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Have Harrison share his testimony from the incident at school two weeks ago.
Introduction
But the horizontal relationships don’t seem to fair as well. Those who are
truly born again will attest to how difficult it is to leave in total peace with
other Christians. Fights, quarrels, bickering, gossiping, slandering, etc. all
abound in too many churches and among too many Christian relationships.
I’d like to submit to you this morning, however, that your testimony about
your relationship with God is inseparable from the lifestyle you reflect in
your relationships with other people. You can’t have a solid vertical
relationship without a solid horizontal one. And conversely, you can’t have
horizontal relationships that function normally in a biblical way, unless your
vertical relationship with God is functioning in a normal way. They go hand
in hand. They’re two sides of the same coin.
Why does it have to be this way? For the simple fact that we show our love
for God by how we love one another. People won’t know we love God if we
don’t love one another. By the same token, they will know we are
followers of Jesus by how we treat His family members. As one pastor put
it, “you can’t love Jesus and dis His Bride.” Or put another way, “You can’t
say you follow Jesus when you mistreat His brothers and sisters.”
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news that God has come into the world
in the person of Jesus Christ to live the perfect life I never could, and die the
death I never would, and raise Himself from the dead in order to one thing:
to get rid of everything in my life that hindered me from being God’s best
friend, thereby making me a friend of God.
September 6,
OUR MISSION AND VISION (2) 2009
My goal here this morning is simply to make the single most significant
application of the gospel in all of Scripture: if God has reconciled you to
Himself then you’re also reconciled with everyone else who’s
reconciled to Him. My ability to act this out and live this way, as far as it
depends on me, is the real measure of whether or not my profession of faith
is genuine.
Ephesians 1:4-2:10 is all about Reconciling Sinners to God, the first part of
our mission statement here at Church in the Boro. Ephesians 2:11-3:21 is
about the second part of that mission statement, which is “Reconciling
People to Each Other.” You see, we believe here at Church in the Boro that
being reconciled to God means we are automatically reconciled to everyone
else around us who has been reconciled to God. In other words, if you’re a
follower of Jesus, then you and I are followers together. And if nothing
separates you from the love of God, then nothing can separate you from my
love…and nothing should separate me from your love.
He speaks to this in 2:11 and following, when he writes that the Gentiles
were uncircumcised. Circumcision, while something doctors do today to
infants for health purposes, held deep religious significance for a Jew. If
you’ve ever read the story about Abraham, in Genesis 17 God tells him that
because He chose Abraham and was going to make a whole nation of people
who would love Him, God wanted to seal His promise with Abraham by
mandating that he circumcise himself and all his descendants after him on
their eighth day. A scary prospect for a man who was about a hundred years
old at that time, if not a little older.
And it is at this point that Paul introduces the gospel, the good news. It was
good news to the Gentile who was on the “outs” with God and His promises
to Israel. Paul writes in verse 13 that “now in Christ Jesus you who once
were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Hallelujah!
That’s you and me folks! Unless I missed any Jews who are here visiting with
us this morning, every single one of us would have continued to be without
hope and without God in this world had it not been for Jesus Christ bringing
us close to God by His blood. I love Paul’s language there: you who once
were far off. Once upon a time I was far off from God, but not anymore,
hallelujah.
b. In dying for them (us) He broke down the dividing wall of hostility by
abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances.
And this brings up a key parallel I want to make from Ephesians 2 to our day.
The issue in Paul’s day was the two races: Jews and Gentiles. But we’d be
idiots if we missed the parallels that can be made to our culture today, a
culture where we can’t necessarily identify with Jew and Gentile disputes in a
local church. Here’s what it looks like today: Racism and Discrimination.
The street I live on is a great example of all three layers of racism and
discrimination coming in to play. Why doesn’t Mikell Street in Statesboro
have curbs like almost every other street? Because cities give attention to
streets based on the amount of money the citizens on that street contribute
to the system. So on a street where 90% are blacks (most of whom are
receiving from the welfare system), 5% are Latino, 2.5% are White, and 2.5%
are Philippino, a city is not going to commit their resources equally to my
street as they would in a much more privilege neighborhood of Statesboro.
This is evil, wicked, and unbiblical because God hates favoritism and
partiality. And favoritism and partiality are driven by racism and
discrimination, no matter how much we hate to admit it.
Now undoubtedly, I’ve asked a lot of questions and you’ve had a lot of
answers pop into your head. But here’s the point I want to make clear. The
fact that you’ve had a lot of seemingly justifiable answers pop up in your
head to my questions makes my case that racism and discrimination are
systemic to our culture in the south and to our city here in Statesboro. You
made up answers and exceptions to my questions because you are just as
much affected, or rather infected, by racism and discrimination as I am. It’s
in our DNA. But the point Paul made, and the one I’m making, is that the
blood of Jesus Christ has changed our DNA. Let me say it in Southern for
you: “I ain’t no white-lovin’, nigger-hatin’, Jew-hatin’, Mexican-hatin’
Georgian by birth, and Southern by the grace of God!” I’m a multi-ethnic
lover, multi-racial lover, multi-color lover, and multi-language lover of red,
yellow, black and white just like my Savior, Jesus Christ! THAT’S WHO I am
now. All skin colors fade in the blood of Jesus.
God says that ALL Christians are a part of His family. He doesn’t
discriminate. He does not show favoritism. He is not partial. He shares His
blessings with everyone, regardless of race or social status. The difficulty,
however, is that since the church is the reflection of God’s blessing on earth,
it’s awful hard to tell that God is sharing His blessings with every race and
September 6,
OUR MISSION AND VISION (2) 2009
Now, let me switch back to the theology of Ephesians here and take what
I’ve just preached to you and drive it a little further. What I don’t want you
to miss here is the interplay Paul intends here between the work of Jesus on
behalf of reconciling sinners to God, and the work of Jesus on behalf of
reconciling people to each other. When the blood of Christ brings a Gentile
near to God and into the covenant and promises of God, then that
automatically means that saved Gentile is brought near to the saved Jew as
an inseparable part of the same family.
In other words, the work of Jesus on the cross for each person, regardless of
their race, accomplishes the very same work vertically (in their relationship
with God), and horizontally (in their relationship with each other). And here’s
the application I want to give to you this morning.
Jesus Christ died for the church. If you are a believer, you are a part of the
church. When Jesus Christ died for you and everyone else in the church, He
instantly, once-and-for-all brought you and everyone else near to God.
Therefore, when Jesus Christ died for you and everyone else in the church,
He instantly, once-and-for-all brought you all near to each other. His death
united you to Himself, and it also united you to each other. If you are
reconciled to God, then you’re equally reconciled to the believer sitting next
to you, as well as to the believer sitting on the other side of this planet from
you right now. Let me break this out from Ephesians 2 for a moment to drive
my point home.
• Jewish and Gentile believers have been brought near to God, and
therefore to one another (2:13).
• Both races have peace with God, and therefore with one another
(2:14).
• The hostility both races have with God has been removed, and so it
has with one another (2:14).
September 6,
OUR MISSION AND VISION (2) 2009
• God did all these things not only to unite me to Him, but in order to
create a new group of people reconciled and united to each other
(2:16-17).
• Jesus preached peace to Jews and Gentiles alike, in order to give them
all an access to the Father, making all Christians, regardless of race,
saints and members of the church of God (2:18-19).
Really, what we’re saying then is that the second part of our mission
statement here at Church in the Boro - “Reconciling People to Each Other” -
is about continuing and deepening our relationships with each other
regardless of sin or skin.
God doesn’t let our sin get in the way of our relationship with Him because
He’s forgiven it once and for all. And so we shouldn’t let our sin get in the
way of our relationship with each other, because He’s forgiven their sin once
and for all also.
Likewise, God doesn’t let our race, as Gentiles, get in the way of our
relationship with Him because Jesus died to bring us into His family. So
neither should we let the race of another person get in the way of our
relationship with them, because Jesus died to bring them into His family also.
Now, in light of these truths, there are five things I want to leave you with
this morning which are key applications for us as a church plant right now.
• If all our sins are forgiven then they can’t get in the way of our
relationships with each other. Yes, there’s repentance involved, but
forgiveness must precipitate all of our relationships, not repentance.
In the end, it is the knowledge that you forgive that person and still fervently
love and accept them that will foster their repentance. When people feel
that the relationship will be hindered or separated, as it usually happens,
they usually think about their sin or the other person’s sin differently. In
other words, the lack of forgiveness and commitment to reconciliation
always clouds a person’s perception of other people’s actions, words, and
lifestyle. But when the relationship is soaked and marinated and baptized
and drowned in the blood of Jesus Christ, a fervency of love toward each
ensures that the relationship won’t be lost. That blood of Jesus Christ is
actually an oil or lubricant that motivates forgiveness and stimulates faster
reconciliation.
September 6,
OUR MISSION AND VISION (2) 2009
• When Jesus made Jews and Gentiles into one new group (Eph. 2:14),
every tribe, race, and language was included.
• When Jesus reconciled Jews and Gentiles into one body, killing the
hostility that existed between them (Eph. 2:16), there is no reason
in the mind of God in which two Christians of different races ought
not to be reconciled to each other today; especially since all races
have access in one Spirit to the Father (Eph. 2:18).
This means that everything you learn about God’s attitude towards you
is to be the attitude you take towards other people, including
unbelievers. Remember Romans 5:6, 8, and 10. While you were
ungodly, helpless and His enemy, He died for you. Study the love God
has toward you in Christ if you want to know how to love one another.
Jesus taught us in Matthew 5:23-24, “So if you are offering your gift at
the altar and there remember that your brother has something against
you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled
to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” God doesn’t want
to accept what you want to give Him if you aren’t right with one of His
children, with one of your brothers or sisters. It’s hard to receive it
from you when He knows you don’t want to give it to your own spiritual
flesh and blood.
This is a huge key for some of you right now. In the past you acted out
a desire to glorify God by being jealous for His glory, but you acted it
out in a sinful and prideful way. This unnecessarily offended other
people and actually had the opposite effect of staining the glory of God
in their eyes. So it’s hard for God to accept the praise and worship and
prayers and Bible reading you do when that other matter hasn’t been
cleared up. If you want real freedom and real breakthrough in your life
this morning, get this area right and the heavens will open up to you
and the blessing of God will come down on you like you’ve never
experienced it before. Do NOT underestimate the power of
September 6,
OUR MISSION AND VISION (2) 2009
reconciliation, nor the blessing and success it brings in your life and
ministry. Listen to Eugene Peterson’s translation of Isaiah 58:1-12 on
this subject.
1-3
"Shout! A full-throated shout! Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout!
Tell my people what's wrong with their lives,
face my family Jacob with their sins!
They're busy, busy, busy at worship,
and love studying all about me.
To all appearances they're a nation of right-living people—
law-abiding, God-honoring.
They ask me, 'What's the right thing to do?'
and love having me on their side.
But they also complain,
'Why do we fast and you don't look our way?
Why do we humble ourselves and you don't even notice?'
3-5
"Well, here's why:
"The bottom line on your 'fast days' is profit.
You drive your employees much too hard.
You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight.
You fast, but you swing a mean fist.
The kind of fasting you do
won't get your prayers off the ground.
Do you think this is the kind of fast day I'm after:
a day to show off humility?
To put on a pious long face
and parade around solemnly in black?
Do you call that fasting,
a fast day that I, God, would like?
"This is the kind of fast day I'm after:
6-9
Jesus flips the coin on the other side in Matthew 18:15-20. In Matthew
5 the focus was on the person who knew they had offended somebody
else. In Matthew 18 the focus is on the person who has been offended
by somebody else. Listen to what Jesus says. “If your brother sins
against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If
he listens to you, you have gained your brother.” The goal in going to
the person who’s hurt you is to gain them, to win them, to be
reconciled to them.
For those of you who have taken offense at what someone else has
done, Jesus challenges you as well. He cannot bless you when you are
holding something against one of His other children. If I could get this
one thought across to you it would be this: Jesus is just as crazy in
love with His other children as He is with YOU! Forget this truth
and you will be held on bondage to bitterness and resentment the rest
of your life. You cannot hold something over the head of another
follower of Jesus when Jesus doesn’t hold anything you’ve done over
your head. So if somebody’s done you wrong, drop what you’re doing
and go settle it with them, treating them as God has treated you,
dealing with their sin the way God has dealt with your sin. And if they
September 6,
OUR MISSION AND VISION (2) 2009
listen to you about what they did wrong, then you’ve reconciled
yourself to them and them to you.
Conclusion
To wrap this up, listen to me closely here on these five application points.
This whole issue of being reconciled to each other is a whole lot bigger than
just you and your problems, you and your enemies, you and your issues. Do
you know why Paul wrote what he did in Ephesians 2 and 3? It was about
the church of God.
You see, the presence and work of Jesus in the church has a greater
dimension of impact on the world than the presence and work of Jesus in
your personal life. You must reconcile yourself to one another because if
you don’t, then the church effectively ceases to exist in any real and
effectual way. Who wants to be a part of a family that can’t get along with
itself? Who wants to be a part of a church were people are all the time mad
at each other? How can such a church really have an genuine impact on the
world, reconciling sinners to God, if they can’t even stay reconciled to each
other. You know what they’ll interpret from that? That if we can’t stay
reconciled to each other, then how can we stay reconciled to God? You see,
they interpret the gospel by how we behave. If we tell them about
justification by faith, that God declares us no longer guilty before Him, but
then we turn around and hold other people guilty before us, where’s the
consistency that makes people want to be justified by God? Why would I
want to come to your God when you can’t get along with the people He
loves?
“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s
Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will
destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple”
(1 Cor. 3:16-17).
That’s how serious God is about this matter of not being reconciled to each
other. Grouping off into cliques is something foreign to Jesus when He
predestined this whole plan of a church. Not one Christian can come up with
one solid reason as to why they should not be reconciled and unified with
other believers.
September 6,
OUR MISSION AND VISION (2) 2009
“Well, they’re just strange folks.” Remember, you were strange folks to God,
but He saved you and made you a part of His family.
“Well, they’re just not in our socio-economic strata.” Well, you’re not in
God’s socio-economic strata. He owns the universe and you own a nice
house and a couple of nice cars. He doesn’t hold that against you.
“You don’t understand…so and so has got some serious issues.” But from
God’s perspective, so did you before He saved you. And now He’s working
your issues out, just like He’s working out their issues.
“But Rob, I feel uncomfortable and out of place in a church where I’m one of
the only few white people.” Then you’re gonna feel extremely
uncomfortable around the throne of King Jesus, because in Revelation 5
there are gonna people there from every skin color and language.
My point is that this matter of reconciliation to each other is way, way bigger
than just you and me and our personal issues with other people. This is a
matter of world evangelism. In John 17 we see a prayer that Jesus prayed
then, but one He continues praying right now to this very minute. “I do not
ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their
word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you,
that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have
sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they
may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may
become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and
loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:20-23).
Friends, that’s powerful. That’s the most powerful prayer I’ve ever read, I
think. Notice the frequent references to being “one.” And how does that
happen, exactly? Just how does a group of Christians act as one? By being
reconciled to each other.
And did you notice that other phrase Jesus used twice? He basically said that
the reason He wants us to be one, to be reconciled to each other is so that
the world may believe in Jesus, so that the world may know that Jesus is the
Son of God and that God loves them just like He loves Jesus.
September 6,
OUR MISSION AND VISION (2) 2009
I want Church in the Boro to be the answer to the prayer Jesus prays there in
that passage. Let me say that again, loudly, clearly, and slowly.
I…
Want…
To…
Be…
THE…
Answer…
To…
The…
Prayer…
Jesus…
Is Praying…
Right Now!
Will you work with me to be that answer, so that together we can reconcile
the world to King Jesus? If that’s what you want, then we want you here with
us at Church in the Boro.