Why Is Sunday Morning So Segregated?

Why are churches still separated by race?

We all say we're Christians, so why don't we go to church together? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. I'm Bill Meyer along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. We would love to hear from you. You can ask your question at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673, and you can post your question on our Facebook or Instagram account or email us at questions at corechristianity.com. First up today, we have a fun story to share with you. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced a lot of things to go virtual this year, including a competition for surfing dogs, the Dog Surf-A-Thon is normally held each September at the Delmar Dog Beach in California, just a few miles from where Adriel lives. This year, it was held virtually with the owners of surfing dogs around the world submitting videos of their pets skills. The dogs were judged on criteria, including the duration of their ride, the size of the wave, and special tricks, including walking on the board and barking while surfing.

Lastly, you're going to post a link to a video in today's show notes, so make sure you check that out. Have you ever considered joining the surfing dogs and doing your own thing there, Adriel? I'm just curious. No, because I'm certain that they would be better at surfing than I am, and I think that would just be embarrassing.

But I didn't even know that. I mean, that's just not too far from me. Maybe that'd be a fun thing to take the kids to watch the surfing dogs. I bet you my kids would get a kick out of that. You will love the video. It's very cute.

Well, let's get to our first question of the day. Al emailed us, and he said this. Could you explain to me what it means to pray in the Holy Spirit? Yeah, well, there are three places in the New Testament, really, where you have this idea put forward and that language of praying in the Holy Spirit.

You see this in 1 Corinthians 14, in Ephesians 6, and in Jude 1. Now, the interesting thing is in 1 Corinthians 14, it's pretty clear that when Paul talks about praying in the Spirit there, he's referring to speaking in tongues. I don't want to get too into the weeds here as to what tongues were.

These are really unknown languages that a person was given the ability to speak. You see this on the day of Pentecost, and then certainly in 1 Corinthians 14 as well. But the person who speaks in these tongues doesn't actually understand what they're saying, and so they needed to be interpreted. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14, verse 13 and 14, Therefore one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So right there, it seems like praying in the Spirit refers to praying in tongues, and I've heard people use the phrase in that way today as well.

Again, setting aside the question of the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit and whether they're still around or whether they've ceased, I'm not going to get into that right now. But it does seem like in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul is talking about, when he talks about praying in the Spirit, he's talking about the gift of tongues. Then you also have places like Ephesians 6 18, though, and it seems to me that Paul is talking about something different there. In Ephesians 6 18, he says, Praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication, to that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. Now that comes, if you remember Ephesians 6, the context of spiritual warfare and the armor of God, and so it's praying, being vigilant, alert with all perseverance, praying for the body of Christ, and it's there in that context that he talks about praying in the Spirit. And then in Jude chapter 1 verses 17 through 20, it says this, But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, they said to you, In the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions.

It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit, but you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit. You see there, again, it's this context of, we could call it spiritual warfare, and in Jude, the focus is the false teachers don't have the Spirit, you are to pray in the Spirit. Now in those two passages in Ephesians 6 and in Jude chapter 1, I think that the focus is, our prayers need to be led by the Spirit. Now, this doesn't mean that, you know, as we're praying, we're getting, you know, these messages from the Holy Spirit about what we should pray for. I think ultimately, Spirit-led prayer is prayer that is rooted in God's Word, in the Word of Jesus Christ. I mean, Jesus said in the Upper Room Discourse that the Spirit was going to come and lead the disciples into all truth. When Paul in Ephesians talked about being filled with the Holy Spirit, the parallel passage in the Book of Colossians says that that happens as the Word of Christ dwells in us richly. And so, I don't think that in those two verses, when we hear about praying in the Spirit, it's referring to praying in tongues or something like that, because Paul makes it very clear in 1 Corinthians 12 that not everyone has all the spiritual gifts.

And so not everyone had the gift of tongues there in the first century, so for Paul in Ephesians 6 or in the Book of Jude in Jude 1, 17-20, for them to encourage, to exhort the Church to pray in the Spirit, well, that wouldn't make any sense if not everyone had the gift of tongues and they were referring to the gift of tongues. So again, I think, Al, that praying in the Spirit refers to our prayers being led by, guided by the Spirit through the Scriptures. Pray God's Word. Pray God's Word. And I think that this is so helpful, because many of us, I don't know about you, but I know even for me, I'll fit down to pray sometimes, and it just doesn't come out of me, you know? And so I think it's really helpful to have something like the Scriptures in hand, and as we're meditating on Scripture, what you find is prayer is stirred up within you. Or pray the Psalms. Go through the Book of Psalms and just pray the Psalms. That's what they are, they're prayers. And so we're being encouraged to pray in line with the Holy Spirit under God's Word and according to God's will. Thanks, Al.

Thanks for that explanation, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. And if you have a question for us, you can call us anytime. Here's the number. 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

Hello, this is Cynthia from Kansas City, Missouri. I want to know if people who are in a homosexual relationship, a true ongoing relationship, will they go to heaven? I know that's not the unforgivable sin. They confessed it to Christians, so if you could answer that for me, I really would appreciate it. Thank you.

Yeah, Cynthia. This is a question that we're getting more and more these days, and there are even people out there who will say there's nothing wrong with that. I've talked to several people, even in my own neighborhood, who are a part of churches or even lead churches that have taken that position. And what we have to continually go back to is what God has said in His Word. That's where the truth comes from, and sometimes the Word of God isn't easy for us to hear. And certainly when it comes to our culture and the way in which people think about sex and sexuality, the Word of God confronts us.

It challenges us. We're not going to be as Christians popular because of our views on these things, but at the end of the day, we have to hold fast to what the Bible teaches. Now, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be filled with love and grace and neighborliness toward others, toward people who are in gay and lesbian relationships.

We have to be. And that's how Jesus was with people in His own day, with the people that the church identified as sinners, the church of His day, if you will, the religious establishment. Jesus pursued them and loved them.

And I think that that's what you should do for your friend. But the Bible is very clear about this. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 9 through 11, listen to what the Apostle Paul told the Christians living in Corinth. Take that warning to heart there. Paul says to you, to all of us, do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

He makes it absolutely clear there. You know, people who do these things, who live in these ways, I mean, this is their practice. And I think what he's referring to is people who have no qualms about it. This is just who I am.

This is just how I live. And they might say, I'm a Christian. Yeah, I mean, I said a prayer many years ago, or I was baptized, or I even go to a church that says this is okay. But at the end of the day, if the church doesn't teach what the scriptures teach, then there's a major problem, Cynthia. And Paul makes it clear that don't be deceived.

The people who practice these things are not going to inherit the kingdom of God. But listen to what Paul said in the very next verse, in verse 11. And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Even as I read that verse right now, I mean, it almost brings tears to my eyes because you just think about the mercy of God.

We're all coming from these different backgrounds, from these different places. We all have our own particular sin struggles. And yet Jesus calls all men everywhere to repent, to turn to him. It doesn't matter what your background is, what your baggage is, what your sin is, you can be washed, you can be sanctified, you can be justified by Jesus. Now, that doesn't mean that there aren't genuine believers who still struggle with some of these things, with these feelings.

I mean, that's a reality. And the fact of the matter is, is you read the book of 1 Corinthians and you quickly realize that that's the case. I mean, the church at Corinth had all sorts of problems with divisions, with sexual immorality, and yet Paul, he doesn't treat them as unbelievers. He knows that they're the beloved children of the Lord, and yet they're struggling. And people today, genuine Christians today, Cynthia, will struggle, but I think that there's a difference between struggling with your sin, identifying it as sin, and saying, God, deliver me, help me, I'm in the fight for my life.

There's a difference between that and saying, well, I'm just going to live like this and everything is going to be fine. No, Paul says, do not be deceived. Thanks for your question, Cynthia. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and our website is corechristianity.com slash radio. If you have a question for us, I'm Bill Meyer. And, you know, our goal here is to answer your questions about the Christian faith and the Christian life. And we have an amazing team of people behind us producing the show. They write the core articles for our website. They produce our core Bible studies.

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And of course, you can always tell your friends at church about our website, which is corechristianity.com. Let's go to another question. This one came in from Jackie, who posted on our Facebook page, and she says, Why are churches still separated by race? We all say we're Christians, so why don't we go to church together?

That's a really big question. We are oftentimes in the church separated by race or any number of other things as well. You think of socioeconomic standing, you think of political affiliation.

I mean, there are these lines in the sand that we've sort of drawn. But race is one of the most heartbreaking ones, especially because the promise of the new covenant is that God is bringing the nations into his fold. The church is meant to be this diverse community of people, redeemed sinners, washed by the blood of the lamb who are brought together by Jesus Christ. And yet oftentimes, Jackie, as you note, our church congregations, the makeup of those congregations does not reflect that.

You know, there's this helpful little book written by a Baptist pastor. His name's Mark Dever. I think he wrote it with someone else. It's called The Compelling Community.

And I read it some time ago. But one of the things in that book early on really stuck with me. They talk about the difference between what they call gospel plus community and gospel revealing community. In gospel plus community, what you have is people coming together because of the gospel plus something else.

And that plus could be we all are the same cultural background, or we all are going to vote for this political candidate, or we all are young marrieds with children, or we're all older and retired. The church is brought together by the gospel plus this other affinity, whatever it is. And what you end up getting is a church that really is gathered by primarily the affinity, actually.

I mean, it really is kind of an unfortunate thing. Whereas in gospel revealing community, the gospel is revealed by the makeup of the community. Let me explain what they mean by that.

What I've meant by it is I've talked to others about this as well. You think about the early disciples of our Lord Jesus. You had among the 12, Simon the Zealot, someone who had a deep disdain for the Roman occupation. Zealots were known even for committing acts of violence against the Romans. And then you also had Levi, the tax collector. Now, you remember how tax collectors were viewed by the Jews in that day. They were viewed as sinners, as traitors, because they were Jews who were essentially working for the Romans and taking advantage of their own people.

As a tax collector, you were not viewed very highly. And certainly two people who would never be caught in the same room together, unless there was a brawl or something like that, were zealots and tax collectors. And yet Jesus says to both of them, Jackie, to Simon and to Levi, follow me. And they both followed him. And they both sat around the table with him and received his body and blood. They had communion with each other through Jesus. Now, you think when people saw Simon and Levi walking down the street together, people who knew them, you think that didn't raise eyebrows, cause people to ask questions?

What in the world are these two people doing together? What is the message that could be so powerful that it brought together Simon and Levi? It's the message of the gospel. See, our communities, our churches should be gospel revealing communities. And what that means is the very makeup of the congregation should reveal the power of the gospel to bring together sinners from all different stripes, backgrounds, cultures.

And that's what we should strive for. Let me just say it's a lot easier to go the other way, to say, let's just build an affinity group. And certainly I don't know if you're familiar with the church growth movement, but that's essentially what they said is, look, let's build churches by picking a specific demographic and catering our church to that demographic and building a church for them. And when you do that, what you find is you can really build a church pretty quickly. But what we want is our churches to be built by God's word and spirit, not by human cleverness or not by gathering people around a particular affinity. We want the gospel to be what creates the church. And Jackie, when the gospel is the primary thing drawing us together, what you find is you do get, you ought to get this diverse community. We should strive, I think, as churches, and I'm the pastor of a local church, I'm speaking to myself here, we should strive to have our churches reflect the community they're in demographically, as much as is possible. We want our churches to look like the neighborhoods where they're planted or where they're at. And so I think that this is really important. Now, again, that's not easy, Jackie, and I think that's one of the reasons why so many churches are still separated, why people just prefer to be with people that look like them and think like them and vote like them.

It's easier to do that. Having a diverse church is a messy thing, but it's what God calls us to. And the same gospel that creates the community is able to sustain that community.

That's the beautiful thing. And again, remember, this was one of the big problems in the early church as well. I mentioned it at the outset of my answer to you, Jackie, but when the gospel began to be preached, I mean, after the day of Pentecost, the inbreaking of the new covenant, now Gentiles, non-Jews, are being welcomed into the family of God, the covenant family of God. They're being brought in.

They don't have to be circumcised. That was the big debate in Acts chapter 15. Well, what you had was these Jew-Gentile churches that really had a hard time getting along, and a lot of the New Testament is addressing this sort of tension. Now that you have Jews and Gentiles worshiping side by side, how are we going to make this work?

Well, you know how we make it work? It's by the blood of Jesus. The cross of Jesus has broken down, abolished the dividing wall of hostility between peoples so that in him we can be united. So what we need to do is give people a big picture of the gospel, of the work of Jesus Christ, and of the implications of that work. It brings together a diverse group of sinners to receive the forgiveness of God. And I think as we focus on that, Jackie, and as we're clear about the fact that this is what the gospel can and should be doing, and as we pray for that, we should pray for that.

Pray that the Lord builds that church by his word and spirit in the community that you're a part of. As we pray for that, it's amazing to see the wonderful things that the Lord will do. Some great insights there, Adriel. Thank you. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

We have time for one more question. Brian submitted this through our website at corechristianity.com slash radio. He says, I really like the book of Acts for its history of the early church, but I don't really know why Luke wrote it.

It just seems like a loose collection of stories to me, especially with its abrupt ending. Do you think Luke had a bigger goal than just recording history? If so, why do you think he wrote Acts? I love the book of Acts too, Brian. I had the privilege of preaching through the book of Acts some time ago, and then we first planted our church a little bit over 60 years ago now. We did a Bible study on the book of Acts, just thinking about the Spirit of God working there in the early church and the advancement of the gospel.

It really is, I think, one of the most exciting books of the New Testament. Why did Luke write it? Well, if you look at the very beginning of the book of Acts, Acts chapter one, listen to what he says. In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.

He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. Now, Brian, the first book that he's referring to there is the gospel, the gospel of Luke. In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach.

Now, that's a very interesting phrase, isn't it? All that Jesus began to do and teach. Well, one of the things, Brian, that I think Luke is doing for us in the book of Acts is showing us what Jesus continued to do and teach in the life of the church after his ascension into heaven. Because one of the big questions, do you remember that Jesus left with his disciples as he taught them in the upper room discourse?

One of the questions that they had is, how is this all going to work? You're leaving. Jesus, are you abandoning us? And Jesus says, I'm not going to leave you as orphans.

I'm going to send the Spirit to you. And the reality is, Jesus, throughout the book of Acts, is still teaching, working, doing. If you look just a little bit later in chapter one, verse 24, as the disciples replace Judas, it says in verse 24, And they prayed and said, You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen. It's as if Jesus is still choosing, setting up leaders in the church. On the day of Pentecost, he pours out the Holy Spirit. Jesus is still working, pouring out his Spirit. And in Acts three, verse six, a lame beggar is healed in the name of Jesus. And so I think, Brian, one of the things that Luke is showing us is that Jesus didn't just stop working. He continued to work in the church after his ascension.

And here's the amazing point for you to take home. Jesus is still working today, saving souls, redeeming sinners, filling us with his Spirit, praying for us. Jesus is alive and at work in the church and in you. Thanks for listening to Core Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at CoreChristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this podcast and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together. We'll be right back.