“How do I have a personal relationship with Jesus?”

You’ve heard the question before. You’ve asked the question before, or at least, you’ve had someone ask that to you. The language of “personal relationship” is very prevalent in our modern day evangelical culture. Its on our tracts, its in our books and its in our sermons. If you would just have a personal relationship with Jesus then (fill in the blank). The personal relationship with the second member of the Triune God has been repeatedly communicated as the peak of piety and Christian spirituality, but what does it mean? What does it mean to have a “personal relationship” with someone? Do you know? I haven’t got the foggiest notion what it means either. And while I’m not sure I can answer the question, like a good theologian I can reinterpret the language and offer a suggestion to those who find themselves in the same boat as me.

To answer this question in a sentence: Come to church. Okay that may seem over simplified and perhaps naive, but this is the scriptural and historical answer on how to grow in one’s relationship with Jesus Christ. Of course no pastor is going to discourage you from spending time in the word and prayer at home on your own, but those things are not the ultimate expression of Christian spirituality. It is worship, rather, that allows an individual to grow but there can not be true growth outside the context of the church community. This is why Christians since the beginning of the church have gathered together to hear the Word of God read, to pray for one another, and to break bread in the same manner as Christ did in order to experience the presence of Christ in the gathered body of believers (Acts 2:46-47, 20:7; 1 Cor. 10:16, 12:26; Eph. 2:21-22, 4:15-16; Col 2:1-2)

The act of worship from the very beginning was an experience of sights, smells, tastes, sounds and touch. This is what is to happen in the worship service, we are to experience who God is and what he has done for us through Christ who came in the flesh and ate, breathed and walked among us. The incarnation informs us regarding our interaction with God. As the Son of God physically came to man, we come physically to him and worship demonstrates this. We celebrate the reality of Christ in our lives and expect his return and experience this through worship! Hearing the Word of God, having teaching that explains the Scriptures, hearing and singing songs of joy and sorrow, tasting and feeling the bread and wine and coming together to encourage one another is the essence of Christian worship. And this is how we grow. We come together to experience this one faith and continually learn what it means to be a disciple, in community, with others.

To wrap up this short answer to a big question, here is what God’s word tells us. Paul speaks of our one faith when he says, “There is one body and one Spirit-just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call- one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6 ESV). This one body cannot be experience if the members are not present. Jesus says, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5 ESV). Of course this verse has individual implications, but where is Christ most readily experienced today? In worship! If we do not abide in the body of Christ, how can we possibly expect to produce fruit. And finally, the writer of Hebrews gives us this familiar encouragement, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:23-25 ESV). We can not stir up one another to good works if we are away from the body! We are meant to experience the hope of Christ in the body of Christ. Apart from that, we can not grow in our relationship with him.

So the answer to the question, “How do I have a personal relationship with Jesus,” is to personally experience the body of Christ through worship. We experience the personal nature of the community, we personally express our hearts in prayer and worship, we personally sit under the teaching of the Word, we personally participate in the supper of our Lord and we continue to grow in our personal affections towards the triune God. To have a personal relationship with Jesus one must personally relate themselves to the community in which he inaugurated, the church. Anything less than this and one’s spiritual growth will be severely deficient.

If you truly wish to grow in the faith you proclaim, you will be involved in the body through service and worship. Individualism is not spiritual growth, it’s a indication of our selfish pride and arrogance. One must be in the body of Christ to truly experience the grace of God and to grow in one’s relationship with Christ. Is faith personal? Of course! But it’s only personal in so far as it is fully expressed with other believers in the church. May God encourage our hearts and reveal to us our need to be connected to the body of Christ in order to experience Christ.

The Soul Winner and Easter Sunday

Charles Spurgeon’s The Soul Winner: How to Lead Sinners to the Saviour is a classic text on evangelism and a pillar of Reformed baptist literature. With approaching Holy Week services and outreach activities, Spurgeon’s words regarding evangelism and proclaiming the gospel should be carefully heeded. From chapter one we read the following:

“A sinner has a heart as well as a head; a sinner has emotions as well as thoughts; and we must appeal to both. A sinner will never be converted until his emotions are stirred.”^[1]

His point is that we are to walk equally on the legs of doctrinal purity as well as proper appeal to emotion. We are to compel sinners to come to Christ, but that emotional appeal can never be divorced from the doctrines of God’s grace and sovereignty and regenerating work of the Spirit. Likewise, if we are meticulous in our orthodoxy yet never make the emotional appeal necessary to drive a sinner’s heart to the cross, then we have done the gospel of Christ a disservice. Earlier in the chapter he says,

“A purely didactic ministry, which should always appeal to the understanding, and should leave the emotions untouched, would certainly be a limping ministry.”^[2]

As ministers of the gospel, we are to engage the heart and mind together and never divorce the two in our evangelism and church worship. And if you think that Spurgeon is advocating emotionalism and revivalism a la Charles Finney or Billy Sunday, he also says:

“Men need to be told that, except divine grace shall bring them out of their enmity to God, they must eternally perish; and they must be reminded of the sovereignty of God, that He is not obliged to bring them out of this state, that He would be right and just if He left them in such a condition, that they have no merit to plead before Him, and no claims upon Him, but that if they are to be saved, it must be by grace, and by grace alone.”^[3]

Again responding the revivalistic tendencies of the inheritors of the Second Great Awakening he states:

“Nor is soul-winning, dear friends, merely to create excitement. Excitement will accompany every great movement….Excitement is as incidental as the dust, but it is not or one moment to be aimed at….It very often happens that the converts that are born in excitement die when the excitement is over.”^[4]

We must carefully balance right doctrine and emotional appeals; both are necessary for proper evangelism and gospel preaching. Spurgeon says, “The best attraction is the gospel in its purity.”^[5] This thought echoes Paul’s word to the Corinthian church when he states,“For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2 ESV). And as Easter Sunday draws near, may we remember Paul’s assertion when he says,“And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14 ESV). The hope of resurrection is the culmination of the good news message.

As we prepare for Holy Week services and outreach activities, may we heed the words of the Apostle Paul and  Spurgeon and prayerfully trust in God’s sovereignty to convert souls while at the same time making the urgent appeal to come to Christ!

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^[1] Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Soul Winner: How to Lead Sinners to the Saviour (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981), 26.

^[2] Ibid., 25.

^[3] Ibid., 24.

^[4] Ibid., 19-20.

^[5] Ibid., 24.

Reflections on the Incarnation: A 2011 Christmas Message

As we draw to an end of this year, I want us to reflect on the incarnation of our Lord and it’s implications for our life. The act of God becoming man and identifying with his creation is the greatest event in the history of our world. St Athanasius, the 4th century bishop of Alexandria and defender of Nicene orthodoxy, said this in his pivotal work On the Incarnation, “For He alone, being Word of the Father and above all, was in consequence both able to recreate all, and worthy to suffer on behalf of all and to be an ambassador for all with the Father. For this purpose, then, the incorporeal and incorruptible and immaterial Word of God entered our world” (On the Incarnation, 2.7-8). Athanasius understood that God becoming man had major implications for our lives. First and foremost was our redemption. Only God can redeem sinful man, therefore, Jesus as God in the flesh through his propitiation is the only one able to fully redeem man. Jesus must be more than a man, because a man cannot redeem another man, only God can perform such venture. Second, the incarnation means we can know God. He is not distant, but intimately identifies with his creation. The writer of Hebrews says ”For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15 ESV). Athanasius again says, “The Savior of us all, the Word of God, in His great love took to Himself a body and moved as Man among men, meeting their senses, so to speak, half way. He became Himself an object for the senses, so that those who were seeking God in sensible things might apprehend the Father through the works which He, the Word of God, did in the body” (3.15). The final implication of the incarnation I wish to highlight is our worship. We are now compelled to worship God together for the wonderful gift of his Son in order that we may be redeemed. Once again Athanasius says, “Worship, then, the Savior “Who is above all” and mighty, even God the Word, and condemn those who are being defeated and made to disappear by Him. When the sun has come, darkness prevails no longer; any of it that may be left anywhere is driven away” (8.55). We should not forsake intimate fellowship with one another and regular worship in the body so that we may continually feed on the spiritual nourishment provided by our Lord for our growth and his glory. Our communion should always properly reflect the glories of the incarnation, both in Christ’s humanity and deity. We should never devalue one for the sake of the other and vice versa. Because Christ came and brought with him grace, forgiveness and love, these are the things are to share with one another. Let us continually confess our sins to one another and enjoy the intimate fellowship at the Lord’s table and the proclamation of his gospel. The incarnation, once again, is the most substantial act to ever occur in the history of mankind. May we never tire of dwelling upon it’s profundity and implications for our lives and those whom have yet to come to faith. May we praise our God for his grace and truth. And may we commit to continue abiding in the body of Christ through intimate fellowship and worship, especially around the table of our Lord with his bread and his cup. May we eagerly await the return of our Lord and the hope of resurrection. As our brother Athanasius said, “Now, therefore, when we die we no longer do so as men condemned to death, but as those who are even now in process of rising we await the general resurrection of all, “which in its own times He shall show,” even God Who wrought it and bestowed it on us” (2.10). May you have peace and joy this holiday season as you ponder the sweet grace of our God, through Christ Jesus our Lord. To download a PDF copy of St. Athanasius’s On the Incarnation, click here.

The End is Near: What is the proper Christian response to Christ’s return?

In Phoenix, Arizona a news team takes to the streets to gather people’s reactions to a recent billboard added to the industrial landscape. “Save the Date: Christ’s Return on May 21, 2011″ was the general message of the billboard. “How can they know?” one passer-by says. “It doesn’t change anything for me, I’m not going to live my life based on a billboard,” says a man from his car as he drives by. “That’s just asinine!” one woman retorts. Yet another man being interviewed says, “Honestly, I hope its true!” Did he believe it was going to happen on that day or was he conveying something else? Was he getting ready for May 21st, or was he perhaps conveying a hope which all Christians should have? In denouncing dates and men who make end time claims, maybe Christians have forgotten the fact that the return of Christ is the content of our constant hope. We are to “watch and pray.” Our lives are to be marked not by date-setting, but by prayerful-watching. To watch is not to interpret signs of the times, but to interpret the marks of our lives. Are we in the faith? Do we seek to share the message of the Gospel? Are we seeking righteous and living in a blameless fashion? These are the instructions we’ve been given.

Watch and Pray

“Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”- Mark 14:38 ESV

Though our hope is in Christ’s return, no one knows when that can be. We are called to watch and pray, not predict and damn. As Jesus exhorts his disciples in the Garden, he is expecting the hour of his betrayal at the hands of Judas. He knows the time of his death is upon him, yet he submits to the will of the Father. He overcomes temptation and shows that his position is one of submission and humility to the will of the Father in the act of redemption. The disciples are unaware of the events that are to transpire that night, though they had been warned. They had been told, yet they did not know. In so doing, they had fallen asleep when they should have been watching and praying. They did not know what was to come, yet Christ compelled them to watch and pray. So it too must be with the church. We have been warned, yet we do not know. Christ calls us to watch and pray, in order that we may not enter into temptation. Christ says in Revelation 3:3, “Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.” Christ says we are to be ready, to stay awake, and to pray. This is our first and most important activity. Why specifically are we to watch and pray? Because this life is a suffering life, a sinful life, and he calls us to live a satisfied life.

The Suffering Life

The testimony of Scripture is that life is filled with suffering. If there is any doubt in this statement, I implore to take up and read the Psalms. Suffering is the experience of life. And more so for those who believe. Paul tells the church in Philippi, “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake” (Phil. 1:29 ESV). Those who trust in Christ have been given a warning of suffering. It is inevitable. Whether its loss of family and friends for the sake of Christ, physical suffering, or other forms of persecution, Christians will suffer. There is suffering all around, but for the sake of Christ, believers will suffer. Paul gives us comfort when he says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”  (Romans 8:18 ESV). The Those of faith will not necessarily experience perpetual blessing and comfort, but rather suffering for the sake of Christ. First we are to watch and pray because we recognize that this present life is a suffering life.

The Sinful Life

The second reason to watch and pray is because this present life is a sinful life. Though we have been forgiven of the penalty of sin through faith in Christ, we still deal with the effects of sin. We see this clearly in Paul’s message to his readers in Romans 7:20-25. He says, “Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. (Rom. 7:20 ESV). We must recognize the struggle of our inherent sin nature and that of the new nature given to us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. God in his providence is working holiness in his people, and we must continually watch and pray and ask for God’s deliverance from evil, as Christ taught us to pray (Matt. 6:9-13). The apostle Peter tells us, “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” (1 Pet 2:11 ESV). Scripture is filled with commands and exhortations to flee from evil and seek righteousness. Christian, though saved by grace, should be the first to recognize our need to live blamelessly (Eph. 1:4; Phil. 1:10; 2:15; Col. 1:22; 1 Th. 2:10; 5:23; 1 Tim. 3:10; Jude 24; Rev. 14:5). Because we recognize that this present life is filled with temptation and struggles with sin, we are called to watch and pray in order that we may seek holiness before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why else are we to watch and pray? Because we are called to live a satisfied life. But what does this exactly mean?

The Satisfied Life

The third reason to watch and pray is because we are called to live a satisfied life. Satisfaction with this life is not the point, but we are called to be satisfied with how God chooses to work things out. Paul exhorts his readers to wait for our hope with patience (Rom. 8:25 ESV). To the Galatians, he says, “For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.” (Galatians 5:5 ESV). We know that God’s ways are above ours, and therefore we are to be satisfied with how he chooses to work. Though we may not understand and may be tempted to complain, God’s will is to be our desire. This does not mean, however, that we sit back and do nothing. Paul tells the Galatians to wait eagerly. This is an active waiting. Doing, praying, watching, telling, serving, sending; these are all action words of an eager waiter. We are to watch and pray, but with patience and eager expectation, which will produce sound minded Christians who both desire for the return of our Lord yet will communicate this to others in love.

The End is Near

The Christian hope is to watch and pray with patience because this present life is filled with suffering and sin. We must recognize that we will suffer, so we watch and pray. We must also realize that we will struggle with sin, therefore we watch and pray. And we must finally understand that God’s will must be done, hence we will watch and pray. Like the hopeful passerby in Phoenix, Arizona, we must recognize that men cannot set dates for the return of our Lord but we can still exclaim, “I hope its true!” Watching and praying are the actions of an expectant church who desires for her Bridegroom to return. This gives us fuel for the engine of missions, outreach, worship, evangelism, and relationships. We must realize that our faith is unfulfilled until we have been reunited with our Lord. May we all, with eager expectation, watch and pray and expect the Lord of Lords to return. May the words of our Lord be our constant hope: “He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20 ESV)

Compline Prayer

The following is prayer from the book of Common Worship, Church House Publishing, 2000.

_____________________

Before the ending of the day,
Creator of the world, we pray
That you, with steadfast love, would keep
Your watch around us while we sleep.

From evil dreams defend our sight,
From fears and terrors of the night;
Tread underfoot our deadly foe
That we no sinful thought may know.

O Father, that we ask be done
Through Jesus Christ, your only Son;
And Holy Spirit, by whose breath
Our souls are raised to life from death.

In peace we will lie down and sleep;
for you alone, Lord, make us dwell in safety.

Abide with us, Lord Jesus,
for the night is at hand and the day is now past.

As the night watch looks for the morning,
so do we look for you, O Christ.

Come with the dawning of the day
and make yourself known in the breaking of the bread.

May God bless us,
that in us may be found love and humility,
obedience and thanksgiving,
discipline, gentleness and peace