Shifting Focus from Celebrities to Christ

/ Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

I came across the following quote from Gregory the Great (Bishop of Rome from 590-604 AD):

“That man is an enemy of his Redeemer who on the strength of the good works he performs, desires to be loved by the Church, rather than by Him [Christ]. Indeed, a servant is guilty of adulterous thought, if he craves to please the eyes of the bride when the bridegroom sends gifts to her by him.”1

A lot of Christians have noted that the “celebrity Christian” thing is weird and should be done away with. Yet, after one falls, another begins to rise to the top and quickly takes the last one’s place. There are a lot of issues related to the celebrity culture, but my aim in this post is to point out that the celebrity Christian thing is not only wrong, it’s adulterous.

When we put men or women on a pedestal, we divert the eyes of the world and other Christians away from Christ and onto a man. And when we seek to be the one on that pedestal, we desire to be the one who draws the eyes.

Tradition in the United States is that no other woman should wear white to a wedding other than the bride-to-be. Why? It is because the eyes of the guests, and especially of the groom, should be on the bride. So what happens when there are competitors? And not just wearing white, but seeking to catch the attention of the groom? Gregory is correct in stating that this is adulterous and marks such a person as an enemy of the groom, Jesus Christ.

Some who crave the spotlight would say that my comments and those of others who decry celebrity culture are simply a result of jealousy over their success, and that they are seeking a way to point others to Jesus. Yet, I don’t see these tactics used in the Bible. Instead, Jesus said, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself” (John 12:32, LSB).

May we see more Christians with the attitude of George Whitefield:

“Let the name of Whitefield perish, but Christ be glorified. Let my name die everywhere, let even my friends forget me, if by that means the cause of the blessed Jesus may be promoted. . . . I am content to wait till the judgment day for the clearing up of my reputation; and after I am dead, I desire no other epitaph than this, “Here lies G. W. What sort of man he was the great day will discover.”2

  1. Gregory the Great, Pastoral Care, trans. Henry David, Ancient Christian Writers 11 (New York: Newman Press, 1950), 75. Quoted in Harold L. Senkbeil, The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor’s Heart (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019), 117. ↩︎
  2. Arnold A. Dallimore, George Whitefield: The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of the Eighteenth-Century Revival (2 vols.) (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1980),2:257-258. ↩︎

Yesterday was Sunday. Now What?

/ Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

“But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of Yahweh thus you shall say to him, ‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Regarding the words which you have heard, because your heart was soft and you humbled yourself before Yahweh when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants that they should become an object of horror, and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you,’ declares Yahweh. ‘Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace, so your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring on this place.’ So they brought back word to the king.”  (2 Kings 22:18–20, LSB)

How will we respond to the Word of God once we know what He has said? Many of us spent a good portion of our Sunday in our local church and we heard the Bible taught to us—possibly multiple times in different ways. In addition we sang biblical words, and prayed Scriptural truths. But, what happens to that truth we heard now that it’s Monday?

Josiah was a king who began his reign at the tender age of 8. His prospects for a long and godly reign didn’t look good. Many kings before him had been assassinated, and most of the kings who ruled David’s former kingdom (now divided in two) ruled in evil ways that looked more like the pagan nations around them. But King Josiah was different. His heart was set to obey the Lord, and the influence of godly priests around him hardened his resolve to follow God and lead his nation with wisdom and godliness.

At 18, Josiah began making some long-overdue changes. The temple had been neglected and he made arrangements for this to be corrected. In the process a copy of the Word of God was discovered and brought to the kings attention. As this mysterious book was read to the young king, he reacted with great emotion. He tore his robe in grief and anguish, and called the priest and his scribe to go and seek the Lord on his behalf.

What had disturbed this young king? The words of the Law of God spoke clearly about how God’s people—Josiah’s people—were to behave. They were to be a holy people, a godly people. They were never to worship any other gods, and they were to follow the Lord’s directions for life. But Josiah knew that it had been a long time since they had done that, and that the nation was guilty of great sin against the Lord God.

Imagine taking on a new job, and you start with anticipation of how well you will perform your duties. You work there for a few years, and you begin to learn that you are in a long line of serious slackers. Not only did they fail to do their jobs, but they stole from the company, sold secrets to the competition, and talked bad about the company owner. Some even called the company by the rival company’s name! Now you have the job, and you are a company man, and you hope to change things, and straighten up things. Then one day you find a book that not only has the company history, showing you the glorious past of your firm, but it also has all of the expectations that you should be meeting. As you read it, you become terrified! “We’re failing every metric in this book! Every worker in this company should be fired, and even sued for the damage they have caused to the owner. His losses are immense!”

This was Josiah’s dawning reality. He sent the priest and scribe to the Owner, the real King of his kingdom, to find out what He really thought about their situation. The word that came back was what Josiah feared—God was furious. Payback was coming, and it would cause the ears of those who heard about it to buzz.

Josiah, this righteous king, was overcome by grief. Yes, he was filled with sorrow for the coming judgment. But even more so, he was crushed by how his people had been toward their God. Josiah wanted to be a good king, obedient to all that the Lord had spoken—but he was in a long line of losers. It was almost payday, and not the good kind.

But God saw Josiah’s heart, and he saw his grief over the situation. The Lord told his ministers to tell the king that the judgment was so great that there was no avoiding it, but that it would be delayed. Josiah would reign, and he would be recorded as a good king. God would wait until after he was gone to bring the promised judgment.

How would you respond? Josiah was surely relieved. But even more, he was determined. He knew the judgment would miss him, but instead of sitting back and enjoying his royal life, he leaped into action. He leaned into the reforms he knew were needed. He tore down the centers for idol worship and reinstated God’s holy standard. He made godliness great again.

Let’s go back to Sunday—yesterday. What did God say to you through His servants? Do you have the zeal of Josiah? Are you looking at this week with anticipation for how you will carry out what God shared with you through His Word yesterday, or are you comfortable sliding back into your life, like the kings that came before Josiah?

Josiah is known to this day as one of the godliest kings of Judah. His reforms didn’t last long because the people quickly slid back into their wretchedness when the kings after him continued the long path toward paganism. But that doesn’t matter. Right is right, and God calls us to obey. What happens after we are gone isn’t our problem. He calls His people to walk with Him, and we need to strive to do so every day of our lives. We can prepare the next generation as best we can, but ultimately, they will need to do it themselves, and will give an account before God, just like we will.

Yesterday was Sunday. Now what?

Sleeping Under the Threat of a Tornado

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“So Jesus, knowing that they were going to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone. Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, and after getting into a boat, they began to cross the sea to Capernaum. It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. And the sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. Then, when they had rowed about twenty-five or thirty stadia, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat; and they were frightened. But He said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.”  (John 6:15–20, LSB)

Last night, while half way across the country, I received weather alerts telling me that there was a growing threat that tornadoes were possible back home. I saw the weather map in the morning when I passed by the TV screen in the hotel lobby and the dark red spots over home made me a little concerned—but these things always seem to pass by, right?

Last night the text appeared on my phone: “We are going down [into the basement]. Please pray.” The accompanying photo of an emergency weather alert didn’t settle my heart: “National Weather Service: TORNADO WARNING in this area until 10:45 PM EDT. Take shelter now in a basement of an interior room on the lowest floor of a sturdy building…”

After feeding 5,000 men, not counting women and children, Jesus knew that the people wanted to make him their king. I wondered, what kind of king could they have wanted? Israel was under Roman occupation and a part of the Empire, though they wouldn’t have accepted that truth. Surely they didn’t think Jesus would become the new Emperor of Rome. The Herodian Dynasty was still active, and Herod was called a “king” even though he ruled locally at the pleasure of Rome. Would Jesus simply take Herod’s place as the “king of the Jews” in Palestine? The more I think about it, not only did Jesus refuse to allow them to make him their king because he needed to be crucified for the sins of men, but add to that the fact that the type of king the people wanted was far too small of an office for Jesus. He wasn’t satisfied to simply be a king, or the king of the Jews, or even the Emperor of Rome. No, Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords. The people weren’t thinking big enough.

That may have been why John shows his readers that Jesus crossed the sea in a storm by walking upon the water. Jesus was overqualified to be a simple client-king. He was too powerful to fit into the hierarchy of rulers and petty lords that dotted the earth in those days. The God-Man who can feed his people, had complete power over nature. He was not scared of the storm as the disciples in their little fishing boat were. Of course not. He made that body of water, and he commanded the wind and the waves. He wasn’t a victim of gravity and didn’t need to obey the laws of nature that say a man’s mass is heavier than water. Just like he was Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus is Lord over all, so that even the wind and the seas obey him.

After I prayed for my family—and pray I did!—I was able to rest. I didn’t have the best night of sleep, but I slept. Being half-way across the country reminds a person that they are helpless to do anything to help. But had I been huddled in the basement with my wife and daughters, what would I have done if a tornado had touched down in our neighborhood? I was powerless to help them—either away or at home.

But as I called out to the One who has all power, who is greater than any earthly king or president or prime minister, I was reminded of the final words of Jesus above as I prayed, “It is I; do not be afraid.”

Not All Glory is Gold

/ Richard Bargas / 1 Comment

“I do not receive glory from men;…How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the only God?” (John 5:41, 44 LSB)

The glory of men is intoxicating. I know a lot of Christians who won’t touch alcohol, but I see many who constantly sip at the bottle of glory. What’s that saying about pointing at others and there are three fingers pointing back at you? Yes, in many ways we struggle with receiving glory from men.

In a section of John 5, Jesus is instructing the Jews about His identity, and they are very clear on at least one thing, Jesus is “making Himself equal with God” (Jn 5:18). As Jesus teaches, He doesn’t try to diffuse the bomb he has handed to them, but rather adds more gunpowder to the already explosive conversation.

Christ speaks about being able to break the Sabbath, and how he keeps the Father’s will perfectly. This includes the power to judge and give life. Both of these references were not meant to simply refer to common everyday judgment and life-giving actions, but rather to the eternal prerogative of God, to cast into hell or raise into heaven, as well as to raise the dead in the resurrection.

These verses, and the self-reference to the title “Son of Man” (Jn 5:27) refer to Daniel’s vision of the Son of Man being given such powers from the Ancient of Days, the Father.

All of these are powerful references and images that pull back the mask of Jesus’ full identity, showing to his audience that He is more than the carpenter’s son from Nazareth.

In this mix of self-revelation, Jesus adds the truth about these self-righteous leaders. They loved to honor one another, give one another honorific titles, and pat each other on the back. We read about Jesus chastening them often over their self-congratulatory attitudes. And when I read about this, I often see a not too dim reflection of what I see in myself and in many of my fellow Christians at times.

Sometimes called a “humble brag” or couched in “praise reports” or displayed in our Instagram, X, or Facebook feeds, we see the boasting of those who acknowledge that pride is a sin. And when we see another fall, we hear the roar of prideful men speaking with what appears to get the back-slapping approval of their fellow Christians, I am reminded of how cancerous our pride can be.

I, for one, am not done with my personal fight with pride in my own heart. When I am walking in the Spirit, I don’t want to steal the glory from God, and I don’t want to garner the praises of men. So that means I need to watch carefully my life and doctrine, because pride is always there, lurking in the shadows not too far away.

Faith Makes Us Courageous

/ Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

“So he sent horses and chariots and a heavy military force there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. Then the attendant of the man of God arose early and went out, and behold, a military force with horses and chariots was all around the city. And his young man said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” So he said, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”” (2 Kings 6:14–16, LSB)

Yesterday I wrote that “sin makes us stupid.” You can read that post here. But in the continuing saga of Elisha, we also see that faith makes us courageous.

The King of Aram was determined to get Elisha and silence him. He sent what is described in 2 Kings 6:14 as ancluded not only armed soldiers but also horses and chariots “heavy military force,” which i. Not that any of that scares God, or even Elisha. But it did scare Elisha’s servant.

Can you imagine that poor young man? He got up in the morning and probably went out to the well to make some of that good dark roast Damascus coffee for himself and his master, and what does he see? An enormous army at his front door! Maybe he backed up slowly. Maybe he screamed like a child. Who knows how he reacted initially, but what we read is that he reported to his master his dismay: “What shall we do?”

Elisha’s reaction is calm and cool. He doesn’t rush to look out the window. He doesn’t start pacing or figuring out how he can talk himself out of being killed or arrested. He doesn’t begin counting up all his valuables to see if he has enough to bribe the commander of this grand army. Nope. Elisha, in my imagination, takes a slow sip of his coffee and smiles as he tells the servant to calm down.

“Don’t be afraid,” he says to his attendant. Elisha seems to know something that this young man doesn’t. Don’t panic? Don’t be afraid? Clearly, Elisha didn’t have a full grasp of his faculties. How could they not panic? How could they not be afraid? Today they were most likely going to die. At best, they would be imprisoned and beaten! Don’t be afraid?

The servant saw a great army of the enemy of Israel, but Elisha knew that there is more out there than what our limited human eyes can see. We might be tempted to think that Elisha could see more, but the Bible doesn’t say he saw anything. I think he could only see what his young man could see—an overwhelming situation that would make all of us panic. So what gives? Why was Elisha so calm?

The prophet of God knew what all people of faith know—that this world is made up of material and immaterial realities. We cannot see all that is before us. But with the eyes of faith, we can entrust ourselves to the God who sees it all. Not only could God see the King of Aram, but He can also see our predicaments as well. Elisha knew this, and thus, he was cool and settled even if he didn’t see anything more than his servant.

Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (LSB). Elisha took the opportunity to show his young servant (as well as Israel, and us too), what only faith understands, that God is greater than any problem we face. He is a Warrior and King, and He is our Defender and Shield. God tells us that in His Word, so we need to believe Him for what He has said. But for our benefit, Elisha prayed that the curtain, just this once, would be pulled back so that our feeble, faithless eyes could see what is ordinarily invisible. And wow!

Elisha wasn’t afraid. Not because he could see the unseen. But because He believed God with the eyes of faith. And that faith makes men and women of God courageous in the face of troubling circumstances. However it might look, we need to remember that God is in control, and there is much more at play behind the scenes than we will ever know.