Pulling Together In A World Tearing Apart Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. In a relay race, no one runs for themselves. Each athlete is a team member, a team working together toward a common goal.

But mankind is no team. Diverse races and nationalities vie for dominance. The apostle Paul writes of a great common link that can transcend these differences.

From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Castor Lutzer, the great schism in Paul's day was between Jew and Gentile. In our day, many factions are carving humanity up into incompatible ethnic and religious groups. Achieving meaningful unity is getting ever harder to imagine. Yes, Dave, but we have to work toward that unity. And as I like to emphasize, in Jesus Christ we are one. What comes to mind is Colossians chapter 3, verse 11, where Paul says, in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond or free, Scythian, barbarian, but they are one in Christ. Now he doesn't mean that Greeks become Jews or Jews become Greeks. They retain their ethnicity, but that transcendent unity.

And that's why it is here at Running to Win. We are so committed to getting the gospel of Jesus Christ to different countries, different ethnicities. We are presently in 21 countries in four different languages, and we are going into other languages within the next 12 months. Let me ask the question, are you willing to help us? This is the time when we have what we call our matching gift challenge. That means that your gift to the ministry of Running to Win will be doubled.

Why? Because we believe that the gospel is a transnational message that needs to be heard everywhere. Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel.

And during this time when we have our matching gift challenge, you can help us do just that. Now it's difficult sometimes for us to see that unity, isn't it? For example, some of us struggle with this question. How do we relate to those who may belong to denominations that do not preach a clear gospel at all, the majority of whom do not know Christ personally? But nevertheless, within those groups, there are those who are genuine believers and have been made one with all believers in Jesus Christ.

We don't know exactly what this unity looks like. But then, of course, on an easier level, we know that there are many groups and many churches here in the city of Chicago and elsewhere throughout the country who believe as we do, who are also made one in Jesus Christ through faith, and we are one with them, and the world should at least get a little picture of what that looks like. Remember that story of during the war in France, there was a man who died and was killed in the war, and some of his comrades wanted to bury him in a cemetery, and they came to a church with a cemetery around it.

You know the picture of how that often was. The cemetery was right next to the church, and there was a reason for that. It was to establish, by the way, the unity of the body of Christ, the saints in heaven and the saints on earth.

And so it was really saying that you have to walk past the alumni association to get to the undergraduates. That was the whole theological lesson that was being taught. But they came to the church, and the priest asked whether or not the man was baptized a Catholic, and they said, no, he is not baptized a Catholic. And he said, I'm really sorry, I feel badly about this, but he can't be buried within this cemetery because he's not a Catholic. And so they took and they buried him just six feet on the other side of the fence, and that's where he was. They came back the next morning, and they were looking for the grave.

They wanted to put some flowers on it, make sure that everything was okay, and they could not find it. They paced up and back, and they paced along the fence where they had been, and unbelievably there was no grave there. And then the priest explained, he said, that he could not sleep at night because of the decision he had made, and he got up real early in the morning, and he moved the fence so that their comrade would be included within the cemetery. Now, that's what Jesus did to us Gentiles. Jesus came along and he moved the fence. Now, it's not as if, you know, we're opening the fence for anyone, and we're simply saying it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you somehow believe in Jesus, that that's what really qualifies you. We understand, those of us who have been redeemed by Christ, we understand that the body of Jesus Christ has its limitations, but what I'm saying to you today is that all those who have been bought by Christ, all those who have responded to the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are members of the same body, and we must be willing to move that fence to make sure that the unity of the Spirit is kept in the bond of peace, as the Apostle Paul says in this letter. Now, today I speak to many people who say, you know, all this business of reconciliation, they're tired of it.

You say, I haven't done anything wrong. I'm not prejudiced. Why should we talk about reconciliation? Now, comments like that usually come from those who know that they are within the fence. They have a good sense of identity. They have a good sense of belongingness. They don't see the need for reconciliation, but I need to tell you today that there are many of our brothers and sisters who do not sense that belongingness.

They feel as if they have been put on the other side of the fence, and those of us within the fence who have that sense of identity, we have to reach out to them, and we have to say, you too are a member of the body. You too have the same privileges. You also have the same destiny. We are together one in Jesus, one in Jesus. And I think it's important for the people of the world to see that somehow, however it comes out, to see it in individual churches, yes, most assuredly, when they come into our doors they should see the unity of the Spirit, but also beyond our doors to others who are also redeemed, and the world needs to see that these people can get along because there is a unity that is deeper than all of the other things that I mentioned just a moment ago. Now watch this. Paul says that Jesus Christ reconciled us to one another, and the basis of it all, we get to now in verse 16, is that he reconciled us to God.

That's really it. You'll notice it says in verse 16, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility. You and I have some inborn hostility towards one another. I don't care what you say. We are born prejudiced people, and it doesn't matter what color our skin is. We are born prejudiced. We are born self-seeking.

We are born filled with a sense of hostility regarding those who do not respond to us as we think we should. And the cross, the Bible says, put an end to this. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.

Now, notice this, for through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. You know, it's interesting when you look at the world. Okay, here you have all this emptiness. Here you have all this despair.

What is the answer to it? Well, maybe Seinfeld or something a little deeper because it's interesting to see how the world diagnoses the malady by what cures that are out there. So we live in a very therapeutic culture. People believe that as long as they can say whatever they want to say to whomever they want to say it somehow, they're going to be delivered from their emptiness and their hostility. You have all of those different answers out there.

Now, follow this carefully. The Bible would say that the reason we are alienated and fragmented is because of sin. And if the reason is sin, what we need is an answer for sin to bring about the unity that every single one of us seeks within his or her heart. What we need is an answer, and the answer is the cross.

That when Jesus died on the cross, he put us all on the same level. Jews cannot pride themselves in having some special benefits. Gentiles cannot pride themselves. The white race cannot pride itself.

The black race cannot pride itself. We stand all at the foot of the cross with all a sense of helplessness and despair apart from the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. So those barriers, you see, are broken down. It's in the humility of accepting Jesus that we no longer have anything upon which we can boast except in him. And he accepts all who come to him equally. So you'll notice in the text, verse 14, it says he is our peace. Verse 15 says he made peace. Verse 17 says he preached peace.

Jesus is a peacemaker. And in verse 18, the text that I just read, I think that here the Apostle Paul reaches the very heights of our imagination and our thought when he says it is through Jesus that we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. If we do see videos in heaven, as I hope we do because there's so much that's happened on this earth I'd like to see, one of the things I'd love to see is that veil of the temple.

I think it was Josephus who said it was about six inches thick being torn from top to bottom, ripped apart when Jesus Christ died. Gone is the wall that says Gentiles come only so far and no further. Gone is the wall that says that you need to be this kind of a person or that kind of a person or belong to one race or another. Gone is all that because we now, the text says, we both have access to the Father. By the way, is there anything more special in all the world than that? Access to the Father, access to the President, access to important people, access to whomever, and here we have access to the Father in the very presence of God in the Holy of Holies. We all have equal access and we come with equal needs to be received equally in the presence of God. Only Jesus could do that. That's a stronger unity than just being unified because of trouble or even being unified because of love or human concern, all of those things important but here we share the same Spirit, we share the same life, and we're brothers and sisters obviously because we have the same Father. You know, that's the point. God is your Father, God is my Father, you and I had better get along.

We'd better get along because we're all kids in the same family. You say, oh yeah, theory, theory, theory, why doesn't it work? You know, why didn't Luther get along with Swingly? Well, the answer is because both of them were wrong.

That's just thrown out, no extra cost there. You say, you know, it works within the church sometimes but sometimes there are church splits. Sometimes things can get pretty ugly.

Yeah, I know. You can have the same mother and the same father, the same family, and sometimes the splits among the children get very, very ugly. But my dear friend, at all costs, not at the expense of truth, but at all costs, we can't let that happen. Jesus died so that we might be one.

You can't let it happen. You can't just say, oh my, people will be people. You say, well, that's the church but what about families? You've known people as well as I have who are both Christians, both Christians and they're getting a divorce.

They can't get along. You know, I remember Charlie Jones, Charlie Tremendous Jones, I've not seen him in years and years and years, but he said something that I would never say, but one of the advantages of quoting someone else is he can make a point that you would never make. And yet, you can go ahead and say it, even though you wouldn't say it, do you understand?

Are you with me here today or am I going too fast for some of you? I saw him interviewed on television and he said, you know, if you are both Christians and you are getting a divorce, he said, my suggestion is that you tell your neighbors and friends that you're atheists. His point was that when that happens, and it does, when that happens, it calls into question the power of Christ. You're bought by the same Savior. You have access to the same Father through the Spirit and yet nothing can be worked out.

Somebody somewhere is denying the power of God, denying the power of God. I'm not saying these situations are easy. You and I know that it's difficult. That's the way it is in members of the family. Brothers and sisters don't get along. Sometimes they just have to go their separate ways.

I understand all that. But I say to those of you who are struggling in relationships with other Christians, you may have to frequently forgive. You may have to frequently forbear. You may have to frequently surrender your rights. But the Bible says that through the one Spirit, we have the same access to the Father.

I'm just reading the text. Remember Edwin Markham's poem, he drew a circle that shut me out, heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had a will to win. We drew a circle that took him in. Is your circle big enough to take him in? You know what God does when he sends a revival to churches?

Always, always. One of the chief characteristics is always reconciliation. People who haven't talked for each other for years, people who hold grudges and divisions and barriers and misunderstanding, they come and they receive forgiveness and they are reconciled and the sins which divide us are put behind us.

Why? Because God comes and he is a reconciling God. He's a reconciling God.

What is the bottom line? Sin always divides. It always divides. You know back at the day when the Tower of Babel was built, you remember, God scattered the nations because of their sin. And suddenly they began to talk different languages and they couldn't understand each other so the different language groups kind of spread out and all those who understood one language, they went in one direction and everybody else who understood another one went in another and the whole world was scattered.

Day of Pentecost. When the world is this strange phenomenon called talking with tongues anyway, what is it? Well, if I had time and someday I may but today I don't, I could show you in the scripture that the whole purpose was to show that the era of the Gentiles had come in. God was saying I'm finished with the Jews and now the wonderful works of God are going to be proclaimed in all of the babbling tongues of Gentiles and those were actual languages that God gave people the ability to speak.

Here's what happened. Tower of Babel scattered. The blessed Holy Spirit comes in the day of Pentecost. What is he doing? He's gathering together. He's unifying. He's taking people from North Africa and he's taking people from Asia Minor and he's taking people from as far away as Rome and he's bringing them together and they are all understanding what's going on because God says sin scatters but the blessed Holy Spirit always unifies and that's why later Paul says we should keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace at all costs. Now sometimes it can't be done.

Sometimes there are things like church discipline where there are people that you simply are unable to work with but as much as lieth within you, we must reflect in our lifestyles and with other believers the reconciliation of Christ. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, you might recognize that name in literature. When she married Robert, her parents were so angry and so disappointed that they disinherited her. They said, you're no longer our daughter.

What a painful experience. What she did was she wrote letters to them of reconciliation and friendship. She wrote a letter almost every week I'm told.

Never heard back until about 10 years later there's a big box in the mail and she goes to the mail and there in the box are all of her letters unopened. You know that the Bible is a love letter from God to us. It's a letter of reconciliation. It's a letter that says you who were afar off, you have been brought near to the blood of Christ. I speak to you today because some of you feel as if indeed you are afar off.

You've never been in the mainstream of anything. You've never been blessed like other people have been blessed. You say to yourself and you just feel lonely and out there. Would you hear me if I told you that God is saying come near through the blood of Christ because you have access also to the same Father with the same privileges, the same aspirations, the same destiny, the same outpouring of opportunity in His presence. We all have that sense of oneness and unity and if you do not know Christ as Savior then I invite you to become a part of the new man, the new body that Jesus Christ created. Become a part of the miracle of oneness and you do that how?

I can do no better than to conclude by pointing to the text once again for through Him, verse 18, we both have access to the Father by the Spirit. You come with your doubts, you come with your needs, you come with all of your hang-ups but you come through Christ who died and whose death on the cross reconciled us and you come and you are made one. Blessed Holy Spirit indwells you as He indwells me, as He indwells all believers we become members of His body and the Apostle Paul wants us to know, verse 19, consequently we are no longer foreigners and aliens but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household. You pull up a chair in the living room right in the presence of God and say at last I belong, at last I belong and if you agree let us pray. Father for all those who sense that they are not a part of what you are doing on earth we ask today that believers might know that they are a part, that they are one with all the body. For those Father who've never believed in Jesus, who really do feel emptiness, their life was described in this passage without hope, without God, strangers to the covenants. Today we pray embrace them with your love and show them that through faith in Christ they too can belong. We ask Father for all the human barriers that we have towards unity. We ask Father that those barriers shall be cast down, that the world may say behold how they love one another and truly, truly they are one in Jesus. Oh show that to this city we pray in Christ's name, Amen. My friend would you listen to me for just a moment I'm holding a letter in my hand someone has written I am a federal prisoner currently serving 22 years I've been bitter resentful and full of anger at my current situation the last few months I've been listening to the ministry of running to win every night thank you for your ministry I'm finding peace as the Apostle Paul did in Philippians chapter 4 a contentment in any and every situation I thank God for his peace I thank God for you isn't it wonderful that as the Apostle Paul even was in prison the gospel is able to change and to unite others because of the power of God's grace now all that to say that you are a part of the ministry of running to win that testimony that I just read is read for your benefit because we're in the midst of our matching challenge what that means is you have the opportunity to give a gift up to $90,000 that will be doubled would you take advantage of this so that we might minister to even more prisoners we've discovered that we have many prisoners who listen to the ministry of running to win well there's much more that could be said but here's the connection point go to RTW offer.com that's RTW offer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337 let me give you that contact info again I want to remind you that you have a part in this ministry here's what you do go to RTW offer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337 thank you so much for becoming a part of the running to win family as I like to emphasize because together the gospel of Jesus Christ is going out to millions of people thank you for helping us thank you for your prayers thank you for your love thank you for your support you can write to us at running to win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard Chicago Illinois 60614 Pastor Erwin Lutzer concluding a message on pulling together in a world tearing apart the seventh message in a series on between heaven and earth taken from the book of Ephesians and when you belong you belong to the body of Christ next time tune in for how God builds the church this is Dave McAllister running to win is sponsored by the Moody Church.