NAMES AND TITLES OF CHRIST
THE AUTHOR AND FINISHER OF OUR FAITH
DR. JIM DIXON
HEBREWS 12:1-3
JANUARY 18, 1998
Michio Kaku is Professor of Theoretical Physics at the City College of New York. He is the author of the book, “Beyond Einstein” and the award-winning best-selling book called “Hyperspace,” and he has just recently written this book, called “Visions” which discusses how science will revolutionize the world in the 21st century.
Michio Kaku believes that in the 21st century there will be three revolutions, a computer revolution, a biogenetic revolution and a quantum revolution. He views the computer revolution as a revolution of the mind with the creation of artificial intelligence systems that will transform this world. The biogenetic revolution, he views as a revolution of life itself. With the decoding of DNA, Kaku believes scientists will be able to eradicate genetic-based diseases and conquer cancer at the molecular level and synthesize new medicines and grow new organs and diminish the effects of aging and offer a new genetic inheritance to the human race. The quantum revolution which Kaku views as a revolution of matter. He believes that scientists, through quantum physics, will be able to harness new sources of cosmic energy which will bring about a second industrial revolution on earth and enable earthlings to reach up to the stars.
It’s pretty exciting stuff, pretty amazing stuff. He interviews 150 scientists. Some of them Nobel laureates. He believes that science will create a better world. I suppose there are some people in this world who look to science, who look to science for the future, who look to science as the hope of this world and the hope of mankind. There are others in this world who really aren’t that concerned with the future, certainly not with the world’s future or with mankind’s future. There are some in the world who are focused primarily on themselves and on the present and on, perhaps, their own personal futures. There are many people who look to money and sex and power, to materialism and hedonism and ascensionism for fulfillment, both now and in their future days.
But the Bible tells us that Christians are aliens in this world and Christians have a different view of life. We are those, the Bible tells us, who look to Jesus. We are those who look to Jesus. For fulfillment, for hope, for the future, for not only our personal hope but for the hope of this world and for the hope of mankind, we look to Jesus. This doesn’t mean that we cannot be interested in science. Some of the greatest scientists in the history of the world were Christians. Even money, sex and power have a place within God’s guidelines. But, you see, as Christians we focus on Jesus.
Our passage of scripture for today states, “Let us, therefore, with perseverance run the race that is set before us looking to Jesus.” The Greek word for looking is the word “aphorao” which literally means “to fix the gaze upon” in exclusion of all else. This is not some kind of passing glance. It means to focus on Christ. That’s what we as Christians are called to do.
You may have read this past week how the Archbishop of Denver, Charles Chapeau, endorsed Promise Keepers. In endorsing the Promise Keepers, he said that Catholic men need to refocus on Jesus. A great statement. And, of course, the truth is that Catholics and Protestants need to focus and refocus on Jesus. Christians need to focus on Jesus. And why is that? Why do we need to focus on Christ? Because our passage of scripture for today tells us, “He is the Author and Finisher of our Faith.” Looking to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith.
As we examine this title of Christ, which is really two titles combined as one, we will take a look at each title individually and then these titles together. First of all, He’s called the Author of Faith, the Author. The Greek word is “archegos” and the word archegos is sometimes translated “author” or “pioneer” but it really means “founder.” It comes from the word “arche” which means “beginning” which means “source.” Jesus is the beginning of our faith. He is the source of our faith. He is the founder of our faith.
Now, most of you know that in the year 324 AD Constantine the Great decided to build a new castle, to move the power base of the Roman Empire from west to east, from Rome to Byzantium. He took his architects, and with his architects and a community of priests, he marched around the geographical area where he would build his new city there on the Bosporus near the Sea of Marmara. He looked at the harbor. He marched over the hills. They envisioned the new boundaries of the city. They envisioned what this capital city would look like and then Constantine the Great sent thousands of workers and artisans to build the city, its walls, its buildings, its palaces, its streets, its squares. He built a magnificent hippodrome like the Circus Maximus in the city of Rome. He built a great university. He built five royal palaces for himself. He built nine palaces for dignitaries—4,388 mansions. He built a city with 322 streets, with thousands of shops and hundreds of places of amusement. A city with public baths, a city with beautiful churches. He imported a massive population.
On May 11, 330, he consecrated, he dedicated, this new capital of the Roman world. Paganism was cast down and Christianity was embraced. The patriarch of Constantinople became the rival of the Pope of Rome. Constantine was given the title Archegos. He was called Archegos because he was the beginning, the source, the founder of the city of Constantinople. We are to understand that Jesus Christ is the beginning, the source, the founder of the Christian faith. He is the founder of the church, envisioned in the mind of God from before the foundation of the world, but it had its source in our Lord Jesus Christ as He called His disciples by the Sea of Galilee. The Christian faith contains 1,700,000,000 people. Christ is the founder of the Christian faith. He’s not only the founder of the Christian faith, the Archegos.
He’s the founder of your faith. He’s the founder of your faith individually. He’s the founder of my faith. I accepted Christ when I was 5 years old by my mother’s side in the living room of our home but it really wasn’t my mother who gave me faith and it wasn’t my father. It wasn’t the church I attended. You see, Jesus Christ used my mother and my father and the church. Jesus used them powerfully, but it was Jesus who founded my faith. It is Jesus who has founded your faith.
I know that some of you accepted Christ in Sunday school classes. Some of you accepted Christ through friends at work. Some of you accepted Christ through family members. Some through churches. Some at Billy Graham Crusades but, you see, it’s Christ, it’s Christ who, by His grace, gave you the seed of faith. I know this has theological complexities and I don’t mean to get into a debate this morning about Calvinism and Arminianism and the sovereignty of God and the free will of man, but the Bible is very clear that unless you have the grace of God, you can’t even believe because this is a fallen world and we are all fallen and lost and without the grace of Christ, we’re not even capable of believing.
As we look back on our life with Christ and on our personal faith, we give Him thanks. We give Him thanks for His grace. I know that for those of you who do not yet believe, His grace is here today and He wants to be the founder of a new faith in you. There’s no doubt that His grace somehow interacts with our free will, and this is a matter of theological complexity that will never be completely understood in this age of the world. But, you see, He is the Archegos. He is the founder of the faith, the church universal and each of our individual faith.
He is not only the Archegos, but He is the “Teleiotis.” He is the founder and finisher of the faith this passage of scripture says. The word for finisher is this word “teleiotis” from the word “telos” which means “the end.” He is the beginning and the end of faith.
This was not true of Constantine the Great. He was the Archegos when it came to the city of Constantinople, but he was not the teleiotis. The city continued long after his death and Constantine could not have imagined what was going to happen to that city. When he established the patriarch of Constantinople as a rival of the Pope of Rome, ultimately that would lead to the great schism of 1054 when the church of Jesus Christ would split west and east, the Catholic and Orthodox churches, and they remain split today.
Constantine could not have imagined that in the year 1453 the Muslim Turks would cease the city of Constantinople and cease its buildings and churches and even the great St. Sofia, the Hagia Sofia. The Church of Holy Wisdom founded by Justinian would become a Muslim mosque and then later a museum. Today, of course, the city of Constantinople is called Istanbul and it’s in the nation of Turkey. From a Christian perspective, that nation, the nation of Turkey, is one of the largest unreached people groups in the world. You see, Constantine the Great was the archegos. He was not the teleiotis. But, you see, the Bible would have us to understand… God wants us to understand, His Son is the beginning and the end of the faith. He is the founder and finisher of the church, the founder and completer. He will bring the church to completion, to fulfillment, as He called the disciples to the Sea of Galilee, as He filled those who believed in Him with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, as throughout the church age, He has grown the church. So, one day the church will reach completion and fulfillment at the consummation, and we will be raptured into the heavenlies to reign and rule with Christ forever because He is the Archegos and the Teleiotis.
This does not mean that the church of Jesus Christ has not had problems. It doesn’t mean that the church of Jesus Christ has not committed abuses. It doesn’t mean that the church of Jesus Christ is without freedom. Certainly, the church of Christ through the centuries at times has abused its freedom.
Pope Irwin II, on November 26 in the year 1095, delivered a tragic sermon but it was perhaps the most effective sermon ever delivered by a religious leader in the history of the world. The Muslim Turks controlled the holy land and Pope Irwin II, on that day of November 26, 1095, gathered the clergy and he gathered a great mass of lay people, a vast assembly and he preached. He called the Turks an accursed race. He said that they had devastated the kingdom of God by fire, pillage and sword. He said the city of Jerusalem lay waste. He said the city of Antioch lay in ruins. He said the holy land is in the hands of infidels and barbarians. He whipped the crowds into a frenzy. He began to shout, “Jerusalem must be liberated!” The crowd responded, “God wills it! God wills it!” and the Pope shouted, “It IS the will of God! Let this be your battle cry as you are soldiers of the cross. Upon your breast, wear the blood red sign of the cross!”
The fervor spread throughout the continent, and it was the beginning of a new era, the era of the Crusades, from 1096 to 1291, almost 200 years of abuse, hostility, death and cruelty from the perspective of history. From the perspective of holy scripture, the Crusades were a tragic mistake and contrary to the will of God.
Throughout history you can find examples like that, but it doesn’t change the fact. Jesus Christ is the Arch egos and the Teleiotis. He is the founder and finisher of the faith. He said, “I will build My church and the powers of hell will not prevail against it.” In His grace and mercy, the church moves on and this is true in our lives individually too. I don’t know what you’re going through. I don’t know what you’re suffering. I don’t know what your setbacks are, and I know there are many of you who are hurting. Some of you have relational pain and some physical pain and you’re worried about your health even unto death. Some of you have tremendous financial stress but you believe in Jesus Christ and, you see, He is the Arch egos and Teleiotis of your faith and He will bring your faith to completion. Sometimes what He’s trying to do in our lives is to grow our character and that’s not always what we want Him to do. We just want Him to take the problem away but He’s trying to use the problem to grow us into the likeness of the Son of God, to transform our character and to give us the fruit of the spirit, the Author and Finisher of our faith.
Finally, as we look at this title, the Archegos and the Teleiotis, and we view these titles together, we realize that in saying that Jesus Christ is the beginning and end of the faith, there is also the concept here that He is our great example in the faith from beginning to end. Arche to telos. He has lived the faith and He is the forerunner who has gone before us in the Christian faith. If you want to know how to live your life in Christ Jesus, you just look at Christ. If you want to know what it means to serve, we look-to the author and finisher of the faith. We look to Jesus Christ who washed His disciples’ feet and said, “You call Me Master and Lord and you are right for so I am. If I, then, your Master and Lord have washed your feet, you ought also to wash one another’s feet for I have given you an example that you should follow in My steps.”
We want to know how to love. Jesus said, “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another even as I have loved you.” You see, He has shown us how to love. “Even as I have loved you.” He is the Archegos and the Teleiotis. He is the author and finisher of the faith, and He shows us what the faith requires.
You know, we are in the season of the 25th anniversary of the passing of Roe v. Wade. Many churches across the country today are celebrating Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. It is, of course, true that 37 million babies have been aborted in this nation since the passing of Roe v. Wade. I’ve said before and you know that the overwhelming majority of these abortions have nothing to do with danger to the life of the mother or rape or incest or even gross fetal deformity. They are simply belated efforts at birth control in an increasingly promiscuous society.
This week’s issue of U.S. News and World Report claims that, given the current statistics, 43% of the women in America will have an abortion. Is that incredible? As many women in this nation will have an abortion as have a divorce which is another national tragedy. According to U.S. News and World Report, twice as many women will have an abortion as will graduate from college. This is an unbelievable tragedy. When you look at Christ and you look at His life and you look at His love and you look at what He modeled and how He gathered children to Himself and how He said not even a sparrow falls without the Father noticing. I mean how can we wink at this?
When we look at Jesus Christ who is the author and finisher of the faith, we see not only what it means to serve and to love, but to persevere in the faith. Jesus said, “If they persecute Me, they will persecute you.” Jesus said, “You will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.”
As we conclude this morning, as we come to the end of this worship service, I know that Christ would like this to be a time of deepening commitment and consecration. Christ would like this to be a time when you look to Jesus, you fix your gaze on Him as the author and finisher of the faith, and you resolve today that you’re going to consecrate your life anew, that you’re going to give a full surrender to Him, that you’re going to begin to live for Him in ways beyond how you have lived before.
In conclusion I would like to tell you a little story about Frances Havergal. She’s the one who wrote that great hymn, “Take My Life and Let it be Consecrated.” She wrote that hymn at the age of 36. It was December 2, 1873, in the city of London. Thirty-six years old. She was beautiful. She was a tremendous singer. She had accepted Christ when she was a little girl, but she had not lived for Christ. She had not lived for Christ, and she knew it. She had attained great fame and popularity. She’d been caught up in the things of the world, but somebody gave her a little book called “All for Jesus.” She read that book and she was convicted by the Spirit of Christ that you’ll never have the full measure of God’s blessing unless God has the full measure of your consecration.
So, Frances Havergal wrote this great hymn of the faith, wrote these words: “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of Thy love. Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee. Take my voice and let me sing always, only for my King. Take my lips and let them be filled with messages for Thee. Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold. Take my love, my God, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store. Take myself and I will be ever only all for Thee.”
As we close this morning, I’ve asked Marcia to come up and sing that song. I would ask that as she sings the song, you search your heart, we all search our hearts and see if there is not a greater measure of surrender, we can give to Jesus Christ. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.