“Why Did Jesus Come?” Christian Assembly Saturday Evening Session December 5, 2009
Dr. Tony Campolo Christian Assembly December 5, 2009 Saturday Evening Session “How Does He Expect Us to Do It?”
1. Tony talks about The Theory of Social and Economic Organization by sociologist Max Weber. In the book, Weber differentiates between power and authority.
2. Power is to possess the capacity to coerce for your own will. A police office has power, it’s called a gun.
3. Tony’s mother had authority. She got her authority from the many loving sacrifices she made for him over the years. The more she lovingly sacrificed, the more authority she had.
4. Jesus had the greatest authority in all of history
5. Philippians 2- He who thought it not robbery to be equal with God emptied himself, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and made himself of no reputation and humbled himself unto death, even death on the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and given him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
6. His lordship is not built on power; it is built on loving sacrifice. It is built on the cross.
7. Willard Waller’s great principle in sociology is the principle of least interest. You can not express love and power at the same time.
8. Satan plays power games. Just think of the temptation stories of Jesus. Jesus says no to economic power, no to religious power, and no to political power.
9. It’s about love, not about power.
10. Story about residents in Norristown, PA not wanting a mental hospital being built in their town. The City Counsel has rejected building the hospital. Mother Theresa walks into the meeting and says “In the name of Jesus, make room for these people.” The City Counsel re-voted.
11. Mother Theresa spoke as one with authority
12042009 Christian Assembly “Why Did Jesus Come?” Christian Assembly Saturday Evening Session December 5, 2009 12. Elias Santana was a doctor in the Dominican Republic, took all of his money, to buy medicine and give it to people who lived in the slums who couldn’t afford it.
13. Elias Santana had the right to be heard, he was one who spoke with authority
14. Metropolitan Curel was a leader of the Bulgarian church during the Holocaust. No Jew in Bulgaria ever died in a concentration camp because of Curel. As the S.S. Troopers were loading Jews on a train to take them to concentration camps, he recited a scripture from the book of Ruth- “Withersoever you go, I will go, your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.”
15. This man was ready to sacrifice his life in love.
16. You are called to live out the sacrificial love of Jesus.
17. Mark 10, the disciples ask, “who then shall be saved?” Jesus says, “It is harder for a rich man to get to Heaven than a camel to get through the eye of a needle.”
18. Tony spoke at Wheaton College one time and he said to the students, “While you were sleeping last night, 40,000 children died of starvation or malnutrition, and what’s worse is most of you don’t give a shit! And what’s worse is that you are more upset at the fact that I said shit and not the 40,000 kids that died last night.”
19. Where your treasure is, there will you heart be also.
20. Sincerity is when you commit yourself to that which you pray about
21. George Bernard Shaw said- God created us in His own image and we decided to return the favor.
22. Emile Durkheim studied a group of Aboriginal people in Australia to ascertain where they came up with their concept of God. He noticed certain steps: a. The tribe developed certain traits/characteristics that made their tribe distinct/different. b. The tribe comes up with an animal that symbolizes the traits and values of the tribe c. The people begin to worship the animal
23. Durkheim found that if people worship a deity that is nothing more than a symbolic representation of their own traits and values, what they are really worshipping?
24. Jesus is being described, but it isn’t Jesus of the scripture.
12042009 Christian Assembly “Why Did Jesus Come?” Christian Assembly Saturday Evening Session December 5, 2009 25. Romans 1:22-23 - They take the image of the incorruptible God and transform Him into the image liked to the corruptible man and beast and birds of the air. And they end up worshipping the creature and not the creator
26. We like Jesus to be a projection of our own values and our own traits, and he calls us into a radical commitment that is shocking to our middle class sensitivities.
27. Jesus says, if any man/woman be my disciple, let him/her deny himself/herself, and take up the cross and follow me.
28. But instead prosperous America has begun to preach a prosperity theology.
29. This is costly stuff. Jesus says, if you want to be my disciple, forsake all.
30. Story about Shane Claiborne preaching The Sermon on the Mount at the Nat’l Youth Worker’s Convention
31. Tony asks congregation to commit to Compassion or Mission Year
32. Story about Tony’s black church and the preach-off.
33. It’s only Friday, Sunday’s coming.
34. Host speaks to the audience and prays and gives invitation to Christ, invitation to rededication to Christ, invitation to share God given gifts with others.
35. Praise and Worship- sings “I Surrender All”
Tags: The Theory of Social and Economic Organization, Max Weber, power, authority, Philippians 2, Willard Waller, Sociology, economic power, political power, religious power, love, mental institution, Mother Theresa, Norristown PA, Elias Santana, Dominican Republic, slums, Metropolitan Curel, Holocaust, Jews, Bulgaria, concentration camps, Ruth, sacrificial love, Wheaton College, shit, malnutrition, starvation, sincerity, George Bernard Shaw, Emile Durkheim, Australia, Aboriginal, deity, Romans 1, values, traits, disciple, Shane Claiborne, Sermon on the Mount, Compassion International, Mission Year, Friday Sunday’s Coming, I Surrender All
12042009 Christian Assembly