Essentials of Wesleyan Theology - Lesson 2

Dr. Steve Seamands
Essentials of Wesleyan Theology
TH502-02
Tasks of Theology
Lesson Transcript

[00:00:22] We kind of focused on that sentence. The Ministry of Jesus Christ The Sun last night, and I wanted to focus a bit with you on that phrase. Just those words to the father. To the father. The point that I want to make here is that if you look at the Ministry of Jesus. And of course, we're saying that that ministry is continuing through our ministry, that the Ministry of Jesus was directed primarily to the Father. Not the needs of the world. Or even the needs of the people of God. And Jesus himself. Remember in John, chapter five says this very thing that he says, the son can do nothing by himself, but only what he sees the father doing. Because whatever the father does, the son also does. For the son. Father loves the son and shows them all he does. He's saying, I do what I do because I see what the father's doing and I do that. Anybody know offhand the context. Of this passage of Scripture. John Chapter five. There's actually a miracle that happens. This is the healing of the lay man at the pool. Bethesda. And you know how. People hung out around that pool because every so often the angel move the waters and people would get in and get healed and. Think about that for a minute. If there ever was a massive human need. In one place. It was around that pool of Bethesda. And yet how many people does Jesus. Choose to heal in that particular instance does a heal everybody. Just. Here's this one guy. You know, there are other occasions in the gospels where Jesus heals. It seems like he heals everyone that came to him. But in this case he only heals one person.

[00:02:30] And that sort of makes the point that I'm trying to make here. If he was driven by just purely trying to meet human need. Then you would have thought he would have just killed everyone. The other thing that's interesting here is he gets in trouble. With the religious authorities after he heals this guy because he heals him on the wrong day. That's the Sabbath day. They object. And that's why he makes this statement, by the way, in response to them that I only do what I see the father doing and the father still working. And and so I'm still working. And here again, if he was actually seeking to try to meet the needs or get the approval of the religious community, he wouldn't have done this this way either. And it all, I think, underscores the point that Jesus was actually in his ministry directed primarily to the to the father, and you might say the audience of one for him. Is the father. I only want to do what I see my father doing. I don't know if you've ever noticed. In in John Chapter 11, Ray Anderson, who taught for years at Fuller Seminary, passed away about a year ago. But he, in one of his books, picks up on the same theme. And the story of the raising of Lazarus illustrates the point, too, doesn't it? You remember that. Mary and Martha send a message to to Jesus, letting him know how sick their brother is. Lord, he whom you love is ill. I've often wondered if there wasn't a little hook in that message. He whom you love. We know how much you love Lazarus. And so, Jesus, we know when you get this message, you're going to drop whatever you're doing.

[00:04:35] And come running. And if you don't, well, maybe. Maybe you didn't love him as much as we thought you did. I don't know. But. Jesus doesn't come running, does he? Wait. He says he stays two days in the place where he was. He gets there four days too late. In the Jewish understanding. Four days after someone's dead, they're really dead. Martha says to him, and Mary says to him when he gets there, if you'd only been here, our brother would not have died. So there's a kind of disappointment with Jesus. Here's how Ray Anderson puts it. This much is clear. The love of Jesus for Lazarus and the desperate plea of the two sisters didn't set the agenda for the Ministry of Jesus. This made from the side of the world, did not take precedence over his commitment to serve the father. And then it's interesting because they go out to the tomb. And he says. Take away the stone. And now the same Martha who before was just trying to get Jesus to come and do something. Now she turns around and she says, No, no, you don't want to do that. This is really going to smell bad. If you've lived in a third world country where there's no funeral directors and no embalming and it's hot and humid most of the time, you know how quickly a human body starts decomposing once life goes out of it. Then the text says a little later. Then Jesus looked up and said, Father, I thank you. You have heard me. You see, he's he's in communion. Communion with the father, isn't he? Then of course, he raises Lazarus. But Anderson makes this statement, The Ministry of Jesus to the Father on behalf of the world is the inner logic of all ministry.

[00:06:43] Every aspect of the Ministry of Jesus is grounded in the interrelation of mutual love and care between the Father and the Son. The needs of the world are recognized and brought into this ministry, but do not set the agenda. Regarding Lazarus, I, I think I understand what the Lords agenda was there, but I just wanted to be clear. He stayed two days where he was. Was that the mission he had things to do there, or was this to wait to make the example of Lazarus resurrection even more powerful? You know, we don't have any account of what he did in those two days. I suspect there were some things he was doing, you know, But I think most commentators, when they pick up on that, do speak about the latter, because when someone came back, let's just say someone has an out-of-body experience. We know that phenomenon and maybe they come back. Well, they weren't really dead. They just kind of. We thought they were. And so by letting this time elapsed the way it does it, it does accentuate the fact that this guy is really dead. And so what this is, is not one of those kind of strange out of body kinds of things that we might call, you know, in some cases. So the commentators pick up on that, but I suspect it was both. I think this has implications for us in our ministries. If this is true that Jesus ministry is to the Father. And it seems to me that. One of the major implications that I want to talk about here is it just sort of underscores the importance of our own love relationship with the father. Notice the latter part of those words where Jesus says, I only do what the father is doing.

[00:08:37] He says, For the father loves the son and shows him all that he does. It's out of a love relationship with the father. That Jesus knows what's on the father's heart. It's a relationship out of which the knowing of what the father's will as grows. And so it seems to me that that underscores the importance of my love relationship with the father. If I'm going to know what the father is doing and what. I'm supposed to be doing in relation to that. I really need to be connected to the heart of the father and know the father. Both in terms of receiving his love and returning his love. You know, here we see him hearing the father's voice. On the day of his baptism. Living in relationship with the father. And experiencing the father's love for me. For the father loves the son. And shows him all that he does. Tammy Hutchins was one of our students back in the late 1990s, and she graduated from seminary in 1997. And Tammy. You see her Atlanta Falcons t shirt on there. She she'd kind of grown up in inner city Atlanta. And her dad had walked out on her when she was about two years old. And her mom pretty much kicked Tammy out of the house when she was. 13 or 14 years old. And so she she grew up kind of on the streets mostly during those teenage years. Amazingly, God protected her from a lot of things. She ended up at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. And somebody invited her, a campus Christian organization. She came to know Christ in a wonderful way and ended up being disciples. Well, and ended up feeling like, you know, I think God wants me to work with.

[00:10:54] Disadvantaged kids and but not in this country. She went and told her campus minister that she said it. Is there a name for that? He said, Well, you know, sometimes people call people to do stuff like that, missionaries. So she came and got a degree in missions and evangelism. Well, anyway, she's been in India pretty much ever since, and she works in a home in Bangalore with some really amazing. Each one of these kids has a horrendous story as to in terms of what happened in their lives and how they got there. And but God has really blessed that ministry because, you know, I think God loves orphans. And widows. He has a special place in his heart. But the disadvantaged. And she's had these kids long enough. Now, these two boys that you see with her arms around them, they are actually the two brothers, actually, that you can kind of see the two guys with the glasses on. They they're their dad. Shot and killed their mother. Then when the police came after him, the police killed him. And the uncle just didn't have. The means to raise these two boys. Now, they're teenagers now, but they were like maybe five or six. And now they're grown up and a lot of these kids are growing up. Some of them are actually in college now. And some of our girls on their way to church here. Well, she's had an amazing ministry. And I've been over there and visit with her several times. I think this was back in 2005 or so. The seminary gave her an award being announced an outstanding Young alumnus award. And they heard I was on my way to India and they said, Why don't you take this plaque? Oh, yeah.

[00:12:59] Like on your way. Yeah. You know, and give it to her when you get there. Because Tami really has no desire for any kind of recognition. That's the last thing in the world she's about, you know? The reason I'm telling you about Tammy this morning is because I was with her in 1997 when she first put her foot on Indian soil. I was kind of leading a a group of students. I grew up in India. I hadn't been to India, though, since I was a boy. So this was a trip back to my childhood. But for her, it was the first time she was going, and she really wasn't sure if that's where she was supposed to go. But she was kind of thinking maybe that's where God was calling her to. But when we got over to India, she was just kind of overwhelmed. At first. You know so much. Hits you when you get to a country like India. The overpopulation, the pollution. The heat. The extreme poverty. If you saw Slumdog Millionaire, that movie, I mean, we drove in areas like that and the hot food, the curry, all of that. And, you know, after about three or four days in India, Tanny. Didn't like the place at all. And she was thinking, My goodness, I don't like it here. And we were staying with a couple down in south India and in their home they had a big wall map of India like this on one of the walls. And every morning Tami would walk by that thing and she would pray. And her prayer was of Lord. You're going to have to give me your heart for India. Because if you don't give me your heart for India, I'm not going to last here.

[00:14:58] She knew that she. You know her. Human love. And her human. The term. That's not the kind of thing that would keep her in a situation like that. So she kept praying, Lord, give me your heart for India. It was interesting, though, after about three or four days of just praying and asking the Lord to meet her, she heard the Lord speak to her. And what she heard kind of surprised her. The Lord said, Well, Tammy. How can I give you my heart for India? One. You won't even let me give you my heart for you. She said. Florida. No, no, no. You know, I didn't come all the way over here. To get your heart for me, You know. Give me your heart for India. Tammy. How can I give you my heart for India if you won't even let me give you my heart for you. Well, you know, if you've ever been in one of those sort of controversies with God, you know, you usually don't win those. And finally, Tammy said, Oh, all right, Lord. I think I'm getting it. And so she said, All right. Give me your heart for you. My heart. Your heart for my brother and she really for the rest of that mission trip. She was there for a couple more weeks. That became the kind of focal point. And, you know, as a girl growing up in the streets. She had had to put a lot of walls around her heart to survive. She's still got some walls around her heart because I talked to her and I've been kind of a spiritual father to her over the years, but praise the Lord. He broke through a number of those walls during that time and.

[00:16:54] And as those walls began to come down, the Lords Lord was able to come in. And that became the focus of that trip. By the time the trip was over. The Lord hadn't only given her his heart for her. Do you know how this works? She got his heart for India. And I'll tell you what, she has an amazing heart for India. I talked to her four or five years ago after she'd been in India seven or eight years. She says, Steve, every time it's getting harder and harder to come back, she really does. Have a heart for India. And she wrote about this in a when she got when it was all over, when she said during my month in India, he poured out his love for in a new measure. I experienced his love in the innermost part of my being. I started out praying for God's heart for India. He revealed the realness of his heart for me. And because of this incredible truth, he's giving me the very thing I asked for. She says, Before you can have God's heart for others, you must know His heart for you. And wasn't that the way it was? We don't exactly understand. But think about Jesus own baptism. That's before his ministry. Right. And what is the father say? You're my beloved son. I guess what I'm saying is I think that what I find with a lot of Christian leaders and pastors. That we get so busy working for God. And doing stuff. Then we neglect our own love relationship with the father. If Jesus ministry was to the Father, then that's where ours needs to be focused to. I find in my life and ministry. Experiencing God's love is not a one shot deal.

[00:18:51] I've had some times I can point to where the love of the Lord really broke through in new ways, you know. But I don't know about you. But this has this is something that I need to happen. On a regular basis. Craig Keener, who is a first rate New Testament scholar. Maybe you've used his commentaries and he now teaches in in Philadelphia, Palmer Theological Seminary. I think it is. He tells about a time when he was just really. Worn out, kind of exhausted from all the work that he was doing and all the things that he had on his plate that weren't finished. And, you know, he just kind of kind of discouraged and down and he went to this worship service. And just kind of during a time of. Worship and praise. The Lord began to minister to his heart and the Lord spoke to him. Basically what the Lord said is my son, you'll you'll you'll not always have this ministry or that ministry. These guests will pass away when you stand before me. All the stuff you're doing, Craig, All the books you're writing, all the classes you're teaching, all the, you know. But you'll always be my son. That's what really defines us, don't you think? Being daughters and sons. And it's out of that that we. Serve him. And I find that. I think lovers actually make better workers than workers do. When I'm grasped by his love for me. It seems like that releases love for him and service for him. I just it it's out of the overflow. Of my love relationship. It just seems to work a whole lot better. Then when I'm sort of trying to cough it up and conjure it and suck it up and make it happen.

[00:21:09] Maybe you need a fresh experience with the father's love. Maybe it's been a while. Maybe you need to talk to God about that. One of the key. Facets of my spiritual journey. Over the last 30 years has been how the Lord has sort of just had to dismantle a whole lot of things. Lot of walls, barriers that have kept his love. From being able to just penetrate and grasp me and hold me the way he wants to. So a lot of times he's had to work on that stuff to, you know, to get it out of the way. That's a journey. But just ask the Lord to show you what's going on there. And, you know, I think when we cry out to him and say, Lord, I just need. A fresh encounter with your love. He likes it. When we pray that way. Let's just pray together. Oh, we're just so glad to know, Heavenly Father. But you have a heart of love for each one of us. And there's so many things about your love. That we're still discovering. And learning and growing into. And we pray for each of us. Like Jesus on the day of his baptism. Somehow you would. Encounter us with your love. It may not be in a dramatic way. It may be a still small voice or Justin just however, but we we just say, Lord, we want to know more of your love for us. And we give you permission to just. Dismantle and tear down every barrier. That has somehow gotten constructed in our hearts. We pray, Lord, that our ministries would flow out of this love relationship. We say, Come Holy Spirit. And do that work in us. We also pray for other people.

[00:23:33] We know that just right now, more than anything else, they just somehow need to get connected to your loved. How deep the father's love for us. How vast beyond all measure. And now lets you love come and surround us. And fill us and enlighten us. And empower us and inspire us. And we pray that somehow the overflow of that love would just sort of splash on to others today. And it's in your name. Lord Jesus. We pray all this. Then. Let's just real quickly. Go back to where we were last night. Just and very quickly, let me say a little bit about the goal of theology. And we've already kind of gotten at some of this when we looked at that picture. But it's interesting. William Perkins, who was a 16th century Puritan, once said that theology is the science of living blessedly forever. People tend to think of theology as abstract, irrelevant and unrelated. But for me it's eminently practical and it leads to living just like what we've been talking about, about ministry to me. That affects the way I do ministry. If ministry is to the father, then that's means something for the way I live. You see. And understanding the purpose and the goal of theology and building a little bit here on from a book by Paul Stevens called The Other Six Days, which if you're interested in the whole area of the theology of the laity and the relationship between laity and clergy, that's an excellent book. He's written a lot of books throughout his career about the laity and clergy and all that. He suggests that the goal of theology is threefold. First of all, the goal is orthodoxy. Now, when we hear the word orthodox, we tend to think of right thinking, don't we? Any of you had any Greek in here yet? Just enough to be dangerous, you know.

[00:25:55] Well, the word orthodox is actually a combination of two Greek word Greek words. And we actually get English words from both of them. Or those. You ever been to an orthodontist who straightened your teeth? The word ortho means right or straight. In Greek. And the word don't say. We got our word doc psychology from Doc say, which means praise. So literally, that word means actually not so much. Right? Doctrine. But. Right. Praise. Right. Praise. Good theology, don't you think should result in helping us adore more and adore better? I mean, you can go to an African African village and in primitive religion, they they believe in adoration. They believe in mystery. They bow down, don't they? But the problem is they're bowing down over here. When they should be bearing down over here. And it seems like good theology helps us to know where to bow down. And what about down? It doesn't remove mystery. Sometimes people think of it as giving you all these answers. I think it actually helps you ask better questions. It doesn't remove mystery. But it helps you to understand where the mystery really is. And in American religion. And an evangelical religion and Protestant religion. We've got folks that need to figure this out better and they need to be taught better. The point I'm simply making here is that one of the results of theology, of good theology set out to make us worship better. And Stephen says that the point of theology is to understand God. And by understanding he doesn't mean what we tend to think. To stand under God, he says. And reverent or not, took over. Stand him by attempting to control him through theological discourse. Sometimes folks get interested in theology more out of of out of a will to power.

[00:28:37] Than anything else. I mean, knowledge is power, isn't it? It's a form of power. And I say seminary students all the time who kind of. You know, they're actually using this to kind of get some of their own emotional needs met in a strange sort of way. Now I'm in control. You know, now I don't have to deal with any ambiguity because I don't want to deal with that, because that threatens my security, you know, all kinds of things. Sometimes we use the ability to protect ourselves. Point, though, here is I think Stevens is right and he says that it's actually more about contemplation. Then it is about interpretation, you know, and understanding. And the Orthodox tradition. We're talking about being in Russia and being just kind of immersed in that particular tradition for a couple of weeks and visiting a lot of churches. They really have a grasp of this particular aspect of the theologies for the purpose of worship. One of their. Church fathers, one that they quote from the east. If I was of Pontus, I tried to find a picture of him. Now we know what to do if he walked in here right now. But I like what he says. He says a theologian is one whose prayer is true. If you truly pray, you are a theologian. So they have this understanding of how these things are related. I think it's very helpful. And then the second goal of theology is not just write glory, but also praxis. That's right. Practice. Right practice. And Stephen says that author Praxis is not measured by excellence, by efficiency, or by its religious character, but by faith, hope and love. I think about that statement for a minute. Because, you know, how does the corporate world and how does our culture tend to measure? Right practice.

[00:31:08] We even actually. Use this phrase a lot, don't we? Best practices. And we tend to measure things by efficiency. But what we call what we deem to be excellent. Or he says, by its religious character. But he's he's saying actually that what good theology tells us and remember the the queen. And faith, hope and love. Over her. Preaching, caring, equipping actually can be done in a profoundly secular way. On the other hand, listening to a child, designing a software program, examining a balance sheet. Could be done in a profoundly Christian way. There's something I think we need to be thinking about and asking ourselves is what we're doing here actually enhancing faith, hope and love? I see this big complex here. I drive in for the very first time and I think, Wow. All the machinery it must take. To keep this place going. All the administrative detail, all the things that have to be done. And let's face it, a lot of that's just drudgery, isn't it? That's just kind of ordinary stuff. And yet actually I read in my utmost for his highest that by chambers the other just the other day that actually that drudgery. Is one of the keys to forming religious character. Because drudgery, teachers can teach you how to persevere. If it's done unto the Lord. You understand? So I'm not saying necessarily things have to be everything has to be super spiritual. But we still, I think, have this to measure up to. How is this enhancing faith, hope and love? I think about the way that some local churches raise their budgets and appeal to people. I was in one local church where, uh, you know, like every November, they'd have a stewardship campaign and try to get.

[00:33:56] People to kind of pledge so that they could know what the next year was going to look like. The chairman of the committee got up in front of the church and and basically said, well, we've done our work and we've figured out there there are this many giving units in this church. And he put the number out there. And then he said, and we've also figured out what the average income is. We've done our demographic work. Mm mm. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, in front of the congregation. You know, he was kind of he was saying, this is what our budget is for next year. And, you know, just trying to give some folks some information. And then he said, now we figured out that we've got this many giving units and this is the average income. And we figured out that if everyone would just give 2%. Of their income. We'd made up we'd make our budget next year. And he said, now 2%, that's not asking you for much. I mean, the government's taken more than that from you. That was the way he appealed to them. And I thought. Think about that. Shouldn't stewardship actually. Shouldn't that be something that actually. Causes one to stretch their faith and trust. God is not a means of saying God. You aren't your you. You have everything that I own. And I'm trusting you with this. And you know none of that. Well, that church that fall made their church budget. But I'm not sure that's the goal. Of Christian stewardship making your church budget. And so you have to say you have to evaluate your practices in terms of how they do, in fact, enhance faith, hope and love. You can be very productive, but not very fruitful.

[00:35:59] I think that's a good distinction because we are great at being productive. And yet sometimes we're not very fruitful. Case in point. I mean, I walk into a typical American Christian bookstore. And when you talk about resources. We've got him. And then I go over to Russia. To minister or I go to Africa or to parts of Asia, and I look at just the few resources they have. You know, to teach people books and things you can put in people's hands to kind of help them, you know? And yet. In spite of all our productivity, our religious project activity. It seems like we're going downhill in terms of the way we're impacting our culture. Yet those people that seem to have nothing. Are actually seeming to be more fruitful. Or third party. That word pathos, you know, has to do with passion. Again, Stephen says, caring for what concerns God. Caring for God's concerns in daily life and caring for God. Above all, this is awful path. Good theology should move our passions. You might say. Jonathan Edwards. Spoke a lot about religious affections. You know, cause us to be passionate about the things God is passionate about. Abraham Heschel, who was an Orthodox Jew, wrote a book, actually a22 volume work on the prophets still out in print, probably 50 years old. It's a wonderful. Set of books, and he's analyzing the Old Testament prophets. And what what was it about them that kind of made them tick? And you know, what he said was the key to the profits was that they had gotten connected to what he called the divine pathos, that they had a heart for the things God had a heart for. God's heart was on them and they it broke their heart sometimes.

[00:38:43] But they allowed themselves, in a sense, to be be caught up in and captured by. God's heart. The central thing about their understanding of God was that God was passionate. He cares about things. Talking about the difference between fruitfulness and productivity. Who do you think? Was the most successful Old Testament prophet. In terms of response to his message. This is sort of a trick question. Jonah. He goes, doesn't he? Not because he wants to, but after three days in the belly of a whale. And when he preaches a never. Talk about repentance. The king of Nineveh puts on sackcloth and ashes. The people repent. They even. They go on a fast. Even have the animals fasting, don't they? And yet. If you've read the book of Jonah, you've got to get to that fourth chapter. Where he's sitting out on on the hill side overlooking the city after God has in a sense stayed his hand of judgment because of the repentance of the people. And Jonah's not at all happy as he. Fact, he tells God this is the reason why I ran away, because I was afraid you would do this. I really wanted you to smoke them. And so there he is sitting up there. And then. I love that little book of Jonah. God uses a whale to get to Jonah in chapter two. You know what he uses in chapter four? A worm. The largest and the least of God's creatures. Remember the worm that comes and it's the the bush. That was giving him shade and he gets all upset about it. And the last. Verse or two of the book of Jonah. Is God saying to Jonah? Jonah, you're all upset about that. Plant and you didn't having to do that thing anyway.

[00:41:25] And he says, God says, shouldn't I be concerned? About of. And all these people. And Jonas Hart never gets on board with God's heart. Does he? Does it just. So he wasn't fruitful. But it sure was productive. But I think good theology ought to get us connected to the heart of God. Cause us to feel what God's God feels. So he concludes statements. Does that all three of these things that we've talked about point to the marriage of theology and everyday life? Theology in life, linked in praise, practice and passion and what God has therefore joined together, let no theological institution put asunder. Those things have to be. Held together. I ran across a statement. Recently. Here's Augusten. Saying something similar in his book on the Trinity, which is a very dense, sort of slow read theological book where he's really unpacking the doctrine of the Trinity. But he says the only merit of this science. He's referring to that theology now kind of as a science. Is that is that from it? A saving faith is born nourished. Defended its strength.