From Division to Diversity: How Christ's Church Demonstrates Love and Advances the Gospel
I was all set to preach a different message up until two weeks ago. But as I was reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about recent events in the city of Chicago, particularly centered around the shooting of Laquan McDonald, this message dropped into my spirit. Because you see, there are families mourning the loss of sons, brothers, parents, or friends. There are citizens living in fear right now, whether in specific neighborhoods or on the police force. When we perceive injustice, it’s natural to respond with anger, frustration, fear, sorrow, offense, confusion, and even hopelessness. In the midst of all this raw emotion, how do we find the grounds to respond as Christ would have us do?
On the flight here, I was reading a book written by New Orleans Saints receiver Benjamin Watson, entitled Under Our Skin: Getting Real About Race—And Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us. The introduction was taken from his Facebook post upon learning of the jury’s decision in Ferguson, and I think it’s so valuable that I’d like to read it verbatim:
At some point while I was playing or preparing to play Monday Night Football, the news broke about the Ferguson Decision. After trying to figure out how I felt, I decided to write it down. Here are my thoughts:
I'M ANGRY because the stories of injustice that have been passed down for generations seem to be continuing before our very eyes.
I'M FRUSTRATED, because pop culture, music and movies glorify these types of police citizen altercations and promote an invincible attitude that continues to get young men killed in real life, away from safety movie sets and music studios.
I'M FEARFUL because in the back of my mind I know that although I'm a law abiding citizen I could still be looked upon as a "threat" to those who don't know me. So I will continue to have to go the extra mile to earn the benefit of the doubt.
I'M EMBARRASSED because the looting, violent protests, and law breaking only confirm, and in the minds of many, validate, the stereotypes and thus the inferior treatment.
I'M SAD, because another young life was lost from his family, the racial divide has widened, a community is in shambles, accusations, insensitivity hurt and hatred are boiling over, and we may never know the truth about what happened that day.
I'M SYMPATHETIC, because I wasn't there so I don't know exactly what happened. Maybe Darren Wilson acted within his rights and duty as an officer of the law and killed Michael Brown in self defense like any of us would in the circumstance. Now he has to fear the backlash against himself and his loved ones when he was only doing his job. What a horrible thing to endure. OR maybe he provoked Michael and ignited the series of events that led to him eventually murdering the young man to prove a point.
I'M OFFENDED, because of the insulting comments I've seen that are not only insensitive but dismissive to the painful experiences of others.
I'M CONFUSED, because I don't know why it's so hard to obey a policeman. You will not win!!! And I don't know why some policeman abuse their power. Power is a responsibility, not a weapon to brandish and lord over the populace.
I'M INTROSPECTIVE, because sometimes I want to take "our" side without looking at the facts in situations like these. Sometimes I feel like it's us against them. Sometimes I'm just as prejudiced as people I point fingers at. And that's not right. How can I look at white skin and make assumptions but not want assumptions made about me? That's not right.
I'M HOPELESS, because I've lived long enough to expect things like this to continue to happen. I'm not surprised and at some point my little children are going to inherit the weight of being a minority and all that it entails.
I'M HOPEFUL, because I know that while we still have race issues in America, we enjoy a much different normal than those of our parents and grandparents. I see it in my personal relationships with teammates, friends and mentors. And it's a beautiful thing.
I'M ENCOURAGED, because ultimately the problem is not a SKIN problem, it is a SIN problem. SIN is the reason we rebel against authority. SIN is the reason we abuse our authority. SIN is the reason we are racist, prejudiced and lie to cover for our own. SIN is the reason we riot, loot and burn. BUT I'M ENCOURAGED because God has provided a solution for sin through the his son Jesus and with it, a transformed heart and mind. One that's capable of looking past the outward and seeing what's truly important in every human being. The cure for the Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner tragedies is not education or exposure. It's the Gospel. So, finally, I'M ENCOURAGED because the Gospel gives mankind hope.
As Benjamin Watson shared with eloquence, transparency, and grace, the Gospel is the only hope! The root cause of violence, injustice, mistrust, and fear is SIN, and the good news of Jesus Christ the only hope. So how do we very practically experience that hope and put it to work in our lives?
I want to break this message into four simple parts:
(a) The Reality
(b) The Response
(c) The Revival
(d) The Revelation
We are going to be mostly in the book of Acts, to see a specific example of a cry of injustice, a response, and what happened following that response.
First, what is the present REALITY? Though laws and cultural mores change from country to country and century to century, the same reality persists, because there is nothing new under the sun. What did Solomon say in Ecclesiastes?
Moreover I saw under the sun: In the place of judgment, wickedness was there; And in the place of righteousness, iniquity was there. (Ecclesiastes 3:16) (In the very places where a lawful response should have been made. In the very place where officers should have sought to protect. And so on. In the very place where there should have been righteousness, there was wickedness.)
Let’s look at our main passage, Acts 6:1:
1 Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution.
Satan comes to bring ethnic division; the church is called to celebrate ethnic diversity. Not just peaceful coexistence. How does it happen? The apostles have received gifts for distribution to those in need, but the Grecian Jews (i.e. those not native-born) perceived that they were neglected in the daily distribution. This created disunity and murmuring among the believers – there had been this beautiful unity of meeting together in each other’s homes, breaking bread together, sharing everything they had – and now division and dissension was striking near the very core of what made apostolic Christianity so vibrant. The health of the Christian church was at stake in what happened next.
2 Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. 3 Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; 4 but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5 And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch, 6 whom they set before the apostles; and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them.
So what was the apostles’ RESPONSE? Like good leaders should, they responded with proactivity and wisdom. They did not
(a) ignore the problem (aaawww, it’s fine, it will work itself out)
(b) act as though the church had no role (this is really a welfare issue, kinda political, and we’re a church. We had best stay out of it.)
(c) not prioritizing one extreme at the exclusion of the other (James 1:27); word of God and serving the poor (Galatians 2:10). Ah we just do theology here. We just evangelize here. We’re not really into social issues. OR we don’t really evangelize, we just feed people and trust that they’ll figure out how to be saved by a revelation.
They empowered a team (this is God's way: to have His children share the weight of ministry and steward/develop their gifts). REMEMBER Jesus said ask the Lord of the harvest, and in the very next verse, they were sent! Of
(A) diverse individuals (Nicolas a convert to Judaism from Antioch). It wouldn’t just be one homogenous group serving the diverse population they needed to reach with food. They also didn’t decide to have two groups, kinda separate but equal, to serve the Palestinian Jews and the Grecian Jews. Instead, it would be a diverse team, mutually benefiting each other with their gifts.
(B) capable of loving each other in their diversity (under persecution, Philip went straight to Samaria (Jews don't associate with Samaritans) and witnessed to an Ethiopian eunuch). ROLLAN AND I – he is exuberant, energetic, bold evangelist, light-up-the-room extrovert, with a Jamaican flair. I am an introverted, Swedish bookworm. That could either drive us crazy, or that could give us cause to celebrate and praise God for those differences that complement each other and fill out the beautiful fulsome picture of God’s infinitely amazing character.
(C) humble enough to serve in obscurity though amazingly and dramatically gifted. Stephen, we know you're full of faith and the Holy Spirit. People trust you ... So we want you to wait tables very Tuesday.
Stephen could have taken offense. I am so gifted and important, and they want me to take food to widows? No one sees my gift! No one values me! I know where I can find prominence -- with the Pharisees. I'm out of here.
Stephen could have bided his time and done a half-hearted job. I'll just wait til I am discovered. No one sees anyway. Instead, Stephen said: I am honored to serve. Thank God I have faithful leaders who want to empower me, not hoard responsibility for themselves. Thank God I have a commission to serve the poor, rectify ethnic injustice, and a good reason to be out preaching as I serve.
(D) good reputation (unimpeachable character -- they will rectify the problem and replace dissension with dynamism. Have you ever noticed, even when you are working for God with all your heart, accusations against your motives can still come? Maybe especially when you are working for God with all your heart. What’s needed are men and women, like Daniel, about whom it is said – “We can’t find anything on him, unless it’s something about his God.”)
(E) full of the Spirit (as they serve, they will preach the gospel. They’ll say, this is great! Now we can reach the Greek-speaking world, because I’m gonna witness to everyone who gets my food delivery.)
(F) full of wisdom (welcoming diverse perspectives while promoting the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Naturally there will be different ideas about how to do things, and it takes tremendous wisdom to listen to those viewpoints respectfully and reach a just, equitable conclusion.)
(G) able to take responsibility because they have been charged by the church leadership to make a difference. Laying hands confers commission, approval, blessing, and anointing.
Wow. What can happen with a team this great? Wisdom of diverse perspectives, filled with the Spirit, great reputations, connecting with the population they are going out to serve, devoted to rectifying injustice and bringing equity and fairness! Now that’s a team!
What happened when they got to work?
The REVIVAL
7 Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. (Acts 6:1-7)
(1) the Word of God spread and the disciples multiplied greatly!
(A) the apostles could focus on prayer and preaching the Word
(B) Stephen and others shared the Word as they served
(C) real and unhypocritical faith was on display. Ethnic unity was preserved as the church acted justly. Feeding the poor was done justly, not corruptly.
(2) priests became obedient to the faith!
(A) they had resisted the preaching of Jesus and worked to see Him killed
(B) they had initially opposed the apostles and had them persecuted
(C) they had everything to lose from a system that elevated common believers. They wouldn't have special seats in the synagogue anymore! They wouldn’t have a temple that corruptly extracted excess money from those who came to sacrifice. They were the last people you might have predicted would become obedient to the faith. So why turn to Christ now? They repented at the sight of the preaching of the gospel via an empowered church, ethnically diverse yet unified. They had seen the form of religion but denied its power their whole lives, but now – after they didn’t turn at the preaching of the greatest teacher who ever lived, his resurrection which they denied, the miracles in the early church – they repented because they saw authentic love in diversity.
Want to see those “hard cases” come to faith, those family members or friends who act like they would never believe? They will believe, when they see God’s church modeling just, authentic love in a diverse population. Watch the people you have prayed over for years and even decades repent when they see this. The world does not have it! The world’s choices seem to be either unrepentant anger, pointing fingers, closing doors, and huddling up with people exactly like me. They will know that you are Christians when they see this love, against all expectation, against the societal trend, in the face of every painful reality we are seeing in this great city.
Finally, the REVELATION. Even the apostles who had witnessed this experience needed a fresh revelation of God’s ultimate plan. I want to share three moments with you, when the apostles of God caught a vision for God’s design for the nations of the world, and the revelation transformed them forever.
34 PETER: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. (Acts 10:34-35)
24 PAUL: The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. (Acts 17:24-27)
9 JOHN: After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10)
When you catch that revelation, when it is written on your heart with the indelible ink of God’s Spirit, it will never leave you.
I want to close by reminding you of a comment from the Isaiah 60 message preached in September of 2013, about four key attributes that would mark this church. A penetrating light in deep darkness. A refuge of tranquility in a sea of turmoil. From a small beginning, a mighty army to reach thousands here and worldwide. And finally, love in diversity: a beautiful picture of God’s kingdom diversity from many nations will be joined together in your church family, and those who come will be able to build and minister with great efficacy. (Isaiah 60:5-10a)
You see, the Bible does not teach that nations and cultures are homogeneous, nor that their differences are irreconcilable ones. The biblical picture Isaiah shares is that even in the perfected future, national and ethnic distinctions persist. Tim Keller points out here that every culture brings something different, something for which it is known, and that each culture has strengths and contributions to the flourishing of mankind that cannot be replaced. This is a restoration of the beautiful diversity that existed within the twelve tribes of Israel. Further, these cultural distinctions will persist for all of eternity – John looked into heaven and saw a countless multitude of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. And so with this promise to the church comes a commission for every member in it – to demonstrate love in diversity, to model a community of believers from every nation about whom it may be said – see how they love each other! Jesus went through Samaria when his Jewish contemporaries who hated Samaritans walked miles out of the way to avoid it. Now that He has ascended to heaven, He has called each of us to show his love in diversity. Jesus is the one who reconciled divided foes both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity between them, and if you’ll allow Him, He’ll fill you with His love as your church fills up with a beautiful diversity of cultures, languages, and nations.
Let me summarize. The only hope to bring authentic, loving diversity to our city and world is the gospel of Jesus Christ lived out by the church of Jesus Christ. There is no plan B, no other alternative. There’s injustice at work in places where there ought to be justice. The goal is not just peaceful coexistence or separate but equal – remember how Martin Luther King said “I have a dream that one day the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.” Not peacefully coexist, but sit at the table together as brother and sisters. We cannot ignore the problem, or opt out because that’s “not our focus.” Instead, we must empower God’s diverse, loving, humble, wise, Spirit-filled, wisdom-oriented, anointed, unimpeachable team to sit at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood to rectify injustice. When we do, we will see the Word of God spread, those people who have rejected the gospel for years or decades turn to Jesus, as we embrace His revelation. Jesus has made the two one! Jesus reconciled enemies to Him through the cross, and we will see the full beauty of his variegated creativity in the church that is built.
Second City Church- Guest Speakers Series 2015
