Let’s say you’re a leader…in the church, in your home, at your job, on your team… How do you lead? It turns out there’s not a one-size-fits-all answer, and it goes all the way back at least to Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians:

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. (1 Thessalonians 5.14, ESV)

I love this verse:

• Admonish the idle
• Encourage the fainthearted
• Help the weak

Be patient with them all.

And it takes wisdom to discern between the idle who need admonishment, the fainthearted who need encouragement, and the weak who need help. The symptoms are the same: they’re not doing anything! But why?

• The idle are just lazy. Admonish them.
• The fainthearted could do something productive, but they’re afraid. Encourage them.
• The weak can’t. Help them.

Get these mixed up, and our admonishments, encouragements, and help are misdirected.

When I served at an Air Force leadership school, we taught The Hershey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Model.

Basically, the model starts with, say, raw recruits, or a new hire, or any situation where people don’t know what they’re supposed to do or how to do it, S1 on the chart. The appropriate behavior is “highly directive” with little encouragement “supportive” leadership. You can’t encourage someone to do what they can’t do. You have to show them what to do and how. After they get going, then you can add encouragement to keep them going, S2. Then it often happens, when the task or job has lost its novelty, people can do it, they just don’t want to, S3.

Combining Situational Leadership with 1 Thessalonians 5.14, you can’t encourage someone to do something they can’t do. That’s applying an S2 solution to an S1 problem. Encouragement for those who are idle is applying an S2 solution to an S3 problem. In summary:

• S1: weak, untrained. Train them. Help them.
• S2: they’ve started, keep them going. Encourage them.
• S3: they’ve lost interest. Admonish them.

This puts “help the weak” in a new light. There may be some weak who need perpetual help. But it makes more sense to think of weak as people who are unskilled, and untrained. Marine recruits are “weak” when they show up. At the end of the 12 weeks, they’re not weak anymore. Help the weak be strong…by training!

Teaching Time with God comes to mind. First, we help them by teaching a method. The task itself motivates them. “I’m meeting with God!” Then, we encourage them to keep going. There will usually be a time when they know how to do it, but life gets in the way (Mark 4.18, 19). Those are the ones we admonish.

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. (1 Thessalonians 5.14, ESV)

Yesterday we talked about the messenger: what kind of men were Paul and his team? Another essential piece is the message. How ought we to live? 1 Thessalonians 4 answers that question, but before we look at that, let’s remind ourselves of a verse my son Mark memorized when he was two years old:

He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6.8, NASB)

How ought we to live? Micah 6.8, of course, is one answer: “Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God.” Here’s another:

Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God 

• to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and 
• to aspire to live quietly, and 
• to mind your own affairs, and 
• to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. (1 Thessalonians 4:9-12, ESV, bulleted for clarity)

That’s clear! And in this Advent season, it’s good to remember that Jesus spent his first 30 years living quietly, minding his own affairs (as far as we know), and working with his hands. He didn’t grow up in the Temple but in an out-of-the-way town in Galilee.

Our people must also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful. (Titus 3.14, NASB)

We wrote on Saturday about the remarkable results from Paul’s preaching the gospel to the Thessalonians. Today let’s see one of the reasons for those results: the quality of the messenger. In chapter 1, Paul says:

…You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. (1 Thessalonians 1.5, ESV)

What kind of men were Paul and his team?

Chapter 2 describes them in detail:

• Boldness even after persecution and conflict
• No attempt to deceive
• Not men-pleasers or glory seekers (pastors and others of us who are public speakers could learn a lesson here)
• Gentle
• Self-sacrificing
• Holy, righteous, blameless
• The goal was people walking with God in a godly way

The messenger counts! A messenger whose goal is clear:

For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 3.8, ESV)

Paul wasn’t a hit-and-run evangelist. Once I was in a relatively small meeting of men, and the guest speaker invited men who wanted to begin to follow Jesus to “just make eye contact with me.” Later, this speaker reported in a ministry newsletter that “Eight men committed their lives to Christ” in that meeting. Really? I was there, and neither I (one of the leaders) nor this speaker even knew who these men were. He didn’t invite them to come up and talk with us. Nothing. Paul put no stock into “raised hands” or “eye contact” but into changed lives.

This Advent season we celebrate the coming of One who also cared about changed lives. Who made no attempt to deceive. Who was gentle, self-sacrificing, holy, righteous, and blameless.

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. (Luke 1.35, ESV)

“Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey…’ ” (Matthew 21.5, NIV)

My friend Preston Poore wrote an intriguing blog a few weeks ago about the competition between Coca-Cola and Pepsi at the University of Alabama back in the late 90s, early 2000s. Preston worked for Coke. It’s long, complex, and very informative if you want to learn about high-level marketing issues. Preston lists his main lessons learned as:

• Position (sometimes you need someone in power, in this case, the President of the University of Alabama)
• Persistence (Preston persisted until he succeeded)
• Providence (Preston sees God’s hand in his work)

I’m not writing about these things. Please read the blog in its entirety for details.

Advent season is a time to think about God becoming present in our world, even in the mundane. I say mundane because as I was reading Preston’s blog, I’m thinking, “I can’t imagine anything less important or relevant than how many people in Alabama drink Coke instead of Pepsi.” I was thinking about what Steve Jobs said to John Sculley when Steve was trying to get John to leave his high position in an established company like Pepsi and join Apple: a start-up that may or may not succeed. Steve said:

Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?

Back to Preston, a marketer of “sugar water.” The fact that Preston saw God in some of the details means that God cares even about the trivial.

It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3.24)

At this time of year, we’re thinking about Advent: Jesus came into the world. He worked as a carpenter, building things that turned to dust long ago. He turned water into wine at a wedding. My early mentors in The Navigators used to say, “It’s all gonna burn…so invest in men…Don’t give your life to bananas [or Coca-Cola(!)]” But that outlook, as powerful and motivating as it was, was incomplete. God is in all of it. The incarnation reminds us of that.

When the time came, [Jesus] set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death. (Philippians 2.7, 8, MSG)

It’s the Second Sunday of Advent: Peace

Peace has been the promise from the beginning:

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2.8 – 14, ESV, emphasis mine)

We don’t see much peace today, but Jesus’ promise of peace, peace in the midst of trial, remains:

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16.33, ESV)

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5.1 – 5, ESV, emphasis mine, all four advent candle themes!)

1 Thessalonians 1 is not generally associated with Advent, but why not? It captures some of what we should be expecting when Jesus comes, when “the gospel” – the good news about him – comes:

There is so much in 1 Thessalonians 1, quoted here with little comment, bulleted for emphasis and clarity:

…remembering before our God and Father 

• your work of faith and 
• labor of love and 
• steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. (verse 3)

…because our gospel came to you 

• not only in word, 
• but also in power and 
• in the Holy Spirit and 
• with full conviction. 
• You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. (verse 5)

How does the gospel come? Or how should it come? See the list above! And when it does, people believe. And when they believe, we know that they are chosen (verse 4).

The result?

• you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for 

• you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that 

• you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has 

• the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but 

• your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how 
  • you turned to God from idols
  • to serve the living and true God, and
  • to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. (verses 6 – 10)

Transformation! Conversion! Passing the good news on! That’s what happens when Jesus comes and when the news about him comes.

I love John 21, Jesus’ last appearance to the disciples in John’s gospel, containing the miraculous catch of fish and Jesus’ conversation with Peter: “Feed my sheep.” I shared my 5-point outline back in January. Today I want to focus on the fish:

Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. (John 21.3 – 11, ESV)

People have been puzzled for centuries about “153 fish.” I heard a preacher decades ago say that when he was on a tour of the Holy Land, the guide told the group, “The Sea of Galilee has 153 different kinds of fish.” The preacher was very excited that the guide said that with no apparent knowledge of John 21. “A miracle! All those 153 fish were different species! God wants people from all nations to be part of his Kingdom!”

A great application, but I remember thinking at the time that it was more likely that the guide used that number when talking with Christian groups, just so they would go home and tell that story. Turns out I was right. This is the age when you can look anything up, and there are 27 species of fish in the Sea of Galilee, 19 native, and 8 introduced from elsewhere. – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Galilee

People have tried to make all kinds of inferences from the “153.” I like that 153 is a “triangle number,” it’s the sum of the numbers 1, 2, 3,…, up to 17, and could be arranged in a triangle, like the ten pins in a bowling alley.

It’s also interesting that he calls Peter twice, once in Matthew 4.19:

And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

And here: “Feed my sheep…Follow me” (John 21.15 – 19) and both follow a miraculous catch of fish. (Luke 5.2 – 11).

So I wouldn’t make a big deal out of “exactly 153” other than:

• It’s a lot of fish!

• The net was not torn. (There’s room in the Kingdom for everyone!)

• The fish are there: follow Jesus’ leading and go get ‘em!

To change the metaphor…

Don’t you have a saying, “It’s still four months until harvest”? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. (John 4.35, NIV)

Here’s a new (for me) take on a familiar story:

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord…Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” (John 20.19 – 27, ESV, emphasis mine)

The Lord had a glorified body. He could pass through walls. But…he had the scars! What are the implications of that? I wouldn’t have thought about it before reading this short vignette from Katherine Wolf. Katherine is married to Jay Wolf, son of Dr. Jay Wolf, long-time pastor of First Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama. I’ve met the elder Jay. Katherine and Jay were living in Southern California where Katherine was a model while Jay was in law school. She suffered a massive stroke in 2008. Here’s a brief version of their story.

The photos show Katherine and Jay and Penny, the subject of the vignette, with Katherine.

Anyway, back to the vignette, sent in an email on October 22, 2022. Katherine writes:

With only three words, my friend Penny, who has Down Syndrome, recently offered one of the most intriguing and refreshing theological insights on disability I’ve ever heard. When Penny’s mom asked whether Penny thinks she’ll have Down Syndrome in heaven, Penny answered: “Why wouldn’t I?”

She’s right. Why wouldn’t she?! I couldn’t imagine a more perfect version of Penny than the one we have here and now. Heaven couldn’t improve on her.

Every experience of disability is unique and the collective story of disability is unfathomably complex—from congenital to acquired, life-affecting to life-ending, physical to cognitive—so I’m not in the business of prescribing sweeping or simplistic theological answers. But Penny’s response to a vast philosophical question invited me into a new way of approaching the tangled knot of suffering, sovereignty, healing and hurt.

Will I be “typically abled” after this life—my cerebellum restored, my face animated again, my balance regained, by double vision unified? I don’t know. But I do think the more relevant question is, why would ability matter in a place of complete and unconditional belonging and belovedness? – Katherine Wolf, hopeheals.com

I don’t know the answer either nor the implications, but Penny’s “Why wouldn’t I?” gives one pause.

But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19.14, ESV)

John chapters 18 and 19 tell the crucifixion story, familiar to us all. I just want to look briefly at some of the characters.

Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.) (John 18.10, ESV)

“The servant’s name was Malchus.” John is the only one who knew his name. I wonder what happened to him? Jesus healed him. Would he have become a believer? There are interesting differences among the gospels. They all have the ear cutting story:

• Matthew does not name the servant or Peter or mention the healing.
• Mark is the same as Matthew.
• Luke is the only one who mentions that Jesus healed the ear.
• John is the only one who mentions the servant’s name and Peter’s name.

Switching gears, this paragraph always cracks me up:

Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor’s headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover. (John 18.28, ESV)

They didn’t want to be “defiled” by entering the house of a Gentile, but they didn’t mind defiling themselves by condemning the son of God to death. It reminds me of an Air Force officer in the BX back in the 1970s. We shopped with cash in those days, and he didn’t have enough on him to buy both cigarettes and a Penthouse magazine. “I’ll leave the cigarettes. I don’t want to pollute my body.” Of course, he had no qualms about polluting his mind!

Pilate was a weak-willed man who had to choose his allegiance to Caesar over who he was coming to believe Jesus was. Some historical sources indicate that Pilate didn’t finish well.

From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” (John 19.12, ESV)

Finally, we have this:

After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. (John 19.38 – 40, ESV)

Two secret disciples. We knew about Nicodemus (see John 3 and John 7.45 – 51). We didn’t know about Joseph of Arimathea, and we don’t know what they did next. Were they among the 120 in the Upper Room?

Who are you and I in these stories? Choose one…

• Impetuous Peter who didn’t know when to use a sword, and cutting off a guy’s ear indicates he might not know how to use one either.
• Poor Malchus, just along for the ride, but he gets to experience a miracle.
• Pious religious leaders (all the gospels point out their hypocrisy and inconsistency)
• Weak-willed Pilate
• A secret disciple, like Joseph or Nicodemus

Now these things took place as examples for us… (1 Corinthians 10.6, ESV)

You became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. (1 Thessalonians 1.7, ESV)

Yesterday, we began looking at Jesus’ prayer in John 17: investing in men was his major work; we are to be in the world but not of it.

Today we look at one area at which we have done terribly:

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17.20 – 23, ESV, emphasis mine)

We’ve done a terrible job of this one. “That they may all be one…so that the world may believe that you have sent me…that they may be one even as we are one…so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” 

Wow. He says it twice. Be one…so that the world may know. Maybe that’s why Satan has worked overtime to keep us riled up about inconsequential differences. By contrast, the church in Iran, as I found out watching Sheep Among Wolves, Volume II, believes we shouldn’t have “1,000 points of theology.” Their “test” is simple:

• Do you believe that Jesus came once for sin?
• Do you believe he’s coming back for judgment?

Then we are brothers.

Apostles Paul and John were clear:

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4.1 – 3, ESV)

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. (1 John 4.2, 3, ESV)

As was Jesus:

I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17.23, ESV)