THE PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

O most gracious and merciful Lord, we confess to You our weakness, and we acknowledge that apart from You, we can do nothing. But You, O Lord, are the Almighty, victorious over the serpent, sin, and death. You are the One who rules on high, and who will reign until all Your enemies have become a footstool for Your feet. O, most gracious, merciful, and all-powerful Lord, enable us by the indwelling empowerment of Your Spirit to live as Your holy people upon the earth, as citizens of heaven, to Your glory. Speak to us now Your Word of truth, and wield upon us the sword of the living Word of God, sharper than any two-edged sword. Cut to the quick of our heart, dividing soul and spirit, that Your truth may penetrate into the depths of our being and our minds may be renewed in accordance with Your holiness, and our lives may be transformed more fully in accordance with Your likeness; and to You, our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the Father, and the Holy Spirit, we offer this our plea together with our praise. Amen.

THE SERMON 

I want to begin by expressing my great appreciation to Vic Uotinen, our Director of Missions, and to the members of the Evangelism Committee who helped to plan and organize this conference . Conferences such as this one are an important part of our ministry, a vital way in which we seek to fulfill our Mission Statement: "...to proclaim the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ to all the world, reflecting our Reformed convictions and relating to contemporary culture."

Now, those are not just preliminary remarks, but are at the very heart of the sermon theme for tonight: "The Church’s mandate to engage and influence contemporary culture." That theme itself is simply an affirmation of the church’s mandate to engage and influence contemporary culture. In other words, it is important that we all understand that as the people of Jesus Christ, His Body, His visible church upon the earth, we have a mandate from Him to engage and influence our culture.

This may not be so obvious, though. Throughout the history of Christianity, there has often been a tendency among some to shrink back from the world, to try to withdraw out of the world, as though God had turned his back on the world, as though God were concerned only about our eternal life in heaven but had no continuing commitment to or interest in this world. There has sometimes been a tendency to think of this world as a sinking ship, so that evangelism is simply a matter of getting people into the life-boats before the whole thing goes under, without any regard for God’s glory upon the earth. There has been the tendency to think of the Christian faith primarily or solely in terms of "going to heaven when I die," without any regard for "glorifying God and enjoying Him in my daily life on earth." There has been the tendency to think of the Christian faith strictly in terms of private and personal faith — "something personal between me and my God" — which has no relation to the public sphere of life. In this view, Christian faith has to do only with me and my personal salvation, and my personal spiritual experience, and the health and happiness of my marriage and family, and my comfort in time of grief, as though the Bible and the Lordship of Christ have nothing to do with my employment, with politics, with the arts and education, with the legal system, and with social and cultural values. As Hitler said to the pastors in Germany, "Your job is to get souls to heaven; you leave the world to me." And, unfortunately, that’s just how some Christians view the faith.

But that is not the Biblical vision for our role upon the earth. As God’s holy people in Christ, we are "set apart" from the world in order to be a blessing to the world. Engaging and influencing our contemporary culture has been the mandate of God’s people since the Garden of Eden. That may sound funny, but it’s true. Why did God make man, male and female, in His own image? "God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule ...over all the earth.’" The LORD God created man, male and female, to exercise dominion, that is, to exercise Lordship, as His representative, upon the earth over every aspect of life on earth. The LORD God put Adam in the Garden of Eden to work it and to take care of it (Gen.2:15). This is God’s world, and from the very beginning God’s purpose has been for humanity to rule the earth reflecting the glory and goodness of the Creator, in humble submission to Him.

Of course, we know that sin entered the world and brought with it chaos, death, and destruction. But God in Christ has come into the world to redeem, to renew, and to restore the world, to bring about a new creation! And in Christ, that New Creation has already dawned. It is our mandate to go forth into the world as ambassadors of Christ, proclaiming His Lordship over every area of life. Jesus said to His disciples, and He says to us today,

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is not longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

We are called to be a people who make a difference in this world for Christ. The world ought to be a different place because we’re here. And the world ought to be becoming a different place because we’re here — not because of us, but because of Christ in us, and because we are living under the Kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ, and following His marching orders, obeying His commands, and living as the people of His pasture, the sheep of His hand, His happy "little flock" (Luke 12:32) in this great, big world. We have a mandate to be salt and light in His name. What a great calling! What a privilege to be the representatives of Jesus Christ upon the earth.

What does it mean to be the salt of the earth? Salt is a preservative, keeping things from spoiling, from going rotten. We have a mandate to keep our contemporary culture from going completely rotten. How do we do that? Well, the first thing is to repent of our own sins: to make sure that our own lives don’t spoil and "go rotten" — especially with hypocrisy, self-righteousness, and spiritual sloth. Secondly, as Christ’s redeemed people, we are to live in this world in such as way as to have a moral, spiritual influence which permeates society — like salt in meat — and preserves the world from becoming completely godless.

But salt is also a seasoning, that brings out the best flavor in food. We have a mandate to bring out the best in our culture, to set the pace and bring out the very best of our culture in all its various aspects. In other words, we as Christians are to be that salt-seasoning which brings out the very best in all the areas of life: in education, and politics, and science and technology, and medicine, and the legal system, and the arts, and the business world, and in all the fields of skilled labor. We are to live as the salt-seasoning of the world in our respective vocations by doing all that we do to the glory of God, thereby bringing out the very best in ourselves, in others, and in our respective stations of life.

Sometimes I think we make a big mistake in our understanding of "Christian service." Sometimes, I’m afraid that we equate "serving the Lord" with serving on a committee of the church in the church for the church. It’s as though you’ve got your "ordinary" life out there in the world, but your "Christian service" takes place only in the church or in another Christian organization. Now, of course, service in the church — "church work" — can be an important part of our commitment to Christ. But it’s only a part of it. We need a bigger vision of what it means to be a witness for Christ in the world. Being a Christian witness is a matter of who you are, wherever you are, whatever you are doing.

Martin Luther’s vision of the reformation was to bring the religious seriousness of the monastery into the home, the workshop, the counting house, and the barn. John Calvin’s vision of the reformation was for the reformation of society according to the Word of God, beginning in and with the church, but expanding outward into every area of life. Did you know that some of Calvin’s reforms in Geneva included importing the silk-worm from China in order to provide honorable work for the unemployed protestant refugees in Geneva? And that he established a hospital that was under the care of the deacons of the church? And that his Geneva academy was founded primarily for the education of Ministers of the Gospel and magistrates of the civil government?

This is God’s world! And serving God in the world is not limited to serving on a church committee! We serve Him where He has placed us in this world with the gifts and abilities He has given to us. And being a Christian witness in the world is not so much a matter of trying to find a way to "get a word in for Jesus," (though that may be important), but being a Christian witness in the world is a matter of living out your calling in this world in faithful, happy obedience to Jesus Christ, so that your life bears witness to His life in you. We shouldn’t think of our "witness" as something that’s "added on," sort of artificially attached to us. Our witness should be deeply integrated into who we are — so that the way we do our work, the way we run our business, the way we treat our employees, the way we respect and perform for our employers, the way we do our schoolwork, the way we treat our children, and attend to them, the way we respect and honor our parents and others in authority, the way we relate to our spouse, the way we order our family life, the pleasures we enjoy, and the goals we pursue — all of this, through a deeply integrated faith lived-out in the world, should engage and influence the culture by pointing the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives.

You know, a Christian plumber is not a plumber who puts pipes together so that they always form the shape of a cross, or something like that. A plumber who is a Christian, ought to be a plumber whom the naive widow can trust, a plumber who will do what needs to be done, and only what needs to be done, and will do it well so that it doesn’t need to be "fixed again," and who will charge a fair wage for good work. And that’s what we ought to be able to say about every Christian in any trade or profession or business. Doesn’t sound like much, does it? But it will engage and influence our contemporary culture, won’t it?

And, as a lead into the sermon for next Lord’s Day on the Fifth Commandment, "Honor your father and mother," there may be no no better way, no more effective way, for us Christians to engage and influence our contemporary culture than in the raising of children to love and fear the Lord our God — to teach our children how to walk in His ways and keep His commands. And that doesn’t mean just bringing them to Sunday School. It means teaching them, and disciplining them, and spending time with them, reading the Bible, and praying with and for them — "when you sit in your home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." If you’ve got children in your home right now, the Great Commission is yours, right now in your own home — you are called to a mission to engage and influence your contemporary culture by making disciples of your children, teaching them to obey everything that Jesus Christ has commanded. There may be no better or more effective way to engage and influence our culture than in the raising of our children as converted, committed, consecrated disciples of Jesus Christ. The Second Helvetic Confession states that

...it is most certain that those works which are done by parents in true faith by way of domestic duties and the management of their households are in God’s sight holy and truly good works. They are no less pleasing to God than prayers, fasting, and almsgiving.

Mothers, and fathers, changing diapers, and preparing meals, and cleaning up after meals, and living faithfully, responsibly, dutifully as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ in our homes, is spiritual service which will engage and influence and change our culture for the sake of Jesus Christ.

As the salt-seasoning and preservative of the earth, and as the light of the world dispelling the darkness around us, the Church has a mandate to bring glory to God in every aspect of life on earth. But do you hear what Jesus is saying? If you don’t fulfill that mission, if you don’t act like salt and light, you’re good for nothing! Fit only to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. And, I think it may be fair to say that to some degree, the visible church of Jesus Christ today, in our culture, is trampled under foot by the world because we’re not living out our mission-mandate to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. If we ourselves become so worldly in terms of our values, goals, and priorities in life that the Kingdom of God is something that we think about only when faced with death, then how much difference is our life going to make in this world? If our faith is really more a matter of self-centered seeking than Christ-centered serving, then we have ceased to be salt and light in this world, and our faith is more of a personal hobby than a personal surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

But true Christianity is not a self-centered hobby. True faith is not merely a means by which we seek to meet our own felt-needs, and improve our lives. The glorious gospel of Jesus Christ is that you, and I, and the man and the woman and the child out on the highways, and byways, and hedgerows, are called to come into and live in the everlasting joy of God’s kingdom through Christ. And that invitation comes to you and me and the people out there individually and personally, so that our individual lives have a place in the Kingdom of God, but the Kingdom of God is much bigger than our own individual lives and personal needs. And we are called to catch a vision of the Kingdom of God through the Lordship of Jesus Christ over all the earth and over every sphere of life on earth.

Do you know what you are praying for when you pray, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven"? You’re not praying for God’s will to be done "in heaven." God’s will is always done in heaven! You’re not praying for God’s kingdom to come "in heaven." There are no rivals to God’s kingdom "in heaven." You are praying for God’s will to be done and His kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. And that’s not a prayer that focuses only on the "end-times"; that’s a prayer for today, and for tonight; and that’s a prayer for your life and my life, and for the world out there. Listen to the way the Heidelberg Catechism interprets this petition of the Lord’s Prayer, (#123):

"Thy kingdom come." That is: so govern us by Thy Word and Spirit, that we may more and more submit ourselves to You. Uphold and increase Your church. Destroy the works of the devil, every power that raises itself against You, and all wicked schemes thought up against Your holy Word, until the full coming of Your kingdom in which You shall be all in all."

"Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven." That is: grant that we and all people may renounce our own will and obey Your will, which alone is good, without grumbling, so that everyone may carry out his office and calling as willingly and faithfully as the angels in heaven. (#124).

Now, here, in the Lord’s prayer, we have the church’s mandate to engage and influence contemporary culture. If we are praying for the Lord to increase His kingdom, and praying for the Lord’s will to be done, "on earth as it is in heaven," then, by our very prayer, we are mandated to be a part of the answer to that prayer! If God’s kingdom is increasing in our own lives, and if we are seeking to do God’s will in our own lives, then we will be engaging and influencing our contemporary culture.

But in order to do this, we must be able to "take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ" (2 Cor. 10:5). Or, as 1^st Peter 3:15 says, we must be "prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." We, and our children, must know what we believe, why we believe it, and what difference it makes in our lives and in the world. We must be willing to share the truth of God’s Word with the world, not to prove ourselves better than the world, but for the sake of the blessing to the world that we have been called to be by Him who died for the sins of the world.

The best way to engage and influence the world is not to attack the world with hostile attitudes and fleshly weapons, but to engage the world, in word and deed, as sinners who have been saved by the sovereign grace of God, as sinners who know the compassion of Jesus Christ, and as the people of the living God, who have been given "not a spirit of cowardice and timidity, but a spirit of love, and power, and a sound mind" (2^nd Timothy1:7). The best way for the Church to fulfill its mandate to engage and influence the world, as the salt of the earth and the light of the world, is quite simply, to be who God in Christ has called, claimed, and redeemed us to be: His holy people, set apart from the world in order to be a blessing to the world. His holy people, rejoicing in His love, standing firm in His truth, trusting in His grace, fearing Him above all others, obeying Him before all others, and continually offering ourselves to Him as living sacrifices of praise, so that our whole lives, and every part of our lives, is a song of doxology to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And when our very lives become a song of doxology, then the world around us will be a different place and become a different place because of Jesus Christ. To God be the glory. Amen.