R-R-F:

Reality, Revelation, and Faith:

DECEPTION'S INCEPTION:

William Hazlitt (1778-1830) was an English writer and philosopher. He once noted, “Life is the art of being well deceived: and in order that the deception may succeed it must be habitual and uninterrupted.”

Hazlitt’s quote is powerful and deceptive.

Substitute the word DEATH in lieu of Life and you will have a more accurate and biblical portrait.

Death is the art of being well deceived.

Life is the blessing of abiding in the presence of God, and the Presence of God abiding in us. No effort is required for us to continually abide in the habitual and uninterrupted deception of sinful rebellion.

Solomon was King David’s son. We typically recall Solomon as a great king because of his wisdom and wealth. Scripture tells a very different story. Solomon was an abysmal king (1 Kings 11). He exemplified the antithesis of God’s instruction (Deut 17).

The unified kingdom split almost instantly after Solomon’s death. Israel’s idolatry and repudiation of God intensified exponentially until the northern kingdom (Israel) fell to the Assyrians in 722 BC. This left only the tiny southern kingdom (Judah), which didn't fare any better.

God called the prophet Jeremiah to proclaim systemic destruction throughout Judah because of their wickedness (Jer 11). God told Jeremiah, “I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them… Do not pray for this people or offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their distress.”

Because of his faithfulness, Jeremiah was persecuted, plotted against, buried alive, and imprisoned. As a prophet, Jeremiah served as God’s ambassador and spokesman. He told the nation of Judah, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure…” (17:9).

Jeremiah, like Hazlitt, alluded to the disastrous state and result of habitual and uninterrupted deception. Jeremiah did so from God’s point of view - not man’s. Hazlitt calls that deception “life,” while God calls it “death.”

It seems a bit odd and highly ironic that Solomon would write something so true and profound as, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death,” (Pr 14:12) especially considering his legacy of grandiose folly.

Grandiose folly is our birthright. Sin is the only thing we can truly call our own. King David understood this when he said, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”

We enter into this world with a corrupted, hardened, and deceitful heart that is beyond our ability to cure. Our heart actually preserves the “habitual and uninterrupted” state of destruction and death, i.e. separation from God.

We eschew truth and light under the guise of innocence, and as Oswald Chambers notes, we trust in the deception of innocence by “calling it purity.”

The nation of Israel utterly rejected God and His prophet Jeremiah. They treasured darkness, deception, autonomy, and idolatry.

We reject Christ just the same. John's gospel states, “He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him.” It was true then. It's true today. It will be true tomorrow. Hazlitt noted deception’s success hinges on being habitual and uninterrupted. God’s revelation pierces the darkness and irrupts into our lives.

We cast off revelation as corrupted, controversial, and contradictory myth. We relegate Jesus to the status of “friend,” or “good teacher,” yet we deny His inherent sovereign authority. We cast off restraint in pursuit of idols. We resist authentic faith in the pursuit of religion. We exchange divine revelation for theological studies.

God said, “Where there is no revelation the people cast off restraint” (Pr 29:18).

The Law and the Prophets anticipated Christ's advent, ascension, and return. The book of Revelation does NOT paint a picture of a cheery game show host descending on a puffy cloud for a casual time of question & answer. It paints a picture of awesome and terrible battle imagery.

Upon His return, Christ will not revisit the teachings of humble earthly ministry. Instead, He will come “to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.”

Waiting for Him looks like Matthew 7:21, “the one who does the will of my Father in heaven." It looks like loving people by adorning Christ as His ambassadors.

Is that your life's pursuit or has death’s deception made destruction your habitual and uninterrupted destiny?

God is unimpressed by the words we say and sing, the things we think and believe, and deeds, which amount to filthy rags. To those superficial sycophants casting out demons, performing miracles, and teaching in His name, Jesus says, “away from me you evildoers. I never knew you.” Jesus says that apart from the gift of faith - and our subsequent obedience to it - we are unfit and disqualified. Those are not words of malice, but of sobering love.

"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
Romans 10:13

Our God, Creator, Savior, and King went to the Cross to shatter death's deception. How will you respond?

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com

APPROACHING GOD:

APPROACHING GOD:

“Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it...” -Exodus 19:12a

When God told Abram “Go,” he went. When God told Abram “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them… so shall your descendants be,” Abram believed and it was credited to Abram as righteousness. But when God said “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.” Abram’s faith in God wavered and it caused him to query, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”

So God told Abram to go get a bunch of animals and chop them up. For us -modern day readers- this is odd, but alrighty let’s roll with it…  Then God prefaced His response to Abram by saying, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great wealth.” All this anticipated what happened at the end of Genesis and opening of Exodus: i.e. the nation of Israel winds up in Egypt as slaves.

Then God gets back to the whole animal thing... God told Abram to cut the animals in half and it formed a bloody pathway. This imagery was very familiar to Abram and people of the Ancient Near East. They didn’t have any lawyers or attorneys back then. They didn’t have 2,000 page legal documents full of lawyer-talk just to buy a goat or a piece of land. They would “cut” a contract/covenant by literally cutting up animals. Then both parties would walk through the bloodpath - to say in vivid picture form - “This is what you can do to me if I violate our contract agreement.”

What is significant about God’s response to Abram is that God alone walked through the bloodpath. We read in Genesis 15, “When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot (God) with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a (unilateral, or one-sided) covenant with Abram…” Abram and his descendents would gain all the benefits of the agreement, but -ALL- the responsibility and consequences were upon God.

From before the foundation of the cosmos, God knew - and in fact had ordained - that Jesus, the Son of God, the Second Person of the eternal Holy Trinity, the Lamb of God, would die for humanity, and that the Holy Spirit would come to bless us with the gift of faith and give us the new hearts Ezekiel 36:26 anticipated. God never expected dead, broken, sinful, twisted, perverse humanity (us) to earn His love, warrant His offering at the Cross, deserve His free gift of grace by faith, and certainly never intended for us to ascend -or even approach- God.

In Genesis 2 God told us that the consequence of independence, autonomy, rebellion, distrust, selfishness, abandonment, and indifference -all culminating in the eating of the forbidden fruit- would be literal death, i.e. separation from God. Dead people can’t save themselves. Dead people can’t rationalize their way back alive. Dead people can’t negotiate or do ANYTHING of any value or merit in the eyes of God. Dead people certainly cannot ascend to where God is.

As Isaiah 64:6 instructs us, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts amount to filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” We’re not talking about a paper towel with some grape jelly on it. The imagery here is the blood soaked rags from a woman’s “time of the month.” Offensive? Exactly. It’s an affront to the Sovereign Creator Holy God of the Universe to think that anything we say, think, or do amounts to anything more than filth apart from His gift of faith and the power of the Spirit of God working in and through us.

After Moses lead Israel out of their 400 years of oppressive bondage as abused and mistreated slaves… after Israel witnessed God send plague-after-plague… after revealing God’s love and protection for His people and the impotence of Egypt’s false gods… after peeling open the Red Sea and utterly destroying 100% of Pharaoh’s army… after guiding Israel, feeding them from heaven, transforming bitter waters into high quality H2O… after all that - God did not tell Israel to ascend Mt. Sinai. Instead we read that God told Moses, “Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it… warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the Lord and many of them perish. Even the priests, who approach the Lord, must consecrate themselves, or the Lord will break out against them.”

It wasn’t enough for God to condescend from heaven to Mt. Sinai. It wasn’t enough for God’s glory to enter the Most Holy Place and be the epicenter of this kingdom of priests and holy nation. It wasn’t enough for God’s presence to dwell in a fancy temple of gold and cedar. God always - even from before “the beginning” of Genesis 1:1 - planned and knew that His presence and glory would have to literally dwell (tabernacle) in the hearts of humanity. That’s what God meant when He said, “Let us make humanity in our image (community) according to our likeness (selfless altruism).” Our minds and bodies were merely incomplete vessels designed to receive and showcase the glorious presence of YAHWEH Elohim - The LORD God Almighty.

Toward the end of Exodus we read that God’s presence/glory condescended from Sinai and “tabernacled” in the midst of the community. Centuries later, in the book of Ezekiel, we read “the glory of the Lord departed from over the threshold of the temple…”

Moses wasn’t capable or qualified to atone for Israel’s sin. In fact, Moses was disqualified from entering into God’s presence in the tabernacle, and was eventually disqualified from entering into the Promised Land, because of his predisposition toward frustration and anger. Israel failed as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation because of their perpetual idolatry. The priesthood failed. The kingship failed. The prophets failed. The law failed. But what they all did perfectly was to reveal humanity’s depravity -and- anticipate something greater - in fact someone greater. The Serpent Crusher, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the cosmos, i.e. Jesus Christ.

In the first chapter of John’s gospel we read “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” Jesus, the eternal Word (logos), stepped down from heaven “and pitched His tent with us (i.e. tabernacled), and we beheld His glory as the only Begotten One, intimately united with the Father.” Jesus came to dwell, tabernacle, and identify with humanity perfectly and permanently.

God never expected, nor does He now expect, for us to ascend -or even approach- Him. The story of the Exodus and Israel at the foot of Sinai in Exodus 19 depicts, in vivid fashion, that when we are liberated by God’s grace from our bondage to sin - it is NOT God’s intent or desire for us to ascend to glory. Contrastingly, God’s plan and desire is to tabernacle with us permanently, and to give us new hearts transformed by grace through faith in Christ so that our new, transformed, and selfless lives become the literal manifestation of God’s presence and glory in the world.

This fundamental paradigm shift of perspective allows us to celebrate relationship with God in Christ rather than merely participating in a formalized, ritualistic, checklist oriented, religious system. It changes that perspective from “going to church” to actually “being the church.” It realigns our old stone hearts from merely being recipients of God’s grace to the new living hearts of active participants in God’s mission - and vessels of God’s eternal grace.

So what about you? Are you still trying to approach, ascend, and achieve the grace, love, and blessings of God through a life of morality or religion? Or have you realized the truth of Scripture: “in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness…”

In Christ we have been brought to fullness. Thank you Jesus!

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com

PS Thanks for liking, sharing, reposting, retweeting, quoting, and all that other social media stuff!

DIVINE SUPERLATIVE

DIVINE SUPERLATIVE:

Test me, LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind. -Psalm 26:2

God redeemed the nation of Israel out of Egypt so they could serve Him as “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). As a kingdom of priests (mediators) they were to live such holy (meaning separate & distinct as God’s ambassadors) lives that it would serve to draw the peoples/nations of the world to God.

Israel’s perpetual failure was idolatry – the lifting up of anything to the place where God Almighty is to rule exclusively as Sovereign. God gave Israel a system of living (Exodus 20-32, Leviticus, et al.), which would distinguish them externally from all the other people/nations of the world. But MOST importantly God gave them Himself in the form of His literal and tangible Presence, which not only led them as a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night, but Who dwelt in their midst, i.e. “tabernacling” with them at the very center and heart of their community.

After witnessing God carve out the Ten Commandments with His own finer, and receiving all the externals (priesthood, rituals, etc.), Moses clearly understood it was the Presence of God ALONE that ultimately mattered – not the rituals, not the tabernacle or future temple, not the land, but God’s Presence.

Even after God told Moses that he need not be concerned - Moses abhorred the thought of taking a literal single step in any direction without God’s manifest Presence leading, directing, guiding, protecting, defending, and tabernacling (dwelling in community). Even after God said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest,” Moses besieged God, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? There is nothing else to distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

In my post a couple days ago, “PRIVILEGE DEFERRED,” I commented on pastor David Tripp’s assessment of our pastoral culture, i.e. there’s a serious inherent and systemic problem. Pastor Larry Osborne begins to address the problem in his book, Mission Creep, where in talking about the moral failures in three of his six mentors in ministry he notes, “...it’s obedience (orthopraxy) that produces proper doctrine (orthodoxy), not the other way around.”

In Oswald Chamber’s devotional for July 24 he states, “The only thing that exceeds right-doing (orthopraxy) is right-being.” Mr. Chamber’s is absolutely right, but we would be tragically remiss, misguided, and wrong to understand this as a graduated scale of correctness - as if to say, “Right-thinking is good. Right-doing is better. Right-being is best.” As Tripp, Osborne, and Chambers all address - this erroneous way of thinking is the epic fail of our Christian communities.

Jesus told Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again from above he cannot see the kingdom of God.” As odd as it may sound, there are atheist Bible scholars who are far more intelligent, far more prolific and successful writers, with immensely greater notoriety and wealth than myself. Bart Ehrman, author of Jesus Interrupted, is a prime example. Ehrman’s skill with biblical Greek puts me to shame. I can’t even recite the Greek alphabet.

Yet Ehrman put all his stock in his own knowledge and skill - not in Christ. It has been said that while Ehrman was working as a professor of biblical Greek at a prominent seminary - the “inherent inconsistencies” (paraphrase) within the Bible led him to reject the Christian faith. What actually happened was that Ehrman’s “faith,” like countless other gifted and talented brainiacs, was born - NOT FROM ABOVE - but from within. Ehrman’s wrong-being eventually undermined his right-thinking and eventually his right-doing.

Just like the Pharisees, scribes, and teachers of the Law, whom Jesus rebuked and corrected - Ehrman (and countless other brilliant, charismatic, dynamic, and influential “leaders” of our Christian communities) relied -not- upon the external, transcendent, divine gift of faith “from above,” but rather upon himself.

As Romans 14:23 reveals, “...and anything that does not come from faith is sin.”

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That’s the real beauty of the Incarnation of Christ; the Presence of God not merely dwelling among us, but literally IN us!  In John’s gospel we read “The Word became flesh and He pitched His tent among us. And we beheld His glory as the only Begotten, full of grace and truth, intimately united with the Father.”  Jesus didn’t simply “dwell among us” as most translations read.  That word (skay-na-oh) means to pitch one’s tent, to dwell as a member of intimate community.

Jesus, the Son of God, Immanuel (God with us), came in the flesh, and pitched His tent with humanity, with us, the rebellious, broken, nasty, slimy, fallen sinners who have repeatedly and perpetually despised and rejected our Creator since Eden’s garden. Then just before the Cross He said “I am going there (His Father’s house) to prepare a place for you.” Jesus ascended, then at Pentecost the Presence of God, in the form of the Holy Spirit, came to forever dwell – IN – those who receive Him to become Children of God!

Jesus told us “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus was NOT talking comparatively.  He was not saying that we should merely have greater biblical knowledge, more passages memorized, more seminary classes, bigger, badder, and fancier degrees (orthodoxy); or that we should merely do better things (orthopraxy): e.g. refrain from dancing, abstain from alcohol, tobacco, and alcohol, to go on mission trips, tithe 10% of your income, or go to church on Sunday.

Jesus was saying that unless His Presence (the absolute superlative) dwells within – then you are unfit to enter the kingdom of heaven (i.e. His Presence). Did you catch that? Unless you have the Presence of God within - you are unfit to enter the Presence of God. No matter what “good deeds” you’ve accomplished in life they all amount to filthy rags. The prophet Isaiah said it like this, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sin sweep us away” (Isa 64:6).

One of the most powerful and transformative prayers we can pray is “Examine me O Lord.” (Psalm 139:23; 17:3; 26:2) and ask God to reveal how He sees you.  If we merely examine ourselves through our own filters, or the comparative standards of the world, then we’ll end up feeling pretty good about ourselves. But Jesus said, “unless your righteousness EXCEEDS…” i.e. unless we have the righteousness of Christ, the Sovereign Superlative, His Holy Presence, the very Spirit of God dwelling in you… then Jesus says that we are unfit for the kingdom.

When Paul wrote, “Examine yourselves,” in 2 Corinthians 13:5, he wasn’t talking comparatively.  Paul wasn’t telling us to be Jerry Springer Christians who feel good about ourselves because “compared to ‘those people’ (gays, Muslims, smokers, addicts, prostitutes, etc.) I’m doing GREAT!”  Paul wasn’t shooting for political correctness or sensitivity training.  Instead, Paul issues a raw, bare-knuckled, unashamed fish-slap to the face wake-up call: “EXAMINE YOURSELVES! See whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?”

The test isn’t any list of things you’ve done or accomplished; it’s not about what trials you’ve gone through or what you’ve sacrificed or lost. It’s not about your mental prowess or personal piety. It’s about the Divine Superlative – the Presence of God, the Holy Spirit - dwelling in your heat and reigning in your life so that in you and through you Christ is manifest, intimate Christian community is experienced, salt is poured out, light shines in the darkest places, sinners are saved, the Lost redeemed, and God’s mission (“through you all the families, tribes, clans of the earth are blessed”) is joyfully accomplished.

Therefore, let us not only examine ourselves for the presence and good fruit of the Divine Superlative, but let us beseech God Almighty to do so.

Test me, LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind. -Psalm 26:2

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com

PS I really appreciate your liking, sharing, and reposting to social media! Today is pretty awesome milestone of 10,000 pageviews all-time because of readers like YOU! So thank you again for stopping by.

Leadership Morality & Slaves:

Leadership Morality & Slaves:

There was a popular post floating around Facebook for a while. It read something like, "If your holy book tells you how to treat your slaves, your holy book is disqualified as a source for a moral code."

I would agree. The Bible is neither "a source for moral code," nor does it tell us how to treat slaves. Instead it tells us we are slaves. We can either choose to be slaves to sin or slaves to the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. There is not a third option.

The book of Nehemiah was originally a single unified book along with Ezra. The setting of the book is approximately 50 years post-Babylonian exile (c.538 BC). As Ezra opens, King Cyrus of Persia is compelled by God (Ez 1:1-2) to rebuild Jerusalem’s temple and invite Jews to return under Zerubbabel. Ezra 7-10 details a second group of Jews returning to Jerusalem (c.458 BC) to rebuild God’s community under Ezra’s leadership. Lastly, in Nehemiah we read of a third group returning to Jerusalem (c.445 BC) under Nehemiah’s leadership to rebuild its walls.

In Ezra-Nehemiah you’ll find a common theme throughout: 1) A foreign king (Cyrus, Darius, Artaxerxes,) 2) issuing a decree/order to assist in the rebuilding of Jerusalem (temple, community, and walls), 3) a Jewish leader stepping up (Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah), 4) some form of opposition (disunity, blended marriages, foreigners) resulting from 5) misguided leadership repeatedly excluding people from participation (non-exiles, blended marriages, and non-Jews) in God’s community (all of humanity), and finally 6) an anti-climax (lame temple, broken community, and legalism) centered around a ranting leader who has come unglued and unhinged.

The book of Nehemiah opens with a group of men returning from Jerusalem with a dismal report: “The remnant that returned from captivity is there in the province enduring great affliction and reproach. Also, the wall of Jerusalem remains broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”

Nehemiah was literally devastated. Scripture tells us that it caused him to sit and weep for days. During that time Nehemiah rightly recalled God’s blessing and curses from the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy:

I will turn your cities into ruins and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will take no delight in the pleasing aroma of your offerings. I myself will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled. I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins. -Leviticus 26:31-33

Then we read that Nehemiah fasted and prayed a selfless prayer (1:1-11) to the “God of heaven;” a prayer that seems perfectly aligned with God’s heart, character, promises, and plan for the restoration, reconciliation, and redemption of both humanity and the nation of Israel. But in reality Nehemiah’s understanding, prayer, and leadership ultimately falls short.

The point is that a partial understanding (which is really a misunderstanding) of God’s promise, plan, and mission is not constructive, but rather destructive. Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah all failed as leaders because of an incomplete understanding of God’s promise, plan, and mission. There is a profound difference between a leader and a servant.

In Mark 10:45 Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." We don’t serve and give our lives as a ransom - Jesus already did that perfectly. We serve, give, and lay down our lives for God and neighbor because that’s the epitome of faith in Christ. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.”

If you’ll recall, Moses was denied access into the Promised Land (Canaan) because of his fit of rage (Num 20:10-11) directed toward the Israelites: “‘Listen, you rebels, must we (Moses and Aaron) bring you water out of this rock?’ Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff.” Moses fell into the dead end trap of leadership. Leadership leads to forgetfulness (or our origins as depraved sinners redeemed exclusively by God’s grace) and misguided frustration (“Why don’t these rebellious idiots act more like me!”).

At the close of Nehemiah, Nehemiah reveals his misguided approach as a leader (rather than a humble servant) and his misunderstanding of God’s heart when he physically and verbally abuses the Jews for working on the sabbath, setting up shops, and for intermarrying with foreigners. In 13:25 we read, “So I (Nehemiah) confronted them and cursed them. Some of the men I beat. Others, I ripped out their hair.” Then Nehemiah speaks of King Solomon to God in saying, “Nevertheless, foreign women caused even him to sin.”

The “problem” was never foreigners. The problem was, and continues to be, the hardened hearts and stiff necks of humanity - born into sin, separated from God by rebellion, and hopelessly lost without Him.

God’s command not to intermarry with foreigners was not a permanent command. The book of Ruth confirms it. It was issued to the Israelites during a specific time (their conquest of Canaan) in order to reveal a specific problem (the infiltration, assimilation, and perversion of worship to the one true God - Yahweh Elohim) because of Israel’s immaturity and proclivity for idolatry (remember the Golden Calf in Exodus 32?).

It was intended to reveal Israel’s role as a kingdom of ambassadors of God and His grace. It was to reveal their uniqueness, distinction, separateness, i.e. “holiness,” as a beacon of life and redemption in an utterly depraved world of oppression and hopelessness. It was never intended to prevent or EXCLUDE foreigners from reconciliation with God.

Today we see misguided church leaders across the globe. Some are blatant thieves raping the lost and broken-hearted - luring them into financial “indulgences,” lining their pockets in exchange for lies. Others are bitter and angry legalists causing divisions and splits in their churches over trivial things (music style, the great “grape juice controversy,” etc.) compared to the grand scheme of God’s plan, providence, and mission - “through you all the families, tribes, clans of the world will be blessed” (Gen 12:3). Heresy and division always stem from majoring on the minors and minoring on the majors.

Leaders are readily led astray by their own plans, visions, and philosophies. Contrastingly, servants of the gospel of Jesus Christ are unwavering and steadfast.

In the book of Romans the apostle Paul uses the word δούλους (slave) about ten times. Nearly all of those occur in chapter 6, where Paul reveals that, in Christ, we are no longer slaves to sin, but are now slaves (δούλους) to God, and His righteousness.

Paul wrote about this in a letter to his friend Titus In Titus chapter 2 we read, “You (Titus), however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine… Teach slaves (δούλους) to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not pilfering, but with all fidelity, adorn the teaching of God our Savior in all things.”

As slaves (δούλους) to Christ, the only leader you should be following is Christ. He is our Anchor and Great High Priest (Hebrews). The ultimate authority you should submit to is the authority of God as revealed in and throughout Scripture - not the “cut and paste” theology of human leaders, which serves human agendas.

Undoubtedly “Christ Himself gave us apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors-teachers” (Eph 4:11), but these, like Christ, are given as slaves/servants (δούλους) “to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (Eph 4:12).

The chief servants of the church are not leaders - they are akin to spigots through which Christ's life-giving water flows; or skylights through which the love and grace of Christ shine through.

Where Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah failed is where many church leaders fail today. Church leaders operate with a hybridized, syncretic, intermingled blend of personal goals and biblical principles. This ultimately reveals, like Nehemiah, a greater desire for personal recognition for the things we’ve accomplished (see Neh 13:31) rather than submission and obedience to - and thankfulness for - our unmerited invitation and privileged participation ushering in Christ’s Kingdom.

Here is Jesus’ barometer for church leadership: “Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant (διάκονος), and whoever wants to be first must be your slave (δούλους)--”

Is that what your church looks like? Or does it look more like a the pristine, disconnected, elitist structure of a Fortune 500 company? Executive restrooms, reserved parking spaces, personal body guards...

God’s plan has been the same from before Genesis, i.e. “The Beginning.” Revelation 13:8 tells us the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the cosmos. The promise in Eden has been fulfilled in Christ. His invitation to participate in His blessing to all the families, clans, and tribes to the ends of the earth comes through regular folks, like you and me, graciously blessed with the gift of faith and subsequently serving as slaves (δούλους) to Christ’s gospel.

Leader or Servant? One always leads to a tragic anti-climax of disappointment and failure, the other always serves to reveal God’s glory.

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisicple.com

PS Thank you for liking, sharing, and reposting! :)

PRIVILEGE DEFERRED:

PRIVILEGE DEFERRED:

Yahweh, the LORD God, said to Abram “Go…” and Abram went.

Near the terminus of His physical presence on earth Jesus said to those disciples who had been with Him - those whom He called, who had walked with Him, who had seen and heard His authority and love, who had rejected Him in Eden, abandoned Him in Gethsemane, witnessed His crucifixion, seen the stone to the tomb cast off, and witnessed Him resurrected - He said to these in Matthew 28:19:

“Therefore, having been brought through, disciple all the ἔθνη..."

That Greek word ἔθνη (eth-nay) means families, clans, tribes. What Jesus was saying to His followers was something akin to (paraphrase): “Considering what I’ve done for you, now allow yourselves to be poured out as servants of My love and grace for everyone to the ends of the earth.”

When we look back to God’s unilateral covenant blessing to Abram in Genesis 12:3, “...and all the מִשְׁפְּחֹ֥ת (mis-pa-hot, i.e. families, clans, tribes) on earth will be blessed through you,” we see how Jesus’ “Great Commission” in Matthew 28:18-20 becomes the fulfillment and “Manifest Destiny” for true followers of Christ.

There was nothing inherently, genetically, or morally awesome about Abram before or after God blessed Him with the gift of faith. Just a few verses after God issued this incredible covenant promise and blessing (12:3) we read in 12:11-13:

When he was getting near to Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know you are a beautiful woman. Therefore, when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ They will then kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister so that I may be treated well for your sake. Then my life will be spared because of you.” Abraham repeats this pattern of anxiety, insecurity, and deception at the opening of Genesis chapter 20.

God’s transcendent gift of faith, and Abraham’s fleeting moments of willful, obedient participation (e.g. Gen 12:3; 13:8-9; 22:5) became the literal manifestation of God’s providential blessing for all the families, clans, tribes on earth.

The very same was true for Jesus’ disciples. Those men lied, denied, fled, doubted, and waivered in their faith before AND AFTER witnessing Jesus’ resurrection and ascension (e.g. see Gal 2:11-21). But just like with Abraham, there were fleeting moments of willful, obedient participation in God’s providential blessing for all the families, clans, tribes on earth.

------Now stay with me because I’m going somewhere with this apparent rabbit trail here.-----

Because of Israel’s perpetual rejection of God throughout their history, God brought divine judgment upon them through the nations of Assyria (722 BC) and Babylon (586 BC). Following the Babylonian conquest of the Southern Kingdom of Judah in 586 BC the lingering remnant had lost everything near-and-dear to them: the kingship, the temple, and their land. All of these “externals,” which were intended by God to blessings to ALL the families, clans, tribes, instead became twisted into idols and symbols of national supremacy and prideful exclusivity.

God’s justice and punishment upon Israel was intended to be a divine wake-up call, but instead only solidified Israel’s hardness of heart. In the midst of exile Israel repeated their historic pattern of idolatry and adopted the gods of Greek culture - rhetoric, philosophy, religion, art, and intellect. Rather than softening their hearts and turning their “stiff necks,” Israel chose to replace the temple (worship) with the synagogue (academics), divine appointment and calling with intellectual accolades and distinction (academy), the kingship (anticipatory office of stewardship) with political/religious office of autonomy (Sanhedrin), and divine prophetic revelation with synthetic writings (Apocrypha).

Now fast-forward to today: As Pastor David Tripp notes in a short video (LINK HERE), the problem is one of culture and it is systemic. “We’ve constructed a pastoral culture that can’t work… Perhaps it begins in seminary where we’ve academized the faith… We call people into ministry we don’t know and we’re not interested in. We’re hiring knowledge, and experience, and skill… then we allow the pastor to live outside or above the Body of Christ…”

Consider how much what Pastor Tripp has to say about our modern churchy-culture echoes the woeful idolatry Israel adopted during exile - the worship of rhetoric, philosophy, religion, art, and intellect. Consider how our church communities are one’s bereft of pastoral care BECAUSE, as Tripp noted, WE construct and WE call. That’s exactly what Israel did in creating their synthetic culture of religion and academy. That’s exactly what Jesus rebuked the religious leaders/academy for in Matthew 23:13-39:

V.13 You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

V.15 You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

V.23 ...you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness.

V.37 ...how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.

In OUR construction of Christian religion and culture we ignore divine appointment and the gospel of our LORD Jesus Christ. We approach salvation as a personal decision rather than a transcendent gift. We call pastors, preachers, and ministers to entertain our kids, and us, with skits, music, and sermons rather than affirming those divinely called as ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Have a look at websites like churchstaffing.com and read the job postings there. We hire - NOT based on divine calling or a desire for authentic gospel community, but rather based on academic resumes of knowledge, experience, and skill: “Masters or Ph.D. preferred,” “minimum of 10 years in full-time ministry,” “send 3-5 preaching videos with your application,” and “compensation commensurate with experience.” Now read Romans 12:2...

As Pastor Tripp noted, “Every pastor is a sinner in the middle of his own sanctification… Thousands of pastors are living with a huge disconnect between their public ministry personas and the details of their private lives.” That’s reality, but we don’t want reality. We want sterling, peerless, anonymous messianic figures to lead our churches. Then when they fall short we cast them out with all our transferred and projected sin and guilt - just as Israel did with the scapegoat (Lev 16:10).

We’ve created a Christian culture of decaying synthetic religion - not one of surrender to, and worship of, our LORD Jesus Christ. Paul addressed this very notion 2,000 years ago when he wrote, “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”

We’ve shifted the responsibility of living as authentic gospel communities. We’ve transferred all the responsibilities of cultivating, nurturing, and watching over to “professional clergy” whom we judge for their humanity from the safety of our armchairs. We’ve constructed synthetic cultures of religion with figureheads we control with salaries, bonuses, and the authority to hire and fire when we’re not satisfied, impressed, or sufficiently entertained.

As David Tripp stated in the video reference above, “We’ve constructed a pastoral culture (in fact a Christian culture!) that can’t work. It drives pastors (i.e. those truly called by God) into hiding.”

For this exact behavior Jesus said, “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth…”

God didn’t call Noah, Abram, David, Peter, Paul, me, or you because of our personal piety or righteousness, but simply because of the inherent value we have in being made in the image and likeness of Elohim - our God of Holy Trinity, and the subsequent gift of faith.

Rather than affirming synthetically constructed communities of “professional clergy” hired to do the work of ministry while we go about the “pressing matters of daily life;” rather than participating in the existing culture of “calling” pastors based on knowledge, experience, and skill; and rather than transferring, shifting, reassigning, and deferring our privilege and blessing from God - “through you all the families, tribes, clans of the world will be blessed,” let’s take gift seriously. Let’s take it seriously in the way we live, relate, speak, laugh, disciple, worship, and actively participate in the mission of God from our backyard to the ends of the earth.

Pastor Tripp noted, “The cure is right before us in the gospel of the LORD Jesus Christ.”

Are you living out the gospel - Jesus’ “Great Commission,” in a way that is impacting your community, your nation, and in fact the world? Or are you content with critiquing and criticizing those who are - and hoarding God’s blessings for yourself?

Are you living out Christ’s grace in leading others from death to life, or is that a privilege deferred?

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com

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