Jared Longshore's Blog, page 10

Boil It Down

“Christianity even when watered down is hot enough to boil all modern society to rags.”

GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy

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The Table Comes to You

Every week you are told to come and welcome to Jesus Christ at this table. But that is only possible because this table first came to you. We would not be able to partake of this bread if the bread from heaven had not come to earth. Keeping that order in your mind is essential to the welfare of your soul.

You are an active church. And this puts you in the position of being blessed with more oportunities for action. Our Lord said, “Whosoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more in abundance” (Matthew 13:12). You who have been faithful over little find yourselves being given even more to be faithful over. This growth is a blessing that is according to plan. But the leven of the kingdom expands kingdom responsibilities as much as kingdom blessings. And the whole thing can be a lot to carry.

So let this truth set in as you tend to the load of blessings the Lord has given you: The bread of life has come into the world. And this bread of life has come to you particularly. This bread will continue to nourish you.

Christ said, “Go, make disciples of all nations [was the command] . . . and lo, I am with you always [was the promise].” He is with you now at this table. And He will be with you on your drive home. He will be with you when you lay your head on your pillow tonight and when you wake to your Monday morning duties.

You will do greater works than you have before because this table that has come to you will keep coming to you. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ. Come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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The Sin of Burying Talents

When Christ rose from the dead, He did so with authority. His resurrection was explosive, ushering in a new age. There was nothing stagnant about this new age and there was nothing sluggish about mission of Christ’s followers in it. They went from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, to the ends of the earth. They went to deserts, caves, and halls of power. Their operation was a risky one and no doubt they had Jesus’ parable in their heads, the one about the talents.

That parable can make conservatives nervous. Conservatives like to conserve, after all. And if conservation is the only standard, why did the wicked servant who had received one talent get condemned? He did keep what was entrusted to him. Evidently, our Lord expects us to use the gifts He has given us and turn a profit on his investment.

Each one of you have gifts from the Lord. Some of you have a been given wisdom, others the ability to lead with zeal. Some of you have the gift of generosity and others of you bleed mercy anytime you are pricked. Discovering your particular gifts is not nearly as important as using them.

The tendency for conservatives is to ride the brake. We recognize there are risks with every action and it is right to count the costs. But we can forget that inaction is quite risky itself. Pharaoh’s chariots behind you are just as much a threat as the Red Sea in front of you. The desert swallows up your people if you don’t enter into the land and giants will attempt to when you do. 

But what God said throuhh the prophet Moses, He says all the more to His new covenant church through the Greater Moses, “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.”

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No Disposable Ladder to Heaven

It is a false piety that walks through creation looking only for lessons which can be applied somewhere else . . . The child’s preference for sweets over spinach, mankind’s universal love of the toothsome rather than the nutritious is the mark of our greatness . . . The world is no disposable ladder to heaven. Earth is not convenient, it is good; it is, by God’s design, our lawful love.

Robert Capon, The Supper of the Lamb

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Eating Grace

Any good Christian will be falsely charged at times with being a mindless slave and at other times, paradoxically, with being a free loader. At one moment, the world tells the saints they must be liberated from the tyranical lash of religion and at another they scoff at free grace and the death substitute which leaves the forgiven getting off scot-free. Both slavery to Christ and free grace are depicted at this table. But I would like to focus this meditation on the latter. 

As you partake of this bread and wine today, remember that you receive the body and blood of Christ at no cost to you. None of us have earned our seat at this table. The meal was purchased. But not by us. The meal was supplied. But not by our broken bodies. Call us free loaders if you must. But our message to the dead and dying is, “Come, by wine and milk without money” (Isaiah 55:1).

It is very true that you reap what you sow, but this sacrament reminds you that at the bottom of everything lies the blood of Christ which you didn’t earn in the slightest and which you did not sow. That blood feeds you now at this table. And that blood goes on feeding you. You feed on grace at this table and you will go on feeding on grace your whole life or you will starve. There is no other bread, after all. As there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, so there is one bread. Eat this grace or go hungry.

So do you live by grace? Have you been living, forgiving, rejoicing, teaching, leading, buying, selling, and raising your children by the power of this free meal? 

If not, then let this meal do it’s work on you. The blood hear calls to you. And it doesn’t say come and buy. It says come and welcome. Come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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The Two-Edged Sword

Introduction

Charles Spurgeon once offered a humble recommendation for how to defend the Bible. He kept it quite simple, “Let it defend itself.” His statement gets to the heart of our problem. We want to hold up the Word of God, forgetting that it holds us up. We want to cut with the Sword of the Spirit rather than have it cut us. We treat the sword like it is an inanimate object in need of the living to wield it. But our text says the word is alive and we are the ones in need of animation. We’re the ones in need of entering into rest, being prodded to enter that rest by the two-edged sword.

Survey of the Text – Hebrews 4:11-13

Given the example of the Israelites, many of whom after being delivered out of Egypt still died in the desert, new covenant saints must labor to enter that rest (v. 11). That rest is not just any rest, more about this particular rest in a moment. We can enter that rest because of the Word of God, which is quick and powerful, sharper than the sword that splits the heart (soul and spirit), body (joints and marrow), and mind (thoughts and intents) (v. 12). This Living Word doesn’t only carve up the individual, it exposes all of creation, every creature being laid open today by the same Word to whom they will one day give an account (v. 13).

Into That Rest

The rest here described is a very particular kind of rest. It is called that rest. And that rest was defined in the previous verse, “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his” (v. 10). God’s rest was previously described as “the seventh day” when God rested from His work of creation (v. 4). But in verse 10 we hear of another, who entered into His rest like God did from His own. And then our text in verse 11 says that the saints should enter into that rest, namely the man’s rest from verse 10. So who is that man? 

The context identifies that man as Jesus Christ, who “is passed into the heavens” (v. 14). As God rested from His work of creation so Christ has rested from His work of redemption. And the saints must labor to enter that rest, the rest of Christ’s completed work. There is a future fulfillment of this rest when you arrive in heaven. But there is a present reality of this rest for all those who will have it.

The Word of God Is Quick

Verse 11 provides the directive but it doesn’t supply the fuel for completing the directive. You can hear the exhortation to enter into rest well enough and still be left troubled about how you’re actually going to enter in. Even if Christ is in you, your flesh is no help at all, “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin” (Romans 8:10). But verse 12 supplies the remedy. Enter into Christ’s rest “for the word of God is quick.” 

The Word of God in this passage is not merely the prophets and the apostles but the Living Christ Himself. Quick in our text is often translated living. And the same sense comes through in both words. The Christ Word is always up to something. Creation itself was formed by that Word. The soul of man was formed by the same—”The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him” (Zechariah 12:1). New life comes by this same Word (1 Peter 1:23). The maintenance and maturity of that new life comes likewise (John 17:17). 

In whatever the Christ Word is up to, He is effectual. God says through the prophet Isaiah that His Word is like rain or snow from heaven and it will prosper in the thing whereto He sent it (Isaiah 55:11). But that prospering is not as straight-forward as some make it out to be. His sword cuts to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, thoughts and intentions. It goes places we can’t go and accomplishes there things we can’t accomplish. 

What it accomplishes is always good, but it can take us by surprise. God’s Word is a fire that melts cold hearts and a hammer that breaks hard hearts (Jeremiah 23:29). So this Christ Word enfleshed dry bones in Ezekiel’s valley and, at the same time, disemboweled King Jehoram due to his sin. This two-edged sword plagued Pharaoh, hanged Haman, and sent dogs to eat Jezebel (2 Kings 9:10). But it also humbled Nebuchadnezzar, turned Manasseh from his evil way, and spared Nineveh. 

Creation Exposed

This living and effectual Word is the same Word to whom man will one day give an account. Verse 13 says that all things are already exposed before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. This is a reference to the judgment seat of Christ—

“For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ . . . So then ever one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:10, 12).

But the only way to give a faithful account to the Word it to have that Word carve you up. The only way to go before Christ with a load of good works done in the body is to enter into His rest. 

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All Things New

Baptism is a sign and seal of new life. In this sacrament, God swears an oath that the old man is dead and the new man alive, that what we lost in Adam has been found in Christ. While Adam could only give us his fallen nature by natural generation, Christ gives us glory and immorality through supernatural regeneration. Behold, He is making all things new. And by faith, even us. 

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Level Up By the Spirit

There are times in life when you simply need to level up. The church leveled up from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth. David went from killing the lion to killing the giant. So it is with you. You encounter new terrain and must conquer there. And this you can do for you have not been given a spirit of fear but of power and of love and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).

But this is just the thing. Your spirit must level up. The flesh is no help at all. And for your inner man to level up, you need the Holy Spirit Himself to blow upon your spirit that yours would be stirred, enlarged, spunky. Many have tried to level up by the flesh be they cutthroat politics, backstabbing coworkers, juicing athletes, or climbing clergy using the hooks of filthy lucre. But whatever rise these fleshly make, it results in the fall of Haman. And for that matter, their rise is nothing like that of Elisha who asked for a double portion of the spirit of Elijah and received it. It is nothing like the rise of Solomon who asked for wisom he didn’t have in order to bless others with it.

If it is your spirit that needs to level up, then take an honest assessment of your spirit. More than your flesh is here. Look around. There are many souls on board in this church hall. Some are dejected, some numbing due to sin, some unrecognized, their owners nearly having forgotten about them.

With that honest assessment in view, ask the Father to blow His Spirit upon yours. You can’t twist the Spirit’s arm. He blows where He wills. But you can humble yourself and ask for the Spirit of wisdom and power Himself to enliven the life He has already given you.

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The Power of Levity

Modern investigators of miraculous history have solemnly admitted that a characteristic of the great saints is their power of “levitation.” They might go further; a characteristic of the great saints is their power of levity. Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly . . . One “settles down” into a sort of selfish seriousness; but one has to rise to a gay self-forgetfulness . . . Seriousness is not a virtue. It would be a heresy, but a much more sensible heresy, to say that seriousness is a vice. It is really a natural trend or lapse into taking one’s self gravely, because it is the easiest thing to do. It is much easier to write a good Times leading article than a good joke in Punch. For solemnity flows out of men naturally; but laughter is a leap. It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light. Satan fell by the force of gravity.

GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy

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Proclaim the Lord’s Death

When our Lord instituted this table, He said that as we eat and drink, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. By focusing on His death, this sacrament keeps us grounded. His resurrection and ascension raise us up on high. And His death keeps us humble and low. 

You have likely seen this with a new believer, fresh into the halls of the kingdom of God. He is the first to admit when he’s wrong about a particular thing, being so recently notified that he was wrong about everything. The man who only two days ago thought north was south and south north, has no problem fessing up to his compass now being only a few ticks off. 

So it is with us at this table. We proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. And as Stephen acknowledged of His persecutors, so we have acknowledged of ourselves. We became His murderers. He was bruised for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities.

If we can proclaim that truth here on Mount Zion, together in the blazing light of the throne room of God, while eating and drinking, what a silly thing that we’d attempt to avoid admtting our wrongs down in the nooks and crannies of life. Are you really going to avoid admitting that you fumbled the football in that old man’s pick up game when we are all admitting here, before the face of Jesus Christ, that we sold the nuclear launch codes to the Russians?

Eat and drink now in the joy of humility. It is a lowliness that raises us up to heaven. And how can the way down be the way up you ask? Christ is dead for you. That’s how. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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