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On August 6, 2020 By In Church, Worship

Sleep In On Sunday

My family hops into the van (sometimes rather frantically) on Sunday mornings and buckle up for the ride through our small city to church. On the way down our street and around the corner we see knocked over trash cans, random articles of clothing, and maybe a stray pit-bull roaming the back alleys. Our town is in desperate need of renovation. The kids have a hard time comprehending the state of our city, but my wife and I know that the blue, brick house we just passed was busted last night for drugs, the boarded up duplex was once a meth lab, and the neighborhood barber shop near Queen St. closed its doors for good just a week or two ago. But every other Sunday I will holler to the back of the van, “Where are we going?” My son replies, “To heaven.”

Israel’s return to Jerusalem after her captivity is recorded in Psalm 126, a psalm of ascent. These psalms of ascent were often sung as the people of Israel made their walk up to the temple mount to worship the Lord. In the first verse of this psalm (126) the Psalmist says, “We were like those who dream.” Have you ever tried to picture what that looked like? I imagine the puffy, red eyes of my sons as I look in the rearview mirror on that Sunday drive. They still glimmer with the dreams from just a few hours ago. Jacob’s dream at Bethel in Genesis 28 has come to mind many times as my family has stumbled into the van on Sunday mornings. What did Jacob say after he took his nap on the rock at Bethel? “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” Surely the Lord is in this city, but do we know it? Does this city know it?

If you’ve read the bible at all, you’d know that dreams are rather important and are often prophetic (Gen. 37; Dan. 2; Acts 2:17). Jacob’s dream is no different in this respect. He arrives at a city named Luz on his way to Haran and stops because the sun had set. He grabs a rock as a pillow and begins to sleep. Jacob dreams of a ladder between heaven and earth, the angels of God ascending and descending on it, and a voice from the Lord above saying that He will grant Jacob descendants as numerous as the dust of the earth – the whole earth will be blessed through him. The Lord had met with Jacob at Bethel; He had made that place a portal to heaven itself. So, it would make sense for Jacob to name it “house of God”. You’d expect to find God in His own house. And it would also make sense that Jacob would be forever changed by that experience. I can imagine him rubbing his sleepy, wearied eyes in the morning eventually revealing a face glowing with excitement. It is quite the dream after all.

Many-a-theologian have pointed out that the ladder in Jacob’s dream is a picture of our Lord Jesus, the bridge between man and God (earth and heaven). This is true, of course. But it is also true that Jacob is a picture of Jesus. It is no coincidence that Jacob lays his head on a rock, that he rests, and that his dream shows a portal between heaven and earth. Jesus’s tomb, in which He rested His wearied head in death, was hewn out of rock and covered with a stone (Matt. 27:60). The rocky mountain in Jerusalem was the site of the Lord’s House built by Solomon (1 Chron. 28). Jesus said that no stone would be left unturned in this temple’s destruction and that He’d raise it up in three days (John 2). Jesus is the Temple built on a rock; He is the rock itself (the chief cornerstone). He is the source of our rest from labor and weariness (Matt. 11:28). In Him we awake from our slumber of death. In Him we ascend into the heavenly places and sit at the right hand of God the Father (Eph. 2:6). He is the portal between heaven and earth. And if Christ is the true Jacob, surely His body is as well.

The fourth commandment requires the Church to rest on the Sabbath and to keep it holy. Have you ever thought of that command in this light? Our Lord commands that you rest in the worship of the Church. He not only commands you to rest, but He wants you to dream. Every week our Lord calls us into His house to sleep, to rest from our troubles. He puts us to sleep with the confession of sin – putting to death the old man and creating you anew. He speaks to you from the heavenly places in His Word and declares the promise that this whole earth will be covered with the blessing of His salvation. Just as he promised Jacob, He gives you bread to eat (Gen. 28:20); He serves you heavenly food. And He awakens you to a new life in which you know God even more. The worship of God’s people is a heavenly dream.

As we leave the heavenly domain of the liturgy, we often rub our eyes, give a good stretch (maybe a yawn), and forget what we just dreamed. We are a forgetful bunch. We get our families packed back in our vans and head down main street. Back to earth we go. We pass the knocked over trash cans, the empty shopping carts, and the same drug addicts on their stoops. Do we remember the voice of our Lord? Do we remember His words? Can we still see the dream? Heaven meeting earth, descendants spreading throughout the world, all families being blessed, an earth calling for redemption – for rest. Your neighbors need to see those puffy, red eyes of one who just saw heaven. They need hope. They need rest from their weary lives of sin and death. The sun may have set in our city, but there are still those who dream. There are still those who meet with God. God is most certainly in our city, but there are still those who don’t know it yet.

This heavenly dream that you enter each week is not just meant for you. It is meant for your street, your block, your city. This dream should be proclaimed in the town square, in board meetings, at homeschool co-ops, and city council meetings. Our lives should be marked with the rest of God. So, when you load up to head home from church on Sunday, crack your back, fix your hair, and live like you believe that heavenly vision. Because one day this whole earth, your city included, will be God’s house of rest and dreams.

My son yells from the back of the van, “Where are we going now, dad?” The correct answer is, “Back to earth, son. But we’re taking heaven with us.”

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On July 28, 2020 By In Church

In Praise of the Small-Church Pastor

Half of the American churches have less than 75 people. In fact, some of the pastors I most respect are in very small churches doing the work of the Lord with little recognition. I am fully aware there are leaders in small churches who take advantage of the church’s volatility and offer little positive impulse to see the church grow numerically, and who spend little time preparing for sermons and teaching, and thus place the church in an unending coma until the money runs dry and they are forced to close the doors altogether. But my experience is that that scenario is far from the norm.

The more common scenario is the pastor of a small church who goes above and beyond; who visits parishioners, eats with his people, seeks the well-being of the flock, prepares attentively to the text of Scriptures and loves his parish. In some cases, he is bi-vocational attending to his financial needs in whatever profession God called him to exercise and then using his remaining energy to serve small flocks who hunger for truth and the application of the Bible in their lives.

These men are honorable! They fight the good fight sometimes in rural places knowing that their congregations will likely not grow much due to its locale, but they still press on faithfully in the call of the Gospel to equip the saints (Eph. 4:12). They are not moved by sexy advertisements or flashy models of leadership; they simply plod along with the stamina given them by God, rather than the applause of men.

To these pastors during this pandemic, I want to encourage you to serve with joyful hearts and to not allow the discouragement of even smaller numbers on Sundays to keep you from your cause. I want you to remember that if you are faithful to your call in these times of uncertainty, God will reward you. Do not grow weary in well-doing, but grow firmly in doing good to the people of God.

The world, even the Christian world, will pay little attention to what you have to say or do during this time, but our Lord sees you. So, stay in the fight, continue to exhort and to lift up your voices for in the desert of the Lord even the flowers blossom and the manna falls from heaven.

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On July 27, 2020 By In Church

When Dispensationalists Acts Like Reformers!

The 81-year-old John MacArthur is no stranger to controversy. Several decades ago, he penned a few books on Lordship that became best-sellers. Little did he know that evangelicals were interested in deep theology. Back then, he was concerned that Christians were taking the Gospel call to discipleship too flippantly. He noted that “the gospel call to faith presupposes that sinners must repent of their sin and yield to Christ’s authority.” The proposition was simple, but the opposition was massive.

Fast forward three decades, the octogenarian is still preaching each Sunday at Grace Community Church in California on the Lordship of Jesus. My differences with John MacArthur over the years have been significant, though what I find as I get older is that my admiration for pastors who have fought the good find for over 50 years increases. Adding to the list of controversies in MacArthur’s history is his now nationally recognized position that Jesus is Lord over governments and it is the duty of ecclesiastical bodies to disobey the government when it forbids worship (see Saturday’s post).

As a result of this decision to keep the church doors open, there are some indications that the local governments plan to shut down electricity should this happen again. This may be a mere threat as a way of discouraging gatherings. I would find that appalling, but California has been appalling for a long time.

MacArthur’s decision has been met with mixed reviews. Those who acquiesce to the status quo and say that MacArthur has no right to defy the government on the matter of worship and that we should submit to it willingly are mistaken, and I confess at this point, have only fragments of my respect. Others, more coherent voices, have articulated that there are some additional options that MacArthur has not contemplated and that he should do so as a way of setting a good example to other churches. It should be noted that these same voices are also cheering on the decision of J.D. Greer to cancel corporate gathering until 2021 and establish “house church” models until then. I cannot even begin to tell you the danger of such an approach, especially considering the after effects of decisions like these to the ecclesiastical ethos of modern evangelicals. These decisions assume that evangelicals in this country have a high ecclesiology. This can be the point of no-return for many large churches.

One response to MacArthur that caught my attention is that the elders of Grace Community Church should consider that this is not the right battle for our time. The real battle is the LGBT community and that the church should save energy to exercise those muscles on that issue instead of “spending down our capital on pandemics.”

But it has been over 150 days since the pandemic started! When is it time to say enough?! The problem is not exercising our muscles on this issue, the problem is not exercising strongly enough! We have caved into the either-or dilemma. The Christian church possesses the keys of heaven and hell (Mat. 16:19), therefore she does not have to wait to exercise anything at a future date, she should be ready to exercise her authority whenever she deems right.

The LGBT issue will come, but if the church cannot establish the centrality of worshiping as one now–with whatever protocols necessary for the protection of the saints–she will have no stamina or logic or grace to take on other pressing matters later. Once again, the proposition is simple and the opposition will surely be massive.

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On July 26, 2020 By In Church, Culture, Theology, Wisdom

A Wedding Song: Psalm 45

In the beginning, there was an infant king, naked and alone. From his side God created his bride and brought her to him, blessed them, and commanded them to take dominion over the creation, shaping the earth after the image of heaven. They were placed in a garden on a mountain that had a river running through it that flowed from the top of the mountain, through the garden, and then split into four, symbolically flowing to the four corners of the earth. Downriver were all sorts of treasures of gold, silver, and precious stones waiting to be unearthed, purified, and shaped into beautiful adornments for the garden, the woman, and the man himself.

When the man and the woman fell into sin, they were exiled from the garden. They were restored by God and reissued the dominion mandate, but they would now have to fight the curse of sin. They would have to get back into the garden bringing with them the glories of creation. Reentrance required that the man take the lead, enduring the flaming swords of the cherubim, die, be resurrected, and then retrieve his bride from exile along with all of the treasures of creation. There creation’s king and queen would be united in a new, resurrection marriage, adorned with the splendors of creation.

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On July 24, 2020 By In Church

Remember Your Pastors

When John Calvin was dying in 1564, he called some of his closest friends to gather around him. Among them the gifted Hebraist Michel Cop, the precocious Nicolas Colladon, the brilliant Theodore Beza and others. He spoke with them about his early days in the ministry in Geneva, the hostility he faced; he defended his ministry and interpretation of Scriptures, and then the great leader of the Reformation took the time to apologize for his short temper during his long illness. He then shook the hands of each of his colleagues as they departed with a heavy heart.

I am moved by that entire scene especially as this company of pastors bonded over such fruitful ministries. They fought together to re-build a city after the laws of King Jesus, they navigated intense civil unrest, worked tirelessly to ensure that the people of Geneva received the best Christian education possible as they were now exposed to the teachings of Scriptures unhindered by ecclesiastical bureaucracy.

We need a new company of pastors who will support each other in times of turmoil, when revolts are on the horizon, and the Word of God is mocked everywhere. Pastors have faced difficulty in every century, but no other time in history has pastoral burnout, discouragement, and sadness so characterized the office of the clergy. The harsh reality of pastoral suicide among celebrity and local pastors in our day in America exemplifies this sad trend in evangelicalism. In fact, studies show that there has been an increase in suicides among evangelical pastors in the last 30 years. The reasons are many, but here is a small sample:

“More than half of evangelical and Reformed pastors told the Schaeffer Institute in 2015 and 2016 that although they’re happier (79 percent), they don’t have any good and true friends (58 percent). About the same number reported they can’t meet their church’s unrealistic expectations (52 percent). And close to a third battle discouragement (34 percent) or depression/the fear of inadequacy (35 percent) on a regular basis.”

The average stay of a pastor in a local church or in the pastorate altogether is under five years. Suffice to say, no pastor, no matter how gifted, can establish any form of vision or identity in that short amount of time. This needs to stop!

I have spent the last 6 years taking classes, reading, and am in the process or writing on this very topic because it not only impacts me as a pastor, but I have seen the dreadful eyes of death too close among my dear pastor friends. Many of them will never have the privilege of gathering friends on their deathbed and talk about their war stories and their tireless defense of the faith.

There are various ways to fight this trend, and there are practical ways to see this reversed in our generation. But the parishioner needs to see this reality loud and clear. Pastors do not enter the ministry for glory; they do not carry the burdens of the people for pleasure; they don’t maintain confidentiality for leisure; they don’t deal with division for the fun of it; they do all these things under the authority of the Great Shepherd who called us to this holy calling to serve the flock and to satisfy our Christ.

Pray for your leaders for they watch over your soul (Heb. 13:17). They desire your good and your prosperity under His good hands. Remember their labors and petition God to give them strength sermon after sermon, eucharist after eucharist, counseling after counseling, writing after writing. As the Apostle writes, “Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.”

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On July 22, 2020 By In Church

RIP, Church, 2020

I wrote in the early days of this brouhaha that the powers that be, especially those who rhyme with “schmalities and trowers,” are committed to a utopia vision where the common Christian is viewed as an enemy of the people for wishing ordinary things to continue as usual.

Comforts and protocols aside, the end game is perhaps not so much an intentional move to destroy Christendom (though there is some clear examples of that), but to diminish its impact so much that it becomes trivial in commerce and culture. Christians who add nothing to societal values are perfect candidates for wokedom.

Adding to this proliferation of weakness, the problem is not simply that certain civil leaders are seeking the demise of church life (which only functions in the liturgy of its natural Sunday morning habitat), the problem is that church leaders are complicit in this act. Churches great and small, from Andy Stanley to the little Baptist church down the road won’t re-open until 2021. Barna estimates 5% of churches in America are closed, shut down until the blessed year of our Lord Twenty-Twenty-One. Church, R.I.P. 2020!

The alternative of virtual worship has proven a complete failure. Again, Barna estimated that after 4 weeks into “virtual life” a vast majority of Christians no longer sit with their pjs’ and ojs’ in front of a screen. But again, this shouldn’t surprise any of us who affirm the Incarnation of Messiah.

There are folks who will naturally need to stay home, and then there are some folks who probably need the community of worship more than they ever have in their whole lives. I do not opine to say that all the answers are easy. Good order and grace are needed ingredients in our day. However, the Christian willingly never gives up his fellowship. He fights and contends for such a faith until there is nothing left to give but his own body.

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On June 14, 2020 By In Church, Culture, History, Politics, Theology, Worship

Kingdom Revolution

We are in the midst of a revolution. Societal structures are being overturned and a new order of government is taking over. Old symbols of tyranny are being toppled. The way we live in relationship with one another is being redefined. Our understandings of what constitutes justice and peace are being reshaped. Language itself is being transformed. Logic and rationality are being turned upside down so that not just what we think but how we think are being radically transformed.

This is what happens in revolution because a revolution is the overturning of one culture and the creation of another.

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On June 13, 2020 By In Church, Culture, Politics

The Priorities of Priests and Protests

It is a remarkable thing, you know, this thing called priority. Just a few weeks ago religious leaders were boldly asserting in their high-dollar on-line videos that it was too dangerous to return to worship and that we needed to listen to our political and health leaders. “They are the experts,” they told us. And so a vast amount of compliant people stayed home following the orders of their health czars and most religious leaders quickly concurred. For some now, it has been 1/3 of the year away from church; that’s approximately 121 days without the church “out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation.” (WCF 25.2)

The shocking reality, as Barna pointed out recently, most evangelicals quit the virtual worship experience after four weeks. The hype and enthusiasm of pajamas and brewed coffee in front of a screen lasted no more than 30 days. As if we needed more proof, the reality of virtual worship became virtually unknown shortly after the quarantine.

Then, the tragic death of George Floyd, propelled by other sociological events, urged religious leaders to come out of their basements, put on their clerical garbs and take a stand. Letters were sent out urging pastors to speak up. Many needed practice since it had been a long rhetorical hiatus. Of course, by that time, thousands of protesters were flooding the streets everywhere. The public square was filled again. Then, and only then, did the religious leaders say, “Come, let us go do the work of the Lord!” Yes, even Michigan and New Jersey governors known for their vociferous opposition to that thing called “gathered assembly” now joined the festivities with dance and song. The media which condemned the little children from playing in the streets and prophesied doom to any who would dare take off their masks or gather in greater than the magnanimous number of 10 quickly raised the banner for the protesters.

“Thou shalt worship at home with no more than 10, but thou shalt protest with no less than thousands,” saith the media.

The Christian should and must seek the peace of the city, the welfare of its brothers and sisters, justice and mercy must kiss at the call of righteousness. To protest is the inherent right of human beings, but do you know what else is an inherent right of image-bearers? psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs, the wine and the bread, the word of God preached, the fellowship of the saints, hugs and handshakes.

That remarkable thing called priority has a way of showing us our true loves. Would that the zeal of pastors and priests be as elevated for the death of God’s Son as much as the death of one of God’s children. Perhaps one reason many of the protests have turned into a spectacle of shame and destruction is because they failed to be grounded first in the compassion of Jesus which we receive most clearly when God’s people enter his courts with praise and thanksgiving.

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On June 3, 2020 By In Church, Culture

Overcoming Division in the Spirit of Pentecost

This past Sunday, Western churches celebrated the Feast of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples gathered in Jerusalem. The Spirit came with a sound “like a mighty rushing wind” (Acts 2:2) and alighted upon the disciples in the form of tongues of fire, incorporating them, us, as the body of Christ. He brings us in to participate, through union with Christ, in the Divine life.

The Holy Spirit forms at Pentecost a New Humanity; just as the Spirit hovered over the face of the waters at creation, just as the dove is sent out by Noah over the waters when the world is judged and renewed, so now the Spirit comes over the new creation, the Church. The Spirit descended upon Christ at His Baptism in the form of a dove, and now, in union with the crucified and resurrected Christ, the Church is formed as the New Humanity.

Just what is new about this New Humanity? Much in every way. But for one, what is new is that, through the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus and effected in us by the Spirit, our fleshly divisions are overcome. Humanity since Babel is torn apart by division, marked by the confusion of language and religious confession. The story of humanity post-Babel is a story of ever-deepening division. Peter Leithart says, “Under Babelic conditions, division becomes institutionalized and permanent. After Babel, flesh separates from flesh.” a

Reversing Babel

God sets out at war against the flesh, against the dominion of sin and death. He covenants with Abraham to bless all the families of the earth. The Lord intends to put death to death and bring humanity to peace with God and with one another.

At Pentecost, the Lord reverses our Babelic division. The Spirit rushes in and breaks through the divisions of the flesh. At Babel, the Lord confused the language of the people; now, at Pentecost, “each one was hearing them speak in their own language” as the disciples proclaimed “the mighty works of God.” (Acts 2:6, 11) The story that unfolds in Acts and through the Epistles is the story of the Spirit working out this new unity in the body of Christ. We are all baptized into Christ, and in that baptismal water the Spirit does away with division between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, “for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” brought into the family of Abraham (Gal. 3:26-29). We have been made one body in Christ: “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free- and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” (1 Cor. 12:13)

The Church as Model Society

We are seeing these fleshly, Babelic divisions playing out ever-more heatedly in America today. Police brutality and abuse of power, rioting and looting, violence in the streets, deepening partisan divides, fighting over social media, all make clear that our culture is in chaos, living according to the flesh.

The only hope for our divided culture is the peace-giving Spirit of Pentecost. And this peace is found in the body of Christ, the Church. The Church is the New Humanity in Christ, where our fleshly divisions are overcome and all are one in the one Body of the Lord, where we relate to one another in self-giving love. What’s more, the Church is the model-society; we are called to embody in our communal life ideal human society, shaping the world around us. The Church is brought up into the Divine life in union with Christ and by the Spirit, we live out that life among our brethren, and we carry those gifts as we are sent out to disciple the nations.

In His High Priestly Prayer, Jesus prays that the Church will be one “so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (Jn. 17:21) Christians have no business feeling frustrated and wringing our hands about current affairs around us. It should be no surprise to us that our society is gripped by division, hatred, and fear, when there is division in the Church. Our call to the world is to repent: repent of brutality, hatred, looting, division, and embrace the peace achieved by Christ and bestowed by the Spirit. But we cannot truly expect that to happen until we repent of our own disunity as the people of God, seek peace with one another, and embody the life of self-giving love of our Triune God.

  1. Delivered from the Elements of the World, p. 86.  (back)

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On May 24, 2020 By In Church, Politics, Wisdom, Worship

Who’s In Charge Of The Church’s Worship?

When Jesus reveals himself to John on the isle of Patmos, he is holding seven stars in his right hand. (Rev 1.16) These seven stars are the angels or messengers of the seven churches (Rev 1.20) to whom Jesus will speak in chapters 2 and 3. These angels are not spirit angels but pastors of the churches. They are the ones to whom Jesus speaks directly, who are then expected to deliver his message to the churches and deal with the issues he addresses.

Symbolizing the pastors as stars is not incidental. Describing pastors as stars isn’t an empty image. Stars have a long history of governing in Scripture; a history that begins in Genesis 1. Stars, along with the sun and moon, are the lights in the firmament-heaven for “signs and festival times.” They are set up to rule the earth. (Gen 1.14-19) When Abraham was promised that his children would be as the stars in heaven, (Gen 15.5) that promise included ruling the earth. Jacob, his wife, and their sons were sun, moon, and stars in Joseph’s dream in which Joseph rules them all (Gen 37.9-11). When Isaiah describes the fall of Babylon, the rulers that will fall are stars (Isa 13.10).

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