J. Thomas

John Wesley Sermons – Scriptural Christianity (Acts 4:31)

Preached by John Wesley at St. Mary’s, Oxford – August 24, 1744

Language updated and edited by J. Thomas Johnson – June 5, 2022

The original sermon can be found in The Works of John Wesley, Volume 5 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 1996), 37-52).

. . . .⁴someone who hears the sound of the horn but does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head.
Ezekiel 33:4, NASB

³¹And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.
Acts 4:31, NASB

“…And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…” The same expression occurs in the second chapter of Acts, where we read:

¹When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all [the Apostles, with the women, and the mother of Jesus, and his brothers,] together in one place. ²And suddenly a noise like a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³And tongues that looked like fire appeared to them, distributing themselves, and a tongue rested on each one of them. ⁴And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. [One immediate effect of this was that they] began to speak with different tongues, as the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak out, [insomuch, that both the Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and the other strangers who] came together were bewildered, because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language.
Acts 2:1-6, NASB

In Acts chapter four we read that when the Apostles and the others gathered with them had been praying and praising God, the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, there was no visible appearance at this time as there had been in the earlier instance, nor are we told that the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit were then given to all or any of them; such as the gifts of healing, of miracle-working, of prophecy, of the discerning of spirits, of speaking in diverse tongues, or the interpretation of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:9-10).

Whether these gifts of the Holy Spirit were designed to remain in the Church throughout all ages, and whether or not they will be restored at the nearer approach of the “restitution of all things,” are questions which we do not need to decide. But we should observe that, even in the infancy of the Church, God divided these gifts with a sparing hand. Were all even then Prophets? Were all workers of miracles? Did all have gifts of healing? Did all speak in tongues? No, perhaps not one in a thousand. Probably none but the Teachers in the Church, and only some of them (1 Corinthians 12:28-30). It was, therefore, for a more excellent purpose than this that “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.”

It was to give them (what no one can deny to be essential to all Christians in all ages) the mind which was in Christ—those holy fruits of the Spirit which whoever does not have them does not belong to Christ; to fill them with “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, and self-control;” (Galatians 5:22-23, NASB); to endow them with faith (perhaps a better word would be fidelity) with meekness and the moderation of their appetites; to enable them to crucify the flesh, with its affections and lusts, its passions and desires; and, as a result of that inward change, to fulfill all outward righteousness; to “walk as Christ also walked,” in the “work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope” (1 Thessalonians 1:3, NASB).

Without concerning ourselves, then, in idle curiosity about those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, let us take a closer look at the Spirit’s ordinary fruits, which we are assured will remain throughout all ages;—at that great work of God among the children of humanity, which we express with one word, Christianity; not as it applies to a set of opinions or a system of doctrines, but as it refers to human hearts and lives. It may be helpful to consider Christianity from three perspectives:

As beginning to exist in individuals.
As spreading from one person to another:
And as covering the earth.

Having discussed these, I intend to conclude with a plain, practical application.

First, let us consider Christianity in its rise, as beginning to exist in individuals.

Imagine, then, that one of those who heard the Apostle Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost in which he preached repentance and remission of sins was convicted in his heart, was convinced of his sin, repented, and then believed in Jesus. By this faith in the work of God which “is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1, NASB), he instantly received the Spirit of Adoption, by which he now cried “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15).

Now by the Holy Spirit, he could call Jesus Lord, the Spirit Himself bearing witness with his spirit that he was a child of God (Romans 8:16). Now he could truly say, “²⁰I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me (Galatians 2:20, NASB).

This, then, would have been the very essence of his faith, a divine evidence or conviction of the love of God the Father, through the Son of His love, to him, a sinner, now accepted in Jesus. And, “having been justified by faith, [he now would have] peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (Romans 5:1, NASB). Even more, “the peace of God would rule in his heart;” a peace, which, beyond all understanding, would keep his heart and mind from all doubt and fear, through the knowledge of the One in Whom he had then come to believe.

He could not, therefore, “be afraid of any evil news;” for his “heart would stand fast, believing in the Lord.” He would not fear what any other human could do to him, because he would know that the very hairs of his head were numbered. He would not fear the powers of darkness, whom God would be daily crushing under his feet. Even more, the fear of death would become the least of all of his fears. Instead, he would confess with the Apostle Paul that now he had “the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better;” (Philippians 1:23, NASB). For, “¹⁴… since the children share in flesh and blood, [Jesus] Himself likewise also partook of the same, so that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵and free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives” (Hebrews 2:14-15, NASB).

This one’s soul, therefore, would magnify the Lord, and his spirit would rejoice in God, his Savior. He would have rejoiced in Jesus with unspeakable joy, for Jesus had reconciled him to God and “⁷In [Jesus} [he would have] redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of [his] wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us” (Ephesians 1:7-8, NASB). He would have rejoiced in the witness of God’s Spirit with his spirit that he was a child of God; and more abundantly, “in hope of the glory of God:” in hope of the glorious image of God, and full renewal of his soul in righteousness and true holiness; and in hope of that crown of glory, that “inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away,…” (1 Peter 1:4, NASB).

“The love of God [would also have been] poured out within [his] heart through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5, NASB). “⁶Because [he was now a son], God would have sent the Spirit of His Son into [his] heart, crying out, “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6, NASB). And that parental love of God would have been continually increased by the witness that he had in himself of God’s pardoning love to him; by “¹[seeing] how great a love the Father has given [him], that [he] would be called [a child] of God;…” (1 John 3:1, NASB). God would have become the desire of his eyes and the joy of his heart; his inheritance both in time and in eternity.

And one that loved God in these ways could not help but love his brothers and sisters; and “…not love with word or with tongue [only], but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18, NASB). “If God so loved us,” he would have said, “we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11, NASB); yes, we must love every single person, for, “⁹The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 145:9, NASB).

In agreement with these things, this lover of God would have embraced all of humankind for God’s sake; not ignoring those he had never met personally, or those of whom he knew nothing more than that they were “the offspring of God,” for whom His Son had died; not ignoring the “evil” and the “ungrateful,” and not ignoring even his enemies—those who hated or persecuted or despitefully used him. All of these he would have embraced for his Master’s sake. Each of these would have had a special place, both in his heart and in his prayers. He would have loved them “even as Christ loved us.”

And “love does not brag, [and] it is not arrogant” (1 Corinthians 13:4, NASB). Love brings the knees of all those in whom it dwells into the dust. Similarly, this man would have been lowly of heart, little, mean, and vile in his own eyes. He would neither have sought nor received the praise of people, but only that which comes from God. He would have been meek and longsuffering, gentle to all, and easy to ask favors of.

Faithfulness and truth would never be far from him; these things would be “[bound] around [his] neck, and [written] on the tablet of [his] heart” (Proverbs 3:3, NASB). By the same Spirit he would be enabled to be temperate in all things, controlling himself as though he had been weaned from excess as a child is weaned from milk. He would have confessed with the Apostle Paul, “…the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14, NASB); now living beyond, “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life,…” (1 John 2:16, NASB). By the same almighty love he would have been saved both from passion and from pride; both from lust and from vanity; both from ambition and from covetousness; and from every state of heart and mind that was not in Christ Jesus.

Of course, a person who had this love in his heart would work no evil against his neighbor. It would have been impossible for him, purposefully and intentionally, to do harm to any person. He would have been at the greatest distance from cruelty and wrong, from any unjust or unkind action. With the same care he would have “³set a guard over [his] mouth; and kept watch over the door of [his] lips,” (Psalm 141:3, NASB) lest he should offend by his speech either against justice or against mercy or truth. He would have put away all lying, falsehood, and fraud; neither would deception be found in his mouth. He would have spoken evil of no person; nor would an unkind word ever have come out of his lips.

And as he would have been deeply aware of the truth of Jesus’ teaching, “…apart from Me you can do nothing,” (John 15:5, NASB) and, consequently, of his own need to be watered by God daily, so he would have continued daily in all the ordinances of God, which are the stated channels of God’s grace to humanity: Namely, “the Apostles’ teaching,” receiving eagerly that food of the soul; in “the breaking of bread,” which he would have found in the communion of the body of Christ; and “in the prayers” and praises offered up by the great congregation. And, in these ways, he would daily have “grown in grace,” increasing in strength, in the knowledge and love of God.

But it would not have satisfied him simply to abstain from doing evil. His soul would have been eager to do good. The language of his heart would have been continually, “ ‘My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working’ (John 5:17, NASB). My Lord went about doing good; and I will follow His example.”

As he had opportunity, therefore, if he could do no good of a higher kind, he would have fed the hungry, clothed the naked, helped the fatherless or stranger, visited and assisted them that were sick or in prison. He would have given all his goods to feed the poor. He would have rejoiced to work or to suffer for them; and in whatever way he might have benefited another person, in those cases especially he would have denied himself. He would have thought of nothing as too dear to part with for them. He would have remembered the word of his Lord, Who said, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did it for Me” (Matthew 25:40, NASB).

This was Christianity in the beginning. Such was a Christian in ancient days. Such was every one of those who, when they heard the threats of the Chief Priests and Elders, “…were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness. ³²And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul;…” (Acts 4:31-32, NASB).

In this way the love of Him in Whom they had believed constrained them to love one another! “And not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them” (Acts 4:32, NASB). So fully were they crucified to the world, and the world crucified to them! “³³And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. ³⁴For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales ³⁵and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each to the extent that any had need” (Acts 4:33-35, NASB).

Having considered Christianity in its rise, as beginning to exist in individuals, now, secondly, let us consider Christianity in its spread from person to person, and so gradually making its way into the world: For this was God’s will for it, Who did not “light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, [that it might give] light to all who are in the house” (Matthew 5:15, NASB). Jesus Himself had declared this to His first disciples by teaching, “¹³You are the salt of the earth,” and “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13a, 14a, NASB). And, at the same time He gave them the general command, “¹⁶Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16, NASB).

And, so, let’s suppose that a few of these people who were committed to loving humankind the way Jesus instructed them saw “that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19, NASB). Can we believe that they would be unconcerned at the misery of those for whom their Lord died? Wouldn’t their compassion and mercy overwhelm them? And even if Jesus gave them no command, could they really stand by idly? Instead, would they not work by all possible means to pluck some of these brands out of the burning? Of course, they would. They would endure whatever must be endured to bring back whoever they could of those poor “straying sheep to the Shepherd and Guardian of their souls” (1 Peter 2:25, NASB).

The Christians of old did just this. They worked, “as they had opportunity to do good to all people,” (Galatians 6:10, NASB) warning them to flee from the wrath to come; now, now to escape the damnation of final judgment. They declared, “³⁰So having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now proclaiming to humankind that all people everywhere are to repent” (Acts 17:30, NASB). They cried out, “Turn, turn from your evil ways; ‘so that wrongdoing does not become a stumbling block to you’ ” (Ezekiel 18:30, NASB). They “reasoned” with them of “righteousness,” or justice,—of the virtues opposed to their reigning sins; “of self-control, and the judgment to come,” (Acts 24:25, NASB)—of the wrath of God which will surely be executed on evil-doers on that day when He will judge the world.

In these ways they endeavored to speak to every person individually according to that person’s need. To the careless, to those who lay unconcerned in darkness and in the shadow of death, they thundered, “Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Ephesians 5:14, NASB).

To those who were already awakened from sleep and groaning under a sense of the wrath of God, their language was, “We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; ²and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:1b-2, NASB).

Meanwhile, they provoked those who had believed to love and to good works; to patient endurance in doing good; and to abound more and more in that “holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14, NASB).

And their labor in the Lord was not in vain. His word ran and was glorified. It grew mightily and prevailed. But so much more did offenses also prevail. The world in general was offended, “because [they] testified about it, that its deeds were evil” (John 7:7, NASB).

Pleasure-seeking people were offended, not only because these people were made, as it were, to reprimand their thoughts, but much more, because so many of their companions were taken away and would no longer “run with them in the same excesses of debauchery” (1 Peter 4:4, NASB).

People of high office and high esteem were offended, because, as the Gospel spread, they declined in the esteem of the people; and because many no longer dared to give them flattering titles or to give them the respect due only to God. Salespeople and retailers called one another together, and said, “Men, you know that our prosperity depends upon this business. ²⁶You see and hear that [these men have] persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people [so] that this trade of ours will fall into disrepute” (Acts 19:25-27, NASB).

Above all, religious people were offended, and ready at every minute to cry out, “Men of Israel, help!” (Acts 21:28, NASB) “⁵for we have found [these men] a public menace and ones who stir up dissensions throughout the world” (Acts 24:5, NASB). “[These are the men] who instruct everyone everywhere against our people, our religious beliefs, and our religious institutions” (Acts 21:28, NASB).

Thus it was that the heavens grew black with clouds, and the storm gathered in great haste. For, according to those who rejected Christianity, the more it spread, the more hurt was done. And the number of those who were more and more enraged at “these [people] who have upset the world” (Acts 17:6, NASB) increased, insomuch that more and more cried out, “Away with such [people] from the earth, for [they] should not be allowed to live!” (Acts 22:22, NASB). And, in so doing, many sincerely believed that they were “offering a service to God” (John 16:2, NASB).

Meanwhile these offended parties did not fail to “scorn [their] name as evil;” (Luke 6:22, NASB) so that “this sect was spoken against everywhere” (Acts 28:22, NASB). People spoke all kinds of evil against them, just as had been done to the Prophets who came before them (Matthew 5:12). And whatever any person would say about them, others would believe; so that offenses grew as numerous as the stars in the heavens.

And then came, at the time foreordained by the Father, all kinds of persecution. Some Christians suffered only shame and reproach for a season; others suffered “the seizure of [their] property;” (Hebrews 10:34, NASB) “³⁶others experienced mocking and flogging, and further, chains and imprisonment;” (Hebrews 11:36, NASB) and others “resisted to the point of shedding blood” (Hebrews 12:4, NASB).

Now it was that the pillars of hell were shaken, and the kingdom of God spread more and more. Sinners everywhere were turned “from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18, NASB). He gave His children such “eloquence and wisdom which none of [their] adversaries [were] able to oppose or refute;” (Luke 21:15, NASB) and their lives were of equal force with their words. But above all, their sufferings spoke to all the world.

They “⁴[commended themselves] as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in difficulties, ⁵in beatings, in imprisonments, in mob attacks, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger,” (2 Corinthians 6:4-5, NASB) “in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure” (2 Corinthians 11:27, NASB). And when, having fought the good fight, they were led as sheep to the slaughter and offered up as sacrifices in service of their faith, then the blood of each of them found a voice, and the Heathen said, “Though he is dead, he still speaks” (Hebrews 11:4, NASB).

In these ways, Christianity spread itself upon the earth. But how soon did the weeds appear with the wheat, and the mystery of iniquity work as well as the mystery of godliness! How soon did Satan find a seat, even in the temple of God, until “the woman fled into the wilderness,” (Revelation 12:6, NASB) and the faithful again “became few and lowly” (Psalm 107:39, NASB). Here again we walk a well-worn path: The ever-increasing corruptions of the succeeding generations have been largely described in seasons throughout history by those witnesses God raised up to remind us that He had “built His church upon a rock; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it” (Matthew 16:18, NASB).

But shall we not see greater things than these? Yes, greater than those things which have occurred since the beginning of the world. Can Satan cause the truth of God to fail or His promises to be of no effect? If not, the time will come when Christianity will prevail over all and cover the earth. Let us pause here for a moment and survey this strange vision: that of a Christian world. “¹⁰As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to us made careful searches and inquiries” (1 Peter 1:10, NASB), and the Spirit which was in them testified:

“²Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. . . . And they will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning knives. Nation will not lift up a sword against nation, and never again will they learn war” (Isaiah 2:2, 4, NASB).

“¹⁰Then on that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal flag for the peoples; and His resting place will be glorious. . . . ¹²And He will lift up a flag for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” (Isaiah 11:10, 12, NASB). “⁶And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fattened steer will be together; and a little boy will lead them. . . . ⁹They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:6, 9, NASB).

. . . .

Imagine now the fullness of time having arrived, and these prophecies having been fulfilled. What a prospect is this! All is peace, “quietness and confidence forever” (Isaiah 32:17, NASB). Here there is no sound of weaponry, no “roar of battle” and no “cloak rolled in blood” (Isaiah 9:5, NASB). “⁶The enemy has come to an end in everlasting ruins” (Psalm 9:6, NASB). War is gone from the earth, and there are no conflicts remaining—no person rising up against person, no country or city divided against itself, and destroying itself. Civil unrest is at an end forevermore, and no one is left who would destroy or hurt a neighbor.

There is no longer any “⁷ oppression” that would make “a wise person look foolish,” (Ecclesiastes 7:7, NASB) no extortion to grind “the face of the poor” (Isaiah 3:15, NASB), no robbery or wrongdoing, no violent seizure of another’s property or injustice of any kind, for all are “content with what [they] have” (Hebrews 13:5, NASB). In these ways, “righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Psalm 85:10, NASB), they have taken “deep root and filled the land” (Psalm 80:9, NASB), “¹¹truth sprouting from the earth, and righteousness looking down from heaven” (Psalm 85:11, NASB).

And along with righteousness (or justice) mercy is also found. The earth is no longer full of cruelty. The Lord has destroyed both the blood-thirsty and malicious and the envious and vengeful person. If anyone were to be provoked, there is no one who would return evil for evil (Romans 12:17). Even more, there is no one that does evil—no, not one—, for all are innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16).

But being filled “with all joy and peace in believing” (Romans 15:13, NASB), and “by one Spirit all baptized into one body” (1 Corinthians 12:13, NASB) they all love as brothers and sisters, and they are “of one heart and soul” (Acts 4:32, NASB). “And not one of them claims that anything belonging to him is his own,” (Acts 4:32, NASB). “There is not a needy person among them” (Acts 4:34, NASB) for every person “loves their neighbor as themselves” (Matthew 22:39, NASB). And all the people walk by one rule: “¹²In everything, treat people the same way you want them to treat you” (Matthew 7:12, NASB).

It follows, then, that no unkind word can ever be heard among them—no quarrels, no contention of any kind, no complaining or evil-speaking, but everyone “opens their mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on their tongue” (Proverbs 31:26, NASB). They are also incapable of fraud or deception. Their love is genuine and without pretense. Their words are always the honest expression of their thoughts, opening as a window into their hearts, that whoever desires may look into their inmost being and see that only love and God are there.

How can this be? Whomever the almighty God reconciles to Himself and wherever He reigns, God “subjects all things to Himself” (Philippians 3:21, NASB), causing every heart to overflow with love and every mouth to be filled with praise. “¹⁵Blessed are the people who are so situated; blessed are the people whose God is the Lord!” (Psalm 144:15, NASB). “¹Arise, shine; (says the Lord) for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you” (Isaiah 60:1, NASB). “And humanity has come to know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob” (Isaiah 49:26, NASB). “I have made peace your administrators, and righteousness your overseers. ¹⁸Violence will not be heard again in your land, nor devastation or destruction within your borders; But you will call your walls salvation, and your gates praise” (Isaiah 60:17-18, NASB). ²¹“All your people are righteous; they will possess the land forever, the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, that I may be glorified” (Isaiah 60:21, NASB). “¹⁹No longer will you have the sun for light by day, nor will the moon give you light for brightness; but you will have the Lord as an everlasting light, and your God as your glory” (Isaiah 60:19, NASB).

Now that we have considered Christianity both in its earliest days and as it spread throughout the nations of the earth, I have only now to close this discussion with a plain and practical application.

First, I would ask you, “Where does this Christianity now exist? Where in this world do these Christians live? The inhabitants of which country on earth are filled with the Holy Spirit in the ways the Scriptures have described?

In which country are all inhabitants of one heart and of one soul, cannot endure any among them to lack anything, but continually give to every person according to his or her need, who, one and all, have the love of God filling their hearts and constraining them to love their neighbors as themselves, who have all “put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience; ¹³bearing with one another, and forgiving each other,” (Colossians 3:12-13, NASB), who, neither in word or deed, offend against justice, mercy, or truth, but in every situation do to others as they would have done to themselves? Can we really call any country a Christian country which does not answer to this description? In truth, we must confess together that we have never yet seen a Christian country upon the earth.

I beg you, brothers and sisters, by the mercy of God, if you consider me insane or a fool, then, as a fool bear with me. It is necessary that some one should speak plainly to you, and it is all the more necessary at this time, for who knows if it is the last time? Who knows how soon the righteous Judge may say, “I will no longer hear the prayers of this people?” “¹⁴Even though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in this land, by their own righteousness they could only save themselves” (Ezekiel 14:14, NASB).

And who will speak plainly to you, if I do not? Therefore, I must speak plainly to you. And I urge you, by the living God, do not harden your hearts against receiving a blessing at my hands. Do not say in your hearts, “Lord, do not send whom you have sent; let me rather perish than be saved by this man!”

Brothers and sisters, “I am convinced of better things regarding you” (Hebrews 6:9, NASB) than what I am about to speak. Let me ask you then, in tender love, and in the spirit of meekness, “Is this a Christian city?” Are we considered as a community of people so filled with the Holy Spirit as to enjoy in our hearts and evidence in our lives the genuine fruits of the Spirit?

Are all civil leaders, all principals and administrators of schools and their respective committees, (not to speak of the inhabitants of the town,) “of one heart and one soul?” Has “the love of God been poured out within our hearts” (Romans 5:5, NASB)? Have we all the “attitude in ourselves which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5, NASB)? And do our lives evidence this claim? Are we holy as He Who has called us is holy, in all the things we say to and about each other?

I beg you to be mindful, brothers and sisters, that we have not been considering novel or obscure notions. We have not been discussing debatable matters, of one kind or another. We have been describing the undoubted, fundamental teachings of our common Christianity. And for your response to this message, I appeal to your own conscience, guided by the word of God. Therefore, the one who is not convicted in his or her own heart, let that person be unconcerned.

. . . .

. . . . Before God and this congregation, I own myself to have been of the number, solemnly swearing to observe all those customs which I then knew nothing of; and those statutes which I did not so much as read over, either then, or for some years after. What is perjury, if this is not? But if it is, o what a weight of sin lies upon us! And doesn’t the Most High see it?

May it not be one of the consequences of this that so many of us are a generation of triflers; triflers with God, with one another, and with our own souls? For how few of us spend a single hour in private prayer a week? How few of us have any thought of God in the normal course of our daily conversations?

Who of us is, in any degree, acquainted with the work of God’s Spirit, His supernatural work in the souls of people? Can any of us stand talk of the Holy Spirit in church? Would we not assume that any one who spoke of the Holy Spirit was either deceiving us or deceiving themselves? In the name of the Lord God Almighty, I ask, “What religion are we of?” Even the talk of Scriptural Christianity we cannot bear. O my brothers and sisters, what a Christian city is this? “¹²⁶It is time for the Lord to act, for we have broken Your Law” (Psalm 119:126, NASB).

For, indeed, how probable is it (is it even possible?) that Christianity, Scriptural Christianity, should again be the religion of this place, that all people among us, from the least to the greatest, should speak and live as people filled with the Holy Spirit? By whom would this Christianity be restored?

Would it be restored by those who are in authority over us? Are they convinced that what I have described is scriptural Christianity? Are they desirous that it be restored? And would any consider it their sacred responsibility and duty to see it restored? And even if one in authority were to have this desire, who would have the influence and the proportionate power to actually bring it into effect? Perhaps some have even tried, but with how little success?

Shall Christianity be restored, then, by young, unknown people? I am not certain that any of our young would be willing to suffer for it. Wouldn’t many of us older folks cry out against such a young person, saying, “By doing this you are criticizing and condemning us?” But, I fear there is no danger of being in this situation, because wickedness has overspread us like a flood.

Whom then shall God send—the famine, the pestilence, (the last messengers of God to a guilty land) or the sword? Please no, O Lord! Let us fall into Your hand rather than into the hands of humans. Lord, save us or we will perish! Take us out of the mire that we might not sink! O help us against these enemies for human help is futile! Only unto You are all things possible. According to the greatness of Your power, preserve those that are appointed for destruction, and preserve us in the way that seems right to You; not as we will, but as You will!

2022-06-05-Wesley-ScripturalChristianity-Acts4_31 Download

The Sheep & the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46)

The Christian Scriptures certainly call followers of Jesus toward generosity and hospitality. As Jesus Himself taught in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew:

³⁸“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ ³⁹But I say to you, do not show opposition against an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other toward him also. ⁴⁰And if anyone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak also. ⁴¹Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. ⁴²Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.
⁴³“You have heard that it was said, ‘you Shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵so that you may prove yourselves to be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even the tax collectors, do they not do the same? ⁴⁷And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Even the Gentiles, do they not do the same? ⁴⁸Therefore you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:38-48, NASB

Generosity toward those in need, hospitality toward strangers, and care for the vulnerable or disenfranchised are behaviors expected of the people of God. These are, indeed, ethics of the Kingdom of the Heavens. As God explained to Israel through Moses:

¹⁴Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. ¹⁵Yet the Lord set His affection on your fathers, to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, you over all the other peoples, as it is this day. ¹⁶So circumcise your heart, and do not stiffen your neck any longer. ¹⁷For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who does not show partiality, nor take a bribe. ¹⁸He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the stranger by giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹So show your love for the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ²⁰You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name.
Deuteronomy 10:14-20, NASB

Throughout the First and New Testaments, these behaviors are commended to the people of God. Those who live in these ways are praised. Those who do not are warned, called to repent, and, if continuing in their rebelliousness, disciplined.

But, contrary to much contemporary preaching and teaching, this is not what Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats was about. Before we look at the parable, we must first contextualize the language that Jesus uses therein.

One of the terms that proves essential to understanding Jesus’ intent as it has been preserved by the Gospel of Matthew is the term brother. The Greek word is adelphōn, and since it can be used to refer generically to one’s relatives, it is often translated today as brothers and sisters. This is not a word Jesus used casually in Matthew’s recollection of His ministry. Perhaps the most illustrative context is Matthew 12:46-50:

⁴⁶While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. ⁴⁷[Someone said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak to You.”] ⁴⁸But Jesus replied to the one who was telling Him and said, “Who is My mother, and who are My brothers?” ⁴⁹And extending His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold: My mother and My brothers! ⁵⁰For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother, and sister, and mother.”
Matthew 12:46-50, NASB

The Christian Scriptures do not teach the universal brotherhood or sisterhood of humanity. It is true that all humans are descendants of Adam and Eve by way of Noah and his wife. However, this reality does not lead the writers of Scripture to describe humans universally as brothers and sisters. Quite to the contrary, the New Testament authors have insisted that to become part of God’s family, we must be adopted by faith in Jesus. As Paul has explained in Galatians 4:1-7:

¹Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave, although he is owner of everything, ²but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. ³So we too, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elementary principles of the world. ⁴But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, ⁵so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters. ⁶Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! Father!” ⁷Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
Galatians 4:1-7, NASB

In addition to Galatians, Paul used the terminology of adoption in Romans 9:4 and Ephesians 1:5, as well. This is the way Jesus was speaking of family in Matthew 12, when He said, “For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother, and sister, and mother.” When Jesus used the word brother, He was not referring to humanity generally, but to those who do the will of His Father particularly.

Now, let’s listen to the parable of the sheep and the goats with contextualized ears.

³¹“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. ³²And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, just as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; ³³and He will put the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left.
³⁴“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; ³⁶naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ ³⁷Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? ³⁸And when did we see You as a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? ³⁹And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ ⁴⁰And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did it for Me.’
⁴¹“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you accursed people, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; ⁴²for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; ⁴³I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ ⁴⁴Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or as a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ ⁴⁵Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for Me, either.’ ⁴⁶These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Matthew 25:31-46, NASB

We have to go back a long way to discover the context of this teaching of Jesus. It can be found in Matthew 24:3:

³And as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
Matthew 24:3, NASB

This parable of Jesus is the last of a long series of teachings that Jesus did in private with His disciples during the last week of His pre-resurrected life. According to Matthew, only the disciples heard it. What was Jesus trying to tell them?

These teachings were prompted by Jesus’ declaration that the Temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed. His disciples were understandably vexed by this prediction, and they asked Jesus both when the destruction would occur and when He would reveal Himself to be the Messiah. Jesus’ responses to both questions were not encouraging to the disciples. Jesus spoke of seasons of great difficulty and tribulation ahead for them. Most dire was his prediction of their future suffering:

⁹“Then they will hand you over to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. ¹⁰And at that time many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. ¹¹And many false prophets will rise up and mislead many people. ¹²And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will become cold. ¹³But the one who endures to the end is the one who will be saved. ¹⁴This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Matthew 24:9-14, NASB

It is to this mistreatment of the disciples that Jesus was speaking when He told them the parable of the sheep and the goats. Who are these brothers of mine? Jesus meant to single out those of His disciples who had suffered in the way described in the parable for bearing His message. It was those who bore His message faithfully who would be hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick, and imprisoned. What Jesus was revealing to His disciples (and to us through them) was that the judgment of the nations at the end of time would take into account their treatment of the disciples of Jesus. Though they would be persecuted and oppressed and even killed for the message of Jesus, at the final judgment, the nations will answer for their treatment of Jesus’ brothers—i.e., their treatment of those who were doing the will of the Father.

As I said at the onset, hospitality and generosity are part of the ethics of the kingdom. Those who truly follow Jesus will live in these ways. But, the parable of the sheep and the goats does not teach that at the final judgment people will be judged solely based on how they have treated the poor or the criminal. Jesus told the parable of the sheep and the goats to encourage His disciples and to warn the world that the nations and people of the earth will answer at the final judgment for how they received those who have followed Jesus by doing the will of the Father.

There are several ways that we might apply this revelation of Jesus today. But, there is one that the Lord seems to have asked me to highlight today. The Lord has an accusation to make against those professors, scholars, pastors, and laypeople who have persecuted His Prophets and Apostles by disregarding or disrespecting the messages from God entrusted to them and preserved in the Christian Bible. Hear the Word of the Lord:

Throughout the ages many humans have presumed to speak in the Name of a god. Most have spoken presumptuously words from their own imaginations. But, I chose the prophets of Israel and my own Apostles as a people apart from the world. I put my Word in their mouths and I entrusted them with a message for the nations. While they lived, they were persecuted, marginalized, and restrained. After their deaths, many conspired to silence them, to twist the words I had entrusted to them, and to refashion what I said through them into words more amenable to fleshly desires and appetites. Though I had warned such people not to add or to take away from the Word I had sent, they did not heed my warning.

When the day of judgment comes, I will separate the nations as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. To those who have honored, cared for, received, and embraced my prophets and Apostles, I will welcome them into my kingdom. To those who have dishonored, disrespected, rejected, and twisted the words of my prophets and Apostles, I will cast you into darkness.

Whatever you have done to the least of these brothers of mine, you have done to me. Repent, nations and people of the earth. For I desire the destruction of no one. You must heed the words of those I have sent to you.

³³“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it, and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and he leased it to vine-growers and went on a journey. ³⁴And when the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his fruit. ³⁵And the vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. ³⁶Again, he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they did the same things to them. ³⁷But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let’s kill him and take possession of his inheritance!’ ³⁹And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. ⁴⁰Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?” ⁴¹They said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end and lease the vineyard to other vine-growers, who will pay him the fruit in the proper seasons.”
⁴²Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures,
‘A stone which the builders rejected,
This has become the chief cornerstone;
This came about from the Lord,
And it is marvelous in our eyes’?
⁴³“Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit. ⁴⁴And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and on whomever it falls, it will crush him.”
Matthew 21:33-44, NASB

Many have seized my vineyard, and put my servants, the prophets and the apostles, to death. Their teachings are no longer revered and their words have been twisted to suit worldly gain. I am coming to reclaim my vineyard. Repent, before I come.

As in the days of Ahaz…

As in the days of Ahaz, so my people have traded the fear of the Lord for the fear of temporal things. Ahaz constructed places of prayer in every home and every hovel, on every hill and under every tree. The temple that bore my name was not enough. He longed for me to be available at a whim. Like the false gods of Canaan, Ahaz taught the people to treat me as a common thing in Israel. No more purification, no more pilgrimage festivals, no more Torah. He wanted only the act of worship to suffice.

So, I abandoned Israel to her enemies. I gave my people over to the gods they had worshipped. Their high places and Asherah poles did battle for them, and their enemies swept over them as a flood.

But when my time of wrath was spent, I judged, too, the nation that had judged them. For a nation without mercy will receive no mercy, and a people without compassion will be shown no compassion.

As in the days of Ahaz, so are the days of my people today. Fear rules the land, doctrines of demons are preached from my pulpits, and my people are possessed by the spiritual forces of evil in league with the flesh.

And I have brought judgment on my people. Every hidden thing is being made known. And more than secrets will be unearthed in the days to come. Again, my people have built high places and called them centers of worship. Again my people have fashioned gods of their own choosing and worshipped them in my name.

For these sins, I am releasing the flood on my church. Not one stone will remain on top of another. This nation will fall from without and from within. The people will be feasting on each other when they are interrupted by ravenous lions. The vultures are gathering! Feed creatures of the earth, feed! For the feast is before you. The spoils of the earth have been brought into houses of prostitution, but none shall eat of their fruits. What has been gathered will be scattered. What has been ripened will become rotten. My people will not rest. Weariness will be their lot. For they feared the world and only flattered God.

But woe to the creatures who feed on them, and woe to those who pillage their stores. For I will not call innocent those who do violence to those under my judgment. When my wrath is spent, I will call to account every evil deed done against my people. To those who show mercy, mercy will be shown to them. And to those who bind the wounds of justice with compassion, with compassion I will bind their wounds.

Walking on Water (Matthew 14:22-23)

In the Gospel according to Matthew, after Jesus fed five-thousand men along with an unspecified number of women and children with a mere five loaves of bread and two small fish, we find the following recollection:

²²Immediately he [Jesus] made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. ²³And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, ²⁴but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. ²⁵And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. ²⁶But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. ²⁷But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”
²⁸Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” ²⁹He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. ³⁰But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” ³¹Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” ³²When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. ³³And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
Matthew 14:22-33, NRSV

Let’s begin by reflecting on the image of Jesus walking on the sea. Two historical narratives are bound up with this picture. They are creation and Israel’s exodus from Egypt.

We notice first in verse 25 that the disciples saw Jesus walking on the sea. The word translated sea is the Greek word thalassa. That’s an unusual word to use for a body of water like Galilee. In the first century A.D. thalassa was more commonly used to describe larger, ocean-like bodies like the Mediterranean. The Gospel of Luke reflects the more common Greek term for smaller bodies of water like Galilee—limnē (lake). So, why do Matthew and Mark choose to call Galilee a thalassa (a sea)? Because of creation and the Exodus.

In the beginning, when God created, everything was covered by the waters. On the second day of creation, God separated the waters above from the waters below and created an expanse between them which He called the heavens. Then, on the third day, God gathered the waters below the heavens and separated them from the land. These gathered waters He called yamiym, in Hebrew—seas. When the Hebrew was translated into Greek, the translators used the word thalassas to translate yamiym.

So, calling gathered waters seas, irrespective of their size, is reflective of the terminology of creation. And this is why during the Exodus, the body of water that God parted before the Israelites was called a yam, a sea—more specifically, the yam-sūph, the Sea of Reeds or, in the Greek translation, the Red Sea.

When the psalmist, Asaph, recalled the crossing of the Israelites through the yam-sūph, he told the story this way:

¹⁶When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid; the very deep trembled.
¹⁷The clouds poured out water; the skies thundered; your arrows flashed on every side.
¹⁸The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind; your lightnings lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook.
¹⁹Your way was through the sea, your path, through the mighty waters; yet your footprints were unseen.
²⁰You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Psalm 77:16-20, NRSV

Of course, the path the Israelites walked through the sea, led by God’s unseen feet, was on dry ground. Jesus did not part the waters of the sea in this instance in Matthew. He walked upon them. But, in the case that this might cause us to miss the Passover/Exodus significance of what Jesus was doing, the Gospel of Mark tells us that Jesus intended to pass by them. Mark used the Greek verb par-erchomai to explain Jesus’ intent. Par-erchomai is the Greek verb used to translate the Hebrew pasach, to pass over.

When the disciples witness this event, they are terrified because they think they are seeing a phantasma, in Greek. The NRSV translates the word as ghost, and it can mean that. But, the translation ghost misses something. The word phantasma relates to an apparition or a supernatural appearance of something. The writer of Hebrews in chapter 12, verse 21 of his epistle used the verb form of the word to describe the appearance of God to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. He also described Moses as terrified in that moment. Matthew’s language is meant to indicate that Jesus was revealing Himself to the disciples in ways similar to those by which God revealed Himself to Israel in the events of the Exodus and at Sinai.

And these connotations are highlighted even further by Jesus’ response to the disciples’ fear. Jesus said, “Tharseite, egō eimi; mē phobeisthe.” Literally it translates, “Take courage, I am; do not be afraid.” The same command against fear is spoken by God when He appeared to Abraham in Genesis 15:1, to Hagar in Genesis 21:17, to Isaac in Genesis 26:24, and to Jacob at Bethel in Genesis 28:13. And in this instance Jesus designates Himself as egō eimi, I am. It could be translated as “It is I.” But, given the creation-Passover-Exodus context of this event, it more likely reflects the divine name of God revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14:

¹⁴God said to Moses, “I Am Who I Am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I Am has sent me to you.’ ”
Exodus 3:14, NRSV

And then Peter interrogates the moment.

“Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”

The Greek word for water is plural, reflecting again the Hebrew mayim, waters, of original creation. And Peter uses the Greek word Kyrios to address Jesus. This is not surprising. Kyrios simply means lord or master and means generally what Adonai means in Hebrew. However, Kyrios is also the word that the writers of the New Testament and the Greek translators of the First Testament used to translate the divine name, Yahweh. Was Peter saying, “If it is you, Jesus, command me to come to you on the water”? Or was Peter suggesting, “If you are the Lord, Jesus, command me to come to you on the water”? I suspect Peter was wrestling with a bit of both of these questions.

Perhaps surprisingly, Jesus invites Peter to step onto the waters with Him, and perhaps more surprisingly still, Peter gets out of the boat and actually takes a few steps upon the waters. But, then something happens…

³⁰But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Matthew says it was the wind that scared Peter at that moment—not the walking on water, not the realization that it was Jesus who had summoned him out of the boat and into this miracle. It was the mighty wind that took his attention off of Jesus, and for good reason, I’m sure. Peter was a fisherman on this very lake, and certainly he knew the difference between a survivable storm and a perilous one. Despite the miracle, despite the revelation of Jesus, despite even the presence of Jesus, Peter knew where he was, and he knew its peril. As the Egyptians before him, he began to sink into the waters.

But, then Peter remembered Jesus, and he called to Him for help, using the same address—Kyrios, Lord! And, as God had delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt by His outstretched arm, Jesus delivered Peter from the waters and into the boat. And then Jesus asked Peter the hardest of questions:

“You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

The word translated little faith is rare in Greek. It does not occur in the First Testament Greek translations, and it occurs only five times in the New Testament—four times in Matthew and once in Luke. And, in each case Jesus uttered it, He was reprimanding folks who were allowing earthly concerns to diminish their trust in God. In Matthew 6:30 Jesus called those who worry about clothing “you of little faith.” In Matthew 8:26, Jesus used the phrase of His disciples when they were afraid of another storm on the Sea of Galilee. In Matthew 16:8, Jesus again used the phrase to accuse His disciples when they were worried about not having enough to eat. And, here, in Matthew 14:31, Jesus uses it to describe Peter.

And Jesus proceeded to ask Peter, “Why did you doubt?” The Greek word here is distazō. It means to hesitate or to be uncertain. Jesus might as well have asked Peter, “Why were you uncertain which to trust—Me or the wind?” It’s a penetrating question. Which do we trust more? Food or Jesus? Clothing or Jesus? Housing or Jesus? Nature or Jesus?

Why do you suppose Peter was uncertain? Could it be because he knew from personal experience, as we do, that God does not always deliver us from earthly perils? Could it be that even with the miracle of walking on water and the presence of Jesus with him, Peter wasn’t sure that the wind could be safely ignored? That is familiar space for me—certain that God can deliver me, but not certain that God will deliver me. Why would Jesus reprimand such a dilemma? After all, Jesus Himself was soon to be crucified—the waters of death soon to rise above His head. And that, too, was God’s will. How can one trust such a God? Wasn’t Peter justified in being uncertain about the danger the wind posed to him?

But, of course, as the life and teachings of Jesus demonstrate abundantly, Jesus’ criticism was not meant to indicate that there are no dangers in the world when one walks with God. Jesus Himself would subject Himself to those dangers and perish in the flesh at their hands. So, the point of this reprimand from Jesus could not have been that those with sufficient faith will not fall prey to earthly perils. Peter himself would one day be executed for his faith in Christ. The wind was certainly dangerous to him.

So, what was Jesus looking for that day? I think Jesus was saying to Peter,

“Don’t let the wind distract you, not because it is not dangerous, nor because it cannot kill you. Don’t fear the wind, Peter, because God can order the chaos. God walks upon the waters. God created out of nothing and ordered what was lifeless. God can raise the dead. The threat of death is real, but the fear of death is slavery. Are you afraid to die, Peter? Are you afraid to suffer? Then the wind has you, and the world is your master. Keep your eyes fixed on me, and then, even if the winds kill you, I will deliver you from the waters.”

And still today, where our treasure is, there our hearts will be also. So long as we fear sickness, so long as we fear suffering, so long as we fear loss, starvation, exposure, and death, the world will have us—we will remain slaves to sin and death and the world and the worldly will remain our masters. To follow Jesus out of the boat and into the chaos no matter the road no matter the cost, is life everlasting. This is what it means to become a Christian, and it is the road carved out by Jesus for all who would be His disciples.

“You of little faith, why do you doubt?”

Will you follow Him?

Signing Off (Saturday, August 14, 2021)

By way of explanation for the decision that I am making, I want to tell two stories. The first is of my calling. The second is of my discipleship. I will begin with my calling.

I was called to pastoral ministry when I was sixteen years old. That’s how I understood what happened. I was in a church service in Massachusetts; the pastor read from John 21; and I felt as though the words of Jesus were spoken directly to me:

“Do you love me? … Feed my sheep.”

I interpreted that experience as I had been conditioned to interpret it. I assumed God was speaking to me.

I did not have the awareness at the time to realize that many things intersected on that day, pushing me to interpret my experience in that way. From the time I was young my grandmother had told me I was to do something important for God and the church. That message was subconscious for me, but it was there. In my late teens I had begun to drift from faith in God, and I had a deep desire to repair that relationship. That was there, too. Also, I had been conditioned to read the Bible as a word written first to others, but also as one that spoke uniquely and personally to me. That was there. And, I had been enculturated in the church to expect that heightened emotions in the context of a worship service was God’s attempt to communicate. That was there. And finally, I wanted to do something important with my life, something significant, something that would help others and please God. That was there, too.

Together these pieces of me, and perhaps a host of others I could not and still cannot recognize, led me to a singular conclusion: God wanted me to be a pastor. God wanted me to lead a community of people in discipleship. That conclusion was predetermined. At the time, there was no other available interpretation. It was an imposition and an honor. I accepted. But, I’m not sure the offer was from God.

Growing up and finding one’s way in the world is a meandering and confusing journey. Certainty helps bring clarity, and this calling certainly provided that for me. It determined where I would go to college, what I would study, the kind of person I would look to marry, and the places I would apply for jobs upon graduation. Early on I had no reason to question whether I had heard from God. God was indistinguishable for me from my clarity and my ambition, and doors were opening for me to continue.

But, truth has a way of gnawing at us over time. The first indication that I may have misunderstood the road on which I had been walking came early in my ministry career. I had planned to take the teens with whom I was working on a mission trip, and we had begun to raise money for the endeavor. But, as the deadline for our deposits neared, I could not get enough teens and families to commit absolutely to the trip. So, I decided to change directions. Rather than going away, we would do mission work locally. And so, I began to plan for the week.

One of the days I scheduled to be an ‘invite a non-Christian friend’ trip to an amusement park. When some of those who donated to the trip discovered that we were paying for some teens to ride roller coasters, they felt betrayed. I was accused of misappropriating funds, and I panicked. After a night of sleepless prayer, I determined to ask those who were involved in the planning to defend our decisions publicly. They did that. And those who had opposed me eventually left the church. I knew that this was not the way of Jesus. But, during that night of sleepless prayer, I had felt emboldened to do what I had done. I believed God was leading me. Who was I following?

The attention at that church quickly shifted from me as some controversies surrounding other leaders began to emerge, which led to a difficult season of transition. In the wake of those events, I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, underwent treatments, and experienced what I could only describe as a crisis of faith. I’ve chronicled much of that crisis in my book “When God Doesn’t Look Like God: A Search in the Dark for God.”

After completing my treatments, I left that ministry, but I continued to pursue the calling. In the sixteen years that followed, I earned a Masters degree in Divinity, taught Biblical Hebrew at the graduate level, planted a church, and became the lead pastor of two churches. When I resigned from pastoral ministry in January of 2021, I had reached the end of the call I received when I was sixteen. I had left the god who had called me. And, for the first time in my life, I had come to follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Who became flesh in the Person of Jesus. But, to explain how I have come to that conclusion, I must tell a second story—the story of my discipleship.

There is no doubt in me that, in my youthful mind, I was pursuing the God proclaimed in Christian Scripture. My confession that I had followed the call of false spirits and a false god is not a confession to have been doing such defiantly. And, what I have come to understand over time is that the One true God honors this pursuit by discipling those heading headlong into destruction long before they have an encounter with Him. He discipled me in my rebellion.

From the beginning I had a sense that I knew little to nothing about God, and I was one whose confidence came from study, preparation, and proficiency. So, I realized from the onset that in order to have the confidence to lead a church I would need to become an expert on the Christian Bible. Throughout the intervening years, therefore, I was reading, investigating, and studying the Scriptures. I’m still surprised how long it took for me to realize my deception, but the Scriptures were a place in which my blindness was challenged.

I realized very quickly that the Scriptural testimony about God and the kinds of impressions I associated with God were not always lining up. For instance, I had a deep desire to defend myself when questioned, and I quickly interpreted disagreement as distrust. These instincts looked more consistent with persons the like of King Saul than of the faithful followers of God in Scripture. I felt the disconnect, but this voice within me kept saying that I was fine, that I was called. I listened to that voice. But, the dissonant voice of God gnawed at me. I always found Scriptures to justify my feelings and decisions, but the One true God never let me find peace with those justifications.

The voice of God also spoke through my studies. While in graduate school, I was assigned the book Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue, by Edwin Friedman. The following passage left an impression that I have not yet shaken:

The standard bearer usually is the oldest male, or the only one to carry on the family name, or anyone (male or female) who has replaced a significant progenitor two or even three generations back. Such individuals have great difficulty giving emotion or time to their marriage or their children. Success has the compelling drive of ghosts behind it. They have too much to do in the short span of a lifetime. In addition, failure is more significant because it is not only themselves or even their own generation that they will have failed. Individuals, for example, who commit suicide after business failures often occupy the standard bearer position. If it had been only their own failure, they might have been able to “live with themselves.” Such family members are caught in a multigenerational cul-de-sac in which history is their destiny. Something similar is frequently found in the family history of members of the clergy and will be illustrated further in Section IV. For the moment, that multigeneration identifying process can be put in the form of a question: Which of your ancestors really ordained you?
Friedman, Generation to Generation, 21-22.

Friedman’s theories aside, that last question penetrated. After reading this passage, I discussed it with my wife. I still clung to the belief that God had called me, that God had ordained me. But, deep within I suspected that my grandmother had ordained me. God was speaking; God was healing my blindness.

During this same time I was assigned the book Life Together, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. At the time I read it, I had no ears to hear almost anything Bonhoeffer was commending. But, his words remained with me, and the Lord has used them to heal me. One passage that I think of often is from chapter five, “Confession and Communion”:

In confession a man breaks through to certainty. Why is it that it is often easier for us to confess our sins to God than to a brother? God is holy and sinless, He is a just judge of evil and the enemy of all disobedience. But a brother is sinful as we are. He knows from his own experience the dark night of secret sin. Why should we not find it easier to go to a brother than to the holy God? But if we do, we must ask ourselves whether we have not often been deceiving ourselves with our confession of sin to God, whether we have not rather been confessing our sins to ourselves and also granting ourselves absolution. And is not the reason perhaps for our countless relapses and the feebleness of our Christian obedience to be found precisely in the fact that we are living on self-forgiveness and not a real forgiveness? Self-forgiveness can never lead to a breach with sin; this can be accomplished only by the judging and pardoning Word of God itself.
Who can give us the certainty that, in the confession and the forgiveness of our sins, we are not dealing with ourselves but with the living God? God gives us this certainty through our brother. Our brother breaks the circle of self-deception. A man who confesses his sins in the presence of a brother knows that he is no longer alone with himself; he experiences the presence of God in the reality of the other person.
Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 115-116.

Whether one agrees with Bonhoeffer’s understanding of James 5:16 (“Confess your faults to one another”) or not, the question that has remained with me these many years, is this: Have I been confessing my sins to myself and granting myself absolution? The Apostle John instructs us in 1 John 4:1:

“¹Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
1 John 4:1, NRSV.

I was realizing that my discernment should have always been suspect and scrutinized.

And then, some years later, an acquaintance with whom I attended seminary wrote a book entitled Shrink. His name is Tim Suttle. I read his book with my leadership team somewhere around 2016. The following passage encapsulates Tim’s governing thesis:

Most of the church leadership conversation today has its footing squarely in the cultural narrative, not the Christian narrative. Leadership today is about getting things done and growing a ministry we can be proud of. As a result, Christian leadership has come to focus solely on best practices. Leaders want to know what we can do to produce the kind of results we desire. We want effectiveness. We crave practical advice that will help us to be bigger, better, and so on.
I have come to believe that this entire line of thinking has little to do with the gospel, even less with the life of Jesus Christ, whom we have been called to imitate.
Here’s the heart of my ethos and the foundation of everything I will say in this book: there’s leadership, and then there’s Christian leadership. Christian leadership is categorically different from any other mode of leadership.
If you have been involved in any kind of leadership conversation recently, you could probably teach a seminar on what the word leadership means. We all know the bullet points: define the mission, assemble a team, cast the vision, set goals, inspire everyone to work together, achieve the goals, celebrate success, adapt to changes, and grow the enterprise. Under this set of assumptions, the way to judge the effectiveness of the leader is by viewing the results. Success is about effectiveness.
Christian leadership operates with a completely different basic assumption. Our most basic conviction is that the kingdom of God has come and is coming in and through Jesus Christ. We cannot accomplish the kingdom of God; it is the work of God. Our job is to be faithful to the ways of Jesus, not the ways of our culture. The Christian leader does not pursue success or results the way the CEO of a Fortune 500 company does. The Christian leader pursues faithfulness. Results, success, and effectiveness are nice when they happen, but they are not the primary pursuit.
Christian leaders are meant to model their lives and leadership practices on the life of Jesus. This means that we can never have the assurance of predictable results. We lead in the way of Christ and leave the results up to God. Faithfulness, not success, is our goal. The goal of Christian leadership is always and only ever faithfulness in the way of Jesus.
Suttle, Shrink, 24-25.

What Tim wrote resonated not with my calling or with my ministerial approach, but with what I saw the Scriptures to teach. The dissonance was becoming deafening to me, and I began in 2016 the slow journey out of the calling to pastor and into the calling to be a disciple of Jesus. Both churches I pastored in the wake of this began to experience this change in me, and it was destabilizing in many ways to both communities—the second more so than the first. When I resigned from ministry in January of 2021, I realized that my resignation was the only way I could continue to follow Jesus in discipleship. I have come to understand that my calling, which I had believed had been from God, was an idol that had governed my life. And, more perplexing still, the Church had become its prophet.

Even with this awareness, I continued to preach and teach through social media after I left, holding out the hope that the calling could still be embodied in a different venue. If the church had been overtaken by culture, perhaps a pure, virtual teaching ministry focused only on Scripture and the Word of God might be the means by which I feed God’s sheep.

However, at the beginning of this month my brother-in-law (who is also a pastor) suggested I listen to the Christianity Today podcast, “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.” To date seven episodes have been released, and I listened to them all in a single day. And in the story of Mars Hill and its founding pastor, I heard the voice of the god who called me to ministry, to significance, to become a world-changer. It wasn’t until I listened to that story that it all came into focus for me. I was called by the gods of this age. I had been driven by the spirits of this age. Like Paul on the road to Damascus, the God I had longed to serve—the One true God of all creation—had not been the God I had followed.

In the days that followed, the lessons of my past and the whispers of God throughout have become clearer. And I returned to Bonhoeffer’s Life Together to read the following words again with a heart softened by discipleship to Jesus:

By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world. He does not abandon us to those rapturous experiences and lofty moods that come over us like a dream. God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth. Only that fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, begins to be what it should be in God’s sight, begins to grasp in faith the promise that was given it. The sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to an individual and to a community the better for both. A community which cannot bear and cannot survive such a crisis, which insists upon keeping its illusion when it should be shattered, permanently loses in that moment the promise of Christian community. Sooner or later it will collapse. Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He who loves his dream of community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be every so honest and earnest and sacrificial.
God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God Himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to others in the circles of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he becomes, first an accuser of the brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself.
Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 27-28.

I have held on to my calling too long, along with its siren’s call of significance, influence, and legacy. I am ready now to follow Jesus. However life progresses from here, my repentance—my turning—requires my service to Christ to be humble, local, and done in secret. What is currently online will remain, and I will continue to write and blog on occasion. If the Lord gives me a word to speak, I will speak it in whatever venue He requires. But apart from such exceptional circumstances, I am signing off. May Jesus Christ alone be magnified. And may the Lord Himself guide your steps.