Hi, this is the Hymn We Proclaim podcast, The Messages of John Fawnville. You're listening to season five called Two Keys to Spiritual Growth. Here's John with message number two called Health Food Diet in a Fast Food World. Go ahead and turn back, if you would, to Luke chapter 24. And we're just going to go back because I want to touch on our passage from last week again, this week.
But from just a different, a little bit of a different perspective. What we learned last week from Luke chapter 24 was the story of the two disciples on the Emmaus Road with Jesus. And from Luke's account, what we saw is that Jesus gives a model to the church. For how the church comes to recognize Christ, that Jesus might be made known to us, because that's what we want. And so the model that we saw that Jesus gives here.
is very simple. It's a model of word and sacrament. Word and sacrament. This is, because of this model, this is why Christian worship has historically been arranged around these two elements: word and sacrament. Yet, when American evangelicals think and speak of worship, what generally comes to mind is a song.
And another song And another song. And then there's a sermon of some sort, and then there's more songs, and then you've had worship. But for the majority of the Christian era, and for most in the Christian era, Worship has meant word and sacrament. Word and sacrament form the centerpieces of Christian worship. That's why, like, even in the liturgical furniture of our church, which is fairly modern, but you can't have big, humongous pulpits that are 15 feet high, you know, because we're not in a cathedral.
Although, if you're a billionaire and would like to build us a cathedral, I'll take it. But until then, we have a wonderful building here. But we do our best to even in the liturgical furniture demonstrate to you word and sacrament that worship centers around word and sacrament. We have the pulpit where we preach from, we have the lectern from where you hear God speaking to you, where scripture is read. And we have in the centerpiece the sacrament of the table, the Lord's table.
We have up here baptism, the baptismal font. Everything is centered around word and sacrament. Everything is speaking in worship. And so Jesus teaches us in the road to Emmaus this story, in the story, that it is by means of word and sacrament that he is made known to people. Both word and sacrament are gifts given to us by Jesus.
And they both have the same purpose. They are intended to direct our faith solely to the sacrifice of Christ, who is the only ground of our salvation. They're both preaching Christ to us, the Holy Spirit. Teaches us in the gospel, and the Holy Spirit assures us by the sacraments that our entire salvation rests on the one sacrifice of Christ made for us on the cross. And that is a powerful testimony.
So these two inseparable centerpieces of worship, as we just boil it down, what we're saying in a very simple way is this. These two centerpieces of worship, word and sacrament, give me Jesus. And it gives me Jesus every single week. Thank you, Scott. Yeah.
That's what we need. Jesus Every single week. And so the Holy Spirit works through these things and he feeds us, Jesus, by the Spirit through the Word of God and through the mill of God. The word of God, the preaching of his word, Luke 24, as we saw last week, preaching Jesus from the whole entire Bible, every page of scripture. Of course, in that context, it was the Old Testament scriptures, but the preaching Jesus on every page of Scripture.
And then enjoying a meal. or having water poured rushed over you. manifest the presence of Jesus. Because Jesus, the Bible tells us, is both word, the word, and the bread. Jesus is the Word of God who makes known to us the invisible God.
Listen to John 1:18. No one has ever seen God. In and of himself, no one has ever seen God. The only one Himself, God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known. John 1:18.
And then Jesus says in John 6:33 that He is the bread of God which comes down out of heaven and He feeds and nourishes us through eternal life. John chapter 6 verse 51, I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread also which I give for the life of the world is my flesh. Jesus is the Word.
He is the bread. He is the one who reveals the hidden God, who communicates to us perfectly in perfect revelation who God is, and then he nourishes us as the bread to eternal life forever and ever, and that is word and sacrament. And so, the service of the word, which we've already been through and which we're in now, includes both the reading and preaching of scripture. The Holy Spirit, sovereignly, mysteriously, and He is powerfully working as the Word of God is being read to us. And he's especially working through the preaching of God's word, through the gospel, making Christ known.
He is literally resurrecting people from the dead. Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 that when the gospel is preached, he is literally. Effecting ex nilo creation. He is creating something out of nothing. He is making dead sinners come to life.
He is giving us faith, and through that faith, uniting us to Christ. I would say that's a lot of power going on, wouldn't you? And then in the service of the sacrament, Holy Communion, and in baptism. Every Lord's Day, through the use of the sacraments, the Holy Spirit is sovereignly, mysteriously, and He is powerfully working, feeding believers. On the true body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, not in the bread and the wine itself, but by the Holy Spirit who unites us to Christ, He does that.
And by doing that, he comforts us. He assures us of our faith. He strengthens our union with Christ, and he strengthens by our union with Christ, our union and our fellowship as a body of believers together. And so when we hear the gospel through the preaching of the word, When we see the gospel through the administration of the sacraments, we are being apprehended by the power of Christ himself through the Holy Spirit. That's why we come to church.
This is mystery. Yes. This is the power of the Holy Spirit. And this is what we want. And so on the road to Emmaus, this story that Luke recounts for us, Jesus gives to us what I call a sustainable model of worship and discipleship.
This is the life-giving model of discipleship that we have to give to the world. We are giving this model of discipleship. We are giving Jesus to people who are tired. We're giving people Jesus to people who are burned out. We're giving people, Jesus, to people who have become disillusioned by the evangelical fast food that they've been served their whole life.
This sermon this morning is more of an application of reflection from my own journey. To where we are now. Because regrettably, in my experience, Church after church that I was a part of, I found that many of these innovative liturgies. that evangelical churches were feeding me were empty calories that left me hungry. And so, worship increasingly for me became like a diet of cotton candy.
It might taste good at the moment, but later on, after eating so much of it, I began to feel sick. And malnourished and unsatisfied, and craving something more. And so, by the grace of God, I began to learn how Christian worship has historically been arranged around word and sacrament. And I began to discover that there's a better way. As I rediscovered the drama of word and sacrament-centered worship given to me from Jesus in Luke 24.
And so my taste buds began to change. And word and sacrament became a life-giving meal full of nutrition because I was being fed Jesus and all of the saving benefits. Every single week. When worship is centered around word and sacrament, guess who is your true food? Jesus He is our eternal nourishment.
Word and sacrament-centered worship is a health food diet in a fast food world. That's the title of the message: Health Food Diet in a Fast Food World. When I thought about the title of that diet, I was like, I don't know if that's going to work too well at Paramount. Because I know you all too well. You guys are healthy and every church potluck that we have is organic and it's gluten-free and it's vegan.
It's like this is not a church potluck. Yeah. But You get the point, right? The weekly fast food diet of practical, relevant, application-based messages and the private Jesus and me moment. Tacked on occasionally at the end of a service no longer satisfied me.
I thought if I visited one more church that said, oh, come, we're going to give you something practical and relevant for your daily life. I don't want that. I want Jesus. Right? And then they would invite me to the Jesus and Me moment.
Where are Holy Communion becomes where you go off into the corner of a part of the sanctuary and pick up your little piece of. cracker and some of your juice and you and Jesus have your moment. And the words of institution not even read. And I'm just thinking, this is not even the sacrament. I just, it didn't satisfy anymore.
I was starving. Not only was I starving, but I began to realize I was leaving services exhausted. Because the whole emphasis of the service was on my work. I've got to come, I've got to work it up because I've got to get to Jesus, so I better start singing harder.
So, if I sing the same song fifty thousand times in a row, right? Hard enough. I'm going to get to Jesus and then he's going to come. And I was exhausted. Because not only was I failing to get proper nutrition, I was never getting any rest.
My spiritual life was like a constant hit. You guys have heard of hit, right? If you're working out, I know, Gage, you have, because you've been working out, hit high-intensity interval training. That is the workout of the day now. High-intensity interval training.
It takes 20 minutes, and when you get done, literally, you feel like you're about to throw up. But you're supposed to get all these great benefits, but you can only do it 10 minutes. two to maybe three times a week max or else you're just going to burn out. My spiritual life in corporate worship was like a constant hit. It was like a constant hit that was being fueled by cotton candy.
No rest and no nutrition. Which equaled for me exhaustion, burnout, and no growth. But I discovered that the good news is that when worship is arranged around both word and sacrament, I found both nutrition and I found rest. The triune God in Word and Sacrament, He has the leading role. He does the heavy lifting, so to speak, right?
He's the one doing the squats. In fact, I'm the one on the shoulders who he's squatting. Ha ha ha ha. Yeah. Yeah.
And Jesus' model, we first come to receive. We first come to be served. We first come to rest. And then it is out of receiving week after week this rhythm of divine rest that we're then sent out to work. To serve and love our neighbor in the various callings and vocations throughout the week.
So, in the model that Jesus gives to us, we don't have to quote, work it up and make it happen. You don't have to, quote, feel it. Here's how one author, a great New Testament scholar, he's writing about word and sacrament and worship. This is what he says: he says: Whether or not you feel anything special at the time depends upon a million things to do with your life. With your health.
with the weather. With the time of the year or the time of the month and so on. He says, but in the model that Jesus gives us, we simply come and receive. We hear, we eat, we drink by faith, and we meet Jesus.
So, in the model of worship that Jesus gives to us, and this is amazing, Spencer, that you shared this because I was going to share it, the Lord laid it on my heart. To just sum up what is it that we are receiving in worship. And the model of worship that Jesus gives to us in Luke 24 is this. We hear both his invitation and his promise. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
That's what we hear in the model that Jesus gives to us.
So we come week after week, exhausted from the previous week, that was like a rugby match that just pounded us. Right? Like my son learned yesterday. And I didn't like that dirty hit. I'm telling you, I was worked up.
I was exhausted after that game because I wanted to get on that rugby pitch and make the hit back to that kid. Yeah. Um But We come week after week, exhausted from the previous week, and we come and then we let someone else, the word and the bread, serve us. We let the word and the bread, Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, help us and save us and nourish us and carry us. Even when we're drained, even when we are dozing in worship, and even when we are dull of thinking, He can open your eyes.
James K. A. Smith has written a lot about that. I got a hallelujah from a baby back there. That was good.
Hey, Sarah, your your kid gets it. Yeah. Amen. Um James K. Smith, listen what he says about the church.
The church is the household where we are nourished by the word. where we eat the word and receive the bread of life. The church is the household of the Holy Spirit who feeds us what we need and whereby His grace we become a people who desire Him above all else. Christian worship is the feast where we acquire new hungers. Hungers for God and for what God desires, and then we are sent into his creation to act accordingly.
This is a sustainable model of discipleship that Jesus gives to us. This is a sustainable model of worship. And it stands in very stark contrast to the subculture of contemporary evangelicalism in which I have grown up in. This past week, Scott, you're going to love this. Scott is our local Apple expert.
So if you ever need anything from Apple, just ask Scott. Uh I read an interesting article this past week about uh Apple, the future of Apple after Steve Jobs died. And the article was dated back in 2016. It was a very interesting article. I want to share something with you.
Listen to what this article states. It says that in financial terms, Apple has been an unstoppable force. We would all agree, about $365 billion of unstoppable force. That's a lot of sales. Uh um but it but the article goes on to point out that some analysts question whether Apple is losing momentum.
Now again, this is 2016. One of the technology analysts who was interviewed in the article made an extremely amazing observation that really caught my attention. And I'm going to read it to listen to what he said. He says, it's really hard to keep up with the innovation cycle. Listen very carefully.
It is really hard to keep up with the innovation cycle when you have developed a successful product. With each successful generation of a product, it becomes harder. The question becomes What's the next big thing? And it's not clear what that is going to be. The technology analyst's observations are equally true of the contemporary evangelical church.
I was thinking about that. As Christians, we live in a culture that is in a search of never-ending improvements. A culture always looking for the next big thing, the next successful product. Modern evangelicals are not exempt from this innovation cycle. When it comes to church and worship, evangelicalism is so greatly influenced by the what's the next big thing mentality.
Churches and pastors are driven. I promise you, I get this. all the time. Because I'm on all the church growth mailers just to keep up with what You know, they're saying. Churches and pastors are driven by an innovation cycle in search of the next successful model or product that will work.
to get them in. And the effect is that believers are being taught by these innovation cycle liturgies of what's the next big thing. They're being taught to always be looking for what is epic. For what is crazy love. For what is radical discipleship, for what is extreme discipleship?
What's the next big thing? This constant search and demand for the next extraordinary event, the next extraordinary experience. Produces a restless spirit, and it eventually results in exhaustion and burnout. Most Christian, more Christian leaders than ever before. are burning out and leaving the ministry.
Over 2,000 a month pastors are leaving their churches. A month. Many American churches are losing the young and restless, to borrow a great Soap opera title. They are losing their young and the restless. Who are moving on to the next big thing beyond traditional church?
Often, because these young people have never been sufficiently raised on a diet of word and sacrament in the church. Segregation was a horrific thing in our country. And thank goodness we've gotten past that for the most part. But the evangelical church hasn't learned a lesson about the problem of segregation and for decades young people have been segregated from the family and the rest of the church. Study after study reveals that this method of worship and discipleship hasn't worked.
And yet they double down and keep doing the same thing, getting the same results. Let me give you some of the results of doing it segregated way of worship for young people. 20 to 30 year olds attend church at half the rate of their parents. and a quarter the rate of their grandparents. 61% of church high school students graduate and never go back to church.
78 to 88% of young people who left youth programs. Or who grew up in youth programs leave the church never to. return most of them. Almost eight out of ten.
Now, I want you to think about the implication of these statistics for youth ministry and evangelicalism. Thousands of youth workers, thousands of youth ministries and churches have sought to reach the youth for decades, and yet the group they are tasked with reaching are leaving the church in droves. Churches invest heavily in youth ministry, and yet why does study after study show that they're getting such a low return on their investment? And why is it that young people who attend church that doesn't have, listen to this, a quote, cutting edge, epic, relevant, radical, extreme youth program are more effective at retaining youth than the ones that have them? Could it be that part of the problem is that our young people from early childhood, from the nursery to senior in high school, have never been made a part of the church to begin with?
How many times have you heard? Oh, a big church just isn't cool. That's not my thing. Word and sacrament's not your thing? Since when did word and sacrament become ineffective to make you and form you as a disciple of Christ?
Do you have more wisdom than what Jesus implemented in Luke 24? There's nothing at that church for my children, so we just have to go where we've got something for the kids. What does your kid get 24-7, 365? Entertainment, iPods, iPhones, movies, Netflix, all their buddies, all their friends. How about one and a half hours out of the week for God to serve you?
Amen. How might that change you and your family and your young people? In a culture driven by an innovation cycle, always in search of the next big thing. Preaching, word, water, bread, and wine seem ordinary, dull, boring, weak, ineffective, and just plain forgettable. I want to read another portion from Tish Harrison Warren's book.
I highly recommend this book. She offers an insightful critique about the subculture of evangelicalism, and I want you to listen to what she says, because I couldn't say it any better.
So I'm just going to read it to you. And forgive me if it seems a little bit tedious, but it's just very insightful.
So please listen. She says, my subculture of evangelicalism tends to focus on excitement. Passion. and risk, the kind of worship that gives a rush. Eugene Peterson calls this quest for spiritual intensity a consumer-driven market for religious experience in our world.
He says that there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long-term apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness. Religion in our time has been captured by a tourist mindset. We go to see a new personality, to hear a new truth, to get a new experience, and so somehow to expand our otherwise humdrum life. We contemporary evangelicals come by this honestly. We have inherited a faith that, while beautiful in many ways, was formed and shaped by the concept of a market-driven religious experience.
Historian Harry Sout writes that in George Whitfield, one of America's first evangelical preachers, quote, charity, preaching, and journalism came together. It came together to create a potent configuration, a religious celebrity capable of creating a new market for religion. In this market-driven faith, intense and ecstatic religious experience was emphasized and even sometimes contrived. Lorenzo Dall, an early American evangelist, would smash chairs and he would arrange for a trumpet to blow at key moments during his preaching.
So Joe, get the trumpet out. Just kidding. Charles Finney's preaching was punctuated by moments of high drama, such as his vivid evocation of the smoke of the torment of sinners in hell, prompting his audience to imagine that they could see it in themselves. Instead of the focus being that which nourishes us, namely word and sacrament, the focus became that which sells. Excitement.
Adventure. A sizzling or shocking experience. An individual's own experience of worship, a subjective notion of his or encounter with God, became the centerpiece of the Christian life. There are indeed moments of spiritual ecstasy in the Christian life and in gathered worship. Absolutely.
Powerful spiritual experiences, when they come, they are a gift. But that cannot be the point of Christian spirituality any more than an unforgettable pasta dish that eight years ago at Boston's North End is the point of eating. Word and sacrament sustain my life. And yet they often do not seem life-changing. But they quietly feed me.
There are times when we approach scripture, whether in private study or gathered worship, and find it powerful and memorable, sermons we quote and carry around with us stories we tell of being impacted and changed. There are other times when the scripture seems as unappetizing as stale bread. I'm bored or confused or skeptical or repulsed. There are times when I walk away from scripture with more questions than answers. We can be like the dwarves in C.S.
Lewis's Narnientels who have a delectable feast set before them, but because of a curse, mistake it for food that is revolting, unappetizing, or perhaps even poisonous.
So, how should we respond when we find the word perplexing or dry or boring or unappealing? We keep eating. We receive nourishment. We keep listening and learning and taking our daily bread. We wait on God to give us what we need to sustain us one more day.
We acknowledge that there is far more wonder in this life of worship than what we have yet to see and for our stomachs to digest. We receive what has been set before us today. As a gift. And then she finishes. Anyone who has ever changed their diet, cut out gluten.
or become a vegetarian. Erbakon, eating healthier, can tell you that habits shape us meal by meal. In the same way, I am shaped almost imperceptibly by a word and sacrament. They develop in me over time a palate for truth. At its best, gathered worship forms me not as a spiritual experienced consumer, but as a person who is fed with spiritual food.
Word and sacrament feed us with spiritual. Food. Life is found in Christ. Christ. And word and sacrament, give me Christ every single week.
Christ is our bread. And he gives us bread. to lead him back to himself. And so, Holy Communion week after week is first and foremost the gift of God for the people of God. By its continual use, we are formed into worshipers who are trained to receive all of life as a gift.
We gather week after year, week after week, year after year around the Lord's table and testify corporately as a body that the experience of life is a gift that is to be received. And so, as we reflect this morning on how worship is arranged by Christ's design and wisdom in Luke 24. There's one important lesson I want to leave you with as we get ready to come to his table. As we reflect on these centerpieces of worship, word and sacrament, that we gather ourselves around. This reminds us that our core identity is not that of an individual consumer.
But our core identity is listen. It is a communal body of worshipers. This is not an individual act. This is a communal act. In 1 Corinthians 10, verses 16 and 17, listen to the profundity of what Paul says.
Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing, a communion, a fellowship in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break A sharing, a communion, a fellowship in the body of Christ. Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of one bread. The Holy Eucharist, Thanksgiving. Holy Communion, the Lord's Supper.
It is a profoundly communal meal that reorients us from being people who are taught by our culture to be individual consumers of a commodity. And to a people who are gathered together, capable of giving Christ to the world because we've come to know Him here. And it is in this feast on Christ. That we are mysteriously formed together, Paul says, into one body because there is one bread. Word in sacrament.
teaches us every week we are made in the image and redeemed in the image of God. We are image bearers created to know Christ. and to make him known. I want to finish. where the response of the two disciples on the mass road.
What was their response when Jesus made himself known through word and sacrament? Listen to what Luke says in Luke 24, verses 33 to 35. Jesus was made known to them, and they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem and found gathered together the 11. And those who were with them, saying, The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon. They see the resurrected Lord.
They believe in the resurrection, the apex and the keystone of the gospel. And it says, and they began to relate their experiences on the road and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread. Simply put, Jesus was known to them, and they went forth from that and made him known to others. You come here to know Jesus and to know him and to be in his presence through word and sacrament and you leave here to go make that known to others. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for this gift. We thank you for your mercy to us in Christ. And we thank you that through both word and sacrament, the gifts of God for the people of God, you make yourself known to us. And so, as we come to your table this morning, Lord, we come with joyful hearts. We come as one body, looking away from ourselves, looking upward to you in faith, and outward to one another in love.
We pray that you would minister to us today. Jesus.
so that we can take him and give him to others who need it. We pray this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thanks for listening to the Him We Proclaim podcast with John Fawnville. Him we proclaim as a ministry of John Fondill of Paramount Church in Jacksonville, Florida.
You can check out his church at Paramountchurch.com. We look forward to next time.
