Sunday 17-11-19 Ascend part 21 Relationship vs Productivity.
Matt 7:21-23 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Matt 7:21-23 MsgB “Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance—isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.’ And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here.’
I’m so glad we had communion this morning. He didn’t come up with the term, but on the 12th Feb 2012 Skye Jethani wrote an article in Christianity Today, on the ‘Evangelical Industrial Complex’ and introduced the term to a far wider audience.[1] What is the Evangelical Industrial Complex? The online dictionary of Christianese (yes it is a thing) defines it as the following:
Evangelical Industrial Complex. [by analogy with military-industrial complex ‘the alleged cooperation between military leaders and the defense industry in order to exert an undue influence on government policy’] Major publishers of Christian books, music, and other media as alleged to be secretly, if informally, in league to promote and support selected high-profile Christian pastors, preachers, authors, and musicians in order to continue to make money from sales of books and other media products. Such promotion and support is alleged to be behind the downplaying or eliminating of any criticism or scandal that touches these high-profile Christian leaders. [2] I would also add: an explanation as to why other voices never seem to get published or celebrated. Simply put, it is the Christian faith, hijacked by industry and its inbuilt drive for results. Results, you can measure and point at.
The wonderful devotional author Henri Nouwen predicted all this when he wrote that in much of modern Christianity, “the productive person is often preferred over the prayerful person.” So this morning we going to go there. We’re going to kill an idol. We’re going to expose how even the most Christian looking activity can conceal the most disgusting of idolatries.
- The basis of Judgement (Doing God’s will)
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
There is nothing more practical in application than judgement. Amidst so many voices that separate the idea of faith as an intellectual agreement with a set of doctrines from the application of those truths in real life, Jesus’ words drag us back to the obvious truth that the basis of judgement is what we in fact do with the realities that Jesus unpacks in his sermon.
The problem is that in a post-industrial revolution world; the idea of work, actions and activity are so divorced from relationship and hitched instead to results that the temptation exists to ‘prove’ our faith to ourselves and others by doing great things for God. I’ll come back to that in a moment, but for now, since it concerns judgement, perhaps the most important question we will ever is: what does Jesus actually mean here? What is the will of the Father?
Quite often, there’s nothing that illuminates and summarises the meaning of a biblical text, like another biblical text. So what is doing the will of the Father? Jump over to John 6 where the crowd that were just fed with the two fishes and five loaves a few hours ago ask Jesus almost exactly this question: Here’s his reply in verse 29: Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” If you read on, you’ll notice they try their best to alter the subject. Here’s why: because deep, deep down, we all know something:
Nothing affects what you actually do, like what you really believe. (x2) If you get nothing else from today, just remember that. As you come to realise that Jesus really is the messiah sent from God, it will affect how seriously you take his words. This is turn will begin to alter your decisions, your responses, your desires, your language and your actions. Discipleship is not trying to do the right thing, it is rather drinking in the full reality of who Jesus is until it shapes you even in the small things. Otherwise; look what happens.
- The excuse that will be used: (Productivity and the idol of missionalism)
22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’
Jesus says that (ironically) the excuse that is going to hit his ears at the final judgement is going to be related to activity and work. People will point out there ‘great works for God’. But the tragedy is that they’ve assumed that he will be more impressed at what we’ve done for him than what we’ve done about our relationship with him. Of course, the only way you can fall into this trap is if you don’t actually know what God’s will is in the first place.
There’s a deeper truth as well. Mother Theresa was known for saying; “just do small things for a great God.” That is a far better policy because it recognises something. Prophecy, Miracles even Exorcism of Demons and about a million other religious activities are no definite indicators of an actual relationship with God because God can do that, any and all of those things through anyone. He can speak through a donkey for goodness sake! They are nothing for people to cling to because they are the works of God for his own glory’s sake. These people are taking what God does through people and holding in his face as proof that they’re ‘in’.
The great lie in this excuse is the bit where it says: ‘and in your name’. They may have spoken in his name, but the motive is in their own. This is real. Every denomination has its’ idol. Every stream of Christianity its’ heresy…or three. I began the way I did this morning to illustrate how subtle and easy it is to fall into this trap.
As a church, we want to see Jesus lifted high. We want to make disciples and be a conduit for the kingdom. But if the drive to accomplish the vision or mission starts to have a negative effect on how even one person views what God really cares about…we’re doing something wrong. Really. It’s so easy to use a term like ‘personal relationship with God’ over and over again whilst structuring things to allow as little time for reflection, prayer, and repentance as possible. God help us.
- What it means to be known.
Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ The New Testament may be written in Greek, but it is Jewish in its thought. In other words, when Jesus talks about being known, That’s the same root word (ginosko) used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament for Genesis 4:1 where Adam lays down with Eve and conceives a son. Now it’s a very broad word used in lots of ways, but the point is that this includes descriptions of absolute intimacy.
What I mean is this: we need to ask the question: why do we do this Christian thing? What is the goal of faith? Why are we here at Church rather than enjoy the morning coffee and cake special overlooking the blue water of the estuary in Mandurah somewhere? Is it to more effectively deal with the challenges that life throws at us? is it to be more effective or efficient in what we do? Is it, to win more people over to our team? I suggest the reason written a few hundred years ago as recorded in the Westminster shorter catechism: Our chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Those other things will take care of themselves when we focus on the central: intimacy with and enjoyment of Jesus himself.
If what you are doing for God, is replacing your intimacy with God…..stop immediately. Reconnect before moving another inch forward.
- In closing.
Let me close this morning with some words by Eugene Peterson out of our resource recommendation. He says:
“One temptation that has been made into a monument in the west is Ambition. Our culture encourages and rewards ambition without qualification. We are surrounded by a way of life in which betterment is understood as expansion, acquisition and fame. It is the oldest sin in the book, the one that got Adam thrown out of the garden and Lucifer tossed out of heaven. What is new about it is the general admiration and approval it receives. What is described in Scripture as the basic sin (taking things into your own hands) is now described by many as basic wisdom. But if we take the energies that make for aspiration and remove God from the picture, replacing him with our own crudely sketched self-portrait we end up with ugly arrogance.”[3]
You know what’s wonderful? You, whoever you are, are exactly the
person God wanted.[4] Choose to be with him, elect his presence, aspire to his
ways, respond to his love.[5] Amen.
[1] https://www.christianitytoday.com/pastors/2012/february-online-only/evangelical-industrial-complex-rise-of-celebrity-pastors.html
[2] https://www.dictionaryofchristianese.com/evangelical-industrial-complex/
[3] Peterson, Eugene H. A long obedience in the same direction (Grand rapids: IVP 1980) p151-153
[4] Willard, Dallas: The Divine Conspiracy (London, William Collins 1998) p311
[5] Peterson, Eugene H. A long obedience in the same direction (Grand rapids: IVP 1980) p156