Northside Church - Sydney
Christmas According to iTunes Top 20 Week 2: Get Along
He'll be listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Tonight, it's the Gospel according to Guy Sebastian's Get Along, and he says, "When all the worlds collide, all they know is to divide, and it's easy if they're faceless to hate the other side, and the others caught between are the only ones to bleed, and the ones they leave behind can only sit and cry, 'Dear God, dear soul, dear Mary, Muhammad, can we all just get along? Can we all just get along? Dear heart, dear life, dear soldier, dear Marta, where do we go wrong? Can we all just get along?" You know, I hear that and I go, "Ah, that's it." It's an emotional song, isn't it? It's like the modern day you heal the world, make it a better place, and I think Guy will do very well, but see, the reason why I picked this song, not so much for its retelling of the Gospel at Christmastime here, but because this song echoes the mindset of modern day society, right? When Guy says in his line, "Dear God, dear soul, dear Mary, Muhammad, look, what's the song getting at?" It's echoing our modern thinking, it's saying this, look, look at the world's religions, look at Christianity, look at new age spirituality, look at Catholicism, which is still Christianity, by the way, I'm not one of those people that say that Catholics aren't Christians. Look at Islam, their exclusive truth statements, their intolerant, their divisive, they kill the peace. Likewise, they reflect what the average person thinks, right? Like this guy from New York, he quoted this saying, "I think the problems arise whenever one group believes that it has the exclusive domain on truth or the exclusive hold on truth. I think that when you believe that you have the firm hold on truth, it leads to extreme behaviours at the detriment of others who may not believe what you do, it leads to intolerance." See, get along and the song and this guy from New York, get at one of the major objections to Christianity. That is, how can you claim that your religion has the one true truth? How can Christians in this modern day world have the audacity to say that Jesus Christ is the only way to God? And now, look, my wife is a big guy, Sebastian fan, and says she said, "Don't beat up on guy this Sunday, he's a Christian, and I'm not going to beat up on guy, in fact I follow him on Twitter, so you know, we're friends." But it's well known that guys are Christian, that's also well known for those of us that have been following him in that way, whether it's in Twitter or on the papers, that he's been through his music career at the moment and his perspective on Christianity as the one true religion is changing and it's evolving and the reason I picked Guy tonight is not to beat him up about the lyrics of his song, but because for each and every one of us tonight, Guy Sebastian is the perfect example of the great tension that we will face as Christians when your theology collides with society. And here's the tension that he is feeling at the moment when he pens this beautiful song. His attention on one hand, you know, to be a Christian is to hold absolutely, unswervingly to the exclusive truth that Jesus Christ is the only way to God. I mean, if you don't believe that, you're not a Christian. And yet on the other hand, the tide of modern day society says you have no right to think that you hold the only truth and the only way to God. That thinking's archaic, it's divisive. And if we're sensible about this guys, we can just sort it out ourselves, right? What society is saying is just do what the song says. Can't we all just get along, can't we all just get along? See what it's saying, it's saying dial down the intensity of your exclusive belief and we'll keep the peace. Dial it down. That's the tension that will exist. Are we absolutely, unswervingly committed to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Are we going to compromise? And tonight we'll see three things, a problem with the world's peace, the pattern of peace, and most importantly, the power for peace in that sense. Take a look at Isaiah, chapter eight, I'm going to read from 21 onwards through to chapter nine. It says distressed and hungry. Now this has written 500 years before Jesus was even born, talks about Jesus in that sense. It's what we call prophetic literature. It says distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land and when they are famished, they will become enraged and looking up upward, they will curse their king and their god and then they will look towards the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom and they will be thrust into utter darkness. Isn't that the images that we saw on the screen? Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who are in distress. In the past, he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Napoli but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles. That means nonbelievers by the way of the sea along the Jordan. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned for to us a child is born, to us a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called wonderful counsellor, mighty god, everlasting father, prince of peace. Guy says, you know, can we all just get along here? Can't we all just get along? And look, it sounds quite reasonable, right? That sounds reasonable. It's a reasonable statement, you're with me. But look, here's why it's not going to work, two reasons. One's intellectual and one's biblical. You see, the intellectual reason is how do I put it? It's the intolerance of tolerance. The intolerance of tolerance. You see, to say just be tolerant of everyone else's truth that all religions are the same, it won't work and here's why. I was in Demix yesterday, it was a hot day, where else to be, then the bookstore and the shops. And I'm going through the self-help section, I was in that sort of mood. And so this book that epitomizes the thinking of our modern day culture, it was by this guy called Elaine Botan, and unfortunate last name, and his book was titled Religion for Atheists. And on the back cover, it says all of us, whether religious, agnostic or atheist, are searching for meaning in life. In this wise and life-affirming book, Elaine Botan both rejects the supernatural claims of religions, yet points out how many great ideas they sometimes have and how we should live. He suggests that non-believers can sometimes learn by stealing from them. You see, what's really funny is to have that on the back of a book is actually an intolerant statement to make intellectually. Here's how the logic goes. See, see what Elaine's doing? He's assuming by collecting all the great bits of all the great religions of the world that somehow, Elaine and his brain and what he's put together, is greater his truth than all of the world's religions put together. You know what he's saying? He's saying, "I can see better than all of the great religions of the world." I mean, it's like he just woke up one day. Christianity's been around for 2,000 years, and he's like, "Oh, I've had an epiphany, you know? I see above that," you know, and so he's summarized it all for you, if you'd like that. And the great news is, the good news tonight in one sense is that it's available at Demix, all this wisdom for $22.99. Now, guys, seriously, look, if this wasn't the prevailing mindset of the world, this would be, you wouldn't put the book in the self-help, but it'd be in the comedy section. But look, look closely at what it says, again, all of us, whether religious, agnostic or atheist, are searching for many in life. You know what it's saying? Think about it, look, you've got to realize that no matter what everyone believes, everyone is making some sort of exclusive truth statement. Truth statement about who is God, what's the nature of reality? As a guy asks, "Where do we go wrong?" Every religion, philosophy is making an exclusive truth statement. Even atheists make an exclusive truth claim that there is no God. Ethics make an exclusive truth claim that I can't know if there's a God, and at the end of the day, everyone's standing on some form of exclusive truth. So, look, here's what I'm getting at. I hope I haven't. Are you still with me? Okay. Here's what I'm saying, guys. The argument that there are lots of truths and therefore every religion is valid, is in itself, is claiming to be more true than the truths of all the world's religions. And here's the thing to say that all religions are equally valid is to make them deny that the very things that make them special. The very things that they say is unique. To do that in and of itself, it's a universal truth that is making every other religious truth conform to it. That's unfair. It's intolerant. The intolerance of tolerance. That's the intellectual argument. You see, under this veneer of unity, the statement's actually divisive. It doesn't solve the problem intellectually. I call it the Lamborghini principle. It's a newspaper article. You can look it up. It's called "Overkill." Lamborghini replicated by Chinese farmer. Now, I don't know if you've seen this story right there, but first of all, because I read it because I thought, "What Chinese farmer is driving a Lamborghini?" I want to get into that sort of farming. But here's what the guy did. He went and took all the various panels and pieces of Nissons and Datsons and V-Dub goals, and he got out of Hammer, and he smashed him over in Anvil, and he got a bit of spray paint, and he pieced it all together, and he literally hammered about five or ten different cars into the shape of a Lamborghini, which, if you're not a car person, it's a very beautiful looking car, a very fast car in that sense. Now, did the thing go like a Lamborghini? No. Why? Because it's not a Lamborghini. It just looks like a Lamborghini. You know what he's doing? It's the Elaine Button principle. Why don't I take all the best bits of all the great cars of all the world and I'll make a supercar? And friends, do you think that that sort of approach is going to manufacture peace in the world? No. It's going to be a piece that's as much as a dud Lamborghini in a Chinese rice patty. The problem with peace in the world sense is that you cannot replicate it by simply looking at the outside peaceful appearances of all the best parts of the world's religion and hammer it together and think that we've got it. That's why guys' statement, "Can we all just get along?" is not going to work, guys. It's not going to work. You have to know why peace in the world is breaking down. You have to, as he says, know why or where do we go wrong? And that's where we get to the biblical reason at that sense. But our exclusive truth is the real issues here that you say your truth is your truth and my truth is my truth. If we go to our various truth corners, are we going to have you type here on earth? No. Who? See, there's a deeper issue here. The Bible says here, it's far deeper than that. It says that the problem, the problem is not just intellectual. The problem is there's been a destruction of Shalom. Are you thinking, what are you talking about? If you keep reading Isaiah 58, so if you go to the end of the book, we're in verse 8, it says here, it's talking about giving food to others, supporting others, and God speaking through the prophet Isaiah says, "Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter when you see the naked to clothe them and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?" And God, what's a poor wanderer, a wanderer is an alien, a stranger, and asylum seeker. And here we have God saying, you need to treat them as one of your own family. How could he do that? How could he apply this term family to another person of the human race? Because look, in ancient times, family was everything. Your family was everything. If your family was going great, you were going great. If your family was in tatters, you were in tatters in that sense. And as a result, what happened is family was so important it led to this concept of tribalism and it led to a funny concept that we know so well today called racism. Because my clan's my clan. And my clan has to survive over the top of the other clans. And here's the God of this divisive religion from the world's perspective saying, if there is a stranger of another race or nationality who is hungry and poor in your neighborhood today, there as much as your flesh and blood as if they were your family. Are you hearing this? God's saying, I hold you responsible for them. It's your job to do them justice. And your own pursuit of your own flesh and blood has made you blind to that. And I'm bringing you back to that, he says through Isaiah, look, what's he talking about? He's talking about the original design for the Lamborghini. He's talking about the true meaning of peace and the Bible describes it as Shalom. Shalom is so much more in terms of peace as concerned as it's so much more than just biting a tongue or getting on happy families while you're at work. Shalom, the way that the Bible talked about it was the weaving together of all of God's creation and humanity into this interdependent, intensely woven community of relationships, of fairness and fulfilment and delight. I mean, they had to put it this way. Look, if I throw a bunch of threads on a table, is it going to make a cross-stitch? I'll admit, I used a cross-stitch as a kid. See, I'm seeing a few of the blokes starting to nod, and we know that it's a safe place here. But if you've ever used a cross-stitch, right, if you haven't, it's this funny pattern-type diagram which has got a sort of black-and-white picture inked over the top of it. And there are lots of little holes in this template here that you then take these threads of wool or cotton and you begin to thread them together. And as you do so, this beautiful picture begins to emerge. And so what the Bible talks about, when it talked about the peace, not of the world but of God, it meant Shalom meant God built the world to be a cross-stitch. He had a vision, he had a plan inked on the very fabric of humanity and thread by thread and strand by strand and human relationship by a relationship. He was weaving it closer and tighter together into the most beautiful picture you've ever seen. That's what Shalom was. Can you see that? God designed the world to get along. God designed the world to do the very thing that God is screaming for. And yet he still says, "Where did we go wrong?" We talked about it last week, I won't hash on about it. But the story of Genesis in the Garden of Eden in the Bible is exactly that, that when we walked away from God, when we wanted to be our own gods, there was a breakdown of the physical relationship with him. It was a relational issue, not a behavioral issue. And so the world's religions in that sense, they're actually united, they're not divided on these particular statements. They believe that there isn't God, but the peace is broke. Because we've wandered from God, you see, the problem of peace is that we can't just get along. That won't fix it. That won't fix it at the intellectual level. I won't fix it at the biblical level to say, "Just get along." It's because what happened, what happened there in the Garden, what happened when we walked away from God, we pulled a thread. We pulled a thread out of the tapestry and it's never looked at the same sense. That's the problem with peace. That's what the Bible says from a Christian standpoint, from a Jewish standpoint, that's what it says. We're reading from Isaiah tonight. We both share the same book of the Bible. Two religions tightly divided, united in that sense, in the problem of peace in the world. So in that sense, it's broke intellectually, you can't manufacture it, that's a Lamborghini principle. At a biblical level, God built us to get along. It's a cross-stitch principle. And now, of course, we get from the problem of peace to the pattern of peace. You see, the bridge section of God's song, does anyone know it that well yet? Bridge section says, "Maybe if we'd worked together, then we'd already have a heaven here on earth." Come on, let's work together. But remember, Shalom's broken relationship. And how do you fix a relationship? I mean, that's a good question. How do you guys fix a relationship? Email. Twitter. Facebook. Actually, yeah, scrub Facebook. That's how a lot of people fix relationships these days. But I'm a bit old school. I'm still the kid of the '80s. And when I've got to fix a relationship, what do I do? I go there in person. I get personal. I get relational. And so that's where we begin to see the pattern of peace in that sense. When you fix a relationship, how I store put it, my sister and I were fighting once in the rumpest room downstairs. We had a two-story house. We were screaming at each other. I don't know what it was. Maybe I stole her journal yet again, and we were fighting. And it was just escalating to nuclear proportions. And so we were fighting-- and I don't know if you've ever done this, if you've got brothers or sisters, you've had kids, you know, what happens when a two-story house and you begin to hear it. And this fear would just rise up within us. And if we were really, really naughty, we'd hear this voice that says, "Don't make me come down there." And you see, guys, we heard it last week, that when it comes to the great conflicts of the world between nations, it was a relational issue, verse 6 of chapter 9 of Isaiah, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, everlasting father prince of peace." Can you see what the message of Christmas here is? Can you see what these words of Isaiah were being prophetic literary? You know what they were? Five hundred years before he came. And the father says, "Even back then, you're ripping yourself to shreds humanity. Don't make me come down there." And the incredible thing when we see the pattern of peace in this sense, you know, is that Dad comes down in the person of Jesus Christ and see, look, side note here, this is the reason why you can't do to Christianity what Allain Botan has done to all the religions of the world. You can't pick all the great little bits and pieces and teachings and the ideas and the philosophies of Jesus Christ and put them together in a book. You know why? Christianity is not a set of ideas, Christianity is not a philosophy, Christianity is a person. You can't do that to a person, to us a child is born, a person dead comes down, every other religion in the world is trying to get upstairs and ours comes down the stairs in order to fix the conflict. And you know what that person did? That's a lot different from a book. You know, John 1, hanging out with some boys, he says, "Come and see, come and eat with me, come and hang out with me, three o'clock this afternoon." Matthew 5, he's been teaching these guys for ages and he's been around for a good couple of years and he takes them to a small hill in modern-day Palestine and he puts them up there and he begins to say to them, "You've heard it said, do not murder, but I say do you don't even get so as much as angry with someone?" He gathers these people and he delivers the most brilliant sermon but it was so much more than a sermon. You know what he was doing? He was eating and he was drinking and he was gathering and he was getting them all together and he was teaching them what's Jesus doing? He's taking every lost strand, every little bit of wool, every scattered thread of humanity and he's weaving the relationships back together, he's reworking the cross stitch, he's restoring shalom. The prince of peace is demonstrating the pattern of peace, the pattern of peace first it happened with 12 guys and then it explodes to 3,000 guys and then it explodes throughout the reasons of Jerusalem, Judea and towards the ends of the earth, then it affects the entire Roman Empire and it's still affecting the world today. You know what the pattern of peace is called? It's called the church. It's called the church of Jesus Christ and the very pattern and the way that he was weaving these lives back together continues today in that sense. Where else in the world can you get a CEO sitting next to a homeless man? Where else in the world can you get an Arab and an Asian and an Aussie sitting together having a laugh over a meal? It doesn't happen anywhere else in the world but it happens in the church. Your friends, through us, the church, we're the ones that can answer Guy Sebastian's question, can we all get along? Yes, yes we can, beyond the bounds of socioeconomics and race. You know I'll never forget the day when I chatted to our good mate Ali, I'm always talking about him from Iran, I love Ali, he's such a character. Anyway, he's come from that Islamic background and his faith there and he hung out with us for quite a season here in this place. I said Ali, what's the difference for you? Why do you keep coming back? Why do you want to observe this place? What's the difference in your experience? He said to me, Sam, he goes back home, my people will read these words and that's it. He said the thing I've discovered in this place is you live these words on the page. Friends, the church of Jesus Christ, us is the very answer to the question, can we really get along? I mean all the world's problems in one hit, but it's a start. That's the pattern of peace. But you know what, it's not enough as we've finished tonight, never enough. You could know the problem of a peace, you can practice the pattern of peace which is church but how do we get it? What will bring peace, real peace? I mean what will overcome, here's the thing, what will overcome within a person a deep hatred? What will overcome a lifetime of simmering racial bias that's been handed down throughout the generations? What will overcome, I mean, unending self-interest in people? What has got the power to do that with people? I mean these are the things that the world wants to see less of, racism and hatred and conflict and intolerance in that sense, right? How do we overcome this? It's the gospel. I can't say anything as a preacher and a pastor and a follower of Jesus Christ. I can't say it in anything else, it's the gospel. What is the gospel? What's the message of Jesus Christ? The God doesn't sit up there in his ivory tower watching us and hoping that we might finally get our act together in the rumpest room but that he's come down the stairs. And where does he go? This is the amazing thing about our God. He doesn't bust our heads in, pull us apart, give us a good smack. He takes the smack himself, he goes to the cross, Luke 23, verse 34 and Jesus said Father forgive them for they do not know what they're doing and they divided up his clothes by casting lots and people stood there watching and the rulers even sneered at him and they said he saved others, let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the chosen one. What was Jesus doing there? Have you ever ripped a really good suit? Have you ever ripped a really good dress, experienced the heartbreak of that thing? You're going to have to chuck it out. Why? Because if you rip a good suit or dress you can try and sell it back together but if the roots right in the front here you always know that there's going to be an ugly sowing pattern there and back in the 70s it was okay because patches were cool back then but not so much these days. You knew that there was going to forever be a scar between where these two wonderful tapestry of material was originally woven together for its desired purpose. What's Jesus doing at the cross saying therefore since we have been justified through faith this is Romans chapter 5 we have a peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. You know what I'm saying at the cross it means you have a shalom with God. What's he doing at the cross? He's taking the tapestry which had been ripped apart and instead of just sowing the whole thing together, strand by strand by strand by strand he takes every lost sheep as the Bible says and he begins plugging it back in with the threads and the design that it was built for. There is no scar between the great garment which you were designed to be wrapped into but there's no scar in the work of Jesus Christ the perfect work with him on the cross. You know when you see what Jesus, look here's what happened when Dad came downstairs. The Prince of Peace as Isaiah says, the real peace, the heavenly peace at the heart of Christianity here is a man who is giving his life in sacrifice for people who hate him. Here's a man who dies crying out for the forgiveness of those that would drive in the nails into his hands. Here's a man who loved his enemies he didn't spit on him and here's a funny thing he calls us to do the same. He calls us to do the same. Now that's how you get along. That's the power of peace in that sense, you're saying prove it, prove it. Give me 30 seconds here. You know it's one of the great paradoxes of history that Christianity took off in one of the most religiously open societies of the world. This exclusive truth holding religion exploded in the most open and tolerant societies. Back then you could pick whatever religion you wanted. It was like a supermarket, you wanted this God for fertility, grab that one today, want this God for wealth, grab that God there today. You could choose whatever God you wanted and these Christians come into that place and they preach no. There's not many God but one God and Jesus is the only way to him and in that what happens when this power of peace, the gospel is preached. What happens? Antioch. A city that was designed in order to keep the various races out. You know what happened? People were scrambling the walls to do church. You see in Antioch, Christians got along even in spite of racial differences. And we've just been through the book of Philippians, remember Philippi, Lydia and the slave girl and the Philippian jailer, Paul goes and preaches the gospel and what happens? They all get together at home church for a meal. Christians got along in spite of the socio-economic divides and then in Rome in a city that was so open and you could have whatever religion you want when there was great plagues in this unbelieving society, all the Romans are running for the hills and these crazy people running in the opposite direction to care for the unbelieving sick and who were they? The Christians. When the gospel was preached in Rome, Christians got along in spite of the power differences and the belief differences. There's the proof that's how Christianity took off and so here's the thing, why would this exclusive statement lead to such a humble, loving and inclusive community? Here's the thing. It's because those that call themselves a Christian, only in Christianity do we see a God loving others by dying for those that don't love him. That's the ultimate reality for a Christian. You know when Christians look at that and they take that into the very heart of who they are, into the interior of their life, how can they be superior to other people that are not at the same race as them? When they see that, how can they abuse others out of their own self-interest? When they see that, how can they put down people of a different socio-economic class? They wouldn't. They didn't. And when they took that into their hearts, you know what happened? They got along and so can we. That's the power of peace in the gospel, guys, everyone has a set of exclusive beliefs. Just like every religion and philosophy is, postmodernism's got it, atheism's got it, Islam's got it, Christianity's got it. And so therefore here's the question I want to ask you, I'm not choving this on you tonight. The question you need to ask yourself then is, which, not which religion or society is the most open and tolerant in that sense, but which exclusive beliefs, exclusive holding on to true statements result in the most open and tolerant behavior in its followers? That's the power of the Prince of Peace. You won't find a lasting peace in this world by simply just applying tolerance, but the gospel don't aim for tolerance, aim for the gospel, and tolerance will flow. That's the power. And so two quick applications. If you're a Christian tonight, what does this mean? How do we deal with extremism? How do we not become one of those sorts of churches? Look at verse 7, chapter 9. He'll be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And the government will be on his shoulders. You know, the funny thing there, extremism is extinguished when you realize that the government of God, the responsibility for the running the world, doesn't rest on your shoulders, it rests on his. Christians can get that, live a balanced life in that sense. Guys, when it comes to racial and ethnic unity, the one way that we as Christians will prove to the world that Christianity is true is through our unity. People of different races and different socio-economic backgrounds come together for a meal tonight. We can practice it tonight, hang out with us, have a meal, and celebrate our differences. But as I finish tonight, maybe, just maybe you're the person that's got that objection to Christianity. Maybe you're trying to suss this whole thing out, and you think what guys been singing about, you think what the modern world thinks, and that is, how can I believe in Christianity when it seems so exclusive? And so can I ask you, you know, if you're saying I can't believe in Christianity because it sounds too exclusive, look, your decision not to follow Jesus will still be based on an exclusive statement, if I can get intellectually tricky with you tonight. It'll still be an exclusive truth statement that you're holding to, it's just not that Jesus is the Son of God, and so therefore can I ask a deeper question, maybe it's not intellectual for you, maybe it's because Christianity is too personal. It's not a philosophy, it's a person, it's the prince of peace. And so in that sense, look, a book from Demyx for you, it's good, but it's safe. A book's not going to call you to do anything, a book's not going to get you out of bed of a morning, a book's not going to get you to change your life, you just read the words, but a person, people get in your face, people challenge you to do stuff, people are right there, sometimes you're not in control, and you're saying, look, this sounds restrictive, it sounds like following Jesus is a restrictive thing, and of course it is. What would happen if a cross stitch was not restrictive? What if you could just sow wherever you wanted to go, I tried it once and it didn't look very pretty? Friend of course Christianity is restrictive, of course Christianity is exclusive, but so is a cross stitch, and the tighter the threads the more beautiful it is, and trying to lead your own life tonight, well it's like trying to push a piece of string, you can't push a piece of string, it needs to be led, look, Jesus didn't cross the universe, if I can reassure you, if you're wondering about following it, Jesus didn't cross the universe in order to make your life harder, he's here to weave you back in, to bring you home peace, mental peace, physical peace, spiritual peace, you can have that tonight if you want to give your life to him. Guys, the guy asked the question, can we all just get along, can't we all just get along? The postmodern world says no because your beliefs, our beliefs as Christians are too exclusive, and we need to dial back the intensity of our belief in that truth, therefore as a Christian tonight, you and I stand on that spectrum of compromise or commitment to the truth that we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that he's the only way to the Father, but don't be fooled guys, look, you can find a Lamborghini-style peace by taking all the great bits of the world's great religions and patching it together, but it won't last long, and it won't go far, you need the peace of the gospel, and when you get the gospel you'll get tolerance, you'll get peace out of all of that, look, the guy says can we all just get along, and Christianity says yes, of course, if you want peace then look to its prince, the one who at the cross, forgiving those who are hitting the nails into his hands, praying for those that hated him, that's how we get along.