“We, Christians, believe the Bible to be the unique, trustworthy, written Word of God and the authority for our lives. But before anything was written, it was embodied. Before the writer of John’s Gospel penned, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” he first had to actually encounter the Word dwelling with him in the flesh… Thinking and writing about the Word followed an embodied encounter with the word… The beauty of the Word is what first captivated the author, long before he “understood” who he was dealing with or what he was getting himself into…” –Curt Thompson

“Over the last four to five hundred years, [Christians] have so pushed beauty in its proper form to the margin that goodness is no longer attractive, at which point truth no longer matters.” – Curt Thompson

“Nobody knows what’s good. Nobody agrees on what is true, but beauty has the capacity to sneak past people’s senses. So I think we have a responsibility to show the beauty of the person of Jesus and the beauty of the gospel.” – Pastor Jon Tyson

“It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him, for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people.” While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly. “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over. - Mark 14:1-11

“Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.” - Mark 14:6

Balthasar’s 3 Fundamental Concepts:

1. Beauty

2. Goodness

3. Truth

“It always happens, when people decide to worship Jesus without inhibition—to pour out their valuables, their stories, their dancing, their music, before him just the way they feel like doing—that others, looking on, find the spectacle embarrassing and distasteful…The grumbles of the bystanders… sound a lot like the embarrassed rationalizations of people who have their own emotions well covered up and don’t like seeing other people’s on display.” – N.T. Wright

Spiritual Practice:

• Draw close to the True Artist

• Creatively Act

“For us to become complete to complete God’s work of our being made in his image- we must enter into this most grounded facet of who God is: an artist who makes because he first loves what he is about to create.” -Curt Thompson

“True painting (or art) is only an image of the perfection of God.” - Michelangelo

“To make sense of and celebrate a beautiful world through the production of artifacts which are themselves beautiful is part of the call to be stewards of creation, as was Adam’s naming of the animals.” - N.T. Wright

“Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” - Mark 14:9

Leviticus 19, “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

Deuteronomy 10, “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. Fear the LORD your God and serve him.”

Matthew 25, “Blessed with eternal life are those who gave the hungry something to eat, a drink to the thirsty, invited the stranger in, clothed the naked, cared for the sick, and visited those in prison.”

Matthew 25, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

Romans 12 “always be eager to practice hospitality.”

1 Peter 4 “to offer hospitality to one another without grumbling…”

Hebrews 13 “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, or by so doing some of you have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”

“Hospitality should not be limited to its literal sense of receiving a stranger in our house-although its important never to forget or neglect that! But as a fundamental attitude toward our fellow human being, which can be expressed in a great variety of ways” - Henri Nouwen

“Hospitality is not entertainment, it is not meant to show off what you know how to do well, it’s living your transparent Christian life before a watching world that despises you.”
- Rosaria Butterfield

“[Many] Historians argue that [hospitality] is the primary way that the gospel spread at such a rapid pace, from a few hundred people eating together in an upper room in Jerusalem to over half the population of the Roman Empire, just three centuries toppling paganism itself… And they did this with no political power no legal protection, under waves of persecution and millions eaten alive in the arenas, with no internet, no printing press, no sound systems, no church buildings, no stages, no celebrity pastors, the gospel just spread from one home to the next, one table to the next.” - John Mark Comer

It can be difficult to do justice if we are unclear of how God defines it. We will find that the Bible gives us everything we need, motivation, joy, and mercy to participate in a Just life for Kansas City.

So, with our time, I want to get into that invitation to justice through the writings of Jeremiah. We'll reflect on 1) our barriers to justice, 2) God's definition of Justice, and 3) how we might practice justice.

“Like a cage full of birds,
their houses are full of deceit;
therefore they have become great and rich;
28 they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no bounds in deeds of evil;
they judge not with justice
the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,
and they do not defend the rights of the needy.”
–Jeremiah 5:27-28

Jeremiah’s message was certainly unpopular but it was also God’s message. And in it we learn quite a bit about justice. Jeremiah writes:

“Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.” –Jeremiah 9:23-24

Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom.
It's easy to fall into the trap of believing we always know what brings happiness and fulfillment for our lives.

Let not the mighty man boast in his might.
Jeremiah cautions against centering our lives on transient aspects like physical beauty, strength, or social media popularity, as they will ultimately let us down

Let not the rich man boast in riches .
We don’t want to spend our money on others. It is easier to view our money as a source to build our own pleasure and comfort.

The challenge here is for us to consider how much we prioritize ourselves and our lifestyles. God does not rebuke this instinct to find happiness in these things, but He will direct them.

“But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice (mishpat), and righteousness (tazadequah) in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.” –Jeremiah 9:24

He understand and know me that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love:

“The term “steadfast love” is translated in Hebrew as “hesed.” Hesed is wrapping up in itself all the attributes of God: love, covenant faithfulness, mercy, grace, kindness, loyalty, acts of devotions and loving kindness that go beyond the requirements of duty." – Darrel Bock

Hesed isn’t only a feeling or an emotion but it is an action on behalf of someone else in need.

“Only love gets close enough to know.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The word for “justice” is the Hebrew term mishpat. It means the fair or equitable treatment of people. It also conveys an active implication. It is defending a cause and taking up someone’s case regardless of race or socioeconomic background. God’s justice is restorative.

And often in scripture, justice and righteousness are linked together. The biblical term for personal righteousness is (Tsedqah). And this word refers to a life of right relationships or how you treat others in a relationship.

“right with God and therefore committed to putting right all other relationships in life.” – Alec Motyer

Our personal righteousness (Tsedqah) forms us for outward acts of justice (misphat). And how we serve the most vulnerable says a significant amount about how we love God.

When we show mercy to the least of these it is the same as caring about Jesus himself.

Who are we making room for in Midtown church, in our communities, at our dining room tables? This place should be a bit messier than it was before.

How can we live this out in our day-to-day lives?

• Take time to help an elderly neighbor with an errand or mow their lawn.

• Get involved with a nonprofit mentoring youth

• Help a single parent with school supplies for the next school year and stay in touch with the family

• Call your state legislators and be active in policies

• Ask how your workplace could serve immigrants in the KC area

• When you’re at the grocery store buy extra food items for someone in need when you're driving home.

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

John 15:12-17

“Just ponder that for a moment. The Son of God, the one through whom all things were created, the one who for all eternity past has existed in relationship with the Father and the Spirit, takes on flesh, comes to earth and on the night before he’ll be brutally executed on a Roman cross for them, looks at his closest followers and says, ‘You are my friends’. It’s astounding. And what’s even more astounding is that we can trust that by extension Jesus says those words to us too. Jesus says to all of his followers: ‘You are my friends’.”

- Andrew Bunt, Jesus on Friendship

“If Jesus said nothing else, this alone would challenge our view of friendship. Think of the dignity and importance Jesus gives to friendship when he says that we are his friends. But this is not all he says. In fact, Jesus’s declaration that we are his friends is sandwiched within teaching about our friendships with one another. ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you’ (John 15:12). ‘These things I command you, so that you will love one another’ (John 15:17).”

- Andrew Bunt, Jesus on Friendship

“Christian friendships are call-and-response friendships. We tell each other over and over, back and forth, the truth of who we are and who God is. Over dinner and on walks, dropping off soup when someone is sick, and in prayer over the phone, we speak the good news to each other. And we become good news to every other.”

- Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

Within minutes they were bickering over who of them would end up the greatest. But Jesus intervened: “Kings like to throw their weight around and people in authority like to give themselves fancy titles. It’s not going to be that way with you. Let the senior among you become like the junior; let the leader act the part of the servant. 27-30“Who would you rather be: the one who eats the dinner or the one who serves the dinner? You’d rather eat and be served, right? But I’ve taken my place among you as the one who serves. And you’ve stuck with me through thick and thin. Now I confer on you the royal authority my Father conferred on me so you can eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and be strengthened as you take up responsibilities among the congregations of God’s people. - Luke 22:24-30 MSG

“My best friendships are with people who are willing to get in the muck with me, who see me as I am, and who speak to me of our hope in Christ in the midst of it. These friends’ lives become a sermon to me. I don’t mean that we give each other pat answers or cheap pep talks - few things are worse than receiving a neat little packaged sermon after we’ve poured out our fears or embarrassments to someone. Instead, we hold up the experiences of our lives to the Word of truth.”

Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

Spiritual Practice:

• Do a friendship inventory and reflect on these three things this week:

• Do I have deep friendships?

• What area do I need to grow in?

• Intentionally do something to improve in that area.

"The aim of God in history is the creation of an all-inclusive community of loving persons with God Himself at the center of this community as its prime sustainer and most glorious inhabitant." - Dallas Willard

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.23 Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called Woman,

because she was taken out of Man.

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Genesis 2:19-25

How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

Ephesians 1:3-5

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Acts 2:42-47

"What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family." Mother Teresa

“Every human idealized image that is brought into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be broken up so that genuine community can survive. Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

“The idea of church is amazing; Christians are challenging. The idea of love stirs you, the action of love costs you.” - Jon Tyson, Church of the City New York

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. -Philippians 2:1-11 NIV

Three Questions:

1. What are the characteristics of Christ-like relationships?

2. How do we have these relationships?

3. What do these relationships mean for us today?

“We can become one only through Christ- only through him are we bound together.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

“Those who want more than what Christ has established between us do not want Christian community. They are looking for some extraordinary experiences of community that were denied them elsewhere. Such people are bringing confused and tainted desires into the Christian community. Precisely at this point Christian community is most often threatened from the very outset by the greatest danger, the danger of internal poisoning, the danger of confusing Christian community with some wishful image of pious community, the danger of blending the devout heart’s natural desire for community with the spiritual reality of Christian community. It is essential for Christian community that two things become clear right from the beginning. First, Christian community is not an ideal, but a divine reality; second, Christian community is a spiritual and not an emotional reality.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

“Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you.” - John 15:4, MSG

“The first and most basic thing we can and must do is to keep God before our minds…This is the fundamental secret of caring for our souls. Our part in thus practicing the presence of God is to direct and redirect our minds constantly to Him. In the early time of our practicing, we may well be challenged by our burdensome habits of dwelling on things less than God. But these are habits - not the law of gravity - and can be broken. A new, grace-filled habit will replace the former ones as we take intentional steps toward keeping God before us. Soon our minds will return to God as the needle of a compass constantly returns to the north, no matter how the compass is moved. If God is the great longings of our souls, He will become the polestar of our inward beings.” - Dallas Willard

Spiritual Practice:

1. Start with one person who is hard to love.

2. Abide in Christ and intercede for that person.

3. Serve them; do one sacrificial thing for them this week

Joel 2:28-30, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
30 I will show wonders in the heavens
and on the earth,

UNITY: False Unity VS True Unity

Brian Zahnd, A Farewell to Mars, “God Bless the USA” consisted entirely of images of American military might-tanks, fighter jets, aircraft carriers, missiles being fired, soldiers with their weapons, and the like… the congregation began to sing along, most lifting their hands in a posture of worship.”

True unity comes from shared love.

PRESENCE: The Church is Jesus Still in the Neighborhood

John 1:14, "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory.”

• God longs to make His home with humanity

• God continues to work with the Church despite all our failures

• Presence matters. Nearness matters. Showing up matters

So how do we do this?

• Be present when you can

• Find a new family chore to help with

• Remember to take moments to pray for some other churches

A Pattern in the Gospel of Matthew.

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.” – Matthew 4:17–22.

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” – Matthew 16:24–25.

“go and make disciples…” –Matthew 28:18

Christian, but not Disciple?

Christian(s) is used just three times in the entire New Testament.
Disciple(s)is used 297 times in the New Testament.

Nowhere in the New Testament is discipleship differentiated from Christianity because they are supposed to be the same thing.

68% of tthe U.S. population identify as Christians.
25% are considered practicing Christians.

The idea that one can be a Christian without following Jesus is a Western idea incompatible with the New Testament.

A Community called by Jesus.

“Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.” – Matthew 28:16-17

Jesus graciously invites us to come in reverence and worship even as we have questions and even as we doubt.

All Authority.

“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” – Matthew 28:18

Jesus says everything in Heaven and on Earth is now under his control– that God’s Kingdom is breaking in.

The Kingdom of Heaven is mentioned 52 times in Matthew’s twenty-eight chapters.

The Kingdom of God is the reign of God.

Inaugurated eschatology, or the already, not yet. is the claim that Jesus is slowly working to undo the damage done, end the rule of death, and bring it under the rule of his life-giving love?

The Great Commission

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”– Matthew 28:19-20a

Instruction 1: Make Disciples.

“[Discipleship is] a process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others.” – Robert Mulholland

Jesus is releasing his disciples to go into the world to declare the news of God’s Kingdom.

We’re called to both be disciples and to make disciples– to help others follow Jesus.

Instruction 2 – Baptize.

“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” –Romans 6:4.

At baptism, one is born with a new identity as a child of God and a disciple of Jesus, and this identity becomes the basis for everything else.

“The new life into which we are baptized is lived out in days, hours, and minutes. God is forming us into a new people. And the place of that formation is in the small moments of today.”― Tish Harrison Warren

Instruction 3 –Teach.

In following Jesus, we aim to share in his character and do what He did.

“...whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 5:19.

“[becoming like Christ] is training, not trying.” – Richard Foster

Spiritual Practices

1. Prayer

2. Scripture

3. Fasting

4. Solitude

5. Sabbath

6. Generosity

7. Service

8. Witness

9. Community

“Long Obedience in the Same Direction”.– Eugene Peterson

With us.

“I am with you always, to the end of the age.” – Matthew 28:20b

The invitation to be his Disciple is incredible not because of what you do but because of who you get to do it with.

For the City.

“The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who, by profession or culture, are identified as ‘Christians’ will become disciples – students, apprentices, practitioners – of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.”― Dallas Willard

It seems borderline absurd to say the greatest issue is whether you and I will follow Jesus; that is, until we recognize what Jesus’ Kingdom is all about.

Practice.

if you haven’t been baptized– Get baptized. Baptism form.

Our plan for being disciples is microchurch.

Microchurch is a small community of disciples practicing prayer, scripture, and mission.

First, if you’re not in a microchurch, let us pastor you into one.

If you are in a microchurch, and you’ve let your commitment slide, re-engage.

Maybe the time is coming for you to lead a microchurch.

To heed Jesus’ “go and make disciples.

Humanities Problem:

“I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” - 1 Corinthians 15:50

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 6:23

“The basic message of the Eden story is this: Humans die because we have from the beginning rejected God’s offer of ultimate life. God’s offer requires a surrender of what we might think is life so that we can receive true life… Tragically, we often decide to choose life as defined by our own wisdom, embracing our own self ruin. Often these choices seem as innocent as eating tasty, good looking fruit, but when those choices oppose God’s wise instruction, they corrupt life and bring death.” - Tim Mackey

Sin is the unwillingness to trust that what God wants is our deepest happiness. - St. Ignatius of Loyola

“Fear of death is yet another snakey lie that tricks us into hoarding resources instead of living generously. Fear of death deceives us into fighting with our neighbors and making swords for killing enemies. We’re all living outside the garden, and the fear-filled instinct to protect ourselves at any cost is woven into our DNA. It’s inescapable. Unless a true human could show us that death is temporary and not ultimate.” - Tim Mackey

God’s Solution:

“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. - 1 Corinthians 15:51-58

V. 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. V. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. - John 1:1; 14a

“Jesus dies [to show us that death is temporary]. And if we’re paying attention to him, his way of love will slowly but surely drive out all fear of death. We can start forgiving and loving instead of hating and judging. We start to bless and not curse—to hammer our violent swords into fruitful garden tools (see Isaiah 2:1-4I). Jesus shows us that death is brutally tragic, but it’s not the end. Our lives strengthen and illuminate when we spend them freely learning his ongoing, loving, garden-style ways of living together with others.” - Tim Mackey

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly of heart; and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11:29-30

Spiritual Practice:

Evaluate: Determine one area of life for which you are motivated by fear of death. This could be the way in which you spend your money, work, or the way in which you relationally connect with others.

Ask: Then ask yourself “if I was not afraid of dying, how would I do this differently?”

Invite: Invite God to do the transforming work.

“And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.“ - 1 Thessalonians‬ ‭2‬:‭13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The Bible… declared by Paul
The Bible… heard by the Thessalonians
The Bible… accepted by the Thessalonians
The Bible… working in the Thessalonians

Christ has died
Christ has risen
Christ will come again

ONE: THE ORDER OF THE RESURRECTION

”But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.“ – 1 Corinthians 15:23

TWO: THE RESOLUTION OF THE RESURRECTION

”Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.“ – 1 Corinthians 15:24-28:

“[God wil] unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth”.– Ephesians 1:10

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

1. HEAR

2. RECEIVE

3. WALK

Gnosticism.

“Gnosticism” is a philosophy that claims the material world is evil and only the “spiritual” is good.

Gnosticism says – You are a soul; you have a body.

For the Gnostics, “salvation” consists of escaping the material world.

Many mistakenly assume that the purpose of being Christian is to go to heaven when they die.

And there is some kernel of the truth to that, but maybe the way in which we have conceptualized that is skewed.

The Corinthian Church.

Paul is the author of this letter. He helped found the Corinthian Church, a story you can read of in Acts 18.

Paul will say that –

1. Jesus died for our sins,

2. He was buried.

3. He was raised on the third day

4. And He appeared to many witnesses.

A Roadmap to Today’s Teaching.

1. Our faith is built on the resurrection of the body

2. That Jesus is the first of a new type of human

3. And that we will experience the resurrection of the body.

Faith Built on Resurrection of the Body.

The bodily resurrection of Jesus defied the Corinthian’s experiences and so it's likely that they began to reinterpret it as something else.

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. –1 Corinthians 15:14

Paul argues that if one says resurrection from the dead is impossible– that disqualifies Jesus' Resurrection.

If Christ did not return from the Dead, then we are the most pitiful people he can imagine.

“[R]eality is what we run into when we are wrong, a collision in which we always lose.” – Dallas Willard

Jesus the New Human.

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. – 1 Cor. 15:20-22

“First fruits” Paul connects Jesus’ resurrection to a future resurrection.

First Adam: An Inheritance of Death

At some point the first humans join a cosmic rebellion against God choosing for themselves what is good and what is evil.

Thetemptation for humans to choose what is good and evil apart from God is what the Bible calls sin.

“you will die..” –Genesis 2:17

“the wages of sin is death..” –Romans 6:23

Sin as it turns out is a terminal diagnosis.

Second Adam: An Inheritance of life

In moments and with individuals Jesus slowly began to push back the darkness; reversing the corruption that had taken hold of our world.

This is what God has done for us in Christ.

Jesus drew our sin into himself and put it to death; and now, offers a new life called resurrection.

…in Adam, all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. – 1 Corinthians 15:20-22

As with Christ, so with us.

Our Resurrection.

But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

“What may seem impossible today is merely an unsolved equation in the grand scheme of the universe.” – Michio Kaku

Difficult translation

Verse 44 is often translated – “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.”

Paul is arguing that the two bodies will be animated or energized or fueled differently, not that they will be different in substance.

Our future is embodied to never again no the sting of death.

The Resurrection Story.

The Christian story is that tombs, cemeteries, morgues, and funeral homes will be emptied out.

Paul’s emphasis on the body should remind us that we are embodied creatures.

‘Resurrection’ itself then appears as what the word always meant, whether people disbelieved it, or whether they affirmed it. It wasn’t a way of talking about ‘life after death’. It was a way of talking about a new bodily life after whatever state of existence one might enter immediately upon death. It was, in other words, life after ‘life after death’. – NT Wright

Embodied Spirituality

My suggestion this week would be to consider the role of your body in your faith.

1. How do I take care of my body?

2. How do I practice my faith with my body?

3. How do I give my body away?

Resurrection! A time for feasting, rejoicing, and also reflecting on the unhealthy skepticism of our culture. A skepticism that finds it easier to simply question rather than wrestle.

That’s our invitation this morning. We are here to come together and explore our own unhealthy skepticism and see where our faith can help us do more wrestling.

Our Faith Is Reasonable

When we look at both the context of Jesus’s resurrection and the lives of his followers, we can see that the disciples were willing to not only live their faith, but also die for it. That as well as the evidence presented points to a bodily resurrection of Jesus being a reasonable reality of the Christian story.

NT Wright, Surprised By Hope, “Whether we like it or not, women were not regarded as credible witnesses within the ancient world. When the tradition had time to sort itself out, and acquire the fixed form we already find in Paul’s quotation of it in 1 Corinthians 15, the women have been quietly dropped; they are apologetically embarrassing. But there they are in all four gospel stories, front and centre, the first witnesses, the first apostles. Nobody would have made them up. Had the tradition started in the male-only form we find in 1 Corinthians 15, it would never have developed, in such different ways as well, into the female-first stories we find in the gospels.”

NT Wright, Surprised By Hope, “In any case—a point people often ignore or conveniently forget—Jesus was buried according to a particular Jewish tradition, which was designed to occur in two stages. First, you carefully wrapped up the body with spices and linen and placed it on a shelf in a cave. Then, when the flesh had decomposed—hence the spices, because of the smell, since the cave would be used for more than one corpse—you would collect the bones… If Jesus had not been raised, then sooner or later someone would have had to go and collect his bones, fold them up and store them. Even if anyone had been suggesting that he had been raised from the dead, that would be enough to disprove the suggestion.”

Tim Keller, The Reason for God, “If there had been only an empty tomb and no sightings, no one would have concluded it was a resurrection. They would have assumed the body had been stolen. Yet if there were only eyewitness sightings of Jesus and no empty tomb, no one would have concluded it to be a resurrection, because people’s accounts of seeing departed loved ones happen all the time. Only if the two factors were both true together would anyone have concluded that Jesus was raised from the dead.”

Church tradition speaks of 11 of the 12 disciples being killed for their witness of the Resurrected Jesus. These included stabbings, executions, and even Peter was crucified for his witness, yet Peter famously declared that he was not worthy to die in the same way as his Lord, so his executioners turned the cross upside down and martyred him that way.

The church also wrote down other stories of martyrdom like St Polycarp who was a bishop and died in 155 AD. Polycarp was a church leader, and refused to worship Caesar, the leader of Rome, and for that he was burned to death. The testimonies of the witnesses said that Polycarp was not burned as the fire grew around him, and that he had to be stabbed in order for him to die.

“The Blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church.”

We Are the Best Example

The witness of the Body is something that can sustain us through the hardest of times. It is in watching the Body that we find that we as the Body are the Best Examples of Resurrection Life and can give witness of it to others who do not know.

Being a Resurrection Witness:

Back to the Short Ending of Mark asks this: Will you go to spread the word of the resurrection of the Son of God? Will YOU be a living witness?

When the world comes before us with unhealthy skepticism, will we be an example of how we can stand on not only a historic faith, but a reasonable one?

When people come with good questions, we will be willing to enter into these questions, explore them with those created in God’s image, and see where we can find God?

Will we seek to show Christ not only in the ways we live and serve, but eventually in the ways that we die? In the ways that we pass on from this world and the legacy that we leave behind? We seek to proclaim a Risen Lord, so that others may believe.

So let us now declare that witness through the singing of our praise, through the prayers of the community, and through the declaration at the table: Christ has died, Christ has Risen, and Christ will come again.

Explaining The Gospel Badly

Too often we’ve settled for formulas of salvation over the beautiful story of the Gospel.

The Gospel:

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared…–1 Corinthians 15:3–5.

1. Christ Died

2. Christ Buried

3. Christ Raised

4. Christ Appeared

“The gospel” is the story of Jesus of Nazareth’s death, burial, resurrection, and appearance, told as the climax of the long story of Israel, which in turn is the story of how the one true God is rescuing the world.” - N.T. Wright

According to the Scriptures
Paul sees the events of Jesus’ life, specifically around his death and resurrection, as the culmination of the long story of Israel.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets [this is Jewish speak for Old Testament]; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”–Matthew 5:17.

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” – John 5:39-40

“Our trust in the Bible stems from our trust in Jesus Christ… I don’t trust in Jesus because I trust the Bible; I trust the Bible because I trust in Jesus. I love him, and I’ve decided to follow him, so if he talks and acts as if the Bible is trustworthy, authoritative, good, helpful, and powerful, I will too… Even if some of my questions remain unanswered, or my answers remain unpopular.” – Andrew Wilson

The Bible

The Bible is a library of ancient writings, that is both divine and human, that tell a unified story that leads to Jesus.

This library contains stories, poetry, government census data, family genealogies, songs, and prophesy.

The Plot of Scripture in four Parts

1. Creation

2. Fall

3. Redemption

4. New Creation

   “the point Paul has in mind within that longer scriptural narrative is the point at which [God] forgives Israel’s sins, ushering in the new age, renewing the covenant, restoring creation—and raising his people from the dead.” –N.T. Wright

Reading the Scripture

1. Read the scripture as a story leading to Jesus

2. Wrestle with the Scriptures with Jesus.

3. Work to love the scriptures, like Jesus.

“In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshiping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.

And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship — be it J.C., or Allah, be it Yahweh, or the Wican mother-goddess or the Four Noble Truths or some infrangible set of ethical principles — is that pretty much anything else you will worship will eat you alive.

If you worship money and things — if they are where you tap real meaning in life — then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million different deaths before they finally plant you…

Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.

But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they’re evil or sinful, it’s that they’re unconscious. They are default settings.

They’re the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that’s what you’re doing.

And the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration and craving and worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom all to be lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the center of all creation.” -Dallas Foster Wallace

“1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”– 1 Corinthians 15:1–4

“The gospel” is the story of Jesus of Nazareth’s death, burial, resurrection, and appearance, told as the climax of the long story of Israel, which in turn is the story of how the one true God is rescuing the world.” - N.T. Wright

The Gospel:

1. Christ Died

2. Christ Buried

3. Christ Raised

4. Christ Appeared

“We know that the person we used to be was crucified with him to put an end to sin in our bodies. Because of this we are no longer slaves to sin. 7 The person who has died has been freed from sin.” -Romans 6:6-7,

“For Paul, the Christian hope is not life eternal in heaven but rather the resurrection. The resurrection of Christ is the core of the gospel. If Christ has not been raised, our faith is in vain and we have no salvation (1 Cor 15:14-19). Christianity is not simply a moral code to follow but the promise of immortality and the triumph over death and hell (1 Cor 15:54-57).” -Gene L. Green

Spiritual Practice: Repent and Believe the Gospel.

“Christianity, you see, isn’t a set of ideas. It isn’t a path of spirituality. It isn’t a rule of life. It isn’t a political agenda. It includes, and indeed gives energy to, all those things; but at its very heart, it is something different. It is good news [or gospel] about an event which has happened in the world, an event because of which the world can never be the same again. And those who believe it, and live by it, will (thank God!) never be the same again either.” -N.T. Wright

The Events before the Garden

During the famous scene of the Last Supper Jesus explains to his disciples that they all would fall away that night.

Peter responds claiming the other disciples might leave, but not him.

Jesus foretells Peter denying him three times that night.

Peter counters this and claims that even if he must die for Jesus, he would never deny him. The other disciples chime in that they would do the same.

The Suffering Christ

Jesus takes three of his disciples to a garden called Gethsemane.

Gethsemane means “olive press.” This is a grove full of olive trees.

He brings Peter, James, and John. These three go with Jesus more than the other disciples. They were the first disciples, all being fishermen.

These three saw the Transfiguration of Jesus on top of the mountain in Matthew 17. They see Jesus in his glory, but here in the valley, they see Jesus in his agony.

Jesus one request from his disciples is to just be with him in the garden and to keep watch.

Jesus collapses and falls on his face to pray to God the father.

Luke writes that Jesus' sweat becomes like great drops of blood falling to the ground. This could be just Jesus sweating a lot, or a condition called hematohidrosis.

Hematohidrosis occurs when the sweat glands rupture making the individual sweat blood.

Jesus is experiencing a panic attack here. The DSM lists specifiers for a panic attack.

1. Palpitations, pounding heart, accelerated heart rate

2. Sweating

3. Trembling or shaking

4. Shortness of breath

5. Fear of dying

   You could make a strong case that Jesus is experiencing all of these here.

Our perceptions of Christ in the garden are skewed.

We often view Jesus as a serene untroubled Messiah.

When we fall apart, or maybe even when we experience our own panic attack, Jesus understands it, He has lived it.

“The absolute power of this story is not even that Jesus is with you , but it's that when you are in these moments, you are with Jesus.”– Tim Mackie

Jesus prays if it is possible, let the cup pass from him, nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

The cup referenced is the cup of God’s wrath.

Jeremiah 25:15-16 references this cup as well as Isaiah 51:17

God’s wrath is His justice; his unwillingness to let evil continue

In a surprising turn of events, Jesus is the one to drink this cup of God’s wrath.

It is as if the salvation of jesus will be available to all; including the tyrant, bully, and the abuser.

Jesus concludes his prayer, nevertheless not my will but yours be done.

It is a reference to the Lord’s prayer.

Jesus most likely prayed this prayer every day.

After praying this prayer, he approaches the disciples, they are all asleep. His last words of advice to his disciples before being arrested was to pray that they don’t give into temptation.

Often we attribute temptation to a sinful action such as lying or hatred.

It’s important to note that there is temptation in our inaction.

“So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”-James 4:17

Jesus doesn’t attempt to wake up his disciples after he approaches them a second time and they are back to sleeping.

The Events after the Garden

We see Jesus back to his resolute form as he is approached by his disciple Judas. He tells him, “Friend, do what you came to do.”

They attempt to arrest Christ. Peter pulls his sword and cuts off the servant of the high priest’s ear.

Peter was attempting to murder this man.

He started this day by saying that he would die for Christ, but instead tries to kill for him.

Jesus quickly rebukes Peter.

Jesus began this day by telling Peter he would deny him three times. He also fails him in three different instances.

Peter fails to stay awake with Jesus, he fails in his inaction.

Peter attempts to murder a man; he fails in his action.

He then goes to deny Jesus three times.

Matthew’s last depiction of Peter is him weeping bitterly.

God is not finished with Peter.

He is the rock that Christ builds his church despite all of his failures. He is a big reason why we are gathered here today.

He made a claim that even if he must die for Jesus, he wouldn’t deny him. He does indeed die for his faith. It is even noted that he requests to be crucified upside down because he deemed himself unworthy to die the same way as Christ.

Spiritual Practice

If you find yourself relating to Jesus more in your current circumstance:

Take comfort in knowing Jesus walks with you in your distress or in your times of panic.

If you feel overwhelmed, remove yourself from the stresses of the world and plead to the father.

1. Pray that you don’t give into temptation.

2. If you find yourself relating more to the disciples:

3. Think about those in your own life that you maybe sleeping on.

Be intentional in being present. It could be as simple as a text letting them know you are thinking of them.

1. Also pray that you don’t give into temptation. There is temptation in our inaction.

Two Questions:

Is it wrong to have moments of hopelessness?

What do I do with these feelings of hopelessness?

“Behold your king is coming to you…humble and mounted on a foal of a donkey.” - Zechariah 9:9

41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” - Luke 19:41-44

Lent is:

A form of praise

Proof of relationship

A pathway to greater intimacy with God

A prayer for God to act

And finally, participation in the pain of others.

“Lament is an appeal to God based on confidence in His character.” - Dr. Glenn Packiam

“When we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, then somehow, God is praying within us for the pain around us”. - N.T. Wright

“We love our neighbor when we allow their experience of pain [end of the world moments] to become the substance of our prayer.” - Dr. Glenn Packiam

Spiritual Practice:

Identify an end-of-the-world moment.

Pray aloud a Psalm of lament and make it your own i.e. Psalm 6, 22, or 51.

This morning, I have the honor of continuing our Prayers in the Night series that looks at what it means to walk with God through seasons that we might call “The Valley” or “the Wilderness,” seasons where our prayers may look a bit different. Situations where our prayer may look much more like the prayers of our blood-sweating Savior as he asked His Father, “Please take this cup from me.” And today, we are looking at a heavy cup indeed.

“I believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” With this focus, we will be able to explore what it means for us to come to times in our lives where the truth that we so much knew may be shaken. Maybe we find ourselves in a season where the term deconstruction most accurately describes our spiritual state. Or maybe, as we have focused this past year on many different aspects of our God, we find ourselves asking the question, “Does God really do… BLANK?”

So today, we have a few passages that I want to look into so we can start to talk about what it means for us to pray, “Lord, help my unbelief.”

First, I want to look at the Markian passage that we read this morning. Mark may be my second personal favorite Gospel. One of Mark’s themes that is woven throughout his narrative is best described as a flipped script. The people who should get who Jesus is, his followers, the Jewish people, etc. DO NOT GET WHO JESIS IS or what he is supposed to do. It is the outsiders who understand and have the most faith. In fact, the very passage we read is sandwiched between two other parts in Mark Chapter 9 where the disciples are just utterly confused by who Jesus is. At the beginning of Mark 9, we have something called the Transfiguration. This is where Jesus takes a handful of his disciples up a mountain and there they see Jesus with Moses and Elijah, two superstars of the Jewish faith and the Old Testament. It’s a powerful scene that helps show Jesus as not only a fulfillment of the Law that Moses helped God give to His covenantal people Israel, but also shows Jesus as the Messiah that Elijah and SO many other prophets spoke of but never could see. Jesus could not make it more obvious about who he is. And yet, we get to verse 8, “Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. 9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant.

Even after this grand display, they we’re still unaware that Jesus had to die. They had a glimpse of what God was revealing through Jesus, but they did not have the WHOLE picture.

AND then, after the exorcism of the spirit that we read aloud this morning, we see this happen. 30 They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, 31 because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.

I think it gives more understanding to Jesus’s seemingly harsh words, “You unbelieving generation? How long will I stay with you?” Or how Eugene Peterson puts it in the Message Paraphrase: “What a generation! No sense of God! How many times do I have to go over these things?” But, as we know, Jesus is patient, and as the rest of Mark’s Gospel shows, he never stopped trying to help them understand the Kingdom of God. His miracles, his teaching, even his death all embodied what he was trying to teach his disciples.

The second thing I want to highlight is this: the response of the man, of the father. He too seemed to understand something that the disciples were missing about Jesus. The verse says he immediately replied “I believe! Help my unbelief.” Like a knee-jerk reaction, this man humbled himself to give one of the shortest but arguable most heartfelt prayers captured in the entity of Scripture. A declaration, I believe! And a simple request, Help my Unbelief.

In Matthew’s telling of this event, recorded in Matthew 17, the father even begins his plea with Lord, a declaration of who he believes Jesus to be. In the span of such short time, we find a tension within this man that he expresses so explicitly. He has faith enough to declare Jesus Lord, yet humbly asks that same Lord to help his unbelief.

The word here is apistia, and though I am by no means a Greek scholar, those who have studied the language far more have found that good translations of this word include words like doubt unbelief, distrust, or disbelief. The reason this difference is important to us is it sends us in two different directions about how we can discuss the implications of this prayer on our lives this morning. We’ll articulate it with two Prayers: Lord, Help My Unbelief and Lord, Help My Imagination.

Help My Unbelief:

Doubt is something that has been spoken of from this pulpit before. Doubt and working through questions about the Christian faith has been something the church has been doing for centuries. It is because Christians have always been committed to trying and wrestle with the ideas and aspects of our faith and how they relate to present moments. The most contemporary term for this we find I would argue is deconstruction.

For those who may be unfamiliar, the word deconstruction when used in a faith context, often refers to a time in a believer’s life where they reevaluate the faith that they have and often emerge with a different perspective or understanding of the Christian faith and how it should be lived out. Brian Zahnd, a pastor in St, Joseph, MO articulates it like this in his book, When Everything Catches Fire, “[Deconstruction is] a crisis of Christian faith that leads to either a reevaluation of Christianity or sometimes a total abandonment of Christianity.” Now though Brian uses these words together, deconstruction is not synonymous with someone De-converting or losing their faith.

M. Scott Peck, an author and psychologist, would label this journey as Stage 3 in his Stages of Faith Framework. Peck describes this as “largely a healthy transition. Among the hall marks of Stage III is the serious questioning of all that one has learned to this point in one’s life. This includes sources of authority and information. Part of this process includes the critical evaluation of one’s religious system.” As Alex articulated it last week, People. Are. Doubters. The question of life have options these days, and doubt is the companion to those options.

Skye Jethani, author co-host of the podcast the Holy Post, has argued that a better word for a season of deconstruction is actually De-compartmentalization, where the person finds that their faith applies to more areas of life and beliefs than the individual once thought.

To try and summarize the points of these authors and many others who have written, a season of deconstruction is when someone realizes that their belief in God is not something to just hold in one box to be filed away into the recesses of our mind, but rather that God is now the filter in which all of our boxes and preconceived notions are taken to task. It is a reviewing of our systems of belief. And though I am doing my best to describe what a journey of deconstruction may look like, please know that this process will never be the same for two people. Some of us may even find that these descriptions of deconstruction give language for where they find themselves today. Maybe that is what you think about when you hear the father pray, Help My Unbelief. But others may not. And that brings us to our second prayer…

Help My Imagination:

Getting back to apistia, one of the other definitions I mentioned is not synonymous with doubt. And if doubt or deconstruction did not give us the language to describe this season of our lives, perhaps this next one will. Some of the other translations offered were distrust or disbelief. Maybe when you hear this father’s cry, you find yourself looking at the possibility of healing as the source of your unbelief. Mark records the father’s words, “Teacher, I have brought my son who is possessed by a spirit… he has been like this since childhood.” The father had looked upon his son’s circumstances for so long that he just accepted that this is the way his son was going to be. Then, he hears about this new teacher who has a following. Mr. Christ and his gang of rambunctious disciples. He brings his son to the disciples… and they can’t cast the evil spirit out. Again, this father seems powerless to change the circumstances of his son whom he loves. And then, he goes to Jesus. And as his son is literally convulsing next to them both, this father pleads, “Lord, help my unbelief!”

Maybe, for some of us, it is the father’s imagination that he needed help with. The father was looking at his son and asking, “Does God really cast out spirits?” Imagination is a term that I love to throw out when I’m talking with you all because of what it captures. When we speak of the term imagination, especially in our faith context, we are talking about the sacred ability to see that the world is not as it is supposed to be and to imagine it as God intends. As his Kingdom people, we have joined a Kingdom with a beautiful duty: to show the world how it was originally designed and patented. It is to invite people into the way of life that we see Christ embody. In the West, our minds are trained again and again to see the world as it is and accept it. It’s why the last time I spoke, I talked about companies who feed us advertisements that show us what “the good life” can look like, if we only would buy that shirt, wear those jeans, own those shoes, and so on.

But Christ’s invitation is not to accept things as they are. It is to intervene in the world. It’s to get his hands dirty and do the work of change one healing, one teaching, or one meal at a time. Especially in this season right now where we are having a repeat election, a repeat super bowl victory (ain’t mad about that), and just enough time has passed since the new year that all the motivation for new habits and schedules is wearing off, we find ourselves not content, but lacking any vision to see the world differently than it is. We accept a world filled with poverty, war, hunger, and illness and breathe out a sigh saying, “That’s just the way things are…”

That’s why I see the father’s prayer as twofold. And that is why I believe the invitation of God this morning is to look at the father’s prayer and ask, do I need God to help my unbelief? Or do I need God to help my imagination?

I believe that is our invitation today. Our invitation is to reflect on both of those questions and see which strikes the chord of our heart? Which one gives language to the feelings and weight we have been carrying? Which question best identifies the wrestling?

And I believe the invitation of God is best shown in this image that is about to go on the screen.

This painting is called, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas. It is a famous Italian painting and the first time I saw it was during church in Springfield, Missouri when I was in college. My pastor at the time made an observation that has stuck with me all these years later. He pointed out a seeming uncomfortable but so sacred detail. This painting depicts a scene in John’s Gospel where the disciple Thomas sees Jesus for the first time after he is resurrected. Jesus tells Thomas to touch his wounds in his hands and in his sides. Now I have heard this preached as something that we did not want to immolate. Doubting Thomas was something that had a bad connotation or implication while I was growing up in church. But this pastor in Springfield had a different take. Does Jesus refuse to show his wounds to Thomas? No. His response is an invitation. He goes, “Come, do what you need to do to believe.” And the painting shows this, somewhat uncomfortably. As you can see Thomas’s hand is beneath Jesus’s skin. It honestly makes me feel a little Ugh. Like it is not pleasant to look at. But the unpleasantness, the messiness of this interaction, I believe is where we find’s God’s invitation. God is still desiring for humanity to know that He is in the mess with us. His inclination is not to lean away from the uncomfortable, the gross, or the mess, but to inhabit that uncomfortable space WITH US.

Jesus’s invitation is to literally go into the mystery of God with our questions, with our uncomforted, with our doubt, and with our monotony.

So, how can we Pray for God to Help our Unbelief and Imagination this week?

First, I think we need to look back on the teachings from this past year. And no, this is not because we need more clicks on the Midtown YouTube. It is because of our subject matter these last few months. Alex and Cassie have helped us navigate and wrestle with topics like healing, grief, speaking in unknown languages, and even prophecy. They have helped us look at the mysterious ways of God and shed new light on them. And we may still be asking Can God really do… blank. Our God’s invitation is for us to go back into the mystery. To find Jesus is ways we never expected or imagined. To bring again forward our disbelief and acceptance of what is normal and ask God to enter it in a powerful and mighty way. We are asking himself to be made manifest in the midst of our Unbelief and Imaginations this morning. And to show that willingness, I would encourage two things: Firstly, it’s been a while since we mentioned this ancient posture. Two hands open, and simply saying “Come, Holy Spirit.” It’s an invitation for the very Spirit of God to enter into our circumstances so he may weave through our lives and make himself known.

Secondly, we will be declaring the mystery of our faith together this morning. If you have been a part of one of our Midtown Microchurches, you know that the last thing we say aloud together each week is this: Christ has Died, Christ has Risen, Christ will Come Again. We call it a declaration of the mystery of our faith. It is a historic phrase that has been used by the church before communion for hundreds of years. It reflects the words of Paul, “We proclaim the Lord’s death, until he comes.” And I believe it is a beautiful companion to our two prayers this morning: Lord, Help my Unbelief and Lord, Help My Imagination. So in a moment Amanda will come here and lead us in that before we partake of communion.

What do we do when suffering crashes into our lives, and heaven is silent, and God feels absent?

On Psalm 42.

Now, there is no real consensus as to who the author is, but what is clear is the author feels distant from God.

The imagery at play is of a deer in the desert, dying of thirst, searching for any bit of moisture it can find. And as it comes to a river, the deer finds the riverbed dry.

God’s presence is the connecting thread of the whole of the scripture and yet there are seasons where we don’t feel God’s presence; even as we long for it.

Maybe you know that feeling?

You’re surrounded by people who seem to know and feel God personally, and you feel little to nothing.

We do not always have language for an experience of God that feels more like absence than presence.

2 types of Knowledge

Explicit knowledge is the stuff of information, ideas, theology, facts and data.

Implicit knowledge is the stuff of our emotions, intuition, instinct, and gut; our feelings.

“Our real idea of God may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional religious notions and may require an intelligent and vigorous search before it is finally unearthed and exposed for what it is. Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God.” –A.W. Tozer

1. Am I living a life of hurry?

The Story of Mary and Martha.

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” –Luke 10:41-42

We might find ourselves in a dry season because we’ve been too distracted to notice what God is doing.

2. Is there ongoing sin or rebellion in my life?

At its core, sin is a mistrust that God's interest is our greatest good. If we persist in an action or attitude that is not in the best interest of our communion with God, we will experience distance.

3. Am I allowing my faith and doubt to coexist?

Philosopher Charles Taylor calls our time the “age of contested belief”.

Doubt is the natural companion to options.

Doubt can lead to serious questions, but the invitation of Christianity is to hold our faith and our questions together.

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” –Matthew 28:16-20

Faith, doubt, and the Presence of Jesus all held together.

4. Have you experienced relational trauma that needs to be healed?

In his book The Connected Life, Todd Hall draws a connection between our human attachments and our relationship with God;

“…If we can’t trust our parents, who we can see, to provide emotional support and security, how can we trust God, who we can’t see? Patterns of interactions with our attachment figures get stored in our memory as gut-level expectations of how close relationships work. These expectations get placed on our relationship with God, often without realizing it. This doesn’t mean that our experiences and expectations of God can’t change, but it does mean that the social context in which we are raised profoundly shapes the “God of our gut.” And this—not the God of our head—is the God we experience most of the time.” – Todd Hall

5. Are you walking through a Dark Night of the Soul?

The language of a “Dark Night of the Soul” comes from a 16th-century Spanish catholic priest Saint John of the Cross. John wrote a poem called A Dark Night in which he describes a period in which God intentionally takes away his felt presence from an apprentice of Jesus so that we might grow in peace, intimacy and love.

If you desire God, you ache for that experience and intimacy you once had with him, you might be journeying through the dark night.

“Sooner or later He (God) withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs—to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during those trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best... Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.” – C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Talk with someone.

Sit with someone and reflect on these five diagnostic questions–

1. Am I living a life of hurry?

2. Is there ongoing sin or rebellion in my life?

3. Am I allowing my faith and doubt to coexist?

4. Have you experienced relational trauma that needs to be healed?

5. Might it be something that God is leading you through, like a Dark Night of the soul?

Reading Job responsibly

We begin by understanding the genre of Job; Hebrew Wisdom literature.

Wisdom literature is an exploration of truth not as data but as a mystery to journey into.

The book of Job isn’t a theological explanation of how suffering works; It is about one man wrestling with God, as he suffers.

It is helpful to think of Job as a three-act play.

Act 1: the Court of God. (Job 1-2)
Act 2: A Conversation among Friends. (Job 3-37)
Act 3: God Speaks (Job 38-42)

When suffering crashes into our lives we are all prone to ask some of the same questions that Job will ask throughout the play.

1. Is God just?

2. Does God run the universe by that justice?

3. Why is there evil?

Act 1: The Court of God.

“There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.”– Job 1:1.

1. Job is not an Israelite; he is from the land of Uz.

2. He is blameless and upright.

3. Job was incredibly wealthy, generous, successful, and loved.

The Court of God

1. This is the only instance of such a wager in the scriptures. Theology shouldn’t be built on a singular instance.

2. This passage takes seriously the existence of one who opposes God– the Satan.

3. The author does not call the courtroom scene a vision; it is likely a product of human imagination, not a divine revelation.

4. This particular scene is not the point of the story.

Act 2: A Conversation among Friends.

“Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. 12 And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. 13 And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.” –Job 2:11–13.

Job’s friends assume that God operates the universe on a strict principle of retributive justice– if you honor God and do good, good things will happen, but if you are foolish and dishonor God, he will punish you.

“Sufferers attract fixers the way roadkills attract vultures. At first we are impressed that they bother with us and amazed at their facility with answers. They know so much! How did they get to be such experts in living? More often than not, these people use the Word of God frequently and loosely. They are full of spiritual diagnosis and prescription. It all sounds so hopeful. But then we begin to wonder, “Why is it that for all their apparent compassion we feel worse instead of better after they’ve said their piece?”– Eugene Peterson

“Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.– Job 13:15.

“As God lives, who has taken away my right, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter…”– Job 27:2.

‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’ When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent” – Job 9:22–23.

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” – Job 1:21.

He has torn me in his wrath and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.” –Job 16:9.

Act 3: God Speaks.

In Chapter 38, the Lord shows up in a hurricane and takes Job on a whirlwind tour of the Earth. God pulls Job close and begins to display the vast complexity of the universe,

And at this overwhelming display of power, Job is humbled, and ready once again to trust God.

There is Evil in the world, but there is also good.

Teachers of the way of Jesus have been giving us a different lens by which we can view reality.

They’ve exposed the three enemies of our soul.

1. The World.

2. The Flesh.

3. The Devil.

“Know your enemy.”–Sun Tzu

The Creation

In Genesis 1 and 2, we’re told that God speaks, and the Spirit of God, begins to organize the raw materials of creation– and the world bursts to life.

The Fall

"Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” –Genesis 3:1–5.

The Devil.

diabolos – the devil

1. Slanderor

Satan – the Satan

1. The adversary

2. A being is not for anything but is against everything.

The primary means by which the Devil works is through lies.

“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” –John 8:44.

His main objective is to subtly exchange truth for lies, for when we believe lies chaos follows.

Is it absurd to say lies continue to thrust our world into further chaos?

The Flesh.

The flesh is not about the human body– rather it is disordered or corrupted desires, that can often be experienced in the body.

Some of those desires are right, healthy, and God-given. While other desires; are disordered, nefarious, and self-destructive.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh –Ephesians 2:1–3.

When the devil lies to us, he lies in a way that plays to our disordered desires– our flesh.

It is those patterns of self-destructive sin, lead us everywhere but where we actually want to be.

The World

“Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” –John 12:31–32.

“I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. 47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.” –John 12:46–47

kosmon – The World

1. Used Postively– Creation, the earth the people in it.

2. Used Negatively– a system of life and culture set against God.

The world is where we decide for ourselves what is good and what is evil.

“ Our cultural and social practices, that are under the control of Satan and, thus, opposed to God.” – Dallas Willard

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit…” –Ephesians 5:15–18.

The Fight for our Soul.

“4 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’ ” 5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written,

“ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”

9 And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written,

“‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ 11 and “‘On their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

12 And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” 13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. –Luke 4:1–13.

The Holy Spirit leads us to truth, helps us walk in the way of Jesus, and gives us the strength to resist.

Practice Lent

Lent it is a 40-day period from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. It is a season to follow Jesus into the wilderness and to fight the influence of the world, the flesh, and the devil over our lives.

1. Repentance. Commit to extended periods of introspection, prayer, and “soul-searching” to uncover disordered desires, allegiances to idols, and thought patterns contrary to the Way of Jesus. Practicing Abstinence and/or fasting can aid you in uncovering these things in your life.

2. Fasting. We suggest fasting (going without food and drink) twice a week for twelve or twenty-four hours. This can look like not eating breakfast and lunch, or skipping dinner one night and breaking your fast the next night.*

   *A note on eating disorders and medical conditions– if you’ve ever suffered from an eating disorder (anorexia, bulimia, rumination, etc) or live with a diagnosed medical condition, you should consult a doctor, therapist, or pastor prior to fasting. Fasting is a helpful practice given to us by Christ, but notice that fasting is not intended to harm the body. Rather, it is designed to bring the body and soul into alignment.

3. Self-denial or Abstinence. The practice of creating a margin in our life to focus on Christ. Consider removing social media, television, video games, a recreational activity, a hobby or a regularly scheduled activity from your life through the season of Lent.

More on Lent.