Josh Benner

Tag: Christianity

  • The God who calls us friends. John 15:12-17

    The God who calls us friends. John 15:12-17

     We all have acquaintances. People we know, people we’re pleasant with. People we can have small talk with, talk about the weather, talk about sports. 

    That’s fine. 

    But it can be easy to keep people at arm’s length, control what we reveal to someone.

    Friendships are a struggle for many in our society. 

    When comparing surveys that Gallup did in 1990 and a 2021 survey from the American Enterprise Institute, when asked how many close friends people had (not including family members), for people who said they had zero close friends, the 1990 number had quadrupled from 3 percent to 12 percent in 2021. 

    People who said to have fewer than two close friendships doubled from 16 percent to 32 percent. 

    And the number of people who said that they had 10 or more close friends fell from 33 percent in 1990 down to 13 percent in 2021. 

    How many people know you? 

    Not people to whom you can give a passing prayer request, but who actually know your fears, know your dreams, know your struggles, your heart? 

    There is something that is so incredibly life giving about meaningful friendships. Being known. Being known in your weaknesses and imperfections but still being loved in spite of those things. It’s a powerful thing. 

    True friendship can be difficult, it can be challenging, yet it is absolutely essential. It’s essential to our wellbeing. 

    In a 2010 review of 148 studies which – across the board – had included more than 300,000 participants, stronger friendships were linked to increased lifespan and decreases in things such as high blood pressure and diabetes. 

    Studies also found that close friendships had similar impacts on health to quitting smoking, and that in terms of lifespan, strong friendships were a bigger indicator than strong family connections. 

    That’s not to say that family connections aren’t important, of course. But it is to point out how much true friendship matters. Friends, not acquaintances. People who know you well enough to love you in spite of yourself. 

    It matters to our health, it matters to our happiness, and it matters to our ministering to the world as Christians. 

    No matter how quiet, or introverted, or shy a person is, we need friends. It’s part of our human nature. Our need for friendship and connection. It’s part of how we’re created and what we’re created for. 

    In John 15:12-17, on the even of going to the cross, Jesus will say to the disciples you are my friends.

    This passage points us to three principles on friendship. 

    1. The friendship Jesus calls us to

    John 15:12:13: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

    The command to love

    Love one another. Let us appreciate how close to the heart of Christ our love for one another is. It’s the command that shows that we love Jesus. Loving others is not option for the Christian. 

    Does it mean we like everyone? Not necessarily. Does it mean we love everything everyone does? No, especially not sin. But we are to love. To be patient and kind. To want the best for people. To be forgiving when hurt or wronged. To put differences aside. To love people who are hard to love. 

    To love one another as Jesus has loved us. 

    That’s quite the standard. Because Jesus loves us with a perfect and righteous love. 

    Jesus loves a world where people plotted against him, where he was crucified. He loves a group of disciples where Peter denied him, where in the moments leading up to his arrest, some fell asleep and let him down. 

    Jesus calls us to love one another as he has loved us. 

    1. The friendship Jesus displays 

    And he points to the pinnacle of that love in verse 13: Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

    Jesus is at one time pointing us to the great love for us that he is going to display on the cross when he lays down his life for his friends. And he is also pointing us to an incredible standard of love that the Lord desires for us. The greatest display of love is one laying down their life for their friends. 

    Sacrifice 

    There’s something about that idea that intuitively speaks to us. The power of sacrifice. We honor those who lay down their lives. 

    In America, we have an entire day set aside – Memorial Day – to honor and remember those who gave their lives for our country. 

    Every September 11th, we remember the great sacrifices that people made. Firefighters who ran into those burning buildings. We remember the 343 firefighters who gave their lives. People who went into those buildings, with heavy gear, walking up the stairs into an inferno. They knew that it was incredibly dangerous. We remember the tremendous heroism of the people who overtook the highjackers on United 93 when they became aware of what had happened to other flights. 

    We honor and celebrate those stories. And that’s appropriate. It’s a powerful gesture when a person sacrifices their own life for something greater than themself. 

    Now for many of us, if someone we loved. A spouse, a child, a grandchild was in mortal danger, I have no doubt that many people in this room would lay down their life for the people who matter most to us without even blinking. 

    But there are a couple of things to keep in mind with Jesus as the example of the one who gives up his life for his friends.If I died to save someone, you’d call me a hero. 

    But here’s the thing. Unless Jesus comes back in my lifetime, I’m going to die. We might give up some time, some years of our life. And that’s significant. And that’s costly. But Jesus is the eternal God. He has life in himself. He would not have died a natural death. 

    But he gave up his life. And for whom did he do that? A fallen world. 

    Romans 5:6-8, Paul says:  For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—

    He finishes the thought: but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

    Jesus befriends a world that was an enemy to God. Before we move on to our next point, I’ll make this point of application. While the pinnacle of love is laying down your life for another. Fortunately, there’s a good chance that none of us will ever be in that situation. 

    It’s easy to think of what we would do in an extreme situation.nBut what’s harder is dealing with the realities of life, the world, our own challenges and struggles. 

    It’s easy to say we’d be the hero when we’re not on the battlefield. We might not ever need to die for someone, but what are we living for? 

    Are we living to honor that command of Jesus? Are we living to love people and to honor our great God by loving the people who he loves? By loving the people he sent his son to die for? 

    Jesus shows that on the cross.

    1. The friendship Jesus invites us into

    John 15:15:  No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 

    The eternal Christ says he does not call us servants, but he has called us friends. Like so many things that Jesus says in the gospels, if we’re not careful, it can be easy to overlook the immensity of that statement. 

    The Lord calls us his friends. In the Old Testament, that’s not typically the language we hear of people in their relationship to God. 

    We see Abrhaam referred to as God’s friend in the Old Testament. Abraham is also the patriarch from whom the Israelites would come. 

    Isaiah 41:8: you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; 

    So the idea isn’t altogether absent but it’s not common in Old Testament usage. But with Jesus, he makes a sweeping declaration that he calls his servants friends. 

    Friendship and status

    Think – for a moment – of that immense disparity of status between Jesus and us. 

    Do you have any close, personal friends who are movie stars? Or big time professional athletes? Or famous musicians? Or leaders of nations? 

    We tend to have friends who are of a similar social standing to us. 

    Now if you could meet someone famous who you admire. Maybe it is an athlete, or a TV personality, or a former president, and you met that person, and they actually sat down with you and talked to you for 15, maybe 20 minutes. Asked you all about yourself, your life, your family, your interests. 

    You’d be so taken with that person. 

    You’d tell everyone you knew about meeting them. How nice they really were. 

    Are you telling people about Jesus? Because the Lord of the universe invites us to personally know him. He calls us his friends. 

    He gives his life for us. 

    Evangelism

    We’d tell people about meeting someone famous. We’d want a picture, want an autograph. But that person wouldn’t be your friend. Jesus is. 

    You’d tell everyone you know about meeting someone famous. 

    Friendship with Jesus is not meant to be something that we have just to have for ourselves. He calls us to love one another, but Jesus also values our friendship with those who do not know him, so that they too can be his friends. 

     No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 

    This verse is showing the closeness of the relationship that we get to have with Jesus. 

    We are created by him, we are subservient to him, we are infinitely less than him. But through divine initiative, Jesus no longer calls us servants, and he grounds that because a servant does not know what his master is doing. 

    But Jesus let’s us in. He’s a personal savior. He would be within his rights to simply command us and we follow it, but he came into the world and showed us. He demonstrated who he was to us. He taught us. 

    Jesus reveals things about himself, and his heart for the world. 

    He spent time with people. He let’s us in. In other religions, they believe that God is so transcendent and above people that we cannot know him. And while the Lord is so great that we cannot fully comprehend him, Jesus is relational and personal. 

    Jesus came into the world and lived in total submission to the will of God, though Jesus himself is divine and in him, the fullness of deity was pleased to dwell. And as the Son has a perfect relationship with the Father, he invites us into a relationship and friendship with him. 

    Sin had tarnished our relationship with God, but Jesus restores that and he can do that because the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit have always had a perfect relationship with each other. 

    Chosen

    John 15:16: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

    Is he saying that he chose them to be disciples and that this verse only relates to the disciples? 

    No. This verse is true for all friends of Jesus. 

     You did not choose me, but I chose you

    It should not be surprising. In the Old Testament, as Israel did not choose to be God’s chosen nation and as Abraham did not choose to be selected for God’s covenant, our friendship with Christ is ultimately at the sovereign initiative of Christ. 

    Ephesians 1:4: even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

    What a comfort it is that our faith does not hinge on us. I’m sure we’ve all had friendships that did not stand the test of time. We sometimes have a falling out with someone. Jesus is the friend who does not leave us. He’s the friend who is faithful. 

    Verse 17: These things I command you, so that you will love one another. 

    This verse wraps up this section. He points back to what he has said and reminds us of the purpose for what he has said: so that you will love one another. 

    Let’s tie this all together.

    As a reminder, in verse 16, Jesus had said: 

    I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

    This is getting at our purpose as Jesus’ friends. 

    That we go…and bear fruit. 

    Again, I keep pointing this out but it’s important to remember that this is the night before Jesus is crucified. These are some of the final words he gives to his disciples. 

    And what Jesus is getting at here is his mission in the world. 

    His command is that the disciples love. The true disciple of Jesus observes his command. Jesus calls his disciples friends. And Jesus has appointed disciples to go and bear fruit. To go into the world and bear fruit. 

    To go into a world that is hostile to the gospel and share the message of Christ. To go into a world where there are enemies of God and to make friends and introduce them to our friend Jesus. We’re called to love one another and to love others with the love of Jesus. 

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  • Jesus and answers to prayer. John 14:13-14

    Jesus and answers to prayer. John 14:13-14

    In his book “Prayer,” writer Philip Yancey gives examples of some well known prolific prayers. 

    He says that the 17th century English Bishop Lancelot Andrews devoted 5 hours a day to prayer. The 18th and 19th century English minister Charles Simeon rose daily at 4am to pray for 4 hours. -There’s an order of Catholic nuns who pray in shifts and where people form their order are praying all day, everyday. Martin Luther would pray for 2-3 hours, or more, a day. 

    Prayer is a practice that the Bible calls us to and values. Over 650 prayers are found in the Bible. Prayer is something that the vast majority of Americans value. In research polls, I saw numbers ranging from 55-65% of Americans saying that they pray everyday. 

    But there’s often a disconnect. 

    Even though we know it’s important. Even though we do it, for many, prayer is a struggle. The prayer life is not full of joy and expectation, or intimacy with God. Prayer can feel cold and stagnant. It can feel like a waste of time, or feel pointless. 

    There are prayer warriors today, like the people I mentioned a moment ago. But I think that most of us, if we’re being honest, are much more likely to have an unsatisfactory prayer life.  

    But why is this the case? 

    Yancey suggests that the prosperity in our society might also inhibit prayer. 

    We can be tempted to rely on ourselves, our abilities, our talents, instead of prayer. 

    I think that part of the problem with prayer is that American Christians are often not poorly taught about the purpose of prayer. 

    And I think that John 14:13-14 gets at the heart of the Christian prayer life. 

    Prayer passages 

    Jesus says: Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do. 

    What does that mean? Does that mean that he will always give us what we want? Some interpret it that way. There are even other verses in the gospels which say similar things. 


    John 15:7: If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.


    John 15:16: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.


    John 16:23: Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.

    One verse later. John 16:24:Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. 


    And it’s not just in John’s Gospel that we see this. 


    Matthew 21:22: whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” 

    And there are other places to which we could look. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do. 

    In that case, I’ll have a mansion. And a private jet. And a private lake. And a fleet of cars.

    But that’s not what the verses are saying. None of these verses actually gives an unconditional promise that all prayers will alway be answered in the way in which they want. 

    Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do. 

    That is not an unconditional promise that we can always get what we want in prayer. It’s what we ask in Jesus’ name. And the point of  that is not that just a perfunctory addition of Jesus’ name to a prayer is what causes the prayer to get answered. That wouldn’t be prayer. It would be witchcraft. 

    Just say this incantation. 

    But that’s not what the verse is saying. Nothing in this passage is saying: you can get whatever you want. In fact, this passage is not primarily about us. This is a passage which revolves around God. It’s a passage that is Spiritual. It’s a passage that is missional. It’s a passage that has a heavenly focus. And in these verses, it’s a passage which deals with the glory of God. 

    And in looking at John 14:13-14, I want to look at the object of prayer, the purpose of prayer, the power of prayer. 

    The Object of Prayer 

    Verse 13:Whatever you ask in my name

    As with many other things that Jesus says in his ministry, we can lose sight of how radical his words are. If Jesus isn’t God on earth, and the savior of the world, then what he’s saying here is totally insane. 

    That we are to pray in his name. It’s blasphemous if Jesus isn’t who he says he is. 

    All the people you’ve ever met in your lifetime, I doubt that any of them ever instructed you to pray to them. To invoke their name as a source of blessing in your prayers. 

    But Jesus does. Because he’s the Lord. Whatever you ask in my name. 

    It’s also interesting considering how much time Jesus spends in this passage talking about the Father, and honoring and glorifying the Father. So again, the point isn’t just that we pray for what we want and then just attach Jesus’ name onto it and that’ll cause it to happen. 

    Praying in the name of Jesus is a sacred task. And we should never be flippant about that. 

    Now prayers are often addressed to God, to the Father, to our heavenly Father, to our Father in heaven. But the prayer is in the name of Jesus. He is the one who enables us to go to God in prayer. It is because of his name,  because of the salvation that he brings, because of the life that he invites us into. 

    The Purpose of Prayer 

    Remembering the object of our prayer is Jesus and that he’s instructed us to pray in his holy name and to pray for his holy purposes. 

    In his commentary, Grant Osborne says: “to pray in Jesus’ name means to pray in union with who and what he is, to pray in accordance with his will. Self-centered prayers are not answered.”

    When Jesus is telling the disciples to pray and he gives what we know as the Lord’s Prayer, he says in Matthew 6:10:Your kingdom come, your will be done, 

    We see similar language in Luke 11:2, when Jesus again is talking to the disciples about prayer and he uses the phrase your kingdom come.

    In a different event, in John’s Gospel, Jesus is talking about prayer:  Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 

    God is glorified through his son. He is glorified through his sovereign will in the world. He is glorified through his coming kingdom. Jesus answers prayers so that the Father can be glorified through the work of the Son. Prayer is a transformational spiritual interaction between creatures and our creator where we are invited to speak to – and be heard by – the Almighty. 

    Prayer is God inviting us into his presence in adoration of his goodness, in confession of sins, in lamentation for the sins in the world, in thanksgiving for blessings, and in making intercession on behalf of our lives, families, church, and world around us.Prayer should always be in pursuit of God’s will in creation and in our own activities for the sake of the glory of God. 

    So to summarize. Prayer to God is meant to conform our hearts and wills to the will of God for the glory of God. 

    To quote Tim Keller from his book: “Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God.” “God will either give us what we ask or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything he knew.”

    And so the heart of prayer is not about trying to get God to align with our will. It is to get our will to align with God. It is to surrender to God. It is to let go and let God.

    Romans 12:2 says: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 

    Prayer is meant to have time set aside to put our focus on God. To focus on his goodness and his will. There are a million stresses, a million frustrations, a million questions everyday. But in prayer, it’s meant to be a time with God. Again, we so often don’t take time for that. Is it any wonder that we’re so often so worried and anxious? 

    In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis said: 

    “The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.”

    Your kingdom come, your will be done. 

    It’s not “my kingdom come, my will be done.” 

    Spirituality in prayer 

    We should pray for our needs, for our loved ones, for our church, for our nation, for people in our lives. We should pray and thank God for the many blessings he’s given to us and to confess our sins before God. 

    We often look at prayer from a material perspective, but prayer has a greater spiritual aspect to it. That God cares more about our spiritual blessings than stuff.  He cares more about our sanctification and spiritual formation than our comfort or ease. 

    Early in the Book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul says: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places

    God cares about our faith and faithfulness, he cares about our holiness. 

    We don’t always know the specifics of what God’s will is. And I think we can get too caught up on that sometimes. 

    It’s God’s will that we love him. It’s God’s will that we pursue holiness, that we have faith, that we worship him, that we don’t sin. It’s God’s will that we love one another. Those things alone really provide a pretty good life to how we’re to live. 

    There are certain prayers that God will always answer. God will always answer our prayers when we turn to Christ for salvation. 

    Romans 10:13: “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 

    God always gives forgiveness when we seek it. 


    1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

    God grants wisdom when we seek it. 

    James 1:5: If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

    As we pray for God, there are so many other things we can pray for. That we would know, love, and honor God more fully with every day of our lives. We can pray that we would grow in the knowledge of God, day by day. We can pray that we become ever greater witnesses to the world of the love and grace of our God. 

    We can pray for opportunities to reach people with the gospel. And we can pray for our church. For the people. And that we grow as people and as a church. 

    Those are just a few examples. 

    Prayer teaches us humility before God. That we are not in control. We are not in control of our own lives. We are not in control of our circumstances. It teaches us that what we go through, we can go through it with God. Prayer is a time to sit with God and bask in his glorious goodness and to reset in him. 


    Psalm 46:10 says: “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

    The Power of Prayer

    Verse 14: If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. 

    Verse 14 is almost identical to the beginning of verse 13. In both places, the point revolves around Jesus granting requests which are asked in his name. Given what Jesus has said in verse 13, and grounding the reason in the glory of God, he reiterates that the prayer which is made in his name he answers. 

    And so as we begin to wind down, I think it’s important to remember the power of prayer. 

    God answers prayers. And the more in tune we are with the will of God, the more discernment we have, I think the more we see God answering our prayers, out of his goodness. 

    Our God is a good God. 

    Unanswered prayers 

    But we must also understand that not all prayers are answered in the way we want. Even some of the good things we pray for. A person healing from an illness, or recovering from an injury. We’re finite. We don’t always know or understand why a certain prayer has gone unanswered. 

    And those can be some of the hardest experiences we have in life. The world is ultimately fallen. And no matter how faithful we are, no matter how faithful a church is in prayer, there is still sin, and sorrow, and sickness, and death. 

    Sometimes we don’t get what we pray for. And we don’t know why. And it doesn’t make sense. But again, at the heart of prayer is meant to be a reliance in God. Sometimes a prayer is not answered because of the timing. 

    In the Book of Habakkuk, there is wickedness and destruction in Israel. The prophet has taken his plea before the Lord. 

    God says in Habakkuk 2:2-3:“Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; 

    Sometimes a prayer isn’t answered because God will because God’s will was to do something else.  

    “God will either give us what we ask or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything he knew.”

    Can you trust that? Sometimes it’s hard. 

    Job said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21)

    In the book of Second Corinthians, Paul talks about some sort of malady he had been suffering. We don’t know specifically what the issue was. Paul simply refers to it as a thorn in the flesh. It’s generally assumed it was some sort of health issue and not a literal thorn. 

    But Paul talks about praying for relief. 

    2 Corinthians 12:7-9: a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 

    His grace is meant to be sufficient for us. That prayer was unanswered because God would be glorified through Paul’s affliction. And indeed there are immense challenges that we go through in life that are not good, but that God uses them to shape us into who we become. We don’t always know why God does or doesn’t do what we think he should. And explanations that people try to give us often don’t make us feel much better. 

    In the Book of Isaiah, the Lord says: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, 

    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (isaiah 55:8-9)

    Sometimes people can grow cynical towards God because of that. We question why he doesn’t answer a certain prayer. But the reason why he answers any prayer is because of his goodness. We don’t inherently deserve anything good from God. 

    But he does so much good in the world and for his people. 

    The greatest problem of our world is not a lack of goodness on the part of God. It’s the sinfulness of humanity.

    The story of George Mueller 

    George Mueller was a British evangelist and pastor whose life encompassed most of the 19th century, living from 1805-1898. He’s probably most remembered for his orphanages in the working class town of Bristol. 

    Thousands of children passed through Mueller’s orphanages. Mueller famously never asked for money, but relied on prayer for God’s provision. Some of the stories are absolutely incredible.

    In his life, he wrote down more than 50,000 prayer requests that were answered by God. 

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  • The decline of Christianity in America, and why I’m hopeful

    The decline of Christianity in America, and why I’m hopeful

    Christianity is declining in America. 

    New research from the Pew Research Center looks at the data and paints a picture of an even less Christianized future for America. 

    In looking at religious trends and various demographics, Pew shows a downward of trajectory which could have Christians representing less than half of the US population in the year 2070. 

    In 1972, Pew’s research says that 90% of Americans identified as Christians. That number was down to 64% in 2020. Pew’s research factors in people who have identified as Christians who have switched away from Christianity. Pew gives different estimates, and predicting future demographics is admittedly an inexact science. 

    But the overall point remains the same that there has been a downward trend in Americans who identify as Chritians and there are not many signs that this trend is going to reverse course. 

    Yes, that’s unfortunate and lamentable. I think there are negative societal ramifications which stem from that fact. But there are some reasons why I’m still hopeful and optimistic. 

    From grassroots to grand cathedrals

    I’ve been reading David Gustafson’s latest book “Gospel witness through the ages: a history of evangelism.” And I’m struck by how the early church in Rome had the opposite problem. In the early generations of Christianity (for instance, the third century), there was harsh persecution upon the church. Christians often had to meet in secret. By the end of the third century, it’s estimated that just 10 percent of Rome’s population was Christian. 

    In 313, the western and eastern emperors (Constantine and Licinius) issued the Edict of Milan which gave Christianity legal status within Rome. 

    Constantine’s personal religious convictions are a subject of debate. But what’s not debatable is that he was very friendly to Christianity. He made Sunday a day of rest throughout the empire. He exempted pastors and bishops from property taxes and worked to free Christian slaves. 

    In 391, Emperor Theodisius made Christianity the religion of Rome, outlawed paganism, and closed temples to pagan gods. 

    In less than a century, Christianity Rome went from being a small and persecuted minority to the state religion of Rome. 

    I won’t get into another history lesson, but the same thing would happen in Europe for over a thousand years. Everyone was “Christian.”

    But that’s the problem. You cannot force the gospel. You can force behavior. But you can’t force faith and belief. 

    In America, we’ve had generations of cultural Christianity. Most people are not atheists. Most people believe in God. America has Judeo-Christian roots, and so it’s easy to attach to that and say you’re a Christian even though you might not believe that Jesus died and rose, that it is Jesus who is the Lord, and that it is Jesus who alone forgives sins (things which are essential aspects of the gospel). 

    When Christianity dominates a culture, it becomes easy to be a Christian in Name Only. it becomes easy for people to be moral people without being born again believers. It’s easy to go to church (or at least be listed as a member of a church), without actually serving and ministering within the church. It’s easy to check the box. 

    And so again, while I think it’s unfortunate that there’s been a decline in the church in America, I’m hopeful for a more authentic future of the church. I’m hopeful that American churches can have greater spiritual depth with more committed members. 

    As it becomes easier for a person to acknowledge that they’re not a Christian, I’m hopeful it’ll become easier to know where people really are, Spiritually. There won’t be the same pressures to go through the motions or put up a front. If someone doesn’t believe in the gospel, as a pastor, I’d rather know that and go from there than have them feel like they need to pretend to be more religious than they actually are. 

    It’s a season which will also have its challenges. The American church has gotten too lax on personal evangelism. Perhaps it was easier to write that off as not being important when it was thought that most people were Christians. But Christians are becoming the cultural minority and there’s work to be done. 

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  • Chinese Christians brave coronavirus to share gospel

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    Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

    More than 900 people have now died in the coronavirus outbreak as tens of thousands of people in China have been infection by the virus. There have been horror stories of the handling of the outbreak. Last week, videos were posted on social media which showed Chinese citizens apparently being forcibly taken into quarantine.

    In Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, Christians have taken to the streets to hand out masks and share the love of Christ with those in a city who’s been ravaged by the virus. (more…)

  • The Gospel According to the Little Mermaid

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    With the recently launched Disney+, I’ve been rewatching many of the classic Disney movies from my childhood.

    I was struck by how many gospel themes are found in the Little Mermaid.

    The longing of the human soul 

    Ariel has it all. She’s a princess, she lives in a palace. she’s beautiful, she has an amazing singing voice, great friends, she’s adored. Yet what she really wants is a world that’s above (literally).

    (more…)