The Messiah Shall Be Cut Off…

by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

From Daniel 9:26

Blessed be His name, there was no cause of death in Him. Neither original nor actual sin had defiled Him, and therefore death had no claim upon Him. No man could have taken His life from Him justly, for He had done no man wrong, and no man could even have lain Him by force unless He had been pleased to yield Himself to die. But lo, one sins and another suffers. Justice was offended by us, but found its satisfaction in Him. Rivers of tears, mountains of offerings, seas of the blood of bullocks, and hills of frankincense, could not have availed for the removal of sin; but Jesus was cut off for us, and the cause of wrath was cut off at once, for sin was put away for ever. Herein is wisdom, whereby substitution, the sure and speedy way of atonement, was devised! Herein is condescension, which brought Messiah, the Prince, to wear a crown of thorns, and die upon the cross! Herein is love, which led the Redeemer to lay down His life for His enemies!

It is not enough, however, to admire the spectacle of the innocent bleeding for the guilty, we must make sure of our interest therein. The special object of the Messiah’s death was the salvation of His church; have we a part and a lot among those for whom He gave His life a ransom? Did the Lord Jesus stand as our representative? Are we healed by His stripes? It will be a terrible thing indeed if we should come short of a portion in His sacrifice; it were better for us that we had never been born. Solemn as the question is, it is a joyful circumstance that it is one which may be answered clearly and without mistake. To all who believe on Him the Lord Jesus is a present Saviour, and upon them all the blood of reconciliation has been sprinkled. Let all who trust in the merit of Messiah’s death be joyful at every remembrance of Him, and let their holy gratitude lead them to the fullest consecration to His cause.

1.16p

Weekly Links (12/3/2010)

by Stephen Rodgers

Hello everyone, and welcome to Friday! We’re back with a collection of links for you from around the web. Hang on to your hats, because here we go…

That’s it!  See you Sunday!

Pro Rege

Single Life Devotional

by Pastor Patrick Cho

At our last staff meeting, I shared a devotional with the Singles staff from Ephesians 5:2. The simple command that Paul gives in that verse is to “walk in love.” I suppose the command is simple enough, but the application is not as easy. I love how Paul doesn’t move on without first explaining what he means by that. He adds, “as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” In other words, walking in love is all about sacrificially giving of myself to others. This of course has many applications, but for our staff it at least means that we need to be keeping a watchful eye out for the various opportunities given to us to serve and love others. When we show up on Friday nights or Sunday mornings, we shouldn’t just be thinking of ourselves.

This means that love is sometimes inconvenient and uncomfortable. It requires dying to self, looking to others’ interests, and considering others more important that ourselves. Jesus did this for those who hated Him. How much more should we seek to love those we call brothers and sisters in Christ. This application, Paul says, rises up to God as a fragrant offering of praise. God is pleased when we become imitators of Christ (Eph. 5:1).

In contrast, in Eph. 5:3, Paul also instructs the church that there is an ungodly way of “loving.” He writes that “sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.” These are self-centered expressions of “love.” These sins do not serve others but rather use, abuse, and take advantage of others. This sort of thing is not supposed to be associated with Christ’s followers.

In summary, Paul calls believers to do as Christ did. The love we show others must not be self-centered, but others-centered. We should seek to be a blessing to others – to love them even if it costs us. This is a huge challenge to sinners who are accustomed to thinking primarily of themselves. It is a call to put on a complete change in mindset. Paul instructs his followers to put off selfish love and put on sacrificial love. As a staff, this is what we are going to continue to strive to do each week as service to our brothers and sisters and as worship to our Lord.

LBC Weekly SPARK – December 1, 2010

by Pastor Patrick Cho

Hello LBC family and friends!

I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful week and that you are walking in the Lord. With the holiday season comes a busy time for the church. Please read below about some of the things you’ll want to take part in and attend. Please take advantage of the opportunities God gives us to represent Him with those who do not know Him. Like we’ve said before, it is particularly during this time of year that those who are typically closed off to the gospel will be willing to at least talk to you about Christ. Let’s not let these opportunities go wasted.

In His grace,

Pastor Patrick

Here are the announcements for this week:

  1. Flocks. We will not be meeting with our regularly scheduled affinity group Bible studies this week (i.e., Kids’ Club, Lumos Youth Group, College Life, Single Life) because of flocks. More information about flocks can be found at the church website. Come out to a flock and enjoy some refreshing fellowship! Be sure to download and complete the homework sheet so you can take part in the group discussion.
  2. Communion. Don’t forget that we’ll be taking communion together this Sunday as a church family. Please come having prepared your hearts to remember Christ and the cross.
  3. New Visitors Meet N Greet. This Sunday, immediately following the regular service, we will be having a Meet N Greet in Room 101. If you have come to Lighthouse within the past couple months, please join us for that time of fellowship. Pizza and drinks will be provided.
  4. Christmas Concert. Our Christmas Concert will be on Saturday, December 11 at 6:00pm. No tickets are required for entrance, but flyers are available if you would like to invite your family and friends. This is a great chance for them to hear the message of salvation, so be sure to invite them! As this is an annual highlight for the church, so you won’t want to miss it!
  5. Angel Tree. We will be participating in Angel Tree once again this year, which is a ministry to children of incarcerated parents. If you would like more information about how you can get involved, please talk to Joyce Kang.
  6. Softball at the Park. Want to get to know some of the people at church better? On Sunday, December 12, at 1:00pm, we will be heading to the park to play some softball and enjoy lunch together. If you are interested in participating, please contact Abram Kim. Don’t forget your cleats and mitts!
  7. Christmas Service. We will be having a special Christmas service on Sunday, December 19. This will be a chance for us to be reminded of why Christ came. We will not dismiss the children that Sunday for their Sunday School classes. Instead, we will have all the families worship together in our service. Nursery care will still be available.
  8. New Year’s Eve Fellowship. We will be having a New Year’s Eve Fellowship on Friday, December 31 at 6:00pm at the church. In order to allow parents to put their kids to bed early, we will have a countdown at midnight Eastern time (9:00pm here!). We’ll continue to fellowship and play after that until midnight Pacific time, when we’ll countdown again! =) While we celebrate the coming of a New Year, this will also give us an opportunity to reflect on this past year and worship together.

Living Theology #46 – Means of Grace Within the Church

by Garrett Glende

As we resume our walk through Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology, we come to chapter 48, “Means of Grace within the Church.” The purpose of this section is to inform us of how God has blessed believers through the local church. There might be a little bit of confusion from the usage of the term “means of grace” because of the Catholic meaning behind it. While the Roman Catholics claim that these different activities within the church actually contribute towards one’s justification, the correct understanding of the term is that these means of grace are simply additional blessings in a Christian’s life. Grudem lists eleven different means and goes into some detail for each of them. We won’t have the space to go into each one fully, so I will just highlight a few.

(Here is the full list from Grudem if you were wondering):

  1. teaching of the word,
  2. baptism,
  3. the Lord’s Supper,
  4. prayer for one another,
  5. worship,
  6. church discipline,
  7. giving,
  8. spiritual gifts,
  9. fellowship,
  10. evangelism, and
  11. personal ministry to individuals.

Certainly, this is not an exhaustive list, as there are many ways by which God blesses those within the fellowship of the church, but these are the most prominent. And there are really none greater than the teaching of the word itself. This is the primary function of the church and it is how God uses the church to bless the world. Yes, you can read your Bible even if you do not attend a church, but it is nearly impossible to have the same impact on your life as opposed to having the word taught to you. We need to digest God’s truth in many different ways. One of the methods through which this takes place is by hearing the word taught from the pulpit. We need this to take place in our churches because the Bible is the only thing that can really cause change. The Holy Spirit working through the truths of God’s word is the sole instrument for sanctification in the lives of believers. We see this in Jesus’ prayer for his disciples, as he asks that they may be “sanctified in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). God’s word not only brings us towards holiness, but it also guides us as a lamp (Psalm 119:105) and grants us wisdom to make the best decisions (Psalm 19:7). If the word of God is central to the fellowship of the church, then there will be tremendous spiritual growth and people’s lives will be truly changed.

Another true blessing that God has given to us through the church is the company of fellowship. There is no other organization, group, team, or community that is able to provide the type of grace that comes from true Christian fellowship. It is a unique thing to have what really is a second family. Being baptized into the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13) means that all Christians are now a part of the same body and the same family. We can now truly bear one another’s burdens, rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. We can come alongside one another and give an encouraging word. We can lift one another up in prayer together. All in all, we get to share our lives together! The Christian life is not meant to be lived alone. There are no lone ranger Christians. We need the rest of the church body to help us through struggles and be there next to us during the greatest joys. We need a brother or sister to confront us in our sin. And all of this happens because God has united us together through Christ’s death and resurrection and we are now able to love God and love one another. The fellowship found within the church is truly a rare thing.

It really is amazing that God has given us these blessings through the church, but the question is, do we take advantage of it? If you aren’t involved in a local body, then you’re missing out on all of these benefits! Yes, there is work to be done and a commitment to be made, but the rewards of church membership far outweigh the costs. Pastor Patrick has written a lot recently about this issue, so go and read his articles in the pastor’s corner section (they’re better than mine anyway). But I’ll assume many of you are already members of a local church and have committed to contributing to its life. So my question for you is, are you truly invested in it? Being a member of a church is not just about attending every Sunday and occasionally serving. It’s about being involved in the lives of your fellow brothers and sisters. It’s about making sacrifices for their sake and doing so in order that they would be sanctified and God would be glorified. We really must take advantage of every opportunity that God has given us to invest in the church. I believe the saying is true that “the more you put into it, the more you get out of it.” Also, since it is the Thanksgiving season, I believe we should spend some time reflecting on the ways that God has blessed us through the church. After all, these “means of grace” are all things that we hardly deserve. So let’s be thankful. If we had to make a list, I’m sure it would be quite long.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions (part 2)

by Elder Mike Chon

In the last article we saw how the culture of our day can sometimes influence our decision-making, causing us to look away from God and look to another source. One of the differences between someone that has a true biblical worldview and someone that doesn’t is how they begin to make their decisions. Someone without a biblical worldview begins with questions that start with themselves:

  • “How is this going to impact my life?”
  • “Will this decision help my family?”
  • “Will this help me grow closer to God?”

At the heart of all these questions is a very self-centered view of the world. I have to pause at this moment to make an announcement that many of us have already heard before. “Life is not about you!” If you begin to make decisions based on you, then you become the fool that the book of Proverbs writes about (see last article). Those that have a true biblical worldview will begin their decision-making process by asking questions such as:

  • “Does God’s Word have anything to say about this?”
  • “How does God’s character impact how to make this decision?”
  • “Will this decision consider others before myself?”

So how do we guard ourselves from becoming the fool that God warns about?

A fool, biblically speaking, is someone that has forsaken the true wisdom of God. Please understand, the Bible is not engaging in cheap name-calling here; rather it is describing someone who is rebellious, who refuses to use their reason in the way that God intended.  All unbelievers are considered fools because they have forsaken the wisdom of God, primarily in unbelief of the gospel and His Word. But for believers we sometimes act as a fool when we don’t consider God before we consider ourselves. For example, in Romans 12:1 it says “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” How are we to “discern what the will of God” is? By the renewal of our mind. So to have a biblical worldview we must start with God’s Word which reveals to us who God is. First of all our mind needs to be renewed with a true understanding of the character of God which comes primarily through the Scriptures. Many times our view of God is incomplete and we allow the world to define God’s character for us which appeals to our sinful mind and heart.

For instance, God’s Word tells us that God is love. But how do we define love? There are so many misconceptions of love that when we describe God’s character to be love, many thoughts may come into mind. Please take time to listen to the audio messages from the 2010 All-Church Retreat to understand what it means that God is love. It may be surprisingly offensive.

God’s Word also describes God as being good. So does that mean that if something “bad” happens in this world or to us, then it must not be from God. But who defines something to be “good” and something to be “bad?” Many of us define the origin of our circumstances based on how we perceive something to be “good” or “bad.” If it is “good,” we will happily and enthusiastically attribute it to God and His goodness. If something is “bad,” it must be from Satan or the world, since a good God would never allow something like this to happen to me. So in our decision-making we pick the path of life that seems “good,” since God would only want us to enjoy our life and not have to suffer. Therefore, the path that seems “good” must be the path that follows God’s will for my life. He wouldn’t want me to pick the path that is more difficult or a path that may bring suffering to my life. Or does He? So how does Scripture define the goodness of God?

When we think of God being good we are not talking about good as opposed to God being bad; it is not related to something He does, but rather something He is. Biblically God’s goodness is related to Him being benevolent, that God is kind. And many times His goodness is related to God being patient in wanting men to repent (Romans 2:1-4). The word “good” in the Greek conveys the idea of being generous, merciful and kind. So when we think about the goodness of God, we can think of the kindness of God. Therefore, all our circumstances can be seen in light of God’s goodness. So when we look at decisions we make, and one choice appears to be more difficult, more inconvenient, the choice will cause us to suffer, is that a “bad” choice? Can we sing worship with David in Psalm 23:6 “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life?” Do we trust that God is good and that His kindness and mercy will follow us like a shepherd? Are our decisions based on the fact that God’s goodness, His mercy, His kindness leads us to repentance and to know that the greatest good in our life is to put aside sin and put on holiness? Do you consider your relationship with God in your decision-making? Do you choose the decision that will help you be transformed more into God’s image or do you choose the one that is most convenient? The one that is logical? The one that will benefit you most in this life? Therefore understanding and trusting in the character of God will help us to make decisions that will truly honor and glorify God.

Only those that have repented of their sins and have been saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ can ever make decisions to know God’s will. If you are not saved, God’s goodness is extended to you in patience so that you have the opportunity to repent and be saved (2 Peter 3:9). If you are not saved and continue in your unbelief you will never know, and will never be capable of knowing God’s will for your life. You will continue to live in this life as a fool who has rejected the true wisdom of God. For believers, we should never conform to this world by making decisions in our life that reflect the foolishness of this world and not the wisdom of God. Who do we consider first in our decisions, God or man? In the next article we will expose some of the common mistakes that we make in our decision-making process and consider that God does hold us responsible, not only to make wise decisions but also responsible in how we make those decisions.

I Will Help Thee, Saith the Lord

by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

From Isaiah 41:14

This morning let us hear the Lord Jesus speak to each one of us: ‘I will help thee.’ ‘It is but a small thing for Me, thy God, to help thee. Consider what I have done already. What! not help thee? Why, I bought thee with My blood. What! not help thee? I have died for thee; and if I have done the greater, will I not do the less? Help thee! It is the least thing I will ever do for thee; I have done more, and will do more. Before the world began I chose thee. I made the covenant for thee. I laid aside My glory and became a man for thee; I gave up My life for thee; and if I did all this, I will surely help thee now. In helping thee, I am giving thee what I have bought for thee already. If thou hadst need of a thousand times as much help, I would give it thee; thou requirest little compared with what I am ready to give. ‘Tis much for thee to need, but it is nothing for me to bestow. ‘Help thee?’ Fear not! If there were an ant at the door of thy granary asking for help, it would not ruin thee to give him a handful of thy wheat; and thou art nothing but a tiny insect at the door of My all-sufficiency. ‘I will help thee.”

O my soul, is not this enough? Dost thou need more strength than the omnipotence of the United Trinity? Dost thou want more wisdom than exists in the Father, more love than displays itself in the Son, or more power than is manifest in the influences of the Spirit? Bring hither thine empty pitcher! Surely this well will fill it. Haste, gather up thy wants, and bring them here-thine emptiness, thy woes, thy needs. Behold, this river of God is full for thy supply; what canst thou desire beside? Go forth, my soul, in this thy might. The Eternal God is thine helper!

‘Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismay’d!
I, I am thy God, and will still give thee aid.’

1.16a

Weekly Links (11/26/2010)

by Stephen Rodgers

Well, I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and hasn’t been put into a turkey-coma or injured at a Black Friday sale.  For those of you who are awake and able to read, we present to you a new edition of the Weekly Links:

  • For those of you who are curious about such things, the folks over at 9Marks have linked to the content from our 2010 All Church Retreat. So in case we’ve picked up any new readers because of that, welcome to the Beacon! (AUDIO)  (Warning, the links that 9Marks provided in their article are a bit goofy, but you can just go here to get everything).
  • For those of you still interested in the articles we’ve posted recently regarding digital life and social media, I’ve got a couple interesting ones for you: first up is this article from John Piper on 5 Dangers of Computer Unreality…from 1994.  Kind of prophetic, actually.  And then, I have an excerpt from CS Lewis The Screwtape Letters on how we constantly crave something new. Both are insightful warnings from the past. (WEB)
  • Considering the recent articles that Elder Mike Chon has been writing regarding Biblical decision-making, I thought that this quick summary post from Choosing Hats would be very helpful for many people.  It’s entitled Should We Be Neutral? and it touches on several of the same points that he’s been making. (WEB)
  • Last week we touched on a video from John Piper warning my generation of what he sees to be the greatest weakness in our theology/theopraxis.  There has been some furor over that video, but I think these two articles actually get the greater point: The Hole In Our Holiness by Kevin DeYoung and The 3 Most Disturbing Words on TV by Mike Cosper.  (WEB) Both are definitely worth your time.

Well, that’s it.  See you Sunday!

Pro Rege

Update from Caroline (College)

by Caroline Shin

Hello! I’m Caroline, a fourth year at UCSD, and this is my last year being a part of Lighthouse’s College Life Ministry. College Life was previously led by Pastor Patrick, but now that he is our head pastor (woohoo!) and heading the Single Life ministry, Hansol An and Johnny Kim have taken charge of the college ministry with Peter Lim as our overseer. It has honestly been a huge encouragement seeing the college ministry continue to thrive, even without our old college pastor.

We are currently going through the parable of the four soils (Matthew 13; Mark 4; Luke 8). So far, we’ve gone over the path soil, the rocky soil, and the thorny soil, which have been taught by our male, senior staffers. It’s been awesome so far getting teaching from a different staffer each week. To sum up the past three messages, there are dangers to being a path soil, a rocky soil, and a thorny soil. Each soil represents the condition of a person’s heart. If you’re one of these three soils, it is due to the fact that you have a shallow view of your sins and do not desire to live in light of the gospel.

Aside from the messages, after every bible study, the collegians enjoy eating out and playing games together. Our after bible study hangouts have always been a highlight for College Life. These are the times when collegians and staffers get to deepen their relationships with one another. I’ve personally seen the benefit of fellowshipping during our trips to hole-in-the-walls and game time at the collegians’ apartments. Many of the collegians, who are members, have been intentional in furthering their conversations with newcomers by meeting with them outside of bible study and church. It’s neat to see collegians take on the discipler-disciplee attitude.

One blessing that I’ve seen from College Life this year is the number of freshmen who have decided to stay at Lighthouse. I’ve been really encouraged by their eagerness to learn, grow, and serve the church body. Although I’m notoriously known for being the grandma of the collegians, being surrounded by the freshmen’s presence really helps me to feed off their energy and make me feel younger. I’m truly excited to see how God will prove His faithfulness to the college ministry this year!

Eschatology is Personal

by Stephen Rodgers

Editor’s Note: In cased you didn’t know, I’ll be filling in for Garrett until he is able to return to his Living Theology series.

Well, in case you missed it, my post last week was a bit…longwinded. I’ll aim to be a good deal wittier this time, assuming that you agree that brevity is its soul and all that. So moving right along…

My claim this week is that there are basically two categories of unfortunate events: the personal (which we call a “tragedy”) and the impersonal (which we call a “statistic”…or if we’re being more sensitive, a “current event”). In other words, the relative tragedy of any given event is often directly related to our personal attachments, or lack thereof. I’ll give you two brief examples, and I’ll even use bullet points to ensure their brevity:

  • Columbine, 1999. There’s no denying that the horrible events at Columbine high school captured national attention. However, while I also watched the news and read the papers, I had a more personal connection. A childhood friend of mine was attending Columbine at the time, and in those days prior to Gmail and Facebook, SMS and Twitter, being unaware of how someone else was doing was a given, not the exception. It wasn’t until several days later that I heard from him and knew that he and his brother were alive.
  • Moravia, 2010. I read and/or skim a great many articles every day, and so like most days, I slid my eyes across the front page of the international version of CNN. This time however, they caught on a headline informing me of “massive flooding in Moravia” along with a number of pictures that demonstrated in no uncertain terms that water laughs in the face of modern engineering. Normally, the relative moistness of Central/Eastern Europe has no bearing on my life, except that this time it came with the realization that my fiancée was potentially treading water. She has since corrected my view (“We live on hill, so water is not a problem; we fear fire.”), but at the time it was alarming to say the least.

So this brings us to eschatology.

Now a number of you might be scratching your heads at that one. After all, your familiarity with eschatology might bring to mind a number of prefixes: pre-, post-, and a- right? And something in there about “tribs?” Particularly savvy students might be trundling out their commentaries on Daniel and Matthew along with Revelation, but in this case, they’ve jumped the gun (whether they’ve jumped the shark as well is grist for another mill). You see, I don’t mean that kind of eschatology, I mean that kind of eschatology.

For those who cannot see my indicative hand-waving and chin-thrusting, I am referring not to eschatology of the a-/pre-/post- variety (what theologians often call “specific eschatology”) but of the Heaven/Hell variety (what theologians often call “general eschatology”).

You see, I recently heard a comment that started me down this line of reasoning. When asked to comment on his post-millennial views, Douglas Wilson made the observation that while he personally doesn’t believe that Jesus Christ could return tomorrow, there is absolutely nothing whatsoever preventing Him from demanding that Pastor Wilson make the trip to Him. In other words, whatever your view on when the sovereign Lord intends to return to judge the quick and dead, we all agree that like the rich fool that Christ so aptly illustrated for us, our life could be demanded of us this very night. (Luke 12:16-21)

However, before we all wax poetic and oh-so-sanctified about how wonderful Heaven will be (my aforementioned fire-fearing fiancée is an excellent example of this, as she famously has announced that she does not fear interstate highways and crazed American drivers because “Heaven is better”), let us pause briefly to consider that this applies to unbelievers as well as believers.  Which is to say, “Yes!  True!  But…”  In other words, as I once pointed out in my Apologetics class, the issue is not whether we live forever or don’t. Everyone, by their God-given nature, is functionally immortal. The question, rather, is where you will eternally reside?

So my challenge to you is this: what priority do you place on the souls of the lost? What time do you spend in evangelism? How near and dear…how personal…is your eschatology? You see, like Columbine, like Moravia, and like so many other tragedies, Hell is personal for me. I have friends there. I have family there. And it is something that is starting to keep me up at night. Because while they are forever beyond my reach, there are others who are not. I commented earlier that 1999 was a lousy year in terms of digital media and a robust social-networking scene. News flash: 2010 is quite the opposite. There are over 500 names in my Gmail contacts. There are almost 400 souls calling themselves my Facebook “friends.” This newsletter alone garners nearly 3,000 unique visitors per month.  That’s a lot of people that God has brought within the reach of my voice, phone, and keyboard.

How many of those people need to hear the Gospel? How many have yet to bend the knee to Christ?

And do we take it personally?

“If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms around their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.” (C.H. Spurgeon)