Summary: Jesus gives a couple of warnings in this passage. The disciples will face persecution and hatred for following Jesus. Some will fall away, which is why Jesus gives this warning. He doesn’t want us to be oblivious to the cost of following him. Today and throughout history, Christians have faced opposition from the world.
Category: Commentary
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Can a loving God allow hell to exist?
Hell is a tough doctrine.
In his book the Problem of Pain, CS Lewis sums up what I think many would agree with: “There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power. But it has the full support of Scripture and, specially, of our Lord’s own words; it has always been held by Christendom; and it has the support of reason.”
We’re fine with the idea of a loving God, but we’re less accepting of a God who judges.
With the idea of hell, It can seem unfair. We can feel tempted to justify why hell doesn’t exist. Or maybe we think that hell is really just for people who are really, really bad.
Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” It’s noteworthy that in the Bible, the person who has the most to say about hell is…Jesus. To reject Jesus is to reject his gospel. It’s to reject his grace.
And ultimately there is no excuse in the Bible for this rejection. God displays his glory and grandeur in nature as Romans 1:18-20 says:
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
People who want to reject hell or who question how a holy God can judge are showing the sinfulness of their hearts.
I was watching a video recently. It was a back and forth between an atheist college student and Christian apologist Frank Turek. In the video, the student said she didn’t believe in God, or in the resurrection of Christ, but she believed that if there were a heaven, she should be able to go there.
But why? Why would you get to be with God when you don’t believe in him?
Why would God MAKE YOU be with him when you lived your entire life without any desire to know him? God extends grace freely. He extends the offer of salvation to all who will accept it.
But what’s not an option is saying no. What’s not an option is trying to earn our way to God. The vanity of thinking that we can make ourselves worthy. The vanity of opposing God, of rejecting him and thinking that you should still get to be with him.
We think we’re good people. But the greatest sin we commit is rejecting the God who made us.
God honors the choice a person makes to reject him and to reject heaven. But what he will not allow is for us to approach him on our terms.
Hell is the logical conclusion of wanting to live this life without God. If a person doesn’t want God now, then why would they want him in eternity? D.A. Carson says, “Hell is not filled with people who are now holy. It’s filled with people who still love their sin and will not bend the knee. And receive the punishment for that sin, in an ongoing cycle, world without end. And that’s what the gospel saves us from.”
I think that’s important to understand. God isn’t rejecting people who have a desire to know him. People who come to him, knowing their unworthiness, knowing their sinfulness.
God is just. His judgments are just.
People aren’t condemned because they didn’t have enough time. They aren’t cast away from God because they didn’t have an opportunity.
God isn’t vindictive. He’s not losing his temper. But he is righteous. He’s perfect. And heaven is a perfect place. God is overwhelmingly glorious.
The gospel isn’t: well no one is perfect so just try to be decent.
It’s that all sin and all fall short of the glory of God. And we are totally separated from the Holy and eternal God because of our sin.
Some liberal churches undermine the necessity of believing in Jesus. Or reduce him to someone to a good teacher. And the best possible roe model for how you could live your life, but not really as being THE way, THE truth, and the life.
But that cheapens the work of Christ. Because he didn’t come just to give some good moral lessons.
Undermining the doctrine of hell might seem like a convenient solution to something you don’t want to think about, but it introduces the infinitely greater problem of making Jesus a liar.
The point of the gospel isn’t saying that you want God because you’re afraid of hell. It’s about wanting to be WITH God.
Originally published: November 14, 2016
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Apple juice for communion? Why we can’t do communion our own way
27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
1 Corinthians 11:27-29I saw quite a few responses on Twitter this evening when the rapper Lecrae mentioned taking communion at home with wheat bread and apple juice and saying “I hope this still counts.”
It doesn’t.
Communion is a sacred remembrance of the gospel which was instituted by Christ himself with the commandment “do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19).
There are lots of different views of communion within Christendom. Even though I pastor an independent Bible church, my view of communion aligns pretty well with Presbyterianism where I believe that communion is to be administered to a congregation by the pastor, overseen by elders, and served by deacons. It stands to reason that those people would oversee and serve communion since they’re charged with overseeing and serving the church. Last year, when churches were shut down during Covid, I saw some people partaking of communion at home. While everyone won’t agree with me, that’s not communion. Communion is mean to be COMMUNal. Virtual communion is not communion.
Again, there are varying opinions about communion in different branches of Christendom. (Even what it should be called, such as communion, eucharist, Lord’s Supper). The Catholic view is not the same as the Presbyterian view which is not the same as the Lutheran view which is not the same as the Orthodox view.
But they all would agree that just taking it upon yourself to have wheat bread and apple juice and to call that communion is not communion. There ought to be fidelity to Jesus and how he instituted communion, not just doing whatever you feel like.
Thinking you can just make communion whatever you want it to be comes from a shallow theology. Any church with history would consider ad hoc communion to be sacrilegious. It comes form the modern age that makes Christianity existential, where everyone does what is right in their own eyes, and where we do whatever we want and justify it as long as it’s sincere or “from the heart.”
Jeremiah 17:9 says: the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
There are some things where there are prescribed ways to do them and communion is one of those things.
My point isn’t just to criticize Lecrae. Too often we try to take the sacred and just make it whatever we want it to be.
Communion is communal. Communion is given by Christ as a sign of the new covenant. As a covenantal sign, and as such, it is meant for the church during worship. It can’t just be you taking something you’re eating and calling it communion. Even if you’re with your family, that doesn’t make it communion. There’s a Congregational aspect to it. There’s a sacred and set apart aspect to it.
What about home churches? I can appreciate home churches. I would also hope that home churches would still handle communion in an appropriate Biblical manner and not just arbitrarily create elements.
You can have a fellowship meal. You can thank God while you’re eating a meal. But that doesn’t make those things communion anymore than dunking yourself in a swimming pool or bath tub doesn’t mean you just baptized yourself.
Thanks for reading!
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Sermon: the last witnesses – John 15:26-27
In this passage, Jesus tells of the giving of the Holy Spirit who will witness to Christ after he’s gone. Jesus also tells the disciples that they themselves will be witnesses to Jesus in the early church. And this sets up a reminder for all of us today that we too are witnesses of Jesus I our lives.
Sermon transcript
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There’s no such thing as a Christian who has not been born again
Being born again is another word for the doctrine of “regeneration.” It is a supernatural work that God does within a person who comes to faith. All Christians are born again because all Christians have experienced regeneration. There’s no such thing as an unregenerate Christian. That’s not a Christian!
Being born again is about coming to Christ, turning away from sin, and trusting in Jesus as your Lord and savior. And when we come to him, there is grace. There is forgiveness for our sins.
But here’s a point that people too often miss. It needs to be a genuine faith in what Jesus has done. And the validation of that sincerity will manifest itself in a life that is transformed by the gospel. And if there is no change in your life, if there is no fruit, if there is no greater love for God, no appreciation for the work of Christ, no recognition of the cost of sins for which Jesus went to the cross, then for the sake of your own soul, you need to do some sincere soul searching into whether or not you actually believe.
There are so many things that we like to tie to regeneration. For some, they want to look at baptism. Baptism doesn’t confer regeneration to you. Baptism doesn’t make you born again if you don’t have faith. Baptism doesn’t mean anything if you don’t believe in the triune God in whose name you were baptized.
Some people like to tie it to their family. Mom and dad are Christians, or were Christians. “That’s how I was raised.” That’s a wonderful blessing. But that doesn’t mean you’ve been born again. The faith has to be your own. To
For others, it might be the Sinner’s Prayer. “I asked Jesus into my heart.”
But did you believe it? Did you place your trust in him? If there’s never been any evidence in your life that Jesus is in your heart, is he really? Don’t go through life thinking “I said this prayer one time,” or “I got baptized one time,” and that that’s all that matters if you’re living a faithless life.
For the original post: There’s no such thing as a Christian who has not been born again — Josh Benner
