Tag: Jesus

Upon this rock

I preached my first sermon as pastor of the Wake Forest Vineyard this past Sunday (podcast of it is here) and my text was the statement Jesus made in Matt. 16.18: “Upon this rock I will build my church.” (Most modern translations use “on” but for some reason I like “upon” – sounds more, I don’t know, more solid somehow.)

I made a couple of obvious points and one less obvious. First, the obvious:

1. I will build my… Jesus is the center of focus here, as both the subject of the verb and possessor of the object. What happens here is Jesus builds and what Jesus builds, Jesus owns.

2. I will build… Growth and development are essential to the life of church. The activity Jesus engages in is building, developing, progressing. We can (of course) get too fixated on numbers, but it seems almost self-evident that if a church is not growing, then Jesus is not building, i.e., something has gone wrong with the foundation upon which Jesus builds. I take growth/building to mean both numerical growth and growth in spiritual maturity (with neither being exclusively possible if what we have is the church Jesus is building). Also, not only is growth essential, it is guaranteed. When the foundation is there, Jesus will build.

This brings us to the less than obvious point: what in the world does “upon this rock” mean – what is the foundation on which Jesus builds? The interpretation that first became widespread was that the rock was the person of Peter, and then later his direct successors, the bishops of Rome, who became the popes. Here is an overview of the Roman Catholic argument for the primacy of Peter and here is a scriptural defense of that position. Of course, the Protestant Reformation rejected this interpretation and understood the rock to be the truth Peter uttered (“You are the Christ”), the foundation being doctrine itself, instead of the person. Here is a pretty standard expression of that position.

What I am suggesting is that both of these positions have merit, that both Peter and the content of his confession are essential to laying the foundation that Jesus builds on. Taken alone, each side misses something important, and even taken together, they do not capture the whole picture. The rock that Jesus builds on is nothing less than this entire revelation-obedience event. The Father reveals to Peter that Jesus is the Christ, Peter internalizes what is revealed, and then acts in obedience to confess what the Father told him. Revelation is essential, Peter is essential, the content and its focus on Christ are essential – the entire thing is the foundation upon which Jesus builds.

This is not limited to Peter. The revelation-obedience event recurs again and again. Paul on the Damascus Road, Cornelius sending for Peter, you nudged in the grocery line to pray for the person in front of you – over and over the followers of Jesus receive bits of revelation from the Father (through the Spirit). And those bits of revelation always come with a requirement, some form of obedience, something you have to do with the bit you get. It might be as small as changing how you think about something (small but hard), or it might be something that really puts you out there (like Peter did here), but revelation always comes with an anticipated act of obedience.

Two more things (I didn’t get to these in the sermon as much as I wanted): those acts always point to Jesus being the Messiah, the Christ, the one who comes in power and they will usually be hard or at least feel hard at the time. Peter could have been stoned to death for saying what he did. We know the whole story so well, we lose sight of how risky that moment was for Peter (none of the other eleven said anything). It will cost you something to obey. It will be totally worth it (when Jesus builds on your foundation!) but it will cost you something.

So, I know this sounds very Vineyardish and is a nice application of the radical middle approach and all, but the claim I am making here is a tad bigger. I think this is the foundation upon which the individual Christian life is built and on which the church is built. To the extent that we build on something other than widespread and ongoing revelation-obedience events, we are building something other than Jesus’ church. Only Jesus can build his church and he only builds on this foundation.

Love to read your thoughts on this.

The God We Worship Is the Lamb Who Was Slain

“The cross is not a detour or a hurdle on the way to the kingdom, nor is it even the way to the kingdom; it is the kingdom come.” – John Howard Yoder, The Politics of Jesus, p. 51.

There is a scene described in Revelation 5 (see below), where Jesus appears before some sort of heavenly assembly, as the only one worthy to open scrolls that mark the culmination of history. It is quite easy to get caught up in the strangeness of Revelation (even to the point of creating elaborate fictions), but the point I would like to draw your attention to is that Jesus appears in that scene as, “a Lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered,” and this form is directly linked to the worship that is then given to him, as the assembly declares: “worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered.”

This does not fit well with many of the popular explanations we give regarding how we are saved; instead the cross is regarded as more of a functional (if inconvenient) necessity. Based on how many Christians go about their business, it is not congruent with how we think the kingdom is to come, since our kingdom-building rarely emulates this form. We are generally at a loss to explain the intentionality with which Jesus pursued the cross, much less why He stands in Revelation worshipped as a slaughtered Lamb. I think all of these warrant discussion, but for this Good Friday, I just want to draw your attention, perhaps your adoration, hopefully your worship, to this slaughtered Lamb. He is indeed worthy.

Revelation 5

Then I saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who was sitting on the throne. There was writing on the inside and the outside of the scroll, and it was sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a strong angel, who shouted with a loud voice: “Who is worthy to break the seals on this scroll and open it?” 3 But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll and read it.

4 Then I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll and read it. 5 But one of the twenty-four elders said to me, “Stop weeping! Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David’s throne, has won the victory. He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

6 Then I saw a Lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered, but it was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the twenty-four elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the sevenfold Spirit of God that is sent out into every part of the earth. 7 He stepped forward and took the scroll from the right hand of the one sitting on the throne. 8 And when he took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. 9 And they sang a new song with these words:

“You are worthy to take the scroll

and break its seals and open it.

For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God

from every tribe and language and people and nation.

10 And you have caused them to become

a Kingdom of priests for our God.

And they will reign on the earth.”

11 Then I looked again, and I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living beings and the elders. 12 And they sang in a mighty chorus:

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered—

to receive power and riches

and wisdom and strength

and honor and glory and blessing.”

13 And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang:

“Blessing and honor and glory and power

    belong to the one sitting on the throne

    and to the Lamb forever and ever.”

14 And the four living beings said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb.