Radical Living - Isn't it Time for the Church to Die?

What is evil and how does it grow? Evil entered the world when God was displaced and grows as he is progressively displaced How does the Church counter evil and its growth? What is evil and how does it grow? …how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead I Thess.1:9b-10a …his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. I Jn.5:20b-21 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth…. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up… Romans 1 A contradiction? Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. I Cor.8:4-6 What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. I Cor.10:19-20 If we were to ask Paul, “are they (idols) nothing, or are they demons?” Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Gen.1:26 The “Black Hole” “ When we humans commit idolatry - worshipping that which is not God as if it were—we thereby give to other creatures and beings in the cosmos a power, a prestige, an authority over us which we, under God, were supposed to have over them. When you worship (an act of religious devotion) an idol, whatever it is, you abdicate something of your own proper human authority over the world and give it instead to that thing, whatever it is. You call into being a negative force, an anti-God force which is opposed to creation because, being itself part of the transient world, it is bound to decay and die and will, if we’re not careful, drag us down with it.” NT Wright What is salvation? Biblically, salvation means deliverance; the question is, "Deliverance from what?" The common message is "deliverance from guilt." But the full concept of salvation in the New Testament is deliverance from sin (evil) and its power. Deliverance from sin (evil) comes from the new life of God’s Kingdom when we place our confidence (belief) in Jesus the person. The example of Zacchaeus He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Col.1:13-14 The Gospel is the good news of the presence and availability of life in the kingdom, NOW and forever, through reliance on Christ the Savior “I shudder when I think of many people who are professing Christians today winding up in heaven; I don’t know what’s going to happen to them. I think they could not be very happy in heaven if they have not gotten acclimated here.” Dallas Willard A weird statement “I myself am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus told her. “The man who believes in me will live even though he dies, and anyone who is alive and believes in me will never die at all. Can you believe that?” Jn.11:25-26 ( J B Phillips) Heaven, and how to get there “Well, what Jesus teaches us is that within his presence and with his word, we begin to live in heaven now, and that’s why he says that those who keep his word will never experience death, as human beings understand it. There is a continuity of life through what we view as death from this point of view, because we do see people die. Their bodies stop working, but they continue to exist as the people they are in the presence of God…See, that’s the continuity. Really, that’s the continuity of life: live now, in the action and presence of God with his people.” Dallas Willard “Heaven and Hell are God’s provisions for who we choose to be. It is a natural extension of the way we live. I tell people that what they get out of this life—after this life—is the person that they become now. Probably the simplest way to understand Hell is as a cosmic junk heap, Gehenna.” Dallas Willard What is heaven? Heaven (the kingdom of heaven) is living in the presence and power of God now and then later in its fullness “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. Rev.2:1 So….what about hell? Hell is living without the presence and power of God now and then later in its fullness Hell, and how to get there… Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell (Gehenna) as yourselves. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Mt 23:15,23-25 ″‘You are fettered,’ said Scrooge, trembling. ‘Tell me why?’ ‘I wear the chain I forged in life,’ replied the Ghost. ‘I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you or would you know the length of the strong coils you bear yourself? It was as full, as heavy, as long as this seven Christmas Eves ago, you have labored on it since, it is a ponderous chain!” Isn’t It Time for the Church to Die? Then the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of mankind in a sudden vision, and said to him, “I will give you all this power and magnificence, for it belongs to me and I can give it to anyone I please. It shall all be yours if you will fall down and worship me.” Luke 4:5-7 (J B Phillips) Was Jesus being tempted to actually worship Satan? The temptation was to embrace the values, practices, and goals (pleasure, popularity, power)which are not in line with the ways of God, but of Satan (adversary) To the degree in which we adopt the values and goals of Satan rather than those of Jesus, to the same degree we are more like Satan than we are like Jesus. Crazy? But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Mt.16:33 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Jn.17:14-16 The Church in the world Come out and be separate? What about Jesus? The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Luke 7:34 The other extreme? The end result of both extremes? Finding the balance between being in the world, but not of it “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. • For salt to be effective, it must be in the food, while remaining distinct from it • Salt does no good if left in the saltshaker, but at the same time it must remain salty to do its job “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Mt.5:13-16 • For light to be effective, it cannot be in a room filled with light, but must go into the darkness • To be effective in the darkness, it must not become darkness itself A Question of Control The Church is the body of Christ. We have been bought and paid for by His blood. But ownership is one thing; control is quite another Jesus owns the church, but if we give some of the control to someone other than Jesus, then the church is being influenced by this other source “This serious and discerning look begins by looking at the world, and asking, “What are the dominant values and goals of this world? Not just in the United States, or in Europe, but across the entire world, and throughout time?” There is one prominent characteristic or value which transcends nations and generations: power. J D Myers “The Bible reveals that God, though He alone has infinite power, uses this power to redeem, reconcile, love, serve, and even humiliate Himself, as He seeks the restoration of all creation. Humankind, however, following Satan’s lead, most often uses power to gain more power over others, and to destroy, steal, harm, and lord our position over others.” Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Phil.2:5-8 “The contrast could not be clearer. The struggle from time immemorial has been about power: who has the power and how it should be used. God has shown one way of using power and Satan has shown another. Furthermore, it is crystal clear that the mass of humanity has followed the pattern of Satan in our quest for more power and our use of power over others. One of the reasons Jesus came was to show humanity a new way of using power: a way of love, service, and selfsacrifice.” J D Myers Where did Jesus succeed? After Jesus rejected the offers of Satan he began to announce his good news, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven/God is at hand “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:18-21 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Mt.9:35-38 The rock Jesus was building his church upon The rock which Jesus referred to in this passage was neither Peter nor Himself; it was the rock on which they were standing—the foot of Mount Hermon, associated with both the gateway to the dead and evil in the Old Testament and the Greek world. Gates do no attack. They are a defense. It is the Church that Jesus sees as the aggressor. He was declaring war on the kingdom of darkness and death. Jesus would build His Church atop the gates of hell—He would bury them. Three years into the battle… Our commander Jesus was struck down and we thought we were defeated, but three days later Jesus came striding out from the gates of hell (hades) leading captives with him Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) Eph.4:8-10 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, Heb.2:14 Though He had already won the war, though death and the devil had been defeated, there were still battles to be fought and captives to be freed. And though Jesus had cancelled the power of sin and escaped the clutches of hell, the gates still stood and many people were held captive behind them. So Jesus gave us His power and sent us on the mission of continuing the task He started So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:6-8 Where Jesus succeeded, the church succumbed • • • • For 300 years the church continued to lay siege to the gates of hell, but many were martyred The church had a strong witness and hell was under a great assault Tragedy struck, but it wasn’t seen as such. It was viewed as a great victory The devil came to church as he had come to Jesus. “All these kingdoms can be yours…” “The devil came to the church, as He had come to Jesus so many years before, and congratulated us on our success. He had thought he could beat us through brute force, but we had overcome against all odds and held firm against the onslaught of his overwhelming forces. So he offered to concede to us some of what was rightfully ours. He offered to pay us tribute. He offered us power, recognition, wealth, honor, and fame. In exchange, all we had to do was discontinue our siege against the gates of hell. We would not have to concede defeat; we could return home as victorious conquerors, complete with glory, riches, and might.” Jeremy Myers • Emperor Constantine declared Christianity the official religion of the empire • Though the power being offered would consume or overwhelm most other men, we believed we were wise enough to use it for good, to help the world, and to defeat the devil at his own game. …Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. I Cor.1:24b-25 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. Col.2:15 to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord Eph.3:9-11 Frodo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings is a beautiful picture of the church. He goes forward in weakness and smallness. Though he desires to return to the peace and tranquility of the Shire, he sets his face firmly towards the hellish fires of Mount Doom in Mordor. So also with the church. We cannot go forward in strength and power, for that would be certain defeat. Nor can we sit back in the false safety of our church buildings, even when they are as beautiful as the Shire or the House of Elrond in Rivendell. We must go forward, in humility and endurance, to certain death, all for the sake of the world. This is the way of Jesus. This is the way of the church. J D Myers