ST. MICHAEL’S CHURCH IN THE CITY OF CHARLESTON, SC
SUNDAY SETPEMBER 20, 2015
Psalm 1
James 2:14-19
John 3:1-7
Preacher: Al Zadig, Jr. WHY DO WE EXPECT NON-CHRISTIANS TO ACT LIKE CHRISTIANS?
HELP US LORD TO BE SO CONNECTED TO YOU THAT WE MIGHT BECOME YOUR DISCIPLES AND THE SERVANTS OF OTHERS. TAKE OUR LIPS AND SPEAK THROUGH THEM, OUR MINDS AND THINK THROUGH THEM, AND TAKE OUR HEARTS, AND SET THEM ON FIRE +++++++++++++++++ How do you respond to something like this.
You’re having your morning coffee, you turn on the news, pick any issue you like, and
what you hear makes your blood boil.
Or You open up the paper and the headlines give you such angst you just want to throw it
across the room?
Have you ever felt this way?
This happened to me on Monday, looking at the Time Magazine edition for this week:
Called the Question Everything Issue with the headline:
IS MONOGAMY OVER?
Ooh, the sheer arrogance of the title! Lord help us!
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Why do we get so upset when Non-Christians don’t act like Christians?
1 So again, How do you respond to such headlines?
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For some of us it’s just anger, a constant state of angst.
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For others we become official government protestors, putting all our eggs into
endless government bashing..
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For others, it’s resignation, leading to apathy: nothing I can do about it.
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Still others, it’s cynicism.
o Life becomes one big negative complaint and lament.
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But for still others, it’s a humble reminder:
o We live in broken times
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In a culture needing revival.
Of that menu, which response describes you?
One more question,
When we read such headlines, why do we fall into the same trap over and over?
And the trap is this:
Why do we expect non-Christians to behave like Christians?
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Why do we expect non-Christians to behave like Christians?
There is a worldview that is centered on the saving power of Jesus, and then there is
another worldview that is Godless.
Again, Why would we expect those who are secular to behave like Christ-followers?
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This morning, let me introduce you to a Jewish Headline maker.
Nicodemus.
If there ever was a headline maker of the ancient world, it was Nicodemus.
Nicodemus is a Jewish big-wig, one of the biggest in fact.
Why do we get so upset when Non-Christians don’t act like Christians?
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He’s one of the key Judges on the Sanhedrin, the equivalent to our Supreme
Court of the Land in Washington.
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As a Judge, he has religious jurisdiction over every Jew in the world!
He’s equivalent of a guy today with
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6 honorary doctorates
2 columns in the Who’s Who guide.
Nicodemus would have been on nearly every talk show,
And looked up to by the entire city if not nation of Israel.
More than a big name, he is one of the
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6 thousand Pharisees.
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As a Pharisee he would have taken a vow before 3 witnesses that he would give
his life to the obeying of the 10 commandments as a means of pleasing God.
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He dedicates his life to defining specific ways to apply the commandments
And of course, he’s born with a silver spoon, coming from one of the wealthiest families
in the nation.
Nicodemus is a poster child for:
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Jewish aristocracy
Culture
and society.
He was a headline creator!
So,
Why would such a headline maker walk at night to see a homeless prophet
and part-time carpenter?
Can you imagine Chief Justice John Roberts doing something like this?
Perhaps this explains why Jesus goes out of his way to tell us it happened at night.
After all, If anyone were to see Nicodemus in broad daylight visiting this questionable
Jesus, he would be tarred and feathered.
But this headline maker is willing to risk it all because he knows, that in Jesus there is
something.
Why do we get so upset when Non-Christians don’t act like Christians?
3 It’s this “something” that causes Nicodemus to say to Jesus:
“Jesus, we, ‘we’ know you are a teacher come from God. No one could perform the
miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with you.”
Jesus, the master of getting to the point replies:
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Here’s the truth Nicodemus, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is
BORN AGAIN.
BOOM!
In other words Nicodemus, It’s not about my signs and wonders.
The most important thing is:
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the change of one’s heart
the change of one’s inner life,
When this happens you will see the Kingdom of God on earth!
The Kingdom of God occurs whenever you make Jesus the center of your life.
And this can only happen when there is a new-birth of the heart.
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Hold right here. Isn’t it breathtaking to see Jesus getting right to the point?
Now I know for some this phrase born again can bring negative stereotypes to mind.
Yet it’s what Jesus said! Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater!
This phrase is repeated not only in the Bible but in our prayer book.
As we prayed this morning…
Almighty God, grant that we who have been born again..
It means just what it says it does.
Oswald Chambers, explains it when he writes:
Why do we get so upset when Non-Christians don’t act like Christians?
4 Jesus was born into this world not from this world.
He did not emerge from history but came into history from the outside.
He is God coming into human flesh from outside it.
So, just as Jesus came into human history from outside it, he must come
into us from the outside.
Until that happens we will be no different from culture.
Chambers then asks that great question,
Have I allowed my personal human life to become a Bethlehem for the Son of God?
We allow our hearts to become Bethlehem’s by praying:
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Lord, I accept what you have already done for me,
I desire you to live here
forgive me for anything not of you in my life,
take up residence here!
Being born again is called justification.
Justification means to be made right with God once and for all.
This is what Jesus invites Nicodemus into.
Jesus takes it even deeper saying:
Nicodemus,
Unless you are born of water and the spirit you will never enter the kingdom of God.
Water is the symbol of cleansing . When Jesus takes possession of our lives,
The sins of the past are cleansed, forgiven, and forgotten.
Water for cleansing AND the Spirit for Power.
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The Holy Spirit enables us to BE:
o What by ourselves we could never be
And do
o By ourselves what we cold never do!
Why do we get so upset when Non-Christians don’t act like Christians?
5 Jesus when we come to him in surrender washes us by his Water and Spirit, our past is
wiped away, sins are forgiven and we are given supernatural power!
Then, just to make sure Nicodemus this headline maker gets it right,
Jesus fills out this phrase being born again saying:
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“That which is born of flesh is flesh
and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.”
In other words, By ourselves our power is limited to what the flesh can do.
By ourselves we can feel powerless, and defeated.
But the spirit of Jesus gives us power beyond human power.
Wow!
Nicodemus is drinking from a fire hose and simply is not getting it!
He’s not getting it not because he doesn’t understand,
he’s not getting it because he has too much to lose.
He doesn’t want to lose control.
Which is why several verses later..
Jesus pulls out the big guns and gives this man a headline so strong, every football fan
knows it:
Nicodemus, God so loved the world that he Gave his only son that all that believe in ME
will not die but have eternal life!
John 3:16 was meant for Nicodemus.
And even with this:
Nicodemus remains unconvinced!
Time out…The Savior of the world just gives you the most profound teaching and
invitation and still,
“I don’t know?”
Why do we get so upset when Non-Christians don’t act like Christians?
6 All of a sudden it doesn’t make us feel so bad about the person we invited to Alpha who
never showed.
This is really tough stuff! No one wants to lose control.
SO, Back to the question above plus one..
How on earth can we expect those who haven’t been born again to act like people who
have?
But 2nd,
Let me stop and ask you, have you experienced the gift Jesus offers Nicodemus?
It’s okay to stop a sermon and call on Jesus to say Lord do your business with mecomplete with water and the Spirit, come and live in my heart,
Wash and purge anything that is not of you in here, anything that needs to go,
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anger,
fear of losing control
cynicism,
Forgive me Lord, Come and live in me with power!
That I may witness the Kingdom of God every moment of my life!
It’s a beautiful new birth isn’t it?
How do we know we’re making progress?
My friends:
The evidence of being born again is a desire, a hunger to know Jesus on a
daily basis and make Him known.
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Something we call discipleship.
Over the past 4 months, we have had our
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Vestry and staff retreat
And then last week
Our Kanuga Parish wide retreat.
For each retreat we studied the same book, James Dickerson’s: the Great Evangelical
Recession.
Why do we get so upset when Non-Christians don’t act like Christians?
7 It covers the:
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6 trends of decline in the worldwide Christian church.
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And the 6 great solutions. Chief among the solutions is the call to re-discover
discipleship.
Last week, Mark and I both preached on the Great Commission, the last command of
Jesus…
Go and Make Disciples of all nations.
In our reading today from James, James writes: What good is it if we have faith but no
works?
What good is it if we are born again but there is no evidence of it?
Faith and works go together!
And not just any works.
The evidence of being born again is a desire, a hunger to know Jesus on a
daily basis and make Him known..
So, while being born again is justification, being made right with Jesus.
The evidence of that is something we call:
Sanctification.
Sanctification simply means living a life of holiness.
Holiness means to be set apart to live as a disciple.
A Disciple is someone:
Learning, living, loving, like Jesus.
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Learning
Living
Loving
more like Jesus.
The word Disciple literally means learner. Therefore, it’s the process of learning to
become like Jesus!
Why do we get so upset when Non-Christians don’t act like Christians?
8 And guess what, Seminary is not required!
Let me give you an image of discipleship I pray you will never forget.
Last week at Kanuga I told the story growing up of our neighbor in Boston, a wonderful
man named Walker Hancock.
He was one of those Monuments Men by the way who recovered art treasures looted by
the Nazis.
Chiefly He was a sculptor, sculpting the likes of Presidents, Poets and Saints with works
in the White House, Cathedrals and museums across our land.
I distinctly remember his marble creations that within weeks would become the image of
men and women I only dreamed to meet!
That’s Discipleship!
A sculpting and shaping process.
Taking us from our natural default settings and over a lifetime re-creating us into the
image of Jesus.
The evidence of being born again is a desire, a hunger to know Jesus on a
daily basis and make Him known..
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We can’t have one without the other!
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Being born again without discipleship
o leads to a me-centered
kind of spiritual obesity.
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And discipleship without being born again
o Leads to seeing church and all we do as duty.
So, again..back to the question:
Why do we get so upset when Non-Christians don’t act like Christians?
How can we? Unless there is a new heart, how could there be a changed life?
My friends, next time the headlines come, and you’re outraged…
Why do we get so upset when Non-Christians don’t act like Christians?
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Don’t Despair
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Don’t fall into a life of cynical negativity…
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But hunger, hunger enough to take that Nicodemus road by night into the arms of
Jesus
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Hunger to live the discipled life James talks about.
Use the energy that drives your angst and frustration, use that energy to
make disciples!
For the past 20 years, I think of my friend Charles Waring, I knew him before he was
editor of the Charleston Mercury.
As I’ve watched his new birth and a life of discipleship flow out of that new birth,
I’ve also seen the headlines in his paper change.
Here’s the eternal truth:
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HEADLINES CHANGE
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WHEN HEARTS CHANGE.
Therefore Lord, show us how we can use every ounce of our energy to make disciples
knowing that in doing so, the headlines will change.
And that is what this Connection Sunday is all about.
In the Kinloch room are ministries of every kind. As you walk through, ask Jesus:
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Lord, guide me through each and every table and reveal to me that which will
allow me to be a game changer.
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Lord give me a new focus that is outside my own world
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because
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I want our world and our news to reflect your glory and power,
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I want hearts and headlines to change on my watch!
Which ministries in this new season will equip me for discipleship and help me reach
and disciple the Nicodemus’s of the world?
Those we even think are out of reach?
Why do we get so upset when Non-Christians don’t act like Christians?
10 +++++++++++++
Back to Nicodemus one more time.
Chapter 3, doesn’t reveal any heart change.
But a full 16 chapters later in John 19,
Nicodemus is one of the first to anoint the crucified body of Jesus with myrrh and aloes..
Nicodemus got it…it took awhile..
And the headlines would never be the same again! Why do we get so upset when Non-Christians don’t act like Christians?
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