Indifference Urgency and Insurgency 1986

I'd like to read today from John chapter 18, starting in verse 33. Pilate entered the praetorium again and called Jesus and said to Him, Are you the King of the Jews? Jesus answered, Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done? Jesus answered, My kingship is not of this world.

If my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight that I might not be handed over to the Jews. But my kingship is not from the world. Pilate said to Him, So you are a king.

Jesus answered, You said it. I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth.

Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Pilate said to Him, What is truth? Here we have a strange confrontation between two men. The man who appears to have all the power, the power really of life and death over the other man, is utterly indifferent to God, the things of God, the purposes of God.

Who cares? Such things bore no fruit. What is truth? The man who is at the mercy of this Roman government is urgent about God, and the things of God, the purpose of God. It's the one reason for his being on this earth as far as he's concerned.

I have come to do the Father's will. I have come to bear witness to the truth. In time, the urgent man for all his weakness conquers the indifferent man for all his power.

And that's really what I want us to think about this morning. Pontius Pilate has long since fallen from his height. Jesus lives with a name which is above every name.

And so it is that any man or woman who holds this world's power or wealth is very, very inclined, extremely tempted to be indifferent to God and the things of God. And that person will always be superseded by the weakest one around who is urgent about God. Daniel lived in Babylon.

Now Babylon and the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, were indifferent to God and the things of God. Daniel was urgent. This was the most important thing in his life.

Because he was urgent, Daniel was, in effect, an insurgent, a revolutionary, a rebel. Not in the political sense, not in the way we normally think of it as we read the newspapers or liberation theology or what have you. But Daniel understands that he is part of the kingdom of God which will still be shining and burning on the earth when Babylon has long since been covered by the desert sand.

One night, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. He wakes up in the morning very disturbed. And so he calls together all his magicians and his wise men.

Tell me my dream and its interpretation. Excuse me, Your Majesty. You tell us your dream.

We'll give you the interpretation. No, no, no, you don't understand. I want you to tell me the dream first, then give me the interpretation.

If you're smart enough to tell me what I dream, what I dream, then I know that you're also smart enough to give me the interpretation. And by the way, if you don't do this, you're going to be torn limb from limb and your houses are going to be laid in ruin. Well, the wise men and the magicians are doing very well.

Nebuchadnezzar gets impatient. So he sends out his officers to grab and collect all the wise men of Adam. Included in the wise men of Adam, of course, are Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, or Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael.

Daniel says, wait a minute. Don't be in a hurry. Get me an appointment with the king.

I'll tell him his dream, and I'll give him the interpretation. At this point, when Daniel says that, he hasn't a clue about Nebuchadnezzar's dream, but he turns to his three brothers in the faith and says, you guys, start the prayer. Pretty soon, the answer comes.

And when it's time for Daniel to appear before Nebuchadnezzar, he knows what to tell him. And so he says, reading from Daniel 2, verse 31, You saw, O king, and behold a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was bright.

The head of this image was of fine gold, its breasts and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, and its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it smote the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away so that there was not a trace of them that could be found.

But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. This was the dream. Now I will tell you the interpretation.

You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom. God gave it. You didn't get it for yourself.

The God of heaven gave you the kingdom, the power, the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the sons of men, the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, making you rule over them. You are the head of gold. After you shall arise another kingdom, inferior to you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth.

Then there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things, and like iron which crushes, it shall break and crush all things. And as you saw, the feet and the toes partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, they shall be a divided kingdom. But some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with miry clay.

And as the toes and the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with miry clay, so they shall mix with one another through the feet of men. But they will not fall together, just as iron is not mixed with clay.

In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from the mountain by no human hand and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be hereafter.

The dream is certain, and the interpretation is sure. This awesome image with the head of gold who is Nebuchadnezzar and then all the kings which are to follow him is the image of the Antichrist, the image of indifference to the holiness of God, indifference which at its root is always blasphemy, the spirit that wants to exalt itself over God by ignoring God, by being indifferent to God. The stone which starts out very small and grows larger after it strikes the feet of clay and iron is the insurgent kingdom which already is present in Babylon in the person of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Now the impact point where the stone strikes those feet of iron and clay is the death and resurrection of Jesus. At that point the power of the kingdom of the Antichrist and the system of the Antichrist is actually broken. And perhaps if we could stand outside time and see how it really is working, it would seem to be happening very rapidly, but now two thousand years have gone by and the image is still very large in this world.

And we have to deal with it every day, just as Daniel did. To be a follower of Jesus, to be committed to the kingdom of God, is to live in Babylon, live in the presence of his image of indifference, surrounded by this atmosphere of indifference to God, and still remain urgent. Even as Daniel remained urgent before Nebuchadnezzar, or as Jesus remained urgent before Pilate.

When we remain urgent, we conquer the image. When we sink into indifference, the image conquers us, absorbs us, and we become part of it. Reading from Luke, chapter 14, verse 16, Jesus said, A man gave a great banquet and invited men.

And at the time of the banquet, he sent his servants to say to those who had been invited, Come, for all is now ready. But they all, alike, began to make excuses. The first said, I have bought a field and I must go and see it.

I pray you have me excused. Another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, I go to examine them. I pray you have me excused.

Another said, I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come. So the servant came and reported this to the master. There were people who had been invited to the banquet of God.

They're believers. They know their Bibles. They go to church frequently.

They do good deeds. But there is one thing they lack. Urgency.

Get this. These are people who are doctrinally sound. They understand Scripture very well.

But they are indifferent. You're going to have to be a good girl or we're going to get you in trouble. And we're going to talk to Mrs. Cornell.

Okay? That's right. Okay. Now, the thing about these people is that they are good Christians, they go to church, they do all the things they're supposed to do.

But the one thing they lack is urgency. They are indifferent. And so even though they know their Bible, their hearts belong not to God, but to the image of indifference.

And so they're pushed aside by the householder who is urgent and who demands urgency. Then the householder in anger said to the servant, go out quickly. Urgently.

Into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor, the lame and the blind. The servant said, what you commanded has been done. Still there is room.

The master then said, go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in. Be urgent. Get after them.

Make them come that my house may be filled. For I tell you that none of those indifferent ones shall taste of my backwoods. Urgency conquers indifference in this parable.

The banquet hall is filled with guests. The kingdom of God prevails. It always will.

What we need to see in this and learn from this is where we fit in this picture. Where we fit in Nebuchadnezzar's dream. Are we part of the image of indifference? The worldwide system of indifference.

The spirit that just pervades everything. Indifference to God. Or are we part of that stone cut with our hands that smashes the image.

The stone of urgency and zeal for God. You can be a religious person and still be part of the image of indifference. You can be a good churchman or a good church woman and still be part of that image.

You can have a wonderful reputation do fine things, be looked up to by people and still be part of that image. You are part of the image of indifference. When the only real urgency in your life when it all comes down to it is urgency about yourself.

Your religious ideas. Your theories. Your plans.

Your projects. Your everything. One of the easiest ways to find out where our hearts are is to notice where we get hurt.

I'm really going great and all of a sudden my feelings get hurt. Why? Because I'm really urgent about me. Indifference to the things of God beneath a veneer of religiosity or commitment or whatever you want to call it.

There is indifference. And God keeps saying, listen to me. Listen to me.

You're not listening to me. And you keep right on going your own little religious way just like they did at the church in Laodicea. Reading from Revelation 3.14. To the angel of the church in Laodicea write the words of the Amen the faithful, urgent and true witness the beginning of God's creation.

I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. You're indifferent.

Would that you were cold or hot. So because you're lukewarm, indifferent, neither cold nor hot, I will skew you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich.

I have prospered. I need nothing. Not knowing that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire. Urgency. And white garments to clothe you and keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen.

Purity of heart. Stop to anoint your eyes that you may see your purpose. Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten.

So be zealous. Be zealous. Be urgent.

And repent. Get some urgency. Get some fire.

Get some light from God. We need to learn and exhort each other as we learn the basic fact of survival in battle. Either you conquer the image or the image of indifference conquers you.

One or the other, that's all. Nothing in between at all. Now in order to conquer this image of indifference, in order to be part of that stone that breaks the image apart, we need to do three things.

First of all, we need to constantly repent of our own indifference to God. Secondly, we need to open the door and let the urgent one come in. And thirdly, we need to walk in His path instead of our own.

First, we need to constantly repent of our own indifference. Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, David says in Psalm 51. And when we hear that, we always think of his sin with Bathsheba.

David's sin with Bathsheba was the outcome. But the evil, the sin, the blinding arrogance that caused this King David to stumble into bed with Bathsheba and then arrange her husband's murder is this subtle, slinking, sliding indifference which causes this man David to just drift away from God while he's all preoccupied with himself. And he can go, as he did no doubt, every day into the temple and say, Praise God! Hallelujah! Even while he's doing this other thing over here because in his heart, he's indifferent.

And so all worship, all awe, all fear of God dries up. And finally, it comes to the surface in this act with Bathsheba. David's sin, your sin, and my sin.

The sin that destroys us is this indifference to God which is the root of all blasphemy. Purge me with this earth, and I shall be clean. Sprinkle me with the blood, Lord God.

Wash me, and I shall be white as a stone. Forgive me. Wash away this indifference, this arrogance, this self-centeredness, this self-righteousness, this judgmental attitude toward everybody else.

O God, deliver me so that I can worship you with a clean heart, with a broken and a contrite heart. O God. The second thing we need to do is open the door to the urgent one, who is Jesus himself.

Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten. So be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone will hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat with him and eat with me. I'm not far off in the heavens. I'm not buried in the sea.

I'm closer to you than your breath. I knock on the door of your heart right now. Let me come in, and I will suffer for you, and I will give you my urgency.

I will set your heart on fire for the living God. Don't be afraid to give over the control of your life to me, says the Lord, because all you've done is make a mess of it. Give it to me.

Don't waste another hour. Open up your heart. Let me come in and rule you.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. And finally, we need to walk in his path instead of our own. He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake.

Amen. That's wonderful. But that can only happen when I walk in his path, when I follow where he leads.

What good is it if I know it all? There's the path, but here's where I, in fact, walk. It's easy for me to tell you where you should walk. That's the path.

But I'm walking over here. And so we read in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 12, and following. Therefore, lift up your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

Strive for peace with all men and for holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fail to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness spring up and cause trouble, and by it the many become defiled. This is a very simple and very clear description of the path we are called to walk.

He's saying, don't be walking around like a sulking child with drooping hands and weak knees and wandering feet. Straighten your path. Strive for peace with all men.

Stop sowing those seeds of dissension and division. Strive for holiness, without which no one's going to see the Lord. Holiness of heart, a heart that is urgent for God.

And watch that root of bitterness, which will destroy you and others with you. Watch that root of bitterness. Get it out.

Move your feet from your path to the path marked out by the bleeding feet of the Lamb himself, and walk that path of love for brothers and sisters, that path of faith in God. Simple, clear, day by day, path of obedience. Not mind or view.

Really, the issue of life or death for this church and for every member of it is whether we are ruled by the image of indifference or by the rock of urgency. We make that decision now, and we make it every day of our lives. Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten.

So be zealous and be repentant. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him or her and eat with them and they with me.

I'm knocking on the door. All you have to do is open the door. Repent of the indifference.

Open the door. Walk with me. Let's take some time of silence.