The Reality of Christ: A concept that will rock your world.

Sermon Preached at WCC on 4/2 and 4/3 of 2011

The Reality of Christ
A concept that will rock your world.


You sit there in your seats and say "Man! he's confident that he has something important." Frankly I am confident. Scripture is clear on the fact that Christ turns our worlds upside down; that is IF we let him.
I want to suggest a presupposition. I don't believe that the majority of us live our lives like Christ exists. The reality of Christ is foreign to us. We can't see him, we can't feel him, so we live our lives like he doesn't exist. It's not REAL to us. Yes, most of us have accepted Christ as our Savior, and when we are asked we will give a testimony, but he's still not real to us. We don't accept the reality of a spiritual realm. It is easy for us to live in the reality of what we see and hear but how easy is it to believe the reality of something that we can't see and is presented to us in a book that is 2000 years old?


I drive some weeks over 2000 miles. Every day I put fuel into my car. I know that if I don't have fuel the car won't go. I know that somehow the fuel gets from the tank into the engine and blows up in something called a cylinder causing it to bob up and down providing movement somehow. I have a very basic knowledge of combustion. I put fuel in the car and it goes.
I think Christians are exactly like that. They come to church and they get their weekly dose of Jesus. We sit in church and we hear what we are supposed to do and do it not really considering the why. Why should I love my family? Why should I have a personal relationship with Christ? Why should my life line up with what God wants?


In reality the reality of Christ effects us radically. It changes who we are and what we do.


My best example of this is my Dogs while they don't have souls and they do not know right from wrong, through much training they have come to realize what is expected of them. That said when we are out of the room, anything could happen.


It's the same way with children. When kids know that the parents aren't looking anything could happen.


When we accept and realize that Christ exists and we realize the gravity of what he has done for us it will fundamentally alter the essence of what we live for.


In the short amount of time that we have this evening I want to briefly touch on three huge area's that keeping the right focus on Christ transforms.


The reality of Christ Rocks our Perspectives (Worldview)


I'm not sure how many times this week I've heard the word Worldview. This seems to be a concept that gets tossed around all the time. It is also known as your faith perhaps, your religion, your system of belief, and even most simply your opinion. Just to make sure we are on the same page I feel obliged that I define it. Worldview is a particular philosophy of life or conception of the world.


If I hold to a worldview that my dog is the most important "person" in the world, I may eventually come to the conclusion that dogs hold an equal or higher place as humans.


If I hold to a worldview that the world was created by random chance and I am here by coincidence, I may eventually come to the conclusion that life is pointless and I may find that sanctity of human life means nothing.
Essentially what you believe defines who you are. Let me say that again. What you believe defines who you are.


So how does this relate to the reality of Christ? If I hold to a worldview that embraces the reality of Christ, his birth, his burial, his resurrection, and his ascension, it will inevitably come to fruition in what I do and what I think.


Christ said, "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock." (Matthew 7:24-25)


What is our foundation built upon? If our worldview is based on Christ, the winds of this world cannot knock it down. If it is built on the lies of Satan, it will collapse.


Paul grabs this concept and runs with it when he says "all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Colossians 2:2-3) A Christ centered worldview is essential for an effective life. Paul continues on this thought when he says that “the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I [God] will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?”( 1 Corinthians 1:18-20)


Scripture clearly presents the argument that a Christ centered world view is essential but why? How does this affect how we live?


First a Christian worldview helps us realize our depravity and our need for a Savior. Praise God that a savior is an integral part of the worldview. God sent His holy son to die a sinners death on the cross for us so we would not have to live in Hell for all of eternity.


As we realize the reality of the sacrifice that God made, we see our perspectives change. We see our sin and we see how it affects us.


Second, a Christian worldview helps us realize our responsibility to share the Gospel. With the reality that people on this earth are dying and going to hell, we become more ambitious in sharing the Word. I think that is the thing right there. Do you live like Hell is real? If we live like hell is a reality we will share the Gospel with the lost.


This concept leads into our next point the Reality of Christ Rocks our Priorities. When we accept the fact that Christ is real and we have a worldview based upon him, our priorities are adjusted. We recognize the need to share the gospel with a lost world, and everything we do in life is run over the litmus test of scripture. Psalm 119:35 Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.


The question is though, how do we diagnose misplaced priorities? Haggai 1:1-4
1. In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshuaa son of Jehozadak, the high priest:
2. This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come for the Lord’s house to be built.’”
3. Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai:
4. “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”


True priorities are revealed by how we spend our time and our money.
The people in Jerusalem thought that their priorities were just fine. Shortly after returning from their seventy year exile they rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem under the leadership of Nehemiah. They also laid the foundation for the Jewish temple under the leadership of the Jewish priest Ezra.


But that was sixteen years earlier. They started out strong, but something happened and they lost their focus. They kept saying, "The time has not yet come to rebuild the temple." They didn’t deny that it was their responsibility, but they kept putting it off for another day. Now we know that those sixteen years were filled with economic struggle and political instability, so to put off rebuilding the temple probably made sense from a human perspective.


Yet God knows that the real problem wasn’t the economy; the real problem was misplaced priorities among God’s people. That’s why God asks them, "Is it a time for you to be living in paneled houses while the temple remains a ruin?" Despite their financial struggles they’d found the time and money to panel their homes. Each weekend they’d go to Home Depot to buy more supplies for more renovations, but all the while God’s temple was no more than a foundation and a pile of rubble.


Now let me just mention how we as Christians should apply a passage like this from the Old Testament. Clearly there is no literal temple today, because God no longer limits himself to a physical structure. The Jewish temple that Haggai’s generation would eventually rebuild was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, and clearly God is not concerned with building a literal temple for his honor today. So it would be wrong for us to say that this building--or any church building for that matter--is the equivalent of the Old Testament temple. According to the New Testament, since Jesus Christ came to the world, the true temple of God is now the Christian community. According to 1 Corinthians 3:16 we ourselves as a congregation are God’s temple. So the equivalent of building the temple for us today is not constructing a physical building, but it’s investing our lives into building the Christian community.


However with that said, obviously in building up the Christian community, we use buildings. Whether it’s a home or a rented hall, a ministry center like this or an office building, we use buildings to strengthen the Christian community. But for us, buildings are not temples but tools for ministry, tools to strengthen God’s true temple. So this building isn’t a sacred place, but it’s a tool for ministry, an instrument to use in order to build up the people of God.


However even though the temple of God has changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament, it’s just as true today as it was back then that how we spend our time and our money reveals our true priorities as God’s people. Our use of time and money is a barometer of our true priorities.


Of course that doesn’t mean that if you give more money to church and volunteer more time for ministry, that we’ll necessarily be more in tune with God’s priorities. I heard of a pastor who devoted so much time to ministry that he neglected his marriage. In the end he lost his marriage. Clearly his priorities were just as out of focus as the Christian who refuses to give any time or invest any money. So to say just giving more money and time refocuses our priorities is simplistic.


But our giving is does play a role in focusing our priorities around God’s priorities. The average Christian in America gives less than 3% of their total annual income to ministry. That not only counts their contributions to their local church, but also includes contributions to other ministry groups, non-profit organizations, and missionaries. So clearly there’s a lot of room for most Christians to grow.


I personally believe in the biblical principle of tithing. I don’t believe it was a law like it was for the nation of Israel, but I do think tithing is a principle. Elissa and I have made a commitment to never give less than 10% of our income, and we’ve have tried to live by that principle.
Now I’m not telling you that you have to tithe, but I am challenging you to evaluate your own giving. Does it reveal that you truly do value God’s priorities?


The next 6 verses of this chapter go into consequences of misplaced priorities. Because their priorities were wrong, they were struggling. They had unmet expectations. They expect a lot each time they planted their seed, yet when harvest time came they were continually disappointed with a small crop. They were unsatisfied in their personal lives. They’d eat, but they were never really full. They’d drink, but it was never enough. And they were broke. They’d make money, but as soon as they cashed their check it seemed to be gone. They never have enough to meet their needs.


Where are our priorities? Do they line up with the priorities of Christ?
When we do not live in the Reality of Christ, we can never expect our lives to be effective, but when we do live in that reality, anything is possible and our priorities will always line up with scripture.
Back a few minutes ago we mentioned that when we our priorities line up with Biblical principles, our relationships are improved. This leads us to our third point; The Reality of Christ also Rocks our Personal Relationships. We all have relationships. They vary from the mailman to our spouses; from the guy ringing the bell outside Wal-Mart, to the cop who pulls us over last week. We all have relationships and interactions with others. We can go through life just living and interacting OR we could be radical in our relationships. If we embrace the reality of Christ, our relationships will be Christ centered. We will make time for others, we'll show the love the Bible commands us to give even to those who we don't consider deserve it.


Matthew 22:39 says "Love your neighbor as yourself." Galatians 5:14 says "The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."" Do you realize how hard that is? I mean LOVING your neighbor as yourself. When I get up in the morning I'm looking out for Number 1. I could care less about the rest of the world. Elissa will attest to this! I crawl out of bed and I wonder down stairs EVENTUALLY, then I really don't want to talk to anyone. I am NOT a morning person. I need like an hour before I am coherent enough to function. When I get up most of the time I am not living the reality of Christ in my relationships. I know that allot of people here today are challenged with that.


The fact is this: Our lives can be changed by the reality of Christ. IF we allow it. It's up to us. I mean we get saved and we believe with all of our hearts that Jesus exists or we believe that he can save us from hell but that's where we leave it. We don't take it any farther. We don't live in the reality that Christ exists and that he did come to earth he did save us from our sins and he lives now in heaven.


We sit here and we blame the way we were raised perhaps. We blame pride. What we never do is blame ourselves for failing. We've allowed ourselves to get to the point of not caring because its so common place. We hear it every time we are in church. We read about it when we open scripture but let me pose this question to you. Is it real? Are YOU living the reality of Jesus Christ.