Sermon - Exaudi 2019 - John 15:26-16:4

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.” In our lessons today Jesus gives us a warning in order to prepare us for this age that we live in today. Christ warns us of this present hour to keep us from apostasy, to keep us from falling away from the faith. 

The cold hard truth is that the world is changing today, there’s no doubt about it. It’s long been noticed that church attendance in Europe is staggeringly low, with about 10% of the populace attending church each week. Here in the US it’s hardly any better and rapidly becoming worse, with about 22% of the population attending church services weekly. Many have fallen away in the past three decades.

 Moreover, among America’s youngest adults, 35% of them have absolutely no religious affiliation. Of the 65% that do have a religious affiliation, only a small minority absolutely believe God exists. For well over a thousand years the world was largely influenced by Christianity. That’s not the case anymore. Many are calling today’s era, Post-Christian. 

More or less our world today is quickly beginning to look a lot more like the world during the time of the Babylonian captivity of the Old Testament, when Israel fell away from the faith and was taken captive by a heathen nation. Or we’re beginning to look a lot like the world in the Early Church, which Christ warned His apostles about. 

Jesus said, “They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.” For Christians in the early church the threat of being martyred for the faith was a real possibility you had to come to terms with. While today we may not be facing death, we are facing something that seems to be worse than death: ostracism. 

See, a Christian who is martyred and killed, goes to heaven. But a Christian who is continually ostracized over time may begin to fall away and eventually apostatize. Sadly, this is what’s happening to many Christians today. Our Post-Christian world ostracizes Christians to the breaking point, and many of these people doing the ostracizing even claim to be Christian and doing God a service! 

Because there’s a new religion in town these days and it’s not one that cares about sin and forgiveness. This new religion is called moralistic-therapeutic-deism. What does that mean? It means living a moralistic life, whatever your morals happen to be. It means believing and doing whatever feels good and therapeutic. It means belief in a higher being, a god, but leaving this god unnamed and undefined. Moralistic-therapeutic-deism is the religion of this current era, it claims its own morals, it’s about feeling good, and loving this unnamed god with your whole heart. 

Moralistic-therapeutic-deism must attack Christianity; the two cannot coexist. Christianity firstly defines God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and is about being loved by Him. Christianity secondly doesn’t often feel good, since it calls us to deny our sinful passions and be forgiven. Thirdly, Christianity very rigidly defines our morals, which contradicts the morality of the world. 

Ultimately, Moralistic-therapeutic-deism is not Christianity and wars against us Christians because it’s as Jesus says: “They will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.” The world is different today, it’s not the world it has been for the last thousand years, and it’s only going to get worse. We as the church can’t just keep doing what we’ve been doing because it won’t work anymore. We’ve entered into a different hour in the history of the world, an hour dominated by moralistic-therapeutic-deism, an hour when we will be put out of the churches and ostracized by people claiming to do it in service to God. If we aren’t ready for it we will fall away.

I know, this all sounds a bit pessimistic of me, not very optimistic at all! But the fact is the future of the world isn’t optimistic and if I’m being a pessimist, then so is Jesus and I guess I’m in good company. However, while the future may not be very optimistic, it sure is hopeful. It’s hopeful because Christ gives us hope.

On Thursday we celebrated Ascension Day, the day when Christ sent the Holy Spirit to be with His church. This Holy Spirit is the Helper, Jesus says, sent from the Father, “the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about” Jesus. The Holy Spirit gives to us the Words of Jesus which strengthen us in this most difficult hour. Christ gives us our hope when He says, “But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.” The words and teachings of Jesus are what shall sustain us through this treacherous hour. 

St. Peter writes, “The end of all things is at hand… Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you… But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” You dearly beloved Christians have the Holy Spirit dwelling in your hearts because you were baptized and have heard the Word of Christ. The sufferings, persecutions, and ostracism shouldn’t surprise you nor frighten you, but instead bring you to rejoice because you have a salvation beyond the tears of this present age. 

Indeed, the same promise the Lord gave to captive Israel is given to you, “ You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” Dear Christians, we together with all the world have sinned! We deserve damnation together with all the nations! Yet our God has chosen us to redeem and save. Christ our Lord was persecuted and rejected by those who claimed His name and He was crucified for them and for us. Truly, God calls all people to Himself!  The forgiveness He offers is for everyone, we are obligated to share this wonderful news with the whole world, especially our unbelieving neighbors and family members, but most especially our believing neighbors and family members.

But before we can share this good news with anyone, and we must share it with all, we first have to be Christians and sure of the message ourselves. This is where we have work to do today and should follow the example of our forefathers in the faith during the Babylonian Captivity and in the Early Church. Christians, God has given you new hearts and a new spirit within you; we have work to do today. 

What is this work? Well, in the words of Gary Thies at Mission Central, our work is to be not normal. Gary is onto something here; we are to be people set apart from the world around us. We Christians are to be distinctly Christian, which according to world will look weird, unusual, strange, and not normal. Let me encourage you today: don’t be afraid of being different. 

What does this look like? St. Peter helps to flesh it out when he says, “Be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.” What did the early church largely spend their time doing? What did the monks in the cloisters do a lot of? Pray! Not just on Sunday mornings, although they totally did that too, but every day and multiple times a day! Pray when you wake up and go to bed, when you eat and when you work! Sing hymns when you pray! Paul and Silas sang hymns while in jail and brought the jailer and his family to faith through song!

Jesus spoke words and they’ve been recorded so that our faith would be strengthened and we wouldn’t fall away. So be different by making the Bible a priority daily! St. James told us last week, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only.” Meaning, the Word of God should actually influence you and change your lives. The decisions you make must be done according to the Word of God. You’re going to look strange when you do it, but being a doer of God’s Word is essential for the Christian life! 

I don’t want any of you to fall away from the faith and apostatize, neither does Jesus. So heed Christ’s warnings and be encouraged in His Word and certain of the hope He’s given to you. Then in the eyes of world: be strange, be doers of the Word. 

Encourage one another until you see the final day drawing near, it’s what the church is for, right? It’s my dream that our church and other churches wouldn’t be afraid of being different together. That we would do things together, pray together, play together, work together, study together, eat together, and be different together. So what if our worship is different than how the world expects? We are different from them, or at least we should be. So heed the word of Christ, be different, spend your time together, pray, read, sing, that you may not fall away and instead join the church in heaven one day. 

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!