Refine

 Today we begin worship with:

1 Peter 4:12–14

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

This summer the fridge went out, when we had a house full of people, the stove stopped working in the strangest way, and the boat decided when it would start and when it would not.

Those were not "fiery trials".  A fiery trial (pyrōsis) comes when you are "insulted for the name of Christ".  It is the refiner's fire.

There is a curious verse in Proverbs that illustrates this:

Proverbs 27:21

The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold,

    and a man is tested by his praise.

One is refined by who and what one praises.  

When you praise a Ford, when you are with a group of Mopar buddies; when you are the only one rooting for the Yankees at a Braves watch-party; when stand up of the name of Christ when it is taken in vain.  You will be tested.  That lick of flame will refine you.

Weakness

 Today we begin worship with:

2 Corinthians 12:9-10
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

God does not pick people based on what He can receive from them, but rather for quite the opposite.  We are chosen for how He can demonstrate His power through our weakness. 

Growing up not only was I in the running for the worst handwriting of the class, I labored to form a cohesive a sentence.  To God’s glory, today I write. 

Do I have my shortcomings (or better said “faults”)?  Yes, absolutely.  But I know that when God wants the corresponding strength demonstrated, He will supply it.

LORD

Today we begin worship with:

Philippians 2:9-11

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

“Jesus” (iēsous) was and is today a common name.  It derives from the Hebrew Joshua (yᵊhôšûa) and was used by many a Jewish parent to charge their son to achieve the same level of courage that Joshua demonstrated in his many victories. In fact, some Greek texts and English translations include the full name of the notorious prisoner released by Pilate as “Jesus Barabbas” (See Matthew 27:16 NIV).

“Jesus” is not the name referred to by this passage. The name higher that all names in Hebrew is “LORD (Yᵊhōvâ) or in Greek kyrios (via the Septuagint):

Exodus 3:14-15
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

That is why we are told in today’s passage that “Jesus Christ is Lord”.  He is the self-existent, unchanging, and eternal God.

Know

This morning we begin worship with:

John 6:66-69

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

At first it was easy to walk with Jesus.  He said pleasant words of blessing, healed many, and fed even more.  In fact our passage today is just after the feeding of the Five Thousand (John 6:1-14).

But in this chapter which is occurring at the time of the Passover (John 6:4) Jesus says for the first time “I am the Bread of Life” (John 6:35) and begins to speak of the eternal and the spiritual and many walked away with their focus on the temporal and the physical.

To His disciples He asks “Do you want to go away as well?”.  This not to encourage it, but rather to settle the question, for it was to these twelve that He was entrusting the words of eternal life.

Peter’s response reveals some of the internal questioning that occurred during their walk with Jesus.  They heard.  They believed.  But eventually they came to “know” (ginōskō) His were truly the words of eternal life.

Birthday

Today we begin worship with:

Romans 13:11

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

The phase "Besides this" means that something important precedes our verse.  It was the command to fulfill the Law through the love of others (Romans 13:10).  

Our verse then begins a paragraph of pitfalls that would prevent reaching that goal.  Namely, the love of self.

Our verse reminds us that we don't have much time to make this true in our lives.  And last week I had a birthday.  So, I am now one year closer to Salvation (sōtēria).  

When we stand with our fellow heirs of salvation, we will truly understand who we loved.

Matthew 25:37-40

Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers [and sisters], you did it to me.’

Ask

Today we begin worship with:

Hebrews 10:19-22a
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.

When I was a child I stuttered badly.  Even today, I will pause unpredictably when speaking.

In today's verse we enter the holy places with confidence (parrēsia).  The root of this word is "speech" (reō).

We are not being told to enter the throne room of God with our head held high and our back straight.  That we must always do with a humble spirit (Luke 18:9-14).  We are being told to speak!  

We are to approach our Heavenly Father like a child, without the filters that come with adulthood.

Matthew 7:7-11

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Listen

Today we begin worship with:

John 14:15-17
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

When the disciples saw the overwhelming need of how to feed the large crowd of people who had followed Jesus to a remote location, they had one solution:

Matthew 14:15
Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”

Jesus had another idea:

Matthew 14:16
But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”

You know the story.  Jesus then proceeded to stretch what they had to meet all the needs.

Back to our verse for today.  Jesus asks us to “keep my commandments”.  Those that heard it instantly thought of their inability to keep the Ten Commandments, let alone the rest of Law passed down through Moses. How are they going to also “keep” (tēreō) what Jesus had taught them?

Jesus had a solution.

He would send a “Helper” (paraklētos).  Please hear in the Greek the words para and kaleō.  This Helper would come alongside you and speak your name.  He invites you into situations where compassion is needed.  He warns you in circumstances where temptation would exceed your faith.  And He cheers you on to finish the race.

Listen.

Remember

Today we begin worship with:

John 16:13

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

When Jesus said this He was being very clear with His disciples as what was about to happen.  One problem though:

John 16:12

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”

Even after three years of intense training, they were not ready for all that had to be taught.  And in His compassion, Jesus would not go beyond what they could bear.

Praise God we do not have to “get it” the first time, or take hurried notes while the lecture continues, hoping to understand it during review. 

The Spirit is there to teach and to remind. 

John 14:26

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

So, pencils down. Close the notebook. For now, just worship.  

Sidelined

This morning we begin worship with:

Ephesians 4:15-16

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

On the sports talk shows the headlines blare when the quarterback is hurt, but not a word when a water-boy calls in sick.

But it is not so in the church, for it is described as one body.  A body is connected.  Each part is important.

1 Corinthians 12:21-26  

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 

Whether you are weak or strong, private or public, in management or part of the rank-and-file, you are essential to the whole.  

Don't believe that?  Recall please your latest toothache, stubbed toe, or splinter.  That is how the rest of the body feels when you are sidelined.

Destination

This morning we begin worship with:

John 14:1-3

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

Rarely these days do we start a journey without entering the destination into an app, from which a gentle voice gives us step by step directions along the way.  Our verse today is the preface for the wonderful exchange between Thomas and Jesus that speaks of the "way":

John 14:4-6

" . . . And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

But without knowing the destination, the way taken is pointless.

Our destination is heaven.  And there, it is not some random cloud as depicted by so many an illustrator.  It is a room in a house prepared specifically for us.  Friends, our destination is home.

Just

This week we begin worship with:

Psalm 119:154

Plead my cause and redeem me; give me life according to your promise!

The American way is self-made and self-sufficient.  We are told to look for solutions within ourselves.  This verse, however, corrects that notion.

Naomi had a kinsman redeemer.  Boas came to her rescue after the loss of both her husband and her sons.  Without them, she and Ruth had been reduced to gleaning to survive.

Ruth 4:9-10

Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon. Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day.”

We too need a redeemer.  But we are not simply poor, we are guilty and stand accused.  We need someone to plead our case.

Isaiah 53:6

All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the LORD has laid on him

the iniquity of us all. 

Our redeemer must argue, on our behalf, that sin can only be punished once.  

1 John 1:9 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.