Episode 88: Intro to Theology
Earnestly Desire the Spiritual Gifts
1 Corinthians 14:1-19
It’s easy to lose the principle in a fascination with the concept of speaking in tongues. And that’s understandable. It’s a fascinating phenomenon, isn’t it? What was it like? How come it doesn’t seem to happen anymore, hasn’t in fact seemed to have happened since the time of the Apostles immediately after the ascension of Christ? We do know this, though: on Pentecost God used this gift to enable his people to proclaim Christ to the gathered crowd in words of languages they could understand. The gift of tongues was given for the furtherance of the gospel message and not for calculated showmanship or self-aggrandizing.
Part of our fascination may also spring from the fact that some still today claim to have this gift. Yet what often seems to pass for speaking in tongues today is not what the Bible presents as speaking in tongues, that is, speaking in actual languages, which is what happened on Pentecost. St. Paul here also says, “There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me.” Actual languages, actual meanings.
Yet in our fascination with tongues, we ought not miss the principle. Words matter. They are not to be squandered, especially in the church, because words are how the message of the Savior is conveyed, the message of Him who is the very Word of God. “So with yourselves,” St. Paul urges, “since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.”
We might not have the gift of tongues anymore, much as some might desire it, yet you have gifts wrapped in bread and wine, water and book covers, and you have a tongue and a language and words given you by none other than the Word Himself. Let us treasure the latter as did those same Apostles who spoke in languages they’d never studied in school and use the former in prayer, in praise, in song, in thanksgiving, and in declaration of Him through whose death and resurrection we have been declared righteous, together with all who come to faith in Him and His work on our behalf. The Church is to build up, and she does so in words, and so words must always hold sway—words of the Word must dominate our preaching, words of the Word must dominate our teaching, words of the Word must dominate our singing—yes, taking the melody into their service and not vice versa, words of the Word must dominate our lives.
“Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.” And you do prophesy when you announce the coming of the Coming One, when you report the news of the Good News, when you call back the straying and console the penitent, when you share the story of salvation, of paradise lost and restored. How do you do this? You do this in your home as parents, catechists to your children in so many ways. You do this in church, as the Lord opens your lips to declare His praise. You do this in life in general when the Lord opens doors, sets forth works prepared in advance for you to walk in. It might not be as exciting as tongues, but St. Paul’s point is that tongues shouldn’t be all that exciting when compared with an opportunity to build up a brother or sister in Christ, a chance to sound the clear notes of the sweet song of God’s mercy to one whose never yet danced to the tune. You have a tongue. You have a language. And you most certainly have words—they’re even written down. What more could we want?
Wade Johnston
For more content like this, check out the podcast, blog posts, and devotions at www.LetTheBirdFly.com.
You can listen to our latest episode here. You can find our latest installment in the Wingin’ It series on Luther here.
For more writing by Wade, you can find his books here and more blog posts here.
The Return to Nazareth
Isaiah 61:1-6; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27; Luke 4:14-21
When you’re studying Scripture, it’s always good to stop and ask where you’re at. What book am I in? Who wrote it? Where does it fall in Bible history? If it’s in the New Testament, how does it relate to the Old Testament, and vice versa. What happened before this in this book? What comes next? What has been the special emphasis so far? These and other questions can shed a lot of light on a particular morning or night’s Scripture reading. Today it is particularly important to ask a couple of those questions about Luke’s Gospel, which is the book we’re in. We do well to ask where we’ve been before this and how this relates to the Old Testament. Continue reading “The Return to Nazareth”
In My Father’s House
Luke 2:41-52
Growing up, there were more than a few times Mom told me, “Wait ‘til you have kids.” I think about that oftentimes when I go to the store. One of the games my brother and I loved to play—because, of course, he was always corrupting me—was Hide and Seek, where we’d hide in the coat racks. What never dawned on me was how, while the child feels a rush of joy, the parent feels a rush of panic. No parent wants to hear their child’s name called over the PA system, to be the one cringing as everyone looks at you like you’re the worst parent ever. So, if you’re ever at Meijer and hear, “[One of my kids] Johnston, please report to the information desk,” you’ll know what I’m thinking. Continue reading “In My Father’s House”
In View of God’s Mercy
Romans 12:1-8
How is the Christian life lived? Paul appeals, challenges us. The Christian life is lived “by the mercies of God” or “in view of God’s mercy.” Both translations make the point. The Christian life isn’t a next step or a separate category. The Christian life is the expression of Christian faith. It flows from Christian faith. It is the mercies of God at work. It is Christ for us now through us for others. Continue reading “In View of God’s Mercy”
Wingin’ It 87.1: The Life of Luther (Part 9) – Johann von Staupitz
Released from the Law
Romans 7:1-6
“Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives?” And Paul is right. By your birth, you are under the law. You are bound by it. It has a claim on you. You are subject to its accusations and condemnation. Continue reading “Released from the Law”
New Wineskins
Luke 5:33-39
It wasn’t easy for some to jump on board with the gospel. At least not fully. It seemed to run against their entire religious upbringing. It seemed too fast and loose. Wouldn’t people use the gospel as an excuse to sin? How would the common people behave if they didn’t have to do good works? Wasn’t a big part of the job of religion keeping good order and producing obedient subjects?
It still isn’t easy for many to jump on board with the gospel. Paul heard the same concerns Jesus did. Luther heard the same concerns Paul did. We hear similar concerns today, even among people called to preach the gospel. We can get nervous with the good news of Jesus Christ, with free forgiveness, with unconditional absolutions, with salvation entirely as gift, with the law preached primarily to kill and the gospel preached as if every last hearer already has two feet planted firmly in heaven.
Jesus had just called a tax collector to be a disciple. This surely didn’t sit well with many. He had healed a paralytic, but only after forgiving his sins, something that some in the crowd grumbled only God could do (the whole point). He had called the first disciples earlier in the chapter, fishermen, and with a miracle that illustrated their new calling. He told them to cast down their nets for a catch (this was indiscriminate fishing). He had healed an unclean leper (it says something that the unclean dared to approach him and that He let them).
Now, in the midst of all this, a religious question, an objection, was raised. Was Jesus holy enough? John’s disciples fasted. So did the Pharisees’ disciples. Jesus’ disciples, however? Well, they ate and drank. What was up with that? Where was their religion? Didn’t they care about the laws and customs of their people? They were getting out-religioned!
Jesus’ answer was clear. The Savior has come. The Bridegroom is here. It’s no time for dour faces and asceticism. When the Bridegroom arrives, you feast. The days for fasting and dour faces would come, with Jesus’ death, soon chased away again with His resurrection. But not now. The kingdom of God was at hand.
Even more, Jesus’ wasn’t coming to inaugurate a kingdom of law, Human Religion 2.0. Jesus’ kingdom was a kingdom of grace. His disciples would have to break with the legal scheme of their neighbors and the other religions of the world. Jesus came to preach good news. Jesus is the good news. They were to be gospel people. Jesus told them, “No one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.” Jesus had come to make all things new. He came to make us new. This wasn’t the same old religion.
There is a problem, though. We like the same old. The old Adam, the sinful nature, is a religious fellow and he loves religion so long as it’s not the gospel, Jesus’ religion. Jesus added, poking the bear, chiding the Pharisees, “And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’” We can’t by our own thinking or choosing jump on board with the gospel. Christ must kill us and make us alive. The gospel must do the work. That’s why Christ’s kingdom is a kingdom of gifts, not of wages.
Enjoy the new wine. Live by Christ’s unconditional absolution. Receive salvation as a free gift, bought with Christ’s precious blood, bestowed upon you free of cost and not as a reward. Will people sin? People will sin either way, but no one will offer true obedience, the obedience of faith, without this gift. No one will do truly righteous deeds unless they are first declared righteous for Christ’s sake—washed, pardoned, enlivened. Sometimes the old wine sounds good, but it will burst the wineskins. In the end it leaves us in self-righteousness or despair, without hope and without God as He came for us to have Him, in Christ, for free, and with free salvation for all.
Wade Johnston
For more content like this, check out the podcast, blog posts, and devotions at www.LetTheBirdFly.com.
You can listen to our latest episode here. You can find our latest installment in the Wingin’ It series on Luther here.
For more writing by Wade, you can find his books here and more blog posts here.
Grateful for the Messengers, United in the Message
1 Corinthians 1:10-17
Many of us know the deep gratitude and lasting connection we can develop for and with those who have brought us the gospel, whether when we came to faith or in the dark moments of despair. This is a beautiful thing. God puts a face on His message, on the absolution. And this is how God has promised to work, through people, for us. Few in history have heard this message directly from God or even from one of His holy angels. Such experiences are limited, especially to the ministry of Jesus and the experiences of the prophets and apostles. But God has spoken to us nonetheless and no less, through people. We should cherish that, and those people.
How sad, then, when the devil twists this gratitude and these connections into causes for divisions. How unfortunate when the devil leads us to lose our focus upon the very one to whom those gospel voices pointed us, the One of whom they spoke, the One on whose behalf they served as ambassadors. This is what happened, however, among the Corinthians, and it has happened throughout church history. Paul, Apollos, even Christ were used to this end. And Paul here objects most vociferously to it. He was a messenger, not the message. He proclaimed another, not himself. His absolution had no power but that which Christ gave to it. Christ, not Paul, was to be the object of faith, and not Christ as a self-serving or sectarian rallying cry, but Christ as God in the flesh who came and died and rose to give us heaven, to make us one with Him and each other in His grace and mercy.
The church and Christians aren’t called to woo and persuade, to market and bait, but to proclaim and to point. Christ is the substance of our faith. Our message is the good news of Christ, an actual person and not an idea, a person for us and for all, not just for some. He is a person for us and for all for the forgiveness sins, and not for scoring points or drawing lines where God hasn’t set any boundaries. The gospel’s power doesn’t rest in the one who proclaims it, or in how the person proclaims it, but in Christ Himself. “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”
Thank God for Paul. How can we not feel connected with him when we read his epistles, through which the Spirit has worked for centuries, for millennia? Thank God for those who have put a face on the gospel for you, who have spoken to you God’s mercy and grace, who have absolved you. How can we not feel connected with them for having done so? They’ve been vessels of God to bring us to faith and preserve us in it. But our faith isn’t in those messengers. Our faith is in Christ or it’s of no value at all. Paul knew that. He wants us to know that, too, because the devil would like few things more than for us to forget.
Christ died for your sins. Christ rose for your justification. You are absolved. And that is true no matter who proclaims it to you, no matter who was there when your faith began or who has been there in your darkest hour. And that is true no matter how flowery the language or how persuasive the plea to believe. Christ is a person, for you, and as sure as His grave is empty, so sure is the word of forgiveness, no matter who has brought it or brings it to you. So sure is it when we are those people for others, too. That is the power of the cross. And thank God for that!
Wade Johnston
For more content like this, check out the podcast, blog posts, and devotions at www.LetTheBirdFly.com.
You can listen to our latest episode here. You can find our latest installment in the Wingin’ It series on Luther here.
For more writing by Wade, you can find his books here and more blog posts here.
BOOK GIVEAWAY: “Called to Defend”
In case you missed it on Episode 87, we had the wonderful opportunity to sit down with Valerie Locklaire to discuss apologetics and her book on the topic: Called to Defend: An Apologetics Handbook for the Middle School Student. And since we think our listeners might be interested in getting their hands on their own copy, we’re giving away FOUR copies!