Sermon for March 22nd, 2023
John 3:16-21
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Over the past several weeks, we've been talking about a belief system called moralistic therapeutic deism. It's a belief system that is often a part of the preaching of the church. But it's not the same as actual true Christianity. We define it every time moralistic means that it's all about being a good person. Therapeutic is that it's there to make you feel better about yourself. And deism is that it's about a God who is far away, and not into intimately involved in your life. There are five main doctrines. Each week we've looked at one. So the first one is, a god exists, who created an orders the world and washes over human life on Earth. Second, God wants people to be good, nice and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible, and by most world religions. Third, the central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself. Forth, the one we're talking about tonight, God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life, except when God is needed to resolve a problem. And finally, next week is good people go to heaven when they die. With the first one, we realized that God is directly involved in everything in the world, because He is all powerful, and all mighty. And if he is not involved in everything, if God is not in charge of everything, it means he's not in charge of everything. Which is kind of a bad thing, right? The second night, we realized that Christianity is not making about making bad people into good people, but making dead people alive. It's a big difference. Last week, we talked about how making happiness, the goal of your life leads you into a moral wasteland, with no purpose, and no hope. But living a life, partnering with God in creation, to serve His created beings around you, leads you to be able to understand suffering in your life, both in your service, and as being part of the suffering that Christ Himself experienced. And tonight, we're talking about why we worship God to begin with. Does he need to be involved in our lives, unless there's a problem. The idea behind that is that this is the deist God, God who is far away. I don't think about him too much. I don't worry about him too much. unless something goes wrong. And then I need him to help. This is the idea that when you come up with a problem in life, God is there to help you solve it. In the book that we've been looking at, I have a couple of quotes that illustrate this idea. There was one from a 15 year old, conservative Protestant girl who said, quote, religion is very important. Because when you have no one else to talk to about stuff, you can just get it off your chest. You just talk to God. It's good. A 14 year old Catholic girl when asked why does religion matter said quote, because God made us and if you ask him for something, I believe he gives it to you. Yeah. He hasn't let me down yet. The interviewer said, so what is God like? Quote, God is a spirit that grants you anything you want, but not anything bad. And quote. This isn't just this book, Robert Putnam, who wrote the famous bowling alone did a survey on American understanding of, of God. And what he came up with is that God is something like a cross between your favorite uncle and a heavenly Santa Claus, in the minds of most Americans. How did we get this way? Now? I hear I heard you laughing. Right. When I said that last quote, which means that you don't think of God as some sort of heavenly Santa Claus. How did we get here? I think it's because the church made a very active decision to talk about God This way, the church has a long history of looking at the next generation and saying, oh, whoa, this younger generation, they will just not like the theology that we grew up on. They need something else. They need something that will catch their attention and bring them into the church. And then we'll do that. And then we'll make them strong Christians. This is centuries of this. Do you go far enough back, you get to Jesus, the wise teacher, which is when Thomas Jefferson cut out all the miracles from the Bible. A German named Schleiermacher was a big part of a movement like this. He said, People just don't want all that theology, we need to get rid of all of these distinctions and just talk about your feelings. There was the new methods, the tent revivals, Moody was a big guy, when he did this. He said, all of that theology, stuff that doesn't work what we need, we need to get people use these new advertising methods, and make them Christians this way. And then Rick Warren came out and said, these young people, they don't care about eternal life. What they care about is their felt needs. What we need to do is give them preaching that's relevant. preaching that will help them in their everyday life, so that when they leave this place, they have stuff they can do. And that will get them into the church. And then we'll teach them. And every single time did it change the people? No, it changed the church. And so we have for the last four decades or so focused on relevant preaching. When people ask us about who God is, and why we follow him, Have you ever said something like, when I'm in trouble, I pray to God, and he helps me. Or, you know, when I'm ever I'm feeling down, I know, God is with me. And he makes me feel better. He's there to comfort me and keep me happy. I go to God when I have troubles, and he answers my prayers. We've been told to say this, because this is something that people want, right? They want comfort, they want happiness they want they want someone there who will help them with their problems. But this is like signing up for a gym, because you want to use towels. Right? You go to a gym to exercise. And it's nice that they have towels there too. But the real thing is exercise. And if the gym decides to take the towels away, are you going to stop exercising? Of course not. The comfort that we have from Christ, that He answers our prayers, the things that we get, these are side effects of the main thing, and not the main thing. Take a look at what Jesus says. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Once upon a time, we call that the gospel in the nutshell. This is the whole message. God sent His Son to give the world eternal life. What a great message that is. People put these things on signs at sporting events, right, John 316. Notice what He does not say. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but feel better about their problems. should not perish but get the stuff they want. should not perish but receive guidance about their decisions tomorrow. The point is, Jesus came to give us eternal life. And when we focus on the side effects, some of the things that are good that God does do but are not always the promise. What we focus on are things that may disappear.
And I have to ask, if you think of God, as an instrument, something that you use to get the stuff you want And what happens when you don't get the stuff you want? Why would you go to God? In fact, people will say things like, I could never worship a God who does, as if God cares. Like, he's like, Oh, I'm sorry, I felt that non worshiper, my worship battery is now lower, because you are, are no longer worshiping. What they're doing is they're seeing God as an instrument, a tool, a method to get what they want. And that's what we've been preaching as a church, maybe not here. But generally. Let's ask what St. Paul did, in the book of Acts, when he would go to a new place and talk about Jesus, what would he say? Acts chapter 13, I cut I cut his very lengthy sermon down to just a few representative lines, just so you know. Let it be known to you, Therefore, brothers, that through this man's forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. And by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. He proclaimed forgiveness, and life with God. Acts chapter 17, when Paul was talking to the people of Athens, he says, Being, then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the Divine Being is like gold, or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man, the times of ignorance God overlooked. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this, he has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead. What does Paul say? For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Right? God is coming back, Jesus Christ will return. And on the last day, he will judge all the earth. His promise is that the people who believe in Him will be able to stand on the day of judgment and receive him with joy. We will be raised from the dead, our pain and hurts will be gone. He will wipe away every tear from every eye. That says promise. And that's what the church focuses on in her preaching, is getting people ready for the day of Jesus's return. Now, the hope that we have in Christ, the promise of the resurrection, I have to say, when I face a problem, and I look at whatever's going on in my life, and I think Jesus is coming back. Maybe this isn't as big a deal as I thought it was. Oh, that makes me feel a little better about that problem. But that's because I have the promise. What should I do with my life? should I should I focus on being faithful and living as Christ would have me? Well, yes, because he's coming back. And he's gonna judge me on the last day, and I want to stand and receive him with joy. So I do get guidance about what I should do. When I pray to Him, and I asked her the things that I need, it's the promise that He gives me that I says, ah, Lord, whatever you give me I know will be good for me because it's leading me to the resurrection on the last day. And this is especially important because when God's wonderful plan for you, turns out to be the cross. You need something more, then God makes me feel better when I pray. If his plan for you, leads you through death and pain and torture like it did for his Son, Jesus Christ, you need something better than just, I feel better when I pray. What you need is resurrection. Well, you need as a Savior who died on a cross, went through the grave, rose from the dead and will call you out of the grave too. And that is what the church proclaims. So when you talk about who Jesus is, when you talk about why you follow him, do what Paul Hold us say he'll raise me from the dead on the last day. He forgives my sins and gives me eternal life. And because of these things, I follow him in his name, amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai