Monday, September 12

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Acts 1:1-11

In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up into heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command:

“Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand there looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” 


When my boys were very young Thursday was my favorite day of the week. That was the day I stayed home and took care of our preschoolers while my wife went to work. During those years one of our favorite things to do together, especially at this time of year, was to “throw rocks in the river.” We would load up in the car or van and head to the Fox River where we would walk along the banks of the river for what seemed like hours and toss whatever stones we could find into the water. If we could find flat stones we would see how many times we could skip them on the surface of the river. If we found round stones we would see how far we could throw them. Sometimes we would lug bigger stones down to the water and see how big a splash we could create. But we threw lots and lots of rocks. Sometimes people ask me how all four of my boys eventually became quarterbacks and pitchers – and while I can’t answer the question with certainty - “throwing rocks in the river” may explain at least some of it!

But if I had been paying close attention, each stone that struck the waters surface would have created something called a “ripple effect.” That is, the force of the rock striking the water would have produced a series of small waves – or ripples – emanating from the point of impact and moving ever outward in all directions. We have all seen the ripple effect – in rivers, ponds and swimming pools. But it also strikes me that the ripple effect is true not only of rocks tossed in a river – but in many areas of our lives.

Here’s a simple definition of “ripple effect:”

“The continuing and spreading influence of an event or action.”

This is true in small ways – pebbles tossed into a pond – and in large ways – an earthquake on the bottom of the ocean floor that produces a tsunami over 500 miles away.

Think for a moment about the events we remembered this past Sunday, September 11. The terrorist attack in 2001 not only resulted in several thousand deaths on that day – as well as physical destruction to the World Trade Center and the Pentagon – but also created a ripple effect that continues to this day. The ripples from that day have included war, political upheaval, economic stress as well as religious and social conflict – not to mention measures of security never before imagined in our own culture.

The Bible itself, when you think about it that way, is full of ripple effect stories. The sin of Adam and Eve in the garden spread throughout human history and touches us all today. God’s Ten Commandments have formed the moral and ethical backbone of most modern civilizations. And the church itself is part of the ripple effect created by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!

When we read the opening verses of the Book of Acts from this perspective it becomes clear that God wants us to both see and participate in the great ripple effect of the gospel. There are two ways to think about the gospel ripple effect. When the stone rolled away from the tomb on that first Easter morning it dropped into the great pond of history creating a ripple effect that has continued now for 2,000 years through the church – of which FBCG is a part! So each of us has the great privilege of being part of a movement that Jesus had in mind when he said,

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19

But the second way to think about it is as individuals. Your life – and my life – are like pebbles dropped into that same pond of history. Each of our lives makes an impact – in one way or another. Some lives create large ripples, others create small ripples, but we all create ripples. The question is; what kind of ripples do we create?

Ask God to make you more and more aware of how he wants to use your life to create ripples of spiritual influence!

Pastor Brian Coffey

Friday, Sept. 9

Friday

The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’  “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  - Luke 18:11-14

This final statement of Jesus is an example of what author and professor Dallas Willard has called “the law of inversion”.  Throughout the Gospels, Jesus repeatedly said things that turned the conventional understanding of religion on its head, He had a kind of upside-down theology that often shocked the average person, and frustrated the religious establishment.  Remember that Jesus told this story about the Pharisee and the Tax Collector to challenge those who were “confident of their own righteousness, and looked down on everybody else.” Over and over again, Jesus says that the Gospel does not work the way you think, it is not like “religion”. 

Matthew 19:30 - But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.

Matthew 20:16 – “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Mark 9:35 - Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said,  “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

Luke 13:30 - Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.

Matthew 23:12 - For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Luke 14:11 - For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Matthew 10:39 -  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Mark 8:35 -  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.

John 12:25 -  The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

To humble yourself doesn’t sound too crazy, but to put yourself last and to lose your life sounds like an impossible way to live.  The conventional cultural wisdom is that you have to put yourself first if you want to get anywhere in this life.  Indeed, this is the natural human tendency, to pursue our own self-interests, to “look out for number one”.  After all, who will defend us or take care of us, or promote our agenda, if we don’t do it for ourselves?  The truth is that aggression & self-promotion do work on the athletic field and in the marketplace.  Our culture celebrates those who achieve wealth and fame, often at the expense of others. 

However, when it comes to our standing with God, there are only two choices; you are either going to trust in yourself, or you are going to trust in Christ.  You can either rely on your own strength and your own righteousness, or you can fall to your knees and humbly acknowledge that you are totally helpless without the mercy of Jesus Christ.  Those are the only two options.  Which will you choose?

Remember that Jesus said one man went home justified in the sight of God, and one man did not.  There are only two options and only two destinations; you must make your choice.  Self or Christ, which will it be? 


Jeff Frazier

Thursday, Sept. 8

Thursday

The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’  “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  - Luke 18:11-14

Sometimes the English translations and our modern culture prevent us from seeing some of the nuances of the Biblical text.  A brief cultural lesson will help us gain a deeper understanding of this story that Jesus told about the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.  The typical posture for prayer in our culture is to bow your head, close your eyes, and perhaps even kneel down.  But in Jesus’ day, the typical Jewish posture for prayer was to stand and raise your arms and your eyes up to heaven.  This is the position the Pharisee would have taken as he stood apart from the other “sinners” to offer his self-congratulatory prayer to God.  By contrast, the Tax Collector would not even raise his eyes up to heaven.  His external posture reflected his internal condition.  He was completely humble and contrite before a Holy God. 

This Tax Collector epitomized the contrite heart that David described in Psalm 51; Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.  Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge…The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

When this Tax Collector cries out to God for mercy, there is more going on than we might ordinarily suppose.  Luke uses a very unique and significant word for mercy in this story.  The most common word that is translated mercy in the New Testament is the Greek word ‘eleos’ and it means kindness or good will towards another.  But this is not the word that is used in the prayer of this Tax Collector, the word used here is the Greek word ‘Hilasterion’.  This word has to do with atonement, or payment.  In other places in the New Testament this word is translated as propitiation or atoning sacrifice.  It is used to refer specifically to the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.  In fact, this is the very same word used in Hebrews 2:17; For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

Now why would Luke use such a specific and unusual word for mercy here in this story?  The significance of this word has to do with what this Tax Collector is asking God to do for him.  When he cries out to God for mercy, he is not simply asking God to let him off the hook, ignore his sin, or look the other way.  He knows he is guilty, and he knows that he cannot pay his debt of sin, so he cries out to God for mercy – hilasterion – atonement.  He is actually asking God to make the payment for his sin!

Most people think of the mercy of God (if they think of it at all) in the sense that God simply ignores our sin, like a benevolent old grandfather figure who smiles and pats us on the head and says; “Oh that’s okay honey, I know you have a good heart, just try to do better next time.”  But this is not the God of the Bible!  When you stop to think about it, this kind of a God would not really be worth our worship, because he would not be a just God.  How can a Holy God ignore sin or look the other way?  He cannot and He will not.  When the Bible talks about the mercy of God, it always requires a payment for sin.  There is no mercy without sacrifice!  The mercy of God simply means that because of Christ, we do not have to pay because God already has!

There is one more way in which this word, hilasterion, is used in the New Testament.  It is the word used to refer to the “Mercy Seat” on the top of the Ark of the Covenant.  The Mercy Seat is the place between the wings of the two gold cherubim (Exodus 25:17-20, Hebrews 9:5) on the top of the lid of the Ark which held the stone tablets given to Moses at Mt. Sinai.  The Ark was held in the Holy of Holies in the Temple and once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would enter and sprinkle the blood of a sacrificial lamb.  The New Testament tells us that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!  Do you realize what this means?  Jesus now sits on the Mercy Seat!  He has fulfilled all of the requirements of the law and made the full payment for our sin!   This why the Tax Collector can cry out to God for mercy, and this is how you and I can fall on our knees and say, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation.  He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.  The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.  How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

 - Hebrews 9:11-14


Jeff Frazier

Wednesday, Sept. 7

Wednesday

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’  “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  - Luke 18:9-14

Jesus gives us two solutions to the problem of righteousness in this parable, two ways of dealing with the universal human need for acceptance and approval.  These two solutions are represented in the two characters in the parable; the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.  The approach of the Pharisee is the Outside-In approach (see yesterday’s entry), and it will never solve the problem of righteousness.  The other approach is the approach of the Tax Collector and it is the Inside-Out approach.

Unlike the Pharisee, the Tax Collector does not see himself or his sin in comparison to others.  He sees his sin in ultimate terms, and he seems to know that he has no one to compare himself to but God himself.  This is why he can do nothing but beat his breast and cry out to God for mercy.  The Pharisee stands apart from others because he believes that himself to be better than they are.  The Tax Collector stands apart because he knows that he is unworthy of being in the presence of God.  The Pharisee thanks God that he is “not like other men”.  The Tax Collector cries out to God for mercy because he knows that he is the worst of sinners.  Most English translations read that the Tax Collector called himself “a sinner”.  However, the Greek actually contains a definite article, in other words, he actually called himself “the sinner”.  He does not see himself as just another sinner, or one of many. 

The point is that as long as you see yourself in comparison to others, you do not see yourself accurately.  The Pharisee viewed sin in external and comparative terms.  When you see your sin like the Pharisee, there is always somebody worse than you.  There is always someone you can point to in order to make yourself feel a little better and say; “well at least I am not as bad as that guy”.  However, when you see yourself in the light of the Holiness of God, then you realize that the comparison game is utter foolishness.  It is like two wounded men starving to death in the desert arguing over which one is of them is taller; it is pointless, the point is that they are both without hope unless someone comes to their rescue! 

This is what the Tax Collector instinctively understood; he had no hope unless God was willing to have mercy on him.  This is why Jesus says that it is the Tax Collector and not the Pharisee who went home justified in the sight of God.  We don’t quite catch the impact of this statement today, but for those Jews listening to Jesus tell this story, this would have been a shocking statement! 

It would have been surprising enough for Jesus to say that the Tax Collector as well as the Pharisee went home justified before God, but Jesus doesn’t say that.  He says that one man goes home justified, and one man does not.  It is the Pharisee, the “good man”, the religious man, the rule keeper that everyone would have assumed is right with God.  But Jesus says that the Tax Collector, the cheat, the outcast, the sinner is the one who is justified – What!?  Why!?  Because only the Inside-Out approach can account for our problem of righteousness.  The Outside-In approach says, “earn it”, the Inside-Out approach says, “receive it”!


Jeff Frazier

Tuesday, Sept. 6

Tuesday

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’  “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  - Luke 18:9-14

Jesus gives us two solutions to the problem of righteousness in this parable, two ways of dealing with the universal human need for acceptance and approval.  These two solutions are represented in the two characters in the parable; the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. 

The approach of the Pharisee is the “outside-in” approach.  Notice that the Pharisee’s prayer is focused completely on external behavior.  He says that he does not rob, steal, commit adultery, etc. and that he fasts twice a week and gives a tenth of all he gets.  His understanding of sin is completely external; do these things and don’t do those things.  It is interesting that he does not thank God for making him a more patient, kind, or forgiving person.  The Pharisee sees righteousness as keeping the rules, i.e. not violating any of God’s commands.  He is also something of an elitist and separatist.  In fact the very term Pharisee means “separated one”.  He thanks God that he is “not like other men”.  He sees himself in comparative terms.  He is evaluating his standing with God on a kind of spiritual curve.  When he looks around at all of the “sinners”, he feels that on the whole God must be pretty pleased with him. 

Let’s admit that it is hard not to dislike this fellow.  He seems so arrogant and full of himself.  We should be careful not to be too hard on this Pharisee.  He is not a hypocrite, he is not intentionally acting one way in the Temple and living completely differently when he is at home or out in the community.  Jesus does sometimes refer to the Pharisees and religious leaders as hypocrites, but this does not mean that all of them were hypocritical.  This Pharisee is by all accounts a “good man”.  He is serious about obeying the word of God.  He is faithful to his wife.  He is honest in his dealings with other people.  He leads a disciplined life and He is generous with his wealth.  He genuinely wants to please God, he is a “good man”.  But the truth is that our churches are full of “good men” and “good women” who are far from God.  Despite all of his goodness, this man doe not understand the heart of the Gospel.  This is because the outside-in approach never works.  It cannot solve the fundamental problem of righteousness, because it is focused on the wrong things! 

A profound example of the power and the problem of this outside-in approach is found in the 1998 film “Saving Private Ryan”.  In the movie, a young army private, John Francis Ryan, is saved by the heroic sacrifices of a small company of soldiers led by Capt. John H. Miller.  Near the end of the movie, Capt. Miller lies dying on a bridge and he says to Private Ryan, “Earn this.”  At the very end of the movie, Private Ryan, now an old man, comes back to Normandy with his wife and family.  He finds the grave marker of Capt. Miller and he begins to cry.  His wife asks him what is wrong and he turn to her with tears of desperation in his eyes and says, “Tell me I am a good man.  Tell me I have led a good life.”  Private Ryan has lived his whole life trying to “earn this”, and now at the end of his life, he desperately wants to know if he has done enough, if he has been good enough, if he has “earned it”. 

This is the outside-in approach in a nutshell.  Far too many people who claim to be Christians think this is how it works – they are dead wrong.  How can you know if you are good enough?  How can you know if you have done enough?  How can you know if you are righteous in the eyes of God?  If you are living according to the outside-in approach, you will never know. 

There is only one way we can know with absolute certainty that we are accepted by God and “good enough” in His sight, it is through the “Inside-Out” approach of the Tax-Collector…but that is the subject of tomorrow’s 10 minutes With God.


Jeff Frazier

Monday, Sept. 5

Monday

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’  “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  - Luke 18:9-14

It always amazes me just how much depth and power Jesus can pack into one little story.  There is no doubt that Jesus was a master storyteller, and I have often wondered what it must have been like to sit and listen to him tell the stories that we read in the gospels.  I am sure that in reading translations and being separated by centuries, we probably miss out on much of His humor and wit.  But Jesus did not tell such stories merely to clever or witty.  He never told a pointless story.  The parables of Jesus were always full of meaning and directed at a particular audience.  In this case, Jesus was directing His parable at those who were confident of their own righteousness.  What does that mean? 

The word “righteousness” is not a word that we use very often in our culture today.  My guess is that you probably have not had casual conversation with a friend in which you talked about righteousness.  Most of the time we use the word in a pejorative sense, “that guy is so self-righteous.” (When I was in high school in the mid 80’s, it was not uncommon to hear somebody say, “Dude that is so righteous.”)

From the Biblical perspective, righteousness has everything to do with approval and acceptance.  I have a friend whose son was recently accepted to West Point.  Just in case you don’t know, this is a really big deal.  The application process is extremely thorough and many outstanding young men and women are rejected.  When my friend got the acceptance letter in the mail, he was filled with joy and pride in his son.  There was a deep sense of satisfaction that his son was accepted and approved of by such a prestigious institution.  This is close to what the Bible means when it talks about being righteous.  It means being in a right relationship with God.  It means the deep sense of satisfaction in knowing that you are accepted and approved of by God. 

But the truth is that righteousness is a real problem for most people, though they would not use that term.  Most people live with a vague sense that they are not accepted or acceptable.  Most people live their lives trying to earn the approval of God and of others.  In fact, righteousness is a universal problem for all human beings.  We all want to know that we are “good enough”, that we are accepted and loved, but we walk around with the nagging suspicion that we are not.  In the movie “Rocky” (the first one, the only really good one), Sylvester Stallone, Rocky, is explaining to his girlfriend Adrian that he doesn’t even care if he wins the big fight.  He says that he just wants to go the distance - to be standing when the final bell rings.  If he can make it to the final bell, he says; “then I’ll know for the first time in my life, that I’m not a bum.”  What is he talking about?  He is talking about the universal human need for acceptance and approval; he is talking about the problem of righteousness.  We all have this problem.  It often takes different cultural forms, but it is always the same root issue – righteousness.

Two Questions: 

1.         Where does your approval come from?  Who or what are you looking to in order to feel accepted? 

2.         How is that working out for you?

Jesus tells this simple story in order to address this problem.  He shows us two solutions or approaches to the problem of righteousness in the form of these two men at prayer.  One approach, that of the Pharisee, is the common human solution, and it never works, it cannot solve the problem of righteousness.  The other approach is that of the Tax-Collector, and it reveals the only real solution to the problem.  Throughout this week we will be exploring both of these approaches to understand what Jesus is telling us in this story.


Jeff Frazier

Friday, September 2

John 4:13-14

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Years ago we were invited to spend a few days at the Wisconsin vacation home of some friends at FBCG. Before leaving on our trip, the owner of the home encouraged us to be sure to visit the “well” – which he promised produced the best fresh water we would ever taste. On the last day of our stay we realized that we hadn’t visited the well yet, and knowing our friend would ask, we jumped in the van and drove the few miles to where he said we would find this great water.

We expected to find a kind of tourist attraction – but instead found a simple pipe sticking out of the ground next to a farmer’s field. The pipe had no spigot – no way to turn the flow of water on or off – it was just gushing water out onto the ground. We filled a small jar with the water and found it to be the coldest, freshest, best tasting water we had ever enjoyed – and it was just pouring out onto the ground! Before leaving I noticed a small plaque on the ground near the well – and while I don’t remember the wording exactly – it said something like this:

“This well was created when a local farmer struck an artesian spring in 1895. Since then, this well has produced (something like) 1000 gallons of fresh water every hour.”

After reading the plaque I just stood there stunned for a few moments as the magnitude of those numbers sunk in. One thousand gallons of the freshest water I ever tasted had been pouring out of that little pipe every hour, 24 hours a day; 365 days a year – for over a century! It’s been flowing out, crystal clear and absolutely free for the entire length of my life, my father’s life and part of his father’s life! And all we had to do was bring a bucket and catch it to enjoy it.

It strikes me that that artesian well in Wisconsin is a perfect picture of the life and love of Jesus.

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The love of Jesus is both inexhaustible and completely free. It flows 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year – all we have to do is open our hearts and catch it!

Take a few moments to thank Jesus for the depth of his love for you – and to drink deeply from the well of his grace!

Pastor Brian Coffey