PH 5-minute Bible teaching
Razing and Raising
The Christian faith offers boundaries. Not boundaries that inhibit as the world understands it; boundaries that free us to flourish. That was the idea behind a recent message I preached. I wanted to send you this clip from it discussing how submission to Christ will both raze and raise walls.
Thanks to our friends at Creative Financial Design (find an adviser near you right here), you can check it out below!
Hope this can be an encouragement to you today! If you would prefer to just listen to the clip, you can do that by downloading this link. The transcript of the clip is below it.
Transcript: Razing and raising
Tue, Mar 14, 2023 : Peter Heck
NOTE: This is an automated transcription, please overlook typographical and grammatical errors.
(Begin transcript)
All right, so you see what's going on here, the disciples, Peter and John, clear lines, right and wrong, they have no shame. And why? Because it's not their authority. It's not their opinion, they can speak with boldness, because it's his authority. It says, Look, we have submitted to Christ, we are totally on board with this. So I have no choice. You can be mad at me if you want. But you're not going to stop me from proclaiming this because it's true.
Today, the worldly Pharisees, the teachers of the law of our day, who are preaching a different religion, the religion of the age, the spirit of the age, they will demand your submission to, and they will demand your fealty to the spirit of the age, and they will criticize you and your faith. And they'll say this, “your message is exclusive. It's discriminatory, it outlaws all of these other people, it sets these boundaries that cuts all of these other people off. You cannot say that is immoral or that is wrong. We've seen that, we've talked about that. And the danger is that a lot of people in the church are tempted by that.
Because here's what we think we think, “Well, shouldn't we want to erase lines between us? Shouldn't we want to tear down walls? Isn't that what Jesus came to do to tear down walls? And we misunderstand this?”
Listen, if there was a “my truth” and “your truth,” then yes, absolutely, we should tear down every wall that exists between us, no matter what it is that people do, whatever it is that they believe. It's their truth, and I've got my truth.
So if that is the reality, then of course tear down every wall. Who would any of us be to dismiss someone else's truth? I've got mine. And he's got his. And I think one of the reasons so many churches struggle with this idea is because we have adopted the philosophy of the age, which is everybody has their own truth. That's the reality. Take sexual orientation. And the churches that affirm – affirm means to put a stamp of approval on whatever gender identity or sexual orientation a person says, that's a very hip thing to do. And a lot of churches think that's how we show love.
Why do they do that? Well, this is who they are, this is who they believe they are, and therefore we must affirm that they have their truth. And while it’s not necessarily for us, it is for them. So we will affirm that that's this philosophy right here.
Why does our church not do that? Well, there's a reason this church doesn't do that. And it's pretty simple. The New Testament of Jesus does not reveal a gospel of personal preference. That's not what the New Testament is. So if you are a New Testament Christian, let me give you the words of John and Peter, you have no choice. You don't, you're bound by this. It's a gospel that offers all of us a choice, choose Jesus, or choose yourself. And if you choose yourself, then of course, by all means, accept and affirm the choices of whoever, for whatever reason, because you have no authority over them. You have authority over your own life, but not theirs.
But if you submit to Jesus, he has all authority in heaven and on earth, over all men in all places and all things he is the ultimate authority. And when you submit to that, yes, it will break down some walls, but it will also raise other walls. That's the reality that I see in Acts chapter four. Peter's building a pretty big wall when he says salvation is found in no one else. There is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. That is a big wall that's being raised.
When I say that certain walls will be torn down, you got to follow this. I'm very proud of this. So I really need your attention. Okay. Walls between believers are razed. That's R-A-Z-E-D, which means broken down. So good. Walls between believers are raised by Jesus. They're broken down between Christians why? That's what Paul says to the Galatians. “There's neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female, you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
That's why if you leave this church and you go to Africa, and you worship with a group of Christians, they're family. Because ethnic boundaries, racial boundaries, language, boundaries, none of it gender boundaries, none of it matters. We are all family in Christ Jesus, those walls are broken down. But walls between Christians in the world are raised by Christ. That is just quality stuff. If that's not written down on the back of your paper, you got a problem. Because this is what Paul says, then to the Corinthian church, “do not be yoked together with unbelievers for what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?”
But so many of our American churches are just mangling this? We're trying to blend Light and Darkness together. We're trying to blend fellowship between righteousness and wickedness and thinking somehow we're keeping with the gospel of Christ. No, we have to accept certain walls are broken down and other walls are raised up. That's the reality of truth.
(End transcript)