Jonathan Evans

Revival: Praise

A spontaneous gift is sudden and unexpected to the recipient not to the giver. Revival is the sudden and unexpected outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It’s sudden and unexpected to the church and to the world, but not to God.

 

ATTRACTION TO JESUS

 

In the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus notices a particular group of people. The children. They are the lowly, unimportant ones of their society. But not in Jesus’ eyes. He pays attention to them, to their words, their actions, their lives. And the children are not oblivious to Jesus either. They notice and pay attention to him, too. 

 

Why should it be any different today? With much fear and pessimism we believe that our children and young people will be repelled by Jesus; that the beauty of the world is the more compelling beauty. But the beauty of Jesus is inexhaustible at every angle. And he has always loved, revealed himself to, and enraptured the young regardless of century or culture (Matthew 19:14).

 

The promise of the Holy Spirit is for all generations, including our “sons and daughters” (Acts 2:17). So we pray for a generation of young people who though they share common interests with others, they imagine (at the gut level) their lives in vastly different ways. In revival there is precisely an awakening of young people to the glory of Jesus and the joy of his kingdom. Their lives are transformed by Jesus and they joyfully surrender the “nets” of their lives to follow him (Matthew 4:19-20), and forsake all for the pearl of his kingdom (Matthew 13:45-46). 

 

 

INTUITION OF JESUS

 

“But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, 'Hosanna to the Son of David!’ they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” (Matthew 21:15-16) Surely the children do not fully understand who Jesus is or what he is doing, but Jesus still accepts their praise of him as true. 

 

The children discern, perceive, believe that Jesus is different from those who have come before him claiming to be the Messiah. His presence awakens something in them and alerts them to something in Him. Like a baby who “just knows” who her parents are, who "just knows" when she's in their presence and calls out and responds to them, the children's praise is their heart’s intuitive call and response to who Jesus truly is.

 

Their praise is informed by what they know from Scripture (by what they have been taught), but it is also inspired (breathed into) by the Holy Spirit. It is by the Holy Spirit that our knowledge about Jesus becomes a living knowledge of Jesus. He becomes the object and not merely the subject of our praise and worship, so that in revival there is a heavenly sense of the admiration and awe surrounding Jesus that fills and rests upon the hearts of people. 

 

SALVATION IN JESUS

 

Jesus replies to the indignant religious leaders, “have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” (Matthew 21:26) “Out of”, not “In the”. There are no mute hearts. “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt. 12:34), and sings!

 

Singing is by far the most frequent activity of praise and worship commanded and attributed by God to his people. But more than what we do, it is an activity of the Holy Spirit in/out of our hearts, a sign of his fullness in/out of our lives (Ephesians 5:18-19). Where the Spirit of God is present and indwelling a heart, there will be songs being sung to Jesus.

 

What are the children singing? “Hosanna”. God saves! They are praising Jesus for “the wonderful things” that he is doing, and will do. 

 

In the history of Israel, the greatest, most memorable act of God’s power was the Exodus, in particular, the Red Sea. There was no one like Moses for “the wonderful things” (“the great deeds”) that God had sent him to do and had done through him (Deuteronomy 34:10-12). There at the edge of the sea Israel saw God defeat his enemies and deliver his people. (Exodus 14:30-31). What did Moses and Israel do in response? They sang! (Exodus 15) 

 

Jesus is a greater deliverer than Moses. But why? How? What act of deliverance can the children praise Jesus for? 

 

“He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” (Matthew 27:42-43) 

 

There on the cross Jesus was the helpless, the fool, the weak. But there through the weakness of the cross God both defeated his enemies (sin, death, and the devil) and delivered his people forever through the power of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:21-24). “Out of the mouths of babies”, out of the mouths of the helpless, the foolish, and the weak, we the redeemed people and children of God boast in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior (1 Cor. 1:26-31). 

 

In revival, at the edge of the cross and the empty tomb, a fresh cry of victory and new song of deliverance rises from out of the mouths of God’s people and resounds in the ears of the world: Hosanna, to the Son of God!

Revival: Power

A spontaneous gift is sudden and unexpected to the recipient not to the giver. Revival is the sudden and unexpected outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It’s sudden and unexpected to the church and to the world, but not to God.

 

THE HEALING

 

God still does “wonderful things” (Matthew 21:15), powerful things, today. This is my deep conviction born out of a time of deep cynicism. A time when I stumbled over an exposed “revivalist” and fell into doubt and criticism, and intellectualized and theologized away all demonstrations and manifestations of God’s power today. This despite having had such experiences as an early teen. “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24) 

 

In revival, God’s ordinary work is done to an extraordinary degree. It’s an unusual season of life for the church, not the usual day to day activity in the life of the church. Jesus is always saving, but in revival he saves in an exponential way. Whereas a local church may see 6 people turn to Jesus in a year, in a season of revival they will see dozens, hundreds, even thousands. And whereas a local church may see a healing or a person powerfully encounter God in the span of a few months, in revival they see manifold demonstrations of God’s power almost daily.

 

Still, when we talk about God’s power, we must talk about more than power. We must talk about people’s lives being touched by the Living God.

 

THE HEALED

 

When Jesus goes in to the temple in Jerusalem, word gets out. Somehow, a blind and a lame man find their way in. The blind and the lame, though, are a people group  excluded from ever entering the temple. They come anyway, and Jesus not only welcomes them, he heals them in the very place they are not supposed to be (Matthew 21:14-15).

 

After Jesus’ resurrection, his two disciples, Peter and John, are going up to the temple where, at the gate, they find a lame man asking for alms. Peter looks at him and says, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” (Acts 3:1-7) 

 

Jesus heals inside and outside the temple. God’s power resides in and flows from the true temple and meeting-point with God, Jesus Christ. Any person in any place at any time can be made well and whole (whether or not they will be).

 

Yet, we must follow the gift back to the Giver (Luke 17:18), because we can easily get caught up in power as the ultimate end. But God demonstrates his power in order to confirm his message of the gospel (Mark 16:20) and point to the forgiveness and salvation found nowhere else but in Jesus Christ (Matthew 9:5-6). The greatest miracle is the love of God in the heart of man. The highest joy is knowing God, not working miracles (Matthew 7:22; Luke 10:20). The world might use its power to control what we love. But Jesus always uses his power to show us his love for us.  

 

THE HEALER

 

How did Jesus heal and do mighty works? By the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. (Luke 3:22; 4:1, 14). So, how would his disciples heal and do mighty works? By the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5) 

 

In Acts 2 the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples and the church, as he did upon Jesus at the beginning, and Peter explains what is happening: “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he (Jesus!) has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.” (Acts 2:33) 

 

This pouring out is a “power” to be “witnesses” (Acts 1:8). But our “witness” is not passive observance from the outside; it’s active participation on the inside. The Holy Spirit is the key witness to the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus (Acts 5:32). His coming-as-pouring is a testifying to Jesus living and reigning today; an empowering of the church for the advancing and completing of Jesus’ mission today; a participating in the renewing and transforming life of Jesus today. 

 

In all our efforts we are "blind and lame" without the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. But with Him all the possibilities, promises, and blessings of life found in Jesus are made a reality.

 

SPRING FLOWERS

 

When Jesus came to earth, the kingdom of God was “at hand”. It was spatially found in the physical body of Jesus. But now that he has ascended, the kingdom of God is at hand in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot picture Jesus as being far off somewhere in heaven, but rather as being near to us in the person of the Holy Spirit, dwelling with and within us. 

 

Revival comes to dry, barren ground with rains of refreshing and streams of healing. It brings the Spring flowers, radiant and beautiful (signs and wonders, manifestations and demonstrations of God’s power), but its aim is the mature fruit (the transformation of lives) of the Summer and Fall.

Revival: Prayer

 A spontaneous gift is sudden and unexpected to the recipient not to the giver. Revival is the sudden and unexpected outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It’s sudden and unexpected to the church and to the world, but not to God.

 

MY HOUSE

 

The 19th century in America was an age of progress, innovation, great human energy, and the birth of “the American spirit” and the self-made man. It was also the century when the understanding and definition of revival changed.

 

Revival changed from what is sovereign, what only God can do, to “a purely philosophical result of the right use of the constituted means” (Charles Finney), what man can do; from what we prepare for by seeking God to what we organize, plan, and even schedule on the calendar; from what begins in a community of people to what begins in a crowd (the more people the greater the chance of securing, producing a revival).

 

In the “old” understanding of things, Jesus ascended and is the source of all, continuing his work on earth through the Holy Spirit. But in the “newer” understanding of things, Jesus ascended and now the church is the source of all and continues the work. 

 

But Jesus enters the temple of God and says, “It is written, ‘My house…’ .” My house. 

 

“I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18) The church is not built on or around a man, but on Jesus himself, “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Mat. 16:16-17) Jesus has promised that he will build his church. The implication, then, is that he also has promised not to build our church. Revival reestablishes the ownership and purpose of the church. 

 

HOUSE OF PRAYER

 

What marks the house that belongs to Jesus? Prayer. “My house shall be called a house of prayer.” (Matthew 21:13) We might have hoped for a different word to describe the church, but in it Jesus sums up his understanding and definition of the church. 

 

Yet Jesus is speaking of something beyond the activity of praying; he’s speaking of the character of prayer. Under pressure I might perform honestly, but this doesn’t mean I am honest. An honest character performs honestly both while under pressure and while not under any pressure. The house marked by prayer is a people whose face and heart is always turned towards God (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

 

But we are not only turned towards God for ourselves. Jesus quotes from Isaiah 56:7, “these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” God is promising that one day he will bring “these”, the Gentiles (the lost, foreigner, outcast, separated), into his house. A house of prayer is both a place where the lost will come and find God and a people who will pray for God to seek and save the lost.

 

In revival the care, concern, and compassion in the church for the world is intensified to a great degree. The birthing of revival produces the travail of prayer for the lost (the travail can’t produce the birth), and leads to the joy of salvation, the new birth of many souls (John 3:3; 2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 Peter 1:3).

 

DEN OF ROBBERS

 

We, the people of God, tend to wander, to grow cold, to forget. Jesus looks under the activity in the temple and sees its character. “Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?” (Jeremiah 7:9-11) The house is marked by a lack of care, concern, and compassion for the lost. The people are committing crimes against the very ones they are called to pray for; they have become a curse rather than a blessing. 

 

The enemy of the church is not the culture. The enemy is the Devil. When the Devil comes to tempt the church, he tempts us to sin and do evil, but he also tempts us not to do good. The evil becomes attractive, the good unattractive. The first good things to usually go in the life of the church and of the Christian are our devotion to God’s Word and to prayer. But they are both essential and irreplaceable in all centuries, under all circumstances, and before all activities (Acts 6:4).

 

In the end the temple was destroyed, but not God’s purposes for his people. “It is written”, says Jesus –  established, determined, defined, understood – “my house will be a house of prayer for all peoples”. There is neither a time nor a place where this promise will fail. But now God’s purpose in blessing all peoples rests ultimately not on our prayers, but on Jesus’ intercession. “(He) is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:25; see Romans 8:34). When revival arrives, it will find us in prayer and intercession.   

Being a Christian doesn’t compensate for my sin

 

A Christian who sins needs God's forgiveness as much as anyone who is not a Christian. But there are some important distinctions that as a Christian I should believe and hold to.

 

1. I believe I have sinned. I come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. I am convinced of my sin. Godly grief settles in and produces the proper effect (fruit) of repentance. (Matthew 3:8; 2 Corinthians 7:10) 
   
   
   
2. I believe I must seek forgiveness. So I confess my sin to Jesus, because sin is not forgiven automatically (1 John 1:9). “(T)he righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses…and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness when he sins.” (Ezekiel 33:12)
   
   
   
3. I believe I need forgiveness. Sin separates me from God, from his good (and holy) intentions for me, and from others. God’s love isn’t a way of comforting me and convincing me that I’m okay; its his way of convincing me that I’m not okay, and yet comforting me with the truth that it can be made okay.
   
   
   
4. I believe I can find forgiveness. Although I have sinned against God, I have a Savior, an Advocate, a Substitute in Jesus Christ. Because God looks on him, God desires and is able and ready to forgive me. I need only to also turn and look on Jesus, "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!" (John 1:29)
   
   
   
5. I believe I am forgiven. My sins have been removed, as far as the east is from the west; my heart has been washed as white as snow; I am united to Christ, justified before God, a temple of the Holy Spirit. "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
   
   
   
6. I regret sinning, but not leaving my sin. True repentance is without regret (2 Corinthians 7:10), that is, it doesn’t look back with sadness, with a sense of loss over the sin it's leaving behind, but it looks forward with joy, with earnestness and with eagerness, with a sense of longing and with anticipation, to Jesus, our Salvation. Through him we are brought home to God and God is brought home to us. 

 

Being a Christian doesn’t compensate for my sin. Only being in Jesus Christ my sin is paid for and forgiven. And Jesus always forgives us of our sins with the intention of changing us, of transforming us, even by one degree. And the heart that truly confesses and repents of sin always seeks forgiveness with the expectation of being changed, the promise and assurance that change from the bottom up and from the inside out is possible through the power of the blood of Jesus.

Don't use Scripture, treasure it.

  

 

"Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts." Psalm 119:98-100

 

Too often, for many of us, reading and studying Scripture becomes a tool which we use to outwit our opponents, critique culture, evaluate sermonic soundness (truth), and test other Christians’ spiritual growth.

 

To be sure, the Psalmist does say that God’s word makes him wiser than his enemies, a step ahead of those who oppose or persecute him; cultivates in him a more insightful understanding than those who teach him or others God’s word; and enables him to possess a more comprehensive knowledge than those who are respected for their spiritual position and longevity in the community.

 

But, to be sure, these things are not the reasons for which the Psalmist meditates on God’s word. He doesn’t keep God’s precepts in order to be wise beyond his age, his teachers or his enemies. Rather, these things are the unintended, even unasked for, results of loving God’s Word, of loving God first.

 

If I use Scripture to get wisdom, I become arrogant. If I treasure Scripture to know God, I become wise.

Beyond words, but not apart from words

 

Dear Christian,

 

We read the Bible to remember that God With Us (Matthew 1:23) has acted in history, in time, and what he has done in Jesus. We see that we're a part of a story that is timeless, that doesn't end in time, on earth, but is written from eternity to eternity. It's a story bigger than any one of us that yet includes each one of us.

 

We read the Bible to realize that God's activity is not something centered around my individual life but someone focused exclusively on Jesus Christ: God Himself is set on exalting Jesus on earth from beginning to end – past, present, future.

 

We read the Bible to recognize that my life and yours are created, formed, and made to be a reflection of the greatness, majesty, and glory of God. Our life saved from sin is being recreated, reformed, remade into the perfect image of God, Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3), and is called into and empowered for full participation in his kingdom. We not only read this in the word of God but we live this through The Word of God, Jesus Christ (Revelation 19:13; John 1:1, 14), to whom the whole Bible is pointing and in whom the whole Bible is fulfilled.

 

We read the Bible to respond to a God who speaks. Exceeding, and more exhilarating than, a perfect day is hearing one word from God. Anyone in a significant relationship knows that conversation is better than a thousand gifts and that a thousand gifts without a meaningful conversation are meaningless. To listen to the voice of the one you love, of the one who loves you, is fulfilling beyond words, but not apart from words.

 

Listen closely, read slowly.

Have faith in God, not in time

 

If God promises me that he will do something "tomorrow”, I will likely wait patiently for today to pass. But if God is more vague and says, “soon”, I will likely become impatient. If I know God is going to do something anyway, what harm is there in rushing it a little? 

 

The witches have told Macbeth that he will one day become king. So why wait? Why not today? Isn't it all the same? Perhaps faith in fate is not me waiting for things to unfold but rather, in faith, acting and taking hold of things. Macbeth murders King Duncan.

 

Young David is anointed future king of Israel by the prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 16:12-13). But David will wait over 20 years for this to fully come to pass. Although during those long, trying years he has several opportunities to kill the current king and cut short the waiting, he refuses. He has faith in God, not in fate or time.

 

Often we wait for God because we can’t do anything about our circumstances. But how often do we wait precisely because we can change things? The temptation to play God, to force God’s hand, to get ahead of God is attractive. Isn’t faith refusing to let things stay the way they are?

 

Time is a funny thing. We like to manage it and be productive. It makes us believe, feel that we're powerful; that we can control our lives; that we can plan for what’s coming tomorrow (James 4:13-14); that we can add hours to our days and days to our lives (Matthew 6:27; Psalm 139:16). But in the end we can't use time to impose our will, or dominate our lives, or speed things up.

 

Watching humanity exist in technologically primitive or underdeveloped cultures, we easily feel like they're wasting time. When our plans fail or our dreams take longer than we pray they will, we feel like we're "wasting time" or that "time is passing me by". But these feelings, beliefs, are often a misplacement of our trust in God; they betray our trust in our activity, busyness, productivity, technology, management. Not that these are wrong, but that they're not God's parting gift to a now mature, ready, self-sufficient humanity.

 

Has God given us everything we need, in order that we should no longer need him? Is the world and all that is in it a substitute for God, his word, his Spirit? Has he created and saved us to work, be productive, and be successful in recognition of him, a tipping of the hat, but not in worship to him, a surrendering of our life? 

 

If time is only a resource by which we seize opportunity, then how we manage it is of paramount importance. But if time is the revealing and ordering of God’s will, then how we live in time is of paramount importance.  

 

David “served the purpose of God in his own generation” (Acts 13:36), a purpose that included the times of waiting in David’s life – nearly a third of his life. Ultimately, his life, my life, your life, our time, is not for God’s purposes for us but for his purposes for us for him – his name, his glory, his will, and his kingdom. 

 

It was in the fullness of time – a fullness that includes not only the past but the present and the future – that God sent Jesus Christ into the world (Ephesians 1:10; Galatians 4:4), which means that time is not left to blind, random or automated fate, but that God is eternal, in eternity, and time is his servant, not ours.

Prayer is never optional

 

"Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God." (Revelation 3:2) 

 

These are Jesus' words to the church at Sardis, calling them out of spiritual death (yes, it can happen) into new spiritual life (yes, it can happen). Not that many years had passed between the church in Acts 2 and Pentecost, and the church in Revelation 3 and Patmos (the place John is writing from), yet Jesus still must warn them to "Wake up".

 

And he (Jesus) came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mark 14:37-38) 

 

The disciples of Jesus had long been with him, and seen and heard all that he did, yet Jesus still needs to stir them up to "Watch and pray”. 

 

It doesn't take long for neither Christians of any spiritual maturity nor for the church of Jesus Christ in any century, to slip into sleepiness or lukewarmness. 

 

Prayer is, therefore, that which must be consistently engaged in at all costs, in all times. 

 

Prayer is not simply the guiding principle of our lives – when we need an answer or are in trouble – but prayer is the operational principle of our lives. It keeps us alert and aware; makes us present and sensitive to God, to His will, and to His kingdom.

 

Prayer is never optional for the people of God. Praying is not simply a question of "staying alive", but of being alive. The life of Jesus and of the Spirit both "pushes" (urges) us towards prayer and "pulls" (attracts) us into prayer.

 

It is a good day to pray!

Unforced delight

 

I haven’t always enjoyed sunsets. There was a time when the idea of sitting on the shore of Lake Ontario would have been boring, the farthest thing from fun in my mind. Today, when I watch from my front porch the colors filling up the sky, the hardest thing for me to do is to not grab my keys and drive towards 10 1/2 Street.

 

Delight, true delight, is unforced. Without being commanded to, it arises out of the heart freely.

 

Blessed is the man who… his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. (Psalm 1:1-2)

 

When the Psalmist says that he meditates on the law, God’s instruction, “day and night”, does he mean that every thought originating in his mind is all day and all night focused only on God’s word? 

 

It cannot be that every thought, both day and night, is directed towards God’s law. 

 

To meditate on God’s word is not simply, not only, to direct one’s thoughts as a matter of discipline, obedience, love, worship. There is that. But underneath meditating or thinking is delight. 

 

The Psalmist is becoming aware that during the hours making up the day and the night, he finds himself thinking about God’s law. His thoughts are arising naturally, freely, uncoerced, unforced towards God’s law. When, for example, the day’s labors are finished and he sits to rest, free to turn his mind to whatever he wishes, his mind turns to God’s word. His thoughts run after his desires; his meditation runs after his delight. 

 

No one obligates you to do what you delight in. You do it freely, without external compulsion or obligation. (I’d like a cup of coffee, dark roast, french-pressed, please.) So it is to be with God’s people and God’s word. To not delight in God’s law is to find that you are never or rarely thinking about God and his word freely or spontaneously. It isn’t that God precludes you from thinking of other things; his word doesn’t exclude other things from being delighted in (Philippians 4:8); but to delight in God’s word is to find yourself, your soul, your entire being, being drawn to God and to his word during both the day and night hours. You’re thinking about him, feeling towards him, talking with him, not only because you plan to, but also because you didn't plan to – suddenly and unexpectedly, your activity or rest is interrupted and flooded with thoughts of God and of his word. There’s coming into existence a life, a new way of living, where you no longer are disinterested or unfeeling towards the Bible, but now can’t begin to imagine or enjoy life without God and without a delight in his word.

 

Delight closes the distance between your heart and God’s word. To finally “see” the beauty in one sunset is to long for the next, to think about seeing it, and savoring it, again.

Unselfed Gospel

 

I've sung sing it with my kids while driving:  

Because I’m happy

Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof

Because I’m happy

Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth

Because I’m happy

Clap along if you know what happiness is to you

Because I’m happy

Clap along if you feel like that’s what you wanna do

 

No question, it’s a catchy song. It’s also the guiding principle of a culture: Whatever makes me happy by making me feel good must be the right thing for me to do.  

 

Today, we believe one’s individual desires are the locus of authority and self-definition. (Long gone is any sense of individual responsibility to a larger community of which I am a part, unless I can use them to advance my own interests. Long gone is any individual commitment to sacrifice what I need or want for the good of another, unless, in the end, it gets me what I want.)

 

We consistently find this “truth” in the stories and songs of our culture. We also find this “truth” in the sermons in our churches. We hear messages telling us that not only must we believe in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, but we must also, of equal importance and necessity, believe in ourselves. God’s word and promise is dependent upon man, rooted in man, and oriented around man. Without our positive thinking and confession, God’s hands are tied. 

  

This preaching says that God demands nothing of me, because He’s chiefly concerned with making me feel good. God is sought only as a therapist, to solve my problems, to help me find fulfillment, and never inquired of as Holy God and Sovereign King. 

 

Some of the mantras of this gospel are, “Do your best”, “Believe in yourself”, “Say to yourself”, “Think positive”, “You’re a child of the Almighty”. Now, it’s true: a Christian is a child of the Almighty. But being God's child presupposes something radical, anti-culture, and now anti-church-culture: The gospel.

 

The Biblical gospel is concerned with the objective truth: God over man and man before God. A Biblical gospel preaches that God demands and deserves everything from me (love, obedience, passions, desires), because he is holy, and that I have chosen not to give it to him, because I am a sinner. 

 

The Biblical gospel presupposes God is love and God is holy, and he is never one apart from the other. Sin goes deeper than just doing bad, feeling bad, and having problems (Luke 18:10-14). There is the offense: our sin. There is the offended: God. There is the offender: you and I. There is the cost to be paid: a sacrifice. At the cross, God’s wrath and love were poured out on Jesus Christ (Hebrews 2:17). In and through him, God’s holiness was upheld and his love is offered freely to all. Our salvation. 

 

The salvation offered in Jesus Christ goes deeper than just doing good things, having good feelings, and having no problems. While God’s salvation can and does change our whole lives, making them better and happier, God saves us to re-orient our lives around him, not him around us. Whatever “better and happier” looks like or feels like, it now comes as a result of denying our self and dying to our self daily (Luke 9:23).

 

In all that he has created, God can be absent nowhere but the human heart enslaved to sin. Yet, God is present nowhere else in all of creation like he is in the redeemed heart of man.  The gospel – Jesus’ death in my place – is the entry point, not the end point of the unselfed life, a life that starts with Jesus, not with the self; a life where Jesus is at the center, not the self; a life where knowing Jesus is worth the loss of everything the self holds closer (Philippians 3:8).

 

(Adapted from a longer version of this post)