2022.06.19 Future Church: That's Not Right

Last week we began the series “Future Church” by talking about Scripture’s use as a teaching tool. If you need a takeaway from that message, I would say that we would all confess we don’t know everything, and the two known ways to deal with our own ignorance is to:

learn and study to diminish your ignorance

be okay with being ignorant

If you aren’t studying Scripture in some form, you’re saying you don’t care about your ignorance whether that’s intentional or accidental.

This week, we move forward in Paul’s letter to Timothy, and we’ll talk about Rebuke and Correction. Let me begin with an example:

How do you pronounce this word? (nuclear)

Since the end of World War II, this has been a MAJOR issue in the world (including current events between Russia and Ukraine). Why is it that so many people can’t say this word correctly?

Nu-cu-lar

“nu-cu-lar” is wrong! It’s not mostly right. It’s not partially right. It’s not close enough for horseshoes. It’s wrong.

But I don’t want to leave you just knowing that it’s wrong. I want to show you an easy way to say it right like the TV show The Electric Company would have shown me when I was a kid:

New-Clear

Let’s replace that wrong pronunciation with the correct pronunciation, “new - clear”

Rebuke and Correction

Telling you “nu-cu-lar” is wrong is rebuke or reproof.

Telling you the correct pronunciation is “new-clear” is correction.

Just telling people they’re wrong is not sufficient. So the Scripture doesn’t do that!

When we discover we’re wrong about something, especially if it’s something important … we should throw out the bad information. But that leaves a void. And a void can be very dangerous!

Jesus said in Matthew 12 (one slide) --

Matthew 12:43–45 NASB95

43 “Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. 44 “Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. 45 “Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”

Leaving a void can be very dangerous!

Future Church: That's Not Right

The public face of the Church has grown more and more negative in recent years. The national media prefer irate presenters, so Christians tend to come across as angry and judgmental on TV because that’s who is given airtime.

Whether that’s a true picture of Christianity or not is irrelevant. That’s what people see, so we have to try to counter that image any time we have the opportunity.

I can hold fast to my position without being rigid and miserable. I can believe the Truth of Scripture without figuratively hitting people over the head … and that’s what we must do! We have to HELP others to the truth, because no one in the history of humanity has EVER been BASHED into the truth.

NEVER. IN HISTORY. EVER!

Scripture is useful to take beliefs that are askew (whether greatly or slightly), rebuke them as wrong and replace the void left with a correct belief.

For example … Believing that Jesus is just a good teacher is simply wrong! But just knowing that it’s wrong doesn’t really fix the problem. That incorrect information must be replaced with the correct information: Jesus Christ is the son of the Living God … he is Yahweh’s Messiah, and salvation comes through no other name!

And this type of rebuke and correction is needed INSIDE the church community more than outside it. Outsiders don’t care what Scripture says. [But, Pastor Chris] … They don’t!

But if my beliefs or actions aren’t aligned with Scripture, I care! In fact I HOPE someone points it out if my beliefs and actions are out of alignment with the Bible.

Later in this same letter to Timothy, Paul writes:

2 Timothy 4:2 NASB 2020

2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and exhort, with great patience and instruction.

…so rebuking … with great patience and instruction is expected … of ALL OF US!

Future Church: That's Not Right

How we do that is so very important!

According to one source:

When a disciple’s rebuke is necessary, it must occur in a loving and caring environment.

Some folk will perceive a rebuke as an unloving act. They will say that to rebuke a disciple is judging and pressuring that disciple. But their idea of love is according to human sentiment rather than God’s word. Anything done according to God’s word is an act of love.

---simplybible.com (an Australian church page intended to teach and spread basic Christianity)

Future Church: That's Not Right

Let me shift gears for just a minute ...

How many times have you heard someone referred to as, or accused of being “The AntiChrist”? Friends, our understanding of “the antichrist” is flawed. The truth is, there are MANY antichrists according to the Apostle John, and he’s the one who coined the term.

one slide

2 John 7 NASB 2020

7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.

While John does use the singular article “the”, his sentiment is not that antichrist is an individual. He tells us MANY deceivers … don’t acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh … and that idea, that belief, that worldview, that person is antichristian.

Some English translations even use the article “AN Antichrist” because John appears to be correcting an wrong belief rather than identifying one individual. NIV, CEB and NRSV all translate “this” as “Any such person...”. New Living Translation renders it “Such a person...”

So a more literal translation of the Greek would be ‘this person who is a deceiver and does not acknowledge Jesus as coming in the flesh is the/an antichrist.’

The idea of a singular antichrist is often attributed to Revelation, but you know what … John wrote Revelation … he’s the only biblical writer who used the term “Antichrist” … and the word never appears in Revelation! Beasts, Demons, Dragons, Sea monsters, Land monsters, False Prophet, Satan … all make appearances in Revelation, but John doesn’t use the term as a title anywhere in his apocalypse.

John also wrote in 1 John:

1 John 4:3 NASB

3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

So, antichrist is already in the world!

This may seem like splitting hairs, but I can’t tell you the number of emails I got claiming that Barack Obama was THE ANTICHRIST, and the world was going to end if he was elected President. If we use John’s term, we also must understand the term based on how he used it. Antichrist, therefore, is not connected to the end of the world, and there isn’t just one. If you want a singular antichrist: The ultimate persecutor, the ultimate accuser of the Church would be Satan himself, not a human endowed with such a title! So Antichrist is more logically a spirit of Satan that is already here and runs rampant!

That’s what rebuke and correction looks like, so let me take a moment to rebuke and correct a belief that needs to change for the sake of Future Church.

Future Church: That's Not Right

Many of the loudest voices claiming Christ on the Internet, radio, and television will loudly lament the Church’s loss of status in our society - fearful that Christianity is being marginalized.

We seem to want to hold onto a bygone era of Historic Church when we were respected and loved by society. Historic Church is gone. It is not coming back. So we must look toward Future Church and lean in.

In fact … I would propose that the Church is not being marginalized! [repeat with emphasis]

The Church has ALWAYS been marginalized! Jesus told us, “The world hates me. They’ll hate you, too.” What part of that do we not understand?

THE CHURCH ALREADY ARE THE MARGINALIZED!

A few years back, ISIS beheaded 30 Ethiopian Christians and distributed the video of it all over the world.

Chinese Churches are regularly bulldozed by the government, even if they’ve kept themselves in good standing with all of the required communist bureaucracy.

According to the 2020 World Watch List globally:

2,983 Christians were killed for their faith

9,488 church buildings and other Christian buildings were attacked or destroyed

3,711 believers were detained without trial; arrested; sentenced; or imprisoned

-- 2020 World Watch List - https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/

And that’s just the REPORTED occurences!

Friends, the Church has always been marginalized! But I also think we’re part of the problem!

We want the outside world to take us seriously as Christians, but we don’t even take our faith as seriously as we should.

These are generalities, but generalities exist for a reason...

When we hear the term “Church” we immediately think of a building or an event instead of a community of believers - people - human beings!

Christians don’t study Scripture like we should - It’s not the Word of God if we don’t treat it like it's the Word of God.

Attending worship used to be the flagship sign of a loyal believer - Attendance has become sporadic and optional to most believers - Sure, we can exist without engaging God, but we’ve made that the default for self-professed believers instead of the exception.

When we’re given opportunities to serve our community, Church folk simply don’t show up most of the time. If you think attendance is down in worship — try getting church people to go to a community event to represent Christ. Ask them to actually talk to others about Jesus and you may have no one show up!

When we hold an event, we can count on the same basic people to show up and help. And those people are rarely the ones who complain about the world not respecting Christianity. Because they know it’s true … but instead of whining about it, they’re doing something about it!

So, the rebuke is this … Nothing in the Bible tells us we should expect the Church or Christians to have status or respect in our communities … nothing!

The correction is this … The Bible tells us we should expect the opposite, and statistics confirm that the Bible is right on the money. So, stop dreaming of a past that didn’t really exist. Live in the reality of today, and start living like you really believe what you say you believe.

I warned last week that this would be a challenging sermon series. But the challenge God lays on us in this series is not just a challenge. It should also serve as a rallying cry. It’s a call for the Church to become the Church again. It’s a call for the Church to reclaim her rightful position as the antidote to society’s illnesses. So here we go:

Sitting around a table griping about the situation of the world and politics is not going to fix a thing. It won’t convince a soul, and you’re giving up your opportunity for influence by doing it. Moaning and bellyaching every time the Church is disrespected by a public figure or a decision is NOT going to make any difference … it will only make you into a bellyacher ... and many of us are precisely that!

If you want to make a difference in Future Church, you’ll have to get off your duff and do something about your faith!

You’ll have to:

engage your faith

study deeper

work harder

and love much wider

Starting next week, we’ll talk about the basic principles of Future Church, like this, that need to sink into our souls so that we can engage the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ!

If you want the Church’s influence to spread, it begins with earning respect instead of demanding it. Influence happens one person at a time … and you’re the only person that can make that happen.

Lamenting the loss of Historic Church is okay for a period. But at some point we have to stop lamenting and start working toward Future Church. It’s been 70 years! I would suggest the time is now!