Christ

CULTURE OF CONTEMPT, PT. 2

Dear Family,

This past Sunday I did an addendum to my previous message: “The Culture of Contempt.” We looked at a biblical incident, the occasion of Michal’s contempt for David when the ark was recovered and returned to Jerusalem. At one of the great moments of potential restoration and transformation in the life of Israel that marked the possible return of the presence of God no less to the national life, there was a massive outburst of contempt that almost threatened the recovery of the nation. The joy is violated by two dark incursions: Uzzah’s death by the side of the arkcarrying cart that he tried to steady with his hand (contempt for the Word of God), and Michal’s despising of a dancing David (contempt for the Worship of God). You might say it looked more like the Dance of Death than a happy revival meeting. Basically, the wheels came off the wagon, and the dancing shoes almost came off David’s feet. Contempt is the characteristic demonic response to the presence and purposes of God, to the commands and character of God. The enemy has always opposed our experience of the presence of God with contempt: for Christ, for us, for others. This results in our despising of God, others and self. What was the opening satanic volley in the record of scripture? “Has God really said?” (Genesis 3:1) Contempt is the first manifestation of the diabolic subversion of God’s presence which led to the expulsion from Eden and the loss of “the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden.”

I argued that usually, behind a manifestation of destructive contempt, there is a story that explains how the despising person got to that place and posture. To know that story, to discern its damaging influences is not to excuse the contemptuous person, but to understand them; not to react in condemnation but in compassion, not in reactive mockery but in mercy, regardless of how contemptible they may appear to be. Though they are totally responsible and accountable for their own sin, they are nonetheless candidates for the healing and delivering power of God to rescue them from the grip of the accumulated experiences that have resulted in their present bitter bondage, and consequent disparaging communications and demeaning and defaming actions. To be caught in the crossfire of contempt, whether as object or agent, is a dangerous place to be. Contempt as offence in the agent, so often becomes contempt as defense in the object.

We took Michal as a case study, and looked at all the references to her from 1 Samuel 18 through 2 Samuel 6. Clearly, space does not afford me a recital of all the observations that we made as if it was a healing prayer session. I urge you to re-listen to the message, even though it is a bad, sad story. Why did we consider this story? I suggested that the excursus was important because it is a narrative that we can relate to, given the same way that key events in our lives become the cartilages that hold the bones of our histories together, providing reasons for our contempt and our wounds from contemptuousness. But the good news of the gospel is greater than the bad news of the story, for it presents forgiveness and deliverance for the one who is the agent of contempt, and healing and restoration for the one who has been the damaged object of that contempt.

God specializes in removing reproach, removing the roots that cause us to despise others and the garments of reproach with which others may have clothed our characters and spirits. From November 14, 2017 Genesis 30:23 onwards God says, “I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt.” The question then is: how has God done this? How has He absorbed all despising that I may be absolved of it? The answer is the core of the gospel: in His own body on a tree. He became the toxic waste dump of the world’s despising. “He is despised and rejected of men … He was despised, and we did not esteem him” (Isaiah 53:3). No one was more drained of esteem than Jesus, or held in more contempt. Not surprisingly, one of the most often quoted psalms in the gospels with prophetic reference to the cross, has this emphasis: “I am a worm…a reproach of men and despised by the people…All those who see me ridicule me…They shoot out the lip…He trusted in the Lord…Let Him rescue Him” (Psalm 22: 6-8). And after this concentrated horror of despising comes an unbelievable delivering truth: “God has not despised the suffering of the afflicted.” When anyone is moved to repent of the ways they have despised Him and not esteemed Him, God takes the repentant response as personally as He took the sin of despising: “a broken and a contrite heart I will not despise.” There is forgiveness for our despising, there is deliverance from its bondages and healing from its defacements of identity and spirit. Thus, at the cross we can kneel, whether a despising Michal or a despised David. Is it any wonder, given the nature of despising and its satanic character, that the gospels in their crucifixion accounts read as they do?

  • In Mathew “they bowed the knee and mocked him, Hail King of the Jews…the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him…those that passed by reviled him…”

  • In Mark: “those crucified with him reviled him…”

  • In Luke: Jesus predicts they will mock him and insult: “Falling on their knees they paid homage and when they had mocked him…” the cross’ power to remove our despising and the consequences of being despised! Consequently, the fruit of the resurrection is our empowerment by the Spirit, to now respond to the despising of the enemy.

As we sang in our closing hymn: “Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned He stood, Sealed my pardon with His blood, Hallelujah, what a Savior.” Redemption embraces both the despiser and the despised. May we all know that cleansing and healing, through our repentance from our own contemptuousness, and our forgiveness of others’ contempt, and may there be no barbs and splinters left to fester in our spirits.

Pastorally yours,

Stuart

P.S. If you have received any ministrations of truth by the Holy Spirit in these two messages, I urge you to come to the next Healing prayer service and sit in the presence of the Lord, or maybe make a prayer appointment, to seal what the Lord is doing and to receive the salve of His healing. Call Monique at the office: 202-544-9599

CULTURE OF CONTEMPT, PT. 1

Dearest Family,

On Sunday I spoke to the title, ‘The Culture of Contempt”, and tried to draw your attention to how embedded this is and how insidious and destructive it is to the image of God and the human spirit. “Contempt is becoming a cultural phenomenon. It’s seeping into every banal aspect of our lives. Not just anger, though there’s plenty of that, too. No, I mean pure, unabashed, undignified contempt for fellow humanity. This is so toxic.” Even secular cultural commentators are beginning to realize the horror of it.

There are three main constituent elements of contempt:

  1. Condemnation and consequent judgment: someone or something has failed to meet your privatized standards for behavior or whatever are your self-preferred, self-chosen social, cultural, racial, emotional, intellectual or even spiritual norms. The more we elevate our unquestioned individualism and sense of personal rights, the more we idolize our preferences and particularities, then the more we have to condemn and hold in contempt.

  2. Superiority and consequent separation (segregation) and distance because you’re better than someone. It’s all about hubris, vanity, pretension, conceit, disdain, condescension, insolence, pretentiousness, presumption, pomposity, aggression, narcissism, brazenness, incivility, shamelessness, and any of self-love’s progeny like self-admiration, self-exaltation, self-confidence, self-assurance, self-reliance, self-righteousness – the pharasaism that dominates the media and its commentating pundits.

  3. Hostility and consequently the desire for someone to be removed, whether from sight, the public square, the relationship, or the job. There are plenty of ways for the hostility of contempt to remove someone, including just ignoring them. But murder? That’s taking it too far. I’d never do that you say. That’s a bit extreme! Not according to Jesus when he redefined our understanding of murder in Mt. 5: 21-26. Jesus describes the separation and distance of contempt as equivalent with murder that separates someone’s life irremediably from all relationship and guarantees reconciliation will be irrecoverable. Listen to Jesus: “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with their brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother ‘Raca!’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” What do you make of that? ‘Raca’ was an Aramaic term of malicious contempt, imposing inferiority on the one so named. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus’ teaching on reconciliation with a brother or someone to whom you are indebted (unreconciled accounts) follows this warning about contempt – the great cause of irreconciliation and the great barrier therefore to reconciliation. This is evil name calling, as all name-calling is evil. Why? Because it removes the significance of the real name, of personhood and personality, of creational uniqueness. To call someone Raca or Fool was to strip them of their identity and impose on them a false identity. Contempt is identity theft. It makes someone what they are not, and usually reduces them to less than human. Gen. 9:6 tells us why murder is so heinous: “for God made man in His image.” So, if contempt is equivalent to murder then you now know why God takes it so personally and judges it so severely: it is October 18, 2017 primarily against Him, His image, before it is against that person or that race. These elements alone give an analysis of the present state of the civic soul.

And nowhere does this contempt more masquerade than in the relational divisions and racial irreconciliations of our nation. Whether violator or victim, we have our own infected and infested systemic corruptions of viral contempt for God, for others and for self, deeply embedded in a history past, despicably maintained in a history present, and doomed to continue in a history future. ‘Prejudice’ is just not strong enough a word. We need to come to terms with the darkness of our acidic, deforming contempt – deforming of self, and others, of the image of God. There cannot be transformation without the excising of the deformation of contempt. The words of Jesus Himself should be our warning and our motivation to get reconciled. The contempt that wants someone to be removed, to disappear, to become persona non grata, to become invisible in the system, to vaporize in color-blindness, is the sin of murder.

I compacted over 100 scriptures to present something of the nature of contempt, but you’ll have to download for scriptures. It is the nature of the devil and all that is diabolic (‘diabolos’ means hurler of slander); of evil; of pride in particular; of the root of so many sins (I mentioned several); of all falsehood, heresy, division and schism; of the last days.

This may seem like a lot of bad news. However, if we have been cut down by any kind of despising, personal or corporate, familial, parental, or racial – God happens to specialize in choosing despised things (1 Cor.1:28) and forgiving and changing despising people. God specializes in removing reproach, removing the roots that cause us to despise others; removing the garments of reproach with which others may have clothed our characters and spirits. From Genesis 30:23 onwards God says, “I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt.” How has God done this? How has he absorbed all despising that we may be absolved of it? The answer is the core of the gospel: in His own body on a tree. He became the toxic waste dump of the world’s despising. He was “despised and rejected of men … He was despised and we did not esteem him” (Isa.53:3). No one was ever more drained of esteem than Jesus, or held in more contempt. One of the most often quoted psalms in the gospels, with reference to the cross, not surprisingly has this emphasis: “I am a worm…a reproach of men and despised by the people…All those who see me ridicule me…They shoot out the lip…He trusted in the Lord…Let him rescue him…” (Ps.22: 6-8) And after this concentrated horror of despising comes an unbelievable delivering truth: “God has not despised the suffering of the afflicted.” When anyone is moved to repent of the ways they have despised Him and not esteemed Him, God takes the repentant response as personally as He took the sin of despising: “a broken and a contrite heart I will not despise.” There is forgiveness for our despising, there is deliverance from its bondages and healing from its defacements of identity and spirit. Hallelujah!

Pastorally yours,

Stuart

INTRODUCTION: THE MIND OF CHRIST

Dearest Family,

Despite so many folk being away, we did an introduction to our new summer series: “Christ, Christians and Culture.” If you were away you may want to catch up. When it comes to defining culture, we discovered that there were two possible extreme outcomes: a definition that is so simple and general that it ceases to define much at all, or a definition that attempts to include any number of constituent elements but inevitably still ends up as incomplete. Even the anthropologists agree that it is “notoriously difficult” to define. To put it as simply as we can, culture has different levels, but three main ones are: observable artifacts, values, and underlying assumptions (a world view). Culture is about things, ideas and behaviors. The Bible has a word to describe it: “the world” and to be wrongly influenced by it is “worldliness.” But as we saw on Sunday, the Bible understands the world as not just acting on its own but in relationship with the flesh and the devil.

Particular to a Christian understanding of culture is our belief about human nature (it is fallen) and our belief about the devil (demons and principalities and powers). Christians have always believed what some anthropologists are just beginning to admit. It is not just about what is out there but what is in here, meaning within us. Cultural analysts have been adamant that culture has no agency like a person or individual – no personality. That it could “act almost independently of human actions.” But we believe there is a prince of the power of the air who operates through the agency of culture in a personal way. It’s interesting that in the Old Testament the idea of a city with its culture is described by two words: one that refers to its physical existence and the other that attributes to it a spirit, like attached angels. We forget that the Bible’s explanation of the building of cities as cultural centers was rooted in Cain’s disobedient rebellion against God. Post-Eden culture was spiritually antipathetic and opposed to God’s creational intention – and this climaxed in the Tower of Babel and the spirit of Nimrod. There is a spirituality to culture.

A short summary of Sunday is not possible but let’s make this point. There is a big difference between being culturalized and enculturated. By culturalized, I mean an informed understanding of prevailing culture that comes from a commitment to discern truth, and to be alert to that which is counter to the gospel and to Christian lifestyle. By enculturated, I mean the state whereby a Christian, a church or a spiritual movement has taken on board culturally determined assumptions, behaviors and practices, usually defending themselves by saying that this is the way to reach people. In the last 48 hours, with two pastor friends on two different continents, I have had to relate to the sad and disastrous enculturation of a church and her pastors in one case, and an entire denomination in the other. They got to where they ended up, because they chose to make culture their non-negotiable basis for determining what was right: culture was their starting point, not Christ and the Scriptures.

Many years ago now, in a project entitled Breaking with the idols of our age, Os Guinness and John Seel outlined four steps to destructive enculturation:
Something modern is assumed: Some aspect of modern life or thought is entertained not only as significant and therefore worth acknowledging, but as superior to what Christians now know and do and therefore worth assuming as true.
Something traditional is abandoned: Everything that does not fit with the new assumption is either discounted or cut out. (Not just altering tactics but truth itself.) Something modern is assumed to be both true and proper. Everything no longer assertable in the face of it must go.
Everything else is adapted: What remains of traditional belief and practices is then altered to fit the new assumption. It is translated into the language and expectation of the new assumption which becomes the controlling assumption.
The original is assimilated: At the end of the line, Christian assumptions are absorbed by modern ones. The Gospel has been assimilated to the shape of the culture, often without a remainder.

The above is illustrated by a quote from a non-Christian magazine, The New Yorker: “The preacher instead of looking out upon the world, looks out upon public opinion trying to find out what the public would like to hear. Then he tries his best to duplicate that and bring his finished product into a market place in which others are trying to do the same. The public, turning to our culture to find out about the world, discovers there nothing but its own reflection. The unexamined world meanwhile drifts blindly into the future.”

We are all deeply affected by this. As a pastor, I know the deep pains of being told by someone who decides to leave our community, that our standards are too high and untenable or that we are not relating to where people are at, or that our view on biblical sexuality is unrealistic and outdated. In most cases, sadly, people have made a decision in favor of cultural assumptions, not biblical convictions, and will choose a lifestyle that they continue to defend as spiritual, whether they left for social or sexual reasons. It may be religious but it is not Christian. Holy culturalization has succumbed to unholy enculturation. “Do not love the world or the things that are of the world … We have not received the spirit of the world … We were in slavery under the elemental forces of the world … Our struggle is against the powers of this dark world … Because he loved this world he has deserted me … Keep oneself from being polluted by the world … If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.” (1 John 2:15; 1 Corinthians 2:12; 2 Corinthians 10:3; Galatians 4:3; Ephesians 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:10; James 1:7; 2 Peter 2:20)

I spent most of Sunday’s presentation focusing on the need to take seriously “the mind of Christ” and to think Christianly, and not allow the tidal currents of cultural experience to erode or wash away the foundations of biblical explanation. Let Paul, the great theologian who dealt with the relationship between the gospel and Gentile culture have the last word: “Do not conform to the pattern of the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2). Think man, think!

Yours for heavenly citizenship,

Stuart

BECAUSE HE IS RISEN, I...

Dearest Family,

Christ is Risen indeed! However, as I reminded you on Sunday, this confession with all its consequent convictions is not limited to Easter Day on the liturgical calendar. There is no manifestation of Christian life or any gathering of Christians anywhere, that is not premised on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that does not proclaim His living presence. So, what is actually different about Easter Sunday to any other gathering on any other Sunday, apart from the fact that you dress a little bit smarter? In truth, not much at all. But clearly, there is a historic component of this gathering at this particular time of year, at Passover, and there is an apologetic component, that begs to be addressed, that invites us to an annual catechism about some essential spiritual facts. The truth is that every Sunday, every first day of the week, is the memorialization and the celebration of the resurrection, and in fact, derives its very existence and meaning from the history of the “first day of the week” event as it is described in the gospels. The intensity and the authenticity of our worship should be no more or less on Easter day than on any other day.

But doesn’t Easter Sunday deserve and require some kind of special focus? Indeed, it does. Like Christmas Day, this day was once a pagan festival that was spiritualized. The very word Easter is a derivation of Oestre, the pagan goddess of fertility. Also like Christmas-tide, it became a Christian festival, but has now been repaganized, as spring fertility rites replace spiritual liturgies; chocolate bunnies displace sacraments, and the wonder elicited by the re-emergence of cherry blossoms outruns the awe at the resurrection of Christ. The most public expression of the cross is in the mention of hot-cross buns. Having said all that, today does present us with a clear opportunity, without fleshly fuss, finesse or fanfare, to state the non-negotiably true and obvious fact of the gospel – we go unashamedly public with the creedal proclamation of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. But what can be minimally said of such magnitude, such majesty, such magnificence? What I decided to do last Sunday was to remind you of what scripture tells us has happened, is now in effect, is now available, is now descriptive of our lives and deaths, because Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.

The very first recorded sermon of the early church sets the pattern and example (Acts 2:22-36) and the core of Peter’s preaching here is repeated by Paul in his proclamation (Acts 13: 26-36). I suggested that you do an Easter devotional, and take time to slowly go through Peter’s meticulous three-point sermon that answers three questions:

  1. What actually happened? Historical evidence for the resurrection: “Jesus of Nazareth was … God has raised this Jesus to life and we are all witnesses of the fact” (v22, 32);

  2. What does it mean? The spiritual and theological meaning of the resurrection: “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose … God has made this Jesus both Lord and Christ.” (vs 23, 36);

  3. How does it relate to me? The personal application: “When the people heard this they were cut to the heart … repent and be baptized.” (vs 37-40).

Christian faith takes history seriously; it takes facts and truth seriously. The objective historicity of the gospels (literally testimonies) and the facts about Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and exaltation are foundational to faith. The grounds for belief are important. Present faith cannot be divided from past facts. The Jesus of the heart cannot be divided from the Jesus of history. That is why it is important to have reliable witnesses. To subvert Christianity you have to subvert all the witnesses, which of course includes every professing Christian there has ever been over the last two thousand years. The ball is in the unbelievers’ court. Paul reels off a list of some of these witnesses in 1 Cors.15: the witness of saints, the witness of scripture, the witness of sermons, the witness of sight, the witness of circumstance, and last but not least, the witness of self: “and he appeared also to me!” (v.8) By the way, don’t forget that according to his own testimony, it was the April 18, 2017 truth of the resurrection that led to Paul’s arrest and martyrdom: “With respect to the resurrection of the dead I am on trial before you this day” – these were his words to the Sanhedrin. Paul gave his life for the truth about Jesus’ resurrection.

These same witnesses must continue to speak and be heard today, especially as the resurrection inevitably attracts such disbelief and despising from those who believe there is nothing beyond a naturalistic or materialist explanation to anything and everything. There is a wide range of antagonistic or antipathetic responses to the facts of the resurrection, that includes:

  • the presentation of resurrection as fraudulent invention, as fanciful imagination, as fanatical interpretation;

  • the presentation of resurrection as myth, as magic, as metaphor;

  • the presentation of resurrection as an experience of presence, as an expression of potentiality, as an expectation of possibility.

  • The attempts and theories to discredit the evidence are familiar: unknown tomb, wrong tomb, hallucination, Passover Plot, resuscitation theory, stolen body, criminal invention.

Forget the problems posed by: the Roman guard, a two-ton door, an empty tomb, 100lbs of spice and an absent body. Ignore the overwhelming circumstantial evidence: hundreds of eye-witnesses, changed disciples, worship, eucharist, baptism, mission, the church. But above all the rationalistic and agnostic chatter comes another voice: “I am the resurrection and the life. Do you believe this?” (Jn. 11:25)

It is Jesus’ own testimony about His resurrection that is most crucial. You cannot have the rest of Jesus’ teaching without His words about His resurrection. His view of His own mission, His prophecies about his own death and resurrection, are both rooted in earlier prophecy but also corroborative of those prophecies. Jesus' prophecies of His Resurrection litter the gospels.

Jesus not only predicted His Resurrection but He also emphasized that His Resurrection from the dead would be the prophetic "sign" to authenticate His claim that He is the Messiah! Yeshua HaMaschiach! On Sunday, I reminded you that at every step of the story of Holy Week there was a repeated phrase: “that the scriptures might be fulfilled.” So the key issue on Easter day is not about what a pastor should say about the resurrection, but what does the scripture say?

So why is the resurrection central to faith? What does scripture say are the consequences of the resurrection for us, for all, for now and forever? I asked you a question at the beginning of my message: what difference does the resurrection actually make to your present life? I gave you over 40 scriptural answers that complete the sentence: BECAUSE JESUS WAS RAISED, I… How many of them can you remember according to scripture? Search the scriptures yourself, or in homegroup. (OK, or download the message!) It might just make for a “happy day”!

With rising expectations,

Stuart

IN PURSUIT OF CHRIST

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12–14 (ESV)

FINDING YOUR WAY TO CHRIST

Seek Jesus in prayer. Cry out to Him, he will hear you, and answer you if you mean it! Ask Christ Jesus to save you and forgive you of your sins, and wash you whiter than snow, however you must not return back to your sins. In prayer to Christ Jesus, you must repent of your ways, and decide to put Christ first. Christ will give you peace, a deep peace, and instantly the depression and the darkness will simply disappear.