A Renewed Church
“A RENEWED CHURCH.”
Saesoon Presbyterian Church, Meadowbank.
10AM and 12 noon. 20.4.2008.
Scripture: 1 Peter 2:4-10.
© REV THE HON. DR. GORDON MOYES, A.C., M.L.C.,
B.A., LL.D., Litt.D., D.D.,
F.R.G.S., F.A.I.M., F.A.I.C.D., M.A.C.E..
My wife Beverley and myself, have long had a great appreciation of the Christian Church in Korea which has remained faithful to God even under persecution and war. The Australian Korean Churches have a great deal to teach the other churches through the Korean example of faithfulness in prayer, in evangelism and personal witnessing.
I want to thank your minister Kie Sun Lee for his kind invitation to preach at both morning services today.
My wife and I have stayed in Korea. We enjoyed visiting all the beautiful tourist attractions and seeing the thousands of Christian churches. I have lectured at the Seoul Women’s University, and from there made a satellite telecast to thousands of people in hundreds of meetings in nations through Asia, China, Japan, South East Asia, the Pacific islands and Australia. Also, the same satellite telecast went to Mongolia, and throughout Russia. That address was delivered in thirteen languages simultaneously. I am very pleased to be worshipping in your Church today.
Our nation is facing dramatic change. We live in a land of peace and prosperity, with sound, democratically elected governments, with growing accountability from those in positions of authority, and a high level of personal morality. Yet such is the rate of change, the conflict with different cultural and religious demands, the decline in personal ethics, the threat of terrorism, the confusion caused by our traditional laid-back approach and new emphasis upon tolerance as the supreme virtue, that many people are fearful of the future. It is a changing Australia. But it still is our Australia. Is there anything to give us hope for the future?
In the same way the Church in Australia is facing immense change. It no longer enjoys many of the privileges it once had. Competing religions, especially fundamentalist Islam is making large demands for relatively small groups of people in the big cities. Political correctness causes many to shy away from supporting Christianity lest they offend someone.
Traditional Christian festivals like Christmas and Easter cause many commercial businesses and municipal Councils to avoid publicity of the name of Jesus, or the erection of Christmas manger scenes. Schools want not only to be secular but atheist in their teaching.
Many churches and Christians have ceased to be centres of the proclamation of the Gospel, becoming rather meek social clubs who would rather be thought of as nice than Biblical. Is there any hope? Can the Christian Church bring cohesion and hope to our community?
In the past it was the church that brought cohesion and hope to the community in time of war and peace. But can the church deliver hope to both believers and the community in a changing Australia?.
1. CAN THE CHURCHES DELIVER TODAY?
Some mainline Australian churches are divided over lack of commitment to the Scriptures as the only revelation of God. Some churches are politically aligned and spokespersons speak to every issue along predictable ideological lines not supported by a majority of their members.
Some churches have turned inward to personal feeling rather than confront the difficulties facing our nation.
The very organism that people should be able to turn to in confidence, is itself in crisis. These churches are showing signs of wear and tear and lack of direction. They adopt a religious pluralism that believes no one can be ever wrong and a post-modernism which declares everything is subjective, open to your own opinion. With these people, what is important is not the Bible, nor what Christians believe, but what is your story. They believe one view is as good as any other.
They believe everyone does what is right in his or her own eyes. Those attitudes will never help Australia. For these Churches, Christianity has become a form not a force. Faith is a performance not a person. It is religion not a relationship. They minister by remote control, preach by memory. They have no fire, no fervour, no friendship with the living Jesus Christ.
These churches spend their time on what Kennon Callahan calls “protecting their place on the face of the cliff.” In mountain climbing, climbers can find themselves on the face of a cliff without a handhold or foothold ahead or behind. In that predicament many freeze. They cling for dear life. They fear any move could mean the abyss below.
Many churches become frozen on the face of the cliff. They cannot find anything in their history that would save them. They cannot see anything hopeful. They become preoccupied with maintenance, membership, and money. That kind of church has no relevance to the needs of Australia in the twenty first century.
2. IS THERE ANY HOPE FOR OUR FUTURE?
A crisis abounds in nation and church. Where is an answer? Only commitment to Jesus Christ offers us hope. Jesus made the laws of Moses tougher and the standard of morality among His followers harder.
The Lord Jesus was marginalised because of His teachings and His close association with the poor, the rejected and the leprous, put Him offside with everyone from the Pharisees to the Romans.
Yet Jesus Christ became, through the Cross and Resurrection, the Messiah of all. He will one day return to establish God’s Kingdom and reign on earth as in heaven. Our only hope lies in committed Christians, obedient to the scriptures, who pray for the governments and witness to their faith, and who are willing to live under the authority of the Word of God. Will our nation continue to decline or can individuals find in Jesus Christ the deep answer?
3. GOD CALLS HIS WITNESSES
Christianity is not a way of life. It is not Western culture. It is not conformity to a standard of living. Christianity is a relationship with Jesus Christ who sends us as His ambassadors of reconciliation.
We need Christians who are committed to Jesus Christ, who live in obedience to the Word of God, and who are courageous enough to do the work of the prophet. Jesus confronted the economic and political power structures of His day, out of His commitment to God.
The Lord Jesus Christ died on a Cross, not because He dared to change hymn-numbers, but because He cared for the poor and was prepared to confront and change practices and policies of injustice.
That is what I am committed to do in the NSW Parliament. One of the leading Christian thinkers in the world today, Chuck Colson, said “What we do must flow from who we are. Christians must contend for biblically informed morality and justice in the halls of power. That balance keeps our ethics and our activism in proper perspective. I urge you to hold tightly to your courage and your moral convictions during the stressful days ahead. This is no time to wimp out!”
God promised: 2 Chron 7:14 “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Peter encouraged the Christian’s of his day as they lived in an aggressive and non-believing world by reminding them that they were part of God’s Church, a cell of the ever-lasting church, living stones.
“As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone,” and, “A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” 1 Peter 2:4-10
We live in a time when it is essential for the Christian Church to realise it is living in an aggressive and non-believing world. The church must be helped to realize that we are part of God’s Church, a cell of the ever-lasting church, living stones.
We need our Korean brothers and sisters to remind us all of that. May God grant you will be faithful in your prayer life, in your evangelistic witness, and in your worship of the one True God.
