Tim Chester's Blog, page 27

Love That Never Fails is a tract for use at weddings which I’ve written for The Good Book Company.

It’s part of a series of three tracts covering births (Life that Lasts Forever), weddings (Love That Never Fails) and funerals (Hope to Carry On).

Love That Never Fails is based on the definition of love in Romans 5:6-10.

It’s available here in the United States, the UK and Australia.

Why the Reformation Still Matters can be bought from amazon.co.uk and pre-ordered from amazon.com.

In a recent post we noted the links between the church in the UK today and the readers of 1 & 2 Kings. Both looked like they had no future. But the writer of Kings gibes us reason to hope. And the first reason is that God’s word certain.

Look at 1 Kings 13:1-6:

By the word of the LORD a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering. 2 By the word of the LORD he cried out against the altar: ‘Altar, altar! This is what the Lord says: “A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.”’ 3 That same day the man of God gave a sign: ‘This is the sign the Lord has declared: the altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out.’

     4 When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, ‘Seize him!’ But the hand he stretched out towards the man shrivelled up, so that he could not pull it back. 5 Also, the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God by the word of the LORD.

     6 Then the king said to the man of God, ‘Intercede with the LORD your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored.’ So the man of God interceded with the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored and became as it was before.

This takes place in Bethel where Jeroboam has just built one of his golden calves. Here a man of God denounces what Jeroboam has done. So Jeroboam tries to stop him. If he can stop the prophet speaking then perhaps he can stop God’s word and therefore God’s rule. So he stretches out his hand with an order to seize the prophet. But as he extends his arm, his hand shrivels up and the altar kind of blows up. Boom!

Jeroboam is powerless in the face of God’s word. He can’t even pull his own arm back to his side without the prophet’s intercession.

Jeroboam may be the king of Israel. But when the king goes head-to-head with the word of God there is only one winner. The king’s rule is limited. It’s God’s word that rules in God’s world. Verse 1 says, ‘By the word of the LORD.’ Verse 2 says, ‘By the word of the LORD.’ What drives the story forward is the word of the LORD. God is ruling through his word.

Then, to reinforce the point, the story takes an even more bizarre turn.

The confrontation with Jeroboam comes to an end and so it’s time for the man of God to go home. And God has told him not to eat or drink on the return journey. No idea why. En route he meets an old prophet who tricks him into eating. Again, no idea why. The old prophet claims God has now said it’s OK to eat. So the man of God eats and dies.

What’s clear is that the man of God tragically becomes an illustration of his own message. God’s word is certain. Even though he was tricked, he still dies in fulfilment of God’s word (13:26). How much more certain is God’s word against Jeroboam. That’s the conclusion in 13:32: ‘The message he declared by the word of the LORD … will certainly come true.’ God’s word is certain.

In chapter 14 Jeroboam tries to trick Ahijah, a half-blind prophet, by sending his wife in disguise. But, as she enters, Ahijah says, ‘Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why this pretence?’ (14:6) Ahijah may be blind, but he sees clearly because of God’s word. God’s word is the reliable, fixed, true point. And so God’s judgment falls on Jeroboam’s family ‘according to the word of the LORD given through his servant Ahijah the Shilonite’ (15:29; 14:17-18)

God’s word is certain. For those who reject God this is bad news. For it means his word of judgment is inescapable. We need to feel the weight of this.

But God’s word of promise is also certain. And this is our hope, our good news or ‘gospel’. Look at 15:3-4:

[Abijah] committed all the sins his father had done before him; his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his forefather had been. Nevertheless, for David’s sake the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem by raising up a son to succeed him and by making Jerusalem strong.

Here is Abijah, King of Judah. He’s as bad as his father Rehoboam. He’s as bad as any king in Israel. He deserves God’s judgment. ‘Nevertheless.’ Nevertheless God has promised David a dynasty. He has promised him an eternal king.

And God’s word of promise is certain. This promise shapes the history of Judah. In the northern kingdom there is coup after coup. But in Judah, despite all the chaos and defeat and apostasy, there’s always a son of David on the throne.

God’s word is certain. And that’s as true today as it was then. More true. Jesus the Son of David has risen and ascended to the throne of heaven. He reigns over God’s people and God’s world. He’s God’s eternal king. God’s word is certain.

Read these bizarre stories to increase your confidence in God’s word. It’s the same word that you hear and speak and hold in your hands. Trust God’s word to do its work in your life, in your church, among your friends. Don’t give up on it. Don’t think we need new approaches. Read God’s word. Pastor with God’s word. Proclaim God’s word. Because God’s word is certain and God’s promises are sure.

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Centre Church, Tim Keller’s guide to church ministry, has been re-issued as three separate paperbacks. The idea is that they are easier to read (and less intimidating). They also contain additional essays – including one by me. My contribution is on missional church and comes in the volume entitled Serving a Movement.

I also want to highlight Dan Strange’s contribution to the volume entitled Loving the City. Dan is a friend and one of my colleagues in the new Acts 29 Oak Hill Academy. His essay is a great introduction to his approach to contextualisation.

Serving a Movement is available here from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk.

Loving the City is available here from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk.

The one-volume edition of Centre Church is available here from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk.

SPONSORS

Support this site by using these links:

amazon.co.uk amazon.com

includes Tim Chester’s books

Why the Reformation Still Matters can be bought from amazon.co.uk and pre-ordered from amazon.com.

In the last 35 years the number of people attending church in the UK each Sunday has halved – from over five million to less than three million, from 11 percent of the population to five percent. Last year, Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, claimed the Church of England was on the brink of extinction.

Does the church in the UK have a future? Maybe that makes you doubt your faith. Is God real when so many people ignore him?

The readers of the book of Kings were asking questions like that. The temple was in ruins. The people were in exile. Do God’s people have a future?

In chapters 11-12 we see the failures of Solomon and Rehoboam, failures that lead to idolatry and injustice. They embrace foreign gods and enslave the people. Then Jeroboam leads a revolution against this oppression. He looks like a new Moses – coming from Egypt, liberating God’s people, ending their slavery. It looks like he is going to be the hero of the story.

But Jeroboam spots a problem. He reigns over the ten northern tribes. But the temple is down in Jerusalem, in the area still ruled by Rehoboam. Every year the people are going to travel to worship God to the temple in Judean territory where they’ll hear Judean propaganda. We see his thinking in 12:27: ‘If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam.’

So Jeroboam builds two golden calves, one in the south and one in the north. And he says in 12:28, ‘Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’

Where have we seen this in the story? Jeroboam is indeed repeating the story of the exodus. But he’s repeating the very worst moment of that story – the moment when Aaron and the people built a golden calf and said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ (Exodus 32:4) They’re exactly the same words. Jeroboam is not a new Moses. He’s a new Aaron, leading the people away from the LORD. The only difference is Jeroboam builds two golden calves.

It gets worse. Jeroboam calls his sons ‘Nadab’ (15:25) and ‘Abijah’ (14:1). So what? Those are the names of Aaron’s first two sons (Abihu, Aaron’s second son, means ‘my father is he’ while Abijah means ‘my father is Yahweh’). And those two sons were killed by the fire of the LORD because they offered unauthorised sacrifices (Leviticus 10:1-4).

Jeroboam has modelled himself on Aaron. He seems hell-bent on replicating false worship.

God had promised him that, if he obeyed God’s decrees, God would give him a dynasty as enduring as David’s (11:38). But Jeroboam throws it away.

This sets the pattern for the northern kingdom of Israel. (See, for example, 15:25-30.) We get a series of bloody coups. The new king takes power through violence and wipes out the family of the old kings so no rivals remain. But violence breeds violence and coup leads to coup. Each king, we’re told, committed the sins of Jeroboam and aroused God’s anger (15:30; 16:3, 7, 13, 19, 26, 30-31). Each time the executioner of God’s judgment hears God’s word of judgment for himself. And so they are replaced – Jeroboam, Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, Omri. And so it goes on.

Not until King Ahab do we get a proper succession. And Ahab is bad news. He builds a temple to Baal in his capital, Samaria (16:32-33). 16:30-31 says: ‘Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him.’

It’s a horrible mess. But that’s OK. We still have the southern kingdom of Judah – the home of the temple and the family of King David. Surely there things will be different. Well, look at 14:22-24:

Judah did evil in the eyes of the LORD. By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than those who were before them had done. 23 They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. 24 There were even male shrine-prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.

One generation ago the nations had come to Jerusalem to marvel at the wisdom and glory of the nation that knew the LORD. Israel was drawing the nations to follow the ways of God. But now God’s people are following the ways of the nations. They’re engaged in the very practices that led to God driving out of the previous occupants of the land. They had seen for themselves God’s judgment against these practices. But no matter – they still plunge into the same evils. Once God’s people had been a light to the nations (10:9). Now the nations corrupt God’s people (14:24).

Once the nations had brought their glory to Jerusalem (10:10). Now the nations come to rob Jerusalem of its glory. 14:26 says the Egyptians carried off the treasures and golden shields from the temple. Rehoboam has to replace them with bronze replicas (14:27-28).

It’s a mess – a horrible mix of apostasy and defeat.

It’s not hard to make the move to our own day. Church attendance in the UK is lower now than it’s been for 200 years. The gap between the gospel and British culture is greater than ever. It’s hard to gain a hearing for truth – as you all know from your own experience. And the institutional church is riven with apostasy.

What is the future of the church? Does it have a future?

Thing are going to get worse before they get better in Israel and Judah. And they may yet get worse for the church in the UK. But the writer doesn’t want us to despair. Woven through the story are signs of hope.

We’ll see the answer the writer of Kings gives in two future posts.

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Reading: Genesis 28:10-22

Here is another extracts from The Glory of the Story , my father’s devotional introduction to biblical theology in the form of 366 daily readings which show how the Old Testament story is fulfilled in Christ. The Glory of the Story is available as a Kindle book for $2.99 from amazon.com and £1.99 from amazon.co.uk. I’m posting extracts from the chaper on the story of Jacob, usually on the first Monday of the month.

Jacob leaves home, ostensibly to seek for a wife (28:1-2), in reality to flee for his life

(27:42-44). He certainly isn’t seeking God, but God has not forgotten him. In order to be shown the depths of his own need and appreciate God’s sufficiency, Jacob needs to be eased out of his emotionally claustrophobic family with its possessive mother, embittered father and murderous brother. Observe how:

1. God renews his promise (13-14)

When God speaks there is no word of reproach or demand; only a renewal of the promises to Abraham and Isaac. They meet all the needs of Jacob’s solitary, homeless and precarious condition. That the God of Abraham and Isaac should now reveal himself as the God of Jacob the con-man, from whom you wouldn’t buy a used camel, demonstrates just how scandalous grace is.

2. God assures his presence (15)

‘Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’ (ESV) This additional promise, particularly suited to Jacob, is underlined in the dream of a stairway resting on earth and reaching to heaven. The fugitive has not been abandoned. Heaven has come to a particular spot on earth and Jacob, like Elisha’s servant, is privileged to see heaven’s resources (2 Kgs. 6:15-17). Just as God’s choice of Jacob caused a conflict that would follow him through the rest of his life, so God’s commitment to him would endure and bring him safely home (cf. Phil. 1:6).

3. Jacob makes a vow (16-22)

Jacob’s response is sometimes regarded as just another example of his wheeler-dealing. But this seems unfair. He expresses profound awe in God’s presence, calling the place Bethel, meaning house of God (16-17; cf. 35:14-15). Jacob is made aware, as Abraham was, of another dimension; a heavenly one. Though his vow (20-21) may seem like bargain-hunting, it is only because God has offered such wonderful bargains! Just as any prayer request is based on God’s promises (cf. Matt. 6:10-11, 31-34), Jacob is claiming precisely what God has promises.

Closing thought

Psalm 23 is the musical version of Jacob’s vow without the ‘if’. Here is a summary of God’s best promises to his children. Rest and revel in them again today.

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includes Tim Chester’s books

Why the Reformation Still Matters can be bought from amazon.co.uk and pre-ordered from amazon.com.

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includes Tim Chester’s books

One of the problems of the information age is that people confuse data, information, knowledge and wisdom. Computers deal with data – scary quantities of it – moving it, storing it and processing it. Information is what people deal with: facts, interpretations, ideas, images and so on. Knowledge is the ability to recall and interpret information. Access to data alone does not make you knowledgeable. Nor is the ability to recall information the same as knowledge. Knowledge takes study and reflection. It is a slow process, gradually accumulated through thought and experience.

And wisdom is something else altogether. It is the ability to live aright, to make moral judgments, to exercise discernment, to make choices. This means wisdom does not reside with the academically able in the way that knowledge does. Wisdom resides in spiritually mature; in those who walk with God.

The quantity of information is also creating increasing levels of specialisation. In the past people could be polymaths. Today people struggle to keep up to date with one field of knowledge. One result is increased specialisation. The area over which you can be an expect is shrinking. The problem is that this is diminishing our ability to integrate knowledge. The world ‘university’ derives from the Latin word universitas meaning ‘whole’. Universities once gave you an all-round education. But now our view of the world has become fragmented. We see only parts. Such fragmented knowledge enables us to do specific, discrete tasks: we can transplant a heart or design an aeroplane wing. But it cannot help us live integrated, whole lives.

Theology is not immune from this. New Testament scholars are discouraged from straying into church history; church historians are discouraged from contributing to pastoral theology and so on. Such specialisation ill-equips the church to maintain an integrated or ‘universal’ view of truth. Academic articles exegete individual Bible verses, but do not enable me to comfort a woman suffering panic attacks or share the gospel with my postman. To give one example of how this works: the presumption is that worthy contributions to academic debate must include comprehensive bibliographies and footnotes. Writers are chided for not having interacted with specific authors. But this mistakes information for knowledge and knowledge for wisdom.

Choose quality rather than quantity

The digitalisation of information has created the delusion that we can carry knowledge and wisdom around with us on our laptops or access them via our Palms. This is the promise of the advertisers, but it is an illusion. Whatever the field, pursue quality rather than quantity. Go for material in which information has been digested, examined, applied and experienced.

Choosing quality rather than quantity means reading a book before you search the internet. A book will contain a person’s considered reflections, usually after many years of research or reflection. A book will include an editorial process of selection and refinement. None of these quality controls are available on the web. This will often mean paying for knowledge. The internet promises free knowledge, but it is undifferentiated. Be willing to pay for that differentiation – if only to ensure you use your time is profitably.

Do not do general research through the internet. It is not subject to any quality control. Any one can put anything up the internet. You cannot be sure whether this is a researched, reasoned and balanced perspective on a subject. Even if you have sufficient knowledge of the field to assess what you read, you have to spend time sifting the gold from the dross. If your research identifies a good article then see whether it is available on the internet. Use the internet to access published material which has now been freely made available on the internet (many of the great classic of Christian are available on the web). Use the internet to access sources you already have good reason to trust. You may also use the internet to generate examples of the zeitgeist, though be wary of assuming one example encapsulates the cultural mood.

Choose knowledge and wisdom rather than data and information

When you approach a subject, especially those that relate to the Christian life, do not necessarily try to gather as much information as possible. Do not quickly read everything available. Instead read and reflect on trusted material. Take time to meditate and digest. Your ultimate aim is not to fill your brain to develop your character. Alexander Pope referred to people who read widely but not well ‘bookful blockheads’.

Of course we should not be lazy. What we write and speak should be well-researched. A variety of sources are important to ensure balance and perspective. Beware of only going to sources that will simply echo back your own presuppositions. But neither should we succumb to the ‘fear of man’ that underlies the ‘need’ to include a comprehensive and up-to-the-minute bibliography. You are not trying to win the approval of people, but the approval of the Ancient of Days.

Choose sources that have stood the test of time over the latest sources

We are a nation of news junkies. We want the latest information all the time. We dismiss that which is old in favour of the latest. ‘Have you heard the latest?’ we cry. Resist the need to have the latest facts immediately after they unfold. But little of today’s news will prove significant in months to come. Opt instead for considered reflection.

When it comes to theology and the Christian life, value old books. At the very least, it is arrogant to assume that our generation has more knowledge and wisdom than previous generations. In some fields, such as the physical sciences, this may be true as we build on the achievements of those who went before. But theology and spirituality are different. The gospel is not a developing body of knowledge with new discoveries. It does need to be applied afresh to each generation, but the truth itself is unchanging.

Moreover the passage of time involves an inherent process of selection. Every generation produces both gold and dross. Not everything old is good just as not everything new is dross. The advantage that the old has is that time has sifted the gold from the dross. The books that come down to us are more likely to be those which have stood the test of time within a particular community. With the new there has been no such process.

‘All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field … The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands for ever’ (Isaiah 40:6,8). I invite you to mediate on these words for an information age obsessed with the quantity and speed of information. It is very easy to get caught up in this: to pursue multiple sources, to cram in information, to ensure we have access to data, to prioritise the latest of everything – and then to think that this is making us knowledgeable and wise.

Do not read books so you can say you have read them. Do not read simply to accumulate information. Read books so you grow in your relationship with God and ability to serve him. When you finish reading, pray through what you have read.

True wisdom is found through a relationship with God. ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge’ (Proverbs 1:7). It is as much a moral phenomenon as the product of information. It is the product of prayer as well as reading. It is rooted in the enduring Word of God rather than the latest book or article. It is acquired through meditation, experience, prayer and practice. It may not be trendy or cutting edge, but it pure gold.

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.

The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.

The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring for ever.

The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous.

They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold;

they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.

By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

(Psalm 19:7-11)

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