Salem Baptist Church

Introduction

So this morning I want to pick up a little from where we left off last week ... as we think a little about following Jesus ... not on Twitter you understand ... but literally ... following Jesus.

You see, last week was the first Sunday in Epiphany and we spent some time thinking about the fact that nobody can know God by simply racking their brains .. we cannot ever come up with a true understanding of God through science ... or metaphysics ... or by studying a piece of fairy cake ... but ...

Epiphany reminds us that we don't have to ... because in Jesus, God has revealed Himself to us!

And so, some Christian traditions use Epiphany to think about the Baptism of Jesus ... where Jesus is baptised in the Jordan by John and the heavens are ripped open and we have this wonderful sight of the God in Trinity as Jesus comes out of the water, the Spirit descends like a dove and the Father's voice is heard from heaven 'this is my son in whom I am well pleased'.

Other traditions, use Epiphany to focus on the visit by the wise men ... where symbolically the non-Jewish Gentile nations come and worship at the feet of Jesus ...

Because you see, in Jesus not only does God reveal Himself ... His character ... His divinity .. how He thinks and feels ...

In Jesus we also see God's purpose ... His Gospel ... His plan for His creation ...

Gospel overview

You see God ... Father, Son and Holy Spirit ... the God of Community ... creates the world ... not because there is anything lacking in Himself ... or because He was looking for something to fill His time!

No ... God ... created Heaven and Earth ... in order to display the love and grace and glory within Himself. If you are a regular at Salem you will have heard me say and discuss that before, if you are a visitor, you'll just have to take that as read, but if you think you want to think more about this do grab me after the service. So God creates in order to display, spread, share His Glory ... and so He invites us to praise Him ... to delight in Him ... to Glorify Him ...

This is what we were created for ...

and yet ... and yet ...

We don't!

We turn our back on the creator ... and delight in His creation instead ... and so we do not delight in and glorify the God of creation ... instead we chase after the trinkets and baubles of this world ... which like candy-floss taste sweet for a moment ... but never truly satisfy. The Bible calls this rebellion against God's plan for creation 'sin' ...

and sin is not without its consequences ... for God to be true to Himself ... to be truly just ... God must punish sin ... the consequence of sin, is eternal spiritual death ... and eternal separation from God ...

that's the bad news

BUT

In Jesus ... we see God's Good News ... His Gospel news ...

that the consequences for sin are death with by Jesus ...

notice that they are dealt with ... not just swept under the carpet ...

no ... in Jesus ... and more specifically in Jesus' self-sacrifice on the cross .. the consequence of sin are dealt with ... and as we see in the resurrection ... death is defeated.

PRAISE GOD!

Sin and death are conquered.

And, as we saw last week, we can say God loves you soooo much!

Or ... as Tim Keller more fully articulates ...

'in the Gospel, we see that we are more wicked than we ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted in Christ than we ever dared hope - at the very same time'.

But ... knowing all this is not enough ...

Objective knowledge of the truths of the Gospel does not lead to salvation ... for Satan is aware of the truths of the Christian faith ... but still lives in rebellion to God ...

so no

Objective understanding of the truths of the Christian faith is not enough ... rather there needs to be a subjective response.

So, as we saw last week, as we looked at 2 Timothy 1 Jesus not only saves, but calls us to a holy life ... calls us to follow Him ...

Which brings us to our reflections on following Jesus.

Following Jesus

Now it seems to me that there is a danger in the language of living a Holy life ... of 'following' Jesus ... that it focuses on our attention on what we are to do, rather than on what Christ has done. Seems to me that as we think about following Jesus ... of living a Holy life ... we immediately jump to thinking about lists of do's and don'ts and can's and can nots ... and very quickly the Christian faith ... the life of discipleship, of following Jesus gets reduced to 'doing one's duty', or worse doing the minimum ... and

and from there it is a pretty short trip to ... feeling guilty for failing to do one's duty ... or doing the minimum, and from there we may as well sit down and give up.

My friend, if this describes you ... or if you are anywhere on this trajectory, let me assure you that 'doing your duty', or doing the minimum, was not what Jesus meant when He said I have come to bring you life and life in its fullness.

This isn't to say that the Christian life isn't without effort ... or struggle ... or difficulty ... just that I don't think our Christian effort is to be exerted in 'doing one's duty to follow Jesus'.

You see we can caricature Religion as 'I do my religious duty ...

therefore ...

I am accepted ...'

But this isn't the Gospel ... this isn't following Jesus ...

The Gospel is that 'I am more wicked than I ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted in Christ than I ever dared hope - at the very same time'. Therefore I do.

You see Religion doesn't bring Glory to God ... if through MY obedience ... MY duty ... MY doing ... I am accepted ... then it is MY glory ... no ...

But the Gospel is that in Christ Jesus 'I am more loved and more accepted than I ever dared hope' ... so all the Glory and all the honour and all the praise goes to Him ... to God ... therefore I do ... therefore I follow ... therefore I honour Jesus ... therefore I glorify Him ...

So it is when I celebrate the sufficiency of the Gospel to deal with my weaknesses ... my insufficiencies ... rather than when I celebrate my strengths and my ability to do good ... that I bring most Glory to God, and follow Jesus.

In other words ... like a man who discovers the pearl of great price and sells all he has to own it ... it is when I value ... when I treasure Jesus, and His name, and His fame, and all that He achieved on the cross ... more than the shiny things and achievements I've managed to acquire in just over 3 and a half decades ... then I bring Glory to God ...

You see it's when we 'get' it ... when we see the value of the Gospel that we are able to follow Jesus ...

When we see the value of the Gospel ... and see that following Jesus is not about doing one's duty, therefore one is accepted, rather it is about knowing ... seeing ... accepting that one 'is more wicked than you ever dared believed, but more loved and accepted than you ever dared hope - at the same time' ... it is then that we are able to make sense of the world ...

When we truly see the value and the truth and the beauty of the Gospel ... it is then that we are able to face our mortality, and our fear of sickness and disease and dying ... knowing that the most precious thing in the universe is our relationship with our heavenly Father which began in life will exist into eternity ... so we can say 'death, where is your victory, O death, where is thy sting?'

Then we see the value of the Gospel ... when the reality of that because of Christ we are more loved and accepted by our Heavenly Father ... I think it is then that we can begin to love and accept ourselves ... and be reconciled to ourselves ... and stop striving to justify ourselves with more and more stuff, and activity and achievements ... but rest instead in what Christ has achieved for us ....

I think that when we truly treasure the Gospel truth, that we are more loved and accepted in Christ than we ever dared hope ... it is then that we are able to give and receive forgiveness for relationships broken by sin.

To fight the fight of faith is not about doing more ... it is about seeing better ... and it is when we see better it is then that the Gospel impacts us most and we are able to follow Jesus as His disciple ...

As I've thought about this this week ... I found myself reflecting on the different dimensions in which the Gospel impacts us ... namely up, in, and out. That in the Gospel we are reconciled upwards, vertically with our heavenly Father, internally with ourselves ... and horizontally outwards with people and creation.

And as I thought about this, I found myself reflecting on the Celtic Cross:

Now, there are all sorts of theories about the symbolism of the Celtic Cross ... but for me it just helps me, think about these 3 dimensions of the Gospel ... upwards, inwards, and outwards ...

And as I thought about this, I thought about the three dimensions of our Church's ministry ... for we believe ... that as a Church we are called to make missionary disciples who love God ... vertically ... love one another (including ourselves) in the church community, internally ... and love God's world ... out there ... both people and environment ... which is horizontal ...

So when we 'get it' ... when we 'see' the Gospel ... we can make sense of the world ...

Upwards, inwards, and outwards ...

So what's the Gospel ...

'That you are more wicked than you ever dared believe and more loved and accepted in Jesus that you ever dared hope - at the same time.'

Got it ... ok, my work here is done ... can I retire now? If only it was that easy ... because ... we haven't got it have we?

We don't really see it do we?

If we really got it ... then we wouldn't care so much about our reputation ... what other people thought ... we wouldn't spend more time in a day talking about television programmes than Jesus ...

You see ... and I've said this before ... and I stole the idea then ... that we're a bit like those vending machines where you put your money in ... and then you wait and wait until your drink ... or chocolate bar ... or whatever ... drops into the trench at the bottom of the machine ... and we're a bit like that ... the Gospel goes in ... but it seems to take a lifetime for the penny to drop and then for the goods ... I guess we should say fruit ... to emerge at the end ...

You see, the reality of being more wicked than we dared believe ... of living in a broken and sinful world is that we are surrounded by bright and shiny things which continually distract our attention from the Gospel ... blur our vision of Jesus ... and so Salem ... part of our task in loving one another ... is to keep focussing and re-focussing on the Gospel ... to keep telling one another that Jesus loves you sooo much ...

I came across this great quote this week, which I think captures this almost perfectly ... it comes from a book by a guy called Dietrich Boenhoffer ... a German Lutheran Pastor who participated in the German resistance against Nazism ... as part of this resistance, along with others, he established the Confessing Church in opposition to the government sponsored efforts to nazify the German state church ... and Boenhoffer was the principle and main teacher of an underground college for the Confessing Church ... and out of his experience of having lived in community, facing real persecution, Boenhoffer wrote a couple of books which have become Christian classics ... and in one of them ... 'Life Together' ... he wrote this:

'If somebody asks [a Christian], where is your salvation, your righteousness? he can never point to himself. He points to the Word of God in Jesus Christ, which assures him of salvation and righteousness. He is as alert as possible to this Word. Because he daily hungers and thirsts for righteousness, he daily desires the redeeming Word ...'

Which is kind of what I've been trying to say this morning ...

But ... and this is the key for me this morning ... [forgive the non-inclusive language]

But 'God has put this Word into the mouth of men in order that it may be communicated to other men. When one person is struck by the Word, he speaks it to others. God has willed that we should seek and find His living Word in the witness of a brother, in the mouth of a man.

Therefore, the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God's Word to him.

He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth.

He needs his brother man as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother, his own heart is uncertain, his brother's is sure.

The Gospel has these three dimensions ... up ... in ... and out ...

but the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God's Word to them.

Salem, if we are to be a Church of missionary disciples ... who love God, accept ourselves, and love God's world ... then I firmly believe that we need to love one another by speaking God's word to one another ...

We need to love one another, by walking with one another ... and watching out for one another, but continually calling one another to see the Glory of God in the face of Christ on the cross ... we need to love one another ... by telling, and re-telling one another the story of the Gospel ... the truth that yes you are more wicked than you ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted than you ever dared hope ... because of the body and blood of Jesus ...

This is what I believe being a local church ... a gathered church ... is about ... but more than this ... because as we proclaim those Gospel truths to a broken and hurting and needy world ... and so we follow Jesus ... we will become fishers of men ... and will no longer be a gathered community, but a gathering community ...

Last week I asked you whether you would remind one another of the basic truths of the Gospel ... I asked whether you will remind me of these basic fundamental truths of the Gospel ... as I strive to use this pulpit to remind you of the power of the Gospel ..

I asked whether we could have the Gospel be the thing that motivates us and against which we measure ourselves ...

In other words ... I guess I was asking whether you will love one another ...

and I guess this has shaped my thoughts for this week ... and in a moment there will be an opportunity to say 'Yes!" as we covenant together once again ... and it is my plan that this be something that we do at the first communion of each new year ...

But I guess the next challenge must be ... will you also love God's world ... and over the next few weeks ... in fact probably for at least this half term ... I want us to reflect on this as we consider the Great Commission text from each of the four Gospels ... but that's for next week and beyond ...

Today ... to sum up 20 minutes into 20 seconds, my word to you ... is the same as last weeks ... Jesus loves you sooo much yes you are more wicked than you ever dared believe ... but you are also more loved and accepted than you ever dared believe ...

And so the challenge now ... as you fight the fight of faith to see and delight in that Gospel truth ... the challenge now is ... will you receive that word and be that word to one another ... as we walk together and watch out for one another?

Let us take a moment of quiet ... before we remind ourselves of the Gospel truths in song ...