12.17.25
Hey, Calvary Fremont –
Did you hear? Did you get the memo? Have you listened to your voicemail? The unthinkable, the unspeakable, the impossible has happened. The devil has reversed the work of Christ! I didn’t believe it at first, I thought it was a hoax – like we got punk’d by the Babylon Bee. Yet the more I saw, the more I understood – and my mind was dragged into grudging agreement.
Ephesians 2:14 says, “For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall.” But what Jesus broke down, the devil rebuilt. The passage goes on to say that the cross put to death the hatred between rival people groups. But the hatred Jesus has put to death, the devil has resurrected. In the Church, there is plenty of animosity to go around. When the Cross prevails, people reconcile and come to love one another. When the Culture prevails, people divide and come to despise one another. The Power of the Cross is twofold – it reconciles man to God and man to man. When the Culture prevails within the Church, the Cross loses its Second Potency. The devil has been successful. The Church no longer finds its center and identity in Christ. The Church finds its center and identity in this or that political position, in this or that philosophical angle, in this or that social cause.
It is no longer enough that you know God and love Jesus – you also must be politically conservative to fellowship in some churches. It is no longer enough that you know God and love Jesus – you also must be politically progressive to fellowship in other churches. What Christ has torn down, politics and philosophy and causes have rebuilt. The devil is brilliant. He knows how to sideline Jesus in His own Church.
You could say, “What’s new? The Church has always fought and divided over theology.” This is true. Theology has often brought people to harshly separate from one another. And now we’ve added to the things we fight about and divide over. I long for the days when we only fought over theology and not politics and philosophy and causes!
Christ has been displaced in His Church. When Assyria defeated King Ahaz, he went to Damascus to meet the king of Assyria and saw the altar that he used for sacrifice. He was impressed by it and had a copy of it made for the temple in Jerusalem. And get this – he displaced the altar of the Lord built by Solomon and replaced it with the copy of this pagan altar. This is what is happening in the Church today. The altar built by Solomon points to the Cross and the Sacrifice of Christ. Even as Ahab displaced Solomon’s altar, the Cross of Christ has been displaced by the values of the Culture. When the values of the Culture displace the values of Christ, we are worshipping at a pagan altar.
Let’s give Christ and the Cross their proper place in the Church. Let’s make the Cross more central than politics, more essential than philosophy, and more important than causes. If you listen to sermons, often, more time is spent demonizing the politics, philosophy, and causes of others than is spent glorying in and magnifying the Cross of Christ. Christ is our Peace. If I can only be at peace with you when I demand that you agree with my politics and philosophy and causes, then I am no longer Christ-centered. If I have to demonize you because of your politics and philosophy and causes, then I no longer believe in the power of the Cross; I am on the devil’s side, rebuilding the wall of separation. Can we disagree with one another concerning politics, philosophy, and causes? Sure – but I cannot demonize you and go off on a tirade where I throw spears and shoot arrows and wildly swing the sword. When I do that, I am on the devil’s side reinforcing the bitterness and rebuilding the barrier that Christ tore down.
What Jesus broke down, the devil has rebuilt. What Jesus has put to death, the devil has resurrected. The devil has reversed the work of Christ. Let’s discern and destroy the works of the devil. If something is more important to me than Christ and the work of Christ, I need to return to Christ. May the Church stop turning to the Culture and return to Christ.
Be blessed and stay healthy and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim
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