Rev. David Holwick L
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 13, 2014
1 John 4:4-6
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I. Everyone wants to be in the parade.
A. Holy Week begins with a joyous and triumphant entrance.
1) Jesus is greeted as a king, as the Messiah.
2) Symbolic honor is heaped upon him.
B. His opponents didn't feel the love.
1) They saw the parade as a rebuke of what they stood for.
2) It was especially aggravating that small children were
cheering Jesus.
C. Today, many would put Christians on the Pharisees' side.
1) We don't welcome new trends, but sourly criticize them.
2) Others are all excited about unfolding developments but
we do our best to sabotage them.
3) Mary Caddigan noticed an article by Leonard Pitts last week.
The title was: "Christianity slow to get it right."
The trigger for the article was World Vision's backpedaling.
World Vision is a huge Evangelical relief agency.
They help with famines and disasters around the world.
They only hire people who claim to be Christian.
They are an equal-opportunity employer, but as a faith-based
mission they are allowed to disqualify people who don't
agree with their statement of faith.
On March 24, World Vision announced it would no longer bar
Christians in same-sex marriages from working there.
Two days later, almost 5,000 sponsors abandoned World Vision.
Their director reversed the new policy, saying it was a
"bad decision" but made from "the right motivations."
Leonard Pitts predicts the director will change his tune
in ten years.
Because eleven years ago this same man changed his view
toward AIDS.
He admitted that Christians perceived AIDS as a disease of
homosexuals and drug users and so, "had less compassion
for the victims."
To Leonard Pitts, this didn't sound like people who claimed
to follow a first-century rabbi who said, "Come to me,
all you who are weary and burdened ..."
Pitts concludes:
"On issues where it should take the lead, where it should
be advocating for human dignity, the great body of
Christendom always seems to bring up the rear,
arriving decades late to the place the rest of the
nation has already reached."
He says it is not just on homosexuality or AIDS, but
feminism and Civil Rights.
Christians are so to get it right.
Mr. Pitts attributes it to the American equation of
Christianity with conservatism.
He says we shrink the gospel of Christ to a narrow and
exclusionary faith of narrow and exclusionary concerns:
we criminalize abortions, demonize homosexuals
and that's pretty much it.
All we do is condemn.
Yet in 20 years we will agree with everyone else.
We should be first, but we are always last.
Is he right?
#64417
II. Christians must admit we are slow on some issues.
A. Slavery and civil rights are key examples.
1) This week marked the 50th anniversary of the signing
of the Civil Rights Act.
a) Some Christians supported it and even fought for it.
b) Others resisted it or were ambivalent.
c) Today the vast majority of Christians in America
think it was the right thing to do.
2) The New Testament period had an understanding of rights.
a) The Apostle Paul appreciated his Roman citizenship.
b) Most Christians back then did not have citizenship.
1> A large number were slaves.
2> Paul opposed slavery but in a subtle way.
A> He did not fight it by force but used moral
persuasion, as shown in the book of Philemon.
B. Many moral issues are complex.
1) War.
a) Christians are against war, but in different ways.
b) Some are pacifist and oppose all military involvement.
c) Most believe some wars are justified if they are limited
and result in a more righteous society, like
fighting Nazism.
2) Abortion.
a) It is not just a matter of a woman's right to make
her own medical decisions.
b) Another life is involved and must be taken into
consideration.
c) More Americans are coming to appreciate this - perhaps
Mr. Pitts is the slow one here.
III. Christians look at the world differently.
A. Our standards are set by God, not humans.
1) Our understanding of those standards may evolve, but the
standards themselves don't change.
2) The world's values shift all the time.
a) What is their foundation?
b) Who establishes what human rights should be?
1> Most people act like their values are true for
everyone else, but what is the basis?
2> What is there in Nature that suggests fairness or
equality or compassion should be our values?
3) There is constant tension between the world and God.
a) Notice the distinction in 1 John 4:5 - the world
has its own viewpoint, and those people don't want
to hear what God says.
b) Which viewpoint are we going to choose?
B. We must be true to our principles.
1) Our goal is not to be accepted by everyone, or to be liked,
but to be faithful to God.
a) Even Jesus says we must expect rejection and even
hatred for what we stand for.
2) If everyone agreed with us, we must be doing something
wrong.
IV. Jesus is our model.
A. You will notice that Leonard Pitts likes Jesus as well.
1) He sees him as a radical, jousting against the conservative
religious establishment.
2) Jesus was a champion of the outcasts and damaged people.
3) I think Mr. Pitts is correct in this.
B. What many fail to see is the moral center of Jesus.
1) He loved sinners and had compassion on them, but he did not
condone their sin.
2) Jesus accepted the corrupt tax collectors, but he didn't
help them steal more.
a) Instead, he called them to radical repentance and they
responded with tears of remorse.
b) Those who truly followed Jesus, changed the way they
lived.
3) Many critics today conveniently forget this.
V. We don't have to convince people, just convert them.
A. We may be looking at the cultural conflicts the wrong way.
Mike Goeke lives in San Francisco, a very liberal city.
Not too many people there agree with his Christian views.
He notices that Christians like to be in the majority and
like it when society validates our faith and morality.
But nothing in the Bible says we are going to be a majority.
We should not expect the world to validate us.
He says our calling is not to clean up society or legislate
morality or change the government.
We are called simply to reach the world with the amazing
love of Jesus Christ.
Our goal is to reconcile a disconnected world with God.
Many Christians want America to be Christian.
What does that mean?
What we settle for is a "cultural Christianity" with a few
extra rules and a "get out of Hell free" card.
Mr. Goeke says many who claim to follow Jesus will fall away
as Christianity becomes less and less culturally acceptable.
Brendan Eich, who created JavaScript and was CEO of the tech
company Mozilla, was forced to resign because he made a
donation for a law to support traditional marriage.
How many would be willing to lose your job because of what
what you believe?
We don't follow Christ because we get tax benefits or because
the Ten Commandments hang on the courthouse walls.
We follow Christ because he is worthy of our following and
because we want to be part of his work.
#64351
B. Perhaps we should just let our culture go its own way.
Theologian T.M. Moore uses a scene from the 1970 film,
"Little Big Man," to explain his approach.
In the film, Jack Crabb, played by Dustin Hoffman, serves as
mule-skinner to General Custer's ill-fated Seventh Cavalry.
Crabb, who was raised by the Cheyenne, tries to persuade Custer
that there are thousands of Indians out there hoping he'll
come out against them.
But Custer won't have it.
So Crabb says, "You go. You go on out there, general.
And then you will know, then you will see."
Custer mocks him, and then of course rides out to his death.
According to Moore, our response toward a world which insists
on dashing itself to pieces on the rocks of rebellion,
unbelief, and sin perhaps should also be told "you go on
and then you will see."
As Moore puts it, "we both can and cannot separate ourselves
from the madness we see all around us. ...
We have to find ways to keep our convictions without ruinous
compromises."
The rot that threatens to destroy this generation "will not be
stopped by editorials, apologetics, or politics, although
we must make use of all these."
After all, the human heart set on sin is impervious to reason,
never mind appeals to fairness.
In the end, Moore tells us, "Only grace can keep this generation
from its own Little Bighorn."
#64385
1) You have to choose between the world's side, or God's.
2) What will your choice be?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#64351 “Fighting For Our Way Or The Way?” Mike Goeke, Baptist Press,
January 29, 2014. <http://www.baptistpress.org>. Mike Goeke is
the associate pastor of First Baptist Church San Francisco and
has been in full-time ministry since leaving his law practice in
2001.
#64385 “You Go On, Then You Will See,” Eric Metaxas, BreakPoint Commentary,
March 10, 2014. The original title of this commentary was "When
Life Ain’t Fair: Christians, the Culture, and Grace.” Copyright
(c) 2014 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission.
"BreakPoint" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.
#64417 “Are Christians Slow To Get It Right?” David Holwick, adapting an
article by Leonard Pitts titled “Christianity Slow To Get It Right,"
April 6, 2014. <http://savannahnow.com/column/2014-04-06/leonard-pitts-christianity-slow-get-it-right>
WorldVision’s employment guidelines can be found at <http://www.worldvision.org/about-us/job-opportunities/working-for-world-vision>
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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