Contemplating “Good” Friday

It’s always struck me as strange that Christians refer to the day of Christ’s crucifixion as “good.” I get the goodness of Easter (even if I don’t get the weird rabbit-and-eggs way we celebrate it). It’s easy to see how Jesus’ triumph over sin and death are “good” things. It’s easy to understand why victory deserves celebration. But defeat . . . death . . . destruction? Why would we want to call all that “good”?

Romans 5:8 and 1 John 4:10 lead us toward an answer.

Romans 5:8

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1 John 4:10

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation [sacrifice of atonement] for our sins.

The point in both verses (and of countless others all through the Old and New Testaments) is that the cross of Christ represents the pinnacle of God’s lavish and costly love for death-deserving sinners like you and me. The goodness of the crucifixion lies not in the victimization of Jesus (whether by God or the worldly powers-that-be) but rather in that, as Peter says in Acts 4:27-28, “truly in this city [Jerusalem] there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”

In other words, the cross was not an accident. The cross wasn’t Plan B. The cross wasn’t a defeat. The cross (though shrouded in a sort of tragic almost heart-breaking irony) was God’s ultimate triumph over the evil “powers and authorities” (Col. 2:15) of this present world. The cross is God’s testimony that you are “more wicked than you ever dared believe and yet more loved, in Jesus Christ, than you ever dared hope.”

Join with us this Friday at 7pm and 9pm to celebrate the profound goodness of the cross and, until then, take some time to listen through this powerful sermon from Mark Driscoll on the nature and meaning of “Christ on the Cross.”

God's Story

I've been reading through Mark Dever's book, The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, and just read something that I found helpful in communicating God's story.

At our Sunday night training sessions, we've been challenging each other to shorten the stories: "God's Story" and "My Story." Part of the efficiency in communicating the gospel stems from Dever's writing and teaching. He writes this:

In our church in Washington (D.C.) I always ask our prospective members to tell me the gospel in one minute or less. How would you do that? What would you say the message is? Here's what I understand the good news to be:

The good news is that the one and only God, who is holy, made us in His image to know Him. But we sinned and cut ourselves off from Him. In His great love, God became a man in Jesus, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross, thus fulfilling the law Himself and taking on Himself the punishment for the sins of all those who would ever turn and trust Him. He rose again from the dead, showing that God accepted Christ's sacrifice and that God's wrath against us had been exhausted. He now calls us to repent of our sins and to trust in Christ alone for our forgiveness. If we repent of our sins and trust in Christ, we are born again into a new life, an eternal life with God.

To give you some perspective, that story is 138 words long. At our Sunday evening training sessions, we've been quick to communicate that efficiency in communicating the good news will be a helpful tool, both in developing your own understanding of the gospel, and also in your conversation. Two weeks ago, we challenged you to communicate "God's story" in 3 minutes. Last week, two minutes. We would venture to challenge you to communicate it in 1 minute.

A few observations:

1. Time is of the essence. Attention spans are short. People are not by nature "listeners." You do not often have all-day to sit down with a friend and talk about the gospel in detail. This is, of course merely a tool to help, it is not a rule; it is not a law; it is not the right way to share the gospel. But we think it will help.

2. Evangelize in bullet points. As I read the story quoted above, I felt like I was reading bullet list, and that a lot of meat was missing. Funny--but that was the case! With a bullet point list, it does leave the door open for question--for further conversation. I have something else to talk about if a question is asked--something meaningful. This will help in your discourse with a non-believer.

3. Write it out. This week, we challenged you to write out "Your Story" in 100 words or less (for the same reasons as above, but ultimately) to help you know what is most important to communicate. Writing something will really put your thoughts and word choice under a microscope. You will notice things as you write, that otherwise would fly under the radar. It will help your conciseness and your clarity.

Good stuff! If you have "Your Story" written (in 100 words or less (we can all give each other suggestions on editing for conciseness and clarity)) please share it on the discussion board on the facebook page.

Making the Gospel “Good” (1)

One of the primary reasons—if not the most primary reason—we don’t share the gospel with the lost people in our lives is because (if we’re really being honest) we don’t actually believe that the gospel is all that “good.” Now, at one level, of course (if we’re followers of Christ), we know that the gospel is good. Intellectually, we assent to the fact and publicly we wouldn’t disagree. Our problem is that we don’t have a sense on the heart—a profound and authentic experience—of its goodness. We’ve forgotten how the gospel tastes.

I was particularly struck by this a couple of weeks ago after I shared the following story with a group I’m a part of in Portland made up almost exclusively of non-Christians. The story I told went like this . . .

For the past month and half—stretching back to about the middle of November—I’ve been spending most of my time and energy in preparation for a new project that’s going to launch in just over a month. With somewhere between two and three hundred people watching to see what happens, it’s a very public project.

I myself am one of four central leaders helping to drive the project forward and provide vision. In addition to the four of us, there’s another thirty or so that have joined in and committed to giving some sort of personal service. Of those two groups (meaning out of those thirty people), I’m the only one getting paid.

Back in December, in preparation for the project, I set a very specific, personal goal to deal with a particular moral problem in my life. With the help, support and rigorous accountability of a good friend, I met that goal in December and I’ve continued to live within its boundaries in January as well. The goal itself wasn’t anything spectacular. It was basically another step toward tightening-down an area in my life that I’ve been making meaningful advances in for a few years now.

On top of that, throughout December, with this new project clearly in view, I prayed with more intentionality, more focus and a great deal more regularity than usual. In fact, on January1st, I brought the New Year in with prayer and fasting, both of which are very positive spiritual practices for me.

I say all that to say this: I went to bed on January 1st absolutely wrecked. All of those positive behaviors and all of that healthy, spiritual living and I was awash with anxiety, unable to sleep. The reason I couldn’t sleep was simple: fear of failure. I had given my heart to the idol of personal success.

My thinking went like this: “Here I am, heading up this new and very public project with all these people counting on me to make it happen and even more watching from the stands to see if it does.” In that moment what I believed was if the project succeeds, then I’ll be a success; but if it fails, then I’ll be a failure. In other words: “I am this project. If it wins, I win, I’m a winner. If it loses, I lose, I’m a loser. And (even more wrecking) everyone watching will know.”

After some reading and prayer I eventually fell asleep and January 2nd came. A week later, I was talking to the same friend who had been helping me with the goal I mentioned earlier. I told him about all the good things I’d been doing and how despite that I’d been so gripped by fear on New Year’s Day. After I finished, he looked at me and said (pretty matter-of-factly), “You know, whether this project succeeds or fails, I wouldn’t honestly think you had all that much to do with it either way. You’ll led. You’ll teach. You’ll do your best. But why anything is successful or not is (for the most part) a mystery up to God.”

I was struck. On the one hand, part of me hated what he’d just said. I wanted to pushback: “Wait a minute, that’s great if this thing tanks, but if the project’s a success, I want people to think I’m a success.” On the other hand, another part of me (the honest, sane, less-self-promoting part of me) loved it: “If that’s the case then all I have to do is breathe and be obedient. The whole success-or-failure bit isn’t in my court.” Suddenly I saw there was freedom in what he’d said. Freedom, sanity and hope.

I finished telling the story and the very next person to speak (a non-Christian man in his mid-fifties) said something like this: “I’m one of four people starting up a new project later this year. I’m the only one getting paid. The last few weeks have been tough. I’ve been so consumed by fear, particularly the public fear of failure. I wasn’t sure why I came today and now I know. After hearing that I have a hope that ten minutes ago I didn’t know existed.” After the meeting ended we connected and I was able to talk to him more about how the irony of my situation arose from the fact that my whole understanding of spiritual reality is rooted in grace, that God doesn’t accept me because of who I am but because of who He is. (I wish I would have said more about Jesus in our conversation, but I’ll see him again and we’ll get to talk more down the road.)

What hit me about that experience was how an implication of the gospel—even though the guy I was talking to didn’t even know what to call it—was in that moment good news. It really was. After all, it’s good news to hear that our failures don’t ultimately determine our worth; it’s good news to find out that we don’t have to be controlled by our fear of people’s opinion; and it’s good news to learn that instead of judging us by who we are, God accepts us unconditionally through the worth and righteousness (i.e., the success) of His Son. The gospel’s good. It really is. And sometimes we need to be reminded.

Praying for Gospel Centrality

The following prayer was one we put together for last month’s 5(hundred) Hours of Prayer to prepare for the launch of re:Generātion. I’ve been using it my devotions almost daily. It captures well the heart of what our aim in this, and all, ministry should be.

Gracious Father, make re:Generātion a gospel-centered community committed to conveying and communicating the centrality of Christ to the gospel and the gospel to all of life.

Guard and guide the hearts of both its members and its leaders for we are all prone to follows other gods—idols of our own making and design.

Grieve us, I pray, in those times when we forsake you, with a profound and godly sorrow and lead us in authentic lives marked by true repentance (2 Cor. 7:9).

Cause us to turn away,
From seeking our own good,
From exalting our own names,
From loving our own lives,
From playing our own gods,
From saving our own souls.

Be gracious, O Lord, according to your loving-kindness; according to the greatness of your compassion blot out our transgressions. Wash us thoroughly from their iniquity, and cleanse them from their sin!

Create within us clean hearts and renew right and steadfast spirits within us (Ps. 51:1-2, 10).

Make us righteous by your grace as a gift received by faith. Do not allow us to trust in our own works but in you, the God who justifies the ungodly through the redemption that is in Christ (Rom. 4:5).

Root us deeply, Father, in the reality that having been baptized into Christ we have been baptized into His death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through your own powerful glory, we too might walk in newness of life.

Unite us to your Son that sharing in His death we might also share in His life-giving resurrection.

Through the cross, dispel the power of sin and set us free from its slavery.

As Christ himself died to sin and now lives His life to you, so too teach us to consider ourselves in all our parts dead to sin but alive to you in union with your Son.

May sin, therefore, have no dominion over us, for we are no longer under the law, but under the reign of grace (Rom. 6:1-14).

And finally, Father, having experienced your gracious, gospel love, may we love in return.

Make us agents of your grace, sent out in the name of Christ to seek and save the lost.