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Luke 13:23-24, “Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them; strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able”
Jesus told his listeners that the way to salvation was through a very narrow door and you had to strive or work hard to get through it. Of course when you say the words “work hard for salvation” folks will say something like this… we don’t work for salvation were saved by God’s grace and that’s a free gift!
Of course when talking about salvation God has a part... grace and man has a part... faith. When Jesus said "strive (or work) to enter in through the narrow gate" I believe he was talking about what we do with the seed that is planted in our hearts. Will we reject it, will it grow into just nominal belief or will it turn into phenomenal faith? That's on us... not God.
You definitely can’t earn salvation but the free gift is on the other side of a door and God is not going to drag you through that door… you have to do something… and something more than “seeking to enter in”. Jesus called it striving or working (for a reason) and unashamedly so do I.
There’s a concept among the Christians that I associate with that for any religious practice that we engage in we must have biblical authority and I whole heartedly agree with that even though I have reservations sometimes on how authority is established.
Regarding the use of church monies for instance. We through biblical authority conclude that church monies are only to be used for accomplishing the work of the church which we determine is… edification, benevolence and evangelism. In other words, the church is not a world wide relief fund for the needs of those outside of the church. Church monies are to only be used for the edification of christians, the benevolence of christians and to evangelize the world.
Sometimes our biblical conclusions are proved or disproved through examples. Here’s one.
The congregation where we attend has an elementary school next door and in light of all the recent school shootings the school was wisely making provisions in case something similar might happen to them (God forbid). They contacted the Elders of our congregation and asked that if a school shooting occurred could they use our parking lot for a staging point. We said… yes and that if such a thing happened not only our parking lot but also our air conditioned building, restrooms, furniture, etc.
So did we violate biblical authority by using our facilities for those who were not christians? Were there Muslim, Hindu or atheist families in that school? Did we risk sinning against God and possibly having our candlestick removed from Heaven for potentially letting these folks use our building and facilities?
No we didn’t. We had authority… the authority of love… to love our neighbors as ourselves which by the way is not just an obligation for individual christians but also for the collectivity of christians… the church. Certainly judgment has to be used and biblical principals respected but for me in light of this example our process for establishing authority was deeply flawed.
Can you imagine the impact if we had told that school that according to the Bible our church couldn’t help kids and teachers who were shot up by a gunman?
I talk to my mom every week and mom is 85 years old and very forgetful but she hasn’t forgot how to be a Christian. She has a health care worker who comes in to her home and sits with her. Mom can’t remember the health worker’s name but says she is trying to convert her.
Also mom used to sit with my brother Greg (Elder at Bulverde COC) at the front of the building. She told me she moved her seat towards the back so she could greet visitors. Mom may not have the ability or memory that she had when she was younger but she’s still doing the best she can do. As we all should be doing.
Well I’ve missed two Sundays in a row at Parkway. Last Saturday night my brother died unexpectedly and we drove up to Bulverde to break the news to my mother. Yesterday we had the funeral for my brother. I don’t like to miss our services.
The funeral was well attended. It was standing room only and the attendance was estimated at about 230 or so. We had relatives come in from California, Tennessee, North Carolina, Oregon and from all over the state of Texas.
We had Christian friends from Houston that we had grown up with make the drive over. We had some of our Parkway family there and some former members like Linda Yanta and Doug and Paula Mokry. My old college friend Ben Lucas was there. A lot of these folks I hadn’t seen since my dad’s funeral in 1998. One of Scott’s dentist friends made the trip from El Paso. He said Scott was so proud of his family and talked about us all the time and that he wanted to come meet us all. He also said Scott taught him a lot of dental techniques and one time he was having trouble with a patient and called Scott and Scott dropped everything to come and help him.
My emotions were in pretty good control until someone walked in that I didn’t expect or someone walked in who I hadn’t seen in a long time. The Perkins family is pretty close and one of my friends said they were a little jealous of that. Here’s how close we are. Lauren had major surgery on Wednesday and still made it to the funeral on Saturday. She wouldn’t have missed it for anything.
I made some opening remarks and had the closing prayer. My cousin Mark led us in “Amazing Grace”, “I’ll Fly Away” and “I Surrender All”. Walker talked and all six of Scott’s kids had something to say. I learned some things. My brother Greg did the eulogy. I begged off of doing anything because I knew I would break down emotionally but I was assigned opening remarks and guess I did okay.
There were a lot of Church of Christ people there and the singing was awesome. A friend of my brother’s widow was there and said she came to comfort Mary Jane but found herself being comforted instead and was amazed at the singing.
My friend John Gambino who has preached a lot of funerals said this… “The service today was the "BEST" memorial I have ever attended. The candor, honesty, love expressed by so many was such a blessing. The understanding of and expressions of REDEMPTION struck a deep cord with me”
I’ll tell just one story about Scott. He spent a week in jail one time and he flourished in whatever environment he was in. When he was bailed out all the other inmates stood up and gave him a standing ovation. That was my brother.
Our dad died in 1998 after a yearlong battle with cancer and we had a year’s time to shed tears and say good bye. Four days before my brother died I called him and sang happy birthday to him (66th birthday). The day he died he was active in our Texas Perkins text message group. I wish that somehow I could have talked to him just one more time and told him how much I loved him.
I was working in my garden today by myself thinking about my brother Scott and his untimely death. I found myself thinking… I wish I knew a little more Bible and I also wish I knew a little less Bible.
I am well familiar with passages like… “it’s easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle…” and “strive to enter through the narrow door…”
But I’m also familiar with what Jesus did for the family of Lazarus and how because of his great love for them he made Lazarus alive again.
Now I know that making Lazarus alive again is not the same thing as living in eternity… I know that.
What I don’t know is what my brother’s eternal destination is. I worry that he didn’t work hard enough to enter through the “narrow gate” but I also know that Jesus has great love.
I asked my mother that if we knew Scott wasn’t going to Heaven would she offer to trade places with him? She didn’t hesitate for half a second and said… of course I would. And thinking about it I guess I would too.
But if we were able to make that offer to Jehovah God my guess is that God in his smartness would respond… lets see what Scott has to say about that. And knowing my brother he would reject that offer in a quarter of a second.
I wish I knew more Bible and wish I could look into God’s heart but if anything could get God to change his mind my guess is it would be love… ours and his.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see but I believe in love.
Christians are added to the church when they have believed, been baptized and have received the “gift of the Holy Spirit”. As Christians come out of the waters of Baptism they are added to the church by God. All baptized believers world-wide are in God’s church.
Note in Acts 8:3… “but Saul laid waste the church entering into every house, and dragging men and women committed them to prison”.
We are the church when we are awake and when we are asleep, when we’re working and when we’re on vacation, when we’re at home and when we’re traveling… we are the church 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for all of our lives.
Note in Acts 14:27… “And when they were come, and had gathered the church together”.
This verse does not say they gathered the “Christians” together it says the gathered the “church” together.
The church (Christians) scattered all over the world gather together in assemblies to fulfill spiritual obligations to each other and to God. When they leave those assemblies they don’t stop being the church.
This is important because much has been said to differentiate between the work of the individual Christian and the work of the church (for various reasons). There is no difference between the work of the individual Christian and the work of the church because they are both the same... they are both the church. What is the work of one is also the work of the other.
“For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away” (1 Corinthians 13:9-10)
All my life I’ve been taught that the “Perfect” is the completed word of God… the Bible and that when the Bible comes, the “Part”(spiritual gifts) would be done away with. I believed that and taught that but somewhere along the way I became troubled with that interpretation. I guess because for me it didn’t seem to fit the context.
First of all the purpose of the spiritual gifts (especially the gift of Prophecy) was to edify or build the congregation (1 Cor. 14:4). And the church needed to be built up. Keep in mind the church was in its infancy and in fact Paul referred to the Corinthian church as being “Babies” and in need of growth and maturing (1 Corinthians 3:1).
They were spiritual babies in part because they were not united in love with each other… they were bickering and fighting and they needed to be built up utilizing spiritual gifts until they became mature or perfect in their love for each other.
1 Corinthians 13 clearly illustrates that “love” is superior to “spiritual gifts” and while all Christians might not possess the same spiritual gifts they could all… no matter their spiritual station… be rich in love
So “spiritual gifts” in the early church were like training wheels on a bicycle and there comes a point when the training wheels come off and we can ride that bike on our own.
The promised “perfect” then in 1 Corinthians 13:10 is the point when Christians interact with each other in love and in so doing testify that Jesus is the Son of God (John 17) and God is glorified (Ephesians 3:10)
That’s when the training wheels come off and spiritual gifts are no longer needed (in my opinion).
Thanks
