Recently a firefighter in our church was told by one of his colleagues that belief in Jesus was for weak people. I found that ironic coming from a firefighter.

I have a fire hydrant in our side yard. I have never looked at the fire hydrant and felt any shame. I drive by a firehouse every day. I never think, “If this community didn’t have weak people than we would never need firehouses.” Every month when I pay my property taxes, which go towards financing fire departments, I never get angry at myself, thinking, “if I could just handle fire myself I wouldn’t have to write this check.”

Imagine a person whose house is on fire. The fire is raging out of control and the fire truck pulls up, sirens blaring. The person runs out of his house in a rage and says, “How dare you come to my house and think that I can’t handle this fire myself! Firefighters are for weak people, not for me.”

What would you think of someone like that? Insane.

We know that fire departments are for “weak” people because a power exists that we simply can’t deal with on our own: fire. Actually, we admire firefighters because they are people who have committed themselves to take on the power of fire at personal expense.

Christians are weak in the same sense that a community is “weak” for having fire departments. They are people who acknowledge that a power exists that they can’t confront and live — the holiness of God. This, however, is not cause for shame, because there was one man who dealt with that power at personal expense, on a cross. And, as every firefighter can admit, when someone is rescued from the flames, they’re not thinking about their weakness; they’re overjoyed that someone would risk it all to save them.

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The Sovereign Spirit: Click | View Series

“The Christian’s life in all its aspects, intellectual and ethical, devotional and relational, upsurging in worship and outgoing in witness, is supernatural; only the Spirit can sustain it.”
- J.I. Packer

The Holy Spirit has been moving in the lives of individuals since the world began. Great men and women of the faith have done extraordinary things when they where anointed by his power.

This leads us to the question, is the Holy Spirit still active today? Does he still anoint people who seek him? The answer is yes! He wants to bring you into a deeper, more intimate relationship with him. He wants to use you more than you’ll ever know. You can experience his fullness in your everyday life. As we conclude, our final lesson will examine several ways that you can receive the Spirit in your everyday life.

He Will Guide You

Jesus said, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). The Holy Spirit wants to give us wisdom, guidance, and direction in everything that we do. The Spirit becomes our guide, leading us in the way that we should go. You should ask the Spirit to lead you whenever you are making a major life decision. I am confident that it is God’s deepest desire that we seek him in every area of our lives. The Spirit will lead you into the place that you should be. Are you facing an important life-changing decision? Do you need to make a major financial investment? Don’t be afraid to ask the Lord to show you what the best decision is. He will speak if we ask for his help.

How do we know when he is speaking to us? There are several ways that we can hear the voice of God. The Spirit speaks through the Word of God. He uses the Bible to reveal his will. He also speaks through our circumstances. Be aware of what God is trying to tell you in your everyday life. Sometimes it’s through the ordinary. Sometimes he speaks through a still small voice in prayer. If we will be quiet long enough to listen, he will speak. The Spirit might use somebody else to speak to you. It is not uncommon for the Lord to speak through somebody when you least expect it. Finally, God sometimes speaks through dreams, visions, and other gifts of the Spirit.

He Will Help Your Prayer Life

The Holy Spirit assists our prayer life. Many Christians find it difficult to pray for any extended period of time. We don’t know exactly what to pray for or how to pray. We must begin to understand that he helps us when we pray. The Bible says that he helps us with our weakness and intercedes for us according to the will of God (Rom. 8:26-27). No longer do we have the excuse that we don’t know what to pray because he helps us to pray according to God’s will. There is no one better to teach us how to pray than the Holy Spirit because he knows what to pray for.

The Holy Spirit actually frees us to pray. Where he is there is liberty because he is the great Liberator. The Spirit also provides the weapons that we need to do spiritual warfare (Eph. 6:18). If we are going to win our spiritual battles we must have the Holy Spirit on our side. He is the weapon that we need to defeat the enemy. Lastly, he builds us up when we pray (Jude 20). Praying will lift your heart and soul to heaven and give you the strength that you need to go on.

To be continued.

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Jesus Our Lord: Click | View Series

Romans 4:24—"Jesus our Lord."

It is the part of faith to accept great contrasts, if laid down in the Word, and to make them a part of her daily speech. This name, Lord, is a great contrast to incarnation, and humiliation. In the manger, in poverty, shame, and death, Jesus was still Lord.

THE WORD "OUR" IS ESPECIALLY SWEET

1. It makes us remember our personal interest in the Lord. Each believer uses this title in the singular, and calls him from his heart, "My Lord."
• David wrote, "Jehovah said to my Lord."
• Elizabeth spoke of "The mother of my Lord."
• Magdalene said, "They have taken away my Lord."
• Thomas said, "My Lord and my God."
• Paul wrote, "The knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord."
2. It brings a host of brethren before our minds, for it is in union with them that we say "our Lord." And so it makes us remember each other. (Eph. 3:14-15)
3. It fosters unity, and creates a holy clanship, as we all rally around our "one Lord." Saints of all ages are one in this.
4. His example as Lord fosters practical love. Remember the foot-washing and his words on that occasion. (John 13:14)
5. Our zeal to make him Lord forbids all self-exaltation. "But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher. Neither be called instructors" (Matt. 23:8, 10).
6. His position as Lord reminds us of the confidence of the church in doing his work. "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples" etc. (Matt 28:18-19). "The Lord worked with them" (Mark 16:20).
7. Our common joy in Jesus as our Lord becomes an evidence of grace, and so of union with each other (1 Cor. 12:3).

Let us worship Jesus as our Lord and God.
Let us imitate him, copying our Lord's humility and love.
Let us serve him, obeying his every command.

Adapted from Charles Spurgeon's sermon notes.

Jesus Our Lord: Click | View Series

Romans 4:24—"Jesus our Lord."

It is the part of faith to accept great contrasts, if laid down in the Word, and to make them a part of her daily speech. This name, Lord, is a great contrast to incarnation, and humiliation. In the manger, in poverty, shame, and death, Jesus was still Lord.

OUR LOVE FOR JESUS GIVES "LORD" SPECIAL MEANING

1. We yield it to him only. Moses is a servant, but Jesus alone is Lord. "For you have one teacher" (Matt 23:8, 10).
2. To him most willingly. Ours is delighted homage.
3. To him unreservedly. We wish our obedience to be perfect.
4. To him in all matters of lawmaking and truth-teaching. He is Master and Lord: his word decides practice and doctrine.
5. To him in all matters of administration in the church, and in providence. "It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him." (1 Sam. 3:18).
6. To him trustfully, feeling that he will act a Lord's part right well. No king can be so wise, good, great as he. (Job 1:21).
7. To him forever. He reigns in the church without successor. Now, as in the first days, we call him Master and Lord (Heb. 7:3).

Adapted from Charles Spurgeon's sermon notes.

Jesus Our Lord: Click | View Series

Romans 4:24—"Jesus our Lord."

It is the part of faith to accept great contrasts, if laid down in the Word, and to make them a part of her daily speech. This name, Lord, is a great contrast to incarnation, and humiliation. In the manger, in poverty, shame, and death, Jesus was still Lord. These strange conditions for "our Lord" to be found in are no difficulties to that faith which is the fruit of the Spirit.
It never happens that our faith in Jesus for salvation makes us less reverently behold in him the Lord of all. He is "Jesus" and also "our Lord." "Born a child, and yet a King." "My Beloved," and yet "My Lord and my God."
Our simple trust in him, our familiar love to him, our bold approaches to him in prayer, our near and dear communion with him, and, most of all, our marriage union with him, still leave him "our Lord."

JESUS' HUMILITY GIVES VALUE TO HIS TITLE

"Jesus our Lord" is a very sweet name to a believer's heart.

1. We claim to render it to him especially as man, "who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification" (verse 25). As Jesus of Nazareth, he is Lord.
2. We acknowledge him as Lord the more fully and unreservedly, because he loved us, and gave himself for us.
3. In all the privileges accorded to us in him he is Lord:
• In our salvation, we have "received Christ Jesus the Lord" (Col. 2:6)
• In entering the church we find him the head of the body, to whom all are subject (Eph. 5:23)
• In our lifework he is Lord. "We live to the Lord" (Rom. 14:8). We glorify God in his name (Eph. 5:20).
• In resurrection he is the firstborn from the dead (Col. 1:18).
• At the Advent his appearing will be the chief glory (Titus 2:13).
• In eternal glory he is worshipped forever (Rev. 5:12-13)
4. In our dearest fellowship at the table he is "Jesus our Lord."

It is the Lord's Table, the Lord's Supper, the cup of the Lord, the body and blood of the Lord; and our object is to show the Lord's death (1 Cor. 11:20, 26-27, 29).

Adapted from Charles Spurgeon's sermon notes.

Doctrine: Click | View Series

Regarding our future, Jesus' resurrection is the precedent and pattern of our own: 'Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.' As his body was resurrected in complete health, so too will we rise and never experience pain, injury, or death ever again. This is because through the resurrection, Jesus has put death to death....

Because Jesus rose from death physically, we learn that God through Christ intends to reclaim and restore all that he made in creation and saw corrupted through the fall. Our eternity will be spent in a world much like the one enjoyed by our first parents in Eden, because the earth has been reclaimed and restored by God through Jesus' resurrection.

The full effects of Jesus' resurrection will be seen one day, following Jesus' return. The time between Jesus' resurrection and our resurrection is a lengthy season of love, grace, and mercy as news of the gospel goes forth, inviting sinners to repent of sin and enjoy the present and future salvation of Jesus Christ....

No one can remain neutral regarding Jesus' resurrection. The claim is too staggering, the event is too earthshaking, the implications are too significant, and the matter is too serious. We must each either receive or reject it as truth for us, and to remain indifferent or undecided is to reject it.

From Doctrine, Chapter 9. Resurrection: God Saves (pg. 303).
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Historical Background

In the years following the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., the church was wrestling with many questions about the person and work of Christ. At Nicaea, the deity of Christ was established as orthodox Christian teaching, but many questions concerning the person of Christ remained.

Apollinarius, named the Bishop of Laodicea in 362 A.D., is responsible for Apollinarianism. This view compromises the full humanity of Jesus by suggesting that the eternal logos (Word) replaced the human soul of Jesus and served as the life-giving principle in the body of Christ.

Apollinarius’ View of Jesus

Apollinarius says, “The flesh, being dependent for its motions on some other principle of movement and action…is not of itself a complete living entity, but in order to become one enters into fusion with something else. So it united itself with the heavenly governing principle [the Logos] and was fused with it…Thus out of the moved and the mover was compounded a single living entity—not two, nor one compound of two complete, self-moving principles” (Apollinarius, “Fragment 107”).

J.N.D. Kelly, a prominent scholar of doctrinal history, writes, “The presupposition of this argument is that the divine Word was substituted for the normal human psychology in Christ.” Put differently, the humanity that was assumed in the incarnation was not a complete humanity but lacked a significant component of personhood. Apollinarius believed, then, that Jesus was only partially human.

The Orthodox Response

The teaching of Apollinarius was condemned at Antioch in 378 and 379 and by the Council of Constantinople in 381. The primary defender of theological orthodoxy was Gregory of Nazianzus, a 4th century Eastern theologian and the Archbishop of Constantinople.

He saw Apollinarius as compromising the saving work of Jesus: “If anyone has put his trust in him as a man without a human mind, he is really bereft of mind, and quite unworthy of salvation. For that which he has not assumed he has not healed; but that which is united to his Godhead is also saved. If only half Adam fell, then that which Christ assumes and saves may be half also; but if the whole of his nature fell, it must be united to the whole nature of Him that was begotten, and so be saved as a whole” (“To Cledonius Against Apollinarius”).

In other words, if all of Adam was lost and ruined by the Fall, then Christ, the second Adam, must put on all that Adam possessed in order to restore human nature and live the life that Adam failed to live. These issues regarding salvation motivated Gregory to articulate a Christology faithful to the Bible.

Why Does All This Matter?

If Apollinarius is right and the “Word” replaced the human soul of Jesus, we are left wondering how Christ can be fully human. Far from lacking a normal human psychology, the Gospels depict Jesus as being completely human in the way he experienced sorrow, pain, and other genuinely human experiences. Certainly Jesus Christ was fully God, as the council of Nicea maintained, but he was also fully man. And it was his deity—as well as his humanity—that allowed him to be our perfect substitute, the mediator between God and humanity for us and for our salvation.

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Know Your Heretics series: Click | View Series

Historical Background

Arius (256-336 A.D.) is the most famous heretic of Christian theology. He was born in Libya and died in Constantinople. Arius held a prominent position as a priest in the Church of Alexandria when he started a theological controversy in 318. Arius denied the eternal deity of Christ and his equality with the Father. He argued that Christ was created by the Father.

Since the age of the Apostles, Jesus had always been considered divine by his followers, but his precise relation to the Godhead had not yet been defined. Thanks to Arius, the Trinitarian controversy regarding the status of Jesus Christ erupted.

Arius’ View of Jesus

Arius did not believe that the Father and the Son were of the same substance. Instead, he believed in the eternal functional and ontological subordination of the Son to the Father—that the Son was a lower being than the Father.

According to Arius, the Son was created before time. In other words, he was not co-eternal with the Father. As he put it, “Before he was begotten or created or appointed or established, he did not exist; for he was not unbegotten” (Letter to Eusebius). Furthermore, the Son was not of one divine substance with the Father. He was rather of a similar substance with the Father (homoiousios). On this view, the divine qualities of the Son are given to him by the Father.

Arius claimed that when the Scriptures speak of Jesus as the “Son” of God, it is merely a title of honor—a title given to Jesus as the one on whom the Father had lavished a special grace. Thus, Arius says, “He is not God truly, but by participation in grace…He too is called God in name only” (Early Christian Doctrines).

Orthodox Response

The theology of Arius became so controversial that Constantine intervened in 325, calling the Council of Nicaea. Athanasius, the leading defender of Nicene orthodoxy and the most prolific writer of orthodox Trinitarian doctrine in the fourth century, saw a major flaw in the writings of Arius and called his heresy the “forerunner of the Antichrist” (Athanasius, Or. Ar. 1:1).

According to Athanasius, the Son was eternally begotten from the Father such that he can be said to be of the same essence (homoousios) with the Father: “The Son is other in kind and nature than the creatures, or rather belongs to the Father’s substance and is of the same nature as He.” (Athanasius, Contra Arianos, III).

Why Does All This Matter?

There are some today who repeat Arius’ views. However, Jesus claimed to be God and the Christian tradition has held that there is an intimate connection between salvation and the deity of Christ.

We are saved from God by God. Only a divine Savior can bear the weight of God’s wrath in atonement. Only Jesus as the God-man can satisfy the enormous debt and penalty caused by human sin against God. No mere human could bridge that gap. Only a divine Savior can pay the costly price of redeeming us from our bondage to sin and death. Only the God-man can conquer all his people’s enemies. Our salvation rests on the infinite capacities of our savior, Jesus Christ.

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To answer any significant question about where we come from, why we are here, what is right and wrong, who God is, and where we are going when we die requires doctrine. Subsequently, everyone has doctrine. The only question is whether it is truthful, biblical, and helpful.

Admittedly, in the name of being doctrinally vigorous, some people go too far and put secondary issues—those that are unworthy of battling over—in the closed hand of conviction. Conversely, some people do not go far enough and put in the open hand primary issues that are worthy of battling over. In writing Doctrine, my coauthor, Dr. Gerry Breshears, and I sought to follow the storyline of the Bible and focus on the major unifying, liberating, and life-changing doctrines of the Bible.

The timing of this book is incredibly significant. At the very least, evangelical Christians in general, and younger evangelical Christians in particular, seem incredibly confused on doctrine. One study revealing the incredible need for Doctrine is the third wave of the National Study of Youth and Religion (2008) (see note below). It reports the beliefs of the 13.5% of emerging adults (ages 18 to 23) in the United States today who self-identify as Protestant Christian and who attend an evangelical church at least “two to three times a month”:

• 97.2% believe in God.
• 96.6% believe that Jesus was/is the Son of God who was raised from the dead.
• 96.4% believe that God created the world.
• 89% “definitely” believe in angels.
• 76.2% “definitely” believe in demons.
• 82.5% “definitely” believe in any form of afterlife.
• 83.0% believe in astrology “not at all.”
• 83.2% believe in reincarnation “not at all.”
• 94.8% “definitely” believe in miracles.
• 95.0% believe in a coming judgment day, when God will reward some and punish others.
• 91.2% believe that God is a personal being who is still involved in the world today.
• 81.9% believe that only people whose sins are forgiven through faith in Jesus go to Heaven.
  Corollary: 5.3% say that only good people go to Heaven; 2.5% say that all people go to Heaven; 4.9% believe “something else” about Heaven, and 2.2% “don’t really know or care” who goes to Heaven. 3.3% don’t believe in Heaven at all.
• 1.6% tries to include practices from Buddhism, Hinduism, Zen, or other Asian religions.
• 85.5% say that it is “okay for religious people to try to convert other people to their faith.”
• 71.8% say that Christians should only practice one religion.
• 24.6% say that it is okay for Christians to practice other religions as well. (Another 3.6% don’t know.)
• Less than two-thirds (66.2%) say that “only one religion is true.”
• 70.8% say that it is not okay for Christians to “pick and choose their religious beliefs without having to accept the teachings of their religious faith as a whole.”
• More than one-quarter (27.0%) thinks that it is okay to “pick and choose.”
• 89% say that they have “a lot of respect for organized religion in this country.”
• Almost one-quarter (24.3%) agrees with or is still undecided about moral relativism.
• 36.0% “agree” or “strongly agree” that “we should adjust our views of what is morally right and wrong” to reflect changes in our world.
• 52.0% “agree” or “strongly agree” that people should not marry someone of a different religion.

REMEMBER: These statistics are from the 13.5% of emerging adults (ages 18 to 23) in the United States today who self-identify as Protestant Christian and who attend an evangelical church at least “two to three times a month.” In Doctrine we hit all these issues and many more in a readable manner.

Note: The National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) is the most comprehensive and rigorous social scientific research ever conducted on the religious and spiritual lives of American youth. It is based out of the University of North Carolina and the University of Notre Dame. The wave 1 survey was conducted among American youth ages 13 to 17 between July 2002 and April 2003, and produced a total N = 3370. Most recently, a third wave of the survey was conducted from September 24, 2007 through April 21, 2008 with the same respondents—when they were between the ages of 18 and 23 years. (This is during the first half of what developmental psychologists call “emerging adulthood.”) The National Study of Youth and Religion was generously funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. and is under the direction of Christian Smith of the Department of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. For methodological details and related publications, visit: http://www.youthandreligion.org/.

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God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong (1 Cor. 1:27).

When I Am Weak, Then I Am Strong

Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 1:27 because the religious couldn’t accept a defeated Savior, and philosophers couldn’t believe in a God who would take on frail flesh and die. Paul honed the point later by repeating what God said to him: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). Basking in this promise, Paul declared: “For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10).

The Inverted Way of Jesus

Jesus’ life and shameful death informed Paul’s thinking. Jesus spent lots of his time with the lost and the least. He talked about the last becoming first and the first becoming last. He embraced the meek and the broken—the humble ones who felt swamped with heavy burdens. He died alone, bitterly forsaken by all.

This is Jesus’ upside-down approach to our world. It is the way of his grace. We live in a world where the biggest, best, and brightest succeed and the littlest, last, and least get trampled. But Jesus disrupts and interrupts our power-fetish and our lust for significance, polishing our reputations and annihilating other people for our success. The ways of our world are interrupted by the inverted way of Jesus. Because of this, Christianity has from its beginning prized weakness and rebuffed strength.

In his book on leadership lessons from 1 Corinthians, D.A. Carson writes: “God has not arranged things so that the foolishness of the gospel saves those of us with an IQ above 130. Where would that leave the rest of us? Nor does the foolishness of what is preached transform the young, the beautiful, the extroverts, the educated, the healthy, the wealthy, the upright. Where would that leave the old, the ugly, the illiterate, the introverts, the poor, the sick, and the perverse?”

Despair of Your Ability

This leaves us in despair. But it can be “gospel despair” if it leads to trusting in Christ and not in ourselves. Martin Luther writes: “It is certain the man must utterly despair of his own ability before he is prepared to receive the grace of Christ.”

This means that we are not operating out of self-sufficiency, but out of total dependency on Christ and in need of being empowered by the Spirit. So, let’s boast in our weakness instead of displaying our self-righteousness and strength. This is obviously folly and nonsense to the world, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God.

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