Andy Stanley concluded the Brand: New series this Sunday. This will be my final post on the series, and probably my last post concerning Stanley for a while. I was made aware of what he was teaching in the series when I came across an article from one of the Christian news sites. It sounded like he was preparing to make a major announcement, and I thought would be his support of gay Christianity. I am thankful he did not cross that bridge this month.
Stanley's big question for the series was, "What does love require of me?" He believes that for the Christian the entirety of the Old Testament and New is summed up in this question. He even went so far as to say that both Testaments are simply commentary on how to answer that question. Unfortunately that puts Stanley in the awkward position of disagreeing with both Jesus and Paul on the purpose of the Scriptures. In Luke 24, where the passage the name of this blog is taken from is found, Jesus twice says that the Scriptures were given to reveal him as the Messiah, the Savior, who would suffer, die, and rise again to save people from their sins. In 2 Timothy 3:14-16 Paul instructs Timothy to continue in what he has learned, "the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." Asking ourselves what love requires of us in every situation is a good question to ask, very good in fact, but the purpose and application of the Scriptures goes well beyond that question. They are given to us first of all that we would know that Jesus is the promised Messiah of Israel, and after that, to instruct us on how to live as His people.
He even went so far as to say that the early Christians didn't need a Bible or Bible study even though, as I've already pointed out, the historical evidence, not to mention Biblical record, shows that the early church most certainly did gather together around the Old Testament Scriptures and the teaching of the Apostles, who would later write their teaching in what would become the New Testament. The very first thing Luke says about the very first church is that they were devoted to the Apostles’ teaching (Acts 2:42).
Stanley's idea is that if Christians study the Bible unbelievers won't want to join us, but if we love people won't be able to resist us. Once again, Stanley puts himself at odds with Jesus when he says this. In John 15:18-19 Jesus said to his disciples, and by extension all believers, "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." As loving as the early church was, and as much as the church grew, it was hated by the pagan world. All of the Apostles met violent deaths, according to tradition. Early Christians were denied work, imprisoned, fed to lions, crucified, beheaded, burned at the stake, and used as human torches in Nero's garden. The pagan world hated the church, and still does, because the unbelieving world hates our King. People don't reject Christianity because of the church, they reject Christ because they are "...filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them" (Romans 1:29-32). That is the condition of all humanity until God's elect are made alive together with Christ by grace through faith.
He concluded the series by exploring four terms he claims Jesus redefined that the church has gotten wrong.
Structure - the church is a body and not a kingdom
There wasn't much to disagree with here, except that Stanley perhaps wasn't strong enough in his insistence that every believer must be engaged in a local church body. He presented it as not ideal, where the New Testament presents it as not an option. What was ironic was his attack on consumer Christianity, while he and North Point have spearheaded the consumer Christianity movement over the last 20 years. He very much follows the model of finding out what the people want and giving it to them.
Authority - authority is for the benefit of the led and not the leader
Again, this statement is correct. His conclusion, though, remains in contradiction with Jesus's words in John 15. Stanley thinks that if Christian employers would lead this way unbelievers would want to work for us, but we don't see that happening in the real world even now. By all accounts Chick-Fil-A and Hobby Lobby are exemplary employers, yet they're hated by many unbelievers who are hostile to God.
Then, after spending the whole series talking about the church, and telling the ladies to come and listen in week 5 of the series, he suddenly shifted from the church to marriage. He did not endorse female leadership in the church, but presented a standard egalitarian argument from Ephesians 5:21-22. So it appears that for all his criticism of the church being controlled by sacred men, he still believes that the church should be led by men.
Spirituality - spirituality is measured by how well one loves, not by how much he knows
The problem here is that Stanley tries to put these two against each other as if they're mutually exclusive. The New Testament model is know, then do. The disciples followed Jesus and learned long before he sent them out. We don't know what to do if we don't know what to do. The Bible, and the Bible alone, instructs us on what true love for our neighbor looks like.
For example, the world tells us to love them by affirming their behavior. The Bible says love them by telling them that behavior will kill them. The world says love me by allowing me to continue in my sin. The Bible says you cannot be in Christ and continue in sin. We must know what the Bible says, or we are going to end up loving our neighbors in a way that is actually hate. Hatred, because it leaves them condemned under the terrifying wrath of God while we tell them everything is okay.
In all Stanley's talk about love in this series, it has always been about action. Demonstrating love by serving your neighbor. There is also a command for Christians is to speak the truth in love, which means sometimes telling people things they don't want to hear because we love them. This command in Ephesians 3 comes in the context of the church growing to maturity so that it will not be tossed to and fro by false doctrine. Yes, part of Christian maturity, or spirituality, is growing in a knowledge of the truth. Part of spirituality and loving our neighbors is speaking the truth when someone is believing the wrong things.
Earlier in the same sermon Stanley talked about the church as a body. Different parts of the body have different functions, an argument Paul makes in 1 Corinthians 12. Some Christians have gifts of teaching and discernment, gifts that are given for the edification of the body. While people who possess those gifts are not excused from serving their neighbors in other ways that are needed, the primary way possessors of those gifts will serve the church, the primary way they will love their neighbors, is teaching sound doctrine and protecting the church from false doctrine. Those gifts are just as valid as the gifts of mercy, compassion, and service. In Stanley’s mind though, those people are haters for calling out false doctrine and need to be shaken off. Funny, isn't it, that Stanley talks about loving neighbors while showing utter contempt for those who dare to compare what he is teaching to the written word of God.
Holiness - holiness in the Jesus movement is about being a part of, rather than setting oneself apart from
The overall message of this section was on target. As Christians we’re not to simply huddle together as Christians and have nothing to do with the unbelievers. We are to engage with them. Yet, and this is where I think Stanley was incredibly sloppy, we are called to be holy and set apart in the midst of that engagement. We don’t live like the world even as we engage with the world. We live according to the commands of Jesus our King. Jesus engaged with sinners, but he didn’t join them in their sin. There’s a very important distinction that needs to be made.
It was interesting that Stanley brought up the Great Commission and the necessity of going and making disciples, but failed to mention that part of that same commission is teaching disciples to obey all that Jesus commanded. That means that we need to obey the New Testament imperatives, all of them, that Stanley thinks are only examples of how to love our neighbors. Jesus didn’t say to only love our neighbors through acts of service and kindness.
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I really get the sense that Stanley believes the Bible itself will keep people from coming to Jesus. I could be wrong, but it just seems that he's embarrassed by much of what the Bible says, and wants to present a Jesus and a faith that is more palatable to unbelievers than the Jesus and the message found in Scripture.
Jesus' half-brother Jude wrote though, "Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ" (Jude 3-4). There is one faith, and it has been delivered. We're not permitted to change the message to make it more acceptable. Jesus called sin sin, we must do so. Jesus talked about future judgment and the fires of Hell, we must do so. Jesus taught sound doctrine and warned against those who would teach falsely, we must do so.
Jesus was the perfect embodiment of love, he poured himself out for the good of others, and in the end the people who willingly received his gifts demanded his crucifixion, spit on him, beat him, and mocked him when he claimed to be God and called them to repentance. The world will love us as long we only do good deeds. The minute we proclaim Jesus as King, confront people with their sinfulness, and call them to repentance and faith they will hate us, unless God in his mercy grants them repentance. We cannot make the gospel more attractive to unregenerate sinners, only the Holy Spirit can awaken people to new life, give them eyes to see and ears to hear. Our responsibility is only faithfulness to our King in all things, including the proclamation of the message he has given us.
The message is that all people are born dead in trespasses and sins. We are born hating God and in rebellion against him. But God, being rich in mercy, and because of his great love, sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, to live a life without sin. Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected. He is coming back to judge the world in righteousness. All those who by God's grace through faith repent and believe in Jesus Christ will be forgiven of their sins, and on the last day resurrected to eternal life.
