A HEALTHY CHURCH
DR. JIM DIXON
1 PETER 3:8
JUNE 27, 1993
Everybody wants to be healthy, and if people aren’t healthy they generally go to a doctor and the doctor gives them a prescription. The prescription is a set of instructions, it’s a course of action. It may involve the use of medicine; it might involve exercise and diet. It might even be a prescription for surgery. But a prescription is designed to make you well, it’s designed to correct whatever’s wrong.
Now, the Bible tells us that God wants the church of His Son, God wants the church of Jesus Christ to be healthy. In our verse this morning, God gives us a prescription, a prescription for the church of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 3:8. It’s a prescription not for the theological health of the church, but for the health of the church socially and relationally. This prescription has five ingredients. The first is this: unity.
The RSV says, “unity of the spirit.” The church of Jesus Christ will never be healthy unless it has unity. Now, the actual Greek word here is the word “homophreneo.” This word homophreneo means one mind. If the church of Jesus Christ is to be healthy, we need to have one mind. Of course, that’s the problem, isn’t it? In the church of Jesus Christ, the visible expression of the church of Jesus Christ seems at times to be so divided. We’re not one minded, we’re double-minded, triple-minded, quadruple-minded. So many divisions, so many controversies. Some people would say that the big problem is denominationalism. Of course, sometimes denominationalism can be a problem.
Now, I want to preface what I’m going to say with this statement, and that is we are denominational church. As most of you know, we are affiliated with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. I also want to say I’m glad. I mean, I’m glad we’re part of the EPC. I want to say I like our polity. I like our connectional system. I like the checks and balances that are brought to the member churches, which give us proper guidelines and controls. I like the fellowship of the EPC. I like the fact that we get to fellowship with brothers and sisters who really love Jesus Christ. I like the theological affirmation of the EPC. I like our position, which says “in essentials, unity and in non-essentials, liberty.” But I think it is true, it is true that sometimes unity in the visible body of Christ is lost because of denominationalism, particularly when people take denominations too seriously.
Of course, a lot of times one denomination feels a little superior to another, and you have rivalries that aren’t so friendly. I’m reminded of the story of a Baptist minister who was in front of a vast assembly and he wanted to see how many Baptists were in the room. So he asked for all the Baptists to stand up. The whole assembly rose; it seemed like everybody in the room was a Baptist except for an elderly lady who was sitting in the front row. She remained seated. Of course, the minister noticed her. And he said, “ma’am, I gather you’re not a Baptist. What are you?” She said she was a Methodist. He said, “Would you please tell the assembly why in the world you would want to be a Methodist?” And the woman said, “Well, my grandmother was a Methodist and my mother was a Methodist.” The minister said, “Well, what does that have to do with anything? I mean, if your grandmother were an idiot and your mother an idiot, what would that make you?” She thought for a second, smiled, and said, “A Baptist, I suppose.”
Of course, the real point is that it doesn’t matter whether you’re a Baptist or whether you’re a Methodist or a Presbyterian or a Pentecostal or an Episcopalian. The real issue is do you love Jesus Christ? Do you really love Jesus Christ? Sometimes the problem is in the reform tradition, and among Presbyterians, sometimes the focus is more on John Calvin than on Jesus Christ. In the Lutheran tradition, sometimes the focus is more on Martin Luther than on Jesus Christ. In the Wesleyan tradition and the Methodist movement, sometimes the focus is more on John Wesley than on Jesus Christ. Among Catholics, sometimes they’re more concerned with the Pope than they are with Jesus Christ.
You see, Jesus Christ is the great head of the church. It is Jesus Christ who is the Son of God who has come among us. It is Jesus Christ who lived a sinless life. It’s Jesus Christ who died an atoning death. It’s Jesus Christ who rose from the dead in power and great glory. It is Jesus Christ who is ascended into heaven and intercedes for His people before the throne of God. It is Jesus Christ who one day will come again to judge the world and to receive His people unto Himself. You see, if we are to be one-minded, then we are to seek the mind of Christ.
The Bible says, “Put on the mind of Christ.” In another place, the Bible says, “You have the mind of Christ.” As Christians, we are meant to be focused on Christ, on His person and on His work. It is Jesus Christ and the work of Christ which unites us as a church. As a church, we will never have health unless our focus is supremely on Jesus Christ.
Now, the second ingredient in this prescription is sympathy. The church of Jesus Christ will never really have health and unless the people of Christ learn sympathy. The Greek word here is “sympathos.” That word means “to suffer with.” The word was used to describe the ability or the capacity to feel what another person is feeling, to weep with those who weep…sympathy.
I mean, we understand sympathy through a little story. You know, you might have heard of that little girl who came home from school late and her mother wanted to know why she was late. She said she stopped to help another little girl whose doll was broken. The mother said, “Well, did you stop to help her fix the doll?” The little girl said, “No, I just stopped to help her cry.” You see, that’s sympathy. That’s sympathy. Sometimes you can’t fix something. I mean, sometimes it just isn’t fixable. But the real issue is, do you care? Do you feel what the other person feels?
I mean, I’m sure all of you have had pain in your life. You’ve all had hard times, you’ve all had times you were suffering. Maybe the situation you were going through wasn’t something that could be fixed. You didn’t need a lecture. You just wanted some people to care. You just wanted some people who felt what you were feeling. That’s what God wants the body of Christ to be like, sympathy.
You know, yesterday Barb and I went to the hospital, the Swedish Hospital, to see Rich Beach. As Bob told you, the surgery for Rich went great. I mean, they found that the cancer hadn’t spread and they were able to remove the cancer and the surgery went well. For that, it’s cause for celebration and for thanksgiving to God. Yet when we went to see Rich, I mean, he wasn’t in the mood to celebrate because Rich was in a whole lot of pain. I mean, he said he didn’t know pain could be like that. I mean, he was really in pain, so much so that he could hardly talk. And there wasn’t anything we could do to fix it. I mean, Rich was on morphine. I mean, the doctors were doing all they could and the pain was still so great. You felt helpless. And yet perhaps, you know, for Rich, it just helps to know people care. Rich has gone through a real hard stretch. I mean, he’s gone through a hard couple of months and his family has suffered with him as he’s gone through this. His friends have suffered with him. There’s no friend who has suffered more with Rich than Bob because Bob and Rich have been so close through the years. It was Rich who led Bob to Jesus Christ. And Bob has been there with Rich through it all. That’s what sympathy is, to suffer with. This is what the body of Jesus Christ desperately needs if we are to have health.
Now, a third ingredient in this prescription is love of the brethren. “Have unity, sympathy, and love of the brethren.” The Greek word is philadelphus, from which the city of Philadelphia takes its name. The word is generally generic in the sense that all Christians are brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. We’re called to love each other as brothers and sisters.
Now, it was in August of 1963 that Martin Luther King gave his famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. In that speech, Martin Luther King said, “I have a dream. I have a dream that my children might one day live in a nation where they will be judged not for the color of their skin, but for the quality of their character.” He said, “I have a dream that one day this might be a nation where the children of former slaves and the children of former slave owners might sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” That dream has not become a reality in this world. Racism is rampant globally, and that dream has not reached fruition here in this nation either. There’s plenty of racism right here in the United States of America, but I tell you this: in the body of Jesus Christ, in the church of Christ, that dream is meant to be a reality.
You see, everyone who’s come to Jesus Christ and embraced Christ as Lord and Savior, every one of them have become children of God. All of you have invited Jesus Christ to be your Savior and Lord, you have through Christ and through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit become a child of God. You now have as brothers and sisters all who confess Christ whether they are red, yellow, black, or white, whether they’re rich or poor, male or female. We are one family in Christ and we’re called to love each other as a community of equals.
This church is very white. If you have eyes to see, you know that. Well, there are some of you, a few of you who are black. There are some of you, a few of you, who are Hispanic. There are a few of you who are Asian, but we are overwhelmingly, predominantly white. Perhaps that’s simply because this church is located geographically in a suburban area that is predominantly white. I hope it isn’t because we don’t love people. I hope it isn’t because we don’t treat all people as equals. I thank God for the relationship we have with the five inner city churches. I thank God for the union that we have with them in ministry. I think it is the will of God for our future that we might learn even more what it means to be inclusive as a church and to experience the true community of Christ with all of its colors, with all the different socioeconomic brackets, that we might truly be the church of Jesus Christ.
I saw a wonderful thing last week. Barb and I were up at Estess Park at the YMCA Camp of the Rockies, and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes were having a boy’s camp up there. There were hundreds and hundreds of young men from all across the United States up at this FCA camp. About half of them were black. I mean, that’s one of the neat things about the FCA ministry. It’s through the medium of sport, through the medium of athletics. They’re able to go into the urban areas, they’re able to go into the inner cities and they’re able to minister to blacks and whites. So at this camp, it was neat to see blacks and whites all together.
We were there one night where there was testimony night. I mean, all the boys had been together for five days and it was testimony night. One by one, these young men came up and shared what this experience at camp had done to them. You know, I hadn’t been there 15 minutes and I began to cry. I mean, I don’t know how you could be there as a Christian and not cry. You start crying about 15 minutes into the deal and pretty soon you just keep crying for a couple of hours as these young men stand up. Some of them said, “I never had a dad. I never had a dad. My mom tried to do the best she could, but my life was a mess. I was into drugs and crime. But you know, this week I’ve met Jesus Christ and I gave my heart to Him.” I mean, you can’t hear that without crying.
It was testimony after testimony like that. I mean, I think hundreds of boys accepted Christ. The neat thing was when each young person gave his testimony and he came off the stage, he didn’t just go sit in the chair by himself. He was mobbed by other boys, black and white. They just came and they hugged each other, blacks and whites embracing and crying together. There was a moment when you just looked over this sea of kids. I mean, as far in this vast auditorium as you could see there were just kids. You looked over the whole sea of them. They all had their arms around each other. What a great movement of the Holy Spirit. That’s brotherhood, community of equals in Christ. The church of Jesus Christ will never be healthy until we understand this.
The fourth ingredient is tenderheartedness. “Unity, sympathy, love of the brethren, a tender heart.” Now at first glance, this word tender-hearted seems a lot like the word sympathy. I mean, to be sympathetic and to be tenderhearted are two similar concepts. Yet they’re really a little bit different. The Greek word for tender-hearted is the word “eusplanchnoi.” It’s a much stronger word than the word sympathos. This word eusplanchnoi refers to a kind of sympathy that moves you to action. I mean, to be tenderhearted means that you are so moved that you minister. I mean, sometimes sympathy just isn’t enough. You need to be so moved that you do something about it. The church of Jesus Christ is never going to be healthy until we become more tender-hearted.
I think we’re all tenderhearted towards some things. We’re all tender-hearted towards some people. The problem is so often we’re not tenderhearted towards what God wants us to be tenderhearted. God wants us to be tenderhearted towards ministry and He wants our hearts to be moved by the needs of ministry.
One of the neat things, the reason Barb and I were at the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Conference up there, is I am a new member of the National Board of FCA. As a new member of the board of directors, I went up there. Kind of I’m the new kid on the block and I just kind of sat there and I didn’t say much. There came a point in our board meeting when the chairman of the board announced that it was understood, he said, he assumed that every member of the board was agreeing to give $10,000 every year to FCA. You know, there are two ministers on the board—me and another guy, a black man who is a minister in the inner city of Chicago, a great guy. I had had breakfast with him that morning and we looked at each other in total shock. You know, the amazing thing was as you looked around the board, they were saying, “Yeah.” I mean, they’re ready to give $10,000 a year because they’re tender-hearted towards that ministry, incredibly moved by the needs of the ministry. There came a moment in the board meeting where it was revealed that on the national level there was a $600,000 deficit. Then one member of the board said, “Well, you know, I think a time like this is when the board itself is really tested and our commitment to FCA is really tested and I think the board ought to pick up that $600,000.”
You know, that was just shock for me. Then another guy says, “You know, there’s 24 of us on the board and if we all give $25,000, we each give $25,000, that’s 600,000 bucks.” The deal was done. Somebody moved it and somebody seconded it. They said, “All in favor, say aye.” It was done. But the amazing thing was the tenderheartedness of that board. I mean, I don’t have $25,000 to give, but I look at the board and they’re ready. They’re ready because they’re moved by that ministry. That night up in the mountains where there was that neat time of testimony, they had invited potential givers from all over the country to come and see the the fruit of the ministry, that they might be moved, that they might be tenderhearted towards that ministry.
The church of Jesus Christ is never going to minister unless the people of Christ are tender-hearted, so moved they give. I tell you honestly, I don’t know how we can live in a world like this so mixed up, trying to rear children in a crazy world like this. How can we do it and not be tenderhearted towards those Christian ministries that are trying to help kids? I look at Young Life, I look at Youth for Christ, I look at FCA, and Campus Crusade; they should never be short of funds because the community of Christ should be so committed to the church of Christ and to the youth of our country that we just give. We need to be more tenderhearted towards the local church too. I got to get that in.
I mean, it’s hard for the local church. I mean, we can’t just take you to a camp and have you see the fruit of ministry. It’s not always that easy. You can’t be in our offices when we counsel people, that wouldn’t be proper. You can’t see what happens there. You can’t read the letters that come in. They’re confidential. You can’t see how God is touching lives. You can’t be in all the Sunday school classrooms. You can’t see all the youth work that takes place. You can’t know all of that. Yet, by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, you all need to be tenderhearted. The church of Jesus Christ will never be healthy unless the people of Christ are tenderhearted.
Finally, I know our time is up. The fifth ingredient in this prescription for the church is humility. “Unity, sympathy, love of the brethren, tender heart, humble minds.” Humble minds. One of my favorite stories concerns Muhammad Ali. You know, Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest boxers who ever lived, heavyweight champion of the world. He always said, “I’m the greatest.” I think people pretty much believe that. On one occasion he got on an airplane. He was sitting in first class. He was sitting there in a seat. The plane was about to take off. The stewardess came up and said, “Sir, would you fasten your seatbelt?” He looked up and smiled and he said, “Superman don’t need no seatbelt.” She looked at him and she smiled and she said, “Superman don’t need no airplane either.”
Now I think sometimes, I mean, isn’t it true that sometimes we all need to be taken down a notch? I mean, isn’t that true? Sometimes we all need to be taken down a notch because we maybe have an inflated view of ourselves. Certainly it is true that part of humility is not viewing yourself more highly than you ought. But this word “tapeinophrones,” this word that is used here for humility, what was normally used of exalting others rather than putting yourself down. I mean, the essence of humility is not so much that you make little of yourself as it is that you make much of others.
A humble person exalts others. A humble person is seeking to lift up other people. The church of Jesus Christ is never going to be healthy unless we learn, like the Bible says, to outdo one another in giving honor. That’s the essence of humility. So we have this prescription from God for a healthy church, that we might have “unity, sympathy, love of the brethren, tender heart and a humble mind.”
I think as we conclude with this thought of humility, we understand the work of Jesus Christ. Sometimes it’s costly to exalt others. True humility is willing to pay the cost. We’re mindful of how our Lord Jesus Christ came down to earth, that He might bring us up to heaven. We’re mindful of how He died, that we might have life. We’re mindful of the fact that He emptied himself, that He might fill us. His body was broken, His blood shed for us. That’s why the Bible says, “Have this mind in you, which is yours in Christ Jesus who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be held onto. But He emptied Himself, taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man and being found in human form. He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even unto death on a cross.” Let’s close with a word of prayer.