THREE MEANINGFUL METAPHORS

THREE MEANINGFUL METAPHORS 1 Peter 2:9-10; Ephesians 2:21-22;1 Corinthians 12:27 January 6, 2008 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction I took little time this past week to research what I call “mangled metaphors”. Metaphors, of course, are literary and rhetorical devices used to help describe one object or issue by use of another object or issue. A classic example is Shakespeare’s line in As You Like It: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” Jesus was a master of metaphor: “I am the Bread of Life.” “You are the salt of the earth.” To discover the kingdom of God was to find a “pearl of great price.” The religious leaders were a “brood of vipers” and the common sparrow more well-dressed than “Solomon in all his glory.” “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it again,” Jesus spoke metaphorically of his own body. A lit student asked a farmer, “What’s a metaphor?” His answer was quick: “It’s for grazing cattle in!” Metaphors can be used to quickly and helpfully identify the characteristics of a person. For example, what comes to mind when you hear the term “couch potato”? I did enjoy finding some mangled metaphors--metaphors usually overdone by someone trying really hard to . . . use a metaphor. And no one does it better than a high school student in a hurry to finish an assignment . . . on using metaphors. “She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.” “He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.” “She walked into my office like a centipede . . . with 98 missing legs.” “John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds . . . who had also never met.” “Her vocabulary was as bad as . . . like, whatever.” “He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something. 1. Holy Nation This morning let’s consider three very helpful metaphors that were not just dreamed up by someone, but were actually put on the heart of writers by the Spirit of God. God’s Spirit used these metaphors to describe His church. The first is HOLY NATION. The kingdom (rule) of God is easily understood as a nation. It is the realm in which the king rules. God is the king and those who are committed to Him are His subjects. In 1 Peter 2:9 the people of God are contrasted with those who rejected God’s one and only kingdom cornerstone. The corner- stone is Jesus, His Son, crucified for the sins of men. Those who refuse to trust God’s plan are said to “stumble” over it because they disobey. Peter says, You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. There are really a couple of metaphors here in this text for God’s people, the church. And they all grow out of historic, biblical Old Testament teaching. In Leviticus 19:2 the Lord told Moses Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy. And in Exodus 19:6 God told Moses to tell the people …you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. It is obvious that Peter drew on that same metaphorical language as he wrote to and about the church of Jesus Christ. God’s intent was never to limit His kingdom on earth to only one people, i.e. the Jews. His plan was to expand the kingdom the population of God-followers throughout the earth, international, multi-lingual and intra-cultural. Israel had failed to do that throughout the centuries of the Old Covenant; but worse yet, they failed to recognize and embrace God’s Son as the Messiah when He came. This is precisely how they stumbled. (2:4-8) This is the substance of the “mystery” of the gospel. In Ephesians 2, the apostle Paul said about Jesus, He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. But the point in 1 Peter is not just that it’s nice to be included in God’s faith family, though that’s true. The point is that we are called to be a HOLY nation. God insisted, in both Testaments, Be holy, because I am holy. Holy means two things: first we have been made holy through what Jesus has done for us. Because he paid the debt for our sins and condemning guilt, we are now set apart from the rest of the world as acceptable to God. The second part of the meaning of holy is we are called to live as holy people. I believe it is timely this morning that we be reminded by the Word of God that He wants us to live as HOLY people. To understand just what that means, look at the very next verse in 1 Peter 2: Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. God’s big plan starts becoming more obvious: He wants people who live and look increasingly like Him in order to attract others to His kingdom. We are His witnesses! How many Christians recoil at living holy lives! Peter calls us to be different from the world, but we don’t want to be different! After all, as Mark Twain said “Be good and you will be lonesome.” It is a sad thing that we cling so long and so tightly to the seemingly safe harbor of partial commitment. But we need to hear the Lord’s clear invitation, “Let go of what is comfortable; sail free and bravely into the incomparably exciting life of radical commitment to God. Don’t you love Him enough? C.S. Lewis in Letters to an American Lady: “How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets real thing, it is irresistible.” Let me tack on this critical detail. If we are going to live lives of holiness, more and more fully committed to the Lord, we will need more than ever a strong bond to others in the holy nation who are likewise committed. We will never make it on our own, not without genuine fellowship with our fellow people of faith. When we gather faithfully, regularly and meaningfully with them we stir them up to love and good works and are likewise stirred. (Hebrews 10:25) In Darkness Is My Only Companion: A Christian Response to Mental Illness, Kathryn Greene-McCreight describes her tortured journey through ten years of extreme depression and bipolar disorder. Concerning the importance of Christian fellowship while in recovery, she writes: “This is why it is so important to worship in community—to ask your brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for you … Sometimes you literally cannot make it on your own, and you need to borrow from the faith of those around you. Sometimes I cannot even recite the Creed unless I am doing it in the context of worship, along with all the body of Christ …When reciting the Creed, I borrow from the recitation of others. Companionship in the Lord Jesus is powerful.” 2. Temple This second metaphor derives from the Old Testament, too. The temple, of course was the symbolic, and in many ways, the very real presence of God among the Israelites. When the Israelites visited the Jerusalem Temple and considered the holy of holies where the presence of the Lord was, they were reminded and stirred by the reality that the Lord was with them, among them. In the same way, on the way out of Egypt God gave His people the visible sign of His presence as the pillar of flame and pillar of smoke to attend the tabernacle. There is much to be said for knowing the Lord is with you. God, who made us and knows us intimately, understands this reality thoroughly. Ever since the Garden of Eden, where the Lord walked with Adam and Eve personally, He has been pursuing a plan in which He would “tabernacle” with those who love Him once again. Jesus’ death and resurrection brought the last installment of that great plan. Now, those who are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, have God’s own Spirit living in them. Ephesians 2 explains that this is all accomplished by Christ at the cross. Then, in verses 21-22, it reads, In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you, too, are being guilt together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit. Imagine that! We don’t GO to a temple to be near the presence of God, we ARE that temple, and wherever we go we are bringing the living God into our situations. That is what we might call the corporate indwelling Spirit—that is God’s Spirit living in the community of the church. There the other reality, though—that God’s Spirit lives in each believer personally. Have you considered the awesome nature of this move of God? This would be preposterous if it weren’t true—blasphemous to any other religion! Other so-called gods never would condescend to living in human souls. 1 Corinthians 3:16 says: Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple. Here we’re reminded that God determined He would live inside us! One of the primary ministries He performs inside us is this: to remind us that we are God’s children. By the Spirit, Romans 8 teaches, we cry “Abba, Father”—that is we can testify that we are children of God. Verse 16 of that great chapter says, The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Here is what I think we should carry away from this metaphor, that we are the temple of God’s Spirit: we are empowered because we are indwelt by God. You can live a life of holiness and witness for God—and you must because you are called and you are empowered. On April 21, 2006, 47-year-old Julio Franco became the oldest player in Major League Baseball history to hit a home run. Just a week later, on April 27, he became the oldest player in 97 years to steal a base. With the cloud of skepticism surrounding the sport, Franco's longevity has met suspicion from players and outsiders who doubt that he has stayed in top shape through natural training alone. For example, in 2004, retired outfielder Andy Van Slyke accused Franco of using steroids. Franco's response demonstrated the true source of his remarkable life: Tell Andy Van Slyke he's right—I'm on the best juice there is. I'm juiced up every day, and the name of my juice is Jesus. I'm on his power, his wisdom, his understanding. Andy Van Slyke is right, but the thing he didn't mention was what kind of steroids I'm on. Next time you talk to him, tell him the steroid I'm on is Jesus of Nazareth. The greatest shame in the kingdom is that Christians are not well taught concerning the Holy Spirit and His multi-dimensional work in their lives—and that it’s an inside job! During the Depression there was a man named Yates who own some land where he had a sheep ranch and a modest home. Mr. Yates wasn't able to make enough on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. With little money for clothes or food, his family (like many others at the time) had to live on government subsidy. Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling West Texas hills, he was no doubt greatly troubled about how he would pay his bills. Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease contract. At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve. The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large. In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day. And Mr. Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he'd been living on relief. A multimillionaire living in poverty. The problem? He didn't know the oil was there even though he owned it. Every time we say, "I believe in the Holy Spirit," we mean that we believe that there is a living God able and willing to enter human personality and change it. 3. Body of Christ The church of Jesus Christ is also metaphorically described as a body. Like a human body, the church is a unit made up of a widely diverse group of parts (or, members), all working together under one head. Jesus is the head of the body, the church, as Colossians 1:18 says. Ephesians 1:22 teaches that God placed all things under Christ’s feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. And 1 Corinthians 12:27 is Paul’s teaching to believers, and it says, Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. There are many implications spelled out in the New Testament based on this revelation. There are various members, variously gifted in the body; the members of the body are called to respect those differences and to work at maintaining unity and harmony in the body; their ministries must blend with those of others in the body, and each one is to act in love, edifying the others around them. The members of this body of Christ are dynamically linked with all the others. Will you marvel with me at the elastic nature of this “church”? Did you notice that the term church is as broad as the whole world and as deep as the whole history of the church? But it is also narrowly defined as even two or three gathered in that name of Jesus. What is the church as the body of Christ? It is any amalgamation of Christian believers, no matter how diverse nor where they meet. I remember well a night in Dakoro, Niger, under a full moon and millions of stars when by God’s grace a prayer meeting was called. There “just happened” to be a number of missionaries and other members and representatives of tribes in that small village that evening. We gathered, a dozen or so Hausa people, two or three French missionaries with Youth with a Mission, several native Fulani, a few Woodabe, a believer from Nigeria and a couple of us Americans. With probably seven different languages shared in dialogue, prayer and song, there was some translating going on between persons. But there was this wonderful, indescribable sense that we were one in the Lord and one with one another. Probably no one there knew precisely all that was prayed or shared in every one of the languages, but we were one nonetheless. There in that happenstance worship service, Tambaya was ordained to his ministry, and Abdu Idi was set apart as an evangelist for Christ. Now they are serving the ministry of the gospel to the Hause and Fulani-Woodabe people faithfully, as are the others who met that night. I want to close with a specific exhortation that arises from the blending of these biblical metaphors. If we are to be God’s faithful ambassadors and holy nation, if we are to be fit temples for the Lord, each of us growing faithfully into the image of Christ; and if we would strive to be a healthy body of Christ, we must grow and improve in the way we exist as a church. What we need from one another is instruction, correction, encouragement, mutual sharing and prayer, ongoing forgiveness and kindness among ourselves. In short all of the many things the New Testament insists for us. We need to be ever more diligent about studying and obeying God’s Word together, blessing one another and encouraging one another at ever-deepening levels. We need the fourfold experiences that are outlined in Acts 2:42 together with one another: apostles teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer. The more I study the New Testament pattern and direction, the more convinced I am that all of that is done best in small groups. For this reason we have organized MECF around the ministry of Christians gathering and serving in small groups. We call them Life Groups. There is a whole new batch of groups beginning this week that will run for 3-4 months, meeting regularly, and engaging in all these things that make believers and the corporate body healthy. I urge you with all my heart—don’t pass up this opportunity. Sign up today.     [Back to Top]