Allen Jackson - Lions and Lambs - Part 1
I want to begin a new study with you under the title of «Lions & Lambs». Two very different positions on the food chain, but they impact our lives in some dramatic ways. It’ll take us a few sessions, God willing, I think, to walk through it. At the heart of it are the realities, the spiritual forces, that shape our days and our destiny. And I think we’ve lived in if not ignorance, indifference, to those things for far too long. But I’ll start in Acts chapter 20. It’s a part of Paul’s message to the leaders in the church at Ephesus. He’d spent a great deal of time there and he has a passing visit with them and he’s actually saying goodbye to them and he gives them a message, a parting message.
But it’s really wrapped up in this notion that there’s false gospels that ravage the body of Christ. It was true in the 1st century, and I assure you it’s true in the 21st century. I don’t say that to frighten you because I don’t think it need be frightening. I say that so that we’re aware. Every building that has a label that says church doesn’t honor Jesus of Nazareth as Lord and embrace a biblical worldview. Every group of people that say a prayer or sing a chorus that you may recognize as Christian music, don’t honor Jesus of Nazareth as Lord and Christ. That landscape has changed dramatically and it’s changed more dramatically in the last few years than I’ve ever seen it in my lifetime.
I don’t think that’s frightening. I think it’s an opportunity. God’s moving in the earth. He’s preparing a people for himself. I wanna be a part of that. But we’re gonna have to be better informed. We’re gonna have to be more aware. We can’t simply choose labels any longer, we’ll have to pay attention. So Acts chapter 20 and verse 28, the instructions that were given to a church: «Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood». That’s the essence, right? It’s through the blood of Jesus that we’re included in the kingdom of God. It’s not because we joined the right denomination or we have the right worship style or music style or communion date or color for our communion juice or translation of the Bible. It’s through the blood of Jesus.
If you imagine something other than the blood of Jesus nominated you to the kingdom of God, you’re deceived. It’s a simple reminder, but don’t lose sight of it. It will help you in the seasons ahead. «Which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number, men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears».
Not the happiest of passages, but it’s important. A group of people that Paul has helped shepherd into the kingdom of God, a community that he’s been very instrumental in seeing form, and he says, «I’m not gonna see you again, and I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.» it’s not hypothetical, it’s a statement of certainty. By this point in his journey, he has a good bit of experience. And he’s giving them, it’s I suppose you could call it a prophetic statement, but don’t make it mystical. He’s telling them what their future is going to be, and he said, «Even from your own number, from those whose names you know, whose tables you have shared, whose children you’ve interacted with, from that community, men will arise and distort the truth with an objective. They want to pull away followers for themselves. They will practice deception and distortion. They’ll bring disruption».
And this is his counsel: «So be on your guard. I’ve never stopped warning you day and night». We’re gonna have to be more astute consumers, folks. «Well, I don’t know why everybody in the body of Christ can’t just be nice». Well, I mean, I suppose I could say because the devil exists. But perhaps it’s just simpler to say we’ve been cautioned in scripture that that’s not the truth. Jesus was tortured to death in Jerusalem, the city from which he will rule and reign in the earth. So why would we imagine that everybody that sits in a Christian church or carries a Bible or uses Christian language will treat you with integrity? It’s a myth. «Well, it’s so disappointing».
Okay, so you’re disappointed. Can we move on now? «Well, I don’t like it». Okay, noted. I don’t like the fact that Oreos make me fat. You know, I wish some credible health organization would come up with some amazing discovery that Oreos, chased by a pint of ice cream, would cause muscle growth. But absent that, I’ll eat chicken and broccoli. And sometimes we spend way too much energy lamenting, and we allow it to blunt our momentum. We get discouraged or disappointed or we get our feelings hurt or something and so we sideline ourselves. I’m imploring you not to do that. Savage wolves are a part of the journey. «Well, well, well…»
It’s in the book! I could take you to many places. It’s not some isolated thing. By the time Paul gets to the end of the journey in the New Testament, he’s locked in a Roman prison, and the churches he spent his life establishing, they’re all hanging by a thread. But it’s the thread of the Holy Spirit. And we’re 2 millennia on the other side and the empire that was putting so much pressure on him is gone and the church is still flourishing. But it should inform our own journey. We’re going to face some challenges, some threats, some predatory behavior. Galatians chapter 1, another church that Paul was very instrumental in fashioning. He said, «I’m astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ».
Isn’t that what it sounds like he said was gonna happen to the Ephesian believers? «But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preach to you, let him be eternally condemned»! «Well, Paul’s not being polite. He is very unkind». If someone preaches the gospel other than the one I gave to you, I hope he’s condemned forever. «Kumbaya my Lord». It’s not unique there. In 2 Corinthians, another church Paul’s been very instrumental in. «If someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you received a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel, the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough».
There’s a group rolled into Corinth and they’ve labeled themselves super apostles. You know, Paul, he’s just an old ordinary apostle. But they have a new version, upgraded, new and improved, 2.0 apostles, super apostles. It’s in the text. I mean, a little bit embellished, but it’s in the text. And Paul said, you know, excuse me, I didn’t come with the super apostle stamp. And you tolerate the deception easily enough. Take a moment with it because we’re living in a time when there are many versions of the gospel that are flourishing amongst us. I don’t mean just in our community, but I mean broadly around us. It doesn’t take much discernment. There’s a great deal of disorientation.
I hear people say, «Well, you know, I don’t read the Old Testament. God’s so harsh». What, do you think he got therapy after Malachi? Did you pay attention to the Gospels and what was required of Jesus in order for you and I to make our way into the kingdom? It makes the Old Testament look rather light. Have you read the book of Revelation? That’s our Lord and King coming back in there as a triumphant king leading the armies of the angels. There’s a lot of versions of the gospel around these days, kind of a social gospel that we want to be social reformers, social justice. We don’t like to talk about sin, so off-putting. You know, we just, we’re gonna love everybody. We don’t want to be judgy.
Well, that’s odd because our Lord is the judge of all the earth and he tells us we will all give an account to him, that we will stand before him as judge. You’re not a very good friend if you don’t help those that you care about and interact with to be prepared to stand before the judge. Like, you’re no friend at all. That gospel is very prevalent. There’s the gospel of comfort and convenience. Ah, this one’s fashionable too.
You know, we need our faith to make our lives easier, the labels in our clothing better, to upgrade our vehicle, get our kids in a better school. I’m not opposed to any of those things. But I don’t believe that was the purpose of the redemptive work of Jesus. And I’m quite certain you can’t evaluate spirituality based on balance sheets. I’m quite certain there’s some very godly people in Ukraine today separated from their homes and what their families may have spent generations protecting. And it’s not unique to Ukraine. It’s all over the world.
There’s another gospel that’s taken root. It’s flourished in American academia. It’s been there for decades. When I was in theology school, it was very prominent, very prevalent. It was so bizarre, I thought it’ll never influence culture, and now it’s become one of the defining voices of just secular culture. It really started with a liberation theology, or a Marxist gospel. Not just socialist; Marxist. They replaced Jesus with equity and all sorts of good-meaning things, but they deny that every human life needs transformed.
Folks, we are not inherently good. We don’t have to have classes in school to teach our kids how to lie, cheat, and steal. They can arrive at that. Come on, I did not just call your little Johnny. I’ll get to it, but I didn’t do it yet. We have to be transformed and that takes the power of a living Christ. And the only group prepared to deliver that message to humanity is the church. And it requires us to have a clarity and an understanding to invest the energy and the time and the awareness to understand what not only the scripture has said, but what’s happening in the culture around us. And I’m not talking about this congregation, but under what we think of as the institutional church. We can see it in many ways. We just watched a video.
There’s a war in Ukraine which was preventable. It was not a necessity. It’s cost more than a million lives and untold suffering. Civilians and civilian population centers have consistently been the targets of attack. Our current administration is working, searching for a conclusion. But if you’re not paying much attention, the legacy media and political opponents are feverishly seeking to discredit any attempt to bring a resolution to the conflict. The church has a role to play. We’re advocates for the Prince of Peace. We don’t stop there. For many years in this nation we’ve endured an open border policy with millions of people flooding into our country illegally, while those in authority have repeatedly told us without shame or embarrassment or flinching that our border is secure.
Don’t believe your lying eyes. And now there are attempts being made to remove people who are here illegally who are criminals. Not just because of their border crossing; because they have broken our laws. And that effort is being widely resisted, placing our communities and our law enforcement personnel in tremendous danger. And we stay quiet. It’s just easier not to notice. Different gospels are almost everywhere. The NFL, a very powerful institution in our nation, most powerful of the professional sports franchises. One of their teams, the Minnesota Vikings, have selected this year male cheerleaders to perform the same dance moves as the women. Not just men to lead cheers, but to do the same things the women are doing. And if we missed that, if we were looking past it, they’re posting promotional videos of that group in a women’s restroom with both the female and male cheerleaders.
That would be the National Football League using their multi-billion dollar platform to try to dictate social behavior. I don’t know if you’re paying attention or not, but Washington, DC, has gone 7 days without a murder. That’s a celebratory event. But rather than celebrate the restoration of order, many voices complain that the president’s trying to take over. I visit DC from time to time, a city that’s lived with too much chaos and violence. Acknowledges that they’ve reclassified crimes to make them seem less violent. They have underreported violent crimes to pretend the city was safe. And rather than say thank you, they prefer political rhetoric and personal attacks.
I think this is relevant to us and it’s on point with this notion of the gospel and lions and lambs because under the guise of Christianity, a false gospel has flourished. You see, Jesus or a biblical worldview have been frequently unwelcome or pointedly removed. And I trust that you understand the gospel, a message of good news, absent of Jesus of Nazareth, and a biblical worldview is, by definition, a false gospel. Messages of compassion and inclusivity have emerged as essential messages from pulpits, from Christian schools, from universities, from theological centers as well as corporate boardrooms, from our civic organizations, from our own government, from professional sports leagues, it’s been a cultural tsunami.
I would remind you that advocacy and institutional support for DEI, diversity equity inclusion, or insistence on normalizing the LGBTQ2I community they’ve been presented to us as expressions of compassion and kindness. We’re told we should express tolerance for sexual immorality; in biblical language: adultery and fornication. They’re so widespread amongst those who imagine themselves Christians that it’s hardly noticeable anymore. We’re told that it’s Christian charity for us to welcome illegal aliens in our nation. That we should come alongside the immoral or the lawless. The Christians are much less frequently reminded of their responsibility to transform culture and to not be transformed by the spirit of this age. We’re not here to be passive and gather in our buildings and sing our choruses. We’re here to impact culture with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I would submit to you that it’s not compassion to encourage people to pursue pathways that are illegal or ungodly. God is merciful and just. That is true, but to promote ungodliness by refusing to tell the truth to those practicing rebellion against God is to abandon others to destruction, and we’re not given that license. If in seeking to avoid the awkward conversations that could emerge or to forfeit social opportunity or because of a fear of diminished profits, because we would limit potential customers, we remain silent. Do you know the outcome of that? Then we receive the judgment of the ungodly. Leading godly lives is not easy. It includes more than attendance at religious services or participation in a Christian school. We don’t step into our Christian role for appointed times and then out of our Christian persona at others.
There’s no such thing. To be a Christ follower is a yielding and an acceptance of an assignment of reconciliation in whatever generation God calls us to. God is moving in the earth. I’ve never seen the hunger for the truth that I witness these days and weeks. At the same time, I’ve never seen more widespread deception and manipulation under the umbrellas of faith. One of the presentation that scripture gives us is the true and false will flourish together. Do you remember the parable that Jesus told about the wheat and the tares? A field that was planted intentionally with wheat and when the crop came up, there was also amongst the wheat, something unintentional. And it was weeds, tares, in the field and the servants came and said, «Should we pull them up»?
And the master said, «No, we’ll do that at the harvest,» and Jesus interpreted it for us. He didn’t leave it to our imagination. He said the field is the world and it’s the end of the age, and that the angels will do the harvesting and they’ll separate the wheat from the tares, that the same climactic conditions that allow the wheat to ripen allow the weeds to ripen. So that what we should anticipate is both at the same time, true and false, are going to flourish. The biblical presentation provides some clarity for us. It helps us interpret what we see. I brought you some samples on this topic because we can’t just put peel a verse out. We need a bit more of a broader perspective.
In 1 Peter 5 in verse 8, Peter writes, «Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour». One of the images attached to Satan is he’s a roaring lion, or he’s like a roaring lion, and then Peter gives us a battle plan, he says, «Resist him, stand firm in the faith. You know that your brothers throughout the world undergo the same kind of suffering». You know, you know the difference in minor surgery and major surgery? If it’s on me, it’s major, if it’s on you, it’s minor. Well, the same is true with suffering of about any description.
If it’s my suffering, this is a deal. And if it’s your suffering, why don’t you just suck it up and move along? And Peter’s reminding his audience and us that throughout the world, there is discomfort and suffering so that we don’t capitulate to the self-pity, that we don’t sideline ourselves because of the obstacles. That we determine to persevere, to overcome, to be triumphant in the name of our Lord. And then in verse 10, he said, «The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you’ve suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast».
Now, when you restore something you typically make it better than the original. I have some friends that restored an old home, historic home. They took Kathy and I for a visit when they purchased it, prior to the restoration. It took enormous faith. Piles of cash and enormous faith. The flooring was rotten. The plumbing and the electrical that had been a part of the home was no longer adequate. It needed a 21st century makeover and it got it. Complete with central heat and air. Whole new plumbing systems, an updated kitchen. Everything about the home was better than the original version. It wasn’t just the house that was there, it was the house that was there plus all the advantages that technology and modern convenience can bring to our homes.
But when I read that passage in 1 Peter 5, it says that God will make us, he will restore us and make us strong, firm, and steadfast. We’ll be stronger. We’ll be better for the experience. We’ll have more compassion. We’ll have trust in a God in an area where we’ve walked through and we’ve seen his power demonstrated on our behalf. But you know, if I get to tell you the truth, I’m not looking for, like, some opportunity. I just would like my way now. But God in his mercy and his grace allows us a journey where we walk through places where we have to learn to trust him. But the warning there, if you’ll remember, is you’ve got to be sober and alert. You got to be vigilant because we have an adversary that prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. But that’s not the only lion message you need.
In Revelation chapter 5, John has this majestic vision of heaven and the throne room of God. And he said, «I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll». There’s a scroll that has the story of the end of the age. And John understands he’s been given the opportunity to see this narrative, but now the scroll has been presented, but there’s no one in all of heaven deemed worthy to open it and John begins to weep, thinking he’s gonna fail on the assignment. He’s not gonna get to hear the narrative.
«Then one of the elders said, 'Don’t weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. And he is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.' And then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne». Who did he see? Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
That’s Revelation chapter 5. For those of you who are just casual readers of the scripture, that’s the last book of the New Testament. And in the last book of the Testament, New Testament, our Lord and King Jesus of Nazareth is identified as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He hasn’t been separated from those roots. In fact, when the new Jerusalem is established and we visit that city, which we will, you’ll pass through the gates of that city will have inscribed above them the names of a Hebrew man and at the center of that city will be a throne and seated on it is an observant Jewish Rabbi, one Jesus of Nazareth. It’ll be an awkward place if you hate the Jews.