Christians easily feel out of place and when we do, we are especially susceptible to the deceitfulness of sin. This is when we are tempted to compromise, this is when we decide not to feel like sacrificing for our faith. You may have heard about the Pew report that came out this past week: there are now more people in the United States in the category of “atheist + agnostic + believing ‘nothing in particular'” than all Christians in main-line Protestant denominations (like Lutheran, Methodist, and Baptist). This is astounding and it testifies to the changing make-up of our great nation. It means that more than ever before you stand out and sometimes — well — our flesh doesn’t like that very much. We are tempted to be self-conscious, we are tempted to be ashamed and embarrassed. What will we do? All the while our hearts are bombarded to be more concerned about what others think and to consider the desires of the flesh over and against the love of God and protecting our hearts to constantly love Jesus over and above all things on this earth and in this life. We must guard our hearts from becoming hardened by the deceitfulness of sin as the author to the Hebrews warns (Hebrews 3:15).

Come learn about this threat and come hear about how Christ saved us and saves us from this terrible assault. We will hear that we are to simply “consider Jesus” (Hebrews 3:1) and know that in Christ Jesus and Him alone we have confidence in the midst of the cultural assaults against our faith and then…

Well then bask in the greatest gift: Christ’s very body and blood for the forgiveness of ALL your sins!

I look forward to serving you tomorrow morning! Here is an excerpt from the sermon:

Introduction: Christians Out Place Then and Now

A. Out of place then: in the book of Hebrews, the young Christian Church in Jerusalem was a persecuted church. As a Christian at the time you forsook the religious status quo.

1. You would have rejected Judaism so firmly established in the Roman Empire.

2. You were viewed as subversive towards the emperor and as a result, the whole empire. You were seen either as a rebel, a moron, or just plain weird: being among those who worshipped the carpenter crucified, claiming him to be alive while also claiming to eat his body and drink his blood.

B. Out of place now: Pew report released their updated religious survey of the U.S. population this past week. It is now staggering to consider that 32% of all adults under 30 claim no religious affiliation. They are the so-called “nones.” Furthermore, there are now more U.S. citizens in the combined category of atheists + agnostics + those who say they are “nothing in particular” (19.6% of the U.S. population) than the number of mainline Protestants (like Lutherans) in the United States (only 15%). Welcome dear friends to the minority! Under such sociological circumstances, how is it dear Christian to be among those who are so exacting and exclusivistic? You are among those who claim that there is no way to the Father except through Jesus Christ (John 14:6) and that there is no other Name given to people under heaven by which they must be saved (Acts 4:12).

1. But let me make you even more self-conscious about yourself: while I was conducting research for my dissertation on American Christian fundamentalism and evangelicalism, I had never realized how religious socialists categorize the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (all of us). George M. Marsden in Fundamentalism and American Culture (Oxford, 2006) writes:

 

“Other denominations, including the Missouri Synod Lutheran and the Christian Reformed were also Americanized to an extent by adopting some fundamentalist ideals while retaining other distinctive features of their European traditions (p 195).”

 

“…[as] ethno-religious groups, such as Missouri Synod Lutherans…came into contact with the mainstream culture it developed…a strong group of conservatives who made the inerrancy of Scripture a firm test of the faith and who tended to adopt the causes championed by the Religious Right (p. 239).”

2. And while it is hard to pin-down the precise meanings of “fundamentalist” and “evangelical” — at least in a religio-sociological sense — there are some distinctive religious affirmations that all fundamentalist Christians embrace. Let’s see which of these we can relate to:

 

1. Miraculous creation.
2. The virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
3. The atonement of sin through Christ’s blood on the cross.
4. The bodily resurrection of Christ.
5. The real and actual 2^nd coming of Christ.
6. The view that the Holy Bible is God’s inspired and inerrant Word.
7. Personal responsibility for sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to other people.

3. Now why go through these facts? Because we don’t really like standing out and most of us certainly don’t like to be labeled. Now there may be more than one reason for this, but labels put us on the spot and give us attention that we don’t always want.

4. There were new Christians in Jerusalem in the first century who most certainly did not want the attention, because they didn’t want to be persecuted.

5. And in our sinful weakness, we don’t want the attention either especially in a culture where conservative, evangelical Christianity is diminishing…but how far are you willing to run from the labels? You are after-all a Christian, a baptized child of God, a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ…there are some labels which you and I can never run from, because they represent our core being…they stand for our life in the Living God!

 

Part I: So we are warned, don’t have “an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the Living God.” (v 12)

 

The rest — of course — includes God’s saving Gospel in Christ Jesus…I hope you’ll join us in Church tomorrow morning!

 

In Christ,

 

Dr. Espinosa