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I Believe In God but I Don’t Know God *

March 28, 2016 by Leave a Comment

The Christian Atheist – I believe in God but I don’t know him.*
Sycamore Creek Church
Easter: March 24-28, 2016
Tom Arthur

Christ is Risen! Thank you God!

Have you ever said one thing but believed another thing? One day when I was driving Sam, my two-year-old home we had the following conversation:

Sam: I WANT MY BINKY!
Me: You don’t need your binky.
Sam: I NEED MY BINKY!
Me: I’m sorry.
Sam: You’re not sorry, daddy.

Boom! Sam called me out. He was totally right. I was saying I was sorry, but I wasn’t really sorry. #sorrynotsorry.

The same basic thing happens with God. Seven in 10 people say they believe in God. Six in 10 believe Jesus rose from the dead. And yet when we look at how people live today, they’re not living a life that reflects the teachings of Jesus. They’re not living or acting like God exists. They are a “Christian Atheist.”   A Christian Atheist is someone who believes in God, maybe even believes in the resurrection of Jesus, but lives as if God doesn’t exist. This is NOT a shot at atheists. Atheists say they don’t believe in God. They’re entirely consistent when they live as though God didn’t exist. This is a challenge to those who think or call themselves Christian but their life doesn’t line up with their beliefs. It’s like what Paul, the first missionary of the church, said in a letter he wrote to one of his friends, Titus:

They profess to know God, but they deny him by their actions.
~Paul (Titus 1:16 NRSV)

Here’s where we’re going with this series:

Week 1: Those who believe in God but do not know God.
Week 2: Those who believe in God but do not fear God.
Week 3: Those who believe in God but do not want to go overboard.
Week 4: Those who believe in God but do not trust God fully.

There was a time when I believed in Sarah but did not know her. I first met Sarah, my now wife of nineteen years, after she came back from Kenya where she had spent the semester studying. Toward the end of the semester she had extensions braided into her hair. I didn’t know enough about female hair products to know they were extensions. I just saw this wild looking twenty-one-year-old and was caught. Here’s a confession. This is the thought that went through my head in that moment. I’m not proud of it, but here it is. I thought to myself: “I bet she’s a good girl to date, but probably not marry.” YIKES! There’s so much wrong with that. But I was obviously wrong. This May I’ll be nineteen years wrong. I didn’t really know her then. But after nineteen years I can order off a menu for her. I can pick books out she’ll want to read, which is saying a lot given that my wife is the author of eleven books. I can, get this…it’s a super power I have…I can buy clothes she’ll like better than she can buy clothes she’ll like. She actually prefers clothing shopping with me than by herself! I know her quirks too. Like the fact that she can’t stand mud. Muddy boys. Muddy shoes. Muddy clothes. YUK! I’m pretty sure I’m on mud duty for the rest of our parenting lives with our two boys. And yet, after nineteen years of marriage I’m still getting to know Sarah better.

Who is the person that you know best? What do you know about him/her?

Here’s the amazing news for today: God, the creator of the universe, the one who raised Jesus from the dead, wants us to know him. God created us relationally. God wants you to know God. So what I want to do today is look at three different levels of knowing God.

Level One: Believe in God, but don’t know God.
Do you know that even the demons believe in God? When you read through the Bible you find over and over again that they recognize exactly who Jesus is and they say it out loud. Obviously, it’s not a personal loving relationship with God that the demons have. But you can believe in God without really knowing God.

You might call this kind of Christian a Cultural Christian. The Cultural Christian says, “My dad was a catholic, and my mom was a Baptist so we go to church on Christmas and Easter. I’m not a Muslim…or a Hindu…or a Buddhist…so I’d say I’m a Christian. I kinda believe in God…sorta…mostly.”

John, one of Jesus’ closest friends, wrote this:

Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments.  Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; “I believe” but no fruit, transformation, remorse over sin…
~1 John 2:3-4 NRSV

Our good works don’t win God’s love. Our good works are a response from knowing God. I do loving things for Sarah and my family because I know them and love them. We can know a lot about the Bible, but miss heaven by 18 inches. Jesus is really direct about this. It’s not a fear tactic. It’s just a truth-telling:

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
~Jesus (Matthew 7:21 NRSV)

Didn’t we go to church?
I took that class when I was 12. I think it was called a constipation class.I gave some money to the local food bank.
I said some prayers.

But Jesus wonders whether you really knew him if you did all these religious things alone. Sure they’re good and helpful. They’re maybe even essential. But sometimes we can substitute them for a real relationship and not really end up knowing God. The first level of knowing God is believing in God but not knowing God.

Level Two: I believe in God and know God, but don’t know God well.
Do you I remember who Leigh Nash is? She’s the lead singer of Six Pence None the Richer. They are a one-, maybe two-hit wonder. Their big songs were “Kiss Me” and a cover of The La’s “There She Goes.” I actually know Leigh Nash. I met her when her band came to Wheaton College where I attended. This was before I met Sarah. Even though she wasn’t yet well known, I was star struck. I was studying photography at the time and I was there at her concert taking pictures. After the concert she asked if she could have copies of the pictures I took. This started up a conversation and I mentioned that I was taking guitar lessons. She handed me a guitar and showed me the cords to “Kiss Me” and she sang it to me right there as I chunked my way through the song. My hands were so sweaty I could barely hold the guitar. But Leigh Nash sang “Kiss Me” to ME! TO ME! I know Leigh Nash!

Well, actually none of that happened. Except in my mind. What really happened was that I was there taking pictures, but I was too nervous to talk to her, but her bass player gave me some cash to send him some pictures I had taken. So you might be able to say, I know Leigh Nash, but I don’t know her well.

Many of us know God, but not well. You had an experience that one time with God. You called on God. You were maybe even adopted into God’s family but…you haven’t grown with God since then. You have been informed about Jesus but not yet transformed by Jesus. Faith is like a dimmer switch. It’s not black and white like it’s on or off. Faith and knowledge of God can be dim or bright. Too many of us have the dimmer switch of our faith on the lowest setting and we’re content to leave it there. We’re missing out on the bright light of knowing God well. You may very well be in the family of God, and your sins are forgiven, but you don’t know God well.

Paul said it this way when he wrote a letter to the church at Galatia:

Before you Gentiles [non-Jews] knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist. So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world?
~Paul (Galatians 4:8-9 NLT)

What Paul sees happening at the church in Galatia is that followers of Jesus are following old paths. They have been tempted to turn back to lifestyles that are incompatible with following Jesus. Many of us made a commitment to follow Jesus at some point, but we’ve reverted back to following old paths from our days before following Jesus. It’s almost like we dated, got engaged and married, but never went out on a date again. You’re married but you’re acting like you acted when you were single. You know God, but you don’t know God well.

Level Three: I believe in God and know God intimately and serve God wholeheartedly.
Those of you who are at this third level of knowing God may not say you’re there, but you know it. You are led by the Spirit of God. You walk by faith, not by sight. You are gently convicted of sin and turn from it. You see God’s hand all through the day. You are directed by God to care for those around you. You sense God interrupting you to say something to someone. You know God’s comfort. When you are weak, God makes you strong. God’s Word is hidden in your heart. Worship is a natural overflow from your daily life. You do what you do because it’s who you are. At the end of the day, you measure the day by how you served and glorified God. You are not perfect or better, you’ve just been walking with God for a long time and you know God well. David, the ancient king of Israel who was known in part for his poems about God, wrote this psalm as a man who loves, longs for and needs God. Listen to the intimate language of a man who knows God well:

O God, you are my God;
I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you;
my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in your sanctuary
and gazed upon your power and glory.
Your unfailing love is better than life itself;
how I praise you!
I will praise you as long as I live,
lifting up my hands to you in prayer.
~Psalm 63:1-4 NLT

David didn’t necessarily have it all together. In fact, if you read about his life in the Bible you’ll see that he was pretty messed up at times. And when you’re pretty messed up as the king, you can mess up a lot of other people’s lives too. But amidst the mess, David knew God intimately and longed to serve him wholeheartedly. This is so much different than, “Yeah, I guess I believe in God and all that resurrection stuff.”

How well do you know God?
If you’re wondering how well you know God, what you call God gives you a clue to how well you know God. David says it this way:

Those who know your name trust in you.
~Psalm 9:10 NLT

What you call me shows how well you know me. If I pick up the phone and someone on the other line says, “Hello, Church Sycamore…”, I know this is someone who not only doesn’t know me, but doesn’t even know our church. If you call me “Reverend Arthur” you know I’m “clergy” but you really don’t know much about what kind of clergy I am. (Jeremy, our worship leader likes to get under my skin and call me “Reverend Arthur” from time to time, and I say back to him, “Layman Kratky.”) If you call me “Pastor Tom” you know a little more about me. You probably know I’m the pastor of Sycamore Creek. You likely know that I’m married to Sarah and that I have two kids. You’ve probably heard me tell stories about myself when I teach messages each week. If you call me “Tom” you know me better. If you call me “Tam” then you’ve probably been friends with me for 26 years or longer and we’ve probably sat in the back of a police car together or been in a car chase after egging an ex-girlfriend’s house. (FYI…Don’t try to call me Tam now…). If you call me “Daddy” you know me on a very different level. You know what it’s like to snuggle and tickle and get ready for bed times and pray together each night. There are only two people who call me “Daddy.” And there is only one person allowed to call me “Snug,” and she knows me better than anyone else knows me (and occasionally a private email addressed to “snug” gets “reply all’d” to too many people). What name you know me by tells a lot about how well you know me. The same is true for God’s name.

What name do you call God? Do you call God “The Big Guy Up in the Sky”? Or maybe “The Man Upstairs.” Or perhaps you call Jesus “6lb 8oz Baby Jesus.” These names you call God say something about how well you know God. Or do you call God Father, Savior, Friend, the one who is there for you as no one else is? Or do you call God Healer, Provider, or Comforter? Maybe you call God Lord or King. The more you get to know God, the more you get to know all the deeper characteristics of God. This is what I’d call “finding your hallelujah.” When you “find your hallelujah”, as Andy Grammar sings, you realize that “hallelujah” isn’t just a word you say when you’re happy. You realize that “hallelu” is Hebrew for “praise” and “jah” is short for God’s most holy name, “Yahweh.” Hallelujah literally means: “Praise Yahweh.” You’ve found your praise of God because you know God’s name. Jesus knew God so well that he called God “Abba” or “Daddy.”

Are you a Christian Atheist? Do you believe in God but don’t know God? When you get to know God better, your heart begins to break for the things that break the heart of God.   You begin to care for things you didn’t care about. You care for the poor. You pray for people you didn’t notice before. When you sin, you don’t beat yourself up. You confess it to God and make it right in as much as you are able. You hear God’s voice. Church isn’t some place you go (a building), it’s who you are (a faith community). You don’t have a job, you have a ministry (whatever your “career” is). You know God intimately and you serve God wholeheartedly.

God wants to reveal himself to you. God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah saying:

If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.
~Jeremiah 29:13 NLT

You are one prayer away from getting to know God better! God delights to show you more of God’s vey own self. God’s greatest desire is that you would know God and love God and know that God loves you. Paul puts this into a prayer:

I remember you in my prayers and ask the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, to give you the Spirit, who will make you wise and reveal God to you, so that you will know him.
~Paul (Ephesians 1:17 GNT)

Maybe today you’re realizing you believe, but you don’t know God. Or you don’t know God well. Or you haven’t yet come to the place of knowing God intimately and serving God wholeheartedly. Maybe you’re realizing for the first time and being really honest with yourself for the first time saying, “I’m a Christian Atheist. I believe in God but I don’t know God.” Then you’re in the right place. God wants to know you better and better and wants you to know God better and better. You’re one prayer away from that:

God, the father of Jesus, give me your Spirit. Make me wise. I confess to you my brokenness, my woundedness, and my sin. I don’t just want information about Jesus. I want transformation by Jesus. Let me know you better and better. In Jesus’ name.

*This sermon is based on a sermon first preached by Craig Groeschel

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What is a Christian – Why Follow Jesus?

July 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment

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Search: What is a Christian – Why Follow Jesus?
Sycamore Creek Church
Tom Arthur
July 14/15, 2013
1 Corinthians 15:3-58  

Peace friends!

We’re continuing a series where we’re searching for an answer to the question: What is a Christian?  The problem with the word Christian is that it only shows up in the Bible three times.  And in each of those instances, it’s an outsider labeling Christians.  So if the word only shows up three times, then it’s super easy to make it mean whatever you want it to mean.  And herein lies the problem with the word Christian.  If you can make it mean whatever you want it to mean, then you can very easily confuse secondary beliefs with primary ones.  You can make being a Christian about things that it really shouldn’t be all about.  You can make certain things essential that really aren’t essential.

I’ve had my share of confusing secondary things with primary things.  Growing up I believed certain things were primary that I have since come to believe are secondary.  I confused certain views about the Bible as primary.  But the Bible always requires interpretation, so what we were really saying is that certain interpretations of the Bible are primary.  I had views about who was holy and who wasn’t.  If you raised your hands in worship then you were good to go.  If you didn’t, then you were suspect in my mind.

I held certain views about who’s in and who’s out.  Who’s going to heaven and who isn’t.  Who’s part of the right church, the right belief system, the right behaviors, and who had it so messed up that they were certainly going to end up in hell.  I even lost my faith for a time period over these secondary things.

I suspect I’m not alone.  I came across this list of ten things Christians don’t need to believe.  It’s Martin Thielen’s book, What’s the Least I Can Believe and Still Be a Christian? Martin Thielen is a pastor in Tennessee and here’s his list of ten things Christians don’t need to believe and what he thinks is the truth about each one (in italics):

  1. God Causes Cancer, Car Wrecks, and Other Catastrophes
    Although God can and does bring good results out of tragedy, God does not cause tragic events to occur.
  2. Good Christians Don’t Doubt
    Doubt is not the enemy of faith but part of authentic Christianity.
  3. True Christians Can’t Believe in Evolution
    Science and faith are fully compatible, and theistic evolution is a perfectly acceptable Christian belief.
  4. Women Can’t Be Preachers and Must Submit to Men
    Women are fully equal with men in marriage, in church, and in society.
  5. God Cares about Saving Souls but Not about Saving Trees
    God cares about personal salvation and social justice and so should God’s church.
  6. Bad People Will Be “Left Behind” and Then Fry in Hell
    Left-behind rapture theology is neither a biblical nor a historical Christian belief and should be left behind by mainline and moderate evangelical Christians.
  7. Jews Won’t Make It to Heaven
    The ultimate destiny of non-Christians is in God’s hands, and God can be trusted to do what’s right.
  8. Everything in the Bible Should Be Taken Literally
    Although we must always take the Bible seriously, we don’t always have to take it literally.
  9. God Loves Straight People but Not Gay People
    All persons, including homosexual persons, are welcome in God’s church. However, beyond that, mainline and moderate churches are not of one mind on this issue. For now, “welcoming but not affirming” best describes most mainline churches, and the discussion goes on.
  10. It’s OK for Christians to be Judgmental and Obnoxious
    True Christians leave judgment to God.

I find that churches confuse these secondary things with primary things all the time.  We make this list of ten to be essentials, to be foundational, to be fundamental.  We use them to decide who’s in and who’s out of Christianity.

So if the word “Christian” only shows up three times is there some other better word to describe who we are?  Yes.  There is a word that is so clearly defined by the Bible that you can’t ignore what it means.  It’s the word “disciple.”  “Disciple” shows up over two-hundred and seventy times.  A disciple is a follower, apprentice, pupil, student.  A disciple of Jesus learns from Jesus about how to live life.  And Jesus said that we would prove we were his disciples by our love for one another.

This raises an important question which gets at, I think, what should be our primary belief: Why trust following Jesus?  Why follow Jesus rather than anyone else?  Why not follow Buddha or Confucius or Muhammad or any other historical or contemporary figure?   Why trust Jesus?  Or why is Jesus trustworthy to give your whole life over to him?  That’s the primary question.

Recently daredevil Nik Wallenda crossed over a part of the Grand Canyon on a high wire.  If you didn’t catch this in the news, here it is:

 

That’s a pretty amazing feat, but the question I have related to today’s message is: Why trust the wire?  Nik Wallenda is obviously a skilled person, but he put an amazing amount of trust in the integrity of the wire that was going to see him across the canyon.  The same thing is true for Jesus.  Why trust Jesus with your life the way that Nik Wallenda trusts that wire with his life?  That’s the primary question.  That’s the primary belief.  That’s what we cannot afford to confuse with any other secondary belief.  Let’s search the Bible and see if we get any direction on this question.

St. Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament in the form of letters, wrote a letter to a church he helped plant in Corinth.  As he struggles with them about all kinds of things that they’re messing up, he has this to say about what is primary:

1 Corinthians 15:3-58
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures,  and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.  Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time…

Did you catch that?  Paul is passing on to the Corinthians and to us what is primary, of first importance.  This brief passage is worth some pretty intense study because it’s Paul saying here’s what’s most important of all things.  Jesus died and was buried in accordance with the scriptures of the Old Testament.   But death couldn’t hold him, and he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures of the Old Testament.   Then he appeared to all kinds of people, his closest followers first and then more and more people and eventually to Paul himself.  That’s what’s most important.  God had a plan laid out in the Old Testament that Jesus would die and would be raised and would appear to many people as the risen Lord.  So here’s the point of today’s message.  If you get nothing else out of this message today get this:

The Point
Trust Jesus with your entire life because of who he is.  Jesus is the risen Lord, the risen Son of God.  You can trust following Jesus, you can trust Jesus with your life because of who Jesus is.

Sarah and I had a recent addition to our family.  Samuel Lewis came three weeks early.  When we got to the hospital Sarah was fully dilated.  They rushed us into labor and deliver and guess who was there, Teresa Miller, a member of our church.  Shortly thereafter our doctor, Amanda Shoemaker, also a member of our church, showed up.  Amanda and Teresa then spent the next three hours helping us deliver Sam into this world.  When they told us to do something, we did it.  We trusted them with the life of this precious little boy.  Why did we do this?  Because of who they are: a labor and delivery nurse and a doctor.  We trusted them with all that was precious to us in that moment because of who they are.  The same is true of Jesus.  We trust following him because of who he is.

Two weeks ago we baptized or reaffirmed ten people.  As they stood before you I asked them several questions.  Some of those questions were from the Apostles’ Creed, a statement of faith almost as old as the Bible itself.  It is split into three sections: The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit.  I asked each person if they believe in the Father, in the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  The word “creed” comes from the Latin word credo which implies not just intellectual assent but trust.  I was asking them if they trust Jesus with their whole life.  They said yes and the baptism was an outward sign of the inward reality of that trust.  Will you join me in confessing the Apostles Creed with them:

Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty Creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day He rose again.
He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.
Amen.

That’s what I want you to do today.  This is what is primary.  All other things are secondary.  I want you to trust Jesus with everything you’ve got because of who Jesus is, the risen son of God.  He is trustworthy because of who he is.  He is faithful because of who he is.  Follow Jesus, be Jesus’ disciple because of who Jesus is.

I recently came across a payer that sums this up well.  May this be the prayer of your heart today.

Prayer
Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying, through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.

 

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Search – What Is A Christian?

July 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment

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Search: What is a Christian?
Baptism Sunday
Sycamore Creek Church
June 30 & July 1, 2013
Tom Arthur
Acts 11:26

Peace Friends!

What is a Christian?  That’s the question we want to search for an answer to over the next several weeks, and it’s a great question to answer on Baptism Sunday!

Growing up in a very expressive Pentecostal church, I thought I had the answer to this question all figured out.  I was so sure about this, that I had made it into a rule about who I would and wouldn’t date.  Here was my answer: a true Christian is someone who raises their hands when they sing in worship.  I wouldn’t date anyone who didn’t raise their hands in worship.

Sometimes I also thought that a true Christian was someone who prayed the sinner’s prayer.  Of course, I prayed this prayer over and over again.  It was kind of like taking Tylenol for your sins.  A little later in life I read a book that helped me figure this whole thing out.  You didn’t have to say this prayer over and over because I was taught, “once a Christian always a Christian.”  I guess the first time you took the Tylenol it fixed everything for the rest of your life.

I think I was a little confused growing up.  I was missing something.  And I’m guessing I’m not the only one.  Some Christians say that a Christian is someone who is baptized.  No baptism, no Christian.  Others say, “Nope.  You’ve got to be confirmed.”  Some say that as long as you’re part of our church, you’re good to go.  Our “brand” is the true brand.  Others believe that if you’ve gone down at the alter call, then you’re a Christian.  Still others say that if you’re born again, then you’re a Christian.  Of course, some people are born again and again and again.  Some say if you believe the right things, then you’re a Christian.  Others say that if you behave the right way then you’re a Christian.  It seems that if you ask ten Christians to answer this question, you’ll get eleven answers.

Of course, you could ask non-Christians what a Christian is and you might get this answer: Christians are judgmental, homophobic moralists who think they are the only ones going to heaven and secretly relish the fact that everyone else is going to hell.  Yikes!

Here’s the problem about defining a Christian.  The word “Christian” is only used three times in the entire Bible!  Three times!  Here’s one example:

When Barnabus had found Saul/Paul, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for an entire year they met withthe church and taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called “Christians.”
Acts 11:26 NRSV

Notice that “Christian” is used by outsiders describing “Followers of The Way.”   In fact, this word “Christian” is often a derogatory label put on Christians by those who aren’t Christian.  Let’s look outside the Bible at the word “Christian.”  Tacitus was a first century Roman historian.  Here’s what he said about Christians:

Consequently, to get rid of the report [that he had burned down the city], Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called ‘Christians’ by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus…

Christians were “hated for their abominations” because they didn’t worship all the Roman Gods, and they were “called ‘Christians’ by the populace.”  Can you feel the derision in this label?  It’s hard to define the word “Christian” because the Bible doesn’t define it.  You can make it mean just about anything you want.

On the other hand, the Bible does have a word to describe those who follow Jesus: disciples.  The word “disciple” is used two hundred and seventy two times.  A “disciple” is clearly defined in the Bible.  Let’s go back to that passage we read from Acts, a book that tells the history of the early church:

When Barnabus had found Saul/Paul, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for an entire year they met withthe church and taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called “Christians.”
Acts 11:26 NRSV

Disciple is pretty easy to understand.  A disciple is a learner, pupil, apprentice, adherent, or follower.  It’s someone who says to the leader, “I’m trying to decide about such and such (my marriage, my parenting, my job, my money, my life).  How would you think about this?  How would do this?  What questions would you ask about this situation?”

There are many different ways these questions are answered in the Bible.  Here’s a couple of examples:

Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha…She was devoted to good works and acts of charity.
Acts 9:36 NRSV

Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.
John 13:35NRSV

A disciple is someone who loves like Jesus loves.  A disciple is someone who is seeking to follow in the way of Jesus’ love for God and for others.

Jesus gives us pretty clear direction about this.  Someone comes to him and asks Jesus what the most important commandment is.  Here’s Jesus’ answer:

Jesus said to the lawyer, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Matthew 22:37-40 NRSV

Love God with everything you’ve got and love your neighbor as yourself.  In our church we use “three simple rules” to describe what that means:

  1. Do no harm
  2. Do good
  3. Stay in love with God

Love means not harming other people.  Love means doing good to them.  And both of these two things are made possible by staying in love with God.

Another way we describe what it means to love as a disciple is to tell God’s good news story.  It can be illustrated this way:

GoodNewsIllustration

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you look around you, you notice that the world is pretty messed up.  There are so many hurting people and so many hurting places.  We’re destroying our earth.  Our families are falling apart.  There’s brokenness in all our relationships.  There’s injustice and oppression all around the world.  And when we look at this broken world, we have a longing for something better.  That longing points to something.  Like our thirst points to water or our hunger points to food, our longing for a better world points to a world that was better.  When God created this world it was designed for good.  It was designed for people to live in equality to one another, mutually submitting to one another’s needs out of love.  It was designed so that every person would have meaningful and purposeful work, that no one would lord it over others.  It was designed so that the earth and all of creation would be in a supporting relationship with humanity, not a destructive one.  But something happened.  We turned inward on ourselves.  Our will was bent inward and became selfish.  We looked out for number one, me.  And so this world was damaged by evil.  God, the creator, looked at this damaged world and loved it.  And so like a painter whose painting had been damaged, he didn’t throw it away, but he chose to fix it.  And so God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to redeem the world and heal it and restore it for better.  To create a community of people who would follow him to learn how to live anew a life of love.  To fix the broken relationships between humanity and God and between humanity and one another and between humanity and all of creation.  This community is called the church.  And the church at its best is on a mission to heal the world.  Those who claim to follow Jesus don’t just hang out in their comfortable church buildings, but they are sent together to heal the world.  To break down the structures that oppress.  To make just the unjust.  To love the unlovable.  To bind up broken families.  To show God’s love to the one who feels worthless.  A Christian is a disciple of Jesus who has joined a community that is following Jesus learning how to love one another and God so that we can be on a mission to help bring healing to a broken and hurting world.

You may wondering, why we can’t just skip the whole Jesus thing and go straight to healing the world.  The problem is that the world’s wounds are so big, that we can’t do it without the resources of the creator God in Jesus Christ.  We need the power of Jesus’ love to both sustain us from turning back inward and to show us how to love.  We can’t do it alone.  That’s what got us into this mess in the first place.  We need to follow Jesus because he’s the only one who has ever lived in this world and loved perfectly, and he’s the only one who can heal our selfish bent inward called sin.

Just think if those called “Christians” all lived this way.  We probably wouldn’t have had WWI, WWII, the Civil War, slavery, or the need for the civil rights movement.  The world just might look at us and say, “Look how they love one another! They confess without being prompted.  They tell the truth even when it costs them.  They remain faithful to their marriage even when tempted.  They are generous with everyone around them.  I don’t know if I want to be one, but look how they treat their wives, their husbands, their employees, their employers, their teenagers, the hungry, the poor, the widows, the children.  I don’t know if I want to be one, but I wouldn’t mind working for one.  I wouldn’t mind my child marrying one.  I wouldn’t mind having one live next door.

What would it look like to love people the way Jesus loved you?  Well, Jesus was crucified, so get ready!

Of course we don’t even live up to our own standards to love, let alone God’s.  That’s why we need Jesus.  And today we’re baptizing several people into this community, this family of God who is on a mission.  Baptism is an outward sign of an inward reality.  The inward reality is that we’re receiving all that God has for us to join in the mission of Jesus to heal a broken world.  Baptism is water, and water can be a lot of things.  Water is death.  If I hold you under long enough, you will die.  Water is cleansing.  We wash our hands and our whole bodies in water.  Water is life. You can only go a short time without drinking water.  Water is growth.  You water your plants and they grow.  Water is community.  Villages, towns, and cities are always formed on the banks of rivers, lakes, or springs.  Baptism then is death, cleansing, life, growth, and community.  Baptism is entrance into the community seeking to die to selfishness, be cleansed from the past guilt of brokenness, gain a new life of healing, grow in love by following Jesus, and join the community that is sent to heal the world together.  Baptism is the water of God.

So let’s baptize some people today who are seeking to be a disciple of Jesus.

 

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