John Hendryx of Monergism has just written a rather intriguing post. I think it applies to the situation of many of the churches now in Malaysia. I'll post a part that I see rather relevant:

That day there was an important guest missionary preacher and so I was most interested in what he had to say given that missions was our personal vocation overseas for over ten years. I want to share a little about what he preached on that morning because it is important to see an obvious trend in both our churches and in the Christian publishing industry.

The Text he chose was the encounter Jesus had with the Rich Young Ruler. He read the story … but only the first part of it:

“And behold, a man came up to him, saying, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments." He said to him, "Which ones?" And Jesus said, "You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The young man said to him, "All these I have kept. What do I still lack?" Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”

“Excellent”, I thought.. This happens to be one of the most interesting events that took place in Jesus life. If we obey the commandments, Jesus says, we will have eternal life. The man said that he did so. I noticed immediately, however, that our guest speaker did not finish the story as it was written in the text but I was still eager to hear what he had to say. But instead of preaching from the word, he began speaking of another "ruler" who he claimed actually did obey our Lord’s voice in this way when he gave all his possessions toward the advancement of the kingdom. He said this person was the head of a missionary movement in the 18th century and I immediately knew he meant the Moravians, and more specifically, Count Zinzendorf. He then went on to tell a very inspiring story from history about Zinzendorf’s obedience to God and thus doing what the Rich Young Ruler did not do. I even learned some very encouraging new things like a painting entitled “First Fruits” which showed people’s from every culture that had come to know Christ through the missionary efforts of the Moravians. Those who were surrounding Christ’s throne in the painting were the actual paintings of the first convert from each specific nation or people group after they had gone to be with the Lord, so they were actually, at that moment, in Christ’s presence as the first fruit of a particular people group (as the painting depicted). Now I must admit that I got a lot out of this as a history lesson even though I had read much about this before. And even though it was a positive story which I would recommend anyone read about, something bothered me about the preaching. It bothered me in the same way many of the sermons in contemporary evangelical churches bother me. What was it you ask? It was the fact that the text of Scripture preached upon really had little to do with the sermon at hand, and also, that the Text was actually saying the very opposite of what the preacher was trying to make it say. While the Moravian missionaries are to be commended for their spending their lives and in many cases deaths for the work of the kingdom, that is not what the story of the rich young ruler is about. It is my conviction, from many years of careful study, that the Text of Scripture contains either law or gospel wherever you look. When we preach from any Text of Scripture we can always find law, which condemns us and the gospel of Christ which redeems us. This is true for both Old and New Testaments. Luther once said, “The law is for the proud but he gospel is for the brokenhearted.”

Well, what was preached to us that Sunday I concluded, was really just ended up being a spiritual pep-talk. While there may have been very encouraging content, but was it the gospel? Is the pulpit meant to rally the troops or be a place to preach Christ crucified? The message to us, if you think about it, really was, “We all just need to be more like Zonzendorf and then Christians would have a greater impact on society.” But if you think about this closely, when we just give examples about how to live, we are setting people up for a fall because it is the preaching of the law without gospel. There was no redemptive element to the sermon. It was just a message about how we should behave. While I admit that it was of great interest, the fact is that many who heard it will simply go out of church and on Monday be deflated after hearing the inspirational story. Unfortunately this is what the vast majority of evangelical preachers are teaching. A high percentage of the books available at the convention likewise are merely filled with inspirational pep-talks about how to be a good Christian with Jesus help, of course. It is so close to truth that it is easy to understand how we have slipped into this. But it is, in my opinion, the very cause for the weakness and lack of impact we have on those around us. You see, if we look at the end of the story of the Rich Young Ruler, this is not even remotely the message Jesus was communicating. And the fact that the end of the story was left off by the preacher that day was VERY telling. What does the text say after the young man went away sad?

And Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God ." When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?" But Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

You see the whole point of the story is not that we just need to see the Rich Young Ruler and do the opposite or find someone who did obey and follow his example. No. Jesus chose the man’s covetousness because he knew this is where this man stumbled. In the beginning of the passage the man boasted that he had already obeyed God’s commandments, but Jesus preached the law to Him and pressed where it hurt most. It was a death blow. Jesus wanted to expose, not only his, but all of our tendencies to trust in something we did. Instead of being happy and boasting that we have obeyed God’s commandments the disciples understood the degree of perfection for everyone such a perfect holy law would require. They commented that if this were the case for the young man then there is no hope for anyone, including them. EXACTLY! This is what Jesus was saying. And he finishes by revealing that obedience to God’s law, in this case the forsaking of covetousness, is impossible with man, but with God “all things are possible” In other words, the story shows that we are all poor, blind and naked, pitiful and are in desperate need of mercy … a mercy only God can give. When this is understood the story is not just a spiritual pep-talk but a major blow to the pride of man while simultaneously a testimony of God’s infinite mercy.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 16, 2005 at 9:29 AM. |