It is pretty easy to agree with that statement if you read the gospel account of Matthew. The kingdom of heaven is possibly the most prevalent theme in the book, and is most often recorded off the lips of Jesus himself.

Yet, for most of us, the kingdom of God is a vague, confusing title we may not understand. When it is discussed, it either sounds so theologically stuffy that it is boring and unhelpful, or it is done so simply that it is vague and serves no real purpose. Instead, we must find a road between. Understanding the kingdom was a big deal to Jesus, so it must be pretty important. My hope in writing my next few posts is bringing the kingdom of heaven out of the clouds so that people who have never been to seminary can get excited about it too. Honestly, the idea is only as complex and boring as we make it. Jesus got excited about it, and so should we.

Large, multi-chapter sections are dedicated to this one concept. In chapter 13, Jesus tells story after story about the kingdom and what it is like. Again in Matthew 24-25, he goes over the kingdom in detail. Honestly, as one walks through the pages of Matthew’s account, the phrase “The kingdom of heaven is like…” becomes almost redundant.

One thing is certain; Jesus wants people to know what his kingdom is like, and he has good reason. For anyone who professes Christ, understanding the kingdom of God is paramount. It is essential. It is they way we know who we are, what we belong to, and what we are supposed to be doing.

Put simply, if you do not understand this kingdom, then you do not understand Christianity. You will live life for the wrong reasons, and you will live the wrong way, with the wrong motives and the wrong ideas about why Jesus died and what that means to you.

Friends, you must get this one. It changes your life.

That is why Jesus spends so much time telling people about it. And when we consider his words in Matthew, we begin to get a picture of this kingdom.

It is a big topic. So big, it will take me a few stabs to scratch the surface. Hopefully, in the coming posts, we will try to get a rough understanding of the kingdom from Jesus’ view in Matthew and then apply that understanding to how we live.

More to come…

In chapter 20 of his gospel account, Matthew retells a parable that Jesus told. In this parable a landowner goes out to find day laborers for his vineyard. At the beginning of the day, he hires men for an amount of money they all agree upon. Several hours later, he goes out and finds more men. He does this again, and again, and again. At the very last hour of the day, he goes and finds a few more men and hires them.

Now, as the day is finishing, it is time for the payout. The men line up to receive their money, and the foreman walks up to those who had only worked an hour and hands them the full amount of money.

Imagine the thought running through the minds of those that had worked longer. Surely, if those who worked only an hour are getting the full amount, then those who worked all day were in for a huge payout! As the excitement crept up their face, the foreman walked down the line handing each the same amount. The amount agreed upon for those first workers at the beginning of the day.

And the response was grumbling. They were angered by the actions of the landowner.

And I probably would have been too.

However, the master of the vineyard is certainly fair and just in the wages he dispenses. Furthermore, he is not only just but also generous. He gives no one less than what is earned, but he does give to some more than is due.

The grumbling of those who worked the longest is certainly cast in a negative light. They deem the actions of the master as somehow slighting them. In this they reveal the contents of their heart. Inside of them lives a deep selfishness that seeks more than fair treatment. Their heart is not satisfied when they are treated fairly. Instead, their heart desires not to receive what is right, but what is more. The selfish heart is one that wants more than others.

In the parable, the quam that these men have with the master is not that he neglects to pay them what they agreed upon, for this is not true. He, indeed, pays them the contractual amount. However, when the master chooses to bless others by giving more than the amount that is earned, these men get bitter and begin to gripe. The master was fair to them, but he was gracious to someone else. They are mad not because the master gave out more than he had promised; they are mad because he did not give it to them.

Oh, how we often look like these despicable grumblers in the parable!

Think back to the last time you were jealous of the blessing of another. I assert that feeling is nothing more than slimy self-righteousness. We perceive our merits should be lauded above the efforts of those whom we deem have “done less” than us. You know the feeling, that pang of bitterness that sits in your stomach when someone who does not seem to work as hard as you is blessed with something they do not deserve. Truly, your heart asks the same question as mine, “Why them and not me?”

It is that coworker who gets a raise, or a better office, or a nice perk of some kind. You know, the one that is never doing any work unless the boss is around. Or maybe it is that friend who did better than you on a test even though they never cracked the textbook.

It appears to be the condition of man that we easily see the laziness in others and the hard work in ourselves. And the temptation is to overlook the grace afforded to us in contempt for the grace afforded to others.

We are in good company though.

In the gospel after Jesus tells this very parable, Matthew draws our attention to a real-life scenario with the disciples. It is no coincidence that this story follows the parable.

In it the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, walks up to Jesus and asks for a favor. “Command that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit one on Your right and one on Your left,” she asks (Mt. 20:21b, NASB). Can you believe the audacity?

Neither could the other disciples.

In the story, everyone gets mad. This request is a petty example of someone wanting to be picked as favored and receive special benefits. No doubt, either their mother or the sons of Zebedee themselves counted their own service as worthy of this exalted position. This is precisely the same attitude held by the day laborers in the previous parable.

And before we throw stones at these two disciples, we must note the response of everyone else. Imagine the whole lot of disciples sitting there, remembering every wrong step that James and John had made. Imagine them calling to mind all the reasons why those two do not deserve that kind of blessing. Now, imagine them selfishly running through all the reasons it should be them instead of Zebedee’s sons.

Everyone was mad, because everyone wanted to be praised for their own outstanding service. Everyone wanted those seats! This attitude revealed the inner workings of their hearts.

Jesus had something to say about this:

You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. Is it not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be our servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many (Mt. 20:25-28, NASB).

The call to be like Christ is a call to give instead of get. It is a call to be humbled instead of exalted. It is a call to rejoice when others are granted something we are not.  Why? Because we care more about them than we do ourselves.

That is Christ like.

This is why:

Since the dawn of modern international missions, this task has largely seen people leaving the United States in search of foreign lands absent of a gospel proclamation. While the above manifestation of the Great Commission is still paramount, a new day dawns in sharing the gospel with the nations. Once, an ocean separated us from the peoples of the world. Today, the nations increasingly come to us.

This is an excerpt from a blog post I wrote as part of an ongoing research project at my seminary. I would suggest you go read that post, called Nations in our Midst, if you plan on finishing this one

But since most of you did not click on the link to read that post, I will try to sum it up for you in a few sentences.

For the past year, I have been running point on the development of an international church planting strategy at Southeastern. However, this international church planting strategy is different from any I have ever seen in one way. It is not taking place internationally. This church planting effort is happening right here in the good ol’ US of A.

“Then why call it international church planting?” you may ask. The answer is simple, because the name of the task has far less to do with location than audience.

For me, this all started out in a hut in Africa. In that part of the world, moving to America was the dream. You could trek into the jungle for days, leaving electricity, running water, and civilization way behind, and still be guaranteed to meet two things: a Coca-Cola and some poster of 50 Cent or Madonna tacked to a mud wall. In their estimation, America was the land of opportunity.

And in truth, it is a land of opportunity.

When you come from a country where the average pay is less than a dollar a day, minimum wage is big money. And contrary to our expectations, the goal is not simply to get here and become rich. While that may be on the back of some minds, the primary reason is typically one of support.

If your village is starving, it tends to change the motivation behind your actions. Countless West Africans have moved to the United States in search of a better life, not for themselves, but for their family and village back home. These immigrants will usually send up to half of their income back to their home village in order to support the needs of family.

Honestly, many do not like being here. Sure, there is an excitement in the adventure of coming to America, and many young men and women are perhaps star struck by the tales of the United States. Nevertheless, they get here to realize they are in a new place with people from a very different culture. Our culture is fast, busy, loud, and isolated compared to their comfortable warm and slow-paced environment. Many from developing countries find themselves more alone than they have ever felt. The average international student that comes to the United States will not enter the home of an American the entire four years they are here.

Why? Because they are not invited.

And as Christians, we should care about that. In some divine sense of irony, it appears that God has brought the nations to us. The average urban center in the United States boasts over a hundred different people groups (some of these with thousands of people). Here in DC alone, there are an estimated 192 different people groups represented.

These people need the gospel.

Many of them come from unreached, unengaged areas of the world, areas where it is virtually impossible for us to send a missionary. And yet, they have made their homes a few blocks from some of our biggest churches here in the United States. If we are actually going to take this task seriously to reach the nations, then we must not neglect the ones God has brought to us. Churches have a responsibility to share the gospel and plant churches where these people can gain something far more important than money during their stay in America.

Furthermore, these people have not lost their connections back home. Many are currently supporting their village, which makes them of extreme value to our missionaries on the field working with that village. In a lot of ways, these people are the ones who cannot be persecuted for their faith. They are the purse strings, and they are very influential.

Imagine, reaching these visitors with the great news of the gospel, only to send them back home to their own people as a native missionary.

That is why I am sitting in DC, staring out a window. Over the next several months, I hope to use the research we are gathering in order to find and engage these people. My work will have me travelling back and forth every week from Raleigh to DC. This is a big task with a big team of partners. People are involved on many levels, and our hope is to eventually equip the local churches here to plant new churches amongst these people groups in the District. And eventually, if it works here, we can use this strategy all across the country.

Please pray with me that God will use this work to bring glory to Christ through the spread of the gospel. Pray that his name will be known amongst a people where it once was not.

If you would like to read more about this project, you can find my other posts at NACPN.com. Be sure to check out the city data profiles under the “Resources” tab. Also, if you are interested in keeping up with the progress, click the Twitter link at the top of this page to follow me there. The hashtag for this work is #ICPinDC. 

I concluded the last post by asking if there was a better way to approach cultural issues than this ban on Starbucks.

This is how I answered:

In order to win the right war, sometimes we have to stop focusing on the wrong one. Sometimes, it is best to lose a battle in order to win a war. And I fear that our insistence on fighting so hard in the cultural war is causing us to lose the eternal war.

What good comes from gaining the top of the cultural mountain; if in gaining it, you have lost the ear of the very people you are trying to reach? Our task is not cultural superiority. It is gospel proclamation.

Our job as the church is not to “beat” gay rights activists, or liberals in general for that matter, in some imaginary game. Our job is to proclaim the gospel to them and continue to proclaim it to ourselves.

And that is where I want to pick up. If by reading my first post on this, you got the impression I felt we needed to be silent, then let me clarify. I do not think we should do less about cultural issues like same-sex marriage. I think we should do more.

In response to same-sex marriage (along with other issues such as poverty, human-trafficking, etc.), churches have done too little.

“Activism” is not the answer.

In light of the culture wars that plague the United States, I have noticed a growing trend. Americans are very vocal about problems but not very forthcoming with solutions. I would say this is true of both sides of the aisle on most issues. Facebook is filled with memes that attack particular viewpoints. However, little progress can come from such an approach. All that does is make people mad, and usually it hardens them in their opinion, because they now see the other side as jerks. Ironically, the fight stops being about the issue and becomes a contest of wits and wills.

Furthermore, we have replaced real action for a cause with “activism.” We have somehow equated being loud about our opinion with doing something for a cause. Social media has given everyone a megaphone, and removed the need to actually support anything with your time, money, and effort. Now, we can ease our conscience with the click of a “like” button or by sharing some obnoxious meme. Changing your profile picture does not mean you have done anything to change society.

How silly.

There is an interesting phenomenon where groups who have little understanding of what they actually believe begin to define themselves by what they are not. Instead of providing people with a clear, positive affirmation of what they do believe, these groups sink back and begin to simply tell people what they are not. “We don’t do this,” or “We’re not in favor of that,” or “We don’t believe in that,” become the mantras of a group who cannot identify themselves by what they do believe.

If we think protests and profile pictures are enough, then we have sadly missed the boat.

A call to real action.

If our concern really is saving marriage (and not winning some imaginary culture game), perhaps we should stop spending so much time talking about what marriage is not and start telling people what it is. Even if our efforts to tell an unbelieving world to disagree with same-sex marriage somehow worked, without providing something to fill its place, we have simply created a vacuum.

God’s commands are not simply to avoid same-sex marriage; God expects more than that. He expects biblical marriage, and biblical marriage means more than merely heterosexual marriage.

Real action takes place when we stop yelling at lost people for acting like lost people and begin to provide a clear, positive explanation of God’s standard for marriage through both our words and our deeds.

There it was. That was the thesis statement. Go ahead, go back and read that one again. That is what we are called to when it comes to marriage and culture. This action must take place both inside the church and outside the church.

Internally

I fail to see how people think we can ever convince the secular culture outside to listen to our arguments about marriage when we have done such an awful job of it in the church.

Across America, churches have blown it when it comes to marriage.

Please realize divorce and same-sex marriage are two sides of the same sin. Both same-sex marriage and divorce are perversions of the biblical picture of marriage. Furthermore, marriage is one of the Bible’s clearest pictures of the gospel. (I have written on that before here.) Therefore, we are destroying a central symbol of the gospel when we mess these things up.

That is what makes same-sex marriage so bad. It is not that it is nastier or somehow more wicked than other sins. It undermines the gospel. But so does divorce.

If we are to approach these issues well in the public square, then we must clean up our own house. Honestly, if I was not a believer and I heard people in the church telling me I was doing marriage wrong, I would not be convinced their way was any better.  And in many instances, it is not. Just look at all the broken pieces of failed covenant relationships that lay scattered around our pews on any given Sunday.

Can God redeem those people and those situations? Absolutely. Does God now hate people who have been divorced? Not even close. Is grace freely available? Without a doubt. Just as it is for those who come out of a same-sex marriage or homosexual lifestyle.

However, too many churches shirk away from the tough issues of marriage to focus on the ones that do not plague us internally (at least on the surface, as homosexuality is rampant in evangelical churches now). We must paint a clear picture of gospel-centered marriage, and begin to live that out in our church communities. We must treat divorce with as much intensity as we do homosexuality, adultery, and pornography.

Additionally, we must teach each other what the Bible says about marriage. We must have a solid, thorough understanding that does not define marriage by what it is not, but by all the fullness the Bible gives it. Marriage is richly defined by God.

It is a covenant relationship that involves sacrifice, love, and service. It is selfless. It is committed. It is beautiful. There is a lot more to it than making sure it is between a man and a woman.

Our job is not done in our churches until every believer knows what God means by the term marriage. And as we work toward that goal, an interesting thing will happen. Marriages in our churches will get better. Divorces will diminish. And people will actually understand why same-sex marriage is wrong.

It is shocking to see the number of active, evangelical church members who have changed their profile picture in support of same-sex marriage. Why is this the case? If we do not teach people the fullness of biblical marriage and how the gospel message is undermined when we stray from that, then it is easy to buy into the lies of the society around us.

When we have an anemic definition of marriage in the church, we will have an anemic stand for it outside of the church.

Externally

Fact is unbelievers do not need a manual on how to live a moral life. If you understand the gospel, then you realize telling a lost person to live by biblical standards is foolishness without the gospel. Brothers and sisters, you and I cannot live by biblical standards without the continual presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our lives shaping our actions and our worldview. Why in the world would we expect lost people to act like anything other than lost people?

The Bible is clear that unbelievers are dead and blind in their sin. Trying to pick at the individual sins of the world will never solve the problem. Yet, that is exactly what we do when we tell people who are not indwelled by the Holy Spirit to act like they are.

Try telling a dead person to stop lying around, and see what he does.

It is the power of the gospel that changes people, not some list of do’s and don’ts. If you want people to change their behavior, introduce them to Jesus. He is the only one that can do that.

And that brings me full circle to my first statement, “What good comes from gaining the top of the cultural mountain; if in gaining it, you have lost the ear of the very people you are trying to reach? Our task is not cultural superiority. It is gospel proclamation.”

When a person is running head long into hell, you do not chide them for the kind of running shoes they are wearing. You do your best to snag them, trip them, or stand in their way. And to do that, you must know them. You must be within arms reach.

Certainly, it is the Holy Spirit himself that calls people unto salvation. You cannot save someone, but the Spirit speaks through the witness of his saints. And since everyone has a megaphone now, that message is probably best delivered in person.

Consider this:

And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.  And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:15-17, ESV).

My last thought is a personal one. For well over a year now, I have been going to Starbucks at least once a week. I chose Starbucks precisely because I knew a lot of unbelievers work or spend time there. Over the course of this last year, I have made many friends (real friends too, not simply prospects): some Jewish, some agnostic, some atheist, and some people who grew up in church but fell away. And there has been no shortage of gospel conversations. I have seen lives changed over the course of that year. One young lady is currently doing a weekly Bible study with a friend of mine. I watched as people embraced God in a new way. I watched as people began to wrestle with the gospel in a way they had never considered before.

My love for them is genuine, and it has grown. It is personal, and they are my friends. For those who do not know Christ still, my heart breaks that the Spirit will grab them out of hell.

But I am certain in this, I would not be helping the matter if I was standing outside their coffee shop with a picket sign saying I wanted them to lose their job.

When was the last time you ate with a tax collector or sinner?

Now, I can sense the blood pressure rising in most of the people reading this. That is, if it is the usual crew. Yes, I did hear what the CEO of Starbucks said, and I do understand their stance on same-sex marriage. And no, my views on this issue have not changed. My prayer is that personal reasons never shift my view on something when I feel the Bible has an authoritative stance on that issue. In all things, I want the Bible, not culture or my own feelings (or even my own reason and logic) to be the source of my beliefs.

Yet, I will not be boycotting Starbucks. If you will permit me to explain, I will share my thoughts on this whole fiasco. Do not read this as condemnation to those who have in good conscience chosen to boycott Starbucks. The issue is simply too complex for one post, so I will start with some thoughts about the problem, and in the next post, I will provide my humble suggestions for a better way. In short though, I think I can sum up the problem in one sentence.

We are fighting the wrong war.

The church has been promised victory, and we fight a battle that has already been won. Nevertheless, Ephesians 6 tells us we must put on the armor of God and charge off against evil for the sake of the kingdom unto the glory of Christ. In the gospels, Jesus told the disciples that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church. Note that it is offensive language Jesus uses. Gates do not move. If the church stands against the gates of hell, it is because we fought our way to them!

That being said, we are promised a victory in a war I feel we are failing to fight, trading it in for one we prefer, namely the battle for the American subculture and government.

Brothers and sisters, are we on the wrong battlefield?

On the first day of class this semester, I walked into the wrong classroom and sat down awaiting the instructor. If you have ever done that, you know how embarrassing it is when the realization sinks in and you get up and walk out.

I fear the church may find itself fighting tooth and nail on the wrong battlefield, plunging all our might into a war for something temporary instead of something eternal. Are we more concerned with the control of a fleeting cultural kingdom than the eternal heavenly one?

If so, we are not promised victory in that battle. As a matter of fact, it is one we are most certainly poised to lose.

We stand at a crossroads today where we must ask ourselves some tough questions. What are we fighting for? Are we fighting for the advance of the gospel or to maintain our traditions? Are we fighting to loose sin’s grip on the world or for the dominance of our political beliefs? Are we fighting to bring glory to God or glory to our way of life?

I pray that we do not lose the war for souls, by struggling for control in the culture war.

Quickly, let me say I am not advocating a change in our stance on the issue of same-sex marriage. Where the Bible speaks, I say we must speak. But you can say the right thing in the wrong way!

In my estimation, for many (I would certainly not say all) adamant about a boycott of Starbucks, this is a battle to prove their side is more powerful. It is a battle for control.

Remember Chick-fil-a?

Less than a year ago, my Facebook feed was filled with people decrying the ignorance and hypocrisy of gay rights activists who were calling for a boycott on Chick-fil-a. Facebook statuses everywhere said it was unfair to treat them that way, and that they should be allowed, as a private company, to make those kinds of decisions.

It was a political battle clothed in religious freedom, and swarms of good ol’ conservative Americans rushed to their side to prove that they were still more powerful than the gay rights activists. (Note the way I worded that.)

And they won. Chick-fil-a made money off that boycott. People started eating there because of the boycott!

Now, we have a company in the exact same situation. The only difference is where they stand on the issue. Do I agree with them? No. Do I think they have the right if Chick-fil-a does? Unfortunately, yes.

Furthermore, I fear many of the same people saying that a gay rights boycott of Chick-fil-a was wrong are calling out for a boycott of Starbucks.

If that is the case, this boycott is not about sin or the gospel. It is also not about religious freedom. It is about a particular political worldview wanting to win and not wanting the other side to have the same control.

And from a purely pragmatic stance, conservatives boycotting Starbucks will most likely have the same result as gay rights activists boycotting Chick-fil-a. The company will make money as its gay rights supporters are galvanized to support the company that stands up for them. It will be seen as a victory for gay rights.

Are we being consistent?

Not only does the evangelical response to Chick-fil-a stand at odds with how many are now acting toward Starbucks. In truth, we are proving ourselves to be terribly inconsistent with this issue.

Bullies pick out one person from a crowd and pick on them.

We saw this during the presidential inauguration when certain gay rights groups cried foul on Louie Giglio when he was set to pray publicly at the event. Now, certainly, many men who have shared Giglio’s stance have stood in that role, and in other roles of similar prominence. However, it was an act of bullying to pick him out of the crowd of people with his view and slam him like they did.

But, be wary of your stance on boycotting organizations that support gay rights. Today, most companies do. They are simply not as vocal as the CEO of Starbucks at that stock meeting. Fact is, if you are actually boycotting Starbucks based on values and you only want to spend your money in support of companies that share those, then you will need to make a lot of changes.

First, you will need to unplug your television and cut off your Internet. The providers of that programming, and most likely the service itself, are in the same camp with Starbucks. So are most restaurants, fast food and otherwise, so you would likely need to stop eating out. Then again, many, if not most of the major grocery chains, are favorable of same-sex benefits, so it may become hard to find groceries as well. I could go on, but you get the point.

Are we simply picking out one company to make a martyr for their cause? If so, this actually hurts our stance more than helps it. It smacks of hypocrisy.

A better way.

So, is there a solution to this? I think the answer is yes, but most people will probably not like my conclusion.

In order to win the right war, sometimes we have to stop focusing on the wrong one. Sometimes, it is best to lose a battle in order to win a war. And I fear that our insistence on fighting so hard in the cultural war is causing us to lose the eternal war in our own backyard.

What good comes from gaining the top of the cultural mountain; if in gaining it, you have lost the ear of the very people you are trying to reach? Our task is not cultural superiority. It is gospel proclamation.

Remember this? “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age’” (Mt 28:18-20).

That is the real war, and we must do everything we can to see that we charge the gates of hell in that battle.  In the next post, we will look at how to engage this issue on the right battlefield.

Stay tuned…

Update:  The conclusion is now posted and you can read it here: A better way: An alternative to dumping Starbucks

That was the point of my last post, and this post will make a lot more sense, if you go read that one first. In sum, we are created to serve something. Everyone has a master, and they serve it with their life. Last week, I stated that even skeptics, those people who claim to serve nothing and no one, are really just deceiving themselves. Simply calling your “god” something else, does not mean you do not worship it.

However, this week, my sights are aimed at those of us who actually claim to serve a god. In specific, those of us who claim to serve Christ.

Christians, this post is for you.

The Bible presents a clear record of worship. As mentioned last week, the Bible points out that man was created for a purpose. He was created for work and service to his heavenly maker. This work and service is an act of worship to God. As Christians, this service is not directed at some generic understanding of god. We believe the God of the Bible has revealed himself through his word and his acts in history. He has a name, he is specific, and he is personal.

Furthermore, the Bible is plain when it says that God’s clearest revelation of himself came when he descended to earth and was born a man. God became man, and his name is Jesus.

As a Christian, our service is to Christ.

In fact, that is precisely what worship is. It is service to your God. Unlike the modern concept of worship that is nothing more than the 20 minutes of music before the preacher gets up to talk, worship is life-encompassing. It is a lifestyle more than a single act. Is singing during that 20 minutes worship? Certainly. But your view of worship is terribly anemic if you think that is it.

So, saying we were created to serve God is the same as saying we were created to worship God. Those two statements are basically one in the same.

Furthermore, if you do not serve God, then you do not worship him.

The Bible has a word for this. The act of worshipping anything other than God is called idolatry. Simply put, you are a slave to something, and if it is not Christ, then you are an idolator. Like the word worship, I think modern Christians often misunderstand idolatry.

Idolatry, to most Christians, is how all those people out in the jungle with bones through their nose worship. We conger up images of a bunch of tribal people bowing down around some stone statue. Then, because that seems silly, and like something we would never do, we check that sin off the list as though we do not commit it. However, idolatry stands at the very heart of most every sin we commit.

I will say it again. If you are not serving Christ with your life, then you are serving something else, and you are an idolator.

Our Christian culture, particularly in the South has deeply rooted idols. In the sleepy little town where I grew up, most claim to be a Christian. (Honestly, that is true of most of the Southern United States.) Yet, far fewer live as such.

Sure, most cultural Christians in the States have a list of “do’s and don’ts.” There is some framework in their mind for being a good person or acting like a Christian. But it is simply that, a framework of actions they have decided allow them to live an acceptable life.

That is not the gospel, and that is not serving Christ.

In truth, most cultural Christians today give little service to Christ. Their lives are lived in search of their own fulfillment and enjoyment. Decisions are made not for the benefit of Christ and his church, but for the betterment of the individual. Cultural Christians serve a master, but it is not Christ.

This is nothing more than idolatry.

These actions prove not to be genuine acts of service to Christ. Instead, they reveal a heart that has a deeper love, the real idol behind the veneer they have labeled “Christ.”

Ironically, this American cultural Christianity is very similar to the brand of Islam I encountered in West Africa. Out in the villages of West Africa everyone claimed to be a Muslim, and all believed very much that they were. However, these people who claimed to be adherents to a radically monotheistic religion would then turn around and sacrifice a goat to their ancestors. They still had their idols under the surface of their Islamic religion.

It is no different in America today. Many claim Christianity, and yet they worship something completely different. It will be subtle, like “success” or money or happiness. In many instances, we fall prey to worshipping ourselves. We’ve tried desperately to become our own God. All of our decisions are made to with self-seeking motives.

And if we look back at Genesis, is that not how it all started?

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”  And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,  but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”  But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.  For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate (Gen. 3:1-6, emphasis added).

Adam and Eve were the first idolators, trying to place themselves in the seat of God.

So many years later, we have the same problem.

So am I, and so is everyone else you know. It’s how we are designed, dare I say, how we were created.

For the more skeptical reader, the one who claims complete independence, or the one who thinks my religious banter is simply that, permit me to make my case before you dismiss this post.

According to the Bible, man was created with purpose. It was not happenstance and it was not chance. Furthermore, it was not by mere whim that God chose to create everything from nothing. For God’s glory, he created. It was a plan from the very beginning, not an afterthought once it got started. Every blade of grass, every mountain, and every beating heart exists so that, through their existence, God displays his glory.

What is more, it appears that man has a very special place in all that God created. When you read the story in Genesis, it is as though the story is rushed in the beginning and slows down when it gets to its discussion of man.

Things are said about man that are not said about other parts of creation. For instance, God says man is made in his image. That sounds like a big deal. God also gives man special instructions that are not given to any other part of creation. Man is told to multiply and subdue the earth. The idea conveyed in this instruction is not an idea of lording over the earth, but ruling as a steward. In essence, man is told he will serve as vice-regents over all of God’s created order. Man’s instructions were to serve as kings over creation, but not in their own authority. Made in the image of the king, they were to serve that king as his stewards over all he had made. However, this headship over creation placed man squarely under the headship of their creator God. While they were made in his image, they were, nonetheless, made.

Man was made to serve God.

And despite our rebellion, we will never escape our nature as servants. We were made for service, a glorious service, but service all the same. We will, in our very nature, serve something.

This is the idea as expressed in the Bible, but for my skeptic friend, what if the Bible is not true? Is it my only evidence or can this be observed in everyday life? Can we see this thread run through man and society? For those playing along at home, the answer is yes.

Absolutely, yes.

As a matter of fact, we do not have to look hard to see people chasing their master. Everyone is consumed by something. People run after all kinds of lords in their life. If we look at the “less sophisticated” 95% of the world that still believes in a god of some form, then we see they all serve something.

Radical monotheist religions claims one, true, sovereign almighty God. Judeo-Christians submit to Yahweh and Muslims to Allah. And in cultures of polytheism or pantheism, they serve a myriad of gods, ancestors and spiritual forces, most having specific household deities that they directly serve.

Now, for the 5% of the world that feel they have escaped the chains of religion, we must ask the same question. Whom do they serve? For most, it is a subtle master. It is the master of wealth or power or success, whatever that means. Perhaps, it is some arbitrarily decided concept of “happiness” or experience. If not, then it is a societal ideal fabricated in a classroom somewhere such as: pluralism, consumerism, individualism, patriotism, or some other concept ending with “ism.” These people will attach their hopes and dreams to a concept, and will expend all their efforts to serve that concept. Even my nihilist friends, who claim to have no values, are, by simply making the objective claim that there is no objectivity, espousing an ideology they serve.

The religious devotion of atheists to their cause amuses me.

We all serve something. In the end, we all have a master that controls our life. And here is the brazen truth, simply calling your god something other than a god does not change the fact that you worship it.

Oh, and lest my readers who claim to serve Christ get too smug, simply saying you serve a particular god without any real evidence of that in your life only reveals your self-deception. You are serving someone or something, but it is probably not Christ.

That is a state perhaps worse than our atheist friend who at least claims no allegiance to Christ.

More on this next week.

So, if missions is not about you, and it is not about them, then what is the purpose of missions? Why do we go?

Simply put, missions is about a name.

This mission goes to the very core of creation.  From “In the beginning” until the trumpet sounds, there has been a grand overarching purpose for all of history. God created space and time for a reason. He created the earth and all that is in it for a reason. He created man in his image for a reason, and all the events of history that followed were for a reason. He created a nation through Abraham for a reason. He delivered them out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt for a reason, and then he sent that same nation into exile for a reason.

Later, He sent his son, the Word made flesh, for a reason. That son lived a sinless life, suffered execution, and stepped out of the grave three days later, for a reason. Before he ascended, he established the church for a reason, and that church began to spread for a reason. Even as we speak, as you sit there reading this post, that church is still spreading across the world in little villages and high rise apartment complexes for a reason. And one day, a trumpet shall sound and the dead in Christ will rise, and the peoples of the world will be judged, all for one reason.

It all happened (and is still happening), “so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10-11, ESV).

As I mentioned earlier, God has acted in history in order that his name will be known throughout the whole earth. That is why things happen. If you have ever wondered why certain events in history occur, that is the reason. That God’s name will be known, and that people will know the he is Lord, to his glory.

When the Israelites were in slavery in Egypt, God quite literally slapped around the greatest nation in the world and miraculously delivered his people. And the reason he gave Moses… “so that you will know I am The Lord.” It was for his name.

Then, when the Israelites fell into disobedience over the next several hundred years of their history, God punishes them for that disobedience, and again, his reason, is so that they will know he is the Lord.

And I want us to pick up the story there. The nation is in exile, in Babylon, the people had been scattered and plucked from their home. And God tells Ezekiel of a coming deliverance. God tells Ezekiel that he will, once again, deliver his people from exile. But listen carefully, to what God says to Ezekiel.

Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.  And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.  I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.  I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.  And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.  You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God… It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord GOD; let that be known to you…  they will know that I am the LORD (Ezek. 36:22-38).

God has a singular purpose in history. That purpose has never changed. It is always the same. From “In the beginning” until the trumpet sounds. The name of God is a big deal. It’s worth fighting for. It’s worth dying for. And, it’s also worth living for.

Honestly, it’s the only thing worth living for, that the name of Christ will be known where it once was not.

That is why we go.

To some of you, that may sound a little harsh. And for others, you may completely agree. Whatever the case, I had an opportunity this past weekend to speak at a conference on the topic of God’s mission, particularly as it relates to work overseas. In preparation, I pulled together some thoughts on the motivation behind international mission work and thought it fitting to post those here. The topic is just too big to discuss in one post, so I will use this first point to look at what missions is not about. Next time, we will look at what it is about.

Recently, I wrote a post on the rampant consumerism that has made its mark on the Christian subculture here in the United States, and I feel that our approach to the great commission, like so many others things we do, is now tainted by this ill. When we approach church in order to see what we can get out of it, then we will do the same with its mission. I will be the first to admit that I was (and often still am) guilty of this.

When I was 14 years old, I got news of my first “missions trip,” as we call them. It was a 2-week trip to the Dominican Republic and Haiti. I can remember the discussion about the trip being centered more on the fact that it was in the Caribbean than any form of gospel proclamation. Furthermore, I had never really been anywhere at that point in my life. The whole idea sounded exciting. And, while my family was too poor for us to hop on a plane and go to the Bahamas, I could get to the Caribbean this way, and then I, too, would have stories of an adventure.

And for me, that is precisely what it was… an adventure.

But the mission of God is not about you. Too often, when we look deep, the reason our churches are so infatuated with the idea of short-term mission trips is because of the benefit to the people going. “It’ll do more for you than it will them,” is frequently the reasoning used to talk people into going. And when they get back, “I was blessed more than the people we went to see!” is the refrain.

Now, do not mishear my sentiment. I am not saying that great commission work does not change one’s heart. Certainly, if you are a true believer, rolling up your sleeves and being part of the mission is life-changing. Yet, if we really listen to ourselves, we notice that our purpose for going is riddled with selfishness. It is about making ourselves feel better, or patting ourselves on the back, or going to some exotic place.

The great commission is not missions tourism. It is not an adventure. This is not your chance to see the world. Missions is not about you, and if I have not offended you yet, this next point may do the trick.

Missions is also not about them.

Yes, they are there, and yes, they are dying and going to hell. Furthermore, they live in poverty you cannot imagine until you walk their streets and sit in their huts. Their world is one you cannot grasp until you have rejoiced with them at the birth of a child and held their hand to comfort them at the loss of one. They are sick, starving, and, from your perspective, have nothing to live for. Many live in slavery. But missions is not about them.

I struggle to find words that make my point clear on this issue. God loves them. God loves them so much he chose to create them. God loves them so much he sent his son to die for them. God hates poverty, oppression, slavery, and sickness, and God loves the widow, the orphan, the downtrodden and the lost.

And so should you.

Yet, so often what we call love for them is really nothing more than pity. We look around us and see all of our nice stuff, our warm home, our fridge full of food, and our unlimited potential to be and do whatever we want,  and we feel sorry for those whom we deem less fortunate. Now, mix that with a dose of our cultural understanding of the gospel and we get a recipe for a common motivation behind missions. In some sense, it is nothing more than baptized charity work.

What is worse, it is always done with condescension. We, the haves, reach down to the have-nots with all our blessings. We, who come from a land that is not messed up (in our mind) come down to their lowly spot in life and show them the way to get out of their pit. In this model, we feel we have the answer, and these poor people and their backward culture just need our help.

But that is far from the gospel.

For starters, we are just as fallen as they are. Furthermore, I, nor you, have anything of our own. All that we have and all that we are flow from the gracious gifts of God himself. We have earned nothing. Perhaps you think you have. Perhaps you are rather proud of yourself for earning a promotion in your career with all of your hard work, or maybe you feel rather accomplished that you have an advanced degree and some letters behind your name. But take a moment to consider who gave you the strength to walk, the intelligence to think, and the health to live. Neither you nor I have earned anything. All things in your life, all things, are gracious gifts from God.

I cannot proudly be the answer to anyone’s problem. The best I can offer is the good news of a good savior. No, pity is not the motivation behind the great commission. Missions is not about them.

So, the question remains: What is missions about?

Stay tuned.

Allergic to authority… that actually sums it up fairly well.

While I do not like the fact that this phrase subtly removes the blame from the individual for their desire to subvert authority (you can not really blame someone for having an allergy to something), it still makes the point.

We hate authority.

At least, it appears as though we do. The word congers up the idea of some structure put over us to control us. No, that is not what we want! We want our freedom, and we want to act however we feel like acting. After all, that is our right, is it not? We should be able to think what we want, do what we want, say what we want, and live however we want. And, anytime someone tries to come in and tell us otherwise, we get fuzzed up, and start to holler for our rights. Or, we simply choose to spite them and do what we want anyways. Yeah… we are allergic to authority.

This little truth, that authority causes us to get rashy, really sank in this morning during my time in God’s word. Matthew 5-7 is perhaps one of the most famous sections of Scripture. This portion is frequently called the Sermon on the Mount, and it holds pride of place alongside passages such as the creation narrative in Genesis and the ten commandments in Exodus.

But I read that yesterday. Today I started at the very end, a passage that usually sits in the shadow of the preceding sermon.

Matthew 7 ends with these words:

And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes (Matt. 7:28-29, emphasis added).

Normally, these verses are simply connected to the end of the sermon in chapters 5-7. The passage, rightly points to the shocking manner in which Jesus addresses his listeners. Unlike the scribes, the keepers of the Scripture, Jesus preached with direct authority. Scribes could merely report what the holy writings said, but Jesus did far more than that. In this very sermon, Jesus structures most of his points by saying, “You have heard it said… but I say to you.”

In the Sermon on the Mount, it is as though Jesus claims he actually has the authority to make the rules!

No wonder everyone was shocked! They had never heard someone speak this way concerning the Law before. Jesus was proving himself to be distinctly different. However, those two verses do more than just conclude the sermon. They also serve to connect the striking authority Jesus claims in the sermon with all the events that follow.

Chapter 8 picks up right where chapter 7 ends, with this awestruck crowd following after Jesus. In the crowd is a leper who makes his way to the front to get an audience with this man who had just been speaking. Kneeling before Jesus, this man says, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”

This leper, having just heard this message, realizes the significance of one with that much authority. If this man, Jesus, actually had the authority with which he spoke, then he could man a sick man whole.

And that is precisely what he did.

Right there, Jesus proved his authority over sickness. The story goes on, and within a few verses, Jesus has healed a centurion’s servant, Peter’s mother-in-law, two blind men, a paralytic, and a score of people not mentioned by name. Oh, and he has also cast out a handful of demons, stopped a storm and calmed a sea, and raised a little girl from the dead. Not only did Jesus have authority over sickness, but he demonstrates authority over powers of darkness, nature, and death itself.

If there was any question about the validity of the Jesus’ authority, chapters 8 and 9 sum it up well. Finally, toward the end of this section of the gospel, Jesus heals a man, but before he does so, he forgives his sins. The scribes and pharisees perceive this as blasphemy and Jesus confronts them. He says,

Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic— “Rise, pick up your bed and go home” (Matt. 9:4-6).

And driving the point home, Matthew records that, ”When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men” (Matt. 9:8).

This passage screams about the authority of Jesus. It writes this authority in big, black, bold letters, and then it underlines it! But, the passage does not stop at merely asserting his authority. It gives us more. It speaks to our response.

Wedged right in the middle of this discussion is the following dialogue:

Now when Jesus saw a great crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side.  And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”  And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”  Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”  And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead” (Matt. 8:18-22).

The proper response to this kind of authority is nothing less than surrender. Even when it is clear it will not be comfortable, and at many times, not the thing we want to do. But this surrender must be sure, and it must be immediate, and it must be complete.

This is not a popular message in a society that hates authority, but it is the only message that will do.