Beyond our church doors there is this overwhelming pressure which resists every movement of God’s Spirit in our church and in our lives. This pressure operates like gravity. You cannot see it, but its power is evident and pervasive. It affects everyone and everything. It keeps the narrow path to life narrow, and the broad path to destruction wide. Nothing is unaffected. Call it the old man, call it the sinful nature, call it spirit of this world, call it secularism, or call it a conspiracy. The label doesn’t matter as much as the reality. In this world any attempt to live for Jesus Christ, any advance of God’s kingdom, no matter how great or how small, will draw resistance.
Consider Paul’s stirring words in Ephesians 6:10-12 (NIV) where he writes, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
We don’t like to think of the Christian life as a struggle, but welcome to reality. In John 16:33 (NIV) Jesus warned us plainly, "In this world you will have trouble." From the beginning of time the world has always been a place of opposition, resistance, struggle, and even persecution to God's ways. The world has been anything, but has never been aligned with the purposes of God.
In fact, the world is hostile to God. The world alienates itself as the enemy of God. The world is the domain of God’s enemies and the place of the evil one’s influence. It’s the place where knowledge of Jesus Christ is suppressed, where wickedness is celebrated, where God’s way is maligned, and where God's people are ostracized. It stands to reason that in such a world we would encounter pressure and resistance.
Called into the world.
Yet just as the Father sent his Son into the world, so the Son sends us into the world. We are being sent to proclaim Christ’s name, to preach and practice righteousness, to reconcile the world to God, and to finish the work God has prepared for us to do. We are being sent into the midst of a great struggle in which the dust hasn’t yet settled, to serve the living God who promises victory. In John 16:33 (NIV) Jesus tells that we will have trouble in the world, but he also tells us, "But take heart! I have overcome the world." So with a great warning and great challenge, there is also great encouragement.
This morning I want to identify some of the pressure points we’ll encounter in the world. The things I am about to give you aren’t accidental. Every one of these things was on Jesus’ mind in John 17 as he prayed about the Church’s witness in the world. He prayed that we wouldn’t succumb to these pressures, but instead through his power, overcome them. Please turn in your Bibles to John 17 as a reference to some of the verses found there.
Pressure Point: Silence
In John 17:3 (NIV) Jesus is praying when he says, "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." There is tremendous pressure placed on Christians to deny the living God. We are pressured to embrace Yahweh, the Father and Son and Allah as the one true God. There’s a push to embrace Abraham as the father of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faiths.
It has become fashionable for politicians and religious leaders to pray generically in the name of an all-inclusive God, who is supposed to represent all religions and faiths. This is the "politically correct" and "safe" way to pray. The belief is that God is a social construct, created in the image of culture, to embody the ideals of society. You don’t choose your faith. Society creates it for you. Cultures and individuals are free to redefine and recreate God however they choose. Such thinking saturates our culture to the degree that even churchgoers embrace it.
But this isn’t what the Bible prescribes as eternal life. Eternal life is knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ his Son. The Christian message is that there is only one true God, instead of many true gods. The only true God is God the Father and Jesus Christ, his Son. All other characterizations of God are not only false, but absolutely cannot lead one to eternal life.
If you pray inclusively in the name of the generic God of all faiths, men will applaud. But preach exclusively in the name of Jesus Christ and people will pick up stones. You will be branded intolerant, bigoted, and fanatical. You will be castigated. So we feel pressured to be silent. We don’t want to offend or appear judgmental. We are prohibited from imposing the hope of eternal life on everyone, even on our children.
Pressure Point : Indifference.
In John 17:4 (NIV) Jesus prays to God, "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do." Jesus isn’t boasting in this prayer. He is setting a clear example for his followers.
Let me rehash once more what I consider to be the great failure of the Church today. I in no way want to diminish any kind of Christian service, but there is something mortally wrong when the majority of Christians begin believing that the only work God’s given them to do is handing out church bulletins. I could have just as easily used the example of singing in the choir, being a greeter, or whatever.
The point is that God has given us work on earth, in his world, that he wants us to complete. One of our bulletin hander-outers spends hours every week in the community delivering meals, visiting hospitals, fixing broken stuff, and doing repairs. He is meeting needs. What a great loss it would be if handing out bulletins was his greatest vision for service.
God is glorified whenever we complete the work he gave us to do. Unfortunately, we rarely discover the work that God wants us to do. We tend toward working for ourselves, building our mini-kingdoms on earth. We elevate every other commitment, including school, family, work, sports, travel, entertainment, and social events, and turn an indifferent shoulder to the work God wants us to do.
Pressure point: Isolationism
In John 17:15 (NIV) Jesus prays for his disciples, "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one." Instead of penetrating the world as salt and light, Christians often retreat into seclusion. A typical response is for Christians to form a cocoon around themselves.
Like monks, like the Puritans and Amish, like priests and nuns, and like so many cults today, we separate ourselves from community involvement, from bad work environments, from secular schools, and from places where non-Christians gather. We stop relating to non-Christian friends and family. In some cases Christians may even separate themselves from "lesser Christians" and go off and become their own church.
Within the cocoon there is all kind of exciting transformation supposedly taking place, but God isn’t receiving any glory from it. Because like salt caught in a salt shaker or like a light covered by a bowl, all the good that was intended to be released into the world is being concealed and hidden. You know, Catholics aren’t the only ones who have convents!
Christians of every denomination react to their world by constructing walls of protection. There is a huge difference between being isolated and being protected. Jesus’ prayer isn’t that his disciples become isolated. His prayer is that they be protected from evil while being sent into the world. In this way they could exert the influence of salt and light on their culture and bring glory to God.
Pressure Point: Self-Love
In John 17:14 (NIV) Jesus prays, "I have given them your word and the world has hated them." I’ve noticed the tendency of many Christians today to want to feel loved by the world. We don’t want to be controversial. We’d rather send someone off to a Christ-less eternity than to test the waters a bit. We’d rather take away the offense of the cross than convict the world of sin. We’d rather remain silent than preach God’s word boldly. We’d rather conceal the truth than hurt someone’s feelings. We’d rather offend God than offend men.
There is something about Christians that causes us to seek acceptance from the world. It is as if we think our message needs to be validated by the world in order for us to believe in it.
Pressure Point: Accommodation
In John 17:17 (NIV) Jesus prays, "Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth." The word sanctify means to, "set apart", "make holy", or "consecrate". Of course we face a continual pressure to conform and become like the world. The world wants us to keep lowering the bar of morality to the lowest common denominator.
George Barna has thoroughly researched the American Church and found that Christians' behaviors were virtually the same as their non-Christian counterparts' behaviors in almost every moral category. These categories included failed marriages, work habits, values, beliefs, priorities, entertainment, music, television, movies, internet useage, etc. Instead of becoming like Jesus Christ, the Church is becoming more like the world. In the Church the world is finding a reflection of itself instead of a reflection of Christ. The Church is conforming to the world instead of transforming the world.
Pressure Point: Disconnection
In John 17:20-21 (NIV) Jesus says, "… I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me."
In John 15 Jesus uses image of a vine and its branches to describe the nature of the relationship we are to have with Jesus. In John 15:5-6 (NIV) he says, "If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers."
Our vitality as Christians is directly linked to our relationship with Jesus Christ. If we pray, listen to God’s voice, trust Christ daily, and obey God’s commands, we will be infused with all the sustenance necessary for spiritual life. But there is this pressure to stop talking to God, to reject his voice, to trust in ourselves, and to live as we please. The result is that we wither on the vine and die spiritually.
Pressure Point: Division.
In John 17:23 (NIV) Jesus said, "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you send me." Instead of focusing outward on the work God has given them to do in the world, many Christians turn a critical eye inward toward the Church. They accentuate their petty theological differences with others. They get broiled in meaningless controversies, spreading malicious gossip, promoting controversies and divisions within the body. They get bent all sideways over perceived flaws in the church and its leadership. Instead of pursuing reconciliation, they divorce their brothers and sisters and church family. They appoint themselves as judge, jury, and hangman of the whole Church.
I had to rush through a few of these pressure points, but I want you to consider the contrast between what Christ wants his Church to be in the world with what the Church so often actually is in the world.
God doesn’t want us to be silent. He wants us to be telling the world about Christ.
God doesn’t want us to be indifferent. He wants us going into the world, completing the works he gave us to do.
God doesn’t want us to be isolated. He wants us to be engaged in our world while at the same time being protected from the evil one.
God doesn’t expect that we be loved. He warns us that we will be hated by the world for the very reason that we bear his name.
God doesn’t want us to be compromised. He wants us to be sanctified, to be set apart from the world, not "of" the world but transformed into the image of Christ.
God doesn’t want us to be disconnected. He wants us to be vitally connected to Jesus Christ.
God doesn’t want us to be divided against ourselves. He wants us to be united in helping the world know that Jesus is the Christ.
As you look through these pairs of words, which side do you fall down on? Silent or telling? Indifferent or working? Isolated or engaged? Loved or hated? Compromised or sanctified? Disconnected or connected to Christ? Divided against or united with the Church?
Just as Christ prayed for us to be telling, working, engaging, sanctified, connected, and united, so you can commit these things to prayer. Pray these things with me." God move me. Change me. Help me stand under the pressure. Strengthen me. Help me be open to every move of your Holy Spirit within my life. Open this church to your Spirit. Send me into your world. Use me. Help me tell the world about Christ. Show me the work you want me to do. Help me engage your world. Protect me from evil. Set me apart and make me holy. Help me remain vitally connected to Jesus Christ. Help me protect the unity of this Church. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen."