Is there a central message to the Bible?

"He's Here" (video) from the Jesus Storybook Bible

"From His fullness we have received" - Part 1

And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. (John 1:16)

Much more than the Giver, Jesus is the Gift of Christmas.  Part 1 of Summitview's series "From His fullness we have received" examines how.

"All things were made through Him"- from Sunday, November 28th.

Hebrews for Advent: 2010

I love the book of Hebrews. With every passing year, I sense a growing need for the truth it contains. In an effort to strengthen faltering believers, the author of Hebrews thoroughly examines the person and work of Jesus Christ. To give them strength, he gives them Christ.

For several years now, Hebrews has been my anchor throughout Advent. It is the perfect companion to celebrate the Incarnation and it strengthens me for the year to come. But the endeavor is more profitable with the collective input of a community.

So if you
-are weary and need a boost of strength (Neh. 8:10),
-need something to stimulate your study,
or
-would like to add 5-10 minutes to your current reading plan,
here is the plan that will start on December 9th and go through December 26th:

December 9th - Hebrews 1:1-14
December 10th - Hebrews 2:1-3:4
December 11th - Hebrews 3:5-4:2
December 12th - Hebrews 4:3-13
December 13th - Hebrews 4:14-5:6
December 14th - Hebrews 5:7-6:12
December 15th - Hebrews 6:13-7:3
December 16th - Hebrews 7:4-17
December 17th - Hebrews 7:18-8:7
December 18th - Hebrews 8:8-9:10
December 19th - Hebrews 9:11-28
December 20th - Hebrews 10:1-18
December 21st - Hebrews 10:19-11:3
December 22nd - Hebrews 11:4-31
December 23rd - Hebrews 11:32-12:3
December 24th - Hebrews 12:4-17
December 25th - Hebrews 12:18-29
December 26th - Hebrews 13:1-25

in .pdf

For Google Calendar and iCal users, here is an .ics file to import the schedule into your calendar. Join in on the conversation (with devotional questions each morning at 5:30am Mountain Time) and follow me and #HebrewsForAdvent on Twitter.

Additional Resources
Advent Devotionals from Christ the King Presbyterian (Raleigh, NC) (excellent resources for individuals and families)
The Advent Conspiracy

What's in it for Him?

Jesus showed his supreme love of the Father in His obedience to death (John 10:14-15,17-18). But how did the Father show His love for the Son? What made the crucifixion of the Son an expression of fatherly love?

Answer: The joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:2), namely, the intimacy, acceptance, mutual love and trust with the elect. The reward for Christ’s atoning work was the restoration of perfect love between Creator and creature (John 10:27-29). To the degree that Christ showed His love for the Father in His obedience to the Father, the Father showed His love for the Son by granting Him this desire (John 17:24 ) and drawing the Church home (John 6:44).

You may be weary from disappointment with human love. You may feel distant from God. You may be crashing from the sugar high of indulging in created things. If so, have you considered this? What more does He need to say? Look to the greatness of Christ and to the Cross of Christ until your soul is warmed again. His desire is to do more than forgive. Forgiveness is not an end; it is a means to an end. Yes, the display of His glory is His first objective, but how is that glory most clearly put on display? Answer: In His perfectly-loving, personally-loving, and justice-satisfying sacrifice that brought you to God and secured your joy in Him forever. To get that, He endured the Cross and mocked its shame.

Our lives depend on what we see

“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.” (Luke 11.33–36)

According to Jesus, seeing defines our spiritual health and, so, we must be careful how we see. But Jesus isn’t talking about our physical or even our “moral” vision (how we see right and wrong). He is talking about something even more fundamental.

The Lamp: Who’s Lighting It and Why?
To understand what Jesus is referring to, we have to reach back into Luke 11 and Luke 8 for more context. In Luke 8:16 Jesus makes a similar “lamp” statement:

“No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand so that those who enter may see the light.”

This comes at the conclusion of His explanation for speaking in parables (Luke 8:9-10). The parables act as a filter. They allow “the secrets of the Kingdom” to be revealed to Christ’s humble followers and hidden from the proud and arrogant. So, after making the logical statement that lamps are for lighting a room (Luke 8:16), Jesus states that “nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known or come to light.” A light is being intentionally lit with the same purpose as the parables. This light will reveal hidden and secret things (“the secrets of the Kingdom”). There is purposeful, revelatory action happening in the midst of Jesus’ listeners and, yet, He cautions them to “Take care, then, how you hear for to the one who has, more will be given” (Luke 8:18). The benefits of the revelation are available only to careful hearers.

But isn’t this all just a little too cryptic? What is being revealed? What could hinder someone from receiving this revelation? What or who is the lamp being lit? For these questions Luke 11 is a great help.

In Luke 11, we see three different exchanges with Jesus worth noting. (1) Some in the crowds claim that it is by Beelzebub’s power that Jesus drives out demons. (2) A woman claims that Jesus’ mother is blessed to have Jesus as a son. And, (3) we can infer, some in the crowd demand Jesus to show a sign that he is really the Christ. Each of them sees Jesus wrongly in some typical way. Jesus responds to all of them with this lamp discourse because He is the lamp that they are not seeing. He is the mystery of the ages revealed; the culmination of the secret plan of God. Jesus is the resolution of God’s steadfast love AND his absolute justice. He is the fulfillment of the prophecies. He is the Messiah. He is in plain sight and they have missed Him.

And, when our eyes are not healthy (or “singular” as the word could also be translated), we can miss Him as well; not because he is invisible but because we see what we want to see. We take Him on our terms, not His; not as He truly is. That was the error of each of the people in Luke 11:14-32.

If we take Jesus on His terms, our good (singular) eyes will see Him in truth and this sight will bring light and health to our “whole body.” When we form Jesus into our image, our skewed sight of Him is actually detrimental to our body; indeed it fills us with darkness. Our lives are characterized by our understanding of His identity.

“Life as a Solar-Powered Flashlight” is an attempt to unpack the different ways we take Jesus on our terms and how these terms distort Christ and leave us dark in the midst of Light. Listen to it here.

Additional Resources
Discussion Questions
Slides from the message (a table comparing right and wrong ways to see Jesus)

"But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel"

He is Risen! The Tomb is empty!

If it were not so, you wouldn't even know his name.

That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.” And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (Luke 24.13–26)

When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord has risen indeed (Luke 24.30–34)

The Son of Man must... be raised (Luke 9:22).

Our world would have no joyful humility, no enduring hope and no sense of the true glory of God. The Son of Man must... be raised, and indeed he has. Now everything is different (Luke 22:66-71, Romans 4:25, Romans 5:10, Romans 8:32, 1 Cor. 15:25-26, Hebrews 2:14-15 and 1 Peter 1:3-5).

Additional Resources
The Son Of Man Must...Be Raised - 2010 Easter Message at Summitview (Discussion Questions)
Our Joy Is Rooted In Real History
7 Miles - a sermon jam of Matt Chandler preaching from this Emmaus Road incident
What happened on Sunday (a collection of Gospel passages walking through the events of Sunday from Justin Taylor who, incidentally, did a nice job of compiling this info for each day of Holy Week)

Licking the earth - by Ray Ortlund

“Sinners lick the earth, that is to say, love earthly pleasures.”

Pascal, Pensées, #666.

Our lifestyles devoted to earthly pleasures while marginalizing Christ — let’s depict them bluntly: “licking the earth.” But here is what we were created for: “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” (Psalm 34:8).

There is nothing degrading in Christ. Only satisfying, uplifting, humanizing.

Follow Ray here.
Additional Resources
"Lurking and nourished sins are always a sign."
Coming to Jesus without hating what we have left
No one thanks a vending machine

"Lurking and nourished sins are always a sign..." (D.A. Carson)

From "Basics for Believers" by Don Carson:

"...we are exhorted (in Philippians 4:4) to rejoice in the Lord. The controlling issue is not the style of the rejoicing, but the ground.

...

Our delight must be in the Lord himself. That is what enables us to live with joy above our circumstances. As Nehemiah puts it, "The joy of the LORD is your strength" (Neh. 8:10).

...

Whatever the mysteries of evil and sorrow, they do have the salutary effect of helping believers to shift the ground of their joy from created things to the Creator, from the temporary to the eternal, from jingoism to Jesus, from consumption to God.

...

Obedience to this command is possible because the ground of this rejoicing is changeless. Our circumstances may rightly call from us grief, tears and sorrow. Unless the Lord comes back first, each of us will face death - our own, and if we live long enough, the death of loved ones and friends. And we will weep. But even in our tears, we may rejoice, we will rejoice, we must rejoice, for we rejoice in the Lord. He does not change. And that is why we shall rejoice in the Lord always.

God well knows that a believer who conscientiously obeys this command cannot be a backbiter or a gossip. Such a believer cannot be spiritually proud or filled with conceit, cannot be stingy or prayerless, cannot be a chronic complainer or perpetually bitter. The cure for a crushed and bitter spirit is to see Christ Jesus the Lord and then to rejoice in him. Lurking and nourished sins are always a sign that our vision of Jesus is dim and that our joy in him has evaporated with the morning dew."

Coming to Jesus without hating what we have left

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14.26)

Some amazing implications of this passage:

1) Jesus is not looking for followers who don't love Him supremely.

2) Jesus assumes that we will always follow our first love.

3) Therefore Jesus does not ask anyone to follow him dutifully - it is not possible. True "following" finds it's fuel in true love.

4) The gospel must, therefore, radically change our affections (as promised in the Old Testament; Jer. 31:31-34)

Consider this statement by Jonathan Edwards in his "Religious Affections":

"In order to men's being true Christians, it is necessary that they prosecute the business of religion and the service of God with great earnestness and diligence, as the work which they devote themselves to, and make the main business of their lives. All Christ's peculiar people not only do good works, but are zealous of good works, Tit. 2:14. No man can do the service of two masters at once. The that are God's true servants do give themselves to His service, and make it as it were their whole work, therein employing their whole hearts and the chief of their strength: Phil 3:13 "This one thing I do." (The Religious Affections, page 310)

We miss the greatness of the Gospel if, in the end, following Jesus is another duty and not the final love of the transformed heart (Ps 16:11, Ps. 37:4, Phil. 3:8). This cripples our joy and limits our influence.