Making and Maturing

Preaching is never about what you or I make happen. It is always and only about what Jesus makes happen.

-Craig Barnes

The book of Revelation gets a bad rap.  Actually, it gets the worst rap.  Most people avoid it because they are scared of beasts and dragons.  There is so much confusion regarding the meaning of the vision that most think it better to just leave it be.  On the other extreme, the book of Revelation is frequently misinterpreted, especially by those seeking to predict the end of the world.  Even well meaning Christians can get obsessed with trying to identify elements in Revelation in current world events.  Are the fire breathing locusts really apache helicopters?  For some, interpretive restraint is simply impossible.

God has given us the book of Revelation as part of his inerrant word.  He wants us to benefit from it.  While most of Revelation deals with the future, the point of this revelation is to impact our present.  For this reason, we need to reclaim Revelation from apocalyptic enthusiasts and from relegation to the back room of our spiritual lives.

There is so much in Revelation that is immediately relevant and applicable in our lives.  In Revelation the Spirit of God stokes the fire of faith in our hearts as we live in the midst of a corrupt, sinful world.  In Revelation God speaks to issues of worship, persecution, judgment of sin, integrity, sexual purity, politics, economics, witness to the world around us, how to be a Christian in the world of business, how to relate to secular society and culture, and more.

Revelation is not meant to give us a timeline of future events.  To read it for this purpose is to miss the point.  We will learn some very important truths about the future in Revelation, but none of those are meant to give us a play by play map so that we can predict the end of the world.

So let’s take Revelation back.  Let’s seriously look at this neglected and abused part of God’s word.  Let’s take time to consider how God wants us to change now in light of what is coming.

…the here-and-now look quite different when they are opened to transcendence.

-Richard Bauckham on John’s vision of heaven in Revelation.

It’s not enough to remember that Jesus died.  It’s crucial, mind you, but not enough.  Almost all reasonable historians agree that Jesus lived in Israel from 5 or 6 BC until 32 AD.  They further agree that Jesus died by crucifixion.  Christians especially remember Jesus’ death on “Good” Friday.  Why do we call it “good” Friday? Why was it “good” that Jesus died?  On the purely semantic level, wouldn’t Jesus’ enemies think it was “good” that he died?  Isn’t that what the corrupt leadership in the Sanhedrin wanted?  Isn’t that what Satan wanted?

You see, it’s not enough to remember that Jesus died.  We have to remember what Jesus was doing by his dying for it to be good.  An incomplete view of what Jesus did by dying robs his death of its goodness (read: greatness).  So what was Jesus doing when he died?  There are all kinds of answers to this question in the Bible.  Let’s consider just a few as we prepare for “Good” Friday:

1.  Jesus’ death was “for our sins.”  As Paul said in his summary of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:3, “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.”  In 2 Corinthians 5:21 Paul says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin…”  Peter said in 1 Peter 2:24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree…”  When Jesus was dying he was doing something about our sins.  Don’t limit this to the corporate sins of Western Culture, or the cumulative effect of all sin.  Jesus died for your sin.  Don’t miss that it’s personal.

2.  Jesus took upon himself our sins; he died as our representative.  In so doing, Jesus paid the penalty for our sins.  In Colossians 2:13-14 Paul describes how God makes sinners alive, “having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”  Jesus’ death paid the debt of our sin owed to God.  

3.  Because Jesus died for our sins, as our representative, he secures our forgiveness, righteous standing before God, and eternal blessing.  In Hebrews 2:17 the author of Hebrews says that Jesus had to be like us “to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”  A propitiation is a means of mercy as a wrath-satisfying sacrifice.  Jesus himself said in Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  He was the ransom paid for our forgiveness.  Again in 2 Corinthians 5:21 Paul said, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  Jesus’ death makes us holy by making payment for our sin and providing righteousness for us.

4.  Jesus’ death brings us healing and peace.  Peter, as well, said in 1Peter 2:24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”  Peter quotes here from Isaiah 53:5, “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”  In Romans 5:1 Paul says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

5.  Jesus’ death displays God’s incredible love for us.  In Romans 5:8 Paul reminds us that “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  Paul says in Ephesians 2:4-5, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…”  

Jesus’ death was the culmination of God’s rescue plan for sinners.  It was the completion and fulfillment of the sacrificial system established for Israel in the Old Testament.  He died as our substitute, so that our sins could be forgiven and so that we could be declared righteous in God’s sight.

Let’s be explicit about what Jesus was doing when he was dying.  Let’s talk about it as friends, family, and Christians.  This Friday many will remember that Jesus died.  Sadly, many will not remember what Jesus was doing when he was dying.  If we miss what Jesus was doing when he died, we take the “good” right out of “good” Friday.

…and the word of God continued to increase and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem.

-Acts 6:7

The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is the pivotal point of all of history.  Thankfully, the world could not be the same after Jesus’ ministry.  This year at GPBC on Easter Sunday, April 20th, we will embark on an exegetical journey through the book of Acts.  Here’s a sneak preview of what we will find:

The good news about Jesus (the gospel) spread.  Rapidly.  Miraculously.  Exponentially.  In Acts we read about the “increase” of God’s Word (6:7), that “the word of God increased and multiplied” (12:24), that “the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily” (16:5), and that “the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily” (19:20).  

Acts tells us the story of the advance of God’s word.  It advanced geographically from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria, and the expanse of the Roman Empire.  It advanced ethnically in people groups; starting from exclusively Jewish believers the gospel spread to Gentile populations.  Acts concludes with the gospel landing in Rome, the mighty capital of the empire.  As Darrell Bock said, “This pictures the movement of God’s promise into all the world.”

We learn in Acts that God will bless his church and cause it to grow.  This means that the advance of God’s word doesn’t end in Rome in 62 AD.  It continued to advance, and the church continued to grow.  As believers in Jesus Christ we must ask ourselves, is the word of God advancing in our hearts?  As a church we must ask, what are we doing to advance God’s word in our community?  

We will hear of conversions, testimonies before governments, healings, martyrdoms, imprisonments, worship services, journeys across the world, beatings, jail breaks, shipwrecks, and snake bites.  All along this tumultuous journey we will be comforted by the truth that it is God who is advancing his Word.  Above all else the world must know that salvation only comes through faith in Jesus Christ.  

Spread the word: we embark on this journey Sunday, April 20th.