Good Friday - Joint Service 04/06/2007
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Psalms 126:5
This is the divine edict. This is more than preaching with zeal. This is more than scholarly exposition. This is more than delivering sermons of homiletical perfection.
Whether preacher or pew dweller we should be appalled at the shrinking authority of the Church in this present hour.
We should cringe with sorrow because so many are turning a deaf ear to the Gospel, willingly to risk hell in the process.
Our heart is often crushed but for the wrong reasons, (selfish). The true believer should be heartsick, and grieved at the worldliness of the Church. The true believer is grieved at the blindness of the Church, grieved at the corruption in the Church, grieved at the tolerance of sin in the Church, grieved at the prayerlessness in the Church.
The true believer is disturbed that the corporate prayer of the Church no longer pulls down the strongholds of the devil.
The true believer is embarrassed that Church folks no longer cry in their despair before a devil-ridden, sin-mad society, Why could we not cast him out? Matthew 17:19 Many of us have no heart-sickness for the former glory of the Church because we have never known what true revival is.
It should bother us that when the church asks for testimonies we hear about something God did 20 or 30 years ago. My understanding is that God is still alive and active.
Where are those who weep for revival?
Revivals like the 1751 Baptist Church Revival brought by an obscure Connecticut preacher, whose heart was stirred for salvation and soul winning under the ministry of George Whitefield.
The immediate results were astonishing for the frontier era. More than 900 baptized in the first 3 years. It is estimated that the Sandy Creek Revival directly resulted in the birthing of over 1000 Baptist churches. Where are those who’ll allow their hearts to be stirred for salvation and soul winning?
One hundred years ago, a series of boisterous revival meetings in a converted stable on Azusa Street launched a global movement that overcame differences in class, gender and race to unite around the belief that the Holy Spirit still works miracles.
Today, there are about 600 million Pentecostal and charismatic Christians whose roots are in the Azusa Street revival. They make up the fastest-growing segment of Christianity, thriving especially in the Southern Hemisphere, with their beliefs having an impact on nearly every Christian denomination.
Where are those who still believe that the Holy Spirit still works miracles.
We sleep easy at night while this generation is going to hell in a hand basket. They are being swallowed up swiftly into the eternal darkness of hell. Shame on us!
This same Jesus who we celebrate today - He, Himself wept over the lost.
He was aware how near their judgment was. We are not.
We are clueless, and ignorant. The Apostle Paul sent a tear-stained letter to the Philippian saints, writing: For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. Notice that he does not say they are enemies of Christ; they are, rather, enemies of the cross of Christ.
Enemies because they deny or diminish the redemptive values of the cross. There are many like this today, even among us this Easter week-end.
As a Pentecostal I remember a day when we dwelt across the theological tracks, but the glory of the Lord was in our midst.
Regrettably sad, no rather shameful is the fact that we have no distinguishing marks on us today… we have compromised, we have become religious.
I long, how I long for a church life, that included nights of prayer, followed by signs and wonders and divers miracles.
I long for the church to freely operate in the genuine gifts of the Holy Spirit.
I am desperate for a time when we were not clock watchers, and our meetings lasted for hours, saturated with holy power!
I blush to think that our children know nothing of such power!
For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, live as enemies of the cross of Christ.
We have just heard powerful words. Words that stand to strike fear into the heart of man.
When you hear Paul speak of the enemies of the cross of Christ…it is a very difficult thing not to try and picture who he is talking about. Enemies of the cross of Christ…it makes me think of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party. Their treatment of the Jewish people…the death camps…. There is only one problem with that.
The Apostle Paul isn’t speaking about this type of people. He’s not railing against those who commit such heinous crimes that to speak of them is difficult. “Amazing Race” contestants stopped at Auschwitz concentration camp, where some 1.5 million people died. The contestants were so moved they wept.
They wept as I weep this morning - this blessed Easter Morning.
I weep because the enemies of the cross are not who you may think.
It ought to shock you to hear Paul say, For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.The Apostle speaks of other preachers that have come to Philippi… claiming the faith of Jesus, yet teaching it is needful to adhere to Jewish purity laws in order to be saved.
Paul, was confident that earthly things cannot save us. He knew that…without the saving work of Jesus Christ suffering, dying, rising again and ascending into Heaven…we could not be saved!
Without the cross you can’t be saved.My dear friends, we are in grave danger if we fail to see Jesus Christ and His atoning work on the cross as the only means to our Salvation. If we begin to trust in ourselves or in humanity for our salvation, we become enemies of the cross of Christ.
It is possible to do this while still claiming a relationship with Jesus.
When the householder has risen up and shut the door, you will stand outside and knock at the door, saying, Lord, open to us. He’ll answer you, I do not know where you come from. Then you will begin to say, We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets. But he will say, I tell you, I do not know you, depart from me, all you workers of iniquity!
What we see in this passage is Jesus condemning those who ate and drank at the table with Him, those who sat under his teaching, but it was all to casual. The important word…the word which all of this hinges upon is the word casually.
They know of Jesus, know who He is and what He is about, but treat their relationship casually.So we begin to see what all of this is about. It is not the condemnation of wicked men…rather it is aimed at the average and ordinary person. It is aimed at us. We are being warned to place the cross of Christ at the center of our lives…we are being told to take our discipleship seriously.
We are warned not to neglect co-crucifixion. That is we need to die with Christ so we can be raised with Him! Perhaps not your typical Good Friday message … But then again is there a better day to get right in our thinking about the cross of Christ. It ought to be at the center of our lives.
I make no apology for my boldness - Why would we not want to try and be the best disciples we can be? Rejoice in the fact that we are servants of the cross. May we become more and more who we are called by God to be.
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