Living Words
Introduction
Reading the signs, the Lord is laying a foundation in preparation for a “quiet revival” among us. The restoration of a liveliness we have once known but lost through transgression (Rev 3:2). Such a “quiet revival” can be readily believed for. On what grounds am I assured of such things?
Suffering for Glory
On the basis of its significance to my old mentor (G.C. Bingham), I have often quoted words of the risen Jesus to the dull disciples on the road to Emmaus, “he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”” (Luke 24:25-26). So, it was unsurprising that a close friend sent me a lengthy video clip (1hr 37 m) titled, The Suffering and the Glory: Pastoral Ministry in Union with Christ https://youtu.be/nWmTRPR5aD0 . This is a topic vital for how to live the Christian life. In this affluent part of the world, we live in an environment dominated by therapeutic concerns alien to the teaching of scripture that the same Lord “kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up” (1 Sam 2:6). Through Jesus, the Lamb of God greater than all things and for whom all things have been created (Col 1:16; Rev 5:6), we understand the history of the universe is shaped by crucifixion-for-resurrection. What was surprising about the video clip was that, quoting my reply to the friend who sent it, “it makes the scriptures come alive with the apostolic desire for suffering-and-glory in Christ”, to which he replied, “I had the same experience hearing the Word come alive. Would that all preaching was filled with this. The interesting thing is that it was not delivered with any particular strong outward emotion and yet was so stirring regardless. That must be the Lord bearing witness.” If very little Christian preaching/teaching bears the character of spiritual liveliness, which is an essential property of the Word (Heb 4:12-13), what is the Spirit of the Lord saying about how this situation can change?
Enlarge MY Heart
After the reading of the Bible in Anglican churches the reader may say “May your Word live in us”, whilst the people respond, with “And bear much fruit to your glory”. Since the fruitfulness in Christians (Gal 5:22-24) depends on the liveliness of the Word, the discipleship crisis across the whole Australian Church points to a deadness in proclamation. This might be, as in Ephesus and Sardis, a “dead loveless orthodoxy” (Rev 2:1-4; 3:1). Talking to a ministry leader recently we agreed that there is amongst our churches an idolatrous dependence on programmes. Whilst Acts talks freely of the increase and multiplication of the Word of the Lord (6:7; 12:24; 13:49; 19:20), some Evangelical Protestants are obsessed with church growth. Surely this is because whilst there are techniques for the latter, the Lord is Master of his own speaking. Praying this morning I caught myself singing a response to these matters, “Enlarge my heart O Lord.” The way for such spiritual enlargement is through the expansion of the Word inside of my innermost being. “I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart.” (Ps 119:32). Surely this was happening on the road to Emmaus; “They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32). No doubt they felt strangely unworthy of such revelation.
Healthy Unworthiness
In an age when all possible means are employed to abolish a sense of unworthiness, the Spirit would graciously restore a healthy unworthiness in the Church. Isaiah in the Temple, Peter at the miraculous catch of fish, Saul on the road to Damascus, John on Patmos all were gifted with a sense of tremendous unworthiness when confronted by the glory of the Lord (Isa 6:1-7 = John 12:41; Luke 5:1-11; Acts 9:3-6; Rev 1:12-17). I have experienced this several times in relation to my own teaching. I was once told by my host in Myanmar that the next day I would be teaching school children. Shocked, I replied, “I never have anything to do with young people!”. He wisely replied, “Our kids are different!” Sure enough, next day the hall was filled with kids holding their Bibles and sitting on the floor attentive but motionless for an all-day teaching session. Then there was a time in Manila, when after travelling for hours by 2 motor bikes plus a steep walk. I arrived 2 hours “late” at a church. The attenders were completely untroubled by my lateness because they were totally fixed on holding fast to the Word of life (Phil 2:16). In both cases the hunger for the Word was a share in how the crowds were a gift from the Father to Jesus (Mark 3:7-8; 5:24; Luke 5:1 etc.). (We can ask to share for this gifting.) To enter this space, we need to respond to the exhortation of James, “Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, 10 and the rich in his humiliation” (1:9-10). This language moves us to turn to Jesus.
The Growth of the Word of Life
In God’s kingdom, humiliation always precedes exaltation. Moses became “more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.” (Num 12:3) as God’s Word overcame his initial, “Who am I?” (Ex 3:11-12) and fitted him for the exalted task as mediating the divine covenant. When elevated towards kingship of God’s people David is stunned, “Who am I…that you?” (1 Sam 18:18; 2 Sam 7:18). The ultimate origin and completion of these attributes (Deut 18:15; 2 Sam 7:12-16) is Jesus. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor 8:9). The transition from riches to poverty so others might be enriched is the pattern of the God’s kingdom of God Christ. The “mind of Christ” involved a self-emptying of glory for entry by God’s grace into a greater honour in which we can all share (Phil 2:5ff). For us, Jesus’ sense of personal identity was reduced to a cursed state devoid of the Spirit of sonship (Mark 15:34; Gal 3:13) so that through him we might inherit all things (Rev 21:7; 22:3). The purpose of the cross is the pre-eminence of his humanity in everything created for the Church (Col 1:18).
Conclusion
By divine providence over one day I encountered a man healed of a fractured rib, and another still suffering from this ailment. The first was a sign of a “true apostle” (1 Cor 12:12 cf. Rom 15:19) who had just agreed with me that “life in the Spirit” is being like Jesus, the second pointed to a failure of faith to even ask the Lord for healing. We live in a time of great physical fullness but deep spiritual emptiness. Until the people of God turn from making their belly their god (Phil 3:19), i.e. being satisfied with all sorts of substitutes for the all-living and enlarging Word of the Lord, and embrace the severity of acute hunger pains in “a famine…of hearing the words of the Lord” (Amos 8:11), there can be no spiritual renewal in our midst. In the kingdom of God and the Lamb (Rev 14:4) lowliness always precedes breakthrough. Let us pray for such infallible lowliness “Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, 10 and the rich in his humiliation” (James 1:9-10).