The defence of the faith
Geoff Thomas
The apostle Peter sought to defend Christ with a sword, injuring a
slave in the process. He merited another rebuke from Christ; ‘Put the
sword away. Never use a sword in defending me. All who draw the sword
will die by the sword.’ A stroke of the sword which is independent of
justice will wound and destroy whoever wields it. It creates resentment
and retaliation.
There is, of course, a place for the sword. The powers that be in the
government can use an army and its state-of-the-art weapons fighting a
just war. The police, courts and prisons are designed to punish
criminals. That is their place; keep the sword there, in Caesar's hands,
but the sword and instruments of man’s power are not to be used for
the defence of the gospel or the spread of the kingdom.
How does the little story tell the big story? The Son of God deplores
worldly and carnal means of defending the gospel and furthering God’s
Kingdom. Using them contradicts all we say about the livingness and
nearness of God and the power of his grace. The methods we employ in
serving the Lord must reflect his message.
You understand what Jesus was teaching Peter by rejecting the sword
and embracing the cross? Not only the substance of what we tell
the world but the style in which we bring it to the world has
been defined for us by God. The message and the method must be
harmonious. The way we worship God, and the way the minister leads the
services has nothing to do with the fact that he might prefer a more
traditional style of ministry. He was probably raised in dead
traditionalism; we won’t speak a word defending traditionalism as
such. The issue is not being ‘contemporary’. Earnest, prayerful,
loving Christianity will always be contemporary. The issue is this; we’ve
been given a message by God and its heart is a bloody cross on which is
hanging the Lamb of God making atonement for our sins. Only by the dying
of Jesus Christ can we be saved.
So there must be a radical discontinuity between a martial, or
sentimental, or sophisticated presentation and this given, divine
message of our Saviour being crucified to save us. Our number one
priority is not to attract unbelievers to our meetings but to attract
the Son of God. We don’t want him outside, knocking on the door for
access, but here in the centre, working and saving and sanctifying. So
all we are and all we do must reflect his love and righteousness and
truth, lest we grieve him and he stays away. There is nothing more
powerless than a church without Christ. There is nothing sadder than a
church that thinks it is full of him when all the time he is outside
knocking, but his knocks can’t be heard because of the noise within.
Peter, put your sword back in its place. Peter, surrender your
weapon. There was a time when Yehudi Menuhin was asked what was musical
genius. He said, ‘Surrender’. The musician surrenders to the music,
to the composition, to the conductor and to his instrument. The
Christian surrenders to Christ’s Lordship over the message and the
method and the means which God gives us. All of that must be enfleshed
in those of us who are servants of Christ, in our living and in our
words and our entire approach to ministry. Not by the sword; never by
the sword; if we use the sword we are displaying the triumph of
unbelief. We have far more effective weapons to do God’s work than
swords, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through
God to the pulling down of strongholds.
If my task as a teacher was to instruct men and women in the alphabet
then it wouldn’t be out of keeping me for me to dress up as Mr
Alphabet Clown and chant the 26 letters to them, and we’d learn to
sing the ‘ABC’ song together. If we were in the business of selling
more hamburgers we might wear a hamburger costume, give out free
hamburgers and sing a hamburger song. There’s no incongruity between
that message and the methods used to promote it. However, there are some
methods that are radically inappropriate for our message. Think for
example of a teenager who has been assaulted and murdered. Her parents
make an appeal to the community for people to come forward with
information. It would be utterly unacceptable and self-defeating for
them to dress up in costumes and sing some songs about a little girl
lost. How mawkish! They would actually be building a barrier between
their hearers and the killing of their daughter. What they bring to
their fellow citizens in their naked grief and the broken earnestness of
their appeal is immensely more powerful than any such embellishments. I
am saying that to dress up, or entertain, or issue threats in the
presentation of God’s word to mankind, would be wretched
'communication.' It would erect a wall of disparity between the message
and the people whom we wanted to win.
We bring good news to the world which is the very testimony of God.
It centres on the Son of God humbling himself even to the death of the
cross for our redemption. That is the only way we can be saved. If we
turn to methods which reflect the wizardry of men to communicate that
message - man’s mood-creating music, psychological devices, physical
or mental intimidation, the threat of a sword, the humour of clowns -
then that will eviscerate the gospel of its own content and power. Men
may become religious through such devices but they won’t become
Christians. The Saviour went to the cross and that fact dictates the way
his kingdom is going to spread. John Flavel once said, ‘A crucified
style best suits the preachers of a crucified Christ.’ The defence of
the faith demands a holy correspondence between message and method. Let
me ask myself whether what I am saying, and how I am worshipping, and
how I live my life is in keeping with the essence of the gospel? Let us
all do that.
God has disclosed himself supremely in the cross, and if following
Jesus Christ means dying daily then to adopt a style of ministry which
is militaristic, or triumphalistic, or designed to impress and
calculated to win acclaim is utterly inappropriate. Peter, put away your
sword.
‘When telling Thy salvation free
Let all absorbing thoughts of Thee
My heart and soul engross:
And when all hearts are bowed and stirred
Beneath the influence of Thy word,
Hide me behind Thy cross.’
