The Game Plan, Part 2: "Thou Shalt Not Pass"
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 2 viewsNotes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Introduction
Introduction
The fate of the Union rested on a college professor. On first day of the battle of Gettysburg, the Union was beaten back. So then, on the second day, the South attacked. The left flank of the Union line ended on a hill called Little Round Top. And John Chamberlain, a college professor from Maine, was assigned to hold it. If he didn’t, the Southern army could turn on the line and decimate the entire army.
Throughout the day, wave after wave of Alabama infantry charged the hill. And each time, Chamberlain and his men held. When finally they were out of ammunition, and their line was beginning to bend back on itself, Chamberlain quietly issued the order, “Fix bayonets.”
No other order was needed, and his men charged down the hill.
101 infantry were taken captive. And when a southern officer fired at Chamberlain at point-blank range, the ball whistled by his head. But Chamberlain did not move, and held his sword at the man’s throat. The officer surrendered.
And the Union line held. And so did the Union, because Chamberlain and his boys from Maine were steadfast, immoveable, on the patch of ground that THEY were given to hold.
The modern American church needs to relearn this lesson - the need to be IMMOVEABLE. We have become, in Spurgeon’s famous words, as firm as water. And this explains why our culture is so out of shape itself.
But this is a timeless problem. Paul commanded the Corinthian church to be immoveable. And it’s that passage that we must pay heed to today, as we move into the future.
We must learn afresh WHY we need to be immoveable. Therefore we need to relearn just WHAT that word means. And we must therefore relearn HOW to BE immoveable.
1. Why immoveable?
1. Why immoveable?
Because God
Because God
There are actually two passages, that seem to reflect each other. The first is 1 Corinthians 15:58 :
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Now, whenever you see a Therefore in Scripture, you need to ask yourself, what’s the THEREFORE there for?
And here it is referring back to the entire chapter 15, which begins with the cross, and ends with the glorious words about the resurrection. Because of the GOSPEL, be steadfast, immoveable.
What about the gospel? There is a God, who Himself is immutable, which is the theological word for UNCHANGING. He is God, and His character is the same today as it was 5 years ago, or 500 or 5000 years ago. Which means that what was SIN 5 years ago, or 500 or 5000 is still sin today. Mankind has progressed in many things, but one of them is not in our goodness. We only have found more civilized and electronic ways to sin.
Which would leave us all in the most pitiable place. But God had mercy on us, and thus Paul begins the chapter by reminding us of the center of everything
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
God pitied us, and made a way for us to be forgiven, to be released from the guilt of all our sins.
But even that would leave us in a pitiable place, as Paul says later in v. 19:
1 Cor. 15:19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
Because we all die. Death is the curse of sin. So Paul goes on:
1 Cor. 15:4-6 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
And the result is that even those who “fall asleep” - who have died, will rise with Christ:
1 Cor. 15:20-23 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
But, as they say on TV, there is more:
1 Cor. 15:24-25 Then comes the end, when he (Jesus) delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet (see Psalm 110:1).
Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
The point is that Jesus is risen, and he reigns, NOW. And he is now putting all his enemies under his feet, under his authority.
In a world that is as immoveable as water, God IS bringing it into alignment with His own character. And He proved to us that He is by raising Jesus from the dead. We do not see it all now, but He is doing this, and He WILL bring this to completion.
So, Paul says, be steadfast, immoveable, because your God is steadfast, and immoveable, in bringing all things to literally BECOME His kingdom.
He IS, this moment, on His to fulfilling Habakkuk 2:14
For the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
14 For the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.
That will be completed when He returns, but He is moving toward that NOW, in this age, steadfastly, immoveably.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, because of this reality, be steadfast, immoveable, as your God heaven is.
That’s the first reason WHY we should be immoveable.
Because Threats
Because Threats
The second reason is this: because, while God advances His kingdom, and more and more towns and counties and countries become Christianized, the darkness will not go quietly in the night. Remember what Paul said in 1 Cor. 15:25: Christ has ENEMIES. Lots of them.
And Christ’s enemies fight dirty. Take the case of Jack Phillips, the baker in Colorado who has refused to make cakes celebrating events that are against his beliefs, as a Christian. Never mind that the government has no right to tell him what he should and should not make in his business.
But time and again his enemies have set him up, in order to use Colorado law against him. Most recently someone tried to order a cake celebrating Satan. Of course they really didn’t WANT the cake. They just wanted another occasion to sue him AGAIN.
And don’t think that this is an isolated case. Lust by definition does not stay within its banks. Lust in the bedroom does not stay there. It flows like a torrent of water, to take or destroy whatever it wants. In Colorado. The home of Colorado Springs, and Focus on the Family and Compassion International, and over a hundred other Christian organizations. If a baker in Colorado is subjected to this, all of us are open to the same treatment.
But God does not give us permission to fight dirty in response. We do not get to fight fire with fire. Jack Phillips is forbidden by his God from gaslighting those who gaslight him, and entrapping those who entrap him.
No, God calls Jack Phillips to STAND, IMMOVEABLE, on the little hill that the Father has assigned him. And He calls US to stand, immoveably, alongside him, when the time comes.
And this is hard. I can’t imagine just HOW hard it has been for Jack. Heaven only knows. You see everything is fine to the world, as long as you only THINK, in the privacy of your own mind, that Jesus is King. But when you start to LIVE like that’s true, well, that’s when HR departments get phone calls. That’s when bored sodomites lawyer up.
And for too long there have been plenty of cowardly Christians who have been all too willing to point the finger back at Jack and people like him, and say, “You’re doing it wrong.” No one should say he’s done everything perfect, but I’m not aware of anything for which God would judge him. If he’s imprisoned, lots of Christians will never visit him, for their cowardice, cloaked in respectability.
We need to learn afresh how to be steadfast, and immoveable, because the enemies of Christ are all around us, and the only thing that holds them back is God’s sovereign hand. Should he lift His hand just a bit, MUCH will change - enough to make the last three years seem like paradise.
Because Love
Because Love
But the last reason that we must relearn to be steadfast, and immoveable is that it IS love.
I get this from what I think is happening in a second passage that, as I said earlier, is kind of a reflection of the first. The first, again, is 1 Cor. 15:58 :
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Here he commands us to ALWAYS be abounding in the work of the Lord. Then later in 16:12, he tells them that he asked Apollos to come visit them, but he steadfastly refused, because of how they made celebrities out of him and Paul. So, Paul essentially is saying, you’re on your own.
Therefore, v. 13
1 Cor. 16:13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
Which is basically Paul elaborating on what he’s already said. What does it mean to be steadfast, and immoveable? To be watchful, standing firm in the faith, acting like men, being strong.
And then verse 14 maps over from 15:58. What is the work of the Lord? It is to
1 Cor. 16:14 Let all that you do be done in love.
Let all that you do be done in love.
Put all this together, and the third reason we need to relearn how to be immoveable is that it is LOVE.
The sodomites of Colorado don’t realize it, but Jack Phillips is being resolute and holding his little hill, FOR THEM.
Think about this with kids. A parent withholds and does not allow his child to just eat whatever they want. Because if he did, she would just eat ice cream and chips all the time. The parent is IMMOVEABLE on the vegetables, out of LOVE.
In the Lord of the Rings books, when the fellowship of the ring is chased by Balrog, and Gandalf stands before it with his staff and yells, thou shalt not pass - he does that for love.
There is a consequence for everything we tolerate. If you tolerate a transvestite drag-show dancer at a family-friendly show, you are, at the same time, denigrating womanhood, and putting children in danger. You can’t have it both ways.
Love is steadfast, immoveable, or it is not love.
We must relearn to be steadfast and immoveable, because of God, because of clear and present dangers, and because that’s what love is.
Now, more briefly, we need to stop and consider, just what does it mean to be steadfast, and immoveable.
2. What does “immoveable” mean?
2. What does “immoveable” mean?
By “steadfast and immoveable,” Paul means two things.
First, he means
Not moving from the Bible.
Not moving from the Bible.
There is a big, bold-letter version of this, and then there is a more subtle version of this. The big, bold-letter version is simply this: remaining true to God’s law, and God’s commands. That’s what the Corinthians were facing. They were tolerating sins that even the pagan Corinthian culture wouldn’t tolerate, probably in the name of niceness and “love.” They needed to take action - they needed to act like men, not like flimsy pansies.
As I said earlier, what was righteousness and sin 20 or 200 years ago, or 2000 years ago is sin today. The question is not what does the Bible say; the question is whether we will be immoveable when Pride Month comes, and the t-shirts are handed out in the office.
But there is a more subtle temptation here. And that is to do things that give us distance from the Bible out there, but still allowing us to say in here, in our Christian community, that we’re faithful. And the way we pull of this trick is by changing the words, and using a different vocabulary than that of Scripture. Instead of “Sodomite,” we say, “in a same-sex relationship.” Instead of “adultery”, we say “indiscretion.” Instead of
But this is just playing the devil’s game. Because the opposite is being run on Christians all the time. Instead of exhortation toward repentance of sexual immorality, the outside world says that we are conducting “conversion therapy.” And when we simply do not wear the pride month t-shirt, they say we are bigots and hateful.
In other words, we must not let the enemies of Christ determine our dictionary and our definitions. We must let the Bible do that. We must let the Bible define terms, and then Christ calls us to submit to those terms.
But secondly, to be “steadfast and immutable” means to keep
A single-minded focus ON love.
A single-minded focus ON love.
In fact, Paul commands, always be ABOUNDING, overflowing in the work of the Lord, which is the work of love.
To be steadfast and immoveable means to ASSIMILATE more and more of our lives into God’s work of love in the world.
This is what the world CANNOT understand - how can someone be steadfast and immoveable to the BIBLE, and yet at the same time, be doing it ALL in love, abounding, overflowing love?
But THIS is precisely what Peter is talking about, when he tells us to always be ready
1 Pet 3:15 . . . but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
We have made this into us being so nice and awesome, that the world is so impressed that they walk up to us being so nice and awesome that they ask us how we got so nice and awesome. But the context is in fact about giving OFFENSE to the outside world.
You see, the greatest charge made against Christians, from the very beginning, right up to the present day, is that we are actually ATHEISTS. We don’t worship the particular gods of our generation. We don’t worship the environment, or sexuality, or the self or mammon. And this causes OFFENSE.
And so the world says, what is up with you? I don’t have a file folder for you? For you offend me, and yet I cannot deny your love. So what gives? By what standard do you arrive at these things? And our answer is, Jesus is risen, and that’s because, before that, he loved me by setting his face like flint, steadfast, immoveable, to go to the cross, for me.
So to be steadfast, and immoveable, means to hold to the Bible, in black letters and in spirit, and to be single-minded, in bringing all our lives under God’s work of LOVE in the world.
Ok then, so HOW?
3. How do we learn again to be steadfast, immoveable?
3. How do we learn again to be steadfast, immoveable?
There are three ways that Paul mentions in Corinthians.
Faith
The first is FAITH. Faith that,
1 Cor. 15:57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Victory over death, and victory over all our enemies - THROUGH Jesus Christ. The cross is the VICTORY, and the Spirit of God in our hearts is the promise of that victory coming to fruition. Jesus IS reigning, and he WILL bring about the completion of that victory. But faith sees the cross, and BELIEVES. Believes that we live now, in VICTORY. But in a cross-shaped victory. Jesus won, by going to a gory, Roman gibbet. First the cross, THEN the crown.
Faith believes what it CANNOT see, not yet anyway. The question is not with the power; the question is, as Jesus asked, when he returns, will he find FAITH?
The question for us is the same one that God asked Ezekiel, in Ezekiel 37:3
And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”
3 And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.”
And the answer is YES, if God would breathe life into them. If God would breathe the life of the Spirit into us, and into our nation, there is NOTHING, NOTHING preventing our culture from experiencing widespread, authentic repentance and revival again. But do WE believe that? Do we believe, can these bones live?
Hope
Secondly, we learn to be immoveable by HOPE. By HOPE. By forwarding-looking anticipation of the blessing and reward of God upon our obedience. Again in 1 Cor. 15:58 , we see the rule of the -ing word, that tells you HOW you do the command. HOW do we abound in the work of the Lord? BY
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Jack Phillips, you, and me, can know that God will take our faith and steadfastness, on our little plot of earth, and make it something good and blessed, and valuable. If we make it go deep, God will make it go wide. If we hold our hill, God will save the army. If we hold the flank, God will save the nation. THAT’s what hope looks like, and that’s the hope that feeds steadfastness, in the face of painful threats.
You got in you.
And the last way that we relearn immoveability is found in 1 Cor. 16:13.
When Paul says,
act like men, be strong.
He’s appealing to their design, of everyone, but especially the male elders of the church. And essentially he’s saying, no help is coming, but there is more in you, in your design, than you realize. Not just in your design, but your design, AS filled and empowered by the Spirit. There’s more to you than you realize.
There’s enough to remain steadfast. You CAN do this. You won’t die. And even if you DO die, they can only take the body. But not the soul. And the body will be raised anyway, better than new.
So step into the suit. Believe in yourself - not in the Disney gospel way, but believe in God’s design in you, and believe in God’s Spirit within you. Between those two, there is more than enough in you, to be steadfast, immoveable, ALWAYS abounding in the work of the Lord, the work of love, in all things.
Especially when, though you’re just a college professor, or a cake baker, and the General calls you to hold the hilltop, or the bakery counter. Hold the line, He says, knowing that your work for me will NOT be in vain. I CAN raise these dry bones. I did it with my Son, and thus I WILL do it again.
Let’s ask the Lord for His grace to do His will.