Yoda the Evangelist

The Burden of Getting It Right

From Nathan Mann at the Liberate website - God's Will for Your Life:

“I feel like that’s God’s will for my life.” “I just need to find God’s will for my life.” “I don’t really know what God’s will is for my life.”

As a college student, these three phrases can be heard regularly from my circle of Christian friends whenever the topic of what the future holds comes up in conversation. Common in our shared Christianese, “God’s will for your life” is a mystery everyone is trying to figure out.

That’s a problem.

God’s will was never meant to be a mystical enigma that we try to decipher. It’s not a magical recipe and we need to discover and then follow in order to please God. Unfortunately, in many of today’s churches, that’s exactly what “the will of God” has come to mean. When we ask ourselves what God’s will is, there’s a subconscious follow-up question beneath it: How can I do things that will make God happy with me? Christian culture is so keen on “application”—another Christianese word that might be translated as “making ourselves better people”—that we overextend it to areas that God never intended.

But Jesus has already clearly defined God’s will:

“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:40).

God’s will is for people everywhere to come to salvation through saving faith in the work of Jesus Christ.

But there’s more.

Look two chapters earlier, John 4:31-34:

“Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, ‘Rabbi, eat.’ But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, ‘Has anyone brought him something to eat?’ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.’”

Don’t miss the tremendous implication of these verses: the overwhelming task of saving sinners was food to Jesus, his very sustenance. A task that would crush anyone else literally fed Jesus; it was his life’s mission to save the lost (Luke 19:10).

This is the profound, life-altering truth about God’s will: God’s will is Jesus’ job. It’s his sustenance. It’s done.

In light of this, we can finally be honest and admit that the question we really want to ask—the question we’re masking by asking “what is God’s will for my life?”—is simply “what do I want to do?” And that’s ok! In Christ you are free to live life without the overwhelming question mark of “am I getting God’s will right?”

Think on "These Things"

From the Gospel According to John:

I say these things so that you may be saved. (John 5:34)
These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. (John 15:11)
These things I command you, so that you will love one another. (John 15:17)
I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. (John 16:1)
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. (John 16:33)
But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. (John 17:13)

                       - JESUS

From Tim Brister 

Promise First

"Think of what Jesus said to the woman caught in the act of adultery. He said to her, 'Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more' (John 8:11 NKJV). What is most significant about His statement is its order: promise first; command second. 'Neither do I condemn you' precedes 'go and sin no more.' We almost always try to reverse those. We say, 'If you can manage to go and sin no more, then God will accept you.'

God, however, motivates us from acceptance, not toward it. Jesus' affirmation would give this woman the security that could free her from her destructive relationship with sex. Without that, she'd never truly break free. God's approval is the power that liberate us from sin, not the reward for having liberated ourselves."

- J.D. Greear, The Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary, pages 53-54

To See the Kingdom, See the Cross

(Continuing the discussion from yesterday)

John Chapter 3 is a key Biblical passage in my understanding of the Gospel, uniting the themes of Cross and Kingdom. In the comments below I am assuming that you, the reader, know the text. Feel free to break away and read it before continuing.

All my life I have heard the story of Nicodemus preached as an call and invitation to be born again. Preachers and evangelists routinely treat the passage as if Jesus' goal for Nicodemus was that he be born again. However, deeper perusal of and meditation on the text indicated to me that new birth was the means, not the goal. Jesus' goal for Nicodemus was that he see and enter the Kingdom of God.

In verse 14 the bronze Serpent made by Moses in the wilderness (Numbers 21:4-9) is used as a type of Jesus being lifted up on the Cross. The Numbers story is the first time in the Bible where faith is directly connected to healing. Being "lifted up" in the Gospel of John is a synonym for the Cross. John saw the Cross not just as Jesus' humiliation, but as Jesus' exaltation. Those who look in faith at the crucified One as Israel looked in faith at the serpent are "healed" with eternal life.

Now we come to the famous "end zone" verse -John 3:16. The Greek phrase zoe aionios in verses 15 and 16, usually translated eternal life or everlasting life, literally means "life of the age." By implication, it means the quality of life of the Kingdom Age to Come. Many commentators believe that John used this phrase as a synonym for the common phrase used by Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark & Luke - Synoptic meaning "to see the same"). Thus, everything the Kingdom of God means in the Synoptics, Eternal Life means in John. Everything Eternal Life means in John, the Kingdom of God means in the Synoptics. This expands the meaning of both concepts, and brings them together as one.

To summarize the chapter: If we behold the Cross of Christ in faith as Israel looked upon the bronze serpent, we can be born again, and thus see and enter the Kingdom of God and experience the life of the Age to Come, in down payment form now and in completeness in eternity. This is the Gospel - the Cross and the Kingdom as one message.

More tomorrow.

John Chapter 4 Retold

John at Jesus the Radical Pastor has published a series of hilarious and thought-provoking re-tellings of the story of Jesus and the Samaritan women at the well (from John chapter 4), with Jesus' style and message changed to imitate various contemporary characters. Enjoy - and think about the implications.

Jesus as a Fundamentalist
Jesus as an Emergent Talker
Jesus as Oprah
Jesus as one of the Sopranos

Update 11/18/08 Jesus as a Televangelist

Jesus Explains the Cross

From Justin Chlders at CROSS-eyed comes this excellent exposition of John 12:20-36 entitled Jesus Explains the Cross. In case you have not noticed, I'm clinging to the message of Christ's work on the Cross and the atonement lately. You can expect me to blog on just about anything I find on those subjects.

John 12:20-36 is an amazing passage. In this passage, we have Jesus’ own commentary on His approaching death. Here we have the Savior’s most clear teaching on the meaning of the cross.

This passage is so important because it fills up the events of the Cross with meaning. John 18 and 19 will deal with what happened at the Cross. This passage details why it happened.

Charles Spurgeon once offered this counsel to us: “Abide hard by the cross and search the mystery of His wounds.”

This passage reveals the mystery of the Savior’s wounds.

-The Cross was sovereignly determined by God (v. 23 - "the hour").
-The Cross reveals the glory of Jesus (v. 23).
-The Cross accomplished its intended effects (v. 24, 31-32).
-The Cross is to mark the Christian life (v. 25-26).
-The Cross was embraced by Jesus (v. 27).
-The Cross reflects Jesus’ ultimate passion (v. 27-28).
-The Cross was approved by the Father (v. 28).
-The Cross condemned the world (v. 31).
-The Cross defeated Satan (v. 31).


-The Cross secures and ensures our salvation (v. 32-33).

DA Carson said, “I fear that the cross, without ever being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy, by relatively peripheral insights that take on far too much weight. Whenever the periphery is in danger of displacing the center, we are not far removed from idolatry.”

The Value of Jesus

Speaking of the Gospel being all about Jesus (see post below), Justin at the blog called "Cross-Eyed" (clever name) summarizes The Value of Jesus from the first eleven chapters of the Gospel of John.

Jesus Christ is the greatest treasure in the universe. Because…
Jesus is God the Son.
Jesus created all things.
Jesus makes the Father known.
Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Jesus it the promised Messiah.
Jesus is the king of Israel.
Jesus is completely pure, blameless, sinless.
Jesus has power over nature.
Jesus is the true temple.
Jesus has been given all things by the Father.
Jesus is the living water.
Jesus is the Savior of the world.
Jesus heals the blind, lame, and paralyzed.
Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath.
Jesus it the obedient Son, fulfilling the Father’s plan perfectly.
Jesus has authority to give life to whoever He wants.
Jesus has authority to execute judgment.
Jesus is the content of the Old Testament Scriptures.
Jesus walks on water.
Jesus is the bread of life.
Jesus will never cast out those who come to Him.
Jesus alone has the words of eternal life.
Jesus gives the Spirit.
Jesus is the light of the world.
Jesus is the powerful “I Am.”
Jesus is the Son of Man.
Jesus opens the eyes of the physically and spiritually blind.
Jesus is the door of salvation.
Jesus is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life willingly for His sheep.
Jesus is one with the Father.
Jesus is the resurrection and the life.
Jesus raises the dead.

Thus, Jesus Christ is the greatest treasure in the universe.

It's all about Jesus.