Preached by Gregory W. Lee
14 May 2006
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to 2 Timothy 4:1-5
1. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:
2. Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction.
3. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
4. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
5. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
-- The story is told of a man who came to his old friend, a music teacher, and said to him, "What's the good news today?" -- the old teacher was silent as he stood up and walked across the room, picked up a hammer, and struck a tuning fork -- as the sound sorted through the room, he said, "That is an A note. It is A today; it was A five thousand years ago, and it will be A ten thousand years from now -- the soprano upstairs sings off-key -- the tenor across the hall sings his high notes flat -- and the piano downstairs is out of tune" -- he struck the note again and said, "But that is A, my friend, and that's the good news for today"
-- the point the music teacher was trying to get across to his friend is that the truth never needs updating -- it is constant -- it is not relative -- it is unchanging -- and even if we have gathered here this morning because of a truth that was uttered and believed over 2000 years ago, it is just as true today as it was then -- truth does not change and never needs updating
-- now that does not mean that truth is not challenged -- as Paul points out in this passage, the truth will be challenged and abandoned from time to time by men and women who do not want to live by the truth and turn aside to myths and other false teachings that they claim are the real truth -- when that happens, Paul advises Timothy, keep your head, endure the challenge, and do the work of an evangelist, ministering as God has called you to do
-- this morning, we find ourselves confronting a myth that has captured the imagination of a great number of people in this country -- in 2003, Dan Brown wrote a book called, "The Da Vinci Code" -- a work of fiction -- a compelling mystery story built around the premise that the church had conspired to hide the truth of Jesus in order to maintain power through the ages
-- how many of you have read the book? -- I have read it -- it's a good read -- in fact, it was so interesting that I read through the entire book in just a couple of days -- it's not classical literature by any stretch of the imagination -- but it is probably the most successful book in recent history -- and has been on the best-seller list almost from the day it was released -- a blockbuster movie about the book, starring Tom Hanks, is scheduled to be released this Friday
-- now you may be asking yourself, "why are we spending time in church talking about a fiction book?" -- it all goes back to the truth and to challenges to the truth put forth by the culture -- like it or not, "The Da Vinci Code" is having a greater impact on society today than our churches are -- this book by Brown has affected our culture and the thinking of society on Christianity a lot more than our churches have in recent years -- as Mark Twain once said, "A lie can travel half-way around the world while truth is still lacing up her boots"
-- I bring this topic up this morning because it is time for Truth to lace up her boots and to go forth and dispel the myths and false teachings that this book has introduced to our society and our culture -- it is time for us to take up the charge of the Apostle Paul when faced with societies influenced by myths and false teachings -- we must keep our head, endure hardships, and do the work of an evangelist -- telling the good news of the gospel of Christ -- reminding people of the truth that we recognize in our risen Savior and in His message -- and help them to turn from myths to the truth of God's Word
II. The Wesley Quadrilateral
-- in our denomination, we talk about the Wesley Quadrilateral -- you've heard me mention it before -- it is a concept that our denomination uses to determine and teach the biblical truths presented to us -- it was formulated by a Wesleyan scholar based on the sermons and writings of John Wesley
-- basically, this concept says that our church uses four things in our spiritual life -- the first is Scripture -- the Word of God -- this is our primary source for inspiration and for truth -- we trust and believe in the Word of God as God's revelation of His Son and His message to us
-- the second is experience -- all of us have experienced God in some way in our lives, and this experience helps shape who we are and helps us know how God has called us to minister in this place in His name -- some of us have responded to God's call to salvation and have experienced the life-changing power of the truth as the Holy Spirit has come into our lives to help us become more like Christ every day -- others have not accepted God's salvation yet, but have still experienced His presence through His prevenient grace which is wooing them to the cross -- putting people and things in their path to help them see the love of their Creator and their need for a Savior
-- the third facet of the quadrilateral is tradition -- the experiences and teachings of those who have gone before -- we don't have to re-invent Christianity every single generation -- we are building on the foundation of those who walked with God before us -- for the Jews, they built their faith on the experience of the Patriarchs -- Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- for us, we build our faith on the experience of the Apostles and the early Christians and on the teachings of the church through the ages
-- the last facet of the quadrilateral is reason -- our intellect -- our mind -- we are called to come to Christ through faith, but not through blind faith -- Christianity is built around a reasoning faith -- that is why Jesus told us that the greatest commandment was to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" -- when we come to Christ, we do not leave our mind behind -- but we use it to judge and accept the truths that He has proclaimed through His life and His teachings
-- as we begin to look at the controversy surrounding "The Da Vinci Code," we are called to use all four of these things: Scripture, Experience, Tradition, and Reason -- as we seek to fulfill Paul's charge to us this morning
III. Problems with the Da Vinci Code
-- so what's the big deal about "The Da Vinci Code?" -- why all the uproar from the Christian community over this work of fiction? -- well, it's mostly because of the way Brown presents it in his book -- he presents his story as a work of fiction wrapped around a truth that has been suppressed by the church for years
-- there is no doubt that Brown intended to put forth these teachings as truth -- in the front of the book he has a "Fact" page where he states that "all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate" and that the two secret societies, one that was trying to suppress the truth and the other who was trying to reveal the truth, are real and function today
-- we've probably all read historical fiction novels or watched similar movies -- fiction stories about people or events with a true historical fact as the basis -- for instance, "The Red Badge of Courage" was a fictional story about a soldier in the Civil War -- the story of the soldier was fictional, but the facts about the Civil War were true and accurate
-- this is exactly the way Brown presents "The Da Vinci Code" -- he claims that he has built a fiction story around the historical truth that Jesus was not divine -- that He was just a man -- a great teacher -- a great prophet -- but just a man and not God -- according to Brown, Jesus was married to Mary Magdelene and had children -- and, after He realized He was going to the cross, intended for Mary to be the head of the church instead of his male disciples -- but, the disciples didn't take this well, so they removed Mary from power and set up their own patriarchal church society
-- Brown's premise continues with the teaching that the church they founded has suppressed the "real" truth and hidden the true story of Christianity from millions throughout history -- these secrets were known by only a few people -- the guardians of the truth -- men like Leonardo da Vinci -- who attempted to present these facts to the world through hidden messages and clues throughout history
-- when you look at it from a broad perspective, "The Da Vinci Code" questions three foundational areas of Christianity: 1) The Reliability and Accuracy of God's Word; 2) The Divinity of Christ; and, 3) Jesus' teachings about women, sexuality, and the family
-- I don't have time to get into these in detail this morning, but my plan is to address each of these areas through separate sermons over the next few weeks
-- however, since the movie is coming out this Friday and you may get questions from others about these three areas from people who have read the book or seen the movie, let me briefly give you Brown's perspective and contrast it with the teaching and understanding of the Church
-- first, Brown says that the Emperor Constantine invented the Bible at the Council of Nicea and that the church threw out over 80 other gospels that "spoke of Christ's human traits and embellished those gospels that made Him godlike" (TDVC, pg 234) -- the truth is that the Bible was not collated by Constantine and that the four gospels that we have in the New Testament -- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John -- speak of both Christ's humanity and divinity and were accepted as true scripture by Christians as early as 100 A.D.
-- secondly, Brown says that Jesus' deity was voted on by the Council of Nicea and that it was only by a few votes that the early church decided that Jesus was God and not just a great moral teacher -- the truth is that the church has always recognized the deity -- the divinity -- of Christ -- the earliest Christian writings that we have, as well as the four gospels, all speak of Christ as divine -- as God Himself -- the Council of Nicea met to discuss how the divine Son and Father were interrelated and whether they shared the same divine substance -- the dispute was over whether Jesus had a divine substance like the Father's or whether He shared the same divine substance with the Father -- as Ben Witherington says, The question was not "if" he was divine. "The question was in what sense was He divine?"
-- finally, Brown says that Jesus was married to Mary Magdelene and that He intended Mary to lead His church -- the truth is that there is no evidence that Jesus was ever married -- no ancient texts, including the gnostic gospels that Brown says were thrown out at the Council of Nicea, declare that Jesus was married -- the gospels of Philip and Mary simply say that Jesus loved Mary more than the other disciples, and scholars do not believe these texts give accurate historical details about Jesus -- there is also no evidence that Jesus intended Mary to head up His church -- as Sandra Miesel points out, The Church, following the gospels, honors Mary Magdelene as a faithful follower who stood by the Cross while all the disciples of Jesus -- except for John -- had abandoned Him -- she also was the first to visit the empty tomb and to proclaim the Resurrection to His disciples
IV. Our Christian Response
-- so, what should be our response to this book as Christians -- as those who bear the name of Christ and stand for His truth in the world today?
-- first, we shouldn't be afraid to read the book or to see the movie -- understand that it presents teachings that are wrong and, in some cases, blasphemous to our faith -- but don't be afraid of it -- God's truth stands on its own merit and will not be dethroned by any lies of Satan
-- when the Corinthians were confronted with the issue of whether to eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols, Paul reminded them in 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 that idols were nothing but statues and that these gods did not really exist at all -- Paul said that for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came through whom we live." -- in other words, Paul told them not to abstain from eating meat sacrificed to idols because they knew the truth -- that God was real and the idols were not -- the same is true about this book -- you can read it for what it is: a work of fiction and nothing more
-- however, as Paul warned in his teachings on eating food sacrificed to idols, the faith of some may not be strong enough yet to read this book or see this movie and not be negatively influenced by it -- we must be careful to not push others into being exposed to these false teachings until they are ready
-- use this as an opportunity to share the truth of the gospel with those around you
-- be careful how you present the truth -- remember that those who are believing in the myths put forth in this fiction book are on a spiritual journey -- they are seeking the truth and have been led astray by a teacher who says things that their itching ears want to hear -- present the truth in love -- without rebuking them -- correct erroneous understandings -- tell them what God's word really says -- and let God speak to them through His prevenient grace -- through His Spirit working in their lives to lead them to salvation
-- finally, if nothing else, our response as Christians should be to know and understand God's word on our own -- in order to know what is true and what is false, we need to spend time with God in His word and in prayer -- reading the message of truth that He gave us in His word -- communicating with Him in prayer -- so that we will reach the point where we know the truth so well that we can't be led astray by false teachings or myths put forth by charismatic teachers
-- as I close, I would encourage each of you to do just that -- commit to spending some time in God's word this week -- read through the Gospels again and let God speak to you through them and seek truth where it can always be found
-- let us pray
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