I Will Build My Church: A Holy People

The Philosopher and novelist Rebecca Goldstein was in a public forum about the meaning of life recently. And she said that, “This question (Is there meaning in life), is for me, as it is for each of you, personal. Personal not just because it matters to each of us, it matters as much as our own lives matter to each of us, which they of course, must matter, given that we have to live them-after all, who else’s life are you going to pursue, if not your own?- but also personal, in the sense that how you approach this question, how you make sense of it, or perhaps how you resolve it, or perhaps don’t resolve it, draws on the deepest aspects of who you are. As an individual, your particular passions and interests and culture and temperament and character, as well as on what your view of reality is… My meaningful life might not be right for you…”

Now, before we say anything else about this, we can just say that this sounds right. We all believe that we have our own personal lives and nobody else can live them and nobody else can tell me what is right or wrong. But the reality is that there are few things more arrogant than this. What she is basically saying is that, “I am in a class all my own, nobody has any wisdom for me, and nobody has anything that they can tell me, and I am the captain of my own fate.” How narcissistic and arrogant is that? To think that nobody else can interpret you, effect you, understand you, or provide meaningful wisdom for you is so self-centered. The idea that nobody else can help you find meaning in your life, and nobody else can tell you what is wrong or right is such a narcissistic and self-centered approach to life. Seriously.

But secondly, it’s transparently false. You know this from your own experience. That we are, in a large part a product of our own parents. I love what Mark Twain said:

“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in 7 years.” - Mark Twain

So much of who we are, is among other thigns, a product of who our parents were. We are a result of all the successes and failures, corrections and mistakes, of our families, and siblings, and aunts and uncles, and even our friends. We don’t find meaning for ourselves. We don’t define right and wrong for ourselves. What a selfish, and silly idea.

So maybe you’re like, “What in the world does that have to do with anything?” Because one of the most subtle lies that Satan whispers in our ears is this, “How others live effects does not effect you and how you live does not effect others.” And so often, that penetrates into how we think about the church. We think that I just do my own thing and it doesn’t really effect others. And people need to stay out of my business and I’ll stay out of their business.” In other words, we think about it much like Cain, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” But God’s adamant response is this, “Yes. You are, in part, responsible for your brothers.” In fact, God wants us to know that we are all, all the time, in everything we do, helping or harming others on their way to glory. In fact, how we live profoundly effects how others live, and God wants each of us to try to help others sin less.

Keeping Others From Sinning

Little Ones: Now, one of the most important things that we need to see about this passage is this little phrase, “these little ones.” Now, who are “these little ones” that Jesus is talking about? We might be tempted to think that he is talking about a “child” because of vs. 2. However, the child is clearly being used as a symbol for believers. In fact, this little phrase, “this little one” in Matthew’s gospel exclusively refers to Christians as part of the church. In fact, the best example of this is , where Jesus says .... So Jesus is talking about believers and disciples here.

to sin: Now, Jesus says whoever causes one of these little ones to stumble into sin. Now that word is not hte normal word for “sin,” in the Greek. It is actually the Greek word σκανδαλιζω. And this is the same word that we get our English word, “scandal” from. And the root idea of this is kind of a trap or a snare. So what Jesus says is that the person who traps someone into sinnning, who snares them, who deceives them into sinning, is in trouble. And that word is used here in one form or another throughout this section. It is used four or five times in these first couple of verses, let me show you where…

God will judge the one who causes others to sin: In fact, Jesus says that God will judge him. But he doesn’t just say that God will judge him. In fact, he gives quite a bit more detail. He says, “It would be better to die a death by drowning than to cause someone to sin.” Now, this millstone was a large millstone that would be pulled by a donkey in a circle to grind down grain into flour. IT was heavy and large. ANd jesus sauys this, “It would be better to take one of those giant millstones and to tie it around your neck and to drown” than to cause someone to sin. Now what he is doing here is he is appealing to our imaginations and he is saying, “Imagine how bad that would be? Well worse than that is the judgment God has for the person who causes his children to sin.”

Contrast with the world: Jesus says, “this is exactly what the world does. The world entices people to stumble. The world sets traps that will cause people to sin. It is what they actively desire to do. They actively set traps to cause believers to sin.” Jesus says, my woe, my wrath, my curse is on them. They will pay for their efforts. Jesus says, “Do not be like the world that does this.” The world seeks to set a trap.

the inevitability of their sinning will not stop their sinning: And Jesus says, “Now you might say, well wait a minute, we aren’t really liable to judgment because God is sovereign over all thigns.” And Jesus says, “God is absolutely sovreign, God has already put a plan in place, God has already prophesied that these things would happen, but it does not take away their responsibility. They will pay for what they have done. God loves his children so much, that he will judge the world for enticing believers to sin. And God loves his children so muhc, that he will even judge the church that causes believers to sin.

You say, wait a minute. Would God really do that? Later on, the apostle John will receive this vision from Jesus on teh island of Patmos in exile. And Jesus tells John to write to a number of churches a letter from Jesus. Now, imagine, Jesus dictates a letter to your church. This is what Jesus says in... …

Either helping or harming: there is no spiritual Switzerland. Here is what we need to understand. I think that we think we can be neutral players. That if we don’t harm people, we don’t necessarily have to help people. I think that we think we can be like a spiritual Switzerland, and just be spiritually neutral. But God does not allow spiritual switzerlands. Either we are with him or we are against him. WE are either harming people by temping them to sin, or we are helping them by encouraging them to holiness. Jesus says to his church, I need you to do the opposite of enticing people into sin, I need you to woo people into holiness. Eveyr church’s job is to prepare people for eternity. Every church needs to understand that God has given it the task of forming Christ in our people. And if we as church members do not start taking responsibility for how we treat others, we will harm their spiritual lives. And if we harm them, we will answer to God for it. We need to, as a church, understand that we need to help one another sin less and love Jesus more.

So the question is, how exactly do we do that? How can we as a churhc help each other look more like Jesus tomorrow than we do today? Do we pass out books, do we start a program, do we have a new Sunday School class, what do we do? Well, none of those things are wrong. But before we do any programs or classes, Jesus is after something deeper.

Keeping Ourselves From sinning

Change from 3rd-2nd person: One of the important things about this is that Jesus changes how he is talking. Jesus is saying that the churhc needs to make sure it does not cause others to sin. But then he says, “how do we do that?” We examine our own lives first. It is like in the sermon ont eh mount, Jesus says before you go and you confront someone of your sin, you need to take the plank out of your own eye and then go help out your brother. That the way that we help others sin less, is that we sin less ourselves. In other words, we all need to recognize that by the way we live, we are setting the example for others the way we live. And this idea, that every Christian is helping one another as examples of Godlienss is one of the most profound ideas in the whole Bible. we see it everywhere

Now you might say, I don’t really want to set an example though. That’s not really me. i don’t really have a desire to do that. But the only way to not set an example to others is to just be on your own. Every moment of every day you are setting an example for everyone who comes into contact with you. And nobody is that more true than in the church. That in the church, we are setting an example for one another, letting others see our lives and showing them how Christ has come to us and shaken us and made us new. And Jesus says that you had better be setting the right kind of example. We had better be setting an example of Christlikeness.

Cutting out the source of sin: Jesus says, You need to look into your heart, and you need to cut out what causes sin in your life. Now, Jesus says, you look at the source of sin in your life and find it and cut it out. Now, a couple of interesting things about this. First, this is very similar to somethign Jesus said in the sermon on the mount in ... When Jesus was talking about not committing adultery, and he says, the root of adultery is in the heart, not in whether or not you follow the letter of the law. And then he says, almost word for word, what he says here. Now, both this passage and the passage in the sermon on the mount, have been very often misunderstood. People think that Jesus is saying cut off your hand, or your foot, or your mouth. ANd that would be the case, if that was where Jesus says the source of sin is. But he says it clearly in that passage that he just said. Lust comes from the heart. Anger comes from the heart. The reason that you get angry in traffic is not because someone cut you off. No, thta is the circumstance that you got angry. But the source of your anger is your heart. You might say, “My real sin is pornography. I have this addiction to porn, and it just has this hold on me.” No, no. Pornography is the object of your sin. But it is not hte source of your sin. The source of your sin is your heart. You might say, “I just have this real problemw ith judgihng people. You say, “i can’t help it. I can’t stop judging others.” Listen, the other person is not your problem. Your obsession with yourself is the problem. Every single sin comes back to this reality that sin’s source is our heart. This is what Jesus says in ....

We know this to be true: Of course, we know this to be true, don’t we? I love the band the Avett brothers. And on one of their fantastic albums, they have this song called ill with want. And they say....

I am sick with wanting And it's evil and it's daunting How I let everything I cherish lay to waste I am lost in greed, this time it's definitely me I point fingers but there's no one there to blame

I need for something Not let me break it down again I need for something But not more medicine

I am sick with wanting And it's evil how it's got me And everyday is worse than the one before The more I have the more I think I'm almost where I need to be If only I could get a little more

What is salvation: Now, as we are coming to this, an inevitable and inescapable conclusion about this passage is to ask, “How in the world can I get a new heart.” Because Jesus says that nobody will enter into heaven without a new heart. He says that. He says the only way to go into heaven is if you have your old heart removed, the source of sin removed. If you stay as you are, you will be all that you can be all on your own all the way straight to Hell.

Entering into life maimed

Faith in Christ: So listen. The only way to have a new heart is to put your faith in Jesus. the only way to have a new heart is to pray to Christ and to ask Christ if he would come into your heart and make you new. The only way that you can have a new heart is to confess before the Lord Jesus CHrist that you are a sinner in need of a savior. This is what … says. Unless you get on your knee and ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, sin will continue to rule your life. You will continue to be ill with want. But when you ask Chrsit to be your savior, he comes and puts his righteousness ontop of you so that you are totally forgiven by Christ. And he puts his righteousness inside of you so that you can every day look more like him. If all Jesus does is forgive us for our sins, he is not our savior, he is our enabler. But if Jesus gives us forgiveness for our sins and freedom from our sins, then he is our savior and Lord. By faith in Christ we take Christ, and he forgives us from our sin and leads us out of our sins.

Entering into hell whole

Renewing our hearts: And after we have asked Christ into our hearts, after God has opened up our hearts to Christ, we need to renew our hearts in him. THis is what it means to abide in him. We need to renew our lives more and more with every passing day. That we progress into eternity as sinners becoming saints. And we basically do this in 3 ways

Identifying Sin: First, we have to identify what has a hold on our hearts as sin. What sin is in the heart? Is it greed? Is it lust? Is it anger? Is it gossip? And that is part of the reason that evbery week we fead a Scripture of confession or we pray together. We do that to identify sin in our lives. Because only by confessing our sin can we have forgiveness. ANd as we do that, our knowledge of who we are and our knowledge of who God is only increases.

Beholding Christ: Second, we behold CHreist. We look at Christ. We look at how Christ both saved us from teh penalty of sin. And we recognize how Jeuss was holy. jesus’ anger was never unrestrained. Jesus never womanized anyone. Jesus was never greedy. And yet, Jesus suffered the penalty I should have suffered. He paid the debt I couldn’t pay. He endured what I did not. And though he was punished, I am rewarded. Though he was killed, I can live. Though he was cursed, I am honored. Though he was forsaken, i am forgiven. That’s why I read the Bible. That’s why I pray. That’s why I come to churhc. That’s why I take communion. That’s why I listen to sermons. That’s why I’m in growth groups. Because I get a bigger more expansive view of Christ. And what he did for me causes me to love him and to reach out and grab hold of him all the more. Because in those htings, I see christ and resceive him and am renewed.

Following Christ: And as I do that, I grow in Christ. And I see him. And my heart is transformed. And I want to follow him. And as I follow him, sin loses its grip on my life just a little. And every now again, I’ll stumble, and I’ll have to start by identifying sin and confessing it and looking at Christ again. ANd Christ will show me how I have sinned without even knowing it. And Christ will show me how much more I have to go. And he will show me how far I’ve come. And every day, just day by day I am changed just a litlte bit more to look like Jesus.

Setting an example for others: And all along, as I am being changed into the iamge of Christ, as Christ is being formed in me, I am becomign a clearer and clearer road sign for glory. That as I look at you as a weary traveller, you are pointing me to Jesus. And I follow you as you lead me through the dark tunnel, and the light at the end of the tunnel gets brighter and brighter and brighter, until we all with unveiled faces see his glory and we are transformed and we are, even as he is.

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