Advent 2014: "And He Shall Be Called . . . Immanuel"

“For that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved.” This affirmation, attributed to Gregory of Nazianzus, one of the 4th Century “Cappadocian Fathers,” who articulately defended the biblical view of Christ in the face of heretical challenges, succinctly captures the fulness of the salvation that has been accomplished through the obedience of Christ. In particular, Gregory was exposing the implications of teachings offered by a man named Apollinaris of Laodicea, who claimed that the Son of God could not have assumed a human mind when he assumed our existence. 

The historic teaching of the two natures of Christ, the coexistence of the divine nature and the human nature in the one person, admits that it is a mystery, but the fact of it cannot be yielded. For, as Gregory teaches, if the Word made flesh did not take on all of our existence (with the exception of our sin) then we humans remain in bondage to ourselves with no hope of rescue. Sin has so affected us that there is nothing about us that is left untouched by its destructive power. Our bodies are filled with decay and inevitable death, and our hearts and minds are prone to idolatry. We need a savior who accomplishes a full and complete salvation. This is precisely what was the Word made flesh, Immanuel, God with Us, accomplished.

That he had a body like ours is evident in that he became tired, hungry, and thirsty; that he possessed a soul like ours is evident in that he cried, became angry, felt compassion, agonized, and loved. He also obeyed the rules of logic and could, therefore, communicate with people, express ideas. All this to say, that when the Word became flesh, he became all that we are to redeem all that we are. But if any portion of us was not assumed by our Savior then we are not saved. 

But it all was assumed by the Word become flesh, God incarnate. Beginning with conception, through gestation, birth, and maturity unto death, Immanuel lived our life and, as a result, was the perfect Redeemer. One day we will experience the fulness of his salvation when we stand in the new heavens and earth with glorified bodies and incorruptible minds. That is a destiny guaranteed by the One who healed us, body and soul. 

May we join the angels in singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Advent 2014: "And He Shall Be Called . . . Immanuel"

“For that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved.” This affirmation, attributed to Gregory of Nazianzus, one of the 4th Century “Cappadocian Fathers,” who articulately defended the biblical view of Christ in the face of heretical challenges, succinctly captures the fulness of the salvation that has been accomplished through the obedience of Christ. In particular, Gregory was exposing the implications of teachings offered by a man named Apollinaris of Laodicea, who claimed that the Son of God could not have assumed a human mind when he assumed our existence. 

The historic teaching of the two natures of Christ, the coexistence of the divine nature and the human nature in the one person, admits that it is a mystery, but the fact of it cannot be yielded. For, as Gregory teaches, if the Word made flesh did not take on all of our existence (with the exception of our sin) then we humans remain in bondage to ourselves with no hope of rescue. Sin has so affected us that there is nothing about us that is left untouched by its destructive power. Our bodies are filled with decay and inevitable death, and our hearts and minds are prone to idolatry. We need a savior who accomplishes a full and complete salvation. This is precisely what was the Word made flesh, Immanuel, God with Us, did.

That he had a body like ours is evident in that he became tired, hungry, and thirsty; that he possessed a soul like ours is evident in that he cried, became angry, felt compassion, agonized, and loved. He also obeyed the rules of logic and could, therefore, communicate with people, express ideas. All this to say, that when the Word became flesh, he became all that we are to redeem all that we are. But if any portion of us was not assumed by our Savior then we are not saved. 

But it all was assumed by the Word become flesh, God incarnate. Beginning with conception, through gestation, birth, and maturity unto death, Immanuel lived our life and, as a result, was the perfect Redeemer. One day we will experience the fulness of his salvation when we stand in the new heavens and earth with glorified bodies and incorruptible minds. That is a destiny guaranteed by the One who healed us, body and soul. 

May we join the angels in singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Advent 2014: And He Shall Be Called . . . Son of God

This past Sunday was the third Sunday in Advent. We’ve been looking at names, or designations, for the coming child. First was “Jesus,” so called because, as the angel explained, “he will save his people from their sins.” Next, was Christ (“Anointed”), indicating that the child is the long-awaited messiah who would inaugurate an eternal and blessed rule. For the third Sunday, we consider the extraordinary title “the Son of God.”

There are several ways we could go with this: a consideration of the Trinity, or the two natures of Christ, or how the label Son of God was used for earthly rulers but was of a different and superior order for Jesus. What catches my attention, however, is the coming together of the meaning of the names “Jesus” and “Son of God” in Paul’s language at the beginning of Romans 8: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus . . . For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh . . .”

The fact that the Son took on our human existence is integrally involved with his saving us from our sins. We’ve all been so profoundly and inherently affected by the failings of our first parents that we’ve been rendered incapable of meeting the demands of the law. This places us inescapably under God’s wrath. But with the arrival of the Son of God in the “likeness of sinful flesh,” there was one who could meet the law’s demands and thus break the power of the law, sin and death. By our faith union with him we share in that victory. And what a victory it is! Paul can emphatically say that there is “NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

And to add to this gracious outcome we are instructed by Paul that the Son’s taking the law, sin and death on, was so “the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Not only are we saved from condemnation, we are also saved from a life of futile striving in our own strength to meet the law’s demands. We now have the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us enabling us to pursue the righteousness and holiness to which we are called.

What an amazing reversal of outcomes. A Christmas gift worthy of thanksgiving and celebration!

Advent 2014: And He Shall Be Called . . . Christ

The angel Gabriel announced to Mary that the child that was to be conceived in her womb by the Holy Spirit, would be given by the Lord “the throne of his father David,” and he would “reign over the house of Jacob forever,” and “of his kingdom there [would] be no end.” The pronouncement signaled the fulfillment of a covenant that God had made with David some thousand years before (2 Samuel 7:12-13). What’s remarkable is that Mary didn’t need any explanation as to what the angel’s announcement meant. Neither did Simeon, or Anna, or Zechariah, or even the lowly shepherds who learned of the Christ’s birth from an angelic messenger. Despite the fact that the promise was a millennium old, the people of Israel had imbedded in their collective conscience that a Messiah, an anointed one, the anointed one, was going to come.

What would keep such a promise alive in the minds of the descendants of Abraham? Two things to suggest: the first is that it was stated by Yahweh, the one, true, and living God, whose word does not fail; the second is that with the Messiah’s arrival would come to pass all the wonderful things that had been prophesied about him, and chief among those promises was that his reign would be one marked by peace, prosperity, justice and righteousness (among the many passages see Psalm 72; Isaiah 11:1-12:6). Who wouldn't want to live under the reign of such a perfect king? Who wouldn't continue to hold fast to God’s promise no matter how long it took to fulfill?

We have even greater reason to hope than those who received Jesus into the world. He himself announced that his reign had begun (see Luke 4:14-21) and Scripture testifies that it will continue until all his enemies are subdued (Hebrews 1:1-13). The envisioned “peaceable kingdom” will come. 

What are we to do in this “already, not yet” state? Knowing what the consummation of history looks like we must help others to see it and experience it even now. If we faithfully follow our king and allow him to use us as ambassadors of his kingdom we can offer people a picture of what it’s like to live under his gracious rule. 

Advent 2014: And He Shall Be Called . . . Jesus

The name of Jesus is an ordinary name. It was in wide use during the first century AD. To the Christian, however, it is an extraordinary name. It means “Yahweh saves.” It is the name that the angel told Joseph he should name the child that would be born to Mary, his betrothed: “. . . you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Jesus is an extraordinary name for it has within it the problem that plagues humanity, the purpose for which Jesus was sent, and the promise that his purpose would be fulfilled.

All people are plagued by the same problem, they are sinners. This is because all human beings have inherited the penchant for defining their existence apart from God. This makes all human beings, in one way or the other, idolators, and idolatry is the root of sin. Idolatry places all human beings under the judgment of God. No one, therefore, escapes the need of a savior; and Jesus came to save his people from their sins.

The merciful reality is that the baby to be born will be named Jesus on purpose. Through his life, death, and resurrection he would accomplish all that was necessary to save his people from the consequences of their idolatry. He would take upon himself our need to fulfill all righteousness, and he would take upon himself the penalty due for our having not fulfilled all righteousness. He is, therefore, aptly named Jesus, “Yahweh saves,” for the purpose for which his heavenly Father sent him was to save his people from their sins.

Lastly, the name of Jesus holds within it a promise. The angel speaks with certainty of the completion of the purpose for which Jesus in named: “you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Read that statement again. He does not say, “may save,” or “might save,” or “possibly save.” He says Jesus “will save.” The angel can speak with confidence because what is unfolding in the lives of Joseph and Mary is a plan of salvation that was established in the will of God before the universe was even created (see Ephesians 1:3-14).

The name of Jesus is an extraordinary name. Indeed, it is “the name that is above every name,” and the only name “under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Philippians 2:9; Acts 4:12).

Pentecostal Preaching, Part 3

The first car I owned was a real clunker. Thankfully, it was of a pedigree that one could spend time tinkering with it to keep it going; and a lot of time was spent tinkering. At one point the gas gauge broke. Gas gauges are not an easy fix. Consequently, I drove without a working gauge, trying to judge when I next needed to fill up by how many miles I had driven. Needless to say, I ran out of gas more than once. At such times one becomes acutely aware of just how difficult it is for a car to do what a car is supposed to do without the requisite fuel in the tank. Having to push a car to the side of the road -- by yourself -- brings it home.

A task has been given to the church, a task that can no more be accomplished without the requisite fuel than a car can take a person from point A to point B without gas in the tank. This is why Jesus told his followers to tarry in Jerusalem after his ascension. He had commissioned them to bear witness to him and they needed to wait until the One who was to be sent, whose job it was was to to bear witness to Jesus (John 15:26), had descended and filled them. In His power they could, and did, carry out the task.

We are in no less need of the Holy Spirit to fulfill our role in making Jesus known than were the first followers of Christ. Persuading people to hand over the reins of their lives to an unseen Savior is not something that will be accomplished using ordinary methods of human persuasion. Mass marketing, appeals to emotions and desires, propaganda, even threat of death, will not bring a soul under the Lordship of Christ. It is only a work of the Spirit, a work of grace, that awakens a spiritually dead soul to life (John 3:3). This is why we need to pray with the early church for fresh fillings of the Spirit that we might speak “the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31). Our Spirit empowered proclamation connecting with people prepared by the Spirit to hear it, is what Jesus envisioned when he commissioned the church to be witnesses for him “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Pentecostal Preaching, Part 2

Peter stepped into the God-given moment. Through faith in Christ, he and John had healed a lame man who came daily to the temple to beg for alms. The incident caused a great stir and Peter preached to the gathered crowd. While the circumstance of the sermon was different than the first he had preached, the content reflected the same commitments: it was biblically driven, had Christ as its subject, was courageous in its pronouncements, and called for the people listening to be intellectually honest (see previous post). It was solid pentecostal preaching. There is an additional component to pentecostal preaching, however, that shows up in these seminal sermons: the call for repentance.

What is repentance? In the words of one commentator, it’s a “spiritual about face.” This definition is helpful. Peter is bold to point out to his listeners that they had conspired and “denied the Holy and Righteous One . . . and killed the Author of life.” The first thing, therefore, that the crowd needed to repent of was their antipathy toward Jesus. No longer could they regard him as they had. The categories they had placed Jesus in that allowed them to dismiss him as a charlatan had to be renounced. His divine messiahship had been vindicated in the phenomena that were taking place and a “spiritual about face” was called for.

So, added to the characteristics of what constitutes pentecostal preaching is the call for repentance. But it’s important to note the order of repentance that Peter summons. The first thing that anyone needs to do is abandon their condemning conceptions of Christ. This is primary, for it’s only when a person in is union with the “Author of life” that calls for moral reformation make any sense. To repent of moral failures but not be brought into fellowship with Christ accomplishes no eternal good. A cleaned up pagan is in no better position before God than a thoroughly debauched one. What unbelievers need to do is “repent and be baptized . . . in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of [their] sins.” 

Though it might seem self-evident, Christ needs to be kept front and center as we bear witness to him. It’s Jesus that people need to know. Once that is settled, calls to live in a manner that is pleasing to God can follow.

Pentecostal Preaching

Alas, no Triple Crown winner again this year. California Chrome wasn’t up to the Belmont’s mile and a half, coming in fourth. I haven’t seen the footage but I can imagine what it was like: the horses brought into their positions, a tense pause as they wait for the bell, it rings as the gates fly open, and off they go.

Pentecost is a little like that! All that was necessary for the salvation for sinners had been accomplished; Jesus’ disciples watched him ascend; they waited as he had instructed; and like the bell that rings at the Belmont, the Holy Sprit comes down upon the church and they are off and running with the gospel. Luke captures the moment as he recounts the first and, thus, paradigmatic sermon of the church age. It’s succinct and convicting, and offers, as James Boice suggests, “the principles that . . . must govern the informal witness of the people of God in other circumstances.”

When we take the time to study Peter’s sermon, Boice proposes that we will find it biblically coherent, centered on Christ, courageous, and “eminently reasonable.” It’s that last point that’s perhaps the most misunderstood. The apostle doesn't appeal to emotions. He doesn't rely on colored lights, persuasive music and smoke machines to bring people to conviction. To the contrary, he calls them to face the facts: consider that Jesus was attested to by God through his “works, wonders, and signs . . . as you yourselves know”; his resurrection is a reality to which “we are all witnesses”; and the phenomenon of the Holy Spirit, “that you yourselves are seeing and hearing,” is obviously the result of his having been “exalted at the right hand of God.” Peter concludes, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know [not feel] for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Ironically, Peter’s appeal to reason produced a strong emotional response, “. . . when they heard this they were cut to the heart.”

Endued with the Spirit’s power the church should pursue it’s own Belmont: true pentecostal preaching.  Who knows, by the grace of God, we might even be asked, “Brothers, what shall we do?” We can then answer as did Peter, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Truly Free

When I was in seminary I had to read a lot of “liberation theology.” This is a branch of theology that understands God’s saving work as delivering people from class oppression, usually expressed in economic terms. For a liberation theologian, wherever one discovers the forces of oppression being challenged is where one discovers God’s redeeming presence. It’s telling that the first step that a liberation theologian would recommend for someone hoping to minister among a people is to do an analysis of the society based upon marxist economic principles. 

I had to write a paper about this phenomenon. I entitled it, “Liberation Theology: Liberated for What?” The paper challenged liberation theology’s assumption that sin expressed in economic and political terms is the only sin that needs to be addressed. Certainly, sin does express itself in such terms; but someone who has cast off the oppressive chains of sinful societal structures is still a slave to their own sin. Ultimately, this is the slavery from which Jesus came to free us. And free us he has, God be praised, for “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).

The good news is that Jesus, in his own body, offered the slave price for our freedom. As such, a believer’s faith in Christ sets him or her free from the ownership that sin, death, and the devil claimed. Sin, while still present and seeking to get back its property, no longer has a legitimate claim. This goes for death and the devil as well. For those who confess faith in the finished work of Christ have that which liberates them: a righteousness that does not depend on personal obedience, but the obedience of Christ, as well as the power that raised our liberator from the grave (see Romans 6:5-11).

Without the liberating work of Jesus in a person’s life, those who have been freed from oppressive societal structures remain slaves of sin and will turn around to become oppressors themselves. History has demonstrated as much, time and time again. Only in Christ does one find the grace to be both truly free and to pursue true freedom for others.

Whose in Charge?

The late Leon Morris, the respected New Testament scholar, offers this observation in his commentary on Revelation: “We feel ourselves caught up in the world’s evil and misery and we cannot break free . . . we all, at times, feel a sense of hopelessness and helplessness in the grip of forces stronger than we. The world’s agony is real. And the world's inability to break free from the consequences of its guilt is real.” (Tyndale NT Commentaries, IVP, 1987, p. 91). When we hear of a powerful politician flexing his muscles, daring others to stop his incursion into a neighboring country, or read of a yet another sect of religious zealots murderously seeking to establish a crushing theocracy, we sense the kind of helplessness to which Morris refers seeping into our souls. For the believers in the first couple of centuries after the resurrection of Christ, when ambitious Rome, invincible Rome, pagan Rome, had control over more than 25% of the world’s population, the future must have seemed even more precarious. How was it all going to end?

A powerful antidote for such fears is found in the vision granted to us through John (see Revelation 5). The heavenly scene that we are introduced to leaves no doubt about who is in charge of history and the goings on of the world. The victorious Lamb is the one who breaks the seals on the scroll of God’s purposes, setting all in motion. What transpires involves divine justice and gracious redemption. Evil, all evil, will be overcome, and those who the Lamb ransomed for God “from every tribe and language and people and nation,” bask in the glory of his triumph.

We need to be reminded of this super-reality when the closer reality closes in. The knowledge that the exalted status of our Savior was gained by his redemptive obedience, coupled with the truth that our prayers in the midst of such troubling times will not go unanswered, must shape our responses. Tyrants and terrorists do not have the final word. That is reserved for the one to whom the multitude in heaven declares, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals.”

Convincing Love

Sexual abuse! Abuse of authority! Financial misdealing! Tax evasion! Divorce! Bigotry and racism! Are these problems in our society? Yes. Are they problems in the church? Yes. Sadly, yes. And when they are associated with the church they are so much worse than when those outside of the church fall into such sins. This is so not because we are proved to be as needful of a savior as the next person; it is so because we bear the name of Christ and we bring offense to that blessed name. The only scandal that should ever be attached to the church is the scandal of Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 1:22-24). All other offensive behaviors place stumbling blocks in the paths of people getting to the stumbling block of the cross.

Such things happen in the church when the church does not walk in the most basic of Kingdom principles: love. We can seek to eradicate poverty, fight against the evils of abortion, offer profound insights regarding the human condition, and join forces with others who seek renewal in all levels of society. But if we have not love, our pious pronouncements will sound hollow and our “good works” will be judged as just another self-serving agenda.

The need for followers of Jesus to walk in love is essential. Yet, how to walk in love is something to be learned. It needs to be shaped by the gospel working on our hearts till we understand gratitude and humility. And the classroom God has given us in which we are to be schooled in this most basic of principles is the local church. It’s in the church, walking side by side with other sinners, that we will come to appreciate that “love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). This kind of love has the power to prevent scandals and persuade skeptics. The world is watching! Let’s offer them a convincing apologetic.

Getting It Right about Sex

There’s a catchy definition sometimes offered for the biblical term justified. What does justified mean? It means “just as if I’d never sinned.” It leaves too much unexplained, but in essence it’s true. Being justified through faith in Christ we are considered in the courtroom of heaven to be as one who never sinned. However, we have sinned. And though our sins will not be held against us, they too often continue to define us. The apostle Paul understood this and sought to encourage a practical righteousness in the newly declared righteous Thessalonians. In particular, he was concerned with how they exercised their sexual capacities (1 Thessalonians 4:1-8).

The prevailing norm for these former pagans was far from the biblical norm (the norm that Paul would have instructed them in), but not all that far from the prevailing norm of our day. As such, the baggage they carried into their walk of discipleship is carried by many coming into the church today. This will likely require a complete overhaul of their presuppositions about engaging in sex, and Paul’s instructions to the Thessalonians is as good a place as any to start. Taking control of one’s body (“vessel” in the Greek, which some scholars take to mean not the body in general but genitalia), having regard for how one’s actions affect others, and understanding that “whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit” to his children for the purpose of transforming them, will set new Christians on the road to realizing the divinely expected holiness in their lives.

We all struggle with the “old self,” which, in the words of the apostle, “belongs to [our] former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires.” The call is to “be renewed in the spirit of [our] minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). While this is so in every aspect of our thinking and doing, of particular prominence is understanding how and why God has made us sexual beings. Misuse of this capacity has caused a great deal of harm. Out of love for God and neighbor we want to get it right.

The Priviledge of Persecution

Our Christian brothers and sisters in the 1st century had a very different perspective on persecution than we 21st century western Christians. For them it was a privilege (see Acts 5:41; Philippians 1:29), for us it is something to be avoided, almost at all costs. But can it be avoided? If Jesus and the apostles are any measure, it cannot. The scriptures clearly attest that persecution follows proclamation.

Why is this so? The message of the Kingdom of God runs smack up against the prevailing powers of the kingdom of this world making conflict inevitable. And because the gospel offers a stern critique of the nature of human beings and the works we produce, when a person embraces the gospel as true it necessarily aligns that one with that assessment, provoking persecution. The demand to the believer in the face of this inevitable enmity, notes Glenn Penner, the late director of Voice of the Martyrs, Canada, “is not so much a willingness to die for Christ but a readiness to die due to one’s unconditional obedience to the Crucified One.” If persecution is part and parcel with proclaiming and living the gospel, we must accept that we are “destined for this” and “not be moved by these afflictions” (1 Thessalonians 3:3).

But suffering for the sake of Christ is not an end in itself. Jesus spoke of his redemptive suffering when he taught, ““The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:23-24). Each disciple of Jesus is a product of the redeeming death to which he alludes. For this we are grateful. The startling news, however, is that he also envisions our own sacrificial fruit bearing when he explains, “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (v. 25). Our participation in the redeeming work of Christ through suffering for the sake of his name, has a redemptive purpose, not for ourselves but for others.

The power of the followers of Jesus united in the face of persecution offers a much needed testimony to the truth of the gospel. Ed Clowney notes: "“The very threats to the existence of the church in the twenty-first century show again our need of the church. The courage to stand apart, to be unashamed of Christ’s claims, is nurtured in the community of those who are baptized into his name. The church may not apply for a union card in a pluralistic establishment by signing away its right to proclaim the only Saviour of the world. Together we must make clear that it is to Christ and not to ourselves that we witness. In that witness we are not only individual points of light in the world, but a city set on a hill. In the ethnic hostility that ravages Europe, Africa and the Middle East, the church must show the bond of Christ’s love that unites former enemies as brothers and sisters in the Lord. Only so can the church be a sign of his kingdom: the kingdom that will come when Christ comes, and that is already present through his Spirit” (The Church. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995. 15-16).

As our Savior was persecuted because he stood against the prevailing selfishness and cruelty of a sin-racked, idolatrous world, so will his church. Persecution is something to which we have been called and for which we must give thanks. 

Removing Obstacles to the Gospel

If anyone would know how difficult it is to carry out the missionary enterprise, it would be the Apostle Paul. His efforts met resistance from the onset. This is not to say that he didn't have success at persuading people of their need for Jesus, but it wasn’t an easy sell. More than once he suffered persecution for doing nothing more than preaching the “good news.” Obviously, not everyone found the news good.

People are not readily disposed to being told that, unless they take by faith the gift of Christ’s righteousness, they are destined for hell. Their current belief system, confidence in their own goodness, or any one, or combination, of other such hindrances, make hearing the message about Jesus’ saving work a seemingly insurmountable mountain.

Paul appears to have understood this and made every effort to remove unnecessary impediments to having the gospel heard. We need to take our cue from him. The two most important factors (of many important factors) are the preconceptions of the one we are trying to persuade and our love for that one. The other’s preconceptions will cause them to hear what you are saying through the filter of their current understanding of things. As the gospel presents a very different view of existence than what we naturally come to, if you do not try to anticipate what the other might already be thinking, your words are not likely to be heard. Also, if we have not love for the other, the kind of love that motivated Paul, and caused Jesus to grieve when he looked upon the crowd and saw them as sheep without a shepherd, he or she will detect our disdain. A sure ear stopper!

The missionary enterprise is not an easy one. It must be said, therefore, that it requires the power of the Holy Spirit to attend our bearing witness, certainly in the heart and mind of the other, but also in our own. For, by the grace of God, “we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts” (1 Thessalonians 2:4).

Converting Potential Energy to Kinetic Energy

Potential energy and kinetic energy. The difference between the two is evident in the terms used. Potential means energy that is ready to be used but is yet to be released (think a drawn bow string, taught, ready to send the arrow into the air). Kinetic describes energy that is on the move (think a released bow string that has sent the arrow flying).

This image, borrowed from physics, is helpful for understanding the work of the church in making the gospel known. Paul describes the gospel as “the power of God for salvation” (Romans 1:16). He understands the potential of the gospel to radically redefine and redirect the life of a fallen human being, and has dedicated himself to the task of converting it, through proclamation, into “kinetic energy,” as people hear and believe the good news. The results can be exciting, as when those in Thessalonica “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,” and were persuaded to “wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers . . . from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10).

Each Christian has had potential gospel energy converted into kinetic gospel energy through having, by the grace of God, ears that heard when the message was preached. Subsequently, each Christian becomes a new repository of potential energy just waiting to be released. By prayer and study, motivated by love and undertaken with humility, we draw the bow string back, making it ready to be released by the Holy Spirit, sending along the good news to neighbors, co-workers, friends, and relatives.

Let’s rededicate ourselves to the task of converting potential gospel energy into kinetic gospel energy by praying for the Holy Spirit to awaken us to opportunities to let go the bow string. The energy is there, it just needs to be released!