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Matthew Elton
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Lessons From Jonah

I was honored to preach this sermon at Living Hope Community Church on June 25, 2023.

The Book of Jonah is located toward the back of the Old Testament, between Obadiah and Micah. That’s a part of the Bible called the Minor Prophets. Jonah is one of these minor prophets. He didn’t really want to be a prophet. But God still used him.

Most Christians are at least somewhat familiar with the story of Jonah. You may even recall the main moral of the story – something about running away from God? But there are actually multiple lessons we can learn from this story that are relevant to us today. It’s a lot more than a Veggie Tales episode.

Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.”

Jonah 1:1-2

God is a God of love, mercy, and forgiveness. But he’s also a God of justice, so he hates injustice. He’s a God of peace, so he hates violence. He’s a God of holiness, so he hates evil.

There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil, a lying witness who testifies falsely, and one who sows discord in a family.

Proverbs 6:16-19

Because he’s a God of love, and because he’s a God of justice, he rescues the oppressed and he brings wrath against the wicked. 

When God revealed himself to Moses, this is what God said about himself:

“The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

Exodus 34:6-7

God is balanced. He runs to show mercy and love. But there comes a point where wickedness is so egregious, that God must, in his justice, bring judgement upon the wicked – whether that be an individual, or a nation.

God judges nations. Genesis 18:25 calls him “the judge of all the earth.” In the Old Testament, God brought judgement upon Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah, Egypt, Canaan, Edom, Israel, Judah, and Babylon, to name a few.

But God isn’t spiteful or vindictive. Destroying nations isn’t the goal. God wants to forgive. He wants nations to repent of their wickedness, and re-establish justice and peace in the land.

So, usually, God won’t destroy a nation without warning. He provides warning first, and he usually does this through prophets. Throughout the Old Testament, we see God send prophets to speak against wicked nations.

That’s exactly what God is doing here with Jonah. He’s sending the prophet Jonah to speak against Nineveh.

Ninevah is located in modern day Iraq. At the time, it was a great city of the Assyrian Empire.

At the top of this blog post is an artist’s rendering of what Ninevah may have looked like. It was a rapidly growing city, growing in both population and prestige. It would later become the capital of the Assyrian Empire, adorned with this ornate palace and massive stone gates.

At the time, it was a city of 120,000 people. That may not sound like many by today’s standards, but in the ancient world, that was absolutely massive. It meant that Ninevah was one of the largest cities in the world.

God is saying to Jonah: God and speak against this great city!

But Jonah doesn’t want to go.

But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.

Jonah 1:3

If you’re wondering where Tarshish is, you’re not alone. Few Israelites would know where it is, as it is far – very far – from Israel.

From his starting point in Joppa, Jonah needed to travel 550 miles northeast to go to Nineveh.

Instead, he set out to travel 2,550 miles to the west.

He set sail for Tarshish, in modern day Spain.

Now, Jonah didn’t know about North and South America, so from his perspective, Spain is literally the end of the world. After that, it’s just ocean. 

God called him to go to Ninevah. He went as far he could possibly go, in the opposite direction!

At Living Hope Community Church, we recently just finished a series on outreach, witnessing, sharing the gospel. Perhaps, as we went through that series together, you felt inspired to share your faith with a friend, a coworker, or a stranger.

Has God ever inspired you to speak to someone?

I call this a “go to Ninevah” moment.

As some of you know, I am aspiring to learn Chinese as a second language. So, I went to a language learning meetup group here in Albany. I met a Chinese American guy who is fluent in English, Chinese, and Spanish. He’s a really cool guy, and right off the bat we had a great conversation about Chinese. So, we actually got together to hang out a few times, and he helped me a lot with my Chinese by teaching me idioms and things that they don’t teach you in class, that help you sound really authentic.

We became Facebook friends, and, as some of you know, on Facebook I don’t hide the fact that I’m a Christian. So, he probably knew I was a Christian, and I even sensed that he might be curious about it, but I didn’t say anything.

Then one day we’re sitting in a coffeeshop and he’s telling me about a trip he took to a city in China called Wuhan. Now, this is before the pandemic, so at the time, most Americans had never heard of Wuhan. But I had heard of Wuhan, because when I was learning Chinese in college, I had a pen pal in Wuhan who was herself a Christian, and she came to Christ when Americans who run a coffeeshop in Wuhan shared their faith with her. 

Now, my Chinese American friend is telling me about his trip to Wuhan, and about a coffeeshop he went to that’s run by Americans. Now, Wuhan is a city of 12 million people. There are thousands of coffeeshops in Wuhan, and actually a lot of them are run by Americans. So, I don’t think too much of what he’s telling me at first. But then, he tells me that this particular coffeeshop is run by Christians who came to Wuhan hoping to share their faith with the Chinese, but they can’t just start a church or a home fellowship because missionary work is illegal in China. However, through the coffeeshop, they’ve been able to talk to some of their customers about Jesus. 

When he tells me this, my jaw drops because I realize he’s talking about the same coffeeshop I know about. That seems pretty astounding because we’re talking about a city of 12 million people on the other side of the world yet somehow we both know about the same coffeeshop.

Also, he’s really interested in this. He’s like, “It’s wild to me that someone would literally move to other side of the world just to talk to somebody about Jesus. Like, they must really believe this stuff.”

This was a “go to Ninevah” moment.

This was perfectly set up for a faith conversation. We both shared a common connection. The topic of Jesus was naturally brought up – it wasn’t forced. And, he expressed interest. Bewilderment, perhaps, but that’s still a form of interest!

Just like God spoke to Jonah “GO TO NINEVAH” it was like God was screaming at me “TALK ABOUT JESUS“!

Just like Jonah sailed to Tarshish, I too took the conversation in a different direction than where God was telling me to take it.

I’m not proud of it. And I regret it. But I’m gonna be honest with you – I totally wimped out.

Can you relate?

See, Jonah gets a bad rap. Of all the prophets, he’s probably the one we make fun of the most.

But I think most of us – if we’re honest with ourselves – have had a Jonah moment.

Why did Jonah set sail to Tarshish?

The Bible doesn’t tell us, but it’s probably the same reason we don’t share our faith with others: fear.

Jonah may have had good reason to be afraid. The Assyrian Empire was a brutal culture. They laid waste to cities, slaughtering or enslaving their populations. Not long after the time of Jonah, the Assyrian Empire invaded Israel, taking ten out of the twelve tribes of Israel into captivity.

Here’s a quote from one of the kings of Assyria on his exploits:

Their men young and old I took prisoners. Of some I cut off their feet and hands; of others I cut off the ears noses and lips; of the young men’s ears I made a heap; of the old men’s heads I made a minaret. I exposed their heads as a trophy in front of their city. The male children and the female children I burned in flames; the city I destroyed, and consumed with fire.

Ashurnasirpal II

Now, we don’t know if Assyria in Jonah’s day was as violent as the Assyria that laid waste to Israel. But, if the Assyria of later generations is any indication, Jonah had good reason to be afraid.

This was an empire hostile to Israel. And Jonah, an Israelite, is going to show up and proclaim a message of doom? How do you think that’s going to be received? Probably not well. Jonah’s life could be in danger.

It’s completely understandable why he’d be afraid. Even though he’s being sent by the God of angel armies, who will be with him every step of the way. So, he should have faith and confidence in that. But, he gives into fear. And he sails to Tarshish.

The LORD hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up. Then the sailors were afraid, and each cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. The captain came and said to him, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up; call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that we do not perish.”

Jonah 1:4-6

The sailors said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, so that we may know on whose account this calamity has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” “I am a Hebrew,” he replied. “I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men were even more afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them so.

Jonah 1:7-10

Talk about an effective witness! Jonah shared his faith with these sailors, and they immediately believe!

He said: “I worship Yahweh, the God of heaven, who made the sea of the dry land.”

So let me get this straight: he’s the God of heaven, the sea, and the dry land?

That’s wild. In the ancient world, you had a god for each individual thing. So, you’d have a god of the sea, like Poseidon in the Greek tradition. Then you’d have a different god for the dry land.

But Jonah’s like, “No, my God is just the God of everything. Also, he made everything.”

So these sailors are just absolutely astounded by how powerful Jonah’s God is. And they’re like, “Let me get this straight… you thought you could run away from that God?”

You can’t run away from that God!

Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous. He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you.” Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them. Then they cried out to the LORD, “Please, O LORD, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.” So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the LORD even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.

Jonah 1:11-17

What I think is so funny about this story, is that Jonah is so wildly successful as a prophet and as a missionary, even though he’s trying so hard not to be. He’s literally running away from God, trying not to be God’s messenger, and he ends up converting a bunch of people to faith in the one true God, basically by accident. Amazing.

He tried to run from God, but God wouldn’t let him run. And he gets swallowed by a big fish.

But God is faithful. He saves Jonah’s life. Jonah gets spit out, and ends up on the shore. God gives him a second chance.

Now, in chapter 2 there’s an awesome prayer that Jonah prayed while he was in the big fish. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to read it, but I highly recommend that you bookmark this page and read it during the week. It’s really awesome.

But for now, turn to Jonah chapter 2 verse 10.

Then the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out onto the dry land.

Jonah 2:10

And now Jonah has learned his lesson. He obeys God. He goes to Ninevah.

So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk. Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

Jonah 3:3-4

Ninevah was surrounded by a wall 33 feet high and 49 feet thick, which stone towers spaced every 59 feet.

This is probably the gate that Jonah walked through when he entered Ninevah. It was reconstructed based on an archaeological excavation of the original Assyrian wall. This gate was a major historical landmark and cultural artifact. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by ISIS in 2016 and no longer stands.

Imagine what Jonah felt when he passed through this absolutely massive stone gate representing the overwhelming power and might of Assyria.

He probably felt some fear!

But, he’s learned his lesson. He’s not gonna run away this time. He’s trusting in God. Yahweh is his confidence.

So he goes throughout the city and proclaims the message: “FORTY DAYS AND NINEVAH WILL BE OVERTHROWN!”

Normally, prophets are sent to the king. But in this case, God sent Jonah to just preach to ordinary people. So he’s just out on the street, proclaiming the message.

It was probably awkward!

He was probably afraid of how people would react!

How would people respond to this message?

Why would they listen to Jonah?

He’s just some random guy from a foreign country!

How would you respond if you were walking through the city of our local city of Albany, NY and you saw a random guy with a thick accent yelling: “FORTY DAYS AND ALBANY WILL BE OVERTHROWN!”

Would you believe him?

Probably not.

But guess what?

And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. Humans and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.”

Jonah 3:5-10

It’s absolutely wild that the people of Ninevah repented when they heard Jonah’s message! It’s completely not what you’d expect to happen! It’s as crazy as seeing a cow in sackcloth!!

The people repented! They believed in Yahweh and cried out to him for mercy!

It’s nothing short of a miracle.

At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it,but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it.

Jeremiah 18:7-8

God is a God of second chances. He’s not a bully out to get you. He loves to forgive. He loves to give another chance. All you need to do is turn to him. Turn from evil, and turn to him.

This next verse was written about Israel, but I think the story of Jonah proves that the same principle applies to all people who put their trust in God:

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14

That’s exactly what happened.

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it.

Jonah 3:10

It’s a miracle.

While this is going on, Jonah is sitting outside the city, and he can’t wait for the city to be destroyed. Don’t forget, Ninevah is part of the Assyrian Empire. The Ninevites are enemies of Israel. Jonah hates the Ninevites!

He can’t wait for fire to fall down from heaven and destroy the city.

Get out the marshmallows! We’re having a fire tonight!

But to his great shock and disappointment – the city is NOT destroyed!

But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning, for I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the LORD said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” Then the LORD said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left and also many animals?”

Jonah 4:1-11

Here is Ninevah, a city the size of Albany, NY.

God is saying: “Dude, are you kidding me? you care more about a plant, than all the people in this city?” 

120,000 people, not to mention all the cows walking around in sackcloth!

Jonah’s heart wasn’t God’s heart.

Jonah wanted Ninevah to be destroyed. But God’s heart was that the Ninevites – even though they were some of the most wicked people in the world – God’s heart was that they would repent and be saved.

“For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone,” says the Lord GOD. “Turn, then, and live.”

Ezekiel 18:32

God has a heart of compassion for the lost. Do we have that same heart?

Do we have compassion for the even the worst, most despicable people?

Or do we have grudges against them? Disgust? Bitterness? Unforgiveness?

Do we celebrate with heaven when a sinner repents?

Or do we respond with cynicism?

 “I see so-and-so is back in church today. We’ll see how long that lasts.”

“So-and-so says he’s a Christian now. What a joke.”

Are these godly attitudes?

Are there people in your life who you don’t share your faith with, because, I mean, what’s the point?

When it comes to some people, you just know, they’re not gonna want to hear about Jesus. Don’t waste your time.

That’s prejudice. The reality is, you don’t know their hearts. God does.

The Book of Jonah really challenges us here to not allow your prejudices to get in the way of the gospel.

We see over and over again in the Book of Jonah, and indeed throughout the whole Bible, that the truth can set even the most unlikely person free.

The sailors on Jonah’s ship were pagans worshipping Poseidon, literally the last people you’d expect to make a sacrifice to the one true God. Yet when Jonah told them about Yahweh, they believed.

The people of Ninevah were so wicked that God had proclaimed his judgement against them and threatened to destroy their city. Literally the last people in the world you would expect to repent and believe in the one true God. But when they heard Jonah’s message, they repented.

You can’t write people off. No one is too far gone. No one is too lost that they can’t be reached.

Jesus Christ came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10).

He didn’t come to pat the righteous on the back and tell them what a great job they’re doing.

He came to eat dinner with sinners and corrupt tax collectors.

He came to give forgiveness and undeserved mercy and grace to prostitutes and robbers.

He came to pursue murderous men like Saul of Tarsus and say to them, “I’m giving you another chance. I want you in my kingdom.”

That’s God’s heart.

The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

2 Peter 3:9

Not wanting any to perish.

That’s God’s heart.

Is that your heart?

Jonah gets a bad rap – lots of people make fun of him, even call him a “failed prophet” because he ran from God, and when he finally obeyed God, he did it with the wrong heart.

But Jonah was just a human, no different than you or me. And if we’re honest with ourselves, we often have the same struggles Jonah had.

So the book of Jonah should be a wakeup call.

Let’s learn from Jonah, and not make the same mistakes.

When God calls you to do something, do it. Where is your Ninevah? It’s time to go there. You can pray about it and seek wise counsel, but don’t let anyone talk you out of doing something God called you to do. And don’t let fear stop you.

Respond to difficult people with compassion. Don’t hope that they “get what they deserve.” Hope that they repent and change and grow. Look for the best in people.

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Simple Living is Great Gain

One of the most overlooked teachings in the New Testament is Christ’s command in Matthew 6:19, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth” and his warning in Luke 12:15, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

The Old Testament also contains many warnings to the rich, such as “Turn my heart to your decrees, not to selfish gain” (Psalm 119:36) and “Those who trust in their riches will wither” (Proverbs 11:28).

Throughout scripture, we see a repeated call for God’s people to live simply, not worry about material possessions, and “seek first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33) understanding that “all that is in the world – the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches – comes not from the Father but from the world” (1 John 2:16). The writer of Hebrews offers this sober warning accompanied by an encouraging promise:

Hebrews 13:5 “Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.'”

Many believers today turn a blind eye to this command, buying into the cultural pressures of materialism and consumerism instead of following the counter-cultural example of Jesus.

In total contrast to “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth”, many believers today are inundated with an overwhelming clutter of possessions and are still seeking after more!

Many like the idea of simple living, but the actual practice of it seems almost impossible.

Many would like to be more charitable and use their resources in ways that help the needy, but fears about the future and an unbiblical view of money as security hinder them from putting charity into practice.

The root of these problems is an incorrect view of simple living – a view of simplicity shaped more by culture than by the Bible. Even among believers, the idea of simple living is often viewed as loss, poverty, asceticism, or laziness. However, scripture presents a totally different view of simplicity: one of great gain, great opportunity, great joy, and hard work!

“Simplicity” is defined as “the quality of being plain, natural, and easy to understand”, “freedom from complexity, intricacy, or division into parts”, and “absence of luxury, pretentiousness, ornament, etc.”

This is in contrast to “duplicity”, an antonym of simplicity defined as “Deceitfulness in speech or conduct, as by speaking or acting in two different ways to different people concerning the same matter; double-dealing.”

The heart of simplicity is single-minded devotion to God. Scripture presents a stark contrast between single-minded devotion to God, and divided loyalty between God and money. The former brings peace and joy, but the latter causes anxiety and instability.

Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

James 1:8 “Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.”

One of the biggest TV shows of 2019 is the Netflix original series Tidying Up With Marie Kondo, in which Marie Kondo – the Japanese organizing consultant and creator of the so-called “KonMari method” of household organization – helps overly cluttered families clean up their homes. Since its launch on January 1, 2019, the show has become an instant cultural phenomenon and origin of countless memes bearing the words “Does it spark joy?”

While tidying up your house can definitely help with simple living, the biblical concept of “simplicity” goes far deeper. From a biblical perspective, “simplicity” isn’t just about the outward appearance of things – e.g. how clean your house is. Rather, simplicity is an inward reality of single-minded devotion to God, which then manifests itself outwardly in the way we live, how we handle finances, our attitude toward material possessions, and how we structure our lives.

Simplicity is a state of mind and a heart condition. Trying to enforce “simple living” without first changing our hearts, is legalism.

Simplicity starts with finding our purpose, joy, and peace in God alone.

The reason we don’t live simply is because our hearts are not right. We are double-minded in our devotion. We want to serve both God, but we also want to serve wealth. This is duplicity, not simplicity.

Paul addresses simplicity most directly in his letter to the young disciple Timothy:

1 Timothy 6:6-10 “Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.”

One of the biggest barriers to simplicity is fear. We lack faith in God’s provision, so we look to wealth for security. Wealth promises to keep us safe through the storms of life, but it doesn’t deliver. The more our wealth increases, the more we become afraid of losing it. Wealth and possessions demand our time and attention and we must constantly focus on how to maintain them. We focus less on God and we feel more anxiety. This causes us to seek more wealth for security, and the cycle continues. As the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) once said, “Riches and abundance come hypocritically clad in sheep’s clothing pretending to be security against anxieties, but then they become the object of anxiety… they secure a man against anxieties just about as well as the wolf, which is put to tending the sheep, secures them against the wolf!”

Another barrier to simplicity is lust. We lose our joy in what God has given us when we see other things that promise to be “better” if only we can get our hands on them. This lust for material things is often fueled by jealousy of other people who have “more” or “better” things than we do.

Like fear, lust promises a lot but doesn’t deliver. It promises us joy if only we can get that one thing we really want. But as soon as we get it, our pleasure with it quickly fades and we lust after something else. Lust enslaves us into the bondage of seeking ever greater possessions without ever arriving at any lasting satisfaction. Simplicity liberates us from bondage to desire, setting us free to experience joy no matter life’s circumstances.

Because the topic of simple living is so rarely discussed in modern Christian culture, many believers don’t even realize that their attitude toward possessions is more influenced by fear and lust than by faith in God and seeking his kingdom.

Our attitude toward simple living can easily be shaped more by culture than scripture. Here are five common misconceptions about simple living, contrasted with biblical truths:

• Culture says that simple living is loss. Scripture says that simple living is “great gain”. Simplicity liberates us from the bondage of greed – what we gain from that is far greater than what we lose.

• Culture says that simple living is poverty. Scripture assures us that God will meet our physical needs – we can trust him instead of trusting in wealth for security. Simplicity deepens our appreciation for God’s provision.

• Culture says that simple living is asceticism (denial of pleasure). Scripture says that God desires to bless us, to “provide all things for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17). Simplicity empowers us to take greater pleasure in whatever gifts God provides, instead of lusting after what we don’t have.

• Culture says that simple living is laziness. Scripture commands us to work hard, but the goal of our work is representing God’s kingdom through compassion for the needy (Ephesians 4:28), not the accumulation of possessions.

• Culture says that simple living is miserable. Scripture describes simple living as joyful – a gift that makes us more available to be used by God.

Simplicity starts by shifting our mindset away from culture and toward scripture. We must repent of incorrect attitudes toward simple living. If we view it as a difficult sacrifice, we will fail. If we view it as an opportunity, we will succeed.

Simplicity is an opportunity to be used by God more fully by removing earthly encumbrances that distract us from his will. The world views simple living as poverty, but actually, simplicity doesn’t destroy our resources – it merely frees up our resources and time for kingdom work.

When we live simply, we find we have more resources and more time available for ministry!

We experience new opportunities to be used by God when we make our time and our resources available to God.

It may seem counter-intuitive, but living with less actually empowers us to live with much more. When we surrender our possessions for godly and charitable purposes, we experience a new kind of abundance. We become “rich in good works” (1 Timothy 6:18)! We experience a wealth of joy, purpose, and fulfillment in life that no material thing could ever provide. This is what Jesus called “treasure in heaven” (Matthew 19:21). By living with less, we become richer, not poorer. Simplicity is not loss – it is truly great gain!

1 Timothy 6:17-18 “Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always ready to share with others.”

Matthew 19:21 “Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’”

1 John 3:17 NLT “If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion – how can God’s love be in that person?”

The early church practiced simplicity by selling possessions and giving the proceeds to those in need:

Acts 2:44-45 “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need”

Most of us have an abundance of possessions that we could give away to benefit those in need. Most of us also make more income than we need for survival (Paul wrote “if we have food and clothing we should be content”). What if we intentionally allocated excess income for kingdom work?

Most Christians say they would like to be more charitable, but they don’t feel like they have the means to do so. However, most of us really do have the means, but when we don’t live simply, we make the resources God entrusted us with unavailable for his work.

Here are 8 tips for living simply:

1. Buy things for usefulness, not status. Living simply doesn’t mean you never buy anything. It means you buy what you need, for the vocation God has called you to. If God calls you to study and write, buy a computer. But buy one that will do the job, not one that’s far more expensive than you need, so you can impress your friends. If God calls you to travel the country, buy a car. But buy one that is decent enough to take you where you need to go, not one that will make you look rich or high-status. There is nothing wrong with buying something that you put to good use… but what is your motivation for buying it?

2. Give stuff away. If you are still holding onto something that’s not being used, you are depriving yourself of the joy of putting it to good use in the life of another! It can sometimes be hard to figure out who to give things to, so they can be put to good use. But if we’re intentional about it, and we actively look for opportunities like that every day, and we pray about it, God will give us those opportunities. Pay attention to what God is doing in the lives of believers around you. Chances are God is calling them to do something that requires material things they don’t have, that you might already have. For example, you could give an old laptop to a college student in your church who needs one. Or if you have a musical instrument that you gave up learning, you could give it to a person in the church who has a heart for worship. These are opportunities for incredible joy and bonding between believers but we miss them because we aren’t looking for them!

3. Resist propaganda. Our economy runs on people throwing away perfectly good products and buying supposedly “better” ones. But newer is not always better! Older products often work fine and don’t actually need to be replaced, despite what society tells us. Are you upgrading your phone because you actually need the new features, or is it because you’re afraid people think you look stupid for still using an iPhone 5? There is nothing wrong with old technology. There is also nothing wrong with new technology. The question is: What is your motivation?

4. Experience the joy of not owning things. Thanks to the internet and the sharing economy, it is easier than ever to legally use things without owning them. Some things are more cost-effective to own. However, many things that you only use once in awhile can now be rented or borrowed without the necessity of owning them. This should be especially true for Christians because we are supposed to live in community. If you need a particular thing for a particular task, chances are there is someone in the church who can let you borrow it. Furthermore, we can make our own possessions available for others to borrow.

5. Stop participating in systems of oppression. Many products are made by workers who are paid poverty wages so others can take all of the profits from their labor. This is an evil system of oppression, but the only reason it continues is because consumers keep giving money to it with their purchases. By living simply and buying fair trade and locally sourced products, we can stop enabling systems of oppression.

6. Give to ministry and charity. In 2 Corinthians 9:7, the Apostle Paul wrote “You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” Every time I bring up the topic of giving to the church, someone will always jump in and say “Hold up! Tithing is Old Testament! We’re not under the Law of Moses anymore! We don’t need to tithe!” They may think they are making an intelligent, biblically sound argument. But what they are saying really says more about their heart condition, than about their knowledge of scripture. While it’s absolutely true that we are not under the Law of Moses and we don’t “need” to tithe, that kind of misses the whole point of what giving to the church is about. Giving isn’t about need. It’s about opportunity. That’s the whole point of what Paul is saying in 2 Corinthians 9:7. We don’t give out of pressure or necessity. Instead, we are supposed to give out of willingness and with a cheerful attitude. If you don’t have that kind of attitude about giving to your church, pray for the Lord to change your heart. I can tell you from experience that giving to ministry and charity is one of the most rewarding things we can do in life. The joy that you experience when you see the fruit of what your gift helped make possible is one of the greatest feelings you will experience in this lifetime. If you don’t give, you are the one losing out because you are depriving yourself of an opportunity to be used by God. For me personally, I give 10% of all my income to the church because that’s what the Lord has told me to do. On top of that, I give additional money to charity. For you, the amount you give might be different. The point isn’t how much we give, but the heart with which we give. Most Christians really do want to give, but feel like they don’t have enough. That is a lie! We all have enough to give – the widow in Mark 12 only gave 2 pennies, and she gave more than anyone else. The reason we don’t give is usually because of fear. We don’t actually trust God to provide for our needs. We don’t actually trust God to use the finances better than we could. So we don’t give. But I can tell you from my own experience – and from the experience of many believers I know – that when we break through this fear and give what God is calling us to give, God has a way of providing. For example, the pastor of a church I served in for 4 years once told a story about his father. His father currently owns a very successful manufacturing company, but earlier in life he was on the brink of bankruptcy and financial ruin. At church that Sunday, he felt like he should give 10% of his last paycheck, but the devil whispered in his ear and said “you can’t afford to give that much!” He chose to resist the devil and give anyway, even though it made no sense financially. The very next day, God miraculously provided him with the first machine that he used to start the manufacturing company he has now. Don’t listen to the lies of the enemy. Resist the devil, and he will flee (James 4:7). Surrender and trust God.

7. Be intentional about allocating your resources for kingdom work. Budget NOW for radical acts of generosity so you have the ability to do them when God blesses you with the opportunities. Rather than just giving to ministry and charity when you happen to have extra money available, prayerfully consider allocating a percentage of your income for these purposes. As Christians, generosity should be a priority in our lives, not an afterthought we get around to if we feel like it or if we happen to have money left over after we spend it all on ourselves. Making it a priority requires intentionality. Put it in the budget! Prayerfully consider allocating a percentage of your income specifically for personal acts of generosity – directly meeting the needs of real people in your life. For me personally, these have been some of the most rewarding and fulfilling experiences of my life. I have been able to fund missions trips, help pay people’s medical bills, and buy laptops for believers who desperately needed them for school or for missions work. I make less money than the average American, but I had the ability to do this because I made it a priority ahead of time! Stuff like this is what makes me want to go to work in the morning. I can’t wait to see the impact that my finances will have on someone else’s life. In my opinion, a great place to start is allocating 5% or 10% of your income specifically for the purpose of blessing people around you who have serious needs. When those opportunities come up, you will have the ability to instantly meet those needs and be a huge blessing to that person – because you already budgeted for it! It won’t be a huge financial burden for you! Rather, it will be something you’re already prepared for. You can even go further with this, if you choose to. For example, in his book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream, David Platt suggests capping your income. Determine how much money you need to live comfortably, then give away everything you make beyond that amount.

8. Start immediately. There is a temptation to put off simplicity until we reach a more secure stage of life, when we feel like we can safely “afford” to give away possessions, be more generous, and live with less. For example, young unmarried people working entry-level jobs and burdened with student debt naturally want to hold onto whatever wealth they have. The temptation is “once I get older and I’m at a more stable place in life with a higher paying job and less debt, then I can focus on simplicity.” The problem is life only gets more complicated as we get older! Marriage, children, home ownership, and the inevitable accumulation of possessions all present challenges for simplicity. Paul makes this point in 1 Corinthians 7:32-34, “An unmarried man can spend his time doing the Lord’s work and thinking how to please him. But a married man has to think about his earthly responsibilities and how to please his wife. His interests are divided.” Simplicity will not be easier when you are older. Start now!

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The Kingdom of God

Matthew 6:31-33 “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

What is the kingdom of God? Jesus talked about the kingdom of God more than anything else. Surprisingly, he never specifically defined it.

His mostly Jewish audience would have understood the kingdom of God from the Old Testament. Unfortunately, many Christians today do not understand the kingdom of God even though it is the central theme of Christ’s teaching. If we are to seek it first, we must understand what it is, using scripture as our guide.

The Importance of the Kingdom

Matthew 4:17 “From that time Jesus began to preach and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

From the day he began his ministry until he ascended into heaven, Jesus preached this message everywhere: “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” Jesus highly valued the kingdom of God and compared it to a treasure in a field or a pearl of great value that a person would sacrifice everything to obtain (Matthew 13).

Christ’s view of the kingdom of God was deeply eschatological in nature. In places like Matthew 24, Luke 21, and Mark 13, Jesus went into detail about the end of the present age and the beginning of a new, messianic age in which the messiah (meaning “anointed king”) would overthrow the governments of the world and rule as the king over the entire world forever. Almost all of Christ’s parables deal directly with this vision a final judgement that is coming soon to the earth (see Matthew 25:1-13, Matthew 22:1-14, Matthew 25:14-30, Matthew 20:1-16).

The Prophets Envisioned the Kingdom

Daniel 7:13-14 “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.”

Identifying himself as the messiah whom Daniel had prophesied about, Jesus took upon himself the title “Son of Man.” In a verse often quoted at Christmas, Isaiah also prophesied about the messiah receiving a kingdom and power:

Isaiah 9:6 “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders”

The prophets foresaw a coming messianic age in which the messiah would rule over the whole world and establish peace on the earth.

Isaiah 2:4 “And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples; and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war”

Isaiah 60:18 Violence will not be heard again in your land, nor devastation or destruction within your borders; but you will call your walls salvation, and your gates praise.

In this messianic age, there will even be peace in the animal kingdom.

Isaiah 11:6 “And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them”

Knowledge of God will fill the earth.

Jeremiah 31:34 “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Habakkuk 2:14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

Rather than the sun, God himself will be the light of the world.

Isaiah 60:19 “No longer will you have the sun for light by day, nor for brightness will the moon give you light; but you will have the LORD for an everlasting light, and your God for your glory.

Everything Wrong Made Right

Revelation 21:3-4 “And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.'”

Revelation 22:1-5 Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.

We see all of the Old Testament prophesies about the kingdom of God beautifully fulfilled in Revelation 21-22, which is a vision of the age to come when the messiah rules the world. Comparing Revelation 21-22 (the very end of the Bible) to Genesis 1-2 (the very beginning of the Bible), the parallels are amazing. What God originally intended the beginning is what he gets in the end!

In the beginning, God created the earth “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Prior to sin, there was no death, disease, crying, or pain. God dwelled on the earth with man, walking and talking with man in the garden (Genesis 3:8). It was only after they sinned that Adam and Eve hid from God and felt ashamed. Sin caused a separation between God and man. Because of sin, the earth was cursed (Genesis 3:18). This curse affected the whole world and brought about thorns and thistles infesting the ground, disease infecting the world, and unrest in the animal kingdom.

But there’s good news: God has not given up on the earth! He is a God of restoration who has a plan to make what is wrong right. We see in Revelation 21-22 that in the end, God will get what he wanted in the beginning. Sin will be no more, and man’s relationship with God will be fully restored. God will once again dwell on the earth with man – “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them” (Revelation 21:3b).

The tree of life will be restored (Revelation 22:2) and “there will no longer be any curse” (Revelation 22:3a). In fact, there will be “there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4b).

The kingdom of God can be summed up in this one simple sentence: Everything wrong with the world made right!

God’s Covenants with Abraham and Isaac

Genesis 12:1-3 “Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

The story of the kingdom of God begins with Abraham. God called Abraham (originally named Abram) to leave the land in which he was living and travel to the land of Canaan, which God promised to give to Abraham and his descendants forever. From Abraham would come a kingdom that would last forever.

Genesis 13:14-15 “The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, ‘Raise your eyes now, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.'”

God later extended the territory to include all the land of Cannan.

Genesis 17:8 “And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.”

God’s covenant with Abraham was renewed with Isaac, the son whom God had promised to miraculously give to Abraham in his old age.

Genesis 26:2-5 “The LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.”

God’s Covenant With Moses

Isaac’s son Jacob (later renamed Israel) became the father of twelve sons from whom came the twelve tribes of Israel and the “Israelites”. But there were some bumps in the road. The rest of Genesis explains how the Israelites ended up in Egypt rather than Canaan, the land that had been promised to them. In the next book, Exodus, God calls Moses to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and lead them to the promised land.

God made a covenant with Moses. If the Israelites kept the commandments, they would possess the land forever and be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation:

Exodus 19:5-6a “Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

God’s Covenant With David

The Israelites entered the land and took possession of it. Their first king, Saul, eventually turned away from God. But their next king, David, was “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22). God made a covenant with King David in which he promised that one of David’s descendants would reign as the king over the whole world for all eternity!

2 Samuel 7:12-13 “I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”

In Jeremiah 33, God tied this promise to the sun and the moon – as long as the sun and moon continue to rise, this promise can never be broken.

Jeremiah 33:25-26 “Thus says the LORD, ‘If My covenant for day and night stand not, and the fixed patterns of heaven and earth I have not established, then I would reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, not taking from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them.’”

Bumps in the Road

The Israelites eagerly awaited the promised king who would rule forever. But once again, there were bumps in the road. Israel became divided into a northern kingdom (Israel) and a southern kingdom (Judah). Then, the divided Israel faced serious threats from foreign nations.

First, the Assyrians invaded and conquered the northern kingdom of Israel, which accounted for ten out of the twelve tribes. Then, the Babylonians invaded Judah and took the remaining two tribes into exile in Babylon. At this point, the Temple lay in ruins and the Israelites no longer possessed any of the land.

But God was faithful. In a verse frequently quoted out of context, God promised that the Babylonian captivity would only last for 70 years, and after that, the Israelites would return to the land:

Jeremiah 29:10-11 “For thus says the LORD, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’”

Sure enough, the Persians conquered Babylon and allowed the Israelites to return to the land of Canaan. But it was a still a rocky road. Under Alexander the Great, the Greek Empire conquered Israel and occupied the land. Under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus, Israel was briefly re-established during the Maccabean Revolt, which is commemorated every year in the celebration of Hanukah. But it didn’t last, and the land eventually fell to the Roman Empire.

The Messiah They Didn’t Expect

At the time of Christ, the land of Israel was under military occupation by the Romans. The Romans were polytheists with no respect for the one true God. Roman soldiers could force Jews into slavery by making them to carry gear for up to one mile.

It is in this historical context – a context of oppression and despair – that the Christmas story takes place. The Jews eagerly awaited the fulfillment of God’s promise to David – the soon coming king who would overthrow the Roman Empire and rule the world forever. This is why Matthew and Luke both open their gospels with long genealogies. They may seem boring to us, but they are actually incredibly exciting because they prove that Jesus is both a descendant of Abraham and a descendant of David, and therefore eligible to fulfill the prophecies.

Jesus identified himself as the Son of Man whom Daniel had prophesied about, but his approach to establishing the kingdom of God was totally opposite of what most people expected. The Jewish zealots were expecting a military leader like Judas Maccabeus who would liberate Israel by military force. Jesus, on the other hand, taught nonviolence: “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). Rather than fighting the Roman soldier who could force you to carry his gear for a mile, Jesus said to carry it for two miles (Matthew 5:41) and if a soldier slaps you on the cheek, “turn the other to him also!” (Matthew 5:39).

The Jews expected the kingdom to be established by military force, but Jesus said: “do not resist an evil person” (Matthew 5:39) and “all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52).

Most shockingly of all, Jesus was crucified. To the Jews of that day, it seemed totally unimaginable that the promised king who was supposed to rule the world forever would be executed on a stake. But this had all been prophesied (e.g. Isaiah 53) and was part of God’s plan. Understandably, it was a hard truth to accept. Thus, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:23, “we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews”.

Sin had to be atoned for so that all people – including non-Jews – could enter the covenant promises that God made to Abraham, Moses, and David. Paul declares in Romans 9-11 that, like wild branches grafted onto an olive tree, we too are now counted as descendants of Abraham through our faith in Jesus Christ. This means that all of the promises God made about the kingdom now apply to us! The kingdom promises are received not through ancestry or ritual (e.g. circumcision) but through faith and love.

Galatians 5:6 ESV “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”

The Kingdom Lifestyle

Luke 6:20-26 “And turning His gaze toward His disciples, He began to say, ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man. Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.“

The ethics of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7, see also Luke 6) make absolutely no sense, unless you view them in light of the kingdom of God as a soon coming reality.

For Jesus, it was okay to suffer injustice in this present age because he foresaw a soon coming kingdom in which everything about the present world would be flipped upside down. “The last shall be first, and the first last” (Matthew 20:16).

In the present world, it is the rich, the powerful, the popular, and the happy who everyone considers blessed. But in the coming kingdom, the poor, the lowly, the despised, the weeping and mourning, the humble, those hungering and thirsting for justice – these are the ones who are blessed (Matthew 5, Luke 6)!

Jesus began his public teaching with the radical words: “Blessed are the poor… blessed are those who weep… blessed are you when men hate you” (Luke 6:21-22). He foresaw a coming kingdom in which the poor, hungry, and persecuted would receive blessing, but the rich would be “sent away empty” (Luke 1:53).

The ethics of Jesus are directly tied to this vision of the kingdom of God. He will judge his followers on whether they helped the poor and needy: “to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me” (see Matthew 25:31-46).

For Jesus, the kingdom of God flips the world upside down.

Mark 9:35b “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all”

Mark 10:44 “Whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all”

Count the Cost: The Good News of a Challenging Gospel

The kingdom of God is everything wrong with the world made right. It is good news, but it is also incredibly challenging. It’s good news because there will be no more death, pain, sin, or evil when the kingdom comes. It’s challenging because seeking the kingdom means denying one’s self, taking up one’s cross, and following Christ. This is not a decision to be taken lightly. Jesus warned us to count the cost before we even begin to follow him.

Luke 14:27-33 “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.”

There are many false gospels in the world. We must always stay focused on the true gospel that Jesus preached: “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Jesus was not introducing a new idea when he preached the gospel. Actually, he preached the same gospel that the Old Testament prophets preached when they foretold of an everlasting Kingdom that will be established on the earth with justice, peace, and righteousness forever.

In a world filled with war and terrorism, we have the hope that a king is coming who will establish peace on the earth forever (Isaiah 2:4). In a world filled with death and sorrow, we have the hope that a king is coming who will throw death into the lake of fire and destroy death and sorrow forever (Revelation 20). We share this message with others through words that tell them about the kingdom of God, and through actions that show people what the kingdom will be like by meeting real needs in the world with the love of Christ. “Let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action” (1 John 3:18b).

As ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20) and citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20) we represent the kingdom to the world by being peacemakers and demonstrating the radically sacrificial love that Jesus demonstrated – we love enemies, turn the other cheek, and forgive the unforgivable (Matthew 5-7). This kind of lifestyle is considered radical in the present day world, but it will be commonplace when the kingdom of God comes. By living it out, we represent the kingdom on the earth until it is fully established in the future and all evil is eliminated.

The kingdom message is both good news, and a serious challenge. It is good news because it promises everything wrong with the world will be made right. It is challenging because it demands repentance and obedience to Christ. In the same way that Jesus warned people to repent before the kingdom comes (Matthew 4:17), we should also preach repentance, “speaking the truth in love” (Epehsians 4:15).

The kingdom message is the gospel. The word “gospel” means “good news”. The gospel message is the message that the kingdom of God is coming, that Jesus – the king of the kingdom – is coming back to rule the world. It’s the hope that anchors our souls (Hebrews 6:19) so we can endure the challenges of this present evil age and shine as lights in a dark world (Philippians 2:15).

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Rethinking Church: Division vs. Unity

People, Not Buildings

In John 17, Jesus prayed that his church would be one in the same way that he and the Father are one. So why is there more competition between Christian denominations than there is in the Superbowl playoffs?

I believe the problem is a failure to understand what church is, stemming from an emphasis on buildings, institutions, and doctrines rather than people. Many people believe church buildings are special, holy places, and whenever they walk into a church building they immediately feel closer to God. Some people even think that they can only communicate with God inside of a particular building. And yet the same God who feels so present to us in church on Sunday morning is equally present with us on Monday morning. The same God who feels so present in a cathedral is equally present in a landfill. He never leaves us or forsakes us, but we so easily take our focus off of him.

For many, church is only a building. If they don’t like one, they can go to another. Church becomes a fad, even a form of entertainment. They can “shop” for various churches without ever becoming committed or building relationships with any specific group of believers. This church-shopping mentality fuels competition between congregations rather than uniting them in the common purpose of Christ.

In the Bible, the word “church” is translated from the Greek word ekklēsia (Strong’s 1577), literally “called out” as in a community of people called by God. In the Bible, church is not a building, but a group of people who make up the body of Christ (Ephesians 1:22-23, 4:15-16; 1 Corinthians 12) by doing the work of Christ in the world.

The people are the church, not the building. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, church is not a place you go to once a week, but a commitment to follow Christ that you live out each and every day. You are the church!

One Body

There are many manmade “denominations” in the world, but there is only one body of Christ. Every individual who follows Jesus as Lord is a member of the body of Christ, regardless of their denomination, location, age, race, gender, nationality, language, or culture. Jesus is building up a Kingdom of people from “every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9). He is doing away with all ethnic, linguistic, and cultural barriers by uniting his followers into one body. And yet we still allow the smallest things to divide us.

I can only imagine how much it grieves the Lord Jesus Christ when petty arguments over theology cause division in his church, and when minor disagreements cause believers to cut off relationships with one another, and even hate one another.

Part of Paul’s message in 1 Corinthians 12 is that every member of the body is important. He writes, “The eye can never say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you.’ The head can’t say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you.’” Every member of the body is vitally important. And yet, the global body of Christ currently lies fractured in a million pieces over theological quibbles.

With ten fingers, I can accomplish a difficult task.

If I’m missing even one finger, I will struggle.

If I’m missing several fingers, it may be almost impossible.

Just as I need all ten fingers in order to work most effectively, so the body of Christ needs all of its members in order to carry out the work of Christ most effectively. It is vitally important for all members of the body to work together in unity. And when Paul talks about unity in the body, he isn’t just talking about unity among individual believers, but also, in a broader sense, unity between different church congregations. Even the first century believers had differences and disagreements over theology. And yet, they recognized that the core gospel message they held in common was far more important than any minor difference in theory or practice.

Iron Sharpens Iron

Certainly, correct doctrine is important, and we should openly discuss biblical and theological matters in a spirit of good fellowship, “as iron sharpens iron.” And yet, how many denominations have split over the most trivial issues? Doctrinal disagreements divide the body of Christ, often inhibiting or even destroying the work of Christ in the process. Our focus should be on the core truths we hold in common, not the less important issues we might disagree about.

I once heard a true story about a group of Christian missionaries who traveled to a third world country together on a missions trip. They came from very different denominations, and during the plane ride they got into a major theological argument. This argument was so bad that they felt certain they would not be able to work together once the plane landed.

But when the plane landed, they discovered the situation on the ground was much worse than they had anticipated. There had been a major flood and many people had lost their homes. The missionaries immediately jumped in and began working together to help build shelter for the homeless, provide food for the hungry, and get medical attention for the injured.

As soon as they got busy doing the work of Christ, their theological differences no longer seemed to matter.

We cannot allow our faith to be merely theoretical, based on only on endless study and debate of theological ideas, but with no accompanying action. It took a catastrophe of epic proportions to wake these missionaries up to the reality that in a world with billions of people in desperate need, action is what really matters.

They got busy doing the work that Jesus will one day judge us on when he returns to divide the sheep (those obedient to doing the work of Christ) from the goats (those disobedient to Christ).

Matthew 25:37-40: “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’”

We have the luxury of spending a lot of time in theological discussions. Most Christians in the world do not have this luxury. We have the luxury of spending a lot of time studying the Word of God, which is a good thing, but we too easily forget that many Christians around the world still lack access to the Bible, or do not know how to read.

Your average Christian lives in Africa or Asia. Many live in dire poverty and suffer persecution. While we have the luxury of “armchair theology,” Christians in many parts of the world must do “theology on the run.” They don’t have time to worry about minor theological issues when they are too busy ministering to those in desperate need.

Is it any surprise that most miracles happen in third world countries, and not in the West where we have become comfortable with “church as usual”? If we spent less time in endless theological debate and more time actively doing the work of Christ, what miracles would we see?

Surely there is great urgency in the times in which we live. The world is changing faster and faster, and new technology allows us to reach the ends of the earth in ways previously unimaginable. This is the moment in which the body of Christ will either make disciples of all nations, or fail because the body is not working together

Satan’s strategy to defeat the church is “divide and conquer.”

We cannot afford to let petty disagreements divide the Body. The church around the world must unite for the common purpose of continuing Christ’s work in the world. I pray we see the day when our different church congregations and denominations are actively working together, hand in hand, in a united effort to reach our communities and the world for Christ.

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Rethinking Church: Your vs. You’re

If you asked 100 random people on the street what they thought of when they heard the word “church,” what do you think they would say? Some people would have positive thoughts about church, others negative. A lot of people would probably think of buildings with steeples, crosses, and stained glass windows.

How many people would say, “When I hear the word church, I think of me”?

Though it may sound strange, this should be the correct answer for anyone who calls Jesus Lord.

When Jesus walked the earth, his hands healed the sick, and his feet carried the good news of the Kingdom of God everywhere he went. His mouth spoke God’s truth, and his heart felt compassion for the poor. He worked many miracles, casting out demons, restoring sight to the blind, and even raising the dead.

And yet, as a human being, Jesus could only be in one place at a time. While he ministered to the multitudes of people who gathered around him, countless other multitudes in other locations longed to see him but could not.

Today, Jesus Christ is much more present in the world than he was when he walked the earth. Today, Jesus Christ lives in the hearts of every believer through the Holy Spirit (Colossians 1:27). While previously he only had one pair of hands and one pair of feet, today he is working in the world through the lives of millions of believers who follow him as Lord.

Having ascended into heaven to take his place at the right hand of God, Jesus Christ is no longer physically present in the world. And yet, he is physically present in the world through us! Jesus calls his disciples to be his hands and feet in the world today, promising, “anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.” (John 14:12).

In 1 Corinthians 12, the Apostle Paul describes the Body of Christ as being composed of many members, each with different functions, yet all vitally important. In Ephesians 1:22-23, Paul writes that God made Jesus Christ “head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.”

The Greek word translated “church” is ekklēsia (Strong’s 1577), meaning a community of people who have been called by God. Church is not a building, an institution, or an organization. Church is the body of Christ – a collection of individual believers in all parts of the world – gathering together in fellowship and community to follow Jesus Christ as Lord.

The first century church described in Acts 2 did not have elaborate church buildings – or any church buildings! They met in homes, gave up everything they had, and shared all things in common. They were totally sold out and committed to Jesus Christ and they were able to work incredible miracles.

Why is it that in the two thousand years that followed, the concept of “church” has become so mundane, religious, even boring?

Why are so many Christians gathering to worship God on Sundays but living only for themselves on Monday through Saturday?

Why are millions of dollars spent on enormous “megachurch” buildings, but on average less than 2% of church finances go toward foreign missions?

Why is much time and energy devoted to church “programs” while little time and energy is spent building relationships with people?

Why are some believers going hungry while others store up riches?

Why do we rarely see the kind of miracles that the early church experienced?

In the words of Casting Crowns:

If we are the Body,

Why aren’t His arms reaching?

Why aren’t His hands healing?

Why aren’t His words teaching?

And if we are the Body,

Why aren’t His feet going?

Why is His love not showing them there is a way?

I believe the answer to all of these questions lies in the fact that many Christians have an incorrect understanding of what church is.

Church is not a building we go to, or an activity we do once a week.

Church is who we are.

“Your vs. You’re”

How many times has someone asked you where your church is? How many times has someone asked you what church you’re a part of?

While these questions may sound identical, this seemingly insignificant difference in grammar reflects a huge difference in thinking.

For many Christians, church is something we possess – “I have a church.” And yet, if we are truly members of the body of Christ, church is not something we own but something we ourselves are a part of – something we are. If you’re a believer, it’s not your church. Rather, you are the church!

As Christians, we are called to be the church, not only on Sundays, but every day, and everywhere. The way we be the church is through radical obedience to the commands of Jesus Christ in all areas of life.

Being the body of Christ means total commitment to the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). It means continuing the exact same work that Jesus did when he walked the earth. It means radical forgiveness, loving enemies, preaching the gospel, being a peacemaker, healing the sick, casting out demons, visiting those in prison, and caring for the poor.

If we’re not doing these things, what are we doing?

Although we typically think of Sunday worship when we think about what church is, in reality, the way we live our lives Sunday through Saturday defines what the church (the body of Christ) is. The world judges Christianity not on the quality of our Sunday worship experiences, but on the integrity with which individual Christians live their lives each and every day.

Sunday worship experiences are an awesome thing and an extremely important tool for preaching the gospel and edifying the believer. But our faith can’t stop there. It must be lived out.

Matthew 25:31-46 is very clear. When Jesus returns he won’t be judging us on whether we sat in a certain building at a certain time each week.

What ultimately matters is obedience to him in daily life.

Where we go to church is not nearly as important as whether or not we are the church.

Church is not a location. Church is a lifestyle.

Church is not four walls. Church is a billion people.

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The Command to Baptize

Baptism is more than just a tradition or ritual. It is part of the Great Commission, the last command that Jesus gave before ascending into heaven.

Matthew 28:18-20: Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

What is Baptism?

Baptism is a sacrament, meaning a physical manifestation of a spiritual truth. The other sacrament commanded in scripture is communion. Understanding communion is helpful for understanding how baptism works. Without faith, communion is nothing more than bread and wine. But with faith, communion becomes a profound reflection upon the sufferings of Jesus Christ. The spiritual truth that Jesus died on the cross for our sins really hits home when it is manifested in the physical realm through the bread and the wine which represent his physical body and blood. The physical nature of communion makes the spiritual truth come alive.

Similarly, baptism without faith is nothing more than a quick bath. But with faith, baptism is a profound experience of being born again. Just as Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again, so baptism symbolizes our own death, burial, and resurrection. The believer is submerged in water, symbolizing the death and burial of the old carnal self and its sinful nature. The believer is then raised out of the water, symbolizing new life in Christ.

Romans 6:4: For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

2 Corinthians 5:17: This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

Baptism is a commitment. It is usually done when a person first becomes a believer and is willing to make a commitment to follow Jesus as Lord. Through baptism, the new believer is essentially saying, “I am making a commitment to follow Christ. I am confessing my faith in Jesus in the presence of witnesses. I am repenting of my sins by putting to death my old sinful nature, and being being raised up to newness of life in Christ.” Baptism should be performed in the presence of witnesses who can hold the new believer accountable to the faith.

Because baptism is a commitment, only an adult can make the decision to be baptized. So-called “infant baptism” does not count as real baptism because an infant is too young to understand the significance of baptism and make a true faith commitment. There are no examples of infant baptism in the Bible. Believers must make their own faith commitments, and no one else can make it for them. This is why baptism requires maturity and the presence of witnesses. Baptism should always involve immersion in water. Scripture says that Jesus “came up out of the water” (Matthew 3:16) when he was baptized, proving that he was fully immersed under water. So-called “sprinkling” is a dumbed-down version of baptism that is not biblical.

Where Did Baptism Come From?

John the Baptist is the first person in scripture to baptize. Under divine inspiration from God, John baptized people “for repentance” to prepare the coming of Christ. Although the significance of baptism as a symbol of Christ’s death and resurrection had not yet been revealed, baptism was still a powerful symbol of repentance – a public profession of the decision to put to death one’s sinful ways.

In John 3, John the Baptist is informed that someone else has begun baptizing, and is baptizing even more people than him! This new baptizer, who baptized more people than John, is Jesus of Nazareth.

John 4:2 clarifies that Jesus did not baptize believers personally, but sent his disciples out to baptize on his behalf. Nevertheless, baptism was clearly a major part of Christ’s ministry from its earliest days. When John the Baptist heard that Jesus was baptizing more disciples than he was, he replied, “He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.” (John 3:30).

Just before his ascension into heaven, Jesus sent his disciples out with the Great Commission, commanding them to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Matthew 28:19).

Baptism continued in the early church, with many baptisms recorded in the Book of Acts. At the Day of Pentecost, 3,000 people were baptized!

Acts 2:38-41: Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.” Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!” Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.

In Acts 8, an angel sends Philip into the wilderness to witness to an Ethiopian who is trying to understand the scroll of Isaiah.

Acts 8:35-38: So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus. As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?” He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.

The Apostle Paul was also baptized in Acts 9:18. Previously called Saul, he had been struck blind when he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus. Then Ananias visited Saul, placed his hands on him, and Saul received his sight. Immediately after receiving his sight, Paul believed and was baptized. In fact, this baptism marked the moment when Saul became Paul – the death of the old man, and the resurrection of the new man in Christ. See Acts 9 for the complete record.

Baptism continues in Acts 10 (three chapters of baptisms in a row!) with the first recorded gentile baptisms:

Acts 10:45-48: The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, too. For they heard them speaking in other tongues and praising God. Then Peter asked, “Can anyone object to their being baptized, now that they have received the Holy Spirit just as we did?” So he gave orders for them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Afterward Cornelius asked him to stay with them for several days.

In Acts 16:15, a woman named Lydia was baptized after she responded in faith to Paul’s message. Later in that chapter, Paul and Silas even baptize the jailer who was holding them in prison (Acts 16:33) after sharing the gospel with him in jail!

Even in a jail cell, Paul and Silas did not pass up the opportunity to carry out the Great Commission through teaching and baptizing!

Acts 18:8 records that many of the Corinthians who heard Paul speak were baptized.

Baptism is a biblical tradition that stretches from the first century to the twenty-first century in a single unbroken chain. Throughout all of Christian history, from the earliest days to the present, Christians have always baptized.

Is Baptism Necessary For Salvation?

Is following Jesus necessary for salvation? Consider the words of Jesus in Luke 6:46: “Why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?” Jesus commanded baptism, and as we have seen in the Book of Acts, the early church took his command to baptize seriously, baptizing literally thousands of individuals.

Throughout the New Testament, baptism is connected with salvation. In Mark 16:16, Jesus said, “Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.”

1 Peter 3:21 compares baptism to the flood of Noah, claiming that just as the ark saved Noah, so baptism “now saves you”:

1 Peter 3:21: And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you, not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience. It is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

However, these verses must be balanced by the fact that we are saved by grace, through faith, “not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” (Ephesians 2:9). We must remember that baptism is an outward act of an inward faith, and a physical manifestation of a spiritual truth. Without faith, baptism is nothing more than a quick bath, and it won’t save anyone. With faith, one can be saved by grace even without baptism.

Consider, for example, the thief on the cross. He was almost certainly never baptized, yet Jesus said to him, “you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). The saving grace of God extends to all who believe, even if they are not baptized.

Nevertheless, the plan of salvation laid out in scripture is for a person to believe and be baptized. The Lord Jesus Christ clearly commanded this in the Great Commission. Those saved without baptism are the exception, not the rule.

Did the Coming of the Holy Spirit Make Baptism Obsolete?

Just before his ascension, Jesus gave his disciples the Great Commission, in which he commanded them to baptize (Matthew 28:19). Jesus gave this command 50 days before the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost. Why would Jesus command his disciples to baptize if he knew baptism would be obsolete just 50 days later?

Clearly, Jesus intended for baptism to be practiced even after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit – and it was!

As we have seen, many individuals were baptized in the Book of Acts. Baptism was often immediately followed by an individual receiving the Holy Spirit as manifested by speaking in tongues. The two go hand in hand. Baptism and the receiving of the Holy Spirit are both essential parts of our Christian walk. But one does not replace the other.

I’ve Been a Christian for Years But I’ve Never Been Baptized… Why Be Baptized Now?

Although baptism usually takes place when a new believer first makes a faith commitment, it is never too late to be baptized. The important thing is to be baptized with the right mindset. Do not be baptized if your reason for baptism is guilt that you were never baptized or fear that you won’t be saved without it. Baptism is not meant to be a burden, but a gift!

Consider the Sabbath day. If your only reason for observing the Sabbath day is fear that you won’t be saved if you don’t, or guilt that you failed to observe it in the past, then the Sabbath day becomes a burden. But if you view the Sabbath day as a gift from God, it becomes a great blessing, which is what it was intended to be. It was the legalistic Pharisees who twisted the meaning of the Sabbath in order to oppress people. We must never do that with baptism.

Baptism is not meant to be a burden or something we are forced to do even though we don’t want to. On the contrary, baptism is a gift from God. It’s a holy opportunity to share in the mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ, to make a faith commitment in the presence of witnesses, and to be raised to newness of life in Christ.

Baptism is a profound and memorable experience that gives us strength in our Christian walk. Faced with trials and temptations, we can always look back to the moment of our baptism and draw strength from knowing that we have put to death our old, sinful self, and have been raised up with Christ into a new creation.

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All Nations

A Witness Unto All Nations

And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)

There are about 200 nations in the world today, and there are Christians in every nation. But in Matthew 24:14 Jesus was not talking about today’s political entities, nor was he talking about the kingdoms of his day, most of which no longer exist.

The Greek word for nations in this verse is ethnesin, derived from ethne, which is the root of the English word “ethnic.” This word means more than simply “nations” in the political sense. It refers to ethnic and cultural groups – groups of people who share a distinct ethnicity, language, and/or culture. Anthropologists call these groups “people groups.”

Anthropologists estimate there are 11,000 distinct people groups in the world today. If we define a people group as “reached with the gospel” if only 2% or more of its individuals have heard the gospel message, missionaries estimate that 6,000 different people groups are still unreached.

We don’t know exactly how closely the ethne groups that Jesus spoke of match the people groups defined by modern anthropology. But in light of Matthew 24:14, the fact that the end of the age has not yet come seems to suggest that not every ethne has been reached with the gospel message yet.

No one knows when Jesus will return, but according to Matthew 24:14, he will not return until every ethne – every people group – has been reached with the gospel message. This is not surprising when we consider the character of God, who takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23) but “wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4). For the sake of those who have not yet heard the gospel, God is holding back the coming wrath for a little while so they will have a chance to hear the gospel and repent before it is too late.

The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. (2 Peter 3:9)

It has always been God’s plan to reach every people group in the world with the gospel message, and bring people of every ethnicity, nationality, language, and culture into his Kingdom. This is such an essential part of God’s plan of salvation that the end of the age will not come until every people group has been reached (Matthew 24:14).

After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. And they were shouting with a great roar, “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10)

The Great Commission

Jesus commands us to reach every people group in The Great Commission:

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations (ethne) baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19)

Why does God want us to reach “all nations” with the gospel message? Because God’s plan for salvation extends to all people of the earth. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ paid the price for all sins of all people for all time, thus tearing down the division between Jew and Gentile. In Christ, all believers form one new humanity, in which all ethnic, class, and gender divisions are eradicated.

He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world. (1 John 2:2)

There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

This is very unusual for a religious faith. Most religions are proudly rooted in a specific culture – for example, Hinduism is deeply rooted in India and Shintoism in Japan. As a result, these mono-cultural religions rarely gain any ground outside of their native culture. But Christianity is a truly global faith not tied down to any one specific culture or country. There are Christians in the big cities of China who worship quite differently than Christians in a rural African village. Nevertheless, both are Christians by faith in Jesus Christ, both are on equal footing before the Lord, and both will be our brothers and sisters for eternity in the Kingdom of God. Through obedience to the lordship of Jesus Christ, disciples in all parts of the world are carrying out Christ’s redemptive work in the world today.

It has always been God’s plan to redeem not just some cultures but ALL cultures into his Kingdom for his glory. Our Heavenly Father is the God of diversity – proof of this is clearly manifested in the vast diversity of his Creation!

Satan’s Policy of Containment

Each culture in the world faces its own unique challenges for evangelism. We are engaged in a spiritual war, but Christ has already guaranteed us the victory. Regardless of the circumstances, when Christians led by the Holy Spirit step out in faith to do the work Christ has called them to do, there is nothing that can stop them. History attests to the fact that even the worst persecution of Christianity ultimately results in the message spreading further and faster. Satan knows that he is not powerful enough to stop the gospel message from spreading. He can’t stop it from spreading, but he can at least distract us from moving it into new territory.

As long as the gospel message stays within areas already saturated with Christianity, the unreached nations will remain unreached, and the end of the age will not come. Satan knows that once every people group has been reached with the gospel, this present evil age will come to an end, and he will be annihilated at the final judgement. He is fighting this tooth and nail.

I’m certainly not suggesting that it is wrong to share the gospel message with people from our own culture, in our own local communities, in our own people groups. After all, if you don’t reach the people God has placed in your life, who will?

Jesus commands us to preach the gospel to “all nations,” and that includes our own nation. Evangelism must begin wherever we are currently planted. It must begin there, but it must not end there.

Churches should act counter-culturally and cross-culturally to intentionally reach unreached people groups with the gospel message. There are a myriad of ways to go about doing this. But the first step is to recognize that it needs to be done.

What can we do to reach those who have never heard of Christ?

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The Command to Go

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Matthew 28:18-20: And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

We often think that the Great Commission is only for missionaries, or people with the right training, or people more educated than us, or really anyone other than ourselves. But the fact is that Jesus commands every disciple to go. In Matthew 10, Jesus sent out his disciples “as sheep among wolves,” commanding them not to bring anything on the journey, not even a walking stick, because God provides for those who go.

Noah obeyed when God called him to build the ark, and God saved him and his family. Abraham left everything to go where God called him, and God made him the father of many nations. The young boy David stepped out in faith against the giant Goliath with nothing but a few stones, and God provided him with a great victory. The Apostles left everything to follow Christ, and God worked miracles through them. The Bible is filled with examples of great believers who went when God called them to go. But for each person who went, there were also many who did not go.

The rich young ruler in Mark 10 did not go when Jesus called him to sell his possessions and give to the poor. He counted the cost of being a disciple, and concluded that the cost was too high. He was a wealthy and educated man, a man of authority, who had knowledge of the scriptures and knew the commandments of God. I wonder who this young man could have become if he had obeyed what Jesus was calling him to do. Perhaps he would have become the next Paul or the next Peter. Instead, he walked away from Christ in order to cling to his possessions, which have long since decayed into dust. He could have become a great leader in the early church. Instead, we don’t even know his name.

Jesus is calling us to go, and through the Holy Spirit he works in our hearts to lead us and guide us to carry out the Great Commission in our lives. But like the rich young ruler, we are often too caught up in the things of this world to hear the call of Jesus in our lives. Or, sometimes we know that Jesus is calling us to minister to that person, or to help this person in need, or repent of a certain sin, or give up a certain possession. But instead of doing these things, we choose to just go about our own business and ignore the call of Christ.

But the truth of the matter is this: When Jesus commands us to go, going is not optional.

150,000 people die every day, and the vast majority of them go to the grave having never known Jesus Christ. Some of them have never even heard his name. Many of these people are the outcasts of society – the poor, the homeless, the orphan, the widow. These are people who Jesus cares deeply about, who he died for, and who he is calling his church to minister to. Yet many of these people die without ever knowing the love of Christ. Many are people in our own communities who could have easily been reached, but we didn’t go.

Why not?

The sad reality is that often, we don’t want to go. We don’t want to preach the gospel, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, or visit those in prison, even though Jesus said in Matthew 25 that whatever we do unto the least of these, we do unto him. Yet we act like it takes too much of our time. We would rather live life our way, make money to spend on ourselves, and pursue the American dream. All the while, we believe we are following Jesus, but we are really acting more like the rich young ruler who walked away from Christ.

What can we do to become more obedient to Christ’s command to “go”?

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Within the Hour

Luke 24:13-33a That same day two of Jesus’ followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem. As they walked along they were talking about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things, Jesus himself suddenly came and began walking with them. But God kept them from recognizing him.

He asked them, “What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?”

They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. Then one of them, Cleopas, replied, “You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days.”

“What things?” Jesus asked.

“The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth,” they said. “He was a prophet who did powerful miracles, and he was a mighty teacher in the eyes of God and all the people. But our leading priests and other religious leaders handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. We had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. This all happened three days ago.

“Then some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning, and they came back with an amazing report. They said his body was missing, and they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive! Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, his body was gone, just as the women had said.”

Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?” Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus acted as if he were going on, but they begged him, “Stay the night with us, since it is getting late.” So he went home with them. As they sat down to eat, he took the bread and blessed it. Then he broke it and gave it to them.Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared!

They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?” And within the hour they were on their way back to Jerusalem.

The journey to Emmaus in Luke 24 is one of my favorite stories in the gospels. It’s a part of the Easter story that is often overlooked. On the same day that the women discovered the empty tomb, two other disciples of Jesus (one named Cleopas, the text does not tell us the name of the other) were walking seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus. This journey that would have taken them at least 2-3 hours without stopping.

On the road to Emmaus, Jesus appeared and began walking alongside them, but “God kept them from recognizing him.” They talked about everything that had happened in the last 3 days, from the crucifixion of Jesus to the women’s discovery of the empty tomb. These two disciples had not yet seen the risen Lord, and were probably extremely skeptical about the women’s report. Then Jesus “took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

What an awesome Bible study that must have been. Yet still the disciples did not recognize that this was Jesus. When they finally arrived in Emmaus, it was getting late, and they invited him to stay the night with them. As they sat down to eat, Jesus took the bread, blessed it, and gave it to them.

Suddenly their eyes were opened and they recognized that it was Jesus. In that moment he disappeared.

I have always loved the mystery that surrounds this text. But this Sunday our Senior Pastor preached on it from a perspective I hadn’t heard before (see above video). I had always acted as if the story ends in verse 31 when Jesus disappears. But in reality, this was only the beginning. The text goes on to say that “within the hour they were on their way back to Jerusalem.”

Although I have read this chapter many times, I never took the time to consider what that really means. The disciples had just walked for seven miles. They must have been exhausted. Add to that the fact that it was already getting late when they first arrived at Emmaus – by now it was probably night.

By human reasoning, it makes no sense that the disciples would walk for seven miles all the way back to Jerusalem at night after walking all day to get to Emmaus. It was not only exhausting, but dangerous to travel at night. Yet their hearts burned within them when Jesus explained to them the scriptures. When they realized that Jesus was alive, their passion and excitement was too great to contain. There was no way they could sleep that night. They had to immediately go to Jerusalem and tell the other disciples the news: Jesus Christ has risen from the dead.

God’s timing is perfect, even when it doesn’t make sense by human reasoning. The two disciples walked all night, and arrived in Jerusalem in time to witness the ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven (verse 51). Not only that, but Jesus “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (verse 45).

Imagine if these disciples had stayed in Emmaus to rest. If they had delayed their journey to Jerusalem, they may have missed one of the greatest moments in the history of the world.

God’s timing often requires our immediate action.

Acts 16:6-10 Next Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time. Then coming to the borders of Mysia, they headed north for the province of Bithynia, but again the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there. So instead, they went on through Mysia to the seaport of Troas. That night Paul had a vision: A man from Macedonia in northern Greece was standing there, pleading with him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” So we decided to leave for Macedonia at once, having concluded that God was calling us to preach the Good News there.

In this passage I’m blown away by two things. First, the direction of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, in guiding Paul and Silas, and giving them specific instructions on where to go. Second, the speed at which they responded to the Spirit’s leading. When Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia, he wasted no time: “we decided to leave for Macedonia at once.”

Put yourself in Paul’s shoes for a moment. Would you leave for Macedonia at once? Or would you question whether the vision was from God, or the pizza you ate last night?

The Holy Spirit gave Paul such incredible clarity of vision that there was no question this was from God. He knew exactly where he needed to go. All that remained was for him to step out in faith and go there. It didn’t matter that Paul had other travel plans. Those plans had to scrapped. God gave him a specific calling for Macedonia.

Consider the way in which Jesus called his first disciples:

Matthew 4:18-22 One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him.

I’m blown away by the simplicity of this passage. Again, try to put yourself in the shoes of Peter and Andrew. You’re out fishing for a living. Would you leave your nets behind and follow a complete stranger for no apparent reason?

Yet there is something powerful about the call of Jesus. Scripture repeatedly tells us that he “spoke with authority” (Luke 4:22, Mark 1:22, Matthew 7:29). As soon as Peter and Andrew received the call of Jesus, they knew what they had to do. From a human perspective, it made absolutely no sense for them to abandon their nets – their only source of income – to follow a complete stranger. But the calling of God is like that. It often does not make perfect sense. It often requires sacrifice and immediate action.

Luke 9:57-62 As they were walking along, someone said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”

He said to another person, “Come, follow me.”

The man agreed, but he said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”

But Jesus told him, “Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead! Your duty is to go and preach about the Kingdom of God.”

Another said, “Yes, Lord, I will follow you, but first let me say good-bye to my family.”

But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”

We often forget that the call of God is time sensitive. These people wanted to wait for a more convenient time to follow Jesus. He rebuked them. His call requires immediate action.

Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

What is God calling you to do? How often do we use excuses like “we need to slow down, don’t want to rush things,” or “God’s timing is not our timing” to avoid stepping out in faith right now? Although they may sound spiritual, these are really just excuses for our own laziness. We don’t want to count the cost, drop the nets, and step out of the boat. We don’t want to change our plans so we can follow God’s plan. Although Jesus has clearly called us in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) to “go and make disciples of all the nations,” often times we just don’t want to move. But Jesus says: “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”

In the Great Commission we are called to go into the world, to baptize, and to teach. Scripture describes us – the church – as the “body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12). We are “Christ’s ambassadors” and “God is making his appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20). God gives us incredible opportunities to represent Christ in the lives of other people. But these opportunities have expiration dates. If we don’t move when God calls us to move, we can easily lose the opportunity to make a difference.

When we think about “calling” we often think about some massive life-long thing. But I think it’s the small callings in life that we struggle with the most. God lays a particular person on your heart for you to go minister to them, encourage them, speak life into them. How often do you put that off? The Holy Spirit urges us to show a random act of kindness to someone, but we feel awkward about it, so we ignore it and hope the feeling will fade away.

By doing so, we are being like the men in Luke 9 who were unwilling to follow Jesus on his schedule. They would rather go about their own business than the Lord’s business. They weren’t willing to keep up with the pace at which Jesus moves.

I think the main reason we fail to act on the small, daily callings of God is because we accept this one lie from the devil: It won’t really make a difference.

How often do we accept that lie, and use it as an excuse for our inaction? I know God is calling me to encourage and speak life into that person, but “it won’t really make a difference.” I know God is calling me to bless that person with this act of compassion, but “it won’t really make a difference.” I know God is calling me to go introduce myself to that first time guest at church, but “it won’t really make a difference.” I know God is calling me to preach the gospel, but “it won’t really make a difference.” And so we sit on the sidelines and completely miss out on the opportunities Jesus is giving us to represent him in the world.

I love this quote from our Senior Pastor: “I believe that a high five in the name of Jesus is more powerful than you know. I believe that a fist bump in the name of Jesus is more powerful than you know. I believe that a hug in the name of Jesus is more powerful than you know.”

Sometimes it’s the little things God calls us to do that are the most powerful. Sometimes a simple word of compassionate truth changes a person’s entire perspective on life. And if we’re not being obedient in the little things God instructs us to do, why would he entrust us with greater things (Luke 16:10)?

God has a calling on your life. Sometimes we spend so much time trying to figure out exactly what the calling is, that we never take any steps to accomplish anything. Take one step first, then God will reveal more. He doesn’t necessarily reveal everything at once. He reveals his will for our lives piece by piece as we remain obedient to follow it.

Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart’s desires.

I used to think this verse meant that God would give me whatever I want. But that made no sense. First of all, God has never given me everything I want (and praise God for that, because many of the things I wanted were not what was best for me). Secondly, what if I desire something that is contrary to God’s will? Will he still give that to me? Why would God give me whatever my heart desires, if, as the Bible says, “the human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9)?

These are tough questions, and for a long time, I never really understood Psalm 37:4. Then one day I read the same words again, yet saw a completely different meaning. It was like scales fell from my eyes so I could see the text clearly for the first time.

God doesn’t give us whatever we desire. God gives us the desires themselves.

As we grow in the process of regeneration/sanctification, the Holy Spirit begins to root out the carnal desires of our sinful nature, and replace them with righteous desires that are pure and holy. God doesn’t call us to do something, and then not equip us for it. He gives us the ability to do it, and he gives us a passion for it.

God has a calling for your life. It’s the intersection of opportunity, skill, and passionate desire. These three things create the sweet spot where God works through you to change the world.

If you’re skilled at something and passionate about it, but God never gives you the opportunity to do it, then you get nowhere.

If you have the opportunity and you’re passionate about it, but God hasn’t given you the skill for it, then you get nowhere.

If you have the opportunity and the skill, but God hasn’t given you a passionate desire to do it, then your heart won’t be in it, and you won’t do it justice. You get nowhere.

Every day my prayer is for God to give me a heart to do his will for my life, to give me the desire to pursue it, to give me the skill to accomplish it, and to give me the opportunity to do it.

Often times, God gives us all of these things in abundance, yet we still don’t move. We count the cost of following Jesus, and the cost seems too great. We don’t want to step out in faith to do something that God is clearly calling us to do, even though it may not make 100% sense from a purely human perspective.

In times like that, I remind myself of the Emmaus story in Luke 24, and how the disciples left for Jerusalem “within the hour.” It didn’t matter that it was dark outside, and they were exhausted. As soon as they recognized Jesus, they moved. As soon as Paul received the vision of the man from Macedonia, he changed all of his plans and he immediately moved. As soon as Jesus called Peter and Andrew, they left everything behind and immediately followed him.

Jesus is moving quickly to change the world, and we need to respond quickly to keep up.

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Matthew Elton is an Anabaptist-minded Christ-follower in Albany, NY. Contact him at: mattelton15@gmail.com

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