction (although I highly doubt it).

     After hearing her tell me about her recently newfound beliefs and after hearing her talk about what a relief it was to finally get that out in the open (even if it was to someone that she didn't really know), I asked her why she wouldn't tell her family.  "Well, you just don't understand because you've never been in this situation."  Ah, there it is; that old familiar "you wouldn't understand" line of thought.  How could I, a Christian who was born and raised in the Bible-belt, possibly understand what it would be like to admit that I didn't believe in God.  Well, while I can't relate to that specific "coming out", it doesn't mean that the concept of revealing something is completely foreign to me.  It's true that I (as a white male) will never completely understand certain struggles of women or people of other ethnicities.  However, that doesn't mean that I don't understand struggle.

     Getting back to this young woman, I told her that I to have once had to make a "coming out" proclamation of my own.  She asked me to explain, so I told her about the time in my life that I had to tell folks about God's calling that he had placed upon my life to be a pastor.  Very quickly, she pointed out to me that those two things were not equal and really seemed irritated at my comparison (as some of you no doubt are right about now as well).  However, I asked her what she was afraid of in this admission to her friends and family about her atheism.  She told me that she was afraid that they would treat her differently.  She doubted that they would completely wash their hands of her, but that they might not share the closeness that she had come to treasure at this point in her life.  Now, this was something that I can relate to.  You see, when I made the outward proclamation to my friends and family about my becoming a pastor, I knew that they would still love me, but I didn't know if they would treat me differently than they previously had.

     Let me explain a little bit here about what it's like to be a pastor (and part of a pastor's family for that matter).  You see, even some of your closest friends can instantly go from being like family to walking on eggshells around you.  People are constantly afraid of offending you and worried that you're going to take something "overly religious" from what they said.  They also always think that you're constantly trying to evangelize them.  It's as if they think that your entire vocabulary is replaced with "Have you heard the good news?"  Now, if you haven't heard it, then I would love to tell you about it, but I would also enjoy conversations about sports, family, music, politics, and a host of other subjects as well.  Recently, my wife was out with some teacher friends celebrating the end of the school year.  One of them (whom she hadn't spent much time around outside of school) said to her that she was always afraid of saying the wrong thing around her because of...you know...what her husband did.  Now, Amy has gotten pretty good at laughing when people view us in such a light, but it still makes us question how many friendships are hindered because of this perceived divide that exists between us and them (whoever "them" might be).

     I'm thankful for the friends and family that I have in my life who haven't changed the way they treat us.  Even if there are times when I wish that they would show a little acknowledgment and awareness as to what it is that God has called me to do, I would much prefer that they still treat us just like they did prior to my answering this call.  In all honesty, one of the most difficult things about ministry hasn't been the long nights, difficult texts, tough counseling sessions, or seeing folks that I care about endure great personal tragedies.  No, it's been the lost friendships that have come about as a result of my calling.  Now don't get me wrong, I don't for one second wish that I wasn't called to ministry so that these friendships could be restored.  I very much cling to the words of James 1:2-3, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness" and Philippians 3:7-8, "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ."

     So, my conversation ended with this girl by my encouraging her to talk about her beliefs with her family and with her friends, regardless of the results.  If this was truly something that she believed, then she shouldn't be ashamed of it, but should actually seek conversations about it and try and dig deeper and find out if it was truly what she believed or if there was just a veil over her eyes (she didn't appreciate my veil comment, but at least she was nice and didn't say anything negative).

     Now, I know that some of you have to be wondering why in the world a reformed Christian pastor would encourage a new-found atheist to admit it to her family and friends.  Well, the answer is once again a pretty simple one.  How in the world can this girl's eyes be opened to the gospel if the world (and especially those closest to her) doesn't know that she is in need of hearing of the glorious news of the empty tomb.  You see, in order for this girl to come back to (or more accurately be drawn back into) the knowledge of God, then she is going to need to be able to discuss matters of theology and history with someone whom she trusts.  She's going to need to have real meaningful conversations and not just endless debates about who's side is right and who is wrong.  When two people go into a discussion with the primary objectives being defending their current positions, then neither side is really open to seeing the views of the other.  I've been to these debates where they could virtually be held in separate locations and the same information be given.  Nothing gets accomplished, at least nothing productive.

     No, I may not understand what it's like to have to "come out" as a homosexual, atheist, addict, adulterer, or any other type of group that we normally associate with "coming out."  However, that doesn't mean that I don't know what it's like to share something with friends and family and worry that they are going to treat me differently.  The biggest difference for me (in my opinion), is that I had something to share that I couldn't keep a secret; it was just too wonderful of news to hide from anyone, much less those closest to me.  There was nothing at all that I had to be ashamed of from my perspective.  It makes me think about those in some of these aforementioned "coming out" groups.  Why are they sometimes so unwilling/unwanting to "come out"?  Maybe if they did, then the world would look much differently than it does now; maybe it wouldn't.  Either way, as far as the Christian goes, at least we would have a much greater picture of how great the task truly is that is set before us.