In the Gospel Bond
Originally posted at Convergence, the blog of Restoration Church member, Avril Speak:
Whenever I get emails from one of my pastors, he often signs off with the words “In the Gospel Bond.” I noticed it the very first time I received an email, only because I had never seen anyone sign an email that way. But other than that, I didn’t usually think about it too deeply, I just knew it was there.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending Easter with several of my friends from Restoration Church, fellowshipping and breaking bread together. We had service, we had communion together and we even had a potluck dinner after service. But the highlight of the day for me came prior to the service.
My roomie and I were invited to the home of a girl from my small group, to have lunch with a few others from church. As we sat around the table, I was very much aware of the amount of diversity sitting around me, and I thought to myself how 10 years ago I don’t know that I would have found myself hanging out with so many different types of people who didn’t look like me. We made lots of good, small talk but once the conversation turned to the gospel things shifted a little bit. As we ate and talked about what God was doing in our lives and about our past experiences with “Pharasitical” ways (lol), we all shared the common bond of a shared love for Jesus Christ and our cultural differences were null and void. I can’t think of many other circumstances where two college kids from the Phillipines, two black, 30-something artists from New Jersey, a white architect from Seattle and a mountain-loving girl from Denver would share that type of personal bond. I left her home feeling peaceful and very blessed.
In light of my post from Friday, I’ll say that it can be uncomfortable to be in any environment where you feel like you are in the minority. I feel this discomfort sometimes even in church. Yesterday I was reminded that sometimes you just have to tough it out and endure the things that make you uncomfortable. It’s just better that way. I was blessed yesterday not just by by good food and good company, but good conversation about God’s sovereignty. I was blessed by the gospel bond. Who knew?
The Christian & Community
Here are a few excerpts on the importance of community in the Christian's life:
"To be a Christian, if means anything at all, means being gathered out of isolation into the corporate life of the body of Christ. Christian islands simply do not exist! In Christ we belong together. According to Scripture a right relationship to God is to a significant degree a right relationship to God’s people. The quality of Christians’ relationships with fellow believers, particularly in the local church, is therefore one of the primary indicators of the quality of their relationship with the Lord." (Milne, We Belong Together, 7).
"No Christian is self-sufficient – we need each other (1 Cor. 12:19-21). Each member’s gifts and contribution is required. Not one can be dispensed with. The loss of any member’s gift and ministry means the impoverishment of the whole…It is within the carrying, praying, sharing fellowship of believer men and women hat God intends the Christian life to be lived." (Milne, We Belong Together, 61).
"God has put certain people in your life and will lead others across your path to encourage and correct you…While God can reveal himself in dramatic visions and dreams, his common means of providing wisdom and guidance to his people is through his people as hey exhort one another in the Word (cf. Hb. 3:12-13). Make no mistake about it – you need to hear from others for your own progress in he faith…Proverbs tells us there are answers to be found in the counsel of friends (Pr. 24:6). What this implies is that you need the local church, and you need to see the body of Christ as the people God brings into your life to learn from. So the local church must be more than a weekly event. It needs to be your covenant community and extended family who have the privilege to exhort you – to speak into your life when you need it most." (Joe Thorn, Note to Self, 84).
"You are not strong enough, or spiritual enough to successfully follow Jesus and be faithful on your own. The words of God recorded in Genesis, “It is not good for man to be alone,” speak not only to marriage but also to a very basic need all people have. We are created by God to dwell in community." (Joe Thorn, Note to Self, 87).
Good Friday
Here is the sermon from Good Friday. May we gaze upon the cross of Christ and behold the love shown for us!!
The Importance of the Resurrection
What is the importance of the resurrection? How does the resurrection relate to our regeneration, justification, and sanctification? Consider these excepts from "The Neglected Resurrection" by Matthew Barrett @ TheGospelCoalition:
Our Regeneration Is Grounded in the Resurrection of Christ
Consider two passages. According to Peter, God has "caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Pet 1:3). The same God who raised Christ from the grave has also raised us from spiritual death to spiritual life. And the apostle Paul says that while we were dead in our trespasses and sins, God, being rich in mercy, "made us alive together with Christ" and "raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph 2:5-6; cf. Col 3:1).
Because God has raised Christ from the dead, he can make us alive together with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ's resurrection life is the very basis and means by which we are born again.
Our Justification Is Grounded in the Resurrection of Christ
Those who believe in the God who raised Christ from the dead are counted righteous. As Paul says in Romans 4:23-25, like Abraham we are counted righteous, for we believe in him "who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." By raising Jesus from the dead, God approved the work of Christ on the cross for our sins. God declared his Son's work complete! The penalty for our sin has been paid, and no guilt remains.
In other words, if God did not raise Christ from the dead, he would essentially be saying, "I am not satisfied with your atoning work on behalf of sinners." If this were the case, we would still be dead in our sins, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:17. And if we are still dead in our sins then we stand guilty before a holy God, unjustified and condemned.
Our Sanctification Is Grounded in the Resurrection of Christ
In Romans 6, Paul explains that we can "walk in newness of life" because Christ was raised from the dead. We are not to continue in sin, for how, as Paul asked, "can we who died to sin still live in it?" We have been baptized into the death of Christ so that "just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life" (Rom 6:3-4). But Paul is not finished. He has much more to say about the resurrection and our sanctification.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom 6:5-12).
None of this, however, is possible if Christ remains in the tomb. His resurrection is our victory over the reign of sin. Only because he has risen do we have the assurance, the confidence, and the ability to now walk in godliness.
How Awesome is that Day...
Ponder these words as we prepare for our Good Friday service this evening:
How awesome is that day to me-
O day of hallowed history!
Set time in God’s determined plan
To sacrifice the Son of Man.
What famous work that day was done
By Jesus Christ, His Perfect Son!
The Second Adam, sent to save,
Humbly obeying to the grave!
How savage is that day to me-
O day of pure brutality!
When Christ, the Son of God Most High,
Was fiercely whipped and hung to die.
And O the horror of my sin,
Seen there in His appalling skin!
For God struck down- as meant for me-
The sinless One, at Calvary.
How precious is that day to me-
O day of purchased liberty!
In Him, a freeman now I live;
My sins, through death, did God forgive.
No wrath at length looms o’er my head,
But lovingkindness there instead.
His righteousness, my guilt replaced,
And Love, this ransomed soul embraced!
O awesome, savage, precious day-
‘Tis God the Savior on display!
What peerless, holy, gracious Mind
Would fashion such a Grand Design?
Written by Kevin Hartnett, who works for NASA at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, overseeing the science operations activities of the mission. He was selected in 2003 from a thousand candidates as the “Poet of the Year” by the Fellowship of Christian Poets. (HT: DG)
Depth of Mercy
Consider these words as you reflect on the cross of Christ this week and prepare to celebrate the resurrection this Sunday:
Depth of mercy can there be
Mercy still reserved for me
Can my God his wrath forbear
Me the chief of sinners spare
I have long withstood his grace
Long provoked him to his face
Would not hearken to his calls
Grieved him by a thousand falls
I have spilt his precious blood
Trampled on the Son of God
Filled with pains unspeakable
I, who yet, am not in Hell
I, my master have denied
I afresh have crucified
And profaned his hallowed name
Put him to an open shame
Jesus speaks and pleads his blood
He disarms the wrath of God
Now my Father's mercies move
Justice lingers into love
There for me the savior stands
Shows his wounds and spreads his hands
God is love, I know, I feel
Jesus weeps and loves me still
Pity from thine eye let fall
By a look my soul recall
Now the stone to flesh convert
Cast a look and break my hear
Now incline me to repent
Let me now my sins lament
Now my foul revolt deplore
Weep, believe and sin no more.
Depth of Mercy
Words: Charles Wesley, 1740
Music: Jeff Koonce, Brian T. Murphy, Clint Wells, 2003
How to Respond...
This is a personal blog posts from Nathan Knight:
As followers of Christ we should respond, in part, but more than that we need to lead in the following categories referenced yesterday:
1. To the Strangeness: We need to do a better job of articulating what we believe…bring clarity to the words, phrases, concepts, etc. so that we can understand that in some ways we are not very far apart.
Indeed, followers of Christ should be equally, if not more, horrified at abuses of the faith, we should be advocates for the downtrodden of society, and we should take the time to listen to those who disagree with us…though not to the point of being spineless, weak, or without defending the truths of God.
2. To the Ironic: Given the latter…followers of Christ must do a better job at owning our faith and answering the questions that the people in our lives and the society at large are answering. I understand that not everyone can do this to the degree that the great Christian philosophers can, but as my Philosophy Professor used to say in seminary “We have a word from God”…and if we believe that, we must not be sloppy in our handling of that word and the world it describes. “Child Like Faith” or “Simple Faith” is not to be used as an excuse for ignorance…nor should you believe everything Fox News or CNN tells you.
Christian…work at THINKING, Christ commanded that you love Him with all your MIND (Matt. 22.37). The Reason for God by Tim Keller and More than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell are two books most every Christian in America should read. Also, study your Bible’s and listen to good preaching and engage with it…in short know your Bible’s, don’t just regurgitate something someone else told you. If you believe it, own it, for the glory of God! Most of those at the Reason Rally didn’t reason any better or worse than most Christians, but we have no excuse…"we have a word from God.”
3. To the Sad: Shame on us Christians, shame on us! That those on the peripheries of society should ever feel shunned by the Christian community. We should work against the tide of following the beautiful, rich, and famous. Christ was constantly after those that society had shunned; from the blind and lame to the prostitutes and tax collectors…be the “Good Samaritan,” no…be the Christ that is in you to those that society shuns. Don’t compromise the truths of the Gospel and the Word that points you to that Gospel, but love the unlovable, primarily because YOU (and I) were the unlovable and Christ loved us, but don’t do it to “pay off” Christ…do it because of the reward laid up for those who you love, and for the glory it brings to the Father who loved you.
Christians in America need to understand their King does not, and will not ever live at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. They need to treasure the Word of God more than the parchment of man at the National Archives, and they need to be more passionate about a heavenly Kingdom more than that of Republicans. In short…Christian, do not neglect so great a salvation…gaze into the eyes of Christ your King, love Him and trust Him to move in on you as you move out into your community. If more Christians did this, Im convinced the attendance of a Reason Rally would be far less, and the attendance of our churches would be far more.
Reflections from the Reason Rally
This is a personal blog posts from Nathan Knight:
The Reason Rally served as an encouragement to Atheists to “come out of the closet” and yield their ideas in the public square. Thousands showed up and I was one of them. I walked away with three distinct emotions:
Strange: I felt it strange while I was there, not just because I wasn’t one of “them” but because of how much I agreed with what was being said from the stage. They celebrated the separation of church and state, people who have been bullied or abused in religious circles, or even encouraging people to “come out of the closet” as Atheists.
It was also strange because the basis of the gathering was to celebrate something they didn’t believe. I can't think of another type of gathering where people gather solely to celebrate something they don’t believe in. I don’t believe in flying spaghetti monsters, but I'm not planning on having a rally about that? Surely, their aren’t people from the flying spaghetti monster religion pushing in on society (as Christians do)…regardless, that doesn’t negate the strangeness of it all.
Ironic: I felt the whole thing ironic for some of the reasons above, but also because the gathering was labeled a Reason rally. The implication was clearly, if you believe in a God then you cannot reason…this of course is very poorly reasoned. Further, as some of our Christian brothers and sisters were there standing for the truth, I listened in to the Atheist’s rhetoric and it was incredibly poorly reasoned itself, as were some of the claims from the stage (Dawkins claimed Genesis was written in 800 ad & to what authority were they celebrating “justice?”).
Sad: I felt sad because of the utter hopelessness for these throngs. Surely, these people could care less about my sympathy for them (and they said as much). Many of those gathered seemed as though they were a veritable representation of those shunned by society. Not for their atheism, but for other aspects that our society does not celebrate or welcome. Which left me deeply saddened because these are the ones that Christ seemed to be very interested.
It was almost palatable in walking and standing in the midst of those people that they felt like the underdogs of society and they came to shake their fists at the society that shunned them…again, not for their atheism, but for the other aspects of their person.
Tomorrow I will suggest some ways we can respond.
The Suffering Servant
On Restoration's 2nd birthday, guest pastor Bobby Linkous (Shadowbrook BC in Suwanee, GA) delivers the 2nd message in the sermon series The Road to Emmaus.
Download Study Guide (PDF)
