Preached · April 19, 2015
Jesus rose from the dead and all we got was this stinkin' church
Well, good morning, brothers and sisters. A couple weeks ago was Easter. We celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Lord, and as I mentioned last week, this left me with this thought, this question, this idea: Jesus rose from the dead and all we got was this stinkin' church. And so this week we have part two, the sequel, Resurrection Reloaded, I don't know, all of that.
But this is what I propose. I had this question: Jesus rose from the dead, and this is what we got. Jesus came alive again, and we got this. But this is what I propose, that the church is your best hope for becoming a loving, fruitful, and truthful reflection of God.
And so together we explored Hebrews 10, that said because of Jesus' body broken for you, the veil is torn between the holy place and the rest of the world, and so you can draw near to God. And God's number one way for you to draw near to God is by not stopping gathering together, because the church is God's number one intended way for you to grow in character, in deeds, in truth.
But this leaves us with a new question. And that is, does the church exist solely for my benefit? Does this gathering together that we are encouraged to not stop doing, does it exist solely for me and for my growth? And I bet you can guess the answer. No. And so our second idea is that the church is the world's best hope for experiencing the restorative and healing presence of God.
Talking about Babylon
And so this idea, this concept, is what we want to unpack today. And in order to do so, we're going to take a look at the book of Jeremiah chapter 29. So if you have your Bibles, flip them open, turn them on, and meet me in the book of Jeremiah chapter 29.
Now, in order to talk about Jeremiah, we need to talk about Babylon. There's very little that's correct about this artist's depiction—I had to put that disclaimer, otherwise I felt dirty about using that picture. So we're talking about Babylon. We're talking about an empire that was around some 2,500 years ago. Before the Greeks, before the time of Christ, before all of that, there was an empire called Babylon.
And the question that you probably have is, what does an empire that was around 2,500 years ago have to do with the church today? Well, before Jesus, before this thing called the church, God had started another community called Israel. And here's a really brief timeline. A story of a man named Abram, called out of Ur. A story of a man named Moses, who leads Israel out of Egypt. Of a man named David, crowned king of Israel. Of David's son, who completes the first temple. And then of Israel being split into these two kingdoms. The northern kingdom was conquered in 722, and the southern kingdom, called Judah, where Jerusalem was, was conquered in 586 by an empire named Babylon.
And essentially what had happened, why they were conquered, is that Israel had stopped loving God with their whole hearts. And they assumed that they could just fulfill their occasional religious duties and then do and worship whatever they want. And instead of acting as a transforming presence in the region that God had placed them in, they instead bought into the culture and the values and the idols of their region. And so as a nation, they collapsed.
What happened specifically is that an empire named Babylon, led by a guy named Nebuchadnezzar, decided that he wanted this piece of land and he wanted this people for himself. And so starting in the early 600s BC, this is what he did. He besieged Jerusalem twice. He surrounded the city, stopped all sources of water and food, which led to cannibalism and stuff—and we still have kids in the room, so I'm not going to talk about the "and stuff," but when you besiege a city, not good things happen. He killed one king. He blinded the next before doing that king the favor of killing his children in front of them. He put to death the priests, the leaders, the high echelon of the people. He deported tens of thousands of the population of Israel. He burned down their temple, their religious center. He stole all the wealth. And he tore down their cities brick by brick. Not good times.
Jeremiah's letter to the exiles
Now, in the midst of all of this, there's a man named Jeremiah, who is sometimes called the weeping prophet. And Jeremiah was a prophet who had a ministry of about 40 years. And he actually saw a revival in Judah, led by a king named Josiah. And so he saw that, but then he saw after that revival the decline, the fall, the spiritual pride of Judah, of Israel. And so then he saw the first siege, and he saw the second siege. And if you've ever heard of the book of Lamentations, it was written by Jeremiah, who is just crushed by what's happened to his nation and his people.
Now, after the first siege of Jerusalem, but before the second, so the people have been deported, people have been exiled, people have gone through the cannibalism and stuff, but before the city has actually been destroyed, Jeremiah writes a letter to the people who have been exiled to Babylon, to the capital of the empire. He writes a letter to these exiles. And this is what Jeremiah 29 is, is that letter. So let's read this. His letter says:
This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: "Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there. Do not decrease. Also seek the peace and the prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."
So Jeremiah, this weeping prophet who has seen the destruction that the empire of Babylon has brought onto his people, says: build houses, plant gardens—invest financial capital. Get married, increase in number, don't decrease—invest relational capital. And pray for the peace and the prosperity of the city, pray that the Lord blesses it—invest spiritual capital.
In other words, the people, Jeremiah says—the people who burned down your homes, desecrated your sacred spaces, those people who belittled your religion, your culture, your way of life, your way of being, those people who hate what you love, who love what you despise, who speak a different language than you, have different values than you, root for a different sports team, watch a different cable news network, voted for the wrong candidates, send their kids to the wrong school, eat and drink and buy and sleep with the wrong things—those people, God says, how about you move into their neighborhood? How about you invest into their well-being? How about you work for their peace and their prosperity? How about you pray that God blesses them, and then pray that God shows you how to be a blessing to them?
God is growing in us love and truth and good deeds, not only so that we love each other well, but especially so that we can love people different than us well, love people who don't yet know God well.
Shalom
Now, we'll notice that in some translations you'll see "peace and prosperity," and I've kind of hyphenated it in mine, or in other translations it might be just the word "welfare" or just the word "peace." And in the Hebrew, which this was written in, Jeremiah is using the word shalom. And in the Greek, when this was translated, they used the word eirene.
Shalom and eirene—peace and prosperity, welfare, peace. And this is a huge, massive concept in both the Old and the New Testaments. Used hundreds of times in hundreds of verses. Now, it doesn't just mean peace. It means wholeness, health, things back together.
For some reason, when I thought about shalom, I thought about this one time. I read on the internet that you could take a steak that was frozen and heat up your skillet really, really hot and cook it from frozen. And so, you know, Emily's sitting on the couch talking on the phone and I'm getting ready in the kitchen, and I throw this steak onto a screaming hot skillet, and Emily just hears a "woof!" A flame. That's a terrible idea. I don't suggest you do it. And so what do I do? It's like, well, plans for dinner have changed. Call Godfather's, get the pizza, sit down at the table, eat the pizza that someone else made because you can't cook. That's shalom. Something was wrong and broken, and I messed up, and then you bite into that pizza and, mmm, that's wholeness and peace right there.
Maybe you have been separated from a loved one, either by distance or maybe some relational conflict, and then you're reunited. That's shalom. You put in a hard day of work—maybe you're working the ground, working the land, maybe you're helping someone who needs help—and you come back and you're exhausted and you're tired, but you know that some good has been done. That's shalom.
Now, shalom, eirene, is a word that's often connected with Jesus himself. In Ephesians chapter 2, we see that Jesus is our shalom, that he preached shalom. In the book of Isaiah chapter 9, we get this prophecy about a child that will be given to us, and he shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, Prince of Shalom. In Ephesians chapter 6, we're told to gird ourselves with the breastplate of the gospel of peace, the gospel of shalom. And here's the big one, in Colossians chapter 1. It says this, that through Jesus, God reconciles to himself all things by making peace through his blood, by making shalom through his blood shed on the cross.
Jesus is God's agent of shalom, God's agent of peace, of reconciliation. This is the entire aim of our gospel, that God is putting what was broken back together again. Where there is brokenness, where there is pain, where there is despair and turmoil, God desires to bring wholeness, restoration, and healing.
The church as God's agent of shalom
And here's the thing. God's number one intended way to bring his shalom into the world is through his church. Because—now follow me—if Jesus is God's agent of peace, of shalom, of reconciliation, of wholeness, and if it's true that the church is the body of Jesus here on earth, then that means that we are God's means of revealing his shalom to everyone.
The Apostle Paul puts it this way in 2 Corinthians chapter 5:
God reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us this message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
Or C.S. Lewis puts it this way: "God seems to do nothing of himself which he can possibly delegate to his creatures. He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what he could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye."
And to some of us this may seem unfair, this may seem strange. But parents, certainly you've learned not to do everything for your children, right? Why? Because you want them to grow. Sure, you could run around picking up everything for them, but eventually you'll want them to walk. Bosses, you know that doing everything for your employees is not only bad for you, but bad for them, right? If God's goal for us is maturity in Christ, and God's goal for the world is shalom, then of course he would give us the privilege and responsibility of bearing his gospel.
God has always been in the business of creating communities that bring his shalom to the world: from Adam and Eve in the garden, his image-bearers; to Noah in the ark, saving the population; from Abram being called out of Ur to create a new community; from Israel in Palestine, and then Israel in exile in Babylon; to the church being birthed out of the resurrection of Jesus, being sent to Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. God has always been in the business of creating communities of people who bear God's image, who share God's good news, who bring God's shalom. The church is the world's best hope for experiencing the restorative and healing presence of God.
Don't stop gathering, and don't only gather
And so this is why we say don't stop gathering together. When we meet together on Sundays and in our homes and in our groups, we are being shaped and formed into God's image. God's Spirit works in us, making shalom within our community. But we say not only don't stop gathering together, but also don't only gather together. If the church is God's number one way for you to experience growth, then the rest of the world is God's way for you to put what you have learned into practice.
Because here's the thing: the church is not God's endgame. The church is not the only place where God desires his peace, his wholeness, his shalom to be. He wants it everywhere, for everyone. And we as a church look forward to the day when God culminates all of this in the return of his Son. But until then, Jesus, God, and his Spirit say to us: build houses, plant gardens, pray for the peace and the prosperity of your city, because when they prosper, you will prosper.
William Temple puts it like this: "The church exists for the benefit of its non-members."
And so we continue in this pattern, this rhythm of formation for mission: of gathering together on Sundays, in our homes for coffee, of experiencing God's Spirit changing us, forming us, transforming us as we connect and serve and grow together, and then scattering so that we can be God's agents of shalom in our neighborhoods, families, and workplaces that don't know wholeness yet, that only know brokenness so far.
Still a people in exile
And so that leaves us with this big question: how? Well, the reason we started talking about Babylon is that we are still a people in exile. Does anybody get this reference? This has got to be the strangest reference I've ever made on this platform. This is cheating because I've never even seen this show. I'm sorry. I just know the title.
Anyway, Jesus made all things new, yet we know that not everything's okay yet. We're living in a time, in this particular place, where the world seems to need Jesus less and seems to dislike Christianity more. And some decry the fact that Christianity is losing its status in the Western world.
But Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, a couple of church planters, suggest this: our marginal status is an opportunity to rediscover the missionary call of the people of God. It is an opportunity to reconnect with our Bibles, because the New Testament is a collection of missionary documents written to missionary situations. It was written by Christians living on the margins of their culture.
What many think of as a certain doom, or this automatic bad thing, that we are being pushed to the margins of our culture, may in fact be an opportunity for the church to return to its roots as a people united in wanting to throw a revolution of love, compassion, and restoration.
The double 85 million
On Facebook yesterday, I asked what this "85 million" represents, and I had some really interesting responses, anywhere from my salary to earthworms on the roads last night. 85 million actually represents two things. One, it represents people who believe in Jesus and yet aren't connected to any church. And it also represents a whole different 85 million people who are unchurched and unbelieving in this nation. So, 85 million people who believe but have no connection with the church, and 85 million people who don't believe and have no connection with the church.
And scarier than that is this fact, that the majority of people in the West—so Europe, United States, Australia—have no intention of ever attending a church. That number is as high as 70% in England, and where Europe goes, we're usually not far behind.
And so Steve and Tim, the church planters, they suggest this: we need to shift our focus from putting on attractional events to creating attractional communities. In other words, we can have the best music, the best preaching, the best programs and ministries, and that wouldn't do anything for people who have no intention of ever stepping inside a church. The hope of the world is not a well-executed 75-minute service. The hope of the world is when you and I and our families and brothers and sisters in Christ grow together, gather together, experience God together, and then build houses and plant gardens and work for the peace and the prosperity of our neighborhoods and our workplaces and our communities. When our lives as Christians intersect with the lives of those who don't yet know God, we can be a source of God-infused shalom in their lives. That's the hope of the world.
Prayer and challenge
So I'm going to invite the worship team to come forward for us to all stand as we pray this morning and as we sing our closing song. My challenge to you this morning is to listen for God's voice. How is God asking you to respond, to not stop gathering together, and just as well, to not only gather together? How can you seek the peace and the prosperity of this city, and of the cities that we surround and that surround us? Because when they prosper, God says, we will prosper.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your love and your grace and your compassion in our lives, which causes us to grow. And sometimes that growth feels like a spur in our side, but God, that growth is for us. You want the best for us. But it's not just for us, God. So show us how to work, to seek the shalom for this place, this town, this state, this country, and this world. Challenge us, God, by your Holy Spirit, to grow for the sake of the world. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.
