Engaging Scripture

How the church has gotten in the way of God’s Kingdom…and what to do about it.

The subtitle of author Reggie McNeal’s book Kingdom Come, is compelling: “why we must give up our obsession with fixing the church—and what we should do instead”. That grabbed me! In the book, he tells the story of when he was at a conference for pastors and said this:

“We’ve been working at fixing the church for the past 500 years…how’s that going for us?”

500 years ago a German Catholic Priest named Martin Luther nailed a piece of paper to the door of his church in the town of Wittenburg, and in so doing he started quite a ruckus.

Some people get confused because there was another Martin Luther who was very famous. Martin Luther King, Jr. I’m not talking about MLK. I’m talking about the guy MLK was named for. THE Martin Luther. THE Martin Luther was going through a major change in his view of the church. He had been a Roman Catholic his whole life, and he was a priest for many of those years. A very devout priest. But he was disheartened by things he saw in his church. So he got to the point where he wanted to do something about it.

He wrote out his concerns, all 95 of them, which are famously known as his Theses, and he tacked them to the door of his church for all to see. That was before Facebook.

Luther took a lot of heat for this. In fact, he nearly lost his life because he refused to recant. He held firm to his concerns and eventually started a whole new movement. Luther was protesting against the church. He wanted to reform it. You put those two words together, “protest and reform”, and you get the title that we have given to Luther’s movement: the Protestant Reformation.

That was nearly 500 years ago. Just like Luther, we have been trying to change the church ever since. McNeal asks a good question: How is that going for us?

In the short years that I have been involved in church, starting in late 80s and early 90s, as McNeal points out, we’ve seen a personal evangelism movement, a church growth movement, the worship wars, a church health craze, the megachurch movement, the emergent church, and plenty of theological debates. How is that going for us?

A guy who studies the church, Ed Stetzer, has recently published studies that have extensively examined religion in America. Guess what? Do you think all those attempts at fixing the church have helped? Nope. The mainline church is declining particularly fast. Thankfully the Evangelical branch of Protestantism is not declining nearly as much, but we, too, are seeing small declines.

You know what McNeal says? “Why not just do what the church should be doing?—partnering with God in his redemptive mission in the world—and let the overflow of that effort bring about the renewal we’re looking for?”

Basically he is saying that we need to tell our story differently! Or as a friend at church so often tells me, we need better PR! Think about it: What story have we told?

Faith Church tells our community a story. There’s the story that we think we’re telling, and there’s the story that the community is hearing. They might be two different things.

I recently talked about why we’re removing the word “Evangelical” from our church sign. Better PR. The word “evangelical” no longer means what we want it to mean. We know that it means “Good News” and in Jesus there is very good news. But people in our community might not know that. Instead they think “evangelical” is about a political group, and in the last 25-50 years or so that political group does not have good news.

We might be thinking that we are clearly and compellingly telling the story of the Good News, but is it possible that our community has heard what we’re saying and at least some of them are not thinking that we are speaking about Good News?

What we need to do is go to Jesus and the story that he told. What story did he tell? In the the four Biblical accounts of Jesus’ life (aka the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), the word “church” is used three times, all in Matthew and each time referring not to a church building, but instead referring to a gathering of people.

Guess how many times Jesus used the word “Kingdom”? Over 100 times. It was his core message. You do not have to look far in the Gospels to find it. I recently preached a sermon series through the Gospel of Luke. In chapter 1, verse 33, before Jesus is even born we read a reference to his Kingdom. The angel Gabriel, when he came to Mary to tell her that she would be the mother of the Messiah, said that her baby have a kingdom that would never end!

When Jesus started his ministry, which we read about in Luke 4:42-44, one of the first things he teaches is “I must preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God.”

No less than 38 times in the book of Luke alone is there a mention of the Kingdom of God.
In Mark, it is mentioned 15 times.
In Matthew where it is predominantly called the “kingdom of heaven” it is referred to 50 times.
John mentions it 4 times.

So, for Jesus, the Kingdom of God is an extremely important concept. Has our community heard from us that the Kingdom of God is an extremely important concept?

Or have they heard about church? If you look at Lancaster County, and you evaluate the message of church vs. kingdom, what do you see? You have to put yourself in the position of a historian who is looking at our society hundreds or even thousands of years of later.

I got to experience a bit of that perspective recently in Cambodia. We were there because of my wife, Michelle’s, work with Imagine Goods. It was also our 20^th anniversary, so we took two days to visit the ancient temples near Siem Reap. After a six-hour bus ride from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, we realized that we were in tourist central because of the ancient temples.

They are considered to be one of the 7 Wonders of the World. Called Angkor Wat after the name of one of the largest and best preserved temples, there are actually many temples in the surrounding, large area. Scientists are still making discoveries about the ancient civilization that built the temples. Recently they have fitted airplanes with laser scanners and they have flown hundreds of hours scanning the jungle around the temples. The results of these scans have been staggering.

They have uncovered foundations of cities that jungle had long since hidden. The scientists estimate that in its heyday, the kingdom around Angkor Wat had a million people. It was larger than London at the time!

So hundreds of years later these scientists are learning new information about this Cambodian kingdom. Why did the ancient Cambodians do what they did? Obviously building temples was really important to them. I have seen pictures of Angkor Wat many times, as Michelle and teams from Faith Church had explored there. But seeing the temples in person brought them to life for me. I got to climb the steps and stones, and walk down the long temple hallways staring astounded at the detailed carvings depicting the wars and glory and power of the king.

What will people 500 or 1000 years in the future say about us? One thing is for sure, they will say that we were very aggressive about building church buildings. And they will look at our Scriptures, the New Testament, and there is a probability (I think a high probability) that they will be very confused. Why? Because our Scriptures say nothing about building church buildings.

While Jesus, who we believe in, trust in and seek to follow as his disciples, taught a lot about his Kingdom, Christianity in the 1900s and now into the 2000s has continued a trend which has been going on for a long time, the building of church structures of all shapes and sizes.

This should cause us to step back and think: why do we build buildings when Jesus said that we should build his Kingdom!

It goes deeper than just buildings. There is more. When you think of your church, think of what you put emphasis on. There might be staff that you pay. There might be systems of leadership and ministry. Quite honestly, our church has many similarities to an organization. There are many times I feel much more like a CEO than a pastor. Jesus didn’t tell us to build an organization with buildings. He put all the focus on his Kingdom.

I’ll never forget a seminary class I took about churches and transitions. We had numerous guest speakers come to the class, and one was a pastor who talked with us about the amazing growth of his church. They started small and ended having to buy a large property with all the bells and whistles of large churches that have become so familiar to us. Did that ever get my attention! I’ll be honest with you: I thought “That’s what I want Faith Church to become! I want Faith Church to become the biggest church in our denomination! I want to be able to walk into EC National Conference each May knowing in my head, not having to say a word to anyone, that Faith Church, where I am the pastor, is the biggest church out of everyone in that room.”

Do you think I was giving much credit to God and his Kingdom? Of course I said I was all about God and his Kingdom, but looking back on it, I wanted to build the church, MY church, OUR church. I had an unhealthy perspective on church.

One of the most helpful books I read about this was Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola. He shows through loads of research that pretty much everything that we are used to when we think of church systems comes not from biblical teaching but from Christians through the ages trying to keep up with the spiritual Joneses. Most times they were trying to keep up with pagan culture. The pagans, for example, had a big religious celebration at Winter Solstice. So the Christians decided to keep up with them by having a competing celebration. You know what that competing celebration is? Christmas!

Do you think Jesus was actually born on December 25^th? Highly unlikely. We have no idea what day Jesus was actually born. What we do know is this: Did Jesus tell us to make a big deal out of celebrating his birthday? Nope. Is it okay to celebrate his birthday on December 25^th every year? Sure is, but we need to remember that Christmas is a churchy thing, not necessarily a Kingdom thing.

It goes deeper than church buildings and Christmas. We would do well to examine everything that is normally considered to be church. A sanctuary with pews. Sunday School. Youth Ministry. An order of worship, and a worship service that lasts about an hour or so. If we seek to find the origins of those structures and systems in the New Testament, Viola shows us our search will come up empty. That means a church can still be a church without those structures. Again, hear me. I am not saying that church, and all the trappings of church that we are used to, are bad.

I better be careful because another element that is normally considered a pretty big part of church is the pastor. That’s me. But the way we employ pastors and our typical pastor’s job descriptions are not in the Bible. Yes, the Bible talks about pastors and paying them. And the Bible has a couple places where it talks about what pastors should do. Guess what, though? What the Bible says about pastors and what they should do is very different than what pastors have done, and what people assume pastors should do.

For example, in Ephesians 4:12 Paul says that pastors should train people up to the do the work of ministry. But for decades the pastor was seen as the person the church paid to do the work of ministry. Consider the vending machine. You put your money in the slot, make a selection, and out pops your soda, candy bar or bag of chips. Same with pastors. You put your money in the offering, and your pastor gives you a visit, a funeral, a prayer. In other words, the normal conception has been that the pastor is the one who is paid to minister to the people, whereas Paul says the pastor is train up the people to do the ministry.

I want to be clear at this juncture: There is a major difference between church and kingdom.

It is okay to have church, to have church buildings, to have Sunday School and pastors, but ONLY so long as they serve to promote the Kingdom.

Remember when Jesus taught us to pray the Lord’s Prayer? Here are the first few sentences:

Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your Kingdom Come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Notice what is missing? No mention of church. Jesus did not teach us to pray “Your church come” . Here’s why: the church was never permanent. The church was always meant to build the Kingdom. The church serves the Kingdom, not the other way around. The kingdom is forever, the church is not.

The kingdom, as Jesus taught us to pray, is about God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven. That’s what it means for his Kingdom to come. Normally when we think of God’s Kingdom, we think of heaven, and we think of heaven as a place we go to. When we die, we are no longer on earth, we have left the earth, and we go to heaven.

But notice how Jesus taught us to pray something completely different! Have we been praying that prayer all our lives and missed it? “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

God wants his Kingdom to reign and rule right here and right now! He wants his will to be done on earth. His will is already being done perfectly in heaven. So just as the will of God is being followed perfectly in heaven, God wants his will to be followed more and more here on earth. That is what Jesus taught us to pray, because that was his mission and he wanted it to be our mission.

To expand on what that mission was all about, he said to his disciples that they should make disciples, who will make disciples, who will make disciples. He did not suggest that his disciples should group up those new disciples, build buildings to meet for worship and try to make those churches famous. He told them to make disciples so that more and more people would allow God to reign and rule over their lives, so more and more people would experience God’s Kingdom and have not only the hope of eternal life, but also the experience of what he called abundant life here on earth.

When we allow God’s Kingdom to come into our lives, we experience life transformation. One of Jesus’ first followers, a guy named Paul, experienced this life transformation. He changed dramatically from being a vicious man, arresting and jailing and killing Christians, to being perhaps the most powerful Christian missionary ever.

Paul talked about something he called the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. What happens when you allow God’s Kingdom to rule over you is that you are transformed first and foremost. Disciples of Jesus experience transformation. Your inner life is transformed, Paul says, because you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. You don’t go to a temple. Now God lives in you. Faith Church has a building where we go. We gather at worship services to worship God and hear from him. We plan our worship services around that idea that people can experience God in worship.

But those buildings are not God’s houses. I know it is popular to call church buildings “God’s House.” It is not true. Those buildings are not God’s houses. The rooms where we meet for worship are not some special rooms. We have an Ethiopian Orthodox church that rents worship space from us. The Ethiopian worshipers take off their shoes when they enter the sanctuary. I am not well-versed in their theological reasons for taking of this practice. Maybe they view the sanctuary as holy ground, like Moses took off his sandals when he approached the burning bush where God was. Or maybe they are just symbolizing that event and a heart of worship. Our sanctuary is not like the ground around the burning bush. I have no qualms with the Ethiopian church practice, but if they believe that the sanctuary is holy ground, I disagree.

We call it the sanctuary as if it was special. As if God lives here. He doesn’t. If we are true disciples of Jesus, God lives in us. That means we ourselves should be experiencing that transformation God wants to work in us, and the Fruit of the Spirit should be flowing from us. As we are changed, we experience God’s abundant life in us.

If you are an impatient person, God’s Kingdom coming more and more in your life means that you grow more patient.

If you are a person with a dirty mind or a dirty mouth, God’s Kingdom coming more and more in you means that your mind and mouth become more clean.

If you are a complainer, you grow more content.

If you are a rough, you grow more gentle.

If you are pessimistic, you grow more joyful.

God’s Kingdom coming into your life means that you are transformed. But it doesn’t stop there. God’s Kingdom comes into society and society is transformed. Remember how Jesus, very early in his ministry in Luke 4, returned to his hometown and preached in the synagogue there? He told the people that day what his mission was all about:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

He was reading from Isaiah the OT prophet, and Jesus said that this prophecy was fulfilled in him. It describes the rule and reign of God’s Kingdom transforming society.

The poor, the prisoners, the sick, the oppressed, all experience God’s Kingdom. I saw this maybe as clearly as I have ever seen it in Cambodia. Through the efforts of Imagine Goods’ partner organization there, Agape, a whole town is being transformed. Where once the town was a center for human trafficking, it is now a place of hope and a future. Where once women and children were slaves, now there are safe living places, a school, a church, and great jobs which have pulled families out of poverty, out of slavery, and the criminals have left. God’s Kingdom is on full display though. It is beautiful.

That’s why I’m thankful that Faith Church is such a strong supporter of the CV Ministerium and CVCCS. Those two local organizations are not about a church building. Instead they are promoting the Kingdom of God. They spread the Good News of Jesus’ death and resurrection and our hope in him, and they seek to promote God’s Kingdom so that it will transform society.

A few months ago I created a possible future scenario of Old Philly Pike, the road our church property is located on, needing to be widened and our church sanctuary having to be torn down? Some of you thought I was telling a true story! But even if it was true, you know what? That would be okay.

Our mission is not to maintain a building. Our mission is not to make Faith Church’s name great. Our mission is not to be a large church that everyone thinks “Wow. That church is going places.”

No, our mission is to promote the Kingdom. And that is what this new sermon series is all about: Our Growth Process. To be disciples of Jesus who make disciples for Jesus, so his name and his Kingdom are the focus! Because he is the one, and he alone, that transforms people’s lives and through transformed people he transforms society.

And so we pray:

Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sinned against us.

Lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil

For yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Why we’re getting rid of the word “evangelical” from our church sign

Evangelicals are in the news! Donald Trump recently met with Evangelical leaders. I have seen so many articles about Evangelicals and politics these past few weeks. Some signaling the demise of evangelicalism. Some talking about the decline of evangelical influence.

What in the world is an Evangelical, anyway?

We are Faith Evangelical Congregational Church. We normally call ourselves just “Faith Church” because the words “Evangelical Congregational” are long. It’s much easier to say “Faith Church.”

So we are Evangelical. But what does that mean? Why are we Evangelical?

If we go by what we hear in the world out there, we can wonder “Is being Evangelical a good thing or a bad thing?” Obviously we at Faith Church wouldn’t use the word unless we thought it was a good thing, a biblical thing, a word that would be helpful to the mission of God’s Kingdom.

So the first way to answer these questions is to go back to our historical denominational connection. Our denomination’s name is “The Evangelical Congregational Church.”

Right around the year 1800 a man named Jacob Albright from Ephrata PA started preaching about Jesus to the German-speaking people, mostly farmers, here in Lancaster County. God used him mightily and he launched a number of house churches based on the Methodist model because he was discipled and licensed to preach by the Methodist Church. This group of house churches took the name Evangelical Association (EA). Albright passed away when the EA was still young, but he and the first leaders laid a foundation for expansion, and expand it did. Across the country and to many places around the world.

But sadly, the Evangelical Association had growing pains, a big split, then a merger, and eventually, a bunch of the churches trying to be faithful to Albright’s original vision created a new denomination called the Evangelical Congregational Church (EC) in 1922.

Most of our EC churches are in Eastern PA, but we have some in Western PA, Ohio, Illinois and a spattering of other places. Our headquarters in based in Myerstown, Lebanon County, where we have the denominational offices, then across the street the seminary, and across the street the other way, the retirement community. Drive up Route 501 through Myerstown and you’ll drive right by all these places.

In the late 1960s one the oldest and largest Evangelical Congregational churches at the time, Grace EC Church in the city of Lancaster, on the corner of South Shippen and Locust streets, had a bunch of people driving into town from the East Lampeter area. So their pastor David Heil had a vision to start a new church plant out this way, and that’s how Faith Church got started in 1968. We will celebrate our 50^th anniversary in 2018. It was, therefore, the Evangelical Congregational Church that started us. We are and have always been a part of the EC Church.

That is the first reason why we have the word “Evangelical” in our name and on our sign.

But is that important? In 1968 it was really important because the name “Evangelical” meant something important, and most people in the community knew what it meant and they understood it to be a good thing.

What did they actually understand? What does it mean to be evangelical? Why don’t we just call ourselves Christians? To answer that, we need to go way back before 1968 to learn what the word “evangelical” means.

The word “evangelical” is a word straight out of the Bible. It is actually an English transliteration of one of the Greek words that was used to write the New Testament. The word evangelical is the Greek word euangelion. See how similar they look?

In Greek euangelion is the Good News, and in particular it carries the idea of proclaiming the good news. It was not specifically a word about Jesus or the Bible. It was used, for example, to describe the birth of the new Roman Caesar, the emperor. “Good News! A new leader has been born.” The Caesars, the emperors, wanted their people to believe that they were God in the flesh, they wanted people to worship them and they wanted people to proclaim them as savior. The emporer wanted the people to use the word euangelion about them. Good News! Caesar is born, Caesar is God, and Caesar is Lord.

When the New Testament writers started using this concept about Jesus, they were making a big statement: there is other good news, there is another savior, there is another Lord.

So the focus of euangelion, or to use the English, evangelism, was to proclaim the Good news about Jesus!

When you read the English word “Gospel” which is found in the New Testament writings quite often, you are reading the Greek word “euangelion”. For example Paul says in Romans 1:16:

I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes.

That focus is very important to remember! There is Good News! Evangelism pointed to a very good thing. Evangelism was the act of proclaiming the good news about Jesus. When you think of evangelicals, then, we are people who speak about Good News.

So why is there an Evangelical church? Shouldn’t there just be a Christian church? Aren’t all Christians supposed to proclaiming this Good News?

Well, a few centuries ago, a number of Christians felt that the mission of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus as the Savior had been lost in the institutional approach Christians had been using for church. So some Christians and churches started to promote the idea that we Christians need to get back to the wonderful task of proclaiming good news. Because of their focus on proclaiming the Good News, they became known as the Evangelicals.

That was Jacob Albright’s focus. Remember that he wanted to preach the Good News to the German-speaking farmers in this area? They were all church people. But the churches they attended focused more on the institution of the church rather than on the Good News. Albright himself had always gone to church but he had never heard the Good News. After hearing the Good News from a traveling evangelist himself, and after deciding to follow Jesus, Albright had a passion that his fellow German-speaking Lancastrians would know the good news of Jesus too. Albright became a traveling evangelist, literally riding on horseback from town to town, from house church to house church, and many people heard the Good News.

Thus the Evangelical movement started. It featured revival meetings, camp meetings, and so on. As the years went by, house churches got organized, and as house churches grew they built church buildings and started denominations. Albright wasn’t the only one. There are many evangelical denominations: Evangelical Lutherans, Evangelical Free, and many more that don’t have the word “Evangelical” in their name.

There are some beliefs that we have that are uniquely evangelical, ones that we feel are quite important and good. That takes us into understanding more about the uniqueness of the evangelical movement.

The National Association of Evangelicals, on their website, says that evangelicals usually hold to these four things:

Conversion & Discipleship: the belief that lives need to be transformed through a “born-again” experience and a lifelong process of following Jesus
Outreach: the expression and demonstration of the gospel in missionary and social reform efforts
The Bible: a high regard for and obedience to the Bible as the ultimate authority
Cross & Resurrection: a stress on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, and his victory over sin and death, making possible the redemption of humanity

This explains what Evangelicals believe the Bible teaches about God’s Good News for humanity. So why would we want to change our sign? It’s sounding like the word “evangelical” is a very good thing.

Here’s the problem. In 1968 when Grace Evangelical Congregational Church planted a new daughter church in East Lampeter, the surrounding culture thought of Evangelicals in a good light. Fast-forward 50 years. When people in our society now think of the word “evangelical” what comes to their mind?

One way to learn is to search for the word “evangelical” on Google. The results are very interesting.

Based on that history I just told you, if you google “Evangelical”, there should be something about Good News, wouldn’t you think? There should be something about how God loves the world so much. There might be our favorite evangelical Bible verse, John 3:16: For God so loved the World! That is awesome Good News.

But when we Google “Opinions of Evangelicals”, there is a surprising result. Take a look right now. See for yourselves. What are some of the results?

Any images of Good News? No.

Instead we get images of politicians. And furthermore when you talk with people what the term “evangelical” means to them, you get a wide range of mostly negative responses. Evangelicalism has become mixed up with politics. Evangelicals are considered to be a voting bloc, and people have the impression that evangelicals are Republicans who are against so many issues, rather than for the Good News.

One evangelical scholar recently said this: “Due to the secular media’s ongoing misguided and misleading effort to define “evangelical” as a political posture, people are naturally confused when they discover that I am a lifelong, “card carrying” evangelical. The National Association of Evangelicals adamantly rejects any identification of “evangelical” with a particular political ideology or even posture. Historically and theologically that is correct—even if most people in the United States who identify themselves to pollsters as “evangelical” also identify as conservative Republicans.”

When people think of the word “evangelical” they are not excited about Good News.

One Faith Church family tells the story about the first time they came to Faith Church. My wife Michelle had invited them to the final night of VBS when we had a community Fun Fair. That year Turkey Hill sponsored the Fun Fair and placed one of their huge Turkey Hill cows our church property’s front lawn, blocking the view of the church sign. The family had a great time, and Michelle invited them to return to church that Sunday morning. So on Sunday they pulled up, the cow was gone, and they saw the words “Faith EVANGELICAL Congregational Church” on the sign. The impression they had of the word “Evangelical” was so negative that they almost turned right around in the parking lot and left. But to keep a promise, they decided to stay. And in the past eight years they have found Faith Church to be very different evangelicals indeed!

Think about that with me for a minute. How many people see the word “Evangelical” on our church sign, get the wrong impression and just turn around and leave? How many people in the community driving by every day see that word on our sign and assume that we are just like the evangelicals they have heard about in the news? I don’t blame them. The news is full of stories of evangelicals behaving badly.

I suspect it is very possible that people don’t think of Good News when they read our sign. They don’t look at our sign and think “that must be a church focusing on good news”. How could they? Many in our community have never been told about the connection between the word “evangelical” and the Good News.

That word “evangelical” on our sign, then, can become a blockade to the Good News! While we remain committed to proclaiming that there is Good News in Jesus, because the impression of the word “evangelical” has become so confused in our society in the past 50 years, having the word on our sign has made it more difficult for us to proclaim Good News to those in our community who so desperately need to hear Good News!

By keeping the word “evangelical” on our sign we are making it much harder for ourselves. Unnecessarily harder!

We are not on the mission of getting people to like the word “evangelical”. We want people to become disciples of Jesus!

So our Leadership Team has talked about this, and we decided to remove the tagline from our sign.

But hear this, we’re not changing our name. We’re just not including the tag line on the sign so that the word “Evangelical” is not a deterrent. We are not changing the name of our church, we are not changing our affiliation with our denomination, and we are absolutely not changing our commitment to the Good News. Our desire to remove the word “Evangelical” from the sign is actually based in our commitment to sharing the Good News. We don’t want to place unnecessary deterrents blockading our ability to proclaim the Good News. By removing the word “evangelical” from our sign, we are strengthening our ability to share the Good News.

It is a reminder for all of us to consider how evangelical we are. Are Good News people? Or are we political evangelicals?

What does it look like to be people of Good news?

What will it look like for you to be a Good News person?

Do the people in your life know that you are a disciple of Jesus who is living and proclaiming Good News?

Telling your story is more important than you think

Hey Christian, you are witnesses of these things!

Last week on the sermon intro blog post, I suggested that one bit of Christian lingo, the word “witness,” might not mean what you think it means.

So what does “witness” mean? Jesus says in Luke 24:36-53, that his disciples are all witnesses.

They watched his life unfold before their very eyes. A witness is one who sees something. In a court of law a witness tells the judge and jury what they saw. Those disciples saw Jesus. They witnessed his words, his works and his way.

In the same you, too, are witnesses of Jesus’ words, works and way.

In this teaching series through the book of Luke, you have had the opportunity to observe Jesus very closely. What have you seen?

In your life, you have been able to see how God has been at work over the years. What have you seen?

You are witnesses of these things. Tell the story! A witness tells the story of what they have seen.

Nike has an advertising campaign that could just as easily apply to disciples of Jesus. I love to tell the stories of athletes and their amazing accomplishments. I don’t know, but they get me fired up. I witness their performance and it amazes me and I want to talk about it. Mostly because I have played those sports many times and I know how hard it is to do what they do.

But we disciples of Jesus are witnesses of something much greater, a performance much more significant and amazing. We are witnesses of Jesus. His words, works and way. We are witnesses of his life, death and resurrection, not with our eyes, but through the transformation that he has worked in our lives. We have a story to tell!

Be ready, Jesus tells us. At all times. To be the best, caring, loving, gracious, fun, encouraging, helpful, friend you can be, because that too tells a story in an of itself.

And know that your story doesn’t have to be a lightning bolt or thunderclap of adventure. Your story doesn’t have to be perfect. Actually, it shouldn’t be perfect because none of us is perfect. Our story includes the foibles of life. And our story features God’s love and grace in midst of them.

Be ready. When Jesus says that we are witnesses, we are! We have seen him at work in our lives, and thus we tell the story of what we have seen him do. You don’t have to memorize 10 Bible verses and some really specific sales pitch to try to get people to follow Jesus. Instead, you are witnesses. You tell the story of God at work in your life. You tell the story of Jesus, his words, works and way.

How are you telling your story?

Hey Christian, “witness” might not mean what you think it means

We Christians use a lot of lingo. This lingo is insider talk, words and phrases that most of us understand if we have been in churches for a number of years, but newcomers or anyone else might find this lingo confusing. Some have even dubbed it “Christianese”.

Not sure what I’m talking about? A friend recently directed me to this video that will introduce you to Christianese.

As you can see in the video, there are loads of Christian words and phrases that are classified as Christianese. One was not mentioned in the video, and I would like to talk about it because Jesus talks about it in our final section of our series studying through Luke: Luke 24:36-53. Read it and see if you can figure out which word is the lingo word. Or just sneak a peek at the title of this post…

“Witness” is one of those Christian lingo words. In the Lancaster County town of Quarryville, for years there was a Christian Music Festival called Witness. So perhaps when those of you from Lancaster think of the word “witness” the sounds and images of that concert are what comes to mind. But there is a much more widespread way that Christians talk about “witness” and the act of “witnessing”.

When a Christian says the phrase “we are witnessing,” because of the way I was raised and because of my college and mission experiences, what comes to mind is people going out to share the Gospel with strangers. Usually when you witness you have Bible tracts that you hand out. You have memorized verses and what is called “the plan of salvation” so that you can encounter strangers on the street, or in the mall, or out and about, maybe on a college campus, wherever people are, and you can ask them if you can talk with them about Jesus. And you hope that you can get into a conversation and share that plan of salvation with them, or at least hand them a tract that they can read later. Most people don’t want to be bothered, and you come to expect that, but you hope to talk to at least a few. This is what I was raised to call “witnessing.” Is that the witnessing that Jesus is talking about here? Nope.

There is another way we Christians use the word “witness.” And that is when we say that if you go to watch a particular movie like 50 Shades of Grey, or if you wear an immodest dress, or if you go to a bar, or read a certain book, or you name it, that behavior will ruin your Christian witness. It is the idea that our witness is our reputation. If we don’t have a particular kind of reputation, we won’t be credible in our attempt to talk about Jesus. At the core, I agree. Christians should practice what we preach. But too often a Christian “witness” can become a very legalistic rules-based approach to following Jesus. So is that the witnessing Jesus is talking here? Nope.

Hey Christian, “witness” doesn’t mean what we have been told it means. So what does “witness” mean? Why does Jesus talk about when he gives his final instructions to his disciples?

Join us this coming Sunday, June 12th at Faith Church to learn more!

How to find the good life (is it in North Dakota?)

Do you want to have a good life? Apparently you can find it in North Dakota. I wonder what people from North Dakota have to say about that? I’ve never been, but I often say to my wife, after dealing with some kind of difficulty in our family, finances, or jobs, that maybe we should sell it all and go live off the grid in North Dakota. Maybe the good life is there.

When we are dealing with the messiness of life, when life seems turned upside-down, we can long for more. We want the good life. Are you longing for it?

Jesus’ disciples had just had their lives turned upside-down. Life seemed like it was in a shambles. After three amazing years, the best years of their lives, Jesus was arrested, put on trial, beaten and killed. In a matter of a few short hours, all they worked for, all they gave during those three years, was ruined. Now they locked themselves in a room in Jerusalem, hiding away, afraid that the religious establishment could arrest them just as easily as they came for Jesus. Only a few of the women were courageous enough to go place the traditional burial spices on Jesus.

And those women came back with astounding news. He is risen!

He is risen? Dead people do not rise again. So what could this mean?, the disciples wonder. A stolen body? What is going on? He is risen?

Eventually Jesus himself shows up to two of the disciples. You can read about it in Luke 24. Then he shows up to Peter too. All of sudden there is some strong evidence that he really did rise again.

But how would you feel? Your life has just been wrecked. You thought for certain you were living the good life. Following Jesus, things are great. You are riding a wave of national popularity, recognition and prestige. You have latched on to a rising star. Things are good. But now all is lost, and it feels like life is a mess. Not only the disciples, but we, too, can feel like that. Many of us are wondering how to live the good life. Many of us are wondering what life is all about.

It is great to hear some good news, but really, does lots of good evidence remove all doubt? NO! Why? It is hard to believe in someone and give our lives to follow them when we can’t or don’t see them face to face. It is also hard to believe in someone and follow their teachings when their teachings don’t always make sense to us. It is also hard when we see people who say they believe in and follow Jesus and those Christians disappoint us or act in a way that is NOT as Jesus would act.

So, yes, we do still doubt. That means to follow Jesus there is still FAITH involved. It’s OK to doubt, to ask questions, to struggle through things with Jesus. Jesus welcomes that. It is a part of growing and learning, like our kids who ask “why” and “who” question as they grow and learn.

I’ve been listening to a podcast lately called The Deconstructionists, and it is two Christian guys embracing doubt and faith questions and struggles and trying to make sense of it. They interview lots of people who are wrestling with doubt as well. And instead of increasing my doubt, through their podcast I have found that their embrace of difficult questions actually increases my faith! I would encourage you to listen to The Deconstructionists.

So where does that leave us?

Resurrection Sunday is the most incredible day of the year for disciples of Jesus. But it came at a cost. The only pathway to glory was through suffering. Multiple times on the day of Resurrection we see various people mention how the victory Jesus won came through pain.

We’ve heard it before in our world. “No pain, no gain.” People understand the principle that when you go through difficult times, you grow. When you do the hard work of weight training, you strengthen your muscles. I remember when I first started working out in the fall of 2009. I went to the gym and worked out with our LBC student intern at the time, Joe. He and his friend Matt put me through a beginner’s workout. But even on a beginner’s level, I was so out of shape I couldn’t do much. Push-ups, pull-ups, dips, maybe a couple of reps and sets each. When it came to running, I was a little better. But that night in bed, guess what happened? My muscles were on fire. It hurt so bad. The soreness. I got out Icy-Hot or something, and because I was in pain, I put on way too much cream. It stunk up our bedroom and then we couldn’t sleep. In time, I stuck with exercise, the pain subsided, and my abilities grew as I strengthened.

For Jesus, it was a bit like that, and yet his pain produced for us something so infinitely better: He went through the sacrifice of the cross so our sins could be forgiven.

A few years ago I was walking through our laundry room to go out to our deck to fire up the grill and make burgers. Opening the door from the laundry room to the deck, I noticed how dirty the doors were. Then I saw on the dryer a box of Magic Erasers. There was one left. So while I was waiting for the food to cook, I decided to use the Magic Eraser on the door. You know how grimy doors can get over time. Those Magic Erasers really cut through the dirt.

Permit me this analogy, but Magic Erasers reminded me of the death of Christ. Did you ever use one? You get it a bit wet, and you use it to scrub off the dirty spots. But what happens to the eraser? As it removes the stain, the eraser takes a beating. In essence, it dies. It disintegrates in your hands.

As Jesus hung on the cross, the Lord placed the guilt of the sin of all humanity on him. And he took our sin, our stain, to his death. He gave his body and his blood for us.

Anyone can die. That’s nothing special. But only Jesus lived a perfect life and didn’t deserve to die. None of us can do achieve perfection. We all sin, and that creates a brokenness between us and God. The result of that brokenness is that we die and are separated from God. But God loves us and wants to be in a relationship with us now and for eternity. That brokenness was not acceptable to Him, so he sent Jesus to fix what was broken. The stain of sin needed to be cleaned. And that brings us to his resurrection. Anyone can die, but onlt Jesus didn’t stay dead! He defeated sin and death by rising again through the power of God. That means there is hope in him!

In Luke 24, after Jesus broke the bread when he was talking with two disciples, he immediately disappeared before their eyes. They finally realized who he was, that he was truly risen, and they returned at once, running I imagine, the 7 miles to Jerusalem. I know about how fast it takes a person running a steady jog to cover 7 miles. Around an hour. Breathing heavy, they burst in on the disciples and declare “It is true! The Lord has risen!”

Notice how the response has changed.

No longer is it a “He has risen?” but it is an emphatic “It is true! The Lord has risen.”

Because he has risen, we now have hope.

Hope that our sins can be forgiven. Hope of a relationship with him that previously was not possible because of our sins. Hope of being with him one day in heaven. Hope of being with him right now, during our days on earth, able to have a foretaste of what it means to live life in his kingdom. Hope of his resurrection power changing our lives and changing the lives of all those who follow him.

Jesus’ resurrection matters now. God, through Jesus, is saying to all of us that he wants us to experience his resurrection power.

It was only just beginning to dawn on those disciples what Jesus’ resurrection meant. God was doing a new thing. Through his resurrection he defeated the power of sin, death and the devil. He was victorious. His power is greater. And he wants to change our lives as well.

I can tell you without question that living life as a child of the King is the best possible way to live. Our world offers us so many alternatives, and they look good. Many of you have felt firsthand in your own lives that following the way of our society has left you empty, dissatisfied, lonely, and wondering if there is any meaning to life.

Jesus comes to us and says “I hold out to you a gift. This gift is new life as you believe in and follow me. Because I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life.”

This new life is what resurrection is all about. Do you need to embrace his gift of new life? Just like Jesus showed us, it isn’t a life of ease that he is promising, but it is the BEST possible, most abundant life.

He is risen? Really? So what?

“He is risen! He is risen indeed!”

This is the call and response that we use on Easter Sunday. But this Sunday is not Easter Sunday. That was two months ago. This Sunday we’re revisiting Easter again. Why?

In the book of Acts we learn that the earliest Christians decided to meet on Sundays because Jesus’ resurrection happened on a Sunday. Think about that. Many cultures around the world reserve Sundays as a day off for rest and worship because nearly 2000 years ago a small group of Jesus’ followers wanted to give time every week to commemorate his resurrection.

It didn’t start off that way. In fact those Christians were all Jews. They lived in a culture, in the nation Israel, where Saturday was the day off for worship. Sunday was just another workday, the first day of the work week. So these Christians had to deal with the ramifications of their decision to worship on a day when everyone else would be working.

Did they only meet in the evening after work was done?

Or did they worship in the morning or afternoon, and thus have to say to their employers, “Sorry, but we are no longer working on Sunday mornings or afternoons,” and face the consequences?

It would have been much easier for them to worship on the Sabbath like everyone else did. The Jewish worship day, called Sabbath, was Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. It would have been super easy for the Christians to just worship on the Sabbath, but they chose something else. They chose to worship on Sundays because that was the day of the week Jesus rose from the dead.

That’s why we worship on Sundays too. But that’s not why we’re talking about the resurrection this coming Sunday. So why are we talking about it?

Maybe you’re wondering if it is because this coming Sunday will be one of our two summertime Sundays of worshiping in the park, and we wanted to focus on something special. Nice thought, but nope, that’s not the reason either.

I have a much more mundane reason why we’re talking about Jesus rising from the dead.

You know why? It’s what comes next.

We have been studying the life of Jesus as told to us by a guy named Luke who was one of the first missionaries. Luke tells us right at the beginning that he did the work of a journalist and historian, trying to tell the story of Jesus’ life. So since the last Sunday of November 2014 we have been learning about the words, works and way of Jesus. All he taught and all he did. So that we might learn to know him better and follow him.

Now we have come to the pinnacle moment in his life. On this, the 70^th sermon of the series, we travel back to the first Resurrection Day. As much as we can.

But on that day, when the first disciples heard those words “He is risen!” their response was a bit different. They didn’t say “He is risen indeed!” as we do with excitement and hope and thankfulness. Instead, they likely asked it as a question: “He is risen? What are you talking about?”

Good question, disciples. What is this resurrection thing all about? Why does it matter? Even if we believe that it happened 2000 years ago, how does that ancient history affect us now, if at all?

Join us at East Lampeter Community Park on Hobson Road at 10am to learn more!

Should we wear crosses or crucifixes?

The cross. Almost every Sunday we sing about the cross. We have crosses in our church building, and we have a cross outside our building. How many of you are wearing a cross around your neck?

The cross is very common.

My task this coming Sunday is to talk about the cross.

Once each month we remember the cross when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Then each year we focus on the cross on Good Friday. That was just two months ago. Have we heard about the cross too much? Has it gotten to the point where a sermon about the cross seems so mundane that we won’t be able to hear about the cross yet again?

What can we say about Jesus’ crucifixion this Sunday? More than likely it has already been said. Probably many times over.

I’m concerned, in a sermon like this, that the subject matter is so familiar that it will be easy to tune out. You’ve heard about it so much!

I’m trying to think of something shocking to say, just so you will pay attention. But it has already been said.

You will have to choose to pay attention because you decide that it is important.

Is it important? The obvious answer is “Yes! Of course it is important.” But why? What makes the cross the important? If you had to answer that question on an essay exam right here, right now, what would you say? In fact, go for it. Imagine that you are in an exam, and in the comment section below write your answer to the question: Why is the cross important?

Here’s a clue: the crosses inside and outside Faith Church are very, very nice-looking. The one inside our sanctuary is painted with gold-colored flecks so it shines if you look at it up close. And is back-lit, so it glows. Then there is the bright brass cross that we place on the communion table. Also each communion table cover has gold embroidered crosses. Very decorative. Outside the church, we have another darker-colored cross.

The clue is that none of these crosses look anything like the actual cross on which they crucified Jesus. What did that cross look like? Without any pictures of it, of course we don’t know, but we have a pretty good idea that it wasn’t gold-colored, bronze, shiny or back-lit. Think about the cross that you are wearing around your neck. Jesus’ cross wasn’t gold or clean like yours.

What do you think Jesus’ cross looked like? Think about what took place on that cross. This is why I think that crucifixes, which we usually distinguish from “crosses,” just might be really important because they remind us that Jesus was on the cross. Growing up I was taught that we don’t use crucifixes (in other words, jewelry around our necks or crosses in our churches in which a figure of Jesus is still hanging on the cross), because we wanted to emphasize that Jesus was not still on the cross because he rose again. But does any genuine Christian believe that Jesus is still on the cross? Correct me if I’m missing some other significant aspect of theology that would nullify the crucifixes, but I, a firm believer in resurrection, find there to be a very helpful visual reminder to crucifixes. I find them to be a reminder of something that will help us answer the question of why the cross is important.

Want to learn the big difference between a crucifix and a cross? Want to learn why the cross matters so much?

Join us this coming Sunday, May 29, 2016 at Faith Church as we take a look at the crucifixion, hopefully with new eyes! If you want to prepare, you can read all about the crucifixion in Luke 23:26-56.

How to love and be loved when you are facing hardship

Are you going through a hard time? How are you handling it?

Some of you have seen The Passion of the Christ which vividly portrays the Roman flogging of Jesus just before they crucified him. I remember watching that when it first came out in the theater, my stomach churning, tears flowing. It is awful.

During his flogging Jesus doesn’t talk back, but he communicates very loudly and clearly because this was an amazing act of love. Though the Gospel writers don’t say much about it, a Roman flogging was enough to kill some people.

But look at how Jesus handles it. Jesus is an example for us at how to handle stress, pain, anxiety, and trials. We can complain, fuss, or get angry during the troubles and trials we face. And here is Jesus under self-control. Taking it.

Does this mean that we should be a doormat, and just let trial and trouble bulldoze and steamroll us?

What is the balance here? Jesus allowed himself to be beaten. Should we?

There is a major difference between Jesus’ situation and ours, and that is that Jesus’ mission was direct mission from God was to give his life. When we are abused, it is NOT our mission from God to be abused. Abuse is wrong. And we must not put up with that. We must get safe, get away from the abuse.

But what about when face the regular difficulties of life? For example, what if we lose our job justly, perhaps because of poor performance? Then it IS our mission to handle that in a way that is honorable to the Lord. Another situation that many of us face might be a car accident that was our fault. Again, it is our mission then to handle that difficult with grace.

But what about turning the other cheek? What about pacifism? What about Romans 13 and the God-ordained use of government to restrain evil? These are very difficult questions that would require another blog post or ten! Staying with Jesus’ trial and flogging, we see that our Lord was on a mission from God to give his life, and he turns the other cheek. He does not retaliate, though he could. He could instantly eradicate all the Romans by his mighty power. He does not.

He had to go to the cross. No matter what the people would do to him to take him there, he was not going to reverse it. That is another way I see the difference between what happened to Jesus and to the times when we must turn the other cheek. Turning the other cheek is almost certainly not going to lead to our death. Following the way of Christ might lead to death. In many places around the world, Christians, in order to maintain faith in Christ, are put to death.

So there is Jesus, beaten, broken, shamed, rejected, falsely accused, and loving us all the way.

He did this for us.

Go back three years, to Jesus’ temptation. Satan offered him an easy way out of his mission. Just worship Satan, just bow down, and Satan would give him all the kingdoms of the world. No battle needed. No war. Just a simple bowing down. The temptation was great. Satan is giving him the opportunity to be king without pain. Jesus said “No”.

Now fast-forward back to Jesus’ trial, and we see Jesus taking the full weight of that mission upon him. He is in the midst of the pain.

He has just a few hours before this prayed “if there is some other way, Lord, please take this cup of suffering from me.” Now the full cup of suffering is being poured out on him. It was not taken away from him.

Jesus endured. He said “not my will, but yours be done,” and he took the pain because he was committed to the Lord.

That’s how much he loves us. He was focused on the Lord’s will, on loving us.

Many years ago at Faith Church a guest teacher asked a student to walk a pathway around the classroom floor. Easy, right? Except that he had placed boards on the floor. And there were nails sticking out of the boards. And worst of all, the student was blindfolded. Furthermore she could only walk around by following the guest teacher’s voice, while everyone in the class simultaneously, out loud, gave her competing directions. She was very brave to even attempt this! She had to trust hard in the teacher, and listen closely for his directions. She said that she had to really try to filter out all the other voices, and that the hardest voice to put out of her mind was her husband’s.

Jesus was laser-focused on God’s will, though the clamor from the crowd was loud and the pain in his body was screaming at him to stop. He could have easily avoided the pain, the shame, and the loneliness by exercising some miraculous power that day. Easy! Call down 10,000 angels ready for war. But he didn’t because he was focused on one thing. The mission of God.

Let us come away from this story with a renewed appreciation for God’s love for us, for the sacrifice Jesus gave to us, so that we can remain focused on his voice. As Paul says in Romans 8:38-39:

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Remember the Duke Lacrosse team? In March 2006, three of the players on the team were falsely accused of raping a girl at a party. An investigation leading up to their trial surfaced a staggering amount of blatant prosecutorial misconduct. Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong handled his case so egregiously that it led to his disbarment and a brief jail sentence.

How did the players handle it? They got revenge. They sued. But did it help? To mark its tenth anniversary just a few months ago news media revisited the case. Journalists interviewed those falsely accused, and found that though a decade has passed, the accusation still stings. Getting retribution money didn’t solve all their problems.

When you are falsely accused, look to Jesus as your example. Seek justice, and with grace and mercy, focus on God’s amazing love for you. When we remember God’s love for us, how deeply he loves us no matter the situation, it can transform our pain and help us to respond to the pain with love, just as Jesus did.

Have you ever been falsely accused?

Have you ever been wrongfully mistreated or accused? Have you ever been blamed for something that you didn’t do? It is a horrible feeling. You know that deep down inside you have done nothing wrong. So what do you do?

Remember a few years ago when some members of the Duke University men’s lacrosse team made country-wide buzz when they were accused of raping a woman? National news media jumped on the story very quickly, charges were doled out and just about everyone started condemning these over-privileged white rich kids for raping a poor black community college student.

The retributive attacks toward the Duke lacrosse players was swift and harsh. The prosecutor of the case aggressively sought to win his case at trial. Many of us watching the news shook our heads in disgust at those lacrosse players. We bemoaned the horrible state of morality in our country.

Except there was one problem.

They didn’t do it. The case went to trial, and after a thorough investigation, it was clear they didn’t rape her. In fact, what actually came to the surface was the staggering amount of blatant prosecutorial misconduct. Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong handled his case so egregiously that it led to his disbarment and brief jail sentence.

Another surprise, this incident wasn’t just a few years ago. It was ten years ago, March 2006, when it happened, and to mark it’s tenth anniversary news media revisited it. One story has found that though a decade has passed, the false accusation still stings.

What do you do when you are falsely accused. It is very easy to handle the accusation poorly. The self-protective anger rises inside you, and you might respond harshly, lash out. You might hire a lawyer, sue, get revenge.

This coming Sunday we are going to watch Jesus handle false accusation. If you want to read ahead of time, the story is in Luke 22:63-23:25. These verses are the first indication of any harm coming to Jesus. He takes a beating, which is physically awful. He is falsely accused and mocked, which is emotionally awful. And what for? Nothing. He was completely innocent. He has done everything the Father asked of him. And yet he is treated this way.

What did he do? Jesus just stood there and took it.

What would you do? Have you been falsely accused? How did you handle it?

Why did Jesus just stand there? Why did he say almost nothing? We welcome you to be our guest on Sunday May 22, 2016 at Faith Church to learn more.

How God wants to restore you

Betrayal and denial. Jesus experienced both, from two of his closest followers, in a matter of no more than one hour. That had to hurt deeply. You can read the story in Luke 22:47-62.

Yesterday at Faith Church we talked about what it feels like when we have been betrayed or denied. We also talked about how easy it is, like Jesus’ disciples Judas and Peter, to betray or deny God. Imagine how those two guys felt when the realization of their betrayal and denial of Jesus finally broke over them.

We are told that Peter had godly sorrow that led to repentance. After Peter denied Jesus the third time, just as Jesus said he would, Luke tells us that Peter and Jesus were in close enough proximity to one another that Jesus turned and looked right at Peter. Imagine being Jesus at that moment. Heartbroken. Imagine being Peter. Sick to the stomach at his failure, Luke tells us Peter goes away sobbing bitter tears.

Judas had a different reaction. We have to go to Matthew’s story of Jesus’ life to learn about it. In Matthew 27:3-5 we read: “When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. ^‘I have sinned,’ he said, ‘for I have betrayed innocent blood.’ And he went out and hanged himself.”

Peter wept, and Judas admitted his sin.

But there is a difference in the nature of their actions. Judas acted with premeditation. Peter did not. Judas took time to plan out his betrayal, sought out the religious leaders, received payment, set up the arrest. Peter did nothing like this. Peter’s denial was not premeditated or proactive. Instead it was reactive. It was an unplanned act, a terrible choice in the midst of a horrible situation.

Judas’ response of suicide showed he had no hope. Why would he have no hope? Shouldn’t he have known Jesus and the grace, mercy and forgiveness of Jesus? Yes, he should have. But he didn’t, and that is revealing. Judas didn’t really know Jesus. Peter did.

Peter’s response is very different. He is broken, sorrowful.

Have you ever been like Peter, caught by the proverbial crow of the rooster, reminding you of your failure?

2 Corinthians 7:10 says it perfectly:

We can be sorry we got caught. We can be sorry because we don’t want consequences for our actions. When we examine our motives, we can learn that they are really messed up.

It is hard to be sorry with a godly sorrow that leads to repentance. All of us have messed up. What does it mean to be restored? To find restoration we can examine Peter’s story: What was it about Peter that led him to make a rebound?

This past Sunday was Pentecost Sunday. Do you remember what happened on Pentecost Sunday?

We read about it in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit first came to fill the disciples, while they were waiting in Jerusalem, waiting for what to do next. The Spirit comes and they start preaching in other languages. One guy takes the lead in the preaching. One guy is particularly bold.

Guess who it was? Peter.

Think about the timing. The events of Pentecost, where Peter is so bold, are only about a month and a half after the events of his denial of Jesus. A month and a half!

What we saw in Luke 22 is that Peter is a broken man. He has just denied Jesus, three times, and Jesus knew it, and Peter runs out weeping bitterly.

Now a month and a half later he is preaching boldly about Jesus.

What gives? How did that turnaround happen?

To find out we turn to John 21:15-17, a story that does not appear in Luke.

After his resurrection, the disciples went back to their jobs. They were fisherman, and they needed to make some money, feed their families, and so they went fishing. Jesus found them, made a fire on the beach, waiting for the disciples to return so they could eat together. Though he had resurrected, he was about to return to his Father and turn the mission of his Kingdom over to them. He had some unfinished business with them to care for. The disciples return to shore, and Jesus pulls Peter aside and says “Do you love me?”

It is more precise in the original language, Koine Greek, which has a variety of words, all of which we translate with one English word: “love.”

Jesus starts in verse 15 asking Peter “Do you agape me?” Agape is perfect love. This is the love that is used to describe God’s love, or to describe the love we should have for one another, as stated famously in 1 Corinthians 13.

Peter responds “Lord, you know that I phileo you.” Phileo is brotherly love, very relational. Phila-Delphia is the City of Brotherly love.

In a way, then, while Jesus asks Peter if he loves him, Peter answers very relationally, saying he has brotherly love for Jesus.

So Jesus says “Feed my lambs.” It might sound odd to us, this shepherd language. But Jesus knows that Peter felt terrible about denying Jesus, that Peter would be wondering if he was no longer acceptable to Jesus. Perhaps Peter should forfeit his position in the inner circle of Jesus’ twelve disciples. Jesus, who had once said to Peter “on you I will build my church”, now reinstates him: “Feed my sheep.”

Then surprisingly, Jesus asks him again, “Do you agape me?”, and Peter repeats “You know I phileo you”. You can see Peter internally, and maybe in body language on his face, wondering, “Why is he asking me again?” You and I know how it feels when our spouse or loved one asks, “Do you love me?” and we respond “Of course I love you!” And then they ask again, “But really, do you really love me?” At this second questioning, we can start to get offended, thinking that they shouldn’t have to ask a second time! Do they not believe us? Why would they have any reason to doubt? Peter is starting to feel this, to think these thoughts.

So Jesus says again “Take care of my sheep.” Again, reinstating Peter.

Imagine the shock as Jesus now asks Peter a third time, “Do you love me?” But this time Jesus has used the word “phileo”. Now Jesus is getting very personal.

John tells us in the middle of verse 17 that Peter is hurt. As any of us would be when we are asked to repeat ourselves a third time. But Peter now says a third time, “You know that I phileo you.”

And Jesus says a third time, “Feed my sheep.”

Do you see what Jesus has done? Each of Peter’s three denials have now been overturned by three “I love yous”, and by Jesus’ three reinstatements of Peter to “feed his sheep.”

Peter is restored.

Jesus is in the business off restoration. Do you need to be restored? If you have denied him, if you have disobeyed him, if you have been ashamed of him, you can be restored!

He loves you with Agape and Phileo, and he wants to restore you.

So come to him, like Peter, with a heart, mind and will that show your godly sorrow, and he will restore you.

That’s how Peter could preach a powerful sermon just a few weeks later. He was restored. And he fed Jesus’ sheep.

If you have betrayed Jesus, if you have denied him, know that he loves you. Let him restore you. Then feed his sheep.