What About All the Bad Things Christians Have Done?

WELCOME:

Pastor Chris Paavola:

Thank you so much Ms. Lisa for that reading. Everybody, good morning. My name is Chris Paavola. I’m a senior pastor here. You guys look great today. You guys look so good. You didn’t have to get dressed up for me, but thank you guys for you could come in your pajamas. I’m just happy that you’re here, honestly. So thank you guys for being here.

SERIES

We are in the middle of a series called The Reason For God, where we are having a conversation on faith and doubt. It’s been a great series just talking about our reasoning for God and where that all comes from, that we don’t have a blind faith, we have a reasonable faith. And it is been a great series. And even though some of the topics have been a little heavy, like last week, we had the lighthearted topic of why would a good God allow suffering that that was just lighthearted. And today we have a fun-filled topic for what about all the bad things Christians have done. And I don’t mean to make light of it, but it’s an important question. But what do we do with that? What about all the bad things that Christians have done? Even if you have a cursory understanding of history that a lot of atrocities have been done in the name of Jesus?

Which is interesting too because Christianity started as a group of people, this movement of people who were oppressed and subjugated and died horrible deaths of persecution. But then when the minority became the majority, the power shifted and suddenly people use the name of Jesus for their advantage and for their power and their privilege and things went haywire very quickly. I mean you’ve heard of the Crusades or the Spanish Inquisition or the transatlantic slave trade or the Jim Crow era, all of these things done by Christians and then even more recently that history is ongoing. This is not a news flesh, but Christians don’t have the best PR when it comes to different people groups, whether it’s the L-G-B-T-Q community or minorities or waiters on Sunday afternoons. Christians don’t have a very good rep and deservedly so frankly. And for some of you, you might be here today because somebody invited, you heard about this series or you tuned in online because you’ve heard about this series and the fact that you’re giving Jesus another try in spite of all the things that Christians have done, it’s remarkable. And the only thing I can really say is I’m sorry because for you it’s about the headlines. It’s probably more about the bad things Christians have done to you personally, how they ostracized you or judged you or mistreated you. And there is no justification for what is unjust.

And if we’re going to move forward on this topic of what about all the bad things Christians have done, there is a time and a place and we’ve talked about it and we will talk about it again of how Christians can respond differently, things that we should do differently and things that we can do to heal that divide that we’ve created. There’s a time and a place for that 100% and we’ll keep on having that conversation. But this is a different conversation because remember this question of what about all the bad things Christians have done is couched or framed in this series, the Reason for God, in other words, doesn’t the existence of all the bad things Christians have done disprove God, the existence of that disproves the existence of this? How can God be true? And you guys still mistreat people like that in a series where we’re talking about the reason for God.

And so that’s the angle we’re going to talk about today and it helps us actually answer some other questions that follow. So I’m glad again that you guys are here, but this question is why so many? I mean this is a big one among atheists. If you talk to people who are agnostic or atheists, they’re going to bring this up very quickly in the conversation you have with them. As an author named Brendan Manning once wrote, and I heard these words and they kind of stuck with me to the point that I’ve memorized them, but he talks about how “the greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and get on with their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds. Unbelievable. That’s what an unbelieving world finds unbelievable.” And I think that’s just so well said.

FRIEND OF SINNERS

Now, interestingly enough, people have been discrediting Jesus based on the morality of his followers since the beginning. This is not a new thing. People have been discrediting Jesus based on the conduct of his followers since the very beginning. When Jesus was beginning his ministry, he was this guy who hung out. When you read the biographies of Jesus, one of the things that comes up and becomes very apparent quickly is that people who were nothing like Jesus liked Jesus. He associated with just blue collar people and prostitutes and tax collectors and the people on the fringes that are a little rough on the edges. That’s who Jesus surrounded himself with. And his opponents would try to discredit him based on the people around him, like guilt by association. And they actually had a derogatory term that they slapped on him that called him the friend of sinners.

10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners.”

Matthew 9

And that’s actually a term that he wore, like a badge of honor. He is like, yeah, yeah, I am. But there’s so many examples of people discrediting him based on his followers, just a few of them. One time Jesus is, he’s at somebody’s house, they’re having dinner and there’s a prostitute there, and she comes up and she starts washing Jesus’s feet and everyone’s appalled by this and a couple of the rabbis who are sitting there have this conversation with each other. Well, if this man were a prophet, he would know who’s touching him and he would stop this. And Jesus in response is like, leave her alone. Leave her alone. The entire time I’ve been here, you’ve shown me little love and she has shown me great love. And then he kind of summarizes it by saying, and more or less, you are looking at her.

She’s looking at me. And it happens again. There’s this one time that Jesus is walking with his disciples through a field and some of his disciples pick ahead of grain and eat it. And when they start eating it, there’s some religious leaders there who are like, ah, ah Jesus, your disciples are breaking the mosaic law. They’re working on the Sabbath day, they’re picking food and eating it. That’s a no-no. Why do you allow that? Again, they’re trying to discredit Jesus based on the conduct of his followers. And Jesus has this great response. He does this all the time. He has this response that seemingly has no connection with what’s going on. So they’re like, Jesus, your disciples are eating grain. And he turns around and he goes, guys, the groomsmen feast when they’re with the groom and they’re like, Jesus, what are you talking about?

We’re not at a wedding. What are you talking about? But the point that he’s making is you’re looking at them, they’re looking at me. And then probably the most famous example of this is when Jesus called this man to follow him, he was a Roman sympathizer who betrayed his own country and started collecting taxes from his countrymen to give them to Rome. His name was Matthew. He’s a tax collector. He’s like a Benedict Arnold just shunned by society. And Jesus walks by him one day and was like, Matthew, I want you to come follow me. And so Matthew starts following Jesus, which is so stunning to people because in the inner circle of Jesus now there’s this tax collector, this Roman sympathizer, and he’s now in fellowship with another close follower, another one of the 12 disciples who’s a zealot, an Israeli nationalist who has taken part in violent insurrections to kick Rome out.

And they’re both together. We have no record of a fist fight ever breaking out between Simon, the zealot and Matthew, the tax collector, because it just seems like when people get close to Jesus, the differences become less important the closer they gaze at Jesus. Like we saying in the hymn a little bit earlier, the things of this world grow strangely dim. And that’s why as a church, one of our vision statements is to be a church as diverse as the city we serve because we still think that scripture says the cross destroys the dividing walls between us. And Jesus reconciles people. That’s what he does. And so you’ve got Jesus calling Matthew to follow him, and he’s with Simon, the zealot and all these other people and Peter, the fishermen and rich and the poor, and they’re all following Jesus. And when he calls Matthew to follow him, Matthew is so touched by this.

He says, well, let me throw you a dinner at my house before we move on. Let me throw a feast for you. And Jesus is like, okay. And so word gets around though that there’s this feast at Matthew’s house and who’s Matthew going to invite who? He’s going to invite his buddies and the only people who like Matthew are tax collectors. And Matthew actually writes about it and his biography of Jesus and he refers to himself in the third person. But this is Matthew talking about what happened at his house that day. Take a look from Matthew nine. While Jesus was having dinner at my house, Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? And they’re doing it again.

12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”

Matthew 9

They’re to discredit Jesus by the people. He associates himself with guilt by association. And Jesus overhears, this word gets back to him and he says in response, it’s not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. This is like the groomsmen comment earlier. Everyone’s like, wait, what? This is not a hospital. He’s like, guys, it’s not the healthy who need a doctor, it’s the sick. And I love this because it just shows that Jesus, he never minces words. He never waters it down. He’s sitting with people and he just called them sick and they’re not offended by it. They love him for it. It’s almost like I picture Jesus being kind, waving his hand at the Pharisees. It’s like, it’s not the healthy who need a doctor. It’s not the people who think they’re okay and then he points to the people next to him.

It’s the sick and they’re all like, yeah, that’s us. We’re the sickos. And then they start high fiving each other to the sinners and they toast. That’s what I picture happening here. Jesus is just so winsome and approachable and he’s honest. He never minces his words, but he’s honest. These guys are sinners. This is why I’m here. He’s like, guys, you should expect to see sick people at a hospital. More sick people will be at a hospital than a health club. It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, it’s the sick. Don’t be surprised by the company I keep.

13 But go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”

Matthew 9

And then in the next verse, he quotes a prophet and he says, but go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. Now he’s quoting to the religious leaders their language. He’s quoting to them a prophecy or a section of scripture from the Torah or the Old Testament as we would call it today. And he’s saying, guys, what God wants is not something from you. He wants something for you. I desire mercy for you. Not sacrifice that from you because there’s nothing you can sacrifice that can close this gap, that can solve the condition that you have. You’re sinners.

“For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners”

Matthew 9

So, I haven’t come to for a sacrifice from sinners because there’ll be no end to the sacrifice. I’ve come to be your sacrifice. I’ve come to give you mercy. And then he closes it with this line for I’ve not come to call the righteous.

I didn’t come to call people who think they’re okay, the self-righteous people. You’re good. You don’t need me. I’ve come for the sinners. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.

EVALUATING JESUS

Evaluating this analogy is going to take a little bit of thought, so follow me here I I’ll go slowly. But evaluating Jesus, evaluating his followers is like evaluating a car by evaluating a bad driver. Evaluating Jesus by evaluating his followers is like evaluating a car by evaluating a bad driver in an ice storm in Louisiana and he just got his permit and his girlfriend texted. You get the point. It has nothing to do with the car, has everything to do with the driver, whether he is all over the road and swerving and fish tailing and stuff like that’s all the driver. It’s not the car. And that’s what happens when we evaluate Jesus by the morality of his followers. We’re holding him accountable to a claim that he never made. He actually claimed the opposite. He claimed that we’re sinners.

Now, I know that this brings up all sorts of questions. Still, there’s a lot to say about this topic, and so we want to give you guys a chance in time to actually ask your questions so you can text him into that number on the screen, 269 – 448 – 4747. But let me head off one question that I’m sure I’m going to get, which is, well aren’t, why aren’t Christians better? Aren’t you guys supposed to be better? Of course, of course we are. Of course we’re supposed to be better and we’re not. So why aren’t we?

JUSTIFICATION VS. SANCTIFICATION

Well, there’s two different words when Christians talk about the Christian life. One word is justification and the other word is sanctification. And these two words kind of get conflated sometimes in our conversation, but they’re different words and they’re fancy words and big words, but justification is different than sanctification. Justification is this idea that you are made right before God because of the work of Jesus on the cross on your behalf.

When I was younger, I learned justified means just as if I’d never sinned. Sanctification is the process, the work of the Holy Spirit in you and you are becoming more and more like Christ. That’s called sanctification. When we live a good Christian life and we strive to be followers of Jesus, that’s called sanctification and they’re two different terms.

JUSTIFICATION VS. SANCTIFICATION

So here we go. Justification. Justification happens once sanctification is ongoing. Justification is you are made perfect, declared perfect. Sanctification is being made perfect. Justification is passive. You receive it. Sanctification is active. It’s something you do. Justification is the work of Jesus in your place, Jay for Jesus. Okay? Sanctification is the work of the spirit in you asks for spirit. There are two justification has to do with the penalty of sin. Sanctification has to do with the power of sin. And we are like Paul would later talk about how in our flesh it is waging war with the spirit within us.

What I don’t want to do this. I do what I do want to do, I don’t do. And these two things are at odds with each other. And sanctification is different than justification. And that’s so important to keep in mind when we look at Christians and we’re like, well, when the indictment against Christians says, well, you’re not being very Christlike. Well be patient with me. God’s not done with me yet. I may work in progress and I hate to say it, but sanctification feels optional to Christians. It does because I’m justified. So this is kind of optional. This explains why Christians will stall out in their growth and get plateaued or even be hypocrites because they’ve given up on sanctification. But in the end, in the end, both the bad things Christians do and the good things Christians do validate the claim of Jesus, that we are sinners who are saved to become like him.

I could go down a rabbit trail there. I’m going to just land my thought there. I want to get to your guys’ questions.

TWO APPEALS

I want to close today by talking to two groups of people. First of all, I want to talk to the Christians in the room when people criticize us, when people complain about Christians or they bring up the bad things Christians have done, if our first response is defensiveness, we’re doing it wrong. If people bring up the bad things we do, and our first response is defensiveness, we’re doing it wrong.

15 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst.

1 Timothy 1

When the apostle Paul calls himself says that “Christ Jesus came to save sinners of whom I am the worst”, he called himself the worst of sinners. If Paul can that why can’t we? If we get defensive about the things Christians have done or the things that we’re accused of do, and our first response is to fight back, we’re doing it wrong.

Be curious about that. Why are you defensive? What are you afraid will happen if you own that guilt, if you own responsibility for that, what are you so afraid will happen? You are justified before God through the work of Jesus. What are you concerned would happen next? And I think a right understanding of this would make us quick to confess. We should lead with repentance and be generous in our repentance. And there’s examples throughout scripture of people confessing not only their sins but the sins of the people they represent. Like Nehemiah, he confesses his sins and the sins of his forefathers. Why can’t we do the same thing? I never owned a slave. I didn’t fight in the crusades, and as long as we do that, they’re never going to look at Jesus this week. This week the kids didn’t have school on MLK day, and then we had two cold days, not even snow days, cold days. So they canceled school two other days.

So all week long, I’m at work doing my thing, and by nature of being mom, judge me all you want. But by nature of being mom, she stayed home with the kids on the cold days when daddy had to go to work and do the things. And so Ashley’s at home with the kids on the cold day and putting off work, and she’s working late at night trying to get caught up. And then she calls me, I think it was Wednesday or Thursday because my son got a fever and had to come home from school the day they went back to school. And so now there’s another day in the week that Ashley has to stay at home, take care of him and can’t get stuff done at work. And she’s like, I’ve got so much to do. And she calls me, she’s like, I have. So she’s like, it’s not fair. You’re at work. And I get it, you have to work, but it’s not fair that I have to stay at home and now I’ve got to figure out when I’m going to do all of ’em, the things I need to do for work. And you know what I said to her? I said, well, it’s not my fault.

Of course not. If I said that to her, would I be standing here right now? No. You know what I said to her? I’m sorry. How can I help? I think so much of Christianity’s relationship with the world would be improved if that’s the way we responded to people when they criticize us. I’m sorry. How can I help?

AN APPEAL TO NON-CHRISTIANS

And then the other group of people I’d like to talk to is anyone who’s here, who’s just looking into Jesus or anyone watching online, you’re just investigating this whole thing and you’ve been hurt by Christians. Again, I can’t thank you enough for giving Jesus another try. And I’m sorry for the things that we have done to you.

And I know it’s easy for me to say this, but I think it’s true. Don’t be distracted by the people around Jesus when you’re looking into Jesus. Start by looking at Jesus. That’s where you should begin. And when he says, I have come to call sinners, the question Jesus wants you to ask. Yes, it’s a good question of what about all the sinners? And what about all the Christians who don’t do good things yet? But the first question he wants you to ask is, are you a sinner or are you healthy? And that’s the question I’d like you to wrestle with As you look at Jesus, am I a sinner compared to him? Have I fallen short of God’s standards for me or just not even his standard, my standards for me? Have you fallen short of your standards for you? Have you made resolutions that you already aren’t keeping?

Have you have things that you try to stop doing and you can’t stop doing? Habits that you can’t kick? People that you wish weren’t mistreated and you weren’t so irritated by people? Do you have things about you that you just can’t seem to fix? The source of that that scripture would talk about is this thing called sin. And if you are coming to a place where as you look at Jesus, where you go, yeah, I am a sinner. I want to remind you of the same words from Paul Christ. Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst and sinners like you.

And this is an opportunity to do just that, to know that salvation from Jesus. So let’s pray and then I’ll get into the questions that you guys have.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, first of all, as a church, we confess that we have fallen short. We have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. There are things we’ve failed to do and good things that we failed to do, and we’ve done the wrong things. We have not represented your son well to the world. It’s not just that they’ll know we are Christians by our love. It’s that they’ll know He’s the Christ by our love.

And so God help us in this. We are sorry. We’re sorry if we’ve plateaued or kind of gotten stagnant or just lazy with our sanctification and we just kind of coasting and then cruise control. We want to be more and more like Jesus every day, and we’re not a finished product yet. So forgive us, renew us and lead us so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your holy name. And then, Lord, for anyone who’s watching right now online, anyone in the room or anyone who hears the sound of my voice later on who maybe for the first time is saying, yes, I a sinner and I need to be saved, I pray that by the power of your spirit, you would reveal to them that that’s called faith. And reassure them that Christ Jesus came to save sinners, and this is the day of their salvation.

And Lord, whether we’ve prayed these words for decades or this is the first time we’re praying them, we pray now the prayer your Son taught us to pray with a heart full of faith and heart, reassured by forgiveness as we say together, our Father who art in heaven, Hollywood, be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those you trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS

All right, let me pull up some questions here.

I love the quote, when there’s an accusation of hypocrisy within the church. Well, there’s always room for one more. Is that a good response to people?

I, I don’t know if it’s the most loving response to somebody to acclaim them of their own hypocrisy. Come on in the first. I think I’ve made it clear, but just to say it again, I think the most important thing is to own it. Own the mistakes of Christianity. It’s okay when you do otherwise, it’s like hot potato, right? You hold the potato and you toss it. Nobody wants to. And it’s this thing Christians should have oven mitts. We shouldn’t just give me all the hot potatoes. Who cares? Because we want them to look at Jesus and they won’t look at Jesus until that sin is addressed. And so I think a better way to do it is to demonstrate sympathy, compassion, empathy, and own it. Yeah, I think that was, yeah, that was last week. Oh, and there’s a follow up. Hang on a second here. I can hear that one’s a little.

How do you respond to somebody who says, all Christians are hypocrites and they were rejected by a certain church group?

Yeah. There is a tension in this, right? It’s baked in. If you’re a part of a Christian community and somebody calls out something in your life that you don’t think is a sin, and they do think it’s a sin, I mean, that’s where the tension really kicks in of like, well, can they be here and stuff? That’s where I think the truth of God’s word and the unity of God’s word is really important. Not every church does this, but it’s why we do this. And I’ve used this explanation before when you’re looking at Christian denominations, the difference between, and this is a quick way of describing the differences between all the denominations out there, but I think it works, is their view of the word of God. Are you in authority over the word of God? Is it subject to you? Or is the word of God an authority over you?

And in our church at St. Mark here, we would say the word of God has authority over us. And we don’t get to decide what parts we do and don’t like or what parts arts may or may not be true, or that’s just a different interpretation and stuff. We’re going to talk about this the last week of our series where we talk about how can I trust the Bible? But a simple way of a question like this, the importance of God’s word. Sometimes it’s helpful to ask somebody of, well, does God’s word have authority over you or do you have authority over it? Can you interpret it a little bit differently? Can you take out parts? Can you make some things allegories that aren’t supposed to be allegories? And that’s actually a helpful conversation because really the conversation is about the authority of scripture. I dunno if that makes sense, but it does in my head, hopefully that translates.

Isn’t free will behind what Christians do and don’t do?

Yeah. The Apostle Paul in our small groups, we’re going to look at this passage where he has this long, he lets the internal thoughts win and he just, he’s writing to his friends and he starts complaining about the struggle of the Christian life. And he talks about what I don’t want to do that I do, and what I do want to do that I don’t do. What is this war? And he just calls himself a wretched man, this conflicted man who will save me from this conflict, praise thanks me to God through Jesus Christ. But the point is, is that the Christian life is this constant struggle with our sinful flesh, our corrupted flesh. It’s good, but it’s been corrupt, right? And the desires that wage war within us, as is called in scripture and his spirit that is within us.

And it is this constant back and forth. And the longer you’re in a Christian life, hopefully the better you get at that. One of the analogies I use is like, I’m imagining a plant. I’ve got a plant in my office. Some of you guys have seen it. It looks terrible. It’s thinning out. The leaves are falling off because it’s not in the right sunlight. It needs direct sunlight, and it’s off in the corner. I don’t have another plant I want there. So this poor guy is just sitting off on the side and wilting and looking thin and meager. It just looks terrible. Justification is putting the plant in the sunlight. Sanctification. Is the process of that plant becoming healthy? And so is the plants going to look better eventually? Does it look better yet? No. And there’s a lot of growth that needs to happen. And the same thing is true for us in the Christian life. I’ve seen, I’ve seen gang member drug addicts start to follow Jesus, but still struggle with drugs. And that’s again, it’s the process. I’ve seen gossipers become Christians and still struggle with gossips.

And all of us have these things that these sinful tendencies that we need to fight. And that’s the process of sanctification. That’s why I brought that up. What time is it? Oh, okay. I can do two more. I should have looked at, I’m just talking and you guys are like, oh gosh, Chris, it’s three minutes. Just a second. All right, hang on.

Is it also fair to say Jesus is the reason I do good?

Yes, this is an important distinction. Legalism and moralism in any religion, I would say at its core, there’s a legality to it. Trying to do good, to be good. Like Jesus didn’t come to improve us. He came to save us. But any religion has this process of trying to do good or the standard of definition of good, and Christianity does too, but the motivation is different. Our motivation is not the distance from between us and God that we’re trying to make up. Our motivation is that we responded that God came to us. And so in response to his grace and in response to what he has done, a life of gratitude, we now try to live out his commands for our life. But it’s, the motivation is different. It’s not to close the gap between God, it’s because God closed the gap with us. So the motivation is a little bit different. But yes, Jesus is the reason that we try to do good.