©2006 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

01-15-06

Transcendent Truth

1/15/06 Transcendent Truth

Before I do what I’m going to do this morning

I need to offer a few words of explanation

that will, I hope, clarify what I’ll say.

During the next few minutes

I’m going to be talking about some profound changes

that have taken place in our culture,

changes that have dramatically altered

the way in which the message of Jesus Christ

can be effectively passed on from one generation to the next.

But there are some of you here this morning,

and perhaps many of you

who will strongly react to my description

of what now exists within our culture

because you will be convinced that it simply is not true of your own family.

And I want to begin by acknowledging that that may indeed be true.

Many of you possess a strong personal Christian heritage

and, if you are parents,

you have taken seriously your high calling

of creating for your children

a morally safe and protected home environment

in which they can grow and develop.

When you hear my comments this morning

about the world view that dominates our culture

you will respond by saying, “That’s simply not true of our family!”

And if that is true,

I want to offer just three statements for you specifically

in preparation for what I’ll do this morning.

First, I highly applaud all parents who actively seek to create

a morally protected environment for their children.

Doing so is among our highest callings as parents.

But second, I want you to know that even our best efforts

to shelter our children from the prevalent cultural attitudes of our day

will be only partially successful,

and the truth is that even our best efforts

can never guard our children completely.

I do not say that to frighten you,

but rather simply as a statement of fact.

And then, third,

I would say that, even if your children have been raised in an environment

in which they have been protected from some of the worst of what now exists in our world,

if they are going to be prepared for life in this society,

they must still understand how the world around them thinks.

They are being prepared to communicate Christ

to a generation yet to come,

a generation that we as adults will never see,

and the more they understand how those around them think,

the more effective they will be in fulfilling the role assigned to them by their Lord.

Now, what I will do during the next few minutes

will not be the type of thing many of you have come to expect from me each week.

Most of the time

when I stand before you

I do so with the hope of communicating to you

the truths our Lord offers us

in some passage of Scripture we’re studying.

In other words,

I attempt to, as best I can,

feed your spirits with the words of our God.

But what I do this morning

will be a good deal more personal in nature

than what you usually hear from me.

We will spend some time

in a fascinating passage from the book of Acts,

but there may also be a good deal more of me in the mix

than you are normally accustomed to.

I have been a Christian for nearly 40 years now.

Even to me

that now sounds like a very long time.

During more than half of those 40 years

I have been a Bible teacher and a pastor.

As such

I have always held onto both the goal and the hope

that I am, at least at some level,

effectively communicating the truth about God

and the truth of God

to those who choose to listen to me.

I’m not saying that I’ve always done that,

I’m just saying that it’s been my goal.

But communicating truth

is a far more tricky business

than I ever anticipated.

In my early days

it all seemed so simple,

so clear,

so obvious and straightforward.

It was simply a matter of learning the answers,

learning the system,

and then finding the most effective ways

of communicating those answers to others.

And for a good deal of my life

I have invested a great deal of my time and effort

into trying to do just exactly that -

learn the answers

and then learn how to more effectively communicate them.

But some changes have been taking place within me recently

that have caused me to reevaluate some of those most basic assumptions of my life.

I was involved in a conversation this past week

with a professional educator

whose insights and opinions I value very much.

He is a strong Christian,

and we were talking about the challenge

of trying to communicate Jesus Christ to the next generation,

to those who are now in Jr. and Sr. High School.

And in the course of our conversation he said,

“Those who are over forty just don’t get it!”

Given the fact that I am way over forty,

I chose not to take this personally,

but I believe I do understand what he was saying,

and why he was saying it.

In fact, when he made that statement,

it coincided perfectly with so much of what has been going on inside me recently,

and what I had already decided to try to communicate to you this morning.

He was coming at it as a result of his professional career observations and experience,

but with me it has come as a result

of my interaction with some of the young people

that my Lord has brought into my life.

I have always enjoyed working with Jr. and Sr. High school kids on a one-to-one basis.

I use to think that the older I got

the less they would want my involvement in their lives,

but, remarkably, it seems to have worked exactly the opposite.

I will admit that I do sometimes get an awful lot of flack

for my being “really, REALLY OLD!”,

and for being “nearly bald”,

and for not having a clue as to what’s really cool and what isn’t,

but I hear all such comments for what they are,

their way of telling me

they’re really glad this old man is in their life.

I use to think that the Lord continued to place these young people into my life

primarily for their benefit,

for the things I could pass on to them.

But in recent years

I’ve begun to realize

that these kids have become perhaps the greatest single tool God has ever had

in His efforts to change and reshape both my thinking

and my teaching,

because nothing in all the world

tests the validity of our message

or the effectiveness of our communication

like trying to pass on our understanding of Jesus Christ to a teenager.

It has impacted me in huge ways.

First, it has forced me to try to understand their world -

not just the world of a teenager,

but the world of a teenager in a post-Christian culture.

Through my young friends

I have come to realize

that the gap that now exists between generations

is far greater

and far different

than just fads,

and clothing,

and music,

and ear rings and hair styles.

The young people of today

see the world through very different eyes than I ever did.

I really do believe I understand what my friend was saying

when he said that no one over 40 gets it.

There have been cultural changes within our society during the past 40 years,

changes that have profoundly altered the way we as a society think,

the way the younger generation relates to the most basic concepts in life -

the concept of morality,

the concepts of truth,

and spirituality,

and honesty,

and authority,

and God Himself.

I am certainly not suggesting

that the world I was raised in

was in any way more truly “righteous” or “moral” at the heart level

than the one we live in today.

But I will say that my generation

processed those concepts

from a radically different basis

than our young people do today.

And, at the risk of oversimplification,

let me see if I can put the difference into just a few words.

I grew up in a world

that recognized and accepted the concept

of an absolute moral standard of conduct.

Certainly there were endless discussions and debates

about the exact specifics of what is and is not on that standard,

but the concept itself was firmly in place in our thinking.

There were certain things that were wrong

simply because they violated that universal moral standard.

And good and evil were determined

on the basis of that universal moral standard.

We certainly were no better than any other generation

at submitting to that moral standard.

In fact, we were in many ways terrible at it,

but we thought in those terms.

But the world in which we now live

doesn’t even think in those terms.

Whereas my generation accepted the concept of moral right and wrong

as measured by an external universal standard,

the generation that now exists

does not even accept or acknowledge the existence

of any such universal moral standard.

It isn’t that we as a culture have lowered the standard,

it’s that we as a culture

have utterly rejected the idea of any universal standard even existing.

When I was in fifth and six grade

I can remember some of my fellows students

starting to use “swear” words.

They were very careful when and where they used them,

and we all knew

that what they were doing was “wrong”,

that they were violating an accepted moral standard of conduct.

Because, at that point in our society,

there were clearly defined moral walls in our speech,

walls that were an extension of that accepted moral standard.

Even as late as my graduation from high school

I never heard any person on any TV or radio program

using profanity of any kind.

In fact, there were federal laws against it.

In 1961 Jimmy Dean released one of the biggest hits of the 1960's,

a ballad entitled “Big John”.

It told the story of a huge, quite miner

who ultimately gave his life

to save 20 of his fellow miners trapped in a cave-in.

When the song was first released

the last verse went like this:

“Now they never reopened that worthless pit

They just placed a marble stand in front of it.

These few words were written on that stand,

‘At the bottom of this mine lies one hell of a man, Big John.’”

The social outcry over that last line was so strong

that the record company had to pull every copy of the record across the nation,

and Jimmy Dean had to re-record the song with a new last line that said,

“At the bottom of this mine lies a big, big man, Big John.”

And as I share that

there will be two distinctly different responses among you.

Those of you who view the world

through the acceptance of that universal moral standard

will think to yourself,

“See how far we have lowered that standard in our day.”

And those of you who see our world

through the eyes of our contemporary culture

will find yourself honestly unable to understand

how that could ever have, under any circumstances,

been viewed as any kind of a “moral” issue whatsoever.

Now, I could easily spend the rest of our time this morning

giving example after example

of this shift that has taken place within our society.

But that isn’t what I want to do with the time I have left.

Mostly what I want to do

is to share with you what I’m seeing

and then to share with you how it has profoundly altered my approach

in my efforts to introduce this next generation

to my Lord Jesus Christ.

So, to summerize what I’m seeing,

first of all I know that this generation simply does not think like I do.

Whereas I always have and always will

bring into every decision-making situation

the acceptance of a clearly defined moral standard

revealed to us by God Himself,

many of the kids I work with today,

(and in fact many of you here this morning)

simply have no memory of or allegiance to any such thought framework.

And here is the critical thing I want us to understand -

it isn’t that they have seen the standard and rejected it,

it’s that it has never entered their minds

that any such standard exists.

“Good” in the eyes of the culture in which we now live

is simply whatever seems to work,

whatever seems to bring about a good result.

Bad is whatever doesn’t seem to bring about a good result.

And this is just a bit of a parenthesis,

but I find it fascinating that what our culture believed

would be a great blessing to the next generation

has in fact become a hideous curse.

Our culture rejected and eventually utterly dismissed

the whole concept of an absolute moral standard

believing that it would fling open the gates to tremendous freedom for the next generation.

But what it really did

was to sentence all who came after

to a terrifying and overwhelming frantic trial-and-error search

for what works and what does not work in life.

And all too often

the choices that are made

in the name of personal freedom

produce devastating consequences that alter people’s lives forever.

But I’ve only got a few minutes left

and I want to finish what I started here.

It is true that the generation that now exists

does not think as my generation thought.

It doesn’t even know how to relate to the world view I grew up with.

But it is also true

that their hunger for their God

and their need for His love

is every bit as real and intense

as it is has ever been within the human spirit.

Nothing any culture does or doesn’t do

can ever alter that.

If ever there was a powerful illustration of that truth

it’s the society in which we now live.

Look at us!

We have more social “freedom”,

more affluence,

more diversions,

more sources of entertainment,

more of everything that we think should make us happy and fulfilled,

and yet we are a society filled with greater pain,

and confusion,

and depression,

and stress than any in recent history.

And the thing that I’ve been wrestling with in myself recently

is trying to understand

how I can most effectively pass on the truth

without it getting lost in the cultural chasm that exists between us.

I know that the answer is not

for me to simply refine my techniques

in my efforts to communicate that system of moral absolutes I was raised with.

I’m certainly not saying I am in any way rejecting those absolutes,

I’m just saying that, if that’s where I begin my communication,

they will simply not get it.

And, in a way I’ve never had to do before,

I’ve found myself sifting through the message I’ve been presenting,

asking myself what really matters

and what is just part of my own cultural Christian perspective.

I’ll share what I’ve come up with shortly,

but first I want to point out a passage

that’s helped me tremendously in this process.

You see, there is a remarkably close parallel to what I’ve been trying to think through

in the 15^th chapter of the book of Acts.

As most of you are probably aware,

the message of life through Christ

came first of all exclusively to the Nation of Israel,

to the Jews.

And there was a brief time in which all Christians were Jewish Christians.

And each of them,

all of them came into their walk with Christ

with a heritage of literally thousands of years of knowledge about God,

a knowledge that included the entire record of the Old Testament

and all that came with it.

They knew all of the detailed moral laws

that were outlined with such care in the Old Testament.

And when they came to Christ

they came with that entire moral and cultural framework

deeply imbedded in their thinking.

But then, very quickly, the message of rebirth through faith in Christ

spread to the Non-Jewish world,

a world that had no memory of

or allegiance to any such moral or social framework.

In fact, 1^st century Rome was a moral culture so dramatically different from that of the Jews

that it was truly two utterly different worlds.

Just one example will help you appreciate what I’m saying.

There were some very popular religions in the 1^st century Roman world

in which “worship” involved going down to the temple

and having sex with one of the temple prostitutes.

Place that next to the rich Jewish heritage of moral right and wrong

that the Jews brought into their walk with Christ

and you have true worlds in collision.

And the parallels between those two cultures

and the cultural gap that exists in our society

between those with a strong Christian heritage

and those who are truly post-Christian in our world today are very close.

It is not surprising that it was not long before these two cultures in the first century Church

came into major conflict.

Many of the Jewish believers were deeply offended

by so much of what they saw happening in the lives of their Non-Jewish brothers and sisters,

and the longing to bring them into line

was simply overwhelming.

And I’ll admit that I have wrestled at times

with similar feelings

as I’ve looked at the lives of some of those around me today

who have come to Christ out of this generation.

I will confess that occasionally

I have this wild urge within me

to lunge out and scream, “Why can’t you be more like ME!!!”

And in the 15^th chapter of Acts

this conflict in the first century became so intense

that the Apostles all gathered together,

along with all those who wanted input into this turmoil

and came up with the first official written Church decree in history.

It was a letter written by the recognized church leaders,

all of whom were Jewish converts,

many of whom were from Jesus’ original band of disciples,

an open letter written from them

to all non-Jewish converts,

listing for them exactly what conduct was required from them as new Christians.

Now, can you imagine what some of those at that meeting wanted to include in that letter?

I’ll bet there were some

who wanted to simply attach a copy of the book of Leviticus

and instruct the non-Jewish converts to read and follow everything in it.

The first huge issue that came up,

and the one that actually lead to the conference

was whether or not the male non-Jewish converts had to be circumcised.

But the debates certainly went far beyond that.

And the document that came out of that meeting

is, for me, one of the greatest wonders of the early Church,

and also one of the most powerful statements of the true nature of the Christian message

that we’ll ever find.

Let me read that letter for us.

ACT 15:22-29 Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas -- Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren, and they sent this letter by them,

"The apostles and the brethren who are elders, to the brethren in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia who are from the Gentiles, greetings. Since we have heard that some of our number to whom we gave no instruction have disturbed you with their words, unsettling your souls, it seemed good to us, having become of one mind, to select men to send to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore we have sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will also report the same things by word of mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials: that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell."

That was it!

Make a clear, clean public break with your old form of idol worship,

abstain from drinking blood and eating things strangled for the sake of your relationships with your fellow Jewish Christians, for they find these things offensive to the extreme,

and abstain from fornication - bring your sexual conduct in line with what our God has revealed to us.

So how about all the other stuff that so many of us

feel so strongly really should be on a list of things that good Christians should do?

Why aren’t they on there?

Well, the answer to that is imbedded

in a correct understanding of what’s really involved

in the message about Christ

that we are called to communicate from one generation to the next

and from one culture to the next.

And it is this understanding

that has begun to alter my own approach

to what I offer those around me when I seek to present Christ,

and what I do not offer them.

But my time is gone for this morning,

so, with all of this as background,

I’ll pick it up here next week

and share with you both the basic message about Christ that I now seek to present,

and also the only approach that I’ve found to be truly effective

in my efforts to present that message.