Archives For Pentecost

Pentecost: Ps. 50-51: The Holy Spirit & Covenant Mercy

May 20, 2013 — Leave a comment

Introduction
God is love, and this is because He is Trinity. The love that binds the Father and the Son is the Spirit (Rom. 5:5, 15:30, 2 Cor. 13:14, Col. 1:8). God’s love is not just a feeling, an emotion, it’s a fierce, personal, saving loyalty. This is what the Bible calls God’s hesed, His lovingkindness, His covenant mercy toward us (Ex. 34:6-7, Dt. 7:9, Lk. 1:72-73). Today we consider the gift of the Holy Spirit as God’s covenant mercy.

The Text: Psalm 50 begins with God calling Israel to court (Ps. 50:1-7). His complaint is not with their sacrifices per se (50:8), but with the fact that they don’t understand what they mean. God doesn’t need their sacrifices because He’s hungry or poor (50:9-13). He wants their sacrifices to embody their worship, their praise, their loyalty, their need for Him (50:14-15). God’s complaint is with the fact that they take His covenant in their mouth, but they are wicked, hate instruction, are friends with thieves and adulterers, and love lies and slander (50:16-20). God has not kept silent because He doesn’t know about it, so they need to do some serious thinking and seek His salvation or be destroyed (50:21-23). Continue Reading…

In Bible - Psalms, Church Calendar, Grace, Pentecost, Sermon Outlines, TRC, Worship
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Two Measuring Tapes for the 4th of July

July 4, 2012 — 1 Comment

OK, since it’s the 4th of July, and everyone is hovering over their phones and computer screens hunting for something else to read, I’ll toss out one more thought and send you back out to your patriotic shenanigans.

I’m fully convinced that lots of the “regeneration,” “rebirth” language in the Bible is way cosmic, political, global, talking about the beginning of the New Heavens and Earth, the New World reborn through the work of the Spirit, the New Eon, the New Era of King Jesus. Yay, and double yay.

The redemption accomplished in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is global, cosmic, universal. It’s bigger and more thorough than anything our little brains can even begin to imagine. It extends to economics and foreign policies, science and nutrition, technology and space exploration and much more. So when we zoom in on the question of individual salvation and perseverance, don’t think for a moment that we’re leaving the big picture behind. In fact, we’re talking about the same thing. And double in fact, that’s the way the New Testament talks. The gift of the Holy Spirit to men and women and children is the down payment, the first fruits, a miniature of what will become of the nations, the world, the universe.

And that’s precisely why it’s worth jumping up and down on a bit. And it really comes down to the topics of sanctification and postmillennialism, two measuring tapes that every Christian ought to keep close at hand. Just before Jesus ascended into heaven, He gave us our marching orders. He plainly stated that the ends of the earth had been given to Him as His possession and sent us to announce that to every creature, every nation, every president, every slave, every sleazy politician, every blue collar worker. And Jesus told us to make them all disciples by baptizing them in the Triune Name and teaching them to submit to the words of King Jesus in everything. Continue Reading…

In Against Christianity, Bible - 1 Corinthians, Bible - 1 John, Bible - Romans, Creation, History, Pentecost, Theology - Christology, Theology - Pneumatology
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Glorious Mistakable Joy

May 29, 2012 — Leave a comment

My friend Joffre on Pentecostal Partying:

Pentecost Sunday is past. We are now in Ordinary Time. You have been given the Holy Spirit. The Kingdom is come in you. The Kingdom makes demands, it pricks in the heart. Live a life that demands the question, what meaneth this?

And if I may suggest it, perhaps you’d like to do that with the emphasis that I’ve chosen for my own good-spell telling: unapologetic feasting. Listen, these are not drunken as you suppose; they are filled with joy, and the Holy Ghost.

…

If you are single-mindedly obsessed with saving the world, you will look ridiculous. If you act as if God is your joy and comfort, as if all your needs will be met by him, you will look ridiculous.

Live the sort of profligately joyful life that the world could only call foolhardy. As if the resources of all of Creation were yours. Because they are; your Father has promised them to you. Suffer and rejoice. Feast in your poverty. Give alms; care for widows; you will always have enough. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. Continue Reading…

In Against Christianity, Bible - Acts, Bible - Joel, Church Calendar, Culture, Justice & Mercy, Pentecost, Sabbath, Theology - Pneumatology, Wisdom
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Good Works as Starting Glory-Fires

February 23, 2012 — Leave a comment

Please note: All the best stuff in here is cheerfully and unabashedly stolen from James Jordan.

Servant Leadership Talk for Knight’s Festival at Logos School

“Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Mt. 5:14-16)

Introduction
I’ve been asked to speak to you about service, being servants as Christians to and for the world. Jesus says that our good works are part of the light that we are commanded to shine before men. I want to talk to you today about light and fire and how they are related to serving others.

In the Beginning
In the beginning God created the world. Everything He made was good except for the fact that Adam was alone. That was not good. So God made the woman out of the side of Adam, and He brought the woman to help Adam and then it was all good. It is not good for man to be alone, and this is not just a statement about bachelors. This is a principle for humanity in general. Isolation is not good. God made people to live in community, to help each other, to serve each other. God made Adam out of the “adamah” which is the ground, the dirt. God made the woman out of the side of man and called her “ishah” which comes from the word for “fire.” In fact, Adam is also given a new name at the very moment that the woman is created and named. He is named “ish” which is obviously also related to the word “fire.” When the glory flame is cut out of Adam’s side, he is glorified. He is lit on fire. When he marries “ishah,” he receives a new name too. They are called “Adam” together, and the man can be called by that name. But they are called “Ish” and “Ishah” respectively. The help and companionship of the woman glorifies the man.  Continue Reading…

In Bible - Exodus, Bible - Genesis, Bible - Matthew, Bible - Romans, Justice & Mercy, Lent, Pentecost, Theology - Ecclesiology, Theology - Pneumatology
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Holiness is a Mighty Fortress

October 31, 2011 — Leave a comment

I have a Meditation for All Hallows Eve up over at Credenda.

 

In Church, Church Calendar, Pentecost, Theology - Ecclesiology, Theology - Pneumatology
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Word made Flesh

June 23, 2011 — Leave a comment

Luke says of the transfiguration that Elijah and Moses “appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem” (Lk. 9:31).

Literally, Luke says that they talked of His “exodus” which He was about to “fulfill” in Jerusalem.

As Matthew’s use of the word “fulfill” also indicates, Jesus means to exemplify, embody, incarnate the words of Moses and the Prophets. He is the Word made flesh, and therefore He becomes the words of the law and the prophets. He is the archetype toward which all of the words of the Old Testament pointed. The Old Covenant words were all types and shadows of the Christ. They were signs of God coming in the flesh.

And Luke’s summary of the conversation between Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, emphasizes this point. Jesus came to fulfill the exodus. He came to do what the original exodus pointed toward. He came to “fill up” and “fill out” all that the original exodus and all the other mini-exoduses only previewed and pointed to. Continue Reading…

In Bible - 1 Peter, Bible - Exodus, Bible - Luke, Pentecost, Sola Scriptura, Theology - Pneumatology
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Somehow Joy

June 16, 2011 — Leave a comment

There is always the danger of the health and wealth gospel. This dime store Jesus puts out like a hooker, and the shyster pastors on TV are his pimps. We have no use for such healer and dealer players.

But on the other side of the spectrum, we have the Puddleglums of Christendom who are functional third cousins of the first century heretic Marcion. They have a different version of the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Bible, performing a sort of Jeffersonian surgery on the Scriptures, leaving only Job and Ecclesiastes and all the other painful and creepy bits that celebrate their depression and angst and confusion.

There’s a sick sort of comfort in the false gospel proclamation: life sucks. It’s as if we believe that if we can just say this mantra out loud, if we can just put it into words and stick this ingratitude on our bumper somewhere, the fact that we feel like God and the world and everyone and their little sister have given us the royal shaft, then we feel better. And every day these puddleglummers mount their whiner defenses with more proof: disease, death, murder, abuse, traffic jams, the TSA, Lady Gaga. Continue Reading…

In Culture, Grace, Justice & Mercy, Lent, Pentecost, Wisdom
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This Christmas Life

June 15, 2011 — Leave a comment

Life in the Garden of Eden was an invitation to Christmas every day.

The Garden had two Christmas trees: one for now, one for later. And the place was piled up high with presents: fruit and plants and animals, sunsets, natural springs, and love, all wrapped by our loving Father with the glory of the Spirit.

And when we rebelled, when Adam and Eve disobeyed, we rejected this Christmas life. We rejected the gifts, rejected the joy, rejected the merry life. We scorned our Father. We grieved the Spirit.

The Christian faith is an invitation back into this Christmas life. The Christian faith is an invitation back into the Garden, back to the Christmas Tree of Life, back to life piled high with gifts and joy and merriment.

This is not because Christians never have anything bad happen to them. We do not live in a different dimension. We do not pretend to live in a different universe. No, the Christian faith merely recognizes that every human being naturally rejects this Christmas life. We are all like Adam and Eve, insane rebels, and we daily scorn the gifts of the Spirit. We pretend that life and health and happiness are random, automatic, or that we deserve them, and we shake our fists at the God who continues to graciously give them. We refuse to give thanks to the Giver and refuse to read the instruction manual that came with this mind-blowing gift we call life.

The Christian faith recognizes that the only way out of this dead end existence is not by looking at our problems, not at our failures, not at ourselves, but looking to Jesus who suffered and died to put everything right and who was raised from the dead proving that it will be. Jesus suffered and died to free every slave from the prison of this rebellion. We love our sin, and we hate the God who made us. But He is still intent on Christmas, still intent on Christmas for this entire sorry world.

This is the good news of the Kingdom, the good news that the Christmas life begins by faith, by trusting God, the original Father Christmas, who gives us every good and perfect gift. And who has proven this through the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ and the gift of His Holy Spirit.

This is Pentecost: Merry Christmas in June (and every day).

 

In Bible - Genesis, Christmas, Church Calendar, Creation, Pentecost, Theology - Soteriology
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