Manslick Road church of Christ » 2007 » May
What do you do when you find that church is boring? It’s time for a change! Now the question is, change what?
Many folks think the answer is change the church. I just read an article about a new church created for men only, men who find church boring. Discarding more traditional environments, they meet in a gymnasium one Saturday evening a month. A rock band provides the entertainment. The preacher speaks in front of the scoreboard, with the clock running. He guarantees to have them out in one hour! This sort of innovation is not unusual. Many religious leaders hail it as a positive development, a way to reach out to those who otherwise would have no interest in church.
Some might not go that far, yet they still insist on change. Contemporary music, drama, and short sermons that are little more than pep talks are the order of the day. Clapping and cheering have replaced old-fashioned amens. Celebration and praise are the buzzwords, with the world’s calendar dictating the subject celebrated.
Malachi lived at a time when people found “church” boring. Speaking of Israel’s worship, God said through the Prophet, “You also say, ‘My, how tiresome it is!’ And you disdainfully sniff at it” (Mal. 1:13 ).
God proposed two changes to these who turned up their noses at His worship. One was to just stay home. “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you” (v. 11). The better solution, the change He preferred, was to repent. “‘If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to My name,’ says the Lord, ‘then I will send the curse upon you’” (2:2). Notice what God did not approve: changing the structure or activities of wor-ship to accommodate individual tastes.
The preacher can work to make his sermons more interesting, the song leader can try to select more meaningful hymns, and the one who leads in prayer can give more thought to what he says. However, when worship as God directed is boring, the main change that is needed is in the heart of the worshiper.
Jesus told the church at Philadelphia, “Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut” (Rev. 3:8 ). An open door symbolizes opportunity. What doors has Jesus opened to us?
The door of knowledge. Man does not intuitively know how he should live (Jer. 10:23 ). Trial and error provides some answers, but it is a hard teacher. And no amount of discovery or experience will bring us to God (1 Cor. 1:21 ). In Christ, however, “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3 ). The Son reveals the Father (Jn. 1:18 ).
The door of salvation. Using the figure of sheepfold to depict salvation, Jesus said, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (Jn. 10:9 ). This door is open to all: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved” (Mk. 16:15-16 ).
The door of fellowship with God. Sin separates us from God (Is. 59:1-2; Eph. 2:1 ). Jesus offers reconciliation. “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them . . .” (2 Cor 5:18-19 ). Only in Christ can we come to the Father (Jn. 14:6 ).
The door of prayer. One of the great privileges of fellowship with God is prayer, the opportunity to communicate with Him. Christ is the key to this door, too. The New Testament teaches us to pray through Him (Col. 3:17 ). Why? “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and man, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5 ).
The door of happiness. People are always looking for happiness, mostly in the wrong places. They look for it in material things, but Jesus taught that “not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions” (Lk. 12:15 ). They look for it in power, but greatness is in service, not in being served (Mt. 20:26 ). Jesus came to provide abundant life (Jn. 10:10 ). He does not promise material riches or a problem free way of life to His disciples. He does provide contentment and strength to overcome (Ph. 4:11-13). In fact, we are more than conquerors through Him (Rom. 8:37 ).
The door of work. This may be the point in our opening text. Jesus said He was opening a door for the church at Philadelphia because it had a little power (was it small?) and was faithful. He could count on those brethren to use what opportunities and resources they had. Can He count on us? What a privilege to be God’s fellow workers (1 Cor. 3:9 ). What a responsibility!
The door of heaven. “I go to prepare a place for you” (Jn. 14:2 ). What a blessed opportunity. What a blessed hope!
“But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14 ).
A right relationship with God may be viewed as the product of three crucifixions. They are . . .
Jesus Christ crucified. Paul said he would glory in that. And why not? It reflects, as nothing else could, the love, mercy, and grace of God. It also expresses His righteousness. God cannot just ignore or dismiss sin. When He sent Jesus to the cross, displaying Him publicly as a propitiation in His blood, it demonstrated His righteousness in passing over sins (Rom. 3:25-26 ). Jesus’ crucifixion is the means of our salvation.
Having so viewed the cross for twenty centuries, we may forget how shameful these events were they occurred. The Romans reserved crucifixion for the worst offenders. The cross carried the same stigma then as the electric chair does now. That is why preaching a crucified Messiah was such a stumbling block (1 Cor. 1:23 ). Nevertheless, given its unique significance, Paul would boast in Jesus’ crucifixion.
The world crucified to me. While Jesus’ crucifixion is critical to our salvation, there is another that is just as important. The change we undergo in conversion amounts to the ending of one life and beginning of another. Thus, the New Testament often talks about putting off the old man and putting on the new.
In Christ, the world is crucified to us. Its priorities—such as getting ahead, making money, and enjoying every imaginable pleasure—are no longer ours. Its measures of conduct are replaced by God’s standard. We don’t look, talk, think, or act like the world. That way of life is dead to us. “Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:24 ).
I crucified to the world. When you crucify the world by rejecting it, the world will in turn crucify you. Oh, they may not nail you to a cross, but they will surely regard you as an outcast. Jesus warned that they will treat you the same way they treated Him (Jn. 15:18-21 ).
Do not be surprised when people call you a bigot or self-righteous for standing for the truth on a moral issue; when your rightly motivated actions are purposefully put in a bad light; when you are mocked or ridiculed; when you are left out; when you are not treated honestly in things related to your faith. These things merely reflect you being crucified to the world.
Earlier in Galatians, Paul described his life this way: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the lie which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (2:20).
The case of Simon the Sorcerer illustrates that a Christian can sin so as to be lost. The Bible says Simon believed and was baptized (Acts 8:13 ). Later, following his outbreak of greed, Peter told him his heart was not right before God; he needed to repent of his wickedness, for he was in “the gall of bitterness and bondage of iniquity” (vv. 20-23).
People who teach “once saved, always saved” try to tell us that Simon was never saved. One argues it this way: the Holy Spirit promised to guide Jesus’ followers into all the truth (Jn. 16:13 ); Simon’s ignorance of the truth (about miraculous gifts) demonstrates, therefore, that he was not yet a disciple, that he was not saved.
Using that logic, one could argue that the Corinthian saints were never saved: they, too, were ignorant about miraculous gifts (1 Cor. 12-14). Or how about the Thessalonians, who were uninformed about Jesus’ second coming (1 Th. 4:13 ff)? For that matter, Peter himself, at the time of the events of Acts 8, was still ignorant about the inclusion of Gentiles in the church (see Acts 10). Had he, therefore, never been saved?
The promise in John 16:13 was made to the apostles. It pertained to their work. It does not extend personally to every believer. While ignorance about some things might disprove one’s salvation, the argument from this verse is fallacious.