The Gospel

Literally Gospel means "good news", but within the context of Scripture, the depth of the good news is life changing. But what is it really? The technical definition is the message of God's redemption in Jesus Christ. In the New Testament it is, first, the proclamation by Jesus that the Kingdom of God (Heaven) has drawn near and, then, the proclamation by his disciples that in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection the Kingdom has been established and that salvation and forgiveness are offered to all who believe. Later it came to be used for those early Christian writings which tell the story of the unique manifestation of the "good news" in the person and work of Jesus Christ (i.e. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). Today, we Christians use the word as an ambiguous term to describe evangelism—"preaching the Gospel"-or as an experiential revelation of Jesus which leads to piety and devotion—"hearing the Gospel". And while these ideas are valid and give us deeper insight into what the Gospel is, for those of us amazed by its grace, we know that we are only holding onto a piece of the elephant (to borrow the atheist's metaphor). The whole elephant is still unexplored.

This doesn't mean that the Gospel isn't simple, just that it gets bigger and deeper everyday we are changed by its message of grace. If we were to stop and meditate upon the implications and consequences of the Gospel in history, in theology, in our very own personal lives, I think we would be awestruck by its impact on every aspect of creation. Simply the fact that the Gospel has been at the forefront of God's mind since before creation and has been woven into the threads of history and creation—even unto the end of this age when God will create a new heaven and a new earth. It is staggering, and yet, despite its philosophical and theological girth, it is presented to us as a free gift, given by a loving Father.

However, it is not a gift meant to keep for ourselves, nor is it a chunk of information we know in our minds. It is the life we live and the hope we share. It is praying for a stranger and being a good friend. It is caring for the fatherless and single mothers. It is living with the understanding that no person deserves the grace of God and then giving it indiscriminately and without consideration of personal cost. And most importantly it is living with the understanding that you don't deserve the grace of God, but receiving it with humility and faith in Jesus Christ. It is the life lived apart from Sunday mornings worship with all of its ritual and high-minded charades, where blood and tears are shed everyday because it is a real world bound by addiction and abuse, hate and fear, pain and suffering; where real people fail at life. The Gospel is that Eternal Life that we live out today in the midst of everything else because there is more than this. The good news is the hope greater than all of us and greater than our despair and struggles. That hope is simply Jesus and his Kingdom. The Gospel is the promise to us that we can live in spiritual abundance in a world of poverty.

Now What?

There is an interesting myth that has penetrated the worldview of Christians. This myth is like most lies in that it is a half truth. For some reason we have gotten it into our minds that salvation is defined by "a personal relationship with Jesus Christ". But this is only half of what it means to be a Christian. It is true that regeneration, or being "born again" as the Bible calls it, is a deeply personal and unique experience, and, as a result, intimacy with the Creator comes naturally. However, according to Scripture, this is not the goal.

Time and time again, the Bible reminds us that our belief in Jesus was not for our self-absorbed, naval gazing selves. There are two sides to this coin we call salvation. John teaches us this reality in a subtle way with the last chapter of the gospel he wrote. He ends the previous chapter by writing, "But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ...and that by believing you may have life in his name." But the story doesn't end there. The next chapter has a vivid and memorable discussion between Peter and Jesus.

The story is set up in this way: Peter, the leader among the disciples (and consequently the one who denied ever knowing Jesus when confronted by a little girl barely old enough to see the "High School Musical" trilogy) wanted to go fishing. He takes six of his buddies and fishes all night and catches nothing. That morning, Jesus appears to his disciples for a third time in John's gospel and makes them breakfast after he bails them out of a fishless fishing trip. He then turns to Peter and deals with him in front of everyone. Jesus asks him three times if he loves him. Each time Jesus does this, Peter tells him that he does, and Jesus tells him each time how to love him: "Feed my lambs", "Take care of my sheep", and "Feed my sheep".

On a side note, it is widely taught that Jesus uses a special word for "love", agape, and Peter uses a lesser synonym phileo. Then on the third time Jesus uses phileo, illustrating Peter's lack of commitment or faith. Among several problems I have with the exegetical steps taken to come to this interpretation (including a poor understanding of the Greek language, the disregard for John's writing style, and sloppy word studies done only using a concordance), does Jesus really seem like the kind of guy who lowers his standards to accommodate some body's lack of faith?

What if Jesus is making the point that if Peter loves him, he needs to do something about it. And that something is to think about and live for others. Jesus wants Peter to love him by serving the needs of others. John is showing us that our "personal relationship with Jesus" is actually inter-personal. If we think about it, the person in the Bible who had the deepest relationship with God was Jesus and he did nothing but serve and think of others. When we look at his life, we should feel ashamed about how we have misrepresented the nature of this sacred relationship. His life contradicts just about all of our popular beliefs. He was not healthy and wealthy, Jesus was hated and homeless. He didn't spend hours in the Christian book store trying to find that book that would help him overcome his "bitterness" or actualize his self-worth. He was betrayed by his friends and the Bible calls him a "man of sorrows". Furthermore, what he tells Peter next is that he too will be murdered by crucifixion. This is not the self-affirming, hugabbly soft life Peter was hoping for. This is not the "victorious Christian living" we've read so much about. Instead, this is hard and selfless. It is putting God and others above your own well being.

This notion is entirely antithetical to everything we would expect out of salvation. But it does answer the question of "Now what?" It's that question you confront yourself with sobering realization and say, "My Christianity is all about myself." Do you love him? Then do something about it! And if you don't know where to begin or what to do, start where Jesus left off, breakfast. Invite someone over and be hospitable. Give someone something you know they need. Think less about your budget or your schedule and do something for someone else. Start little and go big.

All That Remains

In chapters 13-16 of John's Gospel, Jesus, just hours before his betrayal and murder, turns to his disciples and breaks the horrible news that he will not be with them for much longer. It is a heartbreaking and confusing revelation for these eleven men who have spent the last three years of their lives under the impression that, with their teacher leading the way, they would turn their world upside down and inside out. We can imagine the confusion and even disappointment these men might feel at that very moment. But he does not leave them room for despair. In addition to this bombshell, Jesus gives his disciples a message and a mission of hope.

Drawing upon a metaphor that is well known to the Jewish people, he calls himself the "True Vine" and his Father "the Gardener" in chapter 15. It is a metaphor that has deep rooted significance to the Israelite identity. Isaiah calls the house of Israel the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts (5:7). Jeremiah teaches that God planted Israel as a "choice vine" (2:21). Similarly, Hosea titles Israel as a "luxuriant vine" (10:1). Over history, the vine became a symbol for the nation as a whole. It was the emblem on the coins of the Maccabees. One of the glories of the Temple was a great golden vine that decorated the entrance to the Holy Place. When the Temple was built by Herod the Great, people would line up for the honor of giving up their gold to be forged into this great national symbol. And with this sentimentality in mind, Jesus tells his disciples that it is he who is the "True Vine" and God the Father is the "Gardener". He then explains our role as the branches is to bear fruit, and if we do not, the Gardener will cut us off from the Vine (v. 2). And for those who do bear fruit, they will be pruned so that we can bear more fruit. But it is the first part that, upon first glance, causes me confusion.

It was just five chapters ago in John 10, that Jesus gives us that picture of us resting secure in the hand of God unable to be snatched away from his grasp. Is Jesus now contradicting himself? If so, then our understanding of this passage runs antithetical to Scripture as a whole. We learn in Romans 8 that nothing can separate us from the love of God. In Philippians 1 we are promised that God is faithful to complete the good work of salvation he began in us. It would seem that apart from our understanding of John 15, the Bible teaches that Jesus cannot and will not lose one of his Christians. But still we read this passage and interpret it in such a way that God has demanded some unknown quota of work from us and if we do not fulfill it, we are cut off from Jesus and burned as firewood in hell according to 15:6. With this mindset, it's easy to nurture our legalism and boast about our works. We teach new Christians that they must read their Bibles and pray so many hours during the day and that we can measure our fruitfulness by how many people we "lead to the Lord". We show our faithfulness by how many times we attend church during the week or how many ministries we serve in. We define our Christianity by how many hours we subject ourselves to horrible Christian pop music written by musicians that only produce three cord, happy-clappy songs that have poor theology and even worse sentimentalism.

So what do we say? Should we ignore this passage? Should we interpret it in such a way that promotes a Gospel of Works instead of the Gospel of grace taught by the rest of Scripture? Or could it be that it is actually saying something else? What happens if we read the rest of the passage? Well, Jesus teaches that we have already been pruned by Jesus' teaching and his word. And that if we remain in him we will bear "much fruit". He makes it clear that he is the one who gives us the ability to bear fruit and apart from him it is impossible to be fruitful. He also states that he has chosen us and appointed us to bear fruit that will last.

The raw truth of this passage is that Jesus is asking the impossible of us. We cannot bear good fruit. History teaches us that when faced with the choice between good and evil, we will always choose evil. We bear poor fruit, that is, unless we are empowered to do good by something outside of our own compulsions. That something is Jesus. With this in mind the passage falls in place with the entirety of Scripture. The fruit we are expected to bear is provided by the True Vine, who is Jesus. Now our ability and skill at being a Christian is inconsequential. This is not because we don't have to produce good fruit, but because the source of our good works (our desire to pray and read our Bibles, our love for one another and our neighbor) is Jesus. If it is not, then our work is pointless at best and selfish at worst. That is why Jesus stresses so adamantly that we must remain in him. Without him there is no grace to do the good works he has prepared for us to do. The fruit that we bear gives glory to him because he is the author and perfecter of our faith and our actions. When we remain in him and bear the fruit that he has empowered us to bear, then the glory of our actions belongs to him, not us. John the Baptist had an amazing goal in life: it wasn't to build the most successful ministry or have the most followers. It was not even to send out the most missionaries/church planters. His goal was to decrease so that Jesus would increase. That should be the goal of every Christian. For as we decrease and remain in Jesus, in the end, Jesus will be all that remains.

Earth Day: Our Call and Our Failure

Today (April, 22) is "Earth Day". It's a day that celebrates the idea of being environmentally conscious. Many people are made more aware of the impact they have on the world, its resources, and our ecosystem. The reality is humbling since it points out how we have (mis)treated the creation of God. In the book of Genesis, God gave us the responsibility to tend the Garden and keep it (2:15). In Psalm 8:6 we learn that we have been given dominion over the work of God's hands referring to all of creation. We are told that everything has been placed "under our feet" (v. 7) showing our responsibility and authority over the things God created. We have been given the task of caring for God's beautiful creation; God entrusted us with tending the Garden in which we live. But what have we done to deserve this task? And what have we done with our responsibility?

The sad reality is that we have shirked the sacred responsibility given to us. We have shown poor stewardship. But I would say that the heaviest weight of this failure falls on the shoulders of us Christians. We cannot place the blame on the evolutionists and the atheists. The truth is that they have done the most to stop the destruction of our planet. They are the ones hugging trees and signing petitions. What have we done? We call them "liberals" but I would call them people of "forgein lips". In Isaiah 28:11, the Israelites are warned about foreigners, who were not the people of God, that are used to speak and deliver judgment against the people of God. God has entrusted us with the protection and stewardship of this planet and we have abused our authority. Instead, the non-believer is used by God and steps up in our absence, in some cases at the cost of their own lives, to protect the environment and save endangered animals. The fact that they have picked up our slack ought to speak against our arrogance and proclaim judgment against our failure as God's people. To think that God has to use people who hate Him to protect the good creation he loves. What does that say about us? And yet we are unashamed. We speak against men like Al Gore who fund a movie that shows plainly the state we have left our world. We argue that the movie is over stating the statistics and is inaccurate. But what we ought to do is repent in humility over our lack of stewardship and rebellion against the command of God to care for his creation.

But what has brought us to this complacency? Typically, those who call themselves Christian tend to sit on the right side of the political debate because of certain social and economic values. While there is nothing wrong with being on one side or the other, there is a definite absence of environmental consciences for political conservatives. And the shame comes by the fact that we Christians have adopted this secular worldview rather than enforcing the worldview of Scripture which understands our role to be caretakers, not consumers. I have known many Christians to argue against environmentalism; who belittle the passion that drives some to care for their environment. A Biblical worldview would encourage and stand along side, supporting such drive and conviction. Proverbs 12:15 tells us, "The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice." I would suggest that we have played the fool long enough and it is now time for us to repent and listen.

Where do we start? How do we turn from our wicked ways and become the stewards we were created to be? Well, it ought to start at home. As in most things, the education system has picked up where we have failed and today teaches our children about being environmentally mindful. Tainted by a humanistic worldview, our children are taught how to care for God's creation without appreciation for God. We should be the ones teaching our children about the greatness of God's creation and why we are to care for it. Also, we ought to take steps to reduce, and reuse the things we use. We should also use less and waste less. For example, when we go to the grocery store we ought to bring our own reusable bag rather than paper or plastic. At work we should use less paper and reuse scratch paper that would normally be thrown away. At home take shorter showers or even substitute a morning shower with a bath before bed. Use and encourage the use of post consumer (recycled) materials like glass and paper. When you get your coffee in the morning, bring your own mug or thermos. Also, take the initiative to set up a recycling program at your work or school if there isn't one already (and if there is one use it!). And for those who can afford it, convert your truck or SUV to bio-diesel or get a Hybrid car that uses less oil and gas. And for those who can't, make sure you take care of your car and get regular emission tests. Or carpool to work and church (friends are free, gas is not).

These are just some simple ways to care for the our world, and if we commit to this conservational lifestyle, imagine the impact we would all have. Approximately 1/3 (close to 3 billion) of the world's population is Christian. Imagine the impact on our oceans, landfills, rainforest's, and city streets if we all were to fulfill our responsibility as the caretakers of God's creation. There is no question about it, we have abused our dominion over the creation God has entrusted to us. He has placed it under our feet and we have done nothing but walk all over it and destroy it for our own benefit and greed.

I do want to make something very clear, however. I am not advocating the point of view that we ought to surrender our position as God's highest creation, but rather I am enforcing our position as its caretaker. There are those who worship the earth as mother and abdicate their role as image bearers of God. We are not to worship the creation but rather the Creator. But still we appreciate his creation and care for it since it is a revelation of God and his greatness (Romans 1:20). This world is a reflection of God's taste and artistic talent. When he finished creating each thing in this world, God ended the day satisfied, calling his work "good". God has a vested interest in this world and everything in it. It is an integral part of our redemptive history. Romans 8:19-21 teaches creation is also waiting for Jesus to return. It too has been subjected to the frustrations of sin and its impact but in verse 21, we learn that when Jesus returns it too will be liberated from bondage and decay and be brought into glorious freedom with us, the children of God. Therefore, we can no longer ignore our responsibility. We should be at the forefront of the "Green" movement. Churches should be going green. Christians should be the ones annoying people outside of grocery stores asking them to sign petitions to save a whale or a spotted slug or chipmunk instead of bombing abortion clinics and picketing gay pride parades like the hypocrites we are, unrepentant of our own sins. So, now we make a choice: we can either be environmentally aware once a year, or we can obey God and fulfill our responsibility by caring everyday. Let's repent from our sin of omission and be the example to the non-believer by showing our love and respect for the work of God's hand.

Welcome to the Next

Hey everybody! These are indeed exciting times. We have launched our new website, performed the first (to my knowledge) live Bible Study web cast, created Mp3 downloads of those Bible Studies and now we have created this blog. Right now we are set up to potentially be the first virtual church in all of church history. KURIOS has ventured outside of the walls of a church building and at this point in our history we are more virtual than actual. However, this has not distracted from the vision God gave me of a traditional style church with four walls and a pulpit. It has, though, taken the technology and tools of our computer savvy culture to best reach as many people possible with the provocative message of Jesus Christ.

There is some criticism that we are like a body-builder on steroids: overly defined with a small package. But I see the steps we've taken as the skeleton of the body God has created KURIOS to be, not the end result. The vision I have for this church plant is much bigger than me. And so, by using the tools we have at hand, KURIOS is striving to create a new church culture using anything we can to teach sound doctrine and proclaim the life and message of Jesus. There are greater things at stake here than edgy graphics and new evangelism gimmicks: our goal is to see people impacted with the reality of Jesus Christ and be saved from sin and death. As the culture and technologies change we are committed to adapting to better communicate the Gospel. One day the internet will be as obsolete as cassette tapes, but the Gospel will still be relevant. So we will find new mediums to share its message with other people. We will follow Paul's example and become "all things to all men so that by all possible means (we) might save some." (1 Cor 9.22).

The protestant reformers had a saying, semper reformanda (always to be reformed), which articulated the pursuit of truth over tradition. The evangelical and fundamental traditions have ignored the heart behind this conviction, which was not to be corrupted by traditions and religion, but constantly pursue truth even at the expense of institution. Many have turned away from the culture that consumes the people they are hoping to reach with the Gospel, and, as a result, they have become culturally illiterate and irrelevant.

Today, the rebirth of reformation is demonstrated by such movements as the Emergent and Emerging churches. And although these schools of thought are as equally diverse as they are similar, they try to address the same philosophical, spiritual, and cultural issues faced by the church in a post-Christian society. And although KURIOS leans toward the Emerging (theologically conservative) church side of the debate, the reality is that it would be a mistake to swear loyalty to any definition or theologian or successful pastor, no matter how cool the website is. These things are unimportant and can distract from the calling Christians have been given which is to proclaim the Gospel and make disciples out of people who do not know Jesus. This is the big E on the eye chart that most of us have missed. And we are just now repenting and getting back to the basics (hopefully with a little style).