Pastor's Desktop Article for August 2013

                “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.  Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”  (John 15:4  NIV)

           

             If you think about the truth of this statement by Jesus in John 15:4, in a purely physical sense—that of a literal vine growing in a vineyard or even a tomato vine, it seems too simple to even give much consideration.  Duh!  Of course the branch needs to stay attached to the vine to grow and bear fruit.  Everybody knows that!  Cut a branch from a vine and it will shrivel up and die.  Why is it then that we seem to have such a hard time applying this Scriptural truth to our lives?

            Perhaps some people think that if they are in close proximity to the church that this will be enough for them.  Try that in your garden.  Cut a branch off, but leave it near the plant and see what happens.  Obviously, we don’t even need to try this.  We know what will happen—it will quickly lose all signs of life and die.  We have to be more than near the church, and still more than being in the church.  We have to be “in Christ”, which is to make Him both Savior and Lord.  He is our source of life and strength.  He is the Vine!

            The King James Version uses the word “abide”, which might be more helpful than “remain”.  To abide somewhere is to take up residence, to not depart, to continue to be present.  A verse later in John 15:5, Jesus says, “apart from me you can do nothing.”  Not only can we not do anything apart from Him, but reading down a bit further in this passage, we find that branches that do not remain in Him are picked up and cast into the fire.  This does not just mean that we remain useless, as bad as that would be; this means that a judgment is coming and once we are picked up and thrown into the fire, there is no coming back from that.  Once we leave this life, our connection to the Vine or lack thereof determines our eternal fate.  The difference with a branch that is picked up and thrown into the fire and a person who is judged to be apart from Christ is that the branch will eventually be burned up and no longer exist.  The fate of those who remain apart from Christ will suffer eternally.

            So what does it look like to “remain” or “abide” in Christ?  Verse 7 answers that question.  “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.”  Sometimes we’re apt to hear the latter part of that verse and ignore the first part.  Don’t make that mistake.  We need to remain completely trusting in Him and have His words remaining in us in order to come to Him and make our requests.  The difference is that our “asking” will be dramatically different by our remaining in Him.

           

                                       

By His Grace Alone,

Pastor Bruce Jacobsen

Pastor's Desktop Article for June 2013

“And they sang a new song:  ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.  You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth’.”       (Rev. 5:9-10NIV)

            Chapters 4 and 5 of John’s Revelation give us an amazing look into the heavenly realms, and in particular, the Throne Room of God.  The difficulty is that we have but our simply human minds to try to grasp these heavenly images.  The apostle John uses earthly images to try to paint the picture for us, and we must try to look through his eyes to make sense of it all.  One thing to keep in mind is that just like using an earthly situation to describe a theological theme; all such word pictures fall short at some point.  That’s why phrases like “had the appearance of”, or “resembling” or “looked like” are used extensively in these chapters.

            The primary thing to keep in mind in all this imagery is the way God is glorified, or made much of, in all these references. All the creatures mentioned in chapters 4 and 5 are focused upon the one seated upon the throne, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and all glory in heaven is given to Him. 

            Let’s take 5:6-8 as an example.  “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.  He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.”  This almost sounds like something out of a science fiction movie until you begin to understand what the descriptions represent.  The Lamb looking as if it had been slain is an easy one.  That’s Jesus.  No question there.  Now let’s look at the next part of His description, “He had seven horns”.  Remember that in Scripture, seven is a reference to perfection, and a horn is a symbol of power.  Perfect power or sovereign power belongs to God the Father.  Now finally, “He had…seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.”  Again, the number seven is a reference to perfection, and thus the seven spirits are a reference to the perfect spirit, or the Holy Spirit, which we know was sent out into all the earth filling the believers in Christ wherever they went since the day of Pentecost.  This image standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the 4 living creatures and the twenty-four elders is the image of the Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the completeness or perfection of God.

            Does this make a little more sense now?  I hope so.  As you continue to read through revelation, think of the images, and what they are portraying in terms of word pictures of what is going on.

                                       

By His Grace Alone,

Pastor Bruce Jacobsen

May 2013 Pastor's Desktop Article

“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.  Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.  But do this with gentleness and respect.”       (1 Peter 3:15NIV)

            We’re in the “home stretch” of our Bible Reading Plan, and I hope you are still keeping up with the reading, and are enjoying your time in the Word regularly.  The reading for this coming week takes us to 1 Peter, and the location of a verse I’ve come to call my “life verse”, 1 Peter 3:15.  Even before really finding this verse, it was through the living out of this verse that God called me to pastoral ministry, and this verse has guided my ministry through the last 18 years. 

            The first part of the verse calls us to “in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord”.  That is the first part of being a believer in Christ.  Christ has to have lordship of our lives, of our hearts, of our whole being.  When that decision is settled, a lot of other questions we may face in our lives are already answered.  If Christ is Lord of our hearts, then every decision we make after that will bear the impact of Christ as Lord of our heart.

            The second part of this verse has been the framework from which I attempt to do ministry.  “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”  While I would never consider myself a scholar, God has given me a desire to help others to better understand the Word of God.  This happens through preaching, teaching, as well as informal conversations in a wide variety of settings, and even sometimes in unexpected ways.

            I really love to see or hear about someone understanding something about God, or His Word that they’ve not understood before, as it is one way I can see the Holy Spirit at work.  Even for some of us who have been believers for many years, when a facet of God’s nature and character is better understood, or we see how a passage of Scripture applies to our life in a way we had not thought of before, the light comes on, and God is glorified.

            Finally, the last part of that verse says, “But do this with gentleness and respect.”  This is sometimes a hard thing for me to keep in focus.  Sometimes in our zeal to boldly proclaim the Word of God, the gentleness and respect gets pushed to the side.  There is still room to be firm in this verse, but it is important to maintain the gentleness and respect called for here by letting God do His work through us, and not feeling like it is our responsibility to make the other person understand.  As I stated above, that is truly the work of the Holy Spirit to help us grasp, understand and apply the Word of Truth to our lives.

                                       

By His Grace Alone,

Pastor Bruce Jacobsen

April Desktop article for Mt. Pleasant Newsletter

“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.  The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.  After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”  (Hebrews 1:1-3)

            I had occasion to need to be in contact with “customer service” for an organization I was doing business with.  I don’t know what your experiences have been, but it seems to me that the term customer service has almost become an oxymoron, (a term of opposites used together for effect).  While my concern was eventually dealt with by a human, the aggravation I had to go through to get to a human left my blood pressure rising.  This is such a contrast for me as my years in my previous vocation in the grocery business, customer services was drilled into us as employees.  You want to talk to someone who not only has the knowledge and ability to handle your concerns, but has the compassion and interest to deal with you in a kind manner.

            I’m glad that when it comes to our faith, when it comes to the most important issues of life, we have a kind, compassionate heavenly Father who loves us and is interested in us individually.  We don’t talk to a computer voice that doesn’t understand us.  We don’t have to go through several people, none of which can help us, until we finally get so frustrated that we give up.  Nor do we have to wait “on hold” until the “next available customer service” person can take our call.

            We are able to go to the Father, through the Son, who is the “exact representation of his being,” who is “sustaining all things by his powerful word.”  In chapter two of this same book, the writer tells us that “Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers.”  And in the closing verses of chapter 2, “For this reason, he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.  Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

            He knows what we go through.   In 4:15 it says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.”  He was tempted with the same things we are tempted with.  He knows the struggle.  Not only that, but He is able to lend us His strength to make it through the tough times.  So then, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

                           

By His Grace Alone,

Pastor Bruce Jacobsen

January 2013 Newsletter Article

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Luke 15:4-7 NIV) I’ve often thought about raising a few sheep, not for their wool necessarily, not for meat, but just to learn what it is about sheep that is so instructive in regard to us humans that I still need to learn. References are made to Christ being the “Great Shepherd of the sheep”, pastors are referred to as shepherds, King David got his start as a shepherd; so you can see that I might be intrigued by the thought of raising sheep, if only for a short time. So far, I’ve not followed up on that, but it has crossed my mind on numerous occasions, this being one of them. The context of this passage is an accusation the Pharisees and teachers of the law leveled at Jesus, that he “welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Jesus responds with a series of three parables dealing with lost things, a sheep, a coin, and a son. For this article, I want to focus on the first—the lost sheep. The stinger or the indictment Jesus points back at the Pharisees and teachers of the law comes in verse 7. “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” You see, the Pharisees and teachers of the law believed that because of all the “righteous deeds” that they did, because of their strict adherence to a set of rules they themselves had created, that they were more righteous than most Jews. They did not feel a need to be repentant. The truth is that they are every bit as much in need of repentance as those that they referred to as “sinners”. The Bible reminds us that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Only those who are willing to recognize their status as “sinners”, who are willing to humble themselves before a Holy God, repent of their sin, and accept the sacrificial work of Christ on the cross as payment for their sins will truly be made righteous before our heavenly Father. If we’re counting on our actions or our own personal efforts to help us to become righteous before God, we’ll be sadly mistaken on our Judgment Day. Wouldn’t it be much better to know that the angels in heaven will rejoice to know that while we were once a “lost” sheep, we’ve now been found by the Great Shepherd? By His Grace Alone, Pastor Bruce Jacobsen

December Newsletter Article

“The centurion replied, ‘Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go”, and he goes; and that one ‘Come” and he comes. I say to my servant, “Do this,’ and he does it.’ “(Matt. 8:8-9 NIV) The centurion not only understood authority, but he understood that Jesus had authority over illness such that He could command it and it would obey. He understood something about Jesus that it seemed was hidden to so many others we think perhaps should have understood it because of their background and knowledge of God. His response to Jesus also revealed something else. He first states that he does not deserve to have Jesus come to his home to heal his servant. This man is a significant leader in the Roman army, the oppressors of the Jews, and yet he does not feel that he deserves a visit from this man named Jesus, a Jew, and subject of Rome. His response here reveals that he understood Jesus to be something much more than a mere man. News of the healing that Jesus had been doing had surely reached the ears of this centurion as that was where much of Jesus early ministry had begun. Jesus could scarcely get away from the crowds to have some time to refresh Himself. Matt. 4:23-25 makes it clear that Jesus was gaining a widely known reputation for having the power to heal. These miracles were clear evidence that Jesus was much more than a man, as Peter states in his sermon to the crowd in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. (Acts 2:22) We don’t know much about the centurion from what Matthew writes in this passage above, but we can know this: he believed Jesus to be someone greater in power and authority than him, even though he had significant authority himself. He believed that this authority was sufficient to heal his servant, and that his power to heal was not limited to his present location—he was not bound by time or space. I’m convinced he believe that Jesus was a god of some type. By Jesus’ willingness to heal at his request, we might even surmise that he believed that Jesus was indeed God, “big G”. How about you? What does your faith in Christ allow you to believe Him capable of? Does your faith in Him go beyond believing that He exists? Can the Jesus you believe in save you from the consequence of your sin? Who is Jesus to you? This man was credited by Christ with “such great faith”. How far does your faith carry you? By His Grace Alone, Pastor Bruce Jacobsen