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Xtreme Christianity 1) God's Ultimate Plan Goal: Accept Christ; Give your life completely to God! • Rule over creation with Christ • Problem: Fall • Solution: Christ's death • Weight of Glory "It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations - these are mortal, and their life is to our as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit- immortal horrors or everlasting splendours." (C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory) 2) God's Strategy: Suffering and Self-sacrifice Goal: Accept Christ; Sacrifice yourself for others! • Christ's Ultimate Example (Phil. 2:5-11) "Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords, calls people to Himself and demands from them total allegiance to Himself. Nothing of this world, not father or mother, husband or wife, son or daughter, or material goods, ought to stand between Him and His children. Jesus expects them to learn from Him and to become like Him. Then Jesus sends them into the world as His Father sent Him into the world, to spread his message and to be His faithful witnesses. He knows that the world will hate His witnesses and will turn against them with merciless violence. Nonetheless, He expects them to meet that hatred with love, and to face that violence with glad acceptance, following His example by suffering and dying for the lost world. Their suffering and martyrdom are prompted by their allegiance to His own Person and are endured for the purpose of spreading His gospel. Christ's disciples do not seek these things for their own sake, and they do not inflict these on themselves. Their goal is not to suffer and to die; on the contrary, their goal is Christ's Person and Christ's cause in the world, the spreading of His gospel." (Josef Tson, Suffering, Martyrdom, and Rewards in Heaven) • Consistent plan throughout Old and New Testament (Gen. 3; Isa. 53; Dan. 7; Phil. 1:29) • Antithesis: 1 meeting/wk.,etc. 3) Results of Self-sacrifice Part 1 Goal: Accept Christ; Voluntarily accept suffering • The triumph of God's Truth • The Defeat of Satan (Job) • The Glory of God (Phil. 4) Results of Self-sacrifice Part 2 (MOG) Goal: Accept Christ; Voluntarily accept suffering • Transforming the Sufferer (1 Pet.
• Blameless and Pure 5) Judgment and Rewards Goal: Accept Christ; Live for God alone! • QUALITY CONTROL (1 Cor.
KEY POINTS: 1. Faithful in Little things = faithful in Big things 2. The riches in this world are not "true" riches 3. We do not OWN anything! "Jesus Christ is not a Santa Claus with the task of distributing goodies and pampering our feelings. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords who calls all of us to submit to Him and to do our part in carrying out His own program in this world. Of course, His program entails sacrificial living on our part, and when He comes again on that Last Day, He will judge us and assess us according to our obedience to His royal commands. He want to make us kings just as He is King, but He will only entrust such position to those who have obeyed Him as He Himself obeyed His Father." (Josef Tson, Suffering, Martyrdom, and Rewards in Heaven) |
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