Authentic: Sermon on Romans 12

Our theme for the year was introduced several weeks back as “Back to the Future – Rediscovering Church. And as part of that theme, four words were identified by session to describe the Church that we see in Antioch in Acts 11, but also that we believe needs to be true for our current setting today – rediscovering what Church really means.

And so today we begin a series for the month of June unpacking these four words, starting with the word Authentic. You will see in your leaflets that Theo wrote an explanation of each of these words and for Authentic he wrote:

“…to be genuine, consistent and relevant in living out the truths we proclaim and to be real and trustworthy in our community. The disciples in Antioch were called “Christians” by the community because there was continuity between Jesus life and work and the lives of the disciples in Antioch.”

 Christian literally translated means: little Christ’s – little Jesus’s. Those believing in Christ in Antioch were so Authentic that not only did they look like Jesus, talk like Jesus, serve like Jesus – but the community actually started calling them – little Jesus’s.

And this is what authenticity really means – for something to be Authentic it can’t be a copy or a replica – it needs to be the real thing. The real deal. The original.

Our world is so desperately looking for something real. We are inundated with false advertising, false promises, and false prophets. From the big scale politicians who promise the earth but deliver dust, to close friends who lie to us – we all know what it’s like to look for truth, for authentic love, authentic relationships, authentic leadership – and the world is looking for the authentic church.

Brennan Manning made the following statement that has often been quoted “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."

And apparently Ghandi said, “I love your Christ, but I dislike your Christianity.” Whether he said it or not the truth remains. People look at the church today and they judge us on being Authentic.

Are we for real? What does it mean to be authentic?

I’m going to be unpacking Romans chapter 12, where Paul is writing to the Church in Rome, in the ESV translation, the last section is actually entitled: Marks of the True Christian. It is well-known and you’ll recognise many of the verses. It’s not a long chapter but contains so much truth. Starting in verse 1:

“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 – his good, pleasing and perfect will.

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching let him teach; if it is encouragement let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge I will repay” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

May God bless to us the reading of His holy word now and forever

Let us pray: Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be pleasing and acceptable to you and bring you glory. Spirit we invite you to speak to our hearts. In Jesus name. Amen.

What is the authentic church?

To start with, it needs to have in it authentic followers.

The first part of our passage says, “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.”

The first question that needs to be asked here is – are we, each one of us, authentic followers of Christ? Do each one of us here have an authentic faith? To be a follower of Jesus we need to have come to a point in our lives where we have realised who he is – and who we are, that we have recognised that we can’t do this alone. We have understood that our sin and brokenness creates a barrier between the God who is holy and us and that we have no way of removing the barrier ourselves. And that’s why there is a cross in the front of our church – that is why I and many others here wear a cross around our necks – as a reminder that this is what made a way for us. That Jesus died so we don’t have to. Jesus switched places with us – he took the dirt of our sin and selfishness on himself – died with it – and offered us his innocence and purity in exchange. The way into a relationship with God is through accepting that. Our passage says that we offer ourselves as living sacrifices.

This means we die to the old way of living – the way of living that has me, my and mine at the centre, and to live a new life with Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:17 reads, “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old is gone, the new has come!”

The reason that our sacrifice is holy and pleasing to God, is because he sees Jesus when he looks at us.

This is a decision, an action, the biggest change in fact that can ever happen to us. Once we have chosen to things God’s way, rather than our own the Spirit comes to live in us and he starts changing us from the inside. This is why we don’t conform any longer to the ways of this world – in fact… as the Spirit does His work in us we lose our taste for it. We have chosen a different path, a different drum beat to march to, a different voice to listen to.

I have heard that Muslims look to the West, they look at the porn industry running, they look at the greed, they look at the immorality, they look at the lack of care for the poor and they say – see this is what a Christian country does. The truth however, is how many authentic Christians live there? How many people have died to themselves and their pride and selfishness and greed and are followers of Jesus? The question that has always challenged me says, If you were to be taken to court for being a Christian – would they find enough evidence to convict you? Would your life be an obvious display of the Spirit at work? How many in our Western Countries are authentic?

This is not that we are perfect! By no means. In fact in our truthfulness we’ll never even claim such. But we are journeying. We are getting to know Jesus more, we are learning to love Him more, we are starting little by little to look like Him.

An Authentic Church has authentic followers, and secondly, they’re an authentic flock.

The second part of our reading picks up in verse 3

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

Each member belongs to all the others. A flock is a cohesive bunch of sheep that together follow each other as they follow the shepherd. They receive food and shelter together and comfort each other by their presence. When one strays and gets into danger, it’s almost always because he’s been separated from his flock.

We need each other. People have many different reasons for belonging to a church – some of you may be here because you have friends and you enjoy the company, some of you may come for the preaching, some maybe because you have felt cared for and at home here – maybe your children enjoy Kings kids, or you have just always come here from when you were a child.

Whatever your reason, maybe even a combination of those – your being here is not an accident and not without purpose. We are told in our passage that each of us belong to each other. Your work here is to love each other, to care for each other, to stand up for each other and to pray for each other. The reason we take a moment to greet each other right up front is because we need to know each other. If you don’t know the people sitting around you – may I encourage you – don’t leave today without at least learning their names. We are a gift to each other. The fact that there are so many of us sitting here is an encouragement. I know that there are some here who caught a lift with someone else, some who were visited in the week by others here, some here who are praying for each other.

An authentic church, has an authentic flock – a place where we can know and be known, love and be loved, serve and be served.

Finally our authentic flock produces authentic fruit.

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

The word “sincere” comes from the Latin words sine cera, which means “without wax”. The phrase comes from a practice where people would hide the cracks in cheap pottery or statues with wax in order to pass it off as being worth more than it actually was.

Our love for each other must be “without wax”. Now some may argue then that it must be pure love, untarnished, un-cracked to be without wax – but I believe the opposite is true. Our love for each other needs to be real in that we do it in spite of our cracks. So often in the church we believe that we have to hide our brokenness, we have to pretend our lives are all together and perfect and going well, we have to wax up our cracks.

This is not authentic, and this is not true love. True love says, I love you regardless. I love you in the good spaces and in the hard spaces. I love you when you are succeeding and when you are failing. I love you enough to challenge you and speak truth into areas that need truth. I love you enough to hug you on a bad day and encourage you when you are weak. True love honours each other, is devoted and faithful.

The fruit of the church grows out of a community where the Spirit has worked in the hearts of the followers, and so in the heart of the flock. The list of attributes we read from verses 9-21 are not a check list. They’re not a to-do list either. They are rather the evidence of the Spirit at work. These are things that will happen in a community of true followers who have become a true flock.

And if we look around we see so much of it here… We see people devoted to each other, we see people with spiritual fervour, I have witnessed many who have been patient in affliction, joyful with hope, faithful in prayer. I have seen the harmony and humility. I have seen evil overcome by good.

What do you see? What would you like to see more of? How can we pray that the Spirit will grow us more and more into that which is real and authentic and loving?

We as the leadership believe that being an Authentic church means that we will be a family of God’s people, learning to follow Jesus everyday, and making a difference in our neighbourhood.

In order to be a part of this journey is a commitment. Firstly a commitment to Jesus, to follow Him and love him more each day. Secondly a commitment to His flock, his church – to be a gift, to belong to each other.

Today we are going to share in communion. And meeting with Jesus at this table is such a beautiful opportunity to do both these things. As you eat and drink, you are committing to Him saying, less of me and more of you Jesus – you’re saying, just as these elements become a part of me, I want you to live in and through me. You’re also sharing in one loaf, one body – each of us a part. As you eat you are eating the same as those sitting around you. You belong to each other, and as you share the peace remind yourself of that.

I pray that we together may be an Authentic Church of Jesus Christ.

Let us pray.

What I preached on Sunday....

So I did say that part of the purpose of this blog was sermon storage... 

It has been truly amazing, and no coincidence that our current series, which was on decided months ago, has linked in with our current situation at the church. Romans 8 is a very powerful chapter, and yet last week and this, has really spoken to us in our sadness and grief. Last week you will remember Mukhondi speaking about the great hope we have in our future, a comfort in our sufferings and an assurance that this is not all there is. Verse 18 reads…

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

This morning we are picking up from where Mukhondi left off last week so if you’ll turn in your Bibles to Romans 8, its on page …. In your pew Bibles.. and we’re going to read from verse 26…

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. For he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those he predestined, he also called; those he called he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God’s holy, inspired and inerrant word. May He write its eternal truth upon our hearts. Let’s pray.

Our Lord, you have given us Your word, not simply to intrigue us, but to instruct us and to comfort us and to equip us for righteousness. We ask then by Your Holy Spirit, we would not only understand this Word, but embrace it, embrace it, for Your glory and our good. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

This is probably the most difficult sermon I’ve written in the short time that I’ve had the privilege of preaching. I find within my own grief a struggle to come to terms with our loss, but at the same time, know that many of you here loved Kingsley deeply and are thus dealing with your own pain and your own questioning. I find at times like these words can often be trite and inappropriate, that sometimes silence and tears will speak far more to our pain than any word can.

A favourite band of mine, wrote a song for a mother who lost her young daughter to cancer. It starts with,

“I was sure by now, God you would have reached down, and wiped our tears away – stepped in and saved the day… but once again, I say amen, and it’s still raining…”

It’s still raining.

And yet I find myself amazed by this passage that has been given for this day, this week, this time. It seems to understand this dilemma, and this situation, it seems to speak to us – right here this morning.

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. For he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. “

Right now we are confronted with our weakness. It’s not that we are weaker now than we have been before – rather we are faced with the truth of our situation. We are weak, we have always been weak, we will always be weak. We think we know things. We think we are in control of our lives. We think we have the power and the authority. And yet we look at the tragedies in the world around us, and realise we are very small. Realise that there is so little we can do to stop it, to change it. We look at Kingsley’s situation where the doctors get to a stage where there is nothing more they can do. We look at the pain of grief and find there is nothing we can do or say to cure it.

Our weakness is a truth that is hard to swallow – and in a day and age where our culture tells us that it’s all about us – our self-image and self-esteem, that you can find yourself and your inner strength deep within – we don’t like to hear it.

The psalmist puts it well in Psalm 8

“What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?”

And in the Psalm Mukhondi read on Friday

“As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.”

But it is not a weakness that leads to despair or to self-loathing… rather it is one that God knows and uses in us. It is when we can do nothing but throw ourselves on his grace that he is right there able to move in power. We look to the apostle Paul who prays and prays that a thorn, a painful area of his life be taken from him. He pleads with God, who does not grant his request. Instead God says, “My grace is sufficient for you for my strength is made perfect in weakness”. 2 Cor 12:9

Our reading for today clearly tells us we are not alone in this – for the Spirit helps us in our weakness… we aren’t meant to wrestle with these struggles alone. The Spirit, who has been given to all Christians, lives within us to help us, to comfort us – to know our weaknesses and allow God’s strength to be made perfect in them.

It goes on to mention one of these weaknesses specifically – that of prayer. The fact that we do not know how, we do not know what to ask for; we do not have the words.

We experience this keenly during times of loss, times of illness and times of grief. Times where we love people dearly but have no words to pray for them. Times where we may even be angry with God, where we may question his goodness and his sovereignty. Times where we are numb and we walk through the day in a daze wondering how everyone else seems to be so busy about life – while there is turmoil within your own soul.

During these times, what do we say to God that God doesn’t already know? How can express the inexpressible? How can we put pain into words?

And it is during these times that God takes what we offer, and turns it into prayers. The groans of the Spirit within us are meaningful expressions of our longing for God, longing for answers, longing for truth, longing for healing.

Abraham Lincoln once said

“I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.”

For he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

What’s more is that we do not know the answer to the question of “What now? Where to from here?” Our minds start asking questions that seem too painful and too soon to be asked – but yet we find ourselves worrying about them anyway. How do we pray for what’s best for our church when we don’t know what that is? But God knows… He has not abandoned us – and where we in our weakness don’t have these answers and are ashamed by the questions – the Spirit takes that confusion and turns it into meaningful prayer to God. The Bible tells us here that the Spirit intercedes for us. Later – in this same chapter of Romans, it tells us that Jesus, seated with God, lives to intercede for us.

People of St Mungo’s, Jesus is praying for you. The Holy Spirit is praying for you. You are that important to God. He knows where we are, he knows our struggle – and he intercedes for us.

The Spirit helps us to pray, and prays for us.

Verse 28 in our reading today is so well known. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

It is a verse that gets quoted over and over in situations like this – so much that I think it sometimes becomes trite, clichéd. Sometimes in the midst of loss and pain, it simply throws more questions than answers…

How can this be good? How can the ending of a life be what God wants? How can pain and separation and loss be perpetrated at the hands of a loving God?

We maybe need to readjust how we see this verse – nowhere in this verse does it tell us that all things are good. Not all things are… we live in a sinful broken world where there are bad things, painful things, things that are supremely wrong and evil.

Do you remember the story of Mary and Martha and Lazarus? Lazarus is a dear friend of Jesus and he dies. We read that Jesus arrives at the tomb and then in one of the most beautiful verses in the Bible, it reads “Jesus wept.” Jesus wept. Which begs the question of why? Why did Jesus weep if he knows Lazarus is in a better place? Why does he weep knowing that he will raise him from the dead again? It is generally accepted that Jesus weeps over seeing the devastation of death; he saw the pain of the separation, the loss and the grief. Death was never part of the original plan! If death was good, Christ would never have defeated it.

A minister friend of mine explained to me that we are living in an age where although the war has been won, the battles continue. For a number of years after the Germans had surrendered in World War two, there were still battles fought in places where occupation had taken place. Lives were still lost in a war that had already been won.

This is the time we live in. Christ has died, Christ has risen… and now we wait, for Christ will come again. What a glorious hope that the time will come as we are told in Isaiah, when “he will swallow up death forever and the sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces.”

And in Revelation 21

“Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

This is what we look forward to.

But while we are here, there is death, and mourning and crying and pain. And yet we do not see a God who is distant, but rather Jesus weeps alongside us.

Our verse then is not saying that Death is good. It is not saying that we need to smile and pretend like everything is ok, in order that to be faithful Christians. Rather it is a promise… somewhere, somehow in a way that we cannot perhaps see now, and maybe will never see, God will take this tragedy, this pain, and use it. It is not meaningless.

In Ecclesiastes, a book where Solomon questions the meaning and purpose of life, he writes a passage which says;

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven; a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance… He has made everything beautiful in its time.

We do not know how or why or when… but in its time God will take all this that’s happening around us, and he will make it into something beautiful. That is the promise. That is what we can cling to when it seems meaningless – your pain is never without purpose or meaning.

There is a time for mourning, a time for us to weep, a time for us to question and wrestle with the big questions of life. For many of us here at St Mungo’s this is where we may be. It is a season. It is ok to ask questions and get angry, we see it throughout the Bible and especially in Psalms where David writes,

“My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’”

In fact there is an entire book of Lament in the Bible, aptly named Lamentations. God is not afraid or surprised by our questions, our grief or our anger.

My appeal to you this morning is that you do not do it alone. Take it to God, whether you have the words or not, whether you feel it’s appropriate to be angry or not, take it to God. Trust that the gift of the Holy Spirit within you will take your weak, wordless prayers, and groan them to God. Trust that he will be praying for you. Trust that you are not alone, that God weeps with you.

And take courage and hope knowing that God will make this into something beautiful, and that we can look forward to a time where it will be no more. A time when there will be no death, no sorrow, no pain.

I was listening to an intercessory prayer prayed by Kingsley after one of his sermons on a cd yesterday. In his words,

“We pray for those who mourn the death of those they have loved and served, that they may know your joy again – deeper than sorrow, stronger than death, certain of resurrection.”

Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes with the morning.