Incarnational Ministry

PEARLS OF PAUL’
INCARNATIONAL MINISTRY
DR. JIM DIXON
1 CORINTHIANS 9:20-23 PHILIPPIANS 2:5-7
JULY 30, 2000

In the year 1247, the Roman Catholic Church built a hospital in London, England, which they called St. Mary’s of Bethlehem. The hospital was run by the Order to the Star of Bethlehem. Almost 300 years later, in the year 1536, King Henry VIII, King of England—known for his six wives and his debauched lifestyle—divorced the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church. The hospital, St. Mary’s of Bethlehem, was taken away from the Roman Catholic Church and it began to be governed by the Corporation of London. The hospital name was changed. It was no longer called St. Mary’s of Bethlehem. It was simply called Bethlehem Hospital. The function of the hospital changed. It was what they called “an asylum for the insane.”

Now, in the 16th century, people who were mentally and emotionally ill were treated more like animals than human beings. They were chained and they were whipped. Bethlehem Hospital became known as a madhouse, a place of confusion and loud screaming. The people in the neighborhood could hear the noise just coming from within the walls. Now, over a period of time, they shortened the name of Bethlehem to Bethlem, and then they began to call it Betlam but they pronounced it “Bedlam.” And so it was that the word “bedlam” came into the English language, which came from “Bethlehem.” Of course, the word bedlam refers to a madhouse. It refers to a place of confusion and a place of noise. How strange it is… How ironic that the birthplace of the Prince of Peace would be associated with bedlam, a madhouse, a place of noise and confusion.

And yet maybe it’s not so strange. After all, it’s only 148 more till Christmas! Any of you who have shopped at Christmastime know that it can be bedlam. It can be a madhouse. It can be a time of confusion and noise. This December, as in all Decembers, there are many people who, in the midst of the bedlam, in the midst of the noise and the confusion, will miss the true meaning of Christmas. Of course, biblically, Christmas is all about the incarnation. It’s about the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

The word incarnation means “in flesh.” We’re told in the first chapter of the fourth gospel that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into our world and took our flesh upon Him. He did this. He became incarnate that He might minister to us. The incarnation of Jesus Christ is not simply something that we are to celebrate as Christians, but it is something that we are to emulate because we, too, are called to an incarnational ministry. Christ wants us to understand that He has called us to enter the worlds of other people in order that we might serve them, to wear their skin, to understand their existence in order that we might serve them and we might love them in the gospel. That is why the Apostle Paul writes, “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 a thing to be held onto. But He emptied Himself, taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man.”

We are to have an incarnational mind, the mind of Jesus Christ. We are to be willing to enter the world of other people for the sake of the gospel. Paul understood this, and that’s why Paul said to the Jews, “I became as a Jew that I might save the Jews. And to those under the law, I became as one under the law, though I myself am not under the law, that I might save those under the law. And to those outside the law, I became as one outside the law, not being without law towards God but under the law of Christ that I might save those outside the law. To the weak, I became weak that I might save the weak. I became all things to all people so that by all means possible I might save some. I do all for the sake of the gospel.” That is an incarnational ministry.

This morning, as we focus on incarnational ministry, I have two teachings. I want us to spend most of the time on this first teaching. The first teaching is this: Only through incarnational ministry will we impact this culture. We will never reach this culture except through incarnational ministry.

Now, the word culture is a complex and sometimes confusing word. Social scientists refer to society as cultured. Within the context of societies, social scientists speak of “high culture” and “pop culture.” High culture refers to the universities and the arts and the world of music and drama. Of course, it’s said that a person who is immersed in music and drama and the arts is cultured. Of course, it has been said that you can know that you’re cultured if you can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of the Lone Ranger! Of course, in the context of society, social scientists speak of pop culture. By pop culture, they’re referring to the world of film and entertainment, books and literature. Society is cultured.

But strangely enough, nutritionists also speak of yogurt as cultured. They speak of active culture, including acidophilus. How can this be? How can this be that the same word can refer to yogurt or the William Tell Overture? How can that be? We understand when we look at the etymology of the word because the word culture comes from the Latin. In the Latin, the word means “to till.” It means, “to cultivate.” It means, “to grow.” You see, yogurt is cultured because it provides an environment in which certain bacteria can grow. Yogurt provides an environment in which certain bacteria, including acidophilus, can be cultivated. Society is cultured because the universities and the arts and film and entertainment and books and literature all provide an environment in which people can be tilled, people can be cultivated, people can grow. But the question is, “Do we, as Christians, want to be tilled by the culture? Do you want your children tilled by this culture that surrounds you? Do you want them cultivated by the world of film and entertainment, by the universities, by the arts? Do you want this?” That’s the question Christians have asked for centuries and millennia. That’s why Niebuhr wrote his classic book called “Christ and Culture.” Christians are still struggling with this today.

Now, it seems to me that historically Christians have responded to the culture in three ways. I want us to take a brief glimpse at this. First of all, sometimes Christians have had an isolational approach to culture. Christians have sought to isolate themselves from the culture and the perceived evils of the culture. The isolational approach is separation. Of course, this began with the monastic movement where some Christians became virtual hermits, living as recluses, and groups of Christians went into monastic communities seeking to separate themselves entirely from the evils of society. Of course, today, one example of the modern expression of the monastic movement would be the Amish communities. People in the Amish communities seek to separate themselves from the perceived evils of the culture, even disdaining electricity and motorized transportation. They practice complete separation from the culture.

Now, more subtlety, this isolational approach to the culture has been adopted in fundamentalism, which strictly and legalistically rejects many aspects of the culture. I should say this. Cherry Hills Community Church is a fundamental church in the sense that we believe in the fundamentals of the Christian faith, but we don’t call ourselves a fundamentalist church because this word has taken on meanings that simply do not characterize us. You see, fundamentalists today condemn the culture. They condemn the culture as wholly evil. They establish a list of cultural taboos and then they seek to create a substitute culture. An example of this is that the church where my wife Barbara grew up in in Southern California. It was a fundamentalistic church. It had an isolational approach to the culture. The church was called Hope Union. The church no longer exists today. It isolated itself right out of existence. But this church condemned the culture and created a list of cultural taboos: don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t go to movies, don’t dance, don’t play cards. It had a long list of don’ts, cultural taboos. In fact, Barbara was told that more babies are conceived immediately after dances than at any other time, so don’t dance. It was all about isolation. That is the isolational approach.

There was a little bit of fundamentalism in my background too, and I was not allowed to dance in the Christian heritage I grew up in. I was not allowed to dance. In elementary school, the public schools had square dancing on Fridays. We all know how wholly evil square dancing can be. I was not allowed to square dance. I had to take a note to school that excused me from square dancing every Friday. My mother simply wrote on it, “Jimmy can’t dance,” which, unfortunately, remains true to this day. If you’ve ever seen me dance (and you’re not likely to see that), you know I really can’t dance. But it’s all about the isolational approach to the culture. You create this list of cultural taboos and then you create a substitute culture that your people can live in and immerse themselves in so they don’t have to come in contact with the secular culture. That’s what fundamentalistic churches do.

And so, for instance, in the church that I grew up in, we started out in the morning with Sunday school for kids and then we had church service. Lunch was sometimes served at the church, although many went out with their families. You came back to the church in the afternoon for choir practice at all age levels. We had two hours of choir practice every Sunday afternoon. I went to choir practice because girls were there, and the girls went because the guys were there. Then after choir practice, they served dinner right at the church. Sometimes my friends and I would actually kind of skip that, and we would go out to Bob’s Big Boy and have a hamburger and fries, which was a cultural experience we enjoyed. Then we would return to the church and you would have evening service. After evening service, there was youth group. After youth group, all the youth groups from a variety of churches got together for something called Christian Endeavor, or CE Sings. It went from morning to night, and you could just immerse yourself in it.

There were activities during the week. You were expected to make your friends out of that substitute culture so that you didn’t have to involve yourself much in this dangerous culture of society. It could be a lot of fun, but what’s the problem with it? Well, first of all, it condemns wholly the society’s culture, and there’s much good in society’s culture. It just condemns it outright. But the other problem is that it doesn’t minister. It doesn’t minister in the world. It doesn’t reach out to people. Jesus prayed in His high priestly prayer in John 17 that we would be “in the world but not of the world”—“in” but not “of.” But we’re called to go IN, called to go into the world, called to an incarnational ministry. Of course, Jesus Himself was condemned by the Pharisees because He did not adopt an isolational approach to the culture. The Pharisees were separatists. In fact, the word Pharisee means “separated one.” And so, they condemned Jesus, and they said He was “associating with publicans and sinners, wine bibbers and drunkards.” Of course, He was not a sinner. He, alone, was without sin. And though He drank, He was never drunk. But He was incarnational. He entered the world of people. He loved them. He sought to understand them that He might minister to them. And so, there’s a place for isolation. There are times, certainly, when we as Christians need to isolate ourselves from certain things, but we’re not called to an isolational model. We’re called to minister in this world.

Now, there’s a second model that the Church of Christ has adopted historically. It’s a model we might call the dominational model. You see, isolationists pull up the drawbridge and seek to separate themselves from the world, but dominationalists lower the drawbridge and they seek to attack. Jesus said, “I will make you fishers of men.” Of course, the problem with the isolational model is that you don’t fish. In the dominational model, you dynamite the fish pond!

In the year 312, Constantine the Great and his Roman armies were marching towards the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. It is said that Constantine the Great and his armies had a visionary experience where they saw the cross of Jesus Christ set against the noonday sun. They saw the words in Latin meaning, “With this sign, conquer!” It’s said that that evening Constantine the Great had a visionary dream where he saw the monogram of Christ inscribed on the battle shields of his armies, the first two Greek letters of the name of Christ, “Chi Rho.” It’s said that the very next day, Constantine the Great commanded that the name of Christ be inscribed on all the battle shields of his armies and that the cross of Christ be put there with the understanding, “Under this sign, conquer.”

That was really the beginning of Christendom. That was the beginning of Christendom in the fourth century. Christendom, of course, combines Christian and dominion. Christendom is Christians seeking dominion. In the era of Christendom, the state built churches and the state convened councils and the state conquered nations and sought to Christianize them. It was all part of Christendom. You come to the year 800 AD, when Charlemagne (Charles the Great) was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III, and you see how the armies of Charlemagne drove conquered people groups into lakes and rivers and oceans, forcing them to receive Christian baptism. It was all part of Christendom in the dominational model.

Even when you come to the 12th century and you see Frederick I (called Barbarossa) you see him doing exactly the same thing. It was the dominational model that led to the Crusades. And it led to the Inquisition. Somehow, whenever Christians seek to dominate the culture—whenever Christians seek to just seize society, whenever they seek to rule from the top down—something gets twisted because we’re not meant to rule in this age of the world. That will only be when Christ comes again. Only Christ is capable of sitting on the throne. Even the noble Christian efforts at a dominational model have failed.

John Calvin’s Geneva experiment where John Calvin, the great reformer, sought to establish a Christian City state failed. Ultimately, it participated in the abuse of civil liberties, and people who refused to be Christianized were punished or incarcerated or even killed in the name of Christ. It was twisted. Of course, Christendom doesn’t exist anymore. There are no nations in the world in which the governments of which are constitutionally Christian. Oh, you might say, “the British Empire and the Monarchy is constitutionally Christian, defenders of the faith,” but that is just nominal. The Monarchy in England doesn’t really run the country anyway. You see, Christendom is done.

Of course, the religion that uses the dominational model today is Islam. There are 22 nations in the world the governments of which are constitutionally or practically Islamic, and they do seek to control culture and societies from the top down. We might speak of Islamdom, or Muslimdom, but Christendom doesn’t exist anymore. Yet this dominational model still appeals to a lot of Christians. You see a kind of dominational mindset in the minds and hearts of a lot of Christians who just want to go out there and somehow take control and condemn the culture. But I would remind you of what the Bible says in John, chapter 3. The Bible says that Jesus Christ came not into the world to condemn the world but to save the world—not to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved. What Christ has called us to is an incarnational model of ministry in this world where, with the love of Christ and the power of Christ, we enter the lives of other people and we wear their skin that we might bring the gospel to them. This is the call of Christ upon us. It’s the true call of Christ upon the church in every generation in every part of the world.

Some of you have heard of Søren Kierkegaard. Søren Kierkegaard was the famous Danish philosopher. He told the story once of a king, a powerful and great king, whose power was known throughout the world. But this king was lonely because he had no queen. He had no wife. The palace seemed empty. One day, the king was riding in his royal carriage through a small village, and he saw a beautiful peasant girl. His heart melted. It was supernatural. It was love at first sight, and he wanted her for his wife. But he thought to himself, “How can I make her love me?” He thought, “Well, I could issue a decree and I could command that she be brought to me. I could simply declare that she is the queen of the realm. But then, of course, how would I know that she really loves me?”

He thought, “Well, I could go to her. I could return to her village, and I could come in my royal carriage. I could come with a crown on my brow. I could come with my royal robes and my scepter. I could come with my power and my wealth, and I might be able to just overwhelm her. But would she really love me or would she just want my money and my power?” He thought, “Well, I could disguise myself. I could have the carriage drop me off a few blocks from her house, and I could wear peasant clothing. I could disguise myself as a peasant and I could come to her house. I could get to know her and maybe win her and then let her know who I am.” But then this kind of duplicity, this kind of deceit did not appeal to his royal mind. He knew what he had to do. Because he loved her so much, he renounced his throne. He cast off his royal garbs, and he really became a peasant. He didn’t just pretend to be a peasant. He became one, and he went and lived in her village that he might win her love.

Now, Søren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher said that story, for him, illustrates the beauty, the majesty, and the mystery of the incarnation because Jesus Christ is the King who sought a bride. He’s the King who sought His bride, the church, and He loved her and longed to have her love Him. And so, He cast aside His royal garbs and He came into this world, becoming one of us that He might win His bride. But He would remind all of us who believe in Him that He has given us an example that we are to follow in His steps. We are to cast aside self every day. We are to enter the worlds of other people, and we are to seek to minister to them with the gospel and the power and love of the gospel.

I know that many of you have heard of Joseph Damien De Veuster. Joseph Damien De Veuster is better known as Father Damien. He went to Hawaii in the year 1864. He didn’t go there to lie on the beach or to sip Mai Tais or Piña Coladas. He went there as a missionary with the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. He was a Catholic priest. He loved Christ. He loved people. At that time in Hawaii, because of the labeling of the explorer Cook, Hawaii was called the Sandwich Islands, named after the Earl of Sandwich. But, prior to that, the name was, as it is today, Hawaii.

At that time, in the history of Hawaii Hansen’s disease was becoming epidemic. Leprosy, as it’s better known, was becoming epidemic, and more and more people in Hawaii were becoming lepers. The government in Hawaii was banishing all lepers to the island of Molokai. These lepers were being forcibly removed from their homes and families and communities and placed on the island of Molokai. Nobody was going to Molokai, just lepers. There were no doctors and no nurses there. There were no clergy there, nobody to counsel them. There was nobody to help them until Joseph Damien De Veuster. He felt the call of Jesus Christ to become incarnational.

The year was 1873 when he left the other islands of Hawaii and moved to Molokai, that he might minister to the lepers. He became their nurse, their doctor, their counselor, their comforter, their clergyman. But the response was small. When he convened church on Sundays, very few of the lepers came until the year 1885. That was the year Joseph Damien De Veuster himself came down with leprosy, and he began to see those ugly spots on his skin. The nodules began to form, and the nervous system began to degenerate. The Roman Catholic Church wanted to take him away, but he said, “No. This is where I have been called.” He died there four years later in 1889. But before he died, that little church was packed because the lepers could see that he had become one of them, and they knew that he understood them truly and loved them. Many, many men and women and children were led to faith in Jesus Christ upon the death of Joseph Damien De Veuster.

De Veuster was criticized and even condemned by a congregational clergyman whose name was Charles Hyde. He said that De Veuster wasted his life and threw it away—that he was reckless, that he never should have come down with leprosy, that he never should have died at age 49, that he could have lived to 89 and had many more years of ministry if he’d been less attached to the people he was trying to serve. Of course, Father Damien was defended primarily by Robert Louis Stevenson, the famous author, who wrote “Kidnapped” and “Treasure Island” and “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” It was Robert Louis Stevenson who stood up and defended Father Damien and said, “This man, more than any other man that I’ve ever heard of, exemplified Jesus Christ and entered the world of other people in order to bring them the gospel.”

Well there’s a cost to ministry. There’s a cost to the gospel, and it’s the cost of incarnation. Christ is calling each of you to an incarnational ministry. Maybe He wants you to take a short-term missions trip, as we provide through our Missions Department. Maybe He wants you to go down to Juarez for a little while and minister to poor people there. Maybe He wants you to become incarnational in a more lasting sense. Maybe He wants you to go into the inner city and become a Whiz Kids inner city tutor through our ministry program. Maybe He wants you to enter the life of a child, the world of a child. Maybe He wants you to go with Save Our Youth and become incarnational, working with a teenager in the inner city. Maybe He just wants you to be more involved with the people in your neighborhood—that you would be incarnational there, that you would seek to put on their skin once in a while and understand what’s going on in their lives and in their world so that you might love them with the love of Jesus Christ and they might somehow see Christ is you. Incarnational ministry. It’s the only way to reach the culture.

As we conclude this morning, I want to say that incarnational ministry is not only the only way to reach the culture. It’s also the only way to do ministry within the context of the church. The lifeblood of this church, Cherry Hills Community Church, is incarnational ministry. That’s the only way our small groups can thrive if we’re willing to enter each other’s world and really care about each other. That’s the only way our small group ministry will ever thrive. It’s the only way our Sunday School is ever going to be what it was meant to be—if hundreds of you are willing to go into the world of a child and put on their skin and minister to them.

I was talking to Sheila Robinson, our Director of Children’s Ministries here at the church just this past week. Sheila was telling me that the Sunday school is growing so rapidly that this next fall we’re going to start 18 new Sunday school classrooms – 18 new Sunday School classes. But, of course, that means we need more Sunday school teachers. We also have some Sunday school teachers who are retiring, so we need replacement teachers. In total, Sheila told me we need 200 new Sunday school teachers by the fall. That was kind of a scary thought, and I began to pray about that, but I know that it’s not a problem for God and it’s not a problem for us because there are thousands of us here. We have no business going into the inner city, tutoring inner city kids, if we don’t take care of our own house. Sunday school ministry is foundational to a church. It’s foundational because it’s what takes the gospel to the next generation. But more than that, it’s foundational because if we don’t minister to children, we don’t minister to families. If we don’t minister to families, this whole deal is done.

So, the call of Christ is upon us, and it’s an incredible privilege. Do you realize what an amazing opportunity that we have? God has seen fit to entrust us with so many kids. This is a privilege churches across this country would die for. We have the opportunity to impact a generation. We have over 1,200 children a Sunday here, and it’s growing. When the balcony is completed, it will grow more. We have an opportunity to enter the world of these young people and bring the love of Jesus there. Are you willing to do that? Of course, we’ll train you. We know you’ll need time off. We know you need vacation. We allow for that. But are you willing to serve? Are you willing to be incarnational?

You know, Friday night Barb and I went to see a movie, Walt Disney’s “The Kid,” starring Bruce Willis. It was a nice movie. In the movie, the character played by Bruce Willis enters the world of an 8-year-old boy and is able to bless that boy and be blessed by that boy. Of course, through the magic of Disney, the 8-year-old boy is the same person as the character played by Bruce Willis. He literally is visiting himself when he was 8 years old. This 8-year-old boy, who is played by Spencer Breslin and looks a little bit like a chubby cherub, comes to visit Bruce Willis and, amazingly, he IS Bruce Willis as an 8-year-old. Bruce Willis gets to kind of revisit his own world when he was 8 years old.

Well, you can’t do that. I mean, you can go through counseling, a little psychotherapy, and maybe get in touch with your inner child, but you can’t revisit yourself at age 8. But you can enter the world of an 8-year-old. You can enter the world of an 8-year-old who is precious to God and belongs to a family in this church and is in need of a Sunday school teacher. By the magic of heaven, you can bless that child. And you can be blessed by that child, if you would be willing to be incarnational. So, as you leave today, there is a Sunday school table out in the lobby. We need Sunday school teachers. This is an amazing privilege and opportunity. Would you prayerfully consider going to that table and seeing if God wants you to be involved this morning? Let’s close with a word of prayer.