Greetings to you, friend. I’m Mack Lyon. The program is In Search of the Lord's Way, the Lord’s way to become and to be a Christian. We are so very glad you have joined us today. We’ll be studying about “The Dynamic-- or the power-- of the Christian Faith.”
Oh say, friend, it's a real joy to welcome you to our Bible study In Search of the Lord's Way. In 1 Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 to 2 we read: "...the Spirit (that would be the Holy Spirit, of course) expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.” Well, who will deny that that prophecy is presently being fulfilled.. Through the twenty centuries since it’s beginning, the world has insisted that the church of Jesus Christ conform to cultural demands, and it has at times brought many departures from the prototype pictured in the Scriptures. So that what is marketed as Christianity nowadays bears little resemblance, if any at all, to what is revealed in the New Testament. Christianity's great need today is to get back to the Bible. We're glad you have joined us for our study today. We pray we'll both be blessed.
The Dynamic of the Christian Faith: that’s our study today. “Dynamic” is simply a force or energy. We often relate it to an explosion with dynamite. In fact it's from the word from which we get the word "dynamite." But according to Webster it can also mean "continuous productive activity or change." Well, what is there about Christianity that keeps on supplying all the real energy of enduring Christianity? Wherein lies its strength for continuous productive activity or change? Well, we are going to see in our study today.
In Search of the Lord's Way is presented here by your friends-- and ours-- who are members of churches of Christ in the area of this station. And that is why we don't bore you with long appeals for money every time. I'm sure you are thankful for those people who make this program possible; so, why not pay them a visit in a congregation near you right soon, and tell them thanks for the program. Of course, churches of Christ in the New Testament were locally independent, and since we’re trying to be like those churches in the New Testament today the churches of Christ are locally independent; meaning that some of them do not participate in this program. That doesn't mean they are not good faithful churches. It could mean that they’re deeply involved in other efforts to fulfill the great commission of our Lord. But, should you like us to assist you in locating a congregation near you or learning the times of their meetings; or if you would like a free printed copy, a CD or an audio cassette tape of the message today, write us, In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083 or by e-mail it's searchtv@searchtv.org. Use our toll-free telephone number if you prefer to call. It is 1-800-321-8633. Visit our website too-- it’s at www.searchtv.org. Ken Helterbrand directs the music on our program. We appreciate and love him; and he will now lead us in singing.
Our Bible reading today is from the book of Ephesians, the first chapter. We are going to begin reading in verse 15. “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ Jesus when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.” And we have read though verse 20. Now let’s go to our God in prayer. Holy Father, we are so thankful that we can come to You as the Ruler of the universe, the demonstrative power to create and to regulate and to grant every Christian the power to live faithfully for the Lord. We are thankful, Father, for the full assurance that we have of that and all of that in the Scriptures; and we pray, Lord, that you will bless the reading of it today. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Something explosive happened in Jerusalem one day. Oh, I'm not talking about terrorist bombings such as have been reported in the news in recent years. I am talking about something more earth-shaking and far-reaching even than that. It happened almost two thousand years ago and the after-shocks of it are still being felt around the world. It was the birth of Christianity-- the beginning of Christ's church that I'm talking about. The story is told with accuracy by the Holy Spirit in the second chapter of the fifth book of your New Testament, called The Acts of Apostles.
On the day of its beginning there were assembled thousands of Jews who less than two months earlier had demanded of Pilate that he crucify Jesus Christ. The Scripture says, about three thousand of them were baptized in His name for the forgiveness of their sin that day (Acts chapter 2, verses 37 through 41). They became His disciples. To do that meant absolute isolation from the entire Jewish community, but they did it anyway! It meant alienation from their families, but they did it anyway! It meant rejection by the business community, but they did it anyway! It meant the loss of jobs, but they did it anyway! It meant that they became social outcasts, but they did it anyway! It meant the loss of their fellowship of their religious community, but they did it anyway! It even meant sore, and I mean severe, persecution, but they did it anyway! It meant imprisonment for some, but they did it anyway! It meant death for others of them, but they did it anyway! Oh no! It wasn’t “the thing to do,” to become a Christian, to be a follower of Jesus, but they did it anyway!
Furthermore the Lord kept on adding them to His church, day after day, those who were being saved in His name (Acts chapter 2, verse 47). In the fourth chapter the men had come to number about 5,000 (verse 4 says) and how many women and youth did so, we have no idea! And by the fifth chapter, the number had increased again (verse 14). And the sixth chapter, the number stopped adding and they started multiplying (verse 1) and in verse 7 they multiplied exceedingly. And, on and on the story goes, page after page, chapter after chapter, through the book of Acts, the story of the greatest and fastest growing movement in the history of man, "was turning the world upside down" (Acts chapter 17, verse 6). So, that it's said by the turn of the first century, in spite of severest persecution, in a world of only about a half billion people at the most, Christianity numbered more than a million people.
What made it such a force anyway? Why did it spread so quickly from Jerusalem to Judea, and to Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the world? What gave it the impetus, the drive, the stimulus, the power to override very, very intense persecution and opposition so that in only one generation it had spread to "every creature...under heaven" (Colossians chapter 1, verse 23)?
Well, certainly the dynamics of the New Testament church was not in the people Jesus chose to "market" His idea. No, no, I'm sure that wasn't it, because you see, its leaders, the apostles were not chosen from the great universities of the world. They were not chosen from the rabbis; they were not of the religious leaders, or educational, or cultural, or commercial, or political leaders of the world. Jesus didn't go to Alexandria, or Corinth, or Athens or Rome, or even to Jerusalem to find them so. He didn't go to the school of Gamaliel and choose men degreed in Jewish theology. He didn't go to the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court of the Jews, for an endorsement. He didn't seek or receive financing from the rich and the powerful (Matthew chapter 19, verse 22; Luke 18:18). As a matter of fact, it's written in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 26 "that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble," answered His call.
Rather He went out and by the sea He found some lowly fishermen to be the spokesmen for his movement (Matthew 4:18 to 20). He went by the seat of customs and found a despised tax collector and enlisted him, too. "Unlearned and ignorant men" they were according to Acts chapter 4, verse 13. Then, there was a leper also who went out and talked Him up among his friends (Mark 1:40), a despised leper; and a woman, a despised Samaritan woman, an adulteress no less (John chapter 4, verse 29); and a man who bore what was a stigma in those days-- he was born blind (John 9, verse 25). So, really that isn't the power behind this dynamic movement.
The powerful influence of Christianity in that first century was not in its flexibility either-- its liberal, unbiased way of adapting to the cultural norms of any society into which it went. It was not in its flexibility to allow for the greatest measure of personal freedom in faith and morals. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" was not the password. The dynamic of the early church could not have been in the willingness to accept God as one god among many gods; Christ, not as Lord of lords, but lord among lords; and His way as good as any of the others proposed in any culture, at anytime! No, no, anyone who is acquainted with the Bible knows that was not it.
We know, too, that the strength of the church was not in its costly and magnificent temples, cathedrals and halls of worship. The church of which we read in the New Testament was built of "living stones,"-- people like you and me. It was, and is, "a spiritual house" (1 Peter 2:5). Later, such things became commonplace and areas where they once were so important they now become mere tourist attractions.
Well, the power of New Testament Christianity must have been in its exciting and entertaining worship. That must have been it! Well, great multitudes must have come to hear Jesus and Paul and Peter and Stephen and others of them because of their fantastic oratorical skills. Their lectures on current social and political issues must have kept their audiences on the edge of their seats. Multitudes must have come as they did to be amused by their humor, their popular music and drama and special performances of talented entertainers of their day. No, no, no, none of that was it, either.
I think we have gone far enough with this foolishness, don't you? You and I both know none of that was the dynamic of the powerful growing influence of the early Christians. The things the wise among us are saying the church ought to, or must do-- and be-- in order to survive in the twenty-first century are totally absent-- unknown--foreign to the growth and the strength of the church under inspired apostolic leadership. But, the Bible has an advantage over the worldly wise. It was written, not by some of them, but by the Architect and Builder of the church Himself.
Then wherein lies the mighty strength-- the dynamic of Christianity-- the church that Jesus built? Our text says it is in the message that they preached. Of course, the Bible message is to them that perish foolishness; but to us which are saved it is the power of God (there’s that word “dunamis,” from which we get our words dynamite and dynamics); it is the power “the dynamic of God.” You see my friend, to the people who are being saved, the very thing the “wise” people reject as “foolishness”-- it is the dynamic of the church! The passage continues with a quotation from Isaiah 29:14. Oh, look at that: God says: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” I ask you today as the apostle Paul asked the Corinthians: “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" Look, the message here is that God has defied the wisdom of the wise and proved it to be foolishness. The dynamic of Christ's church is the story of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, buried and resurrected, and when His church leaves that, it becomes feeble and frail-- and powerless. Without Jesus Christ, my friend, it matters not about the showiness, the glitter and the glitziness of the church, and its message and its ministry are only trivial. Sooner or later honest hearts within and without view it as only trivial. Trivialities light no fires. They fill no soul with awe. They stir no one to commit to Christ. They ready no soldier to battle. They inspire no one to victory. Trivialities command no allegiance or edification or faithfulness or sacrifice or devotion. There you have it spelled out clearly for all to see.
Jesus Christ crucified, buried and raised from the dead is the dynamic of Christianity. First of all, His crucifixion is a bold declaration of the presence of sin, the universality of sin, the individuality of sin, the damning nature of sin, and man's salvation from sin in Him. The death of Christ and nothing more than another shameful spectacle of inhumanity to human, to man I should say-- unless He died for our sins; unless He "gave his life a ransom for all" of us; unless He bore "our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes [we] are healed." Let us pray. Father, we need today in the church to recapture that message and that power and that strength. Help us, Lord, in these days of change to rise above the demands of the culture and capture that power, utilize it for Christ and His church. We pray You in Jesus’ name, Amen!
Yes, the dynamic of Christianity, the Lord's church, is in the Lord; not in men. It is not in cathedrals and parking lots and ministries with all of their glitzy trimmings of drama, special music, and dancing in the aisles, and hand waving and hand-clapping and foot-stomping, and shouting and cheering and all that modern churches are bringing into their worship. We can never substitute for the dynamic power of the early church which focused simply on preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified, buried and raised from the dead the third day. When men circumvent the atoning work of Jesus at Calvary, by substituting easy ways of salvation, an altar call or sinner's prayer, they short-circuit the dynamic of Christian conversion. Jesus charged His disciples to "preach the gospel to every creature," saying, "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned." That is Mark chapter 16, verses 15 and 16. They did that in New Testament days and people were "baptized into Christ;" and they were "baptized into His death" where He shed His saving blood: "that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so" they also were raised to walk in newness of life-- the Christian life (Romans chapter 6, verses 3 and 4). And that added the dynamic of Christ needed in every conversion. My friend, have you done so? I would like to think everyone listening to me today has done so. But, I know that isn’t so. May I encourage you to promptness in this matter.
We are brought to you every week by your friends in churches of Christ who care. Churches of Christ are locally independent congregations of God's people, so that the ones who participate in these broadcasts do so of their own free will and choice. They want to share their faith with you with the hopes that you'll want to come and study and worship with them in the congregation, and I hope you will. I hope you will tell them you accepted our invitation in their behalf. If you need help in locating a nearby congregation, call us and let us help you. It will be of interest to you, too, that churches of Christ are not trying to be “just another denomination.” We’re not even trying to be the only right denomination. We are not trying to be a denomination at all, friend. We’re trying simply to be the church as we read about it in the New Testament.
The message today has been titled The Dynamic of The Christian Faith. You may have a printed copy or an audio cassette tape of it absolutely free, simply by writing us In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. As you see there, the e-mail address is searchtv@searchtv.org. Or you may use our toll free telephone number (1-800-321-8633) and call in your request. If you prefer, you may also access today's program on our website (www.searchtv.org). We print all the programs of the month in one little book like you saw there on your TV screen. All the programs for this month will be in one little book. That little book will also contain some information about the Search ministry, our broadcast schedule throughout the United States, and some other things of interest to you. So, when you request this message you will receive all of them for the month, plus some free information-- no solicitation for money. None of that stuff. We want to share our message with you on the air-- free. We plan to be back again next week. Hope you will, too. God bless you now. We love you.
|