Over the last 2 weeks, we have considered some of the key anchors that have prevented the Christian church from drifting from its calling over the last 2000 years. Two weeks ago, we found that being a protestant Christian was about being justified by faith alone, and that that faith must be in Christ alone. Last week we explored the concept of being a reformed Christian, and came to the conclusion that it meant being convinced of the sovereignty of God in all things, and consequently that the faith which justifies comes by grace alone and that all things are to be done to the glory of God alone.

This week, we will try to answer the question: What is an evangelical Christian?

We start by looking at the importance of Scripture.

Scripture alone

To get a pilot’s licence, you have to get an “instrument rating”. This means that you understand the instruments that your plane is equipped with – compass, altimeter etc. – and are capable of flying your plane using those and nothing else should the need arise. This is important, because otherwise it is easy to become disoriented when flying through fog or cloud. In some circumstances it is even possible for pilots to suffer what is called vertigo – ‘up’ and ‘down’ become confused, and you feel like you’re upright when you’re actually upside down.

To be able to fly using instruments only, a pilot needs the following:

Good instruments: What’s the point in relying on your instruments if they are telling you the wrong thing? Even a slightly misaligned compass can lead you a long way off course.

Understanding: You need to know how to use your instruments in order for them to be useful. You could hand me a compass, or a GPS device, but unless I had been taught how to use it it would be nothing more than a paperweight to me.

Faith: Sometimes a pilot has to believe his instruments, even when they are in direct contradiction to what his senses are telling him.

I believe that Christians, too, need to get an “instrument rating”. Too easily we can get caught up in what our senses are telling us about the world that we are deceived. This is what happened for John the Baptist, when he sent word to Jesus to ask if he really was the Messiah, or if they should be looking for someone else (Matthew 11:2-6).

Jesus’ response serves to remind John of his instruments. First, he suggests that John needs to consider more than just his immediate surroundings – he tells the messenger to let John know about all the wonderful things that are happening. The things he specifically directs the messengers to take note of, however, are particularly important as they are things spoken of in the scriptures as being indicative of the Messiah. Jesus is commanding, “Go back to your Bible and compare what you find there with what your disciples report – then answer the question for yourself.”

The Bible is Jesus’ answer to not knowing which way is up and which way down. When being tempted in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11), it is scripture which Jesus relies upon in overcoming Satan. If he allowed himself to be caught up in his own situation (I love the subtly understated “After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry” (2)!) then Satan’s suggestions would no doubt have seemed like good sense – after all, how could he possibly be any good to anyone if he starved to death? Perhaps it would be easier to accept the world from Satan’s hand as a gift, rather than pay the price to buy it back. But Jesus knew the scriptures and trusted that the words spoken there were truth, even though his senses and his understanding of the world he was in right then and there were screaming there was a better way.

We need that instrument for ourselves. We need to know what the Bible says in order to know what is right. We need to rely on scripture to navigate us through the fog of this life. We need to trust God’s word, even when it seems totally contrary to what our senses are telling us.¹

Scripture is our authority, and Scripture alone.

The Roman Catholic church teaches, to this day, that the Bible can only be authoritatively interpreted by those members of the church in direct apostolic succession, ultimately embodied in the Pope himself. They take this one step further, holding that the teachings and interpretations of the Popes are themselves authoritative and infallible, and a Christian must obey them as the very Word of God.
This presented a problem for Luther. He was fully convinced from Scripture that the sale of indulgences was not consistent with Christian faith, yet the Pope taught otherwise. So either the Scriptures were wrong or the Pope was. Luther sided with the Scriptures. From that point on, he taught that the Bible is the only inspired and authoritative Word of God, is the only source for Christian doctrine, and should be accessible to all believers. It is this last that inspired Luther to translate the Bible into German – he wanted every German man, woman and child to be able to read it, rather than just those priests and monks who had been specially trained in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. It is in large part because of his example that we can read from the Scriptures in English tonight.

‘Authority’ is a funny thing. Authority comes from influence, and influence comes from time spent. Our worldview is both formed and informed by the people we spend our time with. When we are young, we spend most of our time with our family, and Mum and Dad are the key authorities on everything. Then we start school, and suddenly Teacher knows everything and if Teacher says something contrary to what Mum or Dad says, who do you think we side with? As adolescence draws near, all of a sudden our peers know best, and so it goes.

This is true not just of people, but of other things. Most of us are probably not aware of how much our thoughts on a huge range of subjects are shaped by television, the internet, advertising an so on. In 2004, a study was conducted into how boys and girls in school years 6, 8 and 10 spend their ‘sedentary recreation’. Small screen recreation, by far the largest contributor, includes activities like television watching, video games, computer use and so on.²

Is it any wonder then that when the world goes looking for answers on spiritual matters, they turn to those same people and things? They ask Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Phil and others, whose strategy is always to try and convert time into influence and influence into authority. They surf the internet, because that is where they go looking for other kinds of ‘information’, blind to the bias and colour they encounter there.

Let me ask you: Where is your time spent? What things are influencing you? Who are your ‘authorities’? Where does God fit into all of this? If you are not spending time with God then there is no point kidding yourself that he is an influence let alone an authority in your life. We cannot leave it to our pastors or elders, we cannot rely on ‘professional’ Christians; each of us is responsible for our own relationship with God, and thus each of us must be spending time with him.

Practically, this means reading, meditating on, praying and, finally, living the Scriptures.³

Reading is the first and most fundamental stage. If this does not happen then none of the other stages will happen either. Let me encourage you to make a plan to read the Bible, because I find that unless I plan it it doesn’t happen. Block out some portion of your day or week when you are able to consistently spend time reading God’s word. Try to pick a time when you are at your most alert; give God your best, rather than the dregs that are left over at the end of the day, or post-lunch or whenever.

Meditation is the act of internalising Scripture. Christian meditation is not like eastern meditation, where the goal is to empty the mind and focus on nothing. Christian meditation is about focusing on a particular Scripture. The apostle John gives us an image of this in Revelation 10:9-10, where he speaks of being told to take a scroll containing the words of God and eating it. As Eugene Peterson writes,

the reading that John is experiencing is not of the kind that equips us to pass an examination. Eating a book takes it all in, assimilating it into the tissues of our lives. Readers become what they read. If Holy Scripture is to be something other than mere gossip about God, it must be internalized… The angel does not instruct St. John to pass on information about God; he commands him to assimilate the word of God so when he does speak it will express itself artlessly in his syntax just as the food we eat, when we are healthy, is unconsciously assimilated into our nerves and muscles and put to work in speech and action.⁴

One of the best ways of accomplishing this is through memorisation. I know all too well that some people find this much easier than others – I find it difficult myself. I like to tell people that I have a photographic memory… and no film for the camera! Nevertheless, the Lord amply rewards any time spent in memorising Scripture. We are told frequently in the Psalms, for example, that ‘Blessed is the man… [whose] delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night’ (Ps 1:1-2).

When we commit to meditation, we find that it naturally affects the way we worship, pray and live. As noted evangelical Christian John Stott notes,

God must speak to us before we have any liberty to speak to him. He must disclose to us who he is before we can offer him what we are in acceptable worship. The worship of God is always a response to the Word of God. Scripture wonderfully directs and enriches our worship.⁵

Psalm 119:11 says, ‘I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you’. Another author writes that ‘Throughout Scripture, the word of God is fundamental to a genuine engagement with him.’⁶

These stages of internalising Scripture are described by a 12th Century monk called Guigo the Second:

Reading… puts the solid food in our mouths, meditation chews it and breaks it down, prayer obtains the flavour of it and contemplation is the very sweetness which makes us glad and refreshes us.⁷

Most importantly, at every step along the way, you should always ask: ‘How does this text point to Jesus?’ Jesus rebuked the Pharisees – masters of the Old Testament Scriptures – because they did not recognise that the Scriptures were all about him. ‘You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.’ (John 5:39-40)

So, if we are to be evangelical, then, we must first ensure that Scripture is our prime authority. This requires that we devote time to reading and meditating, because time naturally becomes influence, and influence becomes authority. And when that happens, it will be reflected in changed prayers, worship and lives.

But an emphasis on Scripture is only half of the evangelical story; the other half is the importance of the gospel in all Christian theology.

The gospel is central

How do you think of the gospel? If you’re a Christian, then chances are you fall into one of three camps. The first group think of the gospel as the first step on a staircase that leads to spiritual maturity. You take that first step, master the gospel, then move on to bigger and better things. The second group are a little less linear, rejecting the idea of a sequence of steps to be walked in order. Instead, they think of the gospel as the doorway to a building containing lots of different rooms. After walking through the doorway, you can go to whichever room most interests you: perhaps a little bit of teaching about spiritual gifts; perhaps some church history; go and knock off some of the rough edges in your life through sanctification and so on. The Christian will be mature when he or she has visited all the rooms in the building, but having entered there is no need to re-visit the doorway except to invite others in.

For evangelical Christians the story is different. Rather than the first step or the doorway, they think of the gospel as the hub of a wheel. All other Christian teaching sits around the edges of the wheel, but it relies upon the spokes connecting it to the hub – the gospel. Or, to change the metaphor, the doctrines of the Christian faith are like facets of a diamond, but the gospel is the diamond itself. Christian theology is about expressing the gospel in as many different ways as we can, because all of these ways are necessary to understand the true glory and splendour of the gospel.

What does this mean in practice? It means that you should be able to see the link between what you are being taught – whether by preachers, elders, Bible study leaders or whoever – and the gospel. If you can’t, push your teacher to show how their teaching is connected to the gospel. If they can’t, then it’s time to be suspicious because what is being taught is at best secondary, and at worst un-Christian.

For example, some years ago, I went to see a Christian artist by the name of Steven Curtis Chapman in concert here in Sydney. After he played, the rest of the night was given over to a preacher whose name is well known in Christian circles. At the end of the message, I was disappointed to realise that he had not mentioned Jesus once all night, nor had he connected anything he said to the gospel. In fact, had he substituted the word, ‘nature’ every time he spoke about ‘God’ his message would have been just as valid. This was not an evangelical message – in fact, I would say it was not even a Christian message. It was simply a collection of self-help recommendations. Suffice it to say that I was extremely disappointed that Steven Curtis Chapman only got to play for 20mins (the first time in Sydney in 20 years!), whilst the preacher spoke for over an hour!

So, in order to avoid making the same mistake myself, I would like to spend these last few minutes connecting the ideas we have explored over the last few weeks back to the gospel.
The word gospel is a translation of the Greek εὐαγγελιον (from which we also get the word evangelical!) which means ‘good news’. For a teaching to be connected to the gospel it must first be ‘good news’.

For example, two weeks ago we learned that we are saved by faith alone. This is good news, because it means that we are not reliant upon the things that we are or do in order to be saved. Instead, we need only trust in what God has done for us to be saved. Justification comes by faith alone… and this is the gospel!

The object of our trust is Jesus Christ alone. This is good news because he, and he alone, is the only one both capable and reliable enough to be worthy of our trust. If our faith had to be placed in some lesser object, that would be terrible news because our faith would then be in something either incapable of saving us, or unreliable… or, most likely, both! Christ alone is our saviour… and this is the gospel!

Last week we learned that even that faith in Christ is itself a gift of God. This is great news, because if we had any opportunity to screw up then we could not be sure of our salvation. If the faith came from us, what is to stop it disappearing as quickly as it arrived? And what would be the point in praying for the salvation of the unsaved, since God would be hampered by whether or not that person were able to muster the faith to believe. As it is, faith – and so salvation – comes by God’s grace alone… and this is the gospel!

A consequence of this is that all glory is to go to God alone. This is fantastic news for us, because we know that God’ glory is ultimately found in Jesus’ saving work on our behalf… in our salvation! God will not allow that glory to be lessened by having us snatched out of his hand. Glory is to be given to God alone… and this is the gospel!

Finally, this week we have spoken about authority that comes from Scripture alone. This is excellent news, because in the Scripture God has revealed himself, his son, and the way we can be saved. In short, he reveals all of the other things that we have spoken about over these three weeks. Scripture alone is to be our authority… and this is the gospel!

In other words, these five things – faith alone, Christ alone, grace alone, the glory of God alone, and Scripture alone – are the anchors which have held the Christian faith over the last 2000 years. But they in turn are held by the anchor of the gospel. The gospel is the hub at the centre of the wheel. They are all facets of the same diamond – the gospel. And that is very good news.

That is why I am an evangelical Christian… and why I hope you will be too.

Bibliography

Booth, Michael, NSW Centre for Overweight and Obesity, and New South Wales. Dept. of Health. “Nsw Schools Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey (Spans) 2004 Full Report.” In Shpn 060056. Sydney, N.S.W.: NSW Dept. of Health, 2006.
Kauflin, Bob. Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2008.
Peterson, David. Engaging with God : A Biblical Theology of Worship. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1992.
Peterson, Eugene H. Eat This Book : A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2006.

Endnotes

1. There are a couple of things to avoid when reading Scripture, common mistakes that people make. Firstly, don’t allow yourself to get too bogged down in things that are difficult to understand. The more you read and understand of the things that are clear, and in particular the more you respond in obedience to the things you learn, the more God will reveal of the other things. Secondly, don’t try and shape Scripture to fit your experience. ‘Our experience is too small; it’s like trying to put the ocean in a thimble. What we want is to fit into the world revealed by Scripture, to swim in this vast ocean.’ [Eugene H. Peterson, Eat This Book : A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading (Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2006), 68.] Thirdly, let the Bible say what it says, without trying smooth over the ‘rough edges’, the things you don’t agree with, or which don’t fit easily into your world-view.
2. Michael Booth, NSW Centre for Overweight and Obesity, and New South Wales. Dept. of Health, “Nsw Schools Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey (Spans) 2004 Full Report,” in Shpn 060056 (Sydney, N.S.W.: NSW Dept. of Health, 2006), 57.
3. Peterson, Eat This Book, 91.
4. Ibid., 20.
5. John Stott, cited in Bob Kauflin, Worship Matters : Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2008), 91.
6. David Peterson, Engaging with God : A Biblical Theology of Worship (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1992), 286.
7. Peterson, Eat This Book, fn.