Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. (Jesus said) You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.  A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master.  Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.  Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.  But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.  Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.  Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. -1 John 3:13 ESV;Matthew 10:22;24;28;32-33 NASB; Luke 9:24 NASB; Matthew 5:10-12 ESV; 2 Timothy 3:12 ESV.  

This is not an easy word.  I have spent time this week wrestling with these scriptures.  It is not the first time I have wrestled with them.  It probably won't be the last.  Our faith begins with suffering.  The road of our faith is marked with suffering.  For many of us the end of our earthly life will be one of suffering.  As I pray over these verses, I always end with the same question, "Do I believe what I believe enough to suffer and die for it?".  That is the question that has brought me to my knees, pleading with God saying "I believe, help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24).

Jesus made it clear from the beginning what the cost of following Him would be.   "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it" (Mark 8:34-35).  The only way to embrace this call is through total and complete surrender of yourself to Him. You cannot merely admire the cross from a safe distance, you have to cling to it.  You have to feel the weight of it upon your shoulders, and splinters of it digging into your flesh.

It is clearly much easier to write about suffering, than it is to go through it.  And I confess that I have suffered very little for the Name of Jesus Christ.  But I need to prepare myself now, for whatever it is that my Lord is calling me to.  And I must never forget that, in the words of Martin Luther King Jr. “unearned suffering is redemptive”.  Always remember that suffering is not without purpose.  Read through the book Acts and you will see the explosive effect that suffering and persecution had on the early church.  "So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied" (Acts 9:31).  God does not let you suffer for no reason.  Ultimately, He is doing something amazing and good.  We do not take up the cross to atone for our sins, Jesus has already done that for us.  But by taking up our cross, and enduring persecution for His Name’s sake, He is given much glory, and His church is strengthened, as many more are brought to faith in Him.

Oswald Chambers writes, “God can never make us wine if we object to the fingers He uses to crush us with .... If ever we are going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed; you cannot drink grapes.  Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed” (My Utmost For His Highest, Sept. 30).

As I write this, we are as a church praying for a saint in Iran who is moments away from being put to death for his faith is Jesus Christ.  Read Foxes book of martyrs, or log on to the Voice of the Martyrs, and you will hear of countless other stories of men and women who followed Jesus to their grave.  Saints who were tortured, beaten, mocked, imprisoned, and killed for the Name of Christ.  These men and women brought great great glory to our Lord.  And their suffering was not without purpose.  Their suffering and sacrifice has strengthened His church, and has in turn led many more to faith in Him, and has glorified His name to the ends of the earth.

Lord God, I ask You again, to help my unbelief.  I ask You to give me faith strong enough to suffer and die for what I know to be true, and what I know to be worthy of my life, that Your Son, Jesus Christ, suffered and died, so that I may stand forgiven before Your throne of grace.  I ask you today, to prepare me to be crushed, that I may be made into wine, for the glory of Your Holy Name.

“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

(So) LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ Do not love the world or the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. - Matthew 22:37 NASB; 1 John 2:15 ESV.  

“God has a single relentless stance toward us: He loves us” (Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel).  Now Jesus tells us that WE are called to a single relentless stance toward God, that we love Him.  This verse does not suggest love is some fleeting feeling that you may or may not have at any given time.  It is a command.  You are to love the Lord your God.  You are to love Him with the entirety of your being.  You are to love Him with all of your faculties.  And you are to be active, not passive, in this pursuit.

How do you love God with all your heart?  You do so by reminding yourself daily of the great price that was paid for your salvation.  You do so by preaching the gospel to yourself every day, and every night.  You do so by remembering constantly how much He loves you.

How do you love God with all your soul?  You do so by taking time to meditate on the glorious attributes of God, His goodness, mercy, love, holiness, righteousness, jealousy, wrath, omnipotence, perfection, beauty and glory, and then worshiping Him in light of these attributes.  You do so by quieting your mind from the distractions of this world and allowing His Holy Spirit to come and fellowship with you.

How do you love God with all your mind?  You do so by seeking greater and greater knowledge about Him.  The amount of knowledge about God that we have access to through His word is astounding!  If only we will take the time to chew on it, to feast on it, to humble ourselves beneath it, and to let it transform our minds in light of eternity.

It is fitting that the second verse above accompanies the first, because it is the world and the things of the world that will cause us to stumble and fall as we seek to Love God with all our hearts, souls and minds.   We are a people created to worship, but that worship is so easily focused on the wrong god, on a god that is no god at all, and therefore lacking in worthiness to be worshiped.  We must guard ourselves CONSTANTLY against the idols that seek to distract us from our God.  This too is an active process.  The second you allow yourself to be passive in this, is the moment that the idols of your heart will overtake you.  Do not be passive in your pursuit of God.   Love Him, with everything you have, continuously, relentlessly, passionately.  You will find in the end that He alone is worthy of your love.

“All thoughts, all passions, all delights,

Whatever stirs this mortal frame,

All are but ministers of Love,

And feed his sacred flame.” - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing ...... So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” - 1 Corinthians 13.

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, for Christ was slain, and purchased for God with His blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. - Matthew 28:19 NASB;Revelation 5:9 NASB

I love the church family that God has placed me in.  I love this family for so many reasons, but one reason at the top of my list, is that we are family who places tremendous weight on this call in Matthew 28.  This is Christ’s “Great Commission” for His people to respond to His gospel message.  Redeemer church is a family filled with men and women who have chosen to obey this commission.  We are a family who read these words and understand that they were not just a call for the apostles, but for all of us who have been purchased with His blood, to GO, and to make disciples of all the nations, BECAUSE Christ was slain and purchased for God with His blood you and I.

We are family that places such great emphasis on these words that just this week, we have launched a residency program for men and women who have devoted their lives to the cause of Christ, and desire to GO.  These are twenty brothers and sisters who have realized the price that was paid for them to be purchased, who have now surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ, and who will now spend the next one to two years preparing themselves to GO, and to make disciples of all the nations.  I praise God for this family.

But where should we go?  Jesus tells us after His resurrection.  “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).  Where is your Jerusalem?  Many would say that your Jerusalem is your neighborhood or your city, and you are called to be Christ’s witness there.  A dear friend of mine in Ethiopia once told me that “your Jerusalem, is your marriage.  If your marriage does not have the gospel, you can go no further”.

God has placed a call upon us to make disciples of our spouses, our children, our parents, our church family, our neighbors, our co-workers, our mailman, our congressman, our hairdresser.  AND He has called us to make disciples of men and women from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.  For this is why He was slain.  All we need to do is to surrender our lives to Him.

God makes a great promise to us in Isaiah 55, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10-11).  So what did His word in Matthew 28 accomplish?  Read the book of Acts, and you will find out.  Read the history of the church, and you will learn.  Read about the legions of men and women who today have sacrificed their lives to obey this word, and you will see the awesome power of God’s word.

“And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’  Then I said, ‘Here am I!  Send me.’” (Isaiah 6:8).

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.  All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ.  - 2 Corinthians 5:14-15;18;20 ESV.

Have I embraced my identity as an ambassador for Christ?  Have I surrendered control of my life, so that I can truly say that the love of Christ controls me?  Have I grieved over the sins for which Jesus was crucified, and trusted in the forgiveness offered by Him?  Once I have done this, I will no longer live for myself, but for Him who for my sake died and was raised.  Then I will live as an ambassador for Christ.

Have I recognized my need to be reconciled to God?  Have I seen the great chasm that existed between my wretched sinful state and God’s state of perfect Holiness?  How deeply have I felt the weight of God’s wrath bearing down on me, ready to crush me in an instant?  Only once I have come to recognize my need to be reconciled to God, will I live as an ambassador for Christ.

Do I truly believe that Jesus died in my place, taking upon Himself the punishment for my sins?  Do I truly believe that He was crucified, died, and was buried?  Do I truly believe that He was raised from the dead and is now seated at the right hand of God?  Do I truly believe that He is now “head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23)?  When I do, I will no longer live for myself, but will live as an ambassador for Christ.

What is an ambassador?  It is one who represents a nation to a foreign group, carrying with them an agenda or message.  For us who have surrendered ourselves to Christ, we are called to represent Christ among a people who do not know Him.  We are called to carry His message to a people who are devoted to another god.  We are called to carry His Light to a people living in darkness.  We have been chosen, and called, and bought by the blood of Jesus, that we may now GO, and represent Christ among the nations that are hostile to Him.  We do this gently, and humbly, and lovingly, but we do this emboldened by His great power, knowing that victory has already been won.  Being an ambassador is an honor and a privilege.  It is exciting and will often take us to far off lands, meeting new cultures and new peoples.  And it is dangerous, and will often bring with it pain and trial.  But when you believe that the cause you are representing, and the message that you carry, is WORTHY of your life, then your identity as an ambassador for Christ will bring you more joy than you can ever imagine.

“To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak” (Ephesians 6:18-20).

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  - Romans 6:4 ESV; 2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV.

What a wonderful week to think about and dwell on these words, when this past Sunday we got to gather at Marine park, and watch 14 members of our Redeemer family be baptized, as the sunlight danced off of the water behind them.  Truly, I felt the weight of this means of grace for our church, as we celebrated this outward sign of the inward regeneration that had taken place within each of them, and as we remembered that we who walk with Christ have been identified with Him in His death, burial and resurrection.  It was a powerful and moving experience for me, and I thank God for the gift of baptism for those in His church.  He has blessed us richly.

I am struck today by the words “new creation”.  Those who have been saved by grace are not “different” or “better” or merely “on the right path”, they are a new creation.  The word creation seems to imply such a radical change, that the person is no longer the same person at all, but has been changed COMPLETELY.  Not one ounce of that person is who they were before they accepted this gift, but they are altogether a new person.  Who were they before?  They were a bag of bones, the walking dead, with the wrath of God bearing down upon them.  “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world ... and were by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:1-3).  This should cause you and I to tremble.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us ... made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-6).  It has been said that Jesus did not come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people, alive.  If ever there was a cause to celebrate, this is it!  Those 14 men and women who were baptized, were vessels of wrath who have now been resurrected in “newness of life”, and are now vessels of grace, freed from wrath of God, justified, adopted into His family as sons and daughters, to the praise of His glorious grace!  I can think of no greater reason to throw a party that this, that “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

Let us continue to celebrate the gospel of Jesus Christ, and to give much thanks and adoration to Him who has blessed us so richly.

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.  In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22).

Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.  In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace.  For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. - Ephesians 1:4-6 NASB; Romans 8:29-30 NASB.

These verses are incredible.  They are so pregnant with doctrine and theology and truth about God, that I feel as if my head will explode with each step forward I take.  I feel like I could write a thousand blog posts based off of these 94 words.

While you may think of yourself as "called" or "chosen" or “in Christ”, how often do you consider that you were chosen "before the foundation of the world".  That should cause YOUR head to explode.  Before God spoke the earth into existence by the breath of His mouth, He knew you, He loved you, and He chose you.  If you think you are significant because of your intelligence, or your charm, or your beauty, remember that God chose you before the foundation of the world.  It was THEN that He adopted you into His family.  It was not when you decided to follow Christ, or when you got your act together, or when you "figured it all out".  It was before the foundation of the world.  Spend some time thinking about that, and let it blow your mind away.  This should point you not to your achievement and your success but to an eternal and sovereign God who is so loving and so kind that He would adopt you and love you and conform you to the image of His Son.

Adoption is a theological topic that is very dear to me, as I now have two adopted children.  I realize that any comparison I would draw between my adoption of them, and God's adoption of me is limited and probably fraught with danger, given the infinite difference between myself and God.  But I do sometimes think about how my children, before they were adopted by my wife and I were helpless.  They could do nothing to "get adopted".  They could not merit my favor, they could not impress me, they could not charm me into adopting them.  I loved them before I met them.  I loved them from the day back in 2002 when God called me to eventually adopt them, 7 and then 9 years later.  God loved me before the foundation of the world.  He called me to one day be holy and blameless before Him.  And since I could not make myself holy and blameless, He sent His Son Jesus Christ, to atone for all of my sins and to clothe me in His robe of holiness, that I could now stand before my Holy God, my Father, who adopted me, before the foundation of the world, who called me, who justified me, and who will one day glorify me, the praise of the glory of HIS grace!

For a wonderful discussion of the "order of salvation" (ordo salutis) please see Wayne Grudem's book, Systematic Theology, Chapter 32.

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.  And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying ‘Abba!’ Father!  So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Galatians 4:4-7).