Three Gospel Truths
by
Dr. Gale A. Ragan-Reid (11/3/2013)
“Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace...Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:” (Ephesians 4:3, 13, King James Version [Paul exhorteth to unity]).
Greetings in the Holy Name of Jesus,
Good Evening, my brothers and sisters, for winter is upon us. Oftentimes, winter tended to bewilder us in thoughts of persecution but not abandoned and struck down but not destroyed. Nowadays, the status quo might not work out that way, truly, indeed, winter persecuted to abandonment and struck down to destruction, in many neighborhoods, as folks struggled to live through the force of God that humbled them down. Many folks since they ran away still seemed shell shocked in the trauma of death of a loved one, lost job, lost income, lost car, lost truck, lost SUV, lost RV, lost friends, lost in the wilderness, away from God without Jesus. My people, let us ponder three gospel truths serving man today with the power to deliver abandonment and destruction, which are fraternized, radicalized, and unified, yet one or more of them could deliver you back to God's embrace in Christ Jesus.
One day, I heard someone say while drawing close to the church they attended to enter in, “The preachers do not teach.” This person was regarded illiterate incapable of coming to a full understanding of the words of God spoken by the preacher. I must respond to that need in this sermon on Three Gospel Truths, when we talk about fraternized, radicalized, and unified. In the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians (4:27), Paul said, “Neither give place to the devil”. This is fraternized, the meaning of, mingling as friends, acting like you were or are friends, a cohort with folks you do not particularly like or even care for. It meant to associate on intimate terms with citizens of a hostile nation or for a military man it meant to associate on intimate terms with troops of a hostile nation.
Let us continue to understand, fraternized drawing from it the word cohort. Well, what is cohort? Cohort is a group of followers or warriors. A cohort could be an accomplice or it could be a companion.
The meanings begged the question, Why a follower (a cohort) of Christ Jesus fraternized with folks who not only stood against Christ Jesus but who also planned to persecute his followers to abandonment and who also planned to strike them down to destruction? The gospel truth, unified answered fraternized, for unification in order to deliver effective works for increase checked the need to fraternize which proved counterproductive to deliver effective works.
In the gospel readings of Ephesians, 4th chapter, Paul said, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; ...From whom the whole body fitly joined together ...maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love” (verses 4, 16). This is unified, the meaning of, joined together, compacted or to pack together, in agreement or in a covenant by everything that the jointly fitted followers supplied or provided. You are a jointly fitted packed together close to one another, follower in the one body of Christ Jesus. What did you supply? Whatever you brought to the table of offerings, unified the body of Christ and supplied effective works, in the measure that every work needed, the work received its part, which ultimately produced increase in the body for the edifying of the body in love.
I ask you, “What did the fraternizers instruct you about for the improvement of your morality when you fraternized with those folks who hated their neighbors and plotted to break the commandments of God, either by killing their neighbor, stealing from their neighbor, committing adultery with their neighbor's wife, honoring their false belief over the words of God and gospel teachings of Christ Jesus? What commandment of God did you improve your practice of? Was the instruction of the fraternizers, in the love of Christ Jesus, in God Almighty? Obviously, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out
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that a unified follower in Jesus does not would not fraternize, thereby you understand it is your unity
with the followers, jointly fitted, packed together, in agreement, in covenant that freed you from
fraternized behavior and set you a captive free to live an abundant life. For as long as you fraternized, stood against Jesus, the one body and burdened the body down, the fruits of your works were not effective and only brought about divisions as Paul spoke to the Corinthians and now we understand the Ephesians received much of the same instruction to improved upon their practice of unity in the faith of Christ Jesus.
How effective are your works? Did fraternized followers attack your works? What did unification do to fraternization? Christ did not let the darkness of iniquity take out the light of faith. Most importantly, those folks standing on the platform of confessions, did not get to use their confessions to take out the way of God in the faith of Christ Jesus, for the truth is still a straight and narrow path.
My brothers and sisters, it is right to enter in the faith of Jesus, for no man cometh to the father but by the son. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (St. John 14:6, KJV [Jesus is the way; Jesus answered Thomas]). It is right to advocate for the faith of Jesus. What is it to tell the world of your foibles, other than to speak out your doubts, sins, and unbelief to God Almighty? What is a foible, those in need of a better understanding than they presently seemed to understand, might ask me?
In the understanding of this sermon, in text, a foible is a minor failing or weakness in character or behavior. Is that not what we confess to God the weakness of our flesh? Does the weight of the doubt, sin, and unbelief lean you to your own understanding of fraternized thoughts in the darkness of the world? Most definitely, a wayward nature of fraternized thoughts will do just that, instead of giving you the hope that comes out of the faith of Jesus Christ to enter into God's marvelous light with a clean heart and sound mind, to glorify God, believers find themselves lost. So, with that said, we understand, Christ Jesus gives us the standing to receive the gift of wealth, which is an abundant life.
Let me tell you, money answered all things but the love of money is destruction, proven to all of us in the malpractice of distribution of wealth, as we suffered today because for lack of knowledge the children of God do suffer. Therefore to say, “I understand what God means and I understand what Christ did for me, is to understand the unified faith, the promise of Christ Jesus' saving grace. We are whole, one body, in Jesus. The memory of the broken bits and pieces was enough to remind us we do not want to go back there--- to “the blackness”, “the whiteness”, “the brownness”, “the yellowness”, and “the redness”. Jesus took us away from all of that, saved us, made us whole, in one body.
If your standing is not in Jesus to receive the gifts of faith, the promises of faith, and eternal life of which your salvation is at question, then who do you stand in but Satan, given to a reprobate mind denying that Jesus is the Son of God and denying Jesus received the inheritance of God. How can you run your course to receive eternal life when you permitted Satan in and lived as the living dead, a broken infidel? Will driving a stake in your heart stop your eternal darkness in the sufferings of sin captured in the false images planted in the darkness of your heart when you failed to enter in Jesus with a clean heart? Apostle Paul did not abandon Jesus when he felt he was no more than a spectacle to the world when he reflected on his works and the works of others in the service of God in the Office of Christ Jesus (I Corinthians 4:9-17, KJV [Spectacles to the world; Paul sent Timotheus to Corinth]).
God only knows where you are in the darkness of sins, the darkness of deception, the darkness of denial, the darkness of torment, the darkness of a delusional state of mind? Where are you? Why do you reject the words of God and the teachings of Christ Jesus? Where are you?
My people, remember it took Israel 40 years to make it out of the wilderness of the Sinai, since the 430 years it took them to make it out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt (Numbers 14:33-34; Genesis 12:40-41). Where are you in your faith walk? African-Americans, remember it took at least 100 years (1865-1965 [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/segregation.html]) to make it out of the wilderness of Jim Crow and Jane Crow, the afflictions of state laws (Black Codes) and local laws, since the 246 years (1619-1865 [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/timeline/1619.html]) it took to make it out of the
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bondage of slavery in the United States of America. Yet, African-Americans remained, many did remain, in the United States of America and continued to fight the good fight for the promises of God. Would you rather remain a slave for man than a slave for Christ Jesus, for Jesus paid the price for you and set you, the captive free, so if God tells you to go in the faith of Jesus, why, then do you live without Christ Jesus who set you free?
Let us understand radicalized. What did radicalized do to unified? Jesus' considered by most in the time when Jesus walked his faith, was radical. What is radicalized? Radicalized is to favor rapid and sweeping changes in laws, methods of government especially in the practices of politics.
In science, we think of a radical as occurring when a single atom replaced a group of atoms or we think of a radical as occurring when atoms remained unchanged during reactions. Jesus replaced the group of Levite priests who were the high priests, so, he was a radical. Nowadays, we struggle with those who fight the reaction of change in order to remain unchanged during the change reaction. This unchanging position of man many called an impasse but the reverse reaction of change, so powerful in its nature only tidal waved the economy, for only God stands supreme with an unchanging hand. This begged the question, “Are we God of ourselves?” In whose will do we remain the same, if the will of God through wonders and signs, then keeps ushering in change?
Of whose radical, are you, if you remain the same? Paul told the followers in Ephesus, “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;” (Ephesians 4:14, KJV [Paul exhorteth to unity]). Furthermore, the Ephesians were warned,
“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye
henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity
of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being
alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that
is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who
being past feeling have given themselves over unto
lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
But ye have not so learned Christ;” (4:17-20).
When is your one moment that defines who you are? The truth is in Jesus. The truth set you free. The radical nature of Jesus changed the practice of worship, changed the practice of paying the priests to receive prayer to petition God for forgiveness of sins, changed the practice of loving our neighbors, and changed the hearts and minds of all followers, true followers in Christ Jesus.
Are you a follower of Christ Jesus? Do you prefer, I say, “Are you a follower of Jesus, for Christ means Messiah? Where are you? Who are You? You must define who you are; choose this moment, would you please, for time waits for no one.
May the Lord be with you. May the spirit be with you. Amen.
