WHAT’S RIGHT WITH FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
#626 WHAT’S RIGHT WITH FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
Scripture John 14:1-12, NIV Orig. 3/20/1976
Rewr. 2/15/1987
Passage: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God[a]; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Jesus the Way to the Father
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” 8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
Purpose: To remind my people of the nature of our well-being as a Christian family and our reason to trust our heritage.
Keywords: Christ the Lord Mission Salvation Mission of the Church
Introduction
Haiti, a small island nation in the Caribbean, has drawn great attention to itself over the past years because of its political struggles. It was in the news again a few months ago. National Geographic carried an article some time ago, in which appeared events out of her history. Christophe, the island’s first dictator, was mentioned.
When Christophe came to power, he rallied the people of this poverty stricken land to his cause. To do so, he convinced them that they faced imminent danger of attack from others. His plan included a fortress, up in the highlands, a view, and control over the harbor through which the attack would likely come.
For 15 years, Christophe kept his people laboring for this cause. Haiti was free. Haiti was independent. And Christophe intended to keep it that way at any cost. Finally, the fortress was complete. It was in every way impregnable. The best of available artillery was put in place. No unfriendly vessel would ever dare to enter this harbor. So, the dictator convinced these oppressed people.
The price of such defense was high. During the years of construction, of cutting and hauling such stone over these forbidding trails, of struggling against such odds to bring heavy cannon to this place, a terrible life toll was paid. 20,000 people died, building what proved to be only a monument to a dictator. 100,000 suffered all the hardships of privation. To this day, Christophe’s guns have never been fired.
What has this to do with us? The institutional church faces a critical question. Are we to acknowledge other hardships to be faced, and therefore, turn our energies in upon ourselves? Or, are we to acknowledge that Christ is Lord, and He has commanded us to direct our energies toward a world beyond, desperately in need? Perhaps self-examination holds the key that will give us direction.
I. The First Thing Right about Our Church Is the Right Lord. Thomas: “How can we know the way?” Jesus: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me.” Phillip: “Show us the Father.” Jesus: “Have I been so long a time with you, Phillip, and yet ye have not known me? He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father.”
Interest here is not at all in suggesting to others that they have the wrong Lord. Some denominational interests insist that they only are right. Scriptures such as Acts 2:38 are used not to admonish to truth, but to support position. Advocates, such as [illegible], win converts to a cause presenting Christ as son of the Father. Little more than as I am son of my father.
Christ is Lord, and He is Lord of our church. We must honor what this means. The Baptist, scriptural position, on the Lordship of Christ is correct. Many others share it with us.
Time will not allow all that is right about our Lord. He is right because of submissiveness to the Father. V13 “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” Hannah Hurnard in Hinds’ Feet on High Places uses the expression “down into Egypt” to suggest adversity. God spoke to Jacob in such place: Genesis 46:3 “Fear not to go down into Egypt.” As Jesus expressed such submissiveness, so must we.
Additionally, what’s right about Jesus is His love. John 14:21 “I will love him and manifest myself to him.” John 14:23 “We will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you, . . . not as the world giveth.
So are we, then, to give evidence of our love. V23 “If [one] loves me, he will keep my words.” We sing it: “You can tell that they are Christians by their love.” Do we mean it? Celebrate Life: “He is alive and I love Him.” (Crescendo of conclusion.) “Jesus is All the World to Me.”
II. What’s Right about Our Church Is that We Are Saved at the Right Price. V2f “In my Father’s house are many mansions: . . . I go to prepare a place for you, . . . I will come again . . . (for) you.”
You see, we are saved at the price of His blood. Here, the highest expression of sacrifice. Here, the spiritual equation: "In Christ’s death, I also die; to be reborn for eternity. Mark 4:26f: Farmer plants a seed. He does not understand the means, only that the see must itself die if it is to truly live.
It’s that time again. We will plant the seed and impatiently wait. There is the temptation to dig it up to ascertain its co-operation. Disciples suckled on Malachi 3:1 “Who can endure the day of his coming?” When does it start? That happens to us as well. We want God to prove Himself to us. By what right? Our venture is one of faith.
Our salvation is at the price of God’s promise. Matthew 18:20 “Where two or three are gathered” asks not who we are, or by what name, not even how we are defined doctrinally. It asks if we agree in seeking the will and the promise of God through His Son.
III. The Final Right Thing about Our Church Is the Right Sense of Mission. V12 “Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.”
We are beginning another in the series of our support programs, the Home Mission emphasis. Not for First Baptist Church directly, but we do, in accession to will of God.
Do you know why we Southern Baptists have a Home Missions Board? To minister to the Aboriginals of these United States; to minister to minority populations; to minister in the strange city of New Orleans.
It is not ability that is the church’s goal, it is availability. Old Coliseum Place in New Orleans is in subsidence. Even First Baptist Church New Orleans to a degree. Others are rising to prominence.
In Flanders fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with those who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields. John McCrae, 1915
As the church on mission reaches out to its community, it also reaches beyond, to a lost world.
- 15%--to world mission
- 2-1/2 more to association
- Various causes on purpose
- To whatever degree, it is through individual commitment.
Years ago I listened to the interview when Hank Stram became the New Orleans Saints’ coach. “What can Saints fans expect in the way of something new?” “You don’t win football games with programs. People win football game. People with discipline and hard work.”
No better time to pray than now. Pray that the hand of subsidence will be removed. Pray that His hand of growth will be felt. Pray that those will be lifted up, young men and women, to take the place of those taken from us.
Conclusion
The last time we were at Glorieta, I took a walk up the mountain one day. Somewhere near the top, I came upon a small pool of water. As I looked into the pool, I saw what appeared to be a large hair, the length of a pencil, but not as thick as the lead. Suddenly, it began to move. I looked to see if there was current, but detected none. A few days later, I asked my veterinarian brother-in-law about such a biological form. He identified it as a Horse Hair Worm.
How wonderful it would be if all of us more closely resemble what we claim to be in the Lord.