“You’re Not Jesus!”

26 September 2023

As we aim to emulate Jesus, we should pay attention to how He made decisions. Above all, believe His own testimony. He told us how He makes decisions: He watches and listens to the Father (John 5:19, 8:28). God is good at surprises, so there’s no substitute for just listening to His voice. That said, there are also some patterns worth noticing in the gospels:

“A bruised reed He will not break.” Jesus doesn’t pile onto somebody who knows they’re broken. Based on what we know about Zacchaeus’ life, Jesus could have blistered his ears. But he was already ashamed, and Jesus just invited Himself to his house. The woman taken in adultery deserved to die, but Jesus only spoke to her sin after He’d driven her accusers away.

“Woe to you!” Every time Jesus really goes off on somebody, it’s someone who’s proud of their sin, or proud of their righteousness, or both. He embarrasses Simon the Pharisee at his own dinner party.

”Unless you repent you will all likewise perish” Jesus does at times talk about the sins of public figures/authorities even when they’re not around, but the overwhelming pattern is that He speaks to the sins of the people who are in front of Him. You don’t see Him sounding off about other people’s sins in order to pander to a base.

”Mint and anise and cumin.” When Jesus has you in the sights, there’s not much that’s off limits. Jesus makes fun of their long faces and their long prayers and their clothes and their big phylacteries. He impugns their motives and insults their giving habits. He shows up the absurdity of the way they do “right” by the ceremonial requirements while evicting widows, and He’s not afraid to be memorable doing it.

We tend to be afraid to offend people, lest we turn them off to the gospel. There are two reasons we shouldn’t be like that. First, Jesus and His early followers manifestly were not that way. It’s counterintuitive to your average evanjellyfish pastor, but strong stands for the truth actually work. Second, when we’re seeking the common good in society, we’re going to need to tell some hard truths. People will be offended, and it’s ok that they are – first they’re supposed to be offended, then they’re supposed to repent. That’s what the strong statement is for.

When they tell you, “You’re not Jesus!” you come right back with, “Right–but I’m supposed to be!” Don’t let them talk you into being less like Jesus than you are already.

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Posted by Tim Nichols

Believe the Works

19 September 2023

I wrote last week about the practical unity I found in Englewood that had been lacking in other places I’d called home. One of the roots of that unity was simple obedience: God wanted us to be one, so the Englewood pastors set out to see how hard they could obey. They didn’t use doctrinal differences as excuses to disobey; they knew they weren’t going to iron out every difference, and they wanted to see how much they could obey anyway. That will carry you a long way. But there were also some doctrinal components that helped the obedience along. One of the big ones was their theology of the Kingdom of God.

These guys constantly talked about the Kingdom of God. I remember at first thinking that they were being really sloppy with their Christianese terminology. I didn’t think there was (or could be) any real theology behind it. See, within my tradition at the seminary, the Kingdom was entirely future. The only time I remember anyone talking about it as a present reality, it was presented as a “mystery Kingdom,” present in some nebulous form that had no real practical outworking. In terms of ethics and everyday conduct, the only impact of the doctrine of the Kingdom was to live now in such a way as to receive rewards in the future Kingdom. (In theory, that’s a pretty good motivator, but it didn’t work very well in actual practice; sometimes people are more motivated by present animus than by any distant future reward.)

In Englewood, on the other hand, the Kingdom is a present reality. We don’t over-theologize it: a kingdom is where a king rules, so the kingdom of God is where God rules. Everywhere we obey God’s rule is a little outbreak of God’s Kingdom on earth.

The fullness of the Kingdom, the consummation of all things, is of course still future. The lion will lie down with the lamb, and we’re not there yet. “We do not yet see all things put under Him,” the author of Hebrews says, “but we see Jesus.” This Jesus once told His enemies, “If I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Has come. Even back in Jesus’ day, the Kingdom came — and there was the formerly demonized man in his right mind to prove it! The Kingdom will not come fully until God’s good time, but He is pleased for it to come truly in the present.

If you stop and think about it a moment, this is not such a strange thought for us. The resurrection is yet future, but Scripture teaches us to expect regular intrusions of resurrection life into the present: “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” That is the very essence of the Christian life. Likewise, Jesus taught us to pray for intrusions of the Kingdom: “Thy name be hallowed, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

All this was a constant theme in Englewood. The shared prayer, worship, and unity of the Englewood churches was a conscious, deliberate reflection of the assembled throng on the last day: every tribe, tongue, and (denomi)nation. If you ask these folks why they are united, they’re going to tell you about the Kingdom of God, and how it’s coming–truly, if not yet fully–to Englewood. 

Remember the instructions of Hebrews 13: “Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct.” I found myself compelled by Hebrews 13 to reconsider my theology of the Kingdom. The Englewood pastors were living out a faith worth following. And as it turns out, they were right.

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Posted by Tim Nichols

Whose Faith Follow

12 September 2023

Once upon a time, I was a doctrine wonk. I honestly believed that if we just got the doctrine right, we would live well. My community valued correct exegesis and theology, and invested enormous effort in doing them well. As one of their fair-haired sons, and I got paid to research, write, and teach at seminary. It was a geek’s dream job, and I loved it….  

<cue spooky music>

…then the whole community tore itself apart. Some of the best exegetes and theologians I knew went for each other’s throats. I’d love to say that I stayed above the fray, but I didn’t. My personal loyalties were with one side, but I also thought they were exegetically and theologically more correct…at first.

I quickly began to realize that the conflict wasn’t actually about doctrine. That’s a big claim, but it’s true. The doctrinal differences were not entirely insignificant, but there was ample room for everyone involved to continue working together. A number of close observers and secondary participants, myself included, suggested ways to move forward, but there was a problem we couldn’t solve: the principals didn’t want unity. The doctrinal difference was a smokescreen, a way to make the conflict respectable. The real problems were personal and relational: abundance of offense, lack of repentance and forgiveness, and lack of sufficient emotional maturity to address the personal conflicts.

I slowly began to realize that even if the problem were primarily doctrinal, we were handling it poorly. As I dug into Scripture looking for instructions and patterns for handling this kind of conflict, I kept coming back to Acts 15. This chapter is the first big doctrinal conflict in the Church, and the pattern that it sets upholds the unity of the Body of Christ as a cardinal doctrine and practice for Christians. I’ve written on this at great length elsewhere, so I’m not going to belabor the point here. Outward unity that is visible to observing unbelievers is Jesus’ prayer to the Father for us, it is the manner in which we win the world, and without unity right down to the practical level of seating arrangements at supper, we are not being straightforward about the gospel. It’s a big deal. 

Once I had gotten this far, God moved me to Englewood, Colorado, to see unity in practice. 

In Englewood, I met a group of pastors who got along. They prayed with and for each other. They blessed each other’s ministries. Every once in a while, they preached in each other’s churches. They gathered their churches once a year for a joint worship service. Were they all the same denomination? Not even close. We had Messianic Jews, Southern Baptists, Assemblies of God, Dutch Reformed, Anglican, Bible church guys, nondenominational, Missouri Synod Lutheran, and more. With far less common doctrinal basis than my seminary faculty had, the Englewood pastors created a far greater obedience than we had ever dreamed of. What was I to make of that?

“Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct.” The author of Hebrews 13:7 is talking specifically about our relationship to our local church leaders, but the principle applies. Pay attention to the outcome of your leaders’ conduct. Follow the faith of those whose fruit is good; do not follow the faith of those whose fruit is bad. 

So what did the Englewood pastors have that my seminary faculty did not? There actually are some relevant doctrinal pieces here, but that’s another post. The first and most important common element wasn’t doctrinal at all. It was obedience, straight up the middle. Jesus wanted us to be one, and they set out to find a way. They knew they weren’t going to be able to iron out every little doctrinal difference, and they were looking for ways to obey anyhow. Turns out, when we start looking for ways to obey instead of reasons not to, a lot of things are possible.

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Posted by Tim Nichols

Let Your Shame Die

5 September 2023

“For both the Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, ‘I will declare Your name to my brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You,’ and again, ‘I will trust in Him,’ and again, ‘Here am I, and the children whom God has given Me!’ (Hebrews 2:11-13)

I’d encourage you to keep reading through the end of the chapter. The context here is Jesus’ present ministry as our High Priest before the Father.

His present ministry.

It doesn’t say He was not ashamed to die for you. It does not say that He will not be ashamed of you when you’re resurrected. It says He is not ashamed to call you His brother or sister right now.

Let that sink in: Jesus, now, is not ashamed of you, now.

When you are weak, when you ask for help, when you should but you don’t, when you sin–Jesus is not ashamed to be your brother. He is not ashamed to admit it loudly in the throne room of heaven, in front of the Father, the angels, the saints who’ve gone before us, even in front of the accuser who stands before God day and night pointing out every sin and mistake you make. He’s not embarrassed by you.

So don’t be embarrassed to ask Him for help.

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Posted by Tim Nichols