Contemporary Bible Readings?

There are times when the wording of certain phrases in the bible can strike you as being rather, well, contemporary. This one was pointed out to me a couple of days ago:

Then the woman came and told her husband, "A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome...

Judges 13:6 ESV

The thought of the woman telling her husband that she'd seen an angel and it was "well awesome" brought a smile to my face. Or maybe it's just me...

1 Thessalonians 1:4-10

This is being written a little later than I would normally do it. Last week, at the Friday Lunchtime Communion meeting, I was giving a sermon on 1 Thessalonians 1:4-10, written and presented in a little bit of a hurry (I only really found out I was doing it the Saturday beforehand). I’ve not really had time to sit down and present my thoughts on it.

When reading through the passage, the main surprise that I encountered was right at the start in verse 4. Previously, Paul has been telling the Thessalonians of his prayers of thanksgiving for them, particularly for the outworking of their faith, love and hope (1 Thess 1:2-3). In the section of our interest, he continues to explain the basis of his thanksgiving, and starts off with this, in my opinion, surprising statement:

“For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you,” (v. 4)

The reason I found this to stand out was that it shows Paul’s confidence of the Thessalonians’ standing before God. We seem to take the opinion that someone’s standing is very much between them and God, we cannot judge if one person is a Christian or not, but Paul seems to say otherwise – that there is something showing in the lives of the Thessalonians that makes him sure of their place among the elect.

(At this point, I want to make an aside to try and answer a point that may be raised by my interpretation. I do not wish to turn this specific case into a general rule – by this I mean that I do not think that Paul is about to give a ‘test of election’, that is a set of characteristics that all Christians must have so they can be sure they are a Christian. The point of interest is that Paul does see something that convinces him that this particular group of believers are Christian, so it is a worthwhile task to see what he points to and see what we can learn.)

In the next verse, he begins to give his reasons for his statement in verse 4. He claims that the gospel came to them not only in words; that is not only as another piece of knowledge, but “with power, with the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (v. 5). Now, much discussion has taken place over this verse, as to whether the reference is to the believers receiving the word, or to Paul and his companions in their proclamation. I have to admit to feel rather unqualified to add to the debate, so the only comment I will make is that whatever the interpretation, the focus of the passage is that the message was not take by the Thessalonians in the same manner that we would embrace, say, knowledge of someone’s shopping list, but the message that Paul brought, through the work of the Holy Spirit, caused a noticeable change in the Thessalonians. It is to this change that Paul goes on to testify to verses 6-10, and in particular, he concentrates on two noticeable points about how the Thessalonians are living in the light of the gospel.

The first of these points is that they have embraced the gospel despite persecution (apologies to all, I do not have snazzy titles for my points for this one!) If we were to go back to Acts 17:1-9, we would see the story of the gospel coming to Thessalonica. We read that Paul preached in the synagogue, and we would get the impression that his ministry enjoyed some amount of success, particularly among the Greek community (v. 4). Things though were not entirely rosy, so to speak, as members of the Jewish community, out of jealousy, raised a rabble with intent of bring about some amount of mob justice (v. 5). The whole incident ends with the city authorities requiring some amount of ‘appeasement’ (v. 9) and Paul and Silas leaving the city in a little bit more of hurry than I’m sure was planned (v.10) leaving behind a young church in a place where being a Christian was certainly not easy. We’d possibly be forgiven for assuming that the church would have petered out in the few months since Paul had left (and it would seem from 1 Thessalonians 2:17-3:13 that Paul shared a similar fear), but that isn’t what we find. Verse 6 tells us that they “had become imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit”. More than that, it seems that they had been an encouragement to all around them (v. 7). Despite the theological difficulties they were experience, which Paul was going to address in the remainder of the letter; this was not a church in dire straits. We do well to note in verse 6 the role of the Holy Spirit in this; this is quite unlike some effort from those in today’s church who seem to resolve in their own strength to persevere. The perseverance of the Thessalonians seems to be based upon a trusting in God, and his work in their lives, so that they could be joyful despite the opposition they were encountering.

The second piece of evidence Paul seems to point to is that there is a change in what they live for. It is worth while remembering that Thessalonica is not in Israel, this would have been a mostly gentile church (although it seems many interpret “devout Greeks” in Acts 17:4 as Greeks who worshipped Yahweh, but I can’t convince myself that this makes them different from proselytes and so read this as being religious Greeks c.f. Acts 17:22-23. I may well be wrong in this, but I’ll continue in my assumption that the devout Greeks were still gentile and did not worship the true God) and most of the people in the church would have previously worshipped idols. That is to say that if things were going wrong, they would have desperately tried to offer up sacrifices to appease their god of choice. Similarly, if something important was coming up, they would try to sacrifice something to try and keep their god onside. But this was no longer the case since Paul arrived. They had turned from finding their security in things they have made, and turned not to other created things, but to the creator Himself, the true and living God. I’m tempted to say that in our pseudo-Christian culture, it’s hard to understand how big a shift it is to turn from created from idols to the living God. After all, at the very least we can see the folly of trying to appease a statue! I would say this, but then I’d be falling into the trap of thinking that idols just came in statue form. In western culture, you don’t have to go far to find people who trust in their bank balance for their security. Time and relationships are all offered gladly at the alter of our bank managers as we convince ourselves that it’s all worth it to “give ourselves a little leeway”. Now I’m not talking about the need to work to cover the costs of our needs, but the type of sacrifice that we offer in the hope of obtaining that little bit of an easier life, it is the type of sacrifice that seeks, if I can be allowed to take the thought process to its conclusion, to find security just in case God doesn’t pull through. What the Thessalonians had discovered though, was that their gods, just like our gods, will fail them at the moment they need them most. One day we will all stand before God and we will be called into account for the way that we have live in His world. The Thessalonians realised this, and they realised that only Jesus’ sacrifice is worth of their trust to deliver them on that day. Not their small statues that sat lifelessly in the corner. Not our huge bank balances that have been accumulated over our years of ‘service’. Only the atoning death of Christ, taking our punishment in our place is enough.

In conclusion, Paul can be confident that the Thessalonians are part of God’s people, that they are part of the elect. This is because he has seen the change that can only be brought about by the gospel take root in their lives, as he sees them trusting joyfully in God both in their lives as they face persecution and opposition, and for their salvation from His just wrath through the death of His Son. Due to their faith, they had become an example to all believers in their region of Macedonia and Achaia, and even beyond. We’d do well to also follow their example as we live our lives in the sure hope of heaven.

Thoughts on Psalm 139

These are very much my preliminary thoughts as I attempt to prepare for a sermon on this passage for this coming Sunday. Comments would be very much appreciated.

This is a psalm that is beloved by many Christians over the years, and has been the source of much reassurance. The traditional interpretation see the Psalmist making a discourse on the character and nature of God as it relates to the life of the Psalmist. In this sense, it is both a very personal and a very practical piece of literature. We are encouraged to rejoice in the omniscience of God because it means God cares for us, we are led to awe and amazement at the futility of attempting escape from Him and confronted with the need to be concerned with holiness, as once we understand the extent of God’s power, love and concern for the people of the earth, then slander and defamation of Him and His name becomes intolerable.

There is much merit in this approach, but I fear that it neglects one issue – how does this Psalm point us to Christ? We are aware that the Old Covenant in fulfilled in entirety by Christ, so surely when approaching a passage of the Old Testament, seeking Christ should be our primary aim, and yet this seems to be absent from the above approach.

The second approach I propose is to seek what the passage attributes to God, and then use this knowledge to identify Christ as God from the narrative of the Gospels. So, in verses 1-6 of the Psalm, the Psalmist praises God for his knowledge of him – “O LORD, you have searched me and know me!” (v. 1), “You discern my thoughts from afar” (v. 2). In the New Testament, we see that Jesus also shows these characteristics. He is able to know what people are thinking (e.g. Matthew 9:4), and shows knowledge of individuals and their true desires that would be impossible for a normal human being (e.g. the rich young ruler in Mark 10:17-22). In addition, John attributes Creation to the Word, who is then revealed to be Jesus Christ, in John 1:1-14, and this fits in with the description of God’s creative power in verses 13-16 of the Psalm. Finally, and most compellingly, the final section of the Psalm cries out for God to come in judgement of the wicked, which finds it’s fulfilment in the coming of Christ, in particular the second coming, but also in his first coming when the judgement against wicked men falls on Christ himself, so that the wicked who trust in him can go free.

This method does reinforce our view that Jesus is the same God as is described in the Old Testament, and so also provides a useful perspective on the teaching of the Psalm, but it still proves to be an unsatisfactory reading. Whereas the first view seems to neglect Christ and jump straight to the personal, the second view sees Christ (not in itself a bad thing!) but doesn’t do justice to the personal way that the Psalm is written.

The interpretation that I’m considering at the moment uses the significance of Psalm being a Psalm of David. David, of course, was God’s anointed King of Israel, and he is also presented as the Saviour of the people of Israel (e.g. in the battle with Goliath in 1 Samuel 17). Both of these roles are fulfilled ultimately in Jesus Christ, and so it is fair to read the passages concerning David as a foreshadow of the Christ. This has significance when reading of David’s experience, as our temptation is to place ourselves in David’s situation, where as if David is pointing forward to Christ, then we should see his experiences pointing us to the experiences of Christ. This applies to the Psalms attributed to David as well as the narrative passages concerning him in 1 and 2 Samuel. So how does this affect our reading of Psalm 139? My thoughts at the moment suggest that the discourse of God’s character in verses 1-18 would relate to the specific mission that God has through the incarnation of His Son, Jesus Christ. They show that what happened over the course of Jesus’ life was no accident, but were ordained at every point (v. 16). This then leads to the call for God’s judgement in verses 19-23 pointing not to the judgement at the end of the days, but more pointing to the judgement of God’s people taken in Jesus on the cross. This view also makes more sense of verses 22-24, which otherwise seems to be suggesting that David can call for a searching of himself confident that God will find nothing wrong with him.

I’m still quite unsure about this, and I apologise for any incoherence. As I mentioned, comment would be appreciated, as would the pointing out of any grievous error in my thought. In the meantime, I’ll be continuing my study. The sermon will probably be recorded, and I’ll try to get a copy up here as I get it.

A non-conformist ponders liturgy

I seem to come across a number of Anglican Churches which pride themselves as being “traditional”. From what I can glean, this means that to the untrained eye, their practices seem to be high. This is the first thing I’d like to refute, as to the more trained eye, the practices turn out to be, in fact, positively Romish, but this is all beside the point.

I have long since realised that I occasionally use the description of Anglican wrongly. I was at one point about to say that my mentor during my time away was one of the least Anglican Anglican ministers that I’d met, until I stopped myself and thought again, and realised that he is a liturgically aware and biblical centred person, placing him surely at or near the top of the most Anglican people I know. The combination of these two experiences has led me to reconsider what I think about Anglicanism as a whole, and particularly has led to a consideration of the liturgical nature of the church, to which I would like to sketch my thoughts.

When I read through the Book of Common Prayer, I see in Cranmer many aspects that I would admire in a non-Conformist. His work on the order of Holy Communion is an attempt to remove any magic that is present at that service and move away from the making of a ritual. The placement of the word at the centre of service and the clear implications that all else is either a preparation to hear God speak through the scriptures or a response to hearing that word is a model that all church congregations should pay careful attention to. So, as I read, one question comes to mind, why have the liturgy at all? Why risk the misinterpretation of the liturgy as being a ritual in itself in the process of abolishing ritual from the act of Christian worship?

The answer, I believe comes from looking at the state of the church at the time of the early reformation, the church for which Cranmer is writing his prayer book for. Many of the ministers serving different assemblies in England have a level of ignorance of the basics of the gospel that would be considered an embarrassment for even the most immature in faith among bible believing Christians today. There was definitely a need to ensure that the spiritual feeding of a congregation was not dependant on the competency of the minister, otherwise large portions of the Christian church would effectively be starved. For this reason, providing a step by step guide to how to lead a reformed and biblical service ensured that even the least able minister (or even a literate lay person) could effectively minister a flock. There were even sermons provided, in the form of the Book of Homilies, to ensure that all church congregations could benefit from solid teaching based on God’s word.

Today, the majority of evangelical churches have at their lead biblical hearted men, who understand the importance not only of preaching God’s word but structuring all meetings of the saints in such a way as to place hearing God’s voice through His scriptures in the proper place as the centre of Christian corporate worship, and so there is less need for strict following of liturgical order, and those that do so are still living very much in the tradition of Cranmer and the great evangelical reformers of England. But even the non-Conformists among us (of which I’d like to make clear, I number myself among) must be careful not to make small the importance of set liturgical order. Experiencing life in a community where a large number of minister do indeed not have the basic understanding of the gospel, the need for sound, reformed liturgy is incredibly important. To finish, I’ll mention one of the ministers that I’ve come across. He really shouldn’t be a minister at all, there is a definite absence of any of the gifts that are generally necessary for ministry, but because of his job, he is expected to preach every so often. Every time his turn on the rota comes up, he would panic, and start to desperately ask around for something to preach on. Eventually, someone bought him the set of J.C. Ryle’s “Expository Thoughts on the Gospels”, and each time he preaches, he reads a section from that. When I found out about that, it served a joyful reminder of Cranmer’s original intent (this practice certainly sounds similar to Cranmer’s intention in writing the Book of Homilies), because I attended one of the meetings he was presiding over, and saw an incompetent minister still feed the flock. For this reason, we are to rejoice that there is such a thing as liturgical order.

Rooms and Mansions

I’m presently preparing a small talk to give at a housewarming tomorrow evening, and I think I’ve settled on talking on John 14:1-3, vaguely on the thought of although there is much enjoyment to be had in homes here on earth, it is not our permanent home, and Jesus is preparing for us a place in heaven where we shall be eternally. In my preparation, I was trying to ascertain whether my theory that the Greek word monai (translated “rooms” in NIV and ESV, or “mansions” in KJV) had any implication of permanence, which would help my point (I’m freely admitting this is not a model for faithful preparation of talks), so I’ve been flicking through commentaries. This led me to Don Carson’s excellent book on the Upper Room discourse in John, “Jesus and his Friends”, in which I found a quote that although it was not directly helpful to my question, made me laugh…

“The Authorized Version promises 'many mansions' rather than 'many rooms'; and no doubt the prospect of an eternal mansion is much more appealing to many than an eternal room. The word mansion has called forth quite a number of songs which picture eternal bliss in largely materialistic category: 'I've got a mansion just over the hilltop,' we sing, scarcely able to restrain our imaginations from counting the valets at our beck and call. 'A tent or a cottage, why should I care?/They're building a palace for me over there.' Here we even manage to upgrade 'mansion' to 'palace'.”

Well, it amused me anyway. For anyone interested, it seems that the word does suggest permanence, so it’s good, and provided me with some amusement for the afternoon.

Song Discovery

I have to admit, I’m not the biggest fan in the world of some of the music played at SMACC. Due to a will to get away from a traditional feeling to the meetings, there’s a bit of a reluctance to sing more traditional hymns, although I’ve been making some effort to introduce some of my favourites into the line up. This is not to say that there have not been some gems in the midst of the sea of cheesy Aussie songs though. One of the songs sung at the meetings today has to have a place among the handful of my favourite hymns and choruses, to a place reserved for songs like We Rest on Thee and I will glory in my redeemer. I’ve been told that it’s a fairly old hymn that’s been released by EMU with a new tune by Philip Percival, but I’d never come across it before. The words are excellent, and I think are worth quoting.

Great God, what do I see and hear?
The end of things created!
The Judge of mankind doth appear,
On clouds of glory seated.
The trumpet sounds, the graves restore,
The dead which they contained before!
Prepare, my soul, to meet Him.

The dead in Christ shall first arise
At the last trumpet’s sounding.
Caught up to meet Him in the skies,
With joy their Lord surrounding.
No gloomy fears their souls dismay,
His presence sheds eternal day
On those prepared to meet Him.

But sinners, filled with guilty fears,
Behold His wrath prevailing.
In woe they rise, but all their tears
And sighs are unavailing.
The day of grace is past and gone;
Trembling they stand before His throne,
All unprepared to meet Him.

Great God, to Thee my spirit clings,
Thy boundless love declaring.
One wondrous sight my comfort brings,
The Judge my nature wearing.
Beneath His cross I view the day
When Heav’n and earth shall pass away,
And thus prepare to meet Him.

It has to be said that the third verse is quite possibly the most chillingly frank account of judgement that I’ve heard in a hymn, but yet there is no hint of pleasure in recounting the idea that for those who have not accepted Christ will have a most dreadful experience in the day of judgement. Although not a gospel song (in the sense that it does not particularly mention the cross), it does face people up with the fact that in accepting Christ’s atonement there is much to look forward to on the last day, but with the warning that to remain in rebellion will result in facing God in condemnation.

I'm trying to convince Smallberry, who is just coming to the end of his time here with the mission team from St Ebbe's, to introduce it to the roster for the 11.30 meeting at Ebbe's. I reckon it would be a good addition.

Psalm 42 and 43

Most people who have come across these Psalms have probably been pointed in their direction in the context of depression, and for that purpose they are indeed useful. They talk about a feeling of oppression, of distance from and an inaccessibility to God, as well a continued feeling of being ‘down’ even in the presence of reasons not to be, and these are all experiences that I along with many of my brethren can associate with periods when we have fell into periods of depression. Despite their usefulness for the encouragement of the Christian in this context, it would be a sad situation if we were to put on this passage a label of “For specific purposes only”, and didn’t attempt to look a little deeper to see what we can learn of God through what is recorded here.

In these Psalms, we find the Psalmist main cause for concern is his present situation, and in particular his lack of access to temple. It would seem that the Psalmist is in some sort of exile, he mentions that he will remember the Lord “from the heights of Hermon” (42:6), which for the benefit of those without a map at the back of their bibles is located north of Israel. In addition to this, he speaks of remembering the times he was “leading the procession to the house of God”, which would imply that he no longer is able to do so.

So, physically he is separated from the presence of God, but what can be said of the Psalmist’s spiritual condition? The way in which he addresses God gives us an insight into his relation with God. Although his questions seem to show doubts, such as “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning oppressed by the enemy?” (42:9), the Psalmist can still talk of God being his God and Saviour (42:5,11, 43:5), his Rock (42:9) and talk of God’s love being directed (42:8). This is a man who is clearly trusting in God, and has a very much personal relationship with Him. Although he is separated physically from the place where he can meet God, he enjoys a trusting and loving relationship with him. His faith is shown all the more by the Psalmists focus in trying to answer the feeling of his soul, in the refrain of the Psalm:

“Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Saviour and my God”

As Christians, we find ourselves in a similar position to the Psalmist here. Although we are in relationship with God, we are still not where we should be; we are not yet in Zion, in the presence of God, and along with the Psalmist will find ourselves with doubts and under oppression and mocking from those around us (42:9-10). We too can join in the prayer of 43:1-4 for rescue from an ungodly nation (v. 1) and a drawing into the presence of God (v. 3). In addition to what the means of this vindication will be, that is that we know now that Christ, after coming first as Saviour to save his people through the cross, will return as judge to bring those who know and trust in Him into the presence of God and to condemn the wicked and ungodly men to an eternal judgement. In the meantime though, we will unfortunately share in the Psalmist’s experience, but we too are to place our hope in God and praise him for the sure hope that we have through Christ.

Bookbuying and Devotion

One thing I love about Belfast is the abundance of second hand bookshops to browse through. I'm not sure if it's more than most cities in the country, but it's certainly impressive when placed beside Oxford (a comment that I feel should be more surprising than it is). Anyhow, as a result, when I'm home I tend to pick up a fairly substantial number of books, and this short break has been no exception.

All of that was just background to the point I'm getting on to, as over the weekend I picked up a copy of "A Sure Guide to Heaven" by Joseph Alleine. In the Puritan Paperback reprint, there is a biographical introduction to Joseph, which includes an interesting insight into his committment to spending time with God. He was regularly awake at 4am to pray, read scripture and sing psalms. If he heard that a local smith or other worker was already working by then, the sound of their work drove him to shame, and he confided to a friend "O how their noise shames me! Doth not my master deserve more than theirs?". It's an amazing picture of a man wishing to give as much as he can to God.

The natural reaction to hearing about these Godly people is to compare their devotion to your own life, and the obvious thing to first focus on is the committment to wake early. I struggle to wake for 7.30 in the morning, and hearing the sound of binmen already working is more likely to invoke a wish for them to keep quiet and let me sleep rather than a shame in my devotion to God. The other issue was noticing that Mr. Alleine continued his devotion until 8am, which leads me to face whether I would be able to focus for that length of time. I don't have the greatest powers of concentration, and I tend to hide behind that as an excuse for my lack of self discipline when it comes to personnal study.

We claim to live such busy lives today, the truth is I know I could make time in those sort of proportions. My failure to do so simply reflects how hideously jumbled up my priorities are. It's a good thing, therefore, to be faced up with these past models to allow me to be faced up with how far short my life draws up.