Freed for a purpose
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Good morning.
Some of you may not realize it, but this is the 18th week since we last had what I think we would all have considered a “normal” worship service.
I went back through my files and found that the last time we were in the sanctuary without restrictions or recommendations against it was on March 8.
Now, I’m tempted to pause for a minute and see if someone could tell me what that sermon was about, but the truth is that even I didn’t remember until I checked.
That service was one of our responsive-reading/musical services. It was titled “Now I See.” We read Scripture passages from the Books of Isaiah and John and sang medleys from “Open the Eyes of My Heart” and “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.”
Woven among those readings and songs was a message about the lesson Jesus taught the Pharisees about the Sabbath when He healed the man who was born blind.
In healing that man on the Sabbath, Jesus had demonstrated that the true and correct application of the commandment to “Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy” was something different than what the Pharisees had assumed.
They believed that their righteousness meant that they should not do ANY work — including helping others — on God’s holy day. But Jesus showed them that God always had intended the Sabbath to be a time when His people would show HIS righteousness in the world, and graciously serving others was one of the ways they were called to do that.
The Pharisees had interpreted the Sabbath law as a restraint on freedom, and they patted themselves on the backs for having lived under that supposed restraint.
But what Jesus was showing them was this, among other things: In His institution of the Sabbath rest, God had given His people freedom from the regular responsibilities of their week in part so that they could use that free time to serve Him by serving others.
The Sabbath wasn’t set aside as a day to worship God. The very lives of God’s people — whether we are talking about His chosen people of Israel or those He has chosen to be in Christ — are to be acts of worship.
The Sabbath was not simply a day of fasting, but a day for doing good deeds, a day that He chose for them “to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke.”
Now, as I mentioned last week, if you are in Christ — in other words, if you have put your faith in Him as the sinless Son of God who gave His life on a cross to take the punishment you deserve for your sins against His perfect and holy Father — if you are in Christ, then you have been freed from enslavement to both sin and the Law.
We followers of Christ are no longer under law, but under grace. So the letter of the Sabbath law given to the people of Israel when Moses brought the 10 Commandments down from Mt. Sinai no longer applies to us as Christians.
But that doesn’t mean that the law was not good, nor does it mean that the law is no longer valid. In fact, Jesus said:
“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.
In other words, He came as the embodiment of the Law in its complete perfection.
Indeed, Jesus came saying that mankind — but especially those who would follow Him — are called to an even higher standard than the letter of the law.
So, regarding the commandment, “Thou shalt not commit murder,” He said:
“You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.
And concerning the commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” He said:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
The point is that the Law was never intended simply as a set of forbidden actions, but rather a prescription for living with your heart turned to God.
And when It’s viewed in that light, what we see is that the Law was always calling people to a higher level of love for one another.
In fact, when He was asked what was the greatest commandment, Jesus responded:
And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
But the fact of the matter is that the Law was incapable of producing those results.
This might seem a strange thing for me to say, but I assure you that I’m saying the same thing the Apostle Paul said.
In Romans, chapter 4, he wrote:
for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation.
And then in the next chapter, Paul was even more explicit:
The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
The Law was given to the people of Israel, in part, to show them how sinful they were, but one of the effects of having received the Law was that they became even more sinful.
The Law was the “Keep off the grass” sign that makes us want to take off our shoes and see how nice the grass feels under foot. The Law was the “Wet Paint” sign that makes us want to touch the wall we never would have touched otherwise.
The Law could show us the righteousness of God and condemn us for failing to achieve it, but it could not make us righteous and it could not save us from condemnation.
Only God’s grace could do that.
Today’s message is a continuation of last week’s message on freedom or Christian liberty, and so it might seem odd that I would spend so much time talking about the Law from whose condemnation we have been freed as followers of Christ.
I have done so simply to make the point that God’s grace operating through our faith in Jesus Christ accomplishes what the Law could never do and was never intended to do: to make us love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind; and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
As we experience God’s grace within our lives, not only are we saved from condemnation, but His grace begins to enable us to truly achieve what He has called His image-bearers to do from the day He created Adam and Eve — to display His image.
As we have received His grace, we are to display it. With hearts that have been transformed by His grace, hearts that continue to BE transformed by His indwelling Spirit, we can be people who show HIS heart to the world.
We can be people who understand that the freedom we have in Christ is the freedom to truly serve Him by serving others. We can be people who set aside our own rights for the responsibility of drawing others to Christ.
Through 18 weeks of unusual worship services, this is exactly what we have tried to do at Liberty Spring Christian Church.
We have the right under the U.S. Constitution to the free practice of our religion, and Scripture warns us not to neglect the assembly of the saints, but we also have a responsibility to love our neighbors and to provide a positive witness to Jesus Christ in our community.
So for the last 18 weeks, we have adjusted the way that we “do church” in order to help keep our community safe and in an effort to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ in new and creative ways.
We’ve had services with a limited congregation, we’ve had online-only services from the sanctuary and from my home, we’ve done services in the parking lot, and now we’re doing services from the prayer garden.
We’ve had recorded song services and recorded teaching conversations. We’ve had newsletters and Facebook posts with teaching messages.
We could have demanded our right to meet in the church building, and some churches have done just that. We could have continued to meet in our church building, even after the governor asked us not to, and some churches have done just that.
We could have hurried back into the building the moment that the commonwealth went into Phase 2 of the opening after the Covid-19 quarantine, and some churches did just that.
But your deacons and I believed that the best way for us to show love to this community was — to whatever extent it was possible to do so and still honor God — by setting aside our rights and using our freedom in Christ to love our neighbors.
I want to commend them for the grace they have showed throughout this process. Unfortunately, that kind of grace hasn’t been all that common among Christians trying to figure out how to navigate the world during this pandemic.
The anger and self-righteousness and sanctimony that have characterized debates around whether to return to in-person worship services, whether to wear masks in public, whether to abide by the government’s social-distancing recommendations and more has demonstrated that the Western church is, sadly, not all that much different than the lost world around it.
G.K. Chesterton, the 19th-century British theologian, had a great insight that bears on the situation we have seen playing itself out during the past few months:
“Most modern freedom is at root fear. It is not so much that we are too bold to endure rules; it is rather that we are too timid to endure responsibilities.” (Elliot Ritzema, ed., 300 Quotations for Preachers (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).)
You see, this is not a new problem.
In fact, the church in Corinth had a similar problem, although the context was different.
Turn with me to 1 Corinthians, chapter 8, and let’s take a look at what the Apostle Paul had to say about Christian liberty and the church’s responsibility to the lost world.
Now, let me give you the background of the Paul’s argument here, because we’re going to drop right into the middle of that argument.
Apparently, some people in the Corinthian church were taking part in the temple feasts of some of the false gods that were worshiped in Corinth.
So Paul starts, in chapter 8, with an appeal to those who knew enough about their new faith to understand that they had liberty in Christ.
He tells them that they’re right that food sacrificed to idols is not inherently bad, but then he explains that part of the problem is the witness they give by consuming such food.
Look at verses 8 and 9.
But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
We have freedom in Christ to do many things that were forbidden under Jewish law. We can eat pork or lobster, for instance, and we can even work on the Sabbath.
But if by asserting the rights granted to us by our freedom we cause someone without faith — or someone whose faith is young and weak — to stumble into sin, then we have sinned against Christ.
And what was happening in Corinth was a conflict and a rift within the church between those who were asserting their rights as people who were free in Christ and those who were calling them for behavior that bordered on self-righteousness.
The same thing is at the heart of the mask/no-mask debate within churches.
Thomas Å Kempis, who lived during the 14th and 15th centuries could have been speaking to deacons and pastors and other church leaders today when he wrote: “Everyone, it is true, wishes to do as he pleases and is attracted to those who agree with him. But if God be among us, we must at times give up our opinions for the blessings of peace.” (Elliot Ritzema and Rebecca Brant, eds., 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Medieval Church, Pastorum Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013).)
As it turns out, he was simply restating what Paul said in this letter to the church at Corinth. Look at verse 13.
Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.
Paul understood that his freedom and his rights were secondary to his responsibility to others because of his duty, his responsibility, to the gospel.
So he was willing to set aside his rights for the good of others.
In fact, look down to verse 19 of the next chapter, and you’ll see just how seriously he took this.
For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law.
What Paul is saying here is that when he was with Jews, he followed Jewish customs and law — not because he was obliged to do so by virtue of his Jewish ancestry, but because in doing so he could be a better witness for Jesus Christ and help lead them out of their bondage to the condemnation of the Law.
When he was with Gentiles, he ate as the Gentiles did, not because he was no longer under the Law, but because he was now under the law of Christ, the law of grace.
Remember that grace accomplishes what the Law was unable to accomplish. Grace enables us to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
And that’s what we see Paul talking about here. Operating under the law of Christ, the law of grace, he sets aside his own rights out of love for others and love for God.
Paul had freedom in Christ, but “Christian freedom is not given to us for our own sake but for the sake of others.” (Barclay, William. The Letters to the Corinthians. Rev. ed. The Daily Study Bible Series.--Rev. Ed. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975. 105.)
Because of his freedom in Christ, to the Jews, Paul acted as a Jew, and to the Gentiles, he acted as a Gentile.
Look at verse 23.
I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.
We see so many Christians today lining up on one side of the political spectrum or the other, drawing their swords and then heading out to cut out the legs of those on the other side with biting commentary, with words that tear down, and with the bitterness and contempt that should never become hallmarks of a Christian’s life.
Make no mistake about it: This is the work of the devil, and if you are using your Christian liberty — your freedom from the bondage of fear and sin and the Law — as an excuse to tear others down, then you are allowing yourself to be used by the devil.
If you are doing this, then you have forgotten your true allegiance. Your true allegiance as a follower of Jesus Christ is not to some political party, not even to a nation, but to your Lord Jesus Christ.
This problem of misplaced allegiance is a growing problem in the church, especially in the West, and D.A. Carson wrote about it in his book The Cross and Christian Ministry, which, incidentally, is an exposition of passages from the book we have studied today.
“Christians are not immune to these sweeping currents of thought. They, too, can be caught up in flag-waving nationalism that puts the interests of my nation or my class or my race or my tribe or my heritage above the demands of the kingdom of God. Instead of feeling that their most important citizenship is in heaven, and that they are just passing through down here on their way ‘home’ to the heavenly Jerusalem, they become embroiled with petty priorities that constitute an implicit denial of the lordship of Christ.” (Carson, D. A.. The Cross and Christian Ministry: An Exposition of Passages from 1 Corinthians. United Kingdom: Baker Publishing Group, 2004, 116.)
If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, then there must come some point at which you submit yourself to His lordship. And submitting to His lordship means putting Kingdom things first — first before politics, first before citizenship, even first before your own rights and privileges.
At the very least, that means submitting yourself to the earthly authorities He has established over you, at least insofar as those authorities do not attempt to make you do things that are opposed to God’s will as revealed in His word.
It might mean dropping out of the debate entirely on things like masks, and it surely means that if you do engage in such debates you will do so lovingly and with grace.
It surely MUST mean examining those with whom we publicly ally ourselves to see how our Christian witness might be harmed or helped by the association.
And, as Paul says in this letter, it absolutely means examining our own behavior before others to determine whether it might serve to draw others into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ or place stumbling blocks in their way.
When people see you — when they read your Facebook posts or see you in public — do they see Christ in you or do they see a donkey or an elephant?
Do they see someone demanding his rights or do they see someone setting aside his rights for the sake of others?
As you leave today, I want to encourage you to have rest and comfort in your freedom in Christ. If you have followed Jesus in faith, then you no longer have to live in fear; you no longer live under condemnation; you no longer live as slaves to sin.
But I also want to encourage you to live as people who are under the law of grace, people whose hearts God’s grace is transforming into the likeness of His own.
Live like that, and let Jesus Christ be the first thing people see in you.