to the text of scripture why are we doing a teaching series called strangers in America well there's an election on I don't know if you heard um we have eternal elections now and so I look forward to election season beginning uh January the what 7th or 8th of next year all over again um that's a joke I don't look forward to that um we're not doing this because there's an election per se but every time we have a a presidential election it highlights to us once more the critical necessity of the Church of Jesus Christ having a well-formed Christian worldview a a world and Life View a way of understanding the world that is deeply informed by scripture not deeply informed merely by our professors or by our feelings or by our experiences and God forbid just by whatever shows up on our social media feed if we're going to be Christians who think like Christ who act like Christ who talk like Christ who spend like Christ and yeah even vote in a way that would honor Jesus then we have to think about how in the world we should do that and we have to do so knowing that we are in a moment right now where that's probably never been more difficult as an American citizen because right now we live in a moment where the if you think of the circle of things that would be called American culture and the circle of things that would be called kingdom of God values I don't see hardly any ways that those two circles overlap where maybe decades ago or a century ago there was quite a bit more overlap so that you could trust kind of the general impulses of our culture or just western civilization in general to largely push you toward mostly Christian ethical directions you can no longer trust that that is the case and if you do you are very unwise we are doing this teaching series because we want and the mission of God that he has for us compels us to be the kind of people who can speak about culture and politics and economics and family and human dignity and our mission in the world with Biblical words and ideas that honor Jesus so that's the goal of our Series this fall and that is why we're doing this now you may have noticed that right alongside with this we're doing establishing foundations in all of our small groups because there's no way for us to talk about the issues up here if we're not deeply formed and forged in the Bible down here and so just one more plug amongst a billion plugs you'll hear from us and have already heard if you're not in a small group or going and establishing foundations jump in man laying biblical foundations in your life is one of the most worthy things you can do with your time so to help us get started today as we think about what it means to be strange Christians who follow a really weird and wonderful Jesus we're going to read two texts of scripture that seem to push us in very different directions so if you were able would you please rise for the reading of God's holy perfect Spirit inspired word Romans 12 1:2 says this I appeal to you therefore Brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a Living Sacrifice wholly and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God what is good and acceptable and perfect John 17 this is the prayer of Jesus to his father prior to his going to the cross I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one they that is his disciples are not of this world just as I am not of the world sanctify them in truth your word is truth as you sent me into the world so I have sent them into the world this is the word of the Lord thanks be to God pray with me Holy Spirit oh we need your help Lord show us the things we think that you don't like show us the opinions that we have that you do not share show us the ways we consider politics or other people that you don't agree with and correct us and teach us and train us so that we can be more and more like Jesus I pray amen amen you may be seated so as I mentioned we find ourselves in a politically and culturally fraught environment and and uh you could be forgiven for thinking like this is the worst it's ever been because if you ever turn on the news or anything like that we're we're told like this is the worst it's ever been believing it is in fact the worst it's ever been is a great way to keep you watching networks and scrolling on on your phone but you may be surprised to find that uh it it's probably not or at least it's not that different currently than it's ever been maybe the emotional temperature is up maybe certain things are different but even at the moment Jesus arrived that the first century Judea had its own set of political and social and religious power Brokers and parties and groups that wanted to subsume Jesus into them and get Jesus to do their political and social bidding we're no different in the face of a politically fraught environment we are easily captured prey so much so that political prognosticators talk about who's going to capture the Evangelical boat weird to be thought of as a voting block more than the very people of God who should bring salt and light to the Earth whose words and ways should act and exude Christ in that moment we we easily captured into the political right or the political left or we may even fall into that Temptation that I feel at least once a week and have forever since moving here which is to just sell it all move to New Hampshire buy some guns and canned goods and hold on to the Rapture um yeah know the dream of starting a Christian commune every now and again I'm like we could do it yeah every now and again but that would be to disobey God for we are sent into the world as strange followers of a strange Christ and as followers of a strange Christ we therefore find ourselves to be strangers in this world sent into this world for the sake of this world before we can talk about the issues before we can talk about economics and we will or family formation and we will or ethics and we will and politics and we will if we don't get this then those conversations will be largely centered around your feelings about those things and there's just nothing I care less to discuss with you than how you feel about something God has already decided upon there are like 500 of you right now I don't even know how that conversation would go well I feel but I feel but I feel listen if God has said a thing is a way your feelings are interesting mostly only to you because we're not called to get Jesus to conform to our feelings but to have our feelings and our bodies and our minds and our behaviors conform to Christ and if we can't just go ahead and agree that if Jesus is Jesus we have to follow him even if that makes us weird then like we should just preach about something else for the rest of the series but as Jesus is who he says he is and because he is totally strange we're going to be strange too we're going to feel like we don't quite fit everywhere we go good if you feel like you fit everywhere you go you might need to ask yourself how closely you are following Christ because we followers of a strange Christ are therefore going to be strangers in this world sent into this world for the sake of this world now maybe you don't think Jesus was all that strange maybe like no Jesus Jesus got it right Jesus was super popular everybody loved Jesus no no they did not there were at least five political religious and social groups that wanted Jesus to be part of what they were doing and he simply did not here let me show you with my handy dandy chart first group was the herodians the herodians were named for their allegiance to Herod that would be like if in Star Wars there were the Darth vadan Herod was the bad guy was a very very bad man but these guys were Jews who said you know what I actually don't mind Roman rule I don't really care much about being Faithfully Jewish in in religious practice I'm just going to be subsumed into this large kind of global Empire called Rome and we're agitating and advocating to just go along to get along with Rome if you were going to chart them on a political left to right spectrum that are more familiar with here doing so very anachronistically you would probably call them globalist leftists big time they were not religious they were quite secular and they were quite about that one world government with Caesar as Lord on the opposite side of the political Spectrum were the zealots they were fiercely anti-roman and pro-jewish as a political group and they were seeking to overthrow what they saw as corrupt and oppressive Roman rule these were the guys that we would today label as domestic terrorists yeah they were not super religious themselves but they wanted to kick Rome out they were on their fourth occupying Empire and they took up arms in fact in the historical space between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament there were a couple of times that happened and then it happened once more after the close of the New Testament and uh it caused Rome to come and literally destroy Jerusalem one of these guys was in Jesus small group by the way along with people from every well almost every one of these groups that I shall read you which made small group Fun the third group were the Asen now the Asen don't actually show up in the scriptures by Design because the Asen were separatists and they weren't there we know the asens existed though wave me if you've heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls okay Dead Sea Scrolls um I'm 1950 something um there's a Shepherd boy in in an area of uh of Israel Palestine throwing rocks in an area called kumran and I was throwing rocks into the cave and throwing rocks into a cave and then he heard Pottery break and he walked in and discovered Scrolls in pots and that's where we got the Dead Sea Scrolls or the kumran Scrolls these were the religious texts they're the Old Testament um religious text of a group of separatist Jews who were so disgusted with Roman occupation and how the Jews were not being faithful to God that they just separated themselves and went to live for God all alone they would have felt very comfortable in the aforementioned New Hampshire situation but they're not in your Bible because they were well separated then we have the phes these were the more religious conservatives of the day they were legalists devoted to following Torah very strictly but they frequently tried to accuse Jesus and his disciples of being false false prophets because they didn't uh Jesus didn't interpret the text of scripture the way they did so Jesus was repeatedly calling them out for their hypocrisy and yet the Pharisees are often trying to get Jesus to agree with them and then we had the Sadducees these were the liberal snoody probably have tenur positions down at that place over there Elites squishy falsely religious non-believing liberals and Jesus put them to open Shame by coun their understanding of Torah with just mockery some of my favorite texts in scripture there was one time when the the sagues got to they asked him this silly riddle about the resurrection and he kind of looked at them and he was like you are quite wrong and he walks away I have that on a coffee cup you are quite wrong and I drink it during counseling appointments um I've also tried drinking it in arguments with my wife and it has not helped either of them uh Jesus didn't fit any of these pre-existing groups now don't hear what I'm not saying I'm not saying therefore we just have to like not fit and you know be intentionally weird and vague and Squishy no no no I'm not saying that but I just need you to know that in the midst of following Jesus if you feel politically not at home as a Republican or a Democrat or libertarian if you truly don't know who to vote for if you look at the list and you're like huh yeah man yeah because it because it's strange to exercise your 1 330 millionth unit of political power in the United States in a constitutional republic given that we follow a strange Jesus he was even weirder than that he was economically strange Jesus didn't support greedy consumerism but neither did he air that you know everybody should just have whatever they wanted without hard work he transcended our current labels and seemed to emphasize the surpassing worth of the kingdom of God he was culturally and ethically strange he on the one hand would preach love for God and fellow man but a love that comes at the cross of at the cost of the Cross and satisfying the wrath of God for Sinners he preached a radically conservative sexual ethic would have been called a hater and a bigot and a backward and all of the phobes and yet he expressed an immen liberal love for people of all backgrounds with all stories so much so that it was scandalous and he was called though the kind of guy who partied with Sinners he would preach peace with God through forgiveness and yet would reflect the upside down nature of a kingdom that would be brought by experiencing vience in his own body he's strange we follow a strange Jesus moreover we who follow a strange Jesus believe even weirder stuff about him that he's going to return he's going to split the sky with a robe dipped in blood on a horse according to Revelation if we're going to follow this very strange Savior and now might be a really good time to ask yourself if you really mean to follow a strange savior then don't you think it will make you strange of course it will make us strange so back to the text in Romans I appeal to you therefore brothers that's that word brothers and sisters so ladies you don't get to opt out of this one by the mercies of God present your bodies as a Living Sacrifice um do you know what a sacrifice is a sacrifice is when you take a living thing and put it on an altar and then you kill it to propitiate the gods of some sort or another so Paul is saying here's the here's the metaphor I want you to think about take yourself and place yourself on the altar of God and die to yourself that you can live for God it's G it's Paul's version of Jesus metaphor whoever would follow me must take up his cross daily I know some of you are like oh like my cross like my pretty little CR no no to Bear the heavy wooden splintery torture and death device and drag it around everywhere with you if we're going to follow a strange Jesus it's going to make us weird man it's going to make us strange it's going to make us look different than the world around us and that is by Design we are therefore to be living sacrifices dying to ourselves dying to sin dead to sin alive to God dead to your old self and self desires and alive to the new self and God's desires dead to your old identity and alive to whomever and whatever God says that you are you really need to under that one Church you have been told by every Disney movie and every popular song and most of your Tik Tok videos and a lot of what your teachers have said and probably something your guidance counselor informed you about that you are the sum of your identity and your identity is simply the sum of your desires and God just says something totally different about you it's not that your desires aren't important they're super important and you should be very aware of them but you are simultaneously much more than that and far different your desires are important but if all you are is the sum of your desires then you are nothing more than what you arbitrarily decide to be because I don't know if you've noticed but tastes change your desires will change any of you are young you're like no I've always wanted this always for you is 15 minutes relax get a couple of decades under your belt and tell me if you've always been this way okay hope and I have been married for 21 years I've been married to at least seven different people and they're all her and she has been married to one or two herself and they're all me you are more than the sum of your desires and whatever culture says you have to label yourself and whatever box don't you see how this thing out here is trying to get you to sort yourself into something so subhuman when you are an image bearing handcrafted masterpiece almighty God that's what you are that's who you are don't tell God who and what you are ask him ask him in which he deeply deeply resists the urge to preach an entirely different sermon okay that's going to make you strange present your body as a Living Sacrifice holy and acceptable to God do not be conformed present your body as a Living Sacrifice notice we're not just saying hey we need to be be good spiritual people you know we can be secular out there we can be you know in the public sphere out there we'll just be religious over here that way of thinking is utterly ungodly do not embrace the categories of a Godless civilization your culture can't tell up from down right from left don't simply go along with the questions that they ask you know that you can get someone to give a very specific answer based on the question you ask right no we are to be very strange that means we embrace the wonderful weirdness of Jesus expressed in our relationship with food and money and drink and sex and power and all of these other things that we spend our time thinking about and we're to be transformed by the renewing of our mind that means we have to learn from the scriptures what to think politically religiously economically culturally and ethically right now most of you most of us you land up on your political or economic convictions based on something painful that happened to you in your past or just how you feel and what seems right to you ethics based on Vibes is a bad move public policy based on your feelings is super not good we're the first civilization in the history of our species to try and create a culture and a body of jurist prudence based on such things and look at me it will fail it will fail only the culture that has grown fat feasting on the corpse of a once Christian civilization can trust its feelings give it a generation or two see what your grandchildren's feelings say about you come on man we've got to think bigger we are followers of a strange Jesus which makes us strangers in this world and over these next few weeks we'll think about that strangeness yet we are sent into the world for the sake of the world now let's jump to John if all you had was Romans 12 then you might be forgiven for thinking oh right no New Hampshire like that's the new church plant SL toown we're founding let's all get out of here no offense to New Hampshire I'm not picking on New Hampshire it's just your land's cheap I don't know where else we go perhaps a Dakota but that's a long drive we're sent into the world for the sake of this world John this text is the prayer of Jesus he literally prays father I'm not praying that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one if they are they are not of this world just that I'm not of this world so sanctify them make them holy in the truth for your word is truth as you have sent me into the world so I send them into the world that means we have to pursue Holiness now listen at different seasons in your life you might need to pull away from certain things and certain situations for a moment like if you just grew grew up in this prevailing culture pulling away from it for a second like deleting all of your apps and going Monkish for a season would probably be really really wise for you right just to relearn like how do I think about being human God teach me your music teach me your words teach me your ways of thinking absolutely but living that way forever makes you useless in the world because you have no common tongue with which to preach the gospel weird be Sanctified in the truth therefore we are to pursue knowledge of scripture a biblical worldview Great Theology and Holiness Holiness is beautiful and missional and it's suited for the mission of God we therefore are to be transformed by the renewal of our minds which prepares us for the sending that Jesus has for us I can't send you into the world to represent Jesus if you smell and sound and act and look more like the world you're being sent to you won't do anything you'll just be another in the sea of all of that if we're going to be sent into this world for the sake of this world we first we got to reject what keeps us from doing this well the first thing that keeps us from doing this well is the sin of syncretism syncretism for our purposes here today syncretism is simply the attempt to massage the message of Jesus to make him palatable to modern day schools of thought you can always hear what syncretism sounds like because it always starts off with did God really say well actually it's that thing inside of us that goes you know what everything Christians have believed about fill in the blank has been wrong but now we really see everything Christians have always taught and believed and thought about sexual ethics is wrong but now see if I squint this one Greek verb that Paul sort of used one time no everything Christians have thought and taught about how we should wield power is wrong see what we really need to do if you find in yourself a motivation to reinterpret the scriptures without saying it you think of yourself smarter and wiser than 2,000 years of Christian scholarship and I love you I know you're very smart and some of you probably got a perfect on your essay you're not smarter than Augustine sorry you're just not you're definitely not smarter than Paul you're just not and even if you're as smart as Paul you're not filled with the Holy Spirit and writing inherent scripture so sit down syncretism is the desire to reinterpret and reinvent Jesus to fit the Sadducees or the Pharisees all all of whom end up being the wannabes compromise compromise is a bit more on the nose compromis is when you say well I just want to let go of certain things the scriptures command oh I'm not that kind of Christian you say to your friends this isn't a core issue it isn't important it's old it's outdated it's no longer socially useful or relevant and so right along with the bath water you throughout the baby the bathtub and the whole bathroom being a Christian is hard and compromise is very tempting very tempting if you decide as I hope all of you will okay until I'm married to my spouse I'm going to live faithful in my body I'm not going to have sex with anyone until I've made a covenant promise to that one as the scriptures come in if you if you do that if you live that way which you should you're going to be weird your friends are going to think you've lost your mind someone's even going to be concerned about your mental health to which you may reply yours doesn't seem great the mental health of our sex post-sexual Liberation culture is the worst it's ever been by the way but go on maybe what we need is more cowbell let's try this bad idea more it's going to be weird and you'll be tempted to compromise all of this is rooted in the third thing fear fear of man fear of rejection fear of Abandonment response to past pain anxiety and so Desiring to be accepted by your peers that you're willing to experience distan from God all three of these things these are tools of the enemy to get you focused on your fear and focused on something else and there are tools of the enemy to divide the church and undermine her loving yet bold witness to the truth so if we're going to be strange followers of a strange Jesus we just have to go ahead and sign up for strange and if you care more about being cool and accepted than strange then you should probably know that about yourself because this is going to work for you I me there are times when the world approves of what we're doing and that's nice it makes things much easier but there will be moments Where You Are are called all of the names and you will be filled with all of the fear and oh my gosh I'm being rejected or they're coming after me a servant is not greater than his master if they persecuted me they will persecute you Jesus says strange Christ strange Christians but we're not meant to be strange just for the sake of being strange we're being strange for the sake of the world around us because it is the world that needs us to be Christians the world doesn't need any more WN toe followers of Jesus the world doesn't need any more syncretized followers of Christ you can get in a car today and drive all around New England and find all of these beautiful very expensive and large Church buildings that have all of the stickers and the flags for the current things on top of them that are empty on the inside why because they're not preaching the truth about Jesus so why would anyone come if you're fine and I'm fine why are we doing this New England is filled with billions of dollars of real estate of dead churches I don't want to be that I don't want you to be that I don't want your house to be that I don't want your social media properties to be that God has sent us to this place to be an outpost of his kingdom here and that's going to be hard and you have to just sign up for okay I don't know all the Imp of this and I don't know what it's going to cost me but I have decided to follow Jesus the cross before me the World Behind Me no turning back that's what it's going to take I'm very glad that Jesus did not compromise he himself defied all the social religious and political expectations of a messiah he wasn't the Nationalist that the zealots wanted he wasn't the internationalist that The herodians Wanted he wasn't the purist that the Pharisees wanted he wasn't the philosopher the Sadducees expected and he wasn't the Mystic that the ases were hoping for he was King Prophet priest Perfect Adam Once and Future King Messiah Jesus the only perfect Son of God we must resist therefore creating a Jesus that aligns with our preferences and bend our knee to the king who transforms us into His Image what does this mean well if you're not a Christian in here today I'm so glad that you're here I hope you at least are beginning to understand what we're supposed to stand for sorry about the times you've seen us not do that our Master Jesus says that we're to be like salt and light in a dark and putrid Place purifying and sanctifying and preserving it if you are a follower of Jesus or sorry if you're not a follower of Jesus the invitation is to come and put your faith and trust in Jesus he's a way better King than anyone you can vote for he has more Truth for you than any media institution that you can watch or listen to and he has more grace for you than any therapist or friend if you are a follower of Jesus I am not inviting you to a mushy middle way I'm inviting you to join me and to encourage one another to be weird not for weird sake some of you are like it's my time no no no no no don't don't nerds of the World Unite no no no to be strangely Christlike here's what I need you to do first you need to recognize that you are the product of a culture that has worked very very hard to capture you there are very intelligent psychiatrists psychologists neurologists technologists who have built an edifice of media and technology and sounds and lights and videos to get you to think differently than Jesus would have you think you cannot trust them to form Christ in you you cannot trust that just because you go to a great school you're going to be fine that just because you have you know good political leanings whatever you think those are you're going to be fine or just because you listen to what you think of the right podcasts you're going to be fine you cannot trust anything that naturally comes through this device to shape you toward Jesus you have to think about it and you need other followers of Jesus to help you do that you have to recognize this first and secondly you need to start re rejecting some stuff sanctify them in the truth your word is truth means you need to start rejecting lies listen okay I still have time he's leaning over his Pulpit this is important if all you get of God's word is what I say once a week and you're on Spotify six hours a day or scrolling through YouTube two hours a day or watching Tik Tok or whatever it is you do with your time I have no idea how apart from a miracle Christ will be formed in you I just don't know if you are just going to be the product of the machine out there and expect to be made like him up there I don't know how that works it's going to take you digging deep man it's going to take you I don't know maybe like putting this phone away for a while get a dumb phone or here's a weird idea get a friend read a book you're going to have to reject some stuff reject the gnawing of our culture around you to try and get you to do it at once repent of bad ideas reject false binaries don't show up for all the fights that others say you have to show up for reject sin reject the pressure to make Jesus fit into your cultural mold parents look at me you have to do this for your children you have to do this for your children Jesus is going to hold you accountable for how you disciple your kids I'm not saying you have to do it just like me We homeschool our kids and then put one of them in a private school for a while that has its own assets and liabilities you can do this public school you can do private I'm not telling you what to do I'm telling you you have to figure out how whatever you do you're going to form Christ in your kids and you are going to be the most dangerous person to the devil in their lives you cannot let somebody with an ed degree shape your children no one loves them more than you no one cares for them more than you you've got to be super engaged involved I'm so thankful for great Educators I had some amazing teachers I'm so thankful for Great Schools and all that but man you got to be in there this is going to affect when you give them a phone which I hope is roughly around the same age that they're allowed to consume alcohol children lack a prefrontal cortex which means they can't make good choices they're like physiologically incapable of it please don't give them a device designed to form their brains into being stupid or evil or both please think about it please please please third thing you got to do is you got to build you got to build something you got to build little Societies in your families you got to build little Traditions you got to build a Christian worldview you got to build habits of resistance and growth you've got to be transformed by the renewing of your mind read your Bible build a theological framework if you're like I don't even know what that is that's okay that's totally okay we're glad that you're here that's what we're here to help you do but like get in there and do it get some people around you that's why we have small we don't have small groups just because it's fun right it's because we don't know of an of a better way to form Christ in you throughout the week if we thought of a better way we'd do that right now that's the best we got get in establishing foundations Forge a Biblical worldview raise disciples and children dangerous to Darkness four you're going to have to be brave because you're going to get called names you're going to get called names people are going to think you're crazy they're going to say very bad things about you so just go ahead and set your expectations that be surprised when they're nice not surprised when the world rejects you you the Bible and it's not their fault the Bible says that the evil one has blinded the eyes and minds of the unbelieving you don't have to hate them but they're going to hate you even while you Faithfully bear witness to the truth bear witness to the truth absolutely refuse to budge Never Lie Never Lie never lie just to get along never never ever ever lie not to yourself don't acques to forms of thought or questions that have nothing to do with reality or goodness or truth more on that in the coming weeks as followers of a strange Jesus we are strangers in this world sent into this world for the sake of this world so may God ready us for this beautiful assignment of being elect Exiles as Peter calls us Lord Jesus help us I'm grateful to have a growing Church though perhaps today I've shrunk it a bit I'm grateful I'm grateful Lord that our culture there there are many good things I don't I don't hate our culture I love America I love the city of Cambridge I love this region Lord we're not mad at that at all but we want to be like Jesus and Lord even as we come to the tables of communion this morning and we remember what Jesus did to change us and save us and rescue us and help us Lord would you forgive us and grant us Mercy For Those ways we compromise the ways I've been afraid Lord the ways that I have preferred to be accepted in the sight of others than applauded in the sight of Heaven Lord make us beautifully like Christ whatever the ca Lord for my friends in here who aren't yet followers of Jesus I'm asking God that you would show them the beauty of Christ that they would want to pledge allegiance to Jesus over and above all and Lord that you would through word and Sacrament and spiritual disciplines and community and all of these things form Christ in us that we might be like him no matter what we do in Jesus name amen