Jesus is IT (Matthew 2:13-23)

Matthew has just recounted the story of the magi coming from the east and worshipping Jesus as king.  What’s remarkable about that particular story is that Matthew is the only one of the four gospel to tell the story of the magi.

I begin there for the simple reason that this morning’s text is largely dependent upon some of the details from that scene with the magi.  By way of introduction, take a look for a second at verse 2:2 – the magi have just arrived in Jerusalem and they go straight to King Herod to ask…

READ VERSE 2:2

For a king like Herod, that was the last question you wanted to ask.  Herod was known for responding to even the most minor of threats with the full force of his cruelty.  And so such questions and the suggestion that there may another king running around was bound to result in some rash response from Herod.  Then in verse 12 we read about how the magi were spared from that wrath via a dream, and shortly after that, Joseph – through a dream – is warned to take Jesus and his mother to Egypt.

Typically, when we look at this text we tend to go in one of two directions with it.  On one hand, we frequently focus on the escape to Egypt as a picture of God’s providence and preservation of toddler Jesus.  Or sometimes we focus on the “slaughter of the innocents” and try to reconcile how it is we can believe such a thing happened when there is not one strand of evidence outside of Scripture that Herod ever committed such a cruel act.

Filed under: Bible Study, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, Faith, Ministry, Sermon, Theology

The Visit of the Magi (Sermon on Matthew 2:1-13)

It’s a joy to be back in Portland and able to worship here at Parklane again.  I graduated from Calvin Seminary in May, and Mishaela and I have been back in the area for about 3 months now.  Just so everyone’s up to date on what we’re doing here, we decided about a year and a half ago that would start walking through the door to church planting.  What’s more, we also began to feel a real burden to see more CRC congregations in Oregon and to minister to Portland.  And so, we moved back to Portland and we’ve been working to establish ourselves in the Sellwood neighborhood, with the hopes of starting a new faith gathering in that part of town.  I suppose it’s also worth pointing out that Mishaela and I are expecting our first child in February, which we are very excited about.

As a church planter I’ve been gravitating toward the gospel of Matthew – and for good reason.  A question I’m sure many of us have wondered about is “Why are there four gospels?” After all, if the goal is to present a biography of sorts of Jesus life, won’t one do the trick?

The reality that is often overlooked is that each gospel comes with its own particular slant on what happened.  Each gospel writer, when he set out to record the events of Jesus’ life and his teachings, did so with the intention of achieving something more than just recording the events of Jesus’ life.  It’s that particular slant that has resulted in the gospels occasionally telling a slightly different version of an event or even omitting or including stories that the other gospels haven’t.

Filed under: Bible Study, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, Faith, Ministry, Original Languages, Sermon, Theology

Jesus Was a Liberal (And Other Irreverent Thoughts About Discipleship)

Emphasis on the past tense verb…Jesus was a liberal.  But that doesn’t mean he’s now a conservative either.  This is a post that’s been building for a few weeks.  Several weeks ago I had an interview at a church for a youth pastor position.  One of the questions I was asked is “Are you liberal or conservative?”  I responded buy saying that I don’t like those terms because their too subjective and divisive.  ”I just try to be as faithful and consistent with Scripture as I can?”  The committee apparently didn’t like that answer because they followed it up with “Would you consider yourself open-minded or closed-minded?”  Honestly, I really didn’t know how to respond to such a question.

In a recent tweet, I stated “becoming more & more confused about what it means to be conservative or liberal & why it matters…”

And then in the article I re-posted entitled “God Hates You,” the author makes this statement:

I have always found it supremely odd that most Christians, when pressed, will admit that they don’t care very much how Jesus lived his life, or the theology he lived out or spoke of, but they claim “salvation through his ’substitutionary’” death.

Filed under: Christian Living, Christianity, Culture, Discipleship

God Hates You (Reposted from Burnside Writers Collective)

The Burnside Writers Collective is an online magazine co-founded by Donald Miller.  The purpose of the magazine is to spur conversation and engage culture from a semi-emergent, semi-evangelical perspective.  I recently added their link in my sidebar and you can RSS them if you want – which I’ve done.  Below is the text of an article that makes a very strong, personal, and hard point.  While not stated explicitly, it’s getting at the heart of disicpleship – i.e. living like Jesus.  Just read it…it’s well worth it…

GOD HATES YOU

FEATURED, SOCIAL JUSTICE — BY M. MORFORD ON OCTOBER 28, 2009 AT 12:00 AM

 

When I was a kid, we used to play the “opposite game”. A typical conversation would go like this;

Me: “I’m not hungry.”

My brother: “I’m really not hungry.”

Me: “I’m really, really, not hungry.  I’m so not hungry that I couldn’t take a single bite”.

My brother: “Oh, yeah, I’m so not hungry I couldn’t even LOOK at a picture of food right now.”

Obviously this is game no one wins and it veers into absurdity almost immediately.

Sometimes I think churches and religious organizations are playing this game as I read articles and emails that tell me in breathless urgency what God hates.

Filed under: Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Culture, Discipleship

I Predict the Future (Or At Least Offer Some Encouragement About Where To Go)

The other day I was talking with another church planter here in Portland and the topic came up in which we both see a fairly major shift in church philosophy looming on the horizon.  For the past 20 years the goal of most evangelical congregations has been to get as big as they possibly can.  Many in my generation have this pervasive feeling that that mindset is evidence of the church buying in to the “bigger-is-better” attitudes of most of America.

The trend among 20-somethings in most places in America is a desire to be a part of smaller, more organic/natural, communities that emphasize simplicity over big production worship services.  When I was in Grand Rapids, I attend Mars Hill Bible Church several times.  Each time, attendance was drastically lower, resulting in an announcement the last time I was there that they would be ending 1 of their 3 services.  I suspect a number of mega-churches around the nation are experiencing similar struggles in keeping the current college and young-adult group around.  Much has been said about this.  Conversely, the house-church movement is growing and more small church plants are thriving and doing a better job of producing disciples than the big churches with their big budgets.

I have to admit that I frequently find myself wishing for a large congregation; day-dreaming about what it would be like to start a church and become the next Rob Bell or Francis Chan.  We have to admire these men who are able to pull together just the right mix of people who go out and take their communities by storm.  I have no doubts that God has worked through these men and that lives have been transformed by their preaching of the Gospel.

Filed under: Church, Church Planting, Discipleship, Leadership, Ministry