Engaging Our Culture

I want to begin this morning by showing you a two-minute video clip of an interview that
our own Trevor Crowe did with Belvo Mayor Neil Ellis.
Take a look at this.
I was there for the groundbreaking ceremony, which we let a couple of doves go and it was
great.
I mean, there was children singing and everybody gathered together and the group was, I believe,
that day there's probably three to four hundred people united and we stood united on the
new property and as I drive by the building, I can't believe the hands that have gone
and how quick the building is going up and again that just shows that the unity in this
building that's going to be built.
It's probably one of the fastest, biggest buildings that's going to be completed and every
day that you run into somebody can't believe the footprint that the new building is putting
up and what it's going to bring not only to the church, goers here, it's going to bring
to the community because the building is from what I understand is going to be open to
other groups to come in and use the hall and as a conference center and stuff like that.
So it's open to the whole community and that's what we're about.
That's Mayor Neil Ellis and I show you that little clip this morning because I think
it captures both the opportunities and the challenges that we face together as we prepare
to transition into new facilities.
The opportunities because it elevates our profile in the community considerably.
We've already been the subject of a number of newspaper articles that we've been on the
news even though that wasn't particularly favorable with a supposedly huge accident where
somebody fell off the roof.
Publicity is publicity I suppose and people drive by and obviously it's a considerable
subject of conversation in the broader community.
That is a huge opportunity but it's also a significant challenge.
A challenge because how can we best capitalize on that exposure and how can we use it as
a springboard to engage our community and our culture in effective ministry.
And that is, you know, is why in recent weeks we've been looking together at this whole
subject of how do we engage our culture.
And we've seen together that historically Christians have not been on one mind as to
how to do that.
In fact, we have identified with the help of Richard Neibor five different approaches that Christians
have taken historically in terms of that relationship with culture.
And so two weeks ago when we looked at this subject, we've begun to focus at the person
of Jesus because the best way to answer that question then how do we engage our culture
is to look at the person of Jesus Christ.
And so far we've looked at two elements out of three that I want to talk with you about.
The first is that if you look at Jesus he fully enters into our culture, the word becomes
flesh.
Christianity is not some kind of a disembodied spirituality where you're sprouting, sport
of halo and strum harps in the sweet by and by.
It is a realistic living in the here and now and that has huge implications in terms of
how we engage our culture.
Jesus fully enters into our culture and then he redeems culture, that is to say what
God has created, what the fall has twisted and destroyed, Jesus is in the process of trying
to bring it back.
He does that by his incarnation, by his death, his resurrection, his ascension and one day
by coming again in glory and making a new heaven and a new earth.
And without repeating all the things that I said two weeks ago, it is two very practical
implications.
God's people have an obligation to work in today's society to try to make it better.
Why?
Because the world matters to go on.
At the same time we need to hold things in proper tension and recognize that the best
of the best that we do in the here and now is short lived because ultimate transformation
is only in the age to come and so you have this tension.
You have this tension of the already and the not yet as theologians call it.
The fact that we're looking for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness reigns
where Jesus comes and makes it all better and the fact that as Christians we are the
signposts of the new age and we model in our lives, in our families, in our relationships.
We give a flavor of the life to come and I think it's safe to say one of the reasons
Renée and Evelyn so feel called to raising a family and bringing them up in the ways
of the Lord is to serve as a signpost, a testimony of what life looks like when Jesus
is at the center of our hearts and of our lives.
And that is incredibly powerful to the world all around us and even though this age is
not going to last indefinitely it is a signpost of the new kingdom that God is coming.
And that brings me this morning that in the time that we have to a third observation
about Christ and culture and that is this.
The relationship between Christ and culture is one that is constantly changing.
The relationship between Christ and the people around here is constantly changing.
I don't know if you've ever looked carefully at the life and ministry of Jesus in the
gospels but I find it fascinating to watch the transition of how people relate to Him except
for Herod who was antagonistic towards baby Jesus from the very beginning.
Most people when Jesus first starts his public ministry are pretty much neutral.
That is to say let's see who this teacher of Nazareth is.
Even the Pharisees who later on become his enemies are pretty open-minded at first.
It's not until Jesus begins to teach and preach and heal and represent the face of God
to the people all around him that a divergence of opinion begins to happen.
And so there are those like the disciples who are drawn to Jesus.
They come to faith and they bow and they acknowledge you are the Son of God.
And then there are many others including the religious leaders of His day.
They look at Jesus and they get increasingly offended by Him.
And by the time the life and the ministry of Jesus ends you either love Him or you hate
Him.
Diagrammatically we can represent that this way.
On that little line that you see there let's say that this represents fully devoted
follower of Jesus.
This represents the opposite end a person who is just simply antagonistic to Christ.
Well when Jesus first appears a lot of people are neutral but then as He carries on His
ministry some come to faith and others they move in the opposite direction.
Nobody remains neutral in the presence of Jesus.
Why?
Because Jesus represents heaven's light.
Jesus represents God's values.
He represents the kingdom of God.
And when Jesus comes around what is inside your heart gets flushed out.
And when what's inside your heart gets flushed out you've got to make a decision.
I'm going to embrace Him.
I'm going to serve Him.
I'm going to love Him.
I'm going to call Him the Christ or I dislike Him.
I hate Him.
He's an imposter.
He does His miracles by the power of Satan.
I'm going to turn against Him and I'm going to try to kill Him.
You either for me says Jesus or you're against me.
Nobody can remain neutral in the presence of Jesus.
See His Lewis years ago in mere Christianity put it so well when He said concerning the
person of Jesus He would either be a lunatic on a level with a man who says He's a post-Age
or else He would be the devil of hell.
You must make your choice.
Either this man was and is the Son of God or else a madman or something worse.
Jesus forces you to make a decision and even when people think they are not making a decision
they are because as He says you're either with me and for me or you're against me.
Now that has huge implications for those of us who are Christ followers because as the
passage that we've read from Matthew 10 points out ever so clearly we are His representatives
sent into the world to engage the world as the Father sent me as Jesus and John's Gospel
so I send you. And though I would be the first to agree that often our salt is diluted
and our light doesn't always shine very brightly to the degree to which Jesus is present
in our lives to the degree to which the Holy Spirit shows up in our hearts to that degree
we're going to expose what is in the hearts of people and to that degree they're going
to be forced to make a decision. Not only about us and our integrity and our ministry and
our words but also the message of Jesus whom we represent because remember in the final
day of judgment the nations are going to be judged how they're going to be judged
by what they have done with the representatives of Jesus. He who accepts you says Jesus
accepts me. He who rejects you rejects me. Now that has three very practical implications
that I want to try to talk you through for a few moments this morning and here's the
first implication God's people by definition always introduce a measure of polarization
in society. We always produce a measure of tension. Jesus himself puts it this way
later on in this chapter he says do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the
earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword for I have come to turn a man against
his father a daughter against her mother a daughter in law against her mother in law and
a man's enemies will be the members of his own household. That's one of these hard sayings
of Jesus and a lot of people say well does that mean Jesus enjoys making trouble and
setting us up against each other and the answer is of course not. What Jesus means is that
he demands our loyalty over every other loyalty and so as he comes to us and he forces us
to either choose for him or against him we're going to discover that that line of choosing
not only flows through all of society it flows through our very hearts and we must all
decide then are we with Jesus or are we not with Jesus. This popular teaching today
of a Jesus meek and mild who loves everybody regardless of what is such a bunch of hogwash
if you ever read the scriptures is Jesus passionate in his love you bat is he passionate
in his anger against sin you bat would you want a cancer specialist to be favorably inclined
to cancer in your body and say well I love all self equally I think I'd find another
surgeon real fast because you cannot love what is good and love what is evil at the
same time and so you and I if we represent Jesus even if we never say a word but if this
spirit of Jesus leaves even us then people need to make choices and to the degree to
which they make choices you've got a measure of polarization that is taking place let
me try to illustrate it this way let's suppose that you have a young couple that is married
or engaged and they're both fives towards Jesus that is to say one of them is a nominal
Christian in name only the other really doesn't believe but they share pretty much a common
culture and the only reason they get along together is because they are very much alike
but her orientation foundation is towards Jesus and his orientation is foundationally
away from Jesus now you and I we both know lots of people that are like that don't way and
they get along fabulously and they say there's no reason we should not get married because
we love each other but consider this now along comes the gospel and Jesus says this is
who I am this is what I'm calling you to this is what is seen this is what is righteousness
this is what is repentance this is what it is to have God at the center of your life
and let's say in this relationship the girl begins to respond to Jesus and she starts
moving in this way and the young man he doesn't like what is happening with her he doesn't
like the claims of Jesus and he begins to move this way now you've got tension that
is beginning to increase tension that is caused by the presence of the gospel and that
tension is why scripture says believers and unbelievers ought not to be unequally yoked in marriage
because the only reason this works at all is when people remain on neutral ground and
typically then what happens in this kind of situation the tension develops between the
two of them that relationship is either going to split apart or this girl is going to
go his way or he's got to come her way the Bible says can two people walk together unless
they be agreed and while it's important for us not to use our own foolishness as we'll
see a few moments to precipitate this kind of division by our own arrogance and foolishness
I want us to understand there is something inherent in the gospel there is something inherent
in Jesus that makes people choose for him or against him and you know why that is because
by the time the day a judgment rolls around everybody's either a sheep or they're a goat
you're either with him or you're against him and whatever lives inside your heart will
have come to full expression as a matter of fact in verse 26 of this chapter Jesus says
don't be afraid of them that is the world there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed
or hidden that will not be made known God flushes out what's in our hearts you with me that
is a critical thing that most Christians in this day and age of law side of our forebears
used to call this the antithesis the contrast the conflict between the kingdom of the world
and the kingdom of God well the second thing I want us to note on account of this then
is that how we relate to culture very clearly then depends on where in this cycle we find
ourselves and where culture finds itself let's suppose that you come to a culture as
is true for North America until relatively recently that was fairly favorably inclined
towards Christianity even though many people around you may not be Christians let's suppose
they were influenced by Christianity and so your relationship with them is there's a lot
of places that you can work together because you share similar values you you work together
looking after the poor you you're interested in holding the value of family for example
or you're interested in justice and in righteousness and all those kinds of issues now suppose in
the other hand that you come to a society that has deliberately rejected Jesus and that
is living as a rule over here well immediately your relationship changes because now every
thing you do becomes an issue and puts your life at stake and you see this difference of
response in the passage that we've read together where Jesus says to his disciples when you
go on my behalf into a town to proclaim my coming he says you find yourself a house where
dwells the son of peace and there you stay if you can find such a person don't stay there
shake off the dust from your feet and go on to the next town scripture never encourages
us indefinitely to keep rubbing people's noses into the claims of Jesus I'll talk about
that in just a few moments what the scripture does repeatedly is gives people the opportunity
to know Jesus and to respond to him and then depending on what their response is that
determines to a very large degree the relationship that we have with culture and so if you look
at the ministry of Jesus you will see when he's with his disciples he shares his heart
and reveals to them the Father's will but when he's with the Pharisees and the Pharisees
are gunning for him he doesn't just stand there and provoke them until the time was
right now he gets out of there because you say how you engage society depends on where
you find society and if you understand that then you will understand why historically Christians
have had five different approaches to engaging culture there's a world of a difference in
how you engage culture until recently at least in North America from how you would engage
culture in Nazi Germany or Communist Soviet Union or even to this day elements of China how
you relate is determined by what people are receptive to and so sometimes you will join
an organization because you can make a difference in an organization sometimes it becomes obvious
the organization wants nothing more to do with Jesus and it's time to get out of there and
a lot of churches go through that the Anglican Church in Canada currently the United Church
previously to a very large degree people taking issue with the issue of homosexuality wondering
can I in good conscience remain part of this confessional fellowship of believers and you
have people coming to the conclusion yes I can stay and work and make a difference or no it's
gone too far I can't make a difference and to preserve my own sanity to preserve my own
integrity and to keep my own family safe I'm going to step out of this situation into a new one
something that ought never to be done lightly in Christian community for sure something that ought
to be only done when the basic elements of the faith are being challenged but it's an inevitable
part of this process that how you relate to your friends or how you relate to society depends
entirely on where they're at and it doesn't just depend on you the more antagonistic the
art towards faith the less they want to deal with you because you see the divide is happening
and so in an unequally yoke marriage scripture says that if the unbelieving spouse no longer
wants to live with you because you have become a Christian and he wants to leave then you let him
go why because God has called us to peace not to conflict but the choice has to be his it's not
your choice to make you with me so the gospel introduces a measure of polarization that polarization
surfaces then in how we deal with society that is determined by how open or how antagonistic
the art towards faith and on account of all of that then says Jesus we need to be wise as
serpents and innocent as does don't know if you ever found yourself in a situation where God
uses you to stand for truth in somebody else's life maybe it's just by an unwillingness to
participate in their sin maybe it's by speaking into somebody's life however lovingly you do that
you will notice one of the characteristics of the human heart is that if you try to point something
out in somebody else's life what is their reaction almost inevitably they will turn it around and
they will try to find fault with you because if I can find fault with you then I don't have to look
at what's wrong with me and so when as God's people we try to shine light and we try to be
solved however imperfectly we do that when the Holy Spirit uses us to convict people they will
sometimes become very nasty and they will turn against us and they will try to find fault with us
and unfortunately all too often there is something they can find to throw at us and even if there isn't
something that they can find as was the case with Jesus they'll make it up because K and must
always justify his anger as it is directed towards evil so what's the antidote well Jesus tries
to prepare us by saying I want you to be shrewd as snakes or wise as serpents and innocent as doves
to be innocent as a dove is to not give cause for people to find fault with us it's to try to live
as blamelessly as we can Peter puts it this way in your heart set apart Christ is Lord always be
prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have
but do this with gentleness and respect keeping a clear conscience so that those who speak maliciously
against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slender now none of us is perfect
and yes somebody will always be able to find something to throw at us and it behooves us to have
an attitude of humility in those situations and it behooves us to try to live as transparently
as we can and to be shrewd as a snake or to be wise as a serpent is to live in such a way
that you don't go courting disaster it's a very fine line between being persecuted for Christ
and persecuted because you are borish arrogant foolish or stupid and if you're going to represent
Jesus it's never smart to poke the bear just to see if he'll wake up and have a conversation with
you don't throw your pearl before swine if people aren't open to receiving what you have to give
them you may continue to love them you can continue to carry them in your heart but the scriptural
message is repeatedly you warn a person once or twice after that they are responsible for their
own sin before God and sometimes in the Christian community we're so anxious for people to come to
faith or for people not to wander away that we become their conscience and we're the ones that are
beating them up in order to try to bring them to faith and all that does is it makes people more
angry and it makes them turn away if we don't warn them their bloods on our head according to
Scripture Ezekiel but if we have warned people and they still wander away then their blood is
on their own head before God so why is all of this so important I'll tell you why we live in a time
when our North American society as a whole is hellbound as they say in a basket
and our culture has moved from a relatively benign endorsement of the Christian faith to an
increasingly hostile position on almost every front I won't keep you long but let me share with
you just a couple of paragraphs from a book that Valerie Peters has just lent to me it's called
UnChristian what a new generation really thinks about Christianity and why it matters this book
is not based on anecdotal evidence it's not based on personal experience it's based on extensive
surveys that the author David Kitteman has undertaken in connection with the Barna group George
Barna for many years has been surveying society to find out what people really think
and here are some of his observations just to lay them before you in 1996 our firm released the
report Christianity has a strong positive image despite fewer active participants the study showed
that Americans even those in the outside looking in possessed widespread respect for Christians
among outsiders atheists were agnostics those of a faith other than Christianity are unchurched
individuals know with no firm religious convictions we discovered that 85% were favorable towards
Christianity's role in society and the perception of the youngest generations mirrored this finding
that's ten years ago one decade now a decade later the image of the Christian faith has
suffered a major setback he goes on to say the nation's population is increasingly resistant to
Christianity especially to the theologically conservative expressions of that faith of course
we have always had detractors but now the critics of the faith are becoming bolder and more vocal
we know about that and the aversion and hostility are for the first time crystallizing in the
attitudes of millions of young Americans a huge chunk of a new generation is concluded they
were nothing to do with us as Christians we are widely mistrusted by a skeptical generation
and then he goes on to say that in our national surveys with young people we found the three most
common perceptions of present-day Christianity are number one that it's inter homosexual
an image held by 91% of young outsiders judgmental by 87% hypocritical by 85
these big three are followed by the following negative perceptions embraced by a majority
of young adults old-fashioned to involved in politics this is obviously American out of touch
with reality insensitive to others boring not accepting of others faiths and confusing when they
think of the Christian faith these are the images that come to mind now if you're like me you
read that and you say whoa hold on just a minute I can think of all kinds of reasons why people
feel that way obviously the trend of the media and the trend of society fuels that and that's
undoubtedly the case fact of the matter is if those survey results are accurate that is the
culture that we face and if we're going to engage our culture we need to be wise as serpents
and innocent as doves we need the wisdom of Jesus not only to model what life with Jesus looks
like but how to engage them in ways that are meaningful and that's why I for one applaud our young
adults ministry is they get into the church of irresistible influence because in a world of
hypocrisy and a world of double mindedness what do people need the most they need to see the love
of Jesus activated in our hearts and in our lives without losing sight of the reality of the
gospel and so what's our biggest challenge even as we face the biggest opportunities it's to have
hearts that are so filled with love for God and so filled with love for each other and so filled
with love for the world that people will see our good deeds and give glory to our Father it was in heaven
every step will be a prayer hope is rising in new day dawn in the sound of singing
feels the end 2000 years and still the flame is burning bright across the land
hearts are waving all the kaking we're all waking once again with the flame we're brighter
in the heart of the darkness turning night to the warmest day
ever come grow louder as the love grows stronger let it shine let it shine
you are for true speak our will love in Jesus name we shall be strong
to let the fallen to sing the children to fill a nation with your song
and the flame of brighter in the heart of the darkness turning night to the warmest day
ever come grow louder as the love grows stronger let it shine let it shine
as the flame we're brighter in the heart of the darkness turning night to the warmest day
ever come grow louder as the love grows stronger let it shine
let it shine let it shine let it shine