God's Expectation
by Pastor Matthew E. Walker, 22 September 2008

Amid the normal sights and sounds of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the honks and beeps of cars trying to edge in and out of very close parking spaces, is the seeming oasis of Tompkins Square Park. The park is a collection of trees, benches, and walking paths along with basketball and handball courts. Mostly free of trash this park would be beautiful if not for the human debris, the outcast of society that litter the sidewalks and sleep on the park benches still clutching empty liquor bottles that contained the previous night’s dinner.

One summer morning I walked through the park looking for opportunities to witness for Christ. My children were with me along with a few others from my church. We were spending a week in New York on a missions trip trying to help a friend launch a new church. This particular morning I met a man I probably will not forget very soon. His name was Chris or that is the name he gave me. He let me know right off that he was not a candidate for my gospel. He said, “I worship Belial. Do you know who Belial is?” I answered, “yes, I’m familiar with that name for Satan.” He then pulled up the left sleeve of his tee-shirt and showed me a tattooed symbol on his shoulder. “Do you know what that is?” I’ve never seen the symbol before but it looked sort of like a trident with a cross on the staff. He said: “that shows that I worship Satan.” Then Chris got in close. I was a little nervous as most people would be at this point. “Maybe you don’t know this but there’s a war going on. It’s a war between Satan and Christ. I’ve chosen to follow Satan and fight against Jesus Christ.” Then Chris began to cry, weep really. As tears fell down his cheeks I began to really feel sorry for him. He told me of his addiction to drugs and alcohol and how his family had rejected him. The change in character from overbearing menace to helpless child was weird. Frankly, at this point I wondered if this man was not possessed by one or more demons. I was in no position to deal with that alone. I reached for my Bible like a police detective might grab for a snub nose pistol. “I know about it might seem hopeless but I also know that there is hope for you in the gospel. Let me share with you, Chris, some verses from the Bible.” Chris went off again from helpless child to ranting maniac. He swore using the most vile words against God and the Bible. I backed off and moved away not wanting to get into an altercation in the park. Gathering up my children we headed elsewhere looking for someone who would listen. As I walked away Chris kept up his rampage against Jesus Christ also looking for someone who might listen to him. I remember Chris so vividly because he represents the first time I have ever encountered a non-Christian who articulated so well the reality of the spiritual war that has been going on in the cosmos for eons of time. Many Christians would not fully admit to such a battle taking place. Yet here was this alcoholic, homeless man sharing the essence of Ephesians 6:12—we are at war with the evil rulers of the mighty powers of darkness.

That’s not a direct quote but it definitely sums up what was in Paul’s mind when he wrote Ephesians. No one understood the particulars of spiritual warfare like the apostle Paul. Very well could he challenge Timothy to “endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” He knew how importance spiritual strength is in the face of Satanic attack. His own personal example expressed in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 shows that Paul was fighting to the death…literally. His body was so physically decimated as the result of the battle that he casually remarks earlier in 2 Corinthians that his body was wasting away. He was dying. Yet he boldly states that he was not faint-hearted because God Himself had given to Paul his mission. He was not bankrolled by a human ruler like Christopher Columbus being sent out by the Spanish Court to find the West Indies. His was a truly Royal commission from the God of heaven. And it was accompanied with the special mercies of God. This chief of sinners was now preaching the glorious gospel of Jesus. Instead of God’s giving him what he deserved, God had spared him, equipped him for service, and sent him out to build up the Church he once tried to eliminate. The radical nature of God’s mercies never left Paul. He lived continually in their wide shadow. Those mercies motivated him to offer up his life as a “living sacrifice” set apart to God.

What powerful motivators the mission and mercies of God can be! Take any ordinary man, even a good Christian man, and put him through the challenges that Paul faced and that ordinary man most often fails. What Christian living today would question Paul leaving his ministry after suffering his first shipwreck or his first beating or his first imprisonment? When the doctor says to him, “if you don’t give up this missionary thing it will end up killing you” what Christian raises an eyebrow to his returning from the field? Yet Paul did not turn back. Consider the events near the end of his first missionary journey as an example. Paul and Barnabas are witnessing in Iconium. A band of Jewish zealots are fast on his trial stirring up opposition to him as best they can. The situation in Iconium becomes so desperate that Paul and Barnabas flee to the Lycaonian region hoping to get some relief. While preaching the gospel there Paul heals a life-long cripple drawing the attention of the pagans in the area who conclude that these two missionaries must be gods come to earth in human form. Yet while on the one hand the people are ready do deify Paul and Barnabas these Jewish zealots show up, persuade the people that these two are not actually gods but criminals worthy of death. This all culminates in the stoning of Paul to death or nearly to death. Luke records in Acts 14 that while the disciples stood around Paul’s body that he rose up and entered into the city and left town the next day back to Derbe still on the same course as before. What an incredible illustration of a Christian motivated by the mission and mercies of God. He was not faint-hearted!

Could he have been? When he stood outside the great amphitheater in Ephesus and listened for over two hours as a pagan mob cried out their allegiance to the false goddess Diana, wouldn’t it have been natural for him to be somewhat disheartened? As he meandered along the Athenian roads counting the myriad gods of the polytheistic people and then preached from his soul of Christ on Mars Hill and then faced the taunts and jeers of that philosophically elitist crowd wouldn’t it have been natural for him to be disheartened?

Maybe, some allege, people like Paul are just eternal optimists, task oriented, or incredibly stubborn. Or might it be that Paul had made an accounting of his situation and concluded that whatever loss he incurred was worth the result? Perhaps Paul was just one of the great spiritual investors—the Warren Buffet of the Christian world. He could go through these difficulties and conclude that “all things are for your sakes.” As people came to Christ and more churches were planted he foresaw the result would be the eternal glory of God. This caused him to account his trials as being really not all that bad; a “light affliction” in view of the eternal rewards. Perhaps Paul was so confident of the ultimate value of his work that even though his ministry was directly opposed by the Devil (“the god of this world” who “blinded the minds of them that believe not”) and even though he recognized his own personal inability to accomplish the mission (because he was inherently weak, surrounded by problems, and ever facing the peril of death) that he also accounted the power of God to be able to overcome these deficiencies, able to radiate light out of the darkness. Perhaps the essence of what made Paul so different was that he accounted more for the eternal which was unseen, than for the temporal which was ever in view. He was a man born along by faith, not by sight. Like Noah who built his boat by the command of God on the promise of rain, or like Abraham who left his home by the command of God on the promise of a heritage, or like Moses who left the riches of Egypt by the command of God on the promise of leading the Israelites out of bondage, Paul left any sense of this life by the command of God and the promise of life “eternal in the heavens.”

God’s expectation

Christians today, regardless of denominational persuasion, must reclaim an understanding that there is a war going on for our souls. The hungry lion still stalks about seeking the weak and weary to devour. Every morning must bring a new reminder that our adversary, the Devil, is fighting against us with all that he has. Because of this God’s expectation is that Christians be like Paul, or Noah, Abraham, and Moses. These men were not just for Bible times but for all times. Their character was not what God just expected of them but what God expects of us today.

1 Peter teaches this expectation of God that because of the gospel Christians should be like a military team ready for action, not comfortably idle as if this life is like a peaceful stroll through a park. Our spiritual intensity must be incredibly high so that every nerve is ready for movement like a cat poised over a mouse ready to pounce. Then our faith must be cast forward onto the promise of God’s grace in salvation. This kind of ready for action, intense, and hope-filled living develops into the every day obedience of the believer to the will of God. This forms the foundation of God’s expectation of us, that we be holy.

Why does He expect so much of us? In the first place the gospel is worthy of such a high expectation. We were not redeemed with the most precious metals of earth but with something much more precious, the blood of Jesus Christ. If our salvation was based on something incredibly valuable, but earthly, we might have wiggle room from which to squirm out from this high expectation of God. But God has given us a precious faith built up on His precious blood. Holiness is not an unreasonable expectation.

Moreover, the gospel has changed us fundamentally to be God’s people, particular and special. Peter uses these various expressions to describe us. We are God’s children, a chosen race of people, a Royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for God’s own possession. How different are we now from what we were? An honest assessment must conclude that we were once far from God and without His mercies. Now we are dearly beloved by Him and other believers. The change has been radical. As bound to God as we must consider ourselves to be, we must also think of ourselves as loosed from earth. Here we are foreigners living without a country, pilgrims who wander without a home.

How strange it is then for any Christian to be characterized by a lifestyle that relates better with pagan unbelievers than with people like Paul, Noah, Abraham, or Moses. Christians, whose lives have been radically altered by the gospel, should be living categorically different from those who are not Christians. That does not mean that we will be perfect all time. But it does mean that we should be perfect some of the time and that we should be able to live right with God for longer stretches of time as we mature in our faith. Paul tells Timothy that it is one of the purposes of the Scriptures that we learn about God, are challenged in areas where we fall short, are taught how to live right with God so that we “may be perfect” or spiritually mature. Therein lies the large part of the spiritual battle we fight. Our flesh, composed of earth, desires to do things characterized by this world. Our spirit, transformed by the gospel, desires to do things characterized by faith. It is fairly easy to see why Paul complained that the things he did not want to do, those he did, whereas the things he wanted to do, those he did not do. Is there any Christian who does not know some of the wretchedness of Paul?

Markings

How then shall we live? What is this holy expectation of God? How should the gospel affect our everyday living? 1 John provides nine different evidences of salvation in the life of a Christian. 1 John 2:3 says that those who know Jesus Christ keep His commandments. Disobedience to Scripture is not a mark of salvation but of unbelief. In fact Paul says that Christians who live in disobedience should be ostracized from the Church. Obedience is surely the very best way to know that we believe. 1 John 2:6 says that those who know Jesus Christ should order their lives as He ordered His. This does not mean that we must take on the specific characteristics of His life remaining unmarried, wearing first century clothing, and seeking to atone for the sins of mankind. It does mean that the character of our Lord should be more of what our character is becoming. His gentleness, His peacefulness, His tenderness and compassion, His grace, His passion for godliness; these great qualities that flowed out of Him at every moment should be ready at the tap with us as well. 1 John 2:10 says that those who know Jesus Christ should love others who know Him. Brotherly love is a mark of the Christian experience. There is something very strange about a Christian who does not have any love for anyone other than himself. In fact, a lack of love for other believers is so untenable with John that he mentions hating another Christian as being the mark of unbelief over and over again, at least six distinct times in 1 John. He took the lesson Jesus washing the disciple’s feet to heart. We should serve other Christians, not hate them. What we should hate is the world. 1 John 2:15 says that those who know Jesus Christ should not love the world or anything about it. All that characterizes the world (which refers to that part of God’s creation that is not in submission to Him) must be rejected. 1 John 2:23 says that those who know Jesus Christ accept Him and do not deny Him. Those who deny Jesus Christ clearly “do not have the Father.” Doctrine, particularly the core doctrines of Scripture, is not trivial. Those who minimize the cardinal doctrines for the purpose of ecumenical unity are doing the Devil’s work, not Christ’s. 1 John 3:3 says that those who know Jesus Christ are in the process of purification in the same manner as Jesus is pure. Sin should be ever on the out and there should be a growing in grace. Christians do not begin the Christian life as mature saints but there should be a growing in that direction. 1 John 3:17 says that those who know Jesus Christ should be compassionate to the less fortunate, particularly to believers who are poor. If God has given you more than you need to live then that excess is not for your comfort or amusement. It is for your blessing to give that to others. 1 John 3:23 says that those who know Jesus Christ will experience answered prayer. Jesus reinforced this idea as He commanded His disciples to pray in His name and that whatever they asked, if it was in faith, they would receive. Answered prayer is, according to John 15, the fruit that the branches of the vine produce. If a Christian is be nature connected to Jesus the vine, his prayers will be the fruit he bears. Confidently a Christian can claim the promise that if we abide in Him and His words abide in us then we “can ask what we will” and it will be done. Finally, 1 John 3:24 says that those who know Jesus Christ will be affirmed of their belief in Him by the Holy Spirit which indwells every believer. The Holy Spirit is ever directing attention onto Jesus Christ and His ministry in the hearts of believers is to keep constant attention onto the Person and work of Jesus. As we order our lives in the Holy Spirit His enabling grace will equip us for ministry providing the spiritual gifts necessary to accomplish His will. Moreover, the qualities of Christian character will become evident as we learn to love, to rejoice in Christ, to be at peace, to bear up with others a long time, to be gentle when our nature would be to strive, to be fundamentally good in our behavior, to trust God, to be humble and restrain our natural pride, and to be balanced in all things without an overemphasis on one area over another.

This is what God expects of us. He expects holy living to be natural and normal and the wickedness that characterizes unbelievers to be abnormal. Living like those who know Jesus Christ is expected. It is demanded.

Like Chris who stalks around Tompkins Square Park in New York City showing his tattoos that he says marks him as a follower of Belial so we should be able to point to our marks, to the pattern easily discernible in our lives and say that this shows us to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

As an eighteen year old I joined the United States Marine Corps and shipped out to spend three months as a guest at the training facility in Parris Island, South Carolina. As our commercial bus drove across the bridge to the entrance the driver called up to the front any who were getting off at the stop. He smirked that we had about sixty seconds of freedom left. They passed so quickly by. Within forty-eight hours my hair was gone along with most of my privacy. My clothes had been changed out for camouflage and my tennis shoes for boots. The first night on the Island was processing and I spent most of it in a chair with my forehead flat against the desk in front of me waiting to hear my name called so that I could sign away the rest of my freedoms. We used to joke that jailed convicts have more rights than servicemen. Not getting any sleep we “marched” the next morning to breakfast the best we could. I think the drill instructor assigned to new recruits tried hard not to laugh at the sloppy formation and awkward attempts at marching. After getting our hair cuts and new clothes we moved on to our temporary squad bay and I slumped into the cot and fell asleep exhausted. I remember dreaming those first few days that I was at home in my own bed but then I would wake up and see the red neon exit sign and reality would come crashing back in like an unexpected wave at the ocean. Then would come the shout of “lights on” and it would all begin again. For three months we trained—countless push ups; lecture upon lecture of what it means to be a Marine; hours on the parade deck learning to march; cold wet mornings (it was February) strutting off to breakfast before the sun was up. We learned how to fire a rifle, how to use our bayonets, how to fight hand to hand. We learned how to salute an officer and how to sit, stand, walk, and talk. At the end of three months I was still the same person but different. I stood differently and looked at things differently. At our graduation from boot camp our platoon marched confidently across the parade deck in front of command officers proudly stepping and moving as one unit instead of a hapless group of unwashed teens. After boot camp I went home to where my were graduating from high school. I marched two days after graduating from boot camp across the platform at my high school, the only guy whose cap actually fit his head because I still had no hair! As everyone else slouched across the stage I hit each stride perfectly driving my heels into the wooden floor with a crashing thud. The difference was obvious. My classmates had spent the last three months finishing high school. I had spent the last three months becoming a United States Marine. There was no surprise at which one on the stage was in the service. It was obvious.

How obvious it should be that we have Jesus Christ. We should be different, talk differently from those around us. Our lives should show on the outside what is true of us on the inside. Like a lone Marine in a sea of high school graduates, our lives should not resemble those around us but the One who has trained us to fight in the great spiritual war of our time. It is God’s expectation.