Author: jeffclawson

I'm the campus pastor at Piedmont International University piedmontu.edu, husband to Laura and father to Bethanie. I'm a pastor, preacher, speaker and writer of all things pertaining to Jesus.

The Day Jesus Didn’t Show

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Do you ever feel like God didn’t show up? Have you ever thought, “I feel like God could have interceded in this situation in my life and it’s like He wasn’t even here?” Well, maybe He wasn’t. But that doesn’t mean He’s not coming.

The same verse always jumps out at me when I read the story of Lazarus in the Gospel of John. That being true, that verse still has incredible impact and is a great reminder every time I read it that God’s plans rarely match what I think He should do. In John 11:15, after reporting that Lazarus was dead, Jesus makes a startling statement; “I’m glad I wasn’t there.” What!? Really!?

Here are a couple of immediate truths I find in this passage:

  1.  Jesus does not take joy in your pain. If He doesn’t show up in a particular situation, it doesn’t mean He’s not coming.

Jesus may seem to be late according to our calendar but He’s always on time according to His.

  1. Jesus ultimately wants to give you even more evidence that you can trust Him.

If Jesus leaves you in an unpleasant life situation, it may very well be that He’s planning something even bigger in your life than what you’re asking for.

Those who witnessed Jesus’ interaction with Martha and Mary and witnessed Jesus’ heavy heart over the death of His friend asked a great question, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” Yes He could. But, Jesus didn’t show the day Lazarus died so all who were present could watch Him do something even greater; raise the dead.

“Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?’” (John 11:40, ESV)

So, if you feel that He hasn’t shown up in your life during a particular trial, just know, it’s in His nature to wait so He might show you something greater about what He can do.

We are the Sinner

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Every time I read the first two verses of Luke 15, I’m reminded that if the religious crowd become irritated with whom we’re reaching we’re probably doing a good job. What’s interesting about Jesus’ ministry is that the Pharisees wanted to kill Him, but “the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.” Reading this passage this morning brought up a question in my mind:

What does it look like to have the heart of Jesus? Obviously, to have an attitude even remotely like the Pharisees, who speak negatively of Jesus being “a friend of tax collectors and sinners,” would mean we’re off track; but what does it look like when followers of Jesus share His heart?

1.     We realize that we (the church) are not what people need, they need Jesus.

  • We have fallen off the cliff if religiosity when we think if people were just like us, they’d be better off. Nothing could be further from the truth.

2.     We realize that those outside of the faith are no different than we are, we’re just like them. We are the same, the difference is Jesus.

  • We are made whole by Jesus when we make our prayer and plea. (See Luke 18:9-14)

3.     We have an unquenchable desire to see those outside of the household of faith hear the message of Jesus.

  • When we have the heart of Jesus the question, “why are they here?” never comes out of our heart or mouth.

4.     We remember we are the lost sheep Jesus came to seek and save.

5.     We still have a crazy desire ourselves to draw near to hear the words of Jesus.

Jesus, friend of sinners, friend of mine.

Soli Deo Gloria

The Dangers of Traditionalism

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I preached a sermon last night in our church and thought the main idea may be blog worthy, so here it is. I never really noticed Jesus’ view on man’s traditions until I began to look at his assessment of traditions in Matthew 15. I’ve had my own opinion of traditionalism for quite some time as I’ve personally witnessed its possibility to be destructive. Even with that, usually we think of traditions as something seemingly harmless and just a matter of taste and opinion, especially within the church. It surprised me a little, however, to see Jesus’ evaluation of it.

In the first nine verses of Matthew 15, Jesus makes an evaluation of tradition beginning with a tradition that seems, on the surface, to be somewhat harmless. I mean, who’s going to argue that washing your hands before you eat is a bad thing? But, what may surprise you, as it did me, is the affects of traditionalism especially in regard to the Word of God.

This is what Jesus says is the problem with traditionalism:

“So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.” (Matthew 15:6, ESV)

Make void the Word?!  I don’t know about but it’s a scary thought to me that someone could spend their life memorizing the Bible, thinking they are authentic followers of God but not being able to hear and apply the Word at all.

The problem is traditions can wrongly be equated with obedience. Please know this; being obedient to a man-made tradition is not the same thing as being obedient to God and His Word.

What is the fruit of Traditionalism? The answer is pretty plain and clear in the words of Jesus:

  1. Hypocrisy – I don’t know about you but the last thing I ever want to hear from Jesus’ mouth to me is that I’m a hypocrite. I imagine you feel the same way. What Jesus is saying about the Pharisaical traditionalists is that they look the part of a God follower but unfortunately they only look like it. They can’t even hear Him!
  2. All Talk and No heart – Traditionalism creates a people who can talk about God but have no real Spiritual connection with Him.
  3. Lost Worship – Traditionalism misses the fact that God’s Word has a sole purpose of connected us to Him. Trying to live to a religious standard completely misses that and worship fades.
  4. Worthless Teaching – When tradition rules in the church, clear, unapologetic, biblical preaching is traded out for something far less. Men standing in pulpits running on about the “good ole days” when hymns and women in dresses ruled. That’s not Biblical, and it’s not preaching.

As we talk about tradition, a question does need to be asked. Are there any good traditions? After all, Paul did say to the Thessalonians:

“So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.” (2 Thessalonians 2:15, ESV)

As I looked at this idea of tradition, the first thing I noticed was that Paul said that these “traditions” were something that the Apostles had spoken and written. As you research the New Testament, you may find as I have, these traditions are what I call the Jesus traditions. These are the traditional teachings of Jesus they made their way through the first century church and they look like this:

  1. Love your enemies (Luke 6:27)
  2. Humble yourself before the Lord and people (Matt. 18:4)
  3. It’s better to give than receive (Acts 20:35)
  4. Do unto others that you would have them do to you. (Luke 6:31)

I’m sure you’ve noticed these types of traditions are not religious externals, but traditions that only come as Jesus, through His Spirit, brings internal changes to us.

It’s absolutely important that we don’t hold ourselves to old man-made traditions within the church and that we don’t create new ones but we hold the traditions of the teaching of Jesus. When we do that, worship is not lost but becomes God-centered, Spirit filled and vibrant. (Anything other than that is not actually worship.) And, the Word and work of God becomes realized in our life, not void as Jesus told the Pharisees because of their tradition.

My hope is that God Word lives out as He promised it, both in me and the church I pastor.

“so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11, ESV)

The Good on the Other Side of Bad

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I noticed a couple leave our worship service yesterday morning just after I began to preach. I didn’t take it personal but I did wonder if they were offended by the message. The thought of that bothers me a little but let me explain why. (Please don’t get the wrong idea I don’t think it’s about me at all.)

I began my message the way I usually do, since I preach in series, I was catching everyone up on where we were last week. So, I shared that God has the power, through the Gospel, to reach anyone no matter how far away they seem to be. I announced that we were all born into this sin problem and God has the power and ability to fix it; and He has. That’s just good news!

I did wonder, however, if some of the first time visitors to our church yesterday found themselves uncomfortable and offended by my statement that we’re all born sinners. If you struggle with this, just please know that this statement is completely biblical and the gateway of truth that opens up into the greatest news in all creation. This is why I say if someone is offended by this message it bothers me a little. They didn’t stay around long enough to hear the truth that relieves all the tension:

There’s a good that can only be found on the other side of the bad.

I would suggest that no passage of Scripture demonstrates this better than Isaiah 53. The words of Isaiah in this passage are just desperate. I don’t know how else to describe it. Line after line he writes of pain that actually begins back in chapter 52 with a man beaten beyond recognition. In the midst of all these descriptive words of agony like stricken, smitten, afflicted, wounded and crushed there is a ray of hope that this was all “for us.”

Why would Isaiah write about such punishment and brutality which could be surmised in one simple English word; bad? All these words are written to culminate in one attention gripping statement, “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him.” What?! The will of the Lord?

If you don’t already know, as Isaiah writes such soul piercing words he is actually writing about Jesus and what He ultimately did on the cross; and it went just as Isaiah said. He was beaten beyond recognition, He was mocked and yet did not return a word and he was buried in a borrowed tomb. This is where the good news comes in.

He did it all for us! There is a good (though the word “good” can barely describe this) that comes in complete contrast of the bad. In other words, what happens because of all these words of desperation is a promise of good that’s equally as breath taking as the words of wounds. Isaiah 53:11 sums it up completely:

“Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.” (Isaiah 53:11, ESV)

Isn’t that awesome news! “Many to be accounted righteous,” on account of the pain that Jesus suffered.

So, maybe those I noticed leaving our service had a stomach ache or a family reunion. I hope it was something like that. Not because it’s about me but because the news is so good. I want everyone to hear the entire message of the Gospel. There’s a difficulty that we have to deal with, that is, things are not ok. But, because of the work of God through Jesus, there is a good that we can realize on the other side of what seems so bad and that “good” ultimately affects every aspect of our lives. God is good!

How Long Should We Preach?

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This is the question that pops into many of the minds of those sitting in our worship services each week. How long is he going to preach? Ask ten different pastors how long a sermon should be and you may get ten different answers but that’s not actually the question I’m talking about. (We’ll save that debate for a different time.)

Paul told Timothy, in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, that there was a day coming in which people will no longer listen to sound doctrine. Paul states that people will “heap up” teachers to “suit their own passions,” which means, they’ll basically only listen if someone’s telling them what they want to hear. That’s just a little scary.

But, there’s a charge from Paul to Timothy in verse 2 to “preach the Word” which in context is equated with sound doctrine, and preach it, when it’s convenient and you feel like preaching and even when it’s inconvenient and you don’t feel like it. Obviously, these words to Timothy are meant to charge and encourage him to keep preaching even when it’s tough; and trust me sometimes it’s tough.

So, why would we keep preaching? How long should we keep at it?

It’s easy to focus on the people that Paul describes in this passage. That is, those who are not interested in hearing doctrine and realizing the change and growth that the Scriptures can deliver. But, the charge is to focus on, and keep preaching in the hearing of, those who do have ears to hear and those who are spiritually prepared and ready to hear from God. And here’s the good news, even today there are still many, many people who want to hear from God!

The only thing that limits the power of God’s Word and the Gospel is the lack of an ear to hear. So, as long as there’s someone listening we must keep preaching! As you plan your worship time this weekend in your church, be sure to recognize that God wants you to hear His Word preached and that’s for your edification. Don’t worry, if you plan to attend Vienna Baptist Church my average sermon is less than forty minutes long.

To all my preacher friends out there, be encouraged; there are people still listening! Preach the Word!