Perhaps many of you have, at some point in your lives, heard the famous quote by Fredrick Nietzsche: “God is dead; we have killed him.”

This quote comes from Nietzsche’s book, The Gay Science written in 1882. In it, Nietzsche tells a parable of a mad man who runs into the marketplace. The parable is relatively short, so I will include most of the text below:

Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the marketplace, and cried incessantly: “I seek God! I seek God!” — As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. “Has he got lost?” asked one. “Did he lose his way like a child?” asked another. “Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? emigrated?” — Thus they yelled and laughed.

The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. “Whither is God?” he cried; “I will tell you. We have killed him — you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning?

How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?”

Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners; and they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment. “I have come too early,” he said then; “My time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time; the light of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than most distant stars — and yet they have done it themselves.”

On the same day the madman forced his way into several churches and he said, “What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?”

– The Gay Science, Fredrick Nietzsche

This story takes my breath away. I’m not sure if it is wonder at the prophetic accuracy of this story, or the fear of the nihilism it foreshadows, or the recognition I feel as I look out into the world, and realise, I am living in the future foretold by Nietzsche. Indeed, if the madman ran out into the “marketplace” today and declared, “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.” Everyone would already acknowledge the truth of it.

NIETZSCHE REALISED, BEFORE MANY OTHERS, THE COMING OF THE SECULAR AGE.

He saw how God would one day become irrelevant in the “marketplace,” which is a metaphor for the public sphere as well as the capitalist market. We now live in the secular age. Both religious and non-religious people live within this secular age. Even though there are still many believers, the age we live in is secular; the waters we swim in are secular, and the overarching narrative of the world is secular.

In this story, the madman realises what happens when God is removed from society. He understands that, without God, there is no light to light our path; that is why he “lit a lantern in the bright morning hours,” because, without the light of God, even the “bright morning hours” are thrown into darkness. He saw how a future with no story, no through-arch, and no purpose would descend into total nihilism, as the meaninglessness of existence and the universe became ever clearer. He writes:

“Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us?”

Without God, meaninglessness is all we have to turn to. Nietzsche perhaps harboured some hope that humans would be able to one day write their own story, to find a way to infuse existence with some meaning, but the world is churning, “plunging continually,” totally devoid of something worth living for. The secular thesis has failed; we have not managed to write a story of peace and love, instead, we have written a story of distraction.

DISTRACTION IS THE WORD FOR THE SECULAR AGE.

All of our technological development and our hubristic murder of God has not lead to a secular utopia, instead, it has led to the construction of a web of distraction; so thorough that, we no longer have to face the meaninglessness of life and existence. We can just switch on Netflix, or social media, or Disney+, or any other infinite number of technological distractions that blind us to the emptiness of life. We can wash it all away by binge watching Cobra Kai.

We have done all this, murdered God and built a world filled with emptiness and distraction, all with an inflated sense of our own cleverness. We scoff at those silly people who still believe in fairy tales like God. When the madman enters the marketplace, he shouts:

“‘I seek God! I seek God!’ — As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. ‘Has he got lost?’ asked one. ‘Did he lose his way like a child?’ asked another. ‘Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? emigrated?’ — Thus they yelled and laughed.”

Those who seek God have been scoffed at, and those who have dismissed his existence have felt progressively more clever. But, that is only because they do not look into the abyss. Nietzsche also said, “If you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” Few secular people today take much time to consider the ramifications of the meaning of a life without God. It means that all of life and existence is one big accident, and that one day it will all end in a heat death; none of it will have mattered, and nothing will be remembered because there is nothing out there. This is the abyss that people do not look at, because if you look at it long enough, it will look back into you; and the enormity of it will be too much.

Even though we are experts at distracting ourselves, on some level, the reality of “meaninglessness” remains, and the “lack of a story” to explain our existence and give our lives purpose, still presses in. It manifests in crippling anxiety and epidemic narcissism. We have not freed ourselves from the bonds of religion; we have bound ourselves to meaninglessness. In place of a loving God, who has a story for each of us, resides emptiness.

THE WONDERFUL STORY OF THE GOSPEL GIVES PURPOSE AND MEANING TO OUR UNIVERSE AND TO OUR LIVES.

We do not have to face the abyss alone, in fact, the abyss is filled up with God. He is the creator and sustainer of the universe. He is the one who turns ashes to beauty, even in all the broken parts of our story. He infuses us with purpose and fills our eternity with hope. He wipes every tear from our eyes and ensures that every pain we’ve suffered and every tragedy we’ve endured will be remembered and turned into something beautiful in his eternal plan. With God, it will not all end in a heat death, and humanity will endure in the loving grip of Christ.

Nietzsche ends his parable with a stark prediction; he writes of the empty churches that remain after the death of God, “What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?” I take this as a challenge to the church in 2021. God’s not dead; he is very much alive and working. But have we made our great story, the story of the Gospel of Jesus Christ so amenable to this secular age, so palatable, so relevant, so secular that our churches resemble sepulchers of God?

The coronavirus has forced humanity to stare at the abyss en masse, in a way that has not occurred in many generations. People are afraid; they are aware of their mortality, and they are lonely, and isolated, and depressed. People are still shouting, “I seek God; I seek God.” The world still laughs at this cry, but let us hope the church still stands with the answer, “God is here.”

Do we still have God to offer those who seek him? The world needs the Gospel to bring God’s love, and comfort, and healing, and strength into their broken and fear-filled places. “How shall we comfort ourselves,” cry the people in the story. The church has the answer to that cry in the age old story of the cross, as true and as needed today as on the day Jesus died. Is the church of God still alive with the gospel? Do we still believe in the power of God to break chains and set the captives free, to save the lost?

God has you in the palm of his hand. He knows you. He loves you. You are not alone. God has a plan for you; God holds your eternity in his hands. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. Oh, what a great comfort these truths are to me. The world is crying out for this comfort, to know the God who made them. Though we have tried to kill, both God, and our personal need for God, neither attempt has succeeded. People feel their need for God through this pandemic in new and raw ways that all the distraction cannot hide; let’s be there to offer them the truth of the Gospel and not keep this great comfort to ourselves: It is for everyone.

_Notes:

_{. Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil. Dover Publications, 1998.}

. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900. The Gay Science; with a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs. New York: Vintage Books, 1974.

Life can be hard, harder than hard at times. There are those moments in all of our lives when we think the difficulty is so large that there is no way out. It’s over. I’ve come to the end. We so often face situations where we think all is lost, and we’re done. Forget about it. It will never change. It’s easy to lose heart in difficult times. Life allows things that begin to look as if all is against you. There is no way out. God will even send you a brother or a sister to encourage you, but you quickly dismiss their words and their help, because you’re convinced, it won’t change.

Elisha’s servant was in this exact place in 2 Kings 6. He woke up one morning to see a Syrian army approaching to capture him. It overwhelmed him. He cried out to Elisha, “Alas, my master, what shall we do?” With all that he saw, he panicked. He didn’t know what to do. But Elisha did. He prayed. He prayed that God would open the eyes of his servant, so that he could see it’s not as bad as it appeared.

Just like Elisha’s servant, what is needed in times like these is for God to open our eyes to see what we cannot see spiritually.

There is a hidden spiritual realm all around us. It’s real but unseen. There is the physical and the spiritual. Unfortunately, the physical tends to get all of our attention and focus. It forces itself into the forefront, into our face, our mind! You get an email. A phone call. Eyes see. Hearts feel. Minds race. It’s easy to lose sight of the spiritual because of the physical. We have to train ourselves to be sensitive to see the spiritual.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18, NKJV).

Sadly, living as we do in this material world, we get so involved in the physical, material things of life, where that is all we ever see.

We lose sight of the spiritual. We lose sight of God! We get so concerned about the opposition that is facing us. The power of the enemy, especially when we begin to fight the forces of the world. How hard it is. How hopeless it seems! We are like this servant. What we see discourages us! ALAS! We falsely conclude almost every day, “Oh there’s no way we can withstand them!”

“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4, NKJV).

“What can we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else” (Romans 8:31-32, NLT).

These truths are ours in Christ. Don’t forget them. Memorize them. Hide them in your heart. God is greater. God is stronger. God is faithful. When our eyes are on the situation, panic takes over. We freak out when we see our enemies, when we face our difficulties.

Pastor Chuck Smith taught us, “The longer we look at our problem, the bigger it gets!” It’s true! The problems surrounding our lives can seem so big that we don’t even see or feel God anymore! We are like Elisha’s servant here saying, “It’s over! Nothing we can do. Let’s just throw up our hands and give up.” Don’t give up!

Oh, that God would open our eyes, that we might see the spiritual.

Elisha prayed that his servant’s eyes would be open, and they were! He saw the stronger army of God surrounding the place. I pray that in every situation we are in, we would not only see the problems around us but also the solutions! When the eyes of the servant were open, he could see the spiritual parts behind the scenes; he saw that the angels of the Lord were surrounding the Syrians, the horses and chariots of fire surrounding the Syrian army. What a difference it made in his whole outlook.

“And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, ‘Alas, my master! What shall we do?’ So he answered, ‘Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ And Elisha prayed, and said, ‘LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.’ Then the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (2 Kings 6:15-17, NKJV).

When we only look at the material things, so often we say, “We’ve had it!”, but when God opens our eyes, and we see the spiritual dimension, it changes completely. We say, “They’ve had it!” Oh, that we would see the power of God! The power that God has made available to us. Those resources that are ours in the realm of the Spirit.

Looking back, isn’t it true that God has been faithful? Isn’t it true God was faithful? What was the big problem 10 years ago? Ten days ago? God came through. He did then. He will again!

“Come and see the works of God, who is awesome in His deeds toward the sons of men. He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot; there let us rejoice in Him!” (Psalm 66:5-6).

One effective temptation to despair is that our experience of Jesus doesn’t seem very miraculous.

We read in the Bible of waters dividing, of food raining down from heaven and chariots of fire. But where is that in our lives? Here’s a scripture that suggests we as believers in Jesus share in those major miraculous moves of God.

Notice the pronouns in verse six: “He turned the sea into dry land,” “they went through the river on foot,” “there let us rejoice in Him.” It’s about God, Israel, the psalmist and us. We all have something in common. We are in the middle of a miracle of God.

Do you see where we are encouraged to rejoice in God?

The psalmist is referring to two miracles. The first is when He made Israel cross the Red Sea on foot. He split the waters by an east wind blowing through the night, so that a way on dry land existed for the people to cross. They walked on this path between two enormous walls of water. The second is 40 years later, the next generation of Israel crossing the Jordan River in full flood. When the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant stepped into the waters, they stood up in a heap far up the river, allowing the people to cross on a dry river bed.

But there’s a problem, isn’t there? That place where we are to rejoice is a place that only a particular group of people experienced once. These experiences were never repeated. Those places are underwater, inaccessible. So how can we go there in order to rejoice?

God was taking a group of people and saving them, delivering them and introducing them to a new life. And they were in the middle of that miracle.

Imagine if Moses had stopped in the middle of the Red Sea and said, “Hey, everybody, why don’t we stop and have a little time of thanksgiving before we go much further?” I think it would have been charged with gripping emotion! Several things would have been abundantly clear to the worshipers:

“I’m doing something impossible!” “There wasn’t a way forward, now there is!” “I’m being saved by the power of God!” “God is absolutely brilliant!” “God is for us!” “Let’s do this quickly!”

What God did with a certain group of people is also what He is doing with us.

As long as they were in the Red Sea or the Jordan, they were in the middle of their salvation and deliverance and entrance into new life. That’s where we believers in Jesus also are. The psalmist is saying that we are right in the middle of our salvation, our deliverance, our entrance into new life. We can rejoice in God in the middle of our miracle.

Our lives may not appear to be as miraculous as waters standing up vertically like walls. You might be tempted to consider your life completely ordinary and unremarkable. But every person being saved is a miracle of God. Merriam-Webster defines “miracle” as “an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs.” It took the power of God intervening in your life for you to be saved (see 1 Corinthians 1:30-31). It takes the power of God intervening in your life to encourage, protect and keep you saved (see Psalm 27:13-14; Psalm 138:7; 1 Peter 1:5). You who believe in God through Jesus are an ongoing intervention of God’s almighty power.

There, as though between walls of water, is where the psalmist invites we who believe in God to rejoice. And if we see our lives rightly, our worship can be gripping and intense.

We can rejoice that we are going to make it all the way through, just as they did. What God started He will also complete, until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:5). We can rejoice that the power that brings us through the waters is also the power that will destroy the enemies of our souls: sins, difficulties, devils. Through God we will outlast them all. We can rejoice that through Jesus we are being brought ever closer to laying hold indeed on eternal life.

Can you see God at work in your life? If you can’t, then maybe you need to begin with turning to Jesus. Ask Him into your heart, to introduce you to His new life. Make Him your Savior and Lord.

Think about it and rejoice!

2018 CGN Pastors & Leaders Conference Archives

Though I’ve been a Calvary Chapel pastor for nearly five years, this year will be my first time attending the Pastors and Leaders Conference. So I’ve been thinking about the theme, “The Power of the Gospel.”

Power. Good News. These are culturally loaded ideas.

They are not technical terms with stable meanings across the globe. For most people, they are subjective.

When someone hears the word “power,” countless experiences spring into action that flavor the meaning. Wounds are opened, and bitterness comes out to play. Wounds that were given by people with “power.”

I’m not a world traveler, but these past seven years I’ve been doing life together with the Hungarian people. It’s given me a whole new perspective about power, and how for many people, maybe most people, it is not a good thing.

Maybe you’ve been a Christian for awhile and you know Romans 1:16:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

But pause for a minute and try to consider what power likely means to the majority of the world, and even to many in America today.

The powerful use their influence, their might, their ability to their own advantage. Power is leveraged against the weak. Those who have it wield it to gain more of it. It’s feared. It’s harmful. And those who have it are distrusted because of it.

Power is distasteful to many people. We should realize this when we speak of the power of the gospel. This is to say nothing of historical abuses of power by those who claimed to represent the gospel. The message of Romans 1:16 is indeed glorious, but it is also an alien concept to most. Power and good news rarely walk together in our world.

And that is precisely where the beauty of the gospel blossoms.

A lot has been said and written about this word, “power.” The transliteration, dynamis, informs the English word “dynamite.” But we must not make the error of reading modern concepts backwards into first century Palestine. Paul knew nothing about dynamite when he wrote to the Christians in Rome.

The idea simply is power. Ability. Force. Might. It speaks of having the innate capacity to bring about change, to effect change by the actions taken.

But power doesn’t exist in a vacuum. In our world it is most often tied to people who use it in harmful, selfish ways. Physical abuse by those in power. Emotional abuse by those in power. Systemic abuse by those in power. Political corruption by those in power. Economic corruption by those in power.

But our God, the God of the Bible, wields His awesome power in a way that is very different than the human authorities who have given us such terrible examples.

God expresses His power in the form of good news. That also is an alien concept. It seems that the only “good” news we get is when we hear something positive from a friend or family member. Many are abandoning the world’s news outlets altogether as the crisis-for-cash industry is finally being seen for what it is.

Yet that is God’s message, good news. And it’s a message infused with His own might, authority and ability. The good news of Jesus goes with, and in, the power of God.

And it is a message for salvation.

In our english Bibles “salvation” isn’t always referring to spiritual salvation. Sometimes it means being kept or preserved from worldly harm. But here in Romans 1:16, it is in fact the “salvation” we as followers of Jesus rest our lives upon.

It’s the salvation that uproots us from the realm of darkness and plants anew into the kingdom of Jesus (Colossians 1:13). It’s the ultimate rescue, the way out everyone who has known fear and oppression longs for. It is the light of day at the end of the valley of the shadow of death. It is a person, and the message of Him is indeed good news, full of God’s power.

It turns out that the God of the Bible, who is said to have all authority, who declares the beginning from the end, and who is the only redeemer (Isaiah 44:6-8), has chosen to use His power for our good. This shatters our worldly experience which tells us that the interests of the powerful and the good of the many are mutually exclusive. God’s ways really are different than our ways! (Isaiah 55:8-9)

In a world where the powerful serve themselves, the God of the Bible, the most powerful of all, expresses His power through care for others. Others who can add nothing to Him and need everything from Him. His power frees the captive (Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:18). His power uplifts the oppressed (Psalm 9:9-10). His power gives the orphan a family (2 Corinthians 6:18). His power is good news for the salvation of all who believe.

What seems unbelievable is exactly what must be believed.

I wonder if our enemy has intentionally corrupted the idea of power among humanity in order to drive people away from anyone powerful, including God Himself. If you want to keep people from the water of life, try to poison the well.

It seems too good to be true. But what we hope would be true turns out to be exactly the message we’ve received. The all-powerful God has acted in the person and work of Jesus. Forgiveness has been purchased through the Son’s offering of His own life for us all. New life is secured by the Son’s bodily resurrection from the dead.

Just as Abraham hoped against hope and believed that this God could do what He promised (Romans 4:18), we too can enter into what seems impossible, trusting someone in power, by believing the good news of Jesus. Because you are not trusting just anyone, but the One who in His power gave Himself for you, in His power, took His life back from grave (John 10:17-18), and in His power, sends this good news out to all, for anyone who will believe.

Register to the 2018 CGN Pastors & Leaders Conference to hear teachings, interactive workshops, resources, fellowship & more under the theme, “The Power of the Gospel,” on June 25-28.

The Bible tells us that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead on the Sunday after Passover. The risen Jesus met with and spoke with people for 40 days following that, including up to 500 people at a time (1 Corinthians 15:6). At the 40 day mark, He ascended to heaven, as His disciples watched. Ten days after that, on the day of the Jewish festival of Pentecost, one of His disciples preached about the risen Jesus to thousands of people. In that sermon, Peter spoke of Jesus as the one, “…Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it” (Acts 2:24). Many years ago, that phrase caught my attention, and I am still amazed by it: It was not possible for Jesus to remain dead in the tomb. He had to rise. In the season of Easter and Resurrection, it’s good for us to think deeply about how Jesus had to live, had to die, and had to rise again.

Here are a few thoughts on why Jesus had to rise from the dead. It’s a short and incomplete list – feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments.

Jesus had to rise from the dead to fulfill the promises of the Old Testament.

The resurrection of the Messiah was described in the Hebrew Scriptures in Psalm 16:10 and spoken of in a prophetic sense in passages such as Hosea 6:2 and Jonah 1:17. Another example is the scenario in Genesis 22 where Isaac, as a picture of Jesus, is “raised” on the third day of their journey, at the beginning of which Abraham had reckoned his son dead.

Jesus had to rise from the dead to fulfill His own promises.

The promises Jesus made that He would raise from the dead are recorded in Matthew 16:21, 17:23 and 20:19 and in many other passages. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then He and His promises were lies. It was impossible for the One who is the way, the truth, and the life to remain dead.

Jesus had to rise from the dead to prove that the price was paid at the cross.

The price was paid at the cross, just as He said with His last word before giving up His spirit: It is finished, which could also be understood as paid in full. Yet, every payment needs a receipt. The empty tomb was the evidence that Jesus remained God’s Holy One (Acts 2:27), through the whole ordeal of the cross. God had to raise His Holy One from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus proved that He bore our sin without becoming a sinner.

Jesus had to rise from the dead to make certain of our resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:20 says that Jesus is the firstfruits of the resurrection that is promised to all His people. He was the beginning, and if it was real for Him, it will be real for all who have put their trust in Him. Romans 8:11 says it beautifully: “He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

Jesus had to rise from the dead to show that death was defeated.

If death could not hold Jesus in the tomb, it proved that death had no power over Him. If death was defeated for Jesus, then it is defeated for all those who put their faith in Him who are identified with His death and resurrection. No wonder Paul could almost taunt death by saying, “O Death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55)

Jesus had to rise from the dead to bring hope and security to His followers.

Because of the victory Jesus won through the empty tomb, His people don’t have to live in fear of death or anything in our future. Hebrews 2:15 says that one aspect of the work of Jesus at the cross and resurrection was to release those who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For Jesus’ people, the fear and torment of uncertainty is gone.

Jesus had to rise from the dead to demonstrate the greatness of God’s power.

In Ephesians 1:19-20, the Apostle Paul prayed that believers would know the greatness of God’s power, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:20). This is ultimate power, the power to give life to that which is dead. This is the power that God gives to us in Jesus Christ, and power for us to know and live in.

During this season of Easter and resurrection, think deeply on why Jesus had to rise, and especially all that His resurrection brings to those who repent and put their faith in Jesus. It’s something to not only know, but to live.