There are many questions you are faced with every day. We are all searching for answers
that will make a real difference in our lives. It's hard to imagine that these answers
might be right in front of us. Get ready to discover answers in the Bible with Bayless
Conley. Hello friend, welcome to the broadcast today.
We have something very special for you. My son, Harrison is going to be speaking today.
And he actually pulled some thoughts and some principles out of a story that I have read
hundreds of times. And frankly I had never seen what he shared out of it before. It had
a great impact on our church. And frankly, I think it's a word not just for our church
in this season, I believe that it's a word for our nation in this season. In fact, wherever
you might be in the world I think you are going to find something extraordinary from
this message. So let's go listen to Harrison Conley right now.
Luke chapter seven, beginning in verse number one, reading out of the New King James Version
of the Bible. It says this, "Now when He (when Jesus) concluded all his
saying in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum, and a certain centurion servant,
who was dear to him, was sick and ready to die. So when he heard about Jesus, he sent
elders of the Jews to Him, pleading with Him to come and to heal his servant. And when
they came to Jesus, they begged Him earnestly, saying that the one for whom He should do
this was deserving, 'for he loves our nation, and has built us a synagogue.'
Then verse 6,
Then Jesus went with them. And when He was already not far from the house, the centurion
sent friends to Him, saying to Him, 'Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy
that You should even enter under my roof. Therefore I did not even think myself worthy
to come to You. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a
man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and
he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and I say to my servant, 'Do this,'
and he does it.' When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and He turned around and
He said to the crowd that followed Him, 'I say to you, I have not found such great faith,
not even in Israel!' And those who were sent, returning to the house, found the servant
well who had been sick." It's an amazing passage of scripture. It's
one perhaps that you're very familiar with. One that you've studied yourself. One perhaps
you've heard preached from before, but tonight I want to look at it perhaps through a little
bit of a different prism. Over the last couple of weeks as I've been reading, and jotting
down notes, and praying, and trying to catch the heart of God for this particular passage,
I had been looking at it from that vantage point, or through the prism of physical healing.
But then something happened in our nation just about a week and a half ago. On a Tuesday
night, we elected a new president, and the next morning, as I woke up, and began to read
this passage again, I felt like the Holy Spirit flipped the paradigm on me. He changed the
script, and He changed the vantage point. Suddenly I wasn't reading it anymore through
the prism of physical healing, but I began to see it through the prism of social healing.
And this evening, that's what I would like to speak to you on. I'd like to speak to you
on social healing. If you're taking notes, you can sort of write this down as a subtext:
"Building a Culture of Unity." If you would, look at the two main characters
that emerge in our story. We've got a centurion. His servant is sick. We have these elders
that go to Jesus on behalf of the centurion, but as we dive into the historical context
of the first century, you have to understand the social spectrum was incredibly fragmented.
Okay, everything from race, to religion, to ideology, the moral and ethical framework
of society, this was an incredibly fragmented and separated society. Things are divided.
And as we dive deeper in the context, let's look at the centurion. His race, he's a Roman.
He's a Gentile. We look at his occupation. He's a soldier. He's the invading force into
Israel. He's got Israel under martial law. When you look at the politics surrounding
this, he's a part of a dictatorship. Caesar is his king. When you look into the religious
aspect of this, he would have been polytheistic. He had many gods that he worshiped, as was
the Roman culture. When you look into the moral and ethical framework, he would have
subscribed himself to a thing called hedonism. All about the pleasure of self. What feels
good to me, that's what is right in my eyes. Then we jump to the other side of the social
spectrum. These elders, as we dive into what they are, racially they're Jewish. What do
they do as an occupation? Well, they're religious workers. We look at their political structure.
They're a part of a monarchy. History tells us, and the Scriptures tell us that Herod
is actually king, but then as we jump into the religious side of this, they are monotheistic,
they have one God, the true God, Yahweh. As we jump now into their moral and ethical framework
and fabric of life, it was based out of the Ten Commandments. Then you add onto that the
603 Old Testament laws. This world is completely divided.
As we jump into the story, we have to understand this. Tensions are incredibly high in the
midst of this society. There is uncivil unrest. You have got groups from the Jewish side called
zealots coming over to the Roman side trying to kill the soldiers. On the other side of
the coin, you've got Roman soldiers taking public execution of Jewish rebels and zealots.
Things are crazy. And then you read this story, and you go, "Well but these guys, these elders,
why would they go to Jesus on behalf of the centurion? Why would they say he's a good
guy? Why would they try and get Jesus to do this?" You have to read into the unwritten
motive here. These Jewish leaders, they don't like this guy. They don't want him to be there,
but they realize he's the lesser of two evils. They're trying to placate the situation, and
try and keep this guy happy. He's done some good things. He's allowed them to build a
synagogue. He hasn't oppressed them too greatly, and so they're going, "Okay, let's go to Jesus
on behalf of this guy so that things stay as they are, but if he gets angry, he's going
to start treating us different, or perhaps he'll get replaced, and the guy that they
replace him with, he'll be far worse than this guy."
Then you look at the unwritten motive of the centurion. He's done some good things. He's
allowed them to have a synagogue. Well, he's got smart leadership. He's trying to keep
the peace. You've got to give a little to get a little. Perhaps he's done some good
things, but he is still, nonetheless, the very instrument of Israel's oppression. So
we've got two characters, or two groups of people on opposite sides of the racial and
religious and political spectrum, but yet in this story, we see their social differences
put to the side, and we actually see the story end in healing.
What brings these two groups together? Jesus. Jesus.
And as we look at the social setting, here in our historical context, and you put that
juxtaposed to our current social reality, I can't help but notice the similarity between
the social separation, the division, and the discord that's going on even now in this moment
in our nation. The racial, religious, political, and moral gap seems to be more contextualized,
more contentious, and more fractured than it's been in a long time. Things and people
in our society are separated and they're fragmented, but I believe that the same answer and the
same agent that brought healing in our text is in fact the same answer and the same agent
that will bring healing in our present reality. Jesus. And the thought that I want to bring
forth tonight is this: If Jesus brings people together, people that are on opposite sides
of the social spectrum, if Jesus brings people together, then I need to bring people together.
And I need to be an agent of healing in society. So the question becomes how? What do we see
Jesus do in this passage that we can model, and we can put into application in our own
lives? Now let me just push the pause button there because I think there's a key in what
I've just said. What can we put into practical application in our own lives? We have to understand,
this thing starts with personal responsibility, right? I have the responsibility, and I have
to take ownership of this. I realize the premise is Christ lives in me, therefore I represent
Jesus in my world, and in my sphere of influence, and I have been called to bring peace wherever
I go. You know, over the last few months I've heard
a lot of preachers make a statement as tensions in our nation seem to have grown, I've heard
preachers make the statement, "People just need to hear the Gospel message." And that's
true. My God, that's true. People need to hear the Gospel message. There can be no change
and no transformation without the Gospel message, but having said that, it's got to go hand
in hand with Christians taking personal responsibility, not just to hear the Gospel message, but to
preach and to live the Gospel message. That's why James says it's not okay to just be a
hearer, but also to be a doer. We have to understand that this starts with us. And the
Apostle Paul called it being an ambassador of Christ.
If you would, flip over in your Bibles a few pages to the right. Second Corinthians chapter
5. Second Corinthians the fifth chapter. I want to read about this idea and this concept
Paul brings forth about being an ambassador of Christ. Let's begin in verse 17. Second
Corinthians 5:17. Paul says this: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is
a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. So listen, if you are in Christ, the next
few verses we are going to read, they apply directly to you, so we need to pay attention.
Verse 18, Second Corinthians 5 and verse 18, "Now all things are of God, who has reconciled
us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that
is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses
to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be
reconciled to God." So let's get the full picture here. We've
been reconciled to God in Christ, meaning that there at one point in time existed, between
us and God, a fracture. Our relationship was separated. But Paul says now in Jesus, we've
been brought into right and reconciled relationship with God. Paul says the result of that now
is that we become an ambassador, or a reflection, or a representation of Christ to the world
around us. And that same gift of reconciliation has now been gifted to us. We now have the
ministry of reconciliation, and we are responsible to bring that to society around us. Now, reconciliation,
that's an interesting word. In the original language, it literally means to win over to
friendliness. It means to bring back into harmony, or to restore back to wholeness,
or fullness, or original intent. The idea being that as we go into our world, as we
go into society, we go as a representation of Jesus, and as people see Jesus in us, we're
then able to help bring harmony, and help bring relationships back to wholeness, ultimately
pointing people to the love of the Father, but also helping people come to a place of
peace with each other, and a place of peace with God. That's the ministry of reconciliation.
Does that make sense? So back to the original question. If Jesus
brought people together, and if I now understand that I have personal responsibility to be
the ambassador of Christ, and my role is to bring reconciliation, and to bring people
together, the question is what is it that I can learn from this example of Jesus that
we have here in the text? What is it that I can practically put into application in
my life that will help build a culture of unity? There are so many thoughts, but let
me just boil it down to two. Let me simplify it to two. And by the way, I realize this
is not a subject that gets tackled and beaten and figured out in one week. Okay? This is
not a perfect message, but I do believe that if we follow the example of Jesus and make
it as simple as possible and apply it to our lives, it's a really, really great place to
start. So Number one, number one. I'm going to just
call it simply this: Journey with people. Journey with people. In our text, we see the
Jewish elders come to Jesus. They come on behalf of the centurion. In verse six, after
some begging, and some pleading, we read this very simple statement in verse six. It says,
"Then Jesus went with them." Maybe just highlight that in your Bible. It's a simple phrase,
but if we're not careful we'll pass over it real quick. Don't miss the simplicity. Notice
what He did. He went with them. As you read through the Gospels, this is one
of the things that I absolutely adore about Jesus. He wasn't afraid to journey with people.
He wasn't afraid to do life with, or to touch the lives of people, regardless of where they
found themselves on the social spectrum. In one text you read, He's having dinner with
the religious elite. The next passage you read, He's calling a tax collector down out
of a tree and He's saying, "I'm going to go to your house for dinner tonight." You read
later on in Luke chapter 7, Jesus is called the friend of sinners, He's called the friend
of drunkards, He hung out with prostitutes, and those that had been marginalized by society.
You see Him in John 4 hanging out and having conversation at a Samaritan well with a Gentile
woman who was known for her loose morals, and the disciples walk up, and they're like,
"Jesus, what is happening here? Why are You talking to her, and why are we here?"
You look at the disciples, they're a motley crew themselves. They're a bunch of teenage
religious rejects, and even within His 12, you've got political foes. You've got Matthew
the tax collector, and Simon the zealot, who constantly would have been at each other with
different worldviews, yet Jesus, He breaks all kind of social stereotypes. He spends
time with, and He makes friends with all different types of people. I mean, if Jesus were walking
around on earth now, I bet He would even, on occasion, hang out with Steeler and Clipper
fans. That's how good our God is. So what does it mean to practically journey
with people? What do we learn from Jesus' example? I think it starts with us reassessing
the priority that we put in our own social opinions, and our own social commentaries.
Now, hear me, I think having a social opinion is an important thing. I think we need to
be informed of what's happening in our world. I think we need to be informed of what society
is facing. I think we need to talk with those that we trust. I think we need to be on our
knees, and I think we need to ask God for His wisdom, and then we need to make our stand
from there. But the moment we put a higher value on our own social predispositions, and
allow our own personal opinions, and personal predilections keep us from doing life with
and journeying alongside individuals that look, and act, and think differently than
us, we have missed the plot in a real way. He went with them. He journeyed with them.
Jesus wasn't on the same social page as the Jewish elders. He didn't think the same about
God or about the law, but He went with them anyway. Jesus wasn't on the same social page
as the centurion, not in the least bit, but yet He went to him, and in like fashion, as
ambassadors of Christ, given the ministry of reconciliation, we need to see past attitudes,
and actions, and affiliations, and we need to see the individual.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, which by the way, was the most diverse church
in the New Testament. He wrote to them in Ephesians chapter 4, and you can look at it.
They'll throw it up on the screens as well, Ephesians 4. I want to just look at the first
couple of verses. Ephesians 4, beginning in verse number one.
He says, "I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling
with which you were called, Look at verse two,
…with all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in
love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
Notice that phrase in verse two, "Bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." That phrase, "Bearing with one another," in
the original language literally means this: to be patient with someone that has different
opinions and actions of those of your own. And guess what? There's actually an action
piece associated with it in the Greek. You know what that action piece is? Listening.
Not debating. Not trying to convince someone to get onto your side, and to think, and to
view the world the way you do. It's to listen. To be slow to speak, and quick to hear. It's
understanding that no one person has a full and complete perspective on life, or on social
issues. It's the idea that since you don't have the full perspective, and I don't have
the full perspective, let's bear with each other, let's be patient with each other. In
the meantime, let's assume the best with each other, and when our worldviews come into conflict,
let's seek understanding, let's go to the Scriptures together, let's pray together,
and let's grow in our understanding of Christ together.
Now, that's not always easy to do. It takes maturity. And in that process, I think it's
important for us to understand that love does not always have to end in agreement. The moment
we equate agreement to love, we're in a bad place. Look, I've got a brother-in-law, and
he and I see the world very differently, but you know what? I love him. I don't agree with
all the things he agrees with, but I would drop anything I was doing to help him in a
moment's time, because I love him. Agreement and love don't always mean the same thing.
So in this process, we have to understand that love doesn't always end in agreement.
So you know what we do? We control what we can control. We guard our heart. We assume
the best about the other person. And we endeavor to walk in love. Because that's what it means
to journey together with other people. I've got to get going. Number two. Second
thought that we can learn in this passage that we can practically put its application
in our lives is this: number two. I'm going to simply call it understanding the power
of words. Understanding the power of words. As we continue in our text, particularly verses
six through ten, we see this… this incredible exchange between Jesus and the centurion.
The centurion sent some friends, and they spoke on his behalf. The centurion told Jesus,
"Look, Jesus, just say the word, and my servant will be healed." The friends of the centurion,
they go back and they see that their friend that was sick is now healed and whole. But
my point is the centurion understood the power of words.
Let me propose something to you. If there is enough power in words to bring physical
healing, perhaps there is also enough power in words to bring social healing. Look at
what Jesus says in verse 9. Look at his response. He says, "I've never seen such great faith,
not even in Israel." So the only recorded words of Jesus in this text, as He turns to
a Jewish crowd, were words that highlighted the good in the man who was the very instrument
and object of Israel's oppression. Did you catch that? Jesus never even says the word,
"Be healed," which is a message all in and of itself about God's power not being limited.
But the only recorded words of Jesus in this entire passage is Him highlighting the good
in the man who is anti-Israel. Think about that for a moment.
What can we learn from that? We can learn that being an ambassador of Christ, and being
an agent of reconciliation to society, and to our sphere of influence means that our
words need to highlight the good in those that act, and look, and think differently
than us. Look, anybody can be negative. It's really easy to be a critic. Genuinely, it's
really easy to be negative. Look at this past election cycle. My god, it wore me out. The
rhetoric and the words used on both sides, and then you include the media, made me sick
to my stomach. The only part of this whole election cycle that I liked was in the second
debate where at the end the moderator made the candidates say one good thing about the
other person. So what are we using our words to do? Words
have the power to bring health and life, or they can bring strife and division. And in
this church, because we're building a culture of unity, we are going to choose to use our
words to edify each other, to love each other, to highlight the good in each other.
Romans chapter 13, Paul says this in verse number eight, they'll throw it up on the screen.
Paul says this, "Owe no man anything except to love one another."
He would go on to say in verse 10, just two verses later, he would say,
"Love does no harm to its neighbor." And I'm convinced the number one way that we practically
show people the love of God is through our words. Paul says, "Owe no man anything except
to love one another." That word love, literally, in the original language, it's in the infinitive
form. It's in the perpetual form. It means love and keep loving. And then after that,
love some more, and when you feel like you can't, then love some more. It means love,
love, love, don't ever stop loving. Our love needs to be perpetual.
Because Romans 13:10, Paul says, "Love does no harm to a neighbor." Look, I don't want
my words to condemn. If God wanted to condemn the world, He would have sent a judge, but
He didn't want to condemn the world. He wanted to save the world, so He sent a Savior. He
sent His Son. "For God so loved the world, He sent His only begotten Son into the world,
that whoever believes in Him might not perish, but would have everlasting life, for God did
not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that through Him the world
might be saved." Our words, that's the way we love people. May we be known by what we
are for, not by what we're against. As we speak out about what we're against, it actually
does harm to people, and how unintentionally often have we harmed others by our words.
I'm an ambassador of Christ, and I'm not trying to draw lines of distinction or division.
I'm trying to build. That's what I'm busy doing. I'm trying to be perpetual in speaking
words that build people, and words that build unity. I want to love people back to life
with my words. I want to be like Jesus. And even when it's hard, I want to highlight the
good in those that act and look and think differently than I do. I want to understand
the power of my words. I want to use them to set society on a new course, on a course
that's defined by unity and reconciliation. I want to help bring people back to a place
of peace with God and peace with each other. Now I thought that was a great message. And
truthfully, our church is in a season of great momentum and great unity. And all I can say
is. "Thank you Jesus!" Because it's been a work of God's spirit. Yes, we're
doing our best to cooperate with Him. But it is a work of God. And if you are watching
me right now, the message that Harrison shared about unity and some of the other principles.
They are so important. But most important is that you be in unity with God, that you
be right with God. So if you've never accepted His one and only way of salvation, His Son
Jesus, open your heart to Him today. Confess Him as Lord. You will never regret it.
Prayer is a vital part of walking with God. It's a deep and desired connection. Prayer
can change lives, give hope, and direction. Yet it's not unusual for each of us to struggle
with prayer. Bayless Conley is deeply committed to helping you grow in your prayer life, and
through his booklet How to Pray, he shares a blueprint for effective prayer that you
can use every day.
It's a framework that I use most of the time when I pray, and it can help you. I think
most of us, if we looked at our prayer lives, they're not nearly what they should be.
And sometimes, something like this can just sort of help us get over the ridge, so to
speak, and get on to a little bit deeper business with God. So I'd encourage you to request
your copy today, How to Pray.
At Answers with Bayless Conley, prayer is the foundation and life of the ministry. Right
now, Bayless' prayer is to reach more people with the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. Your
support is working in lives around the world. Help us continue to reach more people. And
to thank you for your generosity, Bayless would like you to have a copy of his booklet,
How to Pray. Just request your copy of How to Pray when you use the information on your
screen to give your gift or when you visit AnswersBC.org. Thank you for helping Answers
with Bayless Conley continue to take a living Jesus to our dying world through your gift
today.
Thank you for watching Answers with Bayless Conley. For more information and inspiration
visit answersBC.org.
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