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Changing the world — 1

Ephesians 1: 3 – 10

Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 9 Oct, 2005

HOW DO you picture heaven? If you don’t have a clear picture, you can’t pray properly, because we pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

If you don’t know what heaven is like, you don’t know how to pray that things will be like heaven here on earth.

This week and next, I want to talk about changing the world, because we don’t have things God’s way yet, and we need to have things God’s way.

And the mental image we have of what the Kingdom of God is like will define how we go about creating change.

Soon after I came to Marrickville, I set an exercise for everyone to do. I will set it again for you today, because probably only Gloria will remember this, if anyone does. I don't think even John Brown was with us then.

Here’s the scenario. A US satellite re–enters the atmosphere. It breaks up, as satellites do. Unfortunately, one chunk is bigger than anyone estimated, and it lands smack on the middle of our church buildings.

Congress votes us an ex–gratia payment of $10,000,000.

So, how do we redevelop the site?

—Thinking break—

What ideas do you have?

That time I asked the question, about 22 years ago, I remember two answers in particular. Greg Oates at that time was thought of as one of the kids around the church, and I think a lot of people didn’t take him very seriously.

His answer was one of the best. He had a picture of multi–purpose community buildings, of adaptability for promoting the gospel, and even for how to design the building to fit sensitively with the rest of the street.

The other answer I remembered was from a man with a reputation as a Christian leader.

He had a lot to say but never once came up with a clear idea.

Someone said later, “That man has no vision for this church.”

Today, I am really asking you to think about your vision for the world, and what can we do to bring that vision about.

Christians need a vision for a transformed world, and we need constantly to work towards achieving that vision. The world cries out for Christians motivated to change the world.

I keep reading negative things about Christianity in the newspapers. So much is written against the gospel, and it contains an element of truth.

As Christians, we can’t afford to sit passively by. Much of what is said boils down to four main ideas:

• Religion is irrational and illogical

• Religion is divisive. It creates conflict and terror

• Even peaceful religion makes society worse

• Some Christians do bad things, therefore Christianity must be bad.

You don’t have to read too many Christian publications to realise that weirdos and ratbags have a lot to say about religion. When you add the fact that sensible Christians are often pretty bad at making the case for the gospel, it’s no wonder people charge us with illogicality.

You only need to go to Iraq, Northern Ireland, or half a dozen other trouble spots to see how religious divisions are exploited to provoke violence.

You only gave to read recent reports out of Boston in the US, to see how Christians do a pretty good impression of doing bad things. The Catholic Church in that city has been nearly bankrupted over its failure to deal with paedophile priests.

And they argue that all religions divert people from facing real issues in life, that they encourage people not to think, that religion is a cop-out. There are many such criticisms.

That’s how the world sees us. We need to review what we are doing, so that the world will be lying when it criticises us.

Think about your faith. Ensure that you are not getting caught up in secondary and unbiblical issues.

Show that we can disagree among ourselves, and disagree with other religions, without being violent and without damaging the people we disagree with.

Promote true holiness of life among ourselves, and learn the difference between true repentance and mere self-excuse.

Engage with the world so that we truly do make a difference, a difference for good.

Christians have always done that. Christians have been in the forefront of changing the world for good.

It goes back to the early Israelites, centuries before Jesus was born.

Back then, this was the goal they looked forward to. Listen to this message of hope!

ISA 11:1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;

from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

² The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him--

the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,

the Spirit of counsel and of power,

the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD--

³ and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,

or decide by what he hears with his ears;

⁴ but with righteousness he will judge the needy,

with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;

with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.

⁵ Righteousness will be his belt

and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

⁶ The wolf will live with the lamb,

the leopard will lie down with the goat,

the calf and the lion and the yearling together;

and a little child will lead them.

⁷ The cow will feed with the bear,

their young will lie down together,

and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

⁸ The infant will play near the hole of the cobra,

and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest.

⁹ They will neither harm nor destroy

on all my holy mountain,

for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD

as the waters cover the sea.

It is still a great image for us of the days yet to come. Jesus never overturned this image of his coming reign.

It’s a promise of wise rulership. It’s a promise of justice for the needy and fair play for the poor. It’s a promise that evil people will finally get what they deserve, and that all the things people fear will finally be laid to rest.

What a hope for the world!

In Ephesians, we find another image.

And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, ¹⁰ to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment — to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

God’s great plan through Jesus is to bring everything together — everything in all of creation — into unity under the headship and rule of Jesus.

Think it over. That is God’s ultimate goal. Everything — the entire creation — united in Jesus!

And Paul goes on to say,

EPH 1:11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, ¹² in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

Does this make sense to you?

God plans to unite everything eventually, but he is making a start by uniting us in Christ. God plans to build oneness between all things in the end; but we are the scale model; we are the prototype.

And if we don’t work, it suggests that God’s final plan won’t work either. It says to the world, ”Religion is a failure.”

That is why Jesus prayed,

JN 17:20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: ²³ I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

He knew that, when his people are united, the world will know that God sent Jesus and that God loves his people.

About 10 or 11 years ago, Regents Park Baptist Church was touched by the revival spirit of the Toronto Blessing. Night after night people came together to worship and praise together and to minister to one another.

As news spread, people often travelled quite a way, and faced considerable difficulties, to make sure they could be together in united prayer and praise as they served Christ together.

One man had to catch a cab each night to get there from work, otherwise he would miss a large part of the proceedings.

It just happened that he had the same cab driver two nights running, and, as they chatted, the driver wanted to know what was happening that had his passenger paying so much every evening to go to a church.

The passenger told the driver about what God was doing, and how people were keen to come where God was at work.

The driver said, “I am a Muslim, but that sounds interesting. Would I be permitted to see what is happening?”

The passenger said, “Of course.” So the cab driver came in and stood at the back to watch.

At the end, the driver sought out the passenger and said, “If you are coming back again tomorrow night, can I pick you up? This is near the end of my shift, and I would like to come again. God is doing something here.”

And he kept coming until he was converted.

The joy in the Lord, and the love for each other that he saw in that place convinced him about Jesus.

I am excited by the vision Bruce has shared with us, because at its core is the principle of building our fellowship with one another, and he is right to say that that is lacking. It’s not that we are unfriendly or uncaring towards each other, but we don’t manage to build relationships all that well. Distance, health, available time, family responsibilities — all of them impact on us. But, if we don’t build fellowship, we don’t build unity, and if we don’t build unity, we don’t clearly reveal Jesus to a sceptical world.

I want to take it further. I want to say that, if we want to change the world, we first need to build fellowship with each other and with other Christians.

At nearly every point in history where God’s people have successfully brought about change in the world, two main factors have been in operation. First, there was a small and very closely–knit Christian group which started the ball rolling, and, second, that small group widened its support base by drawing other Christians in.

For example, when Christians began campaigning against slavery, it began among the Quakers. But the Quakers were too far from the mainstream to be taken seriously.

The Quakers convinced John Wesley, so the message spread to the Methodists.

The Methodists were organised into very close–knit fellowships. They took unity so seriously that you had to demonstrate each month that you were still in active fellowship, or your Methodist membership could be suspended.

The Methodists spread their message to other Christians like Anglicans and Baptists, so the idea of ending slavery spread widely through society, and eventually became law.

When the Berlin Wall fell, it was Christians throughout East Germany who were most active in confronting the guards and tearing down the barricades. The time was right; they had had enough, they were ready to rebuild fellowship with the West.

Once again, it was united groups coming together with a common purpose.

Here’s the sad bit. Thorwald Lorenzen is an Australian Baptist who was based in Europe at the time. He reported on the Christian input into the fall of the wall, and he remarked that German Baptists had very little involvement.

Here’s why. They were not linked to the rest of the Christians. They were keeping to themselves, mistrusting the wider Christian circles. So God’s time passed them by.

We have passed the time for motherhood statements. Everyone agrees that there should be more unity. Everyone agrees that Christians must work together more closely. Everyone agrees that individual churches need to develop closer fellowship. And everyone agrees that motherhood is a good thing.

Let’s get real! How do we develop more unity or closer fellowship? How do we work more closely? These things have to be dealt with. And we all have some responsibility. We can’t support unity — as long as it is for other people!

Let’s begin doing concrete things to develop unity. Christ died for us, to bring us into unity in his body. How will we express that? We can’t leave it all to Gloria, or all to Elaine, or all to the CUAG. It has to fall on our shoulders. That’s part of fellowship — bearing one another’s burdens.

Didn’t Jesus bear our burdens as he died on Calvary? Didn’t he take on himself the sins of us all? He is the foundation stone of fellowship. Do we truly follow him?

We in this fellowship are scattered across a wide area. Could we arrange to have fellowship monthly or quarterly in a café or a hall, or a backyard located near each family?

We belong to the other churches in our area, too. Can we find a way to encourage the churches we aren’t members of, and build love among God’s people?

When we build strong Christian fellowships — ours, or others’ — we build a healthy society. Let’s build heaven here on earth — as we await Jesus‘ return!

Beloved, let us love one another! AMEN

© Peter R. Green 2005. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. Portions also copyright The Bible, NIV (Zondervan Ltd.)