OF GOD”
*ir Vance Havner
Jesus was born of a peasant woman; spent His life in a tiny Roman province; was not educated in the schools of men; never visited Rome, Athens or Alexandria; died the death of a criminal. It just doesn't make sense to this world. He would-be the despair of a modern reporter! Even His brothers did not understand why He did not get out of the backwoods and into the limelight at Jerusalem (John 7:1-9). He did not manage His publicity very well, they thought; He needed a press-agent! Then He painted a strange picture of the make-up of His kingdom. Not many rich people would get to heaven, He said. Paul expanded the list to include the wise, mighty and noble, the intellectuals, the V.I.P.s, the blue-bloods. He did not say “ not any” are called, but he said, “ Not many." God loves them but they have a hard time getting saved. The old S & N, the Straight and Narrow Way, is hard on pride. There are exceptions, of course, but they only prove the rule. Yet we keep saying today: " I f we had more people of wealth in our church, more college graduates, more influential people, more social status, we could make better headway.” One of our Chris tian writers has put it this way: "The well-to-do, upper middle classes, the politic ally prominent, the celebrities, are accepting our re ligion and parking their expensive cars outside our church doors to the uncontrollable glee of our re ligious leaders who seem completely blind to the fact that the vast majority of these new patrons of the Lord of Glory have not altered their moral habits in the slightest or given any evidence of conversion.” The professing church today is rich and increased with goods and has need of nothing. It is ashamed of the scandal, the reproach of the old rugged cross. We are no longer the disinherited. We have moved out on Main Street with the “ in” crowd. We are not p il grims and strangers, exiles and aliens. We have set tled down in this world and made ourselves at home. Nobody is “ homesick for heaven” these days. What with a split-level house, boats and bonds, social se curity and Medicare, who is singing “ In the Sweet By-and-By” ? Paul in Athens was not impressed with Grecian art, culture and philosophy. What concerned him was, “ These people do not know God.” So he preached the Three R’s— Revelation, Resurrection and Repentance. Today, we are admonished to brush up on our art appreciation, familiarize ourselves with the Broad way plays and sip ginger ale at the cocktail parties, in order to have dialogue with this age. A recent book on Missions says that the early Christians may have been over-zealous in proclaiming that there was no other name by which we might be saved and that 9
in touch with another world. They met the civiliza tion of their day in a head-on collision and ended on top of the situation. They were twice-born people in a world run by once-born people and that presented a problem. It still does. Dr. Phillips writes: "Many Christians talk about the difficulties of the times as though we should have to wait for better ones before the Christian religion can take root. It is heartening to remember that this faith took root and flourished amazingly in conditions that would have killed anything less vital in a matter of weeks.” What turned the world up side down was the foolishness of preaching— not the preaching of foolishness— , the preaching of the Gos pel, "the foolishness of God.” It is ridiculous to grow panicky and say, “ The church has failed; the Gospel has failed.” The fool ishness of God still confounds the wisdom of man when we stop discussing it and start demonstrating it. There are too many experts and too few examples. If the preaching of the cross is to the world fool ishness, it follows that the preachers of it will be to the world fools. We need not expect popularity with the scribes and disputers of this world, the princes of this world who crucified the Lord of glory. If we ever have another revival, it will not be brought about by specialists in swivel chairs but will begin among common people. When a man is on trial for his life, we select a jury of twelve ordinary men. I wouldn’t want a jury of lawyers if I were on trial, they’d hang me for certain. Our Lord did not choose twelve rabbis for His apostles; He picked fishermen, tax-gatherers and the like. God has His seven thou sand today who have not bowed to Baal and most of them are plain ordinary Christians. The average ordi nary man has more sense anyway than the expert. When Castro started out in Cuba, any plain citizen could have told you he was a crook but it took the experts, including some churchmen, a long time to find it out. There is still a reservoir of grass-roots Christians and it is time for a grass-roots revolution. The liberals have failed; the radicals and crackpots and beatniks have had their fling. It is time for the common people, like those who heard Jesus gladly, to rise and demonstrate "the foolishness of God.” The Gospel has never made sense to this world and never will. You cannot fit the message of re demption to the wisdom of this age. There are no points of similarity, only points of contrast. The Gos pel runs against the grain of this age from start to finish. It springs from a different source, follows a different course and arrives at a different conclusion. God has kept His secrets from the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes. DECEMBER, 1970
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