RESURRECTION PEOPLE: A People of Purity Major Lindsay Rowe
INTRODUCTION
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the bedrock of the Christian faith. If all he did was die then our faith is in vain, he is nothing more than a good man who was martyred for his faith and convictions.
The resurrection sets him apart from all those who died for their faith because he not only died for the sins of the world, he rose again for their justification.
But let me raise a cautionary note here. As salient as the resurrection is to our salvation and sanctification, we need to understand it against the backdrop of the cross.
Easter Sunday is, without doubt, the highlight of Holy Week, but it has to be placed in the context of that whole week. For example, there are some that see Good Friday as merely a bad day in the life of Christ. They see it as a bit of a downer and quickly move on to Easter Sunday when Jesus had a much better day. But without downplaying the triumph of the resurrection we need to remember that our Lord was risen wounded.
The marks of our sin were still on his hands, feet and side on Easter Sunday morning. There is then a sense in which even the resurrected Christ is a suffering Christ. He sufferers every time his church is hurt, every time his people are subjected to suffering and pain. Those marks, as the songwriter has said, "yet visible above" are the very expression of his suffering for the sin of the world. They were there when he met the disciples on the Road to Emaeus and I'm convinced will be with him until the parousia, the time of his second coming when sin will ultimately be dealt with.
So let us not celebrate the resurrection in isolation for not only did the cross make the resurrection necessary, its effects are still visible and our Lord still bears the pain of our sin. We look at the cross through the empty tomb, but the shadow of the cross still looms large over the life of the resurrected Christ and all who follow him.
The early Christian church was a resurrection people, we are a resurrection people. We've been trying to outline the identifying character traits of a resurrection people. Who are they, what do they look like, what distinguishes them from other people?
In looking at those first Christians we have seen that they are a people of power, a people of purpose, a people of principle and a people of passion.
Today we will consider the fact that they were also a people of
purity. Someone recently commented that "we don't hear many sermons on holiness these days." My response is "where have you been every Sunday?"
We sometimes mistake the language of holiness for the doctrine of holiness. I love the doctrine of holiness. If indeed it
is missing from many of our pulpits that's a shame. It isn't missing from this pulpit. What is missing is much of the jargon because I'm convinced that the jargon has confused the doctrine.
We need the principles of holiness in a more user-friendly language without compromising the essence of the doctrine. So make no mistake about it, what you will hear this morning will be a holiness message, what else comes closer to capturing the essence of holiness than purity of affections, purity of actions, all motivated by purity of attitude which is the gift of the Spirit?
For the sake of those of you who know the jargon, when you can live your life like that you will know the blessing of entire sanctification. Like entire sanctification, living this way is a very real, spiritual experience that God makes possible in our lives. It doesn't come as a reward for our own effort, but as God's gift of grace, so it is inextricably linked to the cross.
It becomes a reality in a moment, but it is not restricted to that moment for it begins in us a life-long process of maturation and spiritual growth. Now how exactly does one live a life of purity, a life of holiness?
PURITY OF AFFECTION
What is it that claims your deepest affection? What do you love more than anything else? Now be careful how you answer that?
In Matthew 10:37 Jesus says, "Anyone who loves his father and mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me..." Does that pose a problem for some of you?
In Luke 14:26 Jesus says, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." Do you have a problem with that? Some people do, they don't understand what the Master is saying.
Do you mean I have to hate dad and mom, my wife and kids or I can't be a Christian?
The problem is we assume that mom and dad, wife or husband, son and daughter are also Christians and we say why? How can I do that? But what if your parents taught you that the empty rituals of religion are all you need for salvation, what if mom and dad worshipped at a pagan altar?
We read verse 26 without reading verse 25 and we say how terrible of the Master. But there were large crowds following Jesus, people of all backgrounds and religions.
Jesus is saying as much as you love your family. As much as you long to be a part of them, if their lifestyle and religion contradict what I am teaching you, they have placed you in a very precarious and difficult situation, you must choose between them and me.
You must find the intestinal fortitude to say I love you but I hate what you represent, I hate what you have taught me. Some parents teach their children to be godless, to be bigots, to be prejudiced.
When they fall under the strains of the gospel such people have to forsake mother and father to follow Jesus. Their natural affection for their family has to be replaced by their love for the Lord.
You know what I'm talking about here don't you? If that was possible in the time of Jesus how much more so is it possible in our time? We have a society that seems to specialize in the perversion of affection. Do you need me to list them?
Homosexuality and Lesbianism: What a challenge this issue is becoming for the church. Either our society wakes up and realizes the implications of approving such a lifestyle or the church is headed for a collision with governments around the world. That is, if the church is prepared to be the church.
The lowering of the age of consent for homosexual and lesbian sex to sixteen in Great Britain recently in but one of many examples. For the Christian community the issue is clear.
We must distinguish between what constitutes a legitimate minority group whose rights need to be defended and what represents a perversion seeking to be legitimized by the rest of society. That's what the bible calls it in Romans 1:26-27, "unnatural affection" the perversion of affection. The church will soon be forced into a battle for the governments will soon be mandating us to join these couples in unholy wedlock.
When does the right of a minority become an affront to a majority? Then there is parent-child sexual abuse, what a perversion, the natural affection and love between a parent and child warped into sexual lust. Marital infidelity; oh my, God help our Army!
What a problem we are facing still with officers who abandon their call and their faith for the sake of a fling with another man's wife or some younger woman in their congregation. Satan is out to destroy Christian marriages and what's happening in our Army these days is ample evidence that he is meeting with a great deal of success.
We need to pray for Christian marriages to counteract Satan's plot. Now please understand me, where there has been failure there can be forgiveness, but there must also be a recognition of the perversion as sin and an abandonment of it. We need to ensure that what we love is pure and that our love for it is pure.
John, one of those first resurrection people tells us, "do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." But then in I John 4:7 he tells us, "let us love one another, for love comes from God." Purity of affection comes from God, it is not a natural evolution.
PURITY OF ACTION
Acts 2:8-9 gives us a glimpse at the early church, those first resurrection people in action.
It is worth noting what they did on a daily basis. With
devotion and awe they:
* Listened to the apostles teachings
* Enjoyed fellowship
* Witnessed signs and wonders performed by the apostles
* Shared their belongings with one another
* Broke bread in their homes together
* Got together publicly in the temple courts
* Praised God with glad and sincere hearts
* Enjoyed the favor of the people around them
* Grew in numbers Sounds like an action plan for Church growth to
me.
Perhaps we should save some of the money we spend on church
growth seminars and pull out the real church growth manual. These people knew how to behave as Christians, as resurrection people.
I hope you noticed the attitude with which they went about their daily activity because that's bedrock and that's where I want to go next.
PURITY OF ATTITUDE
Song 574 Philippians 2 John 13 You can't really read Philippians 2 without reading John 13. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus" cannot be fully appreciated until you have seen the Master, girded with a towel, washing the dirty feet of his disciples. The mind under the control of Christ is our greatest need and God's more splendid provision.
One translation of Philippians 2:5 says, "Your innermost thoughts must be like those of Christ." You will notice, won't you, that it is in the imperative tense? It is a spiritual command. It is far more surgical than sentimental. We need to cut out our "stinkin' thinkin'" and start thinking with the mind of Christ.
In Romans 1:21-22 Paul is talking about those who have fallen into worshiping the creature more than the Creator and he explains their actions by saying that they had succumb to "futile thinking." How come? He goes on to say that they thought that way because their "hearts were darkened."
The Greek word used for "heart" is the word kardia and it is translated consistently in the New Testament in the light of its Old Testament and Jewish word leb/lebab. It does not refer to the organ in our breast or to mental or spiritual feeling. Kardia refers to the inner person, the seat of understanding, knowledge, and will, it even takes on the meaning of conscience.
This is the "place" within the person where God is encountered either in a positive or a negative sense. It is the place where religious life finds firm ground, it is the place where ethical
conduct is formed and from whence it exudes.
Paul says that those who worship idols do so because that place of spiritual formation within them has become darkened. They were wise by claim but fools by acclaim.
Verse 28 talks about their depraved minds. Do you hear what Paul is saying? When the mind and the heart, the kardia, are darkened, when we are not thinking with pure thoughts because the spring from which our thoughts erupt, our real personality, is sinful, then we do not love what is pure and we do not so what is pure.
APPLICATION
It is so important that we practice purity of attitude, affection, and action. Now what we're really talking about, remember is holiness of head, heart, and hand. But it is essential that we recognize where it all begins and where it is going.
It begins with hearing, hear the word of the Lord, that means we have to process it, think about it. Then it reaches into the very core of our being, it changes who we are. That will bring about a change of attitude, a change of affection, and a change of action.
Christians simply think differently, love differently, and behave differently because they have had a change of mind, have surrendered the control of their mind to God and are about their Father's business.
We need to plead with God for a change of mind; that's repentance. Then we need to allow God to have control of our mind; that's sanctification. Then we will have pure thoughts, pure affections, and right actions; make no mistake about it, that's holiness.
Well, what happens if I become pure in my lifestyle, if I become holy? Not right away, of course, but gradually here's what you can expect. You will be increasingly sensitive to what the Spirit is saying to you. You will sense the direction of a Spirit-filled life. Jesus said, "I will send you the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, he will bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever you have learned of me." He will teach you everything you need to be holy. He will allow you to think with the mind of God.
I love that verse of the Psalms that says "How precious to me are your thoughts." Paul said, "let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." "How is that possible," you ask? The bible contains the very thoughts of God. You put it between your ears and the Spirit will bring it to your remembrance at the very moment you need its wisdom the most, that's his promise.
Your capacity to love, both God and the people around you will be greatly enlarged. John Wesley called it "perfect love." You will see yourself differently, no longer as the center of the universe, merely one of God's grand creations, unique but not superior.
In your new-found humility and spiritual sensitivity you will recognize sin, in all its manifestations, much more easily and you will be deeply bothered by it. It doesn't mean you will not be able to sin but your desire to sin will be greatly reduced and your ability not to sin will be greatly enlarged. And so will your remorse for sin so that when you do sin you will more quickly run to God to repent and abandon your sin.
Living the holy life will make the glory of God the magnificent obsession of your life. You will long to be Christlike and bring glory to God in everything you do. Are you living a life of purity? What about your thought life your attitudes, have you taken control there? Are your affections pure? What about your activity, do people see you doing pure, holy things?
These are not things that I can churn out through my own self-effort. These are the results of the Spirit of God within me, in my kardia, my heart of hearts. In as much as I have surrendered myself to him I am capable of living a life of purity. That was the secret of those first resurrection people, and those second resurrection people the Gentiles.
In Acts 11:15 the Holy Spirit comes upon them as Peter speaks and then in Acts 15:8-9 Peter explains to the Council in Jerusalem God "made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts (kardia) by faith."
Has your heart been purified by faith? It is the only way to live a pure, a holy life.