3 Questions About Abiding in Christ

The Christian life is about growth and change. Grace takes ordinary people just as they are and begins to bring about hopeful change.  How does that happen? Change happens through our union with Christ, which Jesus explains through the metaphor of the vine and branches in John 15. If you ever feel stuck, read on. Learning to abide in Christ will give you fresh hope.

Let’s look at three simple questions about abiding in Christ that are answered in John 15:1-17.

1. What is abiding in Christ?

In John 15:1-5, Jesus uses a simple illustration. We are to abide in Christ as a branch abides in the vine. As we depend on Christ in this way, and draw upon his strength, our lives will bear fruit. We learn three practical things from this illustration.

1. God the Father is the “vinedresser” who prunes the branches. (John 15:1-2) Pruning is painful in the short run, but is good in the long run. Is God pruning you in some way these days? Sometimes I think God prunes me by humbling me. I don’t get something I want, or I don’t get my way. It helps to remember that this is part of God’s good plan. The word for pruning is closely linked to cleansing. Change is hard, but I can respond simply confessing sin and embracing the cleansing and forgiveness that Christ won on the cross.
2. The Christian life is a life of dependence. As a branch draws upon the life of the vine for growth and fruit, we need to draw upon the life of Christ. Apart from him, we can do nothing. (John 15:5)
3. Union with Christ is good news! “Abide in me and I in you.” (John 15:4) We are in Christ, and we are clothed with his righteousness. The Bible elsewhere refers to this as “justification by faith.” But there’s more. Christ is in us, and he wants to work in us by his grace to change us. The Bible refers to this as “sanctification.”

2. Why abide in Christ?

Jesus wants us to know that good things happen as a result of abiding in Christ. Here are some of them.

1. We will bear fruit. Fruit is the outward sign of a healthy branch. While in Germany visiting our family, we picked raspberries straight from the garden. They were…amazing. Gospel fruit is a good thing. Henry Scougal said it well:  “The root of the divine life is faith; the chief branches are love to God, charity to man, purity, and humility.”
2. We will see answers to prayer. John 15:7 appears to be a blank check, almost too good to be true. “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” Our prayer life changes when it is shaped by abiding in Christ.
3. We will grow in our capacity to love. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” As we internalize and experience God’s love for us, our hearts will shift and we will become more thoughtful, more loving, more giving, toward others. Dale Bruner describes this dynamic as inhaling and exhaling. First I need to inhale God’s love, then I can exhale in love for others. 

3. How can we abide in Christ?

I used to think that abiding in Christ meant being passive, simply “resting in Christ.” That’s halfway true, since we are dependent on Christ and can’t change in our own strength. At the same time, we are commanded to abide in Christ. As Dallas Willard said, “Grace is opposed to earning, not effort.”

The most important thing is to maintain fellowship with Christ, as a branch maintains connection to the vine. We maintain fellowship with Christ by preaching the gospel to ourselves. Though our relationship with Christ as his beloved children never changes, our experience of fellowship with Christ can change. That’s why 1 John 1:9 says that we need to confess our sins and experience his cleansing and forgiveness. We “preach the gospel to ourselves” by confessing our sins (repentance) and trusting freshly in what Christ did for us on the cross (faith).

Read more! Download the PDF: 
"Preaching the Gospel to Yourself"

As we maintain fellowship with Christ, we draw upon his grace and strength through the ordinary means of grace given to us by God for our growth and renewal. And here’s the rub. Each of these will require effort on your part. God wants us to participate in these means of grace, and engage them. Here they are:

1. The Word of God: Jesus said in John 15:7 that his words are to abide in us. We take in the Word through reading, reflection, and through the preaching of the Word during worship.

2. Prayer: In prayer we “receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) Prayer can be difficult, so it will take some sacrifice and effort. But it’s worth it. During August we are asking the LBC family to set aside some time, even a few minutes, each day to seek the Lord and to pray for the work of the church. Look for your heart to change as you spend time in fellowship with God through prayer.
3. Fellowship: we often can more readily internalize the love of God when we love one another. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “The Christ in (our) own hearts is weaker than the Christ in the word of other Christians.” If you isolate yourself from the fellowship of the church, your spiritual life will wither. Take the time, make the effort.
4. The sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper: In communion, we “commune” with Christ through the presence of the Holy Spirit. In baptism the gospel is proclaimed to us afresh through the “visible words” of the cleansing water. The sacraments do not merely represent historical events. They strengthen us to live by faith in a fallen world.

These “means of grace” combine most strongly as we gather each Sunday for worship. We hear the voice of God in the call to worship. We hear the gospel afresh and see Christ’s beauty as we sing. We preach the gospel to ourselves in confession and the good news of assurance in Christ. We hear and receive the grace of God as the word of Christ is preached from the pulpit. The visible words are portrayed to our hearts through the sacraments. And we experience the grace of the Helper, the Holy Spirit, in the benediction.

Give it Time

In conclusion, give it time. It takes a lot of time to grow juicy raspberries. Don’t expect instant change, instant fruit, instant growth. When you are discouraged or experience setbacks, don’t give up. When the church or friends let you down, don’t give up. If Bible reading and prayer are difficult, don’t give up. If you fail, don’t give up. Stay engaged in the means of grace, however imperfectly, and give it time.

Let’s do this.

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Mike is the Senior Pastor of Lake Baldwin Church. Along with preaching, pastoral care, and forward-thinking leadership, Mike loves to invest in developing leaders for the future. Since the beginning of LBC in 2006, Mike and Molly have worked to create a culture where people can grow and use their gifts.

Guest Post: Covenant Theology 101

The sermon this Sunday will be from  Daniel 9:1-19, which contains Daniel's intercessory prayer for his people. This prayer is characterized by confession and repentance. The prophet begins: "O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly land rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. . ."

What is the "covenant and steadfast love" to which Daniel refers? What is the nature of this covenant relationship between God and his people? Let’s take a look at Covenant Theology in three parts: What is a covenant? What covenants did God make with his people? How can a covenant be fulfilled?

“As Lord, God deals with human beings through covenants. A covenant is like a treaty between a great king and a lesser king, in which the great king describes the relationship, imposes law, and promises blessing to those who obey the law and curses to those who don’t. In the Bible, God makes covenants with Adam, Noah, Israel under Moses, David, and with Christ.”

— John Frame, "Salvation Belongs to the Lord"

 

What is a Covenant?

As we move through the Bible, although there are a number of individual covenants, we begin to understand that there is only one “Overarching” Covenant. It was given over many centuries and with expanding detail (each covenant). The nature of “Covenant” is that God has determined to have a relationship with mankind, built upon principles laid down in Scripture. He has called that relationship “Covenantal”. It is an intimate relationship between a Father and His children.

“Covenant is a relation between the Lord and a people whom he has sovereignly consecrated to himself. . . The heart of the covenant is the promise “I will be your God, and you will be my people”. This implies that God will be with us as he was with Abraham, Jacob, and many others. He is committed to us, and in response he calls for our trust and obedience.”

— John Frame, "Salvation Belongs to the Lord"

 

What covenants did God make with his people?

The Covenant mentioned in Daniel 9 is the same Covenant revealed to Moses in extraordinary detail. The Covenant between God and mankind is revealed early in Genesis where we see it in vague detail in Genesis 3; then to Noah as God covenants not to destroy the earth by flood again; then to Abraham where God pledges to be the God of Abraham and his descendants, through the “formal” act of Covenanting; then to Moses not only through the Covenant Documents (the tablets of the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20) but also through the explanation of those commandments (Exodus through Deuteronomy) and finally through the introduction of a New Covenant prophesied by Jeremiah (Jer 31:31) and Ezekiel (Ezk 36:26).

We learn about the covenant with Abraham and his children in Genesis 17. According to God’s instructions, the sign and seal of this covenant is circumcision, performed on all males eight days old and up. 

The Mosaic Covenant contains blessings by God for those who covenanted with Him and performed their obligations. It also brings curses to those who breach the Covenant. God promised them a land “flowing with milk and honey” (the “Promised Land”); homes they did not build; groves they did not plant. Nevertheless, in spite of these incredible blessings, almost immediately after they took possession, they began to breach the Covenant. 

Again and again God forgives their breaches (trespasses) but finally the breaches become so severe that God brings judgment upon them and removes them from the “Promised Land” into exile in Babylon. It is here, nearing the end of their exile, that Daniel recalls their abuses of the Covenant and begs God to relent concerning His people. This is the background of Daniel 9.

 

How Can a covenant be fulfilled?

But we are not finished with God’s Covenant—not even close to finished. As prophesied, God introduces a New Covenant which would provide remedies for the breach by His people of the Older Covenant and would be broadened to include the Gentiles as well as Israel. Since it was clear that His people could not perform the Older Covenant, He determines to perform the Older Covenant on behalf of His people through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. He will perform both sides of the Covenant, His and ours!!!  How does he do this?

Jesus takes upon Himself the burden of perfectly performing all of the obligations under the Older Covenant. Not only does Jesus perfectly perform the Older Covenant, but He takes upon Himself the punishment of God for the sins of all of God’s people in violation of the Older Covenant. If that were not enough, God then attributes the righteousness—which Jesus has thus obtained—to us.

Furthermore, to help His people more clearly understand His requirements for them, He gives each of us a New Heart and a New Spirit, emblazoning the Old Covenant requirements (the law) onto our hearts, but even then we cannot perfectly obey. However, He takes our imperfect obedience and perfects it in Christ.  

Finally, Jesus promises and the Father sends the Holy Spirit to seal our “sonship” as God’s children, to bring us into an intimate relationship with the Father and the Son and to guide us and lead us to the “Promised Land”.   The sign and seal of the New Covenant is baptism.

Certainly the Overarching Covenant belongs to us and to our children but it is also a Covenant with His Church. God seeks a “people” not just an individual or a family. This is why we sometime refer to the church as a “covenant community.”

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Richard Hostetter serves as one of the elders at Lake Baldwin Church. He has a love for theology and is one of our favorite teachers of adult classes. Richard and his wife Susanne have a big heart for their shepherding group and for the mission of LBC. For years they have upheld the work of the church in their prayers.

4 Ways Daniel Can Change Our Lives

We begin the New Year with a new sermon series on the book of Daniel. I’ve been waiting a long time for this one! The stories of the Old Testament have a way of engaging our interest, capturing our hearts, and changing our lives. The story of Daniel has a unique way of doing that.

In his classic book, Knowing God, J. I. Packer says this about the book of Daniel: “What effects does knowledge of God have on a person? Various sections of Scripture answer this question from different points of view, but the most clear and striking answer of all is provided by the book of Daniel.” Packer goes on to list four ways that a growing knowledge of God (as revealed in Daniel) will change us.

1. Those who know God will have great energy for God.

“The people who know their God shall stand firm and take action” (Daniel 11:32). There is no place for complacency in the Christian life. My prayer for our church is that we will see where God is working and act on it.

2. Those who know God have great thoughts of God.

Packer says this about how the story of Daniel will lift our thoughts about God: “Suffice it to say that there is, perhaps, no more vivid or sustained presentation of the many-sided reality of God’s sovereignty in the whole Bible.” As we immerse ourselves in the story of Daniel, we will all realize that our thoughts of God have been way too small!

3. Those who know God will show great boldness for God.

We tend to be risk-averse, but Daniel and his friends took great risks because they knew God. Just think about Daniel 3, when defiance of the king results in being thrown into the fiery furnace!

4. Those who know God have great contentment in God.

“There is no peace like the peace of those whose minds are possessed with full assurance that they have known God, and God has known them, and that this relationship guarantees God’s favor to them in life, through death, and on forever.” (Packer) It’s often difficult to rest in God in our crazy world, and our hearts need to be drawn to the knowledge of the God of Daniel.

We can’t do any of this in our own strength. That’s why—most of all—we want to see Jesus in the book of Daniel.

When self-righteousness is the default mode of our hearts, we might “dare to be a Daniel” by emulating his courage, but this is to miss the point. When we see in Daniel a greater Daniel, the Lord Jesus Christ, then our hearts will be reset to "gospel mode" so we can press on in obedience, relying on God's grace and faithfulness rather than our own strength.

To see the grace of Jesus in this way, let’s place the sermon series in the context of the entire worship service each Sunday. The gospel-rich songs, the responsive readings from Psalms, the times of confession and gospel assurance—all of these tune our hearts the music of the gospel story that will be revealed in the book of Daniel.

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Mike Tilley is the senior pastor of Lake Baldwin Church, and has lived in Orlando since 1994. He and his wife, Molly, worked with a core group from the Baldwin Park community to plant Lake Baldwin Church in 2006. Mike loves teaching the Bible in a way that relates to real life. In his spare time, Mike enjoys good movies, long dinner with friends, snow skiing, hanging out with his kids and two granddaughters, and travel.

3 Things You Might Not Know About 2 Thessalonians

Thessalonica, a city in Macedonia (modern Thessaloniki)

Image from The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary.

During the month of June Lake Baldwin Church will feature a one-month sermon series on 2 Thessalonians. The title for the series is Resilience: The Vanishing Virtue. But how much do we know about this brief New Testament letter?

The apostle Paul and his team likely penned this "epistle" (letter) around 50 A.D. Like most of Paul's letters, there were issues in the church that prompted his writing. This is often referred to as the "occasion" of the letter.

How do we know the "occasion" of an epistle, or the reason for writing? Reading such a letter, for us, is like listening to one side of a phone conversation. We don't know for sure what the other person is saying, but we can learn a lot from what we're hearing. It's the same way when we read Paul's letters.

Based on reading 2 Thessalonians, we can identify 3 issues in the church at Thessalonica which may sound familiar to modern readers.

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1. The Christians were facing trials and persecution. 

Ancient stone arches in Thessalonica.

Image from Logos Bible Software.

This becomes clear in the first chapter. Paul realizes that these trials could make them want to give up or "dial back" their faithfulness to Christ. So he reassures them in the midst of trials, giving them the encouragement to endure, or to become resilient.

What trials are we facing that might require resilience? We might not be facing persecution, but where are we tempted to give up?

2. There was confusion about the return of Jesus Christ. 

On this point, Paul was concerned that they might be deceived about the day of the Lord. Paul was "guarding the flock" from false teaching. This is a big issue today, because truth gets softened and crumbled by false teaching and the waves of cultural change lapping up against the church. There is a need for all of us to be "resilient" when it comes to the truth of Scripture.

3. Some had grown weary in doing good. 

This can easily happen, especially if the going is tough, or if there is confusion about the truth. Apparently, there were people at Thessalonica who had grown idle in their faith.

Have you ever known somebody who had an early excitement about their faith, only to get sidetracked along the way by competing affections?

Perhaps we have all felt what it is like to grow weary in the Christian life. The Christian life is a marathon, not a sprint. Paul wanted to help the weary be resilient, and we all need that encouragement from time to time.

Where might you need to experience new strength from God? In what area of life do you need resilience? 

Let's make our study of 2 Thessalonians a refreshment station in the marathon of the Christian life.

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Join us for our June sermon series on 2 Thessalonians, "Resilience: The Vanishing Virtue." Lake Baldwin Church meets every Sunday, 10:45 AM, at Glenridge Middle School. For more information email hello@lakebaldwinchurch.com.

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Mike Tilley is the senior pastor of Lake Baldwin Church, and has lived in Orlando since 1994. He and his wife, Molly, worked with a core group from the Baldwin Park community to plant Lake Baldwin Church in 2006. Mike loves teaching the Bible in a way that relates to real life. In his spare time, Mike enjoys good movies, long dinner with friends, snow skiing, hanging out with his kids and two granddaughters, and travel.

The Little Town

Sermon date: December 13, 2016
Text: Micah 5:1-5

1 Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops;
          siege is laid against us;
with a rod they strike the judge of Israel
         on the cheek.
2     But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
         who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
         one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
         from ancient days.
3     Therefore he shall give them up until the time
         when she who is in labor has given birth;
then the rest of his brothers shall return
         to the people of Israel.
4     And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord,
         in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
         to the ends of the earth.
5     And he shall be their peace.

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The Little Town

Imagine living in a country going through desperate times. Imagine living in a country that is threatened by external enemies who want to destroy you. Imagine living in a country with failed political and spiritual leadership inside the country. We need look no further than Micah 5 to see that kind of situation. We also need look no further than current events in our world.

Last Sunday, when we began our journey to Bethlehem, we said that the fall of mankind had cast a long shadow of darkness. I said that we would never understand the reality of our world apart from understanding the fall. That message came on the heels of the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, which came on the heels of terrorist attacks on Paris and Beirut. Friday we learned that Geneva, Switzerland might be at risk. Sporting events and restaurant visits are approached with that thought, that fear, crossing your mind.

These events have occurred alongside violence in our cities, including the senseless murder of a 28-year-old pregnant pastor's wife named Amanda Blackburn, inside her home in Indianapolis. Meanwhile, the political debate continues to heat up in our country, as even Christians jump into the fray on different sides, on a whole range of issues.

But the application of Micah 5 is not only to desperate times on a global scale. This passage also applies to your troubled times. Micah was a prophet and a preacher. If only we could have listened to his podcast or read his blog posts. Actually, they are here, clothed in the language of Micah’s world.

This prophecy was given in the 8th century B.C. during the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib. The story of that siege is recorded in 2 Chronicles 32. Their leaders had failed them (Micah 3:1-4). Jerusalem was under siege from Assyrian invaders (Micah 5:1). This bright portrait of the little town of Bethlehem, and the ruler who would be born there, is painted on the dark canvas of the Assyrian invasion. 

How are we to live in dark, troubled times?

Look to Bethlehem, not the prideful cities.

Bethlehem was the city of David, and that’s why Joseph and Mary had to return there, to their ancestral home, during the census that was decreed by Augustus in Luke 2. When the magi from the east came in search of the newborn king, they came first to Jerusalem, the seat of power. But the Bible scholars directed them to the little town of Bethlehem, based on Micah 5:2.

Micah said of Bethlehem, “. . . though you are small among the clans of Judah.” You see, the dwelling place of God is with the humble, not the proud. Jesus said, unless you become like a child, you can’t enter the kingdom of heaven. 

In the first century, Rome was the prideful city of political and military power; Athens was the prideful city of philosophy and wisdom; and Jerusalem was the prideful city of self-righteous religion. But when the Christian movement was small and beleaguered, the apostle Paul said that Christ was “the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:24)

Matthew Henry put it this way: “A relation to Christ will magnify those that are little in the world.” Mother Theresa was small in stature, but she pushed back the darkness in Calcutta. When Europe was besieged by the Turks, the bubonic plague, and a corrupt medieval church, Martin Luther and his 95 theses on the Wittenberg door brought the blazing light of the gospel to millions.

Today, we are seduced by the political power of Washington, the economic power of New York, or the media power of Hollywood. But let’s not forget the little town of Bethlehem.

Some of us might feel small, and we wonder if we have a significant part in God’s plan. We might feel small because of age, social status, past failures, personality, appearance, or having less than a full portion from God.

In his book No Little People, Francis Schaeffer wrote that “in God’s sight there are no little people and no little places. Only one thing is important: to be consecrated persons in God’s place for us, at each moment.”

“God is able to draw from smallness the greatest things.” (Bruce Waltke)

Hope in Christ, not in political saviors.

One of the lessons of the book of Micah is leadership failure. Indeed, it’s one of the lessons of the Old Testament. Micah 5:1 says, “They will strike Israel’s ruler on the cheek with a rod.” This was a way of humiliating the ruler of an enemy nation.

One of the sad moments in American history was the assassination of President John Kennedy in 1963. The sadness came home to me again in 1982 when I was in Tokyo, talking to a Japanese friend at Rikkyo University. He said that’s when the Japanese people lost their faith in America.

This political season, with more debates coming up, we are once again becoming emotionally invested in our candidates, and spewing venom at those we dislike. The prophet Micah pointed to someone greater.

He would be born in Bethlehem. His origins would be “from of old, from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2) He was the fulfilment of all the ancient promises, from Genesis on. Beyond that, Jesus said of himself, “Before Abraham was born, I am.” (John 8:58) He was the pre-existent Son of God, the second person of the Trinity.

“Israel will be abandoned until the time.” (Micah 5:3) From the time of the exile, there would be no kings until the coming of Christ. With pastoral care, Micah is giving them hope so that the faithful can remain vigilant in their troubled times. The same is true of us as we await the 2nd Advent.

“Where is this ‘coming’ he promised?

"Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:4)

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:8-9)

He would be "born of a woman," the seed of Eve and the child of the Virgin Mary. Galatians 4:4 takes on rich significance.

Trust in God’s plan, no matter the chaos.

Ten years ago, Lake Baldwin Church did not exist, except in the mind of God. Last night, our SPLASH Kids rode a float in the annual Baldwin Park Christmas parade, as we invited people to Advent services. We have a vibrant worship service and a great kids program to invite them to. Resilience over time has been worth it.

You see, God does have a plan, and we have a role to play in it. That’s why it’s important that we not be seduced by powerful cities and political saviors. Micah 4:11-12 reminds us that God has a plan even in the worst of times. What is his plan?

He would gather his “brothers” into a new family of the faithful (Micah 5:3). This would happen in the age of the Spirit, between the first and second coming of Christ. When Jesus was told that his mother and brothers were looking for him, he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers? Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:31-34) This new community was forecast in Acts 1:8, and gathered into one church made up of Jews and Gentiles. This church made it through the persecution of the Roman Empire. It was the confessing church that stood up to Hitler. It is the Egyptian Coptic Church standing up to Isis beheadings. It is the Ethiopian church fighting hatred with love. Do you see, that where God has placed you, that you are part of this story?

He would “stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord.” (Micah 5:4) In John 10, Jesus said that he was the good shepherd, who would know and feed and lead his flock. This care the chief Shepherd now extends to the church through his under-shepherds, according to 1 Peter 5. “This prophecy finds its fulfillment in the church.” (Bruce Waltke) There are green pastures and peace for his church, even in chaotic times. Think of John 16:33—“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Is the Lord your shepherd? Do you see that this peace, these green pastures, are for you? (Psalm 23)

Finally, his greatness would extend to the ends of the earth (Micah 5:4). He is a global God, and this is not just theme of our upcoming Global Missions Festival, it is the teaching of Scripture. Do you see that our church is part of this global story?

Conclusion

This bright portrait of Christ is not only painted on the dark canvas of the Assyrian invasion. It is also painted forevermore on the dark canvas of human history, including our present distress. Let the peace of Christ be your comfort in your troubled times.

Bethlehem means “house of bread.” Ephrathah means “fruitful.” As Bruce Waltke says, “Bethlehem represents a new start for Christians.” What is your new start?

Are you not yet a convinced follower of Christ? Consider this newborn king prophesied by Micah, who would become the perfect ruler. Where failed kings were struck on the cheek with a rod by their enemies, the innocent Jesus was struck on the head again and again. Even more, he suffered and died for our sins on the cross so that we could have peace with God.

Why not receive this newborn king this Christmas, and have a new start?

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Mike Tilley is the senior pastor of Lake Baldwin Church, and has lived in Orlando since 1994. He and his wife, Molly, worked with a core group from the Baldwin Park community to plant Lake Baldwin Church in 2006. Mike loves teaching the Bible in a way that relates to real life. In his spare time, Mike enjoys good movies, long dinner with friends, snow skiing, hanging out with his kids and two granddaughters, and travel.