Sermon Number Nine

1. The stumbling block of lies.
• We have all heard stories about young children whose faith in the world, their parents, and adults in general has been seriously shaken when they find out their is no Santa Claus. Some children don't understand why adults would lie to them. Would lead them to believe so fully something that is so false.
• Many of us may in fact have had the experience of wondering, "OK if they lied to me about this, what else are they lying about."
• Then when others say all this business about Christ being the Son of God, and about there being a God and creator is also a myth, we may begin to question our faith.
• Then when we find out that the preacher and Sunday School teacher lied to us about Jesus drinking wine it makes all our faith seem like a myth like Santa Claus
• The preacher says that in Jesus day the same word was used for wine and grape juice. They didn't have a separate word for grape juice so when it says Jesus was drinking wine he actually was drinking grape juice.
• What the preacher doesn't say is that in a Mediteranian climate, in the heat of the grape harvest season, the grape juice has started to ferment 20 minutes after it has been pressed. There was no refrigeration. Pasturization and procedures for preserving juices and preventing fermentation had not been discorvered (it is called pasturization after Louis Pasteur who lived in the mid 1800's) and there was no way to keep grape juice from turning to wine. All grape juice was wine. It was all alcoholic.
• How many people have been kept from coming to the Lord, from developing a stong faith and assurance when they find out that the preacher or the Sunday school teacher has lied to them
2. The stumbling block of prohibition.
• I have a neigbour. He is a fine person. A good citizen. I have never seen him drunk. But likes to have a cold beer after mowing lawn. He drinks socially. He will drink wine with dinner.
• I have invited him to church. But he won't come. He won't even visit the Baptist church. He says it is too conservative for him. For one thing, he isn't willing to give up his alcohol
• The Baptist logic in this case goes something like this.
• This man's alcohol has become a stumbling block. It is keeping him from coming to the Lord.
• His unwillingness to give up his alcohol is the stumbilng block -- it is like a wall between him and the Lord.
• This is very typical. Sin is a stumbling block. It serves to isolate us from the Lord. Sin in our lives is like a wall of separation which keeps us from the Lord.
• The Truth
• The Baptists clinging to prohibition is a stumbling block they put in the way of others.
• The Bible is very clear that drunkenness is sin.
• Jesus drank in moderation. So moderate drinking cannot be a sin.
• So if alcohol is keeping my neighbor from the Lord but it isn't a sin, who turned the alcohol into a wall, a barrier, a legalist hoop that people have to jump through to come to the Lord? The church of course.
• It is the church that has put this artificial, extra-Biblical requirement on people. It is the church that built this wall between people and the Lord.
• This extra-Biblical requirement is keeping people away from the church in droves. It may be the devil's single greatest victory.
3. The stumbling block of hypocracy
• Everybody knows the Baptist stand on alcohol -- Baptists don't drink in front of each other.
• How many people have been kept out of the church because they are unwilling to become part of such hypocracy.

• Alcohol is a serious social problem. Tens of thousands of lives are destroyed by alcohol every year. It is imperative that society figure out how to impact this problem (it is unlikely we will be able to solve the problem but we ought to work to make progress in reducing the problem.)
• The church should be part of the solution, not part of the problem. By clinging to prohibition, the church is abbrogating its responsibility in this area.
• The churches answer to the destructive problem of alcohol in our society is to preach abstenance. Our preachers and teachers get up on their high horses and tell us and the world that the solution to the alcohol problem is for everybody to quit drinking. And of course this is true. In fact this is the truest kind of truth. It is irrefutable truth.
• Then having uttered such a clear, simple truth, they feel their job is done. They sit down, and sigh, in the belief that they have done all they can, and people just won't listen.
• But prohibition doesn't work. It is not a real solution. We have known since 1933 when prohibition was repealed, that prohibition is a total failure.
• Just because something is true doesn't mean it is useful. Yes it is true that the solution to the alcohol problem is for everybody to quit drinking. It is also true that the solution to heart disease is for everybody to quit having heart attacks. And preaching prohibition is as silly as preaching to people to not have heart attacks.
• Someone might say this analogy is not meaningful because drinking alcohol is a willful act. A person can choose not to drink. A person cannot choose not to have a heart attack.
• This is based on a misunderstanding of both heart attacks and drinking alcohol. They are really a lot more similar than some people think. A heart attack results from a whole bunch of little lifestyle choices. Choices which lead a person to a lifestyle characterized by a high cholesterol diet, not enough exercise, too much red meat in the diet, etc. etc.
• The prevention of heart disease involves changing the way people live. The choices they make about what to eat, what to do, how to spend leisure, etc. And once heart disease has reached the stage of a heart attack or other traumatic event, surgery and rehabilitation programs are needed.
• Similarly alcohol problems result from a lot of small bad choices. And the prevention of alcohol abuse involves education and guidance in making relevant lifestyle decisions. And when alcohol problems do develop, rehabilitation is needed.
• The church must develop a realistic, effective approach to dealing with alcohol if it ever hopes to be taken seriously as a moral force in society. This approach must include realistic and effective education programs, participation in prevention programs, and participation in rehabilitation efforts.
• Unfortunately, the area of prohibition is not the only area in which the organized church has been characterized by this same false logic.
• The Amish propose to solve problems associated with the industrial revolution by prohibiting the use of anything invented since the industrial revolution. It is certainly true that the industrial revolution radically and unalterably changed history and society forever. But prohibition of the use of machinery is not the solution.
• Christians use this same logic in the area of sex education and drug education. The reasoning is as flawed in these areas as it is in the above examples.

Copyright © 1996 Steve Falkenberg