Graduating from the Gospel?

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Graduating from the Gospel?

Kingdom Perspective

December 28, 2023 • Don Willeman

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

Over the past hundred years or so, Christians in the West have tended to view the Christian life as steps in a process. Like a manufacturing process, Christians are “developed” step-by-step.

Now, there are some aspects of this paradigm that can be helpful, as it recognizes the fact that living the Christian life is indeed a process. It is a “walk” that involves living our lives day-by-day before the face of God. However, it fails in at least one critical point. It usually places believing the gospel as merely the first step in that process.

So, for example, it goes something like this…
The first step is to believe the gospel.
The second step is to understand the basics of the Christian life.
The third step is to follow Jesus as a disciple.
The fourth step is to… etc., etc.

Now, here’s the problem. This way of thinking puts believing Jesus as merely the first step. However, that’s not how the Bible speaks of it. Believing the gospel is an ongoing aspect of living the Christian life.

Believing in Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection informs and transforms every moment of my life. The gospel is not just the first step, but the interpretive grid and power for every step.

As Zambian pastor Conrad Mbewe puts it:
“Christians never graduate from the gospel.” ~Conrad Mbewe, pastor in Lusaka, Zambia

The moment we get beyond the gospel is the moment we get beyond Jesus. And a Christianity without Christ’s saving and sanctifying work is no Christianity at all.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

~ 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (ESV)

Jesus’s Radical Love

December 26, 2023 • Don Willeman

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. The gospel is good news for sinners. This is both its attraction and its irritation. If I think of myself as a pretty good guy who only needs a little self-improvement here or there, then I am going to be offended at the notion that the Son of God had to die on a bloody cross to take away my sin. I can accept the notion of Jesus as my self-help guru. However, I cannot stomach the notion that my sin is so bad it caused the suffering and death of God Himself. I am going to chafe at the idea that, as Jesus put it, I “must be born again” and I must “deny [my] self and take up the cross daily”. Why does a person who is basically good need to take such drastic measures? However, if, on the other hand, Jesus is the savior of the helpless sinners (Romans 5:6)—if sin is so pervasive and overpowering that “without Him [I] can do nothing” (John 15)—then the suffering and death of the Son of God on the cross for me is going to be the best and sweetest news I’ve ever heard. Listen to the beautiful words of author, poet and hip-hop artist Jackie Hill Perry: “Jesus had the guilty in mind when He hung high and stretched out wide.... He, bare-bodied and face set on joy, became as a slaughtered lamb underneath the wrath of God... Didn't He know that wrath was mine? It even had my name on it. But He knew... Without asking my permission, a good God had come to my rescue.” Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective. “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” ~ Romans 5:6-11 (NASB) References: Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was and Who God Has Always Been by Jackie Hill Perry (B&H Books: 2018). Thank you for listening to and supporting The Kingdom Perspective! The Kingdom Perspective is a ministry of Christ Redeemer Church of Hanover, NH. To hear more episodes you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts. To donate or to find out more about the ministry and resources offered by Christ Redeemer Church visit http://www.christredeemerchurch.org.

Heavenly-Minded. Earthly Good.

December 21, 2023 • Don Willeman

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. One of the critiques of Christianity is that it makes its followers so heavenly-minded that they are of no earthly-good. This assumes that heavenly-mindedness is somehow contrary or detrimental to earthly-good. I beg to differ. Any honest look at history will tell you the exact opposite; the most heavenly-minded did the most earthly-good. For example, the movement to abolish slavery was largely a Christian movement, animated by the basic biblical principle of the dignity of every person made in the image of God. The push for universal free education was likewise a largely Christian-animated movement. We forget that there was a time when a basic education was considered a privilege only for the elite. Likewise, Dr. Peter Brown of Princeton shows that the development of the hospital, as a place of care for all regardless of means or status, was a Christian invention. Prior to the church, the world had never before seen such an institution.1 The list could go on. But, why is it that the most heavenly-minded are of the most earthly-good? Because the God of the Bible cares about His world. He not only created it; He also came to redeem it. The Bible tells us that one day He will make it all new. Jesus promises a new heaven and a new earth—not just a new heaven but a new earth too. God’s coming judgment will not destroy the world but restore it. As the prophets foretold, all sin and evil will be removed, and “justice [will] roll down like a river and righteousness as a mighty stream” (Amos 5:24). Those animated with this vision have no illusions they will perfect this world. God alone can do that. Nonetheless, this hope makes them stalwart to live into that vision in the here and now. Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective. “Alas, you who are longing for the day of the Lord, For what purpose will the day of the Lord be to you? It will be darkness and not light; As when a man flees from a lion And a bear meets him, Or goes home, leans his hand against the wall And a snake bites him. Will not the day of the Lord be darkness instead of light, Even gloom with no brightness in it? I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” ~ Amos 5:18-24 (NASB) References: 1 Poverty and Leadership in the Later Roman Empire by Peter Brown (University Press of New England, 2002). Thank you for listening to and supporting The Kingdom Perspective! The Kingdom Perspective is a ministry of Christ Redeemer Church of Hanover, NH. To hear more episodes you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts. To donate or to find out more about the ministry and resources offered by Christ Redeemer Church visit http://www.christredeemerchurch.org.

Spurgeon on Jesus’s Love for Sinners

December 19, 2023 • Don Willeman

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. The gospel of Jesus is completely counterintuitive. Now, to be clear that is not because it doesn’t make rational sense. Rather, it is because our souls have become irrational under the effects of sin. Because of sin, our minds tend to reason that we must get our life all together before God will accept and forgive us. Nothing could be further from the truth. That’s like saying that we need to prove our innocence before hiring an attorney! No, we hire an attorney because we need to prove our innocence. God specializes in saving those whose lives are a mess. Indeed, He can only save those who need to be saved. The gospel is for sinners only. Listen to the great London preacher Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892): “If you are to go to Christ, do not put on your good doings and feelings, or you will get nothing; go in your sins, they are your [proper attire]. Your ruin is your argument for mercy; your poverty is your plea for heavenly alms; and your need is the motive for heavenly goodness. Go as you are, and let your miseries plead for you.” ~from a sermon on Matthew 15:27 Well said! Spurgeon nails the sentiment of our Savior. Jesus famously said that it is the sick who need a doctor not those who are well. “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Jesus in Luke 5;29-32). Indeed, Jesus has come to seek and save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). God demonstrates His own unique love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective. “After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ And Jesus answered them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.’” ~ Luke 5:27-32 (ESV) References: “Children’s Bread Given to Dogs: Matthew 15:27” by Charles H. Spurgeon on 14 October 1866. Sermon delivered at The Free Tabernacle, Notting Hill. Thank you for listening to and supporting The Kingdom Perspective! The Kingdom Perspective is a ministry of Christ Redeemer Church of Hanover, NH. To hear more episodes you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts. To donate click here or to find out more about the ministry and resources offered by Christ Redeemer Church visit http://www.christredeemerchurch.org.