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The Humanity of Christ

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Humanity of Christ

I have a fascination with the humanity of Jesus. Knowing he was both God and man goes beyond the mind’s ability to fathom. More than ever, the humanity of Jesus brings God much closer and makes him more real and I think that is the whole point. From life’s first cry to final breath, I need Jesus to make sense of brokenness and be near. The gospel is given so that we can draw near to God through Christ as Christ came here as human.

An example that captivates is the temptations of Christ (Mt.4; Lk 4). This is a major story for sinners unpack. The benefits far outweigh what we read on paper.  Adam and Eve were evicted from the garden and all its blessings. They knew isolation and self-consciousness for the first time. They experienced poverty; the first impulses of material and spiritual want. Instead of ‘Shalom’, they now entered a dark kingdom with evil forces and an enemy ruler. In this condition, there is no more harmony between man and nature; on the contrary, there is competition and fear–even hatred. The exile world is a place of rulers and subjects–the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. Man is warned that the world will be a place of toil, of meagerness; a place that never lets man forget that in the end, he is dust. Conflict will the human experience with one another, creation, and self.

The Temptation of Jesus

In the temptation, Jesus comes to this world. A world that does not yield satisfaction for man. A world that is hard and full of vain things. Here, Satan tempted Jesus to use his power to rule. But the Savior refused to live as God in this world. Satan offered Jesus all the man-made kingdoms of this world. But the Savior would only rule after he had suffered and died to overcome his enemies.

Satan tempted Jesus with turning stones into bread knowing he had fasted for so long. Again, Jesus would not use a miracle to satisfy himself but would work just like man, by the sweat of his brow, to earn his portion. Where Israel failed in the wilderness, Jesus would succeed in trusting his good Father to provide. Jesus chose to trust God at his word instead of taking matters into his own hands where Adam and Eve originally fell, even in a garden food.

Again, temptation came by a perversion of God’s Word in order to have Jesus be protected by angels because God promised. But Jesus refused to put his Father to an ill-advised test for he would not be protected by supernatural means. Jesus chose to be vulnerable and weak so that he might become our sympathetic High Priest. He chose to be injured and insulted so that he would become approachable as perfect mediator. Unlike the Tree of Life in Eden which we cannot return, Jesus becomes the Tree of Life on earth that we can approach and be healed (saved). We can draw near through the suffering, bloody Christ who reconciles us to himself in laying down his life on the cross, the tree of life. Jesus, tempted to live as God, chose to live as a man in order to save sinful man and creation. Jesus did not have to prove he was God  but that God would prove to become man.

Pastor Preston Atkinson

Pastor Preston Atkinson

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Lessons From The Pharisees

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Lessons from the Pharisees

...But go, learn this, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice."

Mt. 9:13

The Pharisees were a conflicted group. There is much to be learned from their formalism and attitude toward people unlike them. A few verses earlier, Jesus said, “If you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice’ then you would not have condemned the guiltless. “Jesus nor his disciples were involved in sin but they clearly offended the Pharisees.”

 

The Pharisees are simply terrible at mercy. Judgement is their strength, but its unequally distributed. Take for example the woman “caught” in adultery. The law calls for both man and woman to be stoned to death, but they only bring the woman. Perhaps the man was within the Pharisee family or someone they favored. We have a bank account full of mercy for our family members because we favor them. Pharisees miss the obvious because pride is blinding and our haughtiness is intoxicating.

Pharisees, like many professing Christians, make up their own rules and no one really knows them until they are broken. There is an invisible score card they keep. Their business mind-set was far greater than their ministry mind-set. Mercy was typically reserved when they needed it and stewarded conservatively when others needed it.

The Pharisees’ motive was not love for people, but love for themselves. They loved the rules because they used the rules to feel righteous. See, the problem is the same. Pharisees don’t see themselves as God’s Masterpiece mercifully being restored. They see themselves as muddied people who cleaned themselves up ( or didn’t need restoring). How do you view yourself? Does this view lead you to value “being right” or “knowing truth”, as opposed to showing compassion or mercy to a broken world Jesus came to restore?

Pastor Preston Atkinson

Pastor Preston Atkinson

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Healing Is A Life Long Process

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Healing in Christ

Most of the wounds people have in life are unseen. They are deep under the skin; often broken cognitive connections, unknown insecurities, unexplainable anxieties, emotional detachment, cravings for control, retreat into substances, and fight for self preservation. These are the coping skills of wounded people. All these share something in common when it comes to relationships, they are easily offended and/or quick to break ties with uncomfortable circumstances. Avoidance is the most logical practice given a difficult situation. The wounded often interpret the world around them through the lens of their own experience. That experience becomes truth they live by and experience is mistaken for the Holy Spirit. The inner life is what drives our outer life. If we are disquieted on the inside whether it be pain from hurt, worry, scarred by abuse, or a drive for control, we will struggle to live a healthy life. Our health will consequently be effected by our inner life. The only hope and help for this is the peace of Christ in the gospel, the forgiveness through the gospel, and the power to live by faith given us by the gospel. We are not whole (healthy) persons yet, but in Christ we are being made new. Trust the process of grace. As we give ourselves away in service to others we discover more uncomfortable and broken things about ourselves, and thus, cast more worries upon the Lord.

The unpleasant way of healing involves getting close to others and living in community. It is in this community we discover our unseen wounds and insecurities of our fallen condition. Ask our Father to do all the heavy lifting (cast your cares upon him) and He will lift and heal the damage wrought by sin whether it is our own or what someone else did (see James 5:14-16). Ultimately, what keeps us from growing spiritually and becoming healthier is our pride–the mother of all hiding places. One can fake a lot of things in life, but humility cannot be faked. The evidence of humility is clear. Remember, “God opposes the proud (He withholds good), but He gives grace to the humble. ” When God opposes the proud, he does not lift the heaviness of sin and yoke of frustration. In His opposition, he does not give what is needed to become healthy and mature. Consequently, relationships suffer and we go on being offended and offending unhealthy patterns of behavior. Much of the time, we are completely unaware of how we handle conflict because our normal behavior is actually abnormal.

But God gives “grace to the humble” which is restorative. This grace produces God’s desired effects. Cast our “wounds” upon Christ. Don’t take matters into your own hands. Don’t try to fix others in order to ignore yourself. Often, healing is found in obeying the “one another” commands. Pride always militates against humility which is the first step towards obedience. Humble yourself and grace will life you up to live pleasing to God and enjoy His friendship. Don’t forget, healing is often a process because God intends to keep us dependent on Him so that we might learn to say, “The Lord is my portion; and I will wait for Him” (Lam. 3:34; Ps. 73:26). Remember, our healing is a sure future reality called the resurrection of our bodies.

Pastor Preston Atkinson

Pastor Preston Atkinson

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The Commodification of Christianity

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End Times

In western culture, the church enjoys wide freedoms to teach and practice their religious beliefs. Our Constitution allows for such broad freedoms giving opportunity for pluralism. The idea was to keep government out of the realm of religion so as not to establish one particular religion over another and to keep the authority of state away from the authority of religious institutions. This creates a context for the flourishing of ideas and seems to be only limited by human nature. Perversions of Christianity are recycled and flourish here. Lifestyles of any kind are now celebrated as an act of free worship. We have yet to discover the limitations of human nature but we are approaching its end.

I am often amazed at listening to “end times” teachings (some call it prophesy). Much of what passes for “end times” ideas are filtered through a political lens and global activity. The country of Israel gets a lot of attention due to a rigid and literal interpretation of ancient texts. There is a tendency to use the Bible for justification of one’s personal expectations for Christ’s return. The idea of a secret rapture is often commodified for resale. Man has figured a way to make money off an unorthodox idea relatively new to the church. In less than 200 years, rapture theories dominate western Christianity where there has been relatively little suffering for white Christians. What is there to escape? Certainly not oppression from government or persecutions from any kind.

So, what predictions did Jesus have in mind for his people? Peter and Jude leave no doubt.

“In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions. It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit”
(Jude 1:18 ESV)

The prediction was that there would be those in the church who were worldly (desiring control or dominance), controlled by ungodly passions and who did not walk in the Spirit. In other words, they look and sound saved but they are unaware of their own sinfulness. Peter and Jude were writing to the church – not about culture, media, or government. Believers were expected to live differently, not in competition or struggle for power or position. They were to build themselves up in their faith and grow in humility. They were to grow spiritually becoming more self-aware of their sinful tendencies and guard their hearts from self-deceit. In fact, Paul told the believers in Ephesus that God had sovereignly given to the church the roles of apostle (pioneer church planters), prophet (speaking truth understood from Scripture), evangelist (sower), shepherd and teacher (those who water) “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Eph.4:12). Those within the church were to be equipped so that they could assist one another in their mutual pursuit of spiritual maturity and persevere against the resistance of their own flesh which loves its “freedoms.”  

Collectively, the church “does the work” of people to people service (not simply a few paid staff).

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Sadly, because of the intelligence of sin in the flesh, much of what passes as Christianity has been commodified into a marketable product one can use to gain what one likes.  One can even maintain a worldly mindset while singing the songs of Zion (that’s a metaphor that represents the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth). As for the real biblical Jesus, it’s difficult to recognize or find him in the pluralism of the western church. May God help us and grant discernment in the market place of buying and selling Christianity. It’s a Burger King church culture out there, you can have it your way…for now.

Pastor Preston Atkinson

Pastor Preston Atkinson

Pastor Atkinson is the Pastor at Southern Hills Baptist Church. He this aij;poja afj aelk ;vjow evj wo;