THE WORD, THE WORLD, THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>
THE WORD, THE WORLD, THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
September 30, 2007
Evening Service
Text: John 1:1-5, 14
As I prepared the sermon for this morning from 2 Corinthians 4, I began thinking about other similarities and differences between our culture and Biblical cultures. Probably what got me thinking about this was reading and hearing about some of the new ways that church leaders across America are using in order to reach unbelievers with the Gospel. Personally, Im not sold on some of the techniques they come up with, but maybe thats because they dont fit my style. Plus, I have to admit that I have a lot of trouble relating with generations that process responses to ideas, news, and events emotionally instead of rationally.
Im drifting off the topic a bit. What fascinates me is how often an artificial designation created by humans marks changes in our behavior. For example, when we turn the calendar page to a new decade, why should life be so different at that time? Why should just moving into a new decade or new century be filled with such noticeable change? I dont really know. But that is the way it turns out. Clearly, the twentieth century was different than the nineteenth century. And already, the twenty-first century is turning out to be quite different than the twentieth century.
In the space of less than ten years, we have experienced events that have rocked the world. The most significant is 9/11 and the subsequent responses it has brought, but that is not all. There are swings in and out of prosperity. Companies large and small are changing the way that business is conducted. As I mentioned in more detail this morning, we are seeing enormous changes in our culture which are not all good. I sometimes feel like I perhaps have Rip van Winkle experiences where I oversleep a few years and then awaken. Change happens too fast! Is there no place left where we can find a sense of peace and certainty?
Of course there is. The Word of God - His promised message of life and hope and salvation - is still ours regardless of whether other events make our heads spin or not. The Word of God offers to us an anchor in this crazy storm that we're caught up in. Why is this? Because, as John wrote at the outset of his gospel, the Word - or the Logos from the Greek - is far from a philosophical idea. The Logos which John wrote about is a living, creating force. It goes way beyond what worldly men and women can dream up; the Logos exists from the beginning and is eternal. "In the beginning" - Genesis all over again - "was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning."
What makes the Logos so extraordinary, what immediately separates it once and for all from the philosophies and psychologies of humanity is that, as John testified, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." The unthinkable happened as the One who created became one with creation. This is the point at which John awakened his readers. Nothing like this had ever been said. God, the Creator, visit the world as a created being? Unheard of! Throughout the mythologies of the Greek, Roman, and Norseman, there are accounts of deities visiting the world. But they are all lesser gods; mere emissaries for the head god - the Zeus - who created the world. To claim that the Creator visited the creation was ludicrous and imponderable to most.
But not to all. There were those who witnessed the events of Christ the Logos and believed. There were those who lived with the Logos and grew to be able to carry on His work. There were those who heard the good news gospel and believed by faith rather than sight. Because, by one way or another, they discovered that the Logos brought life through salvation. They discovered that a once-and-for-all atonement had been made which restored an alienated humanity with the holy God. And they discovered that this act had taken place through the holy One Himself. This is what happened when the "Word became flesh": He who from all eternity has dwelt with God and in God, has pitched his tent among men, sharing their difficulties with them, like God dwelling in the wilderness with wayward and impossible people through all those long years.
Mind-boggling, isn't it? Yet, because the "Word became flesh," we have an anchor in which to fasten ourselves to in this time of storm and uncertainty. It isn't so much that God opposes change; indeed, He instigated it many times when necessary. It is just that when change does occur, our God is still the One to whom we remain faithful and in whom we place our trust. Two accounts which remind us of this are Psalm 46:1-3: "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore will we not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging." Frightful in all respects except "God is our refuge and strength."
The second account is from Luke 8:22-25: "One day Jesus said to his disciples, 'Let's go over to the other side of the lake.' So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him, saying, Master, Master, we're going to drown!' He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. 'Where is your faith?' he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, 'Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.'" It is this Word - this Logos - which speaks to us today.
The world needs this Logos. The world needs to know the work and message of Christ's salvation and power. But the hearing does not come easily. Just as in the time of Christ, the world is in the darkness of sin. "The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." The sin that lurks in the souls of men and women is difficult to overthrow. Jesus Christ the Word does, indeed, become a stumbling block. Light hurts our eyes and blinds, so we shade our eyes and turn away. The tragedy is, though, that the pain of the light gives way to glorious sight, while the blindness of the darkness lasts forever.
The world needs this Logos because, like the world of ancient times, it cannot or refuses to believe - believe that God could visit it. Surely you have heard someone say at some time that "I'm so bad that God couldn't forgive me"? What utter nonsense! It has been my observation that God can and does forgive anyone He chooses to forgive. And through Christ, He chooses to forgive everyone who comes with a repentant heart. There were those at the time of Christ who had their beliefs, too. Some were convinced that spirit was good and that all matter was inherently evil. The Gnostics, as they came to be called, set up a hierarchy of intermediaries between God and creation. In other word, God, who is holy, pure, and good, could not directly create matter, which is evil. So there must have been a series of "junior" gods, each a little further removed from God's original holiness, until finally one of them was impure enough to be able to create the world.
John refutes this notion by writing that "...the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." This is good news to a world and its people who are convinced that they are so evil that God cannot overcome it. What hope would there be for such thinkers? None. That is one reason why hopelessness was so prevalent then and continues to the present. This is one reason why "...the darkness has not understood it."
But the good news is that there will always be those who yield to the light and, therefore, to life itself. "In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness..." The life and the light of the Logos is transferred to the world. As Jesus was later to declare, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden." Throughout the history of Christendom, we see the most unusual and unlikeliest people yielding to the light of the Word and becoming light themselves. The rough, rugged fisherman Peter; the scheming, cheating tax collector Matthew; the murderer and persecutor Paul. Others have been added to the list as time went on. Augustine, the playboy philosopher whose heart was hardened against Christianity. John Newton, the cruel slave trader whose own crew tried to get rid of him. Mother Teresa, whose upbringing was one of relative comfort and ease.
Yes, the twenty-first century has started out being everything that I have indicated this morning and evening. There are many reasons to see encroaching darkness more than the splendor of light. Yet, there remains one very good reason to rejoice in the light instead of being overcome by the darkness: "the Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
This century has already become, even in its infancy, a time of crisis and change. But let none of us forget that God is still God! Let us dare not forget that the light still shines in the darkness! Dr. Arthur J. Gossip wrote this about the triumph of Christianity: "When Christ came in the flesh, there was the same initial seeming failure. Everything looked down, and evil utterly triumphant. Yet Christianity survived. And today while in some places it is losing ground, in others it is leaping out across the world faster than it has ever done. Even that gross darkness upon Calvary did not master it. Nor will the difficulties by which we are faced." (The Interpreter's Bible, v. 8, p. 469) And that was written in the late 1940s or early 1950s.
The twenty-first century is not going to be a time of darkness and defeat. Why do I say such a thing? Because as long as this old world keeps going around, the light will always shine and overcome the darkness. John Bunyan, in his classic illustrative work The Pilgrim's Progress, describes the conflict this way: "Then I saw in my dream that the Interpreter took Christian by the hand, and led him into a place where there was a fire burning against a wall, and one standing by it, always casting much water upon it, to quench it; yet did the fire burn higher and hotter. Then said Christian, 'What means this?' The Interpreter answered, 'This fire is the work of grace that is wrought in the heart; he that casts water upon it, to extinguish and put it out, is the Devil; but in that thou seest the fire notwithstanding burn higher and hotter thou shalt also see the reason of that.' So he led him to the backside of the wall, where he saw a man with a vessel of oil in his hand, of the which he did also continually cast, but secretly, into the fire. Then said Christian, 'What means this?' The Interpreter answered, 'This is Christ, who continually, with the oil of His grace, maintains the work already begun in the heart; by the means of which, notwithstanding what the Devil can do, the souls of His people prove gracious still.'"
This century is proving to be a time of crisis and change, that is true. But it is also already proving to be a time of opportunity. It is proving to be a time for witness and mission. As long as there are Christians faithful to the Lord, which will be always, these crises will be met with the everlasting light of the world. "The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son..."
Rev. Charles A. Layne
First Baptist Church
PO Box 515
170 W. Broadway
Bunker Hill, IN 46914
765-689-7987
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