Allen Jackson - Culture Builders - Part 1
I want to begin a new study with you under the title of the «Tabernacle, The Temple, Synagogues, and Churches». If you’re a reader of scripture, you’ll recognize there, an emerging story after the Hebrew slaves were delivered from Egypt after hundreds of years there. God instructed, through Moses gave them instructions to build the tabernacle. They were still itinerant. They hadn’t yet occupied the promised land, so the tabernacle was a temporary structure, a rather elaborate tent. But it was to be the center of worship. It was truly to be the center of community. The books that you love to read so much, the books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
The last four of those books are really centered in how to take a group of people who have been slaves for hundreds of years and build the community. And at the heart of that process was the tabernacle. After they occupied the promised land and demanded a king, God gave them permission to build a temple in Jerusalem. Do you happen to remember who built the first temple? Solomon. It’s not a trick question. It was destroyed because of their disobedience and rebellion by the Babylonians in 587. And the second temple was built. And again, that was the center of the people’s relationship with God. It was the center of the culture. You could evaluate the spiritual health of the people by the condition of the temple.
By the time we get to the New Testament, actually the synagogues emerged a little bit before that, a couple of centuries before that. The synagogue was more of a distributed place for the people to gather to read scripture and receive instruction. Where there were ten Jewish men, you could form a synagogue. By the time we complete the New Testament, the Christians are gathering and the label was attached to a church. We rather arrogantly think we invented something new. Even the language we use in the architecture of the church, you’ve heard the main hall of a church be called a basilica, perhaps in a more formal setting. We co-opted that from the secular culture.
The largest building in a Roman town would be the basilica. It was the mall. It was the public shopping place and the Christians ultimately became so attuned to gathering in the largest place in the community that church architecture adopted the language and the large hall and the church became the basilica. But whether it was the tabernacle or the temple or the synagogue or the church, they all shared one function, one role in the lives of the people, and that was to help build the culture of faith for God’s people. I want to take a few sessions and talk to you a little bit about the role of the church. I don’t mean just our congregation, but Church with a capital C, and we’ll talk some about our congregation and some values that are at the heart of who we have decided to be as a people. Not something new, not something that was determined last week or last month, but that have shaped our journey.
Most of them we observed as a result of what God was doing in our midst. But they really emerge from this notion that the people of God are to impact culture. And I wanna start with the Apostles' Creed. It’s one of the oldest creedal statements that we have in Christendom. Some have suggested it could have been the baptismal creed for the church in Jerusalem. The video of that has been lost, so we don’t know for certain. But it’s certainly plausible, and there are scholars who would accept the idea. A creed is a summary statement of fundamental tenets. So, the Apostles' Creed, as I understand it, is really intended to reflect the core values of the Christian faith.
Some of you grew up in a tradition where it was a regular part of worship. Some of you didn’t. If it was a regular part of your worship, you think it’s godly. If you didn’t, you’re very suspicious. That’s normal, but I would submit to you that the statements in the Apostles' Creed are important and relevant, and we should understand them. It’s really in three stanzas or three segments, all stating a belief. The first is a series of statements about what we believe about God. Secondly, in the largest portion is what we believe about Jesus because it’s essential to our story.
And then a series of statements of belief that help define our community. I’ll read it and then perhaps we could read it together. I learned to say this, I grew up in a church where we repeated it. I learned to say it in rhythm like the Pledge of Allegiance. And if you let me start at the beginning and go all the way through, I can complete it. If you put me in the middle, I’m stuck because I never really thought about what it meant. I just knew kind of like you pulled the string and out it would come. But there really is a value to it, and we’re not gonna dissect it in any great detail on this, but it says:
I believe in God the Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth.
That’s an affirmation of God is the creator of all things. You see, if you’ll accept the opening chapter of Genesis with Almighty God creating heaven and earth, the rest of the Bible has a place that makes sense. If you reject God as the creator of heaven and earth, the rest of the book is nonsense. Why would you take guidance and direction from something that’s a sham? So, the sequence really is important and it’s not like been important in the 21st century. This goes back to the beginning days of our faith. And then secondly:
I believe in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, Born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell; The third day, He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and he sits on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, The communion of saints, The forgiveness of sins, The resurrection of the body, And the life everlasting. Amen.
Can we read that together? If you’ve never read it, welcome. If it’s old news, you can close your eyes and say it, we’ll stay in rhythm. All right:
I believe in God the Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord; Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, Born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate. He was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell; The third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and he sits on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, The holy Christian church, The communion of saints, The forgiveness of sins, The resurrection of the body, And life everlasting. Amen.
Again, I would submit to you that the Apostles' Creed reflects the core values of the Christian faith. This is not a designer faith, folks. We stand in a tradition of centuries now, millennia of brilliant men and women who’ve chosen to submit themselves to the Lordship of Jesus. We’re the 21st century edition of the Book of Acts. There’s some notes I would offer you from the Apostles' Creed, some from personal experience and talking to thousands of people, some just as a matter of interest to me. For those who are somewhat suspicious of the Roman Catholic influence in our faith. And if you don’t know that those people exist, no problem, but there’s a couple of statements that sometimes cause people some anxiety.
The older translations say, «I believe in the holy Catholic Church,» and people are offended. Catholic means universal. It doesn’t refer to the church based in Rome. To correctly refer to that church, we would have to speak of the Roman Catholic Church, and that’s not what’s stated in this creed. It’s simply acknowledging that the church transcends nations, states, or ethnicities. That I believe in the universal church. The other statement that sometimes causes a bit of pause is, «I believe in the communion of saints,» in some of the older translations. The communion in that sense means fellowship. It is not a suggestion that we are praying to the saints.
In fact, the clear teaching of the New Testament suggest that if you’re a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the principles of the New Testament, you are a saint. I knew you wouldn’t believe me, so I brought a verse. It’s Ephesians 1, and verse 1, «Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus».
If you’re faithful in Christ Jesus from a scriptural standpoint, you’re a saint. Warts and all. I understand it’s been relabeled and repositioned, but we’re used to, by this point, language being something that is somewhat fluid. So, there really is nothing in that creedal statement that has been inordinately influenced by the Roman Catholic Church and evangelicals shouldn’t avoid it because of that mistaken notion. It is a summary of our core values. What intrigues me is what’s mentioned. I mean, it’s very clearly a statement of all the things you could say about God. It says, «I believe he’s the creator of heaven and earth».
And then it’s a series of statements about Jesus, none of which can be traded away. If you take any of those statements away, he’s no longer qualified to be our savior. It’s important. Maybe even more interesting to me is what’s not mentioned. If this is the core values of our faith, think of all the things that aren’t there that we’ve been told are what define us. It doesn’t say anything about baptism, when to do it, how to do it, who should do it, the temperature of the water. I’m not suggesting baptism isn’t important. Clearly it is. It doesn’t mention communion, when to take it, how often to take it, whether the juice should be fermented or not.
«Well, I know». Okay, I got it. I’m just saying. It doesn’t mention Sunday school, and you can’t have church without classes for kids. Doesn’t talk about women’s roles in the church, it doesn’t talk about music style, it doesn’t talk about speaking in tongues. I can tell you this, if you reject what’s described in that creed, there’s a very high degree of probability you’ll miss Christianity.
Now I want to take from that beginning and spend a few minutes talking to you about the role of the church in the world because I think to a great extent, this has been lost and it’s very much a topic that’s relevant right now. Church participation has been diminishing since COVID. There’s some recent studies that suggest there might be an infinitesimal change in that, but nothing even remotely approaching where we were in COVID. Not so much for this particular community of faith, but nationwide and even globally that is true.
Matthew 16, and verse 18 is a verse that changed my life. Jesus was speaking and he said, «I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it». I would remind everyone, both friend and foe, that Jesus is the builder of the church, that he’s the head of the church. The church is his idea. It didn’t begin with professional Christians. Jesus said he would establish his church. I do not intend to spend my strength, my energy, or my thoughts doing anything purposefully to oppose Jesus. If he said he’s gonna build the church, watch me help. I’ll borrow King David’s line. I know it’s a different application, but he said, «I’d rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the tents of the wicked».
The greatest honor of our lives, no matter what you achieve, accomplish, accumulate, the greatest honor of our lives is being considered a part of the Church, capital C. I’m gonna suggest that we have lost a bit our sense of the fundamentals of the church, who we’re to be, what’s necessary to believe, what our role in the world is to be. We’ve just imagined that, you know, some sort of attendance, erratic or whatever, is probably the goal. If you could just get there and endure it and survive it and not lose your mind, you’re golden. It’s easy to become bewildered by an array of answers available in today’s marketplace of ideas, to just throw up your hands and declare them all valid options.
There’s a lot of pressure to do that. Not to have the audacity to say that Jesus is unique. That’s why pluralism often leads to relativism, to the idea that there’s really is no overarching objective truth, but only a variety of subjective beliefs. You can believe whatever you want as long as you’re kind. This is important because the scripture is clear, if we fail to fulfill the purpose for which God instituted the church, we will fail in our primary responsibility as Christ followers. Our primary goal is not to go to heaven, but to do the will of God while we’re on earth. I understand that’s contradictory to much of what we’ve heard. We’ve had to focus on a singular event.
That entry point into the kingdom, and I believe in that. I’m not trying to diminish that, but the point of the objective is not to recite the sinner’s prayer. The objective is to do the will of God. And it’s very difficult to argue participation in the kingdom of God if you carry no interest in doing the will of God. In Matthew 5, Jesus said, «You’re the salt of the earth. If the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It’s no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men».
Similar idea, different metaphor. In John 15, Jesus said, «He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit». You know, I think it would be easy to look at the contemporary church and be filled with some anxiety. The lest we despair, there is significant historical evidence that cultures can be renewed. It is the story of the scripture, both Old and New Testaments. It’s the story of the history of the church, even those cultures that have been typically considered to be the most corrupt and intractable. But if we are to restore our world, we first have to shake off the comfortable notion that Christianity is merely a personal experience with application only to my private life.
«No man is an island,» wrote the poet John Donne. And one of the great myths of our day, even in the church, is that we are islands. That our decisions are personal and that no one has a right to tell us what to do in our private lives. We very easily forget that every private decision contributes to the moral and cultural climate in which we live. Our choices, our personal choices, our private choices ripple out from those choices across our lives and our families as we’re so accustomed to saying at our kitchen table, at our holiday table, and in the circle of our friends. The reality, the awkward reality is that we’ve chosen to be Christ followers in a fallen world.
That’s the story. And we shouldn’t imagine a revival so sweeping that we’re not aware of evil in the world. I don’t believe it’s an appropriate expectation. I don’t believe it aligns with scripture. I believe we can anticipate revivals and awakenings and outpourings of the spirit of God and movings of God, but if you take the biblical narratives that many of you know so well, when God is moving in the most dramatic way, there always seems to be consistent naysayers. God parted of the Red Sea and the Hebrew slaves escaped the Egyptian armies on dry ground, only to turn and see their enemies drowned as the waters cascaded on top of them. And 72 hours later, the entire nation said, «We liked it better in Egypt».
When the spies went into the promised land. 12 were sent in and 10 came back and said, «It’s a beautiful place, but we can’t do this». There’s never been a short supply of naysayers, and you shouldn’t imagine that there will be now. After Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River and the voice came from heaven and said, «This is my son, I’m pleased with him,» and a dove lighted on top of him, the next event is Satan comes to tempt Jesus. I’m reading that thinking, «You have got to be kidding me».
We live in a fallen world. The first fundamental I would give you is the very first commandment. At the top of that list of ten, which we cannot remove from our lives, says, «You can have no other gods before me. I’m a jealous God. I will tolerate no competition. I’ll not be a part of a pantheon. I won’t be a part of a collection of gods. No other gods before me». If you don’t get that one right, the rest of the commandments are less relevant. In 1 Peter 2:9 it says, «You’re a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light».
Please note, Christ followers by Peter, the fishermen that Jesus recruited, are directed to be a holy nation. Not just a group of born againers. Many Christians think of conversion as personal and private, but being converted is not just being separated or saved from one sinful past, it is being joined to a holy God and his people. That is the essence of covenant. We’re in this world together. We’re not a religious social club. We’re not a motivational seminar. We’re not a childcare facility. There may be tenets of all of those things that can be identified amongst us, but they’re not the primary assignment. We’re a group of people whose first allegiance is to our Father God. All other allegiances must be secondary to our intent to honor God.
It’s why we’re not hyphenated Christ followers. What’s the greatest commandment of the Christian life? Jesus gave it to us. It’s Mark 12, it’s in your notes. «One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked,» this is the question, «'Of all the commandments, which is the most important? ' And Jesus answered, 'The most important one is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind and with all of your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There’s no commandment greater than these.'»
Well, Jesus said it it’s plain language. You’d have to be intentionally obtuse to miss it. What does it mean to love the Lord? In John 14, Jesus again gave us the solution. He said, «If you love me, you’ll obey what I command». How do we love God? By obedience. You really have no argument that you love God if you practice disobedience to the truth that you know. Obedience is the beginning of the Christian life. Obedience is essential to truly living as a Christ follower. It isn’t optional. We can’t say, «Oh well, I said the prayer».
The fruit of the prayer is a life yielded in obedience to the Lord. You know, the overarching message in our world today says you really should do what you feel best about. Do what you think, do your own thing if I can borrow the 60s language. Not that I was there, I just read about it. But the Gospel says that we should carry each other’s burdens and in this way, you’ll fulfill the law of Christ. «Well, I don’t wanna do that. That’s your mess. You carry it».
The world says to us we should look out for ourselves. The gospel says we should lay down our lives for our brothers. If you’ll allow me, I would submit to you that it takes real courage to be obedient to Jesus. We talk about all the places in our life where courage is demanded. I haven’t found anything yet that is required of me the consistent demonstration of courage than obedience to the Lord has asked. There isn’t any hope in our society except the hope that comes from the people of God living righteously in our land.
I’ve said this many times to you in recent months and years, but I’m gonna continue to echo it. There really is no hope for us as a people, except the people of faith living righteously in our land. I’m grateful that we can choose leaders. I’m grateful for elections and we have the courage to stand up for biblical principles and choose people who say they will implement a biblical worldview, but the problems we have aren’t fundamentally political. They’re spiritual. The church has not been living according to the righteous principles of scripture. We’ve been going our own way. We’ve had a designer faith and a designer religion.
Father, I thank you that we have Bibles and churches and fellowship and community, but we need your help to be men and women of strength and courage. Holy Spirit, we ask you, let a boldness for God grow in us. In Jesus’s name.