SHIPWRECKED

Now get to your feet! For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my under-rower and witness. You are to tell the world what you have seen and what I will show you in the future.

-Acts 26:16

In America, we often read the Bible during quiet times. Images often depict those as dreamy moments under trees, in the golden sun of window nooks, or peaceful mornings with open Bible and an aromatic cup of coffee.

In those quiet times, we tend to pan for bits of personal theological gold or extract gems of encouragement to boost our mood, lift our spirits, and energize our souls.

Rarely do we stop to determine, or even consider, the historical, cultural, and political context of our private excavation projects. Accordingly, the resulting treasures are typically miscarriages of divine truth and instruction.

Gaius Julius Caesar was instrumental in the demise of the Roman Republic and its transformation into the Roman Empire. In March of 44 BC, Gaius was attacked and assassinated by a group of Roman Senators, including his friend and protege’ Marcus Brutus. Gaius supposedly uttered the famous last words, “Et tu Brute?”

Three of Caesar’s generals (his grandnephew, Octavian, along with Mark Antony, and Marcus Lepidus) formed a Triumvirate and quelled the senatorial rebellion. As human history commonly attests - victory rarely leads to harmony. In his song, If I Ever Lose My Faith in You, Sting sings, “I never saw no military solution that didn’t always end up as something worse.”

The demise of countless empires and nations throughout ancient and modern history can be distilled to one salient point: the transition of power.

Octavian (aka Augustus), the heir-apparent, clashed with the combined forces of Marc Antony and Egypt’s Cleopatra. The pivotal moment was a battle of the naval variety - the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. Antony and Cleopatra’s forces were defeated. They subsequently fled to Egypt where both committed suicide.

Caesar Augustus’ reign ushered in a relatively peaceful era, known as the Pax Romana, or Roman Peace, (27 BC to 180 AD); the backdrop upon which Jesus’ advent, life, ministry, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension all took place.

The book of Acts was written around 63 AD at the height of this Roman Peace. The peace Roman citizens enjoyed was a universal aspect of cultural awareness and literacy. The Battle of Actium would have been akin to something like the Alamo for Texans, 9/11 for Americans, or the Singing Revolution for the people of Estonia.

Therefore, when Luke, the author of Acts, wrote in Acts 26:16, “Now get to your feet! For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my ὑπηρέτην and μάρτυρα. You are to tell the world what you have seen and what I will show you in the future,” God was NOT simply saying “...as my servant and witness” as most English translations render it.

The first Greek word above from Acts 26:16, ὑπηρέτην, literally means under-rower. Roman warships were designed with both an upper deck (for soldiers and the captain), and a lower deck (where the invisible men worked in instantaneous and harmonious unison responding to their captain’s every command).

The Apostle Paul likely understood he was near the end of his life when he appeared before King Agrippa in Acts 26. At the time of Paul/Saul's conversion, Jesus had previously told Ananias, “I will show him (Paul) how much he must suffer for my name.”  In preparing to recount his gloriously divine encounter with the risen Christ to King Agrippa - the color, depth, and detail of Paul's account flooded back in. The level of detail in Acts 26 eclipses that of chapter 9, which merely recalls Jesus saying to Saul, “But get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

Is this an inconsistency or textual error? Certainly not. The Bible is literature and must be read accordingly. If one’s desire is to uncover the Bible’s apparent discrepancies (rather than encounter its Author), it will certainly allow you that freedom.

As Paul sat in his cell, awaiting a potentially fateful audience with King Agrippa, he likely replayed the Damascus Road Encounter on an endless loop. Like cognitive interviews conducted by the FBI’s criminal profilers on the TV show Criminal Minds, Paul may have recalled previously obscure detail. In reading the additional detail of 26 we note clarity rather than inconsistency:

Now get to your feet! For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my under-rower and martyr. You are to tell the world what you have seen and what I will show you in the future.

As we reflect on what the risen LORD commanded Paul to do on the Damascus road, consider the context of Rome’s military history: the wars and battles, the violence, the struggles and suffering, and the harmonious obedience of under-rowers amid a civil war - a war that ultimately brought about an era of peace.

Consider the imagery: not of private quiet times under trees shedding fall leaves, not relaxing in the warm sunlight of a bay window, not blissfully mining Scripture for gems of individual felicity, not autonomously derived ministerial endeavours... but rather imagery of invisible, unheard, and unappreciated laborers - listening intently, responding immediately, and grinding obediently toward a common goal.

If our approach to Scripture is unwittingly rooted in gleaning bits of private treasure for personal consumption and bliss, then, tragically, we overlook depth, detail, and beauty in Christ’s revelation.

Now get to your feet! For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my under-rower and martyr. You are to tell the world what you have seen and what I will show you in the future.

That imperative command from Jesus is not exclusive to Paul. Jesus desires commands and desires the same for us. Maybe not preaching in synagogues and public squares. Not necessarily traveling extensively, enduring beatings, experiencing shipwrecks, cold, hunger, and prison. But as under-rowers, listening intently to the voice of our Captain, straining at the oars of blessing in collaborative grace communities, and thereby testifying to the world what Jesus has revealed thus far - and what we eagerly anticipate in the future!

Are you busy row, row, rowing your own boat on some private endeavor of personal bliss? Or are you an under-rower on His? Are you willing to be shipwrecked for Him?

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com

DEATH'S DECEPTION

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.

-Jeremiah 17:9a

We can convince ourselves of just about anything. Even the most incredible lies seem real after we've spun them long enough. The English writer and philosopher William Hazlitt 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 we 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 following 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. Jeremiah served as God’s ambassador and spokesman. He faithfully proclaimed, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure…” (17:9).

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

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

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 corrupted, hardened, and deceitful hearts beyond our ability to cure. Those hearts actually preserve our “habitual and uninterrupted” state of destruction and death. They solidify our 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 “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 irrupting into our lives.

We cast off revelation as corrupted, controversial, and contradictory myth. We relegate Jesus to the status of friend and good teacher, yet we deny His inherently 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.

Scripture tells us, “Where there is no revelation the people cast off restraint” (Pr 29:18). Look at the world today and consider the truth of that revelation.

The Law and the Prophets anticipated Christ's advent, life, death, ascension, and pending 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 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?

Apart from Christ, God is unimpressed by the words we say and sing, things we think and believe, and all our deeds, which amount to filthy rags (Isa 64:6). To the superficial sycophants casting out demons, performing miracles, and teaching in His name, Jesus says, “away from me you evildoers. I never knew you.” He taught us apart from the gift of faith - and subsequent obedience to it - we are unfit and disqualified. Those are not words of malice, but of life-giving and sobering love.

"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Romans 10:13

Our God, Creator, Savior, and King came not merely to interrupt habitual sin, but to forever shatter death's deception.

How will you respond?

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com

DISPOSABLE FAITH

But Saul was full of menace and the fury of murder against the disciples of Our Lord... And immediately, things like scales fell from his eyes and his eyes were opened. He arose and was baptized.

-Acts 9:9;18

There are multiple videos of people putting on special glasses, which enable color blind people to see in color. In one video, a 66-year-old man seems to be opening a present. He’s sitting in the yard with his family when he slips the glasses on. The glasses are only on for an instant when he removes them. Placing his face in his hands, the man begins to sob.

That’s a bit like an encounter with Jesus. When we encounter the risen LORD three things happen: 1) there is a radical transformation, 2) there is an immediate transformation, and 3) there is a permanent transformation and mobilization. Unlike the glasses described earlier, Jesus cannot be slipped on and off at our convenience. Our encounter with Him radically, immediately, and permanently changes us.

That’s exactly what happened when Saul encountered Jesus Christ. Saul, filled with menace and rage, was on his way to Damascus to persecute more Christians. Along the way, Saul encountered the risen Christ. Saul was radically transformed. He went from murdering and persecuting Christians to being a humble preacher, relentless missionary, obedient church planter, and prolific minister until he died.

In Acts 9:20, Scripture tells us, “...immediately he (Saul) began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is indeed the Son of God!’” That’s what an encounter with the risen Christ accomplishes.

When the scales fell, Saul began preaching immediately. Serving isn’t something that happens when we know enough, when we’ve studied enough, or when we’ve been mentored and discipled enough.

The ministry of loving and serving was always God’s plan for humanity. Ministry isn’t something reserved for professionals. In Philippians 2:3 the Apostle Paul wrote, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves.”

In Galatians 5:14 Paul stated it like this, “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’" There’s no certificate, badge, degree, diploma, pin, title or position required to love and serve the LORD. Every Christian is called to ministry. When we truly encounter Christ - it happens immediately.

Without Christ, there can be no radical, immediate, and permanent transformation or mobilization. Saul (later referred to as Paul) had an authentic experience with the risen LORD. The radical, immediate, and permanently transformative reality of that encounter with Christ drove Paul to endure ridiculous opposition in multiple forms.

His ministry looked nothing like the loathsome, disconnected, and polished TV preachers of today. In 2 Corinthians 11:23-27 Paul lists some of those challenges: ministry, prison, floggings, exposure to death, lashes, beaten with rods, pelted with stones, shipwrecked, lost at sea, constant persecution, bandits, the elements, false teachers, and the lack of food, clothing, and shelter.

Nothing, not even death, deterred Paul from the ministry of the Gospel of Christ. In Philippians 1:21 Paul wrote, “...living is for Christ, and dying is even better.” The permanence of resilient perseverance amid trials and opposition is the hallmark of authentic Christianity.

Like the man with the special glasses, the encounter with the risen Christ literally changes the way we see everything. Convenient religion and cultural Christianity (like removable glasses) don’t address or resolve the root issue - our separation from God.

We cannot cease to be sinners by simply putting on externals of polite religion and Christian culture. God Almighty cannot be put on and taken off at our discretion. When the scales of our false realities fall, no arguments follow. There is only radical, immediate, and permanent transformation in the light of God’s truth and grace.

So the question remains: Have you ever truly encountered the risen Christ? Have you been radically, immediately, and permanently transformed and mobilized by that encounter? Does the fruit of your ministry testify to that or are you happy with the conveniently disposable glasses of polite religion and Christian culture?

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com

EXAMINE ME!

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

In Exodus 33 Moses plead with 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 his book, Mission Creep, Larry Osborne notes,“...it’s obedience (orthopraxy) that produces proper doctrine (orthodoxy), not the other way around.”

I disagree. There are plenty of fallen people leading moral lives who will neither develop “proper doctrine” nor enter the Kingdom of heaven because of their “good behavior.” That’s not my opinion. That’s what Jesus had to say on the matter. Oswald Chambers nails it when he states elsewhere, “The only thing that exceeds right-doing is right-being.”

It would be a tragic heresy to understand this as a graduated scale or something we can engineer. The Bible does not teach us right-thinking is good, right-doing is better, and right-being is best. They are intimately connected and interwoven in the life of Christ’s followers. They only begin through our being born again in Christ.

In John 3:3 Jesus told Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again from above he cannot see the kingdom of God.” There are brilliant Bible scholars who are atheists. Many are far more intelligent and far more prolific writers with superior notoriety and material wealth than me. Bart Ehrman, author of Jesus Interrupted, is one example.

Ehrman has placed all his stock in his own deductive reasoning, intellect, knowledge, and skill rather than in Christ. While Ehrman was working as a professor of Biblical Greek at a prominent seminary he came to the conclusion that the Bible is ripe with “inherent inconsistencies” (paraphrase). These inconsistencies led Ehrman to reject the Christian faith. Ehrman’s faith was his own. It was never born from above.

Having never been born again means Ehrman was still fully corrupted by sin throughout his being - even as a seminary professor. Eventually, wrong-being always undermines our attempts at right-thinking. The failure of right-thinking always undermines right-doing.

...and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

-Romans 14:23b

Countless people today, like the Pharisees, Scribes, and Teachers of the Law whom Jesus rebuked, rely on subjective personal beliefs rather than His transcendent gift of grace through faith. When faith isn’t from above, eventually it will flounder and fail.

Immanuel came in the flesh and pitched His tent with us. Christ came to live with rebellious, broken, and putrid sinners. He came as the Light of the world. Jesus came for me. He came for you.

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.

God’s only standard is perfection. He was not saying we should have greater biblical knowledge, more passages memorized, more seminary classes, or fancier degrees. Jesus was not teaching us about improved morals and ethics: e.g. abstinence (sex, drugs, alcohol, dancing, etc.), mission trips, tithing, or church attendance.

The Bible teaches this: Unless His Presence dwells within – we are unfit to enter the Kingdom. 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 sweeps us away” (Isa 64:6).

If we merely examine ourselves through the lens of the world’s subjective and comparative standards we end up feeling pretty good. Remember, Jesus said “unless your righteousness EXCEEDS…” Therefore, unless we have the righteousness of Christ, His perfection, and His Holy Spirit dwelling within us, then Jesus says that we are surely unfit for His Kingdom.

The test isn’t any list of things we’ve done or accomplished. It’s not about the trials we’ve gone through, what we’ve sacrificed or lost, or how we’ve pulled ourselves up. It’s not about about church doctrine, mental resolve, or personal piety. It’s about Immanuel, God, dwelling within us.

There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.

-Proverbs 16:25

We invent creative ways of examining. We’re experts in fooling ourselves. We’ve perfected the art of death. That’s why it’s not enough to merely examine ourselves. Nor is it enough to get the opinion of others. Instead, we need to call out to God Almighty and ask Him to examine us. We need to pray as the Psalmist prayed:

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

The beauty of Scripture is that after God examines and reveals our unworthiness, Jesus responds in love. That’s why He came. No, we’re not worthy. Thankfully, He is. Graciously, He’s the Way.

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com