Thanks to the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Rochester Institute of Technology for the opportunity to speak tonight.  I always love my time there with you.  You’ll find in this post further resources concerning our topic tonight.  In the allotted time, I was able to talk about Christ’s exclusive claims in our “inclusive” cultural atmosphere, but I wasn’t able to talk much about the actual process of evangelism.  The Tim Keller materials below are excellent on this subject.

• Tim Keller on Evangelism
  
• Tim Keller Resources
• “That’s My King!” by Lockeridge (my conclusion)

I have the privilege of being able to speak at Rochester Institute of Technology’s Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship chapter on December 8.  I’ve been given the topic of “Religious Tolerance,” a particularly difficult topic in our day.  Your prayers as I prepare are much appreciated, and I’ll post the message, or at least the Keynote (Power Point) presentation notes after I preach.

I had a wonderful time speaking at RIT’s IVCF twice last year, and I’m very much looking forward to this opportunity.

“Pirate” over at BHT wrote this:

According to my professors here, being a “liturgical church” is first and foremost about following a lectionary, not just a particular prewritten order of service.  There’s something to be said for following texts ordered around the life of Christ in union with everyone else with your fellowship versus “Preaching through I Corinthians until I get tired of it and move on.”

I most definitely prefer that a pastor be guided by a lectionary to that pastor’s preaching whatever he “feels led” to preach.  Pirate has hit on the primary reason that I wrote the post on preaching the story of Christ.  Lectionary preaching helps to keep the focus on the Christ story, and further advantages are the prevention of the pastor’s going wherever he wants, and the ”union,” as Pirate says, of all the churches that preach from that same text on that same morning. 

iMonk made a point at the BHT this morning that I had intended to make in my post on preaching:

Why does Charles Spurgeon get a pass when the reformed start a pep rally for expository preaching? He could write expository books, like Tresasury of David. You could collect his texts into sermons on a book. He wrote a commentary on Matthew. But in the pulpit, it was selected verses and topical all the way. So why wasn’t Spurgeon selling the store?

Meanwhile, that post is being called an “attack” on Expository Preaching.  I’m not sure I even feel the need to respond to that.

I wonder how the church got along for so many hundreds of years without what we now know today as expository preaching.  Imagine how good the Early Church Fathers’ sermons would have been had they only had a good expository preaching manual.

Nine previous entries on “Christian Storytelling” have yet to get to the point where someone actually tells the story. Mostly, I’ve discussed learning the story, and thinking along the lines of story. A storytelling theology, really. But what happens at the point where someone actually gets up to tell the story?

When I began preaching at 19, I was attracted fairly quickly to the expository model, particularly the verse-by-verse brand of Dr. John MacArthur, Jr. and the Master’s Seminary folks. I bought the line very quickly that it was really the best (read: only) way to treat the Scriptures with honor in one’s preaching.

I think that’s pretty silly now, and I’m going to tell you why. Actually, I’m going to let Kevin Johnson tell you why:

The last thing we need is continual “micro-exegetical” line by line word by word expository preaching through books in order. That should have passed with the Puritans.

What is needed today is the sort of kerygmatic preaching that brings the acts of God to fore in the proclamation of God’s Word so that both in word and in deed (communion, the Lord’s Supper, weekly if possible), the covenant community is brought ever more forward into a unity with God through Christ and by His Spirit. It is this anamnesis (remembrance) in word and deed that brings transformative power to the people of God—to their lives, their communities, their cultures—not technical exegesis or an expository style designed to elucidate bare meaning and application from the text divorced from the main work of God in Jesus Christ. Exegesis and an expository method ought to be among the proper slaves of a preaching that proclaims the powerful Word of God and not become an idol in and of themselves.

Spot on. Not that line-by-line expository preaching can’t be powerfully rooted in Christ, proclaiming his death and resurrection. It’s just that expository preaching needs to be a tool in the hands of the proclaimer of the Christ kerygma, the overarching and central point of all Christian proclamation.

I recall that in Driscoll’s Confessions of a Reformission Rev., he mentioned that learning to connect every sermon to Jesus was difficult, and that his preaching got significantly better when he did. Exalting line-by-line preaching over the Jesus story is just one way of screwing up your ability to connect every sermon to Jesus.

And we must connect every sermon to Jesus. Yes, I said must. One of the pitfalls of expository (and topical) preaching methods is the tendency to “search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have life.” For the expositor, it’s the correct, technical, grammatical-historical reading of a verse that gives life. For the topical preacher, it’s “what the Bible says about X.” For the Christian Storyteller, it’s Jesus. Everything in Scripture points to Jesus, and a sermon without Jesus is a misuse of the point of the Scriptures.

Connecting sermons to Jesus is hard. We’ve been taught that Christology is one branch of the larger discipline of systematic theology. Normally, it’s not even the first point; it’s the third or fourth. How many systematic theologies have you see carry a pattern similar to this: Part I: Bibliology; Part II: Theology Proper; Part III: Christology; and then so on.

What?

Even the well-intentioned preacher fails. I’ve heard preachers declare their desire to make all their theology, all their preaching Christ-centered, only to hear the sermons collapse into moralism all over again. Just recently I heard two sermons in a row on the parables. The first sermon introduced the series, and the preacher was adamant that the parables were about Jesus, not little moral lessons. So we’d be focusing on what the parables teach us about Jesus. There were excellent points about Jesus being both Creator and Redeemer, and Redeemer even before He was Creator.

The next sermon in the series was on the Parable of the Sower. The Sower is Jesus. And that’s about all we got about Jesus. The majority of the rest of the sermon was about the soils, i.e. us, and the state of our hearts. It was a good sermon, and there were wonderful points. But somehow Jesus got lost in it.
Jesus is the point of it all. It’s what Jesus said: “It is the Scriptures that testify of Me, but you will not come to Me.” Systematic theology and mandated expository preaching can easily become legalistic barriers to coming to Christ Himself. I’d take a topical sermon that tells me about Jesus long before an expository, “mico-exegetical” sermon that misses out on Jesus.

I’ll flesh this out more in a later part of this series. Meanwhile, be sure to read or re-read this article by Michael Spencer.

The following sermon was written for the Niagara Celtic Festival and preached on September 17, 2006.
It is frequently said of Celtic Christianity that there remains at its core a deep appreciation for God’s beautiful creation, and this would be a very true thing to say. And this appreciation for creation is a good thing, given that the God we worship is indeed the Creator God who made the earth “good.” Multiple hymns, and many Celtic ones, include the grand theme of God’s power in creation. We sang one just a few moments ago: “I Sing the Almighty Power of God,” a song which documents God’s creative and sustaining acts of His creation.

But it should be made very clear that Celtic Christianity is thoroughly Trinitarian. When we sing and I speak of God creating the world, we’re not talking about some far away deity who set the world into motion and is sitting back and watching it unfold. We’re talking about the Trinitarian God of ancient, orthodox Christian theology: Father, Son, and Spirit.

The text I’ve just read, as well as many others, are clear that God the Father was not acting alone in creation. The original creation account on the first page of the Scriptures explains that “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” So there we see the Spirit’s involvement. The text I’ve just read to you explains that Jesus, the Son of God, was also an active participant in creation.

In fact, it not only says that He was active in creation, St. Paul is actually telling us here that Jesus Christ is the entire point of creation. The very reason that all of creation exists, the primary purpose for you and I being here, is Jesus Christ. “All things were created,” St. Paul says, “through him and for him.”

But how and why is Jesus the point of all creation? And why is He called the “firstborn from the dead”? And why would he even have had to die, if we’re claiming that He is God Himself?

Let’s return to the Celtic appreciation for the beauty of creation. I think we can all agree with Celtic thinking here: creation is beautiful. And if we believe in a Creator God, then we must also believe that it is His handiwork. But I think it’s safe the say that we’d also be willing to agree that something is dreadfully wrong with creation. In the first place, if an eternal God created everything, why does everything die? And why does His creation break down and deteriorate? Why do we suffer physically? Or emotionally even?

Whatever it is that God created this world to be, something is now wrong; something is broken. While we still see glorious glimpses of its original beauty, we also know that the world is damaged, broken.

In fact, in the Judeo-Christian story, the first rebellion against God is a rebellion pertaining to God’s creation, isn’t it? Whether you take the story of Adam and Even literally or as a symbolic way of explaining certain truth, the point remains the same: the first rebellion against God was disobedience to his command about how to care for the earth. God created us as caretakers of this earth, and ever since that first rebellion, we’ve been breaking that command, using up the earth for our own purposes, and not caring for it well at all.

So I submit this very simple point to you: the world is broken because God broke it. And God broke His own creation because of human rebellion against Him. And this is not the work of a trite and vengeful God who can’t take a little personal insult. It’s the action of a just God, who must punish wrongdoing.

But thankfully, God’s wrath is not His final word on this matter. Back to our question: St. Paul is telling us that Jesus is the entire point of all creation. How so? Well, there are two things Paul says about Jesus here: He is the firstborn over all creation, and the firstborn from the dead. But why the firstborn from the dead? Why would God himself die?

He died, because love is God’s final word towards His creation. If evil has crept into the world through human rebellion, but God’s primary way of looking at creation and at his people is love, then there is simply no way God could leave the world broken and dying. So He launched a rescue mission in Jesus. Jesus took on flesh and bone, lived amongst and as part of this broken world, submitted to the curse and brokenness God placed on the world, and then obliterated all its evil and brokenness by rising from the dead.

Jesus defeated all evil on our behalf. Jesus destroyed this world’s brokenness for us. All our rebellion against Him can be forgiven, once and for all. In His cross, St. Paul says, Jesus made peace. The rebellion can be over, in the words of Paul, “if indeed you continue in the faith.” What faith? Faith in Jesus, who came, forgave our sins on the cross, and defeated all evil in His resurrection. The world remains presently broken, but in Jesus’ death and resurrection, a new creation, God’s plan for restoration of the whole world, dawned right in the middle of this present evil age. One day, new creation will be brought to completion. Until then, all who are united to Jesus by faith take part in that first hope, that first glimpse of a restored, whole creation.

Come, then, today, whether already a believer in Jesus or not, come. Come to Christ even now. Celtic Christians have always known that God could be found in the beauty of His creation, but they also know that none of us can see it properly apart from Jesus, the author of the New Creation, the restored and whole creation.

If you think creation is beautiful now, come and look at the New Creation which is found in Christ. Look to Christ, receive the forgiveness of sins, the certain hope of an unbroken eternal existence, and eyes that can see the beauty of the earth in a way you’ve never seen it before.

The following sermon was written for Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship, University of Rochester chapter, for their large group meeting on September 8, 2006.

I’ve been asked to speak tonight on the “supremacy of Christ.” Now there’s a fascinating topic, and there’s so much to say on it. What do you think of when you hear the phrase? It sounds like a kind of lofty theological phrase, to some extent, which means Jesus rules and reigns over all things, that He is the greatest being in the Universe, and perhaps it evokes phrases like “King of kings, Lord of lords.” It expresses power and majesty.

We think, maybe, of descriptions from the Scriptures of Jesus holding the entire world together. Perhaps the images of Christ in Revelation come to our mind – a victorious, conquering rider on a white horse; a shining being with fire in his eyes and a sword coming out of his mouth.

If the questions, “Is Jesus supreme?” or “Is He the supreme ruler of the world,” or even, “Is Jesus the most important person in the world?”, were put to most Christians, you’d be hard-pressed to find one who’d answer “no” to any of the questions.

But our churches and our Christian subculture tell a different story. Think about the following questions, all of which start with the phrase, “If Jesus is Supreme…”

• Why is He rarely mentioned in sermons?
• Why is He trivialized on logos and bumper stickers?
• Why do many worship songs make it sound like He’s my girlfriend?

Why is He rarely mentioned in sermons? Jesus has become an illustration, a self-help guru, and a giver of good morality. Let me issue you a challenge: take the next couple months and pay close attention to all of the messages you hear, if you’re a Christian and a regular church-attender. Pay close attention and answer this question: Is this sermon about Jesus, centered on Jesus, and rooted in Jesus? Does the message focus intently on the person of Jesus? Is the sermon’s point rooted in the character of Jesus?

Here’s what I think you’ll find. You’ll hear Jesus mentioned in the sermon. You’ll hear something about what He said, who He was, or what He did. Maybe. But even these references to Jesus will be in support of the point of the sermon. In other words, the sermon will be backwards: The pastor will have a point he’s trying to make, and here and there in the sermon, He’ll quote Jesus or use something He did as an illustration. But again, the point will be something altogether different than Jesus. Here’s how to be a better Christian. Here’s how to succeed at quiet times, to pray better. Here’s how to love people better. Here’s how to deal with the stress in your life. Here’s how to handle a friend’s betrayal. How to. How to. How to. It’s life improvement and self-help with Jesus as the ultimate example.

Our sermons are not about Jesus anymore, and it’s killing our churches.

Why is He trivialized on T-shirt logos and bumper stickers? – This might be a sensitive point for some, because you might have a closet full of Christian t-shirts, and your car might have bumper stickers. I know your intentions are good; I know you just want to witness. But listen carefully to what I say about this, and please know it’s not intended as a personal slam on you.

We’ve created what can be called a Christian subculture. We’ve mimicked everything we see around us, making a Christian version of it. We take slogans for products and turn them into slogans for Jesus. Let me ask you something: is a commercial for Mt. Dew or Tide laundry detergent important to you? Or is it rather trivial in the grand scheme of things? Right, trivial. Then what message does it send when we turn those trivial advertisements into ads for Jesus? Right…that Jesus is trivial.

And the bumper stickers and billboards. Derek Webb, writing from the point of view of Satan, much in line with what C.S. Lewis did The Screwtape Letters, writes this line: “Keep selling truth in candy bars, in billboards, on backs of cars…truth without context, my favorite of all my crimes.”

Just like you can’t just pull one random verse out of the Scriptures and out of context and use it, you can’t make slogans for Jesus in expect it to have any profound effect. In fact, it’s almost insulting to the human experience. The experience of each individual who reads a slogan is deep, wide, and powerful. A person who has gone through life facing trial after trial, abuse, and so on, is not going to be powerfully moved by walking down the street and reading, “Know Jesus, know peace; no Jesus, no peace.” That person’s story is too profound to be affected by slogans, and the story of Jesus is far too profound to be represented by slogans.

We don’t treat Jesus as supreme by trivializing him in our Christian bookstores.

Why do worship songs make Jesus sound like He’s my girlfriend? - If in the early church, a report went out to the Roman emperor explaining that Christians “sing hymns to Christ as to a god,” today the report might say that we “sing hymns to Christ as to a significant other.” Not all, of course. There are some wonderful songs being written. But I mention the song issue in order to raise a greater issue: our worship services, which have become increasingly trivial.

There is a really harsh criticism of liturgy, or structured worship services with memorized responses and so on, that is present in evangelicalism today. The criticism centers around the tendency towards what is called “ritualism,” going through the motions without really thinking or being affected.

In its place, we decided to turn the worship service into something exciting, a “What’s going to happen next?” event. It’s relevant, practical, and appeals to anyone who might come in. It’s just not reverent. It’s distracted my announcements, new programs, building projects, and edgy church growth strategies. Jesus has been left behind in an attempt to grow our churches.

The Problem with Power

Our churches are filled with the desire for power. Holy Spirit power, to bring healings and victory. Power to bring in converts. Powerful preachers, powerful experiences, powerful music, powerful worship, powerful revival services, etc.

Jesus is powerful, and there is no question that His supremacy involves his almighty power, his rule, his sovereignty. All of these things are essential to the person of Jesus, and we should learn about them and be in awe of them.

But let’s get right down to business. Think hard about your most difficult struggles – your deepest hurts, and your most intense battles with sin. Now I want you all to spend a good amount of time meditating on the power of Christ…and then tell me if you think you’re over your sin.

[Cue Jeopardy! them music]

No? Alright, let’s move on then.

The Power, Majesty, and Supremacy of Christ

Consider with me a couple of passages from John’s Gospel. The book of John is often broken up into two distinct sections: The Book of Miracles (or Wonders/Works), which is John 1-12:19, and the Book of Glorification, which is the remainder of the book. In any case, John 12:20-26 marks a radical turning point in the gospel. Having been almost thoroughly rejected by His own people, some Gentiles seek Jesus. Jesus seems to take this as a sign that His time had finally come (something He adamantly denied several chapters earlier at the Cana wedding). He says the following:

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

What do we think of when we use the term “glorification?” Honor, power, majesty, and the like. Jesus’ glorification is paralled with what? His death. The lowest point of his entire life. In fact, this point in the gospel of John marks the beginning of this kind of language, and the remainder of the gospel is almost a rush towards the cross. Again, just shortly after this statement, Jesus says something else that is very significant:

31Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

As with glorification, we expect the phrase “lifted up” to have kingly and majestic associations. It does not. John explains the phrase for us:

33He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

But what is accomplished with this death? The greatest military victory in history: the overthrow of the original Dark Lord, the ancient dragon, Satan himself. In other words, as Jesus died, evil was conquered once and for all. (Of course, you’ll object that evil is still quite rampant…wait for it, we’ll get there).

In fact, Jesus’ whole life is filled up with this mentality that the weakest moments are the most important ones. Jesus did not keep the company of the powerful; He kept the company of the outcasts. He hung out with the untouchables. He ate dinner with thieves and prostitutes. He did all the stuff that would make us Christians really uncomfortable, didn’t He? He even did all the stuff that would make a lot of non-Christians uncomfortable.

Seeing God in Jesus

We’ve done a lot of damage by emphasizing “power” as the key element of the Christian life. It’s usually rooted in a bad understanding of the Holy Spirit. Actually, not long after these statements were made, Jesus taught a bit on the Holy Spirit, and the lesson was really quite simple: The Holy Spirit would teach and remind them about Jesus. In other words, the Spirit’s job was not to come and proclaim Himself the all-powerful energy behind the successful, victorious Christian life. He came to point us back to the meek and lowly Jesus, who humbled himself, ate with sinners, got dirty, and died for us.

It is “better” for us that Jesus went away and the Holy Spirit came – Jesus said so himself. But that’s not because the Holy Spirit would finally come and give us the victory we were all looking for. It’s because Jesus, as God incarnate, was only present in one small area of the world at a time. The Holy Spirit would be everywhere, in the midst of us, and in us, to teach us about Jesus, so we could all know him – not just a handful of folks in Israel, but people of every tribe, tongue, and nation.

When you think about it, Israel, under the Old Testament, had power, didn’t they? Miracles upon miracles. Thunder and lightning on Mt. Sinai. Plagues, signs, wonders. Prophets with power to stop rain, to raise the dead even. But the Old Covenant failed. The Old Covenant people saw an Almighty God, and they failed in their obedience to the covenant.

John opens up His gospel with some extremely important words:

1:18No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

In short, we cannot possibly see God properly unless we look at Jesus. It is only in looking at Jesus that we know God. I have little use for lists of the attributes of God. They are of limited help; looking at Jesus is far better. The Old Covenant people had attributes of God, words from prophets, and so on. But Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3 that Old Covenant people could not even look upon the face of one who had looked at God; Moses had to wear a veil. It was literally impossible, simply by having a list of God’s attributes, to know God. But when it comes to Jesus, Paul says,

We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

With Jesus, we can look at the glory of God right in the face, and rather than being frightened, we are transformed. And what did Jesus say was His and the Father’s glory? His death. You want to know what glory and supremacy look like? Look at Jesus’ death. Look at the cross! It is in Jesus’ greatest weakness that His power was most effective.

Our Weakness and His Power

Now, for those of you who have been in church for some time, that theme might sound familiar. Paul had this “thorn in the flesh,” and we don’t know what that was, but it was incredibly painful for him, so much so that it made him weak and caused him to plead with the Lord that it be removed. The response? “My Grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Same theme.

But that’s kind of vague, isn’t it? What does that mean? How to we tap into that grace?

Well, that’s where our thinking is backward once again. We’re thinking of power for victory. Some people talk as if, in weakness, we just tap into God’s grace somehow, and everything gets better, and it doesn’t hurt as bad, and sin goes away, and we get all peaceful and happy inside. My guess is that Paul’s weakness didn’t come anywhere close to going away, or even subsiding. Paul never says, “I trusted God about my weakness, and now I feel a lot better.” That’s the kind of thing we believe. “I was really struggling, and then I had a quiet time, and everything magically got better.” Sure, it happens. But not always. Instead of the weakness going away, getting better, subsiding, Paul actually determined to brag about the weakness instead.

Here’s the way I read it. Paul’s weakness didn’t go away at all. It didn’t subside, and it was just as difficult as ever to deal with. But that wasn’t the final word for Paul. The final word was that Jesus had already come to suffer in the same way he did, but on his behalf.

Receiving the grace of God in Jesus will not always result in joy and peace; sometimes it’ll be just enough to get you through. Jesus wasn’t joyful and peaceful in Gethsemane, and he wasn’t sinning either. Life hurts, and it’s really hard.

Here is where Jesus is really supreme:

It would take a strangely befuddled person to believe that this world is not broken and messed up. Wars, violence, diseases, disasters, broken relationships, death – these are all signs that something is dreadfully wrong. Let’s make no mistake about it, though: the world is broken because God broke it, and God broke it because we rebelled against Him. And this does not mean that God is trite and gets his feelings hurt easily. It’s because He’s just. We would demand justice if someone wronged us or hurt someone we love. God was exercising justice when He broke this world in response to our rebellion.

But God’s wrath against sin was not his final word. God’s love in Jesus is the final word. When Jesus demonstrated his supremacy by coming down to earth, taking on our likeness, and suffering and dying, he did it (and here’s the key!) for you. This is the only comfort, as the only catechism puts it, in life and death.

When Jesus died and then rose from the dead, because death had no claim on one who had not sinned, a new age dawned. I spoke earlier of Jesus’ death dealing a final blow to evil, defeating it once and for all. What Jesus accomplished right in the middle of history was something that wasn’t supposed to happen until the end of all time. Evil will be finally defeated at the end. But Jesus’ death and resurrection caused that new age to dawn right in the middle of the present evil age. Healing was introduced into the broken world. Evil and suffering are not over, but it is only now a matter of time. All who are united with Jesus share in his victory over death, and it is only a matter of time before that victory is completed in our lives. For us, it will likely be at our deaths. For some people, some day, it will be at Jesus’ final return.

The World’s Power and Jesus’ Weakness
On a broader, but equally important level, the world is obsessed with power.  Military, political, and economic power are central to existence on the world right now, it seems.  But if “God so loved the world,” then we need to think good and hard about how the church is to be in the world.  How was Jesus to Israel?  Meek, humble, and lowly, even though he was ultimately supreme.  Likewise, we the church rule and reign with Christ, but our reign is not one of overwhelming power.

Jesus commissioned his disciples to take His mission, via the church, to the rest of the world.  We should realize, then, that the church is to the rest of the world as Jesus was to Israel (yes, that’s N.T. Wright language).  We are sent with his message and mission to the entire world.  And we are to be like Jesus in doing so.  We do not represent the supremacy of Christ primarily by displays of power or by giving in to the temptations of political power plays.  We carry the simple gospel message that God is reconciling the world to himself through Christ.  We do so with humility and a servant’s heart, not arrogance and condescending attitudes.
Some Application

There is so much application from this, it’d be hard to cover it all. Let me suggest a few things to get you thinking:

• Christ is Supreme in the Scriptures: It is clear from what Jesus Himself says about the Scriptures that they are not to be used “topically,” as a sort of medicine cabinet for spiritual growth and solving daily problems of life. They are about Jesus. Listen carefully: You do not have life in the Scriptures. The Scriptures point to Jesus, who is the Giver of Life. Jesus is the point. The Bible is not an answer book; it’s a book about Jesus.
• Christ is Supreme in our Suffering: The only comfort that exists, the only lasting comfort, is that Jesus suffered with us and for us, though He did not have to do so. We don’t overcome our suffering by our faith; we unite with Jesus, who also suffered and one day will end all suffering.
• Christ is Supreme in our Churches: As Jesus was to Israel, so we are to the world. Any way of thinking about church that isn’t vitally linked to who Jesus is will be a terrible mistake, even if there are 10,000 people in the church. It’s not about strength, power, influence, and growth. It’s about love, humility, weakness, mercy, and grace. If the Church does not look to the world like Jesus looked to Israel, we’ve created a church that Jesus did not intend.
• Christ is Supreme in the World: He is king of the world, and his reign is extending through the preaching and acting out of the gospel.

Questions for Reflection:

I’ve been asked to provide questions for you to consider in small groups afterwards. Here are a few:

• What should the nature of the church be, given that we are to continue Christ’s mission to the world? In other words, what does a loving, self-sacrificial church look like? How would this inform our goals, our worship, and our fellowship?
• What would a Christ-centered approach to the Scriptures look like? How can we stop reading the Bible as a theological textbook or a self-help manual and start reading it as the story of Jesus?
• What should Inter Varsity at U of R look like, in light of the supremacy of Christ in His life on earth? How can we be self-sacrificial servants of the campus around us?
• Jesus said that His disciples were not taking up swords and fighting because His kingdom was not of this world.  What, then, does it look like to take the powerful message of the gospel of the supreme Christ out into the world?