Relational Christianity

Good morning. First of all, it occurred to me as I was sitting there in absolute comfort, sandwiched in between two people that we love dearly, that all this comfort is a result of any number of people who worked hard to make it possible. So, if you helped make this Sunday possible with your giving, thank you. If you made this Sunday possible because you helped clean the church, thank you. If you taught Sunday school, then you should be thanked. And for all those who make it such that you're not noticed, let me just tell you that I appreciate you this morning and for all of your help. It's difficult for me to preach on a subject that I feel so profoundly emotional about, so I may or may not be at the top of my communication skills. I tell my students that there are some foundations in how we should think as we get ready to open the scriptures. And they're counterintuitive. For example, I tell my students, why would you think you can just open the Bible casually? It's not a casual book. When you open the Bible to intersect with a God who gave it to us, In one sense, it's as if you're coming to the temple in ancient Israel into the presence of God. Why would we do that casually? Because we're Americans. And because we're Americans. I think we oftentimes have a sense of whiteness that has cost us dearly. You know, we're the country who invented the automobile. But because we didn't adequately cultivate the right frame of mind, we ended up not building the best automobiles in the world. And because I'm an American and have been trained all my life to think I'm right, I too find myself resisting that humble spirit of mine that the Scriptures would ask of me before I approach the living God. I shall never forget The day that I first ran into an automobile, I didn't run into it, let me rephrase that. I was first introduced to an automobile that had what I thought was the absolute craziest invention I have ever heard of, which is front-wheel drive. Moses didn't drive a front-wheel drive vehicle. Well, of course now, almost all cars are front-wheel drive because it's a superior form, isn't it? The trouble with us as we approach the Bible is we think far too highly of ourselves. I tell my students. When I read God's word, virtually every time I stop myself before I read the first word and I realize I'm in the presence of God and I realize that I see through a glass darkly and that I am truly a sinful being. And so I stop myself and I say to myself before I read a word, You know, I probably don't understand this passage correctly. I think that's a healthy way of reminding us that we have to overcome one of the greatest enemies that we live with every day, and it's the enemy of what we think we know. I recall years ago when Peg and I were in Bible college, I was introduced to a foundational book at that time. It was by a fellow named Eugene Nida, and he wrote this book called Christianity Across Cultures. Now, mind you, when I went off to Bible college, I'd been saved a grand total of about four months, so I didn't have any Christianity to undo. But I remember when I read parts of that book, because back then I wasn't really an academic, I only read things in snatches while I was getting ready to go play some sport or another. But I remember I was really impressed because in that book he began to introduce to us the reality that Christianity as we know it in America has a high level of culture to it. It is an American phenomenon. As I have lived out these years in Christ, I have come to know, I've come to see that a lot of what we do is culture. Now, please don't misunderstand. That doesn't make it bad. But a lot of what we do is culture. And God can use all kinds of different cultures in different ways at different times with different people and so on and so forth. So now we've said that. Let me go to an introductory thought that goes like this. So, what's the purpose of Christianity? You might say it's to evangelize the world, but you'd only be half right. Because the scripture is very clear, Jesus taught us to go and make disciples, which means that our real job is to conform all followers to be like Christ, to conform to his image. And so when I turn to a well-known passage like Romans 12, and I read that, I remember as a young Christian reading that and feeling a sense of responsibility, but not really knowing what to do with it. Romans 12, 1 and 2. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, In view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer 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. And I remember thinking, OK, I believe that. What is that? How do you do that? You know, I had come to know Christ as my savior and it made a difference. But to put it in layman's terminology, I was still a stinker. And so I, like Americans, thought there must be some magical thing that I need to do because this passage sort of read like, OK, so what do I do to be transformed? How do we you know, I'm convinced 2,000 years after Christ, we're still driving rear-wheeled vehicles. Now, that's an audacious statement. Short people have a tendency to make audacious statements. But I'm convinced that we have not really gotten to the core, and maybe one of the reasons why we aren't really doing this in a most optimal fashion is less because of what we don't know, and more because of what we think we know. What would that be? You know, we've been deeply influenced by Europe. That doesn't make us good, doesn't make us bad. But European Christianity adopted sort of a rational model. And that rational model was directly related to an educational model. And, you know, friends, I've been an educational model virtually every year of my life since I was 17. I managed to figure out a way to serve Jesus and never have to stop going to school. And so I've been in that model all my life and I like it. It is utterly enjoyable for me to learn new things. Do you like to learn new things? Just say yes, it makes me feel like I'm among friends. You know, in my first church here, I got an education. I came to find out that there were people who just did not like to learn. As a matter of fact, in my first church here, I had only been there about three or four months and this couple left. And it was just a tiny little church. I was an interim pastor. And I thought, I didn't know I could make anybody mad enough to leave in just four months. And so I came to find out why they left. Are you ready for this? They left because I preached from the whole Bible. They didn't like that. They just wanted to hear the same gospel message every Sunday until Jesus returned. I didn't know people like that existed. But I will say this to you, friends, about the educational model. It doesn't work. It does not produce spirituality. It does not enable us in meaningful ways to conform to the image of Christ. In other words, I taught for 20 years in a seminary. And and what I came to find out is that I had all kinds of colleagues who knew just about everything there was to know about the Bible. didn't help them very much in how they lived. They were masters at reading the Bible in its various languages, but they weren't masters at the most important aspects of following Christ. And so the educational model, while it's crucial to learn and crucial to know how to interpret the Bible, something clearly was missing. Because life in our faculty was like a soap opera. Rarely have that many egos been concentrated in one place in the history of the Christian church. All right, so what can we do this morning that can make a difference? I don't ask you to agree with me, but I do ask you to listen very carefully, because the last church I preached at, I had three people who didn't listen carefully and they died during the service. I've already instructed the deacons to be ready to carry them out feet first. I have three points. It wouldn't be a sermon without three points. And the points revolve around what I think is front wheel drive thinking. And the three points revolve around what I think needs to be thought through in our culture, and that's relational Christianity. And so I have three points that I will repeat to you so that you don't perish during the service, and you get them. Point number one in this message is the fact of relational Christianity. When you read the New Testament in particular, but the Old Testament also, it's very clear that the dominant plan that God followed, whether it was the community of ancient Israel or whether it's the community of the church, is that God had created a system that, for want of better words, we'll call relational. This morning, we're going to focus our thoughts on one aspect of relational Christianity, and that's the phenomena of a single Greek word translated with two English words, the one and others. There are, in the New Testament, 33 commands to one another. Eight times the command is the same to love one another. But apart from those eight, there are over 20 more one another's in Scripture. And this is a fact that New Testament Christianity was not built just around an epistemology, a system of beliefs. It was built around a system of beliefs that were supposed to lead to a system of behavior. One another's. Now, I have to tell you this, I didn't learn about one another's until I got married. You know, my family, they weren't Christians and we were a rough bunch. You know, it was the sort of place where nobody ever cried and nobody ever showed love. And it was the kind of place where, you know, yelling occurred far more than, you know, than talking. And so you can imagine when I got married and I married this lady who knew all about one another. You know, her dad was a preacher. And I learned one painful step at a time that the way I was raised was harmful and destructive. And I spent and still spend every year of these 42 years of marriage, I spent and spend conforming to the one and others of scripture in the relationship that matters the most in this world to me. She taught me all about the one and others. The Bible talks about them as well, and love is the most commonly repeated of them. Love one another. The one and others are found. In the epistles, mostly, but Jesus left us a few one and others as well. So the fact that the foundation of the New Testament churches function. Was directed toward how they related to one another. Is something that I think, quite frankly, the American church, at least the church in the travels I've been making. It's poorly done. You know, this is America, you know, we have or used to have lots of money. You know, most of it is now in banks in China. But I remember the good old days and the American answer to everything is seems to be wealth. So we build magnificent buildings. And quite frankly, we turn we turn the church. It's this works over. I can leave that right. I'm not a formal person, and if you want formality, you'll be disappointed this morning. I've lost about 15 pounds. I wanted you to see and take notice of that. Dear friends, the New Testament church was not an institution. It was an organism. It seems to me that in the cultural way we do Christianity, we're so much more comfortable with the idea that the church is an institution. Peg and I have had a special ministry of interim pastorates. We've done 19 of them. And our very first one lasted two and a half years. And I'll never forget, in that first, which we just thoroughly enjoyed and loved the people, we had a lady who wouldn't come to any church function where food was served in the church because her concept was that the church was holy and therefore we ought not to degrade God's house by eating in it. Where on earth does that come from? Culture. It sees the building as if the building is the important thing, when in reality, it's the organism. It's the living dynamics of this body with all of the many parts that comprise it. And if we don't figure out creative ways to undo institutional thinking, then we're going to miss much of the point. We need to think about Christianity in the New Testament in sociological terms. By sociological, I mean the power of Christianity seems to be how they related to one another. You know, we talked this morning in our Sunday school class about evangelism, and I was sitting there thinking about a fact that I know, that one of the most dominant qualities of the early church is from its beginning, it was intensively mission oriented. But missions oriented, that was done through relationships. It was less missions, you know, the way we tend to do it. where we hire professionals and they go somewhere else and they evangelize. It was really done by ordinary people who were doing the words of that song that they'll see us by our love. And and by the third century, they had made significant inroads into the Roman Empire. And you know what? There there wasn't a building. There's no archaeological evidence of a church building any earlier than the 3rd century AD, 300 years in which they won the world without any institutional type of format. So, it seems to me that the one and others give us the conclusion that relational Christianity is a fact. They dominate the behavior commands in the epistles. Secondly, This one might be a little more. Keith said that you guys go to 1230. Is that right? The source of relational Christianity, I believe, in the Bible comes. From a fancy word, and that's the word covenant. Relational Christianity doesn't just flow from the fact that I feel good about you. You know, in other words, when I was telling you I had to learn to thank one another in marriage, the truth of the matter is it was because I love my wife. But in biblical terms, it would have flowed more from the fact that 42 years ago, standing in front... I don't remember this happening, but I was there. Standing in front of my preacher and her dad, we made a covenant. And that covenant is the source of how I'm supposed to think and behave, not how I feel. But see, this this is America, and we think God created the world because he was having a good day and he felt warm and loving. And so he just spoke everything into existence. You know, we're into into a Christianity which thinks that feelings are supposed to drive us, whereas in the Bible, the truth of the matter is. We're in a covenant. And so Christianity starts when we understand that God says to humankind, I'm offering what kind? What did Jesus say in the upper room? I'm offering you a. New covenant. This isn't about feeling, although feeling, of course, is inevitably a part of everything that we do, but it's about a covenant and he's saying, I'm offering you The choice to enter into a new covenant is a decision. You can make it or not make it. But when you enter into a new covenant, you enter into something that is far more than just a legal contract. You enter into a sociology. A sociology. which is characterized by properly living in a community. In other words, when you choose to enter into the covenant, you're saying goodbye to the freedom you had to live in the old way. You are choosing to enter into a relationship whereby you are going to order up your behavior to conform to the things that Jesus told us we're supposed to do. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Now, if you go back to the analogy of marriage and how difficult that was, I can tell you it's been 42 years for us, and I still haven't got all this covenant stuff straightened out. It takes a lifetime to learn to conform ourselves to the image of Christ, its proper It's proper socialization. What it means is that I cannot come into this church and live and behave as I want. What it means is just as I take up the cross and deny myself daily for Christ, it means I also have to do that in the community. Christianity is a sociology. Now, you know, here's a thought that I have, and I can only ask myself the question, but I wrote it in my notes to remind myself. And the question is this. If you don't know that Americans are profoundly individualistic, I don't know where you've been. It's why we're such a tough, or at least used to be, such a tough people. You know, think of the casualties we took in the Civil War. Every death was an American death, double death, And we fought that bloody war to the point of exhaustion. We are a tough people. We never expected the government to do anything for us. We were a tough people. When World War I started, we scared the daylights out of the Germans because our guys didn't even know to duck. They just went over the top and ran straight up into German lines, scared the daylights out of the German soldiers. We were a tough people. You know, we're Americans, and we... We think that that kind of powerful individualism should sort of permeate everything we do. I wonder sometimes if this individualistic thinking makes us vulnerable to institutionalism. As opposed to relational organisms, you see, The minute I choose to enter into a true relationship with anybody, they're going to find out that there are weak spots to me. And I, of course, am going to find that out about them. We're going to find out that for all of our toughness, we're going to find out that we're just ordinary people and we we're up and down and sometimes we're broken and sometimes we do crazy things. Sometimes we do good things, but we're just people. I think sometimes this individualism gets in the way of what it means to establish a true biblical view of relationship, which tell me if this thought will resonate or not, but tell me after the service. The church is really a body of people who are truly dependent on one another. That is, of course, the exact opposite of individualism. The church is a body of people who are dependent upon one another. And that dependency is because within the body of Christ we have all of these commandments, 33 one-anothers, And you know what? We can't do those one another's alone. Now, some of them, perhaps we can, but we can't do these one another's alone. And so the covenant concept is one that brings us into a community that's unlike almost anything I can think of in our whole culture. Now, I could tell when I was here the last time, or at least I thought I could. Peg tells me this is when I'm thinking because I start going like this. You know, that's one of the things about marriage. It's, you know, when you marry people, you know, they think they can say whatever they want, you know. So she just tells me I have strange mannerisms when I'm, but I don't pay attention to that. All right. So. The source. of relationalism, curiously, is covenant. And covenant has, as its eminent feature, law. See, we're raised to think about law. Now, you are reformed in your theology, so that means you're not dispensational, which means that you all need to get saved. Well, I'm just kidding you, of course. But what I mean by that is, in dispensational circles, all those people think that God is schizophrenic. You know, like there's this God in the Old Testament who gave a law, but then after he gave it, he thought, oh, what was I thinking of? That was bad. And so you get into the New Testament where, you know, it's a crazy way of thinking. Law is essential to covenant, and law is so directly related to to the covenant, that behavior must be tied into it directly. Look with me at Romans chapter 13, if you would, please. And I'm looking at verse eight. Paul talked about this new covenant law in these kind of terms in 13, eight Romans, let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow has fulfilled the law. Now, what I think Paul was saying there is not that all you have to do is love. What he's saying is that love is what should permeate every individual law. Thus, for example, if one another's is that I should forgive one another, then it is Christian love that should motivate me And therefore, it is love that fulfills every law, because there's not a single law that Moses wrote, or that Paul wrote, or that Peter wrote. There are no laws that do not find their source of entity in love. So, the reasoning goes like this. We are relational because we chose to enter into a covenant with one another. But because we're in a covenant with one another, then what accompanies every covenant that God established is law. And so we need to understand that in the Christian community, the one and others provide the nexus for behavior. OK, first point, the fact of relational Christianity, the second point, the source of relational Christianity, my third point, the importance of relational Christianity. Let me show you three examples from the scriptures. If you grab your Bible, that's not a very, very scholarly way to put it. Grab your Bible. Sounds like we're at Kmart or someplace. Take your Bible and let's look at three examples quickly, because our time is almost gone. First Corinthians, chapter six. In first Corinthians, chapter six, Paul is addressing a case in the Christian community where there was a dispute that revolved around legal matters. And in 1 Corinthians 6, 7, Paul told us, here's what love one another should produce in your behavior. 1 Corinthians 6, 7, the very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wrong? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourself cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers. Paul is making the point, if you love one another, if that is your commitment in the covenant to love one another, and this kind of dispute comes up. Why do you have to be right? Why can't you disagree to be wrong? I know why. You know why? Because we're men, men always have to be right. Paul made the point in the church at Corinth, if you really love one another, no one has to be right. You choose, if necessary, to be wrong and defrauded so that you can show the love of Christ. Boy, how radical is that? Let's turn to a second one quickly, Roman chapter 12. This one really, I think, is just truly astounding. because it's so contrary to our culture. Romans chapter 12, and we're looking at verse 16. Let's begin reading in verse 14. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony. Here's another. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Could we be honest? Who does that? Do we really consciously seek out people who are impoverished so that we can show the love of Christ? That's what he's saying here. This word that translated lowly in this version is talking about the poor, the impoverished, the downtrodden, Who really does that? But don't you see, if you think through the terms of the covenant, then here's a one another that is asking us to undo the behavior that we normally live by, which is being content to just be with one another. Thirdly, 1 Corinthians 8, verse 13, another touchy situation. 1 Corinthians 8.13 revolves around, apparently, a really difficult situation. The church had Jews and Gentiles, and it may be that the context in 1 Corinthians 8 is that the Gentiles felt free to eat meat that had been offered to idols. We're not 100% sure we know the context. But, you know, to the Jewish believers in the church, that was really shocking behavior. That meat has been polluted because it has been offered to a pagan deity. And we refuse to eat that. Well, obviously, in churches like there were at Corinth, this was a divisive issue. And so Paul's response, what does love one another mean? Well, in 1 Corinthians 8, 13, here's here's what it means. In 813, Paul said this about his own behavior. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall. Do you see how a proper understanding of one another is so radical? What it means is that for your well-being, We're supposed to lay down our lives. And guys, listen, if we're not doing this, then let's be harsh and admit we're not really doing Christianity. We may have the right doctrinal statement. But if we're not living out these one another's, then what we're doing is it's like we're in a car and it looks like a car and you sit down and it feels like a car and there's a wheel and a brake. But there's no motor in the car. It's not going anywhere. So. Here's what I think. If we're going to come back to the question and ask ourselves, how do I conform to the image of Christ? You know, many of us have been raised on a model that Peg and I were raised on when we were in Bible college, is that the way that you get closer to Christ is you get away from people and you go to your room and you read your Bible and you pray and you get filled with the spirit. And that's the path to spirituality. That's what we were told. Isn't that right? Were you getting sleepy on me there? Just checking. It's a long time to just sit and listen, isn't it? At least with television, you get commercials. You go up and use the bathroom or get a cold drink or something, and in church, you just have to sit there and take it. Here's what I think. I think it's because we have failed to properly identify with the context of thinking Christians in the New Testament And I think that the key to sanctification is largely connected to what you do, not what you don't do. The key to becoming Christ-like is doing what Jesus told us to do. It's a, and inevitably, whenever I say this to my students, because they've all been trained in these dispensational circles, which think in terms of law is bad, they look at me and say, well, you mean, you mean just do works as if that's a bad thing? And of course, I don't mean that because I mean, you do works because you love Christ. But if you love Christ, how can you not do the things the Scriptures tell us to do? And so, what I'd like to know is, why do we love one another so poorly? Why is it that we don't really feel like our deepest relationships are the people that we sit next to in the pew? Why is it that what we have is only good, not great? And I can't help but think it's because we don't understand the sacrality of these one another's, which must be done if we're going to grow in Christ. Jesus said, let him deny himself and take up his cross. But don't you see that when we choose to commit to the one another's, we're denying ourselves? What it means is that I have to say, even if I'm right, it doesn't matter. I have to say to myself, I don't like what you just did, but I choose to follow Paul's command and accept you. Even though you might have hurt my feelings, what it means, I'm going to be a Christian and forgive you. But you see, you can go to church and never do those things. And that's the problem. I think the key to sanctification, at least one of the keys is related to it's the key to evangelism. Peter said in his first epistle, the third chapter, if if this Christian woman is married to an unsaved man, he made the point, let your chaste behavior. Be observed by him so that he can be impressed enough to come to Christ. It's the one and others that lead to successful evangelizing. So what can we do then? Not much in in five minutes here. Let me let me bring this together. I have been burdened ever since my seminary years, dear friends, and you could probably tell from my comments I've been burdened by this because Christianity wasn't working very well. And I remember I had one particular colleague. He was dysfunctional. He had done some great work for the kingdom. If I were to say his name, you'd know him. He does some great work for the kingdom, but I can't think of anyone I ever met in my life who is more dysfunctional. I have a picture of our seminary faculty. I think it had about 25 people. He personally fired 20 out of those 25 people. Couldn't get along with anyone. Now, how can this be? Here's this man who is a great warrior for Christ, standing up for truth in our culture. His books made their way across the country. And he can't get along with people. Literally anybody. Now, how can that be? I think it's because we don't really have a community. I think it's because we have institutions. Because if it's really a community, then there has to be some place in which behavior can be confronted and dealt with either successfully or not. You know, it's an interesting thing about this brother. Let me tell you a quick story and then I'll... Toward the end of his career, he was in another one of his meltdowns. And he wanted to fire X number... There was a whole department in our seminary that he wanted to fire. And also, he was on another one of his crusades. I was there 20 years, one crusade after another. And I remember the dean made him sit down and talk with the head of our counseling program. And the guy who was the head of our counseling program was a very godly man. He's no more perfect than I am, but he's a godly man. And so he sat him down and he asked him a question because he knew people. And you know what question he asked him? It was very interesting. He looked at him and he asked this simple question. He said, Who are you close to? There was a pause. And finally, after a little bit of time, he was able to muster up the name of one guy on the faculty that he was close with, which was interesting because within months of that conversation, he began to get that faculty member fired. Who are you really close to? Now friends, this is my passion and I'm going to have to close with this, but it goes like this. The secret of our faith is a combination of what we believe and what we do. But the tendency of our faith is to focus on what we believe because that's safe. What we do can be very risky. It means we may have to have conversations with people who are less mature and less lovely. It means we may have to sit down and ask someone a powerful Christian question like, who are you close to? The measure of Christlikeness must be the merger of your doctrine, with your behavior. And if my behavior isn't resulting in a powerful love that can translate its way out into these 33 one and others, then there's something radically wrong with our institution. And our institution needs to be changed into an organism. Now, I've got a document that I worked up And it's got a list of the one another's on them. And so if any of you would like a copy of the one another's to just see here's a list of the things that you Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. Here's a list of about 25 of these. And I'll be glad to make it available to whoever. And that way you can just do your own study and walk your way through. It's really very interesting. Some of those things I didn't really even notice that I was responsible for. My favorite one is that that Paul wrote about it. It was a wives revere and never challenge your husband. It's in there somewhere. I hope you'll take these words, dear friends. This is my passion. We are not going to change the world the way we've been doing things. You know, this is my passion. And you know what's even better is it's so wonderful to change yourself. It's so wonderful to leave the person that you were one step at a time So that when you get to be my age, you can look back and at least feel halfway decent about the journey you've made. So that I don't have to have somebody sit me down and say to me, is your life so bankrupt that you can't tell me anybody that you love dearly? This is a great challenge for us. If we're going to evangelize, this is the way we do it. If we're going to grow Christlike, this is the way we do it. I passionately believe that the secret is simply loving Jesus and doing what he said. And the capstone verses is in Philippians chapter two. And if you read that, that'll give us the right frame of mind for accepting these kinds of words.