America finds itself in the middle of a revolution in thinking which is greatly impacting virtually every aspect of life. The term used to describe our present culture is “postmodern.” If you look very closely you will soon discover that this mindset is the guiding spirit of our times. Postmodernism teaches that things like reason and rationality are simply cultural biases and truth, especially God’s truth does not exist. Many speakers, teachers and writers talk about the quest for knowledge. But most of the time it is not knowledge they want but power. This has resulted in an attempt to conform the church to the culture. However, we as Biblical Christians cannot allow ourselves to compromise with postmodernism. The fact is postmodernism does not rest on cultural bias but in an alternate reality that is constructed by the culture. The series that we begin today is entitled, “Faded blue jeans and t-shirts: God’s view of casual Christianity.” What I mean by casual Christianity is the casual attitude that we now display toward some of the foundational principles of Christianity. In our text Paul provides a powerful description of the culture that we now live in. As we look at Paul’s words in our text I want us to see the alarming effect that postmodern thought has had on our culture and the church. When we look through a Biblical lens we soon discover that postmodernism can mean anything, everything and nothing.
I. There is a lack of respect for absolute truth or any standard of judgment.
A. Postmodernism believes that truth is created not discovered.
1. The Barna research group did a poll of American adults in January of 2000 and found that four out of ten Americans believe that there are absolute moral truths that are unchanging.
2. The same question was asked two years later and the number of those believing in absolute truth was cut in half as only 2 out of ten believed that there are absolute moral truths.
3. The postmodern person would tell you that truth is a slippery thing because it is ever changing.
4. Postmodern worshippers are like postmodern readers: They are the source of truth not the discoverers of truth.
5. Contemporary society’s distrust of the truth is a powerful illustration of Paul’s statement about people turning their ears away from the truth.
B. The postmodern mind has no room for absolute truth because of its ability to place demands on them and to convict them.
1. The postmodern mindset’s belief that the truth changes not only in matters of preference but in the crucial matters of spirituality, morality and even reality itself.
2. Consider this basic tenant of postmodern thought: Nothing is ever proven either by science or history or any other discipline.
3. Postmodernists are not opposed to spirituality; in fact they have a tremendous interest in spiritual things.
4. Sociologists have found that 95% of Americans believe in God. Books about near death experiences, angels, the new age, Christianity and the occult continue to make the best seller lists.
5. The thing that most postmodernists are against is religious teaching that holds to objective truth and usefulness of reason.
6. The bottom line is the popular belief that my experience is the basis for my beliefs and those beliefs exist to empower me.
II. People are attracted to the message that tells them what they want to hear.
A. The lust for inoffensive preaching will cause people to turn their ears away from the truth to myths.
1. We have congregations full of comfortable professing Christians listening to a lot of religious talk with no sound doctrine.
2. Many times the message of salvation cannot be heard amid the scratching of all the itchy ears.
3. Churches are full of people preaching and teaching a message that can be termed as Christianity lite with an emphasis that is on positive thinking, success and wealth - not on the gospel of Jesus Christ.
4. The idea that Christians are not to face hardships and are to drive better cars, wear better clothes and jewelry and generally live the good life materially just does not square up with God’s Word.
5. Being a Christian does not mean that you are going to live on easy street, in fact the Bible teaches just the opposite as Paul warns Timothy to prepare for hardship.
B. The scratching of itchy ears preaching has left us with a feel good message in which moral absolutes are strangely absent.
1. One mainline denomination helped found the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice in 1973 and is still an active supporter of this along with fourteen other denominations.
2. In 1985 one mainline denomination adopted a resolution that "gay, lesbian, bisexual" (GLB) people (or those of all "sexual orientations") are welcome in its full life and ministry (membership, leadership, employment etc.).
3. Other professing Christians fight to maintain the mythical wall of separation between church and state which effectually removes any public reference to religion.
4. Call it the era of Christianity lite. The much popular religion of the century descended into mere feel-goodism. Gone was all serious reference to sin, repentance, suffering, atonement, evil, and anything else deemed unpleasant.
5. God was in heaven and all was rosy. Say your prayers, try not to hurt anybody, never be "judgmental," and everything will come out right. Business will go well. The kids will behave. You’ll never get sick. You’ll acquire lots of "stuff."
C. The present mindset is causing our culture to exist in a moral vacuum.
1. In 1993 William Bennett wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal that examines the decline of American culture, he wrote: “Our social and civic institutions--families churches schools, neighborhoods and civic associations--have traditionally taken on the responsibility of providing our children with love, order and discipline--of teaching self-control, compassion, tolerance, civility, honesty, and respect for authority. Government, even at its best, can never be more than an auxiliary in the development of character. The social regression of the past 30 years is due in large part to the enfeebled state of our social institutions and their failure to carry out their critical and time-honored tasks.”
2. Since God has been removed from our schools and public life, there has been a 560% increase in violent crime, a 419% increase in illegitimate births; a quadrupling in divorce rates; a tripling of the percentage of children living in single-parent homes; more than a 200% increase in the teenage suicide rate; and a drop of almost 80 points in SAT scores.
3. Listen to one more quote from William Bennett, “The social regression of the past 30 years is due in large part to the enfeebled state of our social institutions and their failure to carry out their critical and time-honored tasks. We desperately need to recover a sense of the fundamental purpose of education, which is to engage in the architecture of souls. When a self-governing society ignores this responsibility, it does so at its peril.”
III. The way Christians need to respond to these disturbing trends in our culture.
A. We would do well to accept Paul’s challenge to Timothy.
1. The call to preach the word is not just for those in vocational ministry. The word “preach” in the Greek (kerusso) gives the idea of communicating with the purpose of receiving a response.
2. To preach Christ is to apply His lifestyle and standards to the situations we are dealing with right now.
3. In addition to preaching the Word, Timothy is to "correct", "rebuke, and "encourage". But he is to do these things with great "patience" and careful "instruction".
4. In essence Paul is saying that Timothy must be ready to minister whether or not circumstances are favorable, whether or not the audience is receptive.
5. Like Timothy modern Christians cannot compromise or water down the truth in order to give people what they want to hear.
B. We must stand on the fact that at the heart of this Gospel message is a personal encounter with God in Christ that shapes and molds us.
1. Beliefs are important because they shape conduct. When there is no absolute standard upon which to base these beliefs society quickly slips into moral chaos forming the belief that anything goes.
2. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has gone forth in power century after century changing the hearts of men.
3. Today the same Gospel message that Paul charged Timothy to faithfully proclaim is the answer to the deep longings of this postmodern generation.
4. As Christians we are given the task of living out and sharing the never changing message of Jesus Christ and the good news of eternal life in a way that this emerging generation can understand.
5. Words such as commitment, duty and faithfulness are held in low regard and their absence in contemporary values is a result of our failure to be faithful to the message of Christ.
One of the biggest films of 1999 was The Matrix, starring Keanu Reeves. It’s a futuristic sci-fi movie, where the world has been taken over by computers. The computers need the energy that comes from human bodies, so they keep a supply of genetically engineered humans in a permanently under anesthesia state. They then create an imaginary world for these comatose humans, called The Matrix, in which people think themselves alive and conscious, going to work, living normal everyday lives. The Matrix is the world that has been literally been pulled over everyone’s eyes to blind them from the truth, a world that keeps them in bondage to acceptance of the way things are. But there is a group of rebels who have broken free of the Matrix. Led by a man named Morpheus they lead a shadow life committed to an alternate reality and hunted by cybercops. Then they discover Keanu Reeves character, Neo, the prophesied One who will break people free from the Matrix. Early in the film we find Neo awakening to the truth. As part of the Matrix, the computer created illusion, he experiences unexplainable doubts about the ways things are, doubts which act like a splinter in his mind, making him feel uncomfortable. Then he is introduced to the rebels, led by Morpheus. Morpheus offers Neo a chance to see the truth. He holds out two pills. The blue pill is a pleasant analgesic which will blur over the pain his honest enquiry is creating. Swallow the blue pill and he’ll be comfortably back in the Matrix. Or he can take the red pill, which will open his eyes to see new possibilities, to carve out a place in the alternate reality.
