(Sue is Thornleigh's Church Pastor)

Jesus the Good News

 
It was the last meeting of a Week of Prayer. The guest preacher was nearing the end of his message and he was building up to the climax everyone had been expecting. As the organ started to play, Just As I Am, the preacher lowered his voice and in hushed tones asked the whole college to bow their heads and close their eyes so they could make the most important decision of their life in complete privacy.

They could not presume that time would last indefinitely. The Lord was coming soon and they needed to be ready. The world might not end that night but their lives could.

"If there is one person here tonight who has never accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour," the preacher said. "One person who has never said, 'Lord, take me, I give my all to you. Forgive me for my sins and clothe me in the pure white robe of Jesus' righteousness,' then I ask you right now, right where you are, to lift your hand in the air. Lift your hand in the air like the woman who reached out to touch Jesus. Lift your hand in the air and tell Jesus you are His, He has your life. Won't you lift your hand?"

As the second stanza began to play the preacher shifted his focus, "There are others here tonight," he said, "who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour, but they have let Him down. There are things in their life they are ashamed of; bad habits that are coming between them and God. They have made friends with the wrong people. Done things they know they shouldn't have."

"Well the good news for you," the preacher continued, "is that Jesus is stilling knocking on your heart's door. I know you can feel Him. Don't keep Him waiting. Lift your hand in the air and tell Him you are sorry you have lost your first love. Lift your hand in the air and tell Him you want to open your heart to Him again. Lift your hand, right now, right where you are. Won't you make a new beginning?"

As that stanza finished and the organ began the next, the preacher intensified his call. "Now I ask all of you," he said, "all of you who have lifted your hands, to follow those hands and stand up. Just stand quietly, while every head is still bowed and every eye is still closed. Stand up quietly and start making your way towards the front . . ."

As the strains continued and the closing time for chapel passed, there were more and more appeals. More appeals for people who wanted to accept or return to Jesus to lift their hand. More appeals for those who had raised their hand to follow the others to the front. Finally the preacher asked all those who wanted to rededicate their lives to Jesus to also stand, and everyone stood. Or at least nearly everyone stood. After the closing prayer, those at the front were asked to wait in the chapel while the rest of the student body was dismissed . . . (1)

I don't know what you think about appeals. I don't know what your experience of appeals has been, what they have taught you. But I want to share a concern this morning, and it's not an obvious concern, like the way appeals are sometimes made. But a concern with what appeals like this can teach us about Christianity, and in his book, Believing, Behaving, Belonging, Richard Rice, a professor of religion at Loma Linda University, says that appeals like the one I've just described encourage us to think of Christianity in individualistic terms. Appeals that urge us to decide for Jesus in solitude, with our heads bowed and our eyes closed, reinforce the idea that our salvation is strictly between us and God. It is highly personal. It is very private. It doesn't involve or require anyone else. (2)

Now you might wonder why I have a problem with this. And I might even expect you to. J Typically we pastors have taught that Christianity is an individual matter, and appeals like the one I've just described are one of the more subtle ways we have done that. More overtly we have followed a traditional Bible study sequence that has seen us talking about the individual and salvation long before there has been any mention of anyone else. Repentance, conversion, maybe even "justification" and "sanctification," all these things have typically been discussed long before there has been any mention of the church. Salvation: first. Church: later. This is the usual sequence. And it's only now that we are realizing that this is the very reason so many of the people we have baptized have not understood the importance of belonging to a church. (3)

The effects of separating salvation and the church have been profound. When our relationship with God becomes our own responsibility, we can think no one else can really help us. And when we think no-one else can really help us, we conclude that the church is just personal preference. (4) Can you see where this takes us? "Start with a conviction that salvation is essentially a private experience," Rice says, "something that happens between the solitary individual and God, and church will remain forever secondary; and if secondary, therefore optional; and if optional, then ultimately dispensable." (5)

Pastors are often asked why it's important to belong to a church. "If I can get more out of reading the Bible on my own," people often say, "or communing with God in nature, why should I force myself to sit through sermons and services that do nothing for me?" (6)

Once upon a time I might have agreed. Or depending on the individual, I might have said something like, "You really do need the church, whether you realize it or not, you need the church," and that's a typical first response. The second comes after the person has tried to convince us of their spiritual discipline. "Okay," we say, "so maybe you are one of the few people who could make it on your own, but most people aren't like you. Most people need the strength and encouragement that people like you can bring, and isn't it our responsibility as Christians to provide that strength and encouragement?" (7)

Of course Christians are called to provide strength and encouragement. But what's with suggesting a Christian can make it on their own? What's with suggesting the church is just there for those who need it? What were we thinking?

What we were thinking is exactly what our culture is thinking: that the individual is the fundamental unit of human existence which means organizations, including churches, are only important as they service the individuals within them. In our culture, groups and relationships are only valued in so much as they support individuals and in keeping with this culture we have determined the value of the church based on an individual's perceived need which is a far cry from the New Testament vision of the church. (8)

The New Testament is through and through a testimony to the importance of the church. The very fact that we even have the New Testament is testimony in itself. Were it not for groups of early Christians who committed to selecting and preserving the New Testament documents, we wouldn't even have the New Testament that contains these documents. (9)

But that's just the beginning. We can also see the church's importance in the New Testament in that most of these documents are letters addressed to specific churches or their representatives. Paul's letters were directed to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Thessalonians. Revelation was sent to churches in Asia Minor. Timothy and Titus were both leaders of early Christian congregations and the letters they received were all about the tasks and challenges of church life and leadership at that time. (10)

Indeed, it can be said that the church itself is the most pervasive theme in the whole of the New Testament. In one way or another, the life of the church is related to every New Testament concept, and why? Because the church is so intimately linked with salvation! (11)

Nowhere in the New Testament is there a separation between salvation and the church (and when I say the church this morning, I mean church in the biblical sense of the word, the people of God or the local church). The New Testament never talks about accepting Jesus Christ and then becoming a part of a church as if they were two separate things. If we were to ask the apostles John or Paul if we could be a Christian without joining the church, they probably wouldn't even understand our question. As John describes it, we know people are Christians by their love for one another (1 John 4:20). And as Paul said, becoming a part of the community Christ established is just part and parcel of becoming a Christian. "You are the body of Christ," he told the Christians at Corinth, "and individually members of it" (1 Corinthian 12:27). (12)

The Bible tells us that Jesus' work on the cross involves two new possibilities for us. One of course, is the possibility of a new relationship with God. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Saviour, His Father becomes our Father and we become His children. The work of Jesus Christ makes it possible for us to be become heirs of God and co-heirs of Jesus Christ, Romans 8:17 says. (13)

But that's only part of the story. Besides giving us a new way of relating to God, Jesus' work on the cross also makes it possible for us to relate to each other in a new way. Just like salvation makes it possible for our relationships with God to be restored, so too salvation makes it possible for our relationships with one another to be restored, (14) and these relationships are important, not only because they encourage our salvation experience but because they are the ultimate goal of our salvation experience. Christian community is the ultimate goal of the whole salvation plan!

We often think that Paul's writings are all about salvation by faith; the idea that we are saved entirely by God's grace, not by keeping the law. But when we look at this concept within the context of Paul's larger writings, Rice says, we find that Paul has found something even more amazing than salvation by faith. That's right, something even more amazing than salvation by faith. And the only thing that could be more amazing than salvation by faith is what salvation by faith makes possible. Christian community. A community that breaks down all the barriers that naturally divide and separate. A community where we can enjoy intimate relationship not only with God but also with each other. (15)

We find this in Ephesians 2. In Ephesians 2 Paul starts out by reassuring his readers that they are saved by grace through faith, not by relying on their own good works (vv 8-9) and typically Adventists have made this the big deal because of the problem we have had with legalism - an emphasis on keeping the law. But Paul is just warming up here. As important as this is, Paul is just warming up to the big deal for him and the big deal for him is what comes next. (16) You might like to read it with me from verse 12. Ephesians 2:12-16,

"You were Gentiles by birth," Paul reminds his readers, "at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it."

Can you see it? The effect of salvation? The goal of salvation? The breaking down of walls between humanity. The reconciling of different groups so we can be one in and with Jesus.

Galatians 3 says the same thing, and you might like to read that with me. Galatians 3:26-28. Here again Paul starts out by emphasizing that faith, not works, is the basis of salvation, and then he goes on to say,

". . . for in Jesus Christ you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus."

All things that typically divide people are overcome in Christ Jesus. Race. Status. Gender. None of these things need matter to Christians. Jesus not only died so we might be reunited with Him, He died so you and I can be reunited with one another, (17) and we find this again in Romans.

Romans 1 through to 8 are sometimes described as "the gospel according to Paul," because this is where Paul outlines his understanding of salvation by faith in great detail. Chapters 9 through to 11 however, are where Paul speaks about Christian community being the ultimate goal of salvation. Because salvation is entirely God's gift, not a reward for a job well done, there is no longer any distinction between people, Paul says. All have sinned. All are justified by God's grace. And the consequent equality, mutuality, means people from all backgrounds, all walks of life, all age groups, all dwelling places, can be united in God's love. (18)

Be a Christian and not belong to a church? Be saved and not enjoy the richness of salvation? "According to the New Testament . . ." Rice says, "Christ's saving work culminates in the establishment of a community that bears His name and embodies His love. Consequently, no-one can be a Christian, not in the full and fundamental sense, and not be part of the church. Christianity is not just a matter of believing and behaving, it is a matter of belonging too . . ." (19)

I can't help thinking I must be preaching to the converted this morning. The very fact that you are here suggests you already understand the importance of the church. But maybe you have friends who don't? Family members? Workmates? Maybe someone in this church still needs you to share this message with them? Not in theory of course, but in practice.

The apostle Paul asked his friend Philemon to share this message in practice. Philemon was a good man we are told. Someone Paul considered a dear friend (v2). Verse 4 of the letter Paul wrote to him tells us Paul often prayed for Philemon; he often thanked God for Philemon's love for the saints and his faithfulness to Jesus (v5).

It was Philemon's love for the saints and his faithfulness to Jesus, verse 8 tell us, that gave Paul reason to ask something of him. Paul wanted Philemon to forgive his former slave Onesimus for the crimes he had committed against him. Apparently Onesimus had stolen from Philemon and he'd run away. Somehow Onesimus had then come into contact with Paul and he'd ended up giving his heart to Jesus. Now Paul was sending him back to Philemon and he was asking Philemon to receive him back, and not as a slave but as a beloved brother in Christ.

"If you consider me your partner," Paul says in Philemon verse 17, "welcome Onesimus back as you would welcome me," and this is exactly what Jesus is asking you and I to do this morning. "Welcome those who have wronged you back, just like you would welcome me," Jesus says. For the ways a workmate or someone else in this church has wronged you, for the things a friend or family member owes you, charge them to my account. I say nothing of your owing your very life to me. (vv18-19)

I don't know what that means to you this morning but to me it's an awesome illustration of what the work of Jesus Christ makes possible. Just like Jesus died on the cross so our relationships with Him can be healed, so too He died so our relationships with one another can be healed. His death not only paid the price of our sins, His death paid the price of those who have sinned against us. And this is why Paul can finish his letter to Philemon (who would have been well within his rights of that time to have Onesimus executed) with, "Confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say." (vv20-21)

It has to be said that the Christian Church is different from every other human group or society. It can reach across every line that would normally divide and separate and while our deep seated individualism sometimes makes it hard for us to understand the importance of the church, stories like Philemon's illustrate the link between salvation and the church. Stories like Philemon's define the New Testament vision of the church for us. The church: a "community of people who discover that the power of Christ gives them a life together that would otherwise be impossible." (20)

The example of Christ's love for us, the power of Christ's love within us, this is what enables us to experience a quality of life together that we will not find elsewhere, and this is my prayer for us and our churches. That the grace of God will break down every wall that needs to be broken down. That every line that needs to be crossed will be crossed. That every relationship that needs to be restored will be restored. That, we, our broader church and Jesus Christ, will experience the richness of salvation together.

References

1. Richard Rice, Believing, Behaving, Belonging, (The Association of Adventist Forums, 2002): 65-67.
2. Ibid, 68.
3. Ibid, 69.
4. Ibid, 70.
5. Ibid, 83.
6. Ibid, 72.
7. Ibid, 73.
8. Ibid, 79.
9. Ibid, 15.
10. Ibid, 15-16.
11. Ibid, 16.
12. Ibid, 20.
13. Ibid, 16.
14. Ibid, 17.
15. Ibid, 21.
16. Ibid, 21.
17. Ibid, 22.
18. Ibid, 22.
19. Ibid, 23.
20. Ibid, 19.

Home > Church Family > Sermon Summaries > 24 April 2010, Pr Sue Redman - Jesus the Good News

 
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