Thoughts on the Incarnation of Christ

Posted on June 1, 2015 Written by Mark McIntyre 3 Comments

On the way to church this morning, I heard a woman on the radio say, “isn’t it amazing that Jesus came to die for us?” After hearing this, it occurred to me that you could shorten the question to “isn’t it amazing that Jesus came?”

If Christian tradition is correct and Jesus is God incarnate, then the fact that Almighty God would subject himself to the limitations of human existence is truly amazing.

My point is not to detract from the importance of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. These events are the culmination and the purpose of Jesus’ incarnation. It just hit me that even before these important events took place, the incarnation itself is an amazing thing.

As a baby, Jesus willingly allowed his physical existence to depend on the care of Mary and Joseph. The creator of the universe had to limit his ability to communicate to crying and the other means of communication available to a newborn baby.

Did Jesus ever get frustrated with his limitations? It seems sacrilegious to think so, but I wonder. I do not know if Jesus was aware of his divine nature from infancy. Perhaps he had to grow into the knowledge. But if he had any consciousness at all about his divinity, he would have been aware of what he “emptied himself” (Phil. 2:7) of when he set aside his divinity to fully experience humanity. That he did this willingly can only be as a result of his great love for us.

That Jesus loved us enough to “tabernacle among us” (John 1:14) should blow our minds. That his did so for the purpose of dying to redeem us adds to the “amazingness” of the whole plan.

The incarnation itself is something so wonderful that the only proper response is to worship.

Confessions of a man-pleaser (idol worhipper)

Posted on August 8, 2014 Written by Mark McIntyre 1 Comment

I could blame it on the church of my youth. We Evangelicals are often big on external conformity and not-so-big on dealing with the heart.

I could blame it on personality. One of the curses of being sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of other people is that it is easy to become overly concerned about how they are responding to you.

Or, I could just face the fact that I am an idolater at heart and have made an idol out of the approval of others.

While there is some truth in the first two excuses, ultimately they are just excuses. It is possible to grow up in legalistic Evangelicalism without becoming a people pleaser. It is also possible to be sensitive to others without making their approval an idol.

Now, I’m certainly not saying that it is wrong to be sensitive to what others are thinking. Someone who takes no feedback from the people around them is by definition a sociopath. If you have ever known a sociopath, it is not pretty.

But the point is that the feedback from others has to be subjugated to a proper understanding of who God has made and called me to be. It is his voice that needs to be preeminent, not the voices of the people around me.

I find it easy to make this distinction intellectually. I find it rather difficult to put it into practice. The transition from people-pleaser to God-pleaser has not been an easy or a short one for me. In fact, comparing my progress to a drive from New York to San Francisco on I-80, I feel like I am somewhere around Stroudsburg, PA. Even now, while I am writing this blog post, I am overly concerned about what people might say about it.

The good news is that I am in a church that consistently points me to the Gospel and how the Gospel speaks into every aspect of my being, including man-pleasing. I am an idolater, but a forgiven one who has power available to him to be something better. This is the first church that I have ever attended that was successful in breaking through to me with this message.

I think that at least one other church tried to do so but I was not prepared to receive it at that time. Too many of the churches I have attended were content to give me a list of rules which did not challenge my man-pleasing but instead reinforced it. We Evangelicals are oh so good at rule keeping which dulls us to the real condition of our hearts.

So, while I value your opinion, I am learning that it must not prevent me from being what God wants me to be. I must not conform where God does not want conformity. I answer to God and God alone.

Bold words perhaps, but increasingly true in my life by the grace and power of God.

The balance between worship, service and fellowship

Posted on December 3, 2011 Written by Mark McIntyre 2 Comments

The Balance

For a church to be healthy, each believer must have opportunity to participate in worship, service and fellowship.

Some definitions are in order. First, when I refer to worship, I am speaking of the activities of the congregation when we come together on Sunday morning. We worship through singing and the teaching of Scripture. Both are important. Yet, a good worship experience cannot be the only aspect of church life. A great teacher and worship band may draw a crowd, but it is the addition of service and fellowship that make it a church.

Service is the acts that are done within and outside the church body to minister to specific needs. An example of service within the body would be teaching Sunday school or working on a cleaning team. Service outside the body would be typified by short term missions, or providing meals or clothing to people having physical needs. Service alone makes for a charitable organization but not a true church.

Fellowship is when members of the body share life together. When the church group starts to feel like family, then we are nibbling at the fringes of true fellowship. Yet fellowship without worship and service makes for a clique, not a church.

When one side is atrophied

If we are not coming together for singing, praise and teaching, then the church body will be fragmented and struggle to find unity. Fellowship may happen, but it will not be centered around a common vision for what God is doing in that church body.

If the acts of service are minimized, the church will become ingrown and proud in it’s attitude toward the community in general and newcomers in particular. This is a Christianity that is self serving and smug.

If we are worshipping and serving without real fellowship, then the saints will advance from feeling unappreciated to feeling abused. People will come and then drift away when they do not find the interaction that they feel should typify the true church.

In my experience of evangelical Christianity, it is the fellowship leg of the triangle that seems to suffer the most. Evangelical, Bible centered churches understand the need for good teaching and worship on Sundays. Even a cursory reading of Scripture prescribes the need for service, so opportunities to serve abound. Fellowship is a different story.

Home group Bible studies, home fellowship groups, adult fellowships, koinonia groups, etc. may be the beginning of fellowship, but they cannot be the total solution. Fellowship is not something that can be arranged with a program.

Toward Deeper Fellowship

If we are in need of deeper fellowship, how do we go about finding that depth? Here are some thoughts:

In John 13:35 Jesus tells us that love is to be the defining mark of the Christian. If there is resentment or division in the church, those who are participating in that behavior need to repent and be restored to the opponent.
Keep in mind that while there may be different roles in the Church, there are no differences in value. (Galatians 3:28) Everyone is to be valued, not for their giftings or accomplishments, but for the fact that Jesus sacrificed himself on their behalf.
In Matthew 25:41 Jesus tells us that by responding to the needs of those who have no resources, it is as if we ministered directly to Jesus. By seeking to support, encourage and meet the emotional and spiritual needs of or church mates, we are ministering to Jesus.
Each of us, no matter how strong we seem now, will come to a place where we will be needy. Since Christmas is upon us, the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” comes to mind. George Baily came to the point where he needed the community into which he had invested so much of his energy. It was there for him. So should the church be.

This certainly is not an exhaustive list. Any other ideas out there? Feel free to chime in with comments.

Why do we make church so complicated?

Posted on July 10, 2011 Written by Mark McIntyre 9 Comments

Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:28-30 that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Why then do we make church so complicated?

We have programs and activities that would make the average cruise ship activities director envious.

We have men’s groups, women’s groups, singles groups, youth groups, coffee shops, concerts, ministry days, outreach events, the list goes on and on.

I’m not saying that any of these activities are wrong or not helpful. The question is, do we know why we are doing them? Do they serve a purpose or are we doing them because someone, somewhere decided that that is how we do church?

I know that the expectations of church shoppers are quite high and the competition is stiff. If the denominational outlet down the street has a gym, we better think about a building program to keep up. We don’t want to loose the families with athletic kids. If our air conditioning isn’t up to snuff, or the carpet is grungy or the seats are uncomfortable then visitors might not return.

My point is that many of the expectations people have of churches and church staff are not based on the Bible. We have often lost sight of what Jesus said we are to be about in an attempt to meet the perceived needs of the people.

The Church’s overarching mission, per Jesus, is to make disciples (Matthew 28:19). Do our activities help us accomplish this? Hebrews 10:24-25 tells us to encourage each other to love and good works. It seems to me that fulfillment of these two responsibilities requires more personal interaction than the Sunday morning blitzkrieg at the average church will allow. Sure, we can use resources such as gyms and air conditioners to do the work of ministry. But we often frantically do stuff without stopping to determine if progress toward the goal is being made.

In any endeavor, it is easy to mistake activity for progress. I’ve observed this mistake in both business and religious organizations. Gerbils on a wheel are being active. Salmon swimming upstream to spawn are making progress. The difference is whether or not we are arriving where we should be going.

I have observed in churches that while they say they’re all about fellowship, too often people are so busy getting kids to their proper classes and themselves off to their ministry stations that very little fellowship takes place. Church staff are busy plugging ministry holes left by vacationing volunteers so it is difficult to get in much more than a hello. Often we are more like shoppers at the mall checking items off our list than worshipers in fellowship.

Can we slow down this Sunday morning and really say hello to someone? Can we take the time to recognize the person who is barely holding it together? Can we create an environment where it is OK to be not OK? Can we show the breathless world how to rest? Can we be examples of people who know where to find true rest?

If we stop long enough we may discover that the yoke of Jesus is easy and his burden is light.