ARE WE ANY DIFFERENT?
Christmas Realities – Part 1
1st Sunday of Advent
1 Corinthians 1:1-9 (TNIV)
INTRODUCTION:
Perhaps there is no better indication that the Christmas season is upon us than the appearance of the Salvation Army kettles and bell-ringers outside of our favorite shopping centers all across America. The Salvation Army, which is both a church and a charity, does a tremendous amount of work each year to help those who are poor and needy.
However, by all accounts the Salvation Army is going through a very difficult time right now – perhaps the worst in its long and storied history. Last year Target stores made the scrooge-like decision to ban the Salvation Army from all of their stores. This was a severe blow to the Army because in 2003 they had received 10% of all of their holiday donations from kettles in front of Target stores.
Now to make matters worse the Salvation Army is having a very difficult time finding enough volunteers to man the kettles at the stores that will still allow them to come. As a result of this the Army has begun to experiment with using life-sized cardboard cutouts of bell-ringers complete with an animatronic arm to ring the bell.
In places where neither real live bell-ringers nor cardboard cutouts are available they are testing to see if an electronic jingle and a recorded greeting will do as well at keeping the dollars and dimes dropping. For the Army’s sake and for the sake of the needy who they are trying to serve one would hope that this strategy is effective for them. But I have a funny feeling that instead of dollars dropping in they will find donations dropping off.
I don’t think that these unmanned solutions, as creative as they are, will be nearly as effective as locations where a real live person is taking the collection. Why is that? Simply because it is much more difficult to ignore a real person who is volunteering time out of their own busy schedule to try and help those who are in need at Christmas time. It is far easier to ignore a cardboard cutout or a prerecorded greeting.
And so as we reflect on the plight of the Salvation Army church this holiday season I can’t help but wonder if we aren’t headed toward becoming a church of cardboard Christians. One of the Christmas Realities we have to face is the issue of whether or not we have become nothing more than cardboard characters. In literary analysis a cardboard character is a character in a story that is underdeveloped or poorly developed. In other words it is a character that doesn’t have much character. It is bland and boring and does nothing to distinguish itself from any other character. It just kind of blends in and goes unnoticed.
Are we in danger of having that happen to us as a church? Are we in danger of becoming cardboard Christians or cookie-cutter Christians or carbon copy Christians? No different than anyone else? All looking the same and acting the same and sounding the same? Are we trying too hard to blend in with our culture? And consequently are we just as easily ignored and overlooked as a cardboard cutout propped up next to a Salvation Army kettle? Is there anything to distinguish us? To make us stand out in the crowd? Are we any different than anyone else?
While the church of Jesus Christ has sometimes been guilty of trying to make everyone fit into the same mold – kind of a “one-size-fits-all” Christianity – the apostle Paul writes to the church at Corinth and tells them that they should stand out – they should be set apart. In fact there are at least three things that Paul says should make the Christians stand out or stick out. Let’s look at them together:
BY THE GRACE OF GOD WE ARE BEING...
1. SANCTIFIED
1Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, 2To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ – their Lord and ours: 3Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
One of the first clues we find here that Paul expected the Christians in Corinth to stand out from the crowd is his use of the phrase “the church of God”. This particular phrase occurs only three times in all of the New Testament and all three times it is used by Paul. Once he uses it in Acts 20 while speaking with the elders from the Ephesian church. And the only other times he uses it are both in the introductions to his letters to the church at Corinth.
Why does this phrase indicate that Paul wanted the church to stand out? Well, first of all the word “church” or “ekklesiai” (in the Greek) didn’t have an exclusively religious connotation in Greek culture the way it does today. For example, today if someone says they are going to church you know that they are going to a Christian religious service or program of some kind. However the Greek word ekklesiai, which is translated as church, simply means assembly and it was not reserved for only Christian assemblies. It was used for secular assemblies, civic assemblies, or even assemblies of other religious organizations. There was no clearly Christian connotation to the word at that time like there is today. So if someone back then simply said that they were going to church it could mean almost anything. All you would know is that they were going to some kind of gathering but you wouldn’t know what kind.
So here Paul distinguishes this church from all other “churches” in Corinth by identifying it as uniquely “the church of God”. Paul did not always do this. In fact, again, the only two times we find this in his letters are in 1st and 2nd Corinthians. For example, Paul opened his letter to the Galatians with these words:
“To the churches in Galatia:” (Galatians 1:2)
Note that here Paul did not specify that this letter was to the churches of God. Paul especially wanted the Corinthians to know that they should stand out from all other secular and civic “churches” in Corinth as uniquely being “the church of God”. What makes them and us uniquely “the church of God”? Two things:
a. WE ARE CALLED BY CHRIST
We are “called to be his holy people”. We are called by Christ to join his kingdom – to be a part of his special people known as the church – to be one of his followers. And that means that we must be “holy”, which means “to be set apart”. That means that his followers should have some distinguishing characteristics – we should be set apart – we should stand out – we should be different and therefore recognizable. We accept Christ’s invitation to be one of his people by accepting Christ himself and when we accept Christ…
b. WE ARE CLEANSED BY CHRIST
When we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the fact that he died on the cross for our sins we are “sanctified in Christ Jesus”. The word “sanctified” means to be made holy, which includes both the idea of being set apart for God and being cleansed from sin. The fact is that we are set apart from other people precisely because we have been cleansed from our sins. Simply said this means that he enables us to be what he has called us to be when we “call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”. So then we are cleansed by Christ when we call on Christ. What he means for us to be he makes us to be. As the apostle John wrote:
“…the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin… If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:7,9)
Christmas is all about the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth nearly two thousand years ago as a little baby in order to call us to salvation and to cleanse us from sin. Just as a real live bell-ringer should stand out more than a cardboard cutout so should a real Christian made alive by faith in Jesus Christ standout from all others. This is not artificial life – this is not superficial life – this is real life that can only be experienced through the sanctifying work of Jesus Christ in response to the faith of his people.
As Christians we should stand out from the crowd, first, because we are being sanctified and secondly, because we are being…
2. SUPPLEMENTED
As we have already seen we are incapable of becoming what Christ has called us to be and so we are dependent upon him to make us what he means for us to be. But even after Christ has made us holy we cannot maintain our holiness on our own. We need constant supplementation.
4I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5For in him you have been enriched in every way – with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge – 6God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you.
It is only by having our spiritual diet “enriched” or supplemented that we are enabled to live the lives our Lord has called us to live. Just as you need to take your daily vitamin supplements in order to maintain optimal physical health so you need your spiritual supplements in order to maintain optimal spiritual health. We see here two key areas in which they had been supplemented or enriched. We have been supplemented…
a. IN ALL UTTERANCE
They had been supplemented “with all kinds of speech”. They had been given the ability by God to effectively proclaim his message and his word to the world. This does not mean that every Christian who is a good Christian will be eloquent in speech. First of all I doubt that this meant that every believer in Corinth was an excellent public speaker, but rather that their church had been blessed with those who had the ability to proclaim God’s word. The New Living Translation brings out the fact that God was not speaking of the individuals who made up the church, but rather of the corporate body when it says: “Through him, God has enriched your church in every way…”
Secondly, I would point out that this special gift of utterance does not necessarily have anything to do with eloquence for in the very next chapter the apostle Paul said this about his own speaking ministry:
“My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirits power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5)
And this is what some in Corinth had to say about Paul’s ability as a public speaker:
“For some say, ‘His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.’” (2 Corinthians 10:10)
Paul readily agrees with them for he also said:
“For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel – not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” (1 Corinthians 1:17)
So again this really brings out the idea of spiritual supplementation. Their speaking may or may not have been profound. Their preaching may or may not have been eloquent. Their teaching may or may not have been wise and persuasive, but it was supplemented by the Lord Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and therefore it was effective.
The lesson to be learned from all of this is that you don’t have to be the greatest orator ever for God to use you and your words to make a significant and meaningful impact on the lives of others. Through spiritual supplementation you can accomplish far more than you ever dreamed possible through even the simplest of speech.
We as Christians should stand out and be recognized, not necessarily for the persuasiveness of our words, but for the spiritual power of our words. Can others recognize the spiritual power of our teaching or are we as easily overlooked as a prerecorded greeting at an unmanned Salvation Army kettle?
Secondly, we are being supplemented…
b. IN ALL UNDERSTANDING
The Corinthians had been supplemented “with all knowledge”. This means that they weren’t just talking – they knew what they were talking about. They had a clear understanding of God’s word and were therefore busy teaching its truths.
Have you every been around someone that just loved to hear themselves talk, but you kind of got the idea that they really didn’t have a clue what they were talking about? But then you have people who are just the opposite. You get the feeling that they have a lot of insight to share, but they just don’t speak up – maybe because they are shy. In either one of those situations effective communication and teaching is not taking place. We have to be supplemented in both utterance and understanding in order to share any meaningful message with others this Christmas season.
This Christmas season we Christians should be standing out as having something far more significant to say that just a generic happy holidays. We are living in a day and age when the messages we get this time of year are being drained of all significance. Our schools no longer have Christmas programs – they have holiday programs. Our schools no longer have Christmas vacations – they have winter breaks. In many schools and stores teachers and or employees are forbidden to utter the words: “Merry Christmas.” In stead they are required to say a generic and relatively meaningless: “Happy Holidays” or “Seasons Greetings.” I want to ask, “what holiday? What season?” The fact that the 25th day of the month of December is legally Christmas Day is a dirty little secret that everyone is trying desperately to cover up.
However if you remove Christ from Christmas then we have drained all the meaning and all the significance from our “seasonal holidays” and “winter breaks.” It is kind of like finding a big and beautifully wrapped package under the tree on Christmas morning with your name on it, but when you eagerly tear it open you find that there is nothing inside – it is completely empty. When you remove Christ from Christmas you are not left with a happy holiday, but with a hollow holiday. As the church we have been supplemented with all utterance and understanding so lets put Christ back into Christmas, lets put the meaning back into the message and lets put the happiness back into the holidays.
We as Christians should stand out from the crowd because we are being sanctified, we are being supplemented and we are being…
3. SUSTAINED
7Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Here we are promised that God will keep us “firm to the end” or as the English Standard Version puts it – he will “sustain you to the end”. This highlights the staying power of the Church of God. This is no fly-by-night organization – it is no flash in the pan. The church of God has been around for almost 2,000 years now and it is here to stay.
Organizations come and go and causes wax and wane in importance and popularity, but the church of God is eternal. It has stood the test of time. Ignore it, but it will not go away. Persecute it, but it will not back down. Execute it, but it will not die. Why? Because the church of God is sustained by the almighty hand of the living God and what God sustains no one can suspend.
There are two keys here that Paul reveals as to the secret of the staying power of the church:
a. WE ARE SUSTAINED THROUGH OUR GIFTEDNESS
Paul says that we “do not lack any spiritual gift”. Now again it is important to understand that Paul is speaking corporately here and not individually. Elsewhere Paul teaches that no one Christian will manifest all of the different gifts of the Spirit. Technically he is not even saying that the corporate body of believers in Corinth manifested every possible gift. Rather the idea is that they had every gift that they needed in order to be who God called them to be and to do what God called them to do. The New Living Translation puts it this way: “You have every spiritual gift you need…”
You see there is a big difference between saying, “I have everything” and saying, “I have everything I need.” This is the first secret to the staying power of the church: God provides us with everything that we need to succeed. No other organization on planet earth has the luxury of being backed by an omnipotent Being who refuses to allow it to fail. The church of God stands out because God sustains us through our giftedness.
b. WE ARE SUSTAINED THROUGH OUR GUILTLESSNESS
We are not guiltless because of our own goodness. We are not guiltless because of our own purity. We are not guiltless because of our own righteousness. For apart from grace all would be guilty. We are guiltless for one reason and one reason only and that is because we have been cleansed by Christ as we spoke of earlier.
We can come through this life and stand before the Lord Jesus Christ on the Day of Judgment with complete confidence for one reason and one reason only. The same one who sits in judgment is the one who died on Calvary’s cross in order to make us guiltless before him. That is the hope that sustains us through the difficult days that we all must face in this world. We know that Jesus died for us and because he has made us guiltless we are assured that we have a home in heaven waiting for us. That is the hope that sustains us as we “eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.”
CONCLUSION:
In closing let me ask you a question. Will you as an individual and will we as a congregation make more of an impact on our culture this Christmas season than a cardboard cutout of a bell-ringer? Just because we have a sanctifying, supplementing, sustaining God doesn’t mean that we as individuals and as the local church can’t drift away from him and become nothing more than cardboard Christians. For there is, unfortunately, actual historical precedent for such a thing. Jane Lander in her book Eccentrics records the following:
The Rev. Frederick William Densham was the incumbent at Warleggan, Cornwall, from 1931 to 1953. When no one came to church he would lock it up and go to the Methodist Chapel. After years of non-attendance at church by his parishioners … he cut out figures in wood and cardboard and fixed them to the pews. These figures … were preached to, offered the sacraments, and given absolution.
We need to be careful that we don’t end up being a church full of cardboard Christians, who with animatronic arms and prerecorded greetings, are doing nothing more than going through the motions of churchianity. Oh, there are some things in motion, the bells are ringing, and the messages are polished – but its just animatronic – autopilot – reflex action – force of habit.
However as Paul said:
9God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
And therefore if we remain faithful to our God who is faithful to sanctify, supplement and sustain us, we will never have to worry about such a thing happening to us or to our church. And this Christmas and every Christmas we will stand up and stand out for Jesus Christ, whose birth we celebrate.
Please email me if you use this message or a revision of it. No obligation - I just like to know. Thank you!
steveamanda8297@hotmail.com
SOURCES:
Homiletics, Nov-Dec 2005, vol. 17. num. 6
sermoncentral.com (Paul Decker)
