In the last letter to the seven churches, Jesus speaks of the endurance of the Philadelphians. They endure in times of trial and Jesus promises to keep them so that they might overcome and remain faithful. In this sermon, Greg challenges us to remain faithful in the midst of trials so that we might live in love, even when we face resistance.
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Preparing for the Time of Testing
• Greg Boyd
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This is the letter to, Philadelphia, the seventh and final church. The primary focus of this sermon is on verses 10 and 11. Jesus knows the “works” of this church, which refers to their faith, their loyalties, and most of all, their character. Because they kept the word of endurance, Jesus will keep them. This speaks of a partnership between God and humans. We can’t do life in the Kingdom without God, and God won’t advance the Kingdom without us. We rely absolutely upon God’s grace, but God’s action depends upon a partnership with us. It is not a contradiction to say that our lives depend upon the life of God, while also saying that we are called to give our all to that life. We can do the second because of the first.
Jesus says that if we keep his word, then he will keep us. This does not mean that we will escape the trials and tribulations of the world. If that were the case, then there would not be a need for endurance. Christians have suffered persecutions throughout history and are still suffering persecution in parts of the world. Rather, this is a promise to protect us from succumbing to the trials, to protect us from the evil one who is always trying to get us to give up.
Why will we face testing? First, testing discloses our character. Testing makes clear what is true about our character and reveals who we are at the present time. Secondly, testing builds our character. Character is developed as we choose between loving and not loving. If we remain faithful, we grow in the character of love. Whatever we do, the better we get at it. The testing will move us forward or send us backward, depending on how we respond to the test.
There are two applications of this time of testing. First, in apocalyptic literature, it is assumed that a time of global testing would take place prior to the appearing of the messiah at the end of age. Circumstances would get increasingly difficult, and the world would come undone prior to the appearing of the messiah. The New Testament tells us to live expectantly, as if this could be coming at any moment.
The second application is for everyday life. A hardship is only a test if there is some kind of goal toward which we are moving. Our life goal is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
Since life can only be lived moment by moment, and character is formed by what we do in those moments, our call is to be the most loving version of ourselves in each of those moments. Everything that might tempt us to be anything less than our most loving self is a test, and it’s a test that Jesus promises to help us endure if we commit to enduring.
This means that every situation presents us with a choice. Paul wrote, “Let all that you do be done in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14). Will we pursue love or will we invest in our own agenda? The goal to love tops all other goals. And every time we face a challenge that causes us to question whether or not we love is a trial. Will we endure? To endure we need three things. First, we need reminders. Secondly, we need spiritual friends who will challenge us to live in love. Third, we need to belong to a community that is committed to move in this direction.
Hide Extended SummaryTopics: Faithfulness, Love, Temptation
Sermon Series: Dear Church
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The MuseCast: April 7
Focus Scripture:
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Revelation 3:7-13
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the Holy One, the True One, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens: I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door that no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not but are lying—I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you. Because you have kept my word of endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth. I am coming soon; hold fast to what you have, so that no one takes away your crown. If you conquer, I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God; you will never go out of it. I will write on you the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
2 thoughts on “Preparing for the Time of Testing”
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"Thank you all the way from Oregon. I deeply appreciate being shepherded by Pastor Greg and everyone else on the panels. You are a rare find in the church nowadays. Tackling tough questions with humility and a kingdom perspective. It has been life changing for me in such tumultuous times."
– Heather, from Oregon
Greg, Thank you! This sermon connected quite a few dots of ideas I’ve been holding on the shelf.
I’ve been working on unpacking more on The two-shoulder Idea: You’re conscious [spirit –the angel] side and your subconscious shadow [flesh – the devil] side.
See reference: https://whchurch.org/sermon/marching-on/#comment-253469
This, in your sermon, caught my attention: “We can’t do life in the Kingdom without God, and God won’t advance the Kingdom without us. We rely absolutely upon God’s grace, but God’s action depends upon a partnership with us. It is not a contradiction to say that our lives depend upon the life of God, while also saying that we are called to give our all to that life. We can do the second because of the first”.
Jordon Peterson has said faith is the kind of courage that causes us to welcome life as an incredible adventure of purpose, that Jesus calls us to follow him on, a range of God-breathed possibilities for the future, [based on from the sermon “WELL DONE” – the parable of the Talents – entrusted God given say-sos], that we can choose from to turn into actualities!
Again: “Why will we face testing? First, testing discloses our character. Testing makes clear what is true about our character and reveals who we are at present. Secondly, testing builds our character. Character is developed as we choose between loving and not loving. If we remain faithful, we grow in the character of love. Whatever we do, the better we get at it. The testing will move us forward or send us backward, depending on how we respond to the test”.
As we dance on and off the narrow path and the wide road we may close the door to given possibilities however God will use that, Romans 8:28 working all things for good…, as a launching point for a new direction set of God-breathed possibilities.
I came across this book: “The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World” – by Iain McGilchrist
https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B09LD9RHQG/about
Adding to the about: Iain has a new book, “The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World”, a science side approach connecting well with N. T. Wright’s latest work “Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies”
For reference using this as my backdrop: RSA ANIMATE: The Divided Brain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFs9WO2B8uI
Left hemisphere – Machiavellian – sneaky, cunning – pounce on – graspable [daily bread] – dependent on denotative language and abstraction – yields clarity and power to manipulate things that are known: fixed, static, isolated, decontextualized, explicit – ultimately lifeless [numerous unconnected pieces] -material perfection but emptiness – a closed system
Right hemisphere by contrast – Erasmine – imaginative – yields a world of individuals: changing, evolving, interconnected, implicit, incarnate, living [a whole] NEVER fully graspable – nonmaterial
From Iain: There are four main pathways to truth: science, reason, intuition, and imagination. Each on its own has virtues and vices, gifts, and inherent dangers. Only by respecting each and all together can we learn to act wisely. Each is a blend of elements contributed by either hemisphere.
However: the same proviso applies to each case, namely that for each of the four pathways to be successful, what the left hemisphere can offer must be used in service to what the right knows and sees, NOT the other way around.
The left, [consider the flesh], is a wonderful servant but a poor master. Matt 20 25-28 “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
We need to be aware of the sheer extent, to which the left is, in the most down-to-earth, empirically verifiable way, less reliable than the right – in matters of attention, perception, judgment, emotional understanding, and indeed intelligence as it is conventionally understood.
We should be appropriately skeptical of the left’s vision of a mechanistic world, an atomistic society; a world in which competition is more important than collaboration; a world in which nature is a heap of resources there for exploitation; in which only humans count.
Galatians 5:24-26 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh [left] with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, [right – Ekklesica – breathing the Spirit of God], let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking, and envying each other. Dr. Al Larson felt Paul had a lot of BIG downloads. Here’s one PLUNK!
As Albert Einstein has said, “The intuitive mind is a sacred Gift… and the rational mind is a faithful servant”, however today we have created a society that honors the servant but has forgotten the gift.
John 19:30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. Luke 23:35-47 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last. From the curtain emergencies, EKKLESICA, a mobile temple community.
Today is the greatest threat to Ekklesica: Woke democrats – MAGA republicans – indecisive lukewarm independents or the Godless humanists who took prayer out of school [pick one]?
https://whchurch.org/sermon/whats-really-going-on/#comment-251381
Special interest groups around us, attempting to use us, have conspired to convince us that the greatest threat to the ekklesia of Jesus is outside of us and they will use any means to protect us from that.
Is the Lion of Judah just hanging by a thread in need of a security team?
A Christian who is convinced that an ideology or political party is the primary threat to the ekklesia of Jesus is a threat because they quit paying attention to the enemy inside them. Jesus said, “Love your enemy”.
When you determine another group as your enemy you will eventually adopt the tone, posture, language, and approach of your perceived enemy. When you follow them you become more like them and less like Jesus.
https://whchurch.org/sermon/whats-really-going-on/#comment-251386
You love them so you don’t become like them. For God so loved the world He came for the [whole] rebel race NOT numerous unconnected pieces.
John 17:8-18 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me…. Holy Father, protect them by the power of] your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one [whole NOT pieces] as we are one. [Looking inside NOT outside]
…. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world…. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one [whole NOT pieces], Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. [Looking inside NOT outside]
May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. [A living whole – united but diverse – never fully graspable] NOT [ultimately lifeless – numerous unconnected pieces] Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
When the good news of the, as one living whole, ekklesia gets drowned out by the wining and dining voices of numerous pieces of [current events] headline news we’ve lost the battle.
Again: “Since life can only be lived moment by moment, and character is formed by what we do in those moments, our call is to be the most loving version of ourselves in each of those moments. Everything that might tempt us to be anything less than our most loving self is a test, and it’s a test that Jesus promises to help us endure if we commit to enduring”.
WHAT OUR WORLD NEEDS NOW
Spirituality:
I get a laugh recalling Greg’s story about a Sunday church service that due to various conflicting prophecies resulted in various disturbing events including the breakout of a fistfight in the back of the sanctuary.
Because of this I have become suspicious of spirituality and tend to turn and run not looking back.
Maturity:
Saying no to me for the sake of we – in contrast to all about my spirituality.
Matt 5:44-48 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect [grow up], therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. [Greek teleios] – Complete/mature
Eph 4:11-18 Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and teachers, to equip, {NOT be spiritual], his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the [whole] measure of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of, [what to think – knowledge], teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful, [NOT the as one living whole but bits and pieces – crafted special anointing – God spoke to me and here is what you need to do] scheming.
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to, [Greek kritikos – how to critically think – wisdom – work hard in the areas of the gifts/talents – entrusted God-given say-so we’ve been given], become in every respect the mature body, [right unity whole], of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
What the world needs now is Christians who put childish ways behind them – who refuse to bite and provoke each other – NOT devouring the ekklesia but whose daily lives win the respect of others.
What the world needs now is Christians who are led by the Holy Spirit which dwells in us to help us grow up producing fruit [Not by a to-do list but] by an agency, the outcome powered by our submission to the Spirit that lives inside us – a process that takes time to grow to maturity.
Gal 5:25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with, [the prompting of], the Spirit to be more patient – in walking alongside someone then getting to our destination; – kind – loaning them our strength rather than reminding them of their weakness.
So when we find ourselves lacking in the fruit of the spirit in our left hemisphere thinking – wanting to pounce on something pause, there might be something lurking to pounce on you, for right hemisphere input with a simple prayer “Heavenly Father show me your will concerning this present moment”.
Again: “And every time we face a challenge, that causes us to question whether or not we love, is a trial. Will we endure? To endure we need three things:
First, we need reminders [promptings from the Holy Spirit].
Secondly, we need spiritual friends who will challenge us to live in love.
Third, we need to belong to a community [ekklesia] that is committed to move in this direction”.
I’d like to add a few more thoughts on exploring the possibilities of the scriptural connotations in Iain’s work: The [brain divided] – concerns with wisdom, delusion, consciousness & the divine that flows from both sides.
Polarized thinking is cognitive distortions making everything feel extreme.
Everything is, [left hemisphere in thinking], EITHER good OR bad, and there is no in-between – the opposite of – the [right hemisphere] all possibilities the whole BOTH.
1 Kings 19 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. [Left physical pouncing performance]
So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely if by this time tomorrow, I do not make your life like that of one of them.”
Elijah was afraid [left flesh emotion] and ran for his life.
God via an angel restores Elijah’s [left physical being] sleep/eat/ and exercise so his [right spiritual] on hearing God’s voice “but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper” could appeal to his [left] “What are you doing here, Elijah?” [Not bits and pieces but the whole picture]
Hearing the gentle whisper of the Holy Spirit: Philippians 4:4-8
Surrender the [left] illusion of control:
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near”.
Give thanks:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, [present your requests] to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”.
Fix your thoughts [right]
”Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things”.
Hold your thoughts captive to what brings the joy of purpose burning in your heart, an incredible follow Jesus adventure, allowing the Holy Spirit to breathe comfort, guidance, and voice.
Interesting the fire of the Holy Spirit precedes God’s voice with Elijah, Moses’ call, and our now moments.
The Romans 12:2 cognitive [left/right] restructuring we don’t get to [Matthew 5:25-26] will be dealt with at a later time in a final refining process fire with a voice to follow. Revelation 22:17
AI World Summit – Dr Iain McGilchrist – on Artificial Intelligence and the Matter with Things:
In closing: “All decisions are moral ones as I have argued at length. Morality is not purely utilitarian and cannot be reduced to calculations. Every human situation is actually unique and uniqueness has to do with personal history, consciousness, memories, and intention – all that is not explicit that we refer to in that deceptively simple word [emotion].
All the experience and understanding gained through and stored in the body, all that makes us specifically human, not machines – [goodness] stems from virtuous minds NOT following rules. While machines, or so it is claimed, get more like humans; humans are getting more like machines.”
“AI is there to make things happen to give us control but this is good only if we make progress in wisdom as fast as we make progress in technical know-how”.
AI is the left hemisphere on steroids, more and more each day, however, it cannot hear the whisper of the Holy Spirit’s [wisdom]. That’s our part however NOT going well at the moment.
For reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgbUCKWCMPA&t=1081s