C002 9/26/54
© Project Winsome International, 1999
CHRISTIANITY 3-D STYLE
Dr. John Allan Lavender
Acts 27:23
There is a question which has been haunting me. I wonder if it has haunted you. As a minister of
the Gospel, having committed my life to the cause of Christ, I cannot escape it. It is too
fundamental to be ignored.
I have pondered it.
Wrestled with it.
Tried to put it out of my mind because it has made me uneasy.
I have sought to suppress it because it stung my very soul.
But it's always there. It calls for an answer and will not be ignored. For it's a desperate, critical
question that is basic.
"Why, if all that the Bible says is true, why is Christianity not accomplishing more?"
How I have wrestled with that question. How often I have been forced to ask:
Why isn't the church making its mark in the world as once it did?
Why does the little progress that we do make come so slowly?
Why is it that there is so little evidence of change in the lives of those who profess to love Christ?
Is it not true that the Church of Christ is built upon a rock and the gates of Hell shall not prevail
against it?
Is it not true that Jesus said, "Fear not, I have overcome the world"(Jn. 16:33).
Is it not true that the Bible says, "Old things have passed away and all things have become new?"
(2 Cor. 5:17).
Why, then, is there such a difference between the church as the Bible says it should be, and the
church as it so obviously is?
Last summer, just before leaving on vacation, I happened to drive down the main arteries of the
city where we used to live. On one of the busy corners of that thoroughfare I saw a church.
Stately.
Ivy covered.
Beautiful.
An architectural masterpiece.
In front of the church stood a sign:
"Closed For The Summer. Will Open Again September 11th."
Frankly, I was shocked. But as I thought about it, my shock gave way to a sense of shame as I
realized that here at least was a church that dared to be honest.
It freely admitted that the gospel it preached,
and the commitment it required,
was not of sufficient importance to demand the loyalty
of its members twelve months of the year.
Yet, many of us live our lives in precisely the same fashion.
Instead of "Closed For The Summer", we have hung a neatly lettered "Do Not Disturb" sign over
the doorway of our hearts. We believe in God, and very much want Him to respond to our
slightest beck and call. But except for the times when we need Him, we do not care to be
bothered by him.
As a result, we are rich in things, but poor in soul. How unlike the early Christians who
conversely were poor in things but rich in soul.
We are obsessed by the visible.
They were possessed by the invisible.
We grope about in spiritual darkness
bewitched,
bothered and
bewildered.
They set out to win the world, and in one generation well nigh did.
What makes the difference?
Why the striking contrast?
It is not, as we would often rationalize, that they were super human, "Up-On-A-Pedestal
Persons".
It is not that they were some sort of "Other-Worldly Beings" who were far beyond anything we
can be.
They were human beings.
They were men and women just like us.
Possessing the same feelings and infirmities. They, too, were people of human clay.
Nor it is, as we would like to think, that because their world was less complex than ours it was
somehow easier for them to be Christian than it is for us. Dare we be honest? Dare we face the
facts? If there is any advantage, it is in our favor!
They had no comfortable churches in which to meet.
They had no New Testament to read.
They had no hymnals out of which to sing.
They had no freedom in which to worship.
They were hunted like dogs.
They were persecuted,
tortured,
and slain.
For want of a better place, they often met for fellowship in the catacombs.
A graveyard was their sanctuary.
A tombstone was their altar.
No! The big lie that it was somehow easier for them to be Christian than it is for us, gives way to
the big truth. It was not easier. It was much more difficult.
Where then lies the difference?
If it is not that it was easier for them to be Christian,
or that they were somehow something beyond what we can ever be,
why the glaring contrast?
The whole difference lies in the fact that they remembered what we have forgotten.
They remembered who they were and why they were here and, as a result, possessed a depth of
commitment that is missing in most of our lives today.
You see, this "Do Not Disturb"sign is simply evidence of the fact that we have forgotten who we
are and why we are here.
We have forgotten who Christ is and why He came.
Our weakness lies in the fact that, as a church, we do not know the reason for our own existence,
and therefore have no real message for the world in which we live.
Being satisfied with the lowest-common denominator, spiritually speaking, we have come to the
intolerable circumstance of merely killing time until we die.
Now, as Dr. Frank Kepner suggests,
"The power of the church lies in her loyalty to the Son of God. Let there be one uncertain note in
her testimony about Him and her power is gone. But let the church proclaim
the virgin birth,
the virtuous life,
the vicarious death,
the victorious resurrection,
and the visible return
of her wonderful Lord, and there is no power on earth or in hell that can stand in her way."
And so this morning, I would have you share with me in the act of remembering. Let us
remember our faith in its full dimensions.
Let us remember who Christ is, and thus recover the dimension of height.
Let us remember who we are, and thus recover the dimension of breadth.
Let us remember why we are here, and thus recover the dimension of depth.
May we say with Paul:
"This very night there stood by my side an angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve"(Acts 27:23).
Who He Is
The dimension of height,
that soaring sense of spiritual uplift,
becomes ours when we experience a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.
When we discover who Christ is...
when we remember again the wonder of this One to whom we pay allegiance...
when we stand in awe before this Sovereign of the Universe...this Son of God...
this Savior of the world...
we find our very beings gasping for breath in the rarified air of such glorious heights.
There is none like Him. Someone has said you can compare every great and good person who
has ever lived with another person just as great and just as good until you mention the name of
Jesus Christ. Then you discover there is no one in all of history to stand beside Him. No one so
great. No one so good. He stands alone.
He is the Sovereign of the Universe.
It is He who made light to shine out of darkness.
It is He who blended time and eternity into one.
It is He who rolled the stars out into space and now holds the course of Heaven in His control.
It is He who is our timeless Lord and Sovereign Savior.
The one above all others, whose we are and whom we serve.
Charles Lamb has said that if all the illustrious men of all the ages were gathered together in one
room and Shakespeare were to come into their midst, they would rise to do Him honor. But if
Jesus Christ were to come into their august presence, they would all kneel in humble worship
before the Son of God.
But how do we know that Jesus is the Son of God? My own testimony is this:
If the only proof I had that Jesus Christ is God were my own experience with Him, it would be
enough! For no one but God could do for me what Jesus Christ has done.
There was a time in my life when, in all the fullest meaning of that great word, I needed to be
"saved". Like a cancer, sin was eating out the very vitals of my soul. Oh, I was not guilty of any
of those gross acts that people think of when they mention sin. My sin was the one great
damning act of trying to live my life as if there were no God. And that sin, promising silk and
satin, gave me nothing but sack cloth and ashes.
I needed a savior. The world had its advisors who tried to point the way. But I needed a savior
who could say, "I Am The Way". I came to Christ, and in this Son of God, this Sovereign of the
Universe, I found the Savior of my soul.
The poet put it this way:
"You ask me how I came to Christ?
I do not know.
There simply came a yearning for Him in my heart
So long ago.
I found earth's flowers would fade and die;
I sought for something that would satisfy,
And then-- somehow I seemed
To dare
To lift my broken heart too Him in prayer.
I do not know, I cannot tell you how.
I only know He is my Savior now.
"You ask me when I gave my heart to Christ?
I cannot tell.
The day, or just the hour, I do not now remember
well.
It must have been when I was all alone
The light of His forgiving Spirit shone
Into my heart so clouded o'er with sin.
I think, I think 'twas then I let Him in.
I do not know, I cannot tell you when.
I only know He's been so dear to me since then.
"You ask me why I gave my heart to Christ?
I can reply.
It is a wondrous story, listen while I tell you
why.
My heart was drawn at length to seek His face.
I was alone, I had no resting place.
I heard how He loved me, and with a love
Of depth so great, of height so high above
All human ken
I longed such love to share,
And sought it then
Upon my knees in prayer.
"You asked me why I thought this loving
Christ would heed my prayer?
I knew He died upon the cross,
I nailed Him there!
I heard His dying cry.
'Father, forgive.'
"I saw Him drink death's cup that I might live.
My head was bowed upon my breast in shame.
He called me, and in penitence I came.
He heard my prayer.
I cannot tell you how, nor when, nor where.
Only that I love Him now."
There are many artists who have sought to capture on canvas the glory of our Christ. Each one of
you, I'm sure, has one picture of our Lord which you cherish above all others. My favorite hangs
in a small chapel in the city of Jerusalem. At one end, from ceiling to floor, the chapel is hung
with draperies of richest color and weave. Against this beautiful backdrop hangs a simple picture
frame. In the frame, these words:
We are the children of God, and therefore there is no hell so deep but that
He will enter it for our sakes.
We are the children of God, and therefore there is no dungeon door so massive
but that He has the key to turn the lock and set us free.
We are the children of God, and therefore there are no manacles of habit so
strong but that he can take them, break them, and set us free.
We are the children of God and therefore:
We have His strength in our weakness.
We have His wisdom in our folly.
We have His comfort in our grief.
We have His forgiveness in our sin.
But God wants more than sons and daughters. He wants saints. One of the staggering
discoveries in the Christian life is that not only are we sons and daughters
of God in reality, we are saints of God in the making. This is a point that
all too many of us miss. As Vance Havner has said:
"Salvation on the installment plan, taking Christ as Saviors now with an option
on taking Him as Lord later, is not taught in the New Testament."