Authentic Christianity

An Authentic Christian is probably best summarized in the Beatitudes. What it means to be a Christian encompasses at least all of what Matt 5:1-14 speaks of.

My mate Rob drew attention to the following two points:

And ideally it is the God – Man Jesus who best exemplifies these attributes – he is the perfect Authentic Christian ( man ).

And when we say perfect we don’t mean holy as a moral attribute but wholly as set apart for a purpose and being that! That is, perfect means doing what it was created for!

Now part of that coming to grips with being a Christian is to take notice of the rebuke of God where that occurs, not shirking it off and quickly turning to the more sating passages of God loving us and dying for us and other favorite themes.

Some today think it is harsh when a preacher points out the ramifications of a passage that speaks rebuke.

It’s like some prefer to think “Well God  is just all on about encouragement, there’s no place for pointing out in detail or applying it in particular way because that is rattles my comfortableness and complacency. “ We think to ourselves “ I quite like going to church once a week and worshipping there”  – and here I am being very generous with myself about the once a week bit. Sadly it is so easy to make God up in my own imagination – a personal God who is comfortable and doesn’t expect too much of me.

Yet what am I to make of all those passages that begin in Genesis that point out that God is unhappy with our ( mankind’s] behavior and holds us to account – Israel’s history is full of the consequences of ignoring God. It brings about the judgment he has already warned about.

In Christ, again it is true that we are graciously saved, and that not by our own works, but we need to hear again that after salvation He calls us to obedience. Not that obedience saves us, but rather an obedience that pleases Him. He wants for us to be made in the likeness of Christ, the perfectly obedient man! The second Adam as Paul would say.

And this is also for our benefit. To be in God’s place is to be in the right and best place even if we don’t want to acknowledge that or it disheartens us that there is a continual struggle against the flesh the world and the devil.

It is so easy to gripe against a preacher who points out our failure to obey Hebrews 10:25 “let us not forsake the meeting together.. as some do.” You see the “let us” is not a suggestion, it’s a command. And it warns us that in actuality, some are in fact doing this, that is what the text, God’s Word, says!

But if we gripe about that what about when the preacher preaches on Revelation 2-3? Has the preacher just lightly skipped over what is said in the letters to the 7 churches and merely read out the verses? Or has he failed to clearly apply it or have we become so hardened that we gloss over what he has said and the Word of God itself says? What are we to make of the warning that we are neither hot nor cold and He will spew them out of his mouth? Is that just them or is it possible some of us are in the same boat? After all why is it there in Scripture, God’s letter to us, anyway? Is it just padding and something that is intended to tickle our ears and make us point the finger at others? God forbid.

The Great Commission doesn’t say go out and make converts - after all, that is what God does, rather it says make disciples and they are people who follow Christ and do as he says. After all the verse actually says “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded”.

O that I would be sanctified in Obedience to You O Lord.

What is Worship Pt4 - Critique of Mark Driscoll on Worship

These days you get the opportunity to read a wide variety of perspectives on Worship and on the internet you will find an abundance of mp3’s on the topic. Recently I downloaded and listened to Mark Driscoll speaking on Worship from Revelation chapter 5 in his series on Doctrine.

Now I have much admiration for Mark. I enjoy his enthusiasm and passion and desire to see people come to know the Lord Jesus. The way he preaches reminds me sometimes of Martin Luther in ‘the Bondage of the Will’ in His debate with Erasmus. The same direct hard hitting words of a passionate man enamored by Grace. Mark’s succinct way of stating things are powerful and you and I both need to hear Mark when he declares “Jesus is your friend but in no way your peer.”


I have delighted, learnt from and been challenged by many of Mark’s talks, but I have concerns with his sermon on Revelation 5 as I will discuss below. It is my hope that in his passion shall not be led astray to deception as I believe Rick Warren of Saddleback has been over the last few years. When Rick began his ministry there was a true sense in the movement of God’s Spirit and yet Rick has really gone off track lately, and clearly so from the time of publication of ‘40 days of purpose’. The one true way to guard against such deception is to take heed to godly council of fellow elders who truly can say the truth without fear. Mark, I do hope that those who give you council will take time to direct you in honing your exegetical skills and in preaching. So Mark if you ever get to read this, it is done with utmost concern to be faithful to our Lord Jesus, and so loving of the brethren including you.

To summarize the sermon:
Driscoll if I understand him correctly takes Revelation 5 to express worship of the Lord God. He helpfully draws attention to Romans 1:25 that people either worship God the Creator or created things. Yet it’s not long before he declares that the scroll of Revelation 5 is the Scriptures. This slip may be from the Greek word for scroll being biblion, however I doubt if he made such a simple blunder. Sure that's something we can regrettably all do at times, but if so, then amends must be made. It seems certain he considers the scroll of Revelation 5 to be the Scripture’s however this interpretation has not been taken that way by any Commentator that I have in my half a dozen or more Commentaries on Revelation.
This is not my misreading of Driscoll for he repeats this notion over and over again throughout the sermon. Consider the following excerpt

“Here we see the scriptures come from the hand of the father on his throne exalted in heaven. And the scriptures we are told here come literally from his right hand. His hand of authority and power. The Bible wasn’t just written by the hands of men, it was written by the hand of God. through the hands of men.”
And then he says:

“The scripture originally written down on a scroll. Now the problem is the Father has the scroll, he has the bible in his hand still the promises God has for you and me, save us heal us redeem us. transform us.. conquer enemies of satan sin and death. he will be coming to execute al these great promises of God. on our behalf. The problem is no one is worthy to open the scroll. .. to take the scriptures from the hand of God and deliver them to the people of God. no one is worthy to work of Gods behalf to execute all the promises ..he has given is. John sees this as a pastor, he knows the needs of people, and he’s just devastated. .. this is a crisis, God has all of these desires, these intentions, all of these people he wants to love.. all these promises he has given and there’s no means of executing that on the earth. That’s why Isaiah says God literally stretched out his hand to us in Jesus Christ. This is where this is going to go.”

And later
“And God has sent Jesus. ... “Jesus takes the scriptures from the father..”

The problem here is that this understanding of the scroll is not taken that way by any Commentator I know of. Certainly none that Osborne lists. He gives six understandings of the Scroll on pages 248-249. Commentary on Revelation by Grant R. Osborne, ECNT, 2002.

1. The Lambs Book of Life.
   
2. The Old Testament, especially the torah. [ Note this does not include the New Testament. ]
   
3. The last will and testament containing the inheritance of the saints and sealed with seven seals.
   
4. A divorce bill, ... borrowing Old Testament imagery on the unfaithfulness of Israel.
   
5. The doubly inscribed contract deed.
   
6. A heavenly book containing God’s redemptive plan and the future history of God’s creation.
   

Osborne himself suggest a combination of #5 and #6. John F. Walvoord himself says “the scroll contains the prophesy of impending events to be unfolded in the book of revelation” pg 113, thereby agreeing with Osborne’s point #6.

As an aside, I might point out that taking the scroll as the Scriptures implies all sorts of strange things regarding the sequence of events in the book of Revelation. For it is the lamb slain in chapter 5, and thus who is worthy who takes the scroll, yet the Scriptures have already, well the Old Testament for sure, been given to God’s people!

Indeed Mark follows this illogical path in the next few statements where he says:
“someone needs to take these promises and bring them into human history, to execute them.”

What is Driscoll referring to? The First or Second Advent? Clearly he means the first Advent because he talks of Jesus bringing them into human history, “born of a virgin.”
All this I will leave that for you to ponder.

The point I wish to make is that this is a serious error, equating the scroll here in Revelation 5 with the Scriptures. Now Mark may retort that the term “Scriptures” in the Bible as for eg 2 Tim 3:16 means ‘the writings’ and certainly there in 2 Tim 3 it has to at minimum refer to the Old Testament, but Mark has already said clearly in the sermon that the scroll is the Bible.

Mark is right in pointing out that in heaven God surrounds himself with singing and prayers of the saints. These things are indeed in heaven, yet when referring to chapter 4 one really shouldn’t say that the light and colours are what God surrounds himself with, rather John is using the brilliant colours of the precious stones to describe God himself.
Yet Mark says
“What do you keep close to you? God keeps people, colour, music and prayers close to Him.”

It’s not like the light and colours at a rock concert which is the impression Mark leaves us with.

Indeed Revelation does say the 4 creatures in heaven and the 24 elders do sing a new song in worship of the Lord God, 5:9 yet it’s not merely that song writers can “speak best out of experience and passion and life..” The new song does not come from a song writers experience and passion and life. Rather Song writers need to use their gifts to write theological songs just as we see the content in Revelation 5:9-10 talking about. We need less of the mindless drivel of some Choruses and Hill Song songs. Read the chapter by Paul T. Plew in 'Think Biblically' edited by John MacArthur for a good reminder on this.

Again Mark may differ from me on how one understands Isaiah 11 and I will graciously concede that, even so I would point out that to say the text mentions animals in heaven is to spiritualise the text without any warrant for doing so. It’s a hermeneutical issue, but one I would say makes nonsense of hermeneutics. I will deal with this another time.

So I find a couple of major problems with Mark’s interpretation Revelation 5 which do not edify the saints but lead them into error.

But how does Mark get to that point of teaching error? I have suggested a couple of things above as we dealt with the sermon but I think there’s a couple of areas that cause this and which I believe Mark could change with great benefit.

Some reasons for such a failure in understanding Revelation 5 may be partly due to Mark’s technique in sermon delivery. From what I have seen on the internet his sermons notes that he takes into the pulpit are far too cursory at best. Over at JoshHarris.com we can find the above picture at the top of this blog, an example of Driscoll’s preaching Notes.

Now I am not saying Mark hasn’t put a lot of effort into understanding the text and doing his preparation, but I think because of his short notes and his conversational manner he tends to go off on tangents and actually says things he wouldn’t say with a bit more forethought. He says things off the cuff that are either unhelpful and also at time untrue. A case in point would be his comments in the sermon on Revelation 5 when referring to the 24 elders. He said “24 elders, are the leaders of the Old and New Testament CHURCH!” What this says is that Israel in the Old Testament is the Church, a very common statement found among Amillennial preachers, but impossible to justify Biblically.

I actually like the conversational approach in preaching, but there are dangers to be avoided and unless Mark has a photographic memory he should use better notes. And if he does have a photographic memory then he need to carefully choose his words and do better exegesis.

In Christ
Gary

What is Worship Part 3 - As proclamation

The more astute of you of course realized that I hadn’t covered all the Greek words used for worship. And so I will turn our attention quickly to the word leitourgos.
Paul used the word leitourgos for his being a minister of the Gospel message in Romans 15:16. There he speaks of preaching to the Gentiles. Worship is then also to be seen as proclamation, proclamation of the message of the Gospel so people may come to know Christ.

No doubt many have heard a sermon or two speaking about Worship and referring back to the root of the English word which literally means worth-ship, and so means attributing worth to something. As Paul Plew in ‘Think Biblically’ ed John MacArthur pg 188 says “[it] denotes the ascription of reverence to someone or something of superlative worth.” I do so much like that word superlative for indeed our Lord God is Superlative worth! Doesn’t that make nonsense of when we use the word worship in relation to football stars, or movie stars, or musicians or a football team? They don’t even deserve such a word as worship do they? Yet that’s how it’s used in our common parlance of our culture. We must ask unbelievers by what standard they declare something worthy? Apart from the God of the bible as the Standard, there is no value in saying something is worthy of worship. Without the Christian Worldview of the bible their standard of things or people worthy of worship are just arbitrary. Are the things or people they choose to worship or glorify worthy?

Listen to how the Scripture speak of making this decision, indeed it’s a forgone conclusion because it can really be seen as a command, but for the unbelievers situation just read it and think about the things and people they worship.

Psalm 96, says that we are to “ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name.” Psalm 96:8-9.

We are to give to the Lord the glory due to his name, that is, according to His character. And the Scriptures leave us in no doubt about what His character is like, Merciful, full of Grace, Patient, Just and Righteous and so on. You can then see in new light the utter foolishness of setting up stone or wooden idols that do not speak, that do not Love, that do not care!

Is it not surprising then to find that Paul is then speaking of worship, indeed the failure of worship by rebellious mankind, when he speaks of them “neither giving their Creator thanks and praise” Romans 1. If I could express it in another way, they failed to give Him the Glory He so rightly deserves.

What I have been speaking about is the Gospel message isn’t it? Who could not proclaim such a message? Who Could not in gratitude proclaim, and by doing so worship the Lord?

What is Worship? Part 2 – The value of a word study.

We saw in Part 1 that worship in Matthew’s Gospel chapter 2 involved the wise men prostrating themselves before Jesus but is that all we learn about worship from Matthew 2?

We can get some help about worship from doing a word study of the biblical terms used for worship.
Prounein:
Here we find that there are different words used in the Bible for worship and these need to be taken into consideration. Bowing down, prokunien in the Greek is one of them, used for the act of bowing down so that homage or reverence is done to a person. This is what we see for example in John 9 with the blind man prostrating himself before Jesus, showing honor and respect to the Lord Jesus. Earlier in John in chapter 4 is a very interesting passage in that the Samaritan woman asks where is the right place God should be worshipped[1] and Jesus tells her that worship must be in spirit and truth. It would of course be fruitful to consider the whole background issue to what is happening here in John 4. That the Glory of God, His actual Presence had actually departed the Temple back in Ezekiel 10 and left Jerusalem, and that God had been quiet towards Israel for 400 odd years, that there had been no spokesmen for God, no prophets, and How now in Jesus the Glory comes back to the Temple only to have the Nation as a whole tragically reject Him. But I want us to consider that sometimes the thing missed here is that true worship Jesus says, arises out of true knowledge, as John tells us in verse 22 “we worship what we know.” True worship then requires a proper knowledge of God[2], we are not to merely imagine within ourselves how we think[3] God ought to be worshipped, we are not left to our own devices about how we think the Lord God would be pleased to be worshipped, but we are to listen to what He says in the Bible about Worshipping Him. Here for example, Jesus told the Samaritan woman in verse 21, 23 & 24 that God is Father and God is Spirit, and we are to worship Him. As MacArthur points out, God as Father tells us His essential relationship is that He is Father, and God as spirit tells us that His essential nature is Spirit[4]. Any such worship we bring to Him must involve both. As to God is spirit we must go back to Isaiah 40:18f to fill that out, but the basic point is that God is not flesh and bones like us, He is not created, but Spirit. The point being made with the Samaritan woman is that the place isn’t the issue, because God is not “there only” or “here only” see Jer 23:23, and further, His essential nature means he’s not some object that can be replicated as in some icon or image or statue. If one chooses to set those as things representing Him, one has opted to commit idolatry. As to his essential relationship being that of Father, at minimum we understand Him as personally involved. He is Caring, loving, Merciful and Just and so on.
From John’s Gospel to worship the Lord, to bow before him and give him the honor that is due to Him is to worship the way he declares, in spirit and truth, to worship Him as Spirit and Father.Importantly just a few verses later in verse 23 of John 4 Jesus tells us that the Father seeks people who will worship in spirit and truth. In other words, this is what kind of worship the Father wants. This verse is one of the central passages to consider what worship is because here the Lord God tells us that these are the kinds of worshippers He seeks, those who worship in Spirit and Truth.
This is not the end of our investigation into what worship is. It is merely the start, but it is an important start. We would do well to consider how later in John’s Gospel the blind man bows before Jesus John 9:38 recognizing that Jesus was both from God, Jn 9:33 and Son of Man, Jn 9:35. There we see, belief and action go hand in hand.

latreuein:
When translating the Old Testament the translators also used another Greek word for worship, namely latreuein, commonly translated as “to serve”
When looking at Deut 10:12-13 we see that such service involved fearing God, obeying and loving Him. Verses 10-11 in Deut make it clear that such worship or service arises out of recognizing the very character of God as one who makes promises, keeps them and acts with compassion and Mercy. The passage in Deut 10 of course speaks of ceremonial actions of sacrifice and so on, and we of course recognize that we do not have to carry our those same sacrifices, but the principle we pick up on there is that such worship involves all the life of the believer, such that the worshipper is able to acknowledge with Joy everything you do in life because the Lord has blessed you. Vs 7. Are we not in the same position of having been blessed abundantly more through the forgiveness of sin wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ? It is this very same sort of worship that is seen mentioned by Paul in Roman’s 12. The giving of our very lives as a living sacrifice is our reasonable or logical “worship” or “service”. ( latreuein ). As with Deut 10 this worship is in response to the great mercies of God, not done in order to make ourselves acceptable to Him but rather its done out of gratitude! Such reasonable worship offers to God our minds to be transformed by him, our thinking needs regeneration, which then will flow out into our actions to our Lord and other Christians.

leitourgia:
Lastly there is the Greek word leitourgia. What does leitourgia involve? Interestingly it’s from this Greek word that we get our English word liturgy. And it’s derivative “ministry”. Liturgy is the specific acts of a public nature that a congregation involves itself in. The Old Testament background is alluded to in Hebrews when he says the Priest is said to have ministered day by day ( performed liturgy ) and to have offered the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. Hebrews 10:11.
From its use elsewhere in the New Testament we can gain further valuable insight into its meaning. In Acts 13:2 the prophets and teachers at Antioch ministered to the Lord by engaging in intercessory prayer. In Phil 2:17 Paul links ministry with sacrifice, a ministry which is not external or ritualistic but a commitment of faith.
And lastly in Phil 3:20 we read of the gift of money that the Philippian Church made to Paul. It speaks of Epaphroditus supplying that which was lacking in their service “liturgy”. This service this “liturgy” was one of the sacrificial giving of money. That also is understood in the bible as being a means or form of worship.

And this insight bring us back to the wise men of Matt2. They came and worshipped, bowing down before Jesus and then they offered their gifts of gold and frankincense and Myrrh. Instead of separating the two actions, one of worship and one of giving gifts, I wonder if both are not true worship of the Lord Jesus? It certainly seems that the giving of gifts is also a means of worship?

Given just these few insights I am paused to ponder just how my worship of the Lord is faring?

[1] the Greek the word is proskuneo; the Hebrew equivalent is shacah.
[2] we know from the Old Testament that Samaritans did not know how to worship. They were syncretistic, as we read in 2 Kings 17:33, “They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought.” All their worship was false. In fact, Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “You worship what you do not know.” In other words a syncretistic “faith” is not believing faith. “This is eternal life,” Jesus said, “that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). The only way to know God the Father is through Jesus Christ who was sent to reveal the Father to us.
[3] our own subjectivity and imagination, nor is it based on our own opinions and feelings.
[4] From John MacArthur Sermon on worship.

What is Worship? Part 1

Today if you ask a group of Christian people what worship is, it won’t be long before you hear someone say that music and singing are worship. They don’t qualify that statement in anyway, they just say this is what worship is. Indeed some churches put aside a special period before the service called praise worship meaning a time of singing before the service begins. If you go into a Christian bookstore or look at a Christian book store catalogue what do you find under the section called worship but “Christian” CD’s and music. These are subtle influences in our lives that we sometimes ignore the impact of and yet they are the things that tend to mould our thoughts about certain subjects. Has this influenced you and me into what we understand as worship?
Think about it bit. Does your church have Praise and Worship "Teams" that are an integral part of the "services"?

Those who play musical instruments are sometimes tempted into thinking that music and singing is what worship is all about. What we need to realise is that it’s a means of worship. So that some don’t think I have a gripe against musicians let me say my wife teaches piano and keyboard and all my children play and my wife and daughter also play in the music team at church. It is just that there is an avenue of temptation for anyone being out the front of the congregation to think that what they alone are doing is what worship is. And that’s not even considering the problem that some are even tempted to become a performer or even an entertainer [ some preachers already act this way with their actions and words moulded to entertain their listeners instead of faithfully teach the Word of God ].

Of course it’s not hard to identify with the person who wrote into Christianpost.com and said
“I know I'm supposed to worship God when I go to church, but I can't say I always do. My thoughts wander, or I get to thinking about the people around me and I come away disappointed in myself for not really worshipping. How can I keep from being distracted? - D.H.”

That experience is not all that uncommon, and it can depend upon a lot of things, it can be that the person is that day weighed down with a lot of worldly cares, or their Church may itself not be showing the love for the brethren that works out in brotherly fellowship. It’s so common that even some pastors have at times not felt the urge on a Sunday morning to drag their feet out of bed and go to church. For them it could have been because satan is attacking them at that point in time or that there are so many “problems” happening in the church that they just don’t want to deal with, or even that bed is so warm and comfy on a cold winters day! [ which of course could be satan tempting them again :) ]

Still whilst at times there’s a temptation not to worship or of being distracted, we still need to be clear about what the Bible says Worship is.

I recently read a helpful article by Steven Shephard which referred to how the wise men came to Jesus at his birth and worshipped him. As we read about it in Matthew 2:1-2
“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying ‘Where is He who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him’” (Matt. 2:1-2)

Then in Matthew 2:11 we read about having found Jesus they “fell down and worshiped Him.” The Greek word here translated "worship" means to prostrate oneself. But biblical worship implies more than the bowing down of our body. You don’t get very far in merely doing a word study of Hebrew and Greek words used in the Bible and translated as “worship” in our English translation. We need to do that, but a fruitful result requires us to do more.
Here in Matthew’s Gospel we see first that the wise men came to worship Jesus and they clearly prostrate themselves before him, Matt 2:11 but is that the end of the story in Matthew 2 about worship? Is worship merely a physical prostrating of oneself before Jesus?
That’s what we shall consider next time.

In Christ
Gary