Submitted by admin on Mon, 12/06/2010 - 8:22am
MP3 File:
We've been talking the last few weeks about what the church needs to be: it needs to be a life-giving community; it needs to be relevant—it must offer ancient relevance.
Today we're concluding this series of messages, but we're not going to stop talking about what the church as a community of believers should be and can be. During the coming year, I want to continue stretching and challenging us to become more what God wants us to be.
We could offer many pictures from the Bible—analogies of what the church should be: it's a body...a family...a building...a fishing net...a field...a tree, and so on...
Pick and choose! With so many wonderful pictures of what the church can and should be, there's no shortage of things that could be said. However, the picture I decided to focus on today is the upside down kingdom.
The church of Jesus Christ must be different. It must stand apart from the world around it. If we're going to be able to offer any hope to a broken, fallen world, then we cannot act like the world. We cannot rely on the world's ways or the world's resources.
The church's answer is not just one of many options available to people No! It is the only option! We must be counter-cultural. Our answer must be the opposite of the world's solutions.
In fact, what we have to offer to hurting, fragmented, addicted, sin-enslaved people doesn't make any sense by worldly standards. The church, compared to the world, is inside out and upside down.
Maybe
you've seen the old movie (1972, remade into a TV mini-series in 2005 and a new
movie in 2006) called The Poseidon Adventure portrays a remarkable tale
of a luxury cruise ship capsized in a monster, freak tidal wave and left
floating upside down in the ocean. 
As the passengers in the ship's ballroom realized what had actually happened (now
that they were standing on the ceiling), one brave voice proposed that the only
way to be rescued was not to go "up" to the deck (which now was several levels
under water) but to go "down" to the hull of the ship (now drifting and exposed
above the surface of the water). Arguments ensued. It didn't make sense! Go "down"
to get "above"? Some thought it best to go toward the deck. Others thought it
better to stay put—to do nothing but wait for rescue. But some believers began
the adventure, following their leader, going toward the ocean surface by going "down"
deeper and deeper into the bowels of the ship. Down through the crew quarters.
Down through the service galleys. Down through the engine compartments. Down
through the lowest hatches they went. Near the end of their journey, their
leader (a Messianic figure) paid the ultimate price while shutting off a broken
valve spraying scalding steam and blocking their only escape route. Finally, a
few survivors reached the "bottom," which was really at the top, where rescuers
cut a narrow hole through the steel hull of the ship. The rescuers were
surprised so few came out, but the sad truth was that most of the people chose
to go the wrong way.
The movie is cheesy by today's standards, but the allegory it contains is still powerful: When we find ourselves in a world where everything is upside down,
1. We must go "down" to get "up." In God's economy, everything is reversed. The answers to life cannot be found by calling 9-1-1.
The world's ways cannot save eternal souls. That's why we must be different from the world. If we merely repackage what the world has to offer, we won't change the world. If we want to shake or challenge the world, we cannot be the same as the world.
Our beliefs and our ways must go "against the grain"; we must be "counter cultural"; we must resist the tide of popular opinion. We must go "down" to get "up."
Jesus calls us to be part of a kingdom that appears upside down: He who humbles himself will be lifted up... the first shall be last, and the last shall be first... if you want to save your life, you must lose your life for my sake... to be great in the kingdom, you must be a servant...
We must be willing to be "unconventional." To listen to God more than human wisdom. To take a stand for what is right, when the wrong is more popular. If being PC (politically correct) could save the world, then have at it! But the truth is, conventional thinking or conventional wisdom cannot save one soul, and it will not impact our world.
The early church in the first century quickly realized that their message was counter-cultural. The leaders of the religious culture told them to stop speaking about Jesus, and they replied, "Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? We cannot stop telling about the wonderful things we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:19-20, NLT).
Later, Paul and Silas went to a Greek city called Thessalonica and created a major stir with their message about Jesus. There was a backlash, and a mob grabbed some of the new believers and dragged them before the city council, accusing them of upsetting the order of things.
Fiddler on the Roof: Tradition! It holds the order of things together. Tradition has its place, but there are times when change is called for and the order of things needs to be upset.
So they brought their charge to the authorities: "Paul and Silas have turned the rest of the world upside down, and now they are here disturbing our city" (Acts 17:6, NLT). NASB: "upset the world"; NIV: "caused trouble all over the world."
"...These people are out to destroy the world, and now they've shown up on our doorstep, attacking everything we hold dear!" (MSG)
From the world's point of view, Paul and Silas were turning the world upside down. They were causing trouble, destroying the traditional world. In reality, they were putting things right side up. That's a good goal for us!
Are you willing to be a trouble maker? Are you willing to pay the price of being unpopular? Willing to be out of the main stream?
If our message is true (and it is), if our message is relevant (and it is), if our message brings people to God (and it does), then I don't think we have to worry about being politically correct. The message trumps everything the world has to offer.
1 Cor 1:20-25 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
2. We must stop playing games.
The early disciples were willing to be unconventional, willing to lay down their lives, willing to give it all up, willing to endure hardship, willing to do whatever it took to tell people about Jesus. When we aim to be accepted by society, however, we limit the impact we could have.
When I was a kid, my cousins and I used to gather on my grandmother's front porch and "play church." One of us would lead the singing (we used hymnbooks). Another would pass a plate, and we would put in pretend money. Another would stand and preach a sermon. We were imitating what we saw the adults doing in a worship service...but we didn't have much impact on our world. We were only playing.
It turns out that it's not just kids that play at church. A.W. Tozer
writes: 
"Most men, indeed, play at religion as they play at games, religion itself
being of all games the one most universally played." (The Divine Conquest, p
32.)
When we play church, we have a problem, because it reduces the central issues of life to a game—something that doesn't really matter. When the Vikings lose, we console ourselves by saying, "Oh well. It's only a game." We know the outcome doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. It's not real life. It's an artificial contest. It's not like real war; it's an illusion. That's why Brett Favre or Ryan Longwell can play against their former team. It's no big deal to switch, because it's all arbitrary. It's "only a game."
Tozer quotes 1 Thess 1:5: "our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction."
Then
he writes:
"The message of the gospel may be received in either of two ways: in word only,
without power, or in word with power." (The
Divine Conquest, p 31.)
If our message is going to have power, it needs two things: (1) the Holy Spirit and (2) deep conviction. We receive power through the Holy Spirit when we have a supernatural encounter with the living God and are confronted by the reality of God's truth.
Our message will also have power when we have the conviction that leads to action! Our message must DO something, not just SAY something. We are to be DOERS of the Word and not HEARERS only.
Tozer
says powerless religion is like any other game:
"...the Church has also its fields and its rules and its equipment for playing
the game of pious words.... As an athlete uses a ball so do many of us use words:
words spoken and words sung, words written and words uttered in prayer. We
throw them swiftly across the field; we learn to handle them with dexterity and
grace; we build reputations upon our world-skill and gain as our reward the
applause of those who have enjoyed the game. But the emptiness of it is
apparent from the fact that after the pleasant religious game no one is basically any different from what
he had been before. The bases of life remain unchanged, the same old
principles govern, the same old Adam rules." (The Divine Conquest, p 32-33).
It's one thing to have a message. It's something more to have a message with power.
3. We must use love to show God's power.
The reality of God's power makes all the difference! It's why we can offer real hope for the world. It's why we can reach out to people in trouble. Our message of love, grace, and forgiveness is infinitely better than the best the world has to offer.
God's love and grace can rescue anyone, no matter what their struggle, no matter what sin controls them, no matter what dysfunction ruins them.
But what does that love look like? I heard some ask about the video clip we played two weeks ago. No one questioned Andrew wanting a church to promote adoption along with protesting abortion, to help the unwed pregnant teenager instead of condemning. But some questioned his suggestion that Christians "hang out" in gay clubs.
There are other ways to demonstrate grace to people caught in the gay lifestyle, but the concept of going where they are is pretty consistent with what Jesus did.
Jesus was criticized and condemned for being a "glutton and a drunkard...a friend of...sinners" (Luke 7:34). So let me ask: should we be a friend of sinners?
We know God so loved the world that he sent his Son into the world. Should we love the world so much that we would send our sons into the world?
Here's something to think about: Jesus was IN the world, but he was not OF the world. He was in the world, but the world was not in him.
Imagine
a diver in the water. Just because he's swimming with the fish doesn't mean that he is a fish. Just because he is in the water doesn't mean the water
is in him. He is still breathing air from above! He lives because he has a tank of
O2—which he breathes through a tube. O2 fills his lungs,
not water. He is IN the water, but the water is not in HIM. In the same way, we
are to be in the world without allowing the world to be in us. We live and work
in the world, but we breathe the air of heaven. We can swim with the
fish without being a fish—we can be friends of sinners without being a sinner.
We get so hung up on overtly sinful lifestyles that we don't even realize when the subtle sins of the world have leaked into our homes and our churches.
It's easy to condemn—easy to judge—blatant misbehavior, but it's not so easy to recognize minor infractions or attitudes that we've learned to tolerate: hearts of unbelief, negative spirits, critical words, gossip, jealousy, bitterness, hatred...
So we avoid hanging out with sinners, but are we living a life that runs contrary to the world around us? Are we pushing against the tide of culture?
4. We must live right side up in an upside down world.
The message of the gospel means nothing if we do not live right. Our lives—our behavior, our actions, our words, our relationships—either confirm or deny the power of God.
In an upside down world where everything is wrong side up, God calls us to be people who turn things over and live right side up.
A.W. Tozer described this kind of radical believer:
The Christian soon learns that if he would be victorious as a son of heaven among men on earth he must not follow the common pattern of mankind, but rather the contrary. That he may be safe he puts himself in jeopardy; he loses his life to save it and is in danger of losing it if he attempts to preserve it. He goes down to get up. If he refuses to go down he is already down, but when he starts down he is on his way up.
He is strongest when he is weakest and weakest when he is strong. Though poor he has the power to make others rich, but when he becomes rich his ability to enrich others vanishes. He has most after he has given most away and has least when he possesses most.
He may be and often is highest when he feels lowest and most sinless when he is most conscious of sin. He is wisest when he knows that he knows not and knows least when he has acquired the greatest amount of knowledge. He sometimes does most by doing nothing and goes furthest when standing still. In heaviness he manages to rejoice and keeps his heart glad even in sorrow. [That Incredible Christian, p 12]