PASSION FOR GOD, COMPASSION FOR PEOPLE
DR. JIM DIXON
REVELATION 2:1, REVELATION 3:14
FEBRUARY 26, 1995
The largest church ever built in this world was built in Clooney, France in the year 1088. The church was called the Abbey Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. It took 160 years to build that church and the cathedral building was more than two football fields in length. The church had towers and spires and flying buttresses and it was renowned throughout the world. It was the center of the monastic movement in Europe, and more impressively this Abbey Church of St. Peter and St. Paul was the world headquarters of the Benedictine Order, with its 10,000 monks and its 1,100 monasteries. Gregorian chants and faithful worshipers filled that cathedral for 500 years. But today, all that remains of the Abbey Church of St. Peter and St. Paul are the towers of the south transept. Last year, 700,000 thousand tourists went to Clooney, France just to see the ruins of what most believe was the largest church built in the history of Christendom.
What happened? What happened to the Abbey Church of St. Peter and St. Paul? The truth is the church died. That church died long before the building fell into ruin. That church died because it lost the two characteristics of vital Christianity, two characteristics necessary for a vital church, two characteristics necessary for a vital Christian. This morning, based on God’s Word, we will examine these two characteristics.
First of all, if a church would be vital, if a church would remain vital through the years and the centuries, it must have a passion for God. If an individual Christian, if a man or woman, is to have a vital Christian life, that person must have a passion for God.
Charles Chaplin died in 1977 at the age of 88. This controversial person was regarded as the greatest comedian of the silent era. He was one of the founders of United Artists. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1975, two years before his death. On one occasion, Charles Chaplin was walking in a town in Europe. He was just walking around and kind of checking things out. He was actually in the village of Monte Carlo. He noticed an establishment there that was having a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest. He thought this is just too good to be true. People were dressing up in Charlie Chaplin outfits that he had worn in some of his movies. They had made their faces to look like him. He thought, “I’ve got to enter this thing!” He went back to the place where he was staying and he got one of the outfits that he had worn in one of his movies and he went and entered the Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest. To his amazement, he took third place. Apparently, two guys looked more like Charlie Chaplin than Charlie Chaplin.
Now, there are a lot of people who think that Christianity is a look-alike contest. They think that Christians are people who are trying to look most like Jesus Christ. There’s a sense in which this is true and a sense in which this is not true. There’s a sense in which God has made us with different personalities and God rejoices in our differences. He has made us each uniquely, but there is a sense in which we are trying to look like Christ and that is in the sense that we want His character. We want to have the character of Christ. In this sense, we all want to look like Christ. We want to have His character.
The Bible tells us that this is to be our passion. This is to be our greatest desire, that we might have the character of Christ. You read the words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians. He tells them that his greatest desire, his passion, is to know Christ and to be like Him. That is to be our passion, our strongest desire. God’s question to each of us this morning is, “Do you really have this passion? Do you have a passion for God? Do you have a passion for Christ?”
In the year 1830, a mountain man rendezvous camp was established right up here in the Colorado mountains in a region that was then called Three Rivers where the Snake, the Blue, and the Ten Mile Rivers came together. Thirty years later in 1860, at that same site, at the Three Rivers site, a little town was starting to develop. From that little town, a man went forth in search of gold. His name was Tom Dillon. He went forth in search of gold even though he was young and what they called a greenhorn—he had no experience of hiking or living in the Colorado mountains. But you see, he had been bitten by the bug and he had what they called ‘gold lust.’ He had a passion for gold.
They warned him not to go out and not to venture forth on his own. They told him that the mountains are dangerous, the weather can be extreme, there are many animals out there…but he had a passion for gold, and he went forth. He never came back. They never found Tom Dillon, never found his body. He never returned to that little village up in the region of Three Rivers. That little village decided to call itself Dillon because of this man who had lost his life. Of course, that town of Dillon remains up in the Colorado mountains today, although the town has moved four times and old Dillon is actually now under the lake which bears his name.
Most of the towns in the Colorado mountains were built by people searching for gold. You can drive up to the Eisenhower Tunnel and on your way you will see Georgetown. You will see Silver Plume, and those were towns built by people with a passion for gold. From 1870 to 1875, during that 5- or 6-year period, Georgetown and Silver Plume became boom towns. During that 5- or 6-yearr period, 3,000 people moved to live in Georgetown and 2,500 went to live in Silver Plume…5,500 people moved to those little mountain towns, all because of this passion for gold.
We live in a world where most people have a passion for gold, a passion for wealth, a passion for material things. Most people in this world have some kind of passion. Even if they don’t have a passion for gold, perhaps they have a passion for their career or their career advancement or maybe a passion for some kind of fame or glory. Or maybe they just have a passion for people. But as Christians, as believers in Jesus Christ, our greatest passion needs to be a passion for God and a passion for His Son, Jesus Christ. To know Him, to be like Him, to serve Him. As you sit there in that pew this morning, you know the measure of your passion.
Simon Peter was by the Sea of Galilee with some of the other disciples after Jesus Christ had died. Peter was depressed and he was disillusioned. He had gone fishing there by the Sea of Galilee. Suddenly, Jesus appeared to them there by the Sea of Galilee. He had the second miracle catch of fish and Jesus ate breakfast right there by the seaside with the disciples. Jesus took Simon Peter aside and said, “Let’s take a walk,” and they took a walk. Jesus said to him, “Peter, Simon, do you love Me more than these?” Peter was grieved. The second time Jesus said to him “Peter, Simon, do you love Me? Do you love Me more than these?” Three times Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love Me? Do you love Me more than these?” Theologians debate “Well, what does the word ‘these’ refer to?” Is Jesus pointing to the other disciples and saying, “Do you love Me more than you love them?” Is Jesus pointing to the nets by the seashore? Do you love Me more than you love fishing? Do you love Me more than you love your career?” It really doesn’t matter what “these” refers to there because the point is “Do you love Me most of all?” That’s what Jesus is asking Simon Peter, “Do you love Me most of all? Am I your passion?”
That’s really the question that Christ asks each and every one of us today. The word passion comes from the Latin word “passio.” The word “passio” means “suffer or suffering.” It referred to any strong compelling desire for which you were willing to suffer.
The last week in the early life of Jesus Christ is called Passion Week. His walk down the Via Dolorosa is called part of His passion. His crucifixion on Calvary’s cross is part of His passion, His suffering. But it was His strong compelling desire, His greatest desire, to save the world, to save the world of its sin. And for that passion He was willing to suffer. The Bible tells us our greatest passion now needs to be for Him, that we might know Him and love Him and serve Him.
The Abbey Church of St. Peter and St Paul in Clooney, France, once had a great passion for Christ. The Benedictine Order that was centered there, with 10,000 monks that on occasion came there, was known for its passion for God. Many of those monks were called “cloistered” and cloistered meant that they were separated from other people in order that they might devote themselves to knowing God. They took solemn vows of prayer and contemplation and fasting that they might draw nearer and nearer to God and that they might know Him and become more and more like Him.
Of course, from all over the world, Christians who were not of the Benedictine Order came to that church in Clooney. It was a kind of spiritual retreat, sort of like L’Abri in Switzerland has been for Christians today. Men and women from throughout the world would come there just to draw close to Christ and to know Him and to cultivate their passion for Him. For hundreds of years, that church flourished. But then there came a time when the passion began to fail. The passion to know Christ, the passion to love Christ, had begun to wane. People ceased to come to the Abbey Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. The number of monks began to diminish in the Benedictine Order. Pretty soon they just vacated. In the 17th century, they vacated that massive church building.
Incredibly, in the 17th century, that massive cathedral became a barn. The people of that French town of Clooney began to just send their animals in there in the wintertime to shelter them. Then, eventually the church was bought by this extremely wealthy man who used it as a rock quarry and he began to disassemble the church stone by stone and sell the stones to people the world over. That’s why today all that remains are the towers of the south transept. It’s an incredible story. A church that lost its passion for God, a church that lost its passion for Jesus Christ.
We have this letter from Christ to another church, the church at Laodicea. Jesus said, “I know your works. You’re neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot, but because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of My mouth. I am sick to My stomach because you have lost your passion. You’ve lost your passion and I’m sick.” He tells them that they are physically rich. “You say, I am rich; I have prospered, I need nothing.” But He tells them that they are spiritually poor, spiritually impoverished. They’ve lost their passion.
There’s that beautiful statement where Jesus says, “Those whom I love I reprove and chasten. So be zealous and repent.” “I want you to get your zeal back. I want you to get your passion back. Repent!” Then that great statement: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone opens the door I will come in and sup with him and he with Me.” That word “sup” is that Greek word that referred to the largest meal of the day. I mean, Christ is wanting to come in and celebrate communion with them again and rekindle the passion again.
So often in church history you hear that verse from Revelation 3. You hear it used for evangelism. If you don’t know Christ, He’s knocking at the door and if you’ll open the door He’ll come in and save you. That’s really a misuse of that verse because the verse is addressed to believers. The verse is addressed to people who are already Christians but they’ve lost their passion and Christ is wanting to kindle that passion anew and so He knocks at the door of your heart today and my heart too. He says, “I want intimate communion with you. I want to be the greatest desire of your life.”
This past week, Dutch came up to me and he showed me a recent study. It has actually been a long-term study, a 24-year study of Protestant churches in America from 1968 to 1992 showing their giving patterns. It shows that as a percentage of income, Christians in America are now giving 20% less to churches than they gave 24 years ago. Christians are losing their passion. Americans give $2 billion a year. Americans gave $2 billion last year to world missions. Americans spent $32 billion last year on diet programs and $40 billion last year on leisure travel. Where is our passion? The answer is not hidden and so the challenge that God places before us today is a challenge to rekindle that passion for Him, to know Him, to become like Him and to serve Him. The church of Jesus Christ has no future—this church has no future—unless there is a passion for God.
A second characteristic of vital Christianity is this: compassion for people. You see, first is passion for God, but second is compassion for people. What makes a vital church? What makes a vital Christian? Passion for God and compassion for people.
We live in a high-tech world. United States Aircraft Carrier Eisenhower carries 37 tons of paper documents whenever it sets sail. Thirty-seven tons of paper documents. That includes manuals and catalogs and charts and books, books from Bibles to phone books. And in the aggregate, it carries 37 tons of paper documents. But it’s all changing. The United States Navy is taking every page of data and the United States Navy is converting it to digital memory. That entire 37 tons of paper documents are going to be put on CD-ROMs so that the U.S. Aircraft Carrier Eisenhower can now carry 37 tons of additional fuel, food, and water. A high-tech world.
A PBS series that was recently on was called The Shrinking World. This PBS series on television showed native African tribesmen wearing grass skirts, barefooted with spears, walking up to a grass hut. They leaned their spears against the side of the hut and they went into the hut on the mud floor. There, inside the hut, the television cameras showed a computer and a fax machine and explained that these African tribal leaders were checking on the tribe’s stock investment in Switzerland. It really is a shrinking world. It’s a shrinking world and it’s an amazing world. A single fiber cable no larger than a child’s finger can carry more than a million conversations simultaneously with clarity. A single fiber cable no larger than a child’s finger. Incredible.
Now thanks to broadcast satellites, every television set in America will soon be able to receive 500 channels. It’s going to take guys an hour and a half just to channel surf. It’s amazing. Of course, already from one’s own computer a person can access 24-hour satellite weather maps. From your own computer you can access the latest sports scores. From your own computer you can secure airline tickets or hotel reservations. From your own computer you can access your bank and you can see whether your check has cleared. Of course, people have fax machines with which they can communicate with any other fax machine in the world. It seems like very soon everyone’s going to have a cellular phone with which they can converse with every other cellular phone in the world. A high-tech world.
In this century, we have seen what many have called the “technological revolution” and there has been a proliferation in knowledge and yet none of this technology is able to meet or satisfy the greatest needs of men and women. Psychologists and sociologists tell us that. Jesus Himself, when He was asked, “What does it mean to love my neighbor and who is my neighbor?” told the story of the Good Samaritan who when he was walking down that Jericho Road and saw that wounded person, Jesus says, “He was moved with compassion,” “sumpathos.” That’s the kind of people that Christ wants us to be, and He wants compassion to characterize His church.
We have this message to the church at Ephesus. The message to the church at Ephesus says, “I have one thing against you, that you have abandoned the love which you had at first.” Perhaps it was love vertically or perhaps it was love horizontally. It may have involved passion and compassion, but they lost it. They lost it. And the church has no future when it’s lost passion and compassion, passion for God and compassion for people. Of course, that’s what happened to the Abbey Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. It just lost its compassion. It lost its passion for God and its compassion for people.
We said that in the Benedictine Order many of the monks were cloistered and they lived separate lives devoted to prayer and contemplation seeking union with God. Many of the monks were non-cloistered and that meant that they entered into social work, expressing acts of compassion towards people. The Clooney church, the Abbey Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, for hundreds of years was renowned the world over for its compassion, the way they reached out for the poor and the oppressed, but somehow it just waned. Somehow it was lost. As they lost their passion for God, they lost their compassion for people and that church, the Abbey Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, died.
Nineteen hundred and sixty-five years ago, approximately, Jesus Christ rose from the dead. After His resurrection He appeared to many. He appeared to the disciples in the city of Jerusalem and then He appeared to them again in the city of Jerusalem. Then He appeared to them by the Sea of Galilee, by the seashore, and then He appeared to them on a Galilean mountain. Then finally, He appeared to them on the Mount of Olives before His ascension into heaven. He appeared to two of His disciples on the road to Emmaus. He appeared to Mary by the garden tomb. He made a special appearance to Peter, who would come to head the church at Rome, and a special appearance to James, who would come to head the church at Jerusalem. The Bible tells us that He appeared after His resurrection to more than 500 people. Then, after His ascension into heaven, years later, He appeared to the Apostle Paul on the Damascus Road and called him to be a missionary to the Gentiles. After his radical conversion, he become the greatest missionary the world has ever known. Then still years later, He appeared to the Apostle John on the Aegean Sea on that island of Patmos.
He’s not appeared to any of you. He’s not appeared to me. He’s with us by His spirit. We are those people who await His appearing when He will one day come anew and we will see Him face to face. What does He expect of His church in waiting? That we would have passion for God and compassion for people.
This church is 13 years old. Next week, we celebrate our 13th anniversary, 13 years behind us. We don’t know how many years lie ahead of us. Our hope and prayer is that this church will continue until Jesus Christ comes again and it will remain vital. But that can only happen if we have a passion for God and compassion for people. Let’s close with a word of prayer.