I've included the transcript of Mark's sermon below.
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[The label on the bottle said:] "Blueberry Pomegranate, 100
percent juice, all natural." [There
was also a picture of] a ripe pomegranate [spilling] its exotic, glistening
seeds onto mounds of fat, perfect blueberries. …
And then I read the ingredients list: "Filtered water, pear
juice concentrate, apple juice concentrate, grape juice concentrate."
Where was the blueberry? Where was the pomegranate? Finally I found them, fifth
and seventh on a list of nine ingredients, after mysteriously unspecified
"natural flavors."
By law, food ingredients are listed in descending order of
weight. That means a product contains the greatest proportion of the first
ingredient on the list and successively less of those farther down. So
according to this list, the jug in my hand held mostly water and other juices,
with just enough blueberry and pomegranate for flavor and color.
In the bottom corner of the front label, in small, easy-to-miss
type, were the tell-tale words: "Flavored juice blend with other natural
ingredients." The enticing pictures and clever labeling were decoys to
sell a diluted, blueberry-pomegranate flavored product, convincingly disguised to look like something it
wasn't. I put the juice back on the shelf.
I left the store empty-handed and wondering, What if I had an ingredients list printed on me? Would
Jesus be the main ingredient? If not, how far down the list would he be? Would
my "label" accurately represent my contents? Or would I falsely
project a misleading outward appearance that cleverly masked diluted
ingredients? My packaging may be convincing. I may look and sound like the real
thing. But what if someone came to me looking for Jesus beneath my
"Christian" label and found something else? Something Jesus-flavored,
but not Jesus-filled?[1]
- The challenge I want to set before the school as we launch you to go
independent is the same challenge I want to set before the church
- What’s beneath the label?
- Paul talks about this in the book of Galatians
(Gal 3:1-5 NIVO) You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched
you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2
I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by
observing the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so
foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your
goal by human effort? 4 Have you suffered so much for nothing--if it
really was for nothing? 5 Does God give you his Spirit and work
miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you
heard?
- What is Paul telling us here?
- It’s not really about how you look at all
- The truth is, we are obsessed about our behavior
- That’s why Paul is so angry – because after understanding the gospel of
grace, they have decided to go back to rule keeping as the way to earn God’s
favor
- I’ll say it again: we are obsessed with behavior
- In fact, we're neurotic about it
- It's certainly one of the reasons we put
our kids in a Christian school; we want them to be around kids that behave
well.
- Good
behavior is something that is drilled into us from the earliest age.
- Now, good behavior is not wrong but it’s so easy to advertise one thing
with our behavior, but when one gets a look under the hood, they see something
far different
- It is so easy to be a school or a church that has all the bells and
whistles, that has great programs, that has good looking people, that has a
professional and well educated staff, that does all the right things but be
absolutely dead underneath
- Paul asks the Galatians how they received the Spirit
- Was it by observing the law?
- In other words, was it
because they behaved well and did the right things?
- Is that what Jesus wants?
- Does he want an organization
that is strong; that seeks excellence; that shows the world how wonderful it
is?
- Well, I don’t think some of these things are bad but they’re not the
essence at all – they are a result of the essence
- Paul says:
(Gal 3:5 NIVO) 5 Does God give you his Spirit
and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe
what you heard?
- It’s because of what they heard
- What did they hear?
- They heard the gospel
- What is the gospel?
(1Co 1:26-29 NIVO) 26 Brothers, think of what
you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards;
not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God
chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak
things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly
things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to
nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him.
- It is always the weak that believe the
gospel because they know that they need a Savior
- It is always the weak that call out and
say “Save me”
- And this is the opposite from what our surrounding
culture offers us – only the strong survive there
- But in the upside down world of the
kingdom of God, it is the weak that dare to believe that someone else will be
strong for them
- Paul says this in the same passage:
(1Co 1:22-23 NIVO)
22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23
but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to
Gentiles,
- This is an upside down world
- What does it mean then for our
respective organizations?
o
It means that God is not necessarily
impressed with higher, faster louder
o
It’s not what we do, it’s always WHY we
do it that matters
o
If we are not organizations that glory
in our weaknesses, because through them he is made strong, then we haven’t
understood the gospel
Let
me tell you that we should not be where we are right now. It has been an absolute testament to God’s
power that we are even having this service of worship and celebration. We have tasted weakness from every side and
God has proven to be faithful.
- And so now I challenge all of us as we
go forward
- Behaviorism – which is a focus on
outward appearance and behavior – will be the fastest
path to Biblical apostasy
- If we’re worried about organizational
drift – then we've got to worry about what’s under the hood – we need to be
Jesus filled, not Jesus flavored
- Behaviorism is exactly where the
Pharisees were and they ended up crucifying Jesus
- But real gospel belief is messy – it’s
not just unbelievers that are messy, Christians are incredibly messy
- Believing the gospel means getting messy
with non Christians and Christians alike
- Don’t think for a moment that just
because you’re in a Christian church or that your children are in a Christian
school that they are free from messiness
- You
may shield your children from a messy world but who is going to shield them
from you?
- They learn far more sin patterns from us
than from anyone else
I
see sinful patterns in my own children that are like looking in the
mirror. They have learned these from me
and it grieves me. They need a Savior
just like I do.
- So the antidote is to believe the gospel
- But that’s the beauty
- Jesus cried from the cross, “It is
finished!!”
- That means that our messiness is covered
– it’s paid for – it’s been dealt with from beginning to end
- Our children need to soak in this!
- And God loves this and will pour out his
Spirit liberally to those that will walk in weakness before him and believe
what he says
o
To be Jesus filled is to admit our
messiness and to run to him on a regular basis
o
To be Jesus filled is not to run from
messy situations or people but to engage with them – whether they are
Christians or non-Christians – knowing that the same gospel that we need daily
is the same gospel that they need
o
To be Jesus filled is to be a walking
billboard that says, “I’m messy and I need a Savior daily to come and change me
from being an anonymous mix of harmful chemicals and ingredients to genuine
pomegranate and blueberry juice.
This is the gospel and it changes
everything!!
[1] Erin Bunting, "Jesus Flavored, or Jesus
Filled?" Kyria.com (10-7-09)
