Reflections on Community

One of the most striking descriptions of the early church is found in Acts 2:46-47: "And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people."

What stands out is the expression, "day by day." The early Christians spent time together every day. They loved being together. They couldn't get enough of each other. They met for worship in the Temple; they gathered in each others homes; they were constantly sharing life together.

One of the hallmarks of modern life is social isolation. About half of Americans report feeling acute loneliness and disconnection. There are just so many barriers to social connection nowadays. I can see it in my own children. I remember when I was a kid, anytime I wanted to hang out with a friend, I would just hop on a bike and knock on his door. Many times, there were kids playing out in the streets, and I would just go out and join them. But now, almost all social interactions for kids have to be arranged and planned. As a result, there are just less opportunities to be with friends.

One of the great blessings of church is this rhythm and expectation of communal life. A central aspect of church is meeting together frequently -- to worship, to pray, and to just be together. This is God's good design. He created human beings to enjoy deep fellowship and spiritual life together. What a blessing from our heavenly Father.

Image: "The Last Supper" by Michael Damaskinos (1591)

Knowing God

There is a difference between knowing about God and knowing God. It's the difference between knowing facts about God, like reading a history book about Abraham Lincoln, and truly knowing God, like knowing a good friend. It's the difference between mere intellectual understanding and a fulsome heartfelt experience. For too many Christians, we may know facts about God, but we don't truly know God in our inner being.

But we want to. How do we move from simply hearing about a good meal to actually tasting and experiencing that meal? Psalm 34:8 says "taste and see that the Lord is good." How do we actually experience the grace of God, so that we're profoundly moved by the greatness of God's love and forgiveness?

Jeremiah 29:13 says, "you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." The answer is that it takes intentional effort and perseverance to know God. He has invited us into a relationship with him. But we must accept that invitation through the various means of grace--studying Scripture, ardent prayer, consistence in church, regular fellowship, serving with joy, courageous evangelism. A living, vital relationship with God is a journey of faith, not a passive event. For 2024, let us renew our commitment to walking that journey.

The problem of anxiety and the “peace of God”

We live in an anxious age. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 1 in 5 Americans experienced an anxiety disorder in the past year, and 1 in 3 will in their lifetimes. But we don’t need statistics to tell us something we all know. Because we all feel it, especially in the Bay Area. The uncertainty of life. Every day is a struggle. The constant sense of dread and fear. It’s the air we breathe.

And yet the Bible speaks of the “peace of God” (Philippians 4:7). What is it? It is a deep calm and emotional steadiness that transcends all circumstances. It doesn’t depend on the absence of troubles – but exists in the middle of troubles. It doesn’t mean detachment from people and their problems – but deeply loves people so that their troubles become yours. So then how is such peace possible?

This peace comes from a deep confidence and trust in God’s wise control of life. It is a peace based on God’s sovereign rule of the universe, so that all things are going according to his good and wise plan. Often, we don’t understand his plan. Often, it seems like the plan is going off the rails! But this peace comes from a deep trust in the character of God. So that we don’t need to know the exact details of how the story ends, because we know the Author of the story is good! He is also an exciting author, and there will be surprising twists and turns in the story, but in the end, when we finally read the story in its totality, we will be overwhelmed with joy and thanksgiving. Peace comes from knowing that beforehand.

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt (1632)

The world is filled with problems and troubles. Everything is in flux. Nothing is solid. But peace come from standing upon God as the unshakeable rock. That’s why we can be steady. Not because we have a steely temperament, but because we are rooted in God. Or to switch metaphors, with Jesus in the boat with us, we can face all of life’s storms (Mark 4:35-41).

“The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:5-7)

Jesus and Elijah

We have been doing a sermon series on the life of Elijah. There is a relatively obscure story of Elijah in 2 Kings 1, where King Ahaziah sends soldiers to arrest the prophet, but Elijah calls down fire from heaven and the soldiers are destroyed.

Despite its relative obscurity, this Old Testament text is evoked several times in the Gospels. For example, in the Gospel of Luke, when a village rejects Jesus, the disciples indignantly ask, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” (Luke 9:54). The disciples were undoubtedly thinking of Elijah calling down fire from heaven in 2 Kings 1. But the most stunning reference is at the cross. Each of the Synoptic Gospels record that some in the crowds thought Jesus was calling out to Elijah.

The text is worth citing in full:

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.”  And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink.  But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.”  And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.  (Matthew 27:46-50)

Now, why mention this detail about Elijah? If this was simply a case of mispronunciation or mis-comprehension (‘God’ and ‘Elijah’ sound similar in Aramaic), why include this detail? The gospel writers are quite spare and selective in the details they do include about the crucifixion. It must be that this particular detail about Jesus calling out to Elijah was significant.

The story in 2 Kings 1 provides the rich context. Essentially, 2 Kings 1 is the story of God sending down fire to protect Elijah from hostile soldiers. Many people thought Jesus was Elijah or a prophet in the mold of Elijah (Mark 8:28). And so, the crowds at the cross were shocked that the Romans were able to do what King Ahaziah tried but failed to do – lay hands on God’s prophet. Either, Jesus was crying out to Elijah in stunned betrayal, or he was finally calling down fire to destroy the Roman soldiers, like Elijah.

But nothing happened and Jesus perished on the cross. This was almost incomprehensible to Jesus’ followers. It was only after the Resurrection, they would come to understand that Jesus did not come to bring the fire of God’s judgment, he came to bear it. The reason fire did not come down on the Romans was because it came down on Jesus. This is why he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” On the cross, Jesus experienced the fire of God’s wrath and judgment.

All throughout the Old Testament, we’re given these little glimpses and previews of the coming of Jesus Christ. And all throughout the Gospel accounts, there are repeated references and citations of Old Testament texts that help us understand the fullness of Jesus’ redemptive acts. The Old and New Testaments are a single, seamless story of God rescuing his people from sin and death, and therefore, reading the Old Testament makes the New Testament that much more vivid and impactful.

You can listen to the sermon on 2 Kings 1 here:

Images:

Top: Elijah Destroying the Messengers of Ahaziah by Gustave Dore (1883)

Bottom: Crucifixion by Agnolo Gaddi (1396)

“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life”

One of the books that encouraged me the most this last year was reading Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor. It's the story of an ordinary pastor named Tom Carson, who devoted his life to ministry for 33 years (14 years in his first church, 19 years in his second church). In the end, he never reached any great acclaim or heights of renown. He was just a humble, faithful pastor.

Paul writes, "make it your ambition to lead a quiet life" (1 Thessalonians 4:11). It's seems like a paradox. Our highest ambition should be a quiet life. But through a gospel lens, it is the power of God. Weakness and lowliness are not failure and defeat. It is depending deeply on the sufficiency of God in all things. And when we do that, we experience the power of God in our lives.

D.A. Carson

We would have never heard of Tom Carson, except his son happened to be D.A. Carson, one of the most prolific Christian writers and theologians. When his father died, he inherited his journals and letters from ministry. As he was going through them, he was so moved, he decided to publish them as a book. When you read Tom’s journals, you see how much he struggled with discouragement and feelings of inadequacy. He chronicled all the tumultuous ups and downs of ministry, intractable conflicts and problems in his church. He labored in relative obscurity, but through it all, he remained faithful.

At the end of his life, D.A. Carson wrote this of his father:

Tom Carson never rose very far in denominational structures, he never pastored a church over 40 people, he never wrote a book. He was not wealthy or powerful. When he died, there were no crowds outside the hospital, no editorial comments in the papers, no announcements on television, no attention paid by the nation. In his hospital room, there was no one by his bedside. There was only the quiet hiss of oxygen, vainly venting because he had stopped breathing and would never need it again. But on the other side, all the trumpets sounded. Dad won entrance to the only throne room that mattered. And he heard the voice of Him whom he longed to hear, saying, “well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord.” 

What is Biblical Theology?

Seeing Christ in the Old Testament

Job and the great fish

One of the key themes in the New Testament is the idea of “fulfillment.” The Greek word, πληρόω, playro’o, appears over 20 times, usually with the formula, “all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet,” or some variation of that. The Greek word literally means “to fill up what is lacking.” Think of the imagery of water being poured into an empty cup. The “cup” is waiting to be “filled.” This is the idea behind playro’o.

Solomon composing Proverbs

Jesus plays off this “fulfillment” motif when he references Old Testament figures as precursors to his own ministry. For example, in Matthew 12:41, Jesus says, “someone greater than Jonah is here.” And in the next verse, “someone greater than Solomon is here.” So that Jonah and Solomon are types or molds of a future fulfillment figure, of which he is claiming is himself.

Adam and Eve in the Garden

This fulfillment theme is also present in the Epistles. In Ephesians 5, when Paul is giving counsel on marriage, he ends his exposition with this conclusion, “this mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” Paul is drawing a narrative arc, starting in Genesis 2:24, with the marriage of Adam and Eve in the Garden, progressing with Israel as the wayward bride of God (see Hosea), and finally ending with the marital union of Christ and the church. It’s a breathtaking tour of Scripture, marshaling all the various stages of redemptive history, in order to tell the gospel as an unfolding story.

Paul concludes that the shape of this narrative arc was a “mystery” – hidden for ages past, but now revealed in Christ. This is the essence of Biblical Theology. It’s mapping out the various themes that began in Genesis (like kingship, marriage, city), tracing them through the history of Israel, culminating in Christ and the church, and reaching its final fulfillment in Revelation.

This is not a novel way to read Scripture. Augustine famously described the relationship between Old and New Testaments as “the new is in the old concealed; the old is in the new revealed.” There is an organic relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament, like an acorn is to a mature oak tree. There is progressive growth and development, so that the final shape is hinted at in the early stages, but all the essential elements are already there. 

In formal theological terms, this is called Biblical Theology or Covenant Theology. It gives us a paradigm for reading the OT, not as moral parables (a la Aesop's Fables), but as pictures of salvation in Christ. It informs how we read the Old Testament, even in those stories where the New Testament does not explicitly spell out how Christ is the ultimate story behind the stories.  Indeed, to read the Old Testament through the lens of the gospel is how the Bible authors themselves understand Scripture.

If you would like to learn more, here are a few good resources:

• The Jesus Storybook Bible, Sally Lloyd-Jones (difficulty level: easy)

• According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible, Graeme Goldsworthy (medium)

• Preaching Christ in All of Scripture, Edmund Clowney (medium)

• Biblical Theology, Geerhardus Vos (advanced)

• Preaching Christ from the Old Testament, Sidney Greidanus (advanced)

Image captions:

“Jonah and the Whale” engraving by George Bernard (1911)

“King Solomon writing Proverbs” by Gustave Dore (1883)

“Adam and Eve in Paradise” by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1533)

Elijah and Elisha sermon series

This Sunday, we will begin a sermon series that will take us through the end of the year. It will follow the story of the prophets Elijah and Elisha in 1 and 2 Kings. Their ministry came during a critical period in the history of Israel, a time of widespread apostasy and idolatry, and not incidentally, their ministry saw the greatest miracles since the Exodus from Egypt.  It was a time of great crisis but also great salvific deeds.

But what is most interesting for us is that Elijah and Elisha are precursors of the ministry of Jesus. This is made explicit in the final words of the Old Testament. At the very end of Malachi, which is the last book in the Old Testament, there is prophecy that Elijah would return before the coming of the Messiah (Malachi 4:5). In the New Testament, that figure is identified as John the Baptist (Matthew 11:14). Jesus himself makes explicit references to his own ministry as the fulfillment of the ministry of Elijah and Elisha (Luke 4:25-27). Indeed, Elijah and Elisha are cited over 30x in the Gospels. What this tells us is that you cannot understand Jesus without understanding something of Elijah and Elisha. There are many parallels: Elijah is the forerunner of John the Baptist, Ahab of Herod, Jezebel of Herodias, and finally, Elisha is a type of Christ. In the sermon series, we will unpack all these allusions and parallels that point us to Jesus.

Captions

Top: Elijah at Mount Carmel (1 Kings 19)

Bottom: Elijah and the chariot of fire (2 Kings 2)

Inaugural Worship Service

“For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” -- Psalm 100:5

This past Sunday was the inaugural service of Imago Dei Church.  It was a wonderful time of worship: the gospel was preached, there was fellowship of dear friends, and a work of God was begun. This is our vision for the church—faithful gospel teaching, deep community, and lives transformed by Christ. May God bless his church, for his glory and the joy of all people.

Some photos from our service:

Recap of 2nd Planning Meeting

Our second planning meeting was this past Sunday. It went really well. There was a lot unity of spirit and positivity of energy, and everyone gladly shared in the work of setting things up for our first worship service on August 13. It was also wonderful seeing all the kids play with each other.

At the meeting, I shared that while we may start as a small and humble church, there are many benefits to appreciate at this stage. Some people are looking for the large church experience with established programs and production value in the worship service. But many others are looking for the warmth of relationships and intimacy of community that you can only find in a smaller church. This is the unique gift we can give to others.

There are many reasons for planting this church. One reason is for us, the core team--that we might have a place to call our spiritual home and worship together. But another important reason is for others--Jesus speaks of "other sheep" who do know yet know him (John 10:16). There are future families and friends we haven't met yet, but in the Providence of God, they will join in our fellowship in Christ and be vital members of the church. This is the very reason why Jesus commissioned the church--that we might bring others into the life of Christ and share his love (Matthew 28:19).

Covered in Prayer

Over the past several months, I have been guest preaching at various churches. It has been a wonderful time of fellowship with the larger body of Christ. And it’s a powerful reminder that the Kingdom of God is greater than any one church, but encompasses Christ-followers in many churches.

Every church my family has visited, we have received an outpouring of support, encouragement, and prayers. I have had countless people personally pledge to pray for our church. Truly, Imago Dei Church is covered in hundreds of earnest prayers.

Prayers matter. The prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective (James 5:16). Prayers defeat the schemes of Satan (Ephesians 6:18). Prayers empower the ministry of the gospel (2 Thess. 1:11). We have many sister churches praying for us. This is how the Kingdom of God advances--through the prayers of God's people, planting new churches, and encouraging and supporting one another.

Photo caption
Top: Pastor Sam Shin praying for our church during worship service at Wellspring Church in San Ramon
Bottom: Pastor SooSang Park praying for our church during their retreat at Revive Presbyterian Church in San Jose