2004 SINGLE SERMONS
22ND ANNIVERSARY
DR. JIM DIXON
MARCH 7, 2004
Well, this of course is March 7th, and it was on this very day in the year 202 AD that a woman named Perpetua was martyred for her faith in Jesus Christ. She was martyred in a Roman arena this day in the city of Carthage in northern Africa. She was executed by the decree of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus. She was flogged. She was delivered over to wild beasts in the Roman arena and ultimately she was beheaded by a Roman gladiator. The death of Perpetua shocked the Christian world, and it was her death that prompted the early church Father Tertullian to proclaim his famous dictum, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”
But of course, Tertullian was wrong. As much as we are grateful for those women and men who have been faithful unto death through the history of the church, the church is not founded on the blood of the martyrs, but rather the church of Jesus Christ is founded on the blood of Jesus Christ and on his atoning sacrifice. The church is all about Jesus Christ. Now, of course, March 7th is also our birthday as a church, and we were born 22 years ago on this day. And for us, it’s all about Jesus. It’s all about Jesus Christ. He’s the one we talk about. He’s the one we point to. He’s the one we worship. And He has led us through these 22 years to seek two things for everyone who comes through our doors. And I want us to focus briefly on these two things this morning.
First of all, we seek that you would believe. Everyone who comes through these doors, this is our hope, this is our prayer: that you would believe. And of course, the Apostle John wrote in John chapter 20, verse 30, “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples that are not written in this book, but these are written that you might believe and that believing you might have life through His name.” We have the same purpose that John had: that you might believe and that believing you might have life through His name.
But we wish that you understand the true meaning of belief, because the world misunderstands the meaning of the biblical word for belief. Tragically, the church across the world has oftentimes misunderstood the genuine meaning of belief. The biblical word, the Greek word, for belief is the word “pisteuo.” That’s the verb form. The noun is “pistis.” And what does it mean? God wants us to understand today that doesn’t mean credence, but rather it means commitment, and there’s a huge difference between credence and commitment.
Now, I know all of you have heard of the Apostles’ Creed. Many of you know by memory the Apostles’ Creed, and you’ve spoken those words, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and buried. He descended into hell. On the third day, He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, where He sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, from whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Christian Church, the communion of the saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. The Apostles’ creed. And by tradition, that creed was written by the apostles themselves. And certainly parts of the Apostles’ Creed date back to the first century. It’s important. But you see, you can say the Apostles’ Creed every day and you can think every word true and that does not mean you believe. That does not mean you believe in the sense of pisteuo, in the sense of the biblical word for belief. Because belief is more than credence. It’s more than intellectual assent to the truth of something or the validity of something.
Biblical belief is commitment. It’s a commitment. It’s your life. It is the consecration of your life. It is the relinquishment of all you have, and Christianity begins in that moment of commitment. That’s when it begins for us, when we commit to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and commit to following Him and serving Him. And then belief grows as we relinquish everything. We are not simply our time and our talent and our treasure, but our very thoughts, our goals, our aspirations, our hopes, our very souls. It’s all part of belief. As we relinquish all that we are, so we can say with Paul, “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” Our longing, our desire is that when people come through those doors, they would believe and their belief would be genuine—not nominal, but genuine. And our hope is that it would be expressed in a sincere commitment and a growing consecration and relinquishment to Christ.
The strange thing about belief biblically is that it actually can be mixed with doubt. Did you know that belief can be mixed with doubt? Because it’s not the same as the word. No, it’s not the same as the word knowledge. That’s the Greek word “gnosis.” And it’s an entirely different concept. You see, belief by definition can be mixed with doubt. And in terms of credence, you may from time to time have some doubts. But you see, belief cannot be mixed with apathy. It cannot be mixed with apathy because the very meaning of the Greek word is commitment, consecration, and relinquishment. It’s a word of action. It can’t be mixed with apathy. We live in a world where there are so many nominal Christians and they give credence while they live in apathy. But the meaning of the gospel word is commitment. And this is our prayer: that you would be a committed people believing in Jesus Christ.
Last Sunday night I know that many of you of you saw the Oscars, the Academy Awards, and you know that the Lord of the Rings won 11 Academy Awards. I was kind of pleased to see that because the movie is based on the trilogy by JRR Tolkien. JRR Tolkien was a great, committed, genuine Christian and his best friend was CS Lewis, that great Christian theologian. And together they were part of a Christian group that met twice a week and they call themselves The Inklings. And of course, our bookstore right here at the church is named after that gathering.
Now, 11 Academy Awards is a lot. I mean, only The Titanic and Ben Hur have received so many Academy awards. I look back on Ben Hur and, and it was one of my favorite movies and of course a Christian movie. It was called Ben Hur: A Story of The Christ. And it was based on a book, and the book was written by a man named Lou Wallace. Lou Wallace wrote Ben Hur in the year 1880, and Lou Wallace was an amazing man because he was not only an author. Lou Wallace was a politician. He was a senator from the state of Indiana, and he at one time served as the governor of the New Mexico Territory. And he was the United States ambassador to Turkey. He was not only an author and a politician, but he was a lawyer, a trained and highly skilled lawyer. And Lou Wallace actually served as a member of the court that tried those involved in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Lou Wallace was a military officer who led part of the Union armies in the Civil War. He was General Lou Wallace. He was an agnostic, and he didn’t believe in Jesus Christ. But one day, in the year 1879, he was riding in a railroad car and he was sitting right next to Robert Ingersoll, the famous atheist. And they were friends, and they were discussing their common unbelief, and they were discussing Jesus Christ and how if Jesus could just be uprooted from the mythology of the Bible and all the supernatural stuff, perhaps they could figure out who the real Jesus was. And they decided somebody ought to write a book on what the real Jesus was like as just a man. Somebody ought to write that book. And they decided that Lou Wallace would do it, and so he began to research the life of Christ.
As he researched the life of Christ, an amazing thing happened. He fell in love with Jesus and he came to believe. And so, he wrote that book the next year in 1880. He wrote it as a believer. He had come to believe, and he committed his life and he consecrated his life. He relinquished day by day all that he was in genuine belief for the rest of his days. And he’s in heaven with Jesus today.
Now, you know, I cannot make any of you believe. I don’t have that power. I don’t have that ability. I can’t make any of you believe truly. Only the power of the Holy Spirit can draw you and only Jesus Christ can call you. But this is my longing. This has always been our longing through 22 years. This has been our longing: that you would believe and that your belief would be genuine and true.
And so we always talk about Jesus hoping and praying that we’ll all fall in love with Him and come to genuine belief and commitment. We would serve Him on this earth as surely as we will serve Him in heaven.
Well, there’s one other hope we have for everyone who comes through those doors, and that is that they would belong. We want everyone to believe, and we want everyone to belong. And the gospel calls us to this. I mean, the gospel not only calls us to faith in Jesus Christ and a commitment to Him, but the gospel calls us to the church of Jesus Christ and to the community of Christ, that we would believe and that we would belong. So this has always been our longing, our desire: that you would sense when you come here that you belong.
That’s not always easy. If you were here last week, you know that I mentioned how Barb, my wife, had found a little puppy near Daniel’s Park, just running wild on the dirt road. This little dog had no collar and was lost and desperate. In the beginning, it was kind of like the movie Cujo, that crazy dog looked like it would just devour you. This little puppy looked like that because it was desperate. Barb took the dog to the Dumb Friends League and registered it as lost. And I told you last week that she’s just hoping that she could keep and adopt this dog. And so far, her prayers have been answered.
It’s amazing how this dog already feels like she belongs. I mean, our house has clearly become her house. And there’s no doubt she has this sense that she belongs. And everywhere in the house she just figures it’s hers. When Barb and I sit down, she just runs and jumps in our laps and she sits by us. And she just, almost within a day or two, had this obvious sense of belonging, and our turf is her turf. And then if anyone steps near our house, she begins to bark and growl. She’s protecting her turf. She belongs. I mean, in just a few days, she has this obvious sense of belonging. And aren’t dogs like that? I mean, dogs are like that. It’s kind of easy for a dog to belong, but it’s not so easy for people.
It’s not so easy for some of you. I know; I understand. I mean, it’s just not always easy to feel like you belong. And through these 22 years, we have tried to facilitate a sense of belonging for you and for our people. And of course, in years past, we had family night movies, and we had all-church picnics. And of course, we’ve kind of become too big to have all-church picnics. But we did these things that there might be this sense of community and this sense of belonging. And of course, as the church has grown, we’ve established small group ministries and 3,000 of you are in small groups every week. And we’ve done this, at least in part, that there might be this sense of belonging. Even our encouragement to you to go and enter into service and to volunteer in ministries is in part because we want you to belong and that you might experience what it’s like to serve Christ with other people and kind of have a bond through that.
You know, we have this longing that you would belong. But of course, you know, it’s different with everybody, and sometimes people come through the door and—at least they tell me—the first Sunday they arrived, they just sensed from the Holy Spirit as though this was home. They just came in the door, and this felt like home. Only the Holy Spirit can do that.
But I know for others of you, it’s been harder to feel like you belong. And I feel like God is starting to do some things in our midst by His Spirit that binds us and bonds us as a community and a church. We belong, but you have a role in belonging too, and you need to seek it.
Some of you have probably seen movie called My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Now what’s that movie all about? It’s all about belonging. I mean, the whole movie really is about belonging. This 30-year-old Greek woman named Toula falls in love with this man named Ian, who’s an English teacher. The only problem is Ian is not Greek. You see, Toula is Greek and her life is Greek and her family is Greek and their culture is Greek. And Ian, because he loves Toula, wants to belong to her family. He wants to be accepted by her family.
So he was baptized in the Greek Orthodox church, virtually becoming Greek. And then he is to meet the extended family. And as he is meeting the extended family, it’s the Easter meal. He’s taught to say Cristos Anesti, which he thinks just means “Happy Easter” because he doesn’t know Greek. But of course, it really means Christ is risen. And their response is “He has risen indeed,” but he doesn’t even know the meanings of those things, because all he’s seeking to do is to belong. And of course, in that final scene, he’s embraced by the extended family. And there’s this sense of welcome and this sense of acceptance.
But how about you? I mean, do you really seek to belong? I mean, have you fallen in love with Christ and do you know that in the Bible Christ is married to the church? The Bible tells us Christ is married to the church, and if you love Christ, you seek to belong. Is this something that you are pursuing, that you would belong? Because we can’t force belonging on anybody. But as you involve yourselves and as you commit yourselves, belonging comes. I know many of you came to believe in this worship center or in one of our past worship centers in our 22 years. Some of you have come to believe in a Sunday school classroom here at the church, maybe 20 years ago. Some of you came to believe in a counselor’s office. Some of you came to believe in some other context in the church. Hopefully you’ve had this sense of belonging. It’s really, for us, about believing and belonging.
Now, on this anniversary Sunday, I have an announcement to make, and I think it is known to some of you, and it’s very appropriate that we make this announcement to all of you on this our anniversary Sunday.
We remember the birth of this church, and we want you to know that we are birthing another church, that we’re starting a mission church in the urban corridor. It’s a new ministry called Urban Skye, and it’ll include a church that is to be pastored by Dave Meserve. And you know, we love Dave and I value Dave’s friendship. And when Dave came to me and told me he felt this call, I want you to know my only reaction was, “Oh no!” because I covet Dave’s gifts here and I long to see his friendship continue with us right here. And yet God was clearly calling him. And as I prayed, I knew that. And woe unto me, if I seek to thwart the call of God. I know the power of the call of God. So God has called Dave to this new ministry and we’ve embraced it.
It’s going to be a wonderful new church in the urban section of Denver. We want to encourage you to be part of this. God will lead some of you to kind of move from here and attend there. We don’t want to see anyone go, but you know, it’s all in the family. It’s all in the family. If you choose to be part of this, it’s all in the family. God is doing this. This new church will also be about believing and belonging, except that Dave has some new insights from the Lord with regard to believing and belonging. There’s going to be some new strategies and maybe even a little bit different order and Dave’s going to come up and share with you about this new church plant called Urban Skye.