A Call to Holy Living. 1 Peter 1:17-23 Sunday 6th April 2008 Bill Humphries
The theme for our service this morning is ‘A Call to Holy Living,’ …..
Sometimes, in order to gain a better understanding of what something is all about, it can often be useful to begin by contrasting it with something that it is not all about.
For example there are around 100 references to the Pharisees in the Gospels and the Book of Acts.
Now the Pharisees, as we know were very religious. Yet practically every one of the references to them is in the negative and is in the Bible not as an example of how to live a holy life…. But of how not to live a holy life.
And so I want to begin by contrasting a call to holy living with religion….. Religion as understood and practiced by many professing Christians.
But first, let me quote from the Bible, God’s definition of religion.
“Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us. (James 1:27)
We will come back to this a little later…
But for now let me say that if you were to ask most people to define ‘religion’, for an overwhelming majority, God’s definition would not rate as their number one description. In fact it probably would not make it into their top ten.
One description the dictionary gives for the meaning of the word religion is….
“Any personal or institutionalised system of beliefs or practices.”
In other words…. ‘doing church.’ And sadly, the majority of people outside of the church -And indeed many inside the church -think of the Christian faith as ‘doing church’.
Of course I am a Christian… I go to church…. I sing the hymns. I say the creeds and I know the liturgy. I put money on the plate. Of course I am a Christian.
But doing none of those things……Or even labelling myself as an Anglican, or a Methodist, or a Roman Catholic, or whatever…….. Does not make me a Christian anymore than living in Scotland would make me a Scotsman.
Can anyone here deny that if every professing Christian’s definition of religion was to reach out to the vulnerable and helpless in the name of Christ, this world would be radically different to what it is.
Peter Maiden writes, “Worship that is mere traditionalism, fulfilling what we imagine God requires is an abomination to the Lord.”
It has often been said that inside the Christian Church the opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference. I want to suggest that in the Christian Church the opposite of holy living is any practice of religion other than caring for the weak and helpless and refusing to allow the world to corrupt us.
The whole history of the human race bears witness to the fact that religion is never content to be a vehicle of worship with God as its objective… but in fact becomes its own objective.
This was the main challenge of Jesus to the religious leaders of the time.
Quoting the words of Isaiah he called them hypocrites and said- “These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. Their worship is a farce.” (Mark 7:7)
Their worship was a farce because their worship had long since ceased to be a vehicle with God as its objective.
Their tradition – doing church - had become an objective within itself.
Consequently, they were in fact involved in idolatry. Tradition for the sake of religion is idolatry.
We do well to remember that, as the history of the church testifies, Jesus’ words to the Jewish church, about honouring God with their lips while their hearts are far away, can also be addressed to the Christian Church.
At the council of Jerusalem, recorded in Acts chapter 15…Many within the established Jewish religion who had come to faith in Christ, felt that new gentile converts should also follow the established religious practices.
The apostle Peter stood and addressed the council. This is what he said, “Why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the gentiles a yoke that neither we, nor our ancestors have been able to bear.’ (Acts 15:10)
And with no yoke but the love of Christ around its neck, for the first 300 plus years of its existence the Christian Church grew at a phenomenal pace.
The charges levelled against the apostle Paul and his companions in Thessalonica was that in their proclamation of the gospel, “These people have been turning the world upside down and have come here also.” (Acts 17:6)
How would you like to be part of a church that had the charge made against it today, ‘In proclaiming the Gospel of Christ, these people are turning the world upside down.’
Then in 312AD everything changed…..
The Roman Emperor Constantine embraced Christianity and the church and the state got into bed together.
By the time that century ended, the church had gone following the loving example of the Christ ….. who had lived and worked as a humble carpenter….To embracing all the pomp and ceremony of the Roman Empire.
And in so doing it had also gone from persecuted to persecutor.
It had gone from a persecuted group of followers of Christ to a religious organisation that, in the name of religion, has persecuted, tortured and even killed anyone whose understanding of religious belief has differed from its own, as it replaced the sacrificial love of Christ with its own religious agenda.
This is so sad when we think of Peter who laid down his life for Jesus, writing in this letter of the sincere and intense love that should exist between God’s children, who are born again into the family of believers.
And once again, if we look to the history of the church, we cannot fail to see that…. Religion does not build up the family, it drives wedges into it and separates it.
Ephesians 5:25 states that ‘Christ gave his life for the Church ……which Paul describes as his body….not to make her religious… …but…. To make her holy and clean, washed by baptism and God’s word.’
That’s how important the unity of the church is to Jesus! And that is how important it must be to us. We cannot live a Christian life apart from the Church, because we cannot live a Christian life apart from the Body of Christ… which is the Church.
Paul in his Miletus address warned the church that there would come a time when savage wolves would come in among them.
He said, “Even some from your own number will arise and distort the truth… (Acts 20:29-30) And it happened…. and is still happening…. just as Paul had warned.
We can all give praise to God that just as he told Elijah he had kept to himself 7000 out of all Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal….
He has also always known and preserved a number of called out ones within the Christian Church who have always remained faithful, even unto death, to the true teaching of Christ.
And it is because of their faithful adherence to the true teaching of Christ that we are meeting in the freedom of the Spirit here this morning.
Here’s a good description of religion:- ‘The attempt of humanity to reach up to God.’
Have you ever had anyone say to you, “Well, don’t all religions lead to God?”
In Jesus Christ, God has already reached down to us. That makes any religion to reach up to God surplus to requirements
Have you ever heard anyone pose the question, “Well, what is so special about Christianity for it to claim that it is the only way to God? Other religions also make that claim.”
Well the truth is that no religions, including the Christian religion lead to God. The way to God is not through a religion. It is through a person, because Jesus is not a religion, he is a person. In addition to being the truth and the life, he is also the way.
In Jesus, God has replaced religion as a way of communing with him. Karl Barth said that “The revelation of God is the abolition of religion.”
In Christ we no longer need temples, institutions or ritual. All we need is Jesus Christ. He is the way. He is the only way.
1st Timothy 2:5 states, “For there is only one God and one mediator who can reconcile God and people. He is the man Jesus Christ.
We no longer need a high priest, or any priest to enter into the holy of holies on our behalf.
As Christ died on the cross, God tore apart the curtain that barred access to his presence, and in Christ we can boldly enter into his presence.
Not because we know the right words to say, or because we went through a symbolic religious ceremony, but because we came in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ. That’s all it takes!
Again, quoting Karl Barth, “Jesus does not give formulas that show the way to God. He himself is the way.”
John 1:18 in the New King James Version states that, “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of his Father. He has declared him.”
The bosom in this respect stands for the innermost part of God, the very heart of God himself.
In giving Christ to us, God not only gave his only beloved Son, he literally ripped open his own chest, and gave us his very heart.
Do you think for one moment that he did that to bring us into an institutional system of beliefs or practices called religion?
No, of course not! He did that to bring us into an intimate personal relationship with himself.
Through new birth in Christ he has given us the gift of his Holy Spirit, who testifies deep into our hearts and tells us that we are his very own children, precious to him beyond measure.
Eugene Peterson in the Message Bible says that our resurrection life is adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike, ‘What’s next Papa?’ We know who he is and we know who we are, Father and children.
Children with loving parents do not have to go through systematic religious ritual, or a written liturgy of statements or creeds and intercessions to enter into the presence of their parents.
By this am I saying that we should not use creeds or written liturgy, such as we will use this morning in order to share communion?
Absolutely not!
God spoke this world into being, and as people created in his image, with the creeds we speak the truth of the creator over creation.
And written liturgy, can indeed be wonderful to enable us to put into words what is in our hearts.
Providing we say it from our hearts….. If our heart is divided and not in the words of liturgy that we speak, then the words of Isaiah, quoted by Jesus, are also applicable to us…..‘These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far away.’
The same criteria also applies to the worship songs that we sing and all the different aspects of our service.
All the things that we are doing in church this morning, are not done to bring ourselves into the presence of God or to draw us closer to him. Our worship leaders and musicians are especially gifted in helping us to enter into God’s presence with praise and worship, but we do not enter into his presence through our praise and worship. Jesus has already opened that avenue for us and it can be neither improved upon…. Or bypassed.
Let me say that again… We enter with praise and worship, but not through praise and worship.
We enter only through the name of Jesus Christ.
And when our worship… Our service.. All that we are doing here this morning, is simply offered to God as an outward expression of our inner belief in Jesus Christ. As an outward expression of our inner reverence and love for God through Christ, then we are indeed honouring him with both our lips and hearts and offering him the true worship that he seeks.
We spent a lot of time focusing on what a call to holy living is not. .. That it is not a call to religion… So now let’s finish by focusing on what a call to holy living actually is.
Let’s go back to the passage of scripture from James 1:27
“Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us.
When James wrote this epistle, the most vulnerable and helpless people were widows and orphans.
Real religion in the eyes of God is to follow his Son Jesus Christ in reaching out to… and caring for……. the vulnerable and helpless. To defend the weak.
That’s holy living pure and simple. It isn’t rocket science and you don’t need a theological degree for it.
And I know that for many faithful brothers and sisters here this morning, who reach out each day with the love of Christ, your religion is indeed very real.
I have heard a number of people say at different times that as Christians we must love people into the kingdom.
And there is absolutely nothing wrong with their theology in this respect. They are right on the button, for holy living is indeed loving people into the kingdom.
But, as they say… There is more!
In our reading Peter speaks of us living as foreigners here on earth. That means we are in the world, but not of the world.
Our call to holy living is a call to live as one set apart from the world.. Set apart for God. To follow Jesus as his disciples. That means we walk in his footsteps and we speak his message.
That immediately puts us at enmity with the world that surrounds us. Because this world hated Jesus, and as Jesus himself told us, because it hated him it will also hate us.
When the apostles began to preach the Good News of the Gospel, first in Jerusalem and Judea, and then on to Samaria and the rest of the known world. Beginning with Stephen who was stoned and James who was beheaded, everyone of them knew suffering and persecution.
As those of you who care for our brothers and sisters in the persecuted church are well aware, the persecution and martyrdom still continues unabated today.
Folks if all the apostles were doing was loving people into the kingdom they would have upset no one. Even the Roman Empire had no laws against that.
One aspect of holy living is to heal people in the name of Jesus. If all that was all they were doing, although the Jewish religious leaders would no doubt have been jealous, they would not have faced such violent opposition from them that they did.
And once again the Romans would have had no problem with people being healed in the name of Jesus, or anyone else’s name for that matter.
With the exception of the owners of a slave girl whose income they lost, most people would simply have been awed and impressed in seeing people delivered from the possession of evil spirits.
Neither would the apostles have faced the accusation in a far off gentile country that, ‘These people have been turning the world upside down and have come here also.’
So what were they doing that brought so much vile and persecution against them?
They were stating without compromise that Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God is above all….. is over all … and is Lord of all.
That every tongue in heaven and earth will confess his name, and every knee will bend to him.
That not only is he the way into eternal life, the way to God, but that he is also the only way.
Go and announce that message into the heart of our supposedly Christian country today…. And you also will experience the vile of the same worldly powers that sought to silence the voice of the apostles.
Folks, as I said earlier, throughout the history of the church, the Holy Spirit has always called apart a people for himself who are prepared to stand up and be counted for Christ.
And he is still calling apart a people for himself today.
A people who, in a call to holy living will live lives that reflect God’s own character, as seen in the person on his Son, Jesus Christ.
He is not looking for eloquent speakers, popular preachers or educated Bible teachers.
He is not looking for perfect Christians, which is just as well since there is no such animal.
He is looking for a people who will not compromise the truth under any circumstances.
People who will not turn away from saying that sin is indeed sin and needs to be repented of…
But, on the other hand, he is not looking for religious fundamentalist, who following their own religious agenda, actively go out of their way to seek confrontation and bash people over the head with the Bible in order to hammer home the letter of the law.
Because, as Paul tells us in 2nd Corinthians 3:6 – ‘The letter kills but the Spirit gives life.’
If you interpret the Bible without the Spirit, and bash people over the head with it, you will be in danger of becoming a religious fundamentalist.
If you read the Bible with the Spirit you will become a Jesus Christ fundamentalist. And the more fundamental you become about Christ, the more loving, forgiving and gracious you become.
The Holy Spirit is calling apart a people who look to Christ and to Christ alone….
Who seek to please Christ and Christ alone. A people who will live for Christ and Christ alone.
A people who will deny themselves and take up their cross regardless of all circumstances, regardless of all obstacles, regardless of their very life and follow Christ all the way to the cross and beyond.
A people who will hold up a banner that says to the world, “Jesus Christ is Lord.”
This is not religion…This is radical Christianity that smashes down the gates of hell and declares loudly for all who are lost and helpless to hear… Our God Reigns!
This is radical Christianity that took Jesus to the cross and still makes martyrs of his followers today.
That why in many of his parables Jesus told his would-be followers to first count the cost of following him, because only those who are totally sold out for Christ will be able to stand against the pressure and vile of stating without compromise in the ‘all roads lead to God’ politically correct society of today…That Christ is not only the way …. But that he is also the only way.
So my question this morning is, are you prepared to say…
He is worthy…. and answer his call?