I mentioned the other day that I had read a book on creation by John Lennox. I read it because Andy Stanley mentioned it in his sermon series The Bible for Grownups. I recommend the series, the main point of which is that our faith is not in “the Bible” – there was no “the Bible” until the early 300s. Our faith is in Jesus, specifically in his resurrection:

And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. (Acts 4.33, ESV)

Andy makes the point that if there were no resurrection, there would be no “the Bible” (specifically, the “New Testament” which was bound with the Hebrew scriptures to make “the Bible”) because no one would have written about Jesus. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, there would have been nothing to write about nor would there be anyone to write it because none of his followers expected a resurrection.

The existence of the New Testament is as simple and compelling proof of the resurrection as there is, I think. Of course, that proof doesn’t work on everyone, and I want to talk about that tomorrow.

In the meantime, Paul’s testimony was clear:

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. (1 Corinthians 15.3 – 8, ESV)

We reminded ourselves yesterday that Jesus called his followers into a relationship with him. Moreover, Jesus had a goal for those relationships: that they would become like him. Back in Matthew 4, what did he say to Peter and Andrew?

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4.18, 19, ESV)

“Follow me, and I will make you…” Jesus didn’t want a mass of passive fans but a cadre of trained men. Men who would do what he was doing.

And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. (Matthew 4.23, NKJV, emphasis mine)

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. (Matthew 9.35, NKJV, emphasis mine)

Teaching, preaching, healing. That’s what Jesus was doing. But he couldn’t do it all, and the well-known solution follows immediately:

But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9.36 – 38, NKJV)

There’s a labor shortage, and who got to fill it? His disciples – his students. Again, they weren’t called to be spectators but participants:

And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease… And as you go, preach, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. (Matthew 10.1, 7, 8, NKJV)

He sent them out to preach and heal, same as he was doing.

I was at a denominational conference once, and a pastor came by my table where I was displaying discipleship materials. “Study the word, and preach the word. There is nothing better than studying the word and preaching the word!” I responded, “I can think of something better.” Shocked, he asked, “What would that be?” I replied simply:

Teaching someone else how to study the word and preach the word.

“I never thought of that,” he said. I hope he did.

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2.2, NIV)

PS I have written before about my struggle to improve my golf game. It’s fun to watch the pros compete. The recent Master’s, for example, where one of my favorite golfers, Jordan Spieth, came in fourth. But there’s someone more important in my golf life than Jordan Spieth. It’s Tyler one of our local pros and my golf teacher. You won’t see Tyler on television, but he said to me during a lesson the other day: “My satisfaction is seeing you hit the ball well.” That will preach!

For now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 3.8, NKJV)

I read Matthew 9, which includes the call of Matthew, the tax collector, the same day I received an email from a fellow in ministry. As usual, he reported on one of his speaking engagements, including the number of men who indicated they wanted to receive Christ. I’ve been in such a meeting with this man, who afterward in a newsletter reported on our event and said that eight men wanted to follow Jesus. Eight! I was one of the people in charge of the event, and I don’t know who those eight men were. No one does.

Jesus didn’t seem to operate that way.

As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. (Matthew 9.9, ESV)

I’ve already written about the call of Matthew, especially the way it’s presented in The Chosen. Peter was aghast that Jesus called Matthew. “This is different!” he told Jesus. To which Jesus responded, “Get used to different.”

What struck me this time was that when Jesus invited Matthew to join him, he was entering into a relationship with him. He would be rubbing shoulders with a despised tax collector. Just as he was rubbing shoulders with ordinary fishermen.

Back to the public speaker in paragraph one. I’m well aware that traveling speakers (I am one sometimes) can’t have a personal relationship with everyone in their audience. But, surely when someone allegedly makes a profession of faith, we can do something to connect them with someone local who can have a relationship with them. Someone local who will also make sure they have a growing relationship with Jesus.

I don’t believe we can disciple people en masse any more than we can teach someone to play the piano by taking them to concerts.

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. (John 15.12 – 15, ESV)

Something just happened to me similar to something Queen Victoria is said to have experienced! Really?

There’s a famous story involving Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland. His real name was Charles Dodgson, a mathematician. Here’s a paragraph from his bio on Wikipedia:

The overwhelming commercial success of the first Alice book changed Dodgson’s life in many ways. The fame of his alter ego “Lewis Carroll” soon spread around the world. He was inundated with fan mail and with sometimes unwanted attention. Indeed, according to one popular story, Queen Victoria herself enjoyed Alice in Wonderland so much that she commanded that he dedicate his next book to her, and was accordingly presented with his next work, a scholarly mathematical volume entitled An Elementary Treatise on Determinants.

This story may not be true, but something similar just happened to me. I read (on Kindle, of course) a marvelous book on creation by John Lennox:

John Carson Lennox (born 7 November 1943) is a Northern Irish mathematician, philosopher of science, Christian apologist, and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow in Mathematics and Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton College, Oxford University. He is also Pastoral Advisor of Green Templeton College and Fellow of Wycliffe Hall. – From the author’s bio on Amazon.

John’s book Seven Days that Divide the World is a marvel. I highly recommend, especially if you’re wondering if someone strongly committed to the authority of scripture can avoid getting caught up in “young earth”/”old earth” controversy and whether or not God created the world in six 24-hour days.

Not long after I read the book, when I opened my Kindle, it presented me, as it always does, with a recommendation for a book it thinks I might like:

The Theory of Infinite Soluble Groups by…you guessed it, John Lennox. Now I am a mathematician, and I know what “groups” are, but I don’t know and don’t care to know anything about “infinite soluble groups.” By the way, Dr. Lennox has written other books that I would be interested in. For example, Cosmic Chemistry: Do God and Science Mix?, but Kindle didn’t recommend any of those.

Is there a point? Maybe this harmless recommendation from Amazon reminds us that these predictive marketing algorithms have flaws. That I don’t have to read everything that’s recommended to me. That in an age of endless distractions, I have to choose wisely what I do with my time and money.

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5.15 – 16, NIV)

The famous “Sermon on the Mount” takes up chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Matthew, and as I read chapter 5 the other day, a central theme emerged. One of my math professors might have called it an “obviosity.” (Wow, I just found out that’s really a word!) Anyway, what’s obvious?

Jesus expects his followers to be different from other people.

Really?

• Salt

Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth... (Matthew 5.13, MSG)

• Light

Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world… (Matthew 5.14, MSG)

• Righteousness that EXCEEDS that of the scribes and Pharisees:

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5.20, ESV)

For example (Matthew 5.21 – 48):

• Don’t just not murder, don’t even be angry
• Don’t just not commit adultery, don’t look lustfully
• Don’t divorce your wife because you’re tired of her
• Don’t make vows because your word is your bond
• Don’t take revenge, submit
• Don’t just love your neighbor, love your enemy also
• A lifestyle that’s different…that’s MORE:

And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? (Matthew 5.47, ESV)

My friend Bill Mowry just posted an article on Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren. In it she quotes Augustine supporting what I’m writing here:

. . . following Augustine, [who] argues that to be alternative people is to be formed differently — to take up practices and habits that aim our love and desire toward God.

We are to be “alternative people.”

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5.16, ESV)

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. (Philippians 2.14, 15, ESV)

I wrote yesterday about SpaceX’s commitment to “embrace fiery mishaps” – how they use apparent setbacks as stepping stones. I contrasted SpaceX’s attitude with what happened in a large church when a new initiative caused confusion. Rather than work through it, they just killed the initiative.

At the time, about 20 years ago, I developed a little template for what we could have done. I’ve never published it until now. See what you think.

Consider the following sequence. Leadership actions are in ALL CAPS.

Suppose everyone in your organization is comfortable. They know what’s expected of them, they know how to do what’s expected of them, and, for the most part, they are doing it. Comfort. Then leadership comes along with a CHALLENGE. What’s the result? Confusion! “I thought we were doing what we were supposed to be doing! I don’t know how to do this new thing. I’m not even sure what this new thing is. I’m confused!” Confusion is good. At least they’re thinking about the challenge. So the leadership response is CLARIFICATION. We help them understand where we’re going and why. We affirm them for what they’ve been doing. We sell them on the benefits of the challenge. We’re aiming for Commitment. “OK. I’ll at least give this a go.” When they are committed at least to begin the challenge we can now implement COACHING. (I could say “training,” but that doesn’t start with C!) We coach and train until they reach a level of Competence. And, guess what? If they continue in competence for long enough, we’ll be back to Comfort. Rinse and repeat. 

Comfort -> CHALLENGE -> Confusion -> CLARIFICATION -> Commitment -> COACHING -> Competence/Comfort

Jesus said to Peter, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” In The Chosen, Peter says to his wife, “Jesus said I would be a fisher of men. I don’t even know what that means!” Neither did Peter understand that the band he would be traveling with would include a tax collector and that he would be interacting with Gentiles (see Acts 10). But Jesus kept leading Peter through the cycle: challenge -> confusion -> clarification -> commitment -> coaching -> competence.

Here’s an example of confusion:

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (Matthew 16.21 – 23, ESV)

But Jesus stuck with Peter, and near the end of his life, Peter is explaining the crucifixion to others:

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2.22 – 24, ESV)

Embrace fiery mishaps…and confusion. They are just steps along the journey.

As you know, if you read this blog regularly, I am a big fan of space exploration. I wrote a series centered around the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing beginning here. So today was to be another milestone of sorts: a test of the SpaceX rocket Starship. Except it didn’t go quite according to plan: it exploded shortly after launch. Or, as SpaceX described it:

Starship just experienced what we call a rapid unplanned disassembly.

What you and I would call an explosion, SpaceX calls “a rapid unplanned disassembly.” As CNN reported, this is not the first time they used that term, and they have a very unusual culture:

SpaceX is known to embrace fiery mishaps during the rocket development process. The company maintains that such accidents are the quickest and most efficient way of gathering data, an approach that sets the company apart from its close partner NASA, which prefers slow, methodical testing over dramatic flareups. – CNN, April 20, 2023

A fascinating philosophy. Embracing fiery mishaps. A very gutsy leadership style. Most churches (and NASA) are risk-averse. But if you try something and it fails spectacularly, you learn something if you’re paying attention, and you don’t quit. SpaceX won’t quit:

Although it ended in an explosion, Thursday’s test met several of the company’s objectives for the vehicle. Clearing the launchpad was a major milestone for Starship. In the lead-up to liftoff, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sought to temper expectations, saying, “Success is not what should be expected. … That would be insane”

With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s test will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary,” SpaceX tweeted after the explosion. – CNN, April 20, 2023

SpaceX won’t quit, but some churches do. Years ago, I was on staff at a large church and helped engineer something that would have been a paradigm change. The church excelled in what they called “ministry teams,” groups of volunteers doing various functions: e.g., the third Sunday 9:30a ushers, the second Wednesday kitchen crew. I suggested and the senior staff agreed that these ministry teams could also be discipling teams if the team leader (or someone else on the team) understood that they had two functions: one, do the job they were supposed to do; two, disciple the team members. We kicked off the new emphasis with a large Sunday night gathering of leaders. Despite initial enthusiasm from a number of folks, within a week, the idea was killed. Why? “Well, some of the members were confused.”

In the spirit of SpaceX, so what? What if some members were confused? Let’s unconfuse them. We may not have done a good job explaining things. Let’s try again. But this was not a church that “embraced fiery mishaps.” It was a church that didn’t like its members confused, even for a short time. So the initiative died, and when I think about it, I’m still bummed.

Embrace fiery mishaps. It’s not a bad philosophy.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. (Isaiah 43.2, ESV)

On Wednesday of Holy Week, BreakPoint published a piece on Johnny Hart, creator of the comic strip B.C. I recommend the article in its entirety, which includes not only the story of Johnny Hart but also links to some of the strips discussed. Why did BreakPoint publish this during Holy Week? Because Johnny often included Holy Week themes in his strips. For example, as reported in the article (and I remember reading this one last year):

A caveman says, “I hate the term Good Friday.… My Lord was hanged on a tree that day.” Another caveman replies, “If you were going to be hanged on that day, and he volunteered to take your place, how would you feel?”

So why am I publishing this blog two weeks later? First, because I didn’t want to interrupt our Holy Week blogs on the Stations of the Cross. Second, to make a point about Christians in the workplace. Here’s a guy writing a comic strip – a comic strip! – which from time to time included a Christian witness. And the readership? Up to 100 million people, making him “the most widely read Christian of our time!”

As Chuck Colson wrote back in 1999, “Johnny Hart can be an inspiration to all of us to find ways to bring a Christian worldview to bear on our work, whatever it may be. Healthy humor is one of God’s good gifts to us, and even writing comic strips can be done to His glory.” John Stonestreet, Breakpoint, April 5, 2023.

The Apostle Paul would agree:

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3.17, ESV)

If you’re reading the Pentateuch with us this year, you know that we’re taking a break to read Matthew’s gospel. I was delighted to find something new and exciting about Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, the very first day! I’ve written about Joseph before, but this observation is new:

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. (Matthew 1.18, 19, LSB)

“A righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her…” Some “righteous” men would have wanted to disgrace her with great fanfare. A Pharisee, for example. Or even Judah back in Genesis 38:

About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.” Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to death!” (Genesis 38.24, NIV)

But “righteous” Joseph seems to have a different standard. “Righteous” equals kind and merciful, rather than judgmental.

He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6.8, NKJV)

Joseph would have done precisely that: love mercy and walk humbly with God. Maybe that’s one reason God didn’t choose a Pharisee or other religious leader to be Jesus’ earthly father. Some of us don’t walk humbly with God. We act like God should be glad to have us.

Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men…'” (Luke 18.9 – 11, NKJV)

Within the past few weeks, I had several exchanges with someone who wasn’t all that encouraging, and I felt it. Or I should say, I felt the lack. Around that time, Seth Godin came up with one of his priceless little blogs, which I repeat here in its entirety:

500 Ways

There are thousands of ways to express encouragement and enthusiasm and support. Few of them require a blood oath or even much inconvenience.

“I’m thrilled that you’re contributing.”

“Can’t wait to see how this turns out.”

“I know someone who really needs to hear about this.”

“Go make a ruckus, it matters.”

If we want things to get better, it helps to encourage people who are eager to make things better. – Seth Godin, March 31, 2023

As I read this good word, I couldn’t help but contrast it with the Ten Commandments. I don’t think encouragement is in there. But it is in here:

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22.35 – 40, NIV, Jesus quoting Deuteronomy 6.5 and Leviticus 19.18)