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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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To Live Is Christ |
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Philippians
1:21 A
Sermon on the Occasion of the Ordination of The
Reverend Kenneth Johnson St.
Andrew's Anglican Orthodox Church Garysburg,
North Carolina June
20, 2010 Reverend
Brother, as you may already know, the perfect sermon fully expounds the
deep things of God, feeds the people of Christ on the spiritual food of
the Bible which enables them to rapidly grow into mature and knowledgeable
Christians, consists of three points, three stories of illustration, and a
poem, concludes with a moving prayer that makes people feel they are at
the Throne of Grace, and accomplishes it all in less than 15 minutes. I am not going to preach a perfect sermon today. I have not
three, but six points. And I
never promise to preach 15 minutes or less.
But, so we won't be here all day, I do not have any illustration
stories or a poem. There are
two good things about this. First,
I will concentrate on expounding the Word of God that we may all grow
thereby. Second, after
enduring my sermon today, people will appreciate your sermons that much
more. Not
long ago I received a phone call from the soon to be Reverend Kenneth
Johnson. If memory serves,
Brother, you had been reading the ordination service, and you said to me,
"My life is about to be changed forever."
So true. You are
entering a new phase of life, a phase, a vocation that will require you to
give everything you have, and more, expecting nothing in return, that is,
nothing for yourself, but everything for your people, and everything for
God. I
wish I could say your calling will be easy and your burdens light, but I
cannot. You are called to
preach a message that runs counter to the natural inclinations of people.
Yes, your message will tell them of real hope and peace, of joy and
Heaven. But it will also tell
them of sin and hell and confession and repentance.
Frankly, most people will resist you as they resisted Christ.
You will find that most people are more concerned about comfort
than convictions, and they are usually willing to sacrifice truth for
convenience. In other words, they are usually much more concerned about
feeling good than they are about standing firm in the faith once delivered
to the saints. Be patient
with them. Remember that you
also have the same inclinations, and that you also struggle to live the
Christian life. Obviously,
a minister looks upon Christ as his example.
But Christ is unique, so I want to look at someone else today and
commend him to you as an example. This
person was a mere man, just like you and just like me.
He had no Divine Nature about Him, no sinless perfection.
In fact he was fallen, self righteous, a murderer, and a blasphemer
until he met the Risen Lord while on a journey to imprison and kill the
followers of Christ. There his
life changed forever. The
man's name is Paul. Here is a
man of conviction. Here is a
man willing to take a stand for truth without compromise.
Here is a man willing to pay the price and bear the cost of
following Jesus. Did the
world despise him? Did it
persecute him, beat him, imprison him, and execute him?
So be it. He counted
the loss of all things as nothing compared to the privilege of knowing
Christ. Was he hungry, cold
and homeless? So be it.
It was worth it to follow Christ.
Paul probably spent his life in excruciating pain.
The beatings, physical and mental strain, and stonings probably
left his body in terrible and chronic pain that even Luke, the beloved
physician, was unable to relieve. So
be it. Paul was unmoved. Christ was more important to him than his own comfort, more
important even than his own life. God
has blessed His Church with many others like Paul. Most of their names are unknown to us, but we know their
faith and we know their deeds. They
willingly went to the Coliseum, the lions, the cross, and the sword rather
than deny Christ or compromise His word.
God give us men and women of that stature today.
Others
are well known to us. Thomas
Cranmer, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, and others who lived and died in
the service of Christ, and to preserve and pass to us the undiluted Word
and faith given in Christ, recorded by the Apostles, and preserved for us
in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.
God give us Christians like them today.
God give us Christians who want to serve Christ, rather than use
Him as a commodity to enhance their lives.
Today, in the Name of Christ, I call and beseech every one present
to resolve that you will be that kind of Christian. What
was it about Paul, and others like him, that enabled him, to be all about
God, rather than expecting God to be all about Paul? Philippians 1:21 gives us some insight into this man.
It is part of a larger message of Scripture, often quoted and
rarely understood, a message containing words like, "Let this mind be
in you, which was also in Christ Jesus," and "I can do all
things through Christ which strengtheneth me."
That last verse in particular has been much misunderstood and
abused. It has been thought
to mean I can get the promotion, the car, the house, or whatever worldly
trinket I have on my wish list, because God wants me to have it and He
will strengthen me to get it. If
you look at the context of the verse, however, you will see that it is not
about getting things from
God, but about giving up things for
God. It is about being content to suffer
in His service. It is about
being as content in poverty as you would be in plenty, as content in
hunger as you would be in fullness, as content in need as you would be in
abundance. Paul is saying he
can endure
all things because Christ strengthens him.
Paul was able to be so faithful in his service to Christ because,
as he put it in Philippians 1:21, "For me, to live is Christ."
What does it mean to say, "For me, to live is Christ?" First,
it means to know Christ in personal, Biblical faith. It means to recognise that you have "erred and strayed
from His ways like lost sheep."
But it also means to embrace His "promises declared unto
mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord," and to "truly repent and
unfeignedly believe His holy Gospel."
It means you have come to Christ in the recognition of your sin,
and in the understanding that He has paid for it through His death on the
cross. It means to be
conscious of placing your trust in His work on the cross as your only hope
of peace with God. Second,
it means to know Christ as He really is, not as you want Him to be.
I regret to say most Christians worship a christ that is more
fantasy than reality. They get their understanding of Christ from their
own desires of what they want Him to be, rather than what the Bible says
about what He really is. As
the saying goes, "God created man in His own image, and man has been
trying to repay the compliment ever since."
This immediately raises the question, how can I know Christ as He
truly is? There is only one
way, meet Him in the Bible. Christ,
the Living Word, is revealed in the Bible, the Written Word. If
the Bible truly is the Word of God written, then it is required of us to
believe and obey it fully, even, and maybe, especially, the parts we don't
like; the parts about wrath and punishment of sins, of guilt before God,
of things that are wrong because God says they are, and right because God
says they are, and things about being called to a life of service rather
than a life of privilege. If
the Bible is the Word of God, let us believe it and live it.
If it is not, let us stop wasting our time, close the doors of the
church, and go home. Which is
it? Knowing
Christ as He really is requires doctrinal purity. It requires us to know the truth about the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. It requires us
to know about the Virgin birth, the Incarnation, the Atonement and the
Resurrection. It also
requires us to know the truth about ourselves, about our sin, our
blindness to spiritual things, our need of the Word and the Spirit to
bring light to our darkness and power to our convictions
Again, we can only know these things by a study of the Scriptures. Third,
"to live is Christ," means Christ is the reason for your
existence. We all know we
were created by Him and are sustained by Him, but that is not what I am
talking about here. I am
talking about a conscious decision to dedicate your life to Him and to
find in Him the meaning and purpose for all of life.
Paul was saying his life is all about Christ.
Christ is the reason he lives.
Christ is the purpose for everything he does. Fourth,
"to live is Christ" means to be like Christ.
I am not talking here about godly living or holiness of life.
I assume that a man who takes up the mantle of the ministry of
Christ is making a serious attempt to live by the commandments and example
of Christ. I am talking about being like Christ in the inward person.
I am talking about putting on the mind of Christ.
I am talking about being conformed to Him in our inner person.
I am talking about becoming like Him in the very core of your
being. Fifth,
it means to serve Christ's Church as He served it. The Bible is filled with the love of Christ for His Church.
He calls the Church His Body, His Kingdom, His Bride.
His love for the Church is such that He was willing to give up His
glory in Heaven, to live as a human being, to be despised and rejected,
and finally, to lay down His life for His Church.
He calls upon you to give His Church that same kind of service.
He calls you to feed His sheep and shepherd His flock. Your primary means of serving His Church is to preach the
word and administer the sacraments. This
means you must devote yourself to the study of the Bible.
It means you will have to let other areas of interest go in order
to be a man of the word. You
will also serve His Church by being a man of prayer.
Prayer is one of the best things you can do for your flock. Devote
yourself to prayer. But,
even if everything else is right, it will all be wrong if you have not
love. Without love you are
nothing more than noise, a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Cymbals as part of a musical work, played at the right time,
can be beautiful. But if you
imagine someone following you around, constantly crashing cymbals in your
ear without music, without purpose you understand the vanity of good
things done without love. Without love, speaking ability, understanding of
the Scriptures, spiritual abilities, and godly actions are nuisances and
intrusions. Whatever else you
do, whatever other gifts of the Spirit and natural abilities you may
possess, let the people of God know this, that you love them as you love
your own life. Let them know that every day is spent for their benefit.
Every prayer is for them. Every
sermon is your gift of love to them, and the desire of your heart is to do
good for them. You and I are men, and we are finite and fallible.
Much of what we do, personally, will disappoint our people.
But let them never be disappointed in our love for them.
Whatever else they may think about us, let them know we love them.
I believe they will forgive dull sermons, clumsy manners, and other
human frailties, if they know we love them. Sixth,
and finally, I close with this. Most
of what I have said here today is not only for those who wear a surplice
and a tippet. It is for all
who wear the name of Christ. Good
Christian people, let us all resolve that, "For me, to live is
Christ." Amen.
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