We create sayings to remind ourselves about things we recognize as important:
Each of these slogans helps us remember the importance of prioritizing our priorities. And they highlight the reality that often other things distract us from what we believe should be central.
The church is not immune to this. I’ve seen Christians become obsessed with ‘biblical’ diets, numerology, church growth, the end times, particular forms of worship, home-schooling, social justice, speaking in tongues, and not speaking in tongues. In each case, a secondary issue became an all-consuming issue. In some cases, a good thing became a bad thing because it replaced the best thing. At times, I despaired that Christians seemed to get excited about almost anything other than the gospel!
Today, there is a trend to make the gospel a priority. But like all trends, this one will likely pass. When it does, we will still have God’s appointed means for keeping the gospel front and centre in our lives: The Lord’s Supper. Let me explain three ways that the Lord’s Supper can help us remember to keep our focus on the gospel.
Over time, things that initially shock us don’t anymore. I think something similar happens with the strangeness of baptism. It’s weird, right? If I asked you about your first day at work or your first time at a photography class and you said that they gathered everybody around to see all the new people dunked in a pool or a lake before they got started, I’d be pretty surprised. That would seem like a really strange company or club to me! So why have churches been doing that for the last 2,000 years? Let me give four reasons.
Last time, we considered the practice of infant baptism. And we said that since baptism in the New Testament is an expression of a believer’s faith in Jesus and a powerful reminder of vital truths about what happened when they trusted Him, it’s inappropriate and misleading to baptize someone who hasn’t yet put their faith in Jesus for salvation. But the question remains about what to do when a person does come to believe. Should a person who was baptized as an infant be baptized again when they understand and respond to the gospel?
There are so many things that churches of different backgrounds agree on. But baptism is one of the areas where there’s disagreement and the average person is often left confused. To say that churches disagree on baptism is an overstatement. Even churches with historic disagreement largely agree on the symbolism and meaning of baptism. You could quote many sections of the Roman Catholic Catechism on baptism and think that you were reading a baptist discipleship text. And the same could be said for the baptismal teaching of other denominations. There’s a lot of agreement. But one significant disagreement is with the baptism of infants. Some church denominations do it. Others don’t. Let me try to explain why.
Some people live in denial about death. They just don’t want to think about it. Others have decided that it’s impossible to know and so they’re just going to wait until it happens. Those who care about what the Bible teaches, look to the Scriptures but can often be confused. This week, a person asked me to reconcile the verses that speak of death as “sleep” with those that describe other things going on after death. What really happens when die? And did Jesus teach that we just go to sleep?
There are as many views of what the church is today as there are people. For some, the church is a historical building. For others, it’s a place the community gathers for weddings, funerals and potlucks. For others, it’s a hub of volunteer activity. Some people see it as a religious service provider where they can get their spiritual boost for the week – a little bit like a movie theatre highlighting Christians topics. But how did Jesus think about the church? You may be surprised to learn that the word, “church,” only appears three times in the gospels. But what it teaches about Jesus’ vision for the church is profound and is at odds with how we typically understand it.
One of Paul’s favourite metaphors for the church was the body of Christ. And it’s an image that’s attractive to many Christians today. It helps us remember that we’re part of something bigger. It helps us to see ourselves as the hands and feet of Jesus in our world. It helps us to understand our diversity while celebrating our unity. What’s intriguing to me is that people can enjoy the idea of being a member of the body of Christ without ever seeing the implications for becoming a member of a local church. So, I want to pose the question, “Can you be a member of the body of Christ without being a member of a local church?”
Most Christians leave the gospel at the door of the Christian life. They see the good news about Jesus as the key to getting into the Christian life, but then struggle to see how the gospel is also the engine that drives the Christian life. As a result, they end up running on fumes and living the Christian life like a non-Christian.
It’s hard for some people to believe in heaven because they can’t touch it or see it. It can feel too far to grasp onto and too distant to find assurance in. Other people hope in heaven but go through life uncertain that they’ll ever get there. The doubts are too strong and the promises too abstract. Wouldn’t it be great if God gave us a down payment on heaven, here and now? Wouldn’t it help if heaven came with a guarantee for those who had truly put their faith in Jesus? Amazing at it sounds, the Bible says that, in the Holy Spirit, God has done exactly that.
Christians have been taught some strange things about the Holy Spirit over the years. There were some who taught you had to “tarry” to receive the power of the Holy Spirit, based on the King James rendering of Luke 24:49. By tarry, they meant that people have to wait, often in hours-long prayer meetings, for a sign of the Holy Spirit. Many people found the wait exhausting and never experienced what they were told to wait for. There are others who have so tied speaking in tongues with the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit can take a backseat to speaking in tongues and God’s power is missing in people’s lives as a result. Others have been so freaked out by horror stories of “tarrying” and fiascos related to tongues that they want nothing to do with the Holy Spirit altogether. None of this is helpful. Over the last several weeks we’ve been looking at who the Holy Spirit is, why He’s just what we need, and what He seeks to do in people’s lives. Today, let’s consider three basic ways Scripture gives to connect to His power in our lives.
