“For you granted Him authority, over all people, that
He might give eternal life to all those You have given Him…. This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus
Christ, whom you have sent”: John 17.2 and 3 (NIV)
What do people think the
Christian Church and faith are all about ?
Over the past couple of weeks,
religious affairs have been in the news a lot,
with
the debate started by Jack Straw’s comments about the Muslim veil.
Or think of the British Airways worker forbidden to wear a cross at work.
When they are stopped on the street and a microphone is stuck in front of them: What do people think the Christian Church and faith are all about ? Looking on from the outside ?
Well, it’s always interesting
to hear what people think….when interviewed.
Some might say that the
Christian Church and faith are a kind of hobby – just as some will attend a
class in painting and drawing, others decide to get up and to Church on a
Sunday morning, it’s a kind of hobby, a leisure time activity where, good
people get together, doing their own thing………..
Now we all know that this is
not what the Christian Church and faith are about…..not a
hobby or a get together for good people…..
but
if we were stopped and asked what we think the Christian Church and faith are
all about what would we say ?
Perhaps we might find it more difficult than we think……
Because, in the life of the Church there are so many things to be organised, to be taken care of, to be planned. Because there are meetings to be arranged, because there are buildings to be taken care of, because there is a financial situation that requires constant monitoring…. we might find it more difficult than we think……to answer that question, what the Christian Church and faith are about……..
It might be difficult for us,
because
there is always a risk that in the work we do in the congregation, in the cares
and concerns that burden us,
we
might end up not being able to see the wood for the trees.
To answer that question, what
the Christian Church and faith are about……..
might
be difficult for us,
because
there is always a risk that in the work we do in the congregation, in the cares
and concerns that burden us,
we
lose sight of the high things, the great
things, the deep things, the holy things,
in
which we live and move and have our being………
Which is
what makes that verse in Philippians 3.8 all the more impressive, all the more
uplifting, all the more clear.
It is one of these core
verses, at the heart of the matter,
What is the Christian Church,
Christian faith about ?
What is at the heart of the
Christian Church, the Christian faith ?
Paul answers:
At the heart of the Christian
Church, the Christian faith ?
is : The
surpassing greatness of knowing Christ……………
Here Paul speaks in a way that
makes us sit up and take notice,
speaks
in a language that we pehaps have to learn anew.
You see, Paul does not speak
of his faith as ‘a hobby’, or what he does with his leisure time - no, what the
Word of God speaks of here is this: the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ !
And if we continue, we read
here of a knowing, that puts everything else into the shade; a knowledge so
precious, that it makes everything else look threadbare and poverty stricken; we
read here of a light so penetrating that it makes everything else look shoddy
and dull; that made the apostle Paul’s earlier life fade into the shadows.
What could this be ? This knowing, this light, this power ?
this surpassing greatness, says Paul, is the surpassing greatness of knowing
Christ Jesus.
It is the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus
It is this, that in God’s
grace, we must begin to recover. This is a knowing unlike any other, a glory
that outshines all others.
In the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus
There is a glory, a light, a
power that will fill all that we do and think and say as a Church.
So the question is:
What does the surpassing greatness of knowing
Jesus Christ mean ?
We turn to John 17 for an answer. The surpassing
greatness of knowing Jesus Christ is that in
Him we have eternal life:
“This is
eternal life, that they may know you, the only true
God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
What does this mean ?
Eternal life.
Well, John tells us that eternal life is the
gift of God to us. Its
not something we have thought up, or discovered. Not something we
could possibly have anticipated.
No - eternal life is the Father’s gift to us.
The life that was with the Father in heaven before the world began, as John’s
gospel declares, is His gift to us.
Now here, indeed, we are on holy ground, and
some might think,
too high, too holy for
us. For, if we know ourselves at all, we know how dull of spirit, how slow to
hear the still small voice of the Lord, how blind in spiritual things we are. But
yet, the gospel declares that our loving Father’s purpose is that we should know about His gift to us, His gift of eternal life to us – because He
longs for us to share that gift, for the whole world to share in the life He gives,
and so to find life
itself.
It was for this reason that Jesus Christ came
into the world. This eternal life, this gift, is in Jesus Christ.
If we have Jesus, if
we have Jesus Christ, then, as Paul expresses it: we lack nothing. If we are able to say that Christ is ours,
then all things are ours.
So you see,
here our eyes are lifted up to
the high things, to the surpassing
greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, and the eternal life He has for us……..
and
all other things fall into their proper place…
Charles Spurgeon, one of the
great preachers of the 19th. century, used to take
regular trips to the Swiss Alps. He once wrote (paraphrasing his words):
‘From
far off, in the
The things we experience each day often seem
to be all-important and far-reaching, the things nearer at hand, the cares of
each day, often seem more important.
Yet, behind and above the great mountain
heights of God’s Word stand fast forever.
May our eyes be lifted up to
the high things, those great heights: lifted up to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, and the eternal life He
has for us……..
May we learn to trust Him, to cast the weight of our whole life, and
all that we are on Him. And so come to know for ourselves the surpassing
greatness of knowing Jesus Christ.
AMEN.