©2000 Larry Huntsperger
Peninsula Bible Fellowship
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4/9/00
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Reestablishing Our Base Lines
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4/9/00 Reestablishing Our Base Lines
I have been teaching here at PBF
for 17 years this month.
I will admit that I do sometimes forget
that the only person here
who has actually heard everything I've said
during those 17 years
is ME,
with my wife coming in a close
second.
I also sometimes forget that
on any given Sunday there are people with us
who are new,
or have only been here for a few weeks,
and find themselves racing to process
a lot of information
they may never have heard before.
But I will also say that whenever I teach
I always cling to the hope
that what I am saying is being heard
within the context of everything else I
have said in the past.
I know that is an unreasonable assumption on my
part,
but still, I must continue to cling to it for my
own mental survival.
Given the wide range of responses
I received to our teaching last week,
I have decided to spend this morning
reestablishing some personal base lines
both for the approach I take to
teaching in general,
and for this specific series we are involved in
right now.
You see, there are some things
that are foundational to everything I do as a Bible
teacher,
things that form the pillars
of my whole approach to teaching,
and it will help those of you who listen to me
to know what they are.
If you have been involved with PBF
for any length of time
you are no doubt aware that I have an
extremely low toleration
for church just for the sake of church.
The thought of Christians
wasting their lives
by simply cranking out some sort of little
religious ceremony once a week
so that we can then all go home
and feeling good because we have "been in
church"
is, to me, a hideous idea.
In fact, one of the greater battles in my life
has centered upon my pointing out to my Lord
Jesus Christ
that, given my low toleration for "religion"
I really have no business being involved
in any aspect of the organized church.
He, in turn, has pointed out to me
that as my Creator
He has reserved for Himself the right
to decide for Himself where He wants
me
and to place me into that place.
I have grudgingly acknowledged the logic in that.
But from the very beginning of my teaching
I decided that, rather than looking at the culture
around me
to define and determine
what my goals and responsibilities as a
pastor and Bible teacher should be,
I would, to the best of my ability,
let the Word of God determine those
priorities for me.
And two passages in the New Testament
have become my cornerstones in that process.
I rarely refer to them in my public teaching,
but they are the backdrop against which I do
everything that I do as a Bible teacher.
The first is from the Book of Ephesians,
the 4th chapter, verses 11-13.
It is found in a passage in which
Paul is describing to us
God's overall design for the Body of
Christ, the church.
And given our wide range of beliefs about
what the church is,
I'd better just say here that when Paul talks about the
church
he is not talking about a building with a name on
it that says "CHURCH",
he is talking about all of God's people
who are on this earth
at any given time.
I don't want to get side-tracked here,
but maybe sometime it would be helpful
for us to do study on the difference between
the Biblical view of the Church
and our cultural views.
But in this passage in Ephesians
Paul is explaining God's basic operating system
for His Church.
And he says,
Eph. 4:11 And He gave some as apostles,
and some as prophets, and some as
evangelists, and some as pastors and
teachers,
Eph. 4:12 for the equipping of the saints
for the work of service, to the building up
of the body of Christ;
Eph. 4:13 until we all attain to the unity of
the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son
of God, to a mature man, to the measure of
the stature which belongs to the fulness of
Christ.
OK, in that passage Paul tells me
that, as a pastor and Bible teacher,
the responsibility assigned to me by God
is to use whatever gifts He has given me
for the purpose of equipping the people of
God
for the work God has for them to do.
And then, just to make sure I understand
how to correctly evaluate
my role in this equipping process,
Paul names three specific goals
that should result if the process is going the way He
designed it.
This equipping should bring about:
1. A growing unity within the Body,
2. accurate, increasing knowledge of the Son of
God,
and 3. maturity, which I believe carries with it
the concepts of strength, stability, and
endurance in the lives of those I teach.
Now, I want you to understand what Paul is saying
here,
because it will help you to better understand me
as your teacher.
You see, what Paul is saying in this passage
plays havoc with every popularly accepted
cultural means of evaluating
the success or failure of a church.
Q. In our culture, how do we evaluate the success
of a church?
#1. We look at their building.
The bigger the building,
the more successful the church.
#2. We look at their programs -
The more programs they have,
the more staff they have,
the more nights of the week they fill
with activities,
the more successful they are.
#3. We look at their budget.
The more they're bringing in,
the more successful they are.
But Paul offers me personally,
and us as a church
a totally different set of measures.
He tells me that
if I am handling my role as teacher correctly,
those who are exposed to my teaching over
an extended period of time
will display three things:
1. There will be a growing awareness of our unity
within the Body of Christ.
2. There will be a growing, accurate knowledge of
who Jesus Christ is,
and what it means for us to live with Him daily
on the basis of faith.
3. The practical maturity level in our lives will
increase.
In fact, in this same passage,
Paul describes the opposite of maturity.
In the very next verse he says,
Eph. 4:14 As a result, we are no longer to
be children, tossed here and there by
waves, and carried about by every wind of
doctrine, by the trickery of men, by
craftiness in deceitful scheming;
Eph. 4:15 but speaking the truth in love,
we are to grow up in all aspects into Him,
who is the head, even Christ,
Now, I share all of this with you,
because it is only fair to you
that you understand where I'm coming from
when I stand before you each Sunday morning.
I have no interest whatsoever
in giving us a pleasant religious experience.
I certainly have no desire to waste our precious time
mumbling things that all of us already accept and
believe.
Learning how to think as a child of God
is at best a slow,
often painful,
sometimes extremely difficult process for
all of God's people.
Rarely does God ever say to us
what we think He's going to say,
or what we expect Him to say.
From a strictly human, logical point of view,
do you know what I would expect God to say to
us?
"Be Good!
Here are the rules!
Try harder!"
That I could understand.
It wouldn't change me,
but I could understand it.
But when I stand before you each week as your
teacher
I bring with me one purpose:
to the best of my ability
I want to do what I can
to change the way you think
so that it conforms more and more
with the to truth of God's Word.
For example,
for the past couple of months
we've been talking about one central idea -
as Christians we have died to the law
and been joined to Christ.
Now, I'll tell you right up front,
that this thought of our Creator
releasing us from the Law
is not an idea I would ever have come
up with on my own.
I personally consider the whole concept
to be an extremely risky business.
The problem, of course,
is that the only infallible source book I have
tells me that this is exactly what God has
done for us.
And so, as a Bible teacher,
my responsibility is two-fold.
First, I must wrestle with this concept myself
until I believe I understand what God is saying.
And then I must wrestle with how to most
effectively share this concept with you
in a way that will enable it to become
a working part of your thinking.
Last week I attempted an approach to this concept
that made sense to some of you,
and drove some of the rest of you
into an almost terrorized panic.
Throughout the week
I received responses to what I said
that ranged all the way from
"Very Courageous, Larry."
to "I'm deeply troubled with you".
So be it!
Next time we'll try something else.
From my perspective
the most important question
is, "Are we wrestling with the concepts
in a way that is helping us
to recognize where our thinking
patterns are inconsistent with what God says,
and then making some progress
in bringing our thinking
into conformity with His truth?"
Now, I share all of this with you
because I think it will help you
to know the goals I bring with me
to our times together.
So let me just state simply
the assumptions with which I approach
all of the teaching I do.
1. I assume that none of us,
and that "none" certainly includes me,
none of us are thinking completely correctly
as Christians.
I know that because John tells us
in I John 3:2
that if we saw Christ correctly
we would act just exactly like Him.
2. The only infallible reference point for truth we
will ever have
is the truth revealed to us by God
in His Word.
3. Changing incorrect thinking patterns about God
is the most difficult learning process
we can ever enter into.
4. It is infinitely worth the effort.
And 5. My responsibility as your teacher
is to do whatever I can
to facilitate that learning process
in those of you who choose to be here
Sunday mornings.
Have you ever wondered why
I almost never end our time together
without first asking you for your responses
and questions to what we've studied?
It is because it is impossible for me to know how
this learning process is going
without my hearing your questions and
responses.
Now, I began this morning
by telling you there were two key passages
that form the foundation
for my entire philosophy of pastoring
and teaching.
The first is this passage in Ephesians 4.
The second is a crucial test passage
given by Paul to his young colleague, Timothy,
as Timothy was giving leadership
to the very young church at Ephesus.
Paul and Timothy worked together
to begin the Ephesian church,
and then Paul moved on
and left Timothy behind
in order to complete the process.
While Timothy was there,
Paul wrote him a letter
to guide him through the process,
a letter that we now know as I Timothy.
Early in that letter
Paul makes the following statement to Timothy:
1 Tim. 1:5 But the goal of our instruction
is love from a pure heart and a good
conscience and a sincere faith.
In that one sentence
Paul gives Timothy
three tools for evaluating
both the truth and the effectiveness
of what he is teaching.
And here again,
I hope you see
that what Paul is saying
stands in stark contrast
to so many of the "church" goals
we are offered by the culture around us.
Paul says the true test of whatever is happening
within us as a church,
and certainly of whatever is resulting from my
teaching of Scripture
can be evaluated in three areas.
#1. Is it producing growing, quality love
relationships between ourselves
and the people God brings into our world?
Does it better equip us to love our marriage partner,
to love our children,
to love our fellow Christians,
to love our colleagues at work,
to love the enemies we face in our
world?
It's interesting that Paul makes it clear
that our ability to love others
begins with a purifying process in our own
hearts.
Do you know what that is?
That is the process of God confronting us with
the evil in our own lives.
Do you know when my own greatest battle with a
judgmental spirit ended?
It was the day God showed me
my own sinfulness.
Having once seen myself
and my own personal potential for evil,
I no longer have any problem with you.
#2. Is the teaching producing a good conscience?
I understand that to mean
that it should make righteous living
both accessible and desirable.
Correct teaching
will make righteous living
a growing practical reality in our lives.
As a Bible teacher
I end up being quoted
and misquoted by those who have been
exposed to my teaching.
To be honest,
as a general rule I really enjoy
hearing the creative ways God's Spirit
takes something I've said
and reshapes and makes it personal in your lives
until it comes out sounding very different
from anything I thought I said.
But there is only one type of misquote
that, when I hear it,
truly does cause me pain.
When I learn of a Christian
who is living in immorality,
and then hear them justify their immorality
by quoting me as having said,
"Well, of course, as Larry says,
we now live under grace and not under the
law,
so I am now free to try to meet my
needs in any way I can."
It is absolutely true
that God has freed his people from the law,
and that we now live in union with Christ
on the basis of grace.
It is also absolutely true
that the definitive test of our understanding of
those concepts
is when they result in righteous living
being both desirable
and accessible for the first time in our lives.
and #3. The goal of our instruction
is to produce a sincere faith.
Simply stated,
correct teaching should make it easier for those
being taught
to trust the personal, practical, daily
leadership
of Jesus Christ in our lives.
We looked at it in our study last week -
Paul told us in Romans 7:4,
Rom. 7:4 Therefore, my brethren, you also
were made to die to the Law through the
body of Christ, that you might be joined to
another, to Him who was raised from the
dead, that we might bear fruit for God.
The entire foundation of God's program for us, His
people,
is the living reality
of our personal union with Jesus Christ.
Not a union with His teaching.
Not even just a union with His sacrifice for our
sins.
But a living union with HIM,
His Person,
His Voice,
His intimate involvement in our lives,
His leadership moment by moment.
To be freed from the law
without being joined to Christ
is a terrifying thing.
To be freed from the law
and joined to Christ
is the beginning of all true freedom.
So, that's where I'm coming from
each time I stand before you.
And hopefully that will help you
to better relate both to what I do
and why I do it.