When we lived in Mexico we would have the opportunity to eat some very different foods. We traveled to some very remote and poor areas and at times the foods were, well interesting. One time we traveled to a beach area and on the buffet table was a bowl full of crickets. Fried crickets with lemon juice. They were eaten like popcorn and so we were encouraged to try them. We all chickened out but our daughter. She tried one, just stuck it in her mouth and spit it out. So we never ate one, just tasted it. We never ingested it, we just "tried it out".
And this is the point of Jesus in John 6 as He encounters "the hungry". They were just fed by an amazing miracle and then He walks on water as He crosses the sea. They still were asking "who is this guy" and didn't believe in Him at all. They enjoyed His banquet as He fed the multitude with a few fish and some bread. They tasted Him, they looked over the buffet table and nibbled but that was it. He was a deep-fried cricket who was to be tried but not really eaten.
Yet Jesus tells us in John 6 that we are to eat of Him. He doesn't mean we literately ingest Him. He means that spiritually we do more than just taste - we chew, swallow and digest Him. He becomes a part of our being, as the nutrients of food give us life, His blood (Leviticus 17:11) gives us life.
They ask Jesus, "what must we do to do the works God requires?" Jesus answers...do nothing. Just believe..."believe on the one He has sent." True belief is ingesting (believing) Christ. This is eternal life. Jesus says: "I am the living bread that came down from Heaven. If anyone eats of this bread will live forever." This will cure your hunger forever. Eat of Him this Christmas and He will never stop feeding you as He was faithful to the Israelites in the desert.
The Bridge - where I pastor
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Encountering the Religious
How to get to heaven - ever ask that question and hear an answer that sounds something like: "I do 'this' and don't do 'that' so I think I am good enough. God wouldn't reject me because I have never broken one of the 'big ten'."
Well this was the attitude of the legalists in Jesus' day. In fact those were the folks He had the most problems with and argued the most with Him. Today it's no different. Why? We all want to believe we're not as bad as we really are and so we justify ourselves. We justify our righteousness before a Holy and Perfect God because we know He demands it. So we make a list, create an account that makes one column longer than the other. The problem is we don't see ourselves as God does. We don't see our sin as great as God does and so it's a false appraisal of our depravity. It's false assurance and false hope.
This is the problem with all of us though. The non believer thinks they are ok because of what they do and hence, "God has to accept me....He owes me heaven based on my goodness and works." And the believer says the same. The believer says that God owes him a good life and "blessings" because he tithes and sings in the choir. He says God owes him because he reads his Bible and even underlines the good parts.
And this too is self-righteousness. This is making God a debtor to us...He owes us something because of something we have done. This make us religious too, just like the unbeliever. Yet in Galatians 3: 1-3 we see a different view according to Paul. Paul is yelling at the Galatians for their falling back into works righteousness and says: "you were saved by grace and now you want to obtain your goal [heaven] through works?" "Are you nuts?" He says in Romans 7, after listing his sins [and they were many and ugly] he asks, "who will rescue me from this horrible state I am in?" And the answer is Christ Jesus. Not do more or give more. Not read and pray more, just Jesus. Finally in Ephesians 2, right after he tells us that we are saved by grace alone, not by works, he tell us that we are to do good works...that God the Father prepared for us to do. Do you see this? We don't even get credit for our works because God prepared them for us.
Here is my point...Jesus came to save us from our depraved selves. The religious won't get it until they see the impossibility to meet the perfection of God. And the Christian must see the same thing daily. We must see that our only hope is Christ. That our daily walk is in Him, in His strength and in His power. Not in our own. This was the lesson of the Prodigal Son. This lesson was the lesson to the elder son. He thought he had done enough to earn the Father's favor.
I had lunch with a friend today and we were talking about this "grace stuff" and I said that Jesus came to restore what was broken, the relationship we once had with God the Father before the fall. Now imagine a relationship with someone, someone you love, and it like this: "I will only love you if you do this for me and don't do that." Is that a relationship? Is that a safe relationship? Is that true friendship? I would think not. This is the same with Jesus. We have a safe, intimate relationship with Him, not because we "do and don't do" but because He did and does for us.
So rest in Jesus believer. God can't love you anymore that He already does and won't love you any less. When we see that infinite gap He filled with His life, death and resurrection we will run to Him daily and ask, "How may I serve you today Jesus because of what You did for me?" We won't ask, "What can I do so you won't reject me today?"
Well this was the attitude of the legalists in Jesus' day. In fact those were the folks He had the most problems with and argued the most with Him. Today it's no different. Why? We all want to believe we're not as bad as we really are and so we justify ourselves. We justify our righteousness before a Holy and Perfect God because we know He demands it. So we make a list, create an account that makes one column longer than the other. The problem is we don't see ourselves as God does. We don't see our sin as great as God does and so it's a false appraisal of our depravity. It's false assurance and false hope.
This is the problem with all of us though. The non believer thinks they are ok because of what they do and hence, "God has to accept me....He owes me heaven based on my goodness and works." And the believer says the same. The believer says that God owes him a good life and "blessings" because he tithes and sings in the choir. He says God owes him because he reads his Bible and even underlines the good parts.
And this too is self-righteousness. This is making God a debtor to us...He owes us something because of something we have done. This make us religious too, just like the unbeliever. Yet in Galatians 3: 1-3 we see a different view according to Paul. Paul is yelling at the Galatians for their falling back into works righteousness and says: "you were saved by grace and now you want to obtain your goal [heaven] through works?" "Are you nuts?" He says in Romans 7, after listing his sins [and they were many and ugly] he asks, "who will rescue me from this horrible state I am in?" And the answer is Christ Jesus. Not do more or give more. Not read and pray more, just Jesus. Finally in Ephesians 2, right after he tells us that we are saved by grace alone, not by works, he tell us that we are to do good works...that God the Father prepared for us to do. Do you see this? We don't even get credit for our works because God prepared them for us.
Here is my point...Jesus came to save us from our depraved selves. The religious won't get it until they see the impossibility to meet the perfection of God. And the Christian must see the same thing daily. We must see that our only hope is Christ. That our daily walk is in Him, in His strength and in His power. Not in our own. This was the lesson of the Prodigal Son. This lesson was the lesson to the elder son. He thought he had done enough to earn the Father's favor.
I had lunch with a friend today and we were talking about this "grace stuff" and I said that Jesus came to restore what was broken, the relationship we once had with God the Father before the fall. Now imagine a relationship with someone, someone you love, and it like this: "I will only love you if you do this for me and don't do that." Is that a relationship? Is that a safe relationship? Is that true friendship? I would think not. This is the same with Jesus. We have a safe, intimate relationship with Him, not because we "do and don't do" but because He did and does for us.
So rest in Jesus believer. God can't love you anymore that He already does and won't love you any less. When we see that infinite gap He filled with His life, death and resurrection we will run to Him daily and ask, "How may I serve you today Jesus because of what You did for me?" We won't ask, "What can I do so you won't reject me today?"
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
An Encounter with Jesus
Jesus came into the world to restore and redeem. He restored the broken relationship that occurred in the fall. When Adam sinned, he lost the personal relationship he had with the Father, we too, due to our sin have a broken relationship with the Father. He ran and hid due to his sin and shame. We do the same. We don't pray or read because we feel shame and yet as believers are restored and can come to the Father through the Son at anytime. As believers we are no longer condemned (Romans 8:1).
So this Christmas I am preaching through a series on "An Encounter With Jesus". I will be taking stories from the Gospel of John and preaching how Jesus encountered all kind of people and how they and Jesus reacted in each one. Here are the titles and dates:
So this Christmas I am preaching through a series on "An Encounter With Jesus". I will be taking stories from the Gospel of John and preaching how Jesus encountered all kind of people and how they and Jesus reacted in each one. Here are the titles and dates:
- November 18 -
- An Encounter with the Religious
- November 25 -
- An Encounter with the Rebellious
- December 2 -
- An Encounter with the Hungry
- December 9 -
- An Encounter with the Killers
- December 16 -
- An Encounter with the Arrogant
- December 23 -
- An Encounter with the World
- December 30 -
- An Encounter with the Lost
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Welcome to my blog
Welcome to the blog of The Bridge . I am the pastor and I am passionate about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am sold out to Christ and the grace he has given us through His atoning death on the cross.
I have learned much through the ministry of Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, Ed Stetzer, Richard Pratt and Matt Chandler. Their teachings and ministry have impacted my philosophy of ministry.
I believe that our salvation is found in the person of Jesus Christ and our sanctification is also found in the person of Jesus Christ. Our Father can't love us any more than He already does and so we can't work to gain more of Him. Our works are even from Him, prepared by Him, before the foundations of the world (Ephesians 2).
I have learned much through the ministry of Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, Ed Stetzer, Richard Pratt and Matt Chandler. Their teachings and ministry have impacted my philosophy of ministry.
I believe that our salvation is found in the person of Jesus Christ and our sanctification is also found in the person of Jesus Christ. Our Father can't love us any more than He already does and so we can't work to gain more of Him. Our works are even from Him, prepared by Him, before the foundations of the world (Ephesians 2).
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