Matthew 16:13-20: Worst Evangelism Plan, Ever.

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. - Matthew 16:13-20

Worst evangelism plan, ever. "Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah." Why did I even bother taking EE? The standing orders from Jesus here, and in other places was to say nothing about the Messiah. Why? Because God was doing things and going to do things and then they could talk about the Messiah. If they spoke too soon, they wouldn't be helping Jesus at all. In fact, they would be getting in the way.  According to N.T. Wright, Jesus was always walking a tightrope of proving he was the Messiah while at the same time avoiding bringing down the wrath of the high priests and the romans too early.

The fact that they were able to see what they had seen as like being given a sneak preview of a new movie. Reviewers of a new moving have to have their news stories published on the day when the movie comes out, which wouldn't be possible if they didn't get to see it early. So they agree to a gag order, a non-disclosure agreement, where, in exchange for an early look, they agree not to say anything before a certain date. The movie producers don't want to control the timing of the news because otherwise an ill-timed review could tank the movie and spoil the movie for other viewers.

It was the same for Jesus. The disciples got the early look and even got a special inside look at "the making of the Messiah" But Jesus gave them a gag order-don't say too much, too early. The people had to see God at work and then their "Messiah reviews" would be much more powerful. But if they spoke before God's big move, their words would wilt. Evangelism is about letting God demonstrate first, then we speak. People don't listen to our words about God until they have 1st hand experience of God at work.

Romans 12:1-8: Commanded To Allow Transformation

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. - Romans 12:1-8

 "...be transformed" is sort of a strange command, a passive imperative. If I say to you "be cleaned" (not "be clean") it would mean that I subject myself to someone else washing me, like the way my socks would if they could choose to be laundered. It is subjecting oneself passively to someone else's actions. So "be transformed" is a command to surrender to being changed by another-in this case-by God. Not just changed-transformed-converted from one thing to another. 

But it gets stranger: be transformed "by the renewing of your mind." So much of what defines our sense of self is encompassed in our mind. When we say that we "changed our mind" it means that the way we valued different potential alternatives has been reshaped so that what was once less valuable is now perceived as more important. God is really messing with our minds! Or rather he is asking us to choose to let God mess with our minds.

Why? Because the changes that God wants for us requires that we are fundamentally changed. Only after this fundamental change will we be able to see what is real. But once we submit ourself to this process "Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Do you want to know what God is doing and why he is doing? You will never be able to see it unless you surrender our very self to God and let him reform us.

Will I like what God does? I guess that depends on how much I trust him to care for me and how much I believe he is capable to being about the result he promises. Can I really be a more loving person? Can I really be wiser? Can I really change? Do I think he will do it the way he says he will. "In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy ... being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

It is one thing for Paul to say it, but Paul can't speak for me. I must say I will "be transformed" according to his promise. I sure hope so, or I will look pretty stupid in dropping my defenses. 

Exodus 1:8-2:10: When I Felt Guilty About Winning

Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. 9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”

So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.

The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”

The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”

So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket[a] for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”

“Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.” - Exodus 1:8-2:10

To what extents must God go to overcome the selfishness that pervades our hearts and fights to retain the privilege we have? When I was in 5th grade, the GATE teacher had us play a game where we traded fake coins of differing values. The goal of the game was the trade such that we would win by essentially cheating the other players-convincing them to give us 5 for 4, 20 for 18, etc. To initiate a trade, players would grasp hands, discuss and then exchange coins. At the end of each timed round, our scores were written up on the black board and we were ranked. At some point, the top 4 or 5 scoring players got together and were allowed to introduce a new rule. The leaders essentially could write rules that made them richer, unbalancing the trade ratios, preventing defensive techniques used by those lower ranked, and more. 

I was good at cheating players. But it bothered me, and after a few rounds, when the first of the rule-making councils was convened and I was part of it because my name was in the top 5, I refused to join because I felt it was wrong, even though I had participated in it. As the rules created by the council were more draconian, a strange thing happened: the disenfranchised players asked me for help, to change the rules for better or at least block the worst. They would seek me out for trades, deliberately "losing" to me so I would get back on the rule making council again. I became "rich" now, not because I was cheating, but because the losers in the game wanted me to win. And I, in turn, challenged rules and redistributed the money to them.

The game ended unsatisfactorily, at least to me. Those who were losing eventually ran out of money. We couldn't stop the system that reinforced the rich who made the rules. OUr teacher stopped the game.

In these verses, we see a group of people who would go on to re-write the rules to reinforce their position against others who were prospering. Corrupt the midwives. Harder jobs. Later, no straw for the job. During this time, Moses moved from the losing camp over to the winning camp. But the winning camp never sat well with him. God allowed him to grown up in wealth, with two sets of loving parents (his own and Pharaoh's) but that position was not for self-indulgence, but for doing God's bidding. It took a change of heart and position for him to hear God's plan and identify fully with those oppressed. Even his background was not enough. It still needed God's hand, the same hand that had been guiding him since he was saved by his mother and sister as a baby: God's.

Whatever position we have is not for our benefit. Do not resist the impulse to use what God has given you to relieve those around you. You will not be enough, but God will. 

 

Matthew 14:22-33: Immediately Renew, Relieve and Restore

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

“Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” - Matthew 14:22-33

What is intriguing is that Jesus seems to have really wanted some time alone: alone from the crowds but also alone from his disciples. The one he wanted to be with was the Father. There was an urgency to this: "Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat..."

The problems were still going to be there. The disciples are going to be terrified about a freak storm. The next day the people reassembled after their dismissal by Jesus, with a full complement of sick needing healing. 

After this, he jumped back into his work: "Immediately" he told the disciples to "take courage" and "Immediately" he reached out and took Peter's hand. When he switched back "on" he was right there, renewed by his time with God. 

Jesus knew something that I am slowly becoming aware of: we have enough time to do all the tasks that God wants us to do. There is a lot of pressure to fill our time to overflowing with "worthy" and "good" tasks, to the point where the most important relationships are ragged from wear and tear and neglect. 

Are we brave enough to say no to the friends working with us and the people who we serve to make sure there is enough silence to speak with God? Those who need our help with be preserved by God until we reach them after restoring the key relationship: God's. 

I am convinced that making sure that the inner-most circle of relationships must have times of intentional renewal: with God and our spouses and our families. Any time I think the world will fall apart because of me, I need to check with my significant relations to see if they share that assessment.

He took time to get on the same page with the Father, even though things were still going wrong

Romans 10:5-15: In Shouting Distance of the Gospel

Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? 

“The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” - Romans 10:5-15

Growing up, I guess I was always within shouting distance of the gospel. My mom didn't really care to go to church when I was growing up. She would allow us to go with friends or a neighbor and we went with my grandma and grandpa when we stayed at their house during the summer.  She didn't stop us but she didn't go herself or take us. 

So I heard about God, about Jesus and flannel-graph versions of all of the Bible stories. Yet there was enough in those years to convince me that I needed saving. I was having trouble being good. I still have trouble being good. I didn't really understand why I wasn't acting the way I wanted to, but I did understand at age 6 that Jesus could do something about it. 

"The same Lord is the Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him." I did. Even the limited amount I learned from age 6 was enough to point me in a different direction. I was still a strange kid who exasperated his mom and his teachers. I was still a kid who tried to be helpful, cried over his failures, fought with his brother and lied to his mom-all wrapped in one paradoxical package.

But it started because someone told me. I don't think I want to forcibly insert God into my conversations, but neither will I forcibly remove him. He is important enough that he will show up in my conversations, if I am honest about who he is to me. 

'Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.'  Some people have an advantage because they live where the word of God is close at hand, heard in off-hand comments and read in hotel room Bibles. But there are those for whom the road to God is longer-smuggled Bibles, hushed conversations, dreams from God-as Paul says, 'How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?' 

The path to God is never a straight line.

Psalm 105:1-45: Low Frequency, High Impact

Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.

Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced, you his servants, the descendants of Abraham, his chosen ones, the children of Jacob. He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth.

He remembers his covenant forever, the promise he made, for a thousand generations, the covenant he made with Abraham, the oath he swore to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant: “To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit.”

When they were but few in number, few indeed, and strangers in it, they wandered from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another. He allowed no one to oppress them; for their sake he rebuked kings: “Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm.”

He called down famine on the land and destroyed all their supplies of food; and he sent a man before them—Joseph, sold as a slave. They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons, till what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the Lord proved him true. The king sent and released him, the ruler of peoples set him free. He made him master of his household, ruler over all he possessed, to instruct his princes as he pleased and teach his elders wisdom.

Then Israel entered Egypt; Jacob resided as a foreigner in the land of Ham. The Lord made his people very fruitful; he made them too numerous for their foes, whose hearts he turned to hate his people, to conspire against his servants. He sent Moses his servant, and Aaron, whom he had chosen. They performed his signs among them, his wonders in the land of Ham. He sent darkness and made the land dark—for had they not rebelled against his words? He turned their waters into blood, causing their fish to die. Their land teemed with frogs, which went up into the bedrooms of their rulers. He spoke, and there came swarms of flies, and gnats throughout their country. He turned their rain into hail, with lightning throughout their land; he struck down their vines and fig trees and shattered the trees of their country. He spoke, and the locusts came, grasshoppers without number; they ate up every green thing in their land, ate up the produce of their soil. Then he struck down all the firstborn in their land, the firstfruits of all their manhood. He brought out Israel, laden with silver and gold, and from among their tribes no one faltered. Egypt was glad when they left, because dread of Israel had fallen on them.

He spread out a cloud as a covering, and a fire to give light at night. They asked, and he brought them quail; he fed them well with the bread of heaven. He opened the rock, and water gushed out; it flowed like a river in the desert. For he remembered his holy promise given to his servant Abraham. He brought out his people with rejoicing, his chosen ones with shouts of joy; he gave them the lands of the nations, and they fell heir to what others had toiled for—that they might keep his precepts and observe his laws.

Praise the Lord. - Psalm 105:1-45

We are the result of God's work. What happened today is the outcome of God's long plan. Not that what happened today was in anyway amazing. It was actually an ordinary day at work, burning off the debris from a disagreement last night, plowing through things I needed to do at work, catching a show in the evening together. The God who speaks into effect the big turning points of history also is the God who speaks into effect normal days. They show up in my journal but they don't show up in the newspaper.

Maybe the silence in history is simply because we aren't attuned enough to the frequency of God's activity. In music theory, when a sound descends below 20hz-20 cycles per second-it can no longer be heard, it can only be felt. In order to be detected-even felt-at those frequencies requires extreme quiet, extreme sensitivity or extreme volume. Might even be mistaken for thunder, an earthquake, a bomb blast or a rock concert. Between 10-20hz, when sufficiently loud, people in studies reported feeling the sound in the abdominal walls, having visual disturbances and feeling anxious. Between 2-10hz, sound is felt as "feelings of body sway" and involuntary eye movements. At 1hz the sound caused artificial respiration in test subjects.[1]

In order to hear sounds below 1hz, scientists have gone to the deepest caves on earth and placed sensors that amplify the sounds of the earth itself. There, they are able to hear the mountains shrug, the tectonic plates shift and the earth shudder.

Strange. How to hear God speak, when his words span, not seconds, but years, generations or centuries? The resonant frequency is so low-cycles per year, cycles per lifetime-that we cannot normally determine the pitch of His words, much less the meaning. We do not have the ears, the sensitivity, or the lifespan to see the full extent of what God is saying. Who can? No one. It requires listening to what one generation says to the next. It takes one generation telling the next, "This is what God is like, because he did this." By looking back, they can sing:

Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.

He has been speaking. We couldn't hear it. What he is saying is: God loves his people and he keeps his promises. One lifetime might only seem full of ordinary days, but the voice of God is speaking through ordinary days and pointing to the future where his promises are fulfilled. We join with the saints of the century, adding a new layer of overtones to the melody he has been crafting since eternity.

https://www.audioholics.com/room-acoustics/bass-the-physical-sensation-of-sound , retrieved on 5 August 2023.