Engaging Scripture

Believing the Gospel is not enough – 1st Corinthians 15:1-11

Last week I asked “Have Christians Forgotten the Gospel?”

The reason I asked that is because in the next section in our study through 1st Corinthians, 15:1-11, Paul tells the Christians in Corinth that he needs to remind them of the Gospel. Did they forget it? Seems that way, at least to some extent. Since we started this study at the beginning of the year, we’ve gotten to know the Christians in the church of Corinth. A person can see why Paul would think they needed a reminder. They were out of control in many ways. Disunified, undisciplined, selfish, etc. And now we come to find out, as we’ll see in the next section, someone there was teaching that there was no such thing as resurrection. Maybe these Christians were no longer Christian? Maybe they would be reading through Paul’s letter wondering the same thing about themselves: “Are we too far gone? Have we messed this thing up?”

Paul begins by reassuring them, like he did in chapter 1, that they are Christians, which he affirms by reviewing that they not only received (verse 2) the Gospel message, they also believed it (verse 11).

That whole receive and believe thing has been a big part of our evangelical Christianity for decades. We have pounded home that there is a certain content to the Good News message that must be received (as a free gift) and believed. Paul will talk about that content in the second part of this passage. He is very concerned about the Corinthians losing that content, especially the part about resurrection. He reviews it for them: Jesus died for our sins according the Scriptures, and he was buried and rose again, according to the Scriptures. He talks about the amazing grace that God gave him, of all people, a Christian killer. He talks about how wonderful the grace of God is. Thinking about the content of the Gospel, it is washed in God’s grace. We Christians, and especially our evangelical tribe, has majored on the content, which has essentially said that becoming a Christian means you need to receive and believe the content of the Gospel.

That would be well and good if that was where Paul stopped. But he didn’t. In addition to the content, he has quite a lot to say about the commitment. Basically he says that believing the Gospel is not enough. He says that on the Gospel “…in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.” Look at how much further he goes beyond just intellectual belief! Three ways:

in which you stand
by which you are being saved
if you hold fast to the word I preached to you

Each of these phrases are so fascinating. Each of them relates to the idea that being a Christian, being saved as we call it, cannot be satisfied by mere belief. Christians, therefore, must believe not only the content of the Gospel, but also respond with commitment.

Have Christians forgotten the Gospel?

Christians talk a lot about the Gospel.

As they should. The Gospel is the foundation of our faith. But what if Christians have forgotten about the Gospel?

This post is written to Christians, but I would be very interested to hear what those who are not Christians would think of it as well. Maybe those of you who are not Christians actually have a better perspective on Christians than we do about ourselves. So if you are not a Christian, what do you think? Do you think that Christians have forgotten the Gospel? Perhaps you have rubbed shoulders with Christians in your neighborhood, or at your kids’ soccer game, or at work. By their actions would you say they have forgotten the Gospel?

To answer that, it would be good to know what the word Gospel actually refers to. It doesn’t originally come from the Bible, believe it or not. Some of the writers of the New Testament took a word that was common in Greco-Roman society and used that word to describe the story of Jesus. That word was Euangelion, which by looking at it bears a striking resemblance to Evangelical. It was Euangelion that came first. Euangelion referred to a proclaiming of good news, and one of the most notable occurrences of Euangelion was to celebrate when a new Caesar would take power in Rome. We can see, then, why the writers of the New Testament would use Euangelion to describe the proclamation of the good news of Jesus, the person they claimed was the true Lord. But were they right? What is the content of this Good News about Jesus? How could those early Christians say that a peasant from a relatively unimportant corner of the Roman Empire was truly Lord? The Roman Empire dispensed with Jesus easily. How is that Good News?

In our next section of 1st Corinthians, 15:1-11, Paul talks about this Gospel, this Good News. In fact he specifically wants to remind the Christians in the church of Corinth about that Good News. It seems they had forgotten it. They certainly weren’t acting like they remembered it.

Now some words to the Christians reading this post? Do you remember the content of the Good News? If you have a couple minutes to describe it, what would you say? Without looking at 1st Corinthians 15:1-11, how about doing a little self-test, and write out the message of Good News in your own words. Then click on the link for 1st Corinthians 15:1-11 and see how closely your description matches Paul’s. But that is just the content side. While the Good News is most certainly comprised of a particular content to be agreed with and believed, action is also part and parcel of Good News. It must be lived out. As you’ll read in this passage, Paul says that the Corinthians had not only received and believed it, but they staked their lives on it. Yet, they were making a reputation for themselves, and it was not a good one. Perhaps they had forgotten the message of Good News. Perhaps they needed a reminder.

Maybe we need one too.

Experimental Worship? – 1st Corinthians 14:26-40

I have read that early Christian worship was influenced by the order of worship in Jewish synagogues.

The picture that Paul gives us in 1st Corinthians 14:26-40 (and in all of chapters 11-14, really) is a very disorderly kind of worship as practiced by the Christians in the city of Corinth. I introduced this concept last week here. In the beginning of chapter 11 and later in 14, he talks about how disgraceful their women might have been handling themselves. We talked about that extensively here and here. In 11:17, about their practice of the Lord’s Supper, he says “In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good.” He describes his concern further as stemming from disunity and selfishness, which we talked about here and here. In chapter Later on in chapter 14 he gives the impression that people were misusing spiritual gifts, placing speaking in tongues on a pedestal, using it harmfully. And now Paul concludes his long teaching about their unruly worship services by saying that “everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.”

I agree. But aren’t you missing something Paul? What about the order of worship? No comment?

In verse 26 he describes how “everyone” was involved, which I find very helpful. Worship should not be a spectator experience where only a few paid professionals do the work. The smaller the group, the more easy it would be, I suppose, for everyone to be involved. But what if a church has 100 people in the audience? What if they have 10,000? What are some ways that we can have worship services that are more participatory? Do we have to stop having large group worship services?

We also need to note what Paul felt was important about the purpose of worship. Sure we worship to glorify the Lord. I have a feeling that Paul assumes that. Notice what else he says in verse 26. All the ways everyone participates in worship (singing, teaching, etc) should be done “for the strengthening of the church.” That raises a couple questions in my mind:

How do we help strengthen the church if we just sit there during worship? Is giving and singing enough?

What about the sharing of tongues and prophecy and revelation that Paul mentions? Have we cut them off? And if so, is it wrong? To consider the possibility that it might be wrong, consider Paul’s closing comment in verse 39: “Therefore, my brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.” Should only the pastors be eager to prophesy? Paul certainly didn’t limit prophesy to the paid professionals.

“But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.”

I for one am glad that Paul or any other apostle didn’t give us a specific order of worship that we had to follow. Maybe it would make things easier if he did. I have the sense that it is much, much better for us to implement principles as we see fit. As the comment discussion bore out in last week’s intro post, it seems to me that different churches with varying approaches to worship can be a very healthy expression of God’s Kingdom. We are unique people with so many kinds of personalities. We love to express ourselves in many ways. And it is okay if we are different. Thus is it okay if some churches are more intellectual in their worship, if some are more emotional, if some have the same order every week, if some mix it up.

A few months ago I was talking to a visitor to Faith Church, and he asked what kind of worship service we have. Was it traditional, was it contemporary? I said “We call it experimental.” He got a really strange look on his face. At Faith Church we like to change things up from time to time. We stopped printing an order of worship a long time ago because we wanted people to stop focusing on words on a page, and instead to focus on worshipping God that morning. We know that people can still worship God by looking at a printed order of worship in a bulletin, but we made the change anyway as a small way to symbolize the attitude that we believe is central to experimental worship: humility. At the heart of experimental worship is a belief that we do not have worship figured out. Instead we see ourselves as learners. We look to many traditions, many sources for teaching about how to worship God. By containing ourselves to only one style of worship, to only one order of worship, we felt that we were potentially missing out on learning a wider richness to the concept of worship. That’s why we’ve had Church Has Left The Building Sundays, Silent Sundays, Artistic Sundays, Worship in the Park, and more.

We know that experimenting can run the risk of coming off as gimmicky. We’re okay with that. Our heart is anything but trying out something for kicks and giggles. Instead, we are passionate about learning more and more how to worship God. We committed to doing things in a fitting and orderly way. We know we have much to learn and we’re eager to experiment more so that we can learn more!

Sure, on most Sundays, if you worship with us at Faith Church, things will feel pretty much the same week to week. But as you look back over the course of a year, you’ll see that we have experienced worship in a variety of ways. We’re still looking to experiment! So if you have suggestions for us, please comment below.

Do we need an order of worship?

Raised in a Conservative Baptist church that practiced a style of worship very much influenced by the frontier free worship tradition, I will never forget two of my first experiences with liturgical style. The first was at a mainline Presbyterian Church in New Jersey where my mother’s sister and her family attended. After quite a few series of standing and sitting for unison prayers and creeds, all of which I was very unfamiliar with, I said “This is crazy!” a bit too loudly and received a stern look from my parents. About six years later, now a college student and bit more mellow, I attended a cousin’s wedding in an Episcopal Church. One feature of the ceremony was communion, first for the couple and then for anyone else who wished to participate. My dad decided that our family would not participate. I remember feeling quite relieved as this church’s sights, smells and sounds were very foreign to me, and thus uncomfortable. I didn’t want to have to experience its venture into the sense of taste as well. What if it was…(gasp)…wine! But I suspect my dad had us abstain due to theological reasons, feeling we shouldn’t align ourselves with the Episcopal Church.

As I reflect on these two occurrences and many subsequent forays into different Christian liturgies, it is clear that the corner of the world of worship that I grew up is just that, only a corner, a small expression of a much larger body. It is interesting how quickly we can assume that our particular expression of worship is the only one, or at least the only right one. Still more interesting is that God never inspired a biblical writer to direct us into one particular liturgy. In that we see his genius, allowing worship that can change from one time to the next, and from one culture to another. At times I wish I could see exactly how the earliest Christians worshiped, or perhaps discuss my church’s particular liturgy with Paul or Peter. Do we have it right? What could we change? Would we even like what they did?

Does your church have an order of worship? Is the order of worship printed in a bulletin or program so people can follow along? Does the order change much week to week? Does it matter?

Should a church allow space in a worship gathering for the people to choice on the spur of the moment how they want to express themselves in worship? Or should everything be planned in advance, following an order?

Frank Viola in his book Pagan Christianity, which I have currently loaned out or I would be able to quote directly, talks about the history of the order of worship as having been born from pagan gatherings. Viola points to a few lines of Scripture that seem to teach a much more open, participatory style of worship. Those verses are the next section of 1st Corinthians, 14:26-40. The first few lines are compelling: “When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation.” Does that mean no one was leading the service, that there was no order of worship that they followed? Viola thinks so. He suggests that worship gatherings are actually damaging to discipleship when most of the people sit passively while a couple paid professionals do all the work.

But if we don’t have an order of worship, won’t our worship services get out of control? They sure did in Corinth. Can we possibly open the worship service to let everyone be involved? What if someone talks too long? What if they say something crazy? What if the same people monopolize the time every week? What if they are obnoxious? What if they teach something that isn’t true? Isn’t it really better to have an order of worship that is led by a few people while the rest join in by singing a couple pre-selected songs, giving, and following along with the rest?

What is the purpose of worship? To give everyone a chance to get involved?

Join us Sunday at Faith Church as we talk about this further!

Speaking in Tongues is not the point – 1st Corinthians 14:1-25

Last week I mentioned that this past Sunday’s sermon was going to be about speaking in tongues. We have been working our way section by section through the book of 1st Corinthians, and on Sunday we finally made it to chapter 14, which is all about speaking in tongues.

I started the sermon off with a audio example of speaking in tongues. There a many such videos online.

What Paul tells us in 1st Corinthians 14 is that speaking in tongues, while very dramatic and potentially spiritually encouraging, is not the point of worship. Over and over throughout the chapter he says there is another point, edification. That’s not a word we use very much in our regular conversation.

What does edifying mean? Paul uses it a bunch a times in this passage. The NIV also translates it “strengthening” in verse 3 and “build up” in verse 12. And through those two words you get a clue. It means “to increase the potential of someone or something, with focus upon the process involved” (Louw & Nida). This is a great word for the process discipleship, for growing in Christ.

But you can’t be built up if your mind isn’t involved in the process! That is huge. Paul is emphasizing how important our minds are in the process of becoming like Christ. As Christians we don’t check our brains at the door. But Paul is concerned that the overuse or the improper use of tongues is like checking your brains at the door. Turning them off. Look again at what he says in verses 13-17. Our priority should be for communication in a real language that leads to understanding and edification!

That’s why Paul’s comments in the next few verses are so helpful. While he is glad that he speaks in tongues, what he really wants is intelligible words. In verse 19 he says that five intelligible words to instruct are superior to 10,000 words in a tongue. Obviously Paul is speaking hyperbolically, with exaggeration for effect, to make a point. Churches and individuals who gather for worship should be emphasizing clearly understood teaching far, far above speaking in tongues.

To grow into a mature disciple we need to move in the direction of understanding, of knowing the Word of God, of learning who God is, what his heart beats for, and what it means to love and obey him.

This is why I emphasize that you get a Bible you can really understand. Get the Life Application Study Bible in the New International Version, and read it, including the study notes. Be involved in a small group for further Bible Study. Don’t just come to worship and then leave. Stay for sermon discussion or a Sunday School class. Join us on Wednesday evenings for Bible study and prayer.

Examine your motivation. Excel in gifts that build up (edify) the church, Paul says. That means that the focus of serving should not be on us. We should not serve so that people can see us serve and thus think that we are good servants. We should serve to build up the church. Not to get credit for ourselves, but to encourage and strengthen others. The focus of the use of our gifts, of serving in the church is others.

The point of worship is edification. So let’s be passionate about edification!

Podcast Disc, Lawyer Letter, Pile of Old Mail – The Monday Messy Office Report – September 2, 2014

My Friday tidy office is mysteriously messy on Monday. Here’s what I found today:

1. Podcast disc – I’m very grateful to our sound and projection volunteers, as they serve behind the scenes every Sunday morning. They keep sound levels balanced, show PowerPoint shows, YouTube videos, and record the service. We actually make two recordings each Sunday. One is a CD recording of the entire service, which we have available to anyone who missed the service and would like to listen. We also make a digital recording of the sermon, which we later podcast on our website. Sometimes, though, there is a glitch, and I greatly appreciate the people in our church who have technical expertise to figure things out! The disc on my desk is from one of those guys, and I greatly appreciate it!!!

2. Letter from Lawyer – I first referred to the lawyer in this post. We received another letter this past week, the one we had been waiting for. You can read the background story in the previous post. I’m thankful to the Lord for the way he blessed our church through the faithful generosity of his people. In this case, one of members who passed away a couple years ago, made Faith Church a 10% beneficiary in her will. What a blessing! While we didn’t receive millions or anything like that, it was still a very nice gift. Please pray that we use it wisely for God’s Kingdom.

3. Pile of Old Mail – I put this in my office yesterday. After seeing it in one of our back rooms on a desk for four or five months, I decided to clean it up. It seems like it was a bunch of documents that would have been distributed through our church mailslots. Someone got their mail, put it down on the desk, and then forgot about it! I suppose we all do that from time to time. I know I do. So it gives me a reason to remind all you Faith Church people who read this to check your mailslots each week! And we would be most delighted if you’d read the mail that we put in there too.

Now it’s time to clean up this mess!

Is Speaking in Tongues fake?

What is speaking in tongues? Or what is it supposed to be? There is a lot confusion, a lot of skepticism and fear. Some people say that it is all fake, that the gift of tongues ceased, and that’s what Paul meant in chapter 13 verse 8 when he said “where there are tongues, they will be stilled.” These cessationist say the gift of tongues was only for the age of the apostles when the church was being established and the New Testament was not yet complete. But when the Apostles passed away, by around 100 AD, and the New Testament was then completed, though it was not fully compiled until about 200 years after that, a new era dawned on the church and tongues were stilled.

Any new manifestation of tongues, then, these cessationists believe, is either fake or worse, of the devil, meant to deceive people.

But there are plenty of people who totally disagree with that. They believe tongues, whether in private devotional prayer or in the public gathering of the church, is legitimate and even important.

In the early 1900s a movement broke out in California soon after the great San Francisco earthquake, and it started sweeping the West coast. It started with a group of people who claimed that the Holy Spirit was bringing revival through a new Pentecost, a new outpouring of gifts, especially the gift of tongues. Stemming from a group that met on Asuza Street in LA, it became widely known as the Pentecostal Movement. A hundred years later Pentecostal Christianity is the fastest growing segment of our world-wide faith. Pentecostalism and its more expressive cousin, the Charismatic movement, have seen millions of people come to Christ and join the church, especially in the Global South. Latin American, China, India, Africa and Asia. Some believe that if it wasn’t for Pentecostal Christianity, we would actually see decline in Christianity worldwide. Instead we are seeing amazing growth.

But is that growth all wrong? Does the Spirit manifest himself in speaking in tongues?

Paul talks about this in our next section of 1st Corinthians, chapter 14, verses 1-25. As you prepare for Sunday, read this section, and see what Paul had to say about speaking in tongues. Remember that the church in Corinth had some pretty out-of-control worship, and tongues figured largely in that. What was happening in this church? Are there principles that we can learn from this passage, whether we believe tongues have ceased or not? Join us at Faith Church on Sunday, and we’ll talk about it more!

Google is confused about love! – 1st Corinthians 13

Google is confused about love. Is love a feeling or not? I did an image search and found both answers! So what is it? When I love someone, I definitely feel something. But I also know that those feelings can go away when that person is being difficult (not that I am ever difficult…). It would be easy in those moments to say that the love has faded because the feeling has faded. And yet in those moments I know that I haven’t just stopped loving them.

Years ago I heard the following quote and it helped me greatly in understanding love. See what you think:

“The difference between an opinion and a conviction is that while you hold on to an opinion, a conviction holds on to you.” – Ravi Zacharias

Is love an opinion or a conviction? A feeling or an action? Let’s find out.

On Sunday we talked about 1st Corinthians 13, the Love Chapter. As I mentioned last week, it is one of the most famous chapters in the Bible. It is very sought after, apparently because people are searching for the true meaning of love. Just what does 1st Corinthians say that makes it the Bible passage of choice for weddings? Here’s the most famous part:

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸Love never fails.

I think we would be hard-pressed to find many people who are able to love at this high level, consistently, simply based on their feelings. Our feelings are like our opinions, changing constantly. Up and down, hot and cold. He loves me, he loves me not. And we rip off the metaphorical flower petals in bushels.

It requires a significant decision, a choice, to actively sustain a conviction of love for another person. After worship on Sunday I had a great conversation with one person who told me the story of a family that was ripped apart by brokenness. She was involved in their lives, and looking back on the situation, she regretted that the family didn’t get serious professional counseling. I didn’t talk about counseling in the sermon, and I should have. It is not romantic to say “my relationship is broken and needs counseling.” Not that counseling is a magic balm to fix all unhealthy relationships, but it can be wonderful and is needed in so many difficult relationships where the feelings seem gone. Love takes work. That goes for any marriage, and it goes for the church too.

What I find so interesting is that 1^st Corinthians 13 was not originally written for wedding ceremonies. Paul wrote it primarily for the church. Sure you need to think about your love for your spouse and your family. You may be allowing yourself to confuse like (opinion) and love (conviction). You may need to set the bar much higher for yourself when it comes to how you think about and practice love. But that may also need to apply to your relationships with people in the church.

Remember that Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, that you love one another.” In the church we should have a high degree of 1 Corinthians 13 agape love for one another. So who is the person that you really don’t like in the church? What will it mean for you to love them? What can you do this week to work on it?

What is Love? – Our theme for Worship in the Park this Sunday!

What is love? Do you know for certain? There is a popular song that asks “What is love?” and then responds with “Baby, don’t hurt me.” Though we don’t think of love as painful, another popular song echoes what many people have found to be true: “Love hurts.” You might have experienced that in your own life. It leaves many people wondering what love is all about and why our culture is so focused on love. It leaves many people wondering if they will ever find love. Maybe love isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. If you read on, you’ll see that people all over the world are searching for love. In fact they are searching for answers in the Bible. Can the Bible possibly have an answer to a question of such magnitude? That’s what we are going to try to find out on Sunday, and a special Sunday it is!

I’m super excited for this coming Sunday because it is Worship in the Park and our annual church Picnic! Join us at East Lampeter Community Park on Hobson Road at 10am on Sunday August 24th. When you arrive just follow the music to find us, as we’ll be in the middle pavilion.

Tons of people from the church are working hard behind the scenes to pull off the event, and I am so grateful for their work. Getting sound and music to the pavilion is a big deal. Our worship will finish with a special large-scale art project for all ages, and putting that together has required the people to help out. Then there is the coffee, snacks, and later the picnic which involved a whole additional group of people. Thank you all!

As you prepare for worship on Sunday, our theme is What is Love?

In preparation for Sunday, I came across this video. It is fascinating to see how many people all over the world are searching to find the meaning of love. In our ongoing study of 1st Corinthians we come to chapter 13, which as the video points out, is one of the most sought-after chapters in the Bible. In 2009 it was the most searched for chapter on Bible Gateway. In 2013 “love” was the most searched for topic. On just about any list of the most popular chapters of the Bible, people put 1st Corinthians 13 in their Top Ten. It is used prolifically at weddings. And for good reason! 1 Corinthians 13 is all about the meaning of true love.

Because it has become almost synonymous with weddings, many people don’t realize that it was not originally written for that purpose. Surely it applies to marriage, as we believe that love should be the foundation of a healthy marriage. But why did Paul include this chapter in his letter to the Corinthian Christians? If he wasn’t addressing love in marriage, what was he addressing? Is there some reason that he put this chapter on love in the particular placement that he did? At first glance it seems odd, random. A chapter about love right in the middle of a bunch of chapters about worship-related things like the role of women, spiritual gifts, and speaking in tongues. Why not talk about love in chapter 7 which was all about marriage?

Paul has a reason. Take a look for yourself and see if you can figure it out. Read 1 Corinthians 13 (and boost Bible Gateway’s stats a bit in the process!) and prepare to answer the question What is Love?

Skype with the Stoltzfuses!

I remember as a kid being fascinated by the missionary phone patch, or at least that is what it was called at the church I grew up in. During a worship service, we would call one of our missionaries and do a mini-interview with them through the church sound system. It was really cool to think that our whole congregation was talking with someone halfway around the world. As the church got more technology proficient, I remember that we would use an overhead projector to show their picture during the call.

Fast forward 20 years.

Two weeks ago at Faith Church we Skyped with Lamar and Janice Stoltzfus, long-time Faith Church members who are full-time EC missionaries serving with Africa Inland Mission at Rift Valley Academy in Kenya. It was a live video call. Live video of them was on our big screen up front, and through a camera in our sanctuary, they could see us. Through our sound system we could talk as if they were right there. The wonder of the internet. It was like Skype that you are accustomed to, but on a big scale! I am so thankful for that kind of technology.

We’ve done it before plenty of times with our missionaries, but those calls have always been short, 5-10 minutes. We would check in, hear brief updates and prayer requests, pray with them and say good bye. But then we thought, why not give them the whole service like we do with missionary guest speakers? Through the magic of Skype we can easily do this.

That is if Kenya doesn’t lose internet! As it did last time we tried to do a short Skype with them. Imagine that…the internet goes out over an entire country. That gives you a bit of a picture of life in Kenya.

Thankfully this time, the connection was great, until literally right before I was about to turn the service over to them. At that very moment we lost the connection. It was great that their daughter Alyssa was with us in person, and she had just spent a month with them in Kenya. So as I interviewed her, the sound/projection team restored the connection and got the Stoltzfuses back on the line, and we had a clear call the rest of the way. No delays either.

It was great to hear from Kenya, where God is at work!