Signs of Life - Cultural Discernment (Feb 2, 2020)

Read: 1 Timothy 4:1-6

1 Timothy can be read as the guidance of an experienced physician of the soul (the Apostle Paul) diagnosing unhealth and identifying treatments to restore spiritual vitality and life to the church that Timothy pastored.  As such, the letter provides us with some of the most important metrics of spiritual health. The metrics we’ve covered so far - love, grace renewal and prayer - may come as no surprise to us, but what Paul prescribes in this particular text may be somewhat unexpected: discernment.  Broadly speaking, discernment is the ability to tell the difference between things. Here Paul offers guidance on what we could call “cultural discernment” – the ability to tell the difference between what is good in a culture and to be received with thanks from God, what is harmful and to be rejected, and what is broken in a culture and in need of redemption. Though this text doesn’t answer all our questions, it provides us with an important foundation of cultural discernment - Just as it is harmful for us to allow what God forbids, it is equally harmful and unhealthy to forbid what God has ordained for us to receive from Him with thanksgiving and joy. Christians are often known for focusing on the first part (the “thou shall not’s”) but here we see that Christians should be just as well known for the second part (the “thou shall’s”). What Paul says here shows us why.

1) The Importance of Discernment

In 4:1, Paul says God, by his Spirit, has explicitly spoken on the need for discernment. He says lack of discernment causes people to depart from the faith. For Paul, discernment is as important as it gets. The point he is making is that discernment is needed to tell the difference between real Christianity and distorted versions of Christianity.  In other words, when Christians don’t properly exercise discernment, it leaves them and others around them vulnerable to distorted versions of the Gospel. Lack of discernment leads some people to say, “The Gospel is too soft!” and they depart toward a more “serious”, demanding or legalistic version of the faith. At the same time (often as a counter-reaction) others say, “The Gospel is too restrictive” and depart for a more permissive faith (or leave the faith altogether).

Paul says that the activity of spirits and demons is lurking behind these distortions. Though it may be difficult for us to accept in a modern world, Paul unmasks the strategy of the spiritual forces of evil. Instead of a frontal attack on the claims of the Christian faith, evil distorts and twists the truth so as to make God out to be restrictive and stifling. This view of God causes people to fixate on what is forbidden and what is off-limits. This drives some people into a rules-based approach to faith. Others are driven away by this into no faith at all. This is the importance of discernment – it guards the Gospel and the character of God from distortion.

2) The Practice of Discernment

Paul provides us with a way forward by modeling proper discernment. He addresses two cultural issues – marriage and food. It’s an interesting pairing. What do these two things have in common? Why would people “forbid marriage and demand abstinence from foods”? The answer is pleasure. Driven by a dualistic view of the world that separated the “spiritual” from the “physical”, these false teachers promoted a hyper-spiritual approach to culture -  “if it is pleasurable then it must be sin (or we should suspect it might be)”. This “ascetic” approach to the world is the force behind much of the religious response to culture. This response is often a knee-jerk reaction to a “hedonistic” approach to culture that says, “if it is pleasurable, it must be ok!”. Neither is authentic Christianity. Neither provides the way forward for proper discernment.

Paul shows us where biblical discernment begins (and where the false teachers went off course) in v4:  “Everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is (the condition) received with thanksgiving since (the assumption) it is sanctified by the word of God and by prayer (that is – with discernment)”.

Paul begins with the doctrine of creation (Gen 1:31). This shows us how important it is for us to “use” the whole Gospel story of creation > fall > redemption > new creation when practicing cultural discernment. Focusing only on sin and the misuse of God’s good creation is a failure to use the whole “word of God” to discern how/what to receive with thanksgiving. Using the whole Bible (not just proof texts) along with prayer is how we develop the discernment required to know what we are to receive, reject or redeem in culture.

3) The Value of Discernment

Discernment guards the essence of the gospel. The teachers in Ephesus were trying to fix one distortion of the Gospel (hedonism/license) with another distortion (asceticism/legalism). This still happens all the time today! People and churches swing back and forth between the two. The driving force behind this is the issue of thanksgiving. Legalists demand things from God based on what they do or don’t do. Hedonists demand things from God based on their desires (“you created me this way and you made these things, so I deserve to enjoy this”). Christians receive everything from God that is not forbidden by the word of God and prayer. Christians thank God for what he gives and what he withholds. In the Gospel the truth about God is made clear. He is not a restrictive God who is withholding from us. He is an unfathomably generous God who will do whatever it takes to save us from the false pleasures of sin and lead us into true and lasting pleasure. Jesus suffered and died for us so that we would receive the gifts of redemption and the gifts of creation in their proper place. Receiving our redemption with thanksgiving frees us from earning it AND from taking it for granted. In gratitude, we try to discern what is pleasing to Him (Eph 5:10).

DIAGNOSE - Just as it is harmful for us to allow what God forbids, it is equally harmful and unhealthy to forbid what God has ordained for us to receive from Him with thanksgiving and joy. Where do you think you tend toward – allowing without discernment or forbidding without discernment?

DISCUSS

1. What about the sermon impacted you most? What left you with questions?

2. How can a lack of discernment lead to a distortion of the Gospel? Have might lack of discernment lead people into legalism/ascetism or license/hedonism? Have you experienced this? How so?

3. Does it feel to you that Christianity teaches “if it is pleasurable the it must be sin or we should suspect it might be”? How might this passage correct this?

4. In Romans 1:21, Paul says the driving force behind sin is a refusal to glorify God and give him thanks. How does this play out in the story of the fall of humanity into sin in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3)? What distortion about God did Satan convince Adam and Eve was true?

5. Why is it important that we begin with creation (1 Timothy 4:6) in matters that require discernment?

6. What role should prayer play in discernment? In the sermon a simple test for discernment was offering - Can I thank God in prayer before and after I enjoy this? How might this be helpful?

7. In 1 Tim 4:6 Paul tells Timothy this truth will nourish his faith. How might our faith be malnourished when we forbid and/or abstain from things that God has created?

Practice Discernment – What is one cultural issue or question you have about whether it is right to receive as good and enjoy, reject as wrong or redeem? As a group, work through the question starting with the doctrine of creation and moving through the different chapters of the Gospel story (creation > fall > redemption > new creation) and any relevant passages of Scripture that come to mind.

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Signs of Life - Prayer (Jan 26, 2020)

Read: 1 Timothy 2:1-8

After opening his letter with a few urgent reminders to Timothy, in chapter 2 the apostle Paul begins giving direct instructions to Timothy for restoring health and life to the church at Ephesus. He begins these instructions by saying, “First of all”. Since there is no “second of all” in the letter, it’s clear what Paul means. He means first in priority or importance (not in sequence). Paul is assigning primary importance to prayer for spiritual health in the life of a person or a church. This probably comes as no surprise to us. We expect prayer to be high on the list of things that bring spiritual health. But, as we’ll see, what Paul is prescribing is not just prayer – he is prescribing corporate (with others), intercessory (on behalf of others), missional (for nonbelievers) prayer. This might seem like something reserved for only “advanced” Christians but Paul places it on the top of the list for all Christians. Why? A closer look at these instructions in context will show us how this kind of prayer fosters spiritual health.

1) Who We Pray With

Since this section begins an entire set of instructions on corporate worship, it’s clear Paul is describing corporate prayer and not private/personal prayer. The church Timothy pastored was weakened by conflict and was losing sight of their mission. They were dealing false teachers, dissention and disagreement. Paul prescribes praying together as a way to foster healing in relationships and to restore vision/unity as a church. In verse 2:8, Paul tells men in conflict to put down their anger and arguments and to take up praying together. How does this work? Praying with another person provides a window into their soul that you can’t get any other way. It shows us parts of a person we don’t see when we are at odds. Praying with others can also put our disagreements back into proper perspective as God and his mission are restored back to proper perspective.

2) Who We Pray For

Not only was this church dealing with arguments and division within, it was also developing an elitist-insider attitude toward those outside of the church. Paul is correcting that attitude in this passage as he uses the word “all/everyone” four different times. Praying for “all” (ie, “everyone without exception” or “all kinds of people”) turns us outward to the needs of our neighbors and those outside of the church. Just as this kind of prayer can heal relationships and restore unity, it can also keep a person and a church from become insular and ingrown.

3) What We Pray For

Paul instructs Christians to pray at “two levels” in this passage. We could call the first level that of “subordinate needs”. We pray for a tranquil and peaceful life for everyone. This means we pray for the “mundane” and practical needs of our neighbors such as health, order and prosperity (see Jeremiah 29:7). But there’s more going on than just praying for everyone to have a comfortable and easy life. There’s a second level at work. We pray for our leaders and authorities to reign with justice and wisdom in order that the ideal environment is established for Christians to live in all “godliness” and “dignity”. Godliness in 1 Timothy means an authentic and observable Christian life. Dignity means a life of respect or “gravitas”. In times of relative peace and order, Christians can devote themselves to displaying the gospel to their neighbors so that they might be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. This is the second level of prayer - “ultimate needs”. Everyone’s greatest need is to come to the truth of God’s saving work in Christ. Praying for both the subordinate and ultimate needs of others is an expression of love for the whole person and keeps us from over spiritualizing or under spiritualizing our relationships with those in our life who do not believe.

4) Why We Pray

Paul’s instructions here also help address questions every person or church encounters sooner or later. Why pray? Does anything really happen?

• Prayer moves God to action. God asks us to pray, petition and intercede for others because he hears these prayers and responds. There is mystery here, but the Bible is clear – God acts when his people ask (see John 14:14)

• Prayer moves us to mission. Paul grounds prayer like this in what God “wants” (v4). We can know all about God’s mission; we can have all kinds of plans to accomplish it; but only in prayer does our heart grow in wanting what God wants for us and others. Only when our heart is moved do we move outward in mission in any genuine and sustainable way

• Prayer makes it possible for us to rest in God’s sovereign will. Paul’s teaching here introduces a tension. If God wants all to be saved, then how come all aren’t saved? It’s a tension we aren’t meant to resolve but to rest in. On the one hand, God has made his will clear – he calls all to come to him for salvation (we can call this his “revealed will”). On the other hand, God hasn’t revealed his sovereign will. Our prayers need not get stuck in this tension. We can pray boldly and ask freely for anything God has revealed as his will for us and others AND we can rest fully knowing God that God’s plan will unfold according to his timing and character

5) Who We Pray To

Having looked at these 4 aspects of “corporate intercessory missional prayer” we might be able to see all the “health benefits” it offers Christians, churches and the world. But without this final aspect, our efforts to pray like this will fizzle out. This kind of prayer is animated and empowered by knowing who we pray to.  In verses 5-6, Paul gives the reason for this kind of prayer. The reason we pray like this is not what we get from this prayer - it’s the God we encounter in this kind of prayer.

Look at how Paul describes this God:  He is the one and only God – creator and ruler over all. He is the God who has made a way back to Him when there was no way - through a mediator. This mediator is the “man Christ Jesus” – someone who knows us from the inside. As a human being, he knows our needs from the inside. As God, he knows how to meet these needs better than we do. This mediator gave himself as our ransom. He took our sin, death and evil. He gave us his holiness, life and goodness! The Gospel is the reason for prayer because in the Gospel we see God answer a prayer that no one would dare ask. But it is the most important prayer of all; the prayer that unlocks all other prayer. Who would dare ask the Almighty God to come as our “go-between” by taking our sin, our judgment and giving us his holiness and righteousness? What sane person would ask the one true God over all things – “Give me your best and take my worst!”? Yet that is what God has done for us in Christ. When we believe the Gospel is true, we realize God has not held back his best. Having seen how he answered the most important prayer that we’d never pray, we can trust him to answer all the prayers we do pray for ourselves and others.

DIAGNOSE - What’s your honest reaction to the idea that corporate intercessory missional prayer is essential for spiritual life and health? Does it seem too uncomfortable? Too unreachable? Too unrealistic? OR is it currently an important part of your life? If so, how do you see God working through it to bring health to other parts of your life?

DISCUSS

1. What about the sermon impacted you most? What left you with questions? Is it hard for you to pray with others? How can praying with someone strengthen your relationship with them? How can praying with other people put life (and disagreements) back into proper perspective?

2. Why do you think churches become insular and ingrown? Based on the passage and the summary describe how praying for others can turn a church outward.

3. Do you sometimes struggle with wondering what you are “allowed” to pray for or not? Or whether some prayers are more “spiritual” than others? How might the concept of the two levels of prayer help?

4. Of the 3 reasons given for why we pray, which do you feel like you currently most need to remember to encourage you in your prayers? Why?

5. How is the Gospel “the reason” for prayer? How does the Gospel show us the God who we pray to and how does this get to the root of so much of the doubts and unbelief we carry with us in prayer?

Organize a time to pray with others, for others. Begin this time of prayer by rehearsing and remembering the Gospel as the reason for prayer. Pray the Gospel into your hearts and then pray it out into the lives of others.

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Signs of Life - Grace Renewal Stories (Jan 19, 2020)

Read: 1 Timothy 1:12-17

After reminding Timothy of the most important sign of spiritual life and health (love), Paul shares the story of how God’s grace has taken a hold of his story. As one of Paul’s closest friends, it’s a story Timothy knew very well. So, why did Paul tell it to him again? Paul re-told his story as an example of what a healthy spiritual life looks like in practice and what it looks like for sound gospel doctrine (v11) to take a hold of a person’s story. We could call a story like this a “grace renewal story” - a story of someone coming to experience the greatness of a need, a failure or a sin that leads them to experience the even greater grace of God overflowing into that need, failure or sin. Grace renewal stories are both the evidence of, and a means to, a vibrant and healthy Christian life. Paul shares how God’s grace shaped the way he saw his whole story - past, present and future.

1) Grace for Our Past

When Paul wrote 1 Timothy, he had been a Christian for 25-30 years. Of all Christians in history – Paul is recognized as one of the most passionate, accomplished and mature Christians to ever live. Of all the lessons he could share in looking back over his life as an example of spiritual health and as a countermeasure against the false teaching & spiritual unhealthiness in Ephesus, he shared his grace renewal story. He is saying to Timothy, “The more I live, the more two things become clearer and bigger to me – 1) the sin I need to be saved from and 2) the grace that has overflowed into my need (v14).”

If you compare what Paul shares here toward the end of his life/ministry to other places where he shares the story of his past, what you will find is that Paul is more honest than ever. He owns the sin of his past by using the most stark and jarring terms he has ever used - blasphemer, persecutor, arrogant man. He is also more thorough than ever in confessing these sins. He saw just how offensive his sin was to God (blasphemy being the worst sin a devout Jew could commit), he saw just how much he hurt others (persecuting those he now loved) and he saw the sin “beneath the sin” (the arrogance that drove him). It’s important to see that along with Paul’s honest and thorough confession of sin, he is also more compassionate than ever. Paul knew the Bible better than anyone yet missed the God of grace at the center of it all. Instead of getting stuck asking How could I? I should’ve known better! he doesn’t beat himself up for the failure of his past, and is able to see and receive God’s mercy for the ignorance and unbelief of his past (v13). 

2) Grace in Our Present

Paul moves from the past to the present in verse 15, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – and I am the worst of them.” This statement has puzzled and shocked scholars over the years. Paul can’t possible mean this, can he? He must be using hyperbole or thinking about his past life only? Surely, he knew there were worse sinners out there than him!? But Paul is so clear here that there is no way to explain this away. He says, “This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.” In other words, “I mean it for myself 100%”. This is something every Christian - as they grow, mature and move toward spiritual health- will come to tell as their first person, present tense grace renewal story too.

Paul’s story illustrates a principle at the very heart of Christian maturity - the more we grow, the more we see how far we have to go. The more we grow closer to God and see his glory and holiness, the more we see how deep and pervasive our sin is; the more we realize just how much God’s grace is overflowing over and into our lives in the present! We can see this principle at work in how Paul told his first person, present tense grace renewal story as he matured in his own spiritual life.

• In 1 Corinthians (early in his ministry) he said, “I am least of all the apostles.”

• In Ephesians (middle of his ministry) – “I am the least of all the saints.”

• In 1 Timothy (near the end of his ministry) – “I am the worst of sinners.”

From this progression - we can expand on the principle at the very heart of Christian maturity: The more we grow, the less we compare ourselves to others; the more we compare ourselves to Jesus, the more we realize just how far we have to go; the more we realize how great and gracious a Savior He is, the more we want to say “thank you” to Him with our entire lives.

3) Grace for Our Future

In vv16-17 Paul looks to the future. He shares what he saw as the reason he received so much mercy from God. He concluded it must be that his story would be an example of a “grace renewal story” for others to see just how extraordinarily patient God is with broken and sinful people. The Greek word he uses for “example” is a word used for an artist’s sketch drawing. Paul is saying no matter how much he grows and matures as a Christian – his life will always be a working picture of God’s patience. It is very humbling, yet profoundly freeing, for us to accept that no matter how spiritually mature we become, we will never outgrow the extraordinary patience of God toward us in our sin and brokenness. This doesn’t mean we accept our sin and give up on growth – it does mean we accept that no matter how much we grow, we will always have a long way to go in becoming like Jesus. And God is always patient towards those who know this is true?

DIAGNOSE

In what part of your story is it hardest for you to see the grace of God at work? Your past, your present or your future? What would it look like for you to open your heart to receiving God’s overflowing grace to you in this part of your story?

• Past - Receiving God’s overflowing grace and mercy for the sins and failures of your past

• Present - Accepting you have (at the present) a greater need for God’s grace than you’ll ever see. Accepting God knows just how much sin still remains in you and yet overflows with grace and love for you on account of your faith in Christ

• Future - Accepting that no matter how much you grow and learn, you will never grow beyond being an example of the extraordinary patience of God

DISCUSS

1. What about the sermon impacted you most? What left you with questions?

2. In the sermon, it was said: “Love is not efficient. It almost never happens when we are in a hurry.  Love will almost always look like a waste of time.” Do you agree? How should this affect the way we live in a world of endless options, constant hurry?

3. God’s plan (v4) is often different than our plans. God’s idea of what is urgent is so different from ours. Is there something urgent to you that God doesn’t seem to be responding to with the urgency you would like? How might God be deepening your faith and growing you in love in this as you wait on Him?

4. Why should 1 Timothy 1:15 be the first person, present tense grace renewal story of every healthy and growing Christian?

5. How are these two things becoming bigger for you? 1) Your sin, need and brokenness 2) The grace of Jesus for your every sin and need? If they are not becoming bigger for you, why do you think this is?

6. What lessons can we learn from Paul’s progression in his first person, present tense grace renewal story?

7. How might the following statements of application cure so much of our perfectionism and spiritual discouragement? “Cheer up you are a much bigger sinner than you thought! Cheer up God is far more patient than you are with yourself”. Why are we often more impatient with ourselves and others than God is?

BONUS – Why We Should Tell Grace Renewal Stories

When a grace renewal story is shared, other people say…

• Maybe I can serve Jesus too – Paul says God considered him trustworthy (faithful) to serve him in gospel ministry (v11). What kind of person does God entrust with gospel service and ministry? The person who thinks they’ve arrived and have the answers? Not trustworthy. The person who thinks they have so much to offer others? Not trustworthy. The person who hides and minimizes their sin? Not trustworthy. But the person who increasingly knows how much of a sinner they are and how great a Savior Jesus is? Trustworthy. In this kind of person, others can see Jesus’ greatness and glory

• Maybe I can talk about Jesus authentically with others too – “I used to think that I couldn’t talk about Jesus with others or be used by Jesus until my life measured up or until I got my spiritual act together. But now I see that what I share with others and give to others is what I most need. Not just needed; need – in the present and will need – in the future. So it’s ok to share my story even if it’s in process. After all, it’s about Jesus and not about me anyway.”

• It that’s who Jesus is, I want to know Him more! The point of a grace renewal story is not to focus on or obsess about our sin but to get our focus and obsession off our sin and onto Jesus. Paul is NOT the point of Paul’s story. Look at what he says about Jesus: He gives strength to the undeserving. He is more merciful than we’d ever imagine. His grace overflows over any and all sin no matter how great. He gives faith and love to those who don’t have them. He came into the world to save people at their worst. His saving work is sufficient for all our sin – past, present and future. He is extraordinarily patient with people in process.

  When people hear this - no matter where they are in the spiritual journey - they say, “If that’s true, that’s someone I want to know more about.”

• I see the bigger story! A grace renewal story causes other people to say “I can see a little bit clearer now that it’s not all about me! There is something bigger at work than my life, my failures, my growth. It’s ALL   part of a greater story. A story that began in eternity past with the immortal, invisible, only God and one that will continue forever and ever. It’s a story where God is honored and glorified as the God of overflowing grace for eternity. This is the story my life is meant to tell.”

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Signs of Life - Love: The Ultimate Goal (Jan 12, 2020)

Read: 1 Timothy 1:1-7

1 Timothy was written by the apostle Paul to his friend, colleague and protégé in ministry, Timothy, who was the pastor of the young church in the city of Ephesus. Paul wrote this letter to help him identify spiritual warning signs in the church and to address these by sound (healthy) doctrine. 1 Timothy is like an older experienced physician guiding a younger doctor in the work of diagnosis and treatment. The things Paul tells Timothy to do and to teach provide us with the metrics of spiritual health for our personal and corporate lives as Christians. Paul begins his letter by reminding Timothy of the most important sign and metric of all.

1) The Urgency of Love

It may be something we miss on our first reading, but in order to understand the message of 1 Timothy, we first need to feel its tone. 1 Timothy is one of the most urgent letters in the New Testament. Most scholars would agree that it is second in urgency only to Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Note that it was customary at this time (as it was Paul’s custom) to begin his letters with warm introductions filled with thanksgiving and encouragement. In this letter, however, he gets right to the point. He urges Timothy to immediate action (v3). Something must have been extremely urgent for Paul to move past greeting and encouraging one of his dearest and closest friends.

What was so urgent? Verses 4-5 tell us. People in the church were leading others to miss the entire point of God’s plan and their faith in Jesus – love. They were spending a lot of time talking about the Bible, but the only result was speculation and fruitless discussion.  They were moving themselves and others further and further away from love. Paul’s response to this shows us what is always an urgent matter for God – love. 

2) The Ultimacy of Love

This passage goes beyond saying that love is an urgent matter; it is saying love is the MOST urgent and ultimate matter in life. Some things are unclear and hard to understand in the Bible, but this is crystal clear - love is the ultimate sign of life and the most important metric of spiritual health. This is what Paul says to Timothy in v5: “The goal of our instruction is love.”

Paul reminds Timothy of the ultimate goal so that he would stay committed to two very difficult things in his situation. These two things are what every person and every church needs in order to move further toward the goal of love. What are they?

1) Difficult People – In v3, Paul tells Timothy, “I urged you to remain in Ephesus”. When someone has to be urged to remain somewhere, it usually means they are thinking of leaving or giving up! Paul is saying, “Remember that the goal, Timothy, isn’t easy relationships or finding people who always agree with you and make life easy for you or who don’t demand anything hard of you… the goal is love. So remain. Stay.” When the people close to us are difficult for us or to us, we need to remember the goal. Love only grows in us as we remain committed over time, even (and especially!) when it’s difficult.

2) Doctrine – We might say, “How does doctrine lead to love? Doesn’t doctrine lead to division and disagreement?” Paul’s response is, “Yes, doctrine can lead to disputes, arguments, envy, quarrelling, slander, suspicion and constant disagreement (see 6:3-4) but the answer is not no doctrine or less doctrine. The answer is “sound doctrine”. Here’s how we know the difference – the goal. The goal of all God’s instruction is love. Whenever relationships take a back seat to being right or knowing more – it’s a sign the goal has been lost. Sound doctrine is truth from God for healthy relationships - with Him and other people. This is the goal of the law – if we miss this, we cannot understand God’s instruction in the law (see verse 7)

3) The Capacity for Love

The more we learn sound/healthy doctrine and the more we remain close & committed to people, what will happen? The more we will see how unloving we really are. God’s word shows us hard things about ourselves. His law exposes our selfishness and self-centeredness. Our close relationships reveal things we didn’t even know were in us. This is hard but it is healthy for us. It is a loving thing for God to do to show us these things - because it is how God grows in us our capacity to love. How so?

Our love grows when God’s love in the law leads us to God’s love in the gospel. Paul helps us see what this looks like when he shares how it works for him, “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners and I am the worst of them” (1:15). The most difficult and most sound doctrine of all is this: I am more unloving and unlovely than I will ever know (the worst of sinners),  yet because of Jesus Christ I am more fully and unconditionally loved by God than I could ever fully grasp (Jesus came for me). If Jesus selflessly and sacrificially loved the most difficult person to love that I know (me!), I can love others who are just as difficult. This is how doctrine applied to the heart can increase our capacity to love.

Paul says love comes “from a pure heart, good conscience, sincere faith.” How does an impure heart become pure? How does a guilty conscience become good? How does a faith become sincere - without hypocrisy, pretending and masks? There’s only one way this happens – it is when we know that no matter how impure our heart, how heavy our conscience and whatever it is we are hiding behind the mask, if we come to Jesus we will be forgiven and loved. When we see our failures to love for what they are and experience the love of Jesus for us at our worst, we grow in our capacity to love even the most difficult of people for us to love.

DIAGNOSE

According to the bible, love is the most important metric of spiritual health. Take a moment to prayerfully consider what it would look like for love to be in the IMPORTANT/URGENT category in your life. What people or situations come to mind? What things might become less urgent or important to you?  What things might become more urgent and important to you?

DISCUSS

1. What about the sermon impacted you most? What left you with questions?

2. In the sermon, it was said: “Love is not efficient. It almost never happens when we are in a hurry.  Love will almost always look like a waste of time.” Do you agree? How should this affect the way we live in a world of endless options, constant hurry?

3. God’s plan (v4) is often different than our plans. God’s idea of what is urgent is so different from  ours. Is there something urgent to you that God doesn’t seem to be responding to with the urgency you would like? How might God be deepening your faith and growing you in love in this as you wait on Him?

4. If love for other people is the ultimate sign of life and the most important metric of spiritual health. How does remembering this help us remain committed to difficult people? How does it help us remain committed to hearing hard doctrine from the Bible?

5. What has God used in your life to grow your capacity for love? What role has sound doctrine played? How has remaining close and committed to people when it’s been difficult grown your capacity for love?

6. Our capacity for love grows when the love of God in the law leads us to the love of God in the gospel. In 1 Tim. 1:15 Paul shows us what this looks like personally : I am more unloving than I will ever know (“I am the worst of sinners”) but by faith in Jesus I am more fully and unconditionally loved by God than I could ever fully grasp (Jesus came to die for me). In what ways is God personally teaching you this in His word or in your relationships?

7. Read the story from Jesus’ ministry found in Luke 7: 36-50. This is one of the clearest places in Scripture that shows us how we grow in our capacity for love. According to Jesus, who has the greatest capacity to love?

Where do you find yourself in the story – as the Pharisee looking down on others or as the woman weeping at the feet of Jesus? If you find yourself looking down on others, what is stopping you from getting on the floor and joining the woman?  If you find yourself as the woman weeping, what is stopping you from getting up and “going in peace” to love others as you have been loved?

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Living Hope - The Usefulness of the Cross

Read: 1 Peter 4:1-6

Following Jesus is hard. No exceptions. For one, you’ve got a Bible whose main message is clear, but it’s not without challenging passages. Like, “the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin?” What’s that all about? Following Jesus is also hard because we live in a post-Christian culture (very much similar to the 1st century), where our beliefs often do not fit into the plausibility structures of the wider culture. But here in 1 Peter 4, the apostle urges us that even though living for God is hard, there are good and reasonable reasons for doing so.  

1) Why it’s hard to live for God?

The main point of this short passage is in vv. 1-2. Peter encourages us to use the mindset of Jesus as He suffered in the flesh. What was that mindset? Jesus lived for God’s will, not His own. He was other-focused, not self-focused. That is incredibly hard for us for several reasons.

First, our past has often habituated us toward living for ourselves. In v. 3 Peter just casually assumes that his audience has at one time or another been caught up in drunkenness and orgies. But he exhorts them: you’ve already had enough time in that lifestyle. The reality remains: our actions do change us. Our hearts become conditioned to what we do. It’s hard to break with that.

Second, living for God’s will is hard because it often involves living under immense cultural pressure to do the opposite. Peter says unbelievers are “surprised” (v. 4) by Christians not joining them in a “flood of wild living.” But it isn’t just surprise. It’s shock that evolves into slander. History shows many examples of Jesus followers slandered, abused, ignored, reviled, and even condemned when they refused to join in, approve, affirm, and celebrate ways of living that run contrary to God’s will. That kind of pressure is real and it’s difficult to navigate.

Third, living for God’s will is hard because it runs contrary to the core of who we are. What do I mean? In v. 3, when Peter is listing out a range of ‘off-limits’ behaviors, he includes the word “evil desires.” It’s actually one word in the Greek (epithumia) and is more neutral than most of our translations indicate. Peter is saying that God doesn’t merely care about our behaviors, but about our thoughts, fantasies, beliefs. The apostle is drawing on a compelling and complex anthropological principle found in the Scriptures: our desires often become deep things that motivate, drive, control, and rule us. Our hearts create in us a longing, craving, need that we must have at all costs – and it drives our actions, wills, and attitudes. Essentially, Peter is saying that we need a new motivational system that operates at the core of who we are. Otherwise our sinful selves twist good desires so that we crave, long for, and build our lives on the attainment of things in order to justify ourselves.

2) What are reasons to live for God?

So there are both external and internal realities that make living for God extremely hard. But Peter is saying that there’s a truth for our minds that when we reason it out make it both reasonable and desirable to live for God. What are some of these truths?

To begin, unlike our internal desires and cultural standards, God’s will and standards don’t change. If you consider your desires for one moment you realize they often conflict and fluctuate for a variety of reasons. In short, they’re a poor navigator for life. The same goes for cultural standards. What passes for truth and goodness today will be laughable and scorned in a generation. We need something external to ourselves and the culture. God has provided His Word, the Scripture as a standard that does not change, is internally consistent, is eternally reliable.

Peter goes on to say that another reason to live for God is: you live twice. In Peter’s context, people may have been saying something like: eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die. It was a common notion in the ancient world. You live once, and then you die. It’s the only change you have. But Peter argues that there are not only consequences to our life, but there is a supernatural accountability after death. Everyone will give an account. They have to prove their life mattered. Now that’s a good reason to live for God – but the reality is our selves are continuously and perpetually wrong. We do not live according to God’s will or standard. We may not spend Saturday night at an orgy, but maybe we try to tap ultimate meaning through work, busyness, a romantic relationship, our kids’ success. So is there any good news?

Yes! Peter says the most important reason to live for God is: you are finished with sin. What does that mean? Peter indicates in v. 5 that there is “one who is coming to judge the living and the dead.” And he refers to that as “the gospel” or the good news. But as we’ve seen and experience, judgment sounds like anything but good news. How can judgment be good? The answer is in v. 1. The judgment of the living and dead is good news because the One doing the judging is the One who suffered in the flesh. The use of the Greek is interesting here. Peter’s verbs describe a definitive event, not an ongoing process. In fact, the same form is used in 1 Peter 3:18 to describe Jesus’ once-for-all suffering on the cross. Peter is indicating one act of suffering that brings about a situation in which sin is finished. This is the centrality of the cross for everyone. Jesus’ suffering has brought about an end to your sin. It is finished. Done. Canceled. That means that judgment for you has already taken place in Jesus’ flesh once for all. Why would Jesus do that? What was the mindset that motivated him? What was his longing? Hebrews 12 says that Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before him. What was the joy? It was you. You were the desire of his heart such that He followed God’s will personally, perfectly, and perpetually all the way to Calvary. When Jesus’ mind, when the truth that you are His joy, fills you, then you’ll know a truth, a motivation to live for God.

Discuss

1.        What about the sermon impacted you most? What left you with questions?

2.       The sermon mentioned several reasons it is hard to live for God? Which one connected with you most? Are there other reasons you experience that make following God’s will difficult?

3.        One thing the sermon didn’t really touch on was: the resources God has given to help us live for him. Things like: Scripture, prayer, corporate worship and the sacraments, godly relationships. Which of these have you found helpful to you recently? What resources might you be neglecting?

4.       A common misconception about Christianity is that it is buzzkill. Many look at the rules and think Christianity is about behavior modification or legislating morality. How might you respond to that idea?

5.       The truth that one is coming to judge the living and the dead is good news. Explain. Do you have doubts or anxiety about this judgment? How does the gospel speak to them?