REEVES: Europe was once known as Christendom. It's now known by missiologists as the spiritually
darkest continent on earth. Now, people from other continents sometimes struggle to believe that,
and particularly because of our history. And you look at the English countryside where I come from,
and it can be hard to believe that Christianity has faded so much, because there are so many
fossils of Christianity all around. In every town, every village, you see church spires.
Churches that are a thousand years old sometimes, but they are fossils for the most part. And if you
want to understand where Europe is at today, you need to think of Jesus' interaction with Pilate
in John 18. Do you remember, Jesus said, "Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice,"
and Pilate said, "What is truth?" And when he said that he went back outside to the Jews.
Nearly 2000 years later, that is very much what characterizes Europe today.
Like Pilate, European culture now is skeptical, deeply averse to truth,
and syncretistically pagan. When confronted with the very concept of truth, most Europeans feel a
glow of sophisticated superiority. They ask, "What is truth?", and turn away.
And it's not that Europe is desperately asking that question, wanting to know an answer. Truth
is seen as an exploded old dream of yesterday to be sneered at and ignored. I'm describing Europe,
and yet I know much of this will feel very similar in the U.S., and there's certainly similarity,
but the situation is much far gone in Europe. For example, the percentage of churchgoers in the U.S.
regularly outstrips that of most European cultures 20 times over. Take the American church,
or any, any standard American congregation, remove 19 out of every 20 believers,
and that's how it is in Europe. It's normative for European Christians to expect open ridicule
on any declaration of faith. And in churches across Europe, you will find
a message taught that has a small view of God, a small view of sin, a small view of salvation
and of Christ the Savior. And so we are left then with a mundane message that does not confront the
world, does not surprise, does not awe, and does not captivate. And outside the church? Well,
the fact that Europe has returned to Pontius Pilate's skepticism towards, and disregard for,
absolute and authoritative truth, means that we are back with his old classic pagan problems.
In paganism, there is no upright and fatherly providence steering creation,
no loving acceptance by God. No sure hope. In paganism, we are unloved, unprotected
and hopeless. And just so again today in Europe, with a sovereign God and sovereign truth removed,
people looking for self-autonomy find instead that they are adrift
on an endless sea of meaninglessness. Society has lost the truth that can give it
coherence, and we are seeing the whirlwind now. No longer living in a divinely ordered cosmos,
people feel themselves, they feel that they are in a chaotic and terrifying universe,
at the non-existent mercy of impersonal and pitiless forces of nature. And therefore,
while you find that belief in God is difficult in Europe, atheism is not actually confident.
People are confused and troubled, dissatisfied and desperately distracting themselves.
So, what does post-Christian Europe need today? It's tempting to answer, "Preach Christ," but
in fact, that's not good enough. And it's not because Christ is not the answer. He is,
but the mere name of Christ is not a problem for post-Christian Europeans
today, just as the name of Christ was not a problem for the Roman pagan 2000 years ago.
Pilate called for Jesus, declared Him not guilty. 200 years later, the Roman emperor,
pagan Roman emperor Aurelian, happily added Jesus to his collection of household gods.
The 500th anniversary of Luther's stand is a good time to say it. We must preach Christ alone.
Solus Christus, which is really the lynch pin of Reformation theology, and inextricably
related at the center to the other four solas, expresses the biblical conviction
that there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus; 1 Timothy 2:5.
And that therefore, there is salvation in no one else. There is no other name
under heaven given among men by which we must be saved; Acts 4:12. To believe in Christ alone is to
believe that Christ's identity is absolutely exclusive, and His work entirely sufficient.
Now for the first Reformers, it was the sufficiency of Christ's work
that was the dominant theme against all ideas that Masses or
works could contribute to our salvation. And none of the importance of that has gone away.
But the exclusivity of Christ's identity is also now under attack, and like never before,
and Europe needs to hear that there is truth. That it is not my feelings,
but Christ who bears witness to the truth, that He determines the truth, that He is the truth.
That Christ alone is at the center of God's purposes. That Christ alone is the object
of saving faith, and therefore Christ alone must stand at the very center of our thinking.
And yet it is not good enough merely to state those truths. That will win applause from the
converted, but left at that it will only antagonize most others. When post-Christian
Europeans hear phrases like, "Jesus is the only way to be saved." They boggle at the thought that
one person or one group can be, in their mind, so fantastically arrogant and small minded as to
think they've got the truth and everyone else is wrong. Because truth does not work like that to
their minds. To them, such religious exclusivity smells naive, and pointlessly divisive. So
more than merely stating Christ alone, we need persuasively to show
and embody the coherence, the goodness, and the beauty of this great truth.
And there is real good news here because this has been done already.
This was exactly what the early post-apostolic church had to do in ancient pagan Europe.
This is what post-Christian Europe needs today. It needs to be shown why Christ alone is true, good,
and beautiful. And why Christ alone is the only solution to the pagan plight of being unloved,
unprotected, and hopeless. Friends, there is nothing inevitable about Western culture's
de-Christianization. The same gospel has the same divine power. Creeping paganism has been checked
and turned back before. In Augustine's day, in Luther's day, in Whitefield's day, and each time,
it has been Christ alone. Our helplessness, and therefore absolute need for Him, His
glorious sufficiency, and His exclusivity, that has been at the heart of paganism's defeat. Today,
we want to see a second Reformation of Christ's church in Europe. Pilate might've turned away,
many will, but soon after when Christ was lifted up from the earth as the Savior
on His blood-soaked throne, He began to draw all people to Himself. And that is what
happens when Christ crucified, Christ alone, is lifted up as the way, the truth, and the life,
and all His glories clearly displayed. Friends, I have a call to action.
Europe is the epicenter for the pandemic of atheism spreading its disease worldwide.
Anti-Christian voices are far more aggressive here than elsewhere. Now, the UK and Europe are
about a generation ahead of the U.S. in terms of our collapse into post-Christian secularism.
And I'm convinced that if the church is to turn back the tide of unbelief,
the church in the U.S. cannot stand aloof from the problems of the church in Europe. And the church
in Europe must prepare the church in North America for the gathering storm. The church in the U.S.
and the church in Europe have always been healthiest when they've worked together.
Working together, we can stop the disease from spreading, stop it and heal it at its source.
We must stand together for the cause of Christ. And so, at the very least, whether you are in
the U.S. or in Europe, would you please pray these things. Pray that while all around us in
Europe, we see churches and ministries drifting from their biblical moorings,
pray God will raise and bless faithful leaders of integrity. Please also pray for my ministry, Union
as we work to raise and resource such leaders for the reformation of the church. And lastly,
pray that Christ alone will be heralded in all His glorious sufficiency once again. Thank you.