No gimmicks, no brainwashing, just the Gospel
Recently the Wall Street Journal ran a story entitled “God isn’t dead in Gotham.” And
no, the article doesn’t say anything about Batman. The
article talks about the unlikely growth of a church in New York City, a city
where God is supposed to be dead, and like one pastor said, “a
city where churches go to die.”
This successful
church plant was started by Tim Keller who is a pastor in the Presbyterian
Church of America. Keller held his first
service at Redeemer Church in 1989 and the church grew from 200 to 1200 members
in just three years. Keller estimates
that a third of those members had never attended church before in their
lives. As of September of 2001, Redeemer
had an average Sunday attendance of about 2,900. The Sunday after 9/11 Redeemer welcomed 5,700
for worship.
While every
church or place of worship in New York saw a spike in worship on the Sundays
following the 9/11 attacks, most churches returned to normal attendance levels
in the following months. However,
Redeemer never went back under 3,700 people for worship.
At this point
you might be asking, what is the catch?
What was this guy preaching? Is
Keller another Joel Osteen? Is he
another prosperity gospel preacher who tells the people only what they want to
hear, a preacher who says that God blesses those who do good and pray hard
enough. What is the gimmick? Is this guy handing sacks of candy to
children? How is he brainwashing these
poor souls, right?
Turns out there
are no gimmicks. There are no tricks, no
brainwashing. There is only the message
of the gospel. In his interview with the
WSJ, Keller is quoted for saying, “Cheer up, you’re worse than you
think. As humans, we are more fallen
than we ever dare admit or even believe.” But Keller follows with the good
news. At the same time people are “more
loved in Christ and more accepted than they could ever imagine or hope.”
Is that really
the gospel you might be asking? Well let’s
go to the source and look at the very first words out of Jesus’
mouth in Mark’s gospel. Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good
news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom
of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” These words from our Savior provide
the foundation of the good news—repent and believe in the good news.
Everything we
stand for as Christians, as followers of Christ hang on these two statements—repent
and believe in the good news.
Everything we believe starts by realizing that we can never achieve
salvation on our own, no matter how good we are. The only way to salvation is through the
righteousness of Christ, through the one who makes us good by his blood through
his atoning sacrifice on the cross.
Today’s
gospel lesson makes abundantly clear that Jesus’
first followers are hungry to hear this good news and this good news
starts with these two words—repent and believe. Scripture says that Jesus calls out to Simon
and his brother Andrew as they are casting their nets out into the sea. Jesus calls out to these brothers in a very
personal way. He uses words that they
understand as fishermen and says, “Follow me and I will make you fish for
people.” And
immediately they drop their nets and follow him.
Immediately. No prayers. No discernment. No huddle. Immediately Simon and Andrew drop
their nets and follow Jesus. They leave
their jobs, their families, their way of life and follow him. It is obvious that these fishermen are hungry
for the message of salvation. Why else
would they leave everything they know? Why else would they leave good jobs to
follow this Jesus character into the wilderness? Because they are hungry, just like Keller’s
congregation in New York, to hear the words repent and believe
in the good news.
But why
are these fishermen so hungry for this news?
What is so wrong with the world they are living in? It can’t be that bad. At least they have jobs and family and a way
of life. I won’t bore you with too
much church history but you have to remember that Jesus was born when tensions
between Jerusalem and Rome were at their worst.
Once again, the people of Israel are about to lose their land and livelihood
to a foreign invader. Once again, the
people of Israel are on the brink of defeat and their God is nowhere to be
found.
The consequence
is that more and more people are losing faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob in favor of the false promises that are being handed out by the Roman
Empire. These promises say that Rome can
give you anything you could ever dream of-wealth, security, prosperity, you
name it, Rome’s got it. Rome is the
new world power. Rome can give you
salvation now because Rome can give you anything you want.
The first
disciples Simon, Andrew, James, and John are very aware of this Roman
propaganda. They know that Rome is
giving their people a false message of salvation. But they are helpless as they watch those
they love leave the one true God for a message that says, believe in Rome and
all your fantasies will come true.
They are
helpless as their friends fall for a false message of hope, a message that
seems tempting on the front end but a message that will only fail them in the
end. But what can they do about it? They are simple peaceful fishermen. The way they see it all they can do is go on
casting their nets into the sea like they have always done.
But God has
other plans. God plucks these fishermen
off the boat and gives them a message they can get behind—repent
and believe in the good news. God is
promising them another kingdom, a kingdom where promises actually amount to
something, a kingdom that won’t disappoint, a kingdom that they can
be a part of if they just leave the old world behind.
They do leave the old world behind and they do so with haste. Again, Simon, Andrew, James, and John immediately drop their nets to follow Jesus. Why? Because they know that there must be a better way than the false promises of Rome, than the way of instant gratification, than the way of putting one’s own needs before the needs of others. Even 2,000 years later, we all know what it is like to live in Rome. We all know the false promises that the world tries to feed us everyday—in media, in politics, even in the church.
They do leave the old world behind and they do so with haste. Again, Simon, Andrew, James, and John immediately drop their nets to follow Jesus. Why? Because they know that there must be a better way than the false promises of Rome, than the way of instant gratification, than the way of putting one’s own needs before the needs of others. Even 2,000 years later, we all know what it is like to live in Rome. We all know the false promises that the world tries to feed us everyday—in media, in politics, even in the church.
The question
before us this morning asks, how ready are you to leave the old world
behind? How hungry are you to drop your nets and follow Jesus? Maybe you are like these first
disciples. Like the old spiritual says, there’s
no turnin’ back.
You’ve already dropped your net.
But then again, maybe you aren’t quite ready. Maybe that net is a little too comfortable in
your hand. You can’t
drop it, not yet—you need more time. Or maybe you don’t even know you are
holding onto a net. Maybe you aren’t
ready to face your deepest darkest fears and disappointments.
I think we all
weave back and forth through these various stages of discipleship. Even Simon the first disciple, the one whom
Jesus will eventually name Peter, will deny Christ. Even the one whom Christ builds his church
upon will stumble and lose faith. But
remember there is good news. The good
news is that we have a God whose property is always to have mercy. With every fall, with every stumble, with
every lapse in judgment, our God is right there to call us back up and try
again.
Simon Peter knew
this truth of God’s mercy better than most because Simon
Peter stumbled and and fell a lot. But
Jesus was always right there to call him back.
The best example of this starts during Jesus’
trial and sentencing, when Peter denies Christ three times in order to
save his own skin. Peter would be first
to admit this was his biggest failure.
But on the beach
after the day of resurrection Jesus calls to Peter again three separate times,
Do you love me? And three times Peter
replies, “Yes Lord, you know that I love you.” And once again, Jesus issues the call
to Simon Peter, “follow me.” And Peter follows Christ until his
martyrdom.
In the same way,
Jesus is trying to reach you through your biggest disappointments and greatest
failures. Jesus is trying to tell you
not to be afraid of your brokenness because your brokenness is the very part of
you that Jesus wants to heal. You don’t
have to hide behind your nets anymore.
There is good news. There is a
better way and it starts when you repent, when you turn around and look to
Jesus.
To repent is
going to mean something a little different for everyone. For some of us, repent means that we need to
stop trying to find our ultimate value through our careers or our jobs. For others, repent means that we need to stop
trying to find our identity through what others think about us especially those
closest to us. Sometimes repent simply means
that we need to stop labeling ourselves and others: conservative or liberal;
republican and democrat; Episcopalian or Presbyterian; rich or poor; happy or
sad; gay or straight; white or black and simply see one another as beloved sons
and daughters of God.
Ultimately, to
repent literally means to turn around, to reorient your life. Jesus is in the wilderness calling us to
reorient our lives toward God. Think
about it like this. What is your
ultimate concern right now? Is it…money?
your career? your family? escaping to another planet? a sporting event? fame?
power? social status? your health? proving that you are right? maintaining your
self image? What or who are you living for right now? If your answer isn’t God, then Jesus is calling you to repent.
Jesus is calling
us to turn around and believe the good news.
The good news of Christ means that we can turn away from the false
promises of Rome. We can
turn away from these false measures of value and self-worth that the media and
culture try to convince we need.
God is trying to
tell us that we don’t need to be the skinniest, smartest,
best-looking, healthiest, trendiest, highest paid person on our block in
ordered to be seen as important. Through
Christ, God valued and accepted you long before any of your accomplishments and
will continue to value you long after your moment in the sun.
When we drop our nets, when we turn
away from these false promises, these promises that will ultimately fail us, we
are free to live a life in the promise of God, a promise that will never fail
us, and as Keller said, a promise that says, “we are all more
loved and accepted in Christ than we could ever imagine or hope.” Amen.
