New news, old news

Posted on August 19, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 2 Comments

New news

Malcolm Muggeridge is attributed as saying, “new news is old news happening to new people.” The writer of Ecclesiastes declares:

“Is there anything of which one might say, “See this, it is new”? Already it has existed for ages Which were before us.” (Ecclesiastes 1:10, NASB)

Humans seem to repeatedly fall into the same traps.

Old news

This morning in my Bible reading, I find the words of Jeremiah 5:31 anticipate what I’ve observed happening in the church at large. Rather than submitting to the word of God, many pastors and theologians stand in judgment of Scripture.

“The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule on their own authority; And My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?” (Jeremiah 5:31, NASB)

Through Jeremiah, God warned the nation of Israel that many of the prophets were providing a false security. They predicted peace and security, contradicting what the true prophets were saying. Rather than calling the nation to repentance and submission, they validated what the people wanted to hear.

Jeremiah tells us that when they do this, they are operating under their own authority though they claim to speak for God. Does this sound familiar? It should.

Today, we have pastors and theologians who are willing to set aside 2000 years of church tradition and the clear teaching of Scripture on issues such as marriage, family, morality and what it means to be a follower of Christ. When they do this, they are like rogue ambassadors misrepresenting the king who sent them.

Why do these pastors and theologians distort Scripture? Jeremiah tells us that in his day they did it to please the people. These prophets gained popularity and all the social and economic benefits that come with it. One can assume that the motives are similar today.

Judge or submit

We have two options with regard to Scripture. We can either stand in judgment of it or we can submit to it. In the end it comes down to a decision as to where the authority lies. I can assume that authority or I can submit to God’s authority. The one thing that is certain is that we cannot share it. A decision has to be made as to who is in charge.

The modern false prophets, like their predecessors, reap the social and economic benefits of reshaping their message to meet the expectations of the society. The problem is that those expectations cannot change what is really true and what is really false.

The real question

At issue what really is true as opposed to what we want to be true. I want to say that all behaviors are acceptable and that it doesn’t matter how one lives. But that is in contradiction to the truth. Behavior does matter. God has spoken and we ignore his speech to our peril.

The prophets of tolerance and acceptance are those who offer a band-aid as a cure to cancer.It may make it look better but it doesn’t cure the core problem.

Addressing doubt and disappointment

Posted on August 16, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

Doubt is not sin

An interaction with a man who claimed belief in the past but walked away from Christianity got me thinking about doubt and how to respond to it.

In a Sunday School class when I was young, a zealous Bible School student confidently told me that it is a sin to doubt. I cannot recall if he supported this claim with any Scripture.

I suppose you could find some support in James 1:6 where we are told that the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea. But I have not found any other support for calling doubt a sin.

An example from John the Baptist

All his adult life, John knew that he was the forerunner for the Messiah. He did not fail in this mission. John went out into the desert with his message of repentance and cleansing. He challenged the religious leaders of the day and pointed the hears of the people toward the coming Messiah.

But something went terribly wrong. John got on the wrong side of Herod and was thrown in prison as a result. In Matthew 11, we find John the Baptist in prison even though he faithfully proclaimed the message he was sent to preach. John did exactly what he was commissioned to do and it did not turn out so well.

It can be inferred that as a result of his imprisonment, John was working through some doubts about his calling and whether he has misunderstood who Jesus was. Matthew 11:3 records that John sends a delegation to Jesus to ask, “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?” In other words, did I misunderstand that you are the long-expected Messiah? Are you who I thought you to be? Also implied in this question is, if you are the Messiah, why am I in prison right now?

Responding like Jesus

I think that Jesus’ response is instructive.

Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. “And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.” As these men were going away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?” (Matthew 11:4–7, NASB)

Notice that Jesus does not rebuke John for his doubt and questions. Instead he offers evidence that John was correct in his understanding. He addressed the doubt by offering affirmation and evidence.

Provide a forum for doubts to be addressed

In every church, in every service, there are people who are struggling with doubts. Some are big doubts and some are small, but those doubts need to be addressed. The church has often failed to provide a forum for these doubts to be expressed and discussed.

Here are a few ideas that church leaders could employ to address doubts:

Provide an email address so that people in your church can send in questions and receive answers
Post answers to the question on the church web site so that all who look there can benefit
Take a Sunday night or midweek service to do a Q & A instead of a teaching time
Provide a class on the foundational truths of Christianity and provide time at the end for Q & A.
Encourage small group leaders to draw out doubts and questions so that they can be addressed

If you are a church leader and none of these work for you, find something that does work. This is especially important for the teens in your church. A recent survey shows that 60% of our kids walk away from faith; we certainly cannot argue that we’ve done this well.

Remember the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result. Let’s do something different and move toward sanity.

Question

What has been done in your church that has proven effective in addressing doubt?

Righteousness, Scribes and Pharisees

Posted on August 4, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 4 Comments

#16 in the Sermon on the Mount Series

Rule keeping as religious observance

There is something in man that gravitates toward rule keeping as the means of religious observance. We think those who live an austere life are more holy or more deserving of God’s favor.

We see this tendency displayed by the Pharisees in the Gospels. We would be foolish to think that this tendency ended there. Christendom has had 2,000 years of experience of struggling with this the drive to keep rules. Whether they be monks, priests or televangelists, we have always had Pharisees among us.

In addition to organizational Pharisees, each of us has to deal with his own inner Pharisee. I believe it is because our our own tendency to become spiritually proud that the Gospel writers spend so much time cataloging the errors of the Pharisees. The lesson to learn is that we should not be like them even though we have the innate capability of doing so.

Rule keeping isn’t enough

If you take righteous to mean external compliance with a set of rules, Jesus comment in Matthew 5:20 is hard to understand:

“For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (NASB)

If rule keeping is the means of obtaining righteousness, few would surpass the Pharisees in righteousness. As a group the Pharisees were committed to keeping the law, most of them with real intention to serve and please God. If rule keeping is the means of getting into Heaven and if we have to do it better than the Pharisees, then we have a problem because few of us would meet this standard.

It is exactly this problem that caused Martin Luther the distress that lead to the Reformation. If rule keeping is the means of satisfying God, how would any of us get in? We are doomed if we are dependent upon our own righteousness.

The real source of righteousness

In Habakkuk 2:4 (and quoted in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38) we are told that the righteous will live by faith. Faith is the means by which we can surpass the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:8-9 that the source of salvation comes from outside ourselves and is obtained by faith. We cannot manufacture this salvation or provide it for ourselves.

This is good news. If we are honest, even the best of us has doubts (legitimate doubts) about his worthiness for Heaven. Without the provision of Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice, we would have no hope of gaining entrance to Heaven.

As the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 7:24 – 8:1:

“Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! . . . Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (NASB)

It is in Christ and only in Christ that we can surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees. We don’t have to work ourselves to death in service, study and self denial.

Can we take a few moments to rest in our position and let go of our striving? What do you think?

Yes, that is a log in my eye, thank-you

Posted on August 2, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 8 Comments

The Illustration

Jesus was not opposed to using humor to get his point across. One of his funniest illustrations is the story of the beam and the speck. This illustration is found in Matthew 7:3-5.

Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?’ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? ‘You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.’ (Matthew 7:3–5, NASB)

The log-eye is me

We’ve all been the log-eye at one time or another. I think that Jesus gave us this story so that we can be reminded that we have the tendency to see others’ faults and ignore our own. We are reminded of this fault so that we can recognize it and take corrective action when it surfaces.

Those who seldom or never see themselves as the one with the log are a problem. They are dangerous and often used by Satan to sow confusion and disharmony wherever they go within the Church.

How do you know when you’re being a log-eye? I thought of three types of behavior that are indications that a log-eye is in operation. If one of these describes your behavior, then it is likely that you are a log-eye:

The inspector– These are the ones that are happy to do a “fruit inspection” on you and give a detailed analysis of where you are wrong. This is sometimes done under the guise of helping you toward spiritual maturity.
The lecturer– These are the ones that will use what ever shortcoming you might have as the pretext for a lecture. The lecture usually includes how the log-eye had your fault and overcame it.
The manager – These are the ones who find your problem before you do and give you detailed instructions on how to fix your problem. These instructions will sometimes include memorization of verses that speak to your fault. After all, how can Scripture memorization be a bad thing?

The Fix

The fix for being a log-eye is to ask forgiveness from the one whose speck we tried to remove. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:23 that if we are going to worship and remember that someone has something against us we are to stop everything and seek reconciliation.

As a preventive measure we need to follow the Apostle Paul’s advice in Philippians 2:3 where he presents humility as the means of building and preserving unity. When we are humble, we are more likely to see our log and be willing to have it dealt with before we go hunting for specks.

So before you try to remove your brother’s speck, read Philippians 2:3 and look in the mirror.

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