Christ Church

Maturity in Ministry (Further Up #8)

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INTRODUCTION

Maturity in ministry means recognizing some of the common pitfalls in evaluating what Christ is calling us to do. The Spirit that knits us together into the body of Christ knows what He is doing, and we can rest in Him. His way of remaking the world is the best way.

THE TEXT

“For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?”

If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.” (1 Cor. 12:13-21)

START WITH THE OBVIOUS

While God does occasionally do the extraordinary, He usually works through ordinary means of the Spirit. And this means beginning with what’s right in front of you: worship God faithfully, honor your parents, be faithful to your spouse and children, and do no harm to others (Ten Commandments). Your ministry in the body of Christ does not include lying, stealing, cheating, committing sexual immorality, or failing to worship Him. You cannot call your bad attitude “just having a different gift.” When the Spirit united you to Christ, He united you with all of your current responsibilities and obligations (1 Cor. 12:13). Whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free, it is the same Spirit and the same body of Christ. But while we’re making this point, we really do need to note that many people are drawn to missions, evangelism, hospitality, and mercy ministries as a means of avoiding these central duties. “I’m sensing a call to missions” is not a pious path away from your parents. Jesus had harsh words for those who used traditions to try to justify their disobedience to God’s clear word (Mk. 7:9-13). It is true that Jesus demands absolute allegiance which sometimes means leaving father, mother, sister, or brother, but if that is required, it will ordinarily come as a clear obligation to following Jesus (Mk. 10:37-38).

NO NEW ORPHANS OR WIDOWS

The Bible famously says that pure religion is caring for orphans and widows in their distress (Js. 1:27), but it also says that the family should be first line of defense (1 Tim. 5:4). If any Christian does not provide for the needs of his family, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel (1 Tim. 5:8). And remember that providing for our families is not a bare subsistence. A husband is required to love His wife like Christ loved the Church, which is generous and lavish, washing her with the water of the word, providing her with warmth and sustenance both physically and spiritually (Eph. 5:25-29). And fathers are required to bring up their children in the sustenance and culture of the Lord Jesus (Eph. 6:4). In other words, a mature understanding of the duty to Christian missions, evangelism, hospitality, and mercy must be held together with the duty of being faithful to the ministry right in front of you. Christians are called to learn to maintain good works that are fruitful for meeting needs (Tit. 3:14). Maturity here means making a distinction between occasional emergency “Good Samaritan” good deeds and the ordinary, ongoing good works of running a household, providing for a family, and using your skills and abilities for the good of the world. Whatever ministry you are called to, it does not include creating any new orphans or widows.

GIVING OUT YOUR ABUNDANCE

In a human body, when the organs do what they were made to do, they pour themselves out and can and do get tired. But their use is actually what causes them to thrive. If you don’t use muscles or organs, they tend to atrophy and grow weak. It really is the same thing in the body of Christ. One of the ways you know what you’re called to is based on what God has given to you and keeps giving to you. The Corinthians gave out of the abundance of their joy, and that combined with their poverty abounded to real generosity (2 Cor. 8:2). This means that they didn’t have a lot to give, but it was such a delight to give that they gave beyond what would seem reasonable, but not beyond what they actually had. God does not call us to give what He has not given to us. (2 Cor. 8:12).

Sometimes we find out that God has given us something because of the need/duty right in front of us (Mk. 6:37, Lk. 10:30ff). God does not intend for us ordinarily to give in such a way as to become a burden to others (2 Cor. 8:13). You should not be so generous one month that you have to apply to the deacons’ fund the next month. That isn’t really generosity. At the same time, occasionally it may be your duty to give what you have, not knowing how God will provide. Accordingly, you should not ordinarily have so many people in your house that your own kids ultimately don’t want to be there. Unfortunately, the “PK” and “MK” stereotypes exist for a reason. But those train wrecks are great blots on the body of Christ. So whatever Christ calls you to in the body, you should be looking for it to be the sort of ministry that your family thrives in. There should be abundance of joy in the sacrifice. Following Jesus always includes a cross, but if you are following Jesus, there is always joy set before you.

CONCLUSION: RADICAL OBEDIENCE

None of this should be taken as somehow soft-peddling the call of discipleship. No, Bonhoeffer was right: “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” But we must not be so naïve as to think there are not disobedient ways to die. The sinful heart loves to get off the point. It is not enough to look pious and obedient. You must actually be pious and obedient.

Doing what God has assigned you to do, whatever that may be, both pleases Him and is good for us and the whole body of Christ. Do not underestimate the impact of faithfulness in the little things, and then having been faithful in little things, do not be surprised when you are promoted to bigger things. But remember that the Spirit that is knitting us together in the body is the Spirit of comfort (Jn. 14:16-17).

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Further Up #7: Maturity in the Arts

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INTRODUCTION

We have been indoctrinated by our culture in two great lies when it comes to creativity and the arts. The first lie is that there is no standard — beauty is purely in the eye of the beholder. The second lie is the flip side of the first one — you can create anything. But both lies deny God.

THE TEXT

And Moses said unto the children of Israel, See, the LORD hath called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; And he hath filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship; And to devise curious works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, And in the cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of wood, to make any manner of cunning work. And he hath put in his heart that he may teach, both he, and Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. Them hath he filled with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work, of the engraver, and of the cunning workman, and of the embroiderer, in blue, and in purple, in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of them that do any work, and of those that devise cunning work (Exodus 35:30–35).

OBJECTIVITY IN BEAUTY

Faithful Christians have largely held their ground on the objectivity of truth, and to some extent the objectivity of goodness, but we have largely sold the farm when it comes to beauty. We see the evidence of this in many discussions of worship, music, dress, jewelry, and it isn’t five minutes before the most staunch defender of the objectivity of truth, comes back with that great relativistic retort: “Who’s to say?” But the Bible teaches that God is to say. This applies to what is true, what is good, and what is beautiful. He is the ultimate standard. “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple” (Ps. 27:4). “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined” (50:2). We must begin here or else all the other discussions will devolve into pure subjectivism. We do not need to begin by insisting that we know exactly what is beautiful, what is less beautiful, and what is ugly. Rather, we must begin by insisting that there is a standard, and that the living God is that standard.

SUB-CREATORS

The next step is still not having some kind of exhaustive decoder ring or reference manual where you can look up “dissonance,” “color wheels,” and “pink hair.” No, maturity means giving some thought to what God has said and done to reveal to us what true beauty is. The first great revelation of that beauty is His creation. He created the world with all of its beauty and glory, and this means that all human creativity and artistry is fundamentally an act of discovery: finding what God has already put in the world. As JRR Tolkien put it, we are always “sub-creators” under the great Creator. Or else we are blasphemously competing for the job. As sub-creators, we certainly can discover and invent and create in ways that have not been seen or enjoyed before, but anything truly beautiful is merely discovering something that God already invented, something He already thought of. In other words, creativity and artistic skills are fundamentally a humble enterprise not an arrogant one, submission not rebellion.

THE SPIRIT OF CREATION

Darwinism teaches that beauty is random, accidental, and the result of millions of mutations. And that in turn drives a philosophy of creativity that is antithetical to Christ. This is the genesis of modern art, flinging paint, random musical notes, and dumpster diving fashionistas. All of this is the complete opposite of Christian maturity. Random accidents are not things you practice or study or learn (even though people try). But God’s artistic skill can be taught/learned (Ex. 35:34). This skill is not merely an emotional high or some kind of Zen, it comes from “wisdom, understanding, and knowledge” driven and informed by the Spirit of God — the same Spirit that hovered over the waters at creation (Ex. 35:31, Gen. 1:2).

One way Christians have added to their confusion on these topics is through a sub-biblical understanding of the Holy Spirit. While it is true that sometimes the Spirit works in extraordinary and miraculous ways, that isn’t the way the Spirit usually works. The Spirit was the breath of God that weaved the whole world together (Gen. 1:2). The Spirit groans in us for the redemption of all of creation, the restoration of the natural order (Rom. 8:22-26). The Spirit is all about the restoration of our bodies and souls, reason and senses. The Spirit is not irrational; the Spirit breathed out the Word of God (2 Tim. 3:16).

Closely related to these themes is the notion of fittingness. Just because something is good and beautiful objectively does not mean that it is fitting in any context. The Spirit created the universe in an orderly way, and part of our discovery and submission to His wisdom is the task of understanding what fits best where. “As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion” (Prov. 11:22). “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver” (Prov. 25:11).

CONCLUSION: STRONG MEAT

It ought to be firmly fixed in our hearts and minds the difference between refugees from the world and apostles of the world. We should have all kinds of grace and patience for the former and none for the latter. Refugees from the world will have habits, preferences, and tastes that were formed by their former lives in the world, as we all do. But when we come to Christ, we are crucified with Him (Col. 2:20). Your favorite movies, music, clothes, jewelry, fashion – all of it is crucified with Christ and raise back up in Him. The point is not that God doesn’t want you to enjoy the world, or be beautiful, or make anything lovely. He is the God of all beauty, all glory, and at His right hand is the fullness of joy and pleasures forever more (Ps. 16:11).

Our problem is that our tastes have been badly damaged by the Fall. What we think is beautiful and pleasing and lovely is often badly twisted. As C.S. Lewis once said, “Our desires are not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” So we must trust God and His word, learn from our fathers and forefathers, those who have exercised their senses to discern both good and evil (Heb. 5:14). And at the center of it all must be Christ and His glorious cross. It isn’t what you expected or what you were looking for. But it is so good, so true, and so lovely.

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New Birth & New Creation

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INTRODUCTION

The theme of creation and new creation is a significant one in Scripture, but sometimes we may forget where God has determined to begin that new work. The new birth is not merely a significant improvement of who we are. It is a new creation; it is heaven breaking into this world. And this is what makes the Christian Church tick. This is what makes Moscow tick. This is the center of who we are and what we’re about.

THE TEXT

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create… I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; not more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress…” (Is. 65:17).

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband… He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:1-4)

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Cor. 5:17).

HEAVEN IS FOR REAL

Because of where I want to focus this message, it is important to nail a couple of things down first. None of what follows should be taken to downplay or lessen the physical return of Christ, the glory of heaven, or the new heavens and new earth in the slightest. For Christians to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord in heaven, and it is far better to be with the Lord than to be here (2 Cor. 5:8). At the resurrection, when we are clothed once more in new, immortal bodies, all things will be finally and completely made right (1 Cor. 15:15:53-55). The glory of heaven will be immense and completely perfect. We will see God face to face, and we will be like Him, without any sin or suffering (Rev. 22:3-5, 1 Jn. 3:2). This is our hope and joy.

HEAVEN ON EARTH

Nevertheless, Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We pray that heaven would come down to earth. And Scripture says that the new heavens and new earth are coming down out of heaven like a bride coming down the aisle to her husband, like a city full of light and jewels (Rev. 21:1-2ff). Furthermore, the Bible teaches that by the gift of the Spirit, God has come to dwell with us already: “By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us His Spirit” (1 Jn. 4:13). Finally, we are able to behold the glory of the Lord even now, so that we are being transformed from one degree of glory to another, becoming more and more like Him in this life (2 Cor. 3:18). What is that like?

HEAVEN NOW

The temptation – growing up in a Christian family/church/school is to take this for granted, to underplay the radical nature of the new birth. The great blessing of living in a covenant community is the momentum and gravity generally pulling in the direction of holiness and faithfulness. But that is also the context in which it can become perilously easy to float, to go with the flow, which is not the same thing at all as being made new. The text says, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). To be “in Christ” is to be made completely new. The old has passed away, the new has come. Another way to make this point is to recognize that the language of “new creation” is the language of heaven.

What is heaven? It is the presence of Christ – God with us. It is the presence of His perfection, His holiness, His joy, such that we know Him and the power of His resurrection (cf. Phil. 3:10). Heaven is the full possession of unending, indestructible, abundant life. And what does Jesus say? “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die” (Jn. 11:25-26). Our text from Isaiah 65 goes on to describe life in this world, foretelling days in which people live extraordinarily long lives and children are born for blessing and not cursing (Is. 65:20-23). In other words, that new heavens and new earth begin here, in a Jerusalem of rejoicing, where there is no weeping or crying (Is. 65:18-19). For those who are new creations in Christ, the old is passed away. Christ is with us and everything is fine. He is wiping away every tear even now.

CONCLUSION

The same Creator God who commanded light to shine out of the darkness in the beginning is still in the business of creating new worlds in human hearts, through the knowledge of the glory of God in Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). We have this treasure in the earthen vessels of fallen bodies and souls (2 Cor. 4:7). But this is the point: we have this treasure. The New Birth is a New Creation of a new and perfect world inside every believer.

Do not settle for a decent conservative Christian life. Do not settle for reasonable. Do no settle for mediocre. Christ does not make mutant mistakes. Christ died to make people new creations. Christ rose in order to give the treasure of everlasting life – heaven now. He came to give abundant life, to make us more than conquerors. We do live in a veil of tears, but if you are in Christ, you live in that veil of tears with Christ. Christ is with you and in you. And if Christ is in you, the fullness of heaven is already in you and your tears disappear almost as quickly as they appear. Do you have that treasure? Do you know that joy? It is impossible for you to get this for yourself, but it is something that God delights to do. Call on Him now. Turn to Him now.

This is what makes us tick: Jesus. 2000 years ago He was crucified on a Roman cross between two thieves. And when He was beaten, whipped, and nailed to that cross, our sins were laid upon Him. And now we bear them no more. The old is passed away, behold the new has come. Because Christ is here. He is with us. He is our heaven, and He holds us tight.

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