Considering Paxton Smith’s Valedictorian Speech
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by Jon Buck
Which Comes First? Obedience, Love, or Faith?
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by Jon Buck
The need for obedience, both in repentance, and in action in life is so clear. But HOW? How do we obey?
For example, how can we possibly repent rightly? Have you ever been in a situation where you had sinned, and you knew you needed to repent, but you didn’t ‘FEEL’ it? You weren’t actually remorseful?
How do we get our hearts to truly obey? Even in this most basic Christian reality? The answer from Scripture is clear.
Obedience must flow from love - we know these passages, don’t we?
In John 14:15 - Jesus said, if you love me you WILL obey!
And in Matt 22:37-40 - The first and second commandments - love God and love others - are the sum of the whole law.
We obey because we love God - this is what fuels TRUE repentance and TRUE obedience - Love for GOD! That’s the only way to truly obey God.
But where does love come from? How do we love God? Because so often we don’t love Him or love others.
But the Bible tells usOUR LOVE IS A RESPONSE to HIS LOVE FOR US!
1 John 4:10 - In this is love -
And, 1 John 4:19 - We love because He first loved us.
BUT - how do we know He loves us? How can we trust that He truly does?
The answer is by FAITH - faith in His love for us is the only possible fuel for us to love Him. And love for Him is the only possible fuel for us to obey!
So if we make this immensely practical, how do you fight sin?
How do you truly repent?
How do you desire God?
How do you love Him??
All of those are acts of obedience. They are commands!
So - how do we do those things?
We do them by faith in His love for us! Anything else is fakery and hypocrisy! But faith, working through love, will fulfill the whole law (Gal 5:6).
Mind-Heart-Will
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by Jason Park
We’re covering the topic of depression in our Sunday morning equipping class, and it’s a broad term with many layers to it, making it challenging to define, discern, and deal with.
But here’s an attempt at a definition: depression is a prolonged and unremitting feeling of sadness accompanied by a sense of hopelessness and purposeless such that one is unable and unwilling to function normally. The level of inner-pain will differ among individuals, but the baseline gripping sadness is present in all depressed persons.
So, faced with someone who is truly depressed, how can we help them? For the purposes of this post, I want to share a concise biblical method that will help that depressed person in your life.
The method comes from D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’s sermon “Mind, Heart and Will,” which is from his book, Spiritual Depression. The main point is simple: what you receive with the mind, engages the affections, and moves the will to act…mind to heart to will.
For the depressed Christian, the process works in this fashion. He is feeling profound sorrow and rehearsing sorrow-aggravating thoughts in the echo chamber of his mind. He is listening to himself when he needs to rehearse gospel-truths. He needs to dwell on God’s sovereignty, wisdom, and love (Rom 8:28-39, for example; cf. Phil 4:8). As he dwells on these truths by faith, he will (he must!) let them richly dwell within his heart so that his affections for Christ are enflamed. His sadness isn’t gone, but a superior delight in Christ fills his soul. That in turn inclines him to desire and do what God calls him to (Phil 4:9; Col 3:16; cf. Phil 3:12-13), and as the person implements this process, his depression will lighten, even if it’s by only a few degrees at time. The Spirit promises to work the miracle of change by this method (2 Cor 3:18).
To put this process as simply as possible – the love of God received in the gospel by faith changes the heart to seek after God’s will.
Depression, as with all spiritual issues, must be dealt with from the inside out, using God’s word and exercising the open-handed surrender of the soul to Christ that is faith. So, when dealing with a depressed believer, give the Word repeatedly. Make the person deal with Scripture. A soul’s misery cannot be properly dealt with by good deeds, by avoiding “big” sins, or by physical therapies like diet, sleep, and exercise. Let the person ponder the glories of Christ, let those glories engage the emotions, and let them direct the will to a new purpose, the only one that will satisfy and fill us with joy – to live for God’s glory.
Does God Love Everyone?
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By Jon Buck & Jason Park
Don’t Argue With God
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by Jon Buck
“If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord.”
~ 1 Corinthians 14:37
We have a tendency to think that we are right. All of us. No one is predisposed to think they’re wrong all the time. And even those who tend to say they’re wrong are even trying to be right about that!
This can cause us to be blinded to our own biases. We often think that we are right about some topic, and become woefully myopic in how we understand it. We read those who agree with us, seek out echo chambers of ideas, and refuse to give ear to those who disagree.
In some ways, this can be helpful. For example, when we find ourselves in a culture of falsehood or extreme political views, it can be helpful to turn off the ‘noise’, and simply focus on truth.
But there are times when this type of action is extremely dangerous.
We see this in arguments. If you watch two people arguing for any length of time, what you’ll notice is that neither is listening to the other. They are simply preparing their next statement, thinking, of course, that they have the ‘zinger’ that will put everything to rest. There is no true exchange of ideas—there is only bitterness and pride.
Sadly, though, we can often do this with the Lord. When we come to the Bible with our own preconceived notions of truth, we can be like those who bicker in argument, but with God instead of men.
Rather than reading passages with a heart to understand, we can read with a heart preparing an answer. We push against ideas that do not conform with our views, and we can even turn away from clear truths in an effort to maintain our position.
But how foolish to argue with God! No wonder that the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians that if anyone thinks he is spiritual, he should understand that Paul’s words were from God! This should have been painfully apparent, and the readers should have submitted to his direction.
When we come to scripture, we must have a heart that is, first and foremost, submitted to God. We must come with listening ears and hearts, rather than with argumentation. Only then will we be walking in the Spirit, and only then will we learn from Him.
If we don’t like what we see, we must remind ourselves that God loves us, and has proven that love by sending Christ to die for our sins (Rom 5:8). Surely if He would do such a marvelous thing for us, He will freely lead us into truth and joy!
Local Church Details, Part 15: Rewards in Heaven?
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By Jon Buck & Jason Park
Local Church Details, Part 14: Giving, Part 2
/By Jon Buck & Jason Park
Christians and Politics
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by Jon Buck
I had been thinking about preaching a sermon on this topic, but decided to wait. Then I thought about putting together some political comments for the blog. But in God’s providence, I came across a quote that summarized what the Bible says about politics much better than I ever could.
The following is from Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones:
“This is tremendously significant and is of great practical importance for the Christian. Let me put it in this form to call your attention to it: I would say, for example, that by definition Christians must never become too excited about politics, and for this reason, that they know perfectly well that there is no solution to the ultimate problem of mankind in politics. So people who believe that, as a result of a win for one party rather than another at an election everything is going to be fundamentally different—those people are either not Christians or else they are very ignorant ones. No; nothing that can happen at an election will touch this problem. The parties are all equally in sin; they are all under the domination of sin.
“Now, Christians should be concerned about these things’ they have a duty as citizens, and let them exercise it. But if they become excited, if they believe that one rather than the other is going to make the vital difference, they have never seen the truth about the world. Men and women who believe that Jesus is the Son of God; have seen through the world; they know that no Acts of Parliament can solve the problem of mankind. They look on, therefore, objectively. There is a detachment about them; they are looking at it from the outside.”
This came as a stinging rebuke for my own heart, and a good reminder that I can trust God, while remembering that the world is a dark place, and no Republican or Democrat will bring in true righteousness.
My prayer is for a heart that is detached—not in apathy, but in faith in God’s love in every circumstance.
Local Church Details, Part 13: Giving, Part 1
/By Jon Buck & Jason Park
One Resolution to Rule Them All
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by Jon Buck
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
~ 2 Cor 3:18
The very concept of New Year’s resolutions belies our society’s complete misunderstanding of how people change. No wonder that each year so many people make resolutions in January, struggle through February, and fail by March.
The problem with most resolutions is that they rest on a foundation of sand. Personal improvement, weight loss, health, or other motivations are certainly not wrong, but they do not contain the necessary power to produce lasting change.
Instead, these motivations provide short term impetus but wane over time, leaving a person falling back into old habits and ways of living.
Simply put, the person you are on December 31 is the same person you’ll be on February 1, regardless of how much you want to change.
But there is one very real way to change—one source of power so great that it changes everyone who accesses it! It is the glory of Jesus Christ. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that those who behold the glory of the Lord Jesus are transformed (‘metamorphosed’) into the same image of glory by degrees.
True change isn’t something we resolve to do. True change is a byproduct of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we see Him more clearly, and enjoy His beauty. This causes us to slowly shift away from sinful things that bring no joy, and shift toward Him—the great Source of all joy! As a result, we have the power to fight gluttony, selfishness, laziness, and the like, not through our resolve, but through His beauty.
And so, the one resolution to rule them all is quite simple, really. If we resolve to enjoy Christ more deeply by beholding the beauty and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith in the Gospel, we will change this year! We will be transformed by His power, and He will receive the glory for that change!
Christmas, Our Example
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by Jon Buck
“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.” ~ Phil 2:5-7
The great and glorious reality of Christmas is that Jesus has come in the flesh. Paul describes this reality is great detail in Philippians 2. Jesus existed in the form of God—He was God very God.
In that state of divinity, He did not regard equality with God as something that He had to grasp for. He didn’t hold on to His rights. He was willing to lay down every expectation. There was nothing He clung to in His divinity.
Instead, He emptied Himself. He gave up His rights as God, and entered into the very creation that He had made! He was willing to take the greatest step down that has ever been taken in the history of the universe. And the Bible tells us that this is the greatest demonstration of love that has ever occurred.
And remarkably, Paul tells us that this is our example. We are supposed to have this same attitude in ourselves that was in Christ. We are to follow Him in letting go of status, letting go of expectations, letting go of personal desires, letting go of every selfish ambition.
Instead, we are called to love others. To give ourselves to them in kindness. To serve them, rather than to expect to be served by them. To lay down every expectation of others, and to give ourselves up for them!
And, of course, on Christmas morning, surrounded by family, this may seem somewhat easier than previously thought. But remember, Jesus died for His enemies. He gave Himself up for those who hated Him. He demonstrated His love by dying for those who were sinners.
And this is our call—not to simply tolerate others, but to love them! To love our family with selfless abandon. To love our friends and neighbors and display that love through service. And perhaps most Christ-like of all, to love our enemies, to do good to them, and to follow the example of our Savior. When we know ourselves loved in this way, we will love others with the same love!
Merry Christmas!
Anticipating Christ
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by Jason Park
It’s only speculation, but I can imagine the angels anticipating the birth of their King with bated breath. That anticipation exploded into glorious worship above the shepherds when Jesus was born. And I can imagine Joseph and Mary’s anticipation, as they treasured the angelic messages about the true identity of their firstborn and the cosmic significance of His birth.
To wait for Jesus, “the Lord saves,” to come (Matt 1:21). To wait for Immanuel, “God with us,” to come (Matt 1:23). To wait for the Ruler who would shepherd Israel to come (Matt 2:6). To wait for the Savior, Christ the Lord, to come (Luke 2:11). To wait for “the consolation of Israel” to come (Luke 2:25). To wait for the “Light of revelation to the Gentiles” and the glory of Israel to come (Luke 2:32). The life of every saint before Christ was one of Christ-centered anticipation and longing.
And then, in the fullness of time, He came. The wait was over. Hope materialized. Promises were fulfilled. Jesus was born.
The Word of Life, the eternal life, which was with the Father in eternal glory, was manifested (1 John 1:2) so that sinners could be brought into fellowship with the Triune God (1 John 1:3).
Life came to life in real space and time, in human flesh and blood, as a defenseless, altogether normal infant, so that everything that only the divine Christ could do would be done.
The wait for salvation is no more. We are born of God; we are saved; we are redeemed; we have life, His life…all because of Christ’s first advent.
But now, there is another wait. The good work that God began in us will be completed one day (Phil 1:6). On that day, at the second advent, the good work will be done. We will be like Christ, because we will see Him just as He is (1 John 3:2).
And the One we worship on Christmas and everyday because of Christmas, will prove to be more than worth all of our anticipating. In fact, Christ will prove so overwhelmingly glorious to our souls when we finally see Him that our deepest anticipations of Him in this life will seem relatively weak in the life to come.
The Changing Changeless One
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by Jon Buck
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” ~ Heb. 13:8
Everything in our lives seems to be in a state of flux, and perhaps never more than during this past year with COVID. However, one thing never changes—God never changes.
Theologians call this the doctrine of ‘immutability’. Simply put, God does not and cannot change (see Malachi 3:6 for an explicit affirmation of this fact). If God were to change in response to any circumstance, He would cease to be God, because He would be changing either for the better or the worse. Either option means that God was not perfect in His attributes. Furthermore, were God to change, it would mean that He was not omniscient—change is always in response to some external unforeseen event.
The author of Hebrews understood this doctrine, and applied it to Jesus, thereby affirming His divinity. Jesus is the same, yesterday and today and forever. He has never changed, and never will change.
And yet, Jesus was born, lived and died. He changed in His physical body.
He changed in His position—He was enthroned above the cherubim, then humbled Himself to the obedience of death, and then was highly exalted.
He will change in His response to people—He came first to save the lost. He will come again to punish sinners.
So in what sense was the baby in the manger unchanging?
He is unchanging in His person. He was, is, and forever will be the Lord! There was never a time when Jesus was not God, and there will never be a time when Jesus is not God.
He is unchanging in His purpose. He has always been a Savior for His people, and He will save them ‘to the uttermost’ (Heb 7:25).
He is unchanging in His character. He has and always will be God, very God, the One whom the angels worship and adore.
Though we can identify the ways He is unchanging, and we can see the the glories of His incarnation, there is a profound mystery we cannot understand. That the Lord of heaven and earth would take on flesh and submit Himself to the creation is beyond our ability to understand.
Not unlike other doctrines, this mystery should not cause us to stumble, but to worship. We cannot understand it fully, but we can see its glory! The unchanging, immutable God…helplessly lying in a manger, come to save His people from their sins!
His Poverty, Our Wealth
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by Jason Park
2 Corinthians 8:9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”
Summaries are so helpful. You read a movie summary before you decide to watch it, a book summary before you decide to read it. A good summary will give you just enough about the characters and the plot to whet your appetite for more.
Throughout the New Testament, we find gospel summaries – nuggets of redemptive gold that capture the heart of Christ’s atoning work for us. These are some of our favorite passages – the ones we go to when we want to share the gospel, when we want to be reminded of God’s love, when we need hope in dark times. This verse is one of those nuggets, particularly fitting for Christmas, which in three parts captures why Jesus came into the world and what He did upon coming into the world.
Why Jesus came into the world
His heart is full of grace. There is more grace in Him than there is sin in us. And because His grace superabounds in the face of all our sins, we are assured of our salvation – not just for a lifetime, but for countless lifetimes, for all eternity. And so, with grace overflowing in Him toward us, He came for our sake.
How Jesus came into the world (and what He did for us)
For our sake, Jesus traded His riches for rags. He who lived in unapproachable light and robed in the eternal glory of all His perfections – this One entered Mary’s womb. He was born without any fanfare into a region where the king sought to kill him. He ministered to those who should’ve known better than to reject all the signs that He was their long-awaited Messiah. He bowed His head in death, the ultimate act of self-impoverishment…all for our sake.
Through His poverty in becoming human and becoming our sin-bearer, we have become exceedingly rich. Not in monetary terms. But truly rich because God’s riches in salvation have no expiration date, cannot be defiled, and will never fade away. We are rich in heavenly treasure, rich in divine glory, and rich in adoption as sons that makes us co-heirs with Christ.
Christmas is the first of many emblems of Christ’s self-impoverishment. We can follow their trail straight to Calvary. And with each marker, we can rest assured, it was for our sake that Christ became poor. It was for our sake that the One who was rich gave up everything, including His very own life, that we might become enriched through Him.
Let that gift stir our hearts to worship and honor Him.
Good, Great, All
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by Jon Buck
“But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people”
~ Luke 2:10
Superlative language has lost some of its meaning in our day. Many events do not warrant the language that is being used. For example, social media is full of photos of the ‘best’ meal ever, or the ‘happiest’ or ‘most amazing’ day or vacation. Or rather than just disagree with an opposing political party, it is labeled ‘Marxist’ or ‘Fascist’.
But we should not assume that God or His messengers speak in the superlative in this same flippant way. Instead, we should listen and learn what they are telling us. When the angel appears to the shepherds in Luke 2, he uses superlative language with them. We should expect this, however, since the angel is speaking about the most amazing event in the history of the universe—the Son of God had been born.
There are three important superlatives here that express how glorious this moment really was.
First, the angel tells the shepherds that he brings good news. The work in greek is euanggelidzo—to proclaim good news—to preach the Gospel. The angel wants the shepherds to know that the event of that night in Bethlehem is the best news they could possibly hear. What better news than that a Savior has been born who will deal with the problem of sin that has plagued the world since the beginning.
The second superlative is ‘great joy’ (megalen charan in Greek). The Gospel message of the coming of the Messiah, the Savior, will bring great joy. More than any other event, the birth of Christ is the entrance of great joy for those who know Him. In Him, sinners are restored to a knowledge of and communion with the glory of God. God is light and life and joy, and Jesus has come to bring that joy to sinners through forgiveness of their sin.
The final superlative is ‘all the people’. The angel tells the shepherds that this Gospel of great joy will be for all of Israel. The birth of the Savior was an offer to all the people of Israel. Every man woman and child in Israel could receive this good news, and be filled with great joy!
Luke’s Gospel account tells us that the nation didn’t receive Him. They didn’t believe the good news, and they didn’t experience the great joy of the Gospel. Instead, they rejected Him and crucified Him.
The superlative message remains unchanged, but the audience has expanded. The Gospel of the Savior that brings great joy is for all, Jew and Gentile. This is the most amazing truth in all of history!
The Word Became Flesh
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by Jason Park
As we close in on week of Christmas, let’s be honest with ourselves and let’s be honest with God. We can do both by asking this simple question: Do we know Christ? Do I know Him as my Lord and Savior? Do I know Him as the One who died on the cross for my sins? Do I know Him as the One who gives me eternal life?
In knowing Christ, what’s so wonderful is that He has made Himself known to us first. We did not discover Him. We did not arrive at the truth about Him through our intelligence or our diligence.
Rather, God gave Him to us in the flesh to dwell among us (John 1:14). And many physically saw His glory. And many more spiritually have seen and do see His glory in the gospel (2 Cor 3:18; 4:4, 6).
So, Christmas means God is gracious to make Himself known through His Son to sinners like us. It means that the Word (Jesus) became flesh because God loves the world, because God has a grand rescue mission to save His enemies and bring us into family-fellowship with Him.
He did all this through the One who existed before the cosmos was created. The One who has a higher rank than the best of the prophets. The One whose glory is that “of the only begotten from the Father.” The One who is “full of grace and truth.”
This One enfleshed Himself to live among us. To die for us. To implant Truth in our minds. And to pour out Grace into our hearts. To reveal divine glory to us that we might know Him and be with Him forever.
Do you know Christ? Christmas tells us that He has made the first move to show us who He is. Let’s know Him by faith. Let’s press on to know Him deeper still.
The Miracle of the Miracle Worker
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by Jon Buck
“But the testimony I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.”
~ John 5:36
We live in a fairly skeptical age. The twenty-first century is the great grandchild of the Enlightenment, and its rejection of the miraculous for the sake of the rational. And while at first glance this may seem terrible, it really isn’t. We should be skeptical of the miraculous, since miracles are only possible with God.
The greatest miracle worker of all was Jesus. No one ever did or has ever done the kinds of works that He did. A quick scan of the Gospel accounts will reveal healing of every form of sickness, raising the dead, power over natural elements, creation of matter, knowledge of the thoughts of men, and much more.
But all of these miracles, according to John 5:36, had a very specific purpose in mind. Jesus wasn’t simply showing off, or trying to garner attention. In fact, many of His miracles had the opposite effect—people quit following Him after He exposed their hearts.
Instead, Jesus tells us that each work that the Father gave Him to accomplish had the singular purpose of proving that He truly was the Son of God. Every miracle, every healing, every resurrection from the dead was testifying loudly that God truly had become man in the person of this simple Jewish carpenter.
And of course, this was the greatest miracle of all. This was the one great miracle that, if believed, meant that all the other miracles were obviously possible. If God had truly become man, then He would have the ability to do all these things.
But the Pharisees and Scribes and chief priests simply would not believe. They saw the miracles, and they understood the profundity of them. They couldn’t help but believe what their eyes saw.
What they refused to believe was the deeper miracle—the one great miracle of Christmas. They called Him a son of the devil, and said that He did His miracles by the power of Satan. They mocked Him, rejected Him, and ultimately crucified Him. But make no mistake—they saw the works. They believed the miracles. They just refused to believe that He was the Son of God.
Do the testimony of His works in the Gospel convince you that God has come in flesh this Christmas?
Local Church Details, Part 12: What is Fellowship, Exactly?
/By Jon Buck & Jason Park
Curse Lifted
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by Jason Park
Galatians 4:4 says that in sending forth His Son, God had Him be “born of a woman, born under the Law.”
The seed of the woman (Gen 3:15) was finally here – God’s very own Son. And in being born into our world, He was automatically placed “under the Law” of God. The Law that we could not abide by, the Law that brought us under a curse for violating it (Gal 3:10).
The Son of God placed Himself under the Law, His Law as it were, so that He could fulfill it actually and perfectly, as only He could, and apply the benefits of that perfection to those held in bondage under the Law’s curse…that is, to all of us, not one excluded.
At the end of that perfect life, He paid for our sins by becoming sin for us, though He knew it not (2 Cor 5:21), and by being cursed on Calvary’s tree (Gal 3:13). He paid with His precious, blameless life. His life for ours. And in that glorious act, He redeemed us from the curse of the Law (Gal 3:13; 4:5).
And as the curse was lifted off of us, something else was placed on us: adoption as sons. The Son’s curse-lifting work redeemed us out of death and into life, life with our Father, our Abba (Gal 4:6).
This is why God sent forth His Son. This is why Christ had to be born of a woman and born under the Law. To redeem accursed sinners who lived in rebellion against God’s Law. And then to adopt those same sinners into an unbreakable union with God.
These glories are what the Holy Spirit continuously cries out in our spirit. This is His Christmas proclamation to us when we are tempted to wallow in guilt and despair over our sins, be anxious about the future, or think that we have to perform so that God will love us.
Receive His cries again and again this Christmas. Let your mind fill up with thoughts of His redeeming work. Let your heart be steadied and buoyed by all that you have and all that you are now and forever because God sent forth His Son.
Just Another Jewish Baby
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by Jon Buck