05/10/2018
The world is comprised of approximately 6.9 billion people, and of those, 2.2 billion are Christian, or to simplify this a bit... over 30% of all the people in the world are Christian. This is an amazing statistic, especially if you listen to the press on the subject. However, the press corps is not the only detractor or naysayer when it comes to the state of the Church... Christians also preach the demise of the Church from the pulpit. Why is this so? Why are we so self deprecating?
“But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows. Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God.”
Luke 12:7-9 KJV
Confessing Jesus as our savior is a personal act of faith that every person must perform before they can call themselves Christian, but how is it that we can see our own profession as being valid and yet the profession of someone else as not? This is exactly what has, and is, happening in the Church. It happened in past major splits like the Eastern churches from the Western churches, then the spit between the Church of England from Rome, and then the Protestant Churches from the Catholic Church... every split fraught with political, religious, and yes, secular discord, as the Church proper turned inward and began to devour itself. Yet despite our attempts to divide and diminish the Church it has continued to grow. Our scripture this morning speaks of our personally accepting or denying Christ, and that as we do so Jesus will accept or deny us before the angels of God. How then will our churches and the men and women who comprise their governance be viewed when Jesus returns for His bride? Are we not denying Him ourselves when we deny Him in one another?
I studied biology in school, and was fascinated by how living things were formed, but specifically in the role of DNA. Did you know that the DNA which is contained in each of our cells is comprised of 6 billion pairs? That is remarkable isn’t it? Each tiny cell contains this much material, and that this is what determines who we are... the color of our skin, hair, eyes, how many fingers and toes we have, and even how we will perceive taste. What is more amazing is that more than 99.9% of our DNA is identical from one of us to the next. That means that all the differences that we see as making us so separate from one another is actually comprised of less than .1% of what makes us who we are. This is the Christian Church. In our belief in Jesus Christ we receive 100% of what He tells us is who we are before God... what makes us the same... then we as humans work hard at contriving the differentiating .1% that separates us.
“Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?”
Malachi 2:10 ESV
There is an expression we use all of the time... “make a difference”. We see something that is wrong, or broken, and tell one another that our efforts can “make a difference”. This is what Jesus Christ did for us when He went to the cross... He righted a wrong, He defeated sin, He took the sting from death... He “made a difference.” In what He did, He made us reflections of Himself... He gave us the same DNA... He made us the same. Is there any wonder then that denying Him draws such a negative response from Him in return?
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”
Hebrews 13:8 KJV
So we are physically 99.9% the same when we look at the building blocks that God put in place to make us who we are, and in what makes us Christian we are the same... so why is it that we place so much emphasis on dividing ourselves? Why is it that we let Satan separate us when God went to all this trouble to make us in His image, and Jesus suffered so severely to reconcile us to that image?
“But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Ephesians 4:20-24 ESV
Something is broken, something is wrong, and Satan is picking at the wound. He uses our own imperfect human nature to create divisiveness in the Church, and to deflower the bride of Christ. So what are we to do? We are led by Jesus to “make a difference”, to right all that is out of kilter, to confess Him... personally, and as a Church. Then, and only then, He will confess us before God... just as we have confessed Him.
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”
2 Corinthians 5:10 ESV
Can you right the wrong? can you make a difference? Can you love one another as Christ loves us? Can you make a difference?
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for making us in your image, and for sending your Son Jesus Christ to redeem us, and reconcile us to yourself. I pray Father that my personal pride, and desire to be unique, does not join with those of the past to separate your Church further, and spoil the bride of Christ. What you have joined together in Jesus, let no man set asunder Holy Father. I long for the day when the Church will become the bride of your Son, and we will all be one with Him in not only spirit, but in flesh. Lead us into unity and not division, and by the power of your Holy Spirit help us to recognize those things that make us the same. Reunite your Church Father, and remove the wedges that we have allowed to be driven into her. Our hands are complicit in her separation, so give us the eyes to see, and the wherewithal to bring her together once again. Let nothing of this earth, not even he who is in it, stand in the way of our reunion, and the coming day when we shall be claimed as the bride of Jesus. Let your Holy Word alone be our gauge and guide in faith, and our confession of Jesus the force that draws us together and binds us as one. Great are you Holy Father, and Great is your mercy that has given us life. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you, and great is your mercy bestowed upon each of us, and your Church!
“So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."”
Matthew 19:6 ESV
Rich Forbes