16.01.11 - It Is All About Jesus

I have only three more occasions when I will preach here. I am here this week and next, then away on 30th January and 6th February and then 13th February will be our last Sunday. Obviously, I have asked myself what I want to say in these last opportunities.

Eighteen months ago, I got an email that quoted an article called “The Amazing Disappearing and Reappearing Cross”. It was about preaching. Its main point was that a lot of preaching doesn’t even refer to Jesus or, more particularly, to the Cross. The Cross has disappeared. A lot of preaching is like the self-help books that you can buy in any book shop. How to be successful. How to be a better person. How to have a better marriage. Six steps to answered prayer.

It is good to be successful. It is good to be a better person and to have a better marriage and to pray. It is good for preaching to be practical. The question is: Was Jesus required? Or could we do it by ourselves?

Preachers might tell people what they ought to do. That’s fine but how are people going to live by that moral standard? This article says, “It takes a life transformation to live by the moral standards of Jesus. That transformation can only come through the cross.” The preaching is not Christian unless it comes back to the cross.

It is not only preaching. In our discussions in our small groups or to our conversations with friends we can tell people what to do and how to do it, in a way that doesn’t require Jesus. It is self-help. Even if it reflects Jesus’ teaching, if it can be done without Jesus then anyone could do it. A good-living Hindu or Muslim or atheist could do it. The cross has disappeared.

For example, Jesus said, “When someone strikes you on one cheek, turn the other cheek to him.” Any good Hindu or atheist might agree with that and might even go some way towards living it out. But self-protection and the desire for retaliation and revenge are built into us. They are part of our nature. The only way our nature changes is through the death of Jesus on the cross. Anyone can have a high ideal. That is not uniquely Christian. But only the person who has died and been raised again with Jesus, has that new nature. The new nature is the Christ-like nature and Jesus wasn’t driven by a desire for retaliation. Being a new person in Christ is uniquely Christian. An atheist can agree with Christ’s teaching but an atheist cannot be a new person in Christ.

Another example: how do you grow a church? Well there are all sorts of things that it is just wise to do. The worship should engage people. The preaching needs to be relevant. Being entertaining helps. Small groups are key. Make people feel welcome and valued. You know two of the most important things are nice toilets and high quality child-care. Those things are really important but any savvy business knows that it needs to look after people and provide excellent services. That has got nothing to do with Jesus.

If Jesus isn’t required, then it is not Christian. Any fool could do it.

Paul, the apostle, talking about growing a church said, “I planted the seed; Apollos watered it but God makes it grow.” (1 Cor 3:6). In fact he went on to say,
1 Cor 3:7-9 So neither the one who plants, nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their labour. For we are God’s co-workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

In one sense, those who clean the toilets and those who develop the programmes are nothing because growth comes from God. In another sense, they are co-workers with God. We need to plant and water. We need to clean the toilets and have good programmes – but the growth comes from God.

Another example: you read your Bible (because the preacher said you should) and you are reminded of the story of the exodus of the Jews out of Egypt. But did you hear the voice of the Holy Spirit? What have you done that was different from what a non-Christian could do? Reading the Bible is not necessarily Christian. Anyone can read the Bible. Not anyone can hear God speak through the Bible.

Do you hear what I am saying? It is all about Jesus. It is all about the cross – the saving, transforming effect of the cross. Paul said,
1 Cor 2:2 I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

It is not about self-improvement. It is not about good living. It is not about what we can do. It is about Jesus and the cross. It is not about being good people. It is about being changed people, new people.

We can simply live by a high moral code but not be changed people. We can visit the sick but Jesus be no part of it. We can serve as part of the church family and rely completely on our human abilities. If Jesus isn’t required, we are doing no more than any other highly motivated atheist.

The New Testament does contain lots of commands as to how we should live. It can sound like moral advice but I suggest to you that it is always linked back to Jesus
• These things are to be done as our response to Jesus, as people saved by Jesus
• These things are to be done because we are to imitate Jesus, as people following Jesus
• These things can be done only by the power of Jesus, as people transformed by Jesus

For example, Romans 12-16 contain instruction as to how Christians should live but the first 11 chapters contain a detailed description of what God has done for our salvation. In particular, chapters 6-8 talk about us dying with Jesus and being raised to a new life in which sin has no power over us. So the ethical instruction does not stand alone. It follows on from all that has been said. It is the consequence of the gospel. Paul makes that clear by starting chapter 12 with “therefore”. That links the ethical instruction to the salvation we have received. In fact, Paul makes it more explicit:
Rom 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s great mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is true worship.

The ethical living is an act of worship explicitly a response to the mercy of God. No atheist is motivated to worship God or to respond to God’s great mercy or to offer his body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is specifically Christian.

Not only that but in the next verse Paul says,
Rom 12:2 Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will.

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Paul doesn’t say, “Transform yourself” but “be transformed”. Who is going to do the transforming? This is us being transformed by God.

The verse also talks about a daily conversation with God as we discern His will. Christianity is not just about good, ethical living. It is about living in a relationship with Jesus and living by the power of Jesus.

Although those later chapters of Romans do contain lots of ethical instruction and not every one is linked back to Jesus, we run across verses such as:
Rom 12:5 ...in Christ we, though many, form one body...

That is not true of Hindus and Muslims and atheists. It is only as we are in Christ that we form one body.

Romans 13:14 Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

The ability to no longer gratify our sinful natures comes only as we clothe ourselves with Jesus. Even the most moral atheist cannot do that.

What I am trying to say is that it is all about Jesus. It is about Jesus being at the very centre of our lives; about Jesus being the motivating and empowering presence in our lives. It is not about living ethically. It is about living by faith In Jesus.

I think the Christian life is summed up nicely in an Old Testament passage.
Proverbs 3:5-6 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.

Ponder those words. See how it centres around the Lord. Everything centres around Jesus and a wholehearted trust in Him. “With all your heart... in all your ways”. Everything centres around Jesus.

It is about trust. It is about believing that God is good; with all our heart believing that God is good; believing that God knows what He is doing and I can trust Him. He loves me and He is not going to hurt me so I will do whatever He asks of me.

Sometimes God will ask of us things that we don’t understand and that don’t seem rational. Asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac made no sense at all but Abraham did not rely on his own understanding. He trusted God and that trust is referred to several times in the New Testament as the epitome of faith.

It doesn’t mean doing stupid things. It means trusting God – believing that God is good – so much that we will do what He asks even when we don’t understanding.

It also means that, for example, in growing a church, it is not just a case of relying on techniques – human wisdom. Trust God. Don’t rely only on clever programming.

In all your ways submit to Him. All your ways – everything we do – no exceptions. There is no part of our lives which is to be kept separate from our Christian lives. There is no part that we can control while other bits we allow Jesus to control. Jesus is to be Lord of all our lives.

Submission means we acknowledge that Jesus is Lord and we are not. Everything is offered to Jesus with us saying, “Lord, what do you want? May your will, not mine, be done.”

The promise at the end is “and He will make your paths straight”. Or it can be translated “and He will direct your paths”. If we trust God and give all of our lives to Him, He will guide us. He will make our path easier. It doesn’t say it here but it does elsewhere: He will be with us.

Is Jesus at the centre of your life? Are you living in a relationship with Him and communicating with Him? Do you let Him speak to you through the scriptures and by His Spirit? Are you praying?

Have you given yourself to Him? Have you offered your body as a living sacrifice? Is everything you do submitted to Him?

Are you living the new life that comes only through having died and been raised with Him?

Sometimes the question is asked of churches: If the Holy Spirit departed, would you notice? In other words, how much of the life of this church depends on the presence and power of God and how much is it simply a human organisation that would carry on regardless?

The same question can be asked of each individual Christian. We can live a sort of Christianity that doesn’t include Christ. We can be ethical and serve in the church but Jesus can be absent. One of the things I want to stress before I leave is: It is all about Jesus. It is about knowing Jesus, relating to Jesus, serving Jesus and being transformed and empowered by Jesus. Please centre your life on Jesus.