Ministry

1 Corinthians 11:23-25

Observing the Lord’s Supper supplies a corrective on church life. In one of the most familiar passages on this matter, Paul says,

“I received from the Lord what I passed on to you. The night he was betrayed he took a loaf, gave thanks, broke it, and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you. Do this in memory of me.’ After the meal he took the cup, ‘This cup is the New Covenant in my blood. As often as you drink it, do it in memory of me.’”

1 Corinthians 11:26

We always stand at the junction between past and future. That means we benefit from both God’s deeds from the past and his promises about the future. The things he has done guarantee the things he has said he’ll do.

As that present junction point moves forward, we carry with us observances that combine memory and hope. The Lord’s Supper is one such observance. That fact appears in one of Paul’s comments to the Corinthians: “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you show the Lord’s death [past] till he comes [future].” His coming again is as certain as his death before; that hope is as grounded as that memory.

A Call to Higher Ground

These emblems picture how much God loves us. Our hands, so to speak, hold the pierced hand of broken flesh and shed blood. The difference between our hands and his corresponds with the differences between everyday love and absolute devotion.

What we contemplate here is of primary concern. Love given triggers love returned. It calls us to respond in kind and raises the bar from wherever it is to its highest level. It puts in perspective how far we have yet to go in becoming what we have the potential to become. “We have not yet resisted unto blood in striving against sin” (Hebrews 12:4).

A Call to Repentance

Old Testament events admonish us with their implications. The account about Jonah the prophet is a case in point. When he preached to the people in Nineveh, they believed him and acted on his warning by fasting, putting on sackcloth, and sitting in ashes. Their stricken conscience responded to Jonah’s forthright proclamation, “In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed” (Jonah 3:4). This lone foreign figure didn’t perform any miracles in their streets to confirm his claim.

A Case of Outcomes

On the final day of our Lord’s life, his opponents rushed to judgment, claiming victory too soon. Since they could kill him, he could not in their minds be the Messiah because “Messiah abides forever.” (John 12:34). They took his death to mean the wrong thing, so they mocked him, called him a deceiver (Matthew 27:63), and made the fatal mistake of placing a guard at his tomb. As a result, those soldiers froze in fear when an angel came to open the sealed tomb.

A Clean Mind

A Clear Focus

Cameras, microscopes, telescopes, binoculars all need to be brought into focus to see clearly what we want to look at. This loaf and cup bring into focus an event that could become a fuzzy memory that comes near to vanishing away. Christ’s voluntary suffering to the point of death culminated his earthly ministry.

In turn, that act itself brought into focus a pattern where God provides for his people what they cannot provide for themselves. Christ as a real person embodies self-giving for the need of us weaker brothers. That is why Paul could say that “Christ” was the rock in the wilderness that provided water for people who could not provide their own (1 Corinthians 10:3). Similarly, the Hebrew writer could say of Moses that he counted the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt (11:26). The Christ principle stands at the apex of everything our faith is about.

A Concise Truth: John 3:16

“Because God loved the world so much, he gave his only Son

that whoever trusts in him may have eternal life.”

Each word in this most familiar verse hangs heavy with meaning.

“Because God . . . ”

who was before the rest of reality,

the reason for everything else,

the origin of all that is,

the agent behind what all happens, especially in regard to what this observance means.

A Day Like No Other

Today is a day like no other. It commemorates the resurrection of a nationally known teacher publicly put to death by crucifixion three days earlier just outside the walls of the capital city. His empty tomb on Sunday morning marks the tremendous change from extreme grief to boundless jubilation, from devastating disappointment to confident hope, from feeling forsaken to being vindicated, from totally confused to fully aware of what has happened.

A Gratitude Circumstance

A snatch from Paul’s account of institution says. “The night before Jesus was betrayed, he took bread; gave thanks, and broke it . . . do this in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:23-24).

The account does not say what he gave thanks for. He was not somehow grateful for the betrayal, that they would crucify him in the morning, that people would make fun of him while he suffered. But there was something, something that these negatives could not override, something that it made sense to say he was glad was so.

A Heard Prayer Answered “No”

In Gethsemane the night’s dread of the morning’s crucifixion weighed heavily on Jesus. The Book of Hebrews supplements the gospel accounts by noting his tears and audible crying (5:7). That evening’s burden anticipated the next morning’s pain.

Hebrews also adds the striking point that Jesus “was heard because of his godly fear” (5:7). His being “heard” refers to his prayer for deliverance from death! The comment highlights a distinction between the Father’s hearing a request and his granting it, between acknowledging its legitimacy and overriding it with an even greater concern.

A Lesson From the Cross

These emblems not only remind us; they teach us. Hebrews 12:2 recommends “looking to Jesus the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarded the shame, and sat down on the right hand of God’s throne.” The glory beyond the agony became an aid to enduring it.

Christ has engendered trust in him (author) and carried trust to its highest demonstration in the way he died (perfecter). The loaf and cup connect us with that kind of person, and then with his way of getting through limitations and stress and rejection and pain. Such things are not our final condition; they are along the way to the final condition. The future empowers us in the present; the eternal strengthens us through the temporary.

A Man Called Peter

A Man for Others

“A friend loves at all times” (Proverbs 17:17), even when he is on a cross. In the Garden, Jesus protected his disciples from being caught up in the fray. After all, he was not leading an insurrection against the Jewish nation or Roman rule. This was his job alone, which had to do with an entirely different kind of “kingdom.”

He healed the severed ear of Malchus (John 18:10; Luke 22:51). Was Malchus a lead attacker as servant of the high priest there at Caiaphas’ behest? He was close enough to the front of the action for Peter to attack him.

A Mark of Christians

When we do something, we say something; when we do something, we teach something. Breaking bread together “proclaims Christ’s death till he returns” (1 Corinthians 11:26). Paul notes what happened and what it meant.

His comment also splices calvary and Christ’s return. We keep that point in mind during this “meantime” era. We reach back to grasp his death and reach forward to take hold of his return. The former, verified by his resurrection, undergirds our confidence in the latter, which includes our own resurrection. What we have already seen gives hope for what we have not yet seen. It means hope in the meantime. This observance is a “remark” we make to each other, and a mark of the faith that others see.

A Memorial Meal

There are several kinds of memorials: plaques and buildings, parades and celebrations. But there are not many memorial meals. Scripture describes two memorial meals: the Passover and the Lord’s Supper. They both recall events that led to something new: the origin of a nation and the origin of a fellowship; the inauguration of Israel and the inauguration of spiritual Israel, the assembly of God and the body of Christ.

The first anticipated the second, and the second was instituted during an observance of the first. The Passover supper centered around the sacrificed paschal lamb; the Lord’s supper centers on Messiah’s self-sacrifice. The Passover animal without blemish saved from ceremonial death; the Person without fault saves us from spiritual death—alienation from God and from each other.

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A Ministers Filing System

A Mounted Picture

The Lord’s Supper is like a peg on a wall. It is useless aside from what we hang on it; yet it is crucial for holding up what needs to hang there.

Likewise, these emblems have no significance in themselves—only in what they’re for. They mean what we mean into them. Instead of eating a piece of flatbread and taking a sip of grape juice, we hang on them a picture of our Lord at the conclusion of his life.

A Performative Act

As we always say, this bread and fruit of the vine represent Christ’s flesh and blood. They picture his sacrificing himself—not like Old Testament priests, who sacrificed animals, which foreshadow his self-sacrifice for us (Hebrews 7:27; 9:25). There is nothing magical in the emblems themselves nor in blood and flesh as such. The value lies in what the emblems and the flesh and blood point to.

What they point to is violent death, in which blood was shed and body was broken. Our Lord did not die from sickness or old age, but from devotion carried to its fullest extent. He did it for us; so, these emblems freshen our memory of his obedience to God for our benefit and commits us to taking up our crosses and doing likewise.

A Permanent Solution

“The one-time offering of Christ’s “body” has made us holy. . . . . When he offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, he sat down on the right hand of God. . . . By one offering he has perfected forever the ones he sanctified. . . . Where there’s forgiveness for sins, there’s no more sacrificing for them” (Hebrews 10:10, 12, 14, 18).

Jesus lived out full righteousness in the human realm, resurrected after his death on a cross, and ascended to God’s right hand in the real temple: heaven itself. So he remains there (Hebrews 7:23) as the One we can stay committed to for continued righteousness and friendship with God. As 1 John 1:7 puts it, the blood he shed keeps us clean from sin by continued identity with him. We show our ongoing aspiration for goodness by ongoing commitment to his achieved goodness.

A Pledge to Perseverance

In one place scripture connects the Lord’s Supper with his return. Paul says that observing these emblems proclaims the Lord’s death “till he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). In looking forward, communion pledges our lasting commitment during this meantime circumstance. That will include times of opposition, times of uncertainty, times of grief, times of overwhelming need. Periodically re-affirming the pledge helps maintain faithfulness to it, and prepares us for the joy that He will reveal afterwards.

A Precious Life

Even Satan understands us well enough to know that we will give everything we own to preserve our life (Job 2:4). That is how valuable we consider life. We would have to think something is awfully important before we’d voluntarily give up our life for it.

In that light, we gather around these two emblems just now. They draw us back to the giving of a man’s life, and not to just any life—the most important life ever—the life of the Lord himself. This occasion reminds us how much we are worth, how much we are worth to him, how much he values our relationship to him and to the Father.

A Spiritual Reset

Paul charged his Corinthian readers to use communion as an occasion to examine themselves (1 Corinthians 11:28-31). He warned that failure to do that tended toward spiritual weakness and insensitivity. A “sickly,” “out-of-touch” condition comes from not taking opportunities to compare where we are to where we should be. Superficial religion does not bring about personal improvement; going through the motions does not glorify God.

In this observance we remember when our Lord had to face excruciating execution. It’s when we look death in the eye that things line up in proper fashion. We can use this time to reset our priorities more properly and to adjust ourselves to a healthier spiritual condition of faith and practice.

A Strategy for Remembrance

It is so good to be able to remember. We can deal with old issues that resurface by using what we learned from before even for coping with new matters that come up. But we can also forget, and that benefits us too. Less useful experiences fade and disappear so they do not clog up our conscious thinking now. Negative times lose their edge, and experiences like pain we cannot “remember” at all—only that they happened.

A Thousand Words

Funny how little things stick with you. When I was in the third grade, a photographer came to our school and took pictures of us. When the individual billfold-size shots came, on the little package in blue letters, I remember seeing, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” That was my first exposure to the well-known expression.

Today we say these emblems “speak to us”; they’re “worth a thousand words.” They’re a visual message that brings back what took place real-ly so long ago. Grape juice and unleavened bread portray to our mind’s eye the shed blood and given body that says, “I care about you this much.”

A Time to Restart

We consider the beginning of the year as a time to start over. Gathering at the Lord’s table relates to that same idea. Having a clean slate feels good. It gives us a sense of release from whatever went before that would hinder going forward. We are remembering here a unique event that provides us with that feeling of release from past failures that can weigh us down and sap the energy for trying again.

A Unified Whole

All reality fits together as a unified system. As a result, we can have a unified field of knowledge that makes sense. The down-to-earth connects with the heavenly, the present with the eternal, the everyday with the unusual, the mundane with the divine.

What holds true for reality itself also holds true for these emblems we use to represent the significant past event that supplies the distinctive reason for gathering here today. Observing the simple, down-to-earth bread and grape juice connects our minds, wills, affections, aspirations, attitudes, and intentions to the death of our Lord for us, and commits us to all the implications that singular death involved.

A Way to Remember

We dare not forget about the past, because it has so much to do with creating the possibilities that have arisen from it. We use various ways of connecting to crucial events that flow down to us. Besides simply remembering, we carry out rituals, we build memorials, we use emblems to bridge the gap between then and now.

We also sing songs like “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?” The emblems are a way of putting us there, emblems Jesus himself instituted so we would continue to be mindful of him like he was mindful of us. That is why he did not do anything to avoid the cross.

A Week After Pentecost Sunday

Getting something rolling is not the end of any work. Continued efforts must keep the matter rolling. Jesus’ ministry, his death and resurrection, and the “shedding forth” of the Spirit on Pentecost were not the end of the story. Luke summarizes the first Christians’ endeavors at carrying the faith forward right from the start: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayers” (Acts 2:42).

Our gathering today incorporates these same four observances, including “breaking bread.” Doing so recognizes that convictions and commitments fade with time unless we make efforts to counteract that tendency. The sufferings of the Messiah happened whether we remember them or not; they meant what they still mean whether we acknowledge it or not. But they do not benefit us if they are not continuously alive before our eyes. “Lest we forget Gethsemane; lest we forget his agony; lest we forget his thorn-crowned brow, lest we forget his love for us,” let’s go to Calvary (“Lead Me to Calvary” by Jennie Evelyn Hussey).

An Appointed Obedience

Jesus appointed two ordinances for us to keep after he returned to the Father. Before he ascended, he included baptism in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) for identifying with himself, the Father, and the Spirit. Earlier, on the eve of his death, he instituted this “supper,” communion, the eucharist, as we variously term it. Both ordinances have ties to his death, the focal point and destiny of his ministry.

Among its many aspects, this ordinance carries with it an element of worship. It recognizes the greatness of the One we remember in it. It reminds us of the “last measure of devotion” expressed in self-sacrifice. It triggers in us the virtues that replace the sins his self-giving removes from our record.

An Eternal Anticipation

We are participating in what was an eternity in the making. Our worship today is rooted in what happened in prospect before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). Prior to creating us, God chose to initiate a plan to retrieve us, knowing that we would wander off from being his friends and serving him. He chose to create us in his image despite knowing that by endowing us with a will and freedom to use it, he would be enabling us to misuse it.

An Example for Great Men

An Extreme Measure

In this observance we highlight the most important event that ever took place. The death of the Lamb of God provides a solution for the problem of sin on this side of the grave. Besides, it establishes the terms of judgment on the other side of the grave. It’s the focal point of history and the basis for eternal destinies. From this speck of space and this tick in time, we bring ourselves into God’s eternal, universal purpose.

Another Lesson From the Cross

The cross symbolizes Christ, the Christian faith, and salvation from sin. It was the focal point of our Lord’s several acts of compassion leading up to his death.

He healed the ear of Malchus, one of those who had come to arrest him (John 18:10). He told the soldiers to let his disciples go and just arrest him (John 18:8). He told the begging insurrectionist on the cross beside him that he would be with him in Paradise that same day (Luke 23:43). He tried to warn his executioners what they were fulfilling when he quoted Psalm 22:1, “God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). He prayed for his jealous accusers, “Forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing” (Luke 23:34?).

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As to an Altar

We return to this table as to the “altar” on which our Lord offered himself long ago. He has given us the right to even be here as in the Holy of Holies itself. Those who serve earthly pursuits and visible tabernacles do not have the right to approach this sacred place (Hebrews 13:10).

When we follow our Lord to this altar, we follow him as to an altar, but we also follow him into the true Holy of Holies, heaven itself (Hebrews 9:24-25). Coming into the experience together involves a striking combination of requirement and privilege—the highest privilege of coming into the presence of God himself and the highest demand of putting our all on the altar. Nothing less than what he demonstrated is appropriate to the most supreme calling.

Aspiration to Be Like Christ

People are who they are. They are also who they aspire to be.

We are who we are. We are also who we choose to become.

And from the former we strain toward the latter. Aspiration is better embodied in a real person than in an abstract ideal. We shortchange ourselves in choosing other people to emulate. But on this occasion we remember an ever-present example from the past who was tempted in all points like we are, yet without sin.

Attaching to the Vine

As Jesus and the eleven disciples walked from the upper room to Gethsemane, he gave them a picture to help them through the difficulties they would soon face. They were to think of themselves like branches attached to him as the grape vine. The Father as gardener had put that arrangement in place to accomplish his purposes in the world.

The picture had features that corresponded with what it represented. The branches were to produce fruit. To do that, they needed to stay attached to Jesus as their source of nutrients. They could not accomplish the Father’s purpose on their own. If they did not produce fruit, they would be cut out and thrown away. They were to produce fruit instead of leaves or other growths that would get pruned away; their efforts would come to nothing.

Autonomy as Sin

Mankind’s basic sin lies in the quest for autonomy. Correcting that problem constitutes reversing Eden. Aspiring to be like God showed itself in a perverse way when our first parents sought to decide right and wrong for themselves (Genesis 3:5). Everyone since then has followed their lead.

We do not have the right to assume that role, because “God has made us, not we ourselves” (Psalm 100:3), and he had purpose in creating us. So, ultimate self-determination cannot be our prerogative. But more than that, we are not constituted for it. When we assume that independence mentality, we both sin and fail. We sin against his privileged position, and we fail because we are dependent beings. Death tells us that in no uncertain terms.

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Being a Son

“Being a Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). It is one thing to know something; it is more to know it from experience. In an experiential sense, Christ learned what it meant to obey the Father despite the extremely painful temptation to do otherwise. That seems to be the ultimate reason for allowing evil to express itself—albeit as limited by duration and degree.

A greater degree of goodness becomes possible by the presence of evil. It is a goodness maintained despite temptation and suffering. That greater goodness our Lord learned especially during the temptation in the Garden of Gethsemane and the suffering on Golgotha. And wrapped up in that culminating obedience lies the foundation he laid for redeeming evil into good.

Being the Church

Human government has a divinely sanctioned role in society. It serves to restrict evil and keep citizens from committing crimes (Romans 13:1-7). At this table of remembrance, we observe an even higher calling, calling to do what we ought to do (a positive role), not just to refrain from evil (a negative role) or maintain what is already good (a neutral role, as in “do no harm”). The occasion that has prompted this observance set a high standard for human resolve. In doing the Father’s will, Jesus did not just further a neutral circumstance; he established a positive purpose in the face of opposition—violent opposition at that, one that took his life in horrible fashion.

Being There

We song asks, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” Putting ourselves in that event helps us appreciate what went on there. Eating this bread and drinking this cup, puts us in the event and give us a taste of what it took for Christ to do God’s will.

By extension, today’s participation in that event through communion, moves us to step up for what it takes to do the Father’s will here and now in us. The past in Christ becomes key to the present in us.

Benedictions

Bestowing Grace

One age-old question asks why God created mankind. Probably the best answer is that he created us to bestow himself on as a person.

That answer resembles why people choose to have children. They do so despite knowing the risks, the resulting limitations, the added responsibilities, and the possible disappointments that come from having children who can act contrary to their parents’ guidance and even their own best interests. Parents use backup systems for retrieving such departures.

Betrayal

Paul begins Christ’s words of institution by saying, “on the night he was betrayed.” Those words rivet attention on an aspect of the situation that we may overlook. The words became particularly real in the Garden of Gethsemane later that night when Judas, one of his closest associates for three-plus years, performed his betrayal with—of all things—a kiss.

At one time or another, most of us have been betrayed, something usually done by someone close to us—as in this case—someone we trusted. We know how that feels, and the Lord would have felt it too. But that broken trust did not disillusion him and cause him to “throw in the towel.” He carried through his responsibility when Judas betrayed and his disciples deserted.

Better Late Than Never

Beyond Emptying the Cross

Incredibly, while Jesus was suffering on the cross, the religious leaders unleashed the taunt, “He trusts in God; let him deliver him now if he wants him” (Matthew 27:43). God delivered him from the tomb beyond the cross rather than from the cross.

Should we face such an experience, we resolve here to persevere in the hope of a better resurrection (Hebrews 11:35) on the other side of what people might do to us (Luke 12:4). In this hope, Christ has forged the way. We partake, we remember, we go and live likewise.

Beyond the Pain

Imagine Jesus’ exhaustion from being up all day and all night till three o’clock the next day, together with the abuse he endured during that time. No wonder he did not have enough strength left to carry the cross all the way up to Golgotha. In the soldiers’ mockery and mistreatment, he felt the sting of rejection from the very people he was trying to help. His feeling of abandonment by his closest disciples and even by the Father himself, issued in the cry from the cross, “Why have you forsaken me?” Such lesser aspects of his last temptation add to the physical suffering that rivets our attention on his final day.

Beyond Words

Ideas, words, and symbols are not real; so thinking, talking, and observing rituals do not accomplish anything in themselves. They do not ‘become” real till they become “actions.”

When we do something we experience something, and not before. A communion service is for bringing our ‘selves” into the real presence of the “Living Word” so our behaviors become impacted.

Realizing such a simple point can prompt us to choose to do, and so to experience, the difference that being with Christ makes in daily living.

Calls to Worship

Caring Symbolized

We are holding symbols of caring. In his Son, God shows us that deity understands what it is like to be human—to be weak, though he is omnipotent; to die, though he is eternal; to hurt, hunger, feel abandoned, and be tempted like we are, yet without sin. “He knows our frame” (Psalm 103:14), but caring bridges the difference between us and the ideal.

These symbols say how much he cares. They picture his perfection standard combined with great grace as demonstrated in his Son. The Son’s last act of ministry epitomizes the value God places on us and draws us back to live to him in like fashion.

Carry-Through

A person might wonder what would have happened if Jesus had not finished drinking the cup the Father had given him. As it was, in his dying breath he could say he’d finished it.

Remembering him in this way acknowledges the completion of what he came to do for us. It also involves us in agreeing that carry-through is an important part of our own calling before God. This meal commits us to do just that, regardless of how long it takes or how difficult it turns out to be. Till death we follow our calling.

Carrying Crosses

Nothing important is ever easy. It may be easy to understand, but doing it is another matter. The loaf and cup here in front of us remind us about the powerful temptation in the Garden, the temptation for Jesus to do other than what he knew was the Father’s will. They remind us that nothing is ever changed by staying in the Garden, never changed by knowing what to do. It takes coming out of the Garden, so to speak, to do what it takes.

Carrying Through

“Well begun, half done”; but “half done is not done.” Laying a foundation does not give us a place to live. Cutting firewood does not keep us warm. Going to the store does not feed a family. Resisting Satan’s temptations in the beginning would not have sufficed to offset caving in to them at Calvary—as in “come down from the cross.” Jesus would not have “finished” the Father’s will for his life in our realm.

Christ’s Cryptic Commission

In Jesus’ final appearance in John’s gospel, Jesus tells Peter that when he gets old, he will stretch out his hands and someone else will carry him where he does not want to go. John explains that Christ’s cryptic comment indicated “the manner of death by which Peter would glorify God” (21:19).

In the lead-up to that prediction, the Lord asked Peter three times whether he loved him—as a reversal to Peter’s threefold denial earlier? After each of Peter’s responses comes a statement of responsibility: “feed and tend my lambs and sheep.” Then, following the prediction about the manner of death, Jesus says, “Follow me.” That command echoes the previous admonition to him, “Take up your cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). That admonition echoed Peter’s objection to the prospect of his Lord’s own crucifixion.

Christ’s Final Work

Work is productive doing; it stresses the intended consequence of effort. Christ’s “work” on the cross completed his sinless life. It resulted in becoming the sinless One we devote ourselves to in this observance.

So, beyond pledging allegiance, we are renewing efforts at working like him in self-sacrifice to God and the good of other people.

Christian observance does not consist of going through religious motions. The Lord’s Supper is no exception. It is doing something for effect, in this case renewed commitment to doing like he did for the reasons he did.

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Christmas

When our Lord instituted this observance, he said, “This is my body that is given for you”; this is my blood that is given for you” (1 Corinthians 11:24, etc.). No one took it from him; he gave it willingly (John 10:18). And it did not just happen; he did it deliberately for a reason—for us.

This most notable feature of the Messiah’s coming is still reflected in the secular Christmas season, even among people who are not in close connection with the meaning of the celebration. They give gifts—like the Magi, who gave gifts, like God himself who gave his Son into the world and gave his only Son in Jerusalem at the end of the life that began in Bethlehem.

Christmas

These emblems call us to patience and perseverance. Christ’s first coming was centuries in fulfillment, and his second coming has proved to be the same. Our act of remembrance anticipates hope—a hope not weakened by delay but strengthened by longing. We enter God’s sense of time in which it is not so much the expanse of years as the certainty of outcome.

The accomplishment of Messiah’s first coming undergirds our confidence about his coming again. Meantime, conditions may be hard, but, for the joy that lies beyond them, we endure as those whose confidence rests on the advent culminating in what this feast commemorates.

Christmas and Family

Family is a big part of this season. We take off work to spend time with family. We travel to be with family—sometimes across the state, across the country, even across the ocean. We may get together several times during these holidays. We exchange gifts and just sit around and talk or play games or go hunting. Lots of food gets prepared and enjoyed—all in the family setting. It is bonding time.

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Clean Slate

The first of each week means a new beginning, especially when it’s the first week of the new year. We can look on it as a clean slate, open to new possibilities, finished with past limitations, and given a fresh start.

We are remembering here Christ the person and his final work of establishing a basis for forgiveness, which means freedom from past failure and freedom for pursuing a new life.

Commemorated on Sunday

Jesus died on Friday, but we commemorate it on Sunday. That custom arose because his resurrection on the first day of the week made clear what his death on the cross meant three days earlier.

Two other men died that same day the same way, but Jesus was not a criminal executed for his own crimes, but a sacrifice offered for our sins. God made that clear by bringing him out of the tomb. This bread and grape juice stand for his body and blood, given and shed. As we say so often from the apostle Paul, Jesus was delivered up on Friday for our trespasses and raised on Sunday for our justification (Romans 4:25).

Commitment to the End

With many things, if we do not do them completely, we may as well not do them at all. Preparing the ground, planting the seed, watering the plants does not amount to anything if we don’t harvest the crop. Laying a foundation and setting up walls and rafters does not amount to anything if we don’t roof the building. We must finish what we start to get any benefit out of it.

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Communion at Thanksgiving

Today of all days we come around this table thankful for continuously being unburdened from failure, mistakes, and sins. That relief rests on what this bread and cup represent. God continues to forgive us on the condition of our continuing to repent of our moral failures. Cleansing from sin is the flip side of considering us clean like the One who died for us.

Participating in this repeated observance reminds us of God’s repeatedly overlooking what would otherwise estrange us from him. We recall again the way the apostle John puts it, “Christ’s blood continues to ‘cleanse’ us from all sin,” from all our sins (1 John 1:7).

Communion in Eternal Connection

The Son of man “has the keys to death and hell” (Revelation 1:18). This description reminds us of the eternal aspect of salvation through him. What God gives on the basis of the Son’s righteousness is more than forgiveness for a specific sin, for one kind of moral failure, for just past sins, or even for sins along the way after we accept him as Savior. His benefit carries on through death and eternity, particularly the deliverance from hell as permanent separation from God in the end.

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Concluding a Ministry

Conforming to His Image

“Whom he foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29). “Conformed to the image of his Son” is something more specific than being like him. It means being like Christ in passing through suffering on the way to glory. God pre-determined that purification through tribulation should precede reigning on high forever. That was the case with his Son, and it is the case with us sons as well.

Connecting to Christ

Holding your late father’s wedding ring brings a sense of connection with him. It reminds you of who he was, what he did for you, the attitude he took toward you.

Holding the emblems Jesus left behind has a similar effect. They put us in touch with the One whose abused body and shed blood they resemble. We who wear his name keep alive in ourselves all that he stood for, especially as expressed in the crowning act of his earthly ministry.

Connections

This simple, brief ceremony has connections with centuries of preparation and with matters of the highest order.

“Prophets who prophesied about the grace that would come to you searched out this salvation carefully. They wanted to find out what time or kind of time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating about his sufferings and subsequent glories. They learned that they weren’t ministering these things to themselves but to you. The Holy Spirit, sent from heaven, has announced those things now through your evangelists—things angels long to look into” (1 Peter 1:10-13).

Continued Cleansing

The Lord’s Supper brings the Lord’s life and death into our present circumstance. That connection between past and present is made even greater by John’s comment, “The blood of Jesus Christ continues to absolve us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

Christ’s self-sacrifice is not something finished and done with. Since we continue to “fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), we need continual cleansing from sin. With these emblems we acknowledge his ongoing involvement in our ongoing relationship to God.

Counted Righteous

“Shedding blood” means dying an unnatural death, in this case a death for sins. Jesus maintained his mission till his dying breath. That was not just for a cause but to a person, the Father. Giving one’s life is the most anyone can do for any reason. Christ’s ultimate self-giving was also his last, coming as it did after a full life of righteous endeavor for God.

We identify with that righteousness when we join this observance. We commit to his values and purposes because he is Lord after becoming the Savior. God counts us as righteous like him on the condition of that commitment.

Created in Christ

^“God has made us what we are. He created us in Christ Jesus for living the way he prepared ahead of time” (Ephesians 2:10).

“Create” means making something new. It implies doing something valuable, something purposeful, something people take initiative on, something they want to do

So it is appropriate for Paul to call it “creating” what God accomplished for us through the Messiah. The sacrifices that were offered before were shadows and pictures of the new reality Christ established. God valued us enough to have his own Son do his work while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8b). Jesus did not die in defeat. In Gethsemane the attackers “fell back” (John 18:6) at first when he identified himself, so their subsequently arresting him happened because he let them. Jesus did it on purpose. God took the initiative because he cared (Romans 5:8a).

Crucifixion Protocol

Part of crucifixion protocol was having the victim carry the cross to the place where he would be nailed to it. In addition to this humiliation on the way to Golgotha, Jesus felt the weight of that cross plus the weight of responsibility that bore down on his shoulders. He felt the overwhelming burden of having everyone depending on him for what only he could do for them.

On occasion we have responsibilities that only we can take care of. By fulfilling the momentous role that the Father assigned him, Christ spurs on Christians to make sure we carry through like he did.

Dead Faith

Decisions! Decisions!

Deity Knows Humanity

Today’s joint exercise is a graphic reminder that we can no longer feel that God does not realize what it means to be in our condition. We can’t say he does not understand what it is like to be rejected by people you’ve considered your friends. We can’t say he does not know how it feels to be abandoned by people you care about. We can’t say that the Great Spirit has no idea what physical pain feels like.

Discerning Christ’s Body

Ultimate issues call for ultimate measures, The ultimate issue everywhere has always been broken friendships, human and divine. That friendship consists of behaviors toward each other, not just closeness to, descent from, and likeness to.

If those behaviors and their attitudes and motives are self-centered, the associations are strained and broken. We call them “sins.”

So what happens now? This “breaking bread” calls for our undivided attention to what has happened: God has sent his Son to establish the only case of perfect righteousness in the human realm. That “Christ event” culminated in his being killed on a cross by those who refused to accept him as coming in the Messianic role.

Discerning the Body

Paul’s comments about communion include discernment. That means, first of all, that it not get lost inside a meal—as a course in the love feast he cautions his readers about in 1 Corinthians 11:17-22. It means not letting this observance be a pointless ritual. More personally it calls for discerning the body of Christ in it (11:29) and discerning ourselves as we participate (11:31).

Coming to the table reserves a place in our gathering for introspection. That is a natural thing to do because these emblems memorialize Christ’s giving his life for our sins. So we do well to evaluate our appreciation for what he did by evaluating our motives, attitudes, and behaviors in response to it. Discerning puts meaning into the emblems.

Disciples Jesus Loved

The author of the Fourth Gospel termed himself “the disciple Jesus loved.” Presumably he wanted to keep his involvement from being too prominent and perhaps distracting while still emphasizing his personal witness of what he records. Choosing this self-designation later in life when he wrote may reflect Jesus’ influence on him from early being one of the “sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17). Instead of a contrast, however, “the disciple Jesus loved” may be an understatement that any disciple might adopt.

Distinctives of a Rural Ministry

Divine Intention

Human resistance does not thwart divine intention. The cross represents human resistance; the empty tomb represents divine triumph. The communion we observe on Sunday testifies to the divine triumph over human resistance last Friday; otherwise, there would be no reason to observe it. In this case, that earlier rebellion even helped accomplish the divine intent.

In effect, the Jewish people and the religious leaders in Jesus’ day had tried to redefine the Messiah’s role away from personal righteousness toward political independence. They failed; God resurrected the One they crucified. Death on a cross and three days in the ground were as futile as Jonah’s attempt to run away from God’s commission to preach in Nineveh.

Do Something

“Actions speak louder than words.” Jesus meant something like that when he said, “Nobody has greater love than to lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). He said that the night before he did that. His follow-up in the morning spoke more than all his sermons combined.

That same crucifixion eve, he instituted this simple custom to keep in remembrance of him and his life’s main principle. It won’t take us long this morning to repeat the custom, but it will take us all day and the rest of our days to live it out. It does not take much effort to act out this gesture, but it may take everything we’ve got to do it. He went first; it’s our turn to show how much we care.

Drawing the Spiritual Out of the Physical

One major activity of God in the world is drawing the spiritual out of the physical. In keeping with that program, he uses the tangible to picture the intangible and to embed in our memories the acts of God in history that bear significance for our attitudes and behavior.

The physical emblems we are holding point to spiritual meanings that impact elements in us that we cannot measure. Those intangibles represent what Christ meant when he talked about coming among us to give abundant “life.”

Drinking the Cup

To demonstrate divine power over human opposition, the Father could have removed “the cup” his Son would drink in six hours—but he didn’t. Jesus could have just walked away as he had on other occasions—but he didn’t (Luke 4:30; John 8:99; 10:39). He could have restrained the acts of his enemies, caused them to cower in apprehension (John 18:6) or walk away astounded at his powerful words (John 7:45)—but he didn’t (John 7:46; 18:6). He did not let his disciples fight for him (Matthew 26:51-52). He could have called for more than 60,000 angels to protect him—but he didn’t; one came to strengthen him (Luke 22:43ms). He could have come down from the cross in spectacular confrontation before everyone at Golgotha—but he didn’t. In short, he rid himself of all defenses, material and supernatural. “No one is taking my life away from me,” he said; “I am laying it down voluntarily” (John 10:17-18).

Easter

We are meeting at the table, not to remember a dead founder but to acknowledge a living Lord. Were it not for what astounded us at dawn, we would have no reason to be here much less to take up these markers of a death last Friday.

“Dead Messiah” would be a contradiction of terms because “Messiah abides forever” (John 12:34). It is not an abiding like our Lord’s contemporaries expected. He would not live and rule forever on earth; he would abide forever by first dying and resurrecting to rule forever at God’s right hand with the promise of sending his Spirit to abide with us till he returns.

Easter

We live in the meantime. A stable came before the throne—a cross preceded the empty tomb. Between the accolades of the triumphal entry and the joys of the resurrection stood the instrument of death. Humility preceded exaltation; suffering came before reward. Hope for the joy of the second provided a resource for enduring the first: “For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2).

These remnants of his crucifixion we observe on the morning of his resurrection. They proclaim his death till returns. Looking at the whole process enables us to see one part in light of the others, to leverage the future into power for the present, confident that sorrow and misfortune are never the final condition. The message of the emblems is for the meantime that we may endure temporary negative in our quest for eternal good.

Easter

We have here tokens of Christ’s life-giving life and his continuing presence. “He was delivered up for our transgressions and was raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25). The cross and empty tomb are two parts of the same final event in his life: highest obedience authenticated by divine resurrection. What Friday means is proved by Sunday’s vindication, and Sunday’s vindication opens up to a lasting presence with us.

These emblems picture something real beyond them like words indicate realities beyond them. The bread and fruit of the vine point to his real presence that is here but we do not see. They are in our hands, our mouths, our hearts; and so is he today and every day.

Easter the Confidence Builder

The loaf and cup represent reasons for looking forward to the final proof of our faith. Our Lord’s vicious death sets up the fact of his victorious resurrection over death and over the ones that did it to him.

Jesus did not die from age, sickness, starvation, some accident, or a capital crime. He “shed his blood,” which means he died in an unnatural way. He did not just bleed from a cut; he bled to death from crucifixion. The wonderful thing about this horrible thing is that it gives us the greatest confidence imaginable in the truthfulness of what we believe. It likewise gives us the greatest confidence imaginable that God loves us. Nobody does something like that unless he genuinely loves.

Education for Use

Emblems of Obedience

We do not serve a dead Savior; we serve a living Lord. So the emblems he instituted for remembering his broken body and shed blood picture obedience to him as resurrected Lord. The reason there are emblems of his body and blood is that’s what he gave in obedience to the Father.

Likewise, our resurrected Lord ever lives to receive our total, permanent, and exclusive obedience. And he ever lives to intercede for us because our obedience is not always complete.

Enabled to Persevere

Jesus prayed fervently (Hebrews 5:7) for the Father to deliver him from the cup of crucifixion. Instead of sending twelve legions of angels to rescue him, he sent one angel to strengthen his endurance (Luke 22:43ms). Likewise, rather than removing hard experiences that can strengthen us like nothing else could, he gives us the power to deal with them. That enablement is not necessarily a supernatural deposit, but a personal presence by which we escape through the pain (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Endurance

Jesus’ last words, “It’s finished” (John 19:30). His carry-through exemplified what he had told his disciples earlier about their future mission: “Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child; and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. Everybody will hate you for my sake, but the one that endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:21-22).

What applied to him and his original followers applies to us who follow in their train. Accepting these emblems commits us to finishing the Father’s will like our Lord and his disciples did before us. It is a sobering thing we do here, one not to be taken lightly in prospect of what it means for us when we finish our course in Christ.

Ephesians 2:11-16a

“You [Gentiles] were separated from Christ . . ., separated from the commonwealth of Israel, without hope and without God in the world. But you that were once afar off have come near by the blood of Christ. He’s the basis for peace between us. He made both of us into one group, tore down the dividing barrier between us, and abolished in his flesh the law made up of commanded regulations. That way, from the two groups he could create in himself one new united mankind, making peace between us, and reconciling both of us to God in one body through the cross.”

Ephesians 2:14-16

“[Christ] is our peace, who united [Jews and Gentiles] and tore down the wall [between the court of Gentiles and the Jewish quarters in the temple at Jerusalem]. He abolished in his flesh [the source of] enmity between them, that is, the Law made up of commandments as ordinances. He did it to create in himself from the two a new united humankind, so making peace. He did it to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having slain the enmity that way.”

Everywhere All the Time

We are taking part in a worldwide observance that has been going on for 2,000 years. Not only that, but Messiah’s death applies to the Mosaic era as well. The Hebrew writer says, “a death having taken place for transgressions under the first covenant” (Hebrews 9:15). But that is still not the whole story. “The gospel was preached even to the dead that were disobedient in the days of Noah” (1 Peter 3:19). Everyone’s destiny will be figured in relation to the event that we are remembering here at this table.

Evil in God’s World

Example That Empowers

One set of emblems, so many reminders. After recounting Christ’s supreme example, the Hebrew writer notes that his readers “have not yet resisted unto blood in striving against sins” (12:4). The comment reminds us that we have not resisted sin to the extreme many have. Most importantly, though, Christ entered our world to make evident to us that we are not alone in this resistance.

In addition to our efforts along the way, God enters in to assist in carrying us through to the end. Our Lord’s example, pictured in this loaf and cup, supplies encouragement for dealing with challenges we face from time to time in our struggles against sin.

Facing Extreme Evil

We serve God even in the face of extreme evil. The Christian faith provides a unique perspective on why a loving God lets the righteous suffer. Whatever the reason, it was important enough for him in the person of the Son to expose himself to its full force. By implication, he calls on us to persevere against evil threats.

This sobering observance identifies us with him in his final hour; so we do not participate superficially, because the emblems implicate us in our “last measure of devotion.” We cast our lot with those who even today are saying by their ultimate obedience, “Nevertheless, your will be done.”

Faithful to the End

This last Sunday of the year provides an occasion to focus on the Lord’s completing his mission, We can probably think of someone that worked a long time to accomplish something important only to clutch at the end. Previous course work was good, but not getting that dissertation written meant not receiving the doctorate. Laying the foundation, erecting the walls, even getting a roof on did not make a home for the family.

Faithful to the End

The closer we are to the realities in our faith the more likely we are to remain faithful to the end. Our manner of life rests on a real Person in real events. It is not just an engaging idea; things have happened that embody ultimate principles and give them actuality.

This meal is the next best thing to being there. The communion elements picture the real event that we want to “exist” in our minds and hearts. We want it to “exist” there because we love the One who endured such cruelty to show how much he loved for us. Knowing that spurs us on to continued faithfulness.

Father’s Day

A word particularly to you fathers today: Be struck by what you’re about to do.

I have two sons, David and Steve. We have worked together, played together, performed music together, talked a lot about lots of things, eaten countless meals across the table from each other for years. I can’t imagine being responsible for having David or Steve die a terrible death. I cannot imagine what it would take to bring myself to ask them to do that.

Following the Leader

For All the Saints Who From Their Labors Rest

Formal Preparation for Ministry: The 18-30 Years

Freedom For

Christianity has two ordinances, and they deal with the same concern: the sin problem. Both ordinances derive from the same event: Christ’s death to solve that problem. We can revisit that connection by reading Romans 6:1-13:

“So should we say, ‘Let’s keep sinning so there’ll be more grace’? ²Goodness, no! How can we who died to sin keep living in it? ³Don’t you know that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death? ⁴Baptism buried us with him into death. As the Father gloriously raised Christ from the dead, we too can live in a new life. ⁵If we’ve participated in what’s like his death, we’ll participate in what’s like his resurrection. ⁶Know this: our old self was crucified with him to destroy the sinful body so we wouldn’t serve sin anymore. ⁷Whoever dies is justified from sin. ⁸If we’ve died with Christ, we believe we’ll live with him. ⁹We know that since Christ arose from the dead, he won’t die again, and death doesn’t have control over him. ¹⁰The death he died, he died to sin once and for all; the life he lives now, he keeps living to God. ¹¹We consider ourselves dead to sin too, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Freedom From

Being locked into anything means bondage to it, something that someone else often has to free us from.

Accordingly, Paul speaks of “crucifying” the sinful body, no longer being a “slave” to sin, dying to sin and being “dead” in it (Romans 6:6, 7, 11), not being under the perfection necessity that law-keeping in theory requires.

This freedom from “slavery” to the consequences of sin comes, not from ourselves, but from the One sinned against, from the One who completed his righteousness before the Father. So now the Father is willing to view us as like him, to free us from sin and its consequences, because we have committed ourselves to him who in his righteousness died to sin.

From a Crib to a Cross

“From a crib to a cross” indicates innocence on both ends of life, from start to finish. We needed that kind of life as a model and a basis for our own innocence.

The Christmas story is stripped of life’s distractions. The Magi came to the palace in the capital, but Jesus had entered the world eight miles south of there in a barn. Instead of finding him with the king, the Wise Men found him in a house with a carpenter and his young wife. They did not approach a powerful ruler; they knelt to a baby. Position, power, prominence, and wealth have little to do with this story—except to provide contrast. Even the gold, frankincense, and myrrh served to finance the little family’s flight to a foreign country just to save the baby from being killed from jealousy.

From the Father’s Viewpoint

Vicious men have a strategy. They believe they can better get us to deny the faith by threatening to torture one of our loved ones in our presence. We probably would rather face such things ourselves than be “responsible” for a loved one’s agony.

Something of that point applies to Christ’s crucifixion. The Son was willing to show his love for us by enduring the cross as the way of “laying down his own life for his friends” (John 15:13). Beyond that, the Father was responsible for his Son’s going through that horrible experience. Even beyond that, he had the Son go through it while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8).

God Is Love

In the beginning God created us in his image with the capacity to relate to other persons like he does. Furthermore, he demonstrated how persons relate to each other by how he does. He did not create us to worship him as if he needed something (Acts 17:25), but as those on whom he could bestow himself. In so doing, he established in the natural image the capacity for the ethical image expressed as outward-directed behavior toward others. That pattern scripture calls “love,” even saying, “God ‘is’ love” (1 John 4:8).

God’s Surprise

Who would think that a dead man could save anybody? God does surprise us with solutions to needs in ways we would never imagine. In this case, he has used Christ’s obedience even to death as a basis for offering life to all who avail themselves of the offer.

Today we use these emblems to reaffirm our own commitment to God through the Christ who gave body and blood for goodness’ sake. It may surprise us what God can do through our willingness to live out his purposes through us.

God’s Word to the Wise

Group Prayer Patterns

Halloween

Antidote to Fear

Taking this bread and fruit of the vine is like taking an antidote. The elements themselves are not the antidote; it’s what they represent that’s the antidote to condemnation. “Being justified by his blood, we’ll be saved from wrath” (Romans 5:8). John speaks similarly in a context about judgment, punishment, and the fear of it, “Perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18), that is, full-grown love for God takes away foreboding about the eternal future.

Handling Criticism in the Ministry

Harder Than We Think

Just a few days before the death of Jesus, two brothers among his disciples—James and John—asked to sit on his right and left in his kingdom. His profound answer was, “You don’t know what you’re asking” (John 10:38). That comment covers two areas of ignorance we all have: not knowing the future and not knowing ourselves.

The brothers did not realize what they and the other disciples would have to deal with in establishing Christ’s kingdom. That’s why Jesus asked them whether they could drink “the cup” and “be baptized with the baptism” of suffering that he would drink and undergo.

Heading for Heaven

Helping Anyway

We have all done something for someone that really needed it. We were not sure he would appreciate it or take advantage of the opportunity it afforded. He might not keep his word to repay what he asked to borrow. He might try to take further advantage of our generosity.

Christ came here because we really needed help. He was willing to endure his brutal death at the end, even though he knew many of us would not take advantage of the opportunity it afforded, even though he knew some of us would try to take advantage of his grace.

His Body the Church

We’re handling what symbolically associates us with a range of holy matters, because they connect us with the One whose body and blood they represent. Most specifically, however, they connect us with his final and most distinctive act of obedience to God. That act was ultimate self-giving in painful (body) death (shed blood), identified respectively with this bread and “fruit of the vine.”

Eating these emblems of pain and death stretches us beyond lesser expressions of devotion, love, and obedience that characterize living like Christ. As a group, we serve as the equivalent of his body in the world today. They are not to be taken lightly but with commitment to do, if need be, the ultimate any of us can do or be for his Father and ours.

His Guarantee

The emblems graphically picture what has to happen for joy to come. The pattern holds for life as a whole and for its segments. Meantime, living for him calls for effort, struggle, even suffering for there to be a “not yet” that is worth it all. The harder the labor, the more fulfilling the results. If we’re not willing to deal with the humiliation, we’re not worthy of receiving the exaltation.

His Return

His Whole Life

Jesus once said, “I always do what pleases my Father” (John 8:29). We do well then to understand that his crucifixion was more than a free-standing act that ended his life and thereby established the atonement. Rather, it culminated his righteousness and epitomized his constant goodness throughout his years of incarnation. He did not simply come among us and do the one deed that saves us. He needed to do the Father’s will at each point along the way to qualify himself for the Father to appoint him as the righteous One who saves us from unrighteousness.

Holiness Takes Time

The familiar hymn says, “Take Time to Be Holy.” A command requires the choice to obey, which means doing something; and that takes time. So in the song, we sing about something we do deliberately.

“Holy” means set aside for a special use. Even the vessels of the Jewish temple were holy; they were not used for anything else. But that holiness was something decided by others. Furthermore, we agree that, strictly speaking, we are holy because God considers us holy. There remains, however, a holiness that comes from us, from doing what it takes to become holy—like God, who is holy. (Leviticus 11:44, 45; 19:2; 20:7, etc.; 1 Peter 1:16.)

How Goodness Works

Goodness has only to do with how persons interact with each other, with ways of behaving that affect and enable living together. (a) Goodness is person-al.

Goodness has to do only with a person’s own behavior. God does not hold my sin against my son, my friend, my fellow human being. The Law of Moses said the one who does God’s commandments is the one that has life by them (Leviticus 18:5 < Galatians 3:12). The prophet said that the goodness or sinfulness of a person will be on himself (Ezekiel 18:20). (b) Goodness is personal, individual.

How You Do Know

Immanuel

We want to get close so we can understand. Being present at what’s happening gives us a better feel for it than hearing someone’s report or seeing it on television.

As to convictions, we believe that God knows and understands our human situation, but in our sense of things we long for “Immanuel.” Among several things, God’s nearness helps us feel that he does, in fact, “understand our frame” (Psalm 103:14). Without thinking, we project onto him the limitation of our own viewpoint—knowing better but not feeling that way.

In Living Color

A black-and-white picture lacks color. A snapshot lacks movement. Watching a party of friends on TV lacks the experience of participating. Illustrations like these lack an element that would make them better, more real, more interesting, more fulfilling.

Existing is less than living because it lacks what we call meaning. Christ came to give us life and to give it more abundantly, the sense of value that comes from friendship with our creator, the sense that he cares about us.

In No Uncertain Terms

Have you ever wondered whether somebody loved you? “Loves me, loves me not.” You weren’t sure. You were looking for times when the person paid attention to you, took time for you, helped you with something. We are hardwired with a desire to be loved; we want other people to care about us.

This loaf and cup tell us in no uncertain terms that God cares, that Christ cares; otherwise, he would never have laid down his life for us. That is the best thing one person can do for another (John 15:13), and that, in fact, is how he chose to show us that, yes, he cares; we can be sure he cares (Romans 5:5-11).

In Praise of Wasteful Love

Only once did Jesus ever say to tell what someone did during his ministry. It happened just a couple days before the Romans crucified him in Jerusalem. Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus, took some expensive ointment and poured it on Jesus’ head and feet. The spikenard in that alabaster cruise was worth nearly a year’s wages for a common laborer in Palestine: 300 denarii (John 12:2-8; Matthew 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9).

In the Extreme

Which was the better football team in a game that went 21 to 20? Which team was better in a game that went 76 to 2? The second game offers a clearer case.

Seeing things in the extreme makes them clearer and more certain. That God cares about us may not seem clear in a situation where people dislike us, where natural disasters overwhelm us, where health issues weigh us down, where the future looks bleak.

Incarnation

“God’s Love Made Visible” (David Brubec) aptly describes God’s taking on human form. His experience of human existence removes our tendency to feel that God does not really understand what it is like to be human. He “learned obedience by the things he suffered,” being tempted in the human condition; so we can more easily relate to him as a merciful and faithful “high Priest” and be more inclined to respond to his help (Hebrews 3:17-18).

Intention to Accomplish

Christ learned obedience by the things he suffered (Hebrews 5:8). What we think we can handle is often less than what we can. The Savior qualified himself to be Savior (Hebrews 5:9) by carrying out in human reality the Father’s will for him. His was perfect in intent and in its fulfillment.

We stand in the same relation to the Father’s intentions as our older Brother stood, and take the emblems of the commitment fulfilled completely by the One we are remembering. The emblems make visible our vows to be like he was and do as he did.

Interim Ministry

Interment

Interviewing for a Ministry

Isaiah 53:2-12

Isaiah looked forward to see what we are looking back to remember: the suffering of Another because of what we have done. Were it not for our failures, there would have been no need for him to be saddened, misunderstood, despised, rejected, and abused to death.

Isaiah meant more than that our actions cause other people grief and pain. He meant more than that we’re the ones who deserve what they suffer. He meant more than that we cannot disentangle ourselves from the consequences of our own deeds against other people. He meant more than that we’re all included in this indictment (53:6).

Isaiah 53:4-6

“He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we considered him struck by God and afflicted. But he was wounded because of our transgressions and bruised because of our sins. The chastisement to bring us peace was laid on him, and by his stripes we are healed. We have all gone astray like sheep and turned to our own way. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Issues That Underlie Marriage Policies

It Is Good to Remember

It Takes Faith

Iv. Practical Ministry A. Administration Leadership

Jesus Beside Us

The night Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, he told his disciples that he would not be drinking the fruit of the vine with them again till the kingdom of God had come (Matthew 26:29; Mark 14:25; Luke 22:15, 18). This would be the last Passover meal he would observe with them; the shedding of his blood and the giving of his body would happen the next morning. For our purposes today, the point is that he would drink it with his disciples when the kingdom had come.

John 16:32b

“I am not alone because the Father is with me.”

A genuine leader must be willing to stand alone when necessary. That feature played out in the extreme in Christ’s bringing in the “kingdom” of God. As the distinctives of his work drew toward their conclusion, he found himself alone. His own disciples scattered when the Shepherd was struck, and they did so despite their resolve “even to die with him” (Matthew 26:35).

John 21:18

“Do you love me more than these do?”

What do you do when you know that “sticking to your guns” will cost you dearly? You will not get hired for a job you need and want. You will get passed over for a promotion, you will get fired, get fined, get jailed, get shunned by friends, disowned by parents, divorced by your spouse! What do you do? So to speak, you take communion.

John 6:38

“I didn’t come to do my own will; I came to do my Father’s will.” The Father and the Son have a oneness in the sense of unity; they were at one—united in purpose to do what happened through Jesus’ ministry, including Gethsemane through Golgotha: “Not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22:42; Mark 14:36; Matthew 26:39, 42).

Taking these representations of his body and blood says to the Father that we too qualify our will by his. As Christ accepted his cross to show his obedience to the Father and his love for us, so we observe these emblems of the cross to express our love to the Father and Son for agreeing together to do this for us.

Joy

Look “to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarded the shame, and has sat down on the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

The Hebrew writer’s statement combines unlikely things: joy and crucifixion. He can do so because of a third factor: “the joy that was set before him.” The positive frame of mind called joy, unlike “happiness,” does not depend on what’s “happening.” It is rooted in understanding more than in feelings. Joy comes from positive personal associations—as with the Father beside Christ on the throne as well as with others that look to him as their example. The more obvious point in this text, however, is that focusing on the future fosters present faithfulness.

Joy in the Morning

Life mixes sadness and joy. The one tempers the other, so happiness is not constant and sadness is not permanent. We may do well then to speak of joy since happiness depends on what “happens.” But joy overrides what’s happening and follows the hard knocks that come. Furthermore, anticipating joy strengthens present endurance, “For the joy that was set before him, Jesus endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2).

Observing the bread and wine illustrates the point and affirms our convictions about it. On this day of resurrection, we observe the emblems of the crucifixion—joy after sadness. We say several things at once, including our confidence that there will certainly be “joy in the morning” for us if he could anticipate it in his waning hours. So we take these emblems in light of the rest of the story: “strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.”

Jubilation

For us the jubilation on Palm Sunday connects with the resurrection next Sunday, the resurrection of the son of David, who comes to us in the name of the LORD—to be crucified Friday.

The Triumphal Entry does not announce conquest of one kingdom by another but progress from one kind of kingdom to another. The triumph does not take place between two nations but between two kinds of things—from a political system to a personal fellowship.

Jude 24-25

“To the One that can present you faultless with great joy before the only God our Savior, be glory . . . forevermore.” On that Great Day we don’t have to feel like he is looking at us with our accumulated past sins and mistakes in mind. He will be looking at us as we are then, which grows out of the message in these emblems.

Here is something of how it works. When I was about twelve, I missed the curve in our driveway and drove our 1946 Ford Fergusen tractor over an iron post near the lane. The post bent over and then popped up again behind the radiator before I could get the tractor stopped. Instead of leaving bad enough alone, I backed the tractor up and ran that post through the radiator.

Keeping Current

Knowing by Faith

Language, Exegesis, and Theology

Leading Song Services

Learning to Forget

Let There Be Peace

The Father has made peace through blood shed on a cross. That peace consists of reconciliation, which reverses alienation (Colossians 1:19-20). Peace between people makes peace possible between nations and with other kinds of hostilities. Peace between people also creates the circumstance for peace within us. Feeling accepted and forgiven removes the inner conflict between what we aspire to be and what we achieve in living.

Taking communion brings back the memories of what it took to lay the foundation for peace, real peace, inner peace, universal peace, eternal peace. Willingly giving one’s body and shedding one’s blood are appalling displays of how much peace means to people and to God. These tokens of body and blood are tokens of peace. They draw us back into the ancient event that in this observance we resurrect into the life of each of us who participate in it now.

Let’s Remember That

“This Do in Remembrance of Me.” Jesus’ words traditionally appear on communion tables for everyone in the congregation to see. They come from his last meal with the disciples, when he instituted this memorial.

Among the many things this observance refreshes is that he never asks us to do more than he shows us he is willing to do.

So, taking these emblems today prepares us for any unforeseen challenge that may be on the way this week. That pain, that disappointment, that rejection or loss will be less than what his example of faithfulness demonstrated.

Lifegiving Bread (John 6:22-71)

During their wilderness wanderings, God gave manna to the followers of Moses to keep them physically alive in the desert. Jesus plays on that occurrence when speaking of himself as a kind of manna, or “food,” that God sent into the world to give spiritual life to his people.

Jesus calls on us to internalize what he stands for in values and purposes, to taker into our physical selves what he stood for while he lived among us. Taking his character into ourselves is like “eating” him, becoming like him as he was in his physical condition. It is like eating his flesh and drinking his blood.

Living in Love

God has designed human life to be outward directed. That is another way of saying that a life worth living is lived in love. It is self-giving for others. The process comes full circle when those others respond in kind and provide a sense of value to us who first directed our life outward to them.

What God has mapped out for us he himself first demonstrated toward us in all his acts of grace. We acknowledge that love when we take into ourselves these reminders of his greatest act of grace. Observing communion means buying into love for grace.

Living Lord

Archaeology studies the past by examining the relics and ruins that remain. Archaeologists dig up items they use to piece together the history of peoples, places, and events all over the world. Numerous journals report their findings, and professional societies underwrite the work of the countless laborers, technicians, and scholars.

The impact of such endeavors overwhelms us. We marvel at the effort, cost, skill, and value in the discoveries. But we sense also the futility of material living as a final form of existence. Grand buildings lie in rubble under dirt and overgrowth. Countless skeletons show how temporary the best of physical things is.

Love Without Limits

Coming here means giving credit where credit is due. Several TV commercials lately are making their appeals to “receive what you deserve.” Such wording does have a certain drawing power, but there is a more important idea that calls us not to take credit for what we have done and then appeal for what we deserve from doing it. As Jesus put it, we have only done our duty no matter how well we have done it (Luke 17:10).

Maintaining a Good Conscience

Making Application for Ministry

Man Among Men

Managing Distress

What helped Jesus through the agony of the cross was concentrating on the good that lay beyond it: “For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross and disregarded the shame” (Hebrews 12:2). Successfully negotiating that extreme experience qualified him to “sit down on the right hand of the throne of God.”

This concluding event in Christ’s ministry contains many other things that translate into similar circumstances we face daily. The joy of having a new little one helps through the process of bringing that baby into the world. Anxiety about a dental procedure or surgical experience connects with the realities these emblems renew in us each time we observe them in remembrance of him, of what he did, and how he managed to do it.

Matthew 16:21-22

Early in Jesus’ ministry, he told the disciples he had go to Jerusalem and suffer a lot of things from the religious leaders and even be killed. That cloud hung over his entire ministry, but it was something he had to do, so he did it.

When we “come to the table,” we look back at his death and acknowledge the principle of fulfilling what is ours to do before God and other people. That is especially important when it comes to matters that only we are in a position to handle. Maybe it’s just that we are in a good place to take care of it. We don’t put it off or wait for somebody else to pick up the slack. We do our part.

Memorial Day Address

Memorial Day Meditation

Messiah’s Perfect Righteousness

If you do your twenty assigned jobs, you are perfect. If you do a thousand assigned jobs, you are also perfect, but you have greater perfection. If you do your twenty easy tasks, you are perfect. If you do twenty difficult ones, you have achieved greater perfection. What you do perfectly that helps many is greater than what affects a few.

Our Lord achieved the greatest goodness, the greatest perfection, because he did the greatest act: laying down his life for all others. It was greatest because of its greatest difficulty (pain, suffering, rejection, death), its greatest effect (laying a foundation for reconciling people to God), and because of the greatest number of people it could benefit (everyone, everywhere, “everywhen”).

More Than a Valentine

Love is more than an idea in the mind, a word on a piece of paper, a red card from the store. Love is an act, something one person does to another. It was the best thing the Lord did in his earthly life, the thing we note during the time around this table that displays emblems of his self-giving.

Acts have consequences so love, we say, is self-giving for consequences in others, for the good of the lives around us. We can also say that love is a self-giving that fosters in others love in return as well as something they pass forward.

Natural Ways to Cope

Rejection by the masses, ridicule by religious leaders, abandonment by disciples, and suffering from the Romans combined in the culminating event of the Messiah’s earthly life. He made it through that horrible experience by appealing to resources outside himself: the angel that “ministered to him” in the Garden, prayer to the Father, commitment to the purpose inside of “your will, not mine” and looking to the future joy beyond the present pain.

New Year’s

The Lord’s Supper pictures Jesus reversing the downward spiral of deteriorating relationships. On the cross he lived out in the extreme his own commandment to “turn the other cheek” (Matthew 5:39).

People usually respond in kind—good for good, bad for bad. The pattern leads to deepening discord. Stopping evil comes from not responding at all, by letting it die from lack of attention. Reversing the pattern comes from responding to evil with good.

New Year’s

Each year offers a new beginning. On a smaller scale, each week at this table, these emblems remind us that the blood that saved us continues to cleanse us from sins (1 John 1:7). Those sins crop up as periodic failures to be what he has called us to be, shortcomings from what we have aspired to become.

That “cleansing” is not one and done, nor is it something that needs to be redone again and again. Rather, we experience ongoing relationship with the One who continues to forgive us as we continue to commit ourselves to him and his purposes in daily living.

New Year’s

God has given us a wide range of freedom in which to use our power of choice. We live within a broad arrow of options. As long as our choices fall within the limits of that arrow, we are moving along toward the Lord’s intended destiny for us. The garden in Genesis 2 pictures our circumstance before our Creator. Adam and Eve could eat the fruit from countless trees; they were to leave just one of them alone.

New Year’s

Once in a while, what we want may differ from what God wants. Christ’s death by crucifixion was just such a case. His repeated prayers for things to be different were answered, “No.” Instead, an angel was sent to help him through it (Luke 22:43ms).

Sometime this year we may be faced with this kind of thing ourselves. The situation will be to our own disadvantage, even our own detriment, and there will likely be no angel from heaven to help us through it.

No Greater Love

Jesus told the twelve that no one could show greater love than by giving his life for his friends (John 15:13). The next day he demonstrated that point. We hear about people that have done such a thing; we may even know somebody like that—even someone who did it for us. Beyond such demonstrations of love, Jesus exhibited his attitude toward us by not calling the over 60,000 angels available to protect him (Matthew 26:53). That made his death for us more obviously voluntary and even more loving.

No Greater Trust

“He trusted in God; let him deliver him” (Matthew 27:43). This taunt highlights an unwitting compliment to Jesus. The religious leaders said it about him when he was on the cross.

There is no greater trust than agonizing in the face of death for the one you trust to deliver you. Here is an example of Christ’s taking every virtue and pushing it to the absolute. There is no better place to see the pattern than at his death. In that event, all previous virtues come to their highest expression.

No Pointless Cross

Things do not mean anything unless they are connected to other things. What we say, what we know, what we own, what we do are pointless in themselves. In 1 Corinthians 13:2-3 Paul observes that, even in their extreme forms, words, knowledge, possessions, deeds do not mean anything unless we use them in connection with caring about other people:

“If I speak in the languages of people and angels but don’t have love, like a noisy gong or crashing cymbal I don’t mean anything. If I prophesy, understand all mysteries, know everything, have enough faith to move mountains but don’t love, I am nothing. If I give everything I own to feed the poor and give up my body so I can take pride in doing so but don’t love, I don’t gain anything.”

No Risk for Sure

Embarking on a new venture calls for calculating reward against risk. Risk considers possible failures and unforeseen consequences. Reward ushers in desired prospects—perhaps even better than hoped. Somehow we measure negatives before choosing to proceed.

In the case of an all-knowing, all-powerful God, laying a foundation for human salvation did not risk failure. Success was guaranteed by the character of the Son: his righteousness and his willingness even to lay his life on the line. The Father’s certain foreknowledge meant no surprises, and his power assured success against all opposition.

Not Alone

Jesus was not alone in dark Gethsemane; an angel came to strengthen him (Luke 22:43). The same thing happened in the beginning of his ministry when Satan tempted him for forty days (Mark 1:13). These two episodes illustrate the power of personal presence; it can enable a person to deal even with extreme issues like near starvation and prospective agony.

Influence is not miracle. We suppose the angels came to encourage, not to give ability, not to reduce his hunger drive in the desert or increase his strength-of-will in the Garden.

Not Our Call

The truth is, we need more than we can provide for ourselves, especially true in reconciling with others. The decisive matter is always the choice by the other to relent if we repent. We cannot control that, and for that reason we are greatly relieved and very appreciative when the other person willingly removes the barrier to our friendship.

What holds true for overcoming alienation with other people holds true for overcoming alienation with God. But there is, as well, a significant difference. In this case the offended party has taken the initiative; that does not usually happen between estranged people. But God broke pattern in our case and did so in the most amazing way imaginable. He sent his Son among us to call us back to him, and that Son was willing to go to the point of violent death to make it happen.

Now if Then

“We are partakers of Christ if we hold fast to the end.” We are if we will (Hebrews 3:6, 14). That is a way of saying that it does not do any good in the end if we don’t carry through to the end. Our final condition in God’s eyes determines how we end up. What went before whether bad or good does not figure into how things are with God in the forward-moving “now,” the “today” of our friendship with him. Some things may be measured on an average or how we were for some period of time—as in our reputation as an athlete because of how we did during our playing years.

Obedience Anyway

Jesus’ prayer in the Garden was answered, “No.” That answer reminds us that we do not serve God for what we can get out of it. Our needs are real; our requests are not selfish or bad. God simply says, “No”—not “if,” not “later,” not “if you do your part”—but, “no.”

This bread and wine identifies us with Jesus and his motives for serving God. We sacrifice final control of our lives because of who God is and for purposes that override our own preferences, needs, or physical life. That’s what we say here together.

One Angel of Encouragement

These communion elements take us back to the hardest situation our Lord faced. Jesus could have prayed to the Father to send as many as 72,000 angels to protect him from this ordeal (Matthew 26:53). Instead, the Father sent him one angel to empower him with influence to deal with it (Luke 22:43).

God may not protect us either from the ordeals we face; but remembering our “older brother” here and the presence of the Spirit that’s always with us, is sufficient to empower us for times like that. The loaf and cup together draw us to that ideal because we are not above our Lord in such matters.

Only One

God does not need a majority in order to win. That’s because of what’s “won.” Force cannot form friendships. Force is used to get results that are beyond what naturally leads to an effect. Authority and force wielded by a few can “make” the majority do what they do not want to do, but interpersonal associations require persuasion to freely accept what is offered, not forced. That’s why it is said, “The quality of mercy is not forced.”

Ordination: Who and Whom

Orientation to Ordination

Our Tribute

We speak of giving people their due. Because of who they are, the responsibility they have, or what they have done, we respect and thank accordingly. Such responses acknowledge their identity, position, character, or benefit to us. As Paul says of government (Romans 13:5-7), we give honor, respect, and tribute as appropriate.

Today we have come to give Christ his due. Of all the things he did, voluntarily submitting to crucifixion stands out as his greatest moral achievement. Observing these emblems of body given and blood shed, we are putting ourselves in his position so we can appreciate what it meant for him to put himself in our place.

Overcoming Fear

Overcoming Temptation

Christ’s cross serves as the ultimate symbol of temptation; his empty tomb nearby is a monument to conquered temptation.

Scripture says he was tempted in all the ways we are—and more, we might add—yet without failing (Hebrews 4:15). At the start of his ministry, he was tempted while hungry, thirsty, and weak. In the end of his ministry, he was tempted with excruciating pain. All the while meantime, he faced rejection, mockery, and betrayal.

Palm Sunday

It does not matter, by analogy, whether it is Sunday or Friday morning, whether you are on Mount Olivet or Mount Scopus. It does not matter whether we are being acclaimed by our friends or condemned by our enemies. It does not matter whether we are riding high on a donkey or bending low under a cross, whether we are coming in triumph or going down in defeat: We do what we’re supposed to do; we are who we’re supposed to be.

Paragon of Humility

⁵Take the attitude Christ Jesus took.

⁶Although he was in the form of deity,

he didn’t consider being on a par with God

something to hang onto.

⁷He emptied himself,

and took the place of a servant.

In the form of a man,

⁸he humbled himself to the point of dying—

dying on a cross.

⁹So God lifted him up above all others

¹⁰so every knee in heaven, on earth, and under the earth

Passage Useful for Baptism Meditations

Peace Through the Cross

“He is our Peace” (Ephesians 2:14). Paul writes that comment in reference to overcoming the Jew-Gentile enmity. He is referring to the wall in the Jews’ temple complex that divided the Court of the Gentiles from the rest of the worship center. So to speak, Christ tore down that separator and that separation.

The need for peace applies to a wide range of divisions ancient and modern. Christ no longer moves among us bodily, but he has left the church to be the “body of Christ” in the world (Ephesians 4:12, etc.). It’s our role to avoid bringing new divisions into our communities, and to do what we can to overcome the ones at work and play that are already here.

Perfecter of Faith

We run life’s race, “looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:2). He originated trust as our basis for sonship to God, and in himself he carried that approach to God to the highest level in faithful obedience to the Father. So he could say, “It’s finished” (John 19:30) both in that his mission was completed and that his faithfulness had reached that highest level.

“We don’t know him any longer after the flesh” (2 Corinthians 5:16), but he left behind these physical reminders of what he did when he was “in the flesh.” It remains for us to regard these emblems of his character and commitment demonstrated while incarnate, and to participate in this observance as a stimulus to our own service to God in this realm of living.

Perseverance

Almost as an aside, Paul tells the Thessalonians “not to get weary with well doing” (2 Thessalonians 3:13). His comment strikes at an important point in our endeavors: not to quit before we’re done. Sometimes without our knowing it, success lies just ahead if we keep at it a little longer.

Jesus spent more than three years traveling, teaching, healing, resisting temptation, and being rejected. The night and morning before his last afternoon, he was up all night being arrested, deserted, ridiculed, put through five trials, flogged, and crushed under a cross he was too weakened to carry to the site of his crucifixion.

Perseverance

Christ’s dying words: “It’s done.” The last thing someone says tends to carry added significance. Those words teach what it means to do God’s will: faithfulness to the end—perseverance. Practical living calls for carry-through because most things have little use if they are not finished.

That format holds true in social relations as well. How we conduct ourselves with each other is as relevant toward the end as it is at any time earlier. The way things were does not determine the way things are. Friendship with God is not an average of faithfulness figured over a lifetime; it’s a matter of how things are at the moment—especially at the moment of the end.

Personal Habits a Minister Needs to Be Developing

Personal Qualities a Minister Needs to Be Developing

Philippians 2:4-10

A servant does not rank above his master, so we are to adopt his pattern of letting go of rights and privileges to help those in need like he did. As a result, exaltation comes from outside us rather than from self-advancement. That approach avoids the negatives that come from using competition to achieve prominence and self-esteem.

As we observe these emblems, we identify with Christ and consequently with the mentality he demonstrated in giving up the free exercise of his rights as deity. Likewise, we do not give up who we are when we serve others. Instead, we gain a sense of satisfaction, we receive honor from those we’ve helped, we experience exaltation from God for exhibiting the attitude of his Son.

Philippians 2:5-8

One act, so many things to learn from it.

We’ve known people that would not take an entry-level job and earn their way up to higher rank and better pay. They wanted to start high for top dollar. Why was that?

Whatever the reason, we recognize it as weakness. Jesus demonstrated what it means to have inner strength that is not tied to position and circumstance. He gave up being equal with God, became a man, and carried his humility to the point of “enduring the cross.” He prioritized accomplishing a purpose over occupying a position.

Picking Up Crosses

Bucking popular viewpoints got our savior killed. He did not reinforce the opinions of political and religious heads of his day, nor did he confirm the expectations of the general public. He needed to withstand the misunderstandings and consequent bullying of the masses, or they would have had no reason to depart the ill-fated ramifications of their erroneous opinions.

As a growing concern in the modern world, we face this same age-old dynamic that tries to press religion into a foreign role. It wants Christianity to reinforce human culture instead of standing in prophetic relationship to it, critiquing it in terms of divine intentions. We face this opposition even from those who consider themselves part of the body of Christ.

Priest and Sacrifice

The New Testament pictures Christ as both priest and sacrifice. As priest “he ever lives to intercede from us” (Hebrews 8:25). As sacrifice “his blood continues to cleanse us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). As we have ongoing need for removing the effects of failures in our friendship with God, Christ enables us to have ongoing access to God for maintaining that friendship.

Christ’s work is more than a one-time past event in history even as our salvation through him is more than a one-time event earlier in life. Initial change combines with continuing maintenance of that change. Such is the case because salvation is ongoing; it is restoring and restored friendship; it is reconciliation. Since “nobody’s perfect” before or after salvation, initial reconciliation calls for ongoing maintenance—just as in any other friendship.

Priorities

Jesus did not fight back when the temple guard came to arrest him in the Garden. That would have sent the wrong message. To his own detriment, he considered what he stood for more important than fleeing or protecting himself. He chose to suffer the consequences than cause his attackers or his disciples to misunderstand and act accordingly.

Sometimes we find ourselves in situations where our kids or friends could misread our blameless acts. We deem it advisable to forgo rights than risk the consequences of unnecessary misunderstanding. As with such choices, there is consolation in knowing that Christ himself dealt with such dilemmas to his own hurt.

Professional Skills a Minister Needs to Be Developing

Relentless Hope

Christ’s tomb has a broken seal, a stone rolled aside from the entrance, and a void within. That scene serves as a visual reminder of hope no matter what. Death is the most extreme negative that we will face—and we will all face it, but the open tomb of Jesus pictures relentless hope for us as his people.

If an empty tomb can follow a deadly cross, good can follow anything. As the Lord endured the cross because of what lay beyond it, we cling to relentless hope through everything we encounter that would lead to defeat, failure, and final end.

Remembering the Solution

It’s easier to stay out of trouble than to get out of it. It’s easier to avoid a problem than to solve it. But gathering here acknowledges that the “human problem” already exists; broken relationship with God and ruined friendships between people have already become the case for all of us.

More than that, the solution to the “human problem” is also in place as this memorial to Christ’s ultimate human righteousness shows. What it took to solve that problem shows how important solving it was and how much concern for us the savior had. Coming together here shows our intention in return to stay out of the problem by staying in him.

Resolved

Resurrection

The bread and fruit of the vine are more than what they picture. They represent something that leads to what comes back on us to empower us for whatever lies between now and the coming joy. We can run steadfastly the race that is set before us because we are looking here to “Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2a). “For the joy that was set before him at the right hand of the Father, he endured the cross and disregarded the shame” (12:2b).

Resurrection Religion

Resurrection Results

Retouching a Faded Picture

Ancient works of art deteriorate over time. Colors fade, and their beauty is subdued in the process. A skilled technician can restore them to their original beauty by cleaning away the dirt to enhance the pigment in the painting.

Taking part in this supper has something of the same effect as restoring a work of art. The fading memory of Christ’s ancient portrait of self-giving brightens again in these emblems of body and blood. We see afresh what it means to care.

Reversible

Sometimes we are stuck with our mistakes. That’s the way it can be with physical harm. My friend Wayne lost his arm in a hay bailer. He lived, but there was no way to undo the loss.

That’s the way it is with legal issues too. If I run over someone while speeding through a work zone, I am stuck with the sentence for my carelessness. The courts will not commute the jail term for my punishment. I am stuck “till I’ve paid the last penny” (Matthew 5:26).

Reversing the Trend

Reversing a trend is hard to do but necessary to be done. Our behavior brings consequences that form a series; that series tends to get worse and spread to other things, and we end up with a cumulative effect we don’t want but can’t stop.

Christ’s mission had to reverse a pattern we’ve all caught ourselves up in. That was harder for him to do than for us to get it started. His work aimed at stopping what had been in progress since God created our first parents. Jesus did more than teach about what to do and not to do, so his mission was tougher than being a lawgiver or prophet or rabbi. He was sent to be a savior.

Romans 5:7

We are probably willing to help good people with something they need. Even for a person that is not so good, we might go out of our way to lend a hand. If need be, for someone especially good we may even be willing to give our life—for a son, a mother, a close friend. But for a bad person, would we be willing to go that far? Would it be worth it? What sense would it make? Yet that’s exactly what Christ did for us. He did not come so much to call good people, but sinners, to repentance (Matthew 9:13b).

Romans 6:10-12a

The conclusion of one thing can become the beginning of something further. Looking back at what has happened lays the groundwork for what should come. Christ’s death to sin was not the end of the matter; it led to the end of the matter: his living to God.

Our baptism into his death is not the end of the matter either; it leads to living to God. The Lord’s Supper looks two ways at once—back to what happened and forward to what is to happen when “sin is washed away.”

Romans 6:5

“If we have participated in what is like [Christ’s] death, we will participate in what is like his resurrection.”

In our baptism we said we were “burying” the old way of living and “resurrecting” to a new one. That act looked forward to renewed fellowship with God through a new identity with his Son. Friendship with God is not the kind of thing that can be finished business The meaning of breaking bread together corresponds with the meaning of our original commitment. It acknowledges our ongoing concern to be God’s people by ongoing affirmation to walk in the new life.

Saving Us From Ourselves

Even when we are trying to “do the right thing,” ignorance gets us into mistakes and sins that range from minor to major. The Proverbial writer noted long ago, “There’s a way that seems right, but it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12).

Jesus’ amazing words on the cross were, “Forgive them, Father; they don’t know what they’re doing” (Luke 23:34). In the early days of the church, Peter told the Jewish crowd, “You killed the Prince of life. . . . I know you did it in ignorance as did your rulers” (Acts 3:14, 17). Much later Paul, the “chief of sinners,” told Timothy, “I received forgiveness because I did it ignorantly in disbelief” (1 Timothy 1:13).

See God and Live

In the process of receiving the Ten Commandments, Moses asked to see God’s glory. God responded, “You cannot see my face because people cannot see me and live” (Exodus 32:20). We might take the comment in two ways. Does it mean we cannot see God while we are alive, or does it warn that seeing God would kill us? Some of the ancients seem to have had this belief (Genesis 32:30; Judges 6:22-23; 13:21-22). The less extreme meaning equals Paul’s comment that in the next stage of existence we will see God “face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12), or as John puts it, “We will be like him and see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

Seriously

What we are about to do here is serious. It is a memorial act remembering a person, to be sure, but more specifically remembering a specific thing the person did. His life culminated in crucifixion. That is why we have the kind of elements we’re using.

Even more, we are entering into that experience as something we do. Previously Jesus had said, “Take up your cross and follow me.” We are putting the weight of a cross on our shoulders and following him uphill. That is something serious for us to be doing.

Serving Before Leading

Christ hung on the cross before he sat on the throne. He served the people before he received honor and glory. His self-giving came ahead of his appointment as leader with authority (cp. Matthew 28:18-20).

There is a pattern here that we do well to observe in our own everyday living. Helping before leading keeps our motives more like Christ’s whenever we are called on to take responsibility. Humility precedes honor to offset pride that sometimes comes with position.

Showers of Blessings (April 10, 1966)

Showers of Blessings (April 17, 1966)

Showers of Blessings (April 3, 1966)

Snatching Victory From Defeat

Sporting events provide a familiar picture of opposing efforts: the Olympics, the Iditarod, the World Series, March Madness, the Super Bowl, and the like. The games in all these sports share one feature: they end in victory and defeat.

Competitions like these parallel what we call attention to in this ordinance: the competition between good and evil, between God and what opposes him, between the victory and defeat that come.

So Little Time

Jesus had a short time to accomplish what he came to do for all of history. He lived but thirty-three years and ministered only three years or so. The records of that work focus on the final week before his death. Under such time restraints, he needed to concentrate on what was most important, on what could generate solutions to other needs in the human condition.

He centered his work on reconciling broken relationships, first with God and then between people. Reconciliation is the closest thing to a cure-all for the world’s ills. And he gave his life to that end. Finances, health, social welfare, psychological peace, and the like are, in turn, corrected or at least greatly helped by getting rid of estrangement between people and the behaviors that cause it.

Social Skills a Minister Needs to Be Developing

Something Real Here

These emblems do not represent an idea but an event; more particularly they are reminders of a personal event and the features that involves; “Do this in remembrance of me.”

These notations relate to comments about theory versus practice. Life in Christ is not something theoretical, something abstract or distant, something applicable to earlier times. We are people, and our needs are real and present like they have been in the past all along the way.

Spiritual Directions

The beginning of the week is a good time to take stock, turning our minds backward, upward, inward, and forward. The Lord’s Supper touches on all these directions.

It looks backward to Christ’s giving himself in crucifixion for us. It looks upward in gratitude to the Father for grace and love of such a degree that he was willing to give up his Son for our salvation. It looks inward in self-examination that prompts sensitivity to matters of character and gratitude (1 Corinthians 11:28). It looks forward to when the One who died for us returns to take us to himself forever (1 Corinthians 11:26).

Stewardship Passages

Student Preaching Ministries

Surprised at Sunrise

Symbols of Resistance

Resisting temptation is as much a part of life as “doing the right thing.” Jesus did not call the more than 60,000 angels available to him to disperse the mob in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:23). He could “even now” ask the Father to send them, having already prayed earnestly three times to the Father not to let him get crucified.

He did not use any personal powers to drive his attackers away. John 18:6 does indicate that “they drew back and fell to the ground” when he confirmed that he was the One they were looking for. Interesting!

Telling the Truth

Telling the truth means more than not lying; it means telling it instead of not saying anything. Before God created the world, he planned what the Son would do in it (Revelation 13:8). And he did not leave us to grope around for that (Acts 17:27); we did not need to ascend on high to discover his intentions (Romans 10:6-8).

The Mosaic sacrifices foreshadowed cleansing from sins by the real thing they pictured. The prophets prophesied his coming to save his people from their sins. Jesus himself predicted his death on some five recorded occasions starting halfway through his ministry. So his inner circle of disciples was aware of how his work would climax.

Temptations in the Ministry

Thanks for the Memory

We remember so we can be grateful. Most of life moves along in ordinary fashion, following everyday routines, consisting of normal things. But occasionally something special, something different, something particularly important happens. That is what stands out in our memories.

In human history Christ’s life stands out as singularly different, and the closing act of his ministry stands out as the most extreme demonstration of what characterized all his ministry. What he did is admirable; so we honor him for it. What he did, he did for us; so we thank him for it.

Thanksgiving

We are grateful for love. When we experience it, we become part of something eternal. There are not many things like that, and it resides in the highest realm as well as here. So the greatest of all experiences is this all-inclusive virtue.

Even before the foundation of the world—even before we existed, God loved us and in his mind’s eye gave his Son for us, fulfilling that love in due time, commending his love toward us. Maybe for a good person someone would go out of his way to do something good; maybe he would even give his own life, but God gave his Son’s life on a cross for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:7-11).

Thanksgiving: What We Are Grateful For

Several kinds of things make us thankful. We are grateful that we were not frustrated in what we wanted to accomplish—it did not rain before we could get the hay in the barn.

We are grateful that we had help doing what we could not do by ourselves—as when people helped us move the piano in from the U-Haul and take it upstairs.

We are grateful for something nice that came unexpectedly out of someone’s good will—and the thoughtful motorist who stopped and changed the tire that our own tire tools could not manage.

The Adversity Factor

“For the joy that was set before him, Jesus endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). Among the host of things scripture teaches us is how to deal with adversity. One mechanism for coping is remembering that “this too shall pass,” and even more that future good awaits us when we endure hard things meantime.

We carry in our hands emblems of his hands, representations of his life poured out for us as an example to us. Taking these elements into ourselves visually portrays a valuable lesson learned and makes tribute to the Teacher who demonstrated the truth we profit from.

The Appointed Savior

Our Father sent our Brother into our situation to live out human righteousness to its highest level: self-sacrifice. Completing that venture in our realm, qualified him as savior of human children. So, the Father appointed him as sacrifice, savior, and priest in the true tabernacle of heaven itself. Committing ourselves to him is the Father’s condition for considering us righteous like him, which is the positive side of forgiveness.

These emblems picture Christ’s body given and his blood shed. So to speak, the roots of the vine whose fruit we are using were planted centuries ago when God called Abraham. The father of the faithful stands at the front end of the process that culminated on the cross, the cross we are remembering in this act of worship and commitment.

The Authority of Christ

The Basis of Christian Hope

The Best Thing

What would you do if you had only one good thing you could do? You would probably want it to help as many people as it could. You would want it to be as beneficial, as long-lasting, as far-reaching as possible. If you had the chance, you would choose something that people could not get some other way. You would go beyond what they wanted and accomplish something they needed more than anything else.

The Church of Tomorrow Today

The Completely Good Life

Processes follow a pattern: preparation plus follow-through, both done and done well. A farmer does not just harvest wheat; he has to till, plant, water, and weed. And he does not just till, plant, water, and weed; he has to bring in the crop or there is nothing to sell or feed his animals. Athletes do not just run a race; they train strenuously beforehand. Training for years brings no glory if they do not finish the race. Students do not just pass required courses along the way; they have to finish the last semester to receive a diploma.

The Continuing Christian Witness

The Cross, the Christ, and You

The Crucified God

“In the beginning the Word was there. The Word was with God, and the Word was deity” (John 1:1-2). Not only was the Word with God; the Word was with us. Put that together with the fact that the Word that was with us was crucified: crucified deity! Who ever heard of such a thing: that deity would be with us, and we would crucify him for it!?

Let our minds soak up the implications of a “crucified God!” He honored us with his concern for us (to engender love), his presence among us (to foster faith), and his promises to us (to create hope).

The Deceitfulness of Sin

The Decision to Die

The Enterprise Begun

With most things, getting started is the hardest part. A start-up effort may not have a lot of resources already in place to draw on. The entrepreneur may not have a company of people who share the vision, provide assistance, and offer encouragement. The expertise of others may not be available to supply the emotional energy and strength of character the undertaking requires. Besides, any backlash from vested interests gets directed at people who launch out in a new and different way.

The Father and the Crucifixion

A paraphrase of Romans 5:8 can read, “God has demonstrated his love for us in that even while we were sinners, he sent his Son to die on a cross for us.” We do not want to overlook the role of the Father’s love. Giving ourselves up is easier than feeling responsible for letting someone else suffer. Here the Father is not only “letting” but “designing” the basis for human salvation. More than that, he did it while we were still sinners. And, this all stands on top of the fact that we brought this problem on ourselves; God was not obligated to do something about what we caused.

The Forgiveness Provision

There is more than one way to mess up when we are dealing with people. We can be unaware that what we have done is harmful or offensive. We can fail to do what we know we should but forget to take care of it or not consider it important enough to worry about. In selfish moments, we know better but don’t care enough to restrain our impulses. We call them sins of ignorance, sins of omission, sins of commission. They are alike in their negative effects and our need to do what we can to reverse their effects.

The Goal of a 'Theological' Education

The God Who Gives

When we talk about something, it is good if we can offer an example of it. Furthermore, we often give an extreme example of it because matters are clearest when we see them in the extreme. In Romans 5:8 Paul notes that God gave us his Son and did so while we were still sinners. Beyond that, the same apostle speaks of the Son giving himself (Galatians 1:4).

Giving one’s son and giving oneself serve as the most notable degrees of giving. So it is especially appropriate that we consider the loaf and cup as emblems of giving in this season of giving. In that way we acknowledge God as a God who gives and calls on us to do likewise and to do so, if need be, to the full degree that he has (Matthew 16:24).

The Greatest Gift

The greatest gift is the gift of yourself. The most extreme example of it we are remembering here at this table: it is unforgettable.

We use the cross of Jesus as an ornament on our jewelry. The image has become an architectural feature on our buildings. It took Jesus’ self-giving to transform the ugliness of the cross into something beautiful. It took what he did to transform the dreaded cross into a welcome means of reconciliation by love for alienated people.

The Guilt Problem

The guilt feeling is the most uncomfortable feeling we can have. That is evident from all the things we do to avoid that “pain”: hiding it from others, denial to ourselves (repression) and to others (lying), blaming someone else or something else (projection), withdrawing from the offended and from others that are aware of our actions (separation), hardening ourselves (desensitizing), keeping our mind off of it (busyness, masking, substitution), laughing it off (minimizing it), defining sin out of existence (no standard, no breach of standard, no guilt).

The Hard Part

Getting something started is the hard part. Several things contribute to how true that is: what all it affects, how much it takes and how long, what resources can contribute to its progress, and how important its goals are in general.

Getting Christianity started was certainly no exception. The Lord’s Great Commission touches on several of those factors:

“Go make disciples in every country [its scope]. Baptize them into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit [people’s very identity]; and teach [means] them to observe everything I’ve commanded you [personal behavior]. I’ll always be with you [resource] till the end of the age [length of endeavor]” (Matthew 28:18-22).

The Highest Calling

The most important issues call for the most attention. The biggest difficulties call for the most adequate solutions. The hardest problems call for the most extreme measures. In observing these elements, we note that the most important issue and the hardest problem are one and the same.

Our Lord bypassed ruling the world, thereby choosing the cross instead. That shows what he considered most important, the biggest difficulty, the hardest problem. At the same time, it shows how much God is concerned about our friendship with him and each other. Overcoming alienation is an appropriate purpose of love. Since alienation comes from behavior that’s not appropriate to relationships, getting rid of the sin is the main thing in the world.

The Humility of God

“Take the attitude that Christ Jesus took. Although he was existing in the form of deity, he did not consider it something to cling to. He emptied himself and took on the form of a servant in the likeness of a man. Being found in the form of a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8).

So, humility participates in the very foundation of our faith and the salvation that lies at the heart of it. Consequently, when we observe the Lord’s Supper, we observe the humility that characterized the One we are remembering and honoring here. The best way to honor him is to follow his example of humility when we leave this gathering. As we carry the emblems away inside us, so we can also carry with us the mark of Christ himself: his humility.

The Impact of Interpersonalism on the Methods and Manner of Ministry

The Joy That Overcame the Dread

The records of what happened in Gethsemane show how hard the situation was on Jesus. Luke’s gospel even has a possible added note about his sweating drops of blood during that experience. How he managed the situation can guids us in doing likewise.

Yielding to temptation is easier than resisting it. We enjoy the experience; that’s why we do it. So we must remember that actions have consequences. If we don’t want some consequence, we have to resist the temptation that leads to it. If we want the consequence, we must endure the dread that works against it. “Strength for today” comes from “bright hope for tomorrow.” “The joy that lay before him” enabled Jesus to set aside the shame, withstand the hostility, overcome the dread, and endure the cross (Hebrews 12:1-4)

The Last Temptation

Jesus’ ministry began with pointed temptations designed to divert him from his purpose as Messiah. His ministry ended with one of even greater importance: “Come down from the cross, and we’ll believe in you!” (Matthew 27:40-42).

That temptation would have had tremendous power, reinforced by excruciating pain and by arrogant taunts from passersby, soldiers, the other victims, and religious leaders. Coming down from the cross would have verified his disciples’ belief in him. It would also have relieved his mother of watching his agony. But by coming down from the cross to prove he was the Messiah, he would have disqualified himself from being the Messiah. So we give tribute here to his strength of will and extreme love for us in not yielding to this last temptation.

The Legacy of Dorcas Acts 9:35-42 What We Learn From Experience

The Line

“Two points determine a straight line,” we say. That image serves us today in this communal remembrance.

The event we remember here sets the direction for conducting life from here on. What values we remember from Christ’s life and death, we carry forward in our own living. The purpose he gave his life for and we identified with in baptism, we pledge to follow through on from this day forward. Today we chart our course on the difficult, narrow way. For him the straight and narrow road led to Golgotha.

The Makings of a Man

The Ministers Personal Policies on Weddings

The Mount of Self-Denial

From the time he first predicted his death, Jesus made clear that being his disciples called for self-denial (Matthew 16:24). He made that point in a graphic way: “pick up your cross and follow me.” When would anybody pick up a cross except on the way to their own crucifixion?

A crucial factor here is that in so doing we are following him. We are not choosing self-destruction. We are not opting for self-negation but choosing him, his values, and purposes over ours. We are heading for something rather than nothing, prioritizing one thing over another, in this case his interests over ours. In so doing, we emulate the One who entered this event saying, “Not my will but yours be done” (Matthew 26:39).

The New Manna

After Jesus fed the 4,000, some Pharisees came asking him for “a sign from heaven” (Matthew 16:1 = Mark 8:11-12; cp. Matthew 12:18; Luke 11:16; John 2:18). Jewish patriots did the same thing previously the day after he had fed the 5,000 (John 6:30). They illustrated their standard of evidence by citing the manna God gave “from heaven” when the Israelites needed food in the desert (Exodus 16:4, 13-22; Numbers 11:6-9).

The Only One Qualified

The greatest responsibility goes to the most capable person. The hardest work leads to the highest honor. Those superlatives come together at this table. God could not assign Christ’s role to just anyone, because it had such widespread importance; there could be no risk of failure. No one else qualified.

We acknowledge here that we’re benefactors of special greatness. He took the perfect life and produced a perfect life in the human condition. He took life in the human condition and produced a perfect life in the face of the worst opposition. So it’s no off-handed sign of appreciation that we give a nod to on our way to other things. It’s a focal point of worship, a culmination of prepared hearts and minds and wills.

The Only One That Can

Some things only certain people can do; they are the only ones with the knowledge required. We go to a doctor to get help with medical problems because we do not have the expertise ourselves to cope with those issues. Most people we know are limited in how much they can help with health concerns. We need a specialist to diagnose and treat our life-threating concerns.

Some things only certain people can do; they are the only ones with the abilities required. If the team needs a point guard, they need to find one with the native talents and developed skills to cover that role in the game. The team needs an athlete on the roster who can handle the ball—dribbling, passing, setting up plays, shooting.

The Passing of Jairus Daughter (Luke 8:49-55) Introduction

The Passover Connection

The accounts of institution say that Jesus took a loaf and a cup and blessed them; they were two elements present at the Passover meal. That was the occasion on which Jesus instituted this memorial of his upcoming crucifixion.

The connection between communion and Passover draws attention to a singular point about Jesus’ life and death. His body and blood given for us in crucifixion correspond to the Passover lamb sacrificed at this time. Jesus’ death is to the Christian system what the paschal sacrifice was to the Mosaic system: they had to do with getting rid of sin.

The Passover Lamb

The Passover lamb foreshadowed the real thing: “The Lamb of God that takes away the sin that is in the world” (John 1:29). By analogy, that Passover lamb offered on an altar was to be without blemish (Exodus 12:5) like what it foreshadowed sacrificed on a cross.

These emblems represent Christ’s final demonstration of unblemished righteousness that laid the foundation for our righteousness. His life’s consummation on the cross epitomized his whole life of righteousness. We are remembering here his willing death by crucifixion as The Great Demonstration. Love could not have a greater expression. Our whole life, too, needs to carry forward what this loaf and cup represent.

The Peace of the Cross

“He is our peace. He has made us both one and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in his flesh the Law comprised of commandments and ordinances so he could create in himself one new united mankind, making peace, and might reconcile both of us to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end” (Ephesians 2:14-16).

Paul is dealing particularly with the peace that comes from uniting Gentiles and Jews into one body of Christ (cp. 3:4-6). That was accomplished by connecting them with the same One and his most outstanding act among us. It’s reconciling people alienated from each other and from the One who makes us one by uniting us with him.

The Power of Joy

“For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). It was the power of joy that Jesus could profit from. More exactly it was the power of the hope for joy, a joy not yet experienced, that carried him through what he was experiencing: being crucified.

Even more, his crucifixion came, not as a tragedy that overtook him unbidden, but one he saw coming early on (Matthew 16:21). He bore the shadow of a cross every day we walked. On the last day he willingly submitted to a cross that was heavier than he could even carry (John 18:6).

The Power of Origins

The origin of something determines its potentials, its “genetic potential.” That principle applies to Christian beginnings as well. It connects us with the original intent of Christ’s work as well as the power to deal in hope with even the most adverse circumstances of living.

Christ gave himself to the will of the Father to the extent that he lost his life in doing so. Receiving these tokens of commitment taps into what provides hope for triumph after trial and even offers resurrection after death.

The Power of Personal Presence

Jesus had his disciples go with him into Gethsemane the night before his crucifixion. He took three of them deeper into the olive orchard, asking them to join him in keeping watch (Matthew 26:38). Even his threefold prayer for deliverance from the cross in nine hours appealed to the power of relationship, relationship with the Father about the approaching temptations and trials.

Luke notes that an angel appeared to him to strengthen him (24:43). The text does not suggest that the angels on the other end of Jesus’ ministry did anything supernatural to allay his hunger and thirst; the same happens regarding his dread of agony in this case. The personal presence provided the power. That kind of aid was especially appropriate because this crucifixion was voluntary—the other two that day were not.

The Price of Change

Nothing worth having is easy to get. We talk about hard work as requiring blood, sweat, and tears. Indeed, what price, change!

In laying the groundwork for that endeavor, Jesus prayed with “strong crying and tears” (Hebrews 5:7) to the One who could save him from crucifixion. Some copies of Luke note that in the Garden during that prayer he sweat, as it were, drops of blood (Luke 22:44). The crown of thorns, the scourgings, and the crucifixion shed his blood. Christ’s mission cost the sweat of effort, the pain of bloodshed, and the sadness of tears.

The Price of Success

What price, success! Things don’t just happen; they don’t just take care of themselves, and they don’t just do it quickly and easily, especially big things, important things. Success calls for a willingness to do whatever it takes in effort made and in risk taken—in loss, danger, suffering.

Christ had no personal home or immediate family. His work led to rejection by the religious establishment and growing threats against his very life. Finally, he felt the pain of thorns, scourging, and crucifixion as the forces of evil resisted his campaign for good.

The Real Thing

Truth is reality, and grace identifies the kind of reality Messiah brought for us to embody. “Law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Messiah” (John 1:17). The point is not that the Law was false but that it was not the real thing; it drew a picture of the real thing, approximated it, prepared for its real expression in us: relationship to God and each other based on grace.

The Redemption Yet to Come

Christ’s death for sin is a prelude to his resurrection for justification (Romans 4:25). His crucifixion established his righteousness to the uttermost; his resurrection established his legitimacy beyond a doubt as the Messiah who abides forever (John 12:34).

Our Lord’s death and resurrection represent two halves of the same whole. His resurrection from the tomb confirms the meaning of his death on the cross for us already and promises the hope of our own resurrection to come.

The Testimony of Thomas

The Universal Solvent for Sin

Coming to the table connects us with the one event that reaches out in all directions in time and territory—present, past, and future; here, there, and everywhere. Christ’s culminating act of his ministry laid the basis for all salvation—under the Mosaic covenant (Hebrews 9:15), during the patriarchal age (1 Peter 4:6; 3:18-21), and henceforth to the Lord’s return (Matthew 28:18-20). He made possible the restored friendship with God and all people irrespective of race or status (Galatians 3:28).

The Unseen God

The Upward Journey

Colossians 3:1 speaks of Christ seated on the right hand of God’s throne. Jesus himself pictured the path to life for us on earth as narrow, passing through the “strait” gate, a path that few seem to find. In his own case, the narrow path was also an uphill climb that led through calvary, the empty tomb through the ascension above the clouds to the right hand of the Father.

The Whole Story

The beauties of the Christmas season surround us: colorful decorations, sparkling lights, joyful times with family and friends, holiday songs that we have grown to love through the years, stories about the birth of the Christ child.

A beauty even more poignant follows the Christmas story. Immediately after relating the events surrounding Jesus’ birth, Luke describes his dedication of the temple, when Mary and Joseph took the infant Jesus “to present him to the Lord.” At this time the elderly Simeon, filled with the Holy Spirit, foretold both the salvation he would bring and the sorrow that would result from his coming; he included a personal warning to Mary: “A sword will pierce even your own soul.”

The Word of God Pictured

The church is called the body of Christ in part because the church continues Christ’s operation in the world. The church is to the world now what Christ incarnate was when he walked here (1 Corinthians 3:9-17).

Likewise, the word of God written is comparable to the Word of God alive among us. The words of scripture point to events that occurred before the very eyes of Christ’s first witnesses (2 Peter 1:12-21).

Thoughts on Interim Ministries

Till He Comes

“As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord’s death till he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). “His death” and “till he comes” form a striking combination made possible by his resurrection.

This symbolic meal does not so much rekindle the sad memory of a past tragedy as it lights up a glad reminder of its circumstances. Since everyone dies, his death would not be so notable were it not for the righteousness he brought to a criminal’s cross, the love for us he demonstrated in going through with it, and the triumph over the grave that followed. Those features of “his death” make it especially worth proclaiming “till he comes.”

To Save, Not Condemn

One of the most familiar verses in all of scripture says, “God loved the world to much that he gave hi only Son” (John 3:16). The important implication of that positive statement comes in the very next verse: “He didn’t send his Son into the world to condemn it but to save it” (3:17).

God has no inclination to see how many people he can send to hell, so we need not live in fear of him; all his intentions toward us are benevolent and loving.

Today

“Today” is a word from Jesus on the cross. He said it to one of the two insurrectionists the soldiers had crucified with him. The one he was talking to had evidently taken part in yet another attempt to overthrow Roman rule in Israel. He likely had the typical Jewish expectancy that Messiah would liberate his nation.

Earlier he joined the other criminal in taunting Jesus to bring the three of them down from their crosses. Now he has had a change of heart as death drew nearer and darkness at midday settled in. He acknowledged that Jesus had not done anything wrong, and that they deserved to die for their actions: admission and repentance.

Tokens of Love

Do you ever wonder whether somebody loves you? Do your parents care about you? What about your children? Do you think your husband, your wife, still loves you? What do your friends say that makes you confident that they care? Do your neighbors and fellow workers and church members do things that let you know how they regard you? Does it cross your mind that they may not mean it?

Transformation

This observance reminds us of what can happen when we do not conform to the world’s expectations. Death is the most extreme consequence that might happen, so we can use this occasion together to resolve not to waffle should something demanding present itself to us. Christ calls us to transform our values and purposes, attitudes and motives, from what characterizes a world governed by materialistic, humanistic thinking.

For the most part, we face lesser consequences, things like exclusion from the group or social rejection or losing our jobs, foreclosing on our houses. These more everyday consequences can take their toll on us to cave in to neighbors and friends and even family, and to compromise convictions to gain their acceptance in place of persecution for not conforming. We have to transform in order not to conform.

Truth Acted Out

Scripture calls Jesus the Word of God. In this service, we hear what he is saying to us. We refresh the priceless truth as we contemplate not just the words of institution, but the Person who speaks in them.

What he did demonstrated what he stood for, so that his word to us was not in wisdom but in power. Example is the simplest form of teaching; imitation is the simplest form of learning. This ordinance speaks to us; it draws us into the presence of him with whom we have to do in our time in this place.

Truth and Education in a Christian Worldview

Under Pressure

Universal Lordship

At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus made a choice that led to what we are remembering today. Satan offered him leadership over all the kingdoms of the world if he would yield to Satan’s direction over his life and work. Jesus chose not to accept that offer.

Giving him worldwide dominion would have given him the very thing Jewish people were so desperately expecting their Messiah to have. If he had agreed to that role, contemporary Israelis would have accepted him. He would not have faced the cross, either because they would not have rejected him or because he would have used his power to repel any opposition foreign or domestic.

Veteran’s Day

Free Indeed

The more important something is, the more it costs. “What price freedom!” In a concerted way we remember annually those who have given that “last measure of devotion” to secure and protect what we consider certain “inalienable rights”: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Gathering in this memorial observance, we acknowledge in a concerted way what it took to secure and protect the even more difficult aspect of human liberty—freedom from the power and penalty of personal sin. The Father has deemed it appropriate that the Son give his last measure of devotion for fellowman in securing the basis for release from this enslavement. “If the Son makes you free, you are free indeed” (John 8:36).

Voluntary Self-Sacrifice

One notable feature of Christ’s crucifixion is that it was voluntary. Jesus himself did not try to fight against the arresting mob in Gethsemane. He did not use supernatural to drive the temple guard away-even though he evidently could have: the guard falling backward when he said, “I’m the one you are looking for”; let these others go” (John 18:10-11), He did not let his disciples—like Peter—fight in the Garden to defend him (John 18:10-11). Jesus pointed out to Pilate. “My kingdom is not of this world, or my servants would be fighting to keep me from being delivered to the Jews” (John 18:36). He did not call on the twelve legions of angels at his disposal to protect himself at his arrest (Matthew 26:53).

Well-Done

“It’s done” (John 19:30). Christ’s last words mark the finalizing of his life’s purpose among us. Not only was it a matter of doing God’s will more than what he himself would have wanted (Luke 22:42); it was a matter of finishing it.

These elements call to mind the Christ, what he did, and how he did it. Since the continuation of Christian living and mission is up to us now, observing them is—among many things—a pledge to perseverance, a commitment to carry through. At the end of his ministry, Paul could say he’d finished the course (2 Timothy 4:7). We all want to be able to say that, because it is a person’s final condition that opens up into the eternal state.

What Do You Have That You Didnt Receive?

What Matters Most

Most of our time we spend on smaller things: getting the shopping done, mowing the lawn, watching a baseball game.

Much of what we use our abilities for are not the most important matters we face: learning to play an instrument in the high school band that we might not find much use for after we graduate, learning to play basketball although we will not likely be skilled enough to make a living at it later.

What Price Freedom

The overwhelming cost of freedom from tyranny, abuse, and persecution! Today we are probably more aware of that cost than ever before. Modern communication networks can inform us almost immediately of atrocities anywhere they happen. With each new threat, we experience anew the cost in lives, resources, and the time that it takes to undo such deplorable conditions for masses of humanity.

When it comes to freedom from the sin that lives in each of us, all the negative factors come to the fore in stark relief. From sin in us grows disruption and destruction between us at every level of social existence. Here a curious, striking point comes full bore: this freedom is free! All we have to do is accept it! Yet we find it hard to accept the freedom we want! How strange! It does not cost any money, any resources, any time. We don’t have to conquer something else to get it.

What Price Joy

The Christmas carol “Good Christian Men Rejoice” includes an insight: “Christ was born for this.” The beginning of his life was for the end of it; its end lay dormant in its beginning. Furthermore, the end of it led to the throne beyond it—glory after grief.

Sometimes we too get the joy only if we weather the grief, and the joy is greater when we have experienced the grief before it. Thirty-three years of normal life included the six hours of agony at the end. That proportion often holds for us too. In this respect we live out life like he did and learn about it by watching how it played out for him: the empty tomb and ascending to his throne. These emblems help us better to participate in the pattern.

What’s the Connection?

Scripture uses shorthand statements like “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3). To an outsider’s ear that may not make a lot of sense. What does crucifying “Christ” have to do with “our” “sins”? The previous verse indicates that it had to do with saving us from them. So the question tightens up: How can the death of one person connect with saving other people from their ‘sins”?

“Died for our sins” could mean that (a) he would not have had to die if we had not sinned, and that (b) he died to get rid of our sins. How does such a thing work? Sin takes place between an offender against an offended, so what can a third party do that removes an offender’s sins?

Where Did the Body Go?

Whoever We Are

As many of us as look at Christ’s cross can see its connection with ourselves. That is so regardless—regardless of who we are, what we have done or failed to do. Since we are all different in failures, mistakes, and sins, we specialize the meaning of the cross to the needs distinctive to ourselves. That is so regardless of what the sins were (Matthew 12:31), how bad they were, how often we committed them, when we did them, how long we lived that way, regardless of who we sinned against and whether anyone else forgives us or not.

Why Ask God?

Will You Pay the Price?

Youth Minister Search Committee: Summary Report