Month: March 2018

A Fool’s Truth

This message was delivered by Pastor Brent at River of Life Church

…Jesus responded, “…All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.”  “What is truth?” Pilate asked. (John 18:37, 38, NLT)

Today we are continue in our series “What a fool believes”.  Last week we looked at “fools talk” and we saw how the the way people see meaning in life has changed in the last 50 years.  Well, actually, we know that the change started during the Enlightenment and had been slowly working its way through the fabric of culture and society until we arrived in our day with what is clearly a change.  Last week we looked at how the gospel addresses the ultimate questions of our world even though to those who are not listening carefully hear it as fool’s talk.

This week we are looking at “Fool’s Truth”.  When we think about our place in the world, one of the first passages I think of is John 18:37-38 when

Pilate is interrogating Jesus.

37 Pilate said, “So you are a king?” Jesus responded, “You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.” 38 “What is truth?” Pilate asked. (John 18:37–38a, NLT)

In this passage Jesus is facing a death sentence and his defence before Pilate is rooted in this idea of the truth.  Yet, for Pilate that was a foolish statement — we can almost hear his disdain when he says: “What is truth”. I think the reason I can almost hear the disdain is because it is exactly what somebody would say today if we were having a conversation about truth.  

Talking about truth is very much out of sync with our culture.  The first step was in the Enlightenment when the lead thinkers decided that God needed to be removed from all our questions about truth.  Entire thought systems of ethics and morality were created without appealing to God or his ways.

Ultimately where that led is today — where Western society believes that anything related to God is “unknowable”.  It belongs to the category of preference, or opinion — but definitely not things that we can say are true.

Truth without God looks very different than truth with God.  

Truth without God

First, without God, truth is about what can be known and since our world has arrived at a place where spiritual things can never be known, spiritual things cannot speak to what is true.  This is what our world thinks.

It is not uncommon to hear people talk about the “leap of faith” as if it were believing without evidence or even believing against the evidence.  But faith in the Bible is not like that. The leap of faith is still a movement into the unknown, but it is firmly rooted and in line with one’s knowledge and experience of faith.  The modern idea of “leap of faith” Dallas Willard calls a “leap without faith”.

Eventually, once faith has been categorized as completely personal opinion that cannot inform real knowledge or what is true, it simply doesn’t matter.  Spirituality and religion can say whatever they want to say. Who cares — the world says — it’s all just make believe.

Obviously this creates a real problem for the person of faith.  When we speak of truth or of spiritual knowledge — people think of it as “fool’s truth”.  Truth based on fantasy and imagination — not on facts.

The thing is, if you rule out that there is a spiritual world.  If you rule out God and all the things connected to God — the modern viewpoint makes sense.  But here’s the issue. Once you add God into the equation — none of the numbers add up any more.  Truth without God, in certain areas of life look very different than truth with God in the picture.

Truth with God

Now, obviously, 2×2=4 regardless of one’s faith.  In fact, the great classical mathematicians were pagan Greeks.  Later, mathematics and the teachings of Aristotle were preserved and added to by the Islamic Scholars.  So much so that our number system is actually based on the Arabic number system. At so many levels of life, faith is not part of the equation.  But at another level, it is the foundation of the equation.

Oxford mathematician John Lennox gives the illustration about a beaker of water boiling in a science lab at a university.  The professor asks the student, “why is this water boiling?” The student analyzes all the features of what makes water boil — what temperature is needed and for how long and at what specific gravity.  The professor says to the student, that’s very good, but the reason why the water is boiling is because I wanted some tea!

Truth includes revelation from God

The hard knowledge of science can give us great and wonderful information, but the spiritual dimension gives us a different layer of information.  We treat people well, not just because it adds to social cohesion and creates safe places for humans to develop and thrive — we also do it because every person is made in the image of God. Every person has value and significance. It is not connected to how much you contribute to overall social cohesion or community — you are — at the very core of being — beautiful and treasured by God.  It doesn’t matter if you’re a scholar or have intellectual challenges. It doesn’t matter if you’re a criminal or a philanthropist or straight or gay, skinny or fat or anything else — each person carries the image of God in their person and there is something of infinity..of eternity in every person.

Pol Pot and Stalin had very scientific ideas about the worth of single life. One doesn’t have to look at nature very long to see that the strong prey upon the weak in every species.  They just have to observe the male lion killing his male cubs to understand that staying powerful requires radical violent behaviour. And yet once we bring God into the equation, we see Abraham bartering with God to spare Sodom and we see Jesus reaching out touching the outcast-leper.  In this we see an alternative point of view that is very different at its core.

As soon as we allow God into the conversation, we have to account for what God says.  What God’s opinion is on a particular matter becomes an important part of the equation.  Dallas Willard makes this comment:

The “double-minded” person is someone with a reality problem. The New Testament writer James, brother of Jesus, precisely describes the life of such a person. He says that individual is “unstable in every way” (1:8). That is what lack of knowledge at the worldview level does to you. It destabilizes your whole life. (Willard, Dallas. Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge (Kindle Locations 726-728). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition).

We don’t want to have our whole lives ‘destabilized’ because we fail to accept the reality of God and allow God a place in our discussions.  Once we let God into the mix, we quickly see that…

We can know spiritual matters

Once we accept that God has spoken to specific matters and just generally about a lot of areas, we begin to see that spiritual matters shape what we know.  This doesn’t mean that the bible speaks to how old the earth is. Anyone who reads the bible will tells you God doesn’t spend a lot of time dealing with modern scientific questions.  The eternal matters – things that ultimately matter — that’s what comes out as important for us to see.

I remember seeing one-zero-zero and thinking one hundred.  I was taught this in school and never doubted. What I was not taught was that that actually depended on what base number system I was using.  In a decimal system, where after nine, you start over in the one’s column and place bump up the tens column, one-zero-zero was one hundred. But what if I were using a binary number system?  In binary one-zero-zero represents four. I remember how excited I was when I learned about different number systems. I was 20, Lise and I had just moved into our first apartment — the basement of former school teachers.  In our storage room was a box of old school books. Our landlord said if we wanted any of them to take them. The one I was interested in was a math text (and a Latin text). Reading that book — it was chapter one that they taught about number systems was the first time in my entire life that math was interesting to me.  It was a result of reading that one chapter from an old high school text book that made me buy more math books and relearn math that I never really understood as a student.

Why do I tell that story.  Because science can’t tell you if one-zero-zero is one hundred or if it is four or some other number — several could be true depending on other information.  In the computer age, we can’t even say that normally it would be one or the other because base-2, base 8, and base 16 systems are commonly used. Someone needs to give us some more information — information from outside — so we can interpret properly. Once we know it’s binary, we know it is 4.  If we learn it is decimal, we know it is 100.

When it comes to learning why the water is boiling — God gives us information from outside. God reveals to us important pieces of information that helps us understand and make decisions about our world.  God is the key that unlocks our understanding about the deep questions of life.

What is reality?

Who is well-off or blessed

Who is a truly good person?

How does one become a truly good person?

(these worldview questions are from Dallas Willard, Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge (Kindle Locations 876-878). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. )

These are the deep questions that are of ultimate importance and require information from outside our bubble to answer them. Because God has revealed the answers to these questions (and others) our …

Faith is rooted in evidence.

But it is evidence that is disallowed by an unbelieving world.

Perhaps most importantly, we need to understand that because

Faith and truth are connected, we must act on it.

Pilate asked Jesus: “What is truth?”  Many people are cynically asking that question today.  People were asking that same question in the early church.  The early centuries saw the church grow exponentially. People were accepting the ‘truth’ of Jesus.  But why? One reason was that so many christians lived authentically. What God said was truth. What was true was lived — at times — died for.  

Yes, there were fakes and phonies — but mostly there was authenticity.  They were not doubled minded people but were single-minded in their love for Christ and their commitment to live as kingdom-of-God people.

This is a big deal.  When we look at the Western world today, what passes as Christian is often a sad mess of moralistic violent nationalism.  This is the realm of the zealots of Jesus day. They were invited into his circle, but they were called to change. To love their enemies not kill them.  To be generous with their money and their time. To give value to those on the margins of life and to hunger and thirst for the just way of life what was called in those times – righteousness.  

Our truth is rooted in God and his ways.  To our world this is seen as a fool’s truth and weakness — but as Paul said long ago to people not unlike us — Christ is both the power of God and the Wisdom of God. (1Cor 1:24)

A Fool’s Choice

Introduction

We live in a world where faith and foolishness goes hand in hand. In 1 Corinthians 3:18b Pauls says, “…you need to become a fool to be truly wise.”  When Paul writes that, he does so ironically and with not a little sarcasm. Of course the wisdom of God is true wisdom.  Of course the strength of God is true strength. The irony exists though because from a purely human evaluation, God’s way looks foolish.  

Where we have been so far

    1. Fool’s Talk – Meaning and purpose about life and grasping an understanding of ourselves is found in the message of Jesus’ death on the cross
    2. Fool’s truth – people are wondering if we can speak about truth that goes beyond our material world. We discovered that truth does include revelation from God and we can speak about spiritual ultimate matters as part of what makes up real knowledge. It speaks to our deepest needs about what is love, meaning and truth. God’s truth requires us to have a faith, which is based on evidence, that we must act upon.

 

Today, we now come to the Fool’s Choice. In light of who Jesus is, in light of his death on the cross – How will we choose to live with others? When confronted about seeking achievements, comfort and success how does the story of Jesus on the cross shape my choices?

 

1 Corinthians 1:18 – The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.

N.T. Wright explained what a death on the cross meant to people in the first century – Crucifixions were common in the first century. It was a fairly standard punishment for slaves or for rebel subjects. It was a way for the Roman Empire to say “We are in power, and this is what we do to people who get in our way.” Crucifixion was unspeakably horrible, with victims often left on crosses for several days, pecked at by birds and gnawed at by vermin. It was deliberately a very public execution, to warn others: When the Spartacus rebellion was put down, roughly 100 years before Jesus’ day, 6,000 of his followers were crucified all along the Appian Way between Rome and Capua, making it more or less one cross every 40 yards for 130 miles. Anybody, and especially any slave, walking anywhere on that road would get the point. But it wasn’t just (what we would call) a “political” point. In Jesus’ day Rome was “deifying” its emperors, at least after their deaths, making the present emperor “son of god.” Rebelling against Caesar’s empire was therefore a kind of blasphemy, and crucifixion a restatement of the theological “fact” that Caesar was “Lord.” (CT – Interview – N. T. Wright: The Church Continues the Revolution Jesus Started –  In his new book, Wright explains that Jesus’ death does more than just get us into heaven.)

What the cross meant for people in the first century was weakness and death.

NT Wright in his book – The Day the Revolution Began goes on to make this observation –

The very mention of crucifixion was taboo in polite Roman circles, since it was the lowest form of capital punishment, reserved for slaves and rebels.

As for the Jews, the very idea of a crucified Messiah was scandalous. A crucified Messiah was a horrible parody of the kingdom-dreams that many were cherishing. It immediately implied that Israel’s national hope was being radically redrawn downward.

But if the Messiah’s crucifixion was scandalous to Jews, it was sheer madness to non-Jews. The early cultured despisers of Christianity had no trouble mocking the very idea of worshipping a crucified man. (Wright, N. T. (2016-10-11). The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion (Kindle Locations 669-674). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.)

But then Paul contrast this by saying the message of the cross reveals the power of God for those being saved. In other words we see in the cross the entire story of God and his rescue operation for the world. The cross opens us to a deeper meaning of knowing God. It is the pivotal moment of all time and eternity which in turn shapes how we live life.

Transition – In light of the cross we have to make a choice. Will we go the Way of Power or the Way of Weakness? Let us first consider the Way of Power?

When you think of what power looks like – what comes to mind? In our culture images of physical health, being in control, possessions of beauty and quality and having lots of money are things that we want because they all give us a sense of power. These are all the symbols of power.

 

Think of the phrases we use to describe power

  • Heavy Hitter
  • Girl Power
  • Grey Power
  • Force of Nature
  • Power Nap
  • Power Dressing
  • Corridors of Power

So many things that “just make sense” to us are rooted in the way of power. There are winners and losers. There are those who use their abilities and talents to get ahead and make a good life for themselves. If we have to push others out of the way, gain the advantage, well such is the competitive world we live in.

In a book our board is reading – The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb –

“You don’t simply go to school; you go to the right school. You don’t simply publish; you publish with the right publishers and in the right journals…it is easy to think we can achieve our way out of our struggle. It is easy to think that if we do all the right things, everything will work out…We want to buy the right house in the right neighborhood. We push our way into the right social circles. We obsess about having the right body. Our culture is dominated by the way of power.”

Goggin, Jamin; Strobel, Kyle. The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb: Searching for Jesus’ Path of Power in a Church that Has Abandoned It (p. 42). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

Power has such a pull on our souls. It is enticing and beautiful. We want it because it gives us a sense of invincibility, control and security. If you are really paying attention so much of our consumerism is meant to give us a sense of power over our lives.

  • Get a degree and manage your destiny
  • Get wrinkle cream and control the appearance of aging
  • Get that vehicle and feel the rush of life
  • Get that new renovated home and feel the pride and respect of others

Power is ultimately deadly for our souls – why? Power leads us to depend on ourselves rather than God. At the very beginning of the 10 commandments that Moses received from on Mt Sinai – was this directive from God – You must not have any other god but me. Exodus 20:3

At the heart of our sinful condition is this pull to trust in other gods that will give us a sense of power. Rather than trusting and loving God above all things – we find ourselves giving into all forms of idolatry – where we make important things like abilities, finances, family and circumstances into ultimate things. We worship these things because they falsely promise us a power that makes us feel special, self sufficient, self actualized, self significant and secure.

(This is the great irony of seeking to define personhood through power. In our pursuit to be more than, to transcend our weaknesses and frailty, we are reduced. When we seek to create a self through our professional abilities and success, we are dehumanized, becoming less than God has called us to be. And trying to sustain yourself is such a heavy burden

In this self-actualized account of human flourishing, the thrust of personhood is to achieve in my own power…we end up using God to become something powerful.) – Goggin, Jamin; Strobel, Kyle. The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb: p.49

But consider the pictures of Jesus – the images of him are very different. From the world’s view they seem so weak…

  • Born in weakness
  • Served others
  • Even when others wanted to use power he responded with mercy – which is so easily seen as weakness…

In Matthew’s gospel, we see an example of Jesus’ way in the garden of Gethsemane. The way of weakness.  Listen to Jesus’ words to Peter and the other 11.

52 “Put away your sword,” Jesus told him. “Those who use the sword will die by the sword. 53 Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly? (Matthew 26:52–53, NLT)

Just think of it.  The angelic armies of God waiting at the edge of their realm and ours . . . just waiting for the Son of God to call for their help. Think of their zeal to protect the Holy One.  But now think about this. Jesus didn’t call for them.

Choosing the way of weakness is not being weak.  It is rejecting the way of power — the way of self-promotion.  Choosing the way of weakness is redefining what success actually is.

  • Ultimately he gave his life on the cross – which was the ultimate demonstration of weakness from the world’s point of view.

There is profound depth to the death of Jesus on the cross. But one thing we must grasp is that Jesus shows us that life in God’s kingdom takes the way of the cross… the way of weakness and yet in that weakness is the very power of God…

When Jesus faced the extreme moment of weakness and rejection, he made the choice to embrace weakness instead of seeking to dominate it. In the words of Isaiah 53: 7, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”

For the follower of Jesus here is what the cross has become – Here is an excerpt from the Jesus Army – a new movement of faith:

The cross is the universal Christian symbol, acknowledged by millions of Christians everywhere as the single visual sign of their faith.

Which is weird, isn’t it? Because the cross was originally a symbol of suffering and defeat. The Roman Empire killed thousands of its enemies by nailing them to wooden crosses.

It’s like wearing a gibbet around your neck. Or hanging a little golden lethal injection from your necklace.

Jesus Christ was executed 2,000 years ago by the Romans. But Christians believe Jesus didn’t stay dead— that Jesus beat death and rose again, beyond death’s reach.

That makes the cross not a sign of death, but a sign of the end of death. A sign of hope, a sign of possibility— for every human being. That’s why Christians wear crosses.    (Wright, N. T. (2016-10-11). The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion (Kindle Locations 432-439). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.)

FOR THE SAKE OF LOVE WE WILL….

The path of power for Jesus can said that he suffered, he was a sacrifice, but ultimately it is about the fact that he loved… out of that love gave his life…

God demonstrates his love for us in this – While we were still sinners Christ died for us – Romans 5:8

Christ became weak to demonstrate his amazing love. As Charles Wesley in his famous hymn asked – “Amazing Love how can it be that thou my God shouldst die for me?”

Let me quote NT Wright again –

It seems as though the world knows in its bones that the cross of Jesus was the ultimate revelation of true power and true love… speaks of the true God not as a distant, faceless bureaucrat, nor as a bullying boss, but as the one who has strangely come into the middle of the pains and sorrows of the world and taken their full force on himself.

Will we go the way of weakness? Choosing a life of love

Think about it… love often/always takes us the way of weakness. Everytime I think about demonstrating love in my marriage, my family, my neighbours, my enemies, strangers…if I am profoundly honest it means giving up, taking a risk, sacrificing, suffering…in other words- love leads me in the way of weakness.

That is where love led God.

BUT HOW?

And the only way we can go this way of weakness…is acknowledging that with Jesus we are weak without Him…nothing…we may gain the world but without Him we are nothing…in the path of weakness we learn something important about ourselves…if we want to flourish as a human being – becoming a weighty soul – we must become the abiding self in Christ – not the actualized self apart from Christ/

Human flourishing is not about self-actualization, but about discovering our life in Christ. Flourishing entails discovering our insufficiency and coming to rest in the sufficiency of his grace. This is what a genuinely human existence really looks like.

“My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.