Happy 7th Anniversary! [Slide 1] Seven years ago, God gave a group of people a vision of planting a multi-ethnic, multi-socioeconomic church in the heart of downtown to create a community that is not only proclaiming the gospel but also living out the gospel of Jesus Christ. That group of people came up with the vision/mission statement of the church, and it continues to drive what we do today. [Slide 2] The vision of New City is: To be an inclusive gospel-centered community of lovers of Jesus Christ who connect people to God, grow together, serve the city, and extend God s kingdom. At the heart of who we are, we are gospel-centered. [Slide 3] This is what we are going to talk about in a new series we are kicking off today called,. The thesis of this series is that the gospel is the third way, beyond liberal and conservative. There are so many people who are turned off by the church. That breaks my heart, but I can t blame them. What they see in the church is often disturbing. Many see liberal churches as inclusive but without spiritual vitality and many see conservative churches as spiritually zealous but judgmental and intolerant. They do not want to be a part of either kind of church. I think most people outside of the church feel this way. But, I know that they are still hungry for God. They are hungry for something more than live, work and play. Is there another way? This series contents that there is a third way of being a Christian and being the church: the gospel-centered way. I believe it is radically different than the liberal way or the conservative way. And this is at the heart of the vision of New City. What we are going to do in this series for the next several weeks is to dig deep into the gospel and its implication on how we live and how we do church. We will see that it leads us to something radically beautiful. I believe that the recovery of the gospel, the movement to the third way, is critical if we are to see revival happen in this country. Before any revival, there was always a recovery of the gospel. And I don t believe that it will different now. 1
[Slide 4] The title of today s sermon is I want to share with you today the theological vision of New City. And, it s a little heady. So, I want to ask you to put your thinking caps on today. [Slide 5]I want to start out with this question: What is the gospel? We often use the word to mean the first four books of the NT Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Luke etc. Or for some of us, it means a genre of music. But, the word gospel in Greek, the original language of the Bible, literally means good news. If you look at the entire Bible, especially the NT, it is clear that the gospel is at the heart of the teachings of Jesus and his Apostles. But, it s interesting how different Christians have different definition of the gospel. Almost all Christians say that the gospel is the main teaching of Jesus Christ, but they have different definitions of the gospel. When I was growing up, I didn t even know that the gospel was the main thing until high school. I thought Christianity was about morality dos and don ts and if you do enough good, you ll get to heaven. Of course, that s wrong. That s not good news. It s bad news because you and I know that none of us would be good enough in God s standard. But, the gospel that I came to understand was pretty simple; almost all Christians who believed in the Bible agreed with it, and I accepted it: God made us to have a relation with Him, our sins have separated us from God, Jesus died for our sins, and if we accept Jesus as our Savior and Lord, our sins will be forgiven, and we will go to heaven. That s pretty much the idea in Four Spiritual Laws (which has been printed more than 2.5 billion times), Romans Road, Evangelism Explosion etc. But, there has been a lot of criticism lately of this gospel. Brian McLaren wrote a book called New Kind of Christian. It is sort of written like fiction but it s a theological criticism. The main character is Neo. And this what Neo says: I don t think that most Christians have any idea what the gospel really is. Essentially, McLaren believes that the church, considered as a whole, has misunderstood and misapplied the gospel of Jesus. It has traded Jesus "gospel of the 2
kingdom" for a gospel of "getting into heaven after you die." Instead of being concerned with matters of justice and injustice, good and evil around the globe, the church has been hamstrung by the idea of "getting your butt into heaven," as one of McLaren s characters puts it. McLaren wants to replace that gospel with a gospel that calls Christians to join Christ s mission of working for "God s dream" for the world. In other words, he wants Christians to be less concerned about heaven and hell, and more concerned about working in this life toward what God intends the world to be. Now, who is right? Is the gospel about bringing God s plan for this world now or is it a gospel of atonement and forgiveness of sins leading to eternal life? It s interesting that if you look at the Scriptures, there are different ways in which the word gospel is used. If you read Matthew, Luke and Mark (often called the synoptic gospels because they are very similar), the word gospel is used almost always to indicate the coming of the kingdom of God. For example, in [Slide 6] Mark 1:14-15, 14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news. Most of the times, in the synoptic gospels, the word gospel means the good news of the Kingdom of God. We ll talk about what that means later. Then, if you look at Paul s letters like Romans, Galatians etc the word gospel means the good news that Jesus died for our sins on the cross. It is the good news of the gospel of atoning and substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. For example, [Slide 7]1 Corinthians 1:17: 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. 18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. Then, he says in 1 Corinthians 2:2: 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And if you look at Revelations written by John, the focus is on the good news of the second coming of Jesus Christ when God will completely destroy evil and restore his creation. 3
Now, are there three different gospels or one gospel? There is one gospel but the gospel has three major emphases. Some of the Books of the NT focus on one form and some on another, but never exclusively. [Slide 8] There is a tripod of the gospel: In Christ, God emptied himself and became a human being and servant. We call this incarnation. The Kingdom of God has come down. Then, God atoned for our sins and substituting for our sins. We call this substitutionary atonement. Then, God will come back and establish new heavens and new earth. We call this restoration. The Kingdom of God will be fully established here on earth. If you look at Paul, John, Mark, Luke, and Matthew, they all preach all of the above, even though there is an emphasis on one. Jesus came down, and died for us, and he will be back. All three need to work together or it does not work. Let s look at each of the element in more detail. 1. Incarnation: God became a man. Kingdom of God is established here on earth. This Kingdom is an upside down Kingdom. To serve is to be great. To go down is to go up. Love your enemies. Turn the other cheek. Focus on Matthew, Luke, Mark. Illustration: CS Lewis was alive when Russian Cosmonaut went into space, and declared that there is no God. CS Lewis responded and wrote an article that said that, if there is a God, you wouldn t relate to him like a person on the first floor relates to the person on the second floor. It is more like Shakespeare and Hamlet, a playwright and a character in the play. Our great playwright, he has not just given us a book, he looked into our world, looked at us, and fell in love with us, wrote himself in, and rescued us. That s incarnation. That is why there is a reversal of values. He came down, so we also go down. 4
2. Substitutionary Atonement. Jesus suffered and died for our sins and paid the penalty that justice demanded because he loves us. We are more sinful than we dare know and God loves us more than we can ever imagine. Focus on Paul s Letters. Illustration: God is a God of holiness and justice yet he is also a God of love. There is a judge known to be fair and just but at the same time loving. Someone he loves with all of his heart appears in his court. He is found guilty of a capital crime. The law and justice demands capital punishment. But, you love this person will all of your heart. How do you be both just and loving to this criminal? That was the dilemma that God faced. The judge after giving the sentence of death, he comes off the bench and goes to the electric chair for him. In an astounding contrast to all other religions and faith, God himself becomes the sacrifice for our sins. That is the meaning of the cross. That is how he has died for us. 3. Restoration: the Fulfillment of the Kingdom of God and restoration of earth, where all things are restored, where evil will be completely defeated, where we will experience the fullness of the Kingdom of God. Focus on Revelation and John. It s not just Jesus who is resurrected and restored. He is the first-fruit of all that will come. Someday, there will be no more tears. There will be no more pain and suffering. The creation will be restored to its originally intended beauty. That s the gospel. But, before we elaborate on the tripod of the gospel, I think it is important for us step back and ask what was going on before Jesus came. Why did Jesus need to come, die for us, and restore his creation? Sometimes in the Bible, the gospel of Jesus is called the gospel of the kingdom. This is defined in contrast to a different kind of kingdom: the kingdom of darkness. Let me explain. In Genesis, before the fall of Adam and Eve, God gave us dominion or authority over God s creation. He told us to rule over his creation, care for his creation. 5
But, instead of stewarding this authority, we surrendered it to Satan. Even before the creation of the world, there was a cosmic battle going on between God and his fallen angle Satan. We invited into our domain this cosmic battle. The demonic realm rushed into earth, and the earth became to a large degree the kingdom of Satan. So, Jesus refers to Satan as the prince of this earth. He is called god of this age, ruler of the age, 1 John 5:19 says: the whole world is under the control of the evil one. When Jesus was tempted by devil in Luke 4, the devil said all the kingdoms of the world are his, and that he has all of the authority of all kingdoms in this world. Then, he said to Jesus: I ll give it to you if you worship me. Jesus didn t dispute that the devil in fact had that authority. If you wonder why the world is such a mess, a part of the answer is because Satan is the ruler of this world. We are under the oppression of darkness. We are enslaved by the forces of darkness. Our hearts and minds are corrupt. We are under the oppression of the dominion of the Kingdom of Darkness. Do you understand why you can t escape your own addiction? You are under the oppression of the forces of darkness in the heavenly realm. Do you understand why there is so much selfishness, so much violence, so much war, so much hate, so much racism, so much classism, so much anger, depravity, sickness, and death? We are all under the oppression of the evil one. All suffering came in because of the demonic forces. It is in this context that God breaks into enemy territory and declares the gospel of the Kingdom of God: In Mark 1: 15, Jesus said: The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news! And Jesus revealed three things about what this Kingdom of God looks like, and it corresponds to the tripod of the gospel. [Slide 9] 1) Incarnational: It s an upside-down kingdom because Jesus came from up there to down here. Many passages talk about the reversal of values in Jesus kingdom in which the poor, the sorrowful, and the persecuted are above the rich, recognized, and satisfied. Why would this be? It is because Jesus emptied himself of his glory. Though he was rich, he became poor. Though he was a king, he served. Though he 6
was the greatest, he made himself the servant of all. He triumphed over sin not by taking up power but by sacrificial service. He won through losing everything. This is a complete reversal of the world s way of thinking, which values power, recognition, wealth, and status. This is the manifesto of the Kingdom of God. It is not a Kingdom of power-over people and ruling over people and controlling people; it is the Kingdom of power-under, the power of self-sacrificial love and grace. The power of service. The power not of pride but of humility. The power not of getting even, but loving our enemies. Now, what is the implication of the upside-down kingdom? It creates a new kind of kingdom, a new kind of servant community with people who live out a whole alternate way of being human. There is no racial superiority. There is no class superiority. There is no educational superiority. There is no financial superiority. There is no popularity superiority. Our power comes from giving, selfsacrificially, unconditionally loving just as Jesus gave himself for us, and loved us. We do not seek the power of the sword. We do not seek to change the world through taking the power of the sword and try to legislate our morality on people. Instead, we take the power of the cross, the power of the upside down kingdom, and seek to influence the world. We believe that the gospel is the power to change not only our hearts but our community as well. [Slide 10] 2) It s an inside-out kingdom because Jesus suffered and died for our sins and paid the penalty that justice demanded because he loves us. Many kingdom texts tell us how change happens in the Kingdom of God. Change comes from inside of our hearts. There has to be a change in our hearts. We can t change by trying to change our behavior unless our heart changes first. And the most powerful thing that can change our heart is when our heart is touched by love and grace. When we realize that we are in bondage to sin separated from God as we live in the dominion of darkness, we had no hope for transformation of our 7
hearts and our lives. But, Jesus died for us. When we come to understand that we were more messed up than we know, but how Jesus came and died for our sins, it changes us from inside out. Charles Dicken s book, A Tales of Two Cities takes place around the time of the French revolution. There are two major characters in the book: Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. They are in love with the same woman and they look very much alike. But, Charles Darnay ends up marrying the woman and they have children together. But, he is also an aristocrat, and this was the French revolution. Charles Darnay is arrested in put in prison awaiting execution on the guillotine. The night before his execution, Sydney Carton breaks into the prison and tells Darnay to trade places with him. Darnay refuses, and Carton knock him out cold and people he came with takes him out of the prision. Now, Carton puts on Darnay s cloths and is awaiting to be executed. And there is a seamstress who is also waiting to be executed that knows Darnay and seeks him out. Carton is trying not to get noticed by her. But, she does and notices that he is not Darnay. Her eyes bulges and asks? Are you dying for Darnay? He said, yes, and for his wife and children. She says something like: Stranger, I didn t think I could face death, but if someone as beautiful as you can hold my hand, I think I might be able to handle it. He was not even dying for her, but it moved her from the core. How much more when we realize that God of heaven has come down and died for us. Jesus took our place on the cross and accomplished salvation for us, which we receive freely as a gift. Traditional religion teaches that if we do good deeds and follow the moral rules in our behavior on the outside, God will come into our hearts, bless us and give us salvation. In other words if I obey, God will come into my life and love and accept me. But the gospel is the reverse of this if I know in my heart God has accepted me and loved me freely, by grace, then I can begin to obey, out of inner joy and gratitude. We are justified by grace alone, not by works; we are beautiful and righteous in God s sight. Once we get this understanding on the inside, it revolutionizes how we relate to God, ourselves, and others on the outside. We are going to talk much more about this leg of the tripod next Sunday. 8
[Slide 11] 3) It s a forward-back kingdom. The coming of Jesus and the Kingdom of God is in two stages. At his first coming, he saved us from the penalty of sin, defeated sin and death, and inaugurated the Kingdom of God. But at the end of time he will come to complete what he began at the first coming, saving us from the very presence of sin and evil by completely destroying evil, and completing the Kingdom of God. He will bring a new creation, a material world cleansed of all brokenness. Christians now live in light of that future reality. Not only that, Jesus taught us to pray like this: thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He taught us to pray that what is to come in the future become a reality now. What does that mean? It means we look at the picture of the Kingdom of God that is to come and we bring it back to the present. This is the picture of the Kingdom to come in Revelations 21: 1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Look! God s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. This is a beautiful picture of intimacy with Jesus, a bride of Christ. It is a picture of God dwelling with us. It is a picture of where there is no more tears, no more death, no more pain because the old order of things has passed away. This means that all oppression, pain, injustice, poverty, disease, and even death will be no more. I believe this means that God is calling us to bring the power of that Kingdom into our world now. The power of the kingdom to come has already broken 9
into the present, and God is calling us to bring that into reality. That is the mission of the church. IV. What does this mean at New City? Because of the inside-out kingdom/substitutionary atonement aspect, the church will put great emphasis on personal conversion, experiential grace renewal, evangelism, outreach, mission, and church planting. o We know that we are more messed up than we know yet more loved by God than we can ever imagine; therefore, we don t judge others. We don t judge others because we are more messed up than we know; and we don t judge others because they are more loved by God than we can imagine. o We know that transformation happens as a result of God s grace in our lives, and not as a result of will power and determination. So, we are inclusive come-as-you-are church. We create room for God s grace to work in our midst. Because of the upside-down kingdom/incarnation aspect, the church will put great emphasis on deep communal life, growing together and serving the community together, getting rid of all worldly form of hierarchy, seeking to radically share resources, engage in racial reconciliation, become a multi-socioeconomic church. o We are also a church that is not focused on gaining political power for the church. We are believe that the power is in the unconditional selfsacrificial cross like love, not in the power of government which is the power of the sword. Our calling as a community is not to take over the government to legislate personal morality; it is to proclaim the gospel of the Jesus Christ as the power to transform. Because of the forward-back kingdom/restoration aspect, the church will put great emphasis on seeking to be in the present the New City that is to come in the 10
future. That means we bring into our midst the reality of God s presence and love. He dwells with us. That means we are a church that seeks social justice because the New City that is to come has no injustice. That means we are a church that seeks healing through the power of the Holy Spirit because there is no more disease in the New City to come. That means we are a church that seeks the welfare of the city because there is love and flourishing in the New City to come. That means we come together with people of different color, different culture, and different background and worship together because that s what worship looks like the New City to come. 11