Tag: jesus christ

Acts 1:1-11 – When Will We Engage in Our Ministry?

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment

In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

When will we engage in our ministry? The short answer: Now.

The angels in this story sound a lot like my mom when I was a kid: “Why are you just standing there looking into an empty sky?  You need to quit your gawking and get to work!”

But sometimes we can be confused about what it is we are supposed to be about or when we are supposed to do it. Jesus was quite clear about what the mission of his followers is to be: witnesses.  And the angels essentially tell the disciples to quite their gawking and get to work on being witnesses.

Being a Witness Now

The mission is not simply to do some sort of evangelical job of witnessing, but to be a witness. What we do flows from who we are and what we have seen. If we have seen and experienced the risen Lord, we are witnesses. We then tell of what we have seen and heard, not necessarily because it’s our job, but because we just cannot help it.

A mom nurtures her kids because she is a mom; it isn’t just a job – it’s who she is. To be a witness involves the kind of people we are. The word “witness” is literally the term “martyr.”  A martyr, as the term has been used throughout church history, is:

  • One who chooses to suffer death rather than deny the person and work of Jesus Christ.
  • One who bears testimony to the truth of what they have seen or have experienced with God.
  • One who sacrifices all things to further God’s kingdom.
  • One who is willing to endure anything from anyone to maintain their Christian witness. 

A martyr is someone we are, not a task that gets checked off a to do list.

There is a clear mandate and mission given by Jesus, the Head of the Church: We are witnesses. We are participants in service to Christ the King, and not fans of Jesus only cheering in the bleachers. It’s a very different experience being a fan in the stands than a player on the field.

In baseball, some fans think they know what all the right calls are, then graciously let the umpire know when he is wrong. Being a spectator is significant. Yet, for us here on this earth, it is not yet our time for that. Those who have gone before us, lived in faith, and were martyrs, are testifying to us….

Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect….

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses [martyrs], let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, (Hebrews 11:36-40, 12:1, NIV)

The Christian fans in the heavenly stands are witnessing that they have participated in God’s mission. And they are not unruly – spilling their beer on people and getting kicked out of the stadium. Instead, they are encouraging us who are here, right now, on this earth, seeking to fulfill Christ’s mandate.

Those who have gone before us are passing the baton of leadership and the message of good news to us – and they expect us to run with it – not to try and sit in the stands as spectators because it is not yet our time.  They are cheering us on, letting us know it’s all worth it.

Now is the time to be witnesses of what God in Christ has done and is doing. God created a perfect world. Man and woman fell into disobedience and sin. Now, God is in the business of restoring and renewing all creation. So, we are to witness to what God has done, and is doing, because our identity is thoroughly in Jesus Christ. It is our heritage and our privilege.

“Let God be the Judge. Your job today is to be a witness.”

Warren Wiersbe

In the 1990s a Christian prisoner in Cuba was asked to sign a statement containing charges against fellow Christians that would lead to their arrest. He said, “The chain keeps me from signing this.” The communist officer protested, “But you are not in chains!” “I am,” said the Christian. “I am bound by the chain of witnesses who throughout the centuries gave their lives for Jesus Christ. I am a link in this chain. I will not break it.”

Christ’s words are directed to us: “You will be my witnesses,” you and me. If we look at this as merely a task, we will likely give up and whine, saying, “This is too hard. It takes too much time. There’s too much suffering. This isn’t for me!” 

If we understand our identity as being a witness, then we will love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We willingly abandon our own personal agendas and adopt the will of God for our lives. And the will of God is that we embrace our identity as witnesses to the redemptive events of Jesus – Christ’s incarnation, holy life, compassionate ministry, suffering and death, rising from the grave, and ascending to heaven.

What do you have to witness to? Here is a teenage girl’s witness when he stood glaring at her, his weapon before her face, asking, “Do you believe in God?” She paused because it was a life or death question. “Yes, I believe in God.” “Why?” asked her executioner. But he never gave her the chance to respond. The 17-year-old girl lay dead at his feet. 

This scene could have happened in the Roman coliseum, in the Middle Ages, or in any number of countries around the world today. People are still being imprisoned, tortured, and killed every day because they refuse to deny the name of Jesus. This particular story, though, did not happen in ancient times or in another country. It happened at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado on April 20, 1999.

Being a Witness Everywhere to Everyone Now

The original witnesses of Jesus Christ embraced the mandate of being witnesses. Not far into the New Testament book of Acts, 3,000 people in Jerusalem were converted to Christianity through one sermon from Peter’s witness. Philip broke all kinds of taboos by going to Samaria and being a witness to the half-breed Samaritans. Peter broke all convention by going into a Gentile’s house and seeing the Spirit come on them. Saul, who became Paul, was dramatically converted and went on three separate missionary journeys so that he could take the good news of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.

We are to be witnesses wherever we go with whomever we encounter. We will be witnesses in Jerusalem (our families); in Judea (our community); in Samaria (other races and people different from ourselves); and, to the ends of the earth (overseas).

Being a Witness Through the Spirit’s Empowerment Now

Only after giving the mission to his followers did Jesus ascend to heaven. The ascended Lord is to be our confidence and our hope. We are not alone. We possess Christ’s authority and the Spirit’s help. The power to be a witness is not generated from within us but comes from God’s Spirit.

Jesus will return. Until then, we are to be his witnesses. It’s not the time to sit in the bleachers. We have been given power to accomplish the mission before the end of this world comes, and before Jesus comes again to judge the living and the dead.

Being a witness is not a one-time, one-size-fits-all work. Our own witness is just that: ours. We all have our own stories of faith and experiences of the risen and ascended Christ. There’s really nothing flashy or sexy about being a witness. Rather, it mostly entails a consistent and patient witness of love. It’s a lifestyle and a way of life in which our love for God pours out of our heart and soul and is expressed with all our mind and strength.

Every Christian can witness to what God is doing in their life – to tell our story of what God has done and is doing with us.

Holy God, you are making all things new through your gracious reconciling and restorative work. Grant us, your people, the vision to see you at work in our world healing our brokenness and making us new. Grant us the wisdom to hear your voice through the noise that surrounds us. And grant us the courage to bring to fruition the world you are creating, through Jesus Christ our Lord, in the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Luke 11:37-52 – Calling Them Out

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
Pharisees by German painter Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, 1912

When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so, he went in and reclined at the table. But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.

Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.

“Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.

“Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces.

“Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it.”

One of the experts in the law answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.”

Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.

“Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them. So, you testify that you approve of what your ancestors did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. Because of this, God in his wisdom said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.’ Therefore, this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.

“Woe to you experts in the law because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.” (New International Version)

“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”

Socrates

An outward showy spirituality means little to nothing – and it actually results in injustice and a lack of concern for others. Conversely, paying attention to the inner person has the effect of making our outer actions helpful and healing.

As you can tell from today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus had no use for the showy kind of spirituality. He was looking for a generous spirit of love and justice, willing to share with others from altruistic and benevolent motives. Instead, he got bupkis.

The woes Jesus pronounced on the showy spiritual charlatans were a kind of grieving and lamenting of how far astray the religious were from genuine heartfelt spirituality.

Unfortunately, there are pious people today who claim the name of Christ and slam the door of God’s kingdom in the faces of others by:

  • Saying God’s grace is for all, then turning around and avoiding certain people, calling them “sinners.”
  • Having explicit written statements or rules that exclude people from serving God.
  • Binding people to human traditions and practices instead of Holy Scripture. 
  • Declaring the seven deadly words of the Church: “We’ve never done it that way before.” 

Jesus called the religious leaders out. And rather than listening and changing, the leaders just felt insulted and offended. They refused to hear that their nit-picking religious obsessions and criticizing judgments of others kept people from accessing God’s love and justice.

The Lord’s words are pointed and hard. Jesus talked to them this way, it seems to me, because they probably wouldn’t have heard it any other way. In other words, Christ talked their language so they could hear him.

The Pharisees often get a bad rap. But they were faithful givers. They rightly and deservedly gave a tenth of everything they had. However, the problem was that they did it so they could feel really good about themselves, thereby feeling justified in neglecting the weightier matters of the law, the stuff they really didn’t want to do. 

This is the kind of mental gymnastics which is still done today, by saying, “Hey, man, I do my part. I give,” but all the while having no intention of focusing on weightier matters of justice, mercy, and faithfulness. It is essentially using money and stuff to buy off God. It is focusing on the minutia of pennies and dimes, instead of saving lives.

The weighty matters of the Law were there in the Old Testament. They just got ignored….

“This is what the Lord All-Powerful said:
‘You must do what is right and fair.
    You must be kind and
    show mercy to each other.
Don’t hurt widows and orphans,
    strangers, or poor people.
Don’t even think of doing bad things to each other!’”

But they refused to listen
    and refused to do what he wanted.
They closed their ears so that they
    could not hear what God said.
They were very stubborn
    and would not obey the law.
The Lord All-Powerful used his Spirit
    and sent messages to his people through the prophets.
But the people would not listen,
    so the Lord All-Powerful became very angry. (Zechariah 7:9-12, ERV)

Righteousness is profoundly social. It has to do with pursuing right relationships with people, not just people I like or who I feel deserve it. Jesus mentioned justice and love because these terms really have to do with our neighbors, not only our buddies and cronies. 

Any evil person can love those who love him; but the one who loves Jesus, loves the people for whom no one else cares or loves.

As God’s people, we are meant by the Lord to be forthright, frank, genuine, honest, humble, open, real, truthful, authentic, just, righteous, sincere, and upright in all our relations with others. To do otherwise is to be hypocritical.

Hypocrisy does not practice what it preaches, keeps people out of God’s kingdom, focuses on externals, and majors on the minors. Jesus loved the Pharisees enough to call them out and call them back to the true worship of God.

Because anything less than a deep concern for all humanity is not true religion.

Blessed God and Father of the universe, I am not above you and I am not the master of all things. Instead, I am your servant and your child. Help me be quick to look at myself when I am prone to look over to others. Thank you that you have wild and abundant grace for me that will never end nor let me go. Teach me your ways and help me be receptive to them, so I will not fall. I submit to your rule and reign over all things, including all my thoughts, opinions, perceptions, decisions, beliefs, and actions, through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.

1 Corinthians 15:20-34 – That’s Weird

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
“Nonsense” by Wanidaem, 2016

But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is plain that this does not include the one who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all.

Otherwise, what will those people do who receive baptism on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?

And why are we putting ourselves in danger every hour? I die every day! That is as certain, brothers and sisters, as my boasting of you—a boast that I make in Christ Jesus our Lord. If with merely human hopes I fought with wild animals at Ephesus, what would I have gained by it? If the dead are not raised,

“Let us eat and drink,
    for tomorrow we die.”

Do not be deceived:

“Bad company ruins good morals.”

Come to a sober and right mind, and sin no more; for some people have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame. (New Revised Standard Version)

There was a lot of goofiness going on with the Corinthian church.

That’s why the Apostle Paul’s first letter is long and filled with addressing a variety of problems. Some of those issues we can understand and relate to, and some we don’t have much of a clue what’s really going on. I tend to think that because the Corinthian believers tended to keep some bad company, a lot of weird stuff pops up, like vicarious baptisms for the dead. Where the heck did that come from?

“Weird Blue Painting” by Matthew Freese

Well, what we do know is that when Jesus told good old Peter the fisherman to leave his nets behind and become a fisher of people, catching them was only half the work. Cleaning them takes a lot of work, too.

I have done my share of fishing in life (both real fish and real people), and I can say that cleaning fish is a messy affair. Just as a fish gets gutted, so a person, caught for Jesus, needs to be eviscerated of all the worldly entrails of sin. And that didn’t completely happen with the Corinthians.

Rather than hanging out with the goofy weird dudes who are saying and doing only God knows what, Paul brought the Corinthians back to the center of the gospel. He reeled them into Christ’s resurrection.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from death is the penultimate event of securing victory from sin’s guilt and shame, as well as death’s sting. It’s the resurrection which enables every Christian to realize the power of cutting out the weird and goofy stuff of worldly sin for the meat of Christ’s words and ways.

Because Christ arose with a real physical body, we, too, will experience a bodily resurrection. This means, as believers in Jesus, we are not to have a goofy approach that resurrection is all spiritual with nothing physical going on, as if the body were just some weird container for the soul that we have to put up with here on earth.

Whenever that weird thinking takes place, people do goofy things, believing they can do whatever the heck they want, since the body is like a paper plate that we’ll just toss in the garbage when we’re done with it. Christ’s kingdom ethics and physical morality ends up taking a back seat to ethereal philosophical musings. Leave it to the Greek Corinthians to do mental gymnastics in order to live however they want. Sometimes, when I read Paul’s letter, it feels like I’m watching an old “Leave It to Beaver” episode where Beaver is having all kinds of goofy thinking and doing weird stuff because of Whitey and Larry’s bad advice.

Jerry Mathers as the Beaver

Coming back again and again to the redemptive events of Jesus helps preserve us from the esoteric bunny trails of theological goofiness. Yet, if we continue to keep company with a bunch of folks who are into power and control through the ungodly means of mistreating the body (and other people), making comparisons between the physical and the spiritual, (as if they were two completing separate identities), obsessing over their weird and unintelligible philosophies, and refusing to take responsibility for their physical actions – then, we’re going to turn goofy, just like them.

Come to your senses, Paul would say, and get your head screwed on straight. Fill the space between your two ears with proper knowledge of Christ’s resurrection, and pay attention to your hands and feet, because they are the tangible means of putting the will of God into practice.

There’s a goofy and weird “ha, ha,” and then there’s a goofy and weird “uh, oh.” Keep the “ha, ha,” avoid the “uh, oh,” and you’ll be just fine.

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy on us, your people, and grant us your wisdom and peace. Amen.

Where Will We Do Our Ministry?

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment

Welcome, friends! The Great Commission of Jesus is to go and make other disciples. To “go” doesn’t exclusively mean to travel to another place or overseas. It mostly involves the willingness to get up, go, and walk across the street, or even just across the room. Click the videos below and let us consider together how we can be the heart, hands, and feet of Jesus to the folks around us….

Pastor Tim Ehrhardt, Matthew 28:18-20

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.