An Architecture of Holiness - Phil Whittall

Welcome to the Grace Church Weekly Podcast. We're an international church right

in the heart of Stockholm, Sweden.

Each week, we share a message that's rooted in the faithful teaching of God's

Word and open to the vibrant work of the Holy Spirit among His people.

Here's this week's message.

Today's talk is, I came across a phrase which really caught my mind,

and I'll come to that in just a moment.

Last summer, we were on holiday in Poland, And we decided to visit some well-known

churches that were around as we were visiting.

And, you know, in lots of places in Europe, churches are kind of hotspots for tourists.

And so churches have learned a few things when they're in kind of tourist places.

They've learned where to strategically place the box asking for donations.

They've learned how to do that so that everyone sees it. They've also learned

the importance of telling visitors about their expectations about what to wear and how to act.

There's kind of information as you go in about the sort of dress codes that

are appropriate or not appropriate.

So in certain places, you know, no shorts, no vests for guys,

no bikinis, no baseball caps, no loud music. Bikinis, not for guys or for women, just to clarify.

No loud music, no pets. things, you know, there's pictures so that anyone,

no matter what language, you know, with a line through it going,

these things are not acceptable, or we don't want them in the church building.

And in the more popular churches, where they have lots of tourists,

we noticed that there was an enforcer, someone who would spot the people breaking

the rules and would kind of encourage them to leave.

And depending on the level of offense, it would be kind of left,

you know, very enthusiastically, we see people being told to get out of the

church, depending on how badly they were breaking all the rules.

Why would they do that? Why would it be necessary in the church building to

enforce a particular sense of dress code and a set of behaviors?

Because to those people, the church building was a sacred space.

In this space, in this physical place, we act with reverence because the place requires it.

It's not simply as a result of the function like a library where you have to

be quiet to respect other people who are reading or studying,

but it's the nature of the place.

You're in a sacred, holy place where you meet with God.

And so there are things that are understood like this is appropriate and this is inappropriate.

Now, we're a relaxed, more informal church.

We don't mind children running around and, you know, we don't mind,

we don't enforce dress codes and things like that.

But still, there's probably things you go, hmm, because this is the kind of

place we're in, these sorts of things, maybe we shouldn't do them.

In the 1950s, there was a Jewish theologian by the name of Abraham Heschel.

And he made this observation. it's not only spaces, physical places like the

room we're in right now, that might feel sacred.

In Judaism, he noticed, it's not just a space, but a time that was sacred.

So the first thing, do you know what the first thing that God calls holy is?

It's not a space or a place, it's a time.

The first thing God calls holy is the Sabbath, a day.

This is the first thing that God declares to be holy. And so he made the observation

that for Jews, stepping into the Sabbath was the same as other people stepping into a cathedral.

It should feel like you're stepping into something that is created to give you

a sense of the glory and the majesty of God.

And so he described, he had this phrase, an architecture of holiness, That God set things up,

creates things and structures things in order to help us live holy lives,

an architecture of holiness.

An architecture is a combination of form. What is the building for?

Oh, how does it look? Sorry, form, how does it look? What style is it?

And what's this function? What's it for?

Well, your life has a form. How does it look?

Might look differently depending on your age and your culture and where you're

from, but what is it for? What's your life for?

What's the purpose of you and your life? and there's a structure and a form

to it that God has given us.

And so when it's done well, we have an eye for order and beauty and purpose.

And so I would say, I just want to take a few moments to encourage us to think

about our lives as something that's worth having some spiritual architecture to it,

that we benefit from having an eye to both beauty and wonder and awe and purpose.

So as we think about that for example

for Abraham Heschel the Sabbath it

wasn't just the end of a busy week it wasn't a day for recovery and rest it

was the focus it was what your whole week was working and aiming for your whole

life was about this because in this day that God has set aside That's where

creation is remembered,

where redemption is anticipated, and people are prepared for the life that is to come.

That's an understanding of what Sabbath is.

In Sabbath, we were supposed to get a taste of eternity.

We're supposed to resist the forces of consumption, push back on the life that

only things that are meaningful are if they're productive.

The Sabbath pushes against all of those things.

So it's about thinking about what are the sorts of things in our life?

How do they form us to make us? What kind of people will they make us to be?

So as Christians, our formation of being formed and shaped as people is all

built around something that God has done.

Something that God has done uniquely through his son, Jesus Christ.

That's what makes us Christians.

And because God has done something in Christ, there are things that we do,

and there are things that we don't do.

Just like the churches where they're building saying, don't do this.

As Christians, there are things we go, hey, because of Jesus,

it's no longer appropriate for me to do those things.

Not because of a law, but because it doesn't make sense any longer knowing what I'm for.

If God has done this, well, I don't need to any longer do that.

It's about constructing our life in a way that only makes sense because of Jesus Christ.

Your life should be one that makes sense because of what God has done in Christ

and only makes sense because if Jesus is Lord and Savior, then these things make total sense.

If he's not, well, that doesn't make sense.

So listen to what Paul says, Philippians 3.

He says, I haven't obtained all this, all the things that God has promised us

in Christ. He said, I'm not already perfect.

Anyone, I'm not already perfect. I'm sure, you know, if we're making a New Year's

resolution, you're recognizing, hey, I haven't already got there.

We're going to try and get there a bit closer to it this year,

but I haven't got there yet.

Paul says, I press on to make it my own. Why?

Because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Philippians 3 verse 12.

Philippians 3:12

Paul wants to become like Christ and make Christ's life his life. It's Paul's goal.

I want all of Christ's life to be mine.

Why? Because the Son of God became a man and made Paul his.

Because Christ has won Paul to himself, because Christ revealed himself to Paul,

and Paul is now belonging to Jesus Christ and recognizing all that he did.

He's crucified, risen, and ascended.

He said, well, my life now, he's got me, so now I want to be like him.

So if you're glad to belong to Jesus, then it becomes a joy to live for Jesus.

It's a joy. It's not a duty. It's a delight because we belong to him.

So then Paul advises the Philippians how to go about this in their own lives.

And so in Philippians 4 verse 9,

Philippians 4:9

he says, Whatever you have learned and received and heard and seen in me,

practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

So I'm going to take those five things, learned, received, heard, seen,

practiced, and use those as five building blocks for us, how we might think

about constructing and building our lives so that we learn to grow in likeness

to Christ. Okay, number one, learn.

Last year I was talking with a good friend of mine about being

a father and about parenting and we were reflecting on

our own experiences and he told me about a

conversation that he had had a few years with his own father a few years before

his father died he was driving somewhere and his dad noticed something wrong

and sort of told his son quite sort of abruptly he said if I've taught you anything in life, it's one,

not to leave the toilet seat up, and two, is to keep your hands on the steering

wheel at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock.

So if you're not to drive, you've got to keep your hands on,

that's the proper place to keep your hands on the steering wheel.

So my friend reflected that A, his dad never mentioned the first one about not

leaving the toilet seat up. It's good advice, by the way.

But B, of all the things that a father should aspire to teach his son,

these were a distinctly odd set of priorities.

The things that I definitely want my son to know at the end of his life is,

don't leave the toilet seat up, and this is how you hold the steering wheel in a car.

Don't think you need to be a father for those things.

Anyway, sometimes we can make a really big fuss about things that don't really

matter and at the same time not say anything about the things that really do matter.

We can get our priorities all the way mixed up and focus on minor details of

behavior and mix and miss out crucial gold values that we don't ever say.

So, I learned from my parents certain behaviors, but never was told about,

instructed about the meaning and the purpose and the reasons behind sex.

They were a bit embarrassed to do it, and so never did it.

So, where do I go to learn? Well, not from my parents. It's a pretty crucial thing.

I didn't learn from them about how to be a husband or a father.

I just had behaviors I was not taught.

Missing out on some huge things. So we need to know what matters when it comes

to learning this year. What do you need to learn? What matters most?

What do you really need to learn?

In John chapter 14, there's a conversation between Jesus and his disciples.

John 14 · chapter mention

And Jesus says to them, if you really knew me, you'd know my father as well.

From now on, you do know him and you've seen him.

To which the disciple Philip replies, Lord, show us the Father.

That will be enough for us.

And Jesus comes back to him with this question.

Don't you know me, Philip, even after I've been among you such a long time?

Today, I think maybe Jesus is asking us the question, don't you know me?

Don't you know me? For some of us, we've been a Christian a really long time,

and Jesus might still be saying, if you're thinking that, if you've still got

this thought habit in your mind, don't you know me?

Don't you even know me after I've been with you for such a long time?

Have you not learned my ways? Do you not know who I am?

Paul told the Philippians, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing

greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of

sharing in his sufferings.

And Paul's prayer for the church in Ephesus was to know Christ's love that surpasses

knowledge so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Question, what are you currently learning that's helping you know Christ better?

And what are you learning that's just noise?

And if someone looked at all the things that you're receiving,

all the information that's coming your way, would they be able to tell that

knowing Christ is your goal?

Would they be able to tell from the songs, the TV shows, the films,

the podcasts, the websites, the books, the social media feed, the flood?

Would they be able to look at all of that and tell the thing that this person

wants to do more than anything else is to know Christ and to be like him?

So that's learn the most important thing to learn is to learn to know Jesus to know him.

Receive. Number two, receive. In order to know Christ, which is the goal of

our lives, in order to be like him, God has not left it all up to you.

He has not left it on your own, to you to do it on your own, in your own strength.

In fact, our spiritual growth is entirely shaped by how we steward gifts,

using the gifts that God gives us.

God gives many gifts, But here's top two. Firstly, he gives you salvation.

You can't earn it. You can't work your way to it. You can't learn your way to

it. You can only receive it.

You can only receive it by faith.

All the prophets testify about him that through his name, everyone who believes

in him receives forgiveness of sins. Peter preaching in Acts 10.

And to all who did receive him, he gives the right to be children of God.

John 1 verse 12. You can't earn salvation, you can only receive salvation.

John 1:12

It's a gift from God, it's grace.

Secondly, Peter preached the second gift, the Spirit.

Repent, be baptized each of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness

of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Paul asked a group of believers, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?

You don't grow by receiving more information, but by receiving more from God.

What we know and what we receive changes everything.

We receive Christ, it changes us, gives us a whole new identity.

The old is gone, the new has come, because we've received Jesus.

When we receive the Spirit, we have a whole new power and a whole new ability,

to live the life of Christ that God has given us.

We're called to live in the power of the Spirit, to walk, to keep in step with the Spirit day by day.

And with those gifts that God gives of salvation and the Spirit,

we receive a spirit of sonship.

We're sons, we're children, sons and daughters of the Most High.

It's a heavenly calling, and you have the rights and privileges of a child of God.

Sometimes, though, we can resist instead of receiving.

We can try to stay in control, rather than submitting and surrendering and walking

and trusting in the Spirit.

So question, where are we maybe wanting to stay in control?

To stay the one who navigates and leads our own life rather than where the Spirit

would lead us, and what it means because we belong to Him.

Three, heard.

Each one of us, if we own a smartphone, faces a relentless barrage of content.

The average person who owns a smartphone is online almost seven hours a day,

That's true. I heard it. I heard an amen from Casper at the back. Thank you.

If you have social media or use the internet, there is almost no possible way

of you genuinely saying, I don't have time to read the Bible.

It's not possible. If you use the internet, you also do have time to read your Bible.

The question is what will you give your most precious resource to which is your attention,

what you will focus on your attention is worth a lot of money it's worth a lot of money,

companies are using every tool fair and unfair good and bad to get as much of

your attention as possible, because your attention is what they sell to advertisers.

Your attention on social media is what they sell.

The more of it they get, the more money they make. That's just how it works.

And the price though of inattention to the word and spirit of God is drift.

Inattention to truth, inattention to God means we'll drift away from him.

Our love will grow cold, our lives will start to be based on other things,

we'll start to make decisions without reference to who God is and what God has done.

We start to drift because we're not giving God the attention that He deserves and that we need.

So what could be done? What could you do? You could swap back from a Bible on

your phone to something that looks a bit like this.

To help you create a routine, perhaps, where scripture comes before social media.

To help you set a pattern in your days where God's voice is the first voice

you want to attend to each and every day.

What's the first thing I'm going to hear?

What's the first thing that's going to shape my thoughts? The first thing that

grabs my attention before so many other things, clamor for it and crowd in and push everything out.

What will be the first thing each day in order for us to be renewed?

God says his mercy and his grace is new every day for us.

I so need it. I need it. Maybe you do too.

You have a choice. we all have choices. What voices will you listen to? What will you hear?

What will you give your attention to? God is continually speaking.

His creation night and day proclaims speech so that anyone in any language can

know something about God.

That's what the Bible tells us, that creation is continually pouring forth knowledge.

If only we would stop and look at it.

Jesus says, if you're worried, look at a sparrow. Think about a field, grass.

If you open your Bible, God speaks.

God speaks. So Hebrews 2 verse 1 says, for this reason, we must pay attention

Hebrews 2:1

all the more to what we have heard so that we will not drift away.

And then it says in chapter three, as the Holy Spirit says, today,

if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart.

Sometimes we don't really like what God says to us. We'd rather not.

We'd rather not do the things that God says to us to do. We'd rather not.

And so we harden our hearts. We harden our hearts in that moment to giving or

to being forgiving, giving or forgiving, to being kind or whatever it might

be, to be brave and to speak to someone.

We harden our hearts to it, hear the voice, but choose to do something else.

Question, what would you need to change this week in order to help you hear

God more clearly than anything else?

What this week would help you

hear God as opposed to last week what would help you hear God better 4.

Seen after church a few weeks ago I was talking with someone we were talking

about how it's important in families to have some keystone practices some central

things that just as much as we want our kids to eat healthy brush their teeth

and put their clothes on the right way around,

still a work in progress in our home we want to build the rhythms of our family

life around the things that matter most.

It's a scary thing as a parent when you realize who your kids are copying.

It's scary when you realize it's some celebrity that you've never heard of or

some kid at school that you don't really like.

And it's scarier still sometimes when you realize it's you that they're copying.

One of the greatest motivations for me as a father to work through my own junk

and rubbish and baggage is so that my kids won't copy the negative reactions to those things.

I need to work on myself for the sake not just of myself, but of my family.

You see, we learn holiness, we learn discipleship by watching it in others.

Paul wrote to Timothy, now you've observed my teaching, you've observed my teaching,

my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness,

my persecutions, and my suffering.

You've seen all of that.

And then Paul says to him, so as for you, continue in what you've learned and

firmly believed because you know those who taught you.

You know those who taught you.

You see, you learn and believe because you know the ones who taught you.

And one of the great dangers of our internet age is that we learn to follow

Christ from people we do not know.

It's not what they're saying is wrong or bad, but it's separated.

The problem is it's separated from life. Your life and their life are not connected.

You don't know them and they don't know you.

And God's plan for spiritual growth was for it to take place within a spiritual

family, to learn from brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers.

Christianity shouldn't be learned anonymously. It should be learned in community.

And the other danger is it forms us to be consumers and not contributors.

Always taking and never giving. Always needing and never sharing.

It's an impossible job for the elders to try, even if we wanted to,

which we don't, is to set boundaries on what, and importantly,

who the people in this church listen to.

It would be impossible for us to try and do it. That horse has long run out

of the stable. It can't be done any longer.

But I want to urge you to ground your growth in community amongst people that

you know, amongst people who know you.

Invest in, encourage others, walk with them, fight for time,

claw it back and spend it in ways in which we'll be healthier,

stronger and more sustaining for you.

Build your kingdom here. We sang it.

We want God's more of God's kingdom. The way we do that is doing that together.

So question, who are you actually watching to learn how to follow Jesus?

Do you know their life, not just their words? And if someone copied your life,

would it move them closer to Christ?

If someone was to observe the way that you go about things, would they see that

that had been shaped by Jesus?

Would they look at your finances and go, hey, this person has been shaped by

really good money advice, but really see where Jesus comes into that?

Would they look at the way your family works? Would they look at the way your

schedule is? would they look at the way your marriage is and go,

where does Jesus come into that?

So who and who are we learning from and what would people learn from us? So that's.

Learn, receive, hear, and seen. Last one, practice.

We mustn't make the mistake of assuming that learning is simply about information.

Paul expected that the things he taught the Philippians would be useful enough

and grounded enough that they could put it into practice. That's what he said.

It's about learning wisdom. It's about learning habits. It's about learning generosity.

How do you learn generosity without actually giving?

How do you learn kindness without actually doing something kind?

How do you learn compassion? How do you learn to pray without,

how do you learn about prayer without actually praying?

How do you learn joy without actually rejoicing?

So repeated obedience starts to form us, creating habits, spiritual habits,

which shape our character in the direction of Christ.

So things that are put into practice. So what one practice, if you started it

or stopped it, would most reshape your spiritual life?

Might be something that you need to start doing, might equally be something you need to stop doing.

What is it that would most reshape your spiritual life over the next six months?

See, our spiritual growth shouldn't be left to chance, to vague hope,

or to just assuming it will happen.

Like, it would just, I'm sure it would just like, it would just,

I keep, I just do it. It would just happen.

Parents, like by being carefully selective about what children eat,

how much children should sleep, about getting them outside, about teaching them

how to read, or to manage screen time, or any of those things,

every time you do something like that, it's acknowledging that healthy,

well-rested, well-fed, literate children don't just happen by letting the kid

decide what they should do with their time.

You won't do that as parents, you don't do that as teachers,

you don't do that like you're going to you know you work and your boss says

don't really mind what you do figure it out don't really care let's just see

let's just see what happens hey,

teachers go into school sit down in class get guys over to you let's just see

what happens let's just see how it goes whatever you want to do is fine and

i'm sure i'm sure by the end of it the end of the year, you'll all do great.

It's not going to happen.

It's not going to, or at least lots of things will happen, but probably nothing good.

Don't do that for your soul. Don't do that for your soul.

Don't do that for your life. They say, oh, let's just let any old thing come

in and let's just see what happens.

I'm sure it'll be fine. No, it won't.

God isn't asking you to suddenly become this amazing saint like by tomorrow.

He's inviting you to share his life because he's given his life for you.

He's given everything for you.

His son died on a cross to redeem you. You are not your own.

You were bought with a price. if you believe in Jesus you belong to him belong to him.

So let's build wisely. Let's invite the Spirit of God into our lives so that

our lives take shape and in the shape of Jesus Christ.

It's called Christ-likeness, informed into his image.

So let's build together in love, in Christ, in his strength,

and by his Spirit. And as we seek to do that, we'll make mistakes.

God is merciful. God is graceful. He forgives.

He lives. We encourage one another all the more, all the more.

Let's not give up, brothers and sisters.

Let's fix our eyes on Jesus Christ, the author and effector of our faith.

We hope that this sermon has encouraged you. If you'd like to learn more about

us, visit us online at gracechurch.se.

Thanks for listening.