Author: Sean Higgins

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Lord's Day Liturgy

Flock Cameras Don’t Even Know

The doctrine of justification by faith alone through grace alone in Christ alone must constantly peeve the seed of the serpent. The rebel angels have to hate it.

Imagine our spiritual enemies in the unseen realm constantly encamped at the entryway. They have more information about us than all the flock cameras possibly could. They know our faces, and many of our sins. They know why we’re coming in here, what we’ll be doing, and even that we’ll get to this point at the communion table.

They know that Jesus will show us mercy again just like Jonah knew the Lord would show in Nineveh. They know that Jesus will call us to join Him just like He called the withered hand man forward. We get to eat and drink, and we do not deserve it at all.

What accusations they must make, not just against us, but against Jesus.

Jesus has “forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14). We are welcome with Him. His resurrection has triumphed over their hypocrisy and false righteousness and lies (Colossians 2:15).

God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have chosen and atoned and regenerated. He was pierced for our transgressions and with His wounds we are healed though we deserved to be destroyed (Isaiah 53:5). Let them look at us in disgust, we have been saved.

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Lord's Day Liturgy

Anger Options

Jet pilots describe how the body responds when the force of gravity increases as mach speed increases. Not only does the chest feel more and more pressure, the field of vision gets narrower and narrower. At some point only a pinhole of light is left, and either you slow down or you black out.

Anger also works like this. As your anger increases your options decrease. As anger swells your ability to see clearly gets smaller.

Solomon says that anger dwells in the bosom of fools.

Be not quick in your spirit to become angry,
for anger lodges in the heart of fools.
(Ecclesiastes 7:9 ESV)

Madness means a loss of mind. A man who’s gone mad may just be crazy, he may be destructive.

The Pharisees were angry with Jesus. When they saw the man with the withered hand they were not touched with pity or mercy (Luke 6:6-7). When they watched Jesus heal they were not persuaded by Jesus’s power. When they heard Jesus’s question about healing or harming, saving or destroying his life—which is about as basic as it could be—they were not able to see themselves in the story.

They were “filled with fury” (ESV), “filled with rage” (LSB), “filled with madness” (KJV) and it is because they were without mind (ἀνοίας) (Luke 6:11). They discussed their options for dealing with Jesus but all they could come up with was one: harm Him.

Anger narrows your life. Brothers and sisters, mortify your anger before it makes you mad.

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Every Thumb's Width

Better Than One Day

In Psalm 84:10 we read, “a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.” The choirmaster led the congregation in this song, and “blessed are those who dwell in Your house, ever singing Your praise!” (verse 4)

Jesus taught that a day was coming when the presence of God’s blessing would not be limited to entering one set of doors (John 4:21), and that day was defined by Him. When He sent His Spirit, and then sent His men to the ends of the earth with the gospel, believers are able to know the Lord without a quest to one holy address.

This is because Jesus is better. He is the Son of God and Son of Man. He is the true and better Adam, the firstborn of creation, the firstborn from the dead. He is preeminent, the one from whom and through whom and to whom are all things.

Better is Jesus than anything. And with Jesus, all are ours.

The only ongoing and repeated ordinance for His disciples is communion. Baptism is important, but the Supper should be frequent. Eating the bread and drinking the wine in Jesus’ name proclaims His death until He comes. Here we are, around one table in Jesus’ name. Jesus is better.

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Lord's Day Liturgy

Choked by a Shirt-Sleeve Cuff

Have you ever seen a man who only does bicep curls, and only with his right arm? He exercises one muscle on one side. While he may be able to show off that no short-sleeve shirt cuff can match his flex, it’s not really helpful, certainly not balanced.

Usually you need some compound movements, and strengthening some overlapping muscles.

It is a sign of maturity to hold on to more than one thing at a time. There are at least four overlapping metaphorical muscle groups for this kind of strength.

Love good things. Maybe this is coffee, maybe tea. Maybe it’s salty or sweet. Maybe it’s sprinting or long distance. Maybe it’s a Bible reading plan of six verses a day, or six chapters. All are yours, and a mature person has more than surface-level cares.

Recognize that there are multiple good things to love. This starts to stretch some people. We need to grow as our categories grow, or, we need more categories than one-size-fits-all.

Acknowledge that you can love something different and more intensely than someone else. Now it becomes inter-personal. It’s not just what books belong in the library, but it’s the other patrons who never pick a book from your preferred list. You think, “What is he doing?” He might be wanting to ask you the same question.

Enjoy (and promote) what you love without polarizing another person who loves a different thing more intensely than you. We tend to get defensive about the things we care more about to the persons we care more about, who tend to be closer. So we tend to have more conflict about different good things with friends, not enemies. Enemies aren’t loving good things in the first place.

One relevant example among us: How should fathers best take responsibility to educate their children? To homeschool or private school?

What is better? What is right? Should we avoid the discussion to avoid possible conflict? Or can we recognize that there are multiple good options, and that we can love and promote what we think is great, without turning friends who choose a different good option into enemies?

Of course this relates to our responsibility to drawe one waye (Philippians 2:2).

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Lord's Day Liturgy

Subject to the Father

It is a father’s job to interfere when necessary. We discipline because we love (Hebrews 12:6). It is also a father’s job to give gifts and invite into fellowship. We declare our love in words, as well as through shared time and sacrifices and delight.

Usually we reason from heaven to earth. We consider our Heavenly Father and try to reflect Him, and that’s good. But a couple times the Bible argues the other way, with a “how much more.” If the lesser is true, how much more true is the greater.

Even earthly fathers discipline for the good of their kids, how much more when the Father disciplines us unto holiness?

we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? (Hebrews 12:9 ESV)

And even earthly fathers don’t give rocks when their kids ask for bread, how much greater our Father in heaven?

which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:9–11 ESV)

The greatest “good thing” the Father gave is His Son.

Confession and communion. Rebuke and rejoicing. Discipline and delight. Forgiveness and fellowship. How much more does our Heavenly Father give to us?!

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32 ESV)

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Lord's Day Liturgy

Keeping Your Kids Stupid

The book of Proverbs is full of wisdom, wisdom for those who need to get wisdom, and wisdom for those who need to give it. Solomon helps the one who already understands obtain guidance and then also give guidance to others.

One of the proverbs most quoted in our house over the years has been Solomon’s lesson on the unteachable.

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge,
but he who hates reproof is stupid.
(Proverbs 12:1 ESV)

The word “stupid” (translated as such in the ESV, NAS, NIV) usually referred to an animal that lacks sense. To hate correction is “brutish” (KJV), “senseless” (LSB). Lots of times parents are up against the worst sort of willful stupidity. Some other times parents are the worst at keeping their kids dumb.

Imagine your house was on fire and you saw one of your kids inside, apparently unaware of the danger. You call out for your son to GET OUT, and he either can’t hear or doesn’t care. Would you just watch and wait? Would you try again with a whisper?

Who is more “stupid,” the child in the burning house or the dad who sees the child in the burning house and acts as if it’s no big deal? He who hates reproof is stupid. And he who hates giving reproof when it is necessary sponsors stupidity, and death (Proverbs 19:18). Maybe the most ironic response is hating correction so much that you get fired up to correct the ones urging your kids to get out of the burning house because you don’t like their tone. We should be wiser than that.

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Lord's Day Liturgy

More Has Been Watered Down

Over ten years ago I preached a message on why our church was moving to wine in communion: The Fruit of the Vine. Here’s another reminder, connected to Jesus’ answer in Luke 5:34.

Grape juice is like liturgical crust on much modern Christian communion practice. Grape juice is a comfortable tradition that fits more with the rules than with rejoicing. It is not bad, it is also not as fitting.

Let us not pressure consciences, rather, let us release consciences. Even more, let us eat and drink at the Lord’s Table not like the groom is still in the grave.

The problem that Paul addressed in 1 Corinthians 11 is not that the Corinthians were enjoying their bread and wine, the problem is that some were excluding others from bread and wine. The “unworthy” part was selfishness and dividing the body, it was not unworthy that it was tasty.

Remember that Dr. Thomas Welch applied pasteurization science to gut the fruit of the vine in order to guard against Christians abusing wine at communion. More than the contents of the cup have been watered down.

God Himself causes:

the grass to grow for the livestock
and plants for man to cultivate,
that he may bring forth fruit
from the earth
and wine to gladden the heart of man
(Psalm 104:14-15)

We offer juice as a concession, and without judgment. And also, the gift and history and goodness of wine remind us that communion is not only not a time for fasting, it is a feast by faith.

He is risen, raise your glass!

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Lord's Day Liturgy

Anchor of the Soul

Ridē fidē is a ride of faith for life. Ride or die, ride till the rapture, ride until the ride comes to a stop, which might not be for a while. But, we like our faith like we like our WiFi: invisible and fast so that we can get back to living by what we see. Living by faith really requires the right frame of reference when it comes to expectations for harvest.

We are tempted to think that sowing seeds today will let us taste strawberries tomorrow. If tomorrow comes, and the strawberries aren’t ripe, did God even notice our effort? Ah, here is the need for faith. The author of Hebrews wrote,

“For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake” (Hebrews 6:10)

Why is that helpful? Because enough time goes by and we start to think that He is overlooking. Believe that God knows and is faithful, and keep on believing:

“so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (Hebrews 6:11-12)

Faith is not sluggish or dull or lazy. Faith pursues, and persists, in patience until the work is done, and the promises come.

Abraham illustrates this for us. God swore by Himself (6:13) an unconditional covenant to bless Abraham (6:14), and Abraham believed and “patiently waited” (6:15). Trust God and His purpose, He is “a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” (Hebrews 6:19).

Don’t put the cart before the horse, the fruit before the faith.

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Lord's Day Liturgy

Unabashed about His Brothers

Most modern writing advice argues against using adverbs. I’m going to use some intentionally.

It is—actually, amazingly, astonishingly—good to think about the kind of people Jesus associates with. He eats and drinks with the likes of us. He communes with the “such were some of you”s (1 Corinthians 6:11).

Christ’s suffering informed His sympathy; He took on flesh, He knows our weaknesses, He was tempted as we are (Hebrews 4:15). His suffering leads to our sanctification, and our sanctification has the same source as Jesus’ sanctification. Jesus doesn’t just get us, He owns us.

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers (Hebrews 2:10–11 ESV)

We are not to be ashamed of Jesus and His words (Luke 9:26). We are not to be ashamed of the gospel (Romans 1:16). But when we are tempted to hold it down about our relationship to Jesus, that’s our problem, not because Jesus has any problems.

And so, if anyone had quality justification for distance, it would be Jesus distancing Himself from us. We have problems. We have not recognized and represented the worth of His name. Instead, He remains faithful (2 Timothy 2:13), and He is unabashed in calling us His brothers.

“Did you hear what he said? Us Lions. That means him and me. Us Lions. That’s what I like about Aslan. No side, no stand-offishness. Us Lions. That meant him and me.” (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)

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Lord's Day Liturgy

Across Columns

Jesus came for losers. The gospel is good for the outcast, the broken, the sinners, the “others.”

But let us add three more qualifications.

First, this does not mean that men in positions of power cannot be saved. Jesus said it is harder for rich men to be saved (Luke 18:25), but not because He has to do more for them. It’s because, from a circumstantial point of view, they are less likely to realize their need.

Second, this does not mean that all men in loser positions can easily be saved. Resentment and envy have destroyed the souls of as many Have Nots as have greed and pride destroyed the souls of the Haves.

Third, this does not mean that men who are saved will necessarily remain in their loser position. I have been reading a new book called Loser Theology. It has some good observations. It does address the superficial ways Christians have defined godliness, as in, always the loser in the world’s eyes.

But remember how the Word of Christ refers to Christians. We are saved sinners, that’s always true, but typically called “saints.” Even the Corinthians got this label (1 Corinthians 1:2). We are called the redeemed. By God’s grace we move across columns:

  • from lost to found
  • from sick to sound, unhealthy to healthy
  • from sinners to saints
  • from unrighteous to pursuing the obedience of faith
  • from humble to glory

This humble dependence on God through faith really adds up. He came because we were far away, but now we’ve been brought near. He saw us dead in our sin, and chose us to make us alive and make us His handiwork.