The Fear of Death; August 25, 2018

Posted on August 28, 2018 by jgarrott

Acts 14:19-20 Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered round him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.

It seems probable that this was the occasion of the experience Paul mentions in 2 Corinthians 12, that we would call a “near death experience.” It had to have been extremely painful, but once he had seen heaven, Paul knew that “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21) I’m sure it contributed to his boldness throughout the rest of his ministry, because the worst anyone could do would be to send him to heaven! The circumstances of Paul being stoned were ironic, and point out the danger of looking at people’s responses. The people of Lystra, having seen a genuine miracle, were ready to sacrifice bulls and worship Paul and Barnabas, but after the apostles managed to put a stop to that, the Jews from Antioch and Iconium managed to rechannel the mob mentality into stoning Paul. It really brings to mind the crowds in Jerusalem that hailed Jesus as the Messiah on Palm Sunday and then, just days later, shouted for His crucifixion. We love the adulation of the crowd, when we should be seeking the approval of our God. It’s all part of switching from a temporal to an eternal perspective. That can happen gradually, and often does, but God knew Paul needed to make the switch both quickly and thoroughly, so He allowed Paul to be stoned.

I’ve not had a near death experience, but my wife has. I certainly remember the event from my perspective! In February of 1975 she was hanging laundry outside our rental house in Sasebo and her chest started hurting, to the point that she asked me to finish hanging the clothes and she went inside and laid down. After I finished, I went into the bedroom and found her lying on her back on the bed. I knelt beside the bed, took her hand, and called her name. After several repetitions, as I recall it, she opened her eyes. I won’t go into all the details, but she had been to heaven, and was sent back because “Jack and the girls need you.” I’m deeply grateful, but I also know that the next time she dies, it would be extremely inappropriate for me to pray for her resurrection. That would be pure selfishness on my part! I had not known that she had a real fear of death before that, but she has certainly not had such a fear since then. The experience has also strengthened her to deal with a wide variety of physical problems, all the way up to Parkinson’s Disease. She knows without question that however painful or inconvenient they might be, they are temporary, and what lies beyond will more than make up for it all. (2 Corinthians 4:17) I didn’t experience all of that directly, but watching her has confirmed the faith I already have, and I too look forward to heaven. I’m certainly not fond of pain, but as Jake Hess sang, “Death ain’t no big deal.” My desire and my task is to bring as many people as possible to that position through faith in the only Savior, Jesus Christ.

Father, thank You for this reminder. This is so basic, and yet so many Christians, even, fear death, and/or are obsessed with it in some way. Thank You for the Living Hope album You have us working on. Thank You that we’ll record the first song for that tomorrow. May it be powerful not simply in preventing suicides, but in guiding many to eternal life, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Discipleship; August 24, 2018

Posted on August 27, 2018 by jgarrott

Acts 13:52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

This completes the account of Paul and Barnabas’ first major stop on the mainland after leaving Cyprus. John Mark had left them once they hit the coast, (Acts 14:13) so it was just the two of them. Luke records their ministry in some detail, because it was to be typical of how they operated throughout their missionary journeys. The content of their preaching and the response to it is very interesting to read, but this verse records the result of it all. You actually could say this should be the goal of every evangelistic campaign, because it is the evidence that people’s conversion was real. It’s not that someone necessarily isn’t a real Christian if they aren’t “filled with joy and the Holy Spirit,” but such a situation removes all doubt. It’s also significant that the converts are specifically called disciples. Today we tend to treat “discipleship” as a step above and beyond conversion, but the Bible knows no such distinction. It has rightly been said that the weakest part of the Church today is making disciples. In America we go so far as to separate making Jesus your Savior from making Him your Lord. The Bible says, if He’s not your Lord, He’s not your Savior! (Romans 10:9) I think it’s a blessing that recent years have brought opposition to Christianity to America, because too many people are social Christians, with little if any personal conviction and commitment. It is when proclaiming Christ costs you something that you realize how valuable it is to belong to Him.

In the home in which I was raised, it would have been much more difficult to deny Christ than to claim Him! For a home environment that’s not at all bad, but I didn’t particularly “make waves” outside the home, not “pushing my faith” on anyone. It wasn’t until I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, as the married father of two, that I first spoke to a total stranger about Jesus. Ben Wong, and I’m sure many others in the House Church movement, stresses that Jesus didn’t tell us to make converts, but to make disciples. (Matthew 28:18-20) As long as I am content to get someone to say the right words and get baptized, I’m not fulfilling the Great Commission even if I am a missionary in Japan. As has come out in the Coaching seminars I’ve attended, with Ben Wong and others, the first question becomes my own discipleship. If I am a genuine disciple, I will make more disciples for Christ, and that must be my goal.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the message You’ve given me for Sunday, on Growth. I pray that each believer, indeed, everyone who hears the message by any means, would be convicted by Your holy Spirit and drawn into genuine discipleship, for their blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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The Word of God; August 23, 2018

Posted on August 27, 2018 by jgarrott

Acts 12:24 But the word of God continued to increase and spread.

This comes right after the mention of King Herod’s rather horrific death, so I think the NIV is justified in inserting “But” at the beginning of the sentence. From the next verse Luke starts talking about Barnabas and Saul, so why is this verse here? It actually is a very significant statement. Luke doesn’t say, “the Church,” he says, “the word of God.” It wasn’t that the organization was flourishing, it was that God’s Word was doing so. That’s all the more interesting when we realize that the New Testament hadn’t really begun to be written. There were perhaps some collections of Jesus’ teaching floating around by this point, but Luke isn’t really talking about the Bible here. Rather, he is talking about the knowledge of Jesus, as in the expression, “Have you had word of that?” Where the NIV uses the word “increase,” the Japanese uses a word that might be translated “ascendant.” It includes the idea of increase, but there is a feeling of “taking over.” Jesus was the talk of the town, and as a result, more and more people were forced to decide what they were going to do about Him. That has happened almost every time there has been a genuine move of God. These days our thoughts and conversations are taken up with crime or politics or celebrities and the like, (but I repeat myself) but that is a ploy of the devil to keep us from seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. As long as we allow other things to crowd out thoughts of God and knowledge of His Son Jesus, we won’t be walking in all the good that He has planned for us.

This is certainly appropriate for me! I tend to look down on those who are obsessed with celebrities, but I’m an information junkie myself, reading and watching videos much more than I read the Bible. I do start every day with the Bible, and it does dwell in me richly, I feel, (Colossians 3:16) but I let other things dominate my thoughts too often. I earnestly desire that this verse be true of Omura, bringing in a massive harvest, but I need to be sure it’s true of me. An article I read recently pointed out that the early Church had no “Church Growth Seminars,” no “Mission Statements,” no real centralized control, yet they ended up taking over the Roman Empire within a few centuries, after starting with a handful of disciples. What they had was total commitment to Jesus as Lord. If we are to take over this city and this nation, we need exactly the same thing, starting with me.

Father, thank You for this powerful reminder. Help me not fear people’s reactions, but challenge them to full devotion, trusting Your Spirit to work in us all to transform us as we need it, so that Your name may be acknowledged as holy and Your kingdom come as Your will is done right here, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Christians; August 22, 2018

Posted on August 24, 2018 by jgarrott

Acts 11:23, 26 When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.
The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch

Many things about the church in Antioch were significant. For one thing, it was the first place where evangelism was intentionally done toward Gentiles, as verse 20 makes clear. Despite Peter’s testimony to the church in Jerusalem, this still raised enough suspicions that Barnabas was sent to check things out, and this is the result. It was obviously God’s plan that he was sent, since Barnabas was actually a nickname that means “Son of Encouragement.” (Acts 4:36) God didn’t want to squash the Gentile believers, He wanted to encourage them, and that is what Barnabas did. It’s important to note just what he encouraged them to do: remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. New believers are generally pretty “pumped” in their new-found faith (which is why they make the most effective evangelists) but the devil wastes no time in attacking them and seeking to cool them off. All Christians should be intentional in remaining true to the Lord. Obviously the believers in Antioch took Barnabas’ encouragement to heart, because their faithfulness to Christ caused people to start calling them Christians, that is, people of Christ. Evidence is that up until then, believers were simply called “People of the Way.” (That was probably from Jesus’ famous statement that He was the way to the Father (John 14:6) and was probably Jack Hayford’s inspiration for naming his church, Church on the Way.) These believers were so focused on Christ, talking about Him all the time, that it became their collective name. Would we honestly earn that name today? In Iwate Prefecture in northern Japan there is a tale that Jesus came there, married a Japanese woman, and is buried there. I feel very sure that person was a Nestorian missionary from China who talked about Jesus so much that the locals assigned that name to him, very much like what happened in Antioch. We too need to be such “Christ persons” that people can’t know us without knowing about Jesus.

This is both significant and timely for me. With a newly-baptized believer, I need to encourage him just as Barnabas did, and allow him to be a stimulus for all the other believers. At the same time, thinking about the missionary in Iwate, I realize that conversions aren’t automatic, no matter how focused on Christ we are. However many people did believe because of his message, their numbers never reached critical mass to spread out over the whole region and nation. I’ve got to be faithful at every task that is given to me, but at the same time realize that salvation is God’s business, and not get fixated on numbers. I just need to be sure the label, People of Christ, is fully appropriate for all in this church.

Father, thank You for this reminder. If this is to be the foundation for Sunday’s message, show me what You want to say and how You want it said. May we indeed be and say and do exactly what You intend, for the salvation of many and for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Equality; August 21, 2018

Posted on August 24, 2018 by jgarrott

Acts 11:17-18 “So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?”
When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.”

This was an absolutely pivotal moment in the early Church. When you think about it, there were many moments in those first few years when the whole thing could easily have been derailed, but God didn’t let it happen. We need to remember that God is in control! That doesn’t eliminate our responsibility, much less accountability, but it should eliminate our anxiety. We tend to get that backward! We try to deny responsibility and accountability, and instead be anxious about everything. What happened here laid the foundation for the Church later accepting Paul’s ministry to Gentiles, as explained in Acts 15, and in short order the vast majority of the Church was Gentile. Paul went to great lengths in his letter to the Romans to explain that doesn’t mean God has abandoned the Jews, which is particularly significant considering the bulk of Paul’s ministry was to Gentiles. However, this episode with Peter established the principle that God’s provision of the Holy Spirit, bringing repentance unto life, is for all who will believe. We are quick to put up barriers of all sorts, but God is after repentance and faith. Anyone who exhibits those (actually, receiving faith as a gift when they repent of unbelief) is acceptable to God, regardless of the ethnic, racial, financial, or any other sort of background.

Growing up as a decidedly minority Caucasian in Japan, this understanding has come easily for me. I am grateful that Truman mandated the racial integration of US armed forces before I started attending school at Itazuke Air Force Base so I was never aware of racial segregation. That said, I was aware of some missionaries who had an automatic bias in favor of Caucasians, even though there were some Caucasian missionaries who disgraced the name of Christ. My own biases tended to be intellectual, but that’s not really any better. It is sadly obvious that those who are in favor of “big government” have such bias, feeling that they know better than the “unwashed masses” who “cling to their guns and religion.” I may have a higher than average IQ, but on God’s scale, all human distinctions are essentially meaningless. I am to accept each person as they are, as a valuable creation of God, and seek to help them enter into the relationship with Him for which they were created.

Father, thank You for the degree to which You have enabled me to see people equally. Thank You for helping me realize I still have room to grow. Help me express Christ accurately and consistently to all, drawing them to You for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Influence; August 20, 2018

Posted on August 23, 2018 by jgarrott

Acts 9:18-19 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

It fascinated me years ago when I realized that the expression, “scales fell from [my] eyes” is perhaps even more common in Japan than it is in the US. At first I thought there must be some other source for it in Japan, but no, it comes from this story. It occurs to me that we understand “influence” very little. We understand very little of how we are influenced by various things, and we understand even less how we influence others. Japan is a manifestly non-Christian nation, but it has been influenced greatly by Christianity. Even the Shinto wedding ceremony, now being largely supplanted by “chapel weddings,” was a deliberate creation taking elements from Catholic weddings, at a time when common people didn’t have wedding ceremonies at all, but just a wedding feast. The Shinto priests realized that a wedding ceremony was a very attractive element of this “foreign” religion, so they adopted it. Christians are also behind the entire social welfare system in Japan. Fudeko Ishii from right here in Omura, and the more famous Toyohiko Kagawa from Kobe, created a social welfare system practically from scratch that was codified into law well before WWII. Both endured much criticism for their faith, even from people who supported what they were doing. Such critics didn’t understand that they wouldn’t, couldn’t, have done what they did apart from their faith, and the love of God operating through them. They were trying to influence, and the Shinto priests were seeking influence, but most of the time it is far less conscious. Paul speaks of such influence as an aroma. (2 Corinthians 2:15-16) We are drawn to things that smell good to us, and repulsed by things that smell bad, but we often don’t know how we smell to others! Much is made these days of the influence smells have on us emotionally, with “aroma therapy” being quite a business. The point for Christians is to stay spiritually clean so that nothing will mask the aroma of Christ in us, because He will draw people to Himself. Just as Paul said, some people will be repulsed by the aroma of Christ, but we are to pray mercy and repentance for them. At the same time, we need to choose our influences carefully, surrounding ourselves with what will help and not hinder our walk with the Lord. (Philippians 4:8-9)

Living and ministering in Japan as I do, I really wonder how I am influencing others. I see my wife influencing others greatly, in very good ways. She has almost singlehandedly made hugging acceptable among a fairly wide circle of friends and acquaintances! Some of her lady friends seem very hungry for her hugs. I have sought to influence my school students, both through praying for them at the beginning of each class and through what I say and do both in the classroom and out of it. The effect of that influence is something I won’t know until heaven, if then, but I do need to be careful that I don’t distort it in any way. I may not coin a phrase that will become part of the national vocabulary or foster a government ministry, but if I draw people to seek Christ, that is enough.

Father, I do pray that the aroma of Christ in me would draw many to repentance and faith, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Persecution; August 19, 2018

Posted on August 23, 2018 by jgarrott

Acts 8:4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.

This one sentence exposes why persecution has historically served to grow the Church. This proves that it wasn’t just the apostles who felt that “We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:20) They were being persecuted for proclaiming Jesus, but they couldn’t stop proclaiming Jesus! This is a sad contrast to the majority of Christians today. I don’t remember the numbers, but studies have been done that show a remarkably small percentage of American Christians have ever talked to anyone about faith in Christ. These days it’s not politically correct even to imply that anyone needs salvation, much less that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. We use the phrase, “the courage of your convictions,” but too many people seem to lack convictions, never mind the courage. That is a sad state of affairs indeed! We are so afraid of what people will think or say that we’re willing for them to rot in hell rather than risk our own embarrassment. It’s no wonder we don’t see the results that the 1st Century believers did! Fortunately, attacks on faith and people of faith have become blatant enough in recent years that people are starting to wake up. It’s interesting that the issue at hand seems to focus on sexuality and marriage. The Roman Empire was so corrupt that one of the emperors actually married his horse! When there are parallels like that, we need to take hope and start acting like 1st Century Christians.

It has long bothered me that the Tokugawa persecution in Japan was the only “successful” persecution in the history of the Church. I still puzzle over why, but when Christianity was proscribed, Christians were effectively eliminated from the land. The movie, Silence, made from the book of the same title by Shusaku Endo, shows us one potential answer. It’s possible the people, missionaries included, were more focused on temporal “salvation” than they were on eternal salvation. Those who had that right were martyred with joy, but far too many discarded their faith to avoid suffering. The other side of that is that the Japanese are a very obedient people. It is amazing to people of other nations that Japanese will for the most part wait patiently in line for almost anything, and even jaywalking is rare. Those might be good things, but when people discard their faith simply because the “authorities” say to do so, that’s a major problem. This is a theoretical issue to many, but I am called to minister in Japan, so I deal with it constantly. I find it rare, and refreshing, to encounter those for whom faith is their life. David proclaimed that “Your love is better than life.” (Psalm 63:3) We sing the chorus based on that verse, both in the US and in Japan, but how many of us live that way? I need to live with right priorities myself before I can hope to lead others into those priorities.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the brother who is to be baptized today. I pray that he, and all of us in this church, would indeed value our relationship with You above everything else and be ceaseless in sharing Christ with all who will hear, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Church Government; August 18, 2018

Posted on August 20, 2018 by jgarrott

Acts 6:2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.”

The whole matter of equality, democracy if you will, is a strange one in the Church. Everyone is of equal value before God, or so we insist, but there are manifestly different functions and positions within the Body of Christ. It is vital to remember Paul’s exposition of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, where he points out that functions are certainly different, but they are mutually interdependent. Before 1776, the idea of representative democracy was rare if not unheard of almost universally across the globe. The United States made a go of it, and since then most nations have adopted at least some form of it, with widely varying degrees of success. In many ways Martin Luther laid the foundation for that, emphasizing the Priesthood of the Believer, from 1 Peter 2:9 and elsewhere. Differing Protestant groups adopted that to varying degrees, and again with varying success. My Systematic Theology professor in seminary said that in a class on Church Government under Emil Brunner they discussed the problems with the different systems. At that point my professor said, “Then the Congregational system of church government is clearly best.” Dr. Brunner replied, “The problem with democratic church government is the Holy Spirit only gets one vote.” Of course, multiple people in the church should have spiritual maturity and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, but they are seldom in the majority. Of course, autocratic church government is certainly undesirable, and the list of church leaders who have been undone by a lack of accountability continues to grow. We are back to our total dependence on God for wisdom and everything else. We’ve got to remember that it’s His Church, and seek Him for how it is to operate.

It’s been many years now since I realized I couldn’t find American style democracy in the Bible. It may well have been before I studied Systematic Theology, as I mentioned. However, a form of elitism has been a real problem in my thinking, and I’ve never been very good at delegation. It is certainly hubris to think one person can do it all, but I have tried, and it hasn’t been good. Even when I have been hearing God accurately as to the direction of the church, I have failed to bring people along with me so that they owned that direction for themselves. I earnestly desire spiritual growth and maturity in all of those under my care, but just as I teach about parenting, I’ve got to trust them and the Holy Spirit and not micromanage. In this area as in so many others, I’ve got to pay attention to the truth God speaks through me!

Father, thank You for this reminder. It’s very timely, as I’ll be baptizing someone tomorrow who has little grounding in the Bible but has 65 years of life experience. Help me not presume, either positively or negatively. May I be a mentor to him to equip him and set him free to be and do all that You intend, for the sake of the Body of Christ and for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Focus; August 17, 2018

Posted on August 20, 2018 by jgarrott

Acts 5:42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.[

In Acts 2:42-47 we have a description of what the believers did, but here we have a succinct description of what the leadership did. They had incurred the wrath of the political/religious leaders by insisting they were less important than God. (verse 29, 33) However, their purpose wasn’t to make political waves, but to obey God, and this is what God wanted them to do. There are all sorts of things Church leadership can be involved in, some of them very legitimate and some not so much, but this should be the core. Whether in public or in private (temple courts and house to house) their activities need to be consistent in pointing people to Jesus as Lord and Savior. Too often they seem to be aimed at boosting the church as an institution or boosting the leader personally. Leaders should be working for the good of their local congregation, but that isn’t the ultimate motive or even the ultimate goal. We need to remember that the kingdom of God is far bigger than any local congregation, and stay centered on Who it’s all about. More personally, when a pastor or other church leader starts focusing on what is good for them personally (as they see it) it lays them wide open to temptations for greed, lust, and the like. Sometime, opposition or even persecution is a blessing from God to keep us focused on what is really important.

I had a period of several years when my focus was very diffuse, to the point that the church felt more like a hobby than why I was in Omura. It was a period when we lost our prayer covering, as the church that had been praying for us dissolved over the pastor’s sins, but the effects came in gradually and I didn’t recognize them. When the Lord brought me back to my senses, things came into much sharper focus. Right now, I am at an age when many people are wondering when I will retire. I do need to shift responsibilities to others organizationally, but for me personally, I pray that this verse expresses the rest of my life. I hope to never stop teaching and proclaiming that Jesus is the Christ, in public settings and private, to make as many disciples for Him as He desired, for His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for yesterday and all it held. Thank You for the blessed interaction with former members of the church who came to the show. Thank you that I could call one man to repentance, and that he was honest enough to say that he wasn’t living as a Christian. I ask Your convicting mercy for him. I pray that our every interaction throughout the rest of the show would indeed draw people to Jesus as Lord, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Evangelism; August 16, 2018

Posted on August 19, 2018 by jgarrott

Acts 5:13-14 No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.

This passage first jumped out at me many years ago. We tend to think of evangelism in terms of “evangelistic meetings,” and of personal evangelism as inviting someone to church, but that wasn’t the Biblical pattern at all. It says here that people were afraid to join their meetings, but in the very next sentence it says the number of believers continued to grow steadily. In other words, people got saved before they ever “went to church.” I have seen statistical studies done of “stadium evangelism,” Billy Graham and others, and they all said that the probability of a personal commitment from an attendee was much higher if they were invited by a personal friend. In other words, genuine personal evangelism had already taken place, even if the meeting was the venue for commitment. The average church member, in Japan or probably anywhere, acts as though “it’s the pastor’s job” to evangelize. That’s a terrible deception of the devil. Whereas there are those with a special gift and calling as evangelists, (Ephesians 4:11) even they are listed with those whose job is to “prepare God’s people for works of service.” (Ephesians 4:12) In other words, every believer is called as a witness of Christ. (Acts 1:8) How we witness is going to be different for each person, depending on gifts and personalities, but absolutely no believers are excluded from that. That makes a lot of people uncomfortable, because they have a strictly verbal image of evangelism. However, it’s actually as Francis of Assisi said: “Preach constantly. When necessary, use words.” Our lives are to be clear declarations of Christ. However, we do need to be able to put words to it from time to time. “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” (1 Peter 3:15) The pastor’s job isn’t to do the evangelism to the exclusion of others, but rather to prepare all the believers to share Christ within their own sphere of influence.

This is very evident in the brother who is to be baptized on the 19th. I had very little to do with his commitment. It was seeing Christ in his sister-in-law that convinced him Jesus was real, and he needed to follow Him as Lord. My problem in doing that sort of evangelism myself is that Japanese look at me and chalk up the differences between my life and theirs to the fact that I’m not Japanese. That can be very frustrating, even painful at times because it feels like rejection. That’s why I need to focus on training and equipping the people, as Paul said in Ephesians. Japanese tend to be very private people, not sharing what is really going on inside them, so there are real cultural challenges, but as our Verse for the Year says, nothing is too hard for God. (Jeremiah 32:27) I’ve got to be faithful, trusting God to use even me to build up the Body of Christ.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You indeed for the baptism coming up Sunday. May it be a powerful witness to the other members of that family, both those who will attend and those who won’t, and may all of the believers be encouraged to trust You for the salvation of those in their own families and friends, for a growing harvest for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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