Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we want to thank you for your love for us. You delight in your people, and we delight in one another too, Father. It is such a privilege to be called to be part of your church, and we pray, Father, that as we reflect on what it means to find our hope and security in you, and in your love for us. And we pray, Father, for your wisdom and understanding. Help us to search out by your spirit those areas of comfort and idolatry in our hearts, which separate us from you and from one another, from those around us. We ask that you teach us what Jesus say. Amen. At the end of class last time, we were beginning to look at some of the insights of the Apostle Paul into the dilemma that faced the early church as it sought to be obedient to the great commission. We've spoken about the reluctance and difficulty that the church experienced, about the ongoing problems that existed in the churches over the acceptance and full welcome, and status of Gentile believers, and I suggested that it was because Paul had been at the very heart of Judaism, that once he understood the gospel, he saw perhaps more clearly than anyone else what the issues were, which caused this problem of separation. And we began to look at the end of class at a series of insights, which we find throughout Paul's letters, and throughout his ministry, which helped him in this regard. And we began to look at the first of these, number one here on our outline, what is our identity as believers? From where do we get our sense of our own well-being or self-worth, open ourselves before God, before other people? As you think about yourself, who are you? And let me read again Paul's words from Philippians, because they are so foundational to what I want to say here. The context is, again, Paul discussing this problem of people in the church who were going around insisting that everyone be circumcised. And Paul writes in Philippians 3, verse 3, for it is we who are the circumcision, who worshiped by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh, though I myself have reasons for such confidence. And then Paul addresses this issue of confidence, our internal sense of confidence, what is it? Which makes us comfortable with ourselves. And before other people, it's a very profound question to ask. And we all need to reflect on it. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, and I suggested here the term flesh might be translated more, those things in which we put our hope, our confidence, our sense of security, our sense of identity, I have more circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin of Hebrew of Hebrews, in regard to the law of Pharisee as for zeal, persecuting the church as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my prophet, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ, what is more I consider everything a loss, compared to the passing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish or dung that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. Paul challenging us here, and it's something we all need to think about. Where do we find our fundamental sense of well-being, of value of security, of identity as individuals. Paul includes his race that he was an Israelite, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and of the southern kingdom of the tribe of Benjamin, someone racially pure. Now for us is our sense of identity found primarily in our race or in our national identity that I am black or white or brown or yellow, or that I am American or British or Chinese or Korean or Brazilian or whatever it happens to be. And do you fill in the blank for yourself? Is it that I'm from a particular part of this country that I identify myself primarily as from the south or from the northeast or from the west, that I'm a California girl or whatever it was, the beach boys sang. Who am I? Who do I think I am in the deepest recesses of myself? Paul speaks not only of his race and national identity, his cultural identity in that sense, but also of what we might call his religious heritage, that he is a Pharisee of the strictest sect, passionately devoted to the observance of the law, absolutely zealous for the doctrines of God's word, so much so that he was committed to persecuting those who saw as heretics. And we need to ask ourselves where, what about those issues too? Is it that I am reformed or is it that I'm Baptist or that I'm Presbyterian or is it my status within that heritage? I'm a professor at Covenant Seminary, the PCA's national seminary and that's a good thing. See, of course, Paul regards all these things as precious. He talks elsewhere about how precious his heritage was to him, his national and cultural heritage and his religious heritage. It's not that these things are insignificant, it's not the point. Remember how Paul says how much he loved his fellow Jews that he'd be prepared to have his name blotted out of the book of life for their sake. It's not that he thinks it's unimportant. That's not the question that the point that I'm trying to make here. It's what matters most to me. Paul says I consider all of these worthless in comparison with knowing Christ that I'm prepared to lose them all, he says. Now can you say that? In the end, it really matters nothing to me in comparison with my relationship with Christ that I am, let's say, from South Carolina or that I am from those wonderful mountains there and in South of North Carolina. I think that that's God's country. It's very beautiful. I've been there. So those of you from there, I understand how you feel about it, or you're pride in your particular heritage in this nation or whatever nation you come from, or again in your religious heritage. You think the problem is for all of us, and this was the problem for Paul, but it's the most precious gifts of God which can become idols to us. We make idols, not usually of worthless things, but things which are really to be treasured. Pagans make idols of the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the forests, and the mountains, and the storms. Now the sun's a wonderful thing. Without it, life would die, but we're not to worship it. We're not to find our meaning and relationship to it. Now if you think of some examples here, if we think of the Jewish people, why do you think it is that Jesus and Paul address so passionately the issue of the law and the misuse of the law when they are talking to Jewish people?
The most passionate denunciations by Christ, recorded for us in the gospels, are his denunciations of the Pharisees and teachers of the law, and the reason is because they made God's law into an idol. It became their sense of identity. It became the thing they treasured most, that they prided themselves on, that they had God's law, and that everybody else, the Gentiles, which is dogs, immoral dogs, in comparison. They took God's beautiful gift, the gift of his commandments, and they turned them into an idol, the thing which gave them this sense of identity, and of course the law was a wonderful gift of God to the Jewish people, to the people of Israel. Even until this day, you find Jewish people wherever they are in the world making a disproportionate contribution to the culture in which they live. For their numbers, because God's law and God's word, even when they have no longer worship him from the heart, has given them enormous cultural strength, and identity which has bound them together. It's a beautiful gift of God, but they turned it into an idol. Oh, we may think of the Greeks. Paul says about the Greeks, the Greeks seek wisdom. Some have said of the Jews of the ancient world, and I'm sure you read this in Michael Green, that they had the greatest righteousness the world had ever seen, because of the gift of God's law to them, but people said of the Greeks that they had the greatest wisdom the world had ever seen. And you would find many philosophers today who would acknowledge that Greek philosophy, Greek wisdom, has shaped all of Western thought ever since. The whole of Western philosophy is just a series of footnotes to play to. It's been said over and over again. God gave the Greeks a wonderful gift of wisdom, which still blesses the culture in which we live today. But it made the Greeks arrogant. They thought they were the finest race, the Athenians on the face of the earth. They looked down on everybody else, because they found their identity in their wisdom. And we'll come back to this issue later. It became an idol for them. Now for our own culture today, here in the United States, there's a wonderful article, Paul over at the Institute just photocopied from me from the New York Times, which I'll give out to you all on freedom. Freedom. America has the greatest freedom the world has ever seen, and it's something which every one of us who lives here absolutely treasures and rightly so. People still come to this country from all over the world because of the political freedoms here, because of economic freedom, the possibility of making a living for oneself and one's family. For religious freedom is the greatest religious diversity the world's ever seen here in the United States right now. For freedom of the press, for freedom of expression. But you know, and I know that the greatest idol of the culture in which we live right now is freedom, the autonomy of the individual, the freedom to do exactly what I want to do regardless of what God or anybody else says. Freedom has become the master of our culture, not just a gift which we treasure, but it has become an idol in which enormous numbers of our contemporaries find their primary sense of well-being that I am free to do what I want to do to pursue my life as I define it. It affects every one of us as Christians. Freedom is a wonderful gift of God just like wisdom or the law of God, but it can become an idol because it becomes our primary sense of where we find our meaning and purpose in life. Now for us in our reformed heritage, and not all of you in this room are reformed, but let me address those of us who are. A God has given us a wonderful treasury, a heritage of doctrine. It's one of the glories of the reformed churches historically. I'm not criticizing that for a moment, I treasure it myself, but we can very easily turn our own heritage into an idol. I've had the privilege over the last six years of going every year to the Netherlands, speaking for one of the most reformed churches in the world there. They don't even regard the PCA as really reformed, they criticize us as an evangelical denomination which for them is a term of abuse. They just recognize two or three other denominations in the whole world as being truly reformed and their reformed heritage for them, their reformed doctrine has become, it has really become an idol. It matters more to them than Christ himself and consequently I've met pastors in that denomination which is absolutely conservative, theologically. And committed to every dot every eye and cross every tea of reformed doctrine, I met pastors who are not Christians personally because their doctrinal heritage is more important to them than the gospel itself. We can turn any of God's gifts no matter how beautiful they are into idols, into our primary source of worth and identity. And that's not to cast any kind of discredit on the gifts themselves, they are wonderful gifts, whether it's the gift of God's commandments or the gift of wisdom or the gift of freedom or the gift of Sam doctrine. But if that becomes more important to us than the fact that we are going to be found in Christ, having a righteousness, having an identity, having a security which is not something that comes to us in anything else but from Him and through faith in Him, then we have made a huge mistake. And that is what Paul is addressing here, he's not despising his heritage. I'm not despising any of these things I speak about. But where is our identity? Where is our identity? What do I put my trust in ultimately? What would I let go if I had to let go of it and was left with nothing but faith in Christ himself and his identity? And his substitutional death for me which grants me righteousness. When I stand before God on the day of judgment, none of these other things, no matter how beautiful they all are, are going to make us acceptable before God. There is no other foundation that can be laid except Christ himself. And of course all these other things are important but they flow from Him. And I treasure them in relationship to Him. So all my doctrine drives me back to Him because Christ Himself is at the very heart of all of our doctrine and trust in Him, love for Him. Security in Him, hope in Him must be what is at the very center of my being. So that's the first issue. What is my identity? Secondly, what is going to help us grow as believers? What will help us grow as believers? So where am I going to, how am I going to mature as a Christian? And how will I teach others to grow? My own children, the young people in our churches, our congregations. Again, is it going to be our particular cultural or religious heritage, our traditions, our rules, the way we do things, our cultural patterns, even our Christian cultural patterns? Or is it going to be Christ Himself? Again, look at Paul's words in Colossians chapter 2 verses 16 through 23. Paul addresses various things here. Do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink or with regard to a religious festival, a new moon celebration or a Sabbath day. Here he's again talking about the laws which define Judaism in terms of food and drink and religious festivals and celebrations and their particular ways in which they observe the Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things that were to come. The reality over is found in Christ. All of them pointed to Him. All of them pointed to Him. The Sabbath was the declaration that the Lord is our righteousness said Moses and Christ is the most wonderful fulfillment of that. He is indeed our righteousness. Not anything we do, not the works of our hands or anything else we accomplish, but the rest we have in God through faith in Jesus Christ. And then he talks about various religious experiences which had come into the church in Colossi and then he says this, verse 20, since you died with Christ, the basic principles of this world, why as though you still belong to it, you submit to its rules, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. These are all destined to perish with use. Any kinds of patterns of life, traditions and rules which we add to God's moral commandments for us, these are all destined to perish with use because they're based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship. We all make all sorts of rules for ourselves about our spiritual life. If they're not to be found in God's Word, they are self-imposed worship and they may be useful as discipline because we need discipline. All of us need discipline because we're lazy and sinful. But we must never make the mistake of thinking that those disciplines we adopt for our own reading of Scripture and prayer life, fasting, whatever it is that we do. We must never make the mistake of thinking that God commanded these things in exactly the way we are doing them and that they're actually the means and basis of our growth, of our acceptability to God and our growth and to maturity. They have an appearance of wisdom and some of them may have some practical wisdom. Or the rules we adopt about what we're going to do in the Christian life and what will encourage other people to do and what they should read and all of those other things and what kind of clothes they should wear and etc. etc. Lots and lots of these things. Their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment to the body but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence in the end. That's not how sin gets conquered, is conquered through faith in Christ, working itself out in love for His commandments and walking in His ways. So how will I grow as a believer and Paul addresses this a lot as well in Galatians? Because in the letter to Galatians, the people will say, well you can start with Christ but now what you've got to do is add all these patterns of Judaism to your life, the food, laws, circumcision, etc. and everything else. And Paul just says to them, having begun with Christ, are you returning to these things? The effect will be to cut yourself off from Christ altogether. We are not only justified through faith in Christ, we are sanctified through faith in Christ as well. Let me commend to you Francis Schaeffer's true spirituality where he addresses that issue of sanctification through faith. He's not saying there's no place for obedience, he wasn't an antinomian. But faith in Christ, working through love for His commandments and love for Him. So what will help me grow as a Christian? How will I mature in faith and how will I help my children and young people to grow? It will be by constantly pointing them back to Christ and calling them to give their lives to Him in sacrifice for His love, grace and gratitude. The love of Christ leading me to a delight in His law. Number three, how will we value others in the kingdom of God? How will we regard one another? What status will we give them as believers? As people we delight to be friends with, that we are glad to worship with, to visit in one another's homes, to sit down and eat with, to rejoice together with and grow together in the Lord with. Are we going to value people by their race, their cultural heritage, the part of a country from which they come, their economic or educational status, their particular heritage, depending on the kind of church they belong to and the branch of Christ's church of which they are apart, their conformity to our own particular patterns of living as a Christian, even their gender. How do we regard one another? Listen to Paul's words again from Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2 verses 11 through 16. This is where Paul has to oppose Peter to his face because Peter and Barnabas have backed off from being together with Gentiles. When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles but when they arrived he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. Andrews joined him in his hypocrisy so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel because this is the fundamental issue, it's the gospel itself that's at stake here. I said to Peter in front of the more, you are a Jew, you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs, we who are Jews by birth and not Gentiles sinners? Of course, no but a man is not justified by observing the Lord but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the Lord but because by observing the Lord, no one will be justified. How do we value one another? On what basis do we make our relationships with people? Is it because we agree on every little point of doctrine or we have exactly the same views about just how Christians should live? We are to value people because they have faith in Christ regardless of all the other differences there are among us. Or look at Paul's words in Galatians 3, 26, through 29. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus for all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. And then he makes these wonderful statements, there is neither June or Greek, our cultural, our racial, our national differences are put away and these different religious heritages, slave nor free, our economic circumstances are completely insignificant to us now in terms of how we are going to think about one another and how we are going to greet one another. Male nor female, our gender as well, the Jews looked down on women, they didn't regard women as people who could be disciples who had adequate minds to learn from God's word. It's why it's so remarkable when Jesus says of Mary that she's chosen the better part because she wants to learn theology at the feet of Christ. It is said that the Pharisees had a prayer, thank you God, that I'm not a Gentile but a Jew, not a slave but free, not a woman but a man. And if that is indeed the truth, then Paul is reversing that prayer here, saying now in Christ we are all one in Christ. If you belong to Christ then you Abraham's seed and he is according to the promise and he goes on to say every believer is an heir of Christ Jesus, fully an heir, who is indwelt by his spirit, the spirit who cries, daddy, father. Now, Diane Langberg said when she was here just this last week she was very encouraged to see how the great majority of our male students at the seminary here welcomed the women studying alongside them. There are a few who don't, who make some of our women's students feel like second-class citizens who really shouldn't be here studying theology and studying God's word. That's not what Jesus taught or did. It's precisely the opposite of what the apostle Paul says here. Diane said that she's observed in other seminaries that some of the women's students even get hate male from the male students abusing them for being there. That doesn't seem to be the case here and we thank God for that. But how do we regard one another whether it's gender issues or race issues or cultural issues or denominational issues? One of the challenges to you all here at the seminary is there's quite a diversity of denominational backgrounds with various different heritages, theologically and practically and experientially in the life and worship of the church. If you insist on only talking to people and getting to know them and delighting in their friendship who have precisely the same heritages as you, what do you take advantage of the setting to delight in those who belong to Jesus Christ? When we meet one another in the kingdom, we'll find out who was exactly right on all these points of doctrine and practice. But we will be glad to be there because of Christ. And we will be glad to see others there, whatever their particular heritages right now, others who had faith in Christ and who are errors according to the promise. How do we value one another? Let me urge you why you are students here at the seminary to delight in the diversity which exists within God's kingdom, racially and culturally and with regard to gender and with regard to denominational affiliation. Do you love the people of God who belong to Jesus Christ? That's the challenge to us in the New Testament. Look at Paul's words as well in Ephesians chapter 2 and here you see how passionately Paul felt about this issue of the unity between Jews and Gentiles. And that barrier, that barrier between Jews and Gentiles was a bigger one than any of us will ever face because the Jews were absolutely sure that the barrier was one that God had set up. And so they thought they had God on this side in the strongest possible way. Now as I've said, they misinterpreted what God said, the Old Testament law itself is filled with commands to be hospitable and open and welcoming and loving to aliens and strangers and to incorporate them into the life of God's people. But that's not how they had thought about it. But Paul writes these very beautiful words here in Ephesians chapter 2. He says starting from verse 11. Therefore remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision that done in the body by the hands of men. Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise without hope and without God in the world. That's true for every single one of us until our conversion, until God called us to Himself through faith in Christ Jesus. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ, near of course first of all to God and to His kingdom and to Christ Himself and to God's promises and to citizenship in the true Israel. Because we are all children of Abraham. But then Paul says this, for He Himself is our peace. Who has made the two one and here he's no longer thinking first of all at this point about peace with God but peace with each other. He Himself is our peace. Who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing and his flesh the law that commands and regulations his purpose was to create in Himself one new man out of the two thus making peace. And in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross by which He put to death their hostility. Whatever hostility you have experienced in your own heart and in your life is in the past to other believers whether that hostility or that negative mentality or that prejudice or that unwillingness to draw close together. However you want to express it whether wherever you've experienced that in your own heart and life Christ has put that hostility to death by the cross that's how Paul puts it. We live in a society which is deeply racially divided and sometimes as white believers we try to pretend it's not really but it is. Luke who works with me who has no chip on his shoulder whatsoever said to me one day something which moved me so deeply. He said when my second child was born I wept and I thought at first he meant just I wept with joy because that's how we respond when we have a child and he said no. I went with sorrow when I saw that my second child was a son because I could just see in my mind all the hassles that he would have from the police as a young African American male in the society. That really struck me to the heart in the deepest possible way it would never have occurred to me to weep the birth of one of my sons. My own pastor you will know I worship at a black church my own pastor just recently had to move his son from Truman's state at Kirk'sville because he'd been stopped several times by the police simply because he's black. Not because he was doing anything wrong in any way and so just for safety he moved him and we all know these are these are the challenges of our culture and these are the challenges in our church as well. In all of our churches Christ has put to death any hostility that exists between us in any of these areas. He has made peace between us and he calls us to put that into practice because Christ is our identity not these other things. That is what matters. In the kingdom we are going to rejoice with complete gladness that there are people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation on the face of the earth and we need to start enjoying the first roots of that right now. So let me challenge you who are your friends and who do you welcome into your home who do you sit and eat with to practice the beauty of unity that Christ has died for on the cross in Romans 14 and 15. Paul addresses the issue of the areas where we have differences as believers. About the practical matters of our way of life about exactly how we observe the Sabbath or what kind of foods we eat and all sorts of other things like this and Paul really challenges us in those passages to remember this he says remember this is my brother and sister for whom Christ died. And why are we judging one another why are we critical of one another this is my brother and sister for whom Christ died. So how do we treasure one another in the kingdom of God that's our third challenge and the fourth is this how will we reach out to other people with the gospel. And this is of course where the answer to our first question what is my identity becomes so important because if my identity is ultimately in anything other than Christ then reaching out to people who are different from me is going to be very difficult. It's going to be very difficult if we insist on holding on to our particular cultural identity if we insist on holding on to our particular traditions remember Calvin tradition is a good guide but it's a poor master no matter how precious those traditions are we are going to have very hard time reaching out to other people who are different from ourselves. Because if our identity is fundamentally in anything other than Christ well then we are going to separate ourselves from unbelievers and sinners because they're not like us they don't share our patterns of life of course they don't we need to remember it seems to me three things. Number one scripture calls us to recognize that everyone we're ever going to meet is made in the image of God and that means they're glorious. Psalm 8 the question we should ask of every person we ever meet no matter what other characteristics they have culturally or in any other of these ways no matter what sin is expressed in their life no matter what they believe we had asked the question what Lord what is this person this man this woman that you that you consider them the question that Psalm 8 asks what is man that you are mindful of him and Psalm 8 answers the question you have crammed him with glory and honor you've made him a little less than God you've said everything on his feet in other words our response to every person we ever meet is that God looks at this person says here's a person made in the image of God that's to be our first response to see the glory of a person not to see their sin first but to first see their glory and their dignity as a person made in the image of God and to treasure all the things that are good and admirable and beautiful about that person as a person made in the image of God as a wonderful example of this in the film dead man walking some of you will have seen that movie excellent movie true story of course and here's a guy in death row for committing an appalling murder and violent rape of course this is a true story and this Christian is appointed to be this guy's counselor before he is executed and she finds it very difficult because she thinks about what he's done but she is able to see his dignity as a human person made in the image of God despite the wickedness despite the wickedness and that's what God's word calls us to do James says and James three how can you curse men who are made in the image of God and at the same time bless God it's a blasphemy against God to dishonor a human being and not to see that they bear his image it's like saying God this person is trash they were less but that's not how God thinks about them what is this person Lord that you are mindful of him you've crowned him with glory and honor and we are to see that glory and honor in the face of everyone we meet secondly when we do see people sin and of course we're always going to see it we are to remember that we are sinners like them that when we stand before God as sinners we stand a level grand James says if you have broken the law at any point you are guilty of the whole lot that's the reality we can't grade sin I was talking to one of our graduates the other day who just called me in deep distress because he's facing the real challenge of what kind of people will their church reach out to and it came down to a very practical thing of they were having a swimming party and one of the girls who came along came in a two-piece bathing suit and the person leading the youth group wanted to send her a straight back home we don't want girls like that here at our church youth group and he had to say well if we take that attitude oh all of my daughter's friends in school who are not Christians would never come to any church function they would think we were insane and the response was well in that case your daughter shouldn't have friends like that who wear two-piece bathing suits and we don't want them coming to this church because we've got to keep our standards if we are guilty of breaking God's law at any point we have broken all of it when it comes to sin we all stand a level grand before God I can't look down on anybody else I cannot be like that Pharisee who says thank you God that I'm not like other people who wear two-piece bathing suits or whatever it is whatever other foolish example we want to put in there and we can't say to people and this happened when I was a seminary student a friend of mine was a fellow student who was a pastor was asked to go preach to a revival in a church and when he got there he met some kids on a street out where he parked his car and this was in the late 60s and they were kind of hippies they had long hair and they were wearing all sorts of interesting clothing and their feet and other things and he got chatting to them and they asked him what he was doing and he said he was going to be preaching that evening and he invited them along and they came with him and when they got to the church door the pastor of the church met him and said were you planning to come in and they said yeah we're coming and he said yes I just invited them and he said well you can go home and change your clothes and put on some shoes and then you can come back we cannot require of people that they can form to any particular standards of either dress or clothing or hairstyle or footwear or any other practical thing like this or any standards of morality before we welcome them to the hearing of the gospel of Christ people are justified through faith in Christ not through getting their lives to get a first whether it's outwardly or even in terms of deep patterns of sin in their lives which have to be dealt with of course they have to be dealt with when you come to Christ you come to repentance but we're on level ground here as sinners and thirdly we need to recognize that everyone out there needs Christ just as you and I do we needed him at one point when we did not belong to him and we need him every moment of our lives without him we would perish today and that's true of everyone around us those are the first three things we need to see of people they bear the glory of God we are sinners like them and as sinners we are all in need of Christ now it's this understanding that enables Paul to say I'm all things to all people we read that passage already from 1 Corinthians 9 19 through 23 but what does that mean? to be all things to all people practically it means that I am prepared because I find my identity in Christ first I'm prepared to let go of my culture for the sake of the gospel that's what Paul means when he says I can be adieu to the Jews and I can be a Gentile the Gentiles and weak to the weak
in Acts 16 3 we read that Paul got Timothy circumcised it was a painful for Timothy as he was an adult Paul didn't think circumcision was of any value at all before God anymore but he had Timothy circumcised so as not to offend Jewish believers Paul was prepared to take vows himself and have his head shaved we read about it in Acts 21 24 through 26 for the sake of the Jewish believers he takes a vow and pays for those travelling companions with him to take the same vow and he shaves his head and he goes up and performs his vow at the temple he doesn't think things like that matter any more at all in terms of his relationship with God but he does it for the sake of other people because he loves his fellow Jews he loves them passionately and he is happy to go along with things which will enable him to be with them and to proclaim the gospel to them and to sit and eat with them and to like being with them but when he's with the Gentiles he doesn't do any of those things he eats their food and etc. and he doesn't require new Gentile converts to be circumcised etc. and he does it for the sake of Christ, for the sake of being able to spread the gospel for the sake of those who need to hear it Paul could let go what a strict Jew would do in order to reach out to other people now this is not easy it's easy enough to say this that you can be all things to all people but let me give you a historical example of how difficult this is if you look at the history of the church in Ireland since the Reformation there were two basic settlements of Protestants fundamentally they were Presbyterians from Scotland, the great majority of them who settled in Ireland the first group around the 1620s the second group around the 1670s and you look at a map drawn around 1700 of where those Protestants settled in Ireland and you look at a map today you find they're exactly the same there is no difference and there has over those years over those last 350 years there has been almost no outreach with the gospel of Jesus Christ to their Catholic neighbours, almost none now why? the fundamental reason was their Protestant cultural identity was more precious to them than reaching their neighbours with the gospel of Christ they clung to it because they felt secure in it so every year and you've all heard about these things on the news Protestants, some of whom are genuinely committed Christians will march of celebrating the victories of 300 years ago when they killed some Catholics and restrained Catholic power how do you think it's possible to communicate the gospel to Catholics if you celebrate every year that this is what we did 300 years ago how is it possible? of course it's not possible you talk to some of our students who've been to work in Ireland my Graham and his family were there last summer working in Ireland he said this if you if people ask you are you a Protestant or a Catholic and you respond I'm a Protestant nobody will listen to a word you say that's the end of the discussion that's the end of any possibility of relationship because you've identified yourself with the Protestants of Northern Ireland it becomes impossible to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ you identify yourself simply as a Christian as someone who has faith in Jesus Christ not because you are shamed of being a Presbyterian or anything else for that matter but because you recognize in that situation if you are going to be able to preach the gospel of Christ to these people your identity has got to be found in Christ in Christ and if it isn't then there is no possibility at all of preaching the gospel and being heard by people that's a tragic historical example and there are many others like this you know as somebody who comes from Britain and one of the things I pray for this is my home now I'm taking out citizenship here I love this country I'm absolutely committed to staying here but of course I love England from where I come and I pray that God will send some of you there that's one of my regular prayers that he will call some of you to go proclaim the gospel there and to live the gospel there that's my earnest prayer if anybody's interested come and see me afterwards I'm serious this is an invitation a challenge a Macedonian call no I won't say that that's up to the Lord that's the Lord's business he can do Macedonian calls but I'll add my two pensworth here my two centsworth now in America but if you think about going to England and I pray that some of you will go they desperately need people to go there and plant churches about 5% of the population at most are Christians as I said the other day more than 90% of the people have never read the Bible in their lives and simply don't go to church at all they are completely ignorant you might just as well be in a totally pagan society and it's very challenging in that context to proclaim the gospel but if God calls you to go to England and I pray that he will this is my passionate prayer that he will call some of you you're going to have to go and adapt yourself to the culture let me give a practical illustration as I look at Americans who work in England right now you can tell almost immediately which ones are going to flourish which ones will stay for the long term which ones will be have any likelihood of reaching out to English people now some will go and they'll say well I have to keep my little piece of America here I'm going to send my children to the American school in London as soon as you do that English people don't listen to you that's the reality because they experience it as a rejection of their culture and their whole educational system which they're very proud of rightly or wrongly if you're going to go to England you've got to be like the English you have to, you can't go somewhere and then say I'm not going to adapt myself to this culture and delight in it it's not just adapting yourself but it's delighting in it and entering into it as a family if you're married with children fully participating in it otherwise everything you do is experienced as a judgment and as a rejection but you're actually just a temporary visitor and you might just as well have a visitor's visa and you're going to plan to leave as soon as you can you have to go somewhere I mean Jesus of course is the most wonderful model this is what the incarnation is he came to Palestine in the first century and when people looked at him they saw this guy from Nazareth that's what he sounded like I'm sorry my accent is still English by the way I'm working on it, it's hard to get rid of it I'm serious you know I don't want anything about myself culturally to be a barrier for the gospel because that's what it means to imitate Christ to be all things to all people to count others more highly than we count ourselves that's what Paul says in Philippians 2 have the mind of Christ think of others more highly than you think of yourself are we that's what communicating the gospel is going to be if you leave seminary and you are committed to finding your identity in a particular cultural heritage and working only in that context you will only reach out to those people who are exactly like you you will constantly experience the problem of reaching people who are different in any kind of way but if you take Paul's insights seriously and say my identity is in Christ everything else is rubbish in comparison to knowing him how am I going to grow I'm going to grow through faith in Christ how will I treasure other people and delight in being with them simply recognizing their faith in Christ how will I reach out to others whoever they are, whatever they do whatever their cultural practices by acknowledging their made in the image of God and delighting in that recognizing that I'm a sinner just like them and that we all need Christ and if we understand these four things then we will be able to be all things to all people and God will delight to open the windows of heaven and pour out so much blessing you all know what to do with it I'm very serious if we take tiny little steps little baby steps in the direction of seeking to treasure people who are different from ourselves in any of these ways I've spoken about God doesn't ask us to be perfect or Christ is our righteousness our sanctification our wisdom our redemption we take tiny little steps of faith Lord this is what you call me to help me in my weakness God opens the windows of heaven and you will find that God will enable you to delight in relationships with every possible kind of people and to be welcome anywhere you go and to communicate his word to anyone at all that's the calling of the gospel Amen