Apostasy Global Alert – Alerte Globale Apostasie
(1 Cor 1 :10, 15 :1, Rom. 11:22, Gal. 5:20, Heb. 10:26)
Are you abiding in Christ or departing from God?
Are you one of the Multitude whose love has waxed cold
or
One of the remnant who endures in agape-love unto the End?
(John 15:1-17, Mat. 24:13, Heb. 3:12-19, 10:26, if we sin willfully, Mat. 7:21-23, him only, Mat. 24:13, saved,
1 Cor. 15:1, unless you believed in vain)
Today’s Blog (8-12-2010) : http://rainer-exhortoneanotherdailyheb313.blogspot.com
REPENTANCE – 2010 Barry Mack
REPENTANCE: Whatever we believe about hell as a place of eternal, conscious torment, John the Baptist succeeds in getting our attention. “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
I prefer to believe that the unquenchable fire that Jesus baptizes us with is the fire of the Holy Spirit rather than hell fire. But either way, John is warning us that that this is not a God to trifle with, to patronize or play games with. Fire consumes, fire purges, fire transforms. The God with whom we deal is not a God who simply leaves us as we were before. We don’t stay the same. He is a God to be served, to be obeyed in reverent fear - for he is a consuming refining Fire.
Don’t presume on God’s grace. Damnation is a real possibility, whatever the exact form it takes. God’s grace and forgiveness is an opportunity to turn our lives around. So don’t abuse it or blow it.
One of the obvious features of the world we live in is that despite all the mess, the corruption and the suffering we see around us, it is not a world overburdened by any deep sense of sin. And the churchgoing public shares, for the most part, in this general casualness. We may go through the ritual of confessing our sin every Sunday, but how deep does the repentances go? Does it prompt us to seriously try to change our lives or our behavior or now just mostly show. Has it become part of the routine, part of the show?
That is exactly what John accuses Israel’s religious leadership of. In Peterson’s translation, it comes out as “Brood of snakes! What do you thing you’re doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think that a little water on your snake skins is going to make any difference? It is your life that must change – not your skin!”
John was not a man to mince words and he made people angry enough to chop off his head. Most ministers have a more developed sense of self- preservation. We want to be back next week. John wasn’t so worried about that.
Does confessing our sins prompt us to actually change or amend our lives? Or even seriously try? Perhaps we approach God’s presence this morning without much sense of the holy otherness of God. John turns up this morning to tear a strip off us, to disabuse us of illusions and to warn us of the fires of judgment. Bear fruit worthy of repentance, John shouts at us. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. One who is more powerful than I is coming after me; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Are we ever awestruck by the conviction of God’s holy righteousness – and of the extent to which we fall short of that of that unspeakable glory? Or do we have a nice domesticated God who is mostly concerned with catering to our personal needs? God is not your good buddy. He is the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth. Wisdom begins with awestruck, reverent fear. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and we are world without much wisdom. We limp along with a “I’m O.K., You’re O.K.” sort of attitude in which we agree not to hold each other accountable. John warns us to get serious.
“Repent, for the kingdom of God has come near.” What is John talking about, we wonder. What is it that we are supposed to repent of we may honestly wonder. The standards around us are not very high. But those are the wrong standards. “Repent. Change your life”, John cries out. Why? Because you won’t enter the Kingdom unless you do. You and your sin must separate or you and your God will never come together.
Without changing our lives , we cannot, we will not enter God’s news and beautiful order. If you want to be part of what God is up to in the Kingdom, if you want to be part of what God is up to in Christ that is what is implied. And if that is not where you are, then you are just playing games with yourself. It is a favourite game of church people. We confess our sins, God forgives them and life goes on much as before without much excitement or drama or change. God is a sort of grace or forgiveness machine.
And then John the Baptist turns up to raise the temperature and maybe our blood pressure by challenging our complacency. Being more or less as good a person as your neighbour is not the issue. We are being summoned to a higher righteousness than that. Unless your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven says Jesus.
If John the Baptist were preaching today, what do you imagine he would he preach to a perishing generation? In Jesus day, warned Jews who made a big deal about their ancestry that all their talk about being sons of Abraham would not save them. God was cranking up the chainsaw to take care of unrighteous Israel. If people thought they had some sort of exemption from God's judgment they were deluding themselves.
So what would he say to the present day church? What sins would be denounce? What it is that prevents us from powerfully witnessing with our lives that Jesus is Lord? What is it that impedes our welcoming and living joyfully in the Kingdom that has drawn near in Him?
Let's admit that our tolerance for truth is pretty limited. But for this one Sunday, lets pretend to be John the Baptist to each other. Imagine what we would say to us. There he is in our midst wearing animal skins, gaunt, bearded, eating our of garbage cans. He hasn’t slept in bed for a few years and has a wild glint in my eyes. He could care less what we thought about him. His one passion in life is the glory of God and all the ways in which human beings fall sort of it.
So why, according to John the Baptist is the church so incredibly weak in its witness to the society around us? Why are we so pathetic? How would John stir things up and get us read mad, mad enough that we want to get rid of him because the truth stings? How exactly are we a sad joke and a pathetic excuse for a church? Where are the fruits of righteousness? Bear fruit worthy of repentance” Any notion of God’s grace that just makes you feel comfortable sinning is not biblical grace. God's grace never encourages us to live in sin; on the contrary, it empowers us to say no to sin and yes to truth.” It purges and burns and consumes and purifies, chastens and disciplines.
Mack, why is your ministry here so barren and fruitless? Where is the revival that this society around you is crying out for? You squander your energy on unimportant superficial things and in undisciplined ways instead of being a deep man of faith and prayer. No wonder I can’t make more use of you. And you are so timid. Instead of roaring like a lion, you mew from the pulpit like a kitten. No wonder nobody gets saved. The Kingdom has come close in Christ, but your sin prevents you from making a whole hearted response. And I can’t use such half-hearted commitment.
As we get ready to celebrate Christmas and the coming of God in to our world and into our lives what do we have to repent of? What it is that alienates us from his holy presence and prevents the Holy Spirit from transforming us completely into the people he would have us be? What is it that gets in the way of you being the truly excellent minister that you could be instead of the mediocrity that you are? I gave you talents that you do not exploit to their potential. Why? Because of your sins. I call you to holy saintliness but you are content to jog along in a routine, with forms and gestures and ritual, playing the role of Presbyterian minister but without power.
John the Baptist is a frank sort of guy and his honestly is off-putting, irritating. You wish he would just shut up or listen to our excuses, our explanations because we think we have some pretty good and valid ones. But John isn’t listening. He just keeps at it, pointing to the awesome holiness of God and the greatness of his call to perfection and then pointing to all the obvious ways - once that is accepted - as the standard in which we just don’t measure up. I’m O.K., You’re O.K. just doesn’t cut it around John. He has a kind of manic intensity that just doesn’t know how to back off. And he has a way of pushing our buttons and sticking the knife in where it hurts, because he is also quite perceptive. "Christians don't tell lies - they just go to church and sing them. No wonder your churches are empty.”
Repent and bear fruits worthy of repentance or get ready for the unquenchable fire of God’s flamethrower. You confess, God forgives, and life goes on as before. Does confessing your sins together actually prompt anybody to actually change or amend your lives? Or even try to? If it is all a matter of playing church and going home feeling better about your shabby lives and thinking comfortable thoughts about God’s grace, think again.
Be specific. We respond. What sort of repentance do you have in mind? And what about you, John the Baptist? Don’t you have any sins of your own to confess?
He ignores us and tells us to start making a list of whatever it is in our lives that blunts our conscience, obscures our sense of God’s presence, distracts and gets in the way of us becoming who God’s wants us to be. That is why Jesus tells the rich young ruler that he should give all that he has to the poor and follow him – not because wealth is in and of itself sinful, there are good ways and not so good way to use wealth. It is just that wealth is what happens, in this particular case, to be the obstacle that gets in the way of this man following Jesus. For him it is a sin that he has to give up, if he is to realize God’s potential for him in his life.
Sin is not just a general list of stuff you shouldn’t do. The ten “Thou shalt nots.” That is a good start but John points us to something more something deeper if we would truly enter the Kingdom that has come near. Cowardice, lack of faith, self-centredness, indiscipline, lust? It is not just outer acts that require repentance, but inner attitudes. And that takes us beyond general rules to particular cases.
It is the Holy Spirit that convicts us of sin, reveals to our conscience what it is that holds us back from fully embracing God’s call to a higher, more noble and worthy life. That is the fire that John is speaking of.
Those of us who go to church are no worse than the people who don’t. The sad thing is that we are not obviously much better people., that the difference is not immediately striking and obvious
The question of what you need to repent of, depends on who or what standard you are comparing yourself to. And it is to that higher righteousness that we are being called by John the Baptist as we prepare for Christmas. Make a personal list and repent because the Kingdom of God has come close and is indeed already, in part, here. Repent so that your life in the power and the fire of the Holy Spirit can blossom, can bloom and be fruitful. Prune the dead branches and cast them, into the fire.
This is not something that we do in our own strength simply by force of will. The ability to truly repent is itself the fruit of the Holy Spirit and of God’s own life within us. But in order for that life to blossom, we need to inspect our lives for all that gets in the way, that hinders and impedes the coming of our Lord into our lives in power, so that He is Lord in fact as well as in word and Christmas carol.
What is it in our lives that quenches the power of the Holy Spirit and makes us boring rather, preoccupied typically with maintaining our church buildings rather than the bold sort of Christians we read about in New Testament times, or in more heroic periods of the Church’s history? What is it that discourages us from moving forward to discover our gifts, fulfill our calling, growing into effective ministry? Why is our discipleship so enemic and feeble? Any person who cannot make a ‘LIST’ like that – and spend time confessing their sins before God and forsaking them! is not really serious. Ask God to “shine His light” into your heart and show you everything that you need to repent of. Then simply get alone with Him and go through that List – repenting of each thing one by one – deeply confessing and forsaking them before the Lord. That’s what we need to do to get ready for Christmas. That is what John is calling us, demanding us to do.
We come to the table of the Lord in response to infinite grace and loving forgiveness. But It is a strenuous grace and forgiveness that has spine to it and which also makes demands. It is a grace that requires a response of deep repentance and in disciplined faith so that we can be transformed into his image and likeness; we come to the table so that can be nourished to grow in to the people God would have us become. If that that is not true, if we are not serious about being changed and transformed and sanctified by the fire of God then beware, as St. Paul warns, that you are not eating and drinking your own damnation.
We come to God in confession and repentance seeking from him a clean conscience as we resolve in his strength to become the people he wants us to become and to walk in righteousness on the pilgrimage of life walking in a way that overcome evil in our lives and in our world. Are their desires that need to be confronted are there people who need to be forgiven.? Now is the time to do it. Don’t procrastinate, don’t put it off. Get on it. Repent and believe for the Kingdom of God has drawn near in Christ and in him we are called to share in newness of life and the righteousness of God.
In communion Jesus calls us to his table so that he can live within us. But good and evil, light and darkness cannot co-exist. Therefore we have to grow up and live as God’s obedient subjects if we are live in His Kingdom. We are called to live in the light, as children of the light. That, and nothing less, is the goal this Christmas as we prepare for our Lord’s coming. Are we on the way or not? Are we willing to loose ourselves - in order that we may be found? Yes or no?
God’s love is holy fire which burns and melts, heats and consumes. It purges and refines. It changes us. Burning with zeal for the Lord, Jesus threw himself onto God’s altar so that sin could be consumed. Jesus lost his life to gain it, and calls us to follow him into the flames.
Apostasy Global Alert – Alerte Globale Apostasie
(1 Cor 1 :10, 15 :1, Rom. 11:22, Gal. 5:20, Heb. 10:26)
Are you abiding in Christ or departing from God?
Are you one of the Multitude whose love has waxed cold
or
One of the remnant who endures in agape-love unto the End?
(John 15:1-17, Mat. 24:13, Heb. 3:12-19, 10:26, if we sin willfully, Mat. 7:21-23, him only, Mat. 24:13, saved,
1 Cor. 15:1, unless you believed in vain)
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