Christ Centered

When we look at this value, being Christ-centered, at first glance it seems self-explanatory, as if you do not really need to define it because every one who is a Christian know what you are talking about. But if someone were to really push you and ask you what does it truly mean to live a Christ-centered life, would you be able to define it and all of its’ implications? So that is what we want to do today, we want to look at what it means to be Christ-centered and to define what the Christ-centered life looks like in the deepest way we have time for.

To begin, there is a superficial way to define what being Christ-centered means. For some it means that you go to church on Sundays, Easter, and Christmas. That you where a cross around your neck, have a WWJD bracelet (if they still even make those) or that you crack open your Bible from time to time. Some may even believe it means that they vote republican, are pro-life, and just darn it, hate that this country is getting away from God. Now all of these things can be a part of living a Christ-centered life, but they are not really what we are trying to get at today. In fact, you can have all the Jesus paraphernalia and do all of those seemingly Christian things and still not truly have a Christ-centered life. You can walk down the street with a “Got Jesus T-Shirt” and yet balk at the idea of praying for your enemy. You can go to church every Wednesday and twice on Sunday and still shudder when asked to share the gospel with someone from a different political party. You can be neck deep in volunteer work for your church and yet still find more satisfaction from social media than Bible reading and prayer. So it is easy to live convinced that you are living a Christ-centered life because your definition of it is only skin deep. The gospel hasn’t really penetrated any deeper than that. It is far too easy for Christians to become pharisaic, expressing Jesus in the ways that are comfortable to them but yet they are still holding portions of themselves back from the full Lordship of Jesus. It is far too easy for us to become duplicitous, isn’t it? Almost living a double life, where in the day, when surrounded by our friends and family we worship God, but in the night, in our private, isolated corners of our lives, our worship is given to other things.

So we want to be clear when we define what it means to be a Christ centered church and what it means to be a Christ centered Christian. So, let’s do that now. Being truly Jesus-centered is far more all consuming than is often comfortable to us. This is because it actually happens on three levels of our being. It happens on three levels of our being. And in each of those levels, we are called to submit ourselves to and center ourselves on Jesus. And each of these levels faces its’ own set of challenges as we seek to submit it to the Lordship of Christ and they accompanied by attacks from the enemy who does not want to give up this ground in your life.

So what are these levels? Well the first level is what philosopher theologian Jonathan Edwards called our affections. The next is our thoughts followed by our actions. If we do not submit to Christ in each of these three levels of our being, we cannot have a truly Christ-centered life. Now I called these three areas of life “levels”, however, each one of these are interconnected, the first level flows and feeds into the second and the second into the third. Some say that politics is downstream from culture. That the way the culture is going, politics are sure to follow. Well the same principal is true here. Our affections feed our thoughts and our thoughts inform our actions. So let us begin with the most fundamental, the one that influences and feeds them all, our affections:

The church in Corinth has a very tenuous relationship with the apostle Paul. After being established the church quickly fell into sin and some of the false prophets that managed to worm their way into the church even began to slander and insult Paul openly. Paul, who was obviously hurt by this and deeply concerned for the church in Corinth, wrote them what he called a “severe letter”, strongly admonishing them. Being anxious as to how they responded to this severe letter, Paul made his way to Macedonia, looking for Titus who had news on the Corinthian church. To his great relief the church had repented yet Paul was still concerned that there was still deep seeded rebellious attitudes bubbling under the surface so he decided to write the letter we call 2 Corinthians. Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 13:5 a command for the Christians in Corinth to examine themselves to whether they are in the faith. Essentially, what Paul was commanding them to do was to look at what the driving force in their lives are.

Now, allow me to define the term affections, so you know more precisely what I am talking about. When we hear the word “affection” with our modern ears, we think of a somewhat moderate term for a type of fondness someone feels for another. But it doesn’t typically mean much more than that. However, when Edwards used the term “affections”, he meant more than just an emotion. The “affections” involved the whole side of us that values, that desires, that drives our will, and that causes us to feel strongly about something. Another word you could use it your passion. Edwards, through his searching of Scripture, believed that whatever it was that held your affection, is what your life was truly centered on.

In 1 Peter 1:8, the apostle Peter wrote to a church that was experiencing great trials, that, “Though you have not seen Him (meaning Jesus), you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with love that is inexpressible and filled with glory.” From Peters words, Jonathan Edwards made the observation, and I believe this is the right observation, that true faith gives rise to godly desires and emotions. That true faith manifests itself in the love and joy believers have for Jesus. There ultimate affection and passion was centered on Jesus. For the unbeliever, their passion, what commands their will and what holds the ultimate place in their hearts and what drives their wills are things of the flesh. Things such as money, careers, politics, relationships, renown. Their hearts, and therefore, their affections, are driven by those things.

But God, through the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 35, that He gives the believers a new heart! And with a new heart comes the Holy Spirit who gives you new affections which, like we said earlier, manifests itself in love for Jesus and great joy!

But even though we have been given new hearts, the world, our own continued struggle with sin, and the enemy will continue to tempt you to replace affections for Jesus with things of this world. That is why Paul commanded the church in 2 Corinthians 13:5 to examine themselves to see whether they are in the faith. To look inwardly and see if their hearts, if their affections were Christ-centered.

And that command is for us as well. We are to look inwardly and examine our passions and affections. I suggest all of you, when you go home, write down everything that is competing with Jesus for your affections and then repent of those things, ask forgiveness that your heart has been given over to something that is not worthy of your affections. And hand those things over to God and pray for Him to renew your affections and to aide you in centering them on Him! Jesus deserves all of our affections to be centered on Him.

This leads us to the next level, our thoughts. Mark Twain wrote, “What a wee little part of a person’s life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself.” Jonathan Edwards put it this way: “The ideas and images in men’s minds are the invisible powers that constantly govern them”. As a Christian, it is crucial for you to become Christ-centered in your thinking, to learn to think biblically about everything you experience. One of the most important things to know as a Christian is that no one ever commits a sin without it first passing through the mind which the Bible often equates with the heart and at times uses them synonomously. Take a look at Matthew 7:20-23, “And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” As pastor Steven Cole comments, no one commits a sin without first committing it in their thoughts. If we want to become truly Christ-centered, we must then fight the battle being waged in our minds, to fight against the evil thoughts that are trying to pull us away from our love for Christ.

Paul gives us the battle plan of fighting this battle in Philippians 4:8. Paul says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Paul is calling us to Christian meditation. Not a worldly meditation where you empty your mind, but meditation where you sit and think deeply about the things of God. Listen, when you go to read your Bibles, do not read it as a passive observer. Stop and think about what you read! Write down those thoughts in a journal, soak in the pure, lovely, commendable, and praise worthy words of God.

And I want to give you a piece of advice that has helped me. Often when I read Scripture, the bulk of my meditation was given to the difficult passages I was tried to chew on and work my way through. Meaning, when I was thinking about the word of God, I was predominantly thinking about the things I didn’t understand. While it is good to do this form time to time, I no longer believe it is what we need to be spending the bulk of our time doing. Look again at this verse from Paul in Philippians. He does not advise for them to dwell on the hard teachings of the Bible, but the obvious things! The things that you know for sure to be honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent and worthy of praise, will be what truly sustains you, these, what Spurgeon called the first fruits of the gospel. That God is good and holy, that Jesus died as a substitutionary atonement for your sin, that you are a co-heir with Christ. These are the things to meditate on the most and I believe if you do, then when when you go to think about other things, the harder things in the Bible, they will not shake you quite as much because the pillars of your thoughts are secured in the gospel.

The last thing I want to say about this level, that if you want to know where your affections lie, take a look at your thought life. What is it you spend most of your time thinking on? Is it sinful lusts, is it your hobbies? Do you constantly think about tomorrow and the plans you have to make? Romans 8:5 says this, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” Christian, live according to the Spirit, and center your thoughts on Jesus.

This brings us to our last level; our actions, and we will not spend too much time here since we have talked about being doers of the word not long ago. It is no surprise to learn that what we are passionate about controls what we spend most our time thinking about, and what we are passionate about and choose to spend our time thinking on materializes in our actions. Take for instance, I don’t know, model trains. If I was truly passionate about model trains, I just loved them, especially ones that looked like Thomas, and I thought about them day and night. How there are so many different types of trains, how I could build a model city in my basement for the trains to go around, how there’s a model train convention coming to town, all of it! Well it would stand to reason I would do something with all of those thoughts and passions. I would begin to buy model trains, go to conventions, build a track in my basement, my actions would flow out of my affections and thoughts on model trains.

Now, the same could be said in reverse with a slight twist. What if with my mouth I said that I loved God. That I think about Him day and night, and that I care for the things He cares about! I care about the needy, I care about the lost, I care about the church! However, my actions do not show it. I do nothing to help the needy, I don’t share the gospel with anyone around me, and I do not serve the church. Well, that would show that I don’t really spend my time thinking on what is true and godly, and my affections are not truly centered on Christ. Do you know what Jesus called someone who spoke love for God with their mouths and but were not doers of the word? White-washed tombs. But when our passions and thoughts are centered on Christ, if we truly abide in Him, as Jesus says in John 15, then we will naturally follow Him in our actions, bearing the good fruit. Jesus says Matthew 12:50, “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, sister and mother.” To be Christ-centered, you must have Christ Centered actions.

I want to give you an illustration from Scripture that takes all three of these levels and ties them together. We are actually going back to the book of Numbers, this time looking at chapter 25:1-12,

“While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. 2These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel. 4And the LORD said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people and hanga them in the sun before the LORD, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.” 5And Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.”

6And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. 7When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand 8and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. 9Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand. 10And the LORD said to Moses, 11“Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. 12Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace,”

We see in this chapter that Israel wholeheartedly begins to have sexual relations with Moabite women who were pagan idol worshipers. Worse than that, they themselves then begin to worship those same idols, sacrificing to them. God, who’s anger was stirred up against Israel commanded Moses administer capitol punishment on those who were responsible. Now, in the midst of all of this and in an act of utter defiance and mockery of God, an Israelite named Zimri took a Midianite princess by the name of Cozbi into his chamber, presumably to have sex with. Now, as we read, when the high preist’s son Phinehas saw this happening, he took up his spear, went into the chamber and killed them both and God saw it as good. Now what drove Phinehas to do this act and why would God consider it good? God answers that in verse 11 by saying that, “he was jealous with my jealousy”. You see, God is passion and affection is ultimately for Himself and for Him to set His highest affection and passion on anything else would be for God to commit idolatry. Not only that, but God is the very essence of goodness, and to allow His people to set their affections on anyone other than Him would be like allowing our own children to walk into fiery pit.

And God’s own affection for Himself, His own jealousy for His name, is what Phineha’s affections were centered on. His passion in life was to see God’s name glorified. And these passions affected the way Phinehas thought about the world and what was happening to his people. And when Zimri and Cozbi acted in direct rebellion and defiance against God, Phineahs God-centered passions and thoughts drove him to action against the ungodliness. All three levels, the affections, thoughts and actions are on display in this account.

Now, while our context today is very different and we definitely should not go around spearing people, the principle remains the same. A New Testament example of this is going back to the apostle Paul. Paul’s passion was bound up in Christ! His thoughts were constantly on Jesus and he made it his life’s work to proclaim the gospel wherever he went. As he said in Phil. 1:21, for Paul to live is Christ and to die is gain. That is what it means to be truly Christ-centered and that is our aim as Redeemer Church.