The Cost of Biblical Illiteracy on our Witness

Biblical illiteracy is a real pandemic in the Evangelical Church. The tragedy is that the “Evangelical” of Evangelical church stresses that we care about the Gospel, the Bible, evangelism, missions, being born-again, and having a personal relationship with Jesus. If we do not really care about the Bible, we cannot call ourselves Evangelicals. We are not who we say we are, and there are consequences. In this series so far, 1) we have seen that a strong biblical foundation helps our general well-being. Having an intimate relationship with God, as he reveals himself in the scriptures, gives us a strong foundation to face hardships. In times of suffering, if we have a strong relationship with God, who is supremely sovereign, we will run to him and not away from him. 2) We saw that indifference towards the Bible affects our spiritual maturity which in turn impacts our relationships. Immaturity will impact our choice of spouse, and prevent us from raising children in the ways of the Lord. Another way a faulty Bible understanding affects our relationships is that we do not truly understand the meaning of church. A lack of committed Christians means the whole church misses out. People stay home. People are afraid to commit to membership. We miss out on people’s involvement, commitment, spiritual gifts, and encouragement. Now, we look at the Cost of Biblical Illiteracy on our witness to the world. A) I will begin by reminding us of God’s call on all of our lives to be his witnesses. B) Then I want to show you that when we do not know God’s will or refuse to obey him, it damages our witnesses: we will see that our politics can affect our witness, and C) the importance of love, mercy, and grace to properly bear witness to Christ.

First, we look at God’s plan for our lives. Matthew 28:18–20 presents the mission Jesus gives to all Christians. It is called “the Great Commission.” Jesus tells us “to make disciples of people of all nations.” In 2017, “when asked if they had previously ‘heard of the Great Commission,’ half of U.S. churchgoers (51%) said they did not know what the Great Commission was. 25% said the Great Commission rings a bell, but do not know what it is. 6% of churchgoers are not sure whether they have heard the term. Only 17%, less than one in five church members are familiar with the passage of the Great Commission. If members of a church are ignorant of the mission of the church, how can we please God? How can we obey him? What are we doing in church? Children spend much time in church memorizing verses here and there, but often we never teach them who God is, why he created them, that he wants to partner with us to achieve his purposes for the world that he has created. Illustration: I remember a young teenager, who could name all the books of the Bible in order and then back in reverse order. I asked her if she knew what was in any of those books and she said, “no.” We get no points in heaven for naming the books of the Bible if we do not know the content of the books and apply them to our lives. The Great Commission in Matt 28 is one passage that teaches Jesus’ commission. But, if we knew our Bibles well, we would not need that command to know what God requires from us. The whole Bible makes this commission clear. The Bible is about who God is and why he made us. In the first chapter of Genesis, we have the Great Commission. God created everything very good. He told humanity, made in his image, to fill the world and reign as his representatives. Sin happens, but God’s mission never changes. People spread and cover the earth, but they are not reigning or living their lives in ways pleasing to God. This is where God’s plan of salvation in Christ comes in. It is promised after the first sin in Gen 3:15, and again through Noah, Abraham, Israel, and a King. This king will be a descendent of David. He will never sin and suffer for the sins of his people that those who trust in him would be saved. If we understand that God loves the whole world and that he provides eternal life to all who trust in Christ, do we really need a specific verse to tell us what to do? No, we know instinctively that we must make this good news known. God wants us to make disciples of people of all nations, calling sinners around the world to repent and submit to Christ’s rule. The first step is for Christians to commit themselves to the Lord. Grow in Christ, and then all our relationships will become discipleship. If we are not doing God’s will, we are doing the devil’s work. Practically I want to talk about what Christians are doing, and what we should do.

Practically, Christians have been giving God a bad name with their politics. This last political election has made me realize how worldly some Christians are in America. The reason many are worldly is that they have created an idol out of politics and worship a political party or a political leader. Presidents have uttered complete nonsense about America. The essence is always the same, that America is the greatest country in the world, and God will use America to save the world. The Bible teaches that Jesus is the Savior of the world. The church grows as God draws people to himself, and saves them from their sin through the preaching of the gospel by faithful churches to fulfill the Great Commission. Hear these quotes: 1. Thomas Jefferson in his first inaugural address in 1801 called the American Government, the world’s best hope. 2. Abraham Lincoln in 1862 called the freedom provided by a united America, “the last best hope of the earth.” 3. Ronald Reagan repeated those words in 1964. While supporting Barry Goldwater’s presidential candidacy, Reagan communicated that the destiny of the nation and the entire world rested upon the outcome of that presidential election. 4. John 1:5 calls Jesus the light that shines in the darkness. In one of his speeches, George W. Bush called America the light that shines. The darkness was terrorism. America is not Jesus or the savior. And terrorists as far as I can tell, need our prayers, they need the gospel, they need to turn to Christ. 5. In 2008, Barack Obama, on the campaign trail, also referred to the United States as the “last best hope on earth.” Very recently on a highway, I saw a billboard that said: “Only God and Donald Trump can save America….” I agree with only “God.” The rest is idolatry. Jesus is the only hope. The world must hear about Jesus to receive the forgiveness of sin, and God’s Holy Spirit to transform them to love Him, and love their neighbors and enemies as themselves. Governments can offer hope, but definitely not the best hope. The problem with political idolatry, which is replacing God with government, is that it leads to strange behavior. People who are Christian say that the Democrats created Covid 19 with China so that the American economy would take a hit, and Trump would not get re-elected. When I ask for proof, they cannot give any. We are deeply emotional creatures. We tend to think that we are persuaded by logic in our everyday lives, but some studies show that our emotions are responsible for about 80% of our decisions. The reason Christians believe in the craziest conspiracy theories is that they have idols in their lives. When we do, Satan wins every time. Satan is probably more interested in keeping Christians useless than making atheists miserable. Happy Atheists don’t think they need God, so Satan wins. Useless Christians, don’t spread the love of God, so Satan wins as well. It is because of the lack of Bible reading, little understanding of God’s love, grace, mercy, his desire to see people come to know him, that lead to political idolatry. It leads to an unhealthy blind, destructive love of country. The Bible teaches that this is not our home. The right-wing says, build the wall so illegal aliens can’t come in. The left says, let them come and be made at home. The Bible says we Christians are aliens, and this is not our home. Are you an alien in exile longing for heaven or are you a proud American, whose higher calling in life is to see America great? You cannot choose both. Jesus is our hope. Are you committed to Americans first? Or are you committed to our brothers and sisters in Christ all around the world? What does your life show? Do your resources, energy, time go to making America great, or building the kingdom of God? If these don’t seem contradictory, it’s time to read the Bible…

A second hit on our witness is that for many Christians, there is nothing “Christian” about the way they live their lives. The Bible is not a scientific textbook. It is not a history book. It is not a manual for life. Everything the Bible has to say about science, history, and morality is accurate. However, most importantly, the Bible is God’s revelation to us about himself. He tells us who he is and how he acts in the world so that we can understand how to relate to him and how we can live lives pleasing to him. This is so important. It means that God is not at all interested in good, moral, decent people. Teaching people to be good, moral, decent citizens is actually secular and humanistic. God wants so much more for us. God wants us to be perfect. The only other way to please him is to trust that he can handle the fact that we cannot be perfect. Matt 5:43–48 presents God’s will for us to be more than just decent citizens. In Matt 5:46 we read: “if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” What does this mean? The goal of the Christian life cannot be to be good enough to please God because Rom 3:23 tells us “all fall short of the glory of God” and so we have all failed. Rather our defining narrative is that we have been sinners from birth, we deserve God’s judgment because we are simply unable to live up to his standards, and yet he loved us. Love is giving to someone at a cost to ourselves. God provides a way for us to be forgiven from sin and restored to him at the cost of Jesus’ life. God was gracious to us. Grace is when you give freely to one without the need for payment. God’s mercy is that he did not give us what we deserved. The life of a Christian is so much more than loving our neighbor, not murdering, or lying. It is not defined by what we refrain from doing, but rather mirroring God’s attributes of love, grace, and mercy in any given situation. We love by putting other people before ourselves even when we could rightfully insist on having things our way. We are gracious: we give without ulterior motives. We give secretly, we give freely, we give generously to the point it may hurt a little bit. We do not seek to be merely good citizens, but we are merciful, going beyond what any citizen is called to. We love even our enemies. We pray for those who harm us. We feed and clothe those who hate God because God loved us when we hated him. This is what being a Christian looks like. This is the story of Dirk Willems, a Dutch Christian. He was arrested for being a protestant believer, who denied infant baptism. While he was being held in captivity, he escaped, using a rope made of knotted rags. He climbed out of the prison and onto the frozen moat. A guard noticed his escape and chased him. Because Willems was lighter due to his small food portions in prison, he was able to cross the frozen pond. The guard who followed him broke through the ice and yelled for help as he struggled in the icy water. Willems turned back to save the life of his pursuer. He was recaptured and he was burned at the stake near his hometown on May 16, 1569. None of us will likely have an opportunity to substitute our lives for the life of another this week, but Willems only did what God had done for him and for us. We will all have ways this week to love, be gracious, and merciful in ways that will go beyond what is expected of us. The more God’s love, grace, and mercy are at the forefront of our minds, the quicker we will be to extend it to others. We must read his word, meditate upon it, pray for opportunities, and listen to God’s leading.

Conclusion: We cannot truly live the lives God wants for us without reading the book he has given us to know and love him. Choosing to live the Christian life our way and not God’s way has many costs on our personal well-being, our relationships, and the way we engage with the world we want to win over. We can all come to know God more, that we would become more like him. Today is a great day to commit ourselves to him. Read a lot of Bible. Ask a lot of questions. Tell everyone what you are learning. The more you learn, the more you will want to teach others, the better you will know God, the more you will trust him, and live out your faith, far beyond the few areas we tackled in this series.