We are not returning to our
study of the book of Revelation this morning.
We are going to take a one-week break
to talk about what we will call Reality, Routine, Ritual, and Religion.
We are a rather unusual church group in many
respects.
We have existed less than 15 years.
We have no structural ties
with any other organized group of
Christians.
We're not associated with any established
denomination
or any other organized fellowship of
believers.
I am the only pastor
and regular Bible teacher we have ever had.
The kind of independence
and lack of structural heritage
that characterizes our church
brings with it both
strengths and weaknesses.
Maybe I could most easily
explain what I want to say here
by sharing with you
a common pattern
that has repeated itself within the
Christian world
countless times during the past 2000 years.
It involves 4 progressive steps
that develop over time
in many organized church groups.
In fact
I think we tend to follow
these same 4 steps
in our own individual Christian lives
unless we actively resist it.
Step #1 or Phase #1 we'll call REALITY.
This is that period in which the life of Christ
and the reality of Christ
the leadership of Christ
is the central, dominant, motivating force
in virtually everything that is done.
The purest example I could ever offer you
of this phase
would be to encourage you to read
the first 4 books of the New Testament
and look at the relationship between
Christ and His disciples.
Those men who surrounded Christ
during the few years He was physically with us
had no preconceived idea
about what it meant to be "a Christian".
The term hadn't even been invented yet.
Each day they simply lived with Christ,
followed His lead,
and interacted with Him.
They had no model they were trying to imitate
because the model didn't exist.
Though, of course, none of us
can duplicate that total absence
of external tradition and religious structure
experienced by the 12 disciples
in our own Christian experience,
still God does seek to establish
that same kind of living reality
in the life of every single true believer.
Maybe I could illustrate what I'm trying to say here
by simply asking each of you
to look at your own growing relationship
with Christ.
Certainly we all have some sort of religious heritage
that has shaped our concept
of the Christian life.
That heritage has provided you
with a mental list of all the things
a good Christian does and does not do.
But, if you are truly a Christian,
there is another whole aspect of your Christian
life
that is growing out of your personal,
daily interaction with Christ Himself.
There are specific issues He's helping you work
through.
There are things He's teaching you,
things He's showing you,
things He's sharing with you alone.
It's not stuff you're doing or not doing
because it's part of your inherited religious
heritage.
It's stuff that's growing and developing
out of your real, living relationship with Christ
Himself.
You know what it is?
In simplest terms
it is your ongoing discovery
of what it means for you personally
to be God's child.
What does a Christian YOU look like?
How does a Christian you act? React? Think?
That is the living REALITY.
The same principle applies
to groups of Christians as well.
When we started as a church 14 years ago
those of us who were involved in that beginning
began with the longing to find out
what it meant to be a church
operating under the leadership of
Christ.
#2. OK, now, out of that living REALITY
grows the second phase,
that of developing an ESTABLISHED
ROUTINE.
Keep in mind that an established routine
is not a bad thing.
In its healthiest form
in provides the framework in which
the living reality of our walk with Christ
finds its most effective expression.
During the past 30 years
the living reality of my walk with Christ
has resulted in quite an extensive established
routine.
Some of that routine involves
knowing what things help
and what things hinder my growth
as God's child.
It involves the way I handle my time each day
and the way I structure my week.
It involves things I have built into my daily
and weekly schedule with my wife
and with my daughter,
things that reflect the priorities
that have grown out of the living reality
of my relationship with Christ.
The same thing happens
in the life of a Christian group.
Since our beginning
we, like virtually every other Christian
organization in history
have developed our Established Routine -
When do we meet?
How do we use our time when we do?
What are our accepted doctrinal beliefs?
Our Established Routine becomes
the traditions that tell us and others
who we are
and what we believe.
#3. Now, as a group continues
there is a strong tendency
for the ROUTINE to become RITUAL.
So we go from
Reality
to Routine
to Ritual.
Whereas the ROUTINE was the accepted practice,
the RITUAL becomes the required practice.
At the ritual stage
there is still an understanding
of why the routine was established
and what purpose it serves,
but at the ritual stage
the routine takes on an authority
that supersedes the living reality
that once gave it birth.
In other words,
at the ritual stage
perpetuating the established routine
becomes more powerful in the
Christian's life
than following the living reality of
Christ's personal leadership.
Or, stated another way,
when faced with a choice between
following the leadership of Christ
and perpetuating the ritual
the Christian will usually choose
the security that comes from perpetuating the
ritual.
At the ritual level
Christ is still permitted to lead,
but only within the boundaries
of the established and accepted rituals.
Ex. Call from denominational leader
looking at map
seeing the need for a church in Soldotna.
#4. The final step in this process
is when the RITUAL
becomes RELIGION.
Living REALITY = Christ within
becomes ROUTINE = accepted practice
which becomes RITUAL = required practice
which becomes RELIGION = the practice
becomes the reality.
At the RELIGION stage
the routine that once grew out of the reality
now becomes an end in itself
and is believed to have value
simply because it is done.
It becomes a highly refined
system of superstitions
that can be traced back
to a once living reality.
EX.
Let me apply this to church attendance.
At the REALITY level a Christian
thrives on his interaction with
and support from other Christians.
At the ROUTINE level that Christian
structures that interaction into his schedule
so that he has an established time every week
in which to get together with his fellow
Christians.
At the RITUAL level
church attendance becomes a required obligation
he must fulfill
in order to maintain a healthy relationship
with Christ.
At the RELIGION level
church attendance is seen as an act
that will actually improve his standing with
God.
What happens when he is there
doesn't matter.
All that matters is that he is there.
REALTY (the life of Christ)
ROUTINE (accepted practice)
RITUAL (required practice)
RELIGION (practice replaces reality).
That pattern has repeated itself
countless times throughout the history of
Christianity.
Now, I brought all of this up
because we are going to have
a Baptismal service in a few weeks
and I wanted to lay the groundwork
for my announcing it.
Baptism is one of those things in the Christian
world
that has cycled through these 4 stages
repeatedly throughout church history.
There are some within the Christian world
who relate to Baptism at the RELIGION level -
they believe that the act itself
can and in fact does save a person,
that so long as a person has been baptized
they are going to heaven
no matter what may or may not be
happening between them and Christ personally.
That is religious superstition
at the most basic pagan level
not unlike throwing our virgin daughters
into the volcano.
There are also those in the Christian world
who relate to Baptism at the RITUAL level.
For them Baptism is still linked in their thinking
back to the memory of the living reality
that once gave it birth,
but it has taken on a ritual life of its own
to the point where
though true salvation also requires faith in
Christ
that salvation cannot become a reality
without the act of Baptism.
At this ritualistic level
the exact form of the act of Baptism becomes
very important.
Certain words
and certain techniques
must be followed carefully.
At this level
what the Baptism may illustrate
or what it enables the person to express
is not nearly so important
as the fact that they ARE being baptized.
Religious
or ritualistic baptism is not what we have
presented in the New Testament.
But, having said that,
let me also say that the New Testament
does present Baptism as a valuable tool in the
life of the believer.
And to help explain why
I want to read several passages
from Paul's writings in the New Testament.
All of these passages talk about
the change that takes place
in a person's life
when they enter the family of God
through faith in Jesus Christ.
The first is from Colossians 1:13-14. Col. 1:13 For He rescued us from the
domain of darkness, and transferred us to
the kingdom of His beloved Son,
Col. 1:14 in whom we have redemption, the
forgiveness of sins.
In that passage Paul makes it clear
that becoming a Christian
is not simply a matter of accepting
a body of beliefs
or acknowledging the historical truth of Christianity.
He tells us that it is a very real change
in which, in response to our faith in Christ
God actually rescues us
from the domain of darkness
and places us into the kingdom of Christ.
In Ephesians 1:13-14 Paul talks about
the same thing,
describing a 3 step process which involves
1. our hearing the truth,
2. our believing that truth,
3. and God responding to that belief
by sealing us in His family
through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Eph. 1:13 In Him, you also, after listening
to the message of truth, the gospel of your
salvation having also believed, you were
sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of
promise,
Eph. 1:14 who is given as a pledge of our
inheritance, with a view to the redemption
of God's own possession, to the praise of
His glory.
Then, a few verses later in that same letter to the
Ephesians
Paul describes that whole transition
in greater detail in 2:1-10:
Eph. 2:1 And you were dead in your
trespasses and sins,
Eph. 2:2 in which you formerly walked
according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the
air, of the spirit that is now working in the
sons of disobedience.
Eph. 2:3 Among them we too all formerly
lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging
the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature children of wrath, even
as the rest.
Eph. 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy,
because of His great love with which He
loved us,
Eph. 2:5 even when we were dead in our
transgressions, made us alive together
with Christ ( by grace you have been
saved),
Eph. 2:6 and raised us up with Him, and
seated us with Him in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus,
Eph. 2:7 so that in the ages to come He
might show the surpassing riches of His
grace in kindness toward us in Christ
Jesus.
Eph. 2:8 For by grace you have been saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God;
Eph. 2:9 not as a result of works, so that
no one may boast.
Eph. 2:10 For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand so that we
would walk in them.
All of these passages
and many others like them throughout the Word
of God present the simple truth
that no one is born a Christian.
We can be born to parents who are Christians,
we can be born into a society
that accepts the validity of Christian
doctrines.
But none of us are born Christians.
Entrance into the family of God
cannot happen without our choice
to submit to our Creator
and accept His offer of forgiveness
through Jesus Christ.
So what does this have to do with baptism?
I believe baptism
was woven into the life of the Family of God
from the very earliest days
in order to provide God's people with a powerful
tool
through which we can publicly proclaim
and affirm our choice of submission to our
Lord.
It is designed to illustrate what really takes place
when we come to Christ:
1. We die to our rebellion against our God.
2. We become immersed in the Person of Jesus
Christ.
3. We are raised to a new, eternal life in Him.
Baptism is important
not because God requires it for salvation
but because we need it
in order to confirm our faith in Christ.
I think there are some of you here
who, in your heart, have accepted the truth of
salvation through Christ,
but you need an opportunity to confirm
that heart belief.
If you would like to talk with me further
about being a part of the baptismal service we
have coming up
I would strongly encourage you to do so.
One final note: I do not baptize anyone under the
age of 13.
Certainly I know
that very young children
can make true heart submissions to Christ,
but I also know that
it is the nature of children
to follow the belief system and wishes
of their parents,
and I find it is often impossible
to tell the difference between true
conversion
and acceptance of a parent's belief system
until we get into our teen years.
In order for Baptism to serve the purpose
for which it was given to us
I believe it is best for the one being Baptized
to understand
the nature of an adult submission to Christ,
something we cannot do
until we have moved into our adult
years.