CHurch is Where Real People Find a Safe Place
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Intro
Intro
In June 2016, Andrew Lebedev and Michael Pankov organizwed 80 musicuans in Gorky Park in Moscow, Russia to create a mass rock music orchestra to perform the song “Starlight” by Muse. No one got paid, and no one had to be special to be invited. It was just a huge rock music moment for a bunch of pro-am musicians, and a day that will probably remain one of teh most fun they have ever had. They measured it a gerat success—so much so that they did it again, And again. And again. They call teh movement Rocknmob, and to date they have completed 8 mass performances. The last one was just last month, with over 270 musicians gathered in Gorky Park, presumably many of whom didn’t even speak english, rocking out to Bon Jovi’s 1986 smash hit “Living on a Prayer.”
(https://www.facebook.com/rocknmob/)
It’s one of the most well known hits from the 1980’s—reaching #1 on more than one chart, and in 2006, selected by a VH1 audience vote as teh #1 hit of the decade! the original 45 single sold 800,000 copies in teh US alone, and in 2013 it was certified triple platinum, selling over 3M copies as digital downloads.
It tells the gritty, determined story of a gut named Tommy who has been laid off from his wage-earning job, and his wife who works just to help make ends meet. He had a dream of being a musician, because he is super talented, but he can’t pursue that drem right now because he had to pawn his guitar just to get by. But as we all know, they both agree--
“we;ve got to hold on...”
It’s easy to see why it’s so popular. It’s a stirring tribute to teh competing forces in our lives—the wish for something great and the reality of a more powerful ordinary.
Jon Bon Jovi says this about it--
"It deals with the way that two kids – Tommy and Gina – face life's struggles," noted Bon Jovi, "and how their love and ambitions get them through the hard times. It's working class and it's real.”
That’s teh thing—IT’S REAL>
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livin%27_on_a_Prayer)
We all have a sense of what he means by “real” It’s the struggle of getting through life. For Tommy and Gina, and this snippet of their life, it was an issue of economic hardship. But that’s only a small part of what’s real for most. the struggle could be about a lost job, an unexpected pregnancy, a disappointing marriage, bad grades, living with an abusive parent, worrying about a grow-up kid whose life is a mess, a heart-breaking medical diagnosis, or a hundred other things. And even those would only scratch the surface. Because while those things cause struggles, they aren’t the worst kind.
the kind of struggle that really gets us down is the ones with ourselves—the struggle to overcome our own self-defeating habits and ways of teh heart and mind. It’s teh struggle with self-doubt, with anger, with fear, with loneliness, with addiction or impatience or runaway spending or runaway eating or a hundred other things that we know really just amount to an uinability to experience change that we need.
So what happens? We get used to our normal. Our ordinary. Our REAL. We come to accept that if I’m just being real, I always feel like I’m like Tommy and Gina—I’m half-way there and just living on a prayer—and after a while that turns into just life.
Here’s what I’ve long accepted as true—the greatest evidence taht you were meant for something more is your persistent dissatisfaction with less.
But the questions then become, “what more is there for you/” and maybe even more grpping, “how can you get it?”
God sees us in that struggle, and I think that was the very struggle that Jesus entered when He broke into our world. And that’s not just the struggle we sometimes find ourselves in, but the one we are called to enter and make a difference in with the world around us.
In this series, we’re going back to the Gospel of John to start fresh, like it’s the first time we ever met Jesus, and discovering not just what He is like, but how that shapes who and what we are as a church.
Today, lets get into it by reading some from the gospel of John, chapter 1
We find John (the disciple, who writes this) telling us about another man named John—Jesus’s cousin, whose job it was to announce to the world that Jesus had come. And God had given him a sign—you’ll recognize who it is when you see ...
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). 42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).
Now here is an interesting question. If this is the Messiah—the Savior of teh whole world—God come to earth in the flesh, why would He need to be announced? Queen Elizabeth travels with over 30 people in her own personal entourage, including 6 secretaries, 8 bodyguards, 2 dressers, and t2 ladies in waiting, just to name some. She travels with an enitre clothes rail, including upwards of 30 different outfits for all sorts of occasions. She doesn’t even have a passport because she is teh one who ultimately issues them. People around the world can’t help but know who she is. And her luggage tags? Simply say “The Queen” Her own private physician comes aling wherever she goes, as well as a private supply of blood in case she needs it. She even has a supply of her own toilet paper, sealed, which only she or her husband are allowe dto open. It would be impossible to be near her and not take notice. You couldn’t miss him!
But even all that pales in comparison to the persident of the US. When he travels, it’s a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, 3 helicopters, multiple versions of his 8-inch-doore, 3.7MOG bullet-proof, chemical-proof, bomb-proof limo’s affectionately known as the beast, and 5 minibuses. And that could be just a day trip!
But for Jesus, people wouldn’t know who and what He was, so John had to tell them. Why? Becaus eHe was so ordinary. So normal. So everyday. So REAL.
BUt the thing is, His REAL is far different from teh real that the average person would expect. And that’s exactly why He came. Once we get used to our REAL being the only thing we will ever know, we quit pushing against it. We switch from seeking to settling. We know that God has given great promises and assertions, but they begin to seem unrealistic. Maybe just for you and me. Maybe they aren’t realistic for anyone. ANd we will even find ways to modify what the Bible plainly teaches so that teh difference between teh life it describes and the life that I live won’t seem so starkly different.
BUt here’s the rub—I know God means what He says, and I don’t want to water down His promises in order to excuse my level of living. So I accept that what God offers to me is REAL. But if I am to have any hope of experiencing the power of God as a genuine reality in my daily life, I must find a way to get more real with God. And if I am going to do that, I’m going to have to get more real altogether. And so are you.
Jesus came to bring real life to real people. And that’s what is happeining here. He is opening a door with these men—and in their experience of Jesus, they actually communicate a cirtical revelation to you and me—in fact, it has two parts.
1- God reveals the emptiness of repetitious repentance
already disciples of John
They found something they hadn’t had before… (feel the water…)
2 Primary aspects of repentance
They found something they hadn’t had before… (feel the water…)
The thing w/ repentance—there’s no life in it if it stops there—In the big picture of the Gospel, it’s like a handoff—John the Baptist definitely was a step forward, but he just got them to Jesus—it was in Jesus that they found life!
repetitious repentance sooner or later loses its luster
2- God reveals the reality of something greater