Peter the Disciple

Since we are all about “Making Disciples and Creating Community” I thought we might look more closely at a disciple, the genuine article. In any list of the disciples in the Gospels, this man’s name comes first – he is, of course, Peter.

We pick up Peter’s story, not at the beginning, but much later, as he is leading the church and the mission of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. Peter’s path crosses the path of a Roman soldier named Cornelius. He is described as,

“a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave generously to others and prayed constantly to God.” Acts 10.2

God arranges for Peter to be summoned to this man’s house so they could meet. It was not a chance meeting. God wanted Peter to meet this man. God had plans for the both of them.

To understand what those plans were you need to know that were some disagreements and controversies swirling around the church in those days. What?!! I know. Apparently even the New Testament Church sometimes had disagreements. This one was a pretty big one. It revolved around the question of whether a non-Jewish convert to Christianity had to practice their faith according to Jewish law and customs. Mind you, most of the church thus far was made up of ethnic Jews, the people of the circumcision, the Torah, and kosher dietary laws. But there were also non-ethnic Jews converting to the Jesus Way and the Apostle Paul was telling them they didn’t have to be circumcised and follow Moses. In fact, Paul was telling them they shouldn’t do these things, that they were free of the law in Christ.

But the Jewish Christians, not to mention all other Jews, believed there was only one right way to follow God, and that was through the law of Moses and the prophets. Why did they believe the Law of Moses to be so important?

Because God told them it was important! God told them the choice between obeying or not obeying the Law was the choice between life and death (see Joshua and Deuteronomy). Paul knew all this but believed that God was speaking a new word on behalf of not just the Jews but for all peoples.

Have you ever been stuck in a rut in your knowledge and opinions? It’s amazing how we become conditioned to see only what we expect to see.

On a cold January morning in 2007, a young man named Joshua Bell took his violin and went to a Washington DC Metro Station to play. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately two thousand people went through that station, most of them on their way to work. The musician played and only six people stopped to listen. A few people dropped dollars into his case totaling $32. He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed and no one applauded. No one knew that Joshua Bell is one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where seats averaged $100. This is a true story and it was part of a social experiment on perception. Do we only see and hear what we expect to? How many things are we missing?

The leaders of church in Jerusalem wanted to put a muzzle on Paul. Paul was not doing what they expected to be done. Peter was sympathetic to his spiritual brother, but he felt caught in the middle and he wavered and vacillated. But God was already working on that.

“Peter went up on the housetop to pray at about the sixth hour, and he became hungry and desired something to eat. While he waiting for the food to be prepared, he into a trance. . .”
Peter was observing one of the daily prayer times for a devout Jew, the sixth hour. He was very hungry and soon fell into a trance. I know what a hunger-induced trance is like. I get them. I start thinking Arby’s. Or I look at my wife with a wild look in my eyes – she knows that it’s not romance on my mind – it’s a juicy sirloin, it’s a big plate of pasta I lust for.

I don’t know that it was hunger that caused Peter’s vision. I think Peter the disciple knew that intentional prayer, times of solitude, meditation, and fasting could bring understanding and a word from God. Peter had been trained in these things by a pretty good teacher, in fact,, the best.

So Peter was able to hear what God wanted him to hear and see what God wanted him to see. This is what Peter saw:

A vision of something like a great sheet falling from heaven and the sheet was filled with all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds. All kinds, not just Jewish, kosher kinds. All kinds. And then Peter heard God say:

“Come on and eat, Peter.” Come on over to the all-you-can-eat ham and bacon buffet. Now to you and me, that sounds pretty good and pretty right. To me everything tastes better with bacon. In fact, just the other day I suggested bacon-flavored ice cream. You heard it here first.

But this word to Peter, a devout Jew, was shocking. It went against everything he had been taught to believe. In fact, Peter’s first words were, “No, Lord.” Peter thought God had slipped up, maybe had a moment of weakness Himself. God would come to his senses. Peter would hold the fort until God came to himself.

But God said, “What I have cleansed, you must not call unclean.” Acts 10.15

So why did God tell Peter this? Why was it wrong for Moses and the Israelites to eat the very animals that God was now telling Peter to dig into?

Jaroslav Pelikan calls this, “the divine nullification and repeal of the Mosaic Law.” That’s a fancy way of saying God changed His mind. Or if you prefer, God decided to do a new thing, reveal a new part of his plan of Salvation for all peoples.


When my boys were innocent toddlers, they spent whole days going around touching things and holding things and licking things and generally getting to know the world outside themselves. It’s how we learn. But with this wonderful curiosity, I had to caution them to be careful about certain things. Don’t touch that flame, it’s hot, it’s hot. Be careful of that bee “it will sting. It will bite you.” Stay away from the lawnmower. It’s dangerous. It can cut you.

That was good teaching for them then. But now, it’s not the teaching they need. Now I’m trying to teach them – boy, this is the lawnmower. This is how it works. It’s not just for dads. You too, can learn to use the lawnmower. To which they try to respond, “But dad, you told us to stay away from the lawnmower. Dad you said. . .”

God teaches new things so that we can believe and learn and grow.

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” Isaiah 43.18-19

Peter perceived that God was doing a new thing. It wasn’t just opening up the earthly buffet. Peter understood the implications of this for the Great Commission.

“Go and make disciples of all peoples teaching them the commandments” of God revealed in Jesus. Matthew 28.19-20

Peter said , “Truly I now see (perceive) that God shows no partiality but in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” Acts 10.34

Truly I now see. Disciples learn to see what God is doing now. Disciples learn to listen to the music, not just in the concert hall but in the metro station. A disciple can do this because a disciple is always following the Teacher. A disciple doesn’t stay put and pretend that they’ve heard enough. A disciple isn’t forever stuck on lesson one ten years ago. A disciple trains. She follows the Master Musician, the Lord of the Dance.

So let’s give praise to Peter, a true disciple. In the beginning he was thickheaded, loudmouthed, and cowardly. But he became thoughtful and wise, bold and gentle, a leader in tune with the workings of the Spirit of God. If God can grow Peter, maybe God can grow you and me. What is the Spirit speaking to you today?

Where Does Courage Come From?

The summer after my fourth grade year I went to church camp at Central Oak Heights, which by the way this past month celebrated a 100th Anniversary. Back then it was our main Methodist church camp. The week of camp I attended had well over 200 kids, just for elementary camp. And I was just another kid in a crowd. I would not have been noticed by anyone unless they were looking to give an award for the shyest, most introverted kid there at camp. Then I might have won.

For example, when we got to cabins that first Sunday afternoon, my buddy, Mike, whom we’ll call, Mr. Extrovert, wanted to immediately go visit the girl’s cabins. I suggested we just sit on our bunks and watch the bugs call around the floor. That’s how I felt most of the week, from what I remember. But something else happened that week. I know this because during the closing program I found myself standing up in front of the whole camp - the 200 plus kids, plus the adult staff, plus all the parents that had come for the program – and telling them what Jesus had come to mean to me.

How did that happen?

Last weekend was good in many ways. One way was Marlin Snider got us thinking about how God uses significant people in our lives to introduce us to a relationship with Him in Jesus. God calls us to trust, to fall into his arms, and to step out in courageous faith to be witnesses and make disciples of Jesus. Marlin shared this passage from the Gospel of Mark and I have been thinking about this passage every day. Let’s think about it together.

Jesus is telling the disciples and a larger crowd people that He would have to suffer greatly and then he would be executed. This was his message for the day.

“He said all this quite openly.” Mark 8.32

Too openly for Peter. Peter takes Jesus aside and says, whoa Jesus, what you doing? All this talk about suffering and sacrifice and death, it’s not really going over so well with the crowd. It’s too depressing. Can’t be a little more upbeat?

Jesus response to Peter was, “You’re the devil.”

Then Jesus, instead of shutting up, calls out like this:

IF ANYONE WANTS TO BECOME MY FOLLOWER, DENY YOURSELF, TAKE UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOW ME. IF YOU TRY TO SAVE YOUR LIFE YOU WILL LOSE IT. IF HOWEVER YOU LOSE YOUR LIFE FOR MY SAKE AND THE SAKE OF THE GOSPEL YOU WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE.

Jesus didn’t need a megaphone or a sound system. His Word was its own megaphone, the Holy Spirit the sound system to broadcast to minds and hearts. Do you understand how powerful a punch was packed into this declaration?

Deny yourself and take up your cross. I’ve heard people reference this phrase in their own lives but usually in ways that have little to do with what Jesus meant. A man might complain that he works long hours at his job but is grossly underpaid while some other fat cats are living the easy live. He thinks he is getting the short end of life, he’s being cheated, but somehow in his cranky, bitter, complaining way, that should count as a credit to his self-denial, something for which he should be rewarded one day. Or a woman complains about her grown children who never treat her right, who never do what she thinks they should do, who have never properly thanked her for all she has sacrificed. She repeats this litany of complaint over and over in her mind and to whomever will stand to listen to it. She surmises, with a sigh of self-pity, “I guess this is just my cross to bear.”

That’s not what Jesus meant. These kind of folks have turned ordinary trials into things to draw more attention to themselves. Jesus wants us truly to turn our backs on the old self and its constant need for attention and validation. To take up your cross is to give your life away to God and others with increasingly less thought for your rights and your expectations.

“We need to take people off of men and put them onto Christ.” George Fox


If you try to save your life you lose it.

Taking up the cross and following Jesus involves practicing discipline. Dallas Willard says, “the real making of a person comes from disciplines that only they can choose and impose on themselves.” You freely choose to follow Jesus because, though the disciplines will not at first come naturally or easily to you, it has become clear to you on some level that the Jesus Way of life is superior to what you or others have going on.

You realize that you are a poor savior. I am a poor savior. I can’t even save money very well. How will I save my soul? How will I save my life? What do I gain in living life in this world if I lose myself in the process?

Our favorite TV shows these days are Man vs. Wild and Survivorman. Our opinions vary on which is better. Both purport to show the average coach potato how to survive in the extreme wilderness for days with nothing but a pocketknife and a string. There are skills they anyone can learn – how to build a shelter, how to make a fire, how to find things to eat – that will improve your chances of survival. One of our personal favorites is the episode when Bear Grylls, the host of Man vs. Wild, eats Reindeer “raisins”, if you know what I mean.

Bear Grylls knows how to live in the wild, but many of you may not know that he has learned some other practices and skills for life. He has taken and now promotes a course on Christian belief and discipleship called the Alpha Course, which originated in Grylls’ homeland of Great Britain. The man who has navigated dangerous rapids and faced hungry grizzlies says this about Alpha and following the way of Jesus:

“When you get a chance to be saved, you gotta grab it.”

I’m afraid we sometimes look at reading the Bible, praying, and other spiritual disciplines as something unreal, unconnected to real life. So if we’re going to do it at all, it’s something that we have to portion out in little pieces as “something that’s going to be unpleasant” and unprofitable, instead of what it is, something that could save our lives.

“We know that all things work together for the good for those who love God and called according to His purpose.” Romans 8.28

“Before you cash those checks,” Dallas Willard says, “notice they are made out to disciples of Jesus.”

It is possible to learn over time, with much discipline and practice, how to live like Jesus would live if He were you. It is possible, moment by moment to ask, “What, Father, do you desire to be done this minute?” This is what Jesus did. When we follow Jesus the Kingdom of God becomes more real to us and the ways of the world are exposed for what they are – a dog and pony show.

Whoever is ashamed of me and my words. . .of them the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

How does the unbelieving believe? How does someone who knows about God come to know God? You decide to follow. You lay down control and let Jesus take over. You practice the presence of God in your life continually. Live your life in the Kingdom of God now – my real life, the one I am actually living. Not just in church or on religious occasions.

“Seek first the Kingdom of God and his kind of righteousness.”

How does a timid soul become a disciple who tells others? First step is know Jesus and love Jesus. You can’t give to others what you do not have.

What to do now? Convert the world? No. Convert the church? No. Your first move “as you go” is – convert me.

Convert me. When that happens Jesus will make us witnesses in ways we may not even see coming. I don’t know it happens, it just does. Witnesses, to wit, is to cause others to know. We don’t manipulate, we don’t force. But in a winsome way the light of Jesus shines powerfully through us. Courage comes from walking with Him.

We truly are the light of the world, a city set on a hill. May it come true here and now what Tertullian wrote of those first century Christians –

Men cry out that the state is besieged; the Christians are in the fields, in the ports, in the islands. . .we are but of yesterday, and yet we have filled every place belonging to you – cities, islands, castles, towns, assemblies, your very camps, your tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum; we leave you your temples only. Our numbers increase the more you destroy us. The blood of the martyrs is their seed.

Soul Care

The goal of the Christian disciple is that we would be fully transformed in our character so to have the character of Christ. We said this happens not by trying harder, but by training as an apprentice of the Master, receiving his instruction and his power. To “put off the old person, as St. Paul says, and put on the new,

“Until Christ is formed in you.” Galatians 4.19

Your soul is something that needs more attention before you die than after. There is a lot to be said and learned about the soul, but for our purposes we will simply understand the soul to be the hidden or spiritual side of the person. It includes an individual’s thoughts and feelings, along with heart, or will, with its intents and choices. We may think of the soul as our essential self.

Spiritual formation, whether it is Christian, Buddhist, or atheist, is simply the process by which the human spirit or will is given a definite form or character. Make no mistake, it is a process that happens to everyone. The worst and the best persons have had spiritual formation. Their spirits have been formed, into something incredibly good and beautiful, fit for heaven, or into something utterly horrible and wicked, and only at home in Hell.

“There is a hidden dimension to every human life, one not visible to others or fully graspable even by ourselves,” Dallas Willard writes. “This is God’s gift to us in creation, that we might have the space to become the persons we choose to be. From here we manage our lives as best we can, utilizing whatever resources of understanding, emotion, and circumstance are available. It is here that we stand before God and our conscience.”

Christian spiritual formation is using any means available to help us do by training what we cannot do by direct effort, that is be made like Jesus. You might say, well what about the Holy Spirit, what about grace? This is all done in grace by the power of the Holy Spirit. Grace is opposed to earning not to effort.

“Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and work for his good pleasure.” Philippians 2.12-13

Christian spiritual formation is not only wanting to “be merciful, kind, and patient” (Colossians 3) but also planning and doing to become so. It must be briefly said that for many of us we have counted on listening to sermons and singing a few songs, and maybe even, attending a Sunday School class to form us. This strategy has not turned out well. We have multitudes of professing Christians who may be ready to die but obviously are not ready to live, and can hardly get along with themselves, much less with others. Worship, sermons,, and classes are necessary practices but are in themselves, very incomplete as regards to spiritual formation. They are particularly incomplete if they do not touch the soul, the hidden life of the person. How many of us have left worship and felt unmoved, untouched, or unchanged? A person without spiritual practices is hard soil for the Word of God of to find purchase on.

Good spiritual formation includes many practices and practices essential to the individual. It happens every day, not just one a week or twice a month. Spiritual practices or disciplines are all the tools in our tool belt available to us for our training to become like Jesus. As such, there is no complete list of spiritual practices, but there is obviously some core practices – worship, confession, study, prayer, solitude, silence, celebration, service, witness, fasting – that should be used by every disciple in training.

I want to focus just on three practices this morning, solitude, silence, and scripture memorization.

These practices are related and essential to us being freed from the tyrannical grip of our present culture. These, like all good practices, strive to put God constantly before our minds. One way spiritual practices change us is by changing our thought processes. Sinful people cannot stand to think about God and about who He is. So practice helps us to think about God on a regular basis in the midst of our daily lives.

Solitude - “go away by yourself.” Be still and know God. Slowing is the term for a related practice. Many people, well-meaning people, cannot succeed in being kind because they are too rushed to get things done. “Haste has worry, fear, and anger as close associates,” Willard notes. Get away from the talk, the noise, the electronics and “do nothing.” Dare to be by yourself. Being by yourself frightens some of you. I know people who, even when they are with others, have trouble sitting still, you can see it in their eyes and in the nervous movement of the hands and feet. Presumably it’s because “they have too much to do.” Let’s be clear – God never gives anyone too much to do. We do that to ourselves or allow others to do it to us. And when we live this way we are expressing no confidence in God and the fact that He is working at all.

When we practice solitude we are saying Lord I trust my life and my world in your faithful hands. Everything good that happens is because of your efforts. I rest at ease in you. Take solitude daily, weekly, monthly and annually. Get away to the woods, the beach, or simply your back porch.

Silence – Jesus knew when to talk and when to be quiet. He had this ability because he spent more than twenty years as part of a sometimes rancorous family. He was, for most of his life, a blue-collar worker, a tradesman, an independent contractor. He knew what it was like to “do business with the public.” Everything Jesus taught he had already practiced. His brother James saw and learned this. He later wrote about the power of patience in the daily events of life, manifested above all by an inoffensive tongue. (James 3.2) Many supposedly faithful Christians use vile language, and the vilest is when they strike others with their sharp words. You don’t have to use a curse word to curse someone with your tongue. How does the inside of your car sound when you are stuck in traffic or cut off by someone in front of you, or even in a tense moment at home? People say, “That’s just me. I can’t help it.” But this is giving undo power to our sinful ways. Hurting people with our tongue is not like the Law of Gravity. It’s not a law of nature that makes us assassinate the humanity of others.

We can change. We begin by asking God’s help to do this good thing. We continue by practicing controlling our tongue. Shut it when bad stuff is going to come out. That idea of venting to let it out – forget it, it’s wrong. Venting, at least in hurtful ways, only grows the anger in you. You call someone a jerk because it makes you feel like you have power over them. And calling someone a name lies on a continuum with shooting him.

“You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also. . .” Matthew 5.38-39

This verse lived out will feel very difficult for some and even impossible for others. But for the disciple in training the difficulty, with practice, will give way to nothing out of the ordinary, to the point where you stop thinking about it at all - because your heart and mind are on pleasing God.

Scripture memorization - the most effective way to get your mind on God is by getting God’s Word in your mind. Again, our usual way of limiting our exposure to the Bible to Sunday mornings isn’t working. What the Church used to do right we aren’t doing anymore. We need to recover the practice of Scripture memorization. And not just for the kids either.

“This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth.” Joshua 1.8

That’s where we need it, in our mouths. How did it get there? Memorization. Lots of people would stay out of trouble if they had been muttering scripture. When you hear stories about men and women who have, as they say, fallen, the sad thing is not just that they fell, but what has been in their mind all along, possibly for many years or even all their life. Think about, in Paul’s words, what is good and true and beautiful instead. Read a verse, a passage or chapter in the morning or the night before and keep muttering it through the day. Ask yourself if this is not better than the usual litany of silly songs and useless clutter our culture serves up to our consuming minds everyday. For example, the words of Psalm 23 are much better than the words to the Adams Family TV show that I found myself singing the other day. I’m going to challenge our classes and small groups on this point, to make scripture memorization a regular part of our life together. And I challenge you take that up in your daily devotion. If we do not know the Bible it cannot help us.

These practices, along with many others will help us to train for inward and outward change with the help of God’s power and grace. People in training learn the keys to life and the acceptance of the everyday problems of life. We become “grace-full” people. It eventually looks effortless, this changing of our personality, but the disciple knows the amount of training that is required.

How Jesus Changes Us

Whatever is inside us will come out. Nothing stays hidden forever. I remember years ago an upscale restaurant in Pittsburgh, Poli’s, was getting ready for a grand reopening. The Mt. Washington restaurant had everything – a great chef, fine décor, a magnificent view of the downtown skyline, and a pricey menu to makes lots of money. But Poli’s had one other thing, a thing it didn’t want – a little bit of a rat problem. They were aware of the rodent infestation, but they did little about it. They hoped it would go away. The day of the opening came and the place was packed, people enjoying their cuisine, everything going along just as planned, until the ceiling crashed in, literally, from the weight of all the rats running around up there.

“Waiter, there’s a rat in my soup!” Check please!

Sin is like that. You can cover it up, but like so many rats, it will find its way out. We spend sizeable amounts of time and energy on trying to cover up our sin – Sin Management if you will. But Sin won’t be managed. It doesn’t really obey us. We end up becoming its slaves.

I was watching Oliver Stone’s Vietnam movie, Platoon, the other night and the ending monologue by the main character goes something like, “I see now that we were not fighting the enemy, we were fighting ourselves, for the possession of our souls. . .”

The enemy is within. St. Paul describes this battle so accurately in Romans 7:

“When I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. . .I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” Romans 7.21-23

Sin lies close at hand. In fact, we have been trained in sin. Sin comes naturally to us. Its in our nature. No amount of will power on our own will change this. Remember the lesson of the Pharisees!

Look at the disciples at Gethsemane with Jesus. He asks them to watch and pray with him. Now, if there ever is a time when you want to stay focused and give prayer your best effort, this is the time. You are in the presence of Jesus! You are praying to the Heavenly Father in a prayer circle with His Son!

And they fell asleep.

“So you could not stay awake with me one hour? The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”
Matthew 26.41

Even the disciples couldn’t do it by their own efforts. The flesh is too weak. We can’t even do the obvious right thing.

Our goal is not conformity of our outward behavior – that’s little more than sin management. Our goal is complete transformation of character and that comes from learning how to act in concert with Jesus Christ.

Dallas Willard writes, “Often when we do the right thing we have already done the wrong thing, because that is what was sitting in our body “at the ready.” Intention alone cannot suffice in most situations. . .we must be ‘in shape’. If not, trying will normally be too late or totally absent.”

This is important stuff. If I am a habitually angry person, anger is my default position. I am always at the ready to be angry. And there are countless opportunities in the course of a single day (driving in traffic anyone?) for me to feed my anger. If I am a habitually lustful person, then I have been trained in lust and my flesh will find opportunity to feed my lust.

Sin is always at the ready. But here is the Good News – Heaven is ready to help!

“Jesus came preaching, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’” Matthew 4.17

Heaven is not just or even primarily a distant location. Heaven is the kingdom of God’s power and rule. All His resources become available to us through Jesus Christ. Jesus has brought it all close to us and makes his power ready through the Holy Spirit.

When we repent of our sin and decide to follow Jesus then we are born again. We are given the life of Christ as our own life. We are given the keys to the kingdom that we may enter in. We are given the spiritual power that comes with regeneration.

“All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” Romans 8.14

Spiritual growth is simply the process of training in Christ’s power and character. It is the process whereby the old Rich dies and Jesus in Rich grows.

“If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. . .set your minds on things that are above, not on earthly things. . .put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed.. . .these are the ways you once followed when you were living that life. But now you must get rid of such things – anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practice.” Colossians 3.1-9

St. Paul describes the first steps of spiritual transformation like taking off old dirty clothes and putting on fresh, clean clothes. Strip off the old and put on the new!

“As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. . . and above all clothe yourselves with love. . .” Colossians 3.12, 14

Remember, this is not just trying harder. The difference is the entering into and living in the power of the readily available Kingdom of God. And the difference is in this consistent living and training in said power. In the Spirit’s power I learn how to be patient and kind instead of angry and irritable. In the Spirit’s power my very members are train to be content and giving instead of greedy and self-serving. This is how Jesus changes us, this is how His character is formed in us.

“Until Christ is formed in you,” Paul wrote the Galatians (chapter 4, verse 19)

I cannot stress enough that this does not naturally happen even after we say the sinner’s prayer. Time alone won’t make me kinder, more generous, or more loving. Time alone won’t even make me wiser. I need the grace, power, and truth that Jesus gives to his consistent students. We must walk the road with Jesus. We must engage the practices and work of a disciple. Next week we will specifically look at some of this work and these practices.

When I became pastor of my first parish, I had no secretary and the church office was in the basement of the parsonage. The office was equipped with a desk and phone, a typewriter and an old Gestetner machine. I didn’t know what a Gestetner was. It was a machine for making copies. You put the master carbon sheet of whatever you had typed on the big drum and put your paper in over here, and there was a big crank handle and you cranked the handle and that pushed the paper through and against your master carbon sheet. When it worked well, you literally cranked out the copes one at a time. When it didn’t work well, which was often, you could spend hours trying to copy the Sunday morning bulletins.

I stared in wide eyed wonder at this machine and my instructor. I was sure I had seen this thing in the Smithsonian Institution one time. And then I glanced in the other corner of the small office. There sat what looked to be a brand new Xerox copier. I asked my instructor,

“Does that work?” Yes, of course.

“Why don’t we just use that, wouldn’t that be much better?”

“We’re saving it for later,” was the answer I got. They found they could “get by” with the old one, though it was troublesome and time-consuming and produced poor quality.

That’s about as much sense as it makes for us to invite Jesus to forgive our sins and then fail to learn how to follow him as Lord and Master of our lives. He gives us keys to the kingdom of life. He teaches us a better way, a more powerful way. Why keep putting in time and effort in a broken down machine when there is a new one waiting to be used?

Someone Worth Following

I remember reading about a marathon in which, at one point, most of the runners took a wrong turn and ended up off course for a good bit of the race. They got lost in a marathon. Apparently, the lead runner took the wrong turn and everyone else followed him, figuring he knew where he was going – everyone followed except for one guy. That guy who didn’t follow ended up winning the race. Afterwards, the winner was interviewed and asked why he didn’t follow everyone else.

“I knew they had taken a wrong turn,” the runner said. “I couldn’t believe that many people could make the same mistake, but they did.”

It is possible for a lot of people to be wrong. And it is especially important to know who it is you are following. It’s important to know whether the one who is leading you knows what they are doing.

A disciple of Jesus is one who follows Jesus where he is leading. A disciple observes, listens, learns, practices, and does what the Master does. A disciple is an apprentice like someone learning to be a mason, an electrician, a musician, a doctor.

You can be a follower of many different people, philosophies, or things. One of the major problems of our time or any time is the problem of idolatry. Lest you think that is an outdated, Old Testament word, think again. Idolatry is, in Timothy Keller’s definition, “making a good thing and ultimate thing.” It is taking something of limited value and saying this thing is everything to me. You don’t have to dance around a golden calf to have an idol. Your idol can be television. It can be your investments. It can be sports. An idol is something you give worship-like reverence to that is unworthy of your worship and reverence.

Nothing in the creation is worthy of your worship. Nothing in the material world has enough substance, enough gravitas. Nothing in the creation can direct the creation to redemption and fulfillment. Nothing in the creation can save the Creation from the inexorable effects of the Fall. Nothing can put a stopper on death.

But there is one outside of the Creation, one who was begotten, not made, who is spoken of in Colossians as the firstborn of the Creation, meaning, He precedes all that was created.

“for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created. . .all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Colossians 1.15-17

Jesus is Creator and Master. He brought this world into being, and to paraphrase an old Bill Cosby line, “he can take it out.” But he chooses to redeem all that would be redeemed.

He is the one who said, “I have been given say over all things in heaven and earth. So you go. . .” Matthew 28.18


The first people who met Jesus recognized the qualities of one who was truly Master.

“Jesus went through Galilee, teaching. . .and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So his fame spread . . .and great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis (Ten Cities), Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.”
Matthew 4.23-25

The sin and weakness of the church today is that we don’t see that anymore. Jesus is nothing that special to us, at least in terms that make an impact upon us. Jesus is a mere icon, a ghost-like semblance of a man, barely conscious who inspires little but the weakest religious homage. If this is Jesus, then why would I want to emulate him or follow him?

It doesn’t make sense to sing “Fairest Lord Jesus” if Jesus is average or ho-hum. Maybe our worship suffers because we don’t see him as fair or pure or bright-shining?

But Jesus as he really is inspires crowds to follow, sick people healed, lost people found, ignorant people taught good news, indifferent people ready to drop all and give all.

Jesus is the smartest human being, the most capable, the most powerful, the most true and loving. He is the brightest thing on the human scene. There is no competition.

He is the one “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Colossians 2.3

Someone who chooses to follow Jesus believes that Jesus knows what he is doing.

People who met Jesus regarded him as master of every domain of life. Jesus is the one person whose deeds always matched his good words. The counterpoint to that is the Pharisees. Dallas Willard makes this striking statement about them:

“In many ways, the Pharisees were the finest people of their day.” He wasn’t being sarcastic or flippant. The Pharisees really were the best at living religious, moral lives. The problem is, that way of living doesn’t work. You can shine the outside the cup so often but it doesn’t clean the dirt on the inside. This is why when some guy goes crazy and takes a gun to work and starts shooting, almost invariably, it’s some quiet guy who never really stood out as good or bad. Nobody really knew him. The neighbors are interviewed and they say, “We had no idea he was like that. He always seemed okay. He kept to himself.”

You can present a façade. But what is really on the inside will eventually come out. Apples come from apple trees. Lies come from liars. Killings come from killers. It all comes from the heart. That was Jesus’ judgment on the Pharisees. Do what they say, but don’t do what they do. Their way doesn’t work. They are their own worst argument.

Human problems cannot be solved by human means. Human life can never flourish unless it pulses with the “immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe” Ephesians 1.19

Only the constant students of Jesus, in other words, disciples, will be given adequate power to fulfill their lives and callings. Next week we will look at how Jesus actually changes us into new people.

Hometown Discount

He came to his country and to his hometown. They all knew him. They loved him they said. They knew his mother and father, his brothers and sisters. His power and wisdom were obvious. It left people asking, “Where did he get this? Where did this come from?”

Novelist Thomas Wolfe wrote You Can’t Go Home Again. You can visit. But after you’ve left a place, the place will not receive back for good. Because you’ve changed. And the place has changed, though it may think it is the same.

Jesus is facing this reception. He is teaching like Messiah but they want to keep him the carpenter’s son. Jesus suffered from the hometown discount. They automatically discounted that he could be a prophet. There’s no way that he could be Messiah, because he’s from here. In words of a Keith Green song, “Prophets don’t grow up from little boys, do they?”

Can you imagine what it must have been like for Jesus’ brothers and sisters? How hard must it have been for them to believe that their brother was the Anointed One, the very Son of God?

There is a reason that in the United Methodist Church pastors are not appointed to their home church. It’s too difficult. There’s too many people that remember you as the kid who vomited during the Christmas pageant. You can’t go home again. It’s nice to visit. It was a nice visit we had with Mark Hecht last month. He obviously has a great ministry. You can be proud of him. But he couldn’t have stayed in Duncansville just like I couldn’t stay in Williamsport. I would have always been waiting for my sister Kathy to let the cat out of the bag, that in fact I’m not a holy man at all. I’m the one who once chased her around the house with a kitchen knife. Psychopath, maybe, pastor, uh, no.

In fact, Jesus’ brothers did have trouble believing that he was a prophet and more than a prophet. In John’s Gospel chapter seven it says that Jesus stayed in Galilee and refused to go to Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill and he wasn’t ready to be killed yet. His own brothers urged him to go to Judea to make himself known.

“No man works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. Show yourself to the world.”

Being a brother myself, and having observed my own sons, I know the thoughts that can creep into brother’s hearts. Jesus’ brothers may have genuinely wanted Jesus to “take it to the next level” in Judea, to go worldwide. And they may have also thought, Son of God? We’ll see. Let him stick out his neck in Judea. If he survives that, then we’ll believe.

“For even his brothers did not believe in him.” John 7.5

How did Jesus react to all this?

“He was amazed at their unbelief.” Mark 6.6

He may have understood it, but he was still amazed and disturbed by it. Which leads me to wonder what Jesus thinks of the Church today. It is easy for us who have grown up in the church to remember our favorite time or our favorite way to experience God. It’s fine to have these memories and fine to treasure them. But the church is not a museum to preserve old furniture and antiques. The church is not the Library of Congress here to preserve old records. We are a living community of people serving a living God!

In Matthew 12, someone asks Jesus for a sign and he says enough with signs. You’ve had the sign of Jonah, but something greater than Jonah is here. You had the sign of Solomon, but something greater than Solomon is here. The purpose of religion is to clean out the house of the human heart to allow room for the living God to come and dwell. If you clean out the house but don’t let the Master come in and live, then the ghosts that you chased out before will return in greater force and number.

Maybe our problem is one of geography. We’ve been in the same location for so long that we’ve forgotten, oh yeah, we are actually following that old boy, Jesus, and he’s still on the move!

There is a scene in Will Ferrell’s movie, Talledega Nights, in which his character, Ricky Bobby, prays to “tiny, baby Christmas Jesus” for success in his next race. He thanks God for KFC and the always delicious Taco Bell, for his striking boys and his smoking hot wife (who hasn’t prayed that prayer?) and continues, “tiny infant Jesus. . .” when his wife interrupts:

“Hey, umm, you know sweetie, Jesus did grow up.You don’t always have to call him baby. It’s a bit odd and off-putting to pray to a baby.”

To which Ricky Bobby responds, “Look, I like the Christmas Jesus best and I’m saying grace. When you say grace you say it to grown up Jesus, or teenage Jesus, or bearded Jesus or whoever you want.”


The discussion continues. Ricky’s friend likes to picture Jesus as a rock star while Ricky’s son, Texas Ranger, likes to picture Jesus as a ninja fighting off Samurai. This may all seem silly to you, but the truth is we all like to picture Jesus in the way the is most comfortable to us – remembering him at a certain time of year (Christmas, Easter) at a certain time in our lives, or simply as an unseen spirit supporting our efforts and agenda.

Listen to Ricky’s wife, “Jesus did grow up.” In fact, Jesus is still living and hoping to grow the church, which he called “his body.”

Is the body of baby Jesus still growing? To paraphrase and old hymn, “Are we still alive?”

What would change if grown-up Jesus were walking around this building today? Maybe he has a beard, maybe he doesn’t. He’s dressed like you and me. He talks and laughs. Sometimes he shouts and sometimes he just gets quiet and thinks. He’s a real person and he’s really God.

But he’s walking around here with us. Hmm.

The problem with the hometown church is that we stop expecting and stop wanting walkin’ talkin’ Jesus to doing any thing new around here. We want eight pound six ounce Jesus. We want Christmas Eve Jesus because he’s warm and cute and won’t trouble us.

That’s want the people of Nazareth wanted. And because of their unbelief,

“ he could do no mighty work there. . .” Mark 6.5


In the book of Revelation, or the Apocalypse, Jesus speaks to the churches. To the church at Ephesus, this is what Jesus says:

“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear eivil men but have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, you have abandoned your first love. Remember then, from what you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first.”
Revelation 2.2-5

Jesus judgment of the church is that the church has stopped loving Jesus.

Let us return to the love that brought us here to be the church.

Fear Not

(show picture of crocodile)

G-day mates! I see some familiar faces from Crocodile Dock. I wonder if you remember our theme from the Dock?

Fear Not! That’s right. There are lots of things to be afraid of out there. I used to be afraid of crocs! I would see a croc and I would shout, “Crikey!”

But then one day I saw a crocs and I looked them in the eye and realized there was nothing really to be afraid of. . . (show pair of croc shoes)

There are lots of things that are more scary than these. The other day, believe it or not, there was this in our yard (show bear picture). A bear is a beautiful and usually gentle creature. But a bear is a wild animal. Using the good sense I taught them, my boys watched the bear from inside the house. A bear is a scary. But there are things more scary than bears.

What are you afraid of?

I knew this girl once who had a fear of flying. She had gone through a traumatic experience on a plane as a little girl and had never quite gotten over it. We were talking about her fear once day and we talked about how God can help us with our fears.

“Don’t you know, “ I told her, ‘that’s he’s with you everywhere? Some of Jesus’ last words were, ‘I am with you always.”

“No,” she laughed. “What he actually said was, ‘Low – I am with you always.”

In our Old Testament lesson we read how Moses has brought the people of God to the edge of the Land of Canaan. Remember, they had left Egypt and slavery years earlier, 40 years to be exact, to get here. It took them so long to make the journey because, well, they had been afraid to obey God, if that makes any sense. More on that later. But finally, after 40 years of traveling they arrive at the edge of their destination. This the Land of Promise. This is the Land where their dreams will come true. All they have to do is go in and take it.

So Moses chooses twelve men to go spy out the land, “see what the land is like and see what the people are like, whether they are strong or weak, few or many.” Numbers 13.17-18

What those twelve men saw when they crossed in the Jordan valley was pleasing to their eyes. Here is what they reported back to Moses:

“We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and here is its fruit.” Numbers 13.27

The Land of Canaan exceeded their expectations. Say goodbye to years of wandering. Say goodbye to the slavery of Egypt and the desert wasteland of Arabia. Promised Land- we are there!

Moses and the Israelites must have gone wild when they heard this report. Their eyes got wide. They were ready to pack and move. They were ready to dance – when the celebration was prematurely cut off by one of the spies – “but we can’t go there.”

What?

“We can’t go into the Promised Land. We can’t go there.”

Why not?

“There are giants. The people are large and strong and their cities and large and srong and compared to them we look like grasshoppers.”

Crikey! This is not what Moses wanted to here. These spies were hand-picked men, known for their derring-do and wits. And here they are saying we might as well turn around and go back to Egypt. In fact, let’s start making plans now. These supposedly brave men were simply convinced and paralyzed by the fear of what they saw.


Do you know what the most dangerous fear is? Fear itself.

“Nothing is so much to be feared as fear.” Henry David Thoreau

Years later, in a time of anxiety for our country, President John F. Kennedy will tell the American people, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

It should not be a surprise to us that the single command in the Bible that occurs more often than any other – God’s most frequently repeated instruction- is stated in two words:

Fear not.

Yup. There are 366 “fear not” verses in the Bible, one for every day of the year, including one for leap year. Why do you think God repeats this command so often? Maybe because fear is the number one reason why people are tempted to avoid doing what God asks them to do. God tells you to go talk to that new family on the block and invite them over to your house, but you avoid it because. . .you’re afraid. God suggests to you that volunteering for that community mission project would be a great use of your time, but you avoid it because. . .you’re afraid. God prompts you to give more than is comfortable for you, but you avoid it because . . .you’re afraid.

Avoidance kills an inner sense of confidence and esteem. This is why praise from others, even when it is sincere, often does not help much. Avoiders become experts at “impression management” – pretending to be what they think will be acceptable to others. But even when we are successful at managing others’ impressions of us and eliciting praise, inside we discount it: If you only saw the truth about me, you wouldn’t admire me. You’re just admiring what I want you to see in me.

Those spies were big Avoiders. They presented their report with the classic good news/bad news formula. You know what I mean. It’s like the two baseball-loving friends who agree that whichever one dies first will come back and let the other know if there’s baseball in heaven. The first one to die contacts his friend and says, “The good news is that there is baseball in heaven. The bad news is that you’re pitching Friday.”

And in the case of the spies, their good news is totally overshadowed by their bad news. In fact, if their bad news is to be believed and acted upon, then their good news is really worthless news. It’s no news.

But here’s where and why this story turns – among those twelve spies were two men who were not avoiders. Their names were Caleb and Joshua. They brought a minority report – they said in effect, “Yeah, the people are pretty large and their pretty strong – okay yeah, their GIANTS, but we can take them.” Caleb and Joshua were challengers were the others were avoiders. Caleb and Joshua said “Fear not, we can do this! Are we not God’s chosen people? Won’t God surely deliver what he has promised?”

Folks, this is the point where you either believe and trust or you don’t. There are a lot of things to be afraid of in our lives – losing your job, losing a relationship, finding that lump, going through that surgery, facing that shadow of death – there are Giants in the land these days. But hey, aren’t you here because you believe God is bigger than the giants in our lives? Isn’t the One who has called you able to see you through gigantic problems and challenges?

The best way to handle giants is to confront them- take up the challenge and put your trust in your Creator and your Redeemer!

Joshua and Caleb were right and those ten others were wrong. If it was up to the ten there would be no Jewish people today. Or they would be just a small tribe wandering the deserts talking about what might have been. It’s no coincidence that when Moses died, God instructed the leadership to go to Joshua. Here was God’s reminder to Joshua when he took the reigns of leadership:

“I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1.9

(if there’s time, we’ll show Day 4 of the VBS slideshow before our prayer time)