Sunday Sermons

The Good News about the Bad News

Mark Dunagan
11/12/06 - Sunday Morning

The Good News about the Bad News

Declining Numbers?

Even before the 1950’s various voices in our world and our culture have been ridiculing the need for the church or any “organized religion”, yet C.S. Lewis contended that we should not be overly discouraged when people talk about the “decline of religion”. Now and then one might hear or see statistics that seem to indicate that the total number of Christians in the world is decreasing or that church growth is not keeping up with population growth. Yet Lewis reminded his contemporaries in Europe during his lifetime that what was declining in his day was not Christianity but “a vague theism where churchgoing was merely a matter of loyalty, good manners and respectability”. In other words, a decline in numbers at times may only mean one thing, that is, what one is seeing is the separating of the true believers from the half-hearted (John 6:66-68). Then he added, “Once no one goes to church except to seek Christ, then the number of actual believers can be discovered” (God in the Dock, pp. 219-220). So instead of being depressed about the sinful times in which we live, or bemoaning that today it is very hard for the young or old to remain faithful, we need to be thankful for such trying times. During such a time as ours, when there are so many alternatives to Christianity and so many things that compete for one’s time, thoughts and energy besides God, it is easier to see who is faithful. Thus, we should not pity our children or new converts, rather we should be glad that they live during a time when pretending to be a believer is not easy (1 Peter 1:6-8).

The Only Ones Left?

Yes, it is easy to feel isolated if one is a faithful Christian in our modern world, and believers in the past were equally tempted to think that they were the only one or ones left who were serving God. Elijah was a man just like us (James 5:17) and he felt very isolated and alone in his faith (Romans 11:2-3). Yet God’s response is very revealing. While Elijah is depressed, God is not, and God’s view of the 7000 faithful is equally revealing. God does not say, “Yea, times are rough Elijah, I only have 7000 in Israel that I consider faithful”. Or, “Isn’t it discouraging that only 7000 are faithful and uncompromising in an entire nation that is supposed to know Me?” God was not discouraged about the little band of 7000, rather, He was very proud of them. And neither did God consider His message or His servants (like Elijah) to be failures—even though Elijah felt he had failed (1 Kings 19:4 “I am not better than my fathers”, In the past it seems that Elijah had very high hopes for Israel, that through his preaching the nation would repent and Baalism would cease. Yet now he feels that he has failed and has accomplished no more than those prophets who had preceded him.

We might think that 7000 is a large number of believers, yet let us remember that God is talking about the faithful in an entire nation, a nation that had been given centuries of teaching about God. I’m not sure what percentage 7000 was of the total number of people in Israel in Elijah’s day, but I do know that it was a fraction of the entire population. Years before this Jeroboam was able to muster of army of 800,000 Israel males of fighting age (2 Chronicles 13:3). Thus, I believe it would be safe to say that the 7000 faithful in Elijah’s time represented less than one percent of the Israelite population, yet God was encouraged by this small band of followers. Centuries later Paul noted, “For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you” (1 Corinthians 11:19). “When ungodliness manifests itself as division, keep your eyes open and the righteous will shine forth. The divisions act as a black velvet background against which people approved of God are highlighted” (McGuiggan p. 156).

There are times that we forget the above concept. We fail to remember that what makes the story of Job so compelling is Job’s faithfulness during hardship. In fact, most of the people that we admire in the Bible and want our children to emulate, are people who experienced tremendous difficulties, yet remained with God. Neither Joseph, Esther nor Daniel and his three friends would not be heroes if their lives had been trouble free. So often we want our lives to play out like a fairy tale, “And they lived trouble-free lives ever after”, yet we forget that reading a story where everything always goes smoothly for the main character is a very boring story. Who would want to study the life of Joseph if the text read, “And his father gave his a coat of many colors, and he never had any problems, and everything went right for him, and he lived to a ripe old age. The end”? Instead we are inspired by his courage and endurance.

Peaks and Valleys

In writing to the Corinthians Paul said that Christians are not ignorant of how Satan seeks to derail us spiritually (2 Corinthians 2:11). One of the ways that Satan seeks to undermine our confidence is to take advantage of the peaks and valleys of daily human life along with their attendant emotions (See the Screwtape Letters pp. 13-14). This is especially true when a “peak” experience is quickly followed by depressing news or a disheartening situation, see 1 Kings 18:38-40; 19:2-3).

Disillusionment

In the Screwtape Letters, Screwtape encourages Wormwood to play on his patient’s natural disappointment upon first becoming a member of the church regarding mainly his disappointment in the ordinariness and sinfulness of other people in the church. At the same time, Wormwood should keep his patient from examining his own sinfulness and ordinariness. While sin should never be encouraged or downplayed, faults among brethren do reveal the following encouraging news:

· Such proves that even people trying their hardest still need Christ!

· Such proves that sin is not something imaginary and in fact we are involved in a real battle (Ephesians 6:13).

· It proves that these people need us in their lives (Hebrews 10:24).

· Knowing I can make such a difference in so many lives gives me yet another reason to love worshipping with my brethren.

There has always been the temptation in the religious world to form churches composed of all the people “we like”, or to hand pick the type of people that we want to be with. Yet there are a number of problems with this attitude, (besides violating the principle that we should not be a respecter of persons Romans 2:11, and the principle that the gospel is for all Matthew 28:19). May I suggest that there are a number of very positive things that happen when a congregation is composed of diverse personalities and all different sorts of people:

· Such demands maturity and growth on our part, for it takes maturity to deal with the naïve, the weak, and all other challenging situations (1 Thessalonians 5:14).

· This interaction will improve our skills in evangelism, for the world is filled with individuals who will be challenging.

· More talents will be in a congregation of diverse personalities.

What Paul Experienced

I have never heard anyone say that they would not want to be like the apostle Paul or have his level of spirituality, yet we often forget what the man endured on the road to his own spiritual growth:

· Other Christians envied Paul, and sought to make his life difficult. That is, he experienced “politics” and struggles for power among Christians (Philippians 1:15-18).

· He saw many Christians fall away, in fact, he worried that entire congregations were departing from the faith (Galatians 3:1).

· He lost friendships, even among Christians (Galatians 4:16).

· He had to deal with false teachers, especially when not all Christians considered them to be false teachers (Galatians 2:4; 2 Corinthians 11:4).

· It appears that he was constantly the object of ridicule and attack, even from some professed members of the church (2 Corinthians 10:10).

· His transition into Christianity from Judaism had not been smooth and he had lost much (Philippians 3:7).

· He was often in the center of a confrontation with another Christian (Galatians 2:11-13; Acts 15:37-39).

· He experienced physical hardship on a regular basis (2 Corinthians 11:22-29).

We often want things to go smoothly when we are traveling on vacation, yet when I read the above section of Scripture I am reminded that things often did not go smooth for Paul, even when he was out preaching the gospel. The “bad news” is that all of the above things have the potential to discourage and destroy a Christian’s faith, yet the “good news” or the “positive” side is that trials are equally opportunities to:

· Display courage, patience, trust, and prayer.

· Demonstrate the genuineness of our faith to our children.

· Remind ourselves of the struggle between good and evil.

· Be aware that the devil is roaming near.

· Remember “who” we are actually wrestling.

· Pass on a valuable lesson to the next generation.

· Be an example to new Christians.

· Demonstrate that Christianity actually works.

· Flex our spiritual muscles and get some “exercise” and be like Christ.

Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017