Brian Castelli – With His Heart

I received a copy of an “untimely deaths” chain e-mail message today. The message gave examples of people who cursed God, flaunted his laws, and then died an untimely death. The conclusion was obvious: These people got what they deserved. While I agree, I also think that the message isn’t limited to just those who are overtly wicked. All of us, both the wicked and the righteous in man’s eyes, are destined for the same end unless Jesus covers us. That is the great message of the Gospel.

This e-mail arrived at a time when I was doing some heavy thinking about death, wickedness, righteousness and salvation. I am of the opinion that God makes things line up like this once in a while. I have learned over the years *not* to ignore them when I see them. (I am also convinced that many times God lines things up for me and I miss them. Oh, well…)

I have been studying the book of Luke for the last few weeks. The text in Luke has made me think about what it means to be good in God’s eyes. In chapter 18, Jesus meets a rich young man. You can read the story yourself here:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%2018:18-27&version=HCSB

This guy is holy and righteous, having kept all the commandments since his youth. I mean, he is as holy as any man can be. He’s that guy that everybody talks about being so perfect. He didn’t curse God. He served God. He didn’t disregard God’s laws. He kept the commandments. Yet Jesus said he was lacking. Lacking! Here’s the super-religious guy, and Jesus said it’s not enough. The Bible says the dude walked away sad.

The crowd watching the discussion with the rich young man asked Jesus, “Who, then, can be saved?!!?” I mean, if this guy can’t get in, what hope do the rest of us have? Jesus’ answer is awesome: “What is impossible for man is possible with God.”

Over and over in scripture, we are told there are two paths to hell. One is to live a life disregarding God, cursing him, rejecting his laws, rejecting his offer of salvation in Jesus Christ. The second is to do good things such that (we think) God *must* let us into heaven. If we’re good enough, we think, God *must* let us in! Right? Wrong. Both groups are equally lost, equally wicked in God’s eyes. Both groups are trusting in their own efforts to save them. Under our own power, heaven is impossible. Impossible.

But there is hope. It *is* possible with God. The third path is the one Jesus calls us to. It’s the same path he called the rich young ruler to follow in Luke 18. We’re called to follow Jesus. The righteous and the wicked alike must come to him and say, “I’ve got nothing! Save me!” This applied to John Lennon and Mother Teresa. This applies to Charles Manson and Billy Graham. It applies to all of us.

Jesus Christ is the public speaker I would have loved to hear in person. We are blessed by having many of his words–both public and private–recorded in the Bible. In my reading this morning I was reminded of just how radical his message was to the Jews he ministered to.

In Matthew chapter 8, a Roman Centurion came to Jesus to ask Him to heal his servant. Upon seeing the faith of this man, a non-Jew and a member of the people who were oppressing the Jews, Jesus says these words:

I assure you: I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith! I tell you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Let’s remember who Jesus was speaking to. This was a people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. These were God’s Chosen People. They thought their birthright was a passage to heaven and that Gentiles (non-Jews) were lost. In this passage Jesus says clearly that salvation has come for the whole world–and that birthright will not be enough! This was a radical message to his audience, no doubt one that did not earn him favor with some of His hearers.

In Acts 10, Peter is preaching to a Gentile household. As he witnesses to them, the Holy Spirit fills his listeners. They become believers in Jesus Christ even though they are not Jews. Verse 45 proves what a radical idea this is:

The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.

The “circumcised believers” here refers to Jews who had come to faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus the Radical. He wasn’t afraid to Speak up!

It happens all the time. The most recent occurrence happened when I was working with some folks to tutor at a local high school. In the midst of the altruistic discussion I thought, “I’m doing a really good thing here! Am I not a good person?” Pride. Paul was right when he wrote:

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

(Romans 7:21)

In the book The Reason for God, pastor and author Tim Keller writes:

The devil, if anything, prefers Pharisees–men and women who try to save themselves.

Keller is known for his talk about self-salvation projects. He says there are two ways to be your own Savior and Lord:

The first is by saying, “I am going to live my life the way I want.” The second is… trusting your own goodness rather than Jesus for your standing with God.

The folks in the first group are easier to identify. They are ignoring Jesus. Folks in the second are more difficult to pick out. They are doing “good works” as if those good works will ultimately save them. It’s as if they are trying to be so good that God has no choice but to open heaven’s gates for them. Both groups are ultimately lost because neither is dependent on Jesus who is salvation. This is a critical difference.

What about me? I am a former card-carrying member of the first group. These days I have a tendency to end up in the second group, as evidenced by the example at the start of this post. I want to do things that come from a heart that is being transformed by Jesus Christ, but I have a tendency to look for ways I can build myself up in the process. Let me try to be clear: I don’t believe we ought to live in guilt or constantly beating ourselves up. But I do believe that, in recognition of our natural state and the incredible sacrifice Jesus made to get us out of that state, our service should come out of gratitude and joy for what has been done for us, not by us.

The old man looked up from his coffee, a pained expression on his face. “I don’t understand why you don’t believe!” he exclaimed, emotion welling up in his voice. “I don’t know,” the younger man seated across from him replied. “I guess I just can’t believe that one religion has it all figured out. I mean, how can we know God–if he’s really there?”

Like the old man, I’ve encountered several people who believe that no religion has God figured out, that there are any paths to God. Some of them have used the “elephant and the blind men” analogy to explain their position. The analogy goes something like this:

Four blind men were asked to describe an elephant. The one who grabbed the trunk said, “An elephant is like a snake.” The one who touched a side said, “An elephant is like a wall.” The one who grabbed a leg said, “An elephant is like a tree.” And the one who grabbed the tail said, “An elephant is like a whip.” None of them had it right because none of them could touch the whole elephant.

This analogy doesn’t hold up when talking about God. The only way we *know* that the blind men have it wrong is that we are observers in a position to see and understand the whole elephant. We can only declare that the blind men have partial knowledge because we have complete knowledge. To make the same claim about God–that no one religion has it right–is to presuppose that we have knowledge of the whole of God. We can only judge that any one religion’s understanding is partial if we have a greater understanding. This is absurd. None of us is in such a position. The argument fails to hold up.

What does hold up is that God revealed the truth to us. One way to God *can* be supported when it was God himself who showed us the way. That is one of the reasons I follow Jesus.

Merry Christmas!

Our small group Bible study has been working our way through Genesis. What we’re seeing is how important God considers his promises. Last night we jumped ahead and looked at a promise kept as testified to by Simeon and Anna in Luke chapter 2. When Simeon saw the savior, he proclaimed:

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of all people,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.”

Simeon was more than satisfied. Simeon rested in God’s promise of bringing a Redeemer.

This account made me inspect my own life. Am I relying on God’s promises? Does my hope lie in him or in what things I can do for myself? I don’t know about you, but I’m finding that I can’t do it all. I’m in the middle of a storm or busyness. I’ve realized that the main problem is me–and all the things I think I can do.

Lord, help me to trust! Lord, help me to rest!

My commute to work stretched out in front of me like a scroll. I didn’t feel like listening to the teaching mp3’s I had loaded in my player–too heavy. I’d had a bad night and a worse morning. I felt overwhelmed. It seemed like nothing was going right. I felt alone, like no one else could really understand. I reached into the center console and pulled out a Mark Shultz CD. I hoped that a bit of music would lift my spirits.

I inserted the CD into the dash-mounted player. Track 1 played for a moment. No. Skip to track 2. Then 3. Then 4. Ah! That was the one. I Have Been There. One of the choruses reads this way:

Oh I have been there
I know what fear is all about
Yes, I have been there
And I am standing with you now
I have been there
And I came to build a bridge oh so this road could
Lead you home
Oh I have been there

God has been there. He does understand my situation. He understands, not in some abstract, aloof way, but as God-made-man in Christ Jesus. Even when I feel alone, like there’s no one who has been in my shoes before, I can know that He has been there.

I brushed a tear from my eye as I drove. Thank you, Jesus.

I’ve recently been spending a lot of time studying Reformed Theology, often referred to as Calvinism. The fundamental difference between this view of Christianity and what I think of as the “popular” view is that God is in charge, God is sovereign. He chooses. He draws. He saves. The “popular” view says that we have free will, that we participate in our own salvation by choosing.

I believe that the Reformed Theology is correct, that we can’t have the power to somehow thwart God. But whether I’m right or not will have to wait for another day, another post, another discussion. What I want to write about today is the fact that I struggle with Reformed Theology because, as John Piper puts it, we have lost the passion of it. To me it seems so “hard,” intellectual, and often elite.

I recently listened to a John Piper presentation about Augustine. He called for reformers to return to the passion of Augustine, to live, feel, teach, and preach that loving God with passion is the antidote for sin, indifference, and elitism. He said that we shouldn’t be teaching people to refrain from sin because it’s wrong but because it is a cheap replacement for the magnificent realities of following God.

Oh, to have that kind of passion for Jesus!

Yeah. I agree. Weird title.

Two notions collided in my head this morning. I was listening to a sermon titled, “The Whole Christmas Story.” One of the strong points that was made was that if we don’t understand the bigger picture – the back story – it’s hard to understand the significance of Jesus’ birth.

Jason, one of our Elders, asked us to consider a contrast. We were invited to compare the joy we feel when we hear the news that a couple we barely know has delivered a child with the incredible joy we feel when we hear the news that a couple we know well, a couple that has struggled with miscarriages, pain, and suffering, has delivered a child. Because we know the back story of the couple we know well, there is greater significance and greater joy when we hear the news.

When we read the accounts of Jesus’ birth in the New Testament, we might feel joy akin to the joy we feel when we hear the news of that couple we barely know. We know it’s a good thing – birth, that is. We might also recall that Jesus is headed for the cross, therefore we know that it’s important. But without knowing the back story we might miss the incredible joy that comes from understanding the significance of that birth.

The reality is that Jesus’ birth was a huge deal. It was a birth long awaited and hoped for by the Jews. As we read through the Old Testament, we find an amazing story of a people that kept going their own way and God who wouldn’t abandon them. The Jews were waiting and hoping for a Messiah who would accomplish that which they were incapable of doing for themselves. In the dark days prior to Jesus’ birth even the prophets had been silent for some 400 years. It was as if God had turned his back on the nation. I’m told that the rabbis writing in those days wondered what God was doing. They worried that Israel had, at last, exceeded God’s patience.

But in the darkness there was hope. Jesus quietly burst onto the scene to begin a journey that would fulfill God’s promises of blessing to the Jews (Israel) and the Gentiles (the rest of us).

How does this fit with the Matrix?

In the movie, the people living in the Matrix don’t know the back story. What they see is a facade, a mere shadow of the reality behind it. I believe that many of us – Christians and non-Christians alike – look at the Christmas story through Matrix-colored glasses. It’s a nice story. It makes us feel good because it means that God loves us. But we don’t understand the back story. We don’t understand the significance.

In The Matrix, when people finally know the back story, their lives are radically changed. It’s not possible to go back to business as usual. This kind of radical change can be yours, too, when you know Jesus’ back story. Read the Old Testament and the gospels. I believe they will open your eyes to the bigger picture.