Recap of Last Bible Study: Last time, we looked at the end of chapter 3, where John the Baptist is talking about why Jesus is above all. What were the five reasons why Christ is above all? 1) He had a heavenly origin. 2) Christ knows the truth firsthand 3) Christ’s testimony always agreed with God 4) Christ experienced the Holy Spirit in limitless power 5) Christ received all authority from the Father. We closed with John the Baptist’s final invitation and warning: Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. Believing in the gospel goes hand in hand with obeying. I challenged us to truly believe and truly obey, because if not, God’s wrath will remain on us.

Tonight we will be looking at the story of when Jesus encountered the woman at the well. There are 3 things that we will be covering as we look at this story are: 1) The Circumstance- What led up to this God-appointed meeting with Christ and this Samaritan woman? 2) The Contact- What happens when they met 3) The Conversion- How God changed this woman into a believer. This will take us longer than tonight, so be patient.

Let’s read from John 4:1-26

The Circumstance:

Verse 1-3: Jesus left was because the Pharisees had heard that Jesus’ disciples were baptizing more disciples than John the Baptist had. Why do you think Jesus did that? There was already some tension growing between John the Baptist’s ministry and Jesus’ ministry; although, John the Baptist was telling his disciples that Jesus must increase, and he must decrease. The Pharisees, weren’t too keen on John the Baptist, were now watching Jesus even closer. Jesus, sensing all of this tension, left Judea and departed again to Galilee.

Verse 4: Interesting to see verse 4 says Jesus NEEDED to go through Samaria. Why do you think he needed to go through Samaria? It was not because it was the shortest route, although it was. The other options which are the road on the coast and the road along the Jordan River but both were longer. However, many Jews disliked the Samaritans very much, so much that they would rather walk a farther route than to have any contact with them at all. But Jesus was thinking about going through Samaria because of a shorter route. The reason why he wanted to go through Samaria was because he had a divine appointment there with a Samaritan woman. John MacArthur mentions that John frequently uses the word dei meaning had to, to speak of Jesus fulfilling the mission given to Him by the Father. So this meeting with the Samaritan woman was another appointment set forth by the Father.

Verse 5-6: Jesus comes into the city of Sychar in Samaria. Now just some background on Samaria. It was actually the capital city of the northern kingdom, called Israel. If you remember, the nation split in two after Solomon’s reign. This whole northern kingdom went into captivity in 722 B.C at the hands of the Assyrians. So the Samaritans were Jewish in their background. We’ll look a little later why there is such hate between the Jews and the Samaritans. It is important to note that John mentions that this was near a plot of land that Jacob gave to Joseph. I think that the mention of that is important because this was an important place in Jewish history, and it is now the place where a Samaritan will hear the Gospel. Jacob, who was a hero to the Jewish people, and they were actually at Jacob’s well, the one that he dug. This will be important later, as we will see. Verse 6 says that Jesus was wearied of tired from His journey. It also says that is the sixth hour. That is about noon time. So imagine, noon, sun over your head in the Middle East. I’d be pretty hot and tired too. How can Jesus be tired? Is he not the Son of God? Is this the same guy we saw turning water into wine? Although Jesus is God, when he was incarnate as a human, he had all the physical limitations of a human. He was fully human and fully divine. One commentator puts it this way, “The strategic doctrine of the incarnation is not merely a theological assertion about the deity of Christ; it is equally a theological assertion about his humanity.” Jesus is in the right place at the right time, ready for this divine appointment with the Samaritan woman.

Verse 7-9: The first question we have to ask is, “Why in the world is this woman coming to draw water at the well at noontime?” Doesn’t she know that this is the hottest time of the day? Customarily, women drew the water in the cool of the evening. This woman was probably coming out at noontime because she wanted to avoid when everyone was drawing water. It is also unusual for this woman to come to such a long distance to draw water when there were closer sources of water to the village. Perhaps this woman is an outcast, and we will see why later on, if you don’t know already. So, the situation for this woman was that she is shamed and would rather walk a long distance, during the hottest part of the day, than to face others and the shame that they put on her.

So Jesus asks this woman for a drink. Why was this unusual? 1) He was a man, and in the Jewish culture, men did not speak to any woman publicly, especially someone who has been made an outcast. But her response to Jesus’ question shows that what shocked her most was that a Jew was speaking to her, a Samaritan. “For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.” Let’s take a look at the background, why there is so much hatred between the Jews and Samaritans. The rivalry between the Jews and the Samaritans had been going on for centuries. Let’s turn to 2 Kings 17:23-24. So what we have is foreign people who were not Jewish living in Samaria. They intermarried with the population of Jews who were not taken captive, and they formed a mixed race known as the Samaritans. The foreigners brought their idolatrous religion with them and they mixed it with the worship of God, and did things however they wanted, for example, they only accepted the first 5 books of the Bible as Scripture. When the Jews returned to Jerusalem, they wanted to rebuild the temple. The Samaritans who were actually following God wanted to help, the Jews rejected their help. The Samaritans became very angry because of this. They wanted to worship at Jerusalem, but were rejected, so they built their own temple on Mount Gerizm, which we will see later on. The bitterness continued on to the day when Jesus came. There was a lot of hatred there, a lot of bitterness.

Verse 10: What is Jesus offering this woman? He is offering her the gift of God, living water, he is offering her salvation. We don’t have enough time to continue on, but here is what I want you guys to be thinking about. The reason, I think that this story is in the Bible is to show that the Gospel, the good news of God coming to save us from our sins, is for everyone. It is for people we like, and people we don’t like. Jesus was crossing barriers because He wanted to show us that we need to cross barriers. It didn’t matter if there was CENTURIES OF BITTERNESS between your group and their group. You don’t say, “They don’t deserve to be saved,” because NO ONE deserves to be saved. Is there any racism in us? I know that we live in a politically correct time, but is there any racism in us? Anything in us that would make us say that one group of people is better than another? Anything in us that says “That group of people does not deserve to hear the Gospel!” Think back to the devotion I read earlier. Nobody deserves mercy. Feel that everyday. No one deserves it. But God crosses barriers, like Jesus did with the Samaritan, and offers living water to us. Thank God for that, and pray that we will kill any type of prejudice.

Recap of Last Bible Study: Last time we looked at John the Baptist and his ministry, telling people to repent and be baptized. What happened with John the Baptist’s disciples? They came to him and were bothered that Jesus was baptizing nearby and that people were going to him. John the Baptist responded in a way that showed his humility. He knew that Jesus was more important than him, so he said, “He must increase, and I must decrease.” He wanted his life to point straight to Jesus. I closed with the question, “Does your life point straight to Jesus?”

This week we are continuing with John the Baptist and what he has to say about Jesus. Last time, it would have been good if I ended with a “To be continued”, because we stopped in the middle of John the Baptist’s thoughts. We ended with John the Baptist saying, “He must increase, and I must decrease.” Question of the night, “Why does Christ deserve to increase, while I must decrease?” What do you guys think? According to the text for tonight, there are 5 reasons for Christ’s superiority to John the Baptist. 1) Christ’s heavenly origin 2) Christ knew what was true by first hand experience 3) Christ’s testimony always agreed with God 4) Christ experienced the Holy Spirit in unlimited power 5) Christ was superior because the Father had granted him that status.

Let’s read our text for tonight, John 3:31-36.

1. The first reason why Christ is superior to John the Baptist: Christ has a heavenly origin. In verse 31, it says that “He who comes from above is above all”. The Greek word for the first “above” is anothen, which refers to “from heaven.” Christ is from heaven, because He is God, and God is from heaven. Jesus has a heavenly origin, and that is the reason He is “above all”. What is Christ above all in? He is above all in power. Everything in the universe is under his power. We will see why later on in the passage. There is a compare and contrast here, so let’s catch it. Who else is being compared in this passage? John the Baptist and he is speaking of himself. What does he say?  He says, “he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth”. The word earth here is used in contrast to show weakness. This is why John the Baptist says that Christ must increase and that he must decrease, because he is of the earth, and Christ is from heaven. Man is very low compared to God. Our world would have us believe that we are God, and we can do anything we want. Just do it, right? You can do anything you put your mind to, right? What happens when cancer comes? Are you going to heal yourself? Are you going to zap cancer away with your power? No, you go to the hospital, go to kemo, and PRAY that God will heal you. It would do us good to humble ourselves more often. We are human, we are weak, and we are not God. John the Baptist could not reveal heaven’s plans like Jesus could. 

2. The second reason why Christ is superior to John the Baptist: Christ knows the truth firsthand. In the Old Testament, whom did God speak through? The prophets. How did the prophets know what to say? God had to tell them. They did not experience it firsthand themselves. It is the same with John the Baptist. God spoke to him about what he was to do. But Christ is different in that he has first hand account of what the Father wants him to do. Now, even though Christ has first hand knowledge of what the Father wants him to do, does anyone receive his testimony? Do people listen to what Christ has to say? In the end of verse 32 it gives us the answer. It is a no. No one has received his testimony. No one has believed him. Now, before I move on, what do you guys think about that? Does this mean that not one person has received Christ up to this point? Is this a contradiction? No. We must remember that the Bible, while it is historic, also has literary forms. It is a hyperbole, it is meant to give a general sense of what is happening. So, in general, the people did not receive Christ.

3. The third reason why Christ is superior to John the Baptist: Christ’s Testimony always agreed with God. In verse 34 it says, “He whom God has sent speaks the words of God.”  God sent Christ into the world to save those who would believe, and in verse 34 John the Baptist is saying that since God sent Christ, Christ speaks for God. God will speak through the one he has sent. So, what does verse 33 mean when it says, “He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true”? Let’s look at the 2 key words in this verse, testimony and certified. The Greek word for testimony in verse 33 is the same word for witness or evidence. What do you think of when you hear the word “certify”? In ancient days, what they did when they had to certify let’s say, a document, they did so by setting a seal on it, which meant that they gave complete approval for something. That’s why in movies, you have people sealing envelopes and letters with wax and then they stamp it with their ring or something. Those who accept Christ’s testimony certify their belief that God is true. (repeat) If you believe in Christ, you are saying to God, “God, I know you are trying to reach me through your Son, Jesus, and I believe you.” If you accept Christ, you are saying, “Yes God, you are telling the truth,” because God send Jesus. In other words, if you say you believe in God, you have to accept Christ’s testimony. You have to believe that Christ came to save you from your sins, and that he rose again and has conquered death. This is why Christianity is different. There aren’t many ways to God. There is only one way, and that is Christ. And if you don’t want to accept that way, then there is no way to God. Sometime I feel like when I talk to other people, and even maybe for myself, that everything about God is hard to believe. And I think sometimes we feel like we are doing God such a huge favor by believing in Him. Sometimes I think the attitude we have is like God is a really needy person that we need to believe him and love him or he will throw a tantrum. How wrong we are to think that. I was reading the commentary for this passage and Matthew Henry had an excellent reflection on this that I would like to share with you all. He said, “God is truthful, though we do not certify it; his truth does not need our faith to support it, but by faith we do ourselves the honor and justice to subscribe to his truth.” God is not the one who benefits from us when we have faith in him, when we love him, when we glorify him. We are the ones who benefit from him when we have faith in him, when we love him, when we glorify him. We need him. If we don’t believe in him, the only person that suffers is me, not Him. He will continue being God. We need to do ourselves a favor and fall on our faces and love and trust God.

4. The fourth reason why Christ is superior to John the Baptist: Christ experienced the Holy Spirit in limitless power. In the Old Testament, the prophets experienced the Holy Spirit, but it was in limited ways. The Holy Spirit was task-oriented. That means, it comes, helps you do your thing, and goes. In fact, in one of the Psalms David pleads for God not to take the Holy Spirit away from him. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit no longer is task-oriented, and the Holy Spirit DOES NOT leave the believer. However, the Holy Spirit is limited in us by our sinful nature. But in Christ, the Holy Spirit is measureless, that is without limit.

5. The fifth reason why Christ is superior to John the Baptist: Christ received all authority from the father. (Read from 1 Cor 15:27, Eph 1:22, 1 Peter 3:22, Phil 2:9-11) Again, John the Baptist points to the supremacy of Christ, that the Father has given all things into Christ’s hand, under his authority. Let us read verse 36 again. This comes near the end of John the Baptist’s ministry, and he gives one last invitation and warning, as John Macarthur puts it. If you believe in the Son, you have eternal life. In my version, it says “he who does not believe”. In the NIV, it is reject. But, the Greek word, for this word is “apeitheoô”, which refers to “disobey”. This completely changes the way we read this verse! Why is this so important? John Macarthur says, “Because the New Testament portrays belief in the gospel as obedience to God.” If you truly believe you will obey. Feel the seriousness of this verse. If you go and say you believe in Jesus but you do not obey the commands of God, then you do not truly believe. God’s wrath abides on you if you do not believe in Christ as your Savior. I plead with you, for your own soul’s sake, to truly embrace Jesus and to truly obey God, so that the wrath of God will not abide on you.

It’s that time of year again…

CHRISTMAS PARTY!!! Wohoo! We will be meeting at Janica’s House sometime after lunch, probably 3 and catch “The Nativity Story” at Pointe Orlando. Afterwards, we can play some games, eat some food and what not. We will also have the gift exchange then. Remember, for the gift exchange, bring something YOU WOULD WANT TO GET, between $10-$15, and preferably non-gender specific gift. It will be fun.

Personality is the unique, limitless part of our life that makes us distinct from everyone else. It is too vast for us even to comprehend. An island in the sea may be just the top of a large mountain, and our personality is like that island. We don’t know the great depths of our being, therefore we cannot measure ourselves. We start out thinking we can, but soon realize that there is really only one Being who fully understands us, and that is our Creator.

Personality is the characteristic mark of the inner, spiritual man, just as individuality is the characteristic of the outer, natural man. Our Lord can never be described in terms of individuality and independence, but only in terms of His total Person— “I and My Father are one” ( John 10:30  ). Personality merges, and you only reach your true identity once you are merged with another person. When love or the Spirit of God come upon a person, he is transformed. He will then no longer insist on maintaining his individuality. Our Lord never referred to a person’s individuality or his isolated position, but spoke in terms of the total person— “. . . that they may be one just as We are one . . . .” Once your rights to yourself are surrendered to God, your true personal nature begins responding to God immediately. Jesus Christ brings freedom to your total person, and even your individuality is transformed. The transformation is brought about by love— personal devotion to Jesus. Love is the overflowing result of one person in true fellowship with another.

We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered —Romans 8:26

“He,” the Holy Spirit in you, “makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God” ( Romans 8:27  ). And God searches your heart, not to know what your conscious prayers are, but to find out what the prayer of the Holy Spirit is.

The Spirit of God uses the nature of the believer as a temple in which to offer His prayers of intercession. “. . . your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit . . .” (1 Corinthians 6:19 ). When Jesus Christ cleansed the temple, “. . . He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple” ( Mark 11:16 ). The Spirit of God will not allow you to use your body for your own convenience. Jesus ruthlessly cast out everyone who bought and sold in the temple, and said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer . . . . But you have made it a ’den of thieves’ ” (Mark 11:17  ).

Have we come to realize that our “body is the temple of the Holy Spirit”? If so, we must be careful to keep it undefiled for Him. We have to remember that our conscious life, even though only a small part of our total person, is to be regarded by us as a “temple of the Holy Spirit.” He will be responsible for the unconscious part which we don’t know, but we must pay careful attention to and guard the conscious part for which we are responsible.

John 3:18

Recap of Last Bible Study: Last time, we were continuing with the story of Nicodemus, who was still shocked at what Jesus told him about having to be born again. Jesus told Nicodemus that the only way to not perish was to believe in him. We looked at the most famous passage in the whole world, and how there are two options for us, as humans. It was to either believe and have eternal life or not believe and perish. We talked about how God can be loving and send people to hell, and the answer was because God is not only loving, but just and holy. But in his love, He provided a way through Jesus. We had some fun asking Ray some tough questions afterwards. If you guys want, we can do that again.

Let’s jump right into our verse for tonight.

18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

The word “condemned” in the original language is “Krino”, which in this context refers to “undergo the process of trial”. The Bible speaks a trial that will take place at the end of life. Let us turn to Revelations 20:11-15:

11Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

So, in this trial, we stand before God, the judge. In America, a person’s fate rests in the hands of jurors, who don’t know the story, and are told the story by the prosecution and the defense. However, God does know the story. He is God. He knows EVERYTHING. Verse 12 says that “the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.” Every thought, every action is recorded in this book, and that will be the basis for judgment. Does that scare anyone? What if there was a way to capture every wrong thought and action for one day, and at the end of the day we could see it. How many of us would enjoy watching that? How many of us wouldn’t mind people watching that? It would probably make us sick. Imagine, every single sin you ever committed recorded in a book. What are you going to say to God? That wasn’t me. It wasn’t my fault. But, it is recorded in the book. And you will be judged according to what is in this book. This is scary. This is what being condemned means, being found guilty. What happened to those who were guilty? Scary thought. Imagine being thrown into a lake of fire. Ever get burned? Verse 10 talks about how long the punishment will be: “the tormented day and night forever and ever.” That is what being condemned means.

Verse 18 says, “Whoever believe in him is not condemned.” If we believe in Christ as our Savior, verse 18 says we will not be condemned. Praise God! How can we not be condemned? Because Jesus took out punishment. 2,000 years ago God the Father poured out his wrath on His precious Son on the cross. Jesus died and 3 days later he rose again. If we believe that he died for my sins and rose again, we are not condemned. The passage in Revelation will not apply to believers, because Jesus has already paid for our sins. The price is paid in full. We will not have to stand trial at the Great White Throne Judgment, where all the unbelievers will be judged and condemned.

We won’t have to stand trial because will be declared “Not Guilty” of our sins. Does this mean we are innocent? By no means. But it means that someone has paid the price, and I will not have to. But Christ not only took away the punishment for my sins by paying the price for them, he gave me his righteousness. This is what we call “justification”.

Jesus Christ, in his life on earth, fulfilled all of God’s law. He lived a perfect life, without any sin. By faith, when we believe in Christ, our sins were put on him and his righteousness was put on us. Christ becomes our punishment, which we won’t have to bear, and our perfection, which we cannot perform. This is not a fair trade. I’ll trade all the punishment of my sins for the life you lived out to perfection, and now that is credited to me.

Maybe this illustration will help us to understand justification. Imagine you are in a class. It is an extremely hard class. When you are in the classroom, things seem to make sense, but as soon as you go home to do homework, you don’t understand a thing. You fail every homework assignment. You have weekly exams in the class. You study all night for them, but when you take the test, you don’t understand anything and you fail. You have no hope for this class, and you feel like you are doomed to fail. Hopefully, this is not a real life scenario for any of you. Suppose your teacher notices that you have failed every assignment and every exam. Your teacher tells you, “I’ll make a deal with you. I will erase all you F’s and in their place put all A’s. The only thing I ask of you is that you believe that I will do this for you.” You say YES! Of course I will believe! That would be awesome if that happened, right? That is the same thing that Jesus did.

Jesus took all of our failures and took them on himself so that he paid the penalty for them. Jesus became our substitute punishment for sins. Jesus gave us his righteousness that is, living perfectly to God’s standard, and put that on us, as if we did it. Jesus became our substitute performer for righteousness. Isn’t that amazing?

It is a great feeling to know that you are justified before God. To think all of my sins have been erased by Jesus on the cross, and that in God’s eyes, I am perfect because Jesus’ righteousness has been put on me. However, there can be a danger when we really embrace justification by faith. What do you guys think the danger can be?

Looking back at the verse 18, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned…” How does that relate to me when as a believer I sin? What do you guys think?

The danger can be that we think too lightly of sin. “Well, Jesus already died for all my sins, and his perfection is on me, so my sin DOESN’T MATTER. It is OK to sin.” This is not the right attitude toward sin.

In the Christian, we are not to be at peace with sin in our lives. What does being at peace mean? Being at peace with sin means that we don’t see our sin as a big deal. We don’t see that there is a great need to change. We are perfectly happy to have that sin in our lives. We are not to make peace, but to make war on our sins. What does that mean? It means that we are not happy with our sin, we will not be complacent about our sin, but that we are fighting it and trying to kill it.

Now, let me say this, so that we will not be confused. Killing sin, being at war with sin, is the result of our justification, not cause of it. What am I saying? The only way for us to be justified is by faith in Christ, by believing. That’s why the verse says “Those who believe are not condemned.” We aren’t going to avoid being condemned by hating sin and wanting to be better. The only way to avoid condemnation is to believe in Christ as our savior, but the result of believing will make us want to hate sin, want to kill it, and want to live pleasing God.

So what have we said? To those who believe, there is no condemnation. Christ paid the price, and gave us his righteousness, all by faith. We just believe, and we receive that. The danger is that once we believe that it is only by faith, there is a danger to be at peace with sin. We are not to be at peace with sin, but to be at war with sin. This is not the cause of our justification, but a result of it. Everyone with me? I think I might have lost some of you.

So what should our attitude be when we do sin, as believer’s who are justified? What do you guys think? What are you attitudes when you sin?

John Piper talks about having “Gutsy Guilt”. It has been helpful for me to think about as I have faced sin in my own life. Let us turn to an Old Testament book. Micah 7:8-9.

Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;
when I fall, I shall rise;
when I sit in darkness,
the LORD will be a light to me.
I will bear the indignation of the LORD
because I have sinned against him,
until he pleads my cause
and executes judgment for me.
He will bring me out to the light;
I shall look upon his vindication.

John Piper on this passage:

“Micah is guilty. In verse 9 he says he has sinned against God. He knows it and he is not trying to hide it. He is sorry and broken and is not trying to sweep anything under the rug. “I will bear the indignation of the LORD.” So not only is there real guilt, there is real divine indignation.”

Piper goes on to say,” Micah is ashamed and accepts God’s anger. “I Sit in darkness.” The darkness is God’s discipline on Micah. God is not pleased with his sin. We must learn to do this when we sin. Know that God is not pleased with us, and that there will be discipline. There will be darkness. But, there is a limit to the darkness. God will bring you out of it. Notice the enemy. The enemy is saying to Micah, “Isn’t it obvious? You admitted that you sinned against God, and God is angry, and that the darkness and gloom are from Him. God is executing judgment on you.” That is what the enemy says.

Yes, I am under the gloom of failure. Yes, God has put me here in his displeasure. But no, I am not abandoned, and God is not against me. He is for me. Even in the darkness that he imposes, he will sustain me. He will not let me go. Though he slay me, he will save me.

Whoever believes is not condemned. That’s the hope for us. Thank God for that.

Our Lord never insists obedience. He stresses very definitely what we ought to do, but He never forces us to do it. We have to obey Him out of a oneness of spirit with Him. That is why whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an “If,” meaning, “You do not need to do this unless you desire to do so.” “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself . . .” ( Luke 9:23 ). In other words, “To be My disciple, let him give up his right to himself to Me.” Our Lord is not talking about our eternal position, but about our being of value to Him in this life here and now. That is why He sounds so stern (see Luke 14:26  ). Never try to make sense from these words by separating them from the One who spoke them.

The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear. If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself. Jesus Christ will not force me to obey Him, but I must. And as soon as I obey Him, I fulfill my spiritual destiny. My personal life may be crowded with small, petty happenings, altogether insignificant. But if I obey Jesus Christ in the seemingly random circumstances of life, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God. Then, when I stand face to face with God, I will discover that through my obedience thousands were blessed. When God’s redemption brings a human soul to the point of obedience, it always produces. If I obey Jesus Christ, the redemption of God will flow through me to the lives of others, because behind the deed of obedience is the reality of Almighty God.

Faith in active opposition to common sense is mistaken enthusiasm and narrow-mindedness, and common sense in opposition to faith demonstrates a mistaken reliance on reason as the basis for truth. The life of faith brings the two of these into the proper relationship. Common sense and faith are as different from each other as the natural life is from the spiritual, and as impulsiveness is from inspiration. Nothing that Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, but is revelation sense, and is complete, whereas common sense falls short. Yet faith must be tested and tried before it becomes real in your life. “We know that all things work together for good . . .” ( Romans 8:28  ) so that no matter what happens, the transforming power of God’s providence transforms perfect faith into reality. Faith always works in a personal way, because the purpose of God is to see that perfect faith is made real in His children.

For every detail of common sense in life, there is a truth God has revealed by which we can prove in our practical experience what we believe God to be. Faith is a tremendously active principle that always puts Jesus Christ first. The life of faith says, “Lord, You have said it, it appears to be irrational, but I’m going to step out boldly, trusting in Your Word” (for example, see Matthew 6:33 ). Turning intellectual faith into our personal possession is always a fight, not just sometimes. God brings us into particular circumstances to educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make the object of our faith very real to us. Until we know Jesus, God is merely a concept, and we can’t have faith in Him. But once we hear Jesus say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” ( John 14:9  ) we immediately have something that is real, and our faith is limitless. Faith is the entire person in the right relationship with God through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

2. One way to describe the differences in how people approach worship is to speak in terms of fine culture and folk culture. By “culture” I mean a pattern of life including thought and emotion and speech and activity. By “fine culture” I have in mind the pattern of life that puts a high priority on intellectual and artistic expressions that require extraordinary ability to produce and often demand disciplined efforts to understand and appreciate. By “folk culture” I have in mind the pattern of life that puts a high priority on expressions of heart and mind that please and help average people without demanding unusual effort.

For example it’s the difference between classical music and blue grass (or easy listening or rock or show tunes or oldies or country western —all of which are “the music of the people”, though I realize there is a continuum rather than a neat box for all kinds and qualities of music.)

Or another example would be the contrast between a Shakespearean drama at the Guthrie and “The Empire Strikes Back” at a theater.

Or one might think of the difference between reading Gerard Manley Hopkins’ Poem “The Windhover – To Christ Our Lord”.

“I caught this morning’s minion, kingdom
of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing.

Or on the other hand reading the homespun poetry of Edgar A Guest,

It takes a heap o’ livin’ to make a house a home.

3. We should not pass judgment on fine culture or folk culture per se. There are caricatures of the excesses in both that are easy to condemn. That is not our purpose. It is more profitable is to consider the strengths and weaknesses built in to both of them so has to avoid the weaknesses and affirm the strengths in both. Fine culture and folk culture have intrinsic vulnerabilities to sin and unique potentialities for God-glorifying goodness. They are redeemable.

4. Intrinsic vulnerabilities of high culture include elitism and snobbishness. In demanding high levels of intellect and skill, it easily inflates the ego of those who succeed in it, and tempts them to look with contempt on folk culture with its simpler achievements. It easily isolates technical expertise from the larger issues of life and attempt to give it intrinsic value instead of defining its value in relation to other, more important spiritual and personal realities. It is inevitably less accessible to average people and therefore tends toward performance rather than participation, and this performance orientation carries again the tendency toward an atmosphere of aloofness and distance.

5. Intrinsic vulnerabilities of folk culture include a laziness and carelessness. There is an intrinsic drift toward increasing indifference to simple disciplines that define excellence at the most rudimentary levels (for example, using bad grammar in worship songs like “you reigneth” or having “you” and “thou” in the same line. This is not like the word “ain’t” in “You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog.” It’s like singing “Thou ain’t nothin but a hound dog.”). Folk culture, with its intrinsic anti-intellectualism tends to short circuit the mind and move the emotions with shortcuts. Thus folk culture is not generally a preservative force for great Biblical doctrine.

6. The positive potentials of fine culture include the preservation of what we might call the “life of the mind”. Fine culture is more likely than folk culture to inject into the stream of society the commitment to think hard and think clearly. It is more likely than folk culture to keep the intellect from atrophying. It is especially crucial that Christians not surrender the life of the mind to the secular world, first, because it belongs to God, and he commanded us to love him with our minds, and second, because we will lose succeeding generations if we do not have intellectually credible expressions of faith to pass on to them.

Further, fine culture has the potential of preserving the very concepts of truth and excellence and beauty as objective ideals rooted in God as our Absolute. Folk culture tends always to exalt what works. It is intrinsically pragmatic and colloquial and does not measure its achievements in terms of objective, absolute ideals, but generally in terms of wide appeal and practical effect. Fine culture tends to march the beat of a drummer other than mass appeal or practical effect. At its best it strives to create images of excellence and beauty and truth that echo more faithfully the ultimate excellence of God. Fine culture thus has the potential (if not contemporary success) of helping preserve the real complexities of truth and thus guarding against the intrinsic tendency of folk culture toward over-simplification and eventual distortion.

Fine culture has the potential of touching some emotions that folk culture will not touch. Folk culture tends toward what can be commonly shared and therefore minimizes what is rare. However some emotions that belong to God are rare and profound, and may be awakened and carried best through the expressions of fine culture. For example there are probably some senses of grandeur that find preservation and expression best in some grand and magnificent artistic statements that are not part of folk culture.

7. The positive potentials of folk culture include meeting people where they are in order to communicate. Folk culture affirms the importance of building bridges of shareable experience. It is a go-and-tell mentality rather than a come-and-see mentality. It goes the extra mile to make its vision accessible to the average person.

Folk culture keeps the truth clear that elite groups of intellectuals and artists that look with contempt on the common man and his needs and tastes are not admirable persons no matter how accomplished their talents. Folk culture has the potential of reminding us that God must have loved the common people because he made so many of them. Folk culture is by nature incarnational: it clothes its claims with the skin of ordinary people and affirms implicitly the value of getting though to the mind and heart of the masses.

Folk culture at its best has the potential of touching emotions that fine culture will not generally touch. Thus folk culture honors the preciousness of average wonders. Falling in love, taking a walk, eating a good meal, talking to a friend, swimming in the ocean, having a baby, planting a garden—all these are likely to be the subject of folk culture creations and communications. It helps us not neglect ordinary beauty.

8. In the church all that we do falls somewhere on the continuum between fine culture and folk culture. Our music, our architecture, our furnishings, our dress, our written materials, our preaching and teaching, our conversation between services, etc.

9. In thinking about our worship forms and about the general tone and atmosphere of our church we should take the possible weaknesses and potential strengths of fine culture and folk culture into account. We will hopefully be able to affirm all that is good in both cultures find a way both to “be ourselves” (which is partly inevitable) and be what we need to be to honor the excellence and truth and beauty of God and reach out to all the kinds of people God is calling us to touch.

10. This will be an ongoing process, not a once for all discovery