Introduction: It’s one of those verses that drives me crazy when it’s ripped from its context. It comes from the Gospel of John. It’s John 15:13 (ESV): “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

Context, context, context: It’s often referenced at military funerals (of which I’ve officiated hundreds, if not more), so I know the text. But what drives me mad–bonkers, in fact–is that there’s seldom given any context, at least when I’ve heard it. What was happening when it was said by Jesus? Who was present? What was the environment? Why was it said? To whom? For what purpose? And perhaps most of all, how does it fit within the metanarrative of the entire history of redemption? How does it fit within the whole of salvation history, per Scripture?

Answers:

What Was Happening: Jesus, God the Son incarnate, was speaking with his students, the disciples, in the upper room. He spoke metaphorically of a vine and branches. Some branches are pruned and discarded. Why? Because they didn’t bear fruit. They were false; they were pretenders, fake Christians (Jn 15:2). Others remain and bear fruit. Those are the Christians, those who bear godly fruit (Jn 15:5).

Who Was Present? Jesus’ disciples.

What Was the Environment? Upper room. This is Jesus’ final discourse (7/7). Last words are often replete with signficance.

Why Was It Said? Because Jesus was teaching those who would believe about discerning the true from false, the genuine from posers.

To Whom? Jesus’ disciples, 11 of whom were Christians.

For What Purpose? To equip the saints–them and us.

Big Picture: How does it fit within the entire narrative? Well, in short, Jesus (God the Son incarnate) is teaching that, until the end, we will always battle imperfection. Let me illustrate: Jesus had 12, right? But even there, a devil (Judas) was in the midst. This world is fallen. (We are unwise to dismiss the reality that the camel often has his nose inside the tent.) Judas Iscariot was the treasurer, and greed was one of his sins. His heart wasn’t in it (i.e., in Christ as Lord). Therefore, his ‘fruit’ was what one should expect: betrayal, lip service, posturing, etc.

Encouragement: There is a wisdom inextricable from realism. We need to have the honesty to admit the fallenness of human nature. We fail; I fail; we all fail. Let’s call it what it is: sin. That won’t win friends and influence people, but it’s nonetheless true. There are many posers. Many. But those whom God loves, He disciplines. He prunes us. Why? So that we’ll bear more fruit. So that we’ll learn. So that we’ll be faithful. Jesus is sacrifice incarnate.

Bottom line up front: In what patterns does the Lord delight? How should those attributes shape Christians?

Text: Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.” (Jer 9:23-24, ESV)

Context: Jeremiah was prophesying about the fall of Judah. He had indicted the corruption of the religious leaders and priests. He had indicted the recalcitrance and hardheartedness and moral rebellion of the people. Jeremiah was a truth-teller. But being a prophet entailed the prophet’s reward: persecution. And yet, Jeremiah remained faithful. And what did Jeremiah say here that the Lord delights in? Three things:

• Steadfast love
• Justice
• Righteousness

Encouragement: Lots of folks talk a big game about commitment, about love, about doing the right things. But where’s the evidence? We all make our theology visible. That is unavoidable. When people say that it’s difficult to know a person’s theology, I disagree. It’s clear to know: watch their life. Do they submit to the authority of Scripture? Is there humility in their lives? Is there a pattern of spiritual disciplines? Is there depth of biblical maturity? Do they serve a local church faithfully? Do they seek to edify and encourage the saints? Are they steadfast, just, and righteous? We’re not looking for perfection; we’re looking for direction. Is their pattern one of steadfast commitment or is it just talk, talk, talk? I have a few select people in my circle that I look up to—those worthy of imitation. They’re not talkers; they’re doers.

This morning I completed another reading through the Old Testament book of Isaiah. It is 66 chapters of absolute sovereignty. In the book, the prophet Isaiah writes in the 700s B.C. of his (God’s) incomparable name. He pronounces, through the life and ministry of Isaiah, his (God’s) absolute sovereignty.

How does God do that? Mainly through pronouncements/oracles of cursing and blessing. It’s God’s way of showing that the earth is his and the fullness thereof. He is not in need of anything or anyone. God, as I tell the saints at church week in and week out, is the hero of the story.

Creation>Fall>Redemption>Restoration.

That’s the overarching pattern in Scripture and in history.

We are creatures; God is the Creator.

We are fallen due to our sin nature.

God the Son became incarnate in order to redeem his bride (the true church) from all ages. Abraham is in the true church; Moses is in the true church; Ruth is in the true church; Peter’s in the true church; and Christians from all ages are in the true church because they are grafted into the seed of promise (Christ).

Then God restores all things in the consummation. The story comes full circle. The first Adam failed; the last Adam (Christ) succeeds. A new Jerusalem comes down; Eden is once again made perfect by the work of the triune God.

When I was wrapping up Isaiah’s book again this time, I was struck by a passage in the last chapter:

All these things my hand has made,
    and so all these things came to be,
declares the Lord.
But this is the one to whom I will look:
    he who is humble and contrite in spirit
    and trembles at my word (Is 66:2, ESV).

To whom does God look? To the one who is humble and contrite in heart. Who is it that does God’s will perfectly? Abraham? No. David? No. John? No. Peter? No. Paul? No. You? No. Me? No.

You see the pattern? All of us have fallen–and continue to fall–short (Rom 3:23). God is the hero. Over and over again, God gets the glory. Our duty and joy as Christians is to herald that truth, to strive to live it out as salt and light, to preserve the good, and to expose the darkness in faith that God does–always and forever–what is right.

Over the last few days, I’ve been privileged to witness the passing of leadership from one great leader to another. It’s interesting when you really pay attention to people. You can get a glimpse of their true nature—who they really are. When we honored COL Stone, he didn’t make the day or event about himself. He referred to God, to his own mentors, and to his brothers in arms, to his family, to his friends, and to all the Soldiers with whom he has served for nearly three decades. How can one not be moved by such words? He has now left his own legacy, just as many did before him, and many will do after him.

Question:  What does it mean to leave a noble legacy? Many things, of course. Overcoming adversity; resilience; improvements; victories; accomplishments, etc. But I think one of the things we should emulate is selfless service. It’s a spirit where the team and the mission require that each Service Member be mindful that his/her actions reflect upon the whole team. It’s that culture where the small decisions each of us makes ripple out and across the surface and under the surface. It’s leaving things better than we found them. It’s leaving it all on the field for the sake of honor at having done our best. We all have bad days; let us concede that. But the overcomer is the one who does not lose sight of the legacy he/she aims to leave.

I’ve been privileged to serve under and alongside many, many fine leaders. COL Stone was one of those. May his tribe increase. May we continue to learn from such men and, as Scripture says, honor those to whom honor is due (Rom 13:7).   

Today after one of the breakout sessions, a sweet spirit seemed to have been sent among several of us through the morning. It seemed to come from both outside of us and from within us. Walls began to come down. We spoke not of our educational or professional pedigrees. Rather we began with questions like, “So, what’s next for you, Craig?” or “So, what’s God calling you to, Gary?” or “How do you guys define ‘calling'”?The questions came regularly, and so did the ruminations. It was iron sharpening iron. That’s what Solomon called it: “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another” (Pr 27:17).

We had lunch together. We ate our chili dogs and salads and drank our coffee and water. We spoke of our ministries. Some were in hospital chaplaincy. Others were military chaplains. Others were prison chaplains. Some others of us were pastors/elders and/or professors or teachers. The group was chock-full with years of experience in ministry and its myriad locations. We were all sponges–both absorbing what we were hearing and also being squeezed so that we poured into one another. My intellectual, emotional, and spiritual cups were being filled by these brothers.

Later as I drove back to billeting, I came across a creek, pulled my vehicle over, got out, and went and took in the sight and sounds of the creek I’ve crossed multiple times this week. Why? To give thanks, in short. To thank God for his common grace. To quote one of the great catechisms, “God’s providence is His completely holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing every creature and every action.” In other words, no accidents. This is not a random cosmos. We are creatures (hence, there is a Creator) who are gifted with intellectual capacities in order to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And one of the ways God’s providence plays out in history is via simple yet profound things like deep and kind conversations among fellow pilgrims on the way.

I stood on the bank of the creek and snapped another picture and spoke my heart silently over the sounds of the waters. Just to say, Thank you for today, Lord.

Thank you that I have new contacts in my phone, men I can call and who can call me, fellow ministers/chaplains/pastors who can hug me and say, “I get it. I truly do. Let’s walk together.”

I’m back now, and headed to PT in the gym. Got to sweat of the child dog from lunch. But I take us back to wise words penned by another who likewise understood the need for encouragement: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). To my fellow brothers, thank you for making this theology visible.

Day two of training is now completed for me in this iteration here in KY. Good training today. Beautiful weather here on a beautiful seminary campus. 

I had the privilege of being in a briefing with a buddy of mine with whom I did CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) and we got to spend some time together in the afternoon and walk and talk. He’s a retired Army 1SG and chaplain, and now serves with our endorsing agency as a conduit for chaplains. 

When Michael was teaching today, he said something that really resonated with me: “Calendar the stewardship of your life.” I found that a very wise statement. Why? I think it’s because if you don’t schedule your life wisely, you will waste your life on things of lesser significance. (Piper’s phrase and book about not wasting one’s life come to mind.)

Michael ribbed me because he knew I was a calendar guy. I carry a literal spiral notebook-calendar. I love it. Why? Well, it keeps me structured: 0630 for this; 0900 for that; 1100 for this; 1300 for that, etc. I note my readings, my appointments, my Scriptures for that day, etc. It works for me.

But here’s where Michael got me to see something. He asked, “You’re being the chaplain to everyone else, but where do you go? Why does everyone else get a resource but you don’t think you need one? How is that not vanity?”

Mic drop; that’s what that was for me. Then he said this: “Calendar the stewardship of your life.” Again, I was floored inside. Yep, I’m the calendar guy. I write it all down. I’d be a terrible criminal, because I have written down nearly everything that matters to me–what I’m reading, what I’m dealing with, what engagements I have, etc. in order to manage it all. But it exacts a toll. We can find ourselves exhausted on behalf of others, and depleted on the inside.

We can work oursevles to a frazzle. And for what? For whom? We’re replaced, and life goes on. That may sound harsh, but it’s nonetheless true. Michael, you taught me today, brother. I need to learn to calendar the stewardship of my life. Thank you.

“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life,” Churchill wrote. Modern-day heroes are few. They’re here, of course. But most models of heroism are relegated to imagined characters for television and film. Fewer and fewer have a grandpa or uncle who was a hero. For many nowadays, they have to look up to imaginary Marvel characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man, or Captain America. Let that sink in: millions of Westerners worship made-up cartoon characters. They quote the films; they buy the swag; they spend billions supporting that industry. I’m for free markets; so spend your money as you like. No issue here regarding what you do with your money. But what it reveals is a hunger deep within the human spirit.

We long for heroes. We long for models, for paradigms of bravery, selflessness, and moral courage. The theologian Augustine famousely wrote, “Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in Thee” in his Confessions. And Solomon wrote that God “put eternity into man’s heart” (Eccl 3:11, ESV). Pascal famously wrote that man has a “God-shaped hole/vacuum” within him only God is sufficient to fill.

This Sunday I’ll be leading the saints of Christ Covenant Church (3cs-canton.org) in one of the most packed pericopes of Scripture. It’s 2 Peter 2. What’s it about? False teachers. Just a few years after Jesus’s resurrection, already churches were corrupted by nefarious leaders. Already. How much more do we need to be careful, therefore? There are those who mislead people for selfish gain. Sadly, we do not have to look far to find pastors who ask for raises again and again, who ask for more vacations, who ask for time away, for sabbaticals, for allowances, and inculcate an enviornment where there’s accountability for everyone else but not for them, et al. They see themselves as special, as exempt. “Rules for thee, but not for me.”

Peter begins chapter two this way: “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction” (2 Pt 2:1, ESV). The Bible addresses false teachers head-on because God knows the damage they inflict upon congregations. Peter says that “in their greed they will exploit you” (2 Pt 2:3, ESV).

If you have an enemy because you take stands for truth, you are blessed. “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Mt 5:12, ESV). We could do for more heroes, I agree. But we need to be wise about who merits that moniker. More than likely, he won’t be the one demanding comfort and protection. He’ll be the one taking care of the sheep. We are to look forward with wise hope, knowing that it’s a good thing to have the right enemies. That’s a sign we’re doing things God’s way.

Text:

3 You keep him in perfect peace
    whose mind is stayed on you,
    because he trusts in you.
⁴ Trust in the Lord forever,
    for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. (Isaiah 26:3-4, ESV)

Context, Context, Context:

Isaiah was God’s prophet during the ascent of Assyria and the decline of Judah in the 700s B.C. His message was plain: the holiness and glory of God and his righteous hatred of idolatry/religiosity devoid of the truth.

Always when truth is proclaimed, when righteousness is called for, a winnowing occurs. What’s down in the well of people comes up in the bucket. Pressure reveals what we are like as people. Some will reveal resentment and seek to destroy; others will cling to the Lord and seek to encourage the saints.

That’s where these lines from Isaiah are so germane and helpful. Isaiah writes that “the Lord will keep him in perfect peace” whose mind is fixed upon the Lord. Why? Because the man or woman of God trusts the Lord, the everlasting rock.

Yesterday at church, we sang “From Everlasting [Psalm 90]” by Sovereign Grace. And typical of the music of Sovereign Grace, it is rooted in Scripture. Psalm 90:2 reads as follows:

Before the mountains were brought forth,
    or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

Unlike sinners, God is steadfast, constant, and unchanging. And the man or woman of God who longs for biblical shalom will trust God rather than man. That’s what Christ taught, too, of course: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27, ESV).

Encouragement: There are many metaphors used in Scripture to describe the Lord–water, light, bread, Good Shepherd, on and on. But the one Isaiah uses here is that the Lord is an “everlasting rock.” He’s the Rock of Ages–steadfast, constant, and trustworthy. For God’s people, we are given the peace/shalom of God, and our lives will bear that out.