2016-10
2016-10
Wednesday Oct 26, 2016
Chapter 3: The Challenge to the Secular (Part 2)
Wednesday Oct 26, 2016
Wednesday Oct 26, 2016
Walking with God through Pain & Suffering
By Tim Keller
Chapter 3: The Challenge to the Secular
• Secular philosophies of suffering do not do a good job of actually helping people in the midst of their suffering.
o In the real world, many people ignore the counsel of the secular philosophies.
o Instead, they fall back to the more traditional and spiritual explanations for suffering.
Where Were the Humanists?
• In times of crisis, the humanists are often absent.
• Clear religious and spiritual language is not questioned and is even welcomed in times of tragedy and grief.
• Religion provides more than just “community” in times of grief and suffering.
• Religion gives sufferers larger explanations of life that make sense of suffering and help them find meaning in their pain.
• Secular humanism is incapable of providing true community and is incapable of providing a satisfying theology to help in times of suffering.
• True community is only forged when people unify around something that is more important than their individual self-interests to which all share a higher allegiance.
• “Humanism suffers… from the valorization of the individual” and cannot sustain true community.
Is Atheism a Blessing?
• Atheism claims a superiority in times of suffering because it does not have to wrestle with questions of the goodness of God and the problem of evil.
• Atheism offers consolation to the bereaved by offering “rational truths” such as non-existence and no suffering after death.
• Atheism just moves on and seeks to find a rational and scientific solution to the cause of the suffering.
• Atheism exaggerates the “problem of evil.” It was not a problem before the rise of the “immanent frame” and radical individualism.
• A strong theological foundation is able to wrestle with and handle the presence of evil in a Theocentric world.
• Atheism claims a better response to suffering by advocating for solutions such as “social justice” and “human flourishing.”
• Two problems with Atheism’s claims:
o Issues of social justice have historically been championed more by religious movements than secular ones.
o Atheism’s naturalistic foundation offers no clear or rational basis for morality or justice.
§ Science and empirical reason cannot be the basis of morality, since they can tell us how people live but not how they ought to live.
• Is it really a comfort to the bereaved to tell them that death is the end of everything and “there is no suffering in death”?
• This is “too brutal to be honest.”
• It makes little sense to point to a state in which we are stripped of all love and everything that gives meaning in life and tell people that they need not fear it.
• The secular view of “non-existence” pales in comparison to resurrection.
• When real life suffering comes, historical experience shows us that people find more consolation in religion and spirituality than in the secular view.
• This intuition—that we are not just a concatenation of matter and chemicals but also a soul—is one of the most widespread convictions of human beings in the world today and through the ages.
Suffering and the Turn to the Spiritual
• The modern, individualistic search for meaning in personal happiness cannot bear up under suffering.
• To “live for meaning” means not that you try to get something out of life but rather that life expects something from us.
• True “meaning” is found when there is something more important than your own personal freedom and happiness, something for which you are glad to sacrifice your happiness.”
• The atheistic, naturalistic worldview is incapable of sustaining parents of severely disabled children.
• The typical naturalistic definitions of “personhood” or “human being” do not apply to severely disabled and mentally handicapped children.
• Only belief in the human being as body and soul can help parents care and love these children as human beings, made in the image of God.
The Failure of the Secular
• The secular view of life does not work for most people in the face of suffering. Why?
o Human suffering comes in an enormous variety of different forms.
§ Not all suffering is victimization.
o The Western secular view of the world is too naïvely optimistic about human life.
§ The “this world” solution is never coming, and life is unhappy and hard for the majority of people.
The Expansion of the Self
• Suffering’s main challenge to secular cultures is that it reveals the thinness of the World Story they give their adherents.
• A culture must give its people a story that accomplishes at least two things:
o It must give hope.
o It must cause a society to “cohere.”
• At the heart of every story is a big idea, what life is all about.
• America: God→ Nation→ Self
o Emphasis on Self: People who are their own legislators of morality and meaning have nothing to die for, and therefore nothing to live for when life takes away their freedom.
• The “life story” that modern culture gives people does not have any ultimate goal more important than one’s own comfort and power.
• When we have no meaning beyond personal happiness, suffering can lead very quickly to suicide.
A Different Story
• The Christian “story” gives people meaning beyond personal freedom and happiness and has a place for suffering in the story.
• Suffering is at the heart of the Christian story.
o Suffering is the result of our turn away from God.
o Suffering is the way through which God in Christ came and rescued us.
o How we suffer now is one way we become more like Christ.
The Call for the Humility
• The secular view puts too much confidence in human ability to solve problems and eradicate suffering.
• But suffering is too complex and deep to be solved by money, technology, or human ingenuity.
• Suffering has a spiritual dimension that cannot be solved empirically.
• We should look for cures and solutions, but realize that we are incapable of solving the problem of suffering. Only God can do that.
• Suffering can often lead us to do the hard “soul work” of humility.
• One of the main teachings of the Bible is that almost no one grows into greatness or finds God without suffering.
• As Christ loved us enough to face the suffering of the cross with patience and courage, so we must learn to trust in him enough to do the same. And as his weakness and suffering, thus faced, led to resurrection power, so can ours.
Sunday Oct 23, 2016
“When God’s Plan Comes Together”
Sunday Oct 23, 2016
Sunday Oct 23, 2016
“When God’s Plan Comes Together” (Genesis 41:1–57)
Pastor Cameron Jungels
Eastside Baptist Church
Sunday PM, October 23, 2016
Genesis 41:1–57 (NIV)
41 When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing by the Nile, 2 when out of the river there came up seven cows, sleek and fat, and they grazed among the reeds. 3 After them, seven other cows, ugly and gaunt, came up out of the Nile and stood beside those on the riverbank. 4 And the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek, fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.
5 He fell asleep again and had a second dream: Seven heads of grain, healthy and good, were growing on a single stalk. 6 After them, seven other heads of grain sprouted—thin and scorched by the east wind. 7 The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven healthy, full heads. Then Pharaoh woke up; it had been a dream.
8 In the morning his mind was troubled, so he sent for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him.
9 Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “Today I am reminded of my shortcomings. 10 Pharaoh was once angry with his servants, and he imprisoned me and the chief baker in the house of the captain of the guard. 11 Each of us had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own. 12 Now a young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. We told him our dreams, and he interpreted them for us, giving each man the interpretation of his dream. 13 And things turned out exactly as he interpreted them to us: I was restored to my position, and the other man was impaled.”
14 So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. When he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came before Pharaoh.
15 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”
16 “I cannot do it,” Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.”
17 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “In my dream I was standing on the bank of the Nile, 18 when out of the river there came up seven cows, fat and sleek, and they grazed among the reeds. 19 After them, seven other cows came up—scrawny and very ugly and lean. I had never seen such ugly cows in all the land of Egypt. 20 The lean, ugly cows ate up the seven fat cows that came up first. 21 But even after they ate them, no one could tell that they had done so; they looked just as ugly as before. Then I woke up.
22 “In my dream I saw seven heads of grain, full and good, growing on a single stalk. 23 After them, seven other heads sprouted—withered and thin and scorched by the east wind. 24 The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven good heads. I told this to the magicians, but none of them could explain it to me.”
25 Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. 26 The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years; it is one and the same dream. 27 The seven lean, ugly cows that came up afterward are seven years, and so are the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind: They are seven years of famine.
28 “It is just as I said to Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. 29 Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt, 30 but seven years of famine will follow them. Then all the abundance in Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will ravage the land. 31 The abundance in the land will not be remembered, because the famine that follows it will be so severe. 32 The reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God, and God will do it soon.
33 “And now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt. 34 Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance. 35 They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food. 36 This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine.”
37 The plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his officials. 38 So Pharaoh asked them, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?”
39 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. 40 You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.”
41 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.” 42 Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. 43 He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command, and people shouted before him, “Make way!” Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt.
44 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, but without your word no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt.” 45 Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah and gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, to be his wife. And Joseph went throughout the land of Egypt.
46 Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from Pharaoh’s presence and traveled throughout Egypt. 47 During the seven years of abundance the land produced plentifully. 48 Joseph collected all the food produced in those seven years of abundance in Egypt and stored it in the cities. In each city he put the food grown in the fields surrounding it. 49 Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain, like the sand of the sea; it was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure.
50 Before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On. 51 Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, “It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.” 52 The second son he named Ephraim and said, “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.”
53 The seven years of abundance in Egypt came to an end, 54 and the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all the other lands, but in the whole land of Egypt there was food. 55 When all Egypt began to feel the famine, the people cried to Pharaoh for food. Then Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph and do what he tells you.”
56 When the famine had spread over the whole country, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe throughout Egypt. 57 And all the world came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe everywhere.
1. God will accomplish his plan when he wishes and with whom he wishes (1–7).
2. God’s plan doesn’t happen all at once, but progressively unfolds in a multitude of smaller, less significant events (8–13).
3. As God is accomplishing his plan and you are faithfully using your abilities wherever you are today, take every opportunity to give God the glory (14–24).
4. Whenever God’s providence provides us with opportunities for blessing or for service, we should step out in faith to take advantage of them (25–40).
5. When God desires to bless his people and his plan comes together, it will surpass all expectation and hope (41–57).
The main idea of this passage is:
As God is bringing his providential plan together in his time and his way, at each stage of the journey let us remain faithful, eager to serve, taking advantage of every opportunity. And when God blesses us abundantly beyond what we deserve, let us be sure to give God all the glory.
Sunday Oct 23, 2016
“The God of Compassion”
Sunday Oct 23, 2016
Sunday Oct 23, 2016
“The God of Compassion” (Jonah 3:1–10)
Pastor Cameron Jungels
Eastside Baptist Church
Sunday AM, October 26, 2016
Jonah 3:1–10 (NIV)
3 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
The three words that sum up the message of Jonah 3 are condemnation, repentance, and compassion.
1. God gives Jonah a message of condemnation.
2. The people of Nineveh repent.
3. God showed compassion to the repentant Ninevites.
Main Idea: God had mercy on us, though we deserved condemnation; may we be his messengers of mercy to others who are in danger of condemnation.
Wednesday Oct 19, 2016
Chapter 3: The Challenge to the Secular
Wednesday Oct 19, 2016
Wednesday Oct 19, 2016
Walking with God through Pain & Suffering
By Tim Keller
Chapter 3: The Challenge to the Secular
• Secular philosophies of suffering do not do a good job of actually helping people in the midst of their suffering.
o In the real world, many people ignore the counsel of the secular philosophies.
o Instead, they fall back to the more traditional and spiritual explanations for suffering.
Where Were the Humanists?
• In times of crisis, the humanists are often absent.
• Clear religious and spiritual language is not questioned and is even welcomed in times of tragedy and grief.
• Religion provides more than just “community” in times of grief and suffering.
• Religion gives sufferers larger explanations of life that make sense of suffering and help them find meaning in their pain.
• Secular humanism is incapable of providing true community and is incapable of providing a satisfying theology to help in times of suffering.
• True community is only forged when people unify around something that is more important than their individual self-interests to which all share a higher allegiance.
• “Humanism suffers… from the valorization of the individual” and cannot sustain true community.
Is Atheism a Blessing?
• Atheism claims a superiority in times of suffering because it does not have to wrestle with questions of the goodness of God and the problem of evil.
• Atheism offers consolation to the bereaved by offering “rational truths” such as non-existence and no suffering after death.
• Atheism just moves on and seeks to find a rational and scientific solution to the cause of the suffering.
• Atheism exaggerates the “problem of evil.” It was not a problem before the rise of the “immanent frame” and radical individualism.
• A strong theological foundation is able to wrestle with and handle the presence of evil in a Theocentric world.
• Atheism claims a better response to suffering by advocating for solutions such as “social justice” and “human flourishing.”
• Two problems with Atheism’s claims:
o Issues of social justice have historically been championed more by religious movements than secular ones.
o Atheism’s naturalistic foundation offers no clear or rational basis for morality or justice.
§ Science and empirical reason cannot be the basis of morality, since they can tell us how people live but not how they ought to live.
• Is it really a comfort to the bereaved to tell them that death is the end of everything and “there is no suffering in death”?
• This is “too brutal to be honest.”
• It makes little sense to point to a state in which we are stripped of all love and everything that gives meaning in life and tell people that they need not fear it.
• The secular view of “non-existence” pales in comparison to resurrection.
• When real life suffering comes, historical experience shows us that people find more consolation in religion and spirituality than in the secular view.
• This intuition—that we are not just a concatenation of matter and chemicals but also a soul—is one of the most widespread convictions of human beings in the world today and through the ages.
Sunday Oct 16, 2016
“The Dreamer Interprets Dreams”
Sunday Oct 16, 2016
Sunday Oct 16, 2016
“The Dreamer Interprets Dreams” (Genesis 40:1–23)
Pastor Cameron Jungels
Eastside Baptist Church
Sunday PM, October 16, 2016
Genesis 40:1–23 (NIV)
40 Some time later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, the king of Egypt. 2 Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, 3 and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Joseph was confined. 4 The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he attended them.
After they had been in custody for some time, 5 each of the two men—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were being held in prison—had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own.
6 When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected. 7 So he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were in custody with him in his master’s house, “Why do you look so sad today?”
8 “We both had dreams,” they answered, “but there is no one to interpret them.”
Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”
9 So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. He said to him, “In my dream I saw a vine in front of me, 10 and on the vine were three branches. As soon as it budded, it blossomed, and its clusters ripened into grapes. 11 Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup and put the cup in his hand.”
12 “This is what it means,” Joseph said to him. “The three branches are three days. 13 Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer. 14 But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison. 15 I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon.”
16 When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given a favorable interpretation, he said to Joseph, “I too had a dream: On my head were three baskets of bread. 17 In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.”
18 “This is what it means,” Joseph said. “The three baskets are three days. 19 Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and impale your body on a pole. And the birds will eat away your flesh.”
20 Now the third day was Pharaoh’s birthday, and he gave a feast for all his officials. He lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker in the presence of his officials: 21 He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, so that he once again put the cup into Pharaoh’s hand—22 but he impaled the chief baker, just as Joseph had said to them in his interpretation.
23 The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.
1. Joseph ministers to two distressed dreamers (1–8).
2. Joseph foretells deliverance for one dreamer (9–15).
3. Joseph foretells death for one dreamer (16–19).
4. Joseph’s two dream interpretations are fulfilled (20–22).
5. Joseph, the dream interpreter, is forgotten (23).
Main Idea: As God’s people, we must rest in the sovereignty of our God, trusting in his timing, and remaining in faith and faithfulness while we wait for God to fulfill his purposes.
Sunday Oct 16, 2016
“Grace Received, Grace Proclaimed”
Sunday Oct 16, 2016
Sunday Oct 16, 2016
“Grace Received, Grace Proclaimed” (Jonah 1:17–2:10)
Pastor Cameron Jungels
Eastside Baptist Church
Sunday AM, October 16, 2016
Jonah 1:17–2:10 (NIV)
17 Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
2 From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. 2 He said:
“In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
and you listened to my cry.
3 You hurled me into the depths,
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers
swept over me.
4 I said, ‘I have been banished
from your sight;
yet I will look again
toward your holy temple.’
5 The engulfing waters threatened me,
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you, Lord my God,
brought my life up from the pit.
7 “When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.
8 “Those who cling to worthless idols
turn away from God’s love for them.
9 But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”
10 And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Main Idea: If we are truly grateful for our salvation and deliverance, then we should be more than willing to share God’s mercy and grace with others.
Wednesday Oct 12, 2016
Chapter 2: “The Victory of Christianity”
Wednesday Oct 12, 2016
Wednesday Oct 12, 2016
Walking with God through Pain and Suffering
by Tim Keller
Chapter 2: “The Victory of Christianity”
Philosophy to “Save One’s Skin”
• One of the most important tasks of any philosophy or religion is to teach us how to face death.
• One of our greatest desires is to be loved and not be alone. So, we dread dying and our loved ones dying on us.
• We fear the slow march of time and the irreversibility of things.
• To live life well, capable of joy and love, we must learn how to conquer these fears.
• We must locate a meaning that can’t be touched by death. This can be done only by philosophy or religion.
Salvation through Reason
• The Greek Stoics believed in an impersonal “Logos” or rational orderliness that governed the universe.
• Moral“absolutes” could be rationally deduced from the natural world.
• The task of the human mind and reason was to perceive and align with the orderliness of the world.
• Face Death and Suffering:
o Live in accord with the universe and accept fate.
o Reason over emotion.
o Death is not the end, but a transformation to a new form.
Submitting to Fate, Detaching from the World
• Cicero/Seneca(Stoics) taught that death is not an evil thing and should not be feared.
• Grief is unavoidable, but it should be controlled. Ultimately, sorrow and grief are useless,with no positive function.
• Submit to fate and not protest or struggle against it.
• Stoicism similar to Eastern philosophies that taught the illusory nature of reality.
o No real evil or suffering
o No real individuals or material world
o Everything is actually a part of “the One, the Absolute Spirit”
• Stoicism and Eastern philosophies similar in that they diminish the individuality of the person and speak of an eternal existence, though not individual or personal.
• Their solution is to see everything as impermanent. Don’t get attached to anything. Don’t live in hope. Hope causes suffering.
A Greater Hope
• Christianity differed greatly from both Greek and Eastern philosophies.
• Early Christian teachers argued that Christianity made more sense of suffering.The actual lives of Christians proved it. Christians suffered better than the pagans.
• Augustine made the argument that Christians suffered and died better and that this made Christianity“the supreme philosophy”
• The Christian approach to pain and evil was superior because it offered a greater basis for hope.
• It offered the hope of bodily resurrection and a restored world.
• The resurrection meant that we would live in eternity as individual persons, not impersonal aspects of the universe.
• Our personalities will be sustained, beautified, and perfected after death in resurrection, and we will know and be known.
• The“Logos” of the universe is not an impersonal, rational orderliness, but a person—Jesus Christ—who can be loved and known.
A Greater Room for Sorrow
• Christian consolation gave far more scope to expressions of sorrow and grief.
• Christians can truly grieve and sorrow, but bathed in hope.
• Suffering is not dealt with through self-control and detachment but through relationship and hope.
• Christians don’t face adversity by stoically decreasing our love for the people and things of this world so much as by increasing our love and joy in God.
• Only when our greatest love is God, a love that we cannot lose even in death, can we face all things with peace.
• Christianity strongly rejected impersonal fate along with its randomness and chance.
• Christianity believes in a single, personal Creator God who sustains the world in wisdom and love and provides fatherly care for his children.
The Victory of Christianity
• Christianity eventually became the dominant worldview in Western civilization for nearly 1500 years.
• The Christian doctrines of resurrection and future restoration remedied “irreversibility as a kind of death in the midst of life.”
• The Christian’s future hope was real and personal, bodily and eternal. It was a restoration of life.
• Christian teachers and preachers developed a mature and nuanced theology of suffering and counsel for the “cure” of suffering souls.
• Gregory the Great taught that suffers were in the hands of a wise God.
• He rejected the moralistic view of Eastern philosophies (and Job’s friends)that suffering is directly linked to our sins. Suffering in general is because of human sin, but its role is more complex than a simple moralistic explanation.
• Particular forms of suffering may be God’s chastisement for specific sins, but they may not be.
• Suffering may also be intended not to correct or punish past wrongs but to prevent future ones.
• Suffering may have no other purpose than to lead a person to love God more ardently.
Luther’s Reformation of Suffering
• The Medieval church over time developed a moralistic, meritorious view of suffering.
• Accepting suffering with patience can eliminate some of your sin debt and helps you earn favor with God and admission to heaven.
• Martin Luther and the Reformation sought to correct this theological error.
• Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone merited by the finished work of Christ alone.
• Before we can have the joy and love that helps us face suffering, suffering must first empty us of our pride and self-sufficiency leading us to find our true security in Christ.
The Theology of the Cross
• “Theology of the cross” vs. a “theology of glory.”
• The Gospel presents the exact opposite of what human beings expect. God comes in Christ to save not in power and glory but in weakness and humility and suffering.
• Only through weakness and suffering could sin be atoned.
• In Christ, the God-forsaken sinner has a Savior who has taken on himself the full depths of human estrangement from God—and overcome it.
• Christians cannot suffer with Christ before they have embraced the full benefits of Christ’s suffering for them.
The Rise of the “Immanent Frame”
• Enlightenment philosophy with its emphasis on the rational and scientific replaced the transcendent with the immanent.
• Humanity’s answers no longer came from outside themselves, from a transcendent God, but from inside themselves by reason.
• This brought increasing confidence in human ability and reason and moral ordering.
• God was altered by Deists and was now an impersonal creator, designer who created the world for our benefit that now operates on its own without his direct involvement.
• Humanity’s purpose became to use reason and free will for human flourishing,pushing God to the edges.
Natural Evil and the Lisbon Earthquake
• With the new immanent view of God, natural evil and suffering became increasingly an argument against the existence of God.
• The secularity of Deism made the problem of evil worse by making us more proud in our ability to reason and by making the world about us instead of about God.
Residual Christianity and the Problem of Evil
• Christianity in Western culture as unwittingly been influenced by Deism and the“immanent frame.”
• We now live in a culture (even in many churches) of “moralistic, therapeutic deism.”
• We are in control of our own destiny, able to discern for ourselves what is right and wrong,and we see God as obligated to arrange things for our benefit, especially if we live a good enough life according to our chosen standards.
• Theism without certainty of salvation or resurrection is far more disillusioning in the midst of pain than is atheism.
Sunday Oct 09, 2016
“My Salvation and My Desire”
Sunday Oct 09, 2016
Sunday Oct 09, 2016
“My Salvation and My Desire” (2 Samuel 23:1–5)
Bro. Venlon Bradford
Eastside Baptist Church
Sunday PM, October 9, 2016
2 Samuel 23:1–5 (KJV)
Now these be the last words of David.
David the son of Jesse said,
And the man who was raised up on high,
The anointed of the God of Jacob,
And the sweet psalmist of Israel, said,
2 The Spirit of the Lord spake by me,
And his word was in my tongue.
3 The God of Israel said,
The Rock of Israel spake to me,
He that ruleth over men must be just,
Ruling in the fear of God.
4 And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth,
Even a morning without clouds;
As the tender grass springing out of the earth
By clear shining after rain.
5 Although my house be not so with God;
Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
Ordered in all things, and sure:
For this is all my salvation, and all my desire,
Although he make it not to grow.
Sunday Oct 09, 2016
“Running from People and from God”
Sunday Oct 09, 2016
Sunday Oct 09, 2016
“Running from People and from God” (Jonah 1:1–16)
Pastor Cameron Jungels
Eastside Baptist Church
Sunday AM, October 9, 2016
Jonah 1:1–16 (NIV)
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”
7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”
9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)
11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”
12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14 Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.” 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.
Main Idea: Running away from people that God wants you to minister to is the same as running away from God.
Wednesday Oct 05, 2016
Introduction and Chapter 1: The Cultures of Suffering
Wednesday Oct 05, 2016
Wednesday Oct 05, 2016
Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering (by Tim Keller)
Introduction and Chapter 1: The Cultures of Suffering
Introduction
Suffering is everywhere and unavoidable.
The purpose of the study is to help us take life seriously and anticipate suffering and understand its purpose and meaning in our lives.
In the face of suffering, many deny the existence of God, but just as many find God through grief and pain.
Suffering has the power to pull non-Christians to God and to pull Christians into a deeper experience of God's reality, love, and grace.
Suffering is one of the main themes of the Bible.
The central figure of the Bible is Jesus Christ, a man of sorrows.
The great theme of the Bible is how God brings fullness of joy not just despite but through suffering.
Chapter 1: The Cultures of Suffering
Training for Suffering
Nothing is more important than to learn how to maintain a life of purpose in the midst of painful adversity.
A society/culture can greatly serve its members by helping them face terrible evil and adversity.
Modern western culture is more unprepared to face suffering than perhaps any other culture today or in the history of the world.
Edified by Our Miseries
Non-western cultures help their people to be “edified by misery.” They perceive the causes of suffering in highly spiritual, communal, and moral terms.
Moralistic View
Self-transcendent View
Fatalistic View
Dualistic View
Interrupted by Our Miseries
Western culture is very much different from these other religious and philosophical systems of dealing with suffering.
Western culture adopts a naturalistic view of the universe.
There is no God, no invisible spiritual forces, no eternal bliss, no moral battle between good and evil.
It is a universe of blind physical forces, and people fall victim to bad circumstances by mere chance.
Suffering has no purpose. It has no meaning at all.
By and large, the goal of Western culture has been personal freedom and happiness.
Pain and suffering are at complete odds with freedom and happiness, so in the secular worldview suffering is to be avoided at all costs.
This is why suffering is so traumatic for citizens of Western culture. It has no place, no meaning, no purpose. It is an interruption of our lives, not a part of it.
The sufferer is a victim, under attack from natural forces devoid of intentionality.
In older cultures suffering has been seen as an expected part of a coherent life story, a crucial way to live life well and to grow as a person and a soul. But in Western culture, if the meaning of life is individual freedom and happiness, then suffering is of no possible use. It is to be avoided, managed, minimized as much as possible.
Victims of Our Miseries
Because suffering has no meaning and happens by blind chance, the sufferers are victims.
The responsibility for responding to suffering is taken away from the sufferer.
Older cultures viewed suffering as an opportunity for the sufferer to do some internal “soul work”—learning patience, wisdom, and faithfulness.
Contemporary Western culture does not see suffering as an opportunity or a test.
Sufferers are referred to experts to help them cope with the symptoms of their suffering without addressing the underlying issues or life story. These experts include psychologists, doctors, therapists, etc.
Outraged by Our Miseries
Since suffering has no meaning, there are only two responses in the secular worldview:
Manage the symptoms (pain, stress, anxiety, etc.)
Look for the cause of the pain and eliminate it.
Older cultures sought ways to be edified by their sufferings by looking inside, but Western people are often simply outraged by their suffering—and they seek to change things outside so that the suffering never happens again.
So, in the secular worldview suffering is an accident. Our response to it is to find a solution or technique to eliminate the material/natural cause of suffering. The goal is a better society in the here and now with no thought of an eternal reality.
Christianity among the Cultures
The Christian view of suffering is completely unique from the secular as well as other religious and philosophical views.
Unlike the fatalistic view, Christianity does not put emphasis on human honor and glory. Christians cry out to God in prayer, not accepting circumstances as that of blind fate.
Unlike Buddhists, Christians believe that suffering is real, not an illusion.
Unlike moralistic views like karma, Christians believe that suffering is often unjust and disproportionate. Life is not always fair. Suffering is not always the result of a direct cause/effect relationship with someone’s personal mistakes or transgressions (Job/Jesus Christ).
Unlike the dualistic view, Christianity does not see suffering as a means of working off your sinful debts by virtue of the quality of your endurance of pain.
The Christian understanding of suffering is dominated by the idea of grace. In Christ we have received forgiveness, love, and adoption into the family of God. These goods are undeserved, and that frees us from the temptation to feel proud of our suffering.
Christianity teaches that, contra fatalism, suffering is overwhelming; contra Buddhism, suffering is real; contra karma, suffering is often unfair; but contra secularism, suffering is meaningful. There is a purpose to it, and if faced rightly, it can drive us like a nail deep into the love of God.
Sunday Oct 02, 2016
“Joseph in Potiphar’s House”
Sunday Oct 02, 2016
Sunday Oct 02, 2016
“Joseph in Potiphar’s House” (Genesis 39:1–23)
Pastor Cameron Jungels
Eastside Baptist Church
Sunday PM, October 2, 2016
Genesis 39:1–23 (NIV)
39 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.
2 The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, 4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. 5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. 6 So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.
Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7 and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”
8 But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. 9 No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” 10 And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.
11 One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. 12 She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.
13 When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, 14 she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. 15 When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”
16 She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. 17 Then she told him this story: “That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. 18 But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”
19 When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger. 20 Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined.
But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21 the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22 So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. 23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.
1. In the most discouraging times of life we can have hope in our Sovereign God (37:36; 39:1)
2. In every place, situation, responsibility, and vocation, we can faithfully and diligently work for the good of others, trusting in our Gracious and Generous God (39:2–6a)
3. In every spiritual battle and temptation, we can overcome and escape by fearing our Holy God (39:6b–10).
4. We can face slander, betrayal, and unjust condemnation trusting in our Just and Righteous God (39:11–20a)
5. When it seems like nothing is going our way and things keep going from bad to worse, we can press on with confidence in our Faithful, Unchanging God (39:20b–23).
Sunday Oct 02, 2016
“The One Who Bore Our Sins”
Sunday Oct 02, 2016
Sunday Oct 02, 2016
“The One Who Bore Our Sins” (1 Peter 2:24–25)
Communion Message
Pastor Cameron Jungels
Eastside Baptist Church
Sunday AM, October 2, 2016
24 "He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds you have been healed." 25 For "you were like sheep going astray," but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
(1 Pet. 2:24-25, NIV)
1. Communion reminds us of our sin (“our sins”).
2. Communion reminds us that Jesus came to earth in flesh and blood to save us from our sins (“his body” / “his wounds”).
3. Communion reminds us that Jesus, though righteous, gave his life in bloody sacrifice to bear our sins away in atonement (“bore our sins” / “by his wounds you have been healed”).
4. Communion reminds us that Jesus’ atonement guaranteed our salvation, and he came to seek and save his lost sheep (v. 25).
5. Communion reminds us that having been brought into the fold of the good shepherd, we are dead to sins and we are alive unto righteousness (“so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness”).
6. Communion reminds us that we look forward to a coming day when all suffering and sorrow will be no more and we will be perfected in glory (see preceding context of suffering and Christ’s perfect example in suffering on the way to glory).
18 ¶ Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. 19 For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. 20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. 22 "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth." 23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. (1 Pet. 2:18-23, NIV)