Pastor's Bookshelf: Radical by David Platt

Radical is an insightful look at what Christianity is, as defined by Scripture, verses what Christianity has become, particularly in America.  Platt uses several texts to show that what God has called us to as believers is not always in line with the American version of Christianity.  For example, in America we tend to judge a church at face value... a big church with lots of people, programs, and buildings = strong and healthy and Biblical verses a small church with few people, little money, small building = weaker church with no hope

Now, let me say from the top.  None of the above conditions of either church have any bearing on its health or soundness of its doctrine.  There are large churches (though few in number) that are sound doctrinally and pursuing a life of obedience to Jesus Christ.  Likewise, there are small churches that are sound doctrinally and pursuing a life of obedience to Jesus Christ.  Size doesn't automatically indicate a particular feature, neither do lack or abundance of programs, funds and buildings indicate a particular feature.

Platt seeks to point out that the goal of the church is to take the Gospel to the world and also to serve others.  Using the resources (financial or otherwise) that God has given them for the purpose of the furtherance of the Gospel, NOT to acquire more and more wealth.  The goal of God blessing us with money for instance is not so that we can store it up and be mega-wealthy consumer driven people, but so that we are people who live according to what we need and find a way to use the rest to give Bibles, or tracts, or food, or clothing, or shelter, etc... to all who need it.

To say the least, I was heavily challenged by the Scripture that David brought to light in this book and it has brought about some very deep examination and convictions in my own life.  To avoid boasting in myself, I'll just leave it at that.

Lastly, there were a few things I didn't particularly like about the book.  David does a fantastic job of exegeting the Scriptures he uses to make his point, that is good!  Intermingled with that, however, he uses illustrations from real life.  People he knows, has encountered, or that are in his church, who have abandoned worldly things for the glory of Christ.  To hear of those people is encouraging and a great example set.  And that was his purpose in putting them in their too... however, I could have done with fewer of them and still gotten the point.

I believe he was going to the extreme to show the diversity that exists amongst the callings God places on our lives.  How one person's call may look a bit differently than another.  He made a point to say that very thing.  That this person's "thing" may not be another's "thing".  But the book would have made the point just as well with a more brief story on each of them or just fewer in general.  That's a preference of mine personally that when I read any book that is going to convey Scriptural truths, I'd rather hear more about the Scripture and less about a personal experience, but that's just me.

Read it, Bible open as always, pray about it... and see if God doesn't use this book to challenge you as well to evaluate what you do with what He's given you.  Are you using it to His glory, or your own?

'Unashamed' Piper Sermon Jam

A Biblical Understanding of Suffering - Part 2 of 5

Continuing on in our Biblical understanding of suffering... type number two is Corrective Suffering – It is when we are disciplined by the Grace of God.  Chastened by the Lord.  It is suffering that is meant to get us back on the path of righteousness.  A practical example would be spanking our children rightly.  Why do we do it?  Because their behavior has strayed from Godly behavior and the spanking is a jolt… a painful reminder… to get the child’s head on straight.  And beyond the age where you feel you can spank them, we correct them in other ways.

We have to teach them that when they do what is right in their own eyes that there are consequences.  We do it because we love them and so it is with the Lord.

Hebrews 12:5-11 - and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him;
 6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.”  7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?  8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.  9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?  10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.  11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

I know I’ve had times in my life where God has had to thump me to get me back on the path to righteousness.  This type should truly be at the front of the list because every time we go through any type of affliction, the first thing we should do is a heart check to see if we need to confess and repent of a sin and return to the path of righteousness.

We need not to confuse this with punishment from God.  It is correction.  Discipline.  Punishment from God is the final judgment from God.  Punishment is the wrath of God poured out on all who reject Jesus.  Punishment from God is condemnation.  Condemnation will come on the unbelieving world.  The believer in Christ does not come under condemnation.

John 5:24 - “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

God does deal with the sins of believers, but because of Christ we are not cast out.  He deals with our actions by chastening us; disciplining us.  You see, when God saved and forgave you, He also placed you under His Lordship by giving you His Holy Spirit.

The call to salvation is a call to discipleship.  Submitting ourselves to Christ and His Lordship in our lives, and when we step out of line, He will discipline us to put us back in.  Think of the Disciples.  When Jesus said to them ‘Follow Me’, they didn’t just acknowledge it and then go right on living the way they wanted, nope, they dropped what they were doing and followed Him.

He doesn’t discipline us in an evil or mean spirited way.  But for our own good.  To protect our joy and lead us down the narrow path.  God’s corrective suffering removes the impurities in us.  Puts us through the Refiner’s fire to produce Godly living in us.

Sometimes, even, chastening is preventative.  Remember Psalm 139.  God has searched and known us.  He is intimately familiar with all our ways.  He knows what sins we are prone to stumble into.  That was the case with Paul.
2 Corinthians 12:7 - Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!

This thorn was intended to hold Paul where he needed to be.  Kept him humble where the tendency of the flesh was to boast.  God does this purifying work in us to make us more holy.

1 Thessalonians 4:7 - For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.

When we suffer at all, we need to see if it is corrective suffering… chastening… however, we are not God and do not know His mind fully and so we cannot nor should we ever point at suffering in someone else’s life and accuse them of some sin because of afflictions in their life.  We can go to someone who claims Christ, but is living in sin and, in love, confront them about it.  However, we cannot then look at their life and say that God is judging or chastening them because of the presence of some suffering.  That determination is God’s to reveal to that person, not ours.

Taking up your cross, a call to die or a call to "give Jesus a chance"?

I saw an incredibly frustrating bumper sticker the other day. It read "Give Jesus a chance, He died for the opportunity." Could there possibly be a more frustrating characterization of the Gospel?  Did the Creator of the Universe, Almighty God REALLY clothe Himself in humanity and walk the earth, suffer the cross and, most importantly, take the full wrath of God on Himself for the sins of the world JUST so we could give him a chance?  A chance?  Are you kidding?  Jesus paid the price for lost sinners and He did it so that we could just give Him a chance...

I've got to be honest.. I think this bumper sticker is flat out blasphemy.  It mis-characterizes Jesus Christ!  He didn't die for an opportunity.  He died to redeem those who were chosen before the foundations of the world! Ephesians 1:4-8 NASB - "Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love  5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,  6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.  7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace  8 which He lavished on us."

What do you think it means to carry your cross? It doesn’t JUST mean bearing burdens through life. Think about it logically for a second. Put yourself in the shoes of the disciples and see the cross the way they saw it.

In v38 Jesus says that those who want to follow must take up their cross and follow Him. Now when we hear that and get that visual image of the cross we see it differently than they did back then. To us the cross symbolizes our Lord. To us it means love because it was the way in which God showed His ultimate love for us in sending His son to die.

But since this was BEFORE Christ died on the cross they wouldn’t have gotten that picture. To them this would have been a scary statement. It would have brought to their mind images of a violent, degrading death. He was demanding total commitment even to the point of physical death. This same call to life or death devotion to Christ is for us today as well.

Matthew 16:24-25 – 24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25 "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

This passage says nothing about improving your self-esteem or making you wealthy rich and successful. Christianity isn’t a matter of opinion. It is a matter of truth. What you want it to be, what I want it to be or anybody else makes no difference. It is what it is – by God’s sovereign will.

When Jesus said “take up your cross” to them, they thought of a cruel instrument of torture and death. In the Roman world, when you took up your cross to be put to death you might as well say goodbye to family, friends, everything you knew… because you weren’t coming back. They thought of dying in the most agonizing method known to man. They surely thought of poor, condemned criminals hanging on crosses by the roadside. Maybe they were picturing friends and people they had known who had suffered death by the cross.

Regardless, Jesus’ listeners understood that he was calling them to die for him. They knew he was asking them to make the ultimate sacrifice, to surrender to him as Lord in every sense.

Luke 9:23 records similar words of Jesus: 23 And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. Notice the addition of the one word: “daily.” The life of a disciple invites persecution and therefore must be a life that is completely lived for Christ. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, 31 I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. (1 Cor. 15:31).

Paul exemplifies what Christ was talking about. Paul was so given over to our Lord that he didn’t care whether he lived or died. That’s an attitude practically unheard of in our materialistic, self–centered, selfish day. Most people today live for everything except what Paul was focused on.

Paul remained joyful as long as his Lord was glorified, even when he was threatened with death. All that mattered to him was that the Gospel was advanced, Christ was preached, and the Lord was magnified. The source of his joy was entirely related to the glory of the kingdom of God.

The idea of dying to your sinful ways and selfish desires does not mesh with the contemporary belief that believing in Jesus is a momentary decision. A true believer is one who signs up for life. This idea that Jesus is something we “Try” is ridiculous… and not only is it ridiculous folks. It isn’t Biblical. Jesus isn’t some product that you bring into your home for a 30-day free trial and if it doesn’t work for you, you can send it back. How insulting to our Savior. Let’s gain some perspective. That’s not real discipleship—faith is not an experiment, but a lifelong commitment. It means taking up the cross daily, giving all for Christ each day. It means no reservations, no uncertainty, no hesitation. Luke 9:59–61 – 59 And He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father." 60 But He said to him, "Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and (B)proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God." 61 Another also said, "I will follow You, Lord; but (C)first permit me to say good-bye to those at home."