You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
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This summer's series that we're starting this morning, I want to share one thing from our time in Ireland the past few days.
So many beautiful places and people there, like our mission partners, the Lewis family.
So wonderful to be with them.
But this one particular piece of papyrus, which doesn't look all that impressive perhaps,
in a museum that we went to there, is dated to the year 200.
It's an 1800-year-old copy discovered in Egypt of the book of Hebrews.
This particular piece that happened to be on display when we visited of the very end of Hebrews,
the last passage that I had preached before getting on a plane to fly over to Ireland.
And there it is, 1800 years old.
And we had just finished this series through Hebrews.
And I was just reminded, and I wanted to encourage you, just the gift of God's Word, right?
To have that, to be able to look back to how long God has preserved it for us.
To our commitment to God's Word, our need for it.
The hundreds and thousands of years now that the Bible has been showing us how to have relationship with the God who made us.
He's revealed Himself to us, especially in His Word.
What a great gift.
It just reminded me of that this past week.
And that is why we almost always preach through books of the Bible here at Southwood.
This summer will be a little bit different.
Still the Bible, not changing that.
But instead of going through one book, we're going to be bouncing around the Scriptures, Old and New Testaments, a little bit.
As we seek to explore eight questions that people often ask about God, about faith in our lives.
And so I want to say up front that whether it is you or a neighbor, perhaps, who is presently wrestling with any of these questions,
please know this, I am not hoping to give exhaustive answers to each one of these questions,
as though in 30 minutes I could dispense with what people have wrestled with for centuries.
That's not the goal.
My heart, rather, is that we would look to the Bible together to see some of the ways that God speaks,
that His Word addresses these matters.
And then also for us after this time, each week, to have time to address your perspective,
to hear your comments and discuss with you how these impact you,
how it impacts your life and your faith and relationships.
So please invite your friends, your neighbors with whom you have conversations like this,
to join us as we are discussing issues of eternal importance.
Or consider these sermons as ways to further those important conversations that you're having on your own when you leave here.
That's my heart in looking at these things together.
But remember, we go back to the Bible.
One week we'll actually talk about why and about trusting the Bible specifically.
But each week we'll go back to the Bible as the authoritative Word of God,
where we find what we need to know.
He tells us what we need to know.
Even if it's not the full answer, exactly what we thought we were seeking,
He gives us what we need.
But if you're here this morning and that's not how you see the Bible,
you don't know for sure if God is speaking when the Bible is open,
don't let that stop you from listening and from engaging with us.
Even if you're not sure that it's God's Word,
it is at least, isn't it, the essence of Christianity.
It is what this historical figure of great importance named Jesus
and the people associated with Him,
it's what they would have to say about these questions that we're pondering.
So join us in that, even if you're not sure what it is that we're reading.
These questions can be difficult, okay?
They are for me.
This is outside of my comfort zone.
Appreciate your prayers.
They also can be emotional for different ones of us for various different reasons.
So I want to pray for our hearts before we start this conversation today
about how can I follow a Jesus whose followers do so much evil?
Will you pray with me?
Father, for any of the questions that are on our hearts,
you are the one that we need to hear from.
We want to hear your voice speaking to us.
We want to know your heart more than anything else.
We want to be shaped more by you, not just by ourselves.
So would you speak to us?
Would you teach us?
Would you even reform us?
Even this morning.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
The famous words of Mahatma Gandhi. Novelist Walker Percy has one of his characters in a book, Quip,
or one might even become a Christian if there were few, if any, Christians around.
I'm not sure, honestly, that there is a complaint that I've heard more often, more consistently from
friends and neighbors not following Jesus than this idea we're talking about this morning of
how can I follow a Jesus whose followers do so much evil? And we're not going to be able to cover
all the reasons people feel that, but people feel this way for a wide range of different reasons.
For some, that perspective or concern is historical, like violent atrocities committed by Christians
during the Crusades centuries ago, or the support of so many American Christians and theologians and
churches for the institution of slavery in the early days of our country.
For others, it's not so much in the past, it's more a present issue, like the moral failures of
pastors and religious leaders they've watched, or the things done and said by political leaders
appearing to represent or be supported by Christians. Current issues. And then I've heard from many others
for whom this is profoundly personal. Like in their own lives, they've had friends or parents who are
one way at church and another way with them. Or they've experienced what they'll call church hurt
from an interaction with a Christian leader or leaders where they felt unloved, specifically unwelcome
due to their sexual orientation, their lifestyle choices, or their struggles with faith. They ask
questions and these questions or views, they're just not welcome, they've been told.
If you're here this morning and I'm not articulating your particular concern along these lines,
please come share it with us if you'd be so willing in the discussion afterwards. We would love
to hear from you, even if it's hard to hear. But the concern that so many have is,
Jesus seems like such a good guy. I like so much of what Jesus seems to be about. But you people who
represent him claim to be so loving, so moral, so good, but you're not better than anybody else.
You just so often do things that don't match up with this. I want us to start by looking at Romans 3 today.
This is one of the letters from the Apostle Paul, this one to the church in Rome,
where he's telling them about God's judgment against the wickedness of mankind. That's where he started.
And then he turns to discuss God's very people, the Jews, and their standing in light of this.
Romans 3 at verse 9, listen now to God's word.
Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law,
so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight,
since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.
Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it,
the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
Some of you still remind me of this local news spot.
It was here about 15 years ago when local ordinances were being passed to outlaw texting while driving.
Just down here at the corner of the airport in Whitesburg,
there were signs reminding us of the new ban,
and the news cameras panned to cars at the intersection right down here with distracted drivers,
and then one of them was this pastor
that some of you recognized way more quickly than one would have wished.
Now, certainly not my greatest failure.
Okay?
Don't hear me wrong.
But most of them are not broadcast on live TV.
And even then, even in that moment, I remember thinking,
Ah, great.
I've blown it.
I need to own this.
There's so many excuses or clarifications that could be made,
but the pastor caught breaking the law on camera.
I'm sorry.
That's where I want to start in answering this question this morning.
I'm sorry.
I may not know your personal story yet.
Some of you have shared some of them with me.
But I'm sorry.
I don't deny the ugly truth.
And neither does the Bible.
God actually agrees with your premise.
The people of God are, like others, guilty of evil.
That's actually what's being explained here in Romans 3 with this lengthy quotation from the Psalms,
from the prophet Isaiah.
Many of these hard words originally describing the wicked.
Only some of them kind of including the people of God on the side.
But now they're applied directly to God's people to make clear that all are guilty.
No one is entirely good.
Their words are used to deceive.
Their feet have run toward violence.
And they have caused much harm in God's world by not living in His ways.
And when you've been impacted by that, when you've been hurt or discouraged by Christians acting unlike Christ,
I don't want to defend us.
I want to repent for us.
I'm sorry.
It's not okay.
Please hear me.
We have blown it.
Historically.
Blown it.
No matter what may be said about the context on the other side,
many in the Crusades lost sight of the words of Jesus.
And in the name of Jesus did ungodly harm to Muslims, to Jews, to women, to children, among others.
Our African-American neighbors, our homosexual neighbors, and our children
are among those churches have sinned against.
Some of you have grown up being dragged to church by fathers
and told to listen and learn how to love
only to return home and find them not loving your mother when they got there.
Many of you have listened to pastors talking about sexual ethics
or how to live for Christ at work
only to watch them be unfaithful to their wives
or abuse their power in ways that have hurt you
in spite of what they said.
Most of you have seen powerful people claim the name of Jesus
when it benefited them politically
and mock everything that Jesus is about
when out of the spotlight.
I'm sorry.
Sadly, we have proven quite well the Bible's assertion
that all are under sin.
None is righteous.
There's no fear of God before their eyes.
We don't live as those in relationship with God ought to live.
The Bible doesn't hide from that.
Now, it's also important to say,
lest I be confusing,
I don't want to dismiss any of that,
but it's also true Christians are often wonderful people.
Many are so loving,
so gracious,
so generous.
Christians have led the way in building hospitals
and developing health care for centuries,
especially with the care of children
in ways no one else was doing.
They've transformed science and math
and blessed many with their art and music.
They have fought to outlaw slavery,
human trafficking,
defend the rights of all people made in God's image.
So grateful.
In fact, New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof,
who himself is not claiming at all to follow Jesus,
wrote in defense of Jesus' followers in our day.
Some self-appointed evangelical leaders
seem homophobic,
and many who claim to be pro-life
seem little concerned with human life post-uterus.
Those are the preachers who won headlines and disdain.
But, in reporting on poverty, disease, and depression,
I've seen so many others.
Evangelicals are disproportionately likely
to donate 10% of their incomes to charities.
More important, go to the front lines at home or abroad
in the battles against hunger, malaria,
prison rape, obstetric fistula,
human trafficking, or genocide,
and some of the bravest people you meet
are evangelical Christians
who truly live their faith.
He writes,
I'm not particularly religious myself,
but I stand in awe of those I've seen
risking their lives in this way,
and it sickens me to see that faith
mocked at New York cocktail parties.
That's true too, okay?
And I'm thankful for it.
There are many good examples
of Christians living like Christ.
But the Bible says that the point,
it's not a contest of the moral performance
of Jesus' followers versus that of others.
That's not the game.
The truth of Jesus does not rise and fall
on the rise and fall of your pastor's life
and his moral performance.
Thank goodness for that.
Because the biblical message
is that we are all guilty
to all of us.
Importantly, though,
Jesus addresses
the evil of his followers.
Listen to verse 19.
Now we know that whatever the law says,
it speaks to those who are under the law
so that every mouth may be stopped
and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
Accountability for every person,
for every word,
every action,
every thought.
That's why Jesus says from the earliest days
of his ministry,
I have not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance.
Repent, he said.
Turn from your wicked ways.
It's the call of the prophets over the centuries
now echoed by the greatest prophet,
Christ himself.
Repent.
That's why even the apostle Paul
can write later in Romans
that he, as a follower of Jesus,
as a leader in the church,
writing a book of the Bible,
battles to do the right things
that he wants to do.
He often loses and he doesn't do them.
As a result of this struggle
that Christians have,
every single New Testament letter,
including seven specific ones
in the book of Revelation,
addresses sin among God's people
and calls us back to Jesus.
This is really important, y'all.
Our struggles, our failures,
are not unexpected to God.
They don't catch him by surprise.
And when I say that,
I'm not glorifying or excusing our failures.
No, far from it.
Jesus doesn't do that.
But I am reminding us
that our sin is a part of the Bible's story.
It's not something that God doesn't see coming,
that God can't account for.
He calls us to account for it.
In fact,
I'm gonna get tough here,
where Jesus specifically addresses our hypocrisy.
Not denying it, notice,
but calling it to account.
Verse 20 here says,
for by works of the law,
no human being will be justified in his sight,
since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
In other words,
no one gets an award from God
for coloring in the lines.
He's not impressed.
Christians sometimes come across as saying,
we are holier than thou.
Jesus says,
no one gets holier through performing better than the next guy.
Remember,
no one is righteous.
religious leaders in Jesus' day,
they seem to think they could perform well enough in light of God's law
to be acceptable to God
while others were not.
To be closer to him while others were further away.
They thought they could pretend to be holy outwardly,
even when they weren't any different at their core.
I should have listened to just some of Jesus'
just excoriating words to the Pharisees.
For they preach,
but do not practice.
They tie up heavy burdens hard to bear
and lay them on people's shoulders,
but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
They do all their deeds to be seen by others.
Now he addresses them directly,
woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites.
These are the religious leaders.
For you tithe mint and dill and cumin
and have neglected the weightier matters of the law.
Justice,
mercy,
and faithfulness.
These you ought to have done without neglecting the others.
You blind guides,
straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.
Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites.
For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate,
but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
You blind Pharisee,
first clean the inside of the cup and the plate,
that the outside also may be clean.
Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites.
For you are like whitewashed tombs,
which outwardly appear beautiful,
but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.
So you also outwardly appear righteous to others,
but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
How does Jesus feel about hypocrisy?
He hates it as much as you do if you've been hurt by it.
He cuts right to the heart,
and He calls us to consistent living,
to wholehearted loving.
See,
maybe I could follow this Jesus.
Maybe you could follow this Jesus who hates hypocrisy as much as you do.
Who doesn't come to tell you that He's drafting the best performers onto His team,
and so you're probably going to be left out and unwelcome.
Who holds the leaders of His people along with the rest of them to higher standards,
just like you want.
Who calls them to account.
Maybe, maybe He's someone you could follow,
but I'd like to tell you there's something even better than that.
As important as it is that Jesus calls out the evil in His people,
there's something even more hopeful that I don't want us to miss,
because Romans 3 doesn't leave us unrighteous before a holy, righteous God.
It doesn't leave us accountable to God, unjustified, out of relationship with Him.
That's not where it stops.
Listen to the hope that He gives.
Something entirely different enters the story.
But now, verse 21,
the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law,
although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.
The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe,
for there is no distinction,
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
and are justified by His grace as a gift
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Jesus actually offers unique hope for all those guilty of evil.
That's what we've got to see.
What's that hope?
It's not that one day they're going to get it together
and finally perform well enough for God to accept them.
That's not the hope here, is it?
No, it's that there's a righteousness,
a moral perfection before a perfect God
that comes not through your performance,
but through a replacement.
It's what Martin Luther called alien righteousness
because it comes from outside of you.
Alien righteousness.
It's actually, Romans says,
God's righteousness.
Ah, perfect righteousness.
That's what we need.
Through faith in Jesus' performance.
Not your own, because, verse 23,
all religious and irreligious
have sinned and fallen short of God's glory.
None of us can work our way all the way to God,
but we can be made right with Him.
How does it say?
By grace, as a gift,
receiving something we don't deserve
through the redemption of Christ Jesus.
What happens is Jesus lives the perfect life
with no hypocrisy at all, right?
And then He dies the death that we deserve
so that we who were not righteous
could be made righteous forever.
See, the Bible is honest about our sin,
about evil.
Not to glorify sin,
but to glorify Jesus,
the one who knows what to do with it,
the one who knows how to handle it.
That's Jesus.
Jesus.
Would you imagine with me for just a minute
every single thought,
everything you've ever done or said or texted
being put on the local news
for everyone to watch.
Not just one thing.
All of them.
That's scary, isn't it?
Just for other people to see.
Think about God seeing all of it.
Then I want you to imagine
the next segment of this local news episode.
It's the story of Jesus' life
being played out.
When He's tempted to live for Himself,
He quotes Scripture and obeys His Father.
When appealed to exercise His power over the people,
He slips away and finds the lonely
and left out woman that everyone else has overlooked.
When told He's too important,
He welcomes the little children.
When tortured and falsely accused,
He refuses to speak ill of others
and instead humbly suffers for others.
The good news of Jesus
is not first that you can be more like Him.
Although we can, we will one day.
The good news is that precisely
because we couldn't be like Him,
He takes our news clip
of all of the things that we've thought
and done and said
and He puts His name beneath it
rather than ours.
And He goes to the cross
to pay the penalty
for our cosmic crimes.
even when we knock off our microphones
in excitement.
Jesus does two things
and that's just the first.
He takes our clip
and puts His name on the bottom of it.
He goes to the cross
to pay for those things
and then He takes His clip,
that perfect life,
and He throws our names
at the bottom of it
so that we go to heaven,
the home of the righteous
where He alone deserved to be.
And friends,
that gives you unique hope
because it's not like other religions
where you have to keep
performing well enough
to be accepted by God.
No, it's the other way around.
You're accepted by God.
You're with God
because of Jesus
which eventually, by the way,
will be the thing
that makes you like Him.
Being with Him
is what's going to make you like Him.
But it's eternally secure
because it's not hanging
on how you do this afternoon.
Jesus is eternally perfect
in your place
and that won't change
even if you blow it again tomorrow.
Amen?
So listen,
if you're here today
and you're wondering
about following Jesus
and you're asking,
how can I follow a Jesus
whose followers do so much evil?
One answer is
you can follow Him
if you admit
that you're as desperately
in need of saving
as His failing,
struggling,
hypocritical followers.
Friend, you may even think
that you're better
than most of the Christians
that you know
in many areas of life.
You may be right.
But are you good enough?
Do you want to stand
before God on your own
with your own newsreel,
with your own record?
Or do you, like me,
need the perfect righteousness
of Jesus in your place?
That's what He offers to you.
If you're a follower of Jesus
like me,
let me remind us
that we often think
that we need to win debates
about our goodness
and rightness
when the good news
is not our goodness,
goodness.
But Jesus' goodness.
We ought to become
more like Him
over time, yes.
And we ought to rejoice
when we see Christians
reflecting more of His image
in this world,
for sure.
But that's not our hope.
So don't be like me
and sometimes think
that Jesus' kingdom,
the only way forward
for the kingdom of Jesus
is when the Christian athlete
wins the Olympics
and thanks God on TV,
now we're winning.
When the Christian politician
wins the election
and fixes everything,
that's how it always works.
Even when the Christian kid
is nicer to his classmates
than the bully,
listen,
those may be good things.
They may even be evidences
of God's kingdom coming,
but the hope of the kingdom
is that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of the living God.
Not you or me.
We're not the ones
that need the good record.
Matthew 16 is very clear on that.
Our mission,
as we know Him,
is to declare His excellencies,
not our own,
1 Peter 2.
One last thought
as we close.
As I was wrestling with this,
I thought,
man,
I would really understand
people hearing this message
and thinking,
that's a really nice thought.
But honestly,
Pastor,
it doesn't fix my hurt.
My relationship,
my offense,
what I've lived through.
Jesus' followers
have broken so much
in my life,
my family,
my world over the years.
If that's true,
and it often is,
I think it's really important
to ask if Jesus can fix
what His followers have broken.
Can Jesus fix
what His followers have broken?
And I've pondered that
and I've wrestled with that
because I don't want to minimize
the things people are feeling.
But I keep coming back to Jesus
in the Garden of Gethsemane.
He's been betrayed.
He's being arrested
by a group coming
with swords and clubs.
And one of His very best followers,
one of the key leaders
in His church,
one of His 12 closest disciples
named Peter,
lashes out in violence
against the will of Jesus.
The story is in Luke 22.
And when those who were around Him,
Jesus,
saw what would follow,
they said,
Lord,
shall we strike with the sword?
Without waiting for an answer
to that question,
Peter acts.
One of them,
we find out elsewhere,
it's Peter,
struck the servant
of the high priest
and cut off his right ear.
He might have been swinging
for his head.
But he cuts off his ear.
That's a big deal personally.
It could have become
a big deal publicly
if these two groups
had turned arms on one another
into great bloodshed.
But Jesus said,
no more of this.
And He touched His ear
and healed him.
Jesus touched His ear
and healed him.
Listen,
Jesus heals
what His followers break.
Jesus fixes
what His followers fracture.
Jesus redeems
His followers' mistakes
and promises to right
all of the wrongs
that we perpetrate,
not just this one.
Misguided Peter fights
to save the kingdom.
But Jesus understands
the better way.
Jesus goes to the cross
for all of us
where Jesus will purchase
forgiveness for Peter.
Where Jesus will plead forgiveness
even for the soldiers
nailing Him to the cross.
So you can come to Jesus
and find out
that there is no evil
too great
committed by His followers
or you
or anyone else
that He can't
and won't make whole
today in His world
or in your life
and forever with Him.
there is your hope.
Let's pray.
Jesus,
would you forgive us?
Especially those of us,
your people,
who should know better
for making life
about ourselves
rather than you,
for living in our own ways
rather than yours,
for preferring our own wisdom
to yours.
Forgive us.
forgive us for the hurt
we've caused
and the havoc
we've wreaked at times.
And turn our hearts,
all of ours,
to you again
that we might
that we might see
the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ.
That we might have
our hope
firmly fixed
on the one
who will never let us down.
Help that to be our hope
that you are coming
indeed, Jesus,
to make all things new.
And we long for that.
We look forward to it.
We place our hope
in your great name.
Amen.
For more information,
visit us online
at southwood.org.