Living in Light of the Lordship of Christ
Scripture: Selected Scriptures
Date: June 3, 2012
Speaker: Jonathan Sarr
Some of you are familiar with Abraham Kuyper, who famously and passionately said, “Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: “Mine!‘” Kuyper continues: “God continually re-creates the universe through acts of grace. God’s acts are necessary to ensure the continued existence of creation. Without his direct activity creation would self-destruct.""
Jesus Christ - who is Lord over all the universe - is everywhere, is active everywhere, cares the most about everything we do. And because Jesus is active everywhere, in all spheres of human existence, we should be eagerly active there, too…particularly because we are commonly the instruments He uses to effect His purposes.
How does the New Testament affirm that Jesus is involved in all things big and small?
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent” (Colossians 1:15-18).
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:25-27).
So, again, that means that since Jesus is at work everywhere far and near, in the whole domain of human existence, then Christians can - and ought to - excitedly take part in what He is doing, everywhere.
There is no neutrality. There is no vocation or lifestyle that takes us nowhere or that fails to propel us one way or another. The moral waters in which we swim are swift and if we but tread water we go the direction of the current. In our homes, in our work, in our lifestyle, liturgy and everything else we are swimming against the culture and advancing the cause of Christ in the world. Or, to be more accurate, He is at work in and through us.
And I cannot escape this thought, or fully plumb its depths. Since before I was a Christian I would have conceded that Jesus is Lord, but even after becoming a Christian, as an Arminian I contended that there were some things that just weren’t His fault, or that extended beyond the scope of His control. And even after I became a Calvinist, I still didn’t give much thought to pervasive nature of Christ’s lordship. But in recent months I have come to see Christ’s lordship for what it is, and where it extends. It…is…everywhere, in our homes, our workplaces, our community and our churches. And it impacts everything we do. And I never exhaust new ways to apply it.
So, how do we live in light of the lordship of Christ? What difference does all of this make for us?
For sake of our time together this evening, I’ve identified four major spheres where we may apply a comprehensive, pervasive view of the lordship of Christ. They are the Home, the Workplace, the Community and the Church. The list may not be exhaustive, and they all have various subcategories, but perhaps they’ll work for us nevertheless.
Remember: these are areas to where the lordship of Christ extends, and so does His work in and among us.
Let’s consider them one by one.
There is no place where we have greater control and responsibility than in the stewardship of our own families. For whatever variables impact our ministry success at work or in the community, we have perhaps the greatest likelihood of ministry success as we apply very clear Scriptural principles in the Home. We at least have greater control over the variables there than elsewhere.
These principles include an incarnated gospel, that is, a practical living out of the gospel. Children who grow up in Christian homes ought to be familiar with the gospel because they hear it regularly and see the principles lived out daily.
From an early age children need to hear the gospel. They don’t have to be able to fully articulate fine theological points to know what sin is and that they are sinners, and that we can be forgiven because of Jesus Christ’s work on the cross.
Yes ,words are absolutely necessary. They need to hear the gospel often. But they are more likely to understand it and embrace it when they see gospel principles lived out in the flesh.
Are there spiritual fragrances of grace and mercy in your home?
Are your children familiar with repentance because they’ve seen you demonstrate it as often as you’ve needed?
Do you demonstrate the same sort of forgiveness with your family members that your Heavenly Father does? Or are you slow to forgive, wanting the offending party to suffer for a little while before you forgive him?
Do your times of correction with your child show them that sin disrupts fellowship or just that you get mad when they disobey?
Are you training your children to be spouses and parents themselves someday? Are you training them to think that growing godly families is the most natural thing in the world? Or are they allowed to focus merely on satisfying their own desires now and in the future?
Christian families ought to look different from unbelieving families. In God’s Word we have a sound, objective basis for morality and an authoritative guide as to how we are to parent.
If we Christians would work the way we should work, we could turn the commercial world on its head. It’s not hard to imagine the value that Christians would be to our employers if we were all characterized by integrity, love for each other, and a desire to honor the Lord in our work.
We tend to think that spirituality and vocation are connected only for vocational ministers, i.e., people who are paid by a church or a ministry, missionaries, etc. We tend to think that they are the only ones who take part in “full-time Christian work.”
Well this is wrong: “full-time Christian work” is the work in which any full-time Christian is engaged.
Christians work for the Lord, period. But as we honor the Lord, that has a practical outworking in the honor of men. Ephesians 6:1-7 reads as follows:
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 ‘Honor your father and mother’ (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 ‘that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.’ 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man.”
That means that children honor the Lord by honoring their parents. And if they’re not honoring their parents, they can’t be honoring the Lord. For employees, they honor the Lord by honoring their employers. Wives honor their husbands, slaves honor their masters. All of us are to honor civic leaders that God appoints as we are motivated by our love for God. Incidentally, none of these objects of our honor here listed (employers, husbands, masters, or parents) have any character qualifications to speak of. Their qualification to receive honor is not up for debate; they are appointed by God and so our submission ought to be automatic.
We will honor men as we honor God.
God’s honor and glory ought to motivate Christians to work more diligently and faithfully than their unbelieving counterparts. The unbeliever may work hard as he is motivated by ambition or money or ulterior motives. The believer is motivated by an opportunity to represent Christ well in his workplace and the community and a joyful submission to Christ’s lordship.
So what happens when the ambitious unbeliever does not receive what he’s after, whether money or acclaim? He may become disgruntled, or he may redouble his efforts? But either way, he is at the mercy of men and their responses. While positive encouragement from our professional superiors is nice, Christians are not motivated ultimately by the words of men but rather by the honor of God, who is invisible. And we know that we honor Him when we do as he asks, or as the Apostle John puts it…
“And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments” (1 John 2:3).
There is no allowance for laziness among Christians in the workplace, and those who are lazy, or who are given to complaining or grumbling or slothfulness hurt their testimony and the cause of Christ. We ought to be supernaturally motivated and energized because we are working for the Lord.
The workplace - like the community - is where we most commonly have opportunity to interact with the world. We also have opportunity to respond differently from unbelievers to the very same circumstances, frustrations, and trials they experience. Let’s look then at the Community.
This is somewhat of a catchall category referring to that “other” place for us. Many Christians feel like they live at work, work at home, and worship at church when the reality is that we do each of them everywhere. We worship at home, like it or not; we may as well be intentional about it. But what about in the Community?
Well, even Christians do crazy things like go to the store, go to the library, vote in elections and take their kids to school.
Keep in view the governing principles: if Christ is at work everywhere, that means there are no gray areas. The world hates us because it hates Christ, and unbelievers are always looking for a way to justify their rejection of Christ. Oftentimes we make it easy on them with our gross hypocrisy. Is this fair? No, but that’s not the point. We aren’t allowed to say we love Christ but live like the world when they are antithetical concepts.
1 Peter 3:15-16 reads as follows:
“But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.”
Now, Peter is presupposing at least two things: hope on the Christian and curiosity on the part of the persons doing the asking, presumably unbelievers. Our hope comes from Christ and from God’s Word, and the unbelievers’ curiosity comes from our testimony. He is then presupposing that we look differently from the world.
So how you act in the long line at the grocery store, on the phone with the pushy salesman, or in the conference with your child’s teacher all matter. They matter because we really do represent Christ in the world, and our (supernatural) testimony speaks to the source of our hope.
And if none of that motivates you, you can know that if nothing else, we’re teaching our kids how to handle life. When they see us freaking out, we send them a message that it’s okay to disbelieve God. But I digress…
The spheres of politics and education belong as well under the heading of Community, but the overarching principle is this: there is no neutrality. At all times and in all ways we are moving, spiritually. As I mentioned before, we are in a swift current of moral decline, and those who but tread water will eventually be emptied into the open sea of destruction.
Political and educational trends keep pace with this current. Christians ought to be excitedly and intentionally assertive when it comes to their children’s education. What are they being taught? Sure, there may be some overlap from school to school on some of the facts, but you can easily see the divergent philosophies with simple questions like these:
And if our schools are not teaching our kids to wrestle with these things in a biblical way and within a biblical context, then our job as parents gets a whole lot harder, because the job still needs to get done.
Similarly, many of us premillennial, dispensational Christians today have a tendency to wonder why other Christians care about things like politics or recycling. I mean, isn’t the world just going to degenerate into a moral quagmire, get worse and worse and then comes the Rapture?
Well, Jesus Christ is the sovereign Lord over all. That means there are no neutral spheres of life. This has broad application.
Take politics, for instance. You don’t have to be a postmillennialist to labor to get Christians in political office. Too many of us premillennialists hunker down and fatalistically ask, “Why bother?” when it comes to who is in office? Yes, God appoints civic leaders, but that doesn’t mean that we should not labor as well.
What about commerce? Ethical and sound business practices, working hard for profit, capitalism, and allowing the market to operate according to supply and demand? They go hand-in-hand with taking our commercial involvement and vocation biblically. It’s hardly coincidental that many formulas for business success are in step with biblical principles? It’s like God protecting His people from diseases long before understood them by instituting hand-washing and certain dietary prohibitions.
Speaking of vocation, there is no vocational neutrality. Wherever there are Christians and unbelievers in the workplace, there is no neutral ground. And since that is everywhere, there’s no neutral ground anywhere.
Our excited choice should be to live like Christians in the community and watch what happens. But let’s move on to the Church.
An individualistic mindset has no place in the church. We looked a while ago at Ephesians 5, and how Christ is refining His bride, the Church. Well, that comprises many individuals, sure. But we are ultimately one body with many parts.
The body analogy is commonly used in Scripture as a picture of the Church, and I think it’s helpful for a host of reasons. Each member has its part: the hand cannot do what the shoulder can do, and neither is capable of doing what the eye or the mouth can do. Similarly, what we do on Sunday mornings (and evenings) when we gather corporately is far greater than the sum of the collective parts in the same way that one fully-functional body is way more impressive than a collection of random, dismembered body parts.
If you’ve ever planned a lavish Thanksgiving dinner, you undoubtedly made allowance for both nourishment and enjoyment in the planning of the menu. That’s why there usually is a predictable variety when it comes to the menu. If you were interested only in nourishment, you may have one pile of raw vegetables and call it good. If it were only about hedonistic pleasure and tastiness, you may have nothing but pumpkin pie and forget about the turkey or potatoes. And while those are yummy, too, the appeal and the taste and the robust celebrations are only increased with the variety. Consideration is given to both nourishment and enjoyment in order to most powerfully and robustly celebrate and feast.
Sunday mornings should be more like that. Far too often we approach church with a view to be fed and energized for the week. That’s like eating plain tofu at Thanksgiving. There may be nourishment, but no taste or enjoyment. Or we may selfishly approach Sundays with a view to receive rather than to contribute. That’s like eating nothing but pumpkin pie. It’s enjoyable, but sort of missing the point, and when you get tired of the pie, you excuse yourself from the table and return to the football game.
Yesterday Chuck likened it to a potluck rather than a drive-through window. Too many Christians approach church like a drive through where - like consumers - we go to receive, and when we don’t like what we get, we take our money elsewhere.
Sunday corporate worship - like a Thanksgiving feast - is about relationship, nourishment and our collective expression of praise to God. And the outcome is that the turkey is juicier, the pie is sweeter, and the whole experience is much more satisfying and enjoyable. When we stop approaching Sunday worship with a view simply to receive, then missing opportunities to gather with God’s people will make about as much sense as skipping Thanksgiving.
And when the world sees us treating Sunday mornings like a weekly holiday that we eagerly anticipate, they’ll have to wonder why.
The work that Christ is doing in this church is supernatural. Seriously, the way we at Trinity interact and love each other is not natural. What do you have inherently in common with the people in the pew behind you? Generally speaking, about the same as with your unbelieving neighbors. Why is it that we often can be closer to brothers and sisters in Christ than with unbelieving relatives? That is a testament to the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit among us!
Beyond that, it’s a testament to His power and lordship! You don’t need to look any further than this room to have sufficient evidence that there is a supernatural exercise of the sovereign lordship of Christ among us. So why wouldn’t we want to take that testimony beyond these walls and out into the world?
Let me finish this evening with a point of clarification followed by a bit of a thought experiment.
Look for principles here. If you take my examples out of context you’ll miss the point. A child can use distinctively Christian language in a discipline session for all the wrong reasons. An employee can employ biblical principles in the workplace in order to get ahead, and that’s missing the point. Children who can identify logical fallacies because of their logical training can be jerks when they do it, and they’ve missed the point. Sending your kids to a particular school is no guarantee that they’ll become powerful worshipers of Christ. And yet the Lordship of Christ infuses all these areas and ought to inspire our excited involvement.
But in all these areas, we must live our lives in light of the lordship of Christ.
There is an eschatological camp - namely, postmillennialism - that optimistically suggests that we are in the Millennium right now, and little by little the gospel is having its way in the world and will ultimately triumph. This will then culminate in the post-millennial second coming of Christ.
While I more than appreciate that optimism and how those folks are enthusiastically motivated to involve themselves in culture because things will get better and the gospel will prevail in the end, I do believe that view to be misguided. Among other things, the world is not improving.
But we can heartily affirm a pre-millennial return of Jesus and even a pre-tribulational rapture of the Church without a bunker mentality. We can have such a dynamic and salty presence in the world that unbelievers have no recourse but to run to Christ once we are gone. Imagine if the best businessmen, spouses, parents, teachers, politicians and neighbors were all Christians, eagerly involved in the work Christ is doing in the world, being used by Him to show off His lordship. What sort of impact could our removal from this world have?
But if we continue simply to hunker down, awaiting the calamity, and simply blend in among our unbelieving neighbors, friends, and loved ones, the world might not even notice when the Christians are taken from this world.
May God renew our energy and happy optimism to join in His work in the world, and to be used by Him.