Christ ChurchCollegiate Reformed Fellowship is the campus ministry of Christ Church and Trinity Reformed Church in Moscow, Idaho. Our goal is to teach and exhort young men and women to serve, to witness, to stand fast, and to mature in their Christian Faith. We desire to see students get established in a godly lifestyle and a trajectory toward maturity. We also desire to proclaim the Christian worldview to the university population and the surrounding communities. CRF is not an independent ministry. All our activities are supplemental to the teaching and shepherding ministry of CC & TRC. Students involved with CRF are regularly reminded that the most important student ministry takes place at Lord’s Day worship.
Living Upside Down
Collegiate Reformed Fellowship is the campus ministry of Christ Church and Trinity Reformed Church in Moscow, Idaho. Our goal is to teach and exhort young men and women to serve, to witness, to stand fast, and to mature in their Christian Faith. We desire to see students get established in a godly lifestyle and a trajectory toward maturity. We also desire to proclaim the Christian worldview to the university population and the surrounding communities. CRF is not an independent ministry. All our activities are supplemental to the teaching and shepherding ministry of CC & TRC. Students involved with CRF are regularly reminded that the most important student ministry takes place at Lord’s Day worship.
To Live is Christ
Collegiate Reformed Fellowship is the campus ministry of Christ Church and Trinity Reformed Church in Moscow, Idaho. Our goal is to teach and exhort young men and women to serve, to witness, to stand fast, and to mature in their Christian Faith. We desire to see students get established in a godly lifestyle and a trajectory toward maturity. We also desire to proclaim the Christian worldview to the university population and the surrounding communities. CRF is not an independent ministry. All our activities are supplemental to the teaching and shepherding ministry of CC & TRC. Students involved with CRF are regularly reminded that the most important student ministry takes place at Lord’s Day worship.
State of the Church 2022
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INTRODUCTION
We live in troubled times, certainly, and a regular response that rank-and-file Christians have to this difficulty is found in the lament, “But what can we do?” This year, our annual state of the church message is going to set before you a very local response to a very global and international panic, not to mention the totalitarian “solutions” that are being presented to us. And as it happens, the Scriptures we will bring to bear are Scriptures that are equally pertinent to our local and national situations both.
This is quite striking, because if we zoom out, we see that things have not been so bad in quite some time. But if we zoom in, looking at our community of believers, things have never been so good. What should we do with this?
THE TEXT
“Use hospitality one to another without grudging” (1 Peter 4:9).
“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2).
“Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:14–15)
SUMMARY OF THE TEXTS
The three texts might be described as social exhortations. They have to do with our life together, with our social interactions, and they warn about the kind of sin that disrupts such fellowship. Peter tells us to be hospitable to one another, and he tells us to do this without grumbling or complaining (1 Pet. 4:9). The reason for warning us about this is that hospitality gives rise to occasions where you want to grumble or complain. They didn’t invite you back, or they didn’t wipe their feet, or they didn’t say thank you. Hebrews 13 tells us to show hospitality because we never know who it is we are being kind to (Heb. 13:2). The most inauspicious guest might be an angel—and when it isn’t an angel, it turns out to have been Christ (Matt. 25:40). And then in Philippians, we are warned against grumbles and disputes (temptations which, again, occur often in a community where hospitality is practiced).
But the reason I selected these three particular exhortations has to do with the larger context. Peter says that we are to be hospitable without grumbling, but what was that larger context? He was preparing his readers for persecution. Their faith was to be tried by fire (1 Pet. 1:7). Christ suffered so that we might follow His example (1 Pet. 2:21). They were going to encounter false accusations (1 Pet. 3:16). All this is the run-up to “be hospitable, and no whining.” In Hebrews, we are told to take strangers in—but again, what is the context? These people had undergone great afflictions (Heb. 10:32), had been reviled (Heb. 10:33), and had had their property confiscated (Heb. 10:34). These are the people who are to take strangers in. In Philippians, it is the same. Be blameless, harmless. No murmuring or disputing. But what had Paul said just a moment before? “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake” (Philippians 1:29).
THE EARLY CHURCH IN ACTS
On the day of Pentecost, three thousand souls were added to the church (Acts 2:41). Later, as the gospel gained strength, there were about five thousand more (Acts 4:4). This process continued, and it started to cause problems. “And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration” (Acts 6:1).
The apostles responded in two ways. The first is that they refused to abandon prayer and the ministry of the Word—as that was the driving engine (Acts 6:4). But second, they made a judicious set of ordinations, setting aside godly deacons to address the problem (Acts 6:3).
All of this was good preparation for what was to come (Acts 8:1).
COMMUNITY, HOSPITALITY, FRIENDS
Because of the cultural disarray in many other places, and because God has been so kind to us here, hundreds of people have moved here. Perhaps you have noticed. All the indications are that hundreds more are on the way. What does this mean? First, it means that there will be multiple opportunities to be hospitable without grumbling. Second, it means that it is quite possible that the trouble we see elsewhere is headed our way. We have no guarantees that it won’t happen, and we do have the assurance of these passages that being kind to strangers is a very good way to prepare. What can I do?
Most of you here don’t know most of you here. In a room filled with strangers, what can I do? We have to understand that God does great collective things by means of doing countless tiny things. No one raindrop feels responsible for the ocean, but each one is. This is how God works.
Koinonia fellowship is a great grace of the Holy Spirit, and we certainly have that blessing here. But do not confuse it with other things. It is not the same thing as friendship, for example. Jesus loved His disciples, and He loved them and protected them all (John 17:12). But He also had Peter, James, and John as friends (Matt. 17:1). And among those three, John was His best friend (John 13:23).
CHRIST IS HERE
At the conclusion of this service, Christ invites you to sit down at His table. This is a glorious kindness. One of the things that it teaches us to do is this—when it comes time for us to set our tables, we should be hungry for opportunities to invite Christ to sit down at our tables. But He travels incognito, remember? You may not recognize Him until He takes the loaf from you, says grace, and breaks the bread (Luke 24:30-31). You might not recognize Him even then. You might not realize any of this until the last day.
When you come to His house, His identity is known and declared. When He comes to yours, He often comes in the disguise of a nuisance.
Emotional Maturity: Learning Contentment (Further Up #10)
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INTRODUCTION
In the midst of great civil unrest and tumult in England in the 1600s, Jeremiah Burroughs preached a sermon series on Christian Contentment, which is now published as The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. When your nation is melting down, when the world has gone mad, or even when your family or business are facing challenges, what do Christians need? One of the most important skills you need is Christian contentment. Christian contentment is not apathy or stoicism; it is the Christian virtue that puts you in the very best possible position to do your duty and maximize the good you can do in the world.
THE TEXT
“… for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strentheneth me” (Phil. 4:11-13).
SUMMARY OF THE TEXT
While our text includes one of the most famous Christian calendar verses, we should note that it is not a random “you can do it” verse. It comes in this particular context, where Paul is describing how he has learned contentment in every circumstance (Phil. 4:11). In particular, this strength that Christ gives grows directly out of learning contentment in little and in much, whether full or going hungry, whether abounding or suffering (Phil. 4:12). The word for “content” literally means “self-sufficient” or “self-defense.” The root verb can mean to raise a barrier or to ward off or avail, and the prefix simply means “for oneself.” Clearly Paul does not mean this in a humanistic or egocentric way, as Christ is the one doing the strengthening. But the Christian faith does not teach that we sit around while God works in us. As Paul said earlier in Philippians, we work out our salvation with fear and trembling because God is at work in us to will and to do according to His good pleasure (Phil. 2:12-13). And what is one of the most fundamental motions of that work? Contentment.
CONTENTMENT AS READINESS FOR CONQUEST
We may define contentment as a steady, quiet, and submissive heart that delights in God’s fatherly disposal of every circumstance. We know from many places in Scripture that the godly also plead with God, wrestle with God, and lay their petitions before Him (e.g. Psalms, Phil. 4:6). But all our pleas, laments, and petitions must be matched with an earnest and joyful “but Thy will be done.” If Christ prayed those words in the garden before His arrest (Mt. 26:42), how much more must we? And the thing to note is the fact Jesus was praying this on the verge of His great mission. It was His willingness to submit to God’s plan that put Him in position to do His duty and accomplish the maximum good for the world. Fussing, complaining, moping, fretting, cursing, anger, and bitterness only complicate the mission, and render you less prepared for what comes next. Rather than facing the problem, you are part of the problem.
“Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me” (Heb. 13:5-6, cf. Ps. 118:6). First, notice that this exhortation comes right on the heels of exhortations to hospitality and sexual purity (Heb. 13:1-4). These are common places for people to give in to temptations to discontentment: houses, food, clothing, furniture, decorations, marriage, physical appearance, sex, etc. God created us to be fruitful, multiply, and take dominion of the world, and this means receiving what God has given and then making it better. But you cannot make it better if you do not receive what has actually been given with joy and gratitude. You have to see the “good” before you can make it “very good.” Bitterness and fussing puts you in the best possible position to miss things, confuse things, and harm things. Think this way about your spouse and kids and parents, and work out from there.
CONTENT LIKE JOSHUA & DAVID
There are two Old Testament passages quoted Hebrews 13:5-6. The first is from Joshua 1:5 on the verge of the conquest of Canaan, when God assures Joshua that He will be with him as He was with Moses. Hebrews was written in the context of significant upheaval, and there was great temptation among Christians to go back to Judaism as a way to try to hide, blend in, or cope with all the turmoil. But going back to Judaism was the way of destruction; it was like going back to Egypt. The Christians in the first century (and every century) are called to press on toward the goal of discipling the nations. Every generation fights from the ground we have been given, but the key is Jesus will never leave us or forsake us (cf. Mt. 28:20). And if Christ is with us, then we can face all things through Him who strengthens us (Phil. 4:13).
The other texted quoted in Hebrews 13 is from Psalm 118, which is a triumphant war song, and it was the particular psalm quoted and sung by the people who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?” This is the heart of Christian contentment. It is a rock-solid trust in the living God. The psalmist goes on: “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them… The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation… The right hand of the Lord is exalted: the right hand of the Lord does valiantly… The stone which the builders rejected is become the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. The is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it…”
CONCLUSIONS
Have all the nations surrounded us with mindless mandates and psychotic lockdowns and sexual confusion and baby bloodlust and economic insanity and global conspiracies? The Lord is on our side; we will not fear: what can man do to us? All nations surround us, but in the name of the Lord we will destroy them. The Lord is our strength and song, and He is our salvation.
Paul says that contentment is something he learned. It was something he trained for, practiced, and perfected. But this was not just some stoic virtue, it was training for battle, training for conquest. “Godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Tim. 6:6). And this is because our contentment is Christ. When we work out our salvation, all that we are working out is Christ, and He is what God is working in us. He is our peace, our shield and tower – the One who strengthens us for every moment. Fear and frustration distort your vision because all you can see is the enemy, but contentment steels your heart for battle because Christ is our contentment.
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