Matt Chandler: Veil of mortality no more
WAKE FOREST - In Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer Prize winning Gilead 76-year-old dying father John Ames writes a series of letters to his young son about his life. In one of his reminiscings he shares of fond memories going to the church and watching the dawn come in the sanctuary; of loving the sound of the door latch lifting and the way the old sanctuary floor made noise when he walked across. Throughout his letter Ames tells of his faith and what is most dear to his heart, what he really wants, and needs, for his son to remember.
Matt Chandler seems to be doing the same, most recently at the 20/20 Conference at Southeastern Seminary. He told the audience of his own sanctuary, brought them back to the place wherein lies his peace – the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These days any sermon has potential to be counted among his last, and Chandler spoke of what is most dear to his heart, what he needs, in fact pleads, for people to remember. He needs them to remember the Gospel. Watching a sunrise from the pew seat of an old church may seem boring to some. To a dying man, it is life. Preaching the Gospel again and again may seem too simple to some. To this dying man, it is life.
Chandler, diagnosed with a brain tumor last November and unable to attend the conference because of radiation, preached via a video message to nearly 900 high school, college and seminary students. Before his sermon the audience watched a video greeting from Chandler, pastor of The Village Church, about the status of his health. He has recorded several of these weekly videos now and it's obvious his sense of humor is still intact, as Chandler is not fazed at his now bald head because it is CJ Mahaney and Tim Keller-ish.
His video updates do more than talk about cancer. They talk about the goodness of God and how God is better than life. They talk about being grateful for the reminder that The Village Church is God's church and not his church. They talk about being grateful to be counted worthy by God to glorify Him even through his suffering.
His words make the heart ache. The heart aches for a 35-year-old man who may never walk his daughter down the aisle and for the baby who may never get to know her dad. Yes, truly hearts ache for the Chandlers. Yet, if those attending 20/20 and those who have been following Chandler’s story are honest, one has to wonder if maybe hearts do not also ache for self. Ache, or long for, the kind of unshakeable, pure, passionate love for Jesus Christ Chandler is displaying for the world to see.
In a video message after his surgery in November, Chandler said the "veil of immortality" is now lifted from his eyes. He knows that all too often people are "wooed and seduced into lives that don't matter" and "concentrate on things that are temporary and frivolous." As he now, just a few months later, rubs his hand over his bald head and shows the scar going across his head, no one has to convince him of his mortality. He is, as was said more than once during the conference (yet the potency of this statement never waned), a dying man preaching to dying men. Knowing that, Chandler preached what is most precious: the Gospel.
The Gospel is all too often assumed and all too often never made explicit. Chandler knew this to be true, but the reality of it became clear when he began hearing over and over testimonies from the baptismal waters of people who grew up in church, walked away, and came back. For some reason, the church assumes that people come Sunday morning and they get the Gospel and thus the need to revisit the Gospel is nonexistent. When that happens sometimes the Gospel is confused with morality and then people "try to transform their own lives," Chandler said.
He read from Colossians 1, starting with verse 13, and explained how Scripture teaches that the Gospel is not about people fixing themselves, but about how "Jesus absorbs God's wrath" toward sinners and saves all those who have faith in Him. God is a holy God and man is not. The very fact that "your righteousness is viewed as wickedness should rattle you," Chandler said. Sin "exposes our deep need for someone to rescue us." That someone is Jesus Christ and those who hear and respond to this truth are saved. That is not "old revivalism," Chandler said. That is the Gospel. Rather, the Gospel on the ground, as Chandler called it.
Chandler went on to give a second way to understand the Gospel, and that is called the meta narrative, or the Gospel from the air. The meta narrative is seen throughout Scripture as creation, fall, redemption and consummation. God creates everything good and everything in creation is meant to stir in human hearts affection for Him. Sin "fractures" this and humans "prefer creation over the Creator," Chandler said. While Jesus Christ is saving individuals, He "has a saving work he's doing globally visibly and invisibly."
Chandler cautioned against only teaching the Gospel on the ground, or only teaching the Gospel from the air. Chandler's exhortation: Teach both, embrace both and live in the tensions.
Remembering his audience, Chandler asked students to "pick a church that loves the Gospel" and to "preach and teach the Gospel well. Make the Gospel explicit." To do that, the cross and the "blood spattered agony of Jesus Christ" must never be far from a believer's heart.
"Spend your life understanding it and proclaiming it to the world around you," Chandler said. For this is the very thing a dying man told students he would "spend the rest of my life doing."
Chandler does not know how many days he has to spend proclaiming the Gospel, and his proclamation of the Gospel may not always come in the form of a sermon. His very life is on display as a testimony to the Gospel. When he appeared on a video before hundreds of students and spoke of his love for God and trust in God, even in what may be the shadow of death, Matt Chandler showed that by God's grace he will suffer well.
For more on Matt Chandler's story, click here.
For more on The Village Church, click here.
