When God brought Israel out of Egypt and then placed them in the land he had promised Abraham, his intent was that he would be the King of Israel. The people would be largely self-governed, for if they would keep the law of Moses, God would protect them and cause them to prosper. If they would keep the law of Moses there would be little need for formal structures of government as there would be justice and righteousness everywhere. The people did not keep the law of Moses.

Throughout the book of Judges the people turned away from the God of Israel to worship the gods of other peoples. This resulted in their suffering as God removed his protections and blessings from his people. Inevitably the people would cry out to God and he would deliver them, often through “judges”. These judges are not the sort we’re familiar with, though they would administer justice, often in the form of military victory over those who oppressed the people of Israel. One such judge was a man named Gideon. In Judges 6 we see a familiar pattern that results in the need for a judge like Gideon.

The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years.

Judges 6:1 ESV

The Midianites, though distantly related to the Israelites as they, too, were descended from Abraham through his second wife Keturah (see Genesis 25:1–4), they were particularly cruel to Israel. Judges 6 says they “would devour the produce of the land and…leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey” (Judges 6:4). In the midst of their suffering the people cried out to God for a deliverer, and he gave them a man named Gideon.

Gideon struggled with faith and with doubt. (Who among us doesn’t!?) When the angel of the Lord appeared to him he questioned why God would allow all these things to happen to his people (6:13). He asked why he would be the one to rescue Israel (6:15). He needed a sign that God would actually rescue Israel (6:17). Though God had been clear, he asked for another sign that God would actually save his people—the famous “fleece” (6:36). Actually, he asked for this sign twice (6:39). Despite his struggle with doubt and his lack of faith, God was patient and kind with Gideon and promised to rescue his people from Midian through Gideon’s hand. To show that it was God and not Gideon who was doing the rescue, God had him reduce his army substantially. A great number returned home, leaving 22,000 (7:3). This was still too many and eventually the number was reduced to just 300 (7:7). Gideon defeated the Midianites and the people of Israel were rescued, and they were all grateful to Gideon:

Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you.” And Gideon said to them, “Let me make a request of you: every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) And they answered, “We will willingly give them.” And they spread a cloak, and every man threw in it the earrings of his spoil. And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold, besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and besides the collars that were around the necks of their camels. And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.

Judges 8:22–28 ESV

The men of Israel want to make Gideon king, yet Gideon tells them and the Midianites he had just conquered that he would not rule over them, for the Lord should be the King of Israel and of the whole world. Then he asks for gold earrings, and the weight comes to 43 pounds! (Gold is currently worth about $1900 per ounce, making Gideon an instant millionaire in today’s dollars.) He took this gold and made an ephod, or breastplate, out of it, though it is likely that ephod is just a stand-in for a full idol. The ephod was likely placed on the idol. The narrator indicates this by pointing out that “all Israel whored after it” and that “it became a snare to Gideon”. It is likely that this ephod / idol became a source of income for Gideon as people would pay to see it and/or worship it. The text goes further, however.

Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives. And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech. And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

Judges 8:29–32 ESV

Jerubbaal—Gideon—lived in his own house, had 70 sons, many wives, and though he had many wives he decided he also needed a concubine. Reading this with our 21st-century eyes may cause us to miss what an Ancient Near Eastern reader would catch immediately: whereas Gideon refused to be king, he immediately began acting as one. He insists that only the God of Israel should be king, yet he immediately politely requests gold, which is really more of the imposition of a tax! He sets up a cult center with an idol for worship. He establishes a large harem but calls them “wives”. These are the actions of Ancient Near Eastern kings!

Verse 28 ends with these words: “And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.” While this is what the people cried out to God for, this rest was not a blessing, for Israel continued to long for other gods. The peace and prosperity brought through Gideon and his hypocrisy only enabled the people to pursue false gods, and with his death their pursuit of idolatry grew even more:

As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. And the people of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side, and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel.

Judges 8:33–35 ESV

The problem with a largely trouble-free life is such a life enables us to forget how desperately we need God. Prosperity can obscure our utter dependence on God for every breath we take. Smooth sailing can mask the dangers of the water beneath. A life of ease obscures the hard work faithfully following God requires. The problem with an easy life is this: it causes us to begin to suspect that our lack of trouble is either a sign that God is blessing us for being as we are, or that God is okay with us as we are. God’s blessings are always in spite of us, and are always based on his goodness and grace, and we must never confuse this to be a stamp of approval on our sinfulness.

The reality of it all is that in times of blessing and prosperity we must be more vigilant to remain faithful. When times are hard, and we are forced to rely on God, it’s easy to think that if God gets us through that difficulty that maintaining that steadfast faith will, well, just happen naturally. A life of faith and of faithfulness is not natural. It’s supernatural. We must pursue it. We must seek after God when times are good as well as when times are bad. The only difference between the two times is our awareness of our need for him.

We often mistake what a true blessing is. In 1841 British preacher Joseph Philpot preached on the so-called “prayer of Jabez” in which Jabez asks God to bless him. Philpot’s understanding of this prayer is vastly different from the more recent book by that name. In that sermon he argues that while good health, money, and even a good reputation are seen as blessings, they are often very real curses for these things tend to cause us to trust less in God, to seek the creature rather than the Creator. He then said this:

4. But there are apparent curses which often are real blessings. A languishing, AFFLICTED STATE OF HEALTH, so trying and so painful to the flesh, often proves in God’s hands a real blessing. It tends to make the world bitter, pulls down airy visions of happiness sought outside of God, brings solemn thoughts into the soul, and weans the heart from idols. Not that it can do any one of these things, but the Lord uses it as his instrument.

5. So POVERTY is often made a real blessing to a child of God, by being a means of keeping him dependent upon the God of providence as well as the God of grace, and thus leading him into that close waiting upon the Lord, and crying and sighing to him for deliverance, which none but the poor can know. And when the answer comes, he blesses and praises him with joyful lips, and feels a gratitude and love which is in proportion to his former trials.

Joseph C. Philpot, “The Prayer of Jabez”, preached in 1841

In seasons of plenty, whether good health, abundant financial resources, or good relationships, be intentional to recognize that this is from God, and praise him for it while striving to continually trust him in the midst of it. In seasons of suffering and trials and difficulties, cry out to God, trusting in him and in his goodness. Ask for strength and wisdom and perseverance. Also thank him for the reminder through the suffering that he is in control and he is worthy of our trust. Come what may, it is always a good time to live in faith while praising God for who he is.

Last Sunday we looked at the ascension of Jesus, which worked out quite well given that last Sunday was Ascension Sunday—the Sunday after Ascension Day. Since Easter is always on a Sunday and since Jesus ascended into heaven 40 days after his resurrection, Ascension Day is always on a Thursday, yet many churches celebrate the ascension on the following Sunday. In that sermon we saw that the ascension of Jesus was no mere postscript. It was not the epilogue after the big climax of the story, much like the wedding of Aragorn and Arwen at the end of “The Return of the King”. You gotta wrap up the loose ends of a story, right? That is not what the ascension is. The ascension was the coronation of King Jesus where he ascended to heaven in a cloud to sit down at the right hand of God, having all authority in heaven and on earth and under the earth. As we saw, this exaltation of Jesus was not granting the Son of God glory and honor that he never had. Rather, it was granting this glory and honor to the God-Man who will forever be God and Man, united in one divine Person, the Son of God. By entering into the Father’s presence on our behalf, having lived and died for the sins of his people and now risen from the dead, Jesus, the eternal God-Man, ushers us into the presence of God for all eternity. (If you missed this sermon, you may watch and/or listen here).

Throughout our series in the Gospel According to John, we saw that the work of Jesus was always directed toward granting us life in God. The apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Galatians,

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20 ESV

Salvation is the liberation from sin and death and evil. It is redemption, for God has purchased us out of sin and death to be a people for his own possession. Salvation transfers us from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of God’s Son (Colossians 1:13). As Paul says above, salvation is the life of God living in us. Peter wrote more about this in his second letter.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:3–8 ESV

It is God’s divine power that saves us and transforms us. This comes with “precious and very great promises”! Then Peter says something strange: “so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature”. As Hilary wrote in the fifth century,

Just as God stepped out of his nature to become a partaker of our humanity, so we are called to step out of our nature to become partakers of his divinity.

Hilary of Arles, Introductory Commentary on 2 Peter

God the Son took on the form of a human—he participated in what it means to be human—so that we could participate in the life of God. We don’t become God, for that is impossible. We will always and ever be mere creatures, yet we are being transformed into something amazing. Bede explained it this way:

The greater your knowledge of God becomes, the more you will realize the magnitude of his promises. When God blesses us, he changes our very being so that whatever we were by nature is transformed by the gift of his Holy Spirit, so that we may truly become partakers of his nature.

Bede, On 2 Peter

Too often we limit salvation to a change in status. It becomes a ticket to a destination. One is either saved and therefore headed to heaven at death, or one is not and ends up in hell. There is a sense in which this is true, only the destination is not heaven, but God himself (just as hell is less a destination and more the absence of God for eternity; see 2 Thessalonians 1:9). Rather than a ticket to the afterlife, salvation is a divine rescue from death and a steady movement into the life of God. As Bede put it, God’s incredible promises are such that we are transformed in our very being by his Holy Spirit. We often refer to this process as sanctification. God is working to set us apart for himself, that we would reflect our status before him more and more. When he justifies a person through faith in Jesus, that person receives the status before God as holy and pure, yet God works in the life of that person to make him or her actually holy and pure. This process of sanctifying takes a lifetime, and it is the work of God in us through his Holy Spirit. We participate in the life of God!

Notice, however, that these precious and very great promises of God come with a command:

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

2 Peter 1:5–7 ESV

Because God’s promises are precious and very great and because God has granted us to partake of the divine nature, to be infused with the very life of God in increasing measure, we must make every effort to add to our faith. As Paul put it in Philippians 2:12–13, we must work out our salvation, knowing that it is God who is working in us to do this. God is the author of salvation, and salvation is his work of granting us life in him, thereby transforming us to be like him. This is why Paul could write about the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5; where the Spirit is, his transforming activity is, and his transforming activity makes us more like God, thus we become more loving and joyful and patient and kind and good and faithful and gentle and self-controlled. While this is the fruit of God’s work in us, we must also work, as Peter instructs us. We must make every effort to supplement our faith by pursuing those qualities that reflect who the Lord is and what he is like. Leo summarized this well:

Realize your dignity, O Christian! Once you have been made a partaker of the divine nature, do not return to your former baseness by a life unworthy of that dignity. Remember whose head it is and whose body of which you constitute a member!

Leo the Great, Sermons 21.3

God has rescued us and claimed us as his own. Through Jesus we are adopted into the family of God, which grants us an incredible dignity. Because we share in God’s divine nature, we must begin to look more and more like him and less and less like what were once were.

This brings us back to the ascension of Jesus. By him ascending to heaven as God and Man, we are able to be united with God. Jesus sent us his Spirit to dwell among us, that we might receive that “power from on high” (Luke 24:49). The Spirit’s work in us is to transform us as we partake in the divine nature. Realize your dignity, O Christian! Leave behind your former way of life, for that is not what ought to characterize a son or daughter of the King of kings. Together, let’s pursue our identity in Christ by making every effort to become what we are in Christ. Let’s pursue the risen and ascended Jesus.

During our topical sermon series on the Apostles’ Creed, we end our gathered assembly by reciting the Creed together. Many of us come from a variety of traditions and in these different traditions the Creed may be recited differently, which has raised this question of the version we use: why does it say Jesus descended to the dead rather than he descended to hell?

The easy—and correct—answer is the Apostles’ Creed, in both Greek and Latin, actually say he descended to the dead, not to the place we know as hell. In both Greek and Latin versions of the Creed, Jesus descended to a people, not a place. It is true they were in a place, but he descended to the people. Even if they were in a place of suffering, the Creed does not declare that he went to the place of suffering, but to the people. But more is going on here.

Part of the difficulty is the imprecision of translation. In the very first English translation (well, Middle English), translated by John Wycliffe (and others) in the late 1300s, the word “hell” appeared 122 times. When the Hebrew word “Sheol” was used, it was usually translated as hell. When the Greek word “Hades” was used, it was usually translated as hell. The problem is the imprecision of these translations, for the English word hell implies a place of torment, whereas neither Sheol nor Hades requires suffering. Compare this to the English Standard Version which translates these words as “hell” just 17 times! It isn’t that the ESV translators didn’t like the word; they were simply being more precise.

In the centuries before Jesus, Jewish thinking recognized at least two different regions of Sheol, one of suffering and torment, and another of bliss and paradise. This is why in Luke 19 Jesus told the story of a rich man and a poor man. The rich man lived in luxury and the poor man lived in want for the rich man had no compassion on him though he was at his gate. Then we read this:

“The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’”

Luke 16:22–26 ESV

The rich man was in Hades, and in torment, yet he could see Abraham and the poor man who were also in Hades, though in a different region. When the Old Testament was translated into Greek the word they used for “Sheol”—the grave—was Hades. The grave was where people went when they died, awaiting what came next. Those in the region of suffering remained in that region and those in the region of blessing remained in that region, and “a great chasm has been fixed” between the two. By the time of Jesus, the word “gehenna” began to be used for the region of Hades where the unrighteous suffered. This is the word the ESV translates as hell.

The Creed says we believe Jesus “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead”. It goes to great lengths here to emphasize the reality of Jesus’ death. To be crucified requires that one dies; it is an accomplished act, yet the Creed adds that he died. Then it says he was buried. Of course! This is what we do with those who die. All of this is to emphasize that he was dead-dead, not just mostly-dead. Then Jesus descended to the dead, to the place of Hades, where all those who had died were. Why?

On Sunday we are looking at this very section of the Creed through Philippians 2:5–11. We will focus less on the suffering, death, and burial of Jesus and more on his ascension into heaven, but what is very interesting in that text is this proclamation:

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:9–11 ESV

Notice who will bow the knee to the Lord Jesus: those in heaven and on earth and under the earth. When Jesus died and was buried, he went to those under the earth and proclaimed his victory to them. Peter wrote about this in 1 Peter 3. His proclamation to all who had died is that he and he alone is Lord of all. For those who died in unbelief, this was not a proclamation that brought them comfort. To those who died in faith, this was the proclamation that they would soon be ushered into the presence of God. The point is that all will bow the knee to King Jesus, even those who do so unwillingly. For those who gladly bow the knee in this life, everlasting life is theirs in the presence of God. For all others, there is only an eternity of separation from God. This good news Jesus preached during the time he was buried is how we arrive at what is one of my favorite texts in all of Scripture:

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Hebrews 12:22–24 ESV

This speaks of what happens in the gathered assembly when the church assembles in the name of Jesus. We are transported into the heavenly Jerusalem—that New City!—where the assembly of the firstborn are. These are those who had died in faith to whom Jesus proclaimed his victory and whom Jesus ushered into the presence of God. The spirits of the righteous made perfect are all who die in Christ. But this was a new development!

Some people may scratch their heads and wonder, “Wait…Abraham was in Hades? Wasn’t he in heaven?” The reality is that Jesus had not yet died for the sins of his people. It was at the moment of his death that the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom, thus signifying that direct, immediate access to God was now being granted through Christ. It was when Jesus died for all his people that those who had died in faith could be ushered into the presence of God. The very thing that separated them, the true “great chasm” between God and humans, was bridged by Jesus Christ. Now those who die in faith immediately enter the presence of our holy God.

This is why it is good news that when Jesus descended to the dead he transformed what it even means to die. His resurrection declares that physical death is merely temporary, yet his descent to the dead means that while death remains our enemy, it is an impotent and broken enemy. The worst it can do is wound us. Jesus Christ was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead and thus transformed what it even means to die in Christ. This transformation is one from expectation to reality. The people of God had long awaited the coming of the Messiah, the one who would save God’s people. When Jesus descended to the dead he proclaimed that he had come at last and from that moment on, God’s people experience the bodily presence of Jesus, knowing that soon they, too, will be resurrected and will ever be with Jesus. This is the victorious Jesus John saw when Jesus appeared to him to give him the visions contained in the book of Revelation:

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”

Revelation 1:17–18 ESV

While death continues to wreak havoc in the world, and it ever remains our enemy, we can take great comfort in the victory of Jesus, for he endured death himself, and then entered the very domain of the dead and boldly proclaimed his victory over it. On the third day he walked out of his tomb in a stunning display of his victory. As John saw near the end of Revelation, “Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:14 ESV).

Whether you find yourself fearing death, or you mourn the loss of a loved one who died in Christ, take comfort, dear believer! Jesus Christ is victorious! He entered the domain of the enemy, and robbed the grave! When death should take you, you will be in the immediate presence of our God who was born of the Virgin Mary, who suffered and died and was buried, who descended to the dead and ushered into God’s presence all those who died in faith. This is good news!

In perhaps the most quotable movie of all time, the character Vizzini frequently utters, “Inconceivable!”. When the Man in Black fails to fall while climbing a rope up the Cliffs of Insanity, he once again declares this to be inconceivable. It is then that Inigo Montoya utters his famous words:

You keep using that word; I do not think it means what you think it means.

Inigo Montoya, “The Princess Bride”

I’m a “word guy”—I love words. I love words with wide semantic ranges. I love learning new words and discovering nuances in them. Words are wonderful! Words can evoke myriad responses in people, even when hearing the same word. Take the word discipline, for example. This word means different things to different people and even means different things to the same people at different times. When a professional athlete shows up to training camp 30 pounds overweight, he is said to lack discipline. When a teenager violates curfew yet again, she experiences the discipline of her parents. When pursuing graduate education one must choose a specific discipline in his or her chosen field. When an exhausted mother insists her three-year-old brush his teeth before climbing into bed, she is trying to instill good discipline in him. I suspect, however, that none of these uses of the word discipline evoke quite the same response as church discipline.

I was recently asked about this very issue. The one asking said in his experience church discipline always meant a member was being excommunicated—expelled from the fellowship of the church—for ongoing and unrepentant sin. For him church discipline was always negative. It was a serious and grave step, one that was always harsh and always final. In March I wrote an article about the unexpected gift that church discipline is, though in that article I was writing about “the final step of church discipline” as we read about in 1 Corinthians 5:3–5, not the process of church discipline.

For many churches, church discipline means a specific series of steps in correcting sinful behavior. Matthew 18 is nearly always invoked. There Jesus taught his disciples about life in the community of the church.

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.

Matthew 18:15–20 ESV

Churches have often understood this as a formal process, and the way it is often practiced (consider the one asking the question above; for him it was always formal and always headed toward that final step) indicated that excommunication was the only possible outcome. The reality of what Jesus is saying here is that excommunication should always and only be that final, last-ditch effort to win a brother or sister in Christ. If a church moves directly to that step, something has gone wrong in a very serious way.

The truth is that in a normal, healthy, well-functioning church, church discipline should be happening all the time, just as it does in a family. It is impossible for a group of sinful people—and where there is a group of people, they are sinful—to not sin against one another in some manner. Church discipline is the means we have been given to live together in community. What, exactly, is it? Church discipline is any action a church takes to correct a member and includes everything from exhortation to excommunication.

Church discipline happens in a variety of contexts. When a member reaches out to another member and says, “Hey, you might want to rethink that post on social media; it could be taken this wrong way…”, that is church discipline taking place. When a member reaches out to another member because she did or said something insensitive or even rude, that is church discipline. When a believer is engaged in outright sin and is exhorted or called to repentance, that, too, is church discipline, but these examples are all negative, or corrective in nature. That’s not all there is to discipline.

When a parent demands that a toddler brush his teeth before bed, that toddler has not done anything wrong, yet what the parent is doing is discipline. Discipline—including church discipline—can be either corrective or formative. When we speak of the discipline of athletes, for example, we usually mean it in the formative sense. An athlete is disciplined when she eats well or when he practices his free throws. These good behaviors have been formed in them. We discipline our children to engage in good practices of hygiene. We do a similar thing in the church. Yes, we correct negative behaviors, but we also seek to form positive behaviors. When we are exhorted to pray or to reach out to friends and neighbors and family and coworkers with the gospel or to read Scripture, the church is seeking to instill good, positive disciplines in our lives. This is discipline, too.

I love how the author of Hebrews puts this need for mutual discipline:

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Hebrews 10:24–25 ESV

The word translated “stir up” means to “rouse to activity”, to provoke. It means to agitate. When I was about 7 or 8 years old, a friend of my mother’s would often bark at my siblings and me to “stop agitatin'” each other. Inevitably I would stand up straight and look at the sibling I was agitatin’ and would begin chanting “Agitate Agitate Agitate” over and over again while twisting my body back and forth like a washing machine on, well, “agitate mode”, as it stirred up the clothing being washed. As I think back to the times I did this, I realize just how annoying it must have been to all in the room—and that’s the point! To stir up one another to love and good works is to irritate or annoy or agitate, but in a good, loving way. This means we step on each other’s toes from time to time, but we engage in an action to help one another by either correcting or forming good discipline. The writer of Hebrews is clear about the intended purpose of this: “stir up one another to love and good works”. Church discipline is only true discipline if this is the aim. The aim of discipline in the church is love. We love the Lord. We love his church. We love one another. We want what is best for one another, and that requires we call one another to move away from sin (corrective discipline) and to pursue love and good works (formative discipline).

Church discipline should not be a scary idea. Rightly understood, it should cause us to take great comfort that God has not left us alone. He sent us his Spirit who works through his people, that we might become more faithful. Whether we’re being called out for ways we’re falling short of the glory of God through our attitudes or behaviors, etc., or we’re being called into greater faithfulness, let us praise God that he loves us and demonstrates this love for his people by giving us church discipline. To say this another way, church discipline is the practice of making disciples.

In the Ancient Near East physical attributes were important for those who would rule others. Pharaoh Ramesses II, for example, was described as “a beautiful youth who was well developed”. He had muscular arms and was a gifted athlete who excelled at rowing and archery and horsemanship. When his mummy was discovered archaeologists saw that he had been exceptionally tall for an Egyptian, and his frame showed he had been a very strong man. I suspect these characteristics are more important when picking teams in gym class than when choosing a leader, yet in the ANE, these characteristics mattered. So it was that Saul, Israel’s first king, appeared to have been chosen due to his extraordinary height. 1 Samuel 10:23 tells us,

And when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward.

1 Samuel 10:23b ESV

If Israel were picking teams for an ancient game of basketball, this sounds like a great attribute. George Mikan, after all, forever changed the NBA as the league changed a number of rules due to his height advantage. Israel was not picking a basketball team. They were picking a leader. Saul’s responsibility was to obey the Lord in all things while leading the nation wisely.

Consider his call to be king. His father had lost some donkeys so Saul set out to find them. Along the way he ran into the prophet Samuel who assured him the donkeys had been found. After having a feast in his honor, the next morning Samuel anointed Saul with oil and declared he would be the king of Israel. This is quite a claim yet Samuel offered Saul a sign that would verify that God had called him to be king:

Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, “Has not the LORD anointed you to be prince over his people Israel? And you shall reign over the people of the LORD and you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies. And this shall be the sign to you that the LORD has anointed you to be prince over his heritage. When you depart from me today, you will meet two men by Rachel’s tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah, and they will say to you, ‘The donkeys that you went to seek are found, and now your father has ceased to care about the donkeys and is anxious about you, saying, “What shall I do about my son?”’ Then you shall go on from there farther and come to the oak of Tabor. Three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you there, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine. And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall accept from their hand. After that you shall come to Gibeath-elohim, where there is a garrison of the Philistines. And there, as soon as you come to the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre before them, prophesying. Then the Spirit of the LORD will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. Now when these signs meet you, do what your hand finds to do, for God is with you.”

1 Samuel 10:1–7 ESV

Have you ever asked God for a sign? We often do this when we need wisdom and direction from God. Samuel offers Saul a sign to verify that he is, indeed, the king of Israel, and this sign is oddly specific: he will meet two men in a very specific location. These men will tell him the donkeys have been found and that his father is concerned for him. He will then run into three men—one carrying goats, one carrying bread, and one carrying wine. They will give Saul two loaves of bread. Then he will arrive at Gibeath-elohim, “where there is a garrison of the Philistines”. Shortly after he will run into some prophets and the Spirit of the LORD will come upon him and Saul will prophesy, and then notice what Samuel says: “Now when these signs meet you, do what your hand finds to do, for God is with you”.

This isn’t a sign; these are multiple signs, and they are very specific! If this doesn’t confirm to Saul that God has called him to be king of Israel, then what could?! Similarly, if this series of oddly specific events happening doesn’t reveal to Saul what he should do about this garrison of enemies in their midst, then what could? All of these signs were pointing Saul, now filled with the Spirit of the LORD, to remove this threat from the land. It is clear that God was empowering Saul to defend the people—now his people—by defeating this garrison of Philistines. So what happened?

When he turned his back to leave Samuel, God gave him another heart. And all these signs came to pass that day.

1 Samuel 10:8–9 ESV

Everything happened exactly as Samuel said they would, thus confirming that God had called him to be king, and that his first task as the anointed king was to attack the garrison at Gibeath-elohim, knowing that God was with him and would give him the victory. So what did Saul do? Well, he prophesied with the other prophets, and then…

When he had finished prophesying, he came to the high place.

1 Samuel 10:13 ESV

After all these signs came true, including Saul prophesying with the prophets, he finished prophesying and then went to the high place. That is, he went to worship the Lord instead of attacking the garrison. Yes, it was good and right to worship the Lord. Perhaps Saul thought it best to worship the Lord before attacking the garrison, except Saul never attacked the garrison. He replaced obedience with religious activity.

How easy is it for us to do this? We replace obedience to the Lord with religious activity, thinking that if we could just check things off on a list, that somehow we’re all right. We have this mistaken notion that external behaviors can cover up for internal disobedience. In the case of Saul, his internal disobedience, his refusal to do what a king must do, was covered up by his “worship” of the Lord. On the outside, who could fault Saul? Yes, worshiping the God of Israel was good and right! He had, after all, rescued them and had chosen them to be his people. The right response to this work of God on their behalf should always be worship, but the activities of worship must never replace a life of worship.

In this era of the new covenant we recognize just how different our sacrificial offerings are:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Romans 12:1 ESV

Our religious activities do not replace a life of worship. As God spoke through the prophet Hosea,

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Hosea 6:6 ESV

God did not mean the people could then ignore the required sacrifices and burnt offerings. He meant that these activities of worship were not the sum total of a life of faith. They were to be an expression of that inward reality of love for and faith in God. Our life of worship must exhibit love for God and love for neighbor, and this love is seen in our obedience, but our obedience is never a replacement for love. If we truly love God, then our external obedience will flow out of that love, and this flow is always and only one direction. As our Lord Jesus said when he criticized the Sauline behavior of the Pharisees,

Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me’…”

Mark 7:6 ESV

Over and over again Jesus taught that if the heart is transformed, the behavior will follow, but the reverse is not so. Many “obey” the Lord with their behavior while inwardly are rebellious and stubborn. As Tim Keller has said, we need to repent of the wrong things we do, but we also need to repent of the good things we do for the wrong reasons.

Only external obedience that flows from internal love for God and faith in him is a life that honors the Lord. Let us strive to honor him in all things. Good behavior does not excuse internal disobedience. Let’s love God from within, and that love will flow out.