One, I think it's important for the Church to have compassion on people. Our Lord taught
us to show compassion. He was moved, when he attended a funeral, to tears.
When the Church preaches theology as though it's not preaching to actual people, with
actual lives, with actual issues, we are preaching a different way than our master taught us
to preach.
Secondly, it's important for us as a Church to ask ourselves as believers, how can we
love? And not just merely be moved with empathy, but also how can we act to care for those
who are actually affected? I think in Church we are those who are supposed
to be characterised with good works - not only for those within but also for all men.
At the end of Galatians an admonition is given to the Church.
However, it's also important to grasp the Bible shows us that there's another poverty
that is more shocking - or more painful if you so please - than the poverty of a lack
of money. And that poverty is the spiritual poverty that we all possess.
So you will find that as a Church we're not a social organisation in that sense, right?
The Lord has sent his son to address that poverty. And what that poverty is that we're
falling short of the glory of God. We are absolutely lacking of anything in us that
would cause us to stand before God and point to some merit in us - and that's a dangerous
poverty.
The truth is the scriptures address issues that the eye of flesh cannot see. The United
Nations can be moved with the poverty that plagues countries in Africa, it takes someone
who has really seen things the way God sees them to see people who are dressed nicely
as those who are actually famished and in desperate need of being fed with the truth
of God. So it's all-important that even as a church
seeks to love in physical things, that we never lose sight of the spiritual need that
our members and people around in our communities have.
So, as we proclaim the gospel then, with the priority on the spiritual need that believers
have, that does not mean that the secondary stuff does not matter. All it means is the
primary stuff is infinitely more devastating. And we will see that more clearly in eternity.
As we proclaim the gospel to these people, it's useful then to point first and foremost
to our saviour Christ, and show how he came to this fallen world that rebelled against
God, and he bore the cross on our behalf. And yes, he has said that all who choose to
follow him will also bear a cross. And yet that suffering that comes along with following
Jesus, it's important to understand that it's not ultimate. Right? The same Lord who bore
the cross was raised up on the third day, glorified. And the truth is all who choose
to follow Jesus, as hard as that path actually looks like, even though it sounds as though
you are saying you are ignoring the realities on the outside, that's not true.
The truth is Christ has promised - he who rose from the grave has promised - that all
who are followers of him will know a life of glory.
So the reality is the Christian message is the one that ultimately offers yes, the poor,
the oppressed, ultimate hope. Not in a better heaven down here: namely you'll drive a better
car, you will live in a bigger house, you will have a higher paying job. Not that prosperity,
that's not what they point to. They point to something called glory - that's pure perfection!
And I tell you when that gets here, they will not think that you are preaching a lesser
gospel, because you did not tell them that the physical things in this earth were not
going to be elevated. They will realise that the new heavens and the new earth provide
for them the hope that they all longed for in far better terms than they ever imagined.