A Living Body's Caution About Death

It’s the week of Vacation Bible School. It is one of the greatest weeks in the life of our congregation. I always delight to see young and old working together with one purpose: serving the youngest generation (our first and closest mission field!). This morning during opening assembly it was exciting to hear the children singing the great truths packed densely in the exciting, up-beat music. As they danced in the auditorium of a Baptist Church. Yes, I was smiling as I typed that.

The Executive Director of our wonderful State Convention recommended a book recently: Autopsy of a Deceased Church: 12 Ways to KeepYours Alive, by Thom S. Rainer. It’s a small, short book. I was able to get through it in an hour.

It was an interesting juxtaposition to our experience going through V.B.S. this week. For all the wonderful things that are going on at I.H.B.C. right now, I confess that I’m always trying to peer around the corner to what’s ahead. Reading Rainer’s book reinforced that practice. Dead churches don’t die overnight, but very slowly and subtly fall into complacency over a long period of time. Sometimes, like people with health problems, they don’t realize something’s wrong until it’s too late. I don't ever want that to be us. God has brought us too far!

I’m going to put the book on the table in the foyer. You’re all welcome to take it home, read it, and bring it back if you’d like. Until then, let me give you a few good quotes from the book...as I’m typing this the speakers are really thumping with music in the auditorium! It’s a happy sound, much preferred to a still, quiet building (like a museum or mausoleum) because I know the great Gospel truth that’s being sung along with that pounding bass.

Here are the highlights I took away from the book:

“According to the writer of Hebrews [in chapter 11], all of these men and women were heroes of faith because they obeyed God even though they did not know they consequences of that obedience. They saw themselves as foreigners of this land and life, temporary residents of the earth (v. 13). They sacrificed their comfort, their homes, their ways of life, and their possessions because they knew that this life was only temporary, that a better and eternal life awaited them. The ‘good old days’ did not exist in their minds. The future held the best days. They understood that this life is not a time to get comfortable. I got an e-mail today from someone who was really mad...he described American churches as they were in the 1970s and 1980s, perhaps earlier. He was mad about music styles. He was mad about church architecture. He was mad about audio speakers and big screens. He was mad about ‘appropriate’ church attire...for him, the past was his hero. He was clinging, hanging on to the things of this world. And because it was slipping away, he was angry, hurt, and probably fearful” (pgs. 19-20).

“...these dying churches focused on their own needs instead of others. They look inwardly instead of outwardly. Their highest priorities were the way they’ve always done it, and that which made them the most comfortable” (pg. 22).

“People in the community did not feel welcome in the church. Those in the church were more concerned about protecting the way they did church than reaching residents of the community” (pg. 27).

“...no church can sustain such an inward focus indefinitely. It will eventually die of heart failure” (pg. 36).

“A church cannot survive long-term where members are focused on their own preferences:

• My music style.
• My desired length and order of worship services.
• My desired color and design of buildings and rooms.
• My activities and programs.
• My need of ministers and staff.
• My, my, my” (pg. 48).

“We are members of the body of Christ. We do not exist to serve ourselves; instead, we exist for the greater good of the body...when church members increasingly demand their own preferences, the church is steadily not becoming the church” (pgs. 51-52).

“A church without a gospel-centered purpose is no longer a church at all” (pg. 75).

“Being a good steward of those material things that God has given our churches is good. Becoming obsessed with any one item to the neglect of His mission is idolatry” (pg. 80).

I could quote all of chapter 9 about the importance of our prayer life together as the church. I’ve been personally burdened to seek growth in this area all year long.

Like I said, I.H.B.C.’s in such a great place. But I think it’s good thing to hear voices like Thom Rainer’s. This little book has great prayers at the end of every chapter, and good self-diagnostic questions.

Let’s keep moving forward together toward glory, beloved, and let’s see how many (currently) lost people we can bring with us. Let’s see how much more outward-focused (mission/evangelism) and upward-focused (prayer) we can become. One of my favorite quotes is from a Baptist history textbook: “Perhaps the origin of Baptists is best explained as a search for a pure church” (The Baptist Heritage, H. Leon McBeth, pg. 75). This is balanced by a phrase in the 1689 Baptist Confession: “The purest churches under Heaven are subject to mixture and error” (26.3). We’re not Home yet, but that doesn’t mean we don’t seek to reflect Home more and more while on this pilgrim journey together.

Gonna go walk the halls now dressed in my black suit and sunglasses (I get to be a master spy this week), rejoicing at the little screaming voices and loving hearts of the workers. God is good. May He keep this body healthy, alive, dynamic, adapting, and growing for generations to come.

Noah.

I don't know if any of you are going to see "Noah" in the theaters, but I thought I'd give you a few resources.

 

Read the narrative itself - Genesis 5:28 - 10:32.

Read how the rest of the Bible reflects on this narrative - Isaiah 54:7-10; Ezekiel 14:12-23; Matthew 24:36-51; Luke 3:23-38 (esp. 3:36); 17:26-36; Hebrews 11:6,7; 1 Peter 3:18-22; 2 Peter 2:1-22 (esp. 2:5).

 

Click here and here to read a few Christian reviews of the movie.

Click here to read some thoughts on those urging Christians to see the movie.

Click here to read a good devotional on Noah.

Click here to see an evangelistic movie on Noah.

 

Despite the message of the movie, God didn't destroy the world for the sake of environmentalism (why would He command Noah to chop down a forest to build the ark if this were true? Why would He destroy all of nature if this were true??).

Despite the message of the movie, it is after the flood that human beings are explicitly told they are allowed to eat animals. The wickedness of humanity was not technology or carnivorism. It's true that Cain's original building of cities was a rebellion against God's command (Genesis 4:12,16,17), but this in itself is not the wickedness of humanity.

 

"Noah" is the equivalent of sitting through a 139-minute sermon delivered by an atheist. What thinking Christian (which we should all be - Matthew 22:37) would do this? I'm reminded of Paul's sarcastic comments on how well the Corinthians were tolerating false teachers because they looked and sounded good (2 Corinthians 11:19,20).

 

I'm not against movies. I like a good story. I was even intrigued by the trailer to "Noah" before I did a little research. But you and I are meant to encounter the truth of the Word of God through the reading, hearing, and teaching of the Book...together. Why? Because the bare events and words (even if they're accurately portrayed, which they're not in "Noah") are not enough. We have the whole Book because it records the events and words, but also their meaning. We are not meant to give the narratives our own meanings or values, or reflect on how they make us feel. No matter how faithful a movie like "Son of God" is, it doesn't contain the New Testament apostolic testimony about what Christ's life meant and what it requires from us. Enjoy the movie if it doesn't mock and twist Scripture (which "Noah" does), but don't ever, ever think the movie is enough. We are meant to gather together and fellowship in the Word by the power of the Spirit. He works through His Word in the gathering of His people.

 

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Finally, Noah himself was not the Promised Seed (Genesis 3:15), but he did prophecy concerning the Gospel work of the Promised Seed:

"Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants he shall be to his brothers...blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant" (Genesis 9:25,26).

 

"Canaan" (the descendants of Ham) will be subdued during Israel's conquering of the Promised Land.

"Shem" will become the Hebrews, the children of Israel, the Jews: the people through whom Christ the King comes into the world (John 4:22; Romans 9:5).

"Japheth" will be the Gentiles, the largest people group. Through the Gospel of Jesus Christ "people from every tribe and language and people and nation" (Revelation 5:9) will be taken from Japheth and united with Christians from the tribe of Shem (Jews) to be one people in Christ (Acts 11:1-18; 20:21; Galatians 6:15; Ephesians 2:11-22; Colossians 3:9-11). They will, in other words, "dwell in the tents of Shem" by faith in Jesus Christ.

 

Everything in the biblical story points us to Christ and the saving work of His Gospel. AND it reminds us how seriously God takes sin and how unstoppable His wrath against it is.

 

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There are numerous different understandings of Genesis 6:1,2, but here's how I understand it - the "sons of God" are those who were of God's covenant people in those days, and the "daughters of men" were those outside of God's covenant people. In other words, the sons of God's people took wives from the women of unbelievers...we'll see this echoed in Numbers 25:1-18 and in the adulterous temptress of Proverbs (see also Genesis 28:6-9; Judges 16:4-20). I think this interpretation best fits themes we will see later in the Bible. (The fact of the matter is that we don't know precisely what the word "Nephilim" in Genesis 6:4 is, so it's safer not to let theories about this word direct your interpretation).