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September 20, 2009
“The Up-side Down, In-side Out World of the Christian”
Mark 9: 30-37 & James 3: 13 -4:10
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Some of our non-biblical writers, most of them writing in the fantasy or Science Fictions genres, have written about worlds or universes that are in some ways much different from what we know. In these imaginary alternate worlds, up can be down, in can be out, animals can talk, and minutes can last for decades.
But the authors of the Bible are not to be outdone in telling us of an alternate existence. In their writings it is called the Kingdom of God. It is a kingdom that includes some of those living in this world, some who are no longer living in this world, and some who have not yet been born into this world. So it transcends the categories of past, present, and future.
And, while some of those who are alive in this world are a part of the kingdom of God, the nature and standards of the kingdom of God are in many ways opposite to the standards of this world. That makes it difficult for those folks who are in both this world and the kingdom of God. The reason I am telling you this is that you are probably one of those people. If you can hear my voice, you are most likely alive, and if you are in this room, there is a pretty good chance that you are a Christian, one who belongs to Jesus and His Kingdom.
This morning we have before us two passages from the New Testament that describe for us some of the precepts or rules of the kingdom of God that are counter to the modus operandi of the nations and cultures of this world.
In our first passage, the one from the Gospel of Mark, we hear some strange, counter-cultural words from Jesus, the King of the kingdom of God. His words were so opposite of what was normal in his world that even his close followers and friends did not understand what he said. He said “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.”
The problem they had with what he said was that they understood the first part. They understood who he meant by “the Son of Man.” That was a term that Jesus used to refer to himself. He had borrowed it from one of the OT prophets who described a vision in which he saw “one like a son of man” who was clearly the king of God’s kingdom. The Jews had a name for this coming son of man, it was Messiah, or anointed one, or as we say “Christ”.
When Jesus called himself the son of man in this context he was saying that he was the promised king God chose to rule His kingdom. Then he talked about his being killed and rising from the dead. The idea that the Messiah would be killed was inconceivable to the Apostles, so they did not understand.
But this basic doctrine of Christianity is one of the things that makes the kingdom of God so opposite to the nations and cultures of this world. The Kings and nations of this world exercise their power while they are alive. Death ends their power. That is why we have assassinations and attempted assassinations.
But the kingdom of God operates on a different principle. In the kingdom of God our king and his followers do not demonstrate their power by taking the lives of others or overcoming attempts of others to take their lives, we demonstrate our power by raising from the dead. We belong to a kingdom that will never end.
Then Jesus had a run-in with his Apostles over leadership styles. They were arguing with each other about who was the greatest. It was clearly their understanding that some of them would have authority over others of them. Jesus said “Whoever wants to be first must be the last of all and servant of all.”
What he was saying was that the power structure in the Kingdom of God, and the church as the earth-bound part of that kingdom is upside down. The leaders serve the least, they don’t force them the serve the leaders. God invented the concept of the Leader-Servant.
Then to illustrate this concept, Jesus took a child and said “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me”
Now in the first century, children were not very highly regarded. Jesus’ directions about children were very counter-cultural in his time. It is interesting to note that the places in the world where Christianity has had the most influence has the highest views about Children’s rights and offer protection for children, with the possible exception of unborn children.
Then James in his letter sets forth more values of the Kingdom and we see more that are contrary to the values and principles of the nations and cultures of this world. He wrote about two kinds of wisdom, one that is of this world and one that comes down from above, from the kingdom.
The Wisdom of this world includes envy and selfish ambition. In fact, our economic and political systems seem to be built on envy and selfish ambition.
Contrary-wise the wisdom of the Kingdom is “Pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.” By and large, the wisdom of this world has mostly to do with getting, while the wisdom of the kingdom has to do with giving and serving. Maybe that is a good test for us to see which type of wisdom we are following. Is what we consider to be wisdom going to lead us to getting or to giving?
In the 4th chapter of his epistle James describes what happens when we live by the wisdom of the world and when we try to mix the two types of Wisdom. He writes “Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something but do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it, so you engage in disputes and conflicts.
The desires for the things of this world cause us to get involved in plottings and schemes that will bear bad fruit, even if we are happy when we get what we want.
And sometimes we even enlist the power of God to help us as we attempt to live by the wisdom of the world. As he wrote in vs 2&3. “You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.”
James recommends very highly that we not try to mix the two types of wisdom. He refers to those who attempt to live in both worlds or kingdoms as Adulteresses. This usage is based on the relationships that Israel in the OT and the Church in the NT is supposed to have with God. We are the brides of God or Christ. When we live totally in the world or half in the world, living according to its standards, customs and supposed wisdom, we are cheating on God.
In order to reconcile ourselves with God we need to humble ourselves before him and ask for his grace to live according to the standards of the kingdom. We are to turn our laughter at the joys of this world into mourning. We are not to find joy in the destruction of the enemies of our nations, We are not to rejoice in the acquisition of things or the pleasures of this life. We are to rejoice when we find ourselves living according to God’s standards by living to please Him and living to help and serve the people God loves.
The last 3 verses of our passage read “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament, and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
As long as we live in this world, we Christians are called to live by the standards of the other world, the coming kingdom of God. That means that according to the standards of this world our standards and our lives should be upside down and inside out. We should humble ourselves before the lowest and most demeaned people so that we can help them and lift them up. We should consider ourselves the servants of all.
And our sins, those things that the people of the world hide and keep inside, we are to dig out of their hiding places and confess them to God and sometimes to each other. In this and other ways we are to humble ourselves before God.
The kingdom of God on earth is an upside down and inside out kingdom. Be glad you are a part of it and try to live by its principles.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at September 20, 2009 06:47 PM