Have you ever opened your Bible and as you have read, a phrase or
a statement has jumped out at you? Perhaps it answered a
question
you were thinking about; or it affirmed a truth that was of special
importance to you. You think to yourself, “This is good! I need
to remember this.” You take out your pen and underline it.
You may read on for two or three paragraphs before something else grabs
your attention.
We do this all the time when we listen to TV or to a friend or to a
sermon.We do what is called “selective listening.” We
pay attention to that which sparks our interest; and we skim over the
rest.
The passage of Scripture that we read this morning is very complicated.
It has one idea stacked on top of another. It is often read with
“selective vision.” As you were listening you probably
connected with three or four phrases. To make my point, I’m going
to pick out four theological themes and call them “points of
entry” by which we will come at this passage of Scripture.
1. Points of Entry
a. The Praise of God
The first point of entry might be called the praise of God. It is
symbolized in the circle by a flame of fire, representing the Holy
Spirit. People in this group notice vss.
3 - Praise
be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ... 5 he
predestined us … 12 in order that we … might be for the
praise of his glory.13 Having believed, you were marked in him with a
seal, the promised Holy Spirit … to the praise of his glory.
There are many people who see great value in praising God. They want to
love God with their whole heart, and one of the ways in which they do
it is through praise music. Many attend Charismatic or Pentecostal
churches, but an increasing number of main-line protestant churches are
also engaging in praise music.
My model for this group is St. Paul. You might wonder why I would
chosse the Apostle Paul to represent the charismatics. I did so because
God was with him to heal the sick, and exercise more of the spiritual
gifts than anyone other than Jesus. It was Paul, after all, who said,
“I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all.” (1
Corinthians 14:18).
Who have been some of the contemporary leaders in this group? , David
Yonggi Cho. He has the largest church in the world (Yoido Full Gospel
Church) in Seoul, Korea numbering 780,000 in 2003. Do you know that
there are 200 to 500 million Pentecostals in the world?
Back in the ’80s hardly anyone raised their hands in praise of
God. How times have changed. Several years ago, I went to a Promise
Keepers conference in Indianapolis and 50,000 men, mostly from a
variety of Protestant churches stood with their hands raised in praise
of God.
b. Understanding and Knowledge
A second point of entry into this passage might be understanding and
knowledge-- symbolized in the circle by an open book. There are many
who love to engage their minds in the search for truth. They respond to
the Christian faith because it deals with the major questions in
life. Questions like "Who am I?" "Where
did I come
from?" "Why am I here?" "Where am I
going?"
When they read this passage, they notice words like wisdom,
understanding, and knowledge.
For example, V. 5 says he predestined us to be adopted as his
sons through Jesus Christ . . . . 7 . . the riches of God's
grace
8 ... he lavished... on us with all wisdom and understanding . 9 And he
made known to us the mystery of his will.
The leading theologian of the 20th century in my opinion was Karl
Barth. He took 500 pages in Volume 2, Part 2 of his Church Dogmatics to
explain how we have been predestined, how we were chosen in Christ
before the world was created. How Christ is the elect man and the
rejected man, rejected for us. I struggled for months with these
concepts as I wrote a Master’s thesis on the Doctrine of Election
by Karl Barth.
The American Church in Paris wants its members to grow in their
understanding of the faith. We are currently offering three study
opportunities. (1) The Sunday morning and the Thursday evening class
are both studying the book Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes
Sense by Bishop N. T. Wright. (2) A second Thursday evening
class
began this past Thursday and meets every other Thursday at our
Moderator’s home, based on a DVD filmed in Turkey illustrating
the passion of the early Christians.
For anyone wanting to find out more about the Christian faith I would
urge you to go to an Alpha Class. I sent someone to a class
at an
Anglican church this past Thursday evening. Carol walked by a Catholic
church yesterday afternoon and they had a big poster advertising an
Alpha Class. Our own church has an Alpha Class on Monday
mornings
at Misun Lu’s home. Check with the Christian Education table for
more information.
c. Evangelism
A third point of entry might be evangelism symbolized in our circle by
an open Bible and a pulpit. The trigger words are in v.
7
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins
. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the
word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation. 13 Having
believed….
The underlined words are music to the ears of an evangelical.
Redemption means that you are saved from error and guilt and evil.
Redemption through the blood of Christ. The Forgiveness of sins!
Gospel- means the good news! Salvation! Belief--This is how a person
comes into a personal relationship with Christ.
Billy Graham would be my model for evangelism. Billy has preached to
more people around the world than anyone who has ever lived.
As
of 2002 Graham’s lifetime audience (including radio and TV)
topped 2 billion people.
Did you know that this church has an evangelical tradition?
The
builder of our first actual church building, Dr. Kirk, wrote these
words explaining why the few hundred Americans of the original colony
in Paris built a church.
He wrote, “We owe it to our God to recognize Him by erecting here
a house of prayer. Here the services are to be Christian,
purely
and simply Christian, evangelical but never denominational; ever in
Christian fellowship and charity.”
He was saying that this church wouldn’t be a Presbyterian church
per se or a Methodist church or a Baptist church or a Pentecostal
Church but would be a house of prayer that would honor the
Gospel--which means the Good News of God’s love as revealed in
Jesus Christ in terms of what he has done and is doing for us.
d. Holiness and Service
A fourth point of entry could be holiness and service, symbolized in
our circle by a towel and basin. v.4. God chose us in him before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before
him . What does it mean to be holy and blameless? It means to take care
of orphans and widows in their distress according to James 1:27. It
means to serve the needs of the poor and to have compassion on the
downtrodden.
A model for holiness and service is Mother Teresa. Who started the
Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India. She served the poorest of
the poor” leprosy patients, abandoned infants, starving families,
and disabled beggars. At her death she received a state funeral from
the nation of India.
We could think of many other models--I think especially of William
Booth who founded the Salvation Army and of William
Wilberforce
who spearheaded the effort to ban slavery in England.
There are members of our church that have a strong desire to serve the
poor, to feed the hungry -- like the group from this church that goes
on mission each year to build houses for those who cannot afford, them
under the sponsorship of Habitat for Humanity.
2. The Goal: To Center on Christ
a. The Circle
Now I would like to bring all of this together by asking you to imagine
that the Christian faith is like a very large circle. In the
center is Jesus Christ. Eph 1: 9,10 [God] purposed...to bring
all
things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even
Christ.” Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ and accepts him as
Savior and Lord is a Christian, and therefore is in that
circle,
and is under one head, Jesus Christ.
Some have only recently crossed the line, they are new converts, or as
the New Testament describes them, "baby Christians." Others
crossed the line years ago, but they have remained very close to the
edge, have not progressed toward the middle to any appreciable
extent. They are "immature Christians,” ruled more by their
own desires than by the Spirit of God. The closer we move
toward
the center, the more we become like Jesus Christ. There are
many
outside the circle, some far away, others at the point of crossing
over.
The circle has a circumference. It has boundaries. In this
circle
we do not say that every religious opinion is equally valid. When we
receive new members into this church, as we did last week, they and the
entire church recite what we believe, we recite together the Apostles
creed.
We say that we believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven
and earth. We say that we believe in Jesus Christ his only Son our
Lord. We say that we believe in the Holy Spirit,--- the
forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life
everlasting. These should be basic core beliefs of everyone in the
circle.
Each of us who believes in Jesus is in the circle, but we have
penetrated the circumference from different points. Some love
God
with all their hearts, others with their minds others with their souls,
and others with their strength. You can almost name denominations
around this circle: the Pentecostals and charismatics and many other
Protestant groups at the top right -- and also the Orthodox-- (their
liturgy focuses on the praise of God), the Lutherans, Presbyerians, and
Episcopalians/Anglicans at bottom right, the Baptists and independent
churches bottom left and the Methodists and Roman Catholics top left.
b. What are some of the Common Tendencies
within this circle.
Cluster - When you have this mix of people in the same congregation, as
we do here at the American Church in Paris, this is what can happen.
First, people tend to cluster with people who have a similar
understanding or view of the faith. If we called a Resident Theologian
to come and serve this church, for example, as we have in the past,
those who would be very happy and who would cluster around him or her
would be those with an intellectual interest in their faith.
If we had an additional service and offered contemporary worship music,
those who would be drawn into that service would be those who enjoy
praise music. We cluster with people who think like
we
think.
Criticize - A second thing that can happen, and this is
terrible,
is that Instead of appreciating our diversity, we criticize our
brothers and sisters who have a different emphasis from our own. You
can see the arrows of criticism pointing downward and upward.
The person who loves to worship on the top right, might look at the
intellectual reading his books and think that this person is missing
real Christianity. His knowledge of Christ is in his head not
in
his heart, it's all theoretical, not experiential. He's
spending
his time reading books on theology when he ought to be praying and
praising the Lord. ---And the
intellectual looks at
the spiritual enthusiast and dismisses him as someone caught up in
emotionalism, as a superficial Christian, lots of froth --no
substance.
The person who is into evangelism is excited about seeing people come
to Christ, looks at the person who is service-oriented and shakes his
head and says, "Yes, it’s good to feed the hungry and build homes
for the poor, but the really important matter is reaching those whose
souls are lost.” And those who are clothing the naked and feeding
the hungry can look down at the evangelicals in the congregation and
accuse them of alienating people by passing out tracts and putting
pressure on people to come to church.
Exclude - What is even worse is that each of the four groups have a
tendency to draw egg-shaped circle, an ellipse, an oval shape around
themselves and say, "If you want a really valid Christian experience,
this is the way to go." The intellectual will want you to read a few
books, the evangelical will urge you to take some training to learn how
to share your faith, the service oriented will want you to help with
the free meal on Friday afternoons, and the charismatic will want you
to pray for the sick and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Christ is on Periphery - Tragically, when they draw these
circles
around their respective positions, they end up doing two
things:
(1) Excluding others; and (2) putting Jesus on the periphery
of
their circle. A particular doctrine, or emphasis becomes more
central, more important than Christ.
b. From Scattered to Gathered
The lesson for us is this --- regardless of how we come into
the
circle, we need to consider (1) whether God wants us to move closer to
one of the other points of emphasis. Maybe you need more
praise
in your life, more reading and study, more appreciation for the eternal
well-being of your neighbor, more service. We need to stop separating
ourselves from one another and instead learn from one another and
benefit from one another because each emphasis is valid.
We are living at a time when many walls of separation are coming down.
Roman Catholics in the Philippines number 95 percent of the population.
But many do not know Christ. Now a Catholic organization called
“Couples for Christ” has been raised up to evangelizing
members of the RC church. And they are doing a great job.
Karl Barth, during a lecture in the US was asked to explain the Gospel
in simple terms. He said “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the
Bible tells me so.” How’s that for an evangelical statement
from a world-class intellect.
Scholars and theologians from the main-line churches have been much
more open to understanding and seeking the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
c. ACP: Centered, Maturing
Our text tells us that “all blessings are in Christ.”
--the power of the Holy Spirit, wisdom and understanding, the
love we need to reach out to others, the holiness we need as we serve
others in the name of Christ -- all of that is in Christ. And so we
should be focusing on Him rather than on his gifts. And as we center in
Him he pours out his spiritual blessings upon us.
V. 3 puts it all together: “Praise be to the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with
every spiritual blessing in Christ.”
As the American Church in Paris moves forward during this time of
transition and preparation for the next 100 years, we need to see and
understand the larger picture. In this multi-denominational,
muti-national congregation we need to learn to embrace brothers and
sisters who may have different perspectives from our own. And as we do
that, we will be maturing in Christ, and increasingly centering
ourselves in Christ. And when we are centered in Christ, He promises
to bless us with every spiritual blessing. Amen.
