Sermons in Brief - Mini Messages from Pastor Harmon
The Six Blind Men of Hindustan and
Holiness of Heart and Life"
Part 4 - Matthew 5:43-48
I have a blasphemous sign in my study (at least according to the scriptures we just read). It’s biblical heresy: “Nobody’s purfick.”
We have all seen signs, posters, bumper stickers that say” “Pobodies Nerfect.”
Have you heard this bit of logic? Nobody’s Perfect. I’m a Nobody. I must be perfect.
Then we’ve all met someone who thinks this way: “Nobody’s Perfect (but me)”
Deep down in our hearts we believe “nobody’s perfect.” Why then does Apostle Paul try so hard according to Colossians 1:28-29?
“We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.”
Why then does Apostle Paul even bother closing out his letter to Corinthians—with this farewell: 2 Corinthians 13:11
“Finally, brothers, good-by. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.”
And why does Jesus, our Lord set before us a seemingly impossible imperative? Matthew 5:48 “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
What’s worse--why do you belong to Lakeview Church of the Nazarene, affiliated with the International Church of the Nazarene, a denomination which holds to a doctrine of “Christian Perfection”?
Here’s our article of faith:
X. Entire Sanctification>
13. We believe that entire sanctification is that act of God, subsequent to regeneration, by which believers are made free from original sin, or depravity, and brought into a state of entire devotement to God, and the holy obedience of love made perfect.> <> This experience is also known by various terms representing its different phases, such as "Christian perfection," "perfect love," "heart purity," "the baptism with the Holy Spirit," "the fullness of the blessing," and "Christian holiness."
Either you didn’t know, or you don’t care that’s what we believe: after all Nobody’s Perfect.
We’ve been talking about holiness of heart and life. The subject can be pretty baffling, confusing, and perplexing sometimes.
Holiness. . .either we might be new to the church and never thought much it or we’ve been around the church, and have heard holiness defined in so many ways, we’re not sure what we believe.
“Christian Perfection” is one those definitions of holiness which contribute to the puzzlement.
Last week we talked about the fact that there are many “Contributing Notions” of holiness (from the book Relational Holiness by Thomas Oord and Michael Lodahl). These tend to lend to the bewilderment until we may appear to be like the Blind Men Hindustan trying to describe an elephant.
There are many contributing notions of holiness:
Rules and regulations
Purity or cleansing
Set apart or separation
Total commitment
Christian perfection
Christlikeness
In addition, we have spoken in the last few weeks about finding the “Core notion” of holiness: LOVE (from the book Relational Holiness by Thomas Oord and Michael Lodahl).
--LOVING GOD WITH ALL OUR HEART, SOUL, MIND, AND STRENGTH
--LOVING OUR NEIGHBOR AS OUR SELF
GOD WHOLEHEARTEDLY. . .OTHERS UNSELFISHLY
“Holiness is love-mastered life.” Said G. Campbell Morgan.
In fact, John Wesley, our spiritual and theological forefather once wrote:
“By perfection I mean the humble, gentle, patient love of God and our neighbour, ruling our tempers, words, and actions.”
There’s that term “Perfection” again!
Perfection. Christian perfection. This haas always been a contributing factor in describing the elephant of holiness. What does it have to do with the “Core notion” of love?
What does it have to do with Jesus’ imperative to “Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect”?
Let’s first ask the question: Perfection: IMPOSSIBLE?
Perfection is impossible if we try to understand it like 21st c Americans and not try to understand the Biblical meaning of the word. We 21st c Americans understand perfection as. . .Well. . . being perfect !
I read of a pastor/educator who said his wife and daughters love to watch ice-skating on television. So because he and his son love the women in our lives, they endure ice-skating on television!
It was 1993, he and his oldest daughter and were watching the Winter Olympics and keeping a close eye on the women's figure-skating events. Nancy Kerrigan seemed to have overcome her knee-bashing incident and was now skating for the gold. The tension was high as Nancy went through the routine she had practiced literally hundreds of times. The international judges were scrutinizing every move she made. The pressure was mounting. Evidently the pressure on the pastor’s daughter was too much. She threw her hands up in disgust and said in an exasperated voice said: "I hate the Olympics!"
Surprised he asked: "Why?"
She said: "Because they expect you to be perfect - and you can't be!" (C.S.Cowles, The Preacher’s Magazine, Nov. 13, 2005)
For us perfection is an absolute thing. We take it to mean without flaw or error, excellence, flawlesslessness, faultlessness.
If we define holiness in terms of this kind of perfection and in these terms it is no wonder we are confused, baffled, puzzled. If perfection is absolute precision then it is an impossibility when it comes to human beings.
· Shaq still misses an occasional lay-up
· Zabranski—throws interceptions
· Tiger Woods still slices an occasional drive
· Albert Einstein didn't come up with atomic principles every time he put pen to paper.
· The best baseball players in history can be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame for having a lifetime batting average of .300. They got on base 3 times out of ten!
So what did Jesus mean by “be perfect”?
A. The word he uses—teleios—means nothing to us of course, but I want you nonetheless to write it in the margin of your Bible. It means “end”, “intended purpose”. A thing is perfect if it answers the purpose for which it was intended—it’s true design.
The famous example is of a pen. I have a Cross pen with my name engraved on it “Dufus.” My mother-in-law gave it to me when I graduated with my D.Min. The lettering ahs worn off and the thingy which holds it in my pocket is bent. The ink cartridge runs out and must be replaced. But it is a PERFECT PEN because it fulfills its purpose. It does what it was designed to do. It answers its appointed end.
There are some ten year old boys hear today. Scrawny, smelly, with scuffed knees.
They need haircuts. They are perfect because they act like 10 year old boys. Now, when your–husband acts like a ten year old, which sometimes he does, he is not perfect! That’s not his intended purpose.
What’s our intended purpose? Just read the context where Jesus says “be perfect”
43"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44But I tell you: Love your enemies] and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Love. Love is our design. Love is our intended purpose. Love is the end for which we were created!
Christian perfection is not absolute, not sinless, not angelic. Christian perfection is a matter of love. That’s how others will know we are children of the Heavenly Father Jesus says!
Adam Clarke, who wrote the great Adam Clarke Commentary, a classic Wesleyan Holiness work said: “As God requires every man to love his neighbor as himself then he is a perfect man that does so; he answers the need for which God made him.”
B. This word --teleios—also means complete, mature, full grown, grown up.
Luke uses telios to talk about fruit coming to maturity and of a race being finished.
We, as children, always called adults “Grown ups”. We don’t hear that much any more. We sat at the children’s table not the “grown ups” table, during reunions.
WHEN IS A CHRISTIAN GROWN UP? When his or her life operates in love. When decisions are made in love. When reactions are reactions of love and responses are responses of love.
That is why the Apostle Paul’s goal in Colossians 1:28-29 was:
“We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.”
His desire was for his people to be Grown ups.
Someone wrote: “Christian perfection is looking at every person we meet through the eyes of Jesus and saying: "God helping me, I will never do anything to hurt you. I will not angrily lash out at you, lustfully use you, faithlessly leave you, verbally deceive you, protectively strike back at you, or justifiably hate you."
But it is more than what we won’t do it is also what we will do:
Promoting good
Furthering wholeness
Encouraging well-being
Advancing welfare
Let’s ask the next question
Perfection: Impractical?
Sure it is! Christian perfection is love. Love that Jesus requires proves we are God’s children. It means loving neighbors and enemies and praying for persecutors. Totally impractical!
Matthew 5: 43 "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor[h] and hate your enemy.' 44But I tell you: Love your enemies[i] and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.
Jesus moves from neighbors to include enemies but he doesn’t know my neighbors!
It’s hard sometimes to love my neighbors, much less my enemies! My neighbors have this big dog they let loose. The dog comes over and poops in my yard.
Yes, the pastor said “poops”. Visitors step in it.
My neighbors even come into our house via the backdoor usually without knocking. We keep bags of chips, pretzels, popcorn on the back porch. Our
neighbor’s wife helps herself!
Enemies?—Jesus let me tell you about my neighbors!
No,–those of you who don’t know, our neighbors are my son and daughter in law!
While all of what I said was true, we love our neighbors. But I think you catch my meaning!
Love ,whether neighbor or enemy, seems a pretty impractical way of defining holiness! But no matter how bizarre, no matter how impractical, no matter how impossible, if we are serious about following Jesus, if we are to take Jesus seriously, we have no choice but to HEAR what He had to say.
Let’s consider
Perfection: Imperative!
Perfection: acting, reacting, responding in love is an imperative, a command.
We deal with people in love, because that is how the Heavenly father deals with people. His sun rises on the good and bad. His rain showers on the righteous and unrighteous. It is not just sun and rain that is poured out but He pours his love and grace upon all! Nowhere is that seen more clearly than the cross! “For God so loved the world, the whole world, that he gave …”
Dr. C.S. Cowles relates that some years ago, the news came that four Point Loma Nazarene University students had a terrible accident while on their way home.
The driver fell asleep and drove at about 90 miles an hour into the back of a parked semi-truck. Esther was killed instantly. Her sister, Elizabeth, died about 20 days later.
At the funeral friends had already filed by and paid their last respects. Only the family was left in the sanctuary and one heavily bandaged young man in half a body cast. He was the driver of the death car. He had just been released from the hospital for this funeral. Painfully he raised himself up, got his crutches under his arms, and hobbled down the aisle to stand before the casket of his fiancée. As he stood there, the girls’ mother got up, came over, and stood beside him. Then she put her arm around him, pulled his head down, and whispered in his ear, “I love you!”
Holy love
Sanctified love
Mature grown up love
But you say—I can’t DO that! I can’t live like that. Neither can I—without God’s love and help. But it isn’t your doing and it isn’t my doing. It’s as John says
(Let me direct you again to 1 John ) It’s as John says:
GOD LIVING IN US, ABIDING IN US
AND HIS LOVE BEING PERFECTED IN US
LET ME READ:
If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17By this, love is perfected with us…
IN OTHER WORDS
WE OPEN OUR HEARTS AND LIVES
TO THE FULLNESS OF HIS LOVE
HE LIVES IN US BY HIS SPIRIT
WE DRAW FROM HIS LOVE
WHICH HE SHOWED US
THAT LOVE BECOMES VISIBLE IN OUR LOVE FOR OTHERS
I went to school (NNC and Nazarene Seminary) with a neat young man with the greatest smile. He is now Missionary Field Superintendent in the country of Uganda.
One Sunday morning when he was Junior High School his Mom, Dad and their 5 children were in the car on their way to Sunday School. The children were busy memorizing their Sunday School verse for the day, when a drunk came around the corner too fast in a pickup, crossed the center line, and hit the car right at the driver’s doorpost. It smashed the back door into the oldest son, killing him instantly. It tore up the body and face of the oldest daughter who has subsequently had over 20 operations. While they were waiting for the ambulance to return to pick up the rest of the family, the two-year-old girl, whom they thought was not injured, died in her mother’s arms, of internal injuries.
Of course, the driver of the pick-up was unscathed. Bud Anderson, my college friend’s father was so full of anger. Rage overwhelmed him. When he recovered from the shock he had so much boiling in him that he went to the altar at church and poured it all out in agonizing prayer. Gradually, there was superimposed over the image of that drunk staggering around on the highway, the image of Jesus on the cross, saying, “Father, forgive them.” He went to the jail where the driver was held, told him that he was a Christian, that he forgave him. The man was so overwhelmed that he burst into tears.
Come to find out, he wasn’t your typical drunk at all. He was a working man who had been out of work for months, couldn’t find a job anywhere, had lost his car, was out of unemployment, and was about to lose his house. In despair he had gone to the bar for a few drinks and the rest is history.
A friendship was built which resulted in this man and his whole family coming to know Christ. Bud took care of the man’s wife and children while he served a prison term for manslaughter, helped him to find a job when he was released,
and the whole family was saved for Christ and the church.
Bud had two other sons, then in junior high, only slightly injured. One was my friend Dan and the other was Ted. They saw how their father responded to the man who wiped out nearly half of his family. They said, “I want my Dad’s kind of religion!” They committed their lives to Jesus.
Ted Anderson went to Point Loma Nazarene University and is on their faculty today. Dan went to NNC and then Seminary, and is today serving as a Nazarene missionary and field director in Uganda. You and I simply have no idea what might happen when we do it Jesus’ way:
HIS LOVE SHED ABROAD IN OUR HEARTS—MAKING IT POSSIBLE FOR US TO LOVE.