1 May 2011
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Matthew 11:28-30
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
-- in Brennan Manning’s devotional, “Souvenirs of Solitude,” he tells the story of Peter Saraceno and how Peter’s fiance literally brought him back from the dead
-- Peter had been out with a friend and was driving home when he was involved in a horrific traffic accident -- when they finally pulled his body from the wreckage and got him to the hospital, he was pronounced dead on arrival -- but the doctor did one final check before calling his death and found a weak and faint pulse and began doing what they could to save Peter’s life
-- several times that night they came out and told his family to prepare for his death -- that Peter only had hours to live -- but, remarkably, Peter survived, but just barely -- he lapsed into a coma, and the doctors warned the family that he probably never would come out of it -- and if he did, he would probably never move again -- at best, he might be able to move just a finger or a toe -- but his life was functionally over and he would never really recover
-- but Linda, Peter’s fiance, never gave up hope -- she stayed by his side throughout the days he was in a coma -- “talking to him just as if it were any other night -- just as if nothing had happened”
-- for three and a half months, she never left his side even though Peter never moved or responded or even flickered an eyelash -- but one day, Peter’s eyes opened -- and he watched Linda wherever she went in the room
-- Linda continued to act as if nothing was wrong and to prepare for Peter’s full recovery -- she decorated his room for Halloween and then Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years -- and, to the amazement of the doctors, Peter started to recover
-- he began to be able to move again --first a finger -- then an arm -- and then a leg -- he tried to talk, and even though his words could not be understood by anyone in the room, Linda knew what he meant and told the others what he needed
-- after a year of Linda’s patient nursing, Peter gained the ability to talk again -- and one day he asked the question that he’d been waiting so long to ask, “Mr. Fraschalla, I’d like permission to marry your daughter”
-- Linda’s father replied, “Peter, when you can walk down the aisle, she’s all yours”
-- “Peter couldn’t walk then -- He had to be carried -- but slowly, cautiously, with the help of a walker, he began to walk again -- and then one day, he walked down the aisle with Linda” and made her his wife
-- this true story illustrates so well the call and the promise of God that we see in this passage in Matthew -- when we are burdened down with life to the point that we just can’t move -- that we just can’t take another step -- we look beside us and we find Jesus there -- caring for us and carrying our burdens -- meeting our needs -- until finally we find rest in His arms
-- this passage is a wonderful promise to reflect on as we continue to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus -- it’s a reminder that cross was not the end of the story -- that because of the empty tomb, we can know that Jesus is always with us -- that He will never leave us or forsake us -- and that He came to bring us life and love and to give us the strength and power we need to move forward with Him
-- let’s look again at these verses and see what we might learn from this passage
II. Scripture Lesson (Matthew 11:28-30)
A. Invitation
-- verse 28
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
-- the first thing we see here is the invitation of Christ -- this is the same invitation that Jesus had been giving out to people from the very moment that He rose from the waters of the Jordan River after His baptism -- “Come and follow Me”
-- it didn’t matter who Jesus was talking to -- whether it was a rich young ruler or a poor fisherman on the banks of the Sea of Galilee -- it didn’t matter how many people Jesus was talking to -- a crowd of 5,000 on a hillside or just one lonely Pharisee who came at night -- His message was the same -- and, as Matthew points out here, His message was for all -- “Come, follow Me -- all of you -- and I will give you rest”
-- with these few words Jesus said so much -- with these words Jesus said, “I have the answers that you have been looking for -- I can meet the needs that no one else can -- I can give you the life that you dream of -- but you must come and follow Me”
-- this invitation of Jesus that we find here in Matthew 11 comes in the middle of His ministry -- Jesus has been preaching and teaching throughout Judea and Galilee for some time, pleading with people to come and follow -- He has just sent out His disciples to carry the good news to others in the region and to issue the same invitation
-- in the church we call this prevenient grace -- the grace that comes before the cross -- the grace that reaches out to all those who are weary and heavy ladened -- who have struggled long in their own strength -- who are suffering in a life filled with sin with no hope on the horizon -- to all of these Jesus cries out, “Come and follow Me and I will give you rest”
-- but, still, many don’t respond -- many don’t come -- and Jesus’ heart breaks here for those who have heard the call -- who have seen the miracles and signs -- but who choose to continue to do life on their own
-- Rob Bell’s new book, “Love Wins,” has brought into the forefront of our culture the question that a lot of people have asked me from time to time -- how can a loving God send someone to Hell?
-- we find the answer here in this verse -- God doesn’t send anyone to Hell -- Hell is a choice that we make when we refuse to respond to Jesus’ call to come -- I tell people that there is no one in Hell who didn’t choose to be there
-- the simple fact is that despite the persecution -- despite the rejection and the mocking and the jeers of the people in His day, Jesus continued to go throughout Israel calling people to come and follow Him because He wanted them to have life and to have it to the full
-- as it says in 1 Timothy 2:3-4, “God wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth”
B. Expectation
-- verse 29
29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart
-- the next thing we see in this passage is the expectation of Christ -- after we respond to Christ’s invitation to come and follow Him -- we are told to take His yoke upon us and to learn from Him
-- in our modern day of tractors and mechanized agricultural, a lot of people don’t really understand what Jesus is telling us to do here in this verse
-- what is a yoke -- what does it mean to take Jesus’ yoke upon us?
-- a yoke was a wooden beam that fit over the neck of two farm animals -- usually oxen but occasionally horses -- that joined them together and that harnessed their strength to pull farm implements
-- and it’s important for us to know that in order to understand what Jesus is asking us to do here in this passage
-- first, by taking up Jesus’ yoke, we are told to submit ourselves to Him -- when an animal was yoked to another animal by the farmer, it had to submit its strength and its will to the farmer -- no longer could it go off on its own direction and do what it wanted -- it was under the control and direction of the farmer -- the farmer guided it and controlled where the team of oxen went
-- it’s the same way with Jesus -- when we take His yoke upon us, we are submitting to the command of Jesus -- we willingly sacrifice our wants and our wishes and our desires and follow Jesus and let Him direct our paths and guide us where we need to go
-- secondly, by taking up Jesus’ yoke, we are joining ourselves to Him -- when animals are yoked together, one animal is not in front and the other in the back -- they are side by side and they walk and work together
-- that’s why when farmers had to train a new animal to plow, they would often yoke it to an older, stronger, more experienced animal who would bear the burden and guide the young animal through his learning.
-- it’s the same way with Jesus -- when Jesus calls us to come and follow Him, He doesn’t mean to just walk in His path in our own strength and try to live a Christian life in our own power -- no, He means to be yoked to Him and to let Him carry the burden -- to let Him lead us as we go -- to let Him lend us His power and strength to do what we could not do alone
-- and, finally, by taking up Jesus’ yoke we are taking up His very nature -- Jesus tells us here that He is gentle and lowly of heart -- this is an expression of Jesus’ servant nature -- and a call to us to do the same
-- just as Jesus offers to bear our burdens and to lessen our load -- we are called to be servants of those around us -- that is exactly what Linda did for her fiance when he was in a unable to walk or talk or move on his own -- she served him by bearing his burdens and she lessened his load by being there for him
-- remember what Jesus said when his disciples argued over who was the greatest in the Kingdom of God? -- Jesus said that if you wanted to be first, you had to be last -- that the greatest in the kingdom had to be the slave of all
-- when we take up Jesus’ yoke, we take up His nature and serve those around us
C. Affirmation
-- look at the end of verse 29
29b “and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
-- the last thing we see in this passage is the affirmation of Christ -- the promise that He gives to those who come and follow Him and who take their yoke upon them
-- Jesus says that we will find rest for our souls -- that word “rest” that is used here in this passage has a double meaning -- it can “rest” in the traditional sense -- in the sense of a time of relaxation -- of recreation -- after a long time of labor
-- this is the essence of the Sabbath -- this is why God gave us one day a week to pause from our labors -- to rest after the work of a week
-- and, certainly, when we follow Jesus and take His yoke upon us, we find rest in this sense -- but, there is another meaning, as well -- in the Book of Hebrews we read of the “rest of God,” which is another way of referring to heaven -- that is why Jesus speaks here of “rest for our souls”
-- God promises us that if we follow Him and believe in faith for our salvation, that we will enter His rest at the end of our life -- we will go the place that we read about in the Book of Revelation -- a place flowing with milk and honey -- a place with no sin where all our tears are wiped away and we live with God forever
-- if you look back at verse 30, you see that Jesus’ yoke is easy -- the word, “easy,” here means that it “fits well” -- William Barclay said that when a farmer was preparing a yoke for an animal, he would carry it to the carpenter and have it made to the animal’s own specifications -- it was made to fit that that animal alone -- it was crafted to fit just right -- otherwise, the yoke would chafe and cause discomfort
-- that’s what Jesus is saying here -- the yoke that He puts on us has been designed for us -- it fits us perfectly -- it is easy to carry -- and it is easy to wear
-- this saying here is a reminder that the call of Jesus and His offer of grace is not just for the world in general, but for each one of us individually -- the promises that He offers are for us -- He promises to meet our needs -- to satisfy our heart’s desire -- and to bear the burdens that we carry
-- finally, Jesus tells us that His burden is light -- the Bible says that we are all slaves -- we are all yoked -- either we are slaves to sin or we are slaves to righteousness -- either we bear the burden for what we have done -- or we let Jesus bear it for us
-- the Israelites in Jesus’ day were slaves to the law and to the yoke of the Pharisees and -- they were burdened beyond belief with no way out and no hope for salvation -- the same is true for all of the other religions in the world today
-- we had a discussion at work not long ago about religion -- one girl said that she thought all religions were the same -- but I told her later that she was wrong -- I said the difference between Christianity and all the other religions could be summed up in one word -- “grace”
-- all other religions put burdens on their people -- they put them under the yoke of legalism -- in order to be saved you have to live a perfect life -- you have to follow certain laws -- you have to do certain rituals -- you have to fulfill certain requirements -- and, even then, you never know if you have done enough
-- all other religions say “do” -- Christianity says “done”
-- Jesus’ burden is light because He bore the weight of our sins and our wickedness and our unrighteousness on the cross of Calvary -- He took upon Himself the yoke of legalism and became the servant of sin so that we might not have to bear that burden any longer
-- and then, after suffering in our place -- after going to hell for us -- He rose on the third day in victory -- having broken the shackles and destroying the yoke of sin
III. Closing
-- now, I know Christmas is past us, but I want to leave you with just one more illustration that I think really underlines the words of Jesus in this passage
-- I read about a woman was doing her last-minute Christmas shopping at a crowded mall -- She was tired of fighting the crowds -- She was tired of standing in lines -- She was tired of fighting her way down long aisles looking for a gift that had sold out days before.
-- finally, she was ready to go home and made her way to the elevator with her arms filled with packages -- when the doors opened, the elevator was completely full -- but the people moved closer to make room for her
-- As the doors closed, she blurted out, "Whoever is responsible for this whole Christmas thing ought to be arrested, strung up, and shot!" -- A few others nodded their heads or grunted in agreement.
-- Then, from somewhere in the back of the elevator, came a single voice that said: "Don't worry. They already crucified him."
-- the message of this passage is very simple -- we can continue to go through life burdened down by the weight of this world -- we can continue to do life in our own strength -- in our own way -- in our own power -- we can continue to be frustrated and irritated and grumble our way through life
-- or, we can respond to the invitation -- the expectation -- and the affirmation of Christ that we find in this passage
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
-- Jesus already paid the price for the burdens of this world -- He broke the yoke of sin and He shattered the shackles of legalism -- and He offers us a different way -- a better way -- He offers us life with Him
-- the question, then, is what are you going to do about it?
-- let us pray
Sunday, September 11, 2011
SERMON: THE MISSING PIECE
24 April 2011 (Easter Sunday)
I. Introduction
-- turn in your Bibles to Genesis 6:9-22
9 This is the account of Noah and his family.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress[a] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.[b] 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit[c] high all around.[d] Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”
22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
-- I know that today is Easter Sunday, but when I was praying about what I might bring to you this Sunday, I kept thinking of this picture of Noah and the Ark
-- this is a puzzle that Kim put together several years ago -- it took her quite a while because there is a lot of detail in the puzzle -- but once she got it done, we glued it together and then put it in this frame and it’s been hanging on the wall ever since
-- I really like this picture because it reminds me of God’s grace and the salvation that He has given us through Jesus
-- I don’t know if you’ve ever considered that or not
-- I imagine that everyone here grew up knowing the story of Noah and the Ark -- as you remember, Noah lived in a very wicked and corrupt society -- not that different from what our society is like today
-- in Genesis 6:5 we read about Noah’s day -- it says in this verse that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time -- man was rotten to the core and not getting any better
-- and when God looked down on all of the sin and wickedness and evil that was going on, He was grieved in His heart and decided to cleanse the world from all that wickedness
-- but there was one man who was different -- one man who lived differently from everyone else -- and that was Noah
-- look back at verse 9 with me
9 This is the account of Noah and his family.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
-- while the rest of the world was filled with wickedness and evil, Noah walked with God -- He was a righteous man and blameless in all that he did -- and so God decided that He would deliver Noah and his family from the judgment to come
-- so, God comes to Noah and tells Noah what He is planning to do -- skip down to verse 17
17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”
22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
-- God told Noah that a great flood was coming to cleanse the world of sin and evil -- but that He was going to protect him and his family and the animals that God would send to him
-- He told Noah to build an ark -- a great boat -- and He gave very specific details on how the ark was to be built -- He told Noah exactly how long and how high and how wide it was to built -- He told him what type of wood to use and how the ark was to be coated with pitch, inside and out, to keep the water from getting in
-- God told Noah to make three levels in the ark -- with one door in the side and a roof to keep the rain out
-- and He told him to get started, because the flood was coming -- and so Noah started work
-- it took him about 100 years to build the ark -- and all that time, the people watched -- they watched as the animals came to Noah and as Noah loaded them on the ark -- and they watched as Noah finally entered the ark with his family and the door was shut
-- seven days later, the rain started to fall -- and kept falling for 40 days and 40 nights -- the waters rose until they covered the highest points on earth and everything and everyone who was not in the ark perished
-- but Noah and his family and the animals inside were saved
-- however, the flood didn’t solve the original problem -- even though God had sent the flood to cleanse the world of wickedness and sin, when Noah and his family came out of the ark, sin came out with them and entered the world once again
-- and this is the reason that I really like this puzzle that Kim did -- look at it again -- look real close at it -- do notice anything about this picture? -- there’s a piece missing -- it’s not complete -- but that’s such a perfect picture of what is going on in the story of sin and mankind
-- Noah’s salvation wasn’t complete -- it was missing a piece
-- the ark saved Noah and his family from the immediate danger of the flood, but it didn’t finish the job -- it couldn’t finish the job -- of saving Noah from his own sins and his own sin nature
-- you see, from the moment that Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, sin entered the world and turned them and all of their descendants into sinners
-- we aren’t sinners because we sin -- we sin because we are sinners -- it’s who we are -- it’s part of our nature -- and because we are sinners, we sin -- we disobey God -- we do things and think things that are wrong and don’t do the good things that we should do
-- sin made a hole in our heart -- and because of sin, all of us have a piece missing in our lives
-- if you think about it, a lot of what we do is nothing more than trying to find that missing piece
-- that’s why some people spend all their time chasing material things and wealth and looks and power and prestige -- they’re doing everything they can to fill that hole in their heart -- to find that missing piece -- and they think that if they’re rich enough or they have enough stuff or if they’re attractive enough or powerful enough -- that they will be satisfied -- but they never are
-- I remember reading a story one time about Howard Hughes -- he tried it all in his life -- he was an aviator -- an engineer -- an industrialist -- he produced and directed films -- he was a philanthropist -- at one time, he was the richest man in the world -- but he never was satisfied
-- someone once asked him just how much he needed in order to be happy -- he said, “Just a little more -- just a little more”
-- that’s the problem with trying to fill that hole in our heart with things or with power or pleasure -- it just won’t work -- nothing will fit -- and we’ll always find ourselves needing just a little bit more to make us happy
-- other people try to find that missing piece through religion -- through doing good works or by going to church
-- if you think about it, religion is really nothing more than man’s attempt to make his own way to heaven -- but that won’t work, because there’s nothing that we can do in our own power that will fill that missing piece and save us from the judgment to come
-- the Bible says that all our good works are like filthy rags compared to God’s goodness -- and that we can do nothing of any lasting value apart from Him
-- I know what it feels like to run through life trying to find that missing piece because I’ve been there and I’ve done that -- when I was younger, I thought I had it all figured out -- I thought I knew how to make things right with God
-- I grew up in church -- we weren't real regular church goers, but I grew up going to Sunday School -- worship service -- I knew who God was and who Jesus was -- and when I was 12 years old I marched down the aisle to get baptized and join the church -- not because of any spiritual decision I had made -- not because I had accepted God's offer of a relationship with Him through Jesus -- but simply because it was time -- everyone in our church got baptized and joined the church when they were around 12 years old -- it's what you did -- it was expected of you
-- but, you know, nothing really changed in my life -- I stayed right there in my comfort zone at my church and nothing changed -- I still sat in the same pew -- I still sang the same songs -- the only thing that was different was that my name was now on the church roll
-- on the surface, I looked like a Christian -- it looked like I had it all together with God -- I was doing all the right things and saying all the right words -- part of the problem was that my faith had never really been tested -- I was getting by just going to church because at that time in my life, I had never really needed God -- I never had gone through any real crises -- anything that came up, I was able to handle on my own -- and if I couldn't do it, then my family and my friends stepped up
-- but then something happened -- when I graduated from ABAC, I transferred to the University of Florida and moved to Gainesville -- and for the first time in my life, I was put out of my comfort zone
-- I was alone in a big city --- in a big school -- working full-time and trying to go to a college I was unprepared for -- I had moved away from my family and my friends -- and for the first time in my life, I didn't have any real friends -- I felt alone -- I felt empty -- I felt kind of like something was missing -- like I had a big hole in my heart that needed to be filled
-- so, I tried to fill that hole with other things -- growing up, I didn't drink -- I never drank a drop until after I graduated from high school -- but when I got to Gainesville, I started drinking just to fit in with everyone else
-- I desperately wanted friends -- I needed company -- and so I started hanging out with guys after work, drinking in the parking lot and going to bars with them to chase women -- I started hitting all the frat parties and doing everything I could to fill that hole -- to stop feeling so alone and unloved -- but the drinking and the partying didn't work
-- so, I moved on to other things -- when I wasn't working, I was in the woods -- I spent all my time hunting and fishing -- even though I had moved down to Gainesville to go to school, I would skip school and go hunting -- I was majoring in wildlife biology -- in my mind, I thought I was just working on my degree -- made sense to me -- but when I got my grades that semester, I found out my professors didn't agree
-- you see, I thought if I was busy enough -- if I drank enough -- if I partied enough -- if I had enough hobbies -- that that empty feeling would go away -- but it didn't work -- nothing worked -- I might be happy for a while -- I might have fun for a while -- but in the middle of the night, after the party ended -- after I came home from a day of hunting and fishing -- I still felt empty -- I still felt alone -- I still felt like something was missing
-- I needed a change -- I needed to find my missing part -- so, I came home and went back to ABAC and got a degree in wildlife technology and took a job on Ossabaw Island off the coast of Savannah -- I thought it was just the place for me -- if I couldn’t find that missing piece, then I would go to a place where I could hide and just get away from the world and not worry about it anymore -- but God knew where I was and He knew what I needed, so He met me there
-- One day -- just right out of the blue -- a coworker there on that island asked me a question that changed my life -- he said, "Do you know God?" -- I told him "Yeah, I go to church" -- I was lying and he knew it -- I was living out there on that island that didn't have a church -- he knew better -- he knew I wasn't going to church -- but he didn't say anything about that
-- instead he said, "I didn't ask you if you went to church -- I asked you if you knew God -- Have you asked Jesus to forgive your sins? -- have you accepted God's offer of love? -- are you in a personal relationship with Him?"
-- I didn't know what to say -- No one had ever asked me that before -- not my family -- not my friends -- not even the people in the church I grew up in
-- I thought I was a Christian simply because I had gone to church my whole life -- I thought I was a Christian because I had marched down that aisle and got baptized and joined the church when I was 12 years old -- it didn't matter that I wasn't going to church right then -- my parents were still going -- and I had to gone to church in the past and my name was on the roll and that made me a Christian
-- and at that moment, I realized what had been missing in my life -- I knew why that hole was there -- I knew why I had been feeling so lost and so empty and so alone -- I knew why all of the partying and hunting and working and everything else didn’t work to fill that hole
-- it’s because I had been looking for the wrong thing -- and all of a sudden I knew what was missing in my life
-- Jesus was what was missing -- Jesus was the missing piece
-- if you would, please turn over to Ephesians 2 and let’s finish up there
-- look down at verse 1
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
-- dead in our transgressions and sins -- separated from God and bound up in wickedness and sin in our inner parts -- all of us -- every single one of us
-- that’s why it says in Romans 3:23 it says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God -- that’s who we were -- that’s how we lived
-- just like the people in Noah’s day before the flood came -- just going through life following our own desires and the cravings of our own sinful hearts -- knowing that something wasn’t right and chasing after whatever we thought might fill that missing piece in our heart
-- verse 4
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
-- just like God provided the ark to deliver Noah and his family from the flood, God’s grace sent Jesus to deliver us from our sins
-- the Bible tells us in John 3:16 that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall have everlasting life
-- God sent Jesus to earth to die on the cross in our place -- to pay the price for our sins -- and to fill that hole that sin had created in our hearts and in our spirits
-- and just like there was only one ark and only one door in that ark and you had to enter in through that door to be saved, there is only one Jesus -- only one Son of God -- and only one way to be forgiven of your sins
-- in John 14:6 Jesus said, “I Am the Way and the Truth and the Life -- No one comes to the Father apart from Me”
-- Jesus is THE way -- and everyone who enters in must come through Jesus -- His promise is that everyone who believes in Him will be delivered from their sin and receive eternal life -- but you have to come through Jesus because He is the missing piece in your life
-- verse 6
6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
-- after Jesus died on the cross in our place, He rose from the dead on the third day -- on Easter morning -- to prove His victory over sin and death
-- and when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we rise with Him to new life -- we are a new creation and receive a new heart with no missing pieces
-- you can sum it all up there with verses 8 and 9 -- it is by grace you have been saved -- through faith -- and this not of yourself
-- it is a gift of God -- it’s not something that we can earn -- it’s not something that we get because we go to church or because our parents are Christians or because we live in America -- it’s not something that we deserve -- it’s not something that we can obtain through our works or by doing good things
-- it is a gift -- freely given by the Father to us -- that’s why we call it grace
-- and once you believe -- once you repent your sins and trust in Jesus’ death and resurrection -- then that hole is filled -- the missing piece is put in place -- and your life begins anew
-- and that is what makes today so special -- that is why we have gathered together today -- we are here to celebrate the risen Savior -- the God who has conquered sin and death -- who has filled that hole in our hearts -- and given us new life with Him
-- so, as we close in prayer, let us join together in praise and in thankfulness that we have found the missing piece and that the salvation that began with Noah is finally complete
-- [give altar call]
-- let us pray
I. Introduction
-- turn in your Bibles to Genesis 6:9-22
9 This is the account of Noah and his family.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress[a] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.[b] 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit[c] high all around.[d] Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”
22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
-- I know that today is Easter Sunday, but when I was praying about what I might bring to you this Sunday, I kept thinking of this picture of Noah and the Ark
-- this is a puzzle that Kim put together several years ago -- it took her quite a while because there is a lot of detail in the puzzle -- but once she got it done, we glued it together and then put it in this frame and it’s been hanging on the wall ever since
-- I really like this picture because it reminds me of God’s grace and the salvation that He has given us through Jesus
-- I don’t know if you’ve ever considered that or not
-- I imagine that everyone here grew up knowing the story of Noah and the Ark -- as you remember, Noah lived in a very wicked and corrupt society -- not that different from what our society is like today
-- in Genesis 6:5 we read about Noah’s day -- it says in this verse that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time -- man was rotten to the core and not getting any better
-- and when God looked down on all of the sin and wickedness and evil that was going on, He was grieved in His heart and decided to cleanse the world from all that wickedness
-- but there was one man who was different -- one man who lived differently from everyone else -- and that was Noah
-- look back at verse 9 with me
9 This is the account of Noah and his family.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
-- while the rest of the world was filled with wickedness and evil, Noah walked with God -- He was a righteous man and blameless in all that he did -- and so God decided that He would deliver Noah and his family from the judgment to come
-- so, God comes to Noah and tells Noah what He is planning to do -- skip down to verse 17
17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”
22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
-- God told Noah that a great flood was coming to cleanse the world of sin and evil -- but that He was going to protect him and his family and the animals that God would send to him
-- He told Noah to build an ark -- a great boat -- and He gave very specific details on how the ark was to be built -- He told Noah exactly how long and how high and how wide it was to built -- He told him what type of wood to use and how the ark was to be coated with pitch, inside and out, to keep the water from getting in
-- God told Noah to make three levels in the ark -- with one door in the side and a roof to keep the rain out
-- and He told him to get started, because the flood was coming -- and so Noah started work
-- it took him about 100 years to build the ark -- and all that time, the people watched -- they watched as the animals came to Noah and as Noah loaded them on the ark -- and they watched as Noah finally entered the ark with his family and the door was shut
-- seven days later, the rain started to fall -- and kept falling for 40 days and 40 nights -- the waters rose until they covered the highest points on earth and everything and everyone who was not in the ark perished
-- but Noah and his family and the animals inside were saved
-- however, the flood didn’t solve the original problem -- even though God had sent the flood to cleanse the world of wickedness and sin, when Noah and his family came out of the ark, sin came out with them and entered the world once again
-- and this is the reason that I really like this puzzle that Kim did -- look at it again -- look real close at it -- do notice anything about this picture? -- there’s a piece missing -- it’s not complete -- but that’s such a perfect picture of what is going on in the story of sin and mankind
-- Noah’s salvation wasn’t complete -- it was missing a piece
-- the ark saved Noah and his family from the immediate danger of the flood, but it didn’t finish the job -- it couldn’t finish the job -- of saving Noah from his own sins and his own sin nature
-- you see, from the moment that Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, sin entered the world and turned them and all of their descendants into sinners
-- we aren’t sinners because we sin -- we sin because we are sinners -- it’s who we are -- it’s part of our nature -- and because we are sinners, we sin -- we disobey God -- we do things and think things that are wrong and don’t do the good things that we should do
-- sin made a hole in our heart -- and because of sin, all of us have a piece missing in our lives
-- if you think about it, a lot of what we do is nothing more than trying to find that missing piece
-- that’s why some people spend all their time chasing material things and wealth and looks and power and prestige -- they’re doing everything they can to fill that hole in their heart -- to find that missing piece -- and they think that if they’re rich enough or they have enough stuff or if they’re attractive enough or powerful enough -- that they will be satisfied -- but they never are
-- I remember reading a story one time about Howard Hughes -- he tried it all in his life -- he was an aviator -- an engineer -- an industrialist -- he produced and directed films -- he was a philanthropist -- at one time, he was the richest man in the world -- but he never was satisfied
-- someone once asked him just how much he needed in order to be happy -- he said, “Just a little more -- just a little more”
-- that’s the problem with trying to fill that hole in our heart with things or with power or pleasure -- it just won’t work -- nothing will fit -- and we’ll always find ourselves needing just a little bit more to make us happy
-- other people try to find that missing piece through religion -- through doing good works or by going to church
-- if you think about it, religion is really nothing more than man’s attempt to make his own way to heaven -- but that won’t work, because there’s nothing that we can do in our own power that will fill that missing piece and save us from the judgment to come
-- the Bible says that all our good works are like filthy rags compared to God’s goodness -- and that we can do nothing of any lasting value apart from Him
-- I know what it feels like to run through life trying to find that missing piece because I’ve been there and I’ve done that -- when I was younger, I thought I had it all figured out -- I thought I knew how to make things right with God
-- I grew up in church -- we weren't real regular church goers, but I grew up going to Sunday School -- worship service -- I knew who God was and who Jesus was -- and when I was 12 years old I marched down the aisle to get baptized and join the church -- not because of any spiritual decision I had made -- not because I had accepted God's offer of a relationship with Him through Jesus -- but simply because it was time -- everyone in our church got baptized and joined the church when they were around 12 years old -- it's what you did -- it was expected of you
-- but, you know, nothing really changed in my life -- I stayed right there in my comfort zone at my church and nothing changed -- I still sat in the same pew -- I still sang the same songs -- the only thing that was different was that my name was now on the church roll
-- on the surface, I looked like a Christian -- it looked like I had it all together with God -- I was doing all the right things and saying all the right words -- part of the problem was that my faith had never really been tested -- I was getting by just going to church because at that time in my life, I had never really needed God -- I never had gone through any real crises -- anything that came up, I was able to handle on my own -- and if I couldn't do it, then my family and my friends stepped up
-- but then something happened -- when I graduated from ABAC, I transferred to the University of Florida and moved to Gainesville -- and for the first time in my life, I was put out of my comfort zone
-- I was alone in a big city --- in a big school -- working full-time and trying to go to a college I was unprepared for -- I had moved away from my family and my friends -- and for the first time in my life, I didn't have any real friends -- I felt alone -- I felt empty -- I felt kind of like something was missing -- like I had a big hole in my heart that needed to be filled
-- so, I tried to fill that hole with other things -- growing up, I didn't drink -- I never drank a drop until after I graduated from high school -- but when I got to Gainesville, I started drinking just to fit in with everyone else
-- I desperately wanted friends -- I needed company -- and so I started hanging out with guys after work, drinking in the parking lot and going to bars with them to chase women -- I started hitting all the frat parties and doing everything I could to fill that hole -- to stop feeling so alone and unloved -- but the drinking and the partying didn't work
-- so, I moved on to other things -- when I wasn't working, I was in the woods -- I spent all my time hunting and fishing -- even though I had moved down to Gainesville to go to school, I would skip school and go hunting -- I was majoring in wildlife biology -- in my mind, I thought I was just working on my degree -- made sense to me -- but when I got my grades that semester, I found out my professors didn't agree
-- you see, I thought if I was busy enough -- if I drank enough -- if I partied enough -- if I had enough hobbies -- that that empty feeling would go away -- but it didn't work -- nothing worked -- I might be happy for a while -- I might have fun for a while -- but in the middle of the night, after the party ended -- after I came home from a day of hunting and fishing -- I still felt empty -- I still felt alone -- I still felt like something was missing
-- I needed a change -- I needed to find my missing part -- so, I came home and went back to ABAC and got a degree in wildlife technology and took a job on Ossabaw Island off the coast of Savannah -- I thought it was just the place for me -- if I couldn’t find that missing piece, then I would go to a place where I could hide and just get away from the world and not worry about it anymore -- but God knew where I was and He knew what I needed, so He met me there
-- One day -- just right out of the blue -- a coworker there on that island asked me a question that changed my life -- he said, "Do you know God?" -- I told him "Yeah, I go to church" -- I was lying and he knew it -- I was living out there on that island that didn't have a church -- he knew better -- he knew I wasn't going to church -- but he didn't say anything about that
-- instead he said, "I didn't ask you if you went to church -- I asked you if you knew God -- Have you asked Jesus to forgive your sins? -- have you accepted God's offer of love? -- are you in a personal relationship with Him?"
-- I didn't know what to say -- No one had ever asked me that before -- not my family -- not my friends -- not even the people in the church I grew up in
-- I thought I was a Christian simply because I had gone to church my whole life -- I thought I was a Christian because I had marched down that aisle and got baptized and joined the church when I was 12 years old -- it didn't matter that I wasn't going to church right then -- my parents were still going -- and I had to gone to church in the past and my name was on the roll and that made me a Christian
-- and at that moment, I realized what had been missing in my life -- I knew why that hole was there -- I knew why I had been feeling so lost and so empty and so alone -- I knew why all of the partying and hunting and working and everything else didn’t work to fill that hole
-- it’s because I had been looking for the wrong thing -- and all of a sudden I knew what was missing in my life
-- Jesus was what was missing -- Jesus was the missing piece
-- if you would, please turn over to Ephesians 2 and let’s finish up there
-- look down at verse 1
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
-- dead in our transgressions and sins -- separated from God and bound up in wickedness and sin in our inner parts -- all of us -- every single one of us
-- that’s why it says in Romans 3:23 it says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God -- that’s who we were -- that’s how we lived
-- just like the people in Noah’s day before the flood came -- just going through life following our own desires and the cravings of our own sinful hearts -- knowing that something wasn’t right and chasing after whatever we thought might fill that missing piece in our heart
-- verse 4
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
-- just like God provided the ark to deliver Noah and his family from the flood, God’s grace sent Jesus to deliver us from our sins
-- the Bible tells us in John 3:16 that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall have everlasting life
-- God sent Jesus to earth to die on the cross in our place -- to pay the price for our sins -- and to fill that hole that sin had created in our hearts and in our spirits
-- and just like there was only one ark and only one door in that ark and you had to enter in through that door to be saved, there is only one Jesus -- only one Son of God -- and only one way to be forgiven of your sins
-- in John 14:6 Jesus said, “I Am the Way and the Truth and the Life -- No one comes to the Father apart from Me”
-- Jesus is THE way -- and everyone who enters in must come through Jesus -- His promise is that everyone who believes in Him will be delivered from their sin and receive eternal life -- but you have to come through Jesus because He is the missing piece in your life
-- verse 6
6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
-- after Jesus died on the cross in our place, He rose from the dead on the third day -- on Easter morning -- to prove His victory over sin and death
-- and when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we rise with Him to new life -- we are a new creation and receive a new heart with no missing pieces
-- you can sum it all up there with verses 8 and 9 -- it is by grace you have been saved -- through faith -- and this not of yourself
-- it is a gift of God -- it’s not something that we can earn -- it’s not something that we get because we go to church or because our parents are Christians or because we live in America -- it’s not something that we deserve -- it’s not something that we can obtain through our works or by doing good things
-- it is a gift -- freely given by the Father to us -- that’s why we call it grace
-- and once you believe -- once you repent your sins and trust in Jesus’ death and resurrection -- then that hole is filled -- the missing piece is put in place -- and your life begins anew
-- and that is what makes today so special -- that is why we have gathered together today -- we are here to celebrate the risen Savior -- the God who has conquered sin and death -- who has filled that hole in our hearts -- and given us new life with Him
-- so, as we close in prayer, let us join together in praise and in thankfulness that we have found the missing piece and that the salvation that began with Noah is finally complete
-- [give altar call]
-- let us pray
Sunday, August 28, 2011
PETRA AND THE PHARISEES
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to." Matthew 23:13
Last night we drove down to Jacksonville to see the Petra Reunion concert. For those who have never heard of Petra, they were one of the first, if not the first, contemporary Christian rock bands, coming out in 1972 and staying together until 2005. Not having a contemporary Christian station in our area, I first heard of Petra when I was in college, but they were a little too hard rock for my taste.
However, since we have become acquainted with a member of the band and since my wife is a long-time Petra fan, we made the drive down with some friends last night to see the concert at a church there in the area. We arrived at the same time as the band, and stood there with them as they unloaded their van and brought their instruments and other equipment into the church.
While we were standing there at the door, a young boy walked up to us and said, "You can't come in. The doors open at 6:00 pm." When our friend said, "We're with the band," he shrugged and walked back to the adults sitting at the ticket table.
After the band got their stuff into the church and began setting up, we all followed them in, where we were promptly stopped by the ticket lady. "You can't come in," she said. Our friend said that we were with her, and the ticket lady asked, "Is their name on the comp list?" "No, they're going to pay for their own tickets." "Then they can't come in." This went on for a while until tempers began to flare and our friend from the band had to come out and speak to the ticket lady.
We finally got permission to enter into the lobby and wait until the doors opened (which was a relief since the temperature outside had reached 100 degrees!). As we were standing there, a lot of people wandered by our group of 9 standing there in the lobby, presumably from the church. No one greeted us and no one spoke, so I wandered over and spoke to an elderly man who was guarding the door to the sanctuary. I asked him about the church, how many people went there, and their services. As he was telling me about this expansive sanctuary they had just built three years earlier, he said, "We've got to be pretty careful to keep this place looking nice. The members do a good job of not bringing in food and drink into the sanctuary. Our problem is visitors. They keep wanting to bring coffee from the lobby into the sanctuary, so we have to stop them."
Based on my experience at the concert last night, I was reminded of Matthew 23:13. In this verse, Jesus takes the Pharisees to task because they had put so many burdens and so many laws on the people, that they were actually keeping people from coming to God. And, to make things worse, not only were they keeping people from God, but they weren't entering the kingdom of God either.
I don't know anything about this church that we visited except for what we experienced last night. They may be a loving church. They may really be doing great things for God. They are very large (3,500 members), and are evidently growing, so I assume that the people are getting fed and are growing in grace, but I got the distinct impression that visitors were not really welcome, and that they were doing everything they could to keep others from entering. I just didn't experience the love of Christ from the host church last night, but thankfully, I did feel the grace of God through the concert and the message of Petra.
Other than the blessing we received from Petra, I left the concert last night with a warning ringing in my ears, "Don't be like the Pharisees! The Kingdom of God is for all, and you should always err on the side of grace instead of the law. So what if coffee spills on the carpet? So what is your church isn't a showroom? What is the purpose of the church anyway? To look pretty for a world going to hell or to invite those who are perishing to come to Christ?" I pray that our little church never reaches the point where the building becomes more important than the people or where rules take precedence over grace.
Last night we drove down to Jacksonville to see the Petra Reunion concert. For those who have never heard of Petra, they were one of the first, if not the first, contemporary Christian rock bands, coming out in 1972 and staying together until 2005. Not having a contemporary Christian station in our area, I first heard of Petra when I was in college, but they were a little too hard rock for my taste.
However, since we have become acquainted with a member of the band and since my wife is a long-time Petra fan, we made the drive down with some friends last night to see the concert at a church there in the area. We arrived at the same time as the band, and stood there with them as they unloaded their van and brought their instruments and other equipment into the church.
While we were standing there at the door, a young boy walked up to us and said, "You can't come in. The doors open at 6:00 pm." When our friend said, "We're with the band," he shrugged and walked back to the adults sitting at the ticket table.
After the band got their stuff into the church and began setting up, we all followed them in, where we were promptly stopped by the ticket lady. "You can't come in," she said. Our friend said that we were with her, and the ticket lady asked, "Is their name on the comp list?" "No, they're going to pay for their own tickets." "Then they can't come in." This went on for a while until tempers began to flare and our friend from the band had to come out and speak to the ticket lady.
We finally got permission to enter into the lobby and wait until the doors opened (which was a relief since the temperature outside had reached 100 degrees!). As we were standing there, a lot of people wandered by our group of 9 standing there in the lobby, presumably from the church. No one greeted us and no one spoke, so I wandered over and spoke to an elderly man who was guarding the door to the sanctuary. I asked him about the church, how many people went there, and their services. As he was telling me about this expansive sanctuary they had just built three years earlier, he said, "We've got to be pretty careful to keep this place looking nice. The members do a good job of not bringing in food and drink into the sanctuary. Our problem is visitors. They keep wanting to bring coffee from the lobby into the sanctuary, so we have to stop them."
Based on my experience at the concert last night, I was reminded of Matthew 23:13. In this verse, Jesus takes the Pharisees to task because they had put so many burdens and so many laws on the people, that they were actually keeping people from coming to God. And, to make things worse, not only were they keeping people from God, but they weren't entering the kingdom of God either.
I don't know anything about this church that we visited except for what we experienced last night. They may be a loving church. They may really be doing great things for God. They are very large (3,500 members), and are evidently growing, so I assume that the people are getting fed and are growing in grace, but I got the distinct impression that visitors were not really welcome, and that they were doing everything they could to keep others from entering. I just didn't experience the love of Christ from the host church last night, but thankfully, I did feel the grace of God through the concert and the message of Petra.
Other than the blessing we received from Petra, I left the concert last night with a warning ringing in my ears, "Don't be like the Pharisees! The Kingdom of God is for all, and you should always err on the side of grace instead of the law. So what if coffee spills on the carpet? So what is your church isn't a showroom? What is the purpose of the church anyway? To look pretty for a world going to hell or to invite those who are perishing to come to Christ?" I pray that our little church never reaches the point where the building becomes more important than the people or where rules take precedence over grace.
SERMON: RUMORS OF REVIVAL
17 April 2011 (Palm Sunday)
I. Introduction
-- turn in your Bibles to John 12:12-19
12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the king of Israel!”
14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:
15 “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
see, your king is coming,
seated on a donkey’s colt.”
16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.
17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”
-- today is, of course, Palm Sunday -- it marks the start of Holy Week -- the holiest and most important week of worship in the Christian church
-- it starts with Palm Sunday -- goes through Maundy Thursday -- Good Friday -- and finally ends on Easter Sunday -- as we gather together to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus
-- one Palm Sunday, little 5-year-old Johnny had a sore throat and really didn’t feel like going to church -- so his family let him stay home with a babysitter -- when they got back to the house, they were carrying several palm branches -- just to let you know, on Palm Sunday a lot of the larger churches actually pass out little palm fronds and let the people wave them during the service as a reminder of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem almost 2000 years ago -- and evidently that’s what Johnny’s church had done
-- well, when Johnny saw his family come walking in with those palm branches, he wasn’t happy -- Johnny said, "Where did you get the palm branches? What are they for?” -- Johnny's older brother said, "People held them over Jesus' head as He walked by" -- Johnny looked disgusted and said, "That's just great -- The one Sunday I don't go to church and Jesus shows up!"
-- well, that’s exactly what this passage in John is all about -- it’s about Jesus showing up -- it’s about God coming to town
-- in order to really understand the significance of what is going on in this passage and what had been going on over the past 3-4 years in Israel, you need to understand some history
-- the Israelites were God’s chosen people -- out of all the people in the world, God had chosen the Israelites to be His special people -- God had called their ancestors -- Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- and promised to be their God and to bless them and all the world through them
-- He led the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt across the Red Sea -- He led them through the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land -- appearing as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to show them the path they should follow
-- God had spoken to them through Moses and Joshua and many, many prophets -- He had given them the law and they had written down and protected His word for thousands of years
-- the people had enjoyed their special relationship with God for a long time -- but one day, God quit talking -- it was a difficult time in the nation of Israel -- the people had once again turned from God to worship idols and to trust in their own strength -- in the past, God would send a prophet to them and warn them of their sins and would call them to come back to Him -- He would restore them to the land and restore His worship in the temple
-- but this time, instead of sending another prophet into the world to warn them and lead them back to Him, God just quit talking
-- God spoke through the prophet Malachi -- the last prophet in the Old Testament -- and warned the people to turn back to Him -- He told them to return and to worship Him again with all their hearts and souls and minds and strength because the end was coming -- the great Day of the Lord would soon be at hand when they would be judged for their sins -- and when Malachi wrote down all that God had told him to write and he proclaimed it to the nation of Israel, God stopped talking
-- for 460 years, the people of Israel had not heard a word from their God -- God had never left them before -- even in their sins, God would speak to them and would call them home -- but now, no one heard from God -- there had been no prophets for almost 500 years -- so the people did what they knew to do
-- they continued to go to church -- they continued to offer sacrifices -- they continued to go through the motions -- but there was no inspiration -- there was no word from God -- there was no indication that He was near
-- God was silent and the people suffered and wondered and hoped -- until one day, a man dressed in camel hair and wearing a leather belt appeared in the wilderness proclaiming the coming of the Lord and calling people to repent
-- and, as John baptized people in the Jordan River, the people wondered if this could be the messenger that Malachi told them about in the last book of the Old Testament --- the one who was going to be like the prophet Elijah and who would prepare the way for the return of the Lord
-- and then, there was Jesus -- as the Apostle John puts it -- a great light shining in the darkness -- a man who was more than a man -- a man who spoke with power and authority -- a man who touched the blind and the lame and the sick and they were healed -- a man who knew God and who spoke with God and who seemed to be God
-- and, so, the people flocked to Jesus -- they surrounded Him wherever He went -- some came for the healings -- some came for the bread from heaven -- some came to watch the show -- but others came seeking that which they had lost -- they came looking for God and hoping to hear His voice again
-- the people began to whisper that God was back -- they began to think that God had returned -- there were rumors of a revival going on in Israel through the ministry of Jesus
-- this is really what is going on in this passage in John about the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem -- or, as we usually call it -- Palm Sunday
-- let’s look again at this with fresh eyes to catch a glimpse of what it was that drove these people to surround Jesus on that day
-- look back at verse 12
12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem
-- the city of Jerusalem was crowded that day -- faithful believers from all over Israel and beyond had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread -- we know it better as the Passover Feast
-- this feast celebrated the protection of Israel by God as the angel of death passed over Egypt and slew the first-born children in the land as the final plague on the Egyptian Pharaoh -- only those people who had sacrificed a lamb and placed its blood on the doorposts of their homes were protected and delivered from death on that night
-- as commanded in the Jewish law, every year people would come to Jerusalem to remember the Passover and to worship in the temple
-- so, as Palm Sunday began, Jerusalem was filled with people who had come to worship God -- it was literally busting at the seams with people -- and all of them had heard of Jesus and were wondering if He was coming or not
-- verse 13
. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the king of Israel!”
14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:
15 “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
see, your king is coming,
seated on a donkey’s colt.”
-- when the people heard that Jesus was coming, they ran out to meet Him -- John says here they took palm branches with them and waved them in the air in anticipation of His coming
-- palm fronds signified victory -- they were waved when a victorious army came back home after winning a battle -- and they were waved when the king returned back to his palace -- through their actions, the people were saying what they truly believed about Jesus -- although they might not have fully understood that Jesus was God -- they knew that God had returned and that He was speaking through Jesus -- and so the people flocked to the road to welcome the voice of God back to Jerusalem after He had been silent for nearly 500 years
-- one thing to note here is that our actions proclaim what we believe, too -- more so than our words, what we do and how we live our lives tells others what we truly believe about God and about Jesus -- do we go through our lives proclaiming Him for the world to see -- or do we act like we haven’t heard from Him in a long time?
-- the other three gospel writers tell us that the people also spread their cloaks on the road in front of Jesus as He passed -- this was symbolic of royalty -- it’s kind of like our red carpets that we put out today for celebrities and dignitaries
-- it was also a way for the people to show that they were offering themselves and their possessions to Jesus -- by placing these cloaks in front of Him, they were saying, “We trust you -- we believe in you -- take our lives and take all that we have -- be our King and restore Israel to its former glory”
-- as Jesus made His way down from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem, the people shouted at Him and said, “Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
-- “Hosanna” means “Save” -- it carries with it the idea of God delivering the people just as He had done during the Passover -- it is a cry to God for salvation and deliverance and healing
-- usually it was used just during worship as an expression of praise -- but here, the people are shouting it to Jesus, showing that they recognized Him as worthy of their praise -- as someone who was touched by God
-- verse 16
16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.
-- isn’t this verse amazing? -- “the disciples did not understand all of this” -- isn’t that the way it always is?
-- the people closest to someone can’t see them for who they really are -- sometimes it takes distance and a new look in order to fully see and understand just how special someone is -- let me give you an example of what I’m talking about
-- right now there is a miniseries on television called, “The Kennedys,” about the Kennedy family and their political dynasty, focused primarily on the life of John F. Kennedy
-- any time I’ve looked at the life of John F. Kennedy, one thing that has always fascinated me is the picture of John F. Kennedy, Jr. in the oval office -- he’s peeking out of the modesty panel underneath the president’s desk while his father, the president of the United States, is working at his desk
-- and what has always struck me about that picture is that JFK, Jr. has no idea who his father is or how important he is because he’s so close to him -- he could only understand later, when he looked at his father’s political career from a distant viewpoint
-- well, that is what is going on here in this passage -- the disciples were Jesus’ closest friends -- they had come to know Him in a special way -- they had lived with Him for three years -- they had traveled together -- they had shared meals together -- they had seen Him do miracles
-- but, because they were so close to Him, they just couldn’t see Him for who He truly was -- it was only later -- after the resurrection -- after Jesus’ ascension -- that they finally started to understand who this Jesus was that they had been with for so long and started to see Him as more than just a prophet but God Himself
-- verse 17
17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”
-- now here’s what I really want you to see in this passage -- word had spread about Jesus and what He had been doing -- especially after He raised Lazarus from the dead
-- so, when news that Jesus was coming to town spread, the entire town gathered on the street to praise His name and to wave palm branches and put their cloaks in the road
-- they had heard the stories of the miracles -- they had heard of the miraculous healings and the bread from heaven -- they had heard of the teachings and all that Jesus did -- and the people came to see for themselves if Jesus was the Messiah
-- this is always the pattern of God’s work in our world -- when God begins to move, people respond -- when they hear rumors of revival, people flock to be with God and to hear His voice and feel His presence
-- on February 3rd 1970, the students at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, were having their regular morning chapel service -- instead of preaching, the leader that morning gave his testimony and encouraged the students to come forward and talk about their own Christian experiences
-- one student came -- and then another and another -- the entire altar filled up -- and students began to confess their sins and offer forgiveness to others for wrongs that had been done and offer their lives back to God
-- this wasn’t a normal chapel service -- everyone could sense that -- everyone knew that God was truly there
-- the service was supposed to last 50 minutes -- instead, it went on non-stop for 185 hours -- 24 hours a day -- as students and faculty poured into the chapel and turned back to God with their whole hearts
-- just like on Palm Sunday, word began to spread about what God was doing -- and the revival grew and grew and grew -- people started flocking to tiny Wilmore, Kentucky -- seeking God and His presence in their lives
-- they knew God was there -- they knew He was doing something special -- and they wanted to be a part of it
-- by that summer, the revival had spread to more than 130 other colleges and seminaries and scores of churches -- there were reports of revivals occurring from New York to California and even as far away as South America
-- John tells us here about a revival that took place about 2000 years ago -- a revival that started a fire that has still not been extinguished
-- the Pharisees, who had been hoping to capture Jesus in secret, looked at the crowd and listened to their voices of praise and said, “The whole world has gone after Him.”
-- isn’t that the way it is supposed to be? -- why should Palm Sunday just be one day on the Christian calendar? -- why aren’t we expecting our churches and our streets to be filled with people looking for Jesus every Sunday? -- why should this be something that we just read about and not something that we are experiencing?
-- the message here is that revival begins with us -- if we have truly experienced the presence of God, then we should be spreading the word about Jesus just as the disciples did in His day
-- and we should expect the world to respond and to come seeking the God who saves and delivers and heals
-- so let’s pray that God would come into our hearts and into our lives just as He did that day in Jerusalem and that our churches and our streets would be filled with people running to meet Him
-- let us pray
I. Introduction
-- turn in your Bibles to John 12:12-19
12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the king of Israel!”
14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:
15 “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
see, your king is coming,
seated on a donkey’s colt.”
16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.
17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”
-- today is, of course, Palm Sunday -- it marks the start of Holy Week -- the holiest and most important week of worship in the Christian church
-- it starts with Palm Sunday -- goes through Maundy Thursday -- Good Friday -- and finally ends on Easter Sunday -- as we gather together to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus
-- one Palm Sunday, little 5-year-old Johnny had a sore throat and really didn’t feel like going to church -- so his family let him stay home with a babysitter -- when they got back to the house, they were carrying several palm branches -- just to let you know, on Palm Sunday a lot of the larger churches actually pass out little palm fronds and let the people wave them during the service as a reminder of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem almost 2000 years ago -- and evidently that’s what Johnny’s church had done
-- well, when Johnny saw his family come walking in with those palm branches, he wasn’t happy -- Johnny said, "Where did you get the palm branches? What are they for?” -- Johnny's older brother said, "People held them over Jesus' head as He walked by" -- Johnny looked disgusted and said, "That's just great -- The one Sunday I don't go to church and Jesus shows up!"
-- well, that’s exactly what this passage in John is all about -- it’s about Jesus showing up -- it’s about God coming to town
-- in order to really understand the significance of what is going on in this passage and what had been going on over the past 3-4 years in Israel, you need to understand some history
-- the Israelites were God’s chosen people -- out of all the people in the world, God had chosen the Israelites to be His special people -- God had called their ancestors -- Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- and promised to be their God and to bless them and all the world through them
-- He led the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt across the Red Sea -- He led them through the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land -- appearing as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to show them the path they should follow
-- God had spoken to them through Moses and Joshua and many, many prophets -- He had given them the law and they had written down and protected His word for thousands of years
-- the people had enjoyed their special relationship with God for a long time -- but one day, God quit talking -- it was a difficult time in the nation of Israel -- the people had once again turned from God to worship idols and to trust in their own strength -- in the past, God would send a prophet to them and warn them of their sins and would call them to come back to Him -- He would restore them to the land and restore His worship in the temple
-- but this time, instead of sending another prophet into the world to warn them and lead them back to Him, God just quit talking
-- God spoke through the prophet Malachi -- the last prophet in the Old Testament -- and warned the people to turn back to Him -- He told them to return and to worship Him again with all their hearts and souls and minds and strength because the end was coming -- the great Day of the Lord would soon be at hand when they would be judged for their sins -- and when Malachi wrote down all that God had told him to write and he proclaimed it to the nation of Israel, God stopped talking
-- for 460 years, the people of Israel had not heard a word from their God -- God had never left them before -- even in their sins, God would speak to them and would call them home -- but now, no one heard from God -- there had been no prophets for almost 500 years -- so the people did what they knew to do
-- they continued to go to church -- they continued to offer sacrifices -- they continued to go through the motions -- but there was no inspiration -- there was no word from God -- there was no indication that He was near
-- God was silent and the people suffered and wondered and hoped -- until one day, a man dressed in camel hair and wearing a leather belt appeared in the wilderness proclaiming the coming of the Lord and calling people to repent
-- and, as John baptized people in the Jordan River, the people wondered if this could be the messenger that Malachi told them about in the last book of the Old Testament --- the one who was going to be like the prophet Elijah and who would prepare the way for the return of the Lord
-- and then, there was Jesus -- as the Apostle John puts it -- a great light shining in the darkness -- a man who was more than a man -- a man who spoke with power and authority -- a man who touched the blind and the lame and the sick and they were healed -- a man who knew God and who spoke with God and who seemed to be God
-- and, so, the people flocked to Jesus -- they surrounded Him wherever He went -- some came for the healings -- some came for the bread from heaven -- some came to watch the show -- but others came seeking that which they had lost -- they came looking for God and hoping to hear His voice again
-- the people began to whisper that God was back -- they began to think that God had returned -- there were rumors of a revival going on in Israel through the ministry of Jesus
-- this is really what is going on in this passage in John about the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem -- or, as we usually call it -- Palm Sunday
-- let’s look again at this with fresh eyes to catch a glimpse of what it was that drove these people to surround Jesus on that day
-- look back at verse 12
12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem
-- the city of Jerusalem was crowded that day -- faithful believers from all over Israel and beyond had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread -- we know it better as the Passover Feast
-- this feast celebrated the protection of Israel by God as the angel of death passed over Egypt and slew the first-born children in the land as the final plague on the Egyptian Pharaoh -- only those people who had sacrificed a lamb and placed its blood on the doorposts of their homes were protected and delivered from death on that night
-- as commanded in the Jewish law, every year people would come to Jerusalem to remember the Passover and to worship in the temple
-- so, as Palm Sunday began, Jerusalem was filled with people who had come to worship God -- it was literally busting at the seams with people -- and all of them had heard of Jesus and were wondering if He was coming or not
-- verse 13
. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the king of Israel!”
14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:
15 “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
see, your king is coming,
seated on a donkey’s colt.”
-- when the people heard that Jesus was coming, they ran out to meet Him -- John says here they took palm branches with them and waved them in the air in anticipation of His coming
-- palm fronds signified victory -- they were waved when a victorious army came back home after winning a battle -- and they were waved when the king returned back to his palace -- through their actions, the people were saying what they truly believed about Jesus -- although they might not have fully understood that Jesus was God -- they knew that God had returned and that He was speaking through Jesus -- and so the people flocked to the road to welcome the voice of God back to Jerusalem after He had been silent for nearly 500 years
-- one thing to note here is that our actions proclaim what we believe, too -- more so than our words, what we do and how we live our lives tells others what we truly believe about God and about Jesus -- do we go through our lives proclaiming Him for the world to see -- or do we act like we haven’t heard from Him in a long time?
-- the other three gospel writers tell us that the people also spread their cloaks on the road in front of Jesus as He passed -- this was symbolic of royalty -- it’s kind of like our red carpets that we put out today for celebrities and dignitaries
-- it was also a way for the people to show that they were offering themselves and their possessions to Jesus -- by placing these cloaks in front of Him, they were saying, “We trust you -- we believe in you -- take our lives and take all that we have -- be our King and restore Israel to its former glory”
-- as Jesus made His way down from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem, the people shouted at Him and said, “Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
-- “Hosanna” means “Save” -- it carries with it the idea of God delivering the people just as He had done during the Passover -- it is a cry to God for salvation and deliverance and healing
-- usually it was used just during worship as an expression of praise -- but here, the people are shouting it to Jesus, showing that they recognized Him as worthy of their praise -- as someone who was touched by God
-- verse 16
16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.
-- isn’t this verse amazing? -- “the disciples did not understand all of this” -- isn’t that the way it always is?
-- the people closest to someone can’t see them for who they really are -- sometimes it takes distance and a new look in order to fully see and understand just how special someone is -- let me give you an example of what I’m talking about
-- right now there is a miniseries on television called, “The Kennedys,” about the Kennedy family and their political dynasty, focused primarily on the life of John F. Kennedy
-- any time I’ve looked at the life of John F. Kennedy, one thing that has always fascinated me is the picture of John F. Kennedy, Jr. in the oval office -- he’s peeking out of the modesty panel underneath the president’s desk while his father, the president of the United States, is working at his desk
-- and what has always struck me about that picture is that JFK, Jr. has no idea who his father is or how important he is because he’s so close to him -- he could only understand later, when he looked at his father’s political career from a distant viewpoint
-- well, that is what is going on here in this passage -- the disciples were Jesus’ closest friends -- they had come to know Him in a special way -- they had lived with Him for three years -- they had traveled together -- they had shared meals together -- they had seen Him do miracles
-- but, because they were so close to Him, they just couldn’t see Him for who He truly was -- it was only later -- after the resurrection -- after Jesus’ ascension -- that they finally started to understand who this Jesus was that they had been with for so long and started to see Him as more than just a prophet but God Himself
-- verse 17
17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”
-- now here’s what I really want you to see in this passage -- word had spread about Jesus and what He had been doing -- especially after He raised Lazarus from the dead
-- so, when news that Jesus was coming to town spread, the entire town gathered on the street to praise His name and to wave palm branches and put their cloaks in the road
-- they had heard the stories of the miracles -- they had heard of the miraculous healings and the bread from heaven -- they had heard of the teachings and all that Jesus did -- and the people came to see for themselves if Jesus was the Messiah
-- this is always the pattern of God’s work in our world -- when God begins to move, people respond -- when they hear rumors of revival, people flock to be with God and to hear His voice and feel His presence
-- on February 3rd 1970, the students at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, were having their regular morning chapel service -- instead of preaching, the leader that morning gave his testimony and encouraged the students to come forward and talk about their own Christian experiences
-- one student came -- and then another and another -- the entire altar filled up -- and students began to confess their sins and offer forgiveness to others for wrongs that had been done and offer their lives back to God
-- this wasn’t a normal chapel service -- everyone could sense that -- everyone knew that God was truly there
-- the service was supposed to last 50 minutes -- instead, it went on non-stop for 185 hours -- 24 hours a day -- as students and faculty poured into the chapel and turned back to God with their whole hearts
-- just like on Palm Sunday, word began to spread about what God was doing -- and the revival grew and grew and grew -- people started flocking to tiny Wilmore, Kentucky -- seeking God and His presence in their lives
-- they knew God was there -- they knew He was doing something special -- and they wanted to be a part of it
-- by that summer, the revival had spread to more than 130 other colleges and seminaries and scores of churches -- there were reports of revivals occurring from New York to California and even as far away as South America
-- John tells us here about a revival that took place about 2000 years ago -- a revival that started a fire that has still not been extinguished
-- the Pharisees, who had been hoping to capture Jesus in secret, looked at the crowd and listened to their voices of praise and said, “The whole world has gone after Him.”
-- isn’t that the way it is supposed to be? -- why should Palm Sunday just be one day on the Christian calendar? -- why aren’t we expecting our churches and our streets to be filled with people looking for Jesus every Sunday? -- why should this be something that we just read about and not something that we are experiencing?
-- the message here is that revival begins with us -- if we have truly experienced the presence of God, then we should be spreading the word about Jesus just as the disciples did in His day
-- and we should expect the world to respond and to come seeking the God who saves and delivers and heals
-- so let’s pray that God would come into our hearts and into our lives just as He did that day in Jerusalem and that our churches and our streets would be filled with people running to meet Him
-- let us pray
SERMON: JESUS, NOT JUST FOR EASTER ANYMORE
3 April 2011
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to John 1:35-42
35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).
-- a groom and his new wife had just got married and had driven a long distance to get to their honeymoon location -- when they finally made it to the motel, they checked in and were escorted to the bridal suite in the wee hours of the morning -- they were both so tired from the long wedding and reception and from mingling with their guests and then the drive afterwards -- they were just looking forward to a few hours of sleep before they truly started to enjoy their new life together
-- so, you can imagine their disappointment when they finally got into their room and took a look around and couldn’t see a bed in sight -- there was a nice couch -- some chairs and a table -- but no bed -- what kind of bridal suite was this?
-- then they discovered that the couch was a hide-a-bed, complete with lumpy mattress and springs sagging to the floor -- so the newly married couple spent their honeymoon night on a hide-away-bed, waking up with sore backs and an even worse disposition
-- the next morning, the husband went to the hotel desk and gave the management a tongue-lashing for giving them such a terrible room, especially on their honeymoon
-- the manager asked, "Did you open the door in the room?" -- the manager carried the husband back up to the suite, and opened the door in back of the room -- and there, complete with fruit baskets and chocolates and wonderful decorations, was a beautiful bedroom -- the husband looked at his wife and then at the manager and said, "Oh, we thought it was a closet."
-- this illustration points to the way that many Christians are going through life today -- but it shouldn’t be like this
-- Jesus promised us in John 10:10 that He came to bring us life and life to the full -- the King James Version renders this as “abundant life” -- but if you look at most Christians, the lives that they are living could hardly be described as full or abundant lives
-- it’s almost like we’re missing the full gospel of Christ in our churches and in our lives -- think about the message of Jesus that is the focal point of most of our churches -- that is the focal point of most of our evangelistic efforts
-- we are told that Jesus is the way to heaven -- that He is the way and the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father except through Him -- we tell people that they are dead in their sins and their trespasses, but that if they will receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior, then Jesus will come into their lives and forgive their sins and bring them into eternal life with Him
-- and all of this is true -- wonderfully true -- this is what Easter is all about -- this is what Lent is all about -- seeking the God who saves -- celebrating the truth that in Jesus, God became one of us and died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins so that we might receive forgiveness for our sins and eternal righteousness and life with Him
-- for 2000 years, the church has been really good at getting this message out -- at getting people to accept Jesus for their salvation -- at bringing them to the altar where they receive the justifying grace of God given to them at the cross of Calvary through the atoning death of Jesus
-- but, we’ve not done a very good job at helping people move past the altar to the wonders that await them in the next room -- we have failed to finish what Jesus called us to do when He told us in Matthew 28:18-20 to go and make disciples of all nations -- and, as a result, a lot of people have ended up getting stuck at the cross -- never maturing -- never growing -- never moving into the abundant life that Jesus promised
-- as A.W. Tozer put it almost 60 years ago, “Everything is made to center upon the initial act of ‘accepting’ Christ, and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our souls.”
-- but, isn’t there more to this Christian life than just punching a ticket to heaven? -- isn’t there more to Jesus than just salvation?
-- I have been spending time over Lent rereading the gospels -- not straight through -- but as I have been led by the Spirit to various passages -- and I noticed that Jesus’ message wasn’t as simple as we have made it -- it wasn’t just “come to Me and be saved -- come to Me and get to go to Heaven” -- no, His message was, “come to Me and enter the Kingdom of God -- come to Me and have life -- come to Me and live -- not just after you die and enter heaven -- but live to your fullest right now”
II. Scripture Lesson (John 1:35-42)
-- I think that’s why I found this passage in John so interesting -- it’s set at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry -- in fact, these verses cover the calling of Jesus’ first disciples
-- as these verses open, we read that Jesus has already been baptized by John in the Jordan River -- as you remember, John had been called by the Spirit to prepare the way for Jesus by preaching a gospel of repentance and baptism -- the Bible tells us that many people had gone out from the cities to see John and he had quite a large following with many disciples
-- one day, as John is standing there with his disciples -- preaching to the people and baptizing in the river -- he sees Jesus passing by
-- look back with me now at verse 35 and let’s pick up the story there
35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.
-- John knew exactly who Jesus was -- not only was Jesus his cousin, but he knew that Jesus was the promised Messiah -- the Lamb of God who had come to take away the sins of the world
-- when John had baptized Jesus the day before in the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit had come upon Jesus as a dove and the heavens had opened up and God the Father had spoken Jesus as He rose from the waters -- “You are my Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased”
-- John understood his role in the bigger picture -- he knew that his calling was to prepare the way for the Messiah, not to be the Messiah -- not to build a church -- not to gather disciples -- not to have a large following -- in John 3:30, when his disciples began to complain that everyone was going to Jesus and no one was coming out to see John anymore, John said, “He must become greater, I must become less”
-- John knew that there was more for Israel -- more for the world -- than the waters of the Jordan River -- than being called to the cross and being baptized in repentance of your sins
-- so, when Jesus walked by that day, John pointed Him out to the crowd and said, “There He goes -- there’s the One you have been looking for -- the Lamb of the World”
-- immediately, two of John’s disciples began to follow Jesus -- as I was reading that, I just tried to picture that in my head -- I could just see Jesus walking along the river and stopping to talk with someone and to shake someone’s hand -- to look at the wares that someone might have been selling in a booth out there
-- and there’s these two guys following Him -- when He stops, they stop -- when He moves, they move -- following Him but not really trying to make it obvious, you know? -- just kind of wandering around just to see what Jesus was doing -- at least, that’s how I pictured it since we don’t read that they ran up to Jesus and caught up to Him -- they didn’t stop Him and speak to Him -- no, they just followed Him
-- look with me at verse 38 -- and this really gets to the heart of what I want you to see
38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
-- you know that Jesus knew He was being followed -- you know that Jesus knew these two men were just following along at a distance and trying to watch Him and keep with Him -- so, finally, Jesus stops and turns around and asks the men, “What do you want?” -- the King James Version phrases it as, “What do you seek?”
-- in other words, Jesus wants to know, “Why are you following Me?”
-- how would you answer that question? -- if Jesus were to physically come in here this morning and walk up to you and look you in the eye and ask you, “Why are you here today? -- What do you want? -- Why are you following Me?” -- what would you say? -- why do you follow Jesus?
-- for many people, the answer is simple -- “because I want to go to heaven” -- “because I want to be saved” -- but, is that all we look to Jesus for -- an escape from the fires of Hell?
-- look at how John’s disciples respond to this question -- here they’ve been following Jesus around for some time and He finally turns around and confronts them, “What do you want? -- What do you seek?” -- and they respond by saying, “Where are you staying?”
-- it seems a shallow answer to such a profound question -- but, if you work through what they are really asking, they are proclaiming to Jesus, “O God, show us your glory -- “they want to taste, to touch with their hearts, to see with their inner eyes the wonder that is God.” [Source: A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God]
-- these disciples weren’t following Jesus because they wanted something from Him -- they didn’t follow Him that day because they wanted healing or bread from Heaven or financial gain -- they followed Jesus because He was who they were looking for -- He was the answer to all their questions -- He was the answer to life
-- this invitation of Jesus to these two disciples to come and go with Him to His home really gets to the heart of Christianity -- it gets to what’s missing in most of Christianity
-- let’s say that this was you in this story -- let’s say that when we leave here, we run across Jesus walking down the street -- and He turns to us and invites us to His house -- what are you going to say? -- what are you going to do?
-- would you say, “I’ve already got salvation -- I’ve already got my ticket to heaven -- I’ll see you when I die”
-- if we’re honest, that’s what most of us do -- that’s what most of us think -- we kind of treat Jesus like the spare tire in our cars -- we know He’s there in case of emergency, but we don’t pay any attention to Him except for when we need Him
-- He’s just something that we added to our lives as fire insurance -- and so we get stuck at the cross
-- we may be saved -- we may have received Jesus as our Lord and Savior and been washed in the blood of the Lamb, but we just go through life sleeping on a hide-away-bed rather than entering into the bridal suite
-- we have eternal life -- but not the abundant, full life that Jesus offers -- what are we missing by settling with just getting by at the cross and not entering into the full gospel that Jesus offers?
-- look at what happens in verse 39 -- when these disciples asked to see where Jesus was saying, Jesus told them to come and to go with Him to His home -- and we read that they spent the day with Him
-- can you imagine what it would be like to spend the day with Jesus?
-- I just finished a book yesterday by David Gregory called, “Dinner with a Perfect Stranger,” that was about this very subject -- it’s the story of a man who receives an invitation to have dinner with Jesus
-- can you imagine what it would be like to spend the day with Jesus or to share a meal with Him in a fine restaurant? -- to just sit in His presence and to listen as He talked? -- to be able to share with Him from your heart and know that He really cared about what you were saying -- about who you are?
-- if you could spend the day with Jesus like these two disciples, would you waste that time by just asking for things? -- would you spend all that time complaining about your day and about your life and about what could be better?
-- no, of course not -- we would simply sit there and enjoy the moment -- we would sit there and rejoice that we were in the presence of our God and Savior
-- our focus wouldn’t be on eternity -- it wouldn’t be on fire escapes or getting out of Hell free -- our focus would be on Jesus and Jesus alone
-- look at what happened to these disciples -- verse 40
39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).
-- after spending a day with Jesus, these disciples went home changed -- after spending a day with Jesus, these disciples went home knowing that they had seen God -- knowing that they had been with the Messiah
-- so, the first they do is tell others about Jesus -- notice what Andrew told Simon -- he didn’t tell him, “I have found the path to God” -- he didn’t tell him, “I know what we have to do to get to heaven -- we have to go to the altar and pray the sinner’s prayer and get baptized and go to church”
-- no, Andrew told Simon, “We have found the Messiah -- we have found God” -- not a plan -- not a program -- a Person
-- you see, that’s what we have lost in our religion -- that’s what we have lost in most of our churches -- it’s not about what Jesus can do for us -- it’s not about us at all -- it’s about Jesus
-- Jesus died on the cross -- not only to save us for heaven -- but to invite us home
-- He died not just so that we could escape the flames of Hell -- but to restore our relationship with Him so we could enjoy His presence once again
-- Jesus didn’t just come to give us life -- He came to be our life
-- Why do we follow Jesus?
-- is it because of what can get -- or because of who He is?
-- the answer to that question is the difference between just living life or living an abundant life with Christ
III. Closing
-- as I close this morning, I want to invite you -- right now -- to just take a moment and think about your relationship with God
-- I pray that all of you have already entered into a relationship with Jesus -- that you have been to the cross and you’ve put your faith and trust in a God who saves and who forgives us of our sins -- if you haven’t, then I want to you invite you to do so right now and to ask Jesus to be your Savior
-- for those of you who have been to the cross -- who know that you are saved -- ask yourself this question, “How am I following Jesus now?” -- think about your life and think about the importance of Jesus in your life
-- is He just there to give you things or to be available in times of need -- or do you seek His presence and follow Him because you love Him and want to spend time with Him?
-- Easter isn’t just one day on a calendar -- Easter is our wedding day -- and Jesus is calling you to enter the bridal suite with Him and to enjoy life with Him for who He is and not for what He does
-- don’t go through life sleeping on a hide-away-bed waiting for eternity -- but follow Jesus home now and spend your life with Him from this moment on
-- let us pray
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to John 1:35-42
35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).
-- a groom and his new wife had just got married and had driven a long distance to get to their honeymoon location -- when they finally made it to the motel, they checked in and were escorted to the bridal suite in the wee hours of the morning -- they were both so tired from the long wedding and reception and from mingling with their guests and then the drive afterwards -- they were just looking forward to a few hours of sleep before they truly started to enjoy their new life together
-- so, you can imagine their disappointment when they finally got into their room and took a look around and couldn’t see a bed in sight -- there was a nice couch -- some chairs and a table -- but no bed -- what kind of bridal suite was this?
-- then they discovered that the couch was a hide-a-bed, complete with lumpy mattress and springs sagging to the floor -- so the newly married couple spent their honeymoon night on a hide-away-bed, waking up with sore backs and an even worse disposition
-- the next morning, the husband went to the hotel desk and gave the management a tongue-lashing for giving them such a terrible room, especially on their honeymoon
-- the manager asked, "Did you open the door in the room?" -- the manager carried the husband back up to the suite, and opened the door in back of the room -- and there, complete with fruit baskets and chocolates and wonderful decorations, was a beautiful bedroom -- the husband looked at his wife and then at the manager and said, "Oh, we thought it was a closet."
-- this illustration points to the way that many Christians are going through life today -- but it shouldn’t be like this
-- Jesus promised us in John 10:10 that He came to bring us life and life to the full -- the King James Version renders this as “abundant life” -- but if you look at most Christians, the lives that they are living could hardly be described as full or abundant lives
-- it’s almost like we’re missing the full gospel of Christ in our churches and in our lives -- think about the message of Jesus that is the focal point of most of our churches -- that is the focal point of most of our evangelistic efforts
-- we are told that Jesus is the way to heaven -- that He is the way and the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father except through Him -- we tell people that they are dead in their sins and their trespasses, but that if they will receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior, then Jesus will come into their lives and forgive their sins and bring them into eternal life with Him
-- and all of this is true -- wonderfully true -- this is what Easter is all about -- this is what Lent is all about -- seeking the God who saves -- celebrating the truth that in Jesus, God became one of us and died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins so that we might receive forgiveness for our sins and eternal righteousness and life with Him
-- for 2000 years, the church has been really good at getting this message out -- at getting people to accept Jesus for their salvation -- at bringing them to the altar where they receive the justifying grace of God given to them at the cross of Calvary through the atoning death of Jesus
-- but, we’ve not done a very good job at helping people move past the altar to the wonders that await them in the next room -- we have failed to finish what Jesus called us to do when He told us in Matthew 28:18-20 to go and make disciples of all nations -- and, as a result, a lot of people have ended up getting stuck at the cross -- never maturing -- never growing -- never moving into the abundant life that Jesus promised
-- as A.W. Tozer put it almost 60 years ago, “Everything is made to center upon the initial act of ‘accepting’ Christ, and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our souls.”
-- but, isn’t there more to this Christian life than just punching a ticket to heaven? -- isn’t there more to Jesus than just salvation?
-- I have been spending time over Lent rereading the gospels -- not straight through -- but as I have been led by the Spirit to various passages -- and I noticed that Jesus’ message wasn’t as simple as we have made it -- it wasn’t just “come to Me and be saved -- come to Me and get to go to Heaven” -- no, His message was, “come to Me and enter the Kingdom of God -- come to Me and have life -- come to Me and live -- not just after you die and enter heaven -- but live to your fullest right now”
II. Scripture Lesson (John 1:35-42)
-- I think that’s why I found this passage in John so interesting -- it’s set at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry -- in fact, these verses cover the calling of Jesus’ first disciples
-- as these verses open, we read that Jesus has already been baptized by John in the Jordan River -- as you remember, John had been called by the Spirit to prepare the way for Jesus by preaching a gospel of repentance and baptism -- the Bible tells us that many people had gone out from the cities to see John and he had quite a large following with many disciples
-- one day, as John is standing there with his disciples -- preaching to the people and baptizing in the river -- he sees Jesus passing by
-- look back with me now at verse 35 and let’s pick up the story there
35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.
-- John knew exactly who Jesus was -- not only was Jesus his cousin, but he knew that Jesus was the promised Messiah -- the Lamb of God who had come to take away the sins of the world
-- when John had baptized Jesus the day before in the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit had come upon Jesus as a dove and the heavens had opened up and God the Father had spoken Jesus as He rose from the waters -- “You are my Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased”
-- John understood his role in the bigger picture -- he knew that his calling was to prepare the way for the Messiah, not to be the Messiah -- not to build a church -- not to gather disciples -- not to have a large following -- in John 3:30, when his disciples began to complain that everyone was going to Jesus and no one was coming out to see John anymore, John said, “He must become greater, I must become less”
-- John knew that there was more for Israel -- more for the world -- than the waters of the Jordan River -- than being called to the cross and being baptized in repentance of your sins
-- so, when Jesus walked by that day, John pointed Him out to the crowd and said, “There He goes -- there’s the One you have been looking for -- the Lamb of the World”
-- immediately, two of John’s disciples began to follow Jesus -- as I was reading that, I just tried to picture that in my head -- I could just see Jesus walking along the river and stopping to talk with someone and to shake someone’s hand -- to look at the wares that someone might have been selling in a booth out there
-- and there’s these two guys following Him -- when He stops, they stop -- when He moves, they move -- following Him but not really trying to make it obvious, you know? -- just kind of wandering around just to see what Jesus was doing -- at least, that’s how I pictured it since we don’t read that they ran up to Jesus and caught up to Him -- they didn’t stop Him and speak to Him -- no, they just followed Him
-- look with me at verse 38 -- and this really gets to the heart of what I want you to see
38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
-- you know that Jesus knew He was being followed -- you know that Jesus knew these two men were just following along at a distance and trying to watch Him and keep with Him -- so, finally, Jesus stops and turns around and asks the men, “What do you want?” -- the King James Version phrases it as, “What do you seek?”
-- in other words, Jesus wants to know, “Why are you following Me?”
-- how would you answer that question? -- if Jesus were to physically come in here this morning and walk up to you and look you in the eye and ask you, “Why are you here today? -- What do you want? -- Why are you following Me?” -- what would you say? -- why do you follow Jesus?
-- for many people, the answer is simple -- “because I want to go to heaven” -- “because I want to be saved” -- but, is that all we look to Jesus for -- an escape from the fires of Hell?
-- look at how John’s disciples respond to this question -- here they’ve been following Jesus around for some time and He finally turns around and confronts them, “What do you want? -- What do you seek?” -- and they respond by saying, “Where are you staying?”
-- it seems a shallow answer to such a profound question -- but, if you work through what they are really asking, they are proclaiming to Jesus, “O God, show us your glory -- “they want to taste, to touch with their hearts, to see with their inner eyes the wonder that is God.” [Source: A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God]
-- these disciples weren’t following Jesus because they wanted something from Him -- they didn’t follow Him that day because they wanted healing or bread from Heaven or financial gain -- they followed Jesus because He was who they were looking for -- He was the answer to all their questions -- He was the answer to life
-- this invitation of Jesus to these two disciples to come and go with Him to His home really gets to the heart of Christianity -- it gets to what’s missing in most of Christianity
-- let’s say that this was you in this story -- let’s say that when we leave here, we run across Jesus walking down the street -- and He turns to us and invites us to His house -- what are you going to say? -- what are you going to do?
-- would you say, “I’ve already got salvation -- I’ve already got my ticket to heaven -- I’ll see you when I die”
-- if we’re honest, that’s what most of us do -- that’s what most of us think -- we kind of treat Jesus like the spare tire in our cars -- we know He’s there in case of emergency, but we don’t pay any attention to Him except for when we need Him
-- He’s just something that we added to our lives as fire insurance -- and so we get stuck at the cross
-- we may be saved -- we may have received Jesus as our Lord and Savior and been washed in the blood of the Lamb, but we just go through life sleeping on a hide-away-bed rather than entering into the bridal suite
-- we have eternal life -- but not the abundant, full life that Jesus offers -- what are we missing by settling with just getting by at the cross and not entering into the full gospel that Jesus offers?
-- look at what happens in verse 39 -- when these disciples asked to see where Jesus was saying, Jesus told them to come and to go with Him to His home -- and we read that they spent the day with Him
-- can you imagine what it would be like to spend the day with Jesus?
-- I just finished a book yesterday by David Gregory called, “Dinner with a Perfect Stranger,” that was about this very subject -- it’s the story of a man who receives an invitation to have dinner with Jesus
-- can you imagine what it would be like to spend the day with Jesus or to share a meal with Him in a fine restaurant? -- to just sit in His presence and to listen as He talked? -- to be able to share with Him from your heart and know that He really cared about what you were saying -- about who you are?
-- if you could spend the day with Jesus like these two disciples, would you waste that time by just asking for things? -- would you spend all that time complaining about your day and about your life and about what could be better?
-- no, of course not -- we would simply sit there and enjoy the moment -- we would sit there and rejoice that we were in the presence of our God and Savior
-- our focus wouldn’t be on eternity -- it wouldn’t be on fire escapes or getting out of Hell free -- our focus would be on Jesus and Jesus alone
-- look at what happened to these disciples -- verse 40
39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).
-- after spending a day with Jesus, these disciples went home changed -- after spending a day with Jesus, these disciples went home knowing that they had seen God -- knowing that they had been with the Messiah
-- so, the first they do is tell others about Jesus -- notice what Andrew told Simon -- he didn’t tell him, “I have found the path to God” -- he didn’t tell him, “I know what we have to do to get to heaven -- we have to go to the altar and pray the sinner’s prayer and get baptized and go to church”
-- no, Andrew told Simon, “We have found the Messiah -- we have found God” -- not a plan -- not a program -- a Person
-- you see, that’s what we have lost in our religion -- that’s what we have lost in most of our churches -- it’s not about what Jesus can do for us -- it’s not about us at all -- it’s about Jesus
-- Jesus died on the cross -- not only to save us for heaven -- but to invite us home
-- He died not just so that we could escape the flames of Hell -- but to restore our relationship with Him so we could enjoy His presence once again
-- Jesus didn’t just come to give us life -- He came to be our life
-- Why do we follow Jesus?
-- is it because of what can get -- or because of who He is?
-- the answer to that question is the difference between just living life or living an abundant life with Christ
III. Closing
-- as I close this morning, I want to invite you -- right now -- to just take a moment and think about your relationship with God
-- I pray that all of you have already entered into a relationship with Jesus -- that you have been to the cross and you’ve put your faith and trust in a God who saves and who forgives us of our sins -- if you haven’t, then I want to you invite you to do so right now and to ask Jesus to be your Savior
-- for those of you who have been to the cross -- who know that you are saved -- ask yourself this question, “How am I following Jesus now?” -- think about your life and think about the importance of Jesus in your life
-- is He just there to give you things or to be available in times of need -- or do you seek His presence and follow Him because you love Him and want to spend time with Him?
-- Easter isn’t just one day on a calendar -- Easter is our wedding day -- and Jesus is calling you to enter the bridal suite with Him and to enjoy life with Him for who He is and not for what He does
-- don’t go through life sleeping on a hide-away-bed waiting for eternity -- but follow Jesus home now and spend your life with Him from this moment on
-- let us pray
Sunday, July 10, 2011
SERMON: THE MEANING OF BAPTISM
THE MEANING OF BAPTISM
27 March 2011
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Matthew 23:37
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.
-- before God sent the rain to us yesterday, you were probably aware that we had gotten really dry and that we’ve been having a lot of wildfires in our area -- we had a small wildfire out at Moody last Thursday that we had to quickly put out and there’s been a lot of smaller fires throughout the county over the last couple of weeks -- of course, there’s the larger wildfire that has been raging in Clinch County for several days now that had been threatening homes and lives in Cogdell and north of Homerville
-- even though wildfires are natural and part of this southern ecosystem -- they can still be very destructive and cause a lot of damage -- not only to homes and structures -- but also to the forests and to the animals that live there
-- I was reading about a wildfire the other day that had happened not far from us -- it was a massive wildfire and many firefighters had been brought in to help put it out -- they finally got it stopped and the firefighters were walking through the area putting out all the hot spots that were left -- all the stumps and the logs that were still burning and that might ignite the fire again
-- as they were walking through the burned out area, one of the men noticed a large lump on the trail -- it was kind of unusual so he walked over to it to see what it was -- and as he got closer, he noticed it was the charred remains of a large bird that had burned nearly half way through in the fire
-- he stood there looking at that bird and he wondered why this bird had died -- birds can easily fly away from the approaching flames -- I’ve been on lots of burns and lots of wildfires and I’ve never found a bird that died from the fire -- they always just fly away -- and so this guy stood there looking at that bird and trying to figure this out -- and he wondered if maybe it had been sick or injured and just couldn’t get away
-- after a moment, he decided to just kick the remains of the bird off the trail and go on -- and as soon as he did, he jumped and was scared half to death because there was all kinds of activity right by his feet -- he jumped back and watched as four little birds ran out from underneath the remains and scurried away down the hillside
-- and then he realized what had happened -- the mother’s body had covered them from the searing flames -- and even though the heat was enough to consume her -- her body protected her babies and allowed them to find safety underneath her wings -- and even though the flames came near -- and even though the heat became unbearable -- she had stayed with her young
-- she was their only hope for safety -- and she was willing to risk her own life to save them -- even when the pain reached its most unbearable moment -- when she could have flown away to start another family on another day, she made herself stay through the raging flames
-- this mother made the ultimate sacrifice to save her young -- and her death illustrates an even greater story -- the very story that brings us here today -- it is the story of a God who covered His children with His very own body and protected them from the flames of sin and death on the cross of Calvary [illustration adapted from Wayne Jacobson, The Hen and Her Chicks -- http://www.lifestream.org/bodylife.php?blid=23]
II. The Sacrifice of Jesus
-- this was the very reason Jesus came -- He told Nicodemus in John 3:16-17 that He had come into the world -- not to condemn the world -- but to save the world through Himself
-- the Bible tells us that we are all sinners -- that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God -- a lot of times we like to think that we’re ok -- that just because we haven’t done anything really bad -- we haven’t stolen anything or killed anyone -- that we’re going to get into heaven on our own merit
-- but the Bible tells us that this is just not true -- if we break God’s law at any point -- if we commit just one sin in our life -- then we have broken the entire law and are subject to the punishment of death and eternal separation from God
-- I’ve used this analogy before, but I think it makes a pretty clear picture -- think about all the different kinds of sins -- murder and robbery and lust -- telling white lies -- gossip -- impure thoughts -- all the sins -- everything you can think of
-- and now imagine them written on a plane of glass -- like that front window up there -- just written up there in a list with a little checkbox right next to each one of them -- now, I want you to imagine that on the other side of that window is a roaring lion and you can look through the glass and see him, just like an exhibit in the zoo
-- now let’s say that you were an extraordinary person and the only the only sin that you ever committed was to tell a white lie to someone -- and so I hand you a hammer and a nail and I tell you to go up there and put a hole in the checkbox next to that sin with the hammer and the nail
-- what’s going to happen to that plate of glass when you hit it with that hammer? -- it’s going to shatter -- that whole plane of glass is going to come crashing down around you -- and what’s that roaring lion going to do? -- he’s going to come through that window after you
-- that’s what happens with sin -- that’s what God tells us in His word -- if you break just one little sin out of all of the sins in the world -- it’s the same thing as breaking them all -- and you deserve the punishment that you will get
-- and there’s no one in here that has just committed one sin in their life -- we’ve all committed lots of sins -- and so the punishment that is owed us is great
-- but God didn’t want us to suffer the punishment for our sin -- He didn’t want us to spend an eternity apart from Him -- He certainly didn’t want us to end up in Hell
-- so He sent His Son to earth to die on the cross in our place -- to become sin for us -- to take up the sufferings and the afflictions that were ours -- to experience the eternal separation from God -- so that we might not have to
-- we see that here in this passage -- we see the heart of God right here in this verse --keep in mind that Jesus was talking to His most bitter enemies -- the Pharisees and those who thought they could justify themselves -- those that thought they could work themselves to heaven and make their own way to God by following the law
-- and Jesus weeps over them and He says, “I have longed to gather you up -- as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings -- but you were not willing”
-- Jesus was offering them salvation -- He was offering them eternal life -- but they just wouldn’t come
III. What Must We Do?
-- flip over to Acts 2:36
36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
-- when God sent the Holy Spirit upon the church at Pentecost, Peter stood up and preached the message of salvation and told these same Pharisees and the Jews who had gathered for the feast in Jerusalem the good news of Jesus Christ
-- He told them about the cross and the resurrection -- and as the power of the Holy Spirit fell upon them -- they cried out, “What must we do? -- we know now that the law won’t save us -- we know now that our good works can’t get us to heaven -- what must we do?”
-- and Peter lines it out for them in verses 38 and 39
38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
-- Peter says to “repent” -- to repent means that you confess to God that you know who you are and you know what you’ve done -- you take ownership for the sins that you have committed and you agree with God that you are guilty and that you stand condemned for your sin -- deserving of death
-- through repentance you ask Him to forgive you of your sins through Jesus -- to let Jesus’ death and suffering on the cross stand as payment for what you have done -- and then you agree to turn around and follow God by trusting and believing in Jesus
-- and then Peter tells us to “be baptized”
-- I read a story from Bob Beasley, who is a pastor in Canada, about the time he carried his three-year-old daughter with them to a baptismal service -- she just couldn’t understand what was going on -- when the pastor immersed the candidate and put them under the water, his daughter exclaimed in surprise, "Why he pushed that guy in the water? Why, Dad, why?"
-- later that night, they tried to help her understand what was going on -- they talked about in and told her that when people decide to live for Jesus and "do good" they want everyone to know and so they get baptized -- they explained to her that the water symbolizes Jesus' washing people from sin -- and that when they come out "clean," they are going to try to be "good."
-- but, it was obvious that his daughter still didn’t quite get it -- she responded, “Well, if he has been bad, why didn’t the preacher just spank him?” [Source: Preaching Today Illustration from Bob Beasley, pastor of Gregory Drive Alliance Church, West Chatham, Ontario, Canada]
-- that’s the great thing about grace -- we don’t have to be spanked because Jesus was spanked for us -- we don’t have to suffer the punishment for our sins because Jesus was punished for us
-- so, when we humble ourselves and ask Jesus to forgive us for all we have done wrong and we repent of our wicked ways and turn to follow Him -- Jesus gives us eternal life and tells us to offer ourselves to Him through the act of baptism as Peter tells us here
-- baptism is an outward expression of an inward grace -- it is a symbolic act that proclaims to the world the inward change that has occurred in our hearts and in our spirits
-- it signifies our new life in Christ that began with the forgiveness of our sins -- it makes us a part of the body of Christ -- and makes us one with Christ and one with the church
-- baptism is what we call a sacrament -- the word sacrament literally means “sacred moment” -- what this means is that when we are baptized, not only are we present in the act -- but God Himself is present and is pouring out His grace upon us
-- that is what makes this act of baptism so special and so meaningful in our lives -- it’s not just us -- it’s God with us
-- and while we use water to represent the waters of creation and the cleansing of sin in our lives -- we have to keep in mind that we are being baptized with both water and the Spirit -- when we are baptized, the presence of God through the Holy Spirit is made alive in us to raise us up from the old life to a new life in Christ and to empower us to live that new life in victory
-- because the water is used only as a symbol of what Jesus has done within us, I don’t believe it really matters how much water you use, although some will argue that you have to be immersed completely when you are baptized
-- here at Koinonia, we baptize in the three methods that we believe have been used throughout the Bible -- immersion, sprinkling, and pouring -- and we leave it up to the choice of the person being baptized as to how they would like to be baptized
-- I like the symbolism of immersion for I think it really proclaims to the world the death of our old body and the washing away of our sins and the rising to new life in Christ -- but, obviously, we can’t always baptize in this way -- sometimes we don’t have access to a pool of water and sometimes the person being baptized can’t be immersed -- they might be terminally ill and unable to be immersed -- or they might be an infant or a child who couldn’t be immersed safely
-- which brings up something that I want to note here in this passage -- Peter says in verse 39 that the promise of salvation is for you and your children -- we know that in the Old Testament infants were included in the covenant with God -- God commanded Abraham to mark all male infants at eight days of age with the sign of circumcision to show they were part of the covenant -- in the same way, the church has traditionally baptized infants and children as a sign that they are part of the new covenant in Christ
-- now, I know some churches do not baptize infants -- but I don’t believe they should be excluded from the sacrament simply because of their age -- Peter says here that the children are part of the promise -- and Jesus said in Matthew 19:14, “"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
-- children and infants have always been a part of the covenant of God, going back to the days of Abraham -- and nowhere in the Bible are we told to exclude them from the covenant of faith -- so I think they should be allowed to baptized as a sign of that they are part of the new covenant in Christ
-- think about it this way -- let me give you a picture of what’s really going on in baptism-- when we are baptized, we place ourselves under Jesus -- under His authority and His protection
-- very much like the picture I gave you in my story of a mother hen gathering her chicks under her wings to protect them from harm -- through baptism, we are publicly making the declaration that we have placed ourselves under the wings of Jesus -- we are proclaiming that we are part of His church -- that we are part of the new covenant that He offers us through His body and His blood
-- when an infant or child is baptized, we are doing the same thing to them that Jesus does to us -- not only are they under the sheltering wings of Jesus, but they are being placed under the sheltering wings of their parents and the entire community of faith
-- through baptism, children are brought into the community of faith and are sheltered and protected from the world around them by the grace of God
-- now, that’s not to say that infants and children receive salvation through the act of baptism -- it only means that they are part of the covenant of God and part of the body of Christ -- to be protected and nurtured and raised in the faith until they can declare on their own their personal faith and trust in the saving grace of Jesus Christ at confirmation
-- just like a Jewish boy who was circumcised at 8 days of age would one day have to stand up and become a believer on his own and agree to live for God -- infants and children who are baptized will have to do the same -- at some point in their life they are going to have to ask Jesus to forgive them of their sins and to be their Savior if they want eternal life with Him
IV. Closing
-- one Sunday morning after the worship service, a little boy came up to Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church in California and the author of the Purpose-Driven Life, and asked him, "When can I get advertised?"
-- He meant "baptized" but he made the right point -- baptism is advertising that you're a Christian
-- in the church we are baptized -- not only because we are commanded to do so in Scripture -- but because we want to proclaim to the world that we have been washed in the blood of the Lamb and have received forgiveness for our sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus
-- this morning, we are honored to have Kaylee Harpe being presented to us for baptism by her parents -- but before I invite them up, I want to offer this invitation to you
-- Christ calls for us to be baptized as an act of obedience -- as a proclamation of who we are in Him -- and as a witness to the inward change that has come through our salvation
-- maybe some of you here have never received Jesus before as your Lord and Savior -- maybe you grew up thinking that going to church and believing that Jesus was real was enough to be saved -- but the Bible tells us that you have to do more
-- you have to repent -- you have to confess your sins and admit you are a sinner and ask Jesus to forgive you for what you have done -- and then you have to trust in His atoning death and His resurrection and believe in your heart -- not just your head -- that He is God and that we are saved and can go to heaven only because of Him
-- if you’ve never received Jesus as your personal Savior -- if you’ve never come and asked Him to forgive you for your sins, then I want to invite you to do so right now
-- and if you have received Jesus but you’ve never followed through and been baptized -- then I want to invite you to come up and offer yourself for baptism -- if you want to be immersed, we can arrange a time and place for that -- but if you just want to experience the baptism and the grace of Jesus right now through the symbolic act of sprinkling with water, then I’d invite you to come forward as we prepare to baptize Kaylee
-- so, let’s close in prayer and then I’ll have Seth lead us in the final song and then we’ll celebrate together the sacrament of baptism
-- let’s pray
27 March 2011
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Matthew 23:37
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.
-- before God sent the rain to us yesterday, you were probably aware that we had gotten really dry and that we’ve been having a lot of wildfires in our area -- we had a small wildfire out at Moody last Thursday that we had to quickly put out and there’s been a lot of smaller fires throughout the county over the last couple of weeks -- of course, there’s the larger wildfire that has been raging in Clinch County for several days now that had been threatening homes and lives in Cogdell and north of Homerville
-- even though wildfires are natural and part of this southern ecosystem -- they can still be very destructive and cause a lot of damage -- not only to homes and structures -- but also to the forests and to the animals that live there
-- I was reading about a wildfire the other day that had happened not far from us -- it was a massive wildfire and many firefighters had been brought in to help put it out -- they finally got it stopped and the firefighters were walking through the area putting out all the hot spots that were left -- all the stumps and the logs that were still burning and that might ignite the fire again
-- as they were walking through the burned out area, one of the men noticed a large lump on the trail -- it was kind of unusual so he walked over to it to see what it was -- and as he got closer, he noticed it was the charred remains of a large bird that had burned nearly half way through in the fire
-- he stood there looking at that bird and he wondered why this bird had died -- birds can easily fly away from the approaching flames -- I’ve been on lots of burns and lots of wildfires and I’ve never found a bird that died from the fire -- they always just fly away -- and so this guy stood there looking at that bird and trying to figure this out -- and he wondered if maybe it had been sick or injured and just couldn’t get away
-- after a moment, he decided to just kick the remains of the bird off the trail and go on -- and as soon as he did, he jumped and was scared half to death because there was all kinds of activity right by his feet -- he jumped back and watched as four little birds ran out from underneath the remains and scurried away down the hillside
-- and then he realized what had happened -- the mother’s body had covered them from the searing flames -- and even though the heat was enough to consume her -- her body protected her babies and allowed them to find safety underneath her wings -- and even though the flames came near -- and even though the heat became unbearable -- she had stayed with her young
-- she was their only hope for safety -- and she was willing to risk her own life to save them -- even when the pain reached its most unbearable moment -- when she could have flown away to start another family on another day, she made herself stay through the raging flames
-- this mother made the ultimate sacrifice to save her young -- and her death illustrates an even greater story -- the very story that brings us here today -- it is the story of a God who covered His children with His very own body and protected them from the flames of sin and death on the cross of Calvary [illustration adapted from Wayne Jacobson, The Hen and Her Chicks -- http://www.lifestream.org/bodylife.php?blid=23]
II. The Sacrifice of Jesus
-- this was the very reason Jesus came -- He told Nicodemus in John 3:16-17 that He had come into the world -- not to condemn the world -- but to save the world through Himself
-- the Bible tells us that we are all sinners -- that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God -- a lot of times we like to think that we’re ok -- that just because we haven’t done anything really bad -- we haven’t stolen anything or killed anyone -- that we’re going to get into heaven on our own merit
-- but the Bible tells us that this is just not true -- if we break God’s law at any point -- if we commit just one sin in our life -- then we have broken the entire law and are subject to the punishment of death and eternal separation from God
-- I’ve used this analogy before, but I think it makes a pretty clear picture -- think about all the different kinds of sins -- murder and robbery and lust -- telling white lies -- gossip -- impure thoughts -- all the sins -- everything you can think of
-- and now imagine them written on a plane of glass -- like that front window up there -- just written up there in a list with a little checkbox right next to each one of them -- now, I want you to imagine that on the other side of that window is a roaring lion and you can look through the glass and see him, just like an exhibit in the zoo
-- now let’s say that you were an extraordinary person and the only the only sin that you ever committed was to tell a white lie to someone -- and so I hand you a hammer and a nail and I tell you to go up there and put a hole in the checkbox next to that sin with the hammer and the nail
-- what’s going to happen to that plate of glass when you hit it with that hammer? -- it’s going to shatter -- that whole plane of glass is going to come crashing down around you -- and what’s that roaring lion going to do? -- he’s going to come through that window after you
-- that’s what happens with sin -- that’s what God tells us in His word -- if you break just one little sin out of all of the sins in the world -- it’s the same thing as breaking them all -- and you deserve the punishment that you will get
-- and there’s no one in here that has just committed one sin in their life -- we’ve all committed lots of sins -- and so the punishment that is owed us is great
-- but God didn’t want us to suffer the punishment for our sin -- He didn’t want us to spend an eternity apart from Him -- He certainly didn’t want us to end up in Hell
-- so He sent His Son to earth to die on the cross in our place -- to become sin for us -- to take up the sufferings and the afflictions that were ours -- to experience the eternal separation from God -- so that we might not have to
-- we see that here in this passage -- we see the heart of God right here in this verse --keep in mind that Jesus was talking to His most bitter enemies -- the Pharisees and those who thought they could justify themselves -- those that thought they could work themselves to heaven and make their own way to God by following the law
-- and Jesus weeps over them and He says, “I have longed to gather you up -- as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings -- but you were not willing”
-- Jesus was offering them salvation -- He was offering them eternal life -- but they just wouldn’t come
III. What Must We Do?
-- flip over to Acts 2:36
36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
-- when God sent the Holy Spirit upon the church at Pentecost, Peter stood up and preached the message of salvation and told these same Pharisees and the Jews who had gathered for the feast in Jerusalem the good news of Jesus Christ
-- He told them about the cross and the resurrection -- and as the power of the Holy Spirit fell upon them -- they cried out, “What must we do? -- we know now that the law won’t save us -- we know now that our good works can’t get us to heaven -- what must we do?”
-- and Peter lines it out for them in verses 38 and 39
38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
-- Peter says to “repent” -- to repent means that you confess to God that you know who you are and you know what you’ve done -- you take ownership for the sins that you have committed and you agree with God that you are guilty and that you stand condemned for your sin -- deserving of death
-- through repentance you ask Him to forgive you of your sins through Jesus -- to let Jesus’ death and suffering on the cross stand as payment for what you have done -- and then you agree to turn around and follow God by trusting and believing in Jesus
-- and then Peter tells us to “be baptized”
-- I read a story from Bob Beasley, who is a pastor in Canada, about the time he carried his three-year-old daughter with them to a baptismal service -- she just couldn’t understand what was going on -- when the pastor immersed the candidate and put them under the water, his daughter exclaimed in surprise, "Why he pushed that guy in the water? Why, Dad, why?"
-- later that night, they tried to help her understand what was going on -- they talked about in and told her that when people decide to live for Jesus and "do good" they want everyone to know and so they get baptized -- they explained to her that the water symbolizes Jesus' washing people from sin -- and that when they come out "clean," they are going to try to be "good."
-- but, it was obvious that his daughter still didn’t quite get it -- she responded, “Well, if he has been bad, why didn’t the preacher just spank him?” [Source: Preaching Today Illustration from Bob Beasley, pastor of Gregory Drive Alliance Church, West Chatham, Ontario, Canada]
-- that’s the great thing about grace -- we don’t have to be spanked because Jesus was spanked for us -- we don’t have to suffer the punishment for our sins because Jesus was punished for us
-- so, when we humble ourselves and ask Jesus to forgive us for all we have done wrong and we repent of our wicked ways and turn to follow Him -- Jesus gives us eternal life and tells us to offer ourselves to Him through the act of baptism as Peter tells us here
-- baptism is an outward expression of an inward grace -- it is a symbolic act that proclaims to the world the inward change that has occurred in our hearts and in our spirits
-- it signifies our new life in Christ that began with the forgiveness of our sins -- it makes us a part of the body of Christ -- and makes us one with Christ and one with the church
-- baptism is what we call a sacrament -- the word sacrament literally means “sacred moment” -- what this means is that when we are baptized, not only are we present in the act -- but God Himself is present and is pouring out His grace upon us
-- that is what makes this act of baptism so special and so meaningful in our lives -- it’s not just us -- it’s God with us
-- and while we use water to represent the waters of creation and the cleansing of sin in our lives -- we have to keep in mind that we are being baptized with both water and the Spirit -- when we are baptized, the presence of God through the Holy Spirit is made alive in us to raise us up from the old life to a new life in Christ and to empower us to live that new life in victory
-- because the water is used only as a symbol of what Jesus has done within us, I don’t believe it really matters how much water you use, although some will argue that you have to be immersed completely when you are baptized
-- here at Koinonia, we baptize in the three methods that we believe have been used throughout the Bible -- immersion, sprinkling, and pouring -- and we leave it up to the choice of the person being baptized as to how they would like to be baptized
-- I like the symbolism of immersion for I think it really proclaims to the world the death of our old body and the washing away of our sins and the rising to new life in Christ -- but, obviously, we can’t always baptize in this way -- sometimes we don’t have access to a pool of water and sometimes the person being baptized can’t be immersed -- they might be terminally ill and unable to be immersed -- or they might be an infant or a child who couldn’t be immersed safely
-- which brings up something that I want to note here in this passage -- Peter says in verse 39 that the promise of salvation is for you and your children -- we know that in the Old Testament infants were included in the covenant with God -- God commanded Abraham to mark all male infants at eight days of age with the sign of circumcision to show they were part of the covenant -- in the same way, the church has traditionally baptized infants and children as a sign that they are part of the new covenant in Christ
-- now, I know some churches do not baptize infants -- but I don’t believe they should be excluded from the sacrament simply because of their age -- Peter says here that the children are part of the promise -- and Jesus said in Matthew 19:14, “"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
-- children and infants have always been a part of the covenant of God, going back to the days of Abraham -- and nowhere in the Bible are we told to exclude them from the covenant of faith -- so I think they should be allowed to baptized as a sign of that they are part of the new covenant in Christ
-- think about it this way -- let me give you a picture of what’s really going on in baptism-- when we are baptized, we place ourselves under Jesus -- under His authority and His protection
-- very much like the picture I gave you in my story of a mother hen gathering her chicks under her wings to protect them from harm -- through baptism, we are publicly making the declaration that we have placed ourselves under the wings of Jesus -- we are proclaiming that we are part of His church -- that we are part of the new covenant that He offers us through His body and His blood
-- when an infant or child is baptized, we are doing the same thing to them that Jesus does to us -- not only are they under the sheltering wings of Jesus, but they are being placed under the sheltering wings of their parents and the entire community of faith
-- through baptism, children are brought into the community of faith and are sheltered and protected from the world around them by the grace of God
-- now, that’s not to say that infants and children receive salvation through the act of baptism -- it only means that they are part of the covenant of God and part of the body of Christ -- to be protected and nurtured and raised in the faith until they can declare on their own their personal faith and trust in the saving grace of Jesus Christ at confirmation
-- just like a Jewish boy who was circumcised at 8 days of age would one day have to stand up and become a believer on his own and agree to live for God -- infants and children who are baptized will have to do the same -- at some point in their life they are going to have to ask Jesus to forgive them of their sins and to be their Savior if they want eternal life with Him
IV. Closing
-- one Sunday morning after the worship service, a little boy came up to Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church in California and the author of the Purpose-Driven Life, and asked him, "When can I get advertised?"
-- He meant "baptized" but he made the right point -- baptism is advertising that you're a Christian
-- in the church we are baptized -- not only because we are commanded to do so in Scripture -- but because we want to proclaim to the world that we have been washed in the blood of the Lamb and have received forgiveness for our sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus
-- this morning, we are honored to have Kaylee Harpe being presented to us for baptism by her parents -- but before I invite them up, I want to offer this invitation to you
-- Christ calls for us to be baptized as an act of obedience -- as a proclamation of who we are in Him -- and as a witness to the inward change that has come through our salvation
-- maybe some of you here have never received Jesus before as your Lord and Savior -- maybe you grew up thinking that going to church and believing that Jesus was real was enough to be saved -- but the Bible tells us that you have to do more
-- you have to repent -- you have to confess your sins and admit you are a sinner and ask Jesus to forgive you for what you have done -- and then you have to trust in His atoning death and His resurrection and believe in your heart -- not just your head -- that He is God and that we are saved and can go to heaven only because of Him
-- if you’ve never received Jesus as your personal Savior -- if you’ve never come and asked Him to forgive you for your sins, then I want to invite you to do so right now
-- and if you have received Jesus but you’ve never followed through and been baptized -- then I want to invite you to come up and offer yourself for baptism -- if you want to be immersed, we can arrange a time and place for that -- but if you just want to experience the baptism and the grace of Jesus right now through the symbolic act of sprinkling with water, then I’d invite you to come forward as we prepare to baptize Kaylee
-- so, let’s close in prayer and then I’ll have Seth lead us in the final song and then we’ll celebrate together the sacrament of baptism
-- let’s pray
SERMON: LIVING IN A TSUNAMI WORLD
LIVING IN A TSUNAMI WORLD
20 March 2011
I. Introduction
-- turn in your Bibles to Psalm 121
1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
-- as I’m sure everyone in here knows, on March 11th at 2:46 pm the nation of Japan was rocked by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake that hit off its northeast coast -- the fourth largest earthquake recorded in the world since 1900
-- this quake along the Pacific tectonic plate generated a massive tsunami that sent 30-ft waves roaring onto Japan -- devastating coastal towns and causing damage as far away as California and Hawaii -- and resulting in the deaths of over 10,000 people in the small island nation
-- in addition to the wholesale destruction of homes and communities along the coast, the massive tsunami also severely damaged nuclear plants in northeast Japan -- and for the past week the eyes of the world have been watching as Japan’s scientists and engineers desperately tried to cool the nuclear material in these plants and prevent the catastrophic release of radiation at levels exceeding that of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl
-- while people in California and along the United State’s western coast scrambled to buy iodine tablets and Geiger counters -- and as our TV screens were filled with the horrific images of the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami and of the race against time to rescue survivors and to restore order in a devastated country which was trying not only to survive a natural disaster but also the complete meltdown of a nuclear reactor -- we looked at the situation and felt hopeless and wondered if anyone would be able to help us out of this disaster
-- how often in recent years have we experienced these same feelings of hopelessness and helplessness? -- in the last decade, we have seen unprecedented natural and man-made disasters of increasing magnitude -- from the horrific events of 9-11 and the 2004 tsunami that killed over 230,000 people in Indonesia -- to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and earthquakes in Haiti, Tibet, Chili, and New Zealand -- to catastrophic flooding in Europe and South America
-- we have witnessed economic and financial collapses -- seen the dollar decrease in value against other national currency -- and watched as home foreclosure rates and unemployment reached all-time highs
-- and, just this morning, we open our papers to read of military attacks against the nation of Libya as our country expands the war effort from Afghanistan and Iraq and Pakistan to yet another region of the world while unrest and civil protests rage throughout Bahrain and Iran and other Arab countries
-- events such as these cause us to do just as the Psalmist does here and turn our eyes to the heavens and ask the questions, “How do we live in such a world? -- How do we survive in the midst of total chaos and devastation and destruction? -- Where do we look for answers and hope and help?”
II. Scripture Lesson -- Psalm 121:1-8
-- we are unsure who wrote this Psalm -- the scriptures do not tell us who the author is -- some scholars think it was King David and that this Psalm was written as he fled from Saul and his armies or later in life as he fled Jerusalem after his son usurped the throne
-- but, regardless of who wrote these words, they resonate in our hearts -- because we have felt the same emotion -- we have experienced the same doubt and despair and uncertainty -- and we know, as we read the heart-cry of this Psalmist, that we could have written these words ourselves
-- while we don’t know exactly the situation that led to this Psalm, we do know this -- the Psalmist who penned these words was in the midst of chaos -- perhaps surrounded by enemies who sought his life -- perhaps seeking answers in the midst of a natural disaster
-- he had little hope left of surviving -- and everywhere he looked, he saw danger and death and destruction -- he asked himself, “How do I live in this world?” -- and then he gives us the answer in this Psalm
-- look back at verse 1 and see what he wrote
1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
-- Corrie ten Boom -- the great Dutch evangelist who was sent to a German concentration camp for hiding Jews in her home during World War II -- once wrote, “Look around and be distressed -- Look within and be depressed -- Look at Jesus and be at rest”
-- the Psalmist looked around and was distressed -- he looked within himself and didn’t see any hope there -- so he lifted his eyes to the hills -- he lifted his eyes to heaven -- wondering where help would come from
-- verse 2
2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
-- the Psalmist makes it clear here -- our help does not come from charismatic presidents or politicians -- it doesn’t come from bank presidents or generals leading armies -- it doesn’t come from scientists or engineers
-- our help comes only from the Lord -- from the maker of heaven and earth -- and that’s true, whether we’re talking about being surrounded by enemies or if we’re talking about natural or economic disasters or if we’re talking about the state of our soul -- our hope rests only in God -- our Savior can only be God
-- verse 3
3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
-- when I read these verses, I am reminded of the great battle of faith on Mount Carmel when the prophet Elijah confronted the false prophets of Asherah and Baal -- if you remember this story, Elijah proposed a test of faith whereby the nation would see who the true God of Israel was based on which God could supernaturally light the fire on the altar
-- the false prophets went first, and no matter how loud they wailed and cried out -- no matter how much they cut themselves and offered their souls to their gods -- nothing happened -- and Elijah mocked them and said, “Cry louder -- perhaps your god is asleep and cannot hear”
-- the Psalmist here reminds of the great truth that our God doesn’t sleep or slumber -- the Bible tells us that God is with us always and will never leave us or forsake us
-- God wasn’t asleep when the earthquake hit off the coast of Japan last week -- He wasn’t slumbering when the tsunami roared ashore -- He wasn’t surprised by what happened -- He was there, in the midst of His people, ministering to them in their despair
-- some might ask why God didn’t stop the tsunami -- why He didn’t stop the earth from quaking or the tectonic plates from shifting -- but answers to questions like that are above our understanding -- God is God and His purposes and His ways are higher than ours
-- but, I do know this -- without winter, we can never enjoy the beauty of spring -- without sickness, we can never rejoice in health -- without pain and death, we can never realize the blessing of life
-- why do bad things happen? -- why does God allow bad things to happen? -- we don’t know -- but, we do know that He is there in the midst of our pain and suffering -- ministering to our hearts and spirits and giving comfort to our souls
-- the Psalmist gives us the promise that God will never let our foot slip off the path of salvation -- He will never let our faith waiver -- no matter what we may experience -- no matter the tragedies we may faith -- He will hold us firm and keep us on the straight and narrow because our God never sleeps -- He never slumbers -- but He is always there to lift us up and to bring us hope and help wherever our feet may trod
-- verse 5
5 The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
-- I don’t know about you, but these verses here speak to me in a special way -- I don’t know how many of you have spent sleepless nights worrying about things in your life -- about your family -- about your work -- about school or tests or friends -- but I know the feeling of being wide awake at 3:00 in the morning -- worrying and anxious about things to come
-- some have done that with this disaster in Japan -- others have stayed up and worried about finances and jobs and other things -- but these verses say that we don’t have to worry -- that whether it’s in the middle of the day or in the middle of the night, God is with us and He is watching over us
-- they remind us of the truth of that quote that gets passed around on e-mail and on the internet -- “Why take your worries and troubles to bed with you? -- Give them to God -- He’s going to be up anyway!”
-- Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. -- And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
-- all the worrying in the world won’t make the slightest difference in the situation in Japan -- staying up all night and fretting about your family or your job or your friends won’t change the situation in the slightest
-- worry is actually the opposite of faith -- worry says that the problem is too great for God and that we must come up with some answer on our own to fix the problems in our lives and in this world
-- but, the Psalmist reminds us that it’s not up to us -- it’s up to God -- the Lord is with us and He watches over us -- regardless of whether we slumber or sleep or whether we stay up all night worrying and fretting -- God watches over us and He keeps us from all harm -- not only now but in the future as well
-- but what about those in the tsunami? -- what about those in the flood? -- God didn’t keep them from all harm, did He?
-- the thing to remember is that God’s focus is on eternity and not on this world -- Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
-- Jesus didn’t die on the cross so that we would live a life free from trouble and pain here on earth -- He didn’t die on the cross so that our 401Ks would be full and that we would enjoy a peaceful and secure retirement in the sunset of life -- no, Jesus died on the cross so that we might have eternal life with Him
-- God’s focus is always on the eternal and on bringing glory to Himself -- when the Psalmist says here that God will not let our foot slip and that He will keep us from all harm, he is not referring to life here on earth -- he is referring to eternity
-- the message of this psalm is that our trust and our faith should be on the God who sees past the immediate -- who sees past the worry and stress of the crisis -- to the great eternity we will share with Him in heaven
III. Closing
-- so, what do we do with disasters such as the one in Japan? -- how do we live in a tsunami world?
-- Hudson Taylor -- the great missionary to China and founder of what is today known as the Overseas Missionary Fellowship -- gave this excellent advice in regards to worry and anxiety -- he wrote: "Let us give up our work, our plans, ourselves, our lives, our loved ones, our influence, our all, right into [God's] hand -- and then, when we have given all over to Him, there will be nothing left for us to be troubled about."
-- in other words, Taylor suggests that we work to meet the immediate needs of those affected by these disasters and that we show the love of God by being His hands and feet to those most in need of His presence
-- if you are looking for tangible steps you can take to survive in this world, let me give you this advice
--first, when trials and troubles come our way -- when things arise that give us pause and that cause us anxiety and worry -- the first thing we should do is to look to the hills -- we should turn to God in prayer and ask for His hand and His grace to be in the situation -- ask Him to take away your worry and anxiety and to replace it with His peace -- and rest sure in the knowledge that He is with you no matter what is going on around you
-- second, you can prepare -- Jesus gave us the parable of the man who built his house on the foundation of rock and who was ready when the storms came -- we know that troubles are going to come our way -- we know that trials and natural disasters will occur -- and we should prepare for them by having on hand ample supplies of food and water and medicine
-- third, you serve -- we have been called to be Christ’s hands and feet in this world and to share His love with others -- physically, materially, and spiritually
-- and, granted, we may not be able to respond physically to the crisis in Japan or in other parts of the world, but we can serve in other ways -- we can send our financial resources to Christian relief organizations already present in the country working to help those affected by the disaster -- we can send blankets and food or other items to relief agencies -- we can write notes of hope and encouragement and share the love of God with them
-- one reason I encourage people to prepare for disasters is so that we are able to respond to those around us in their time of need -- what better way to show the love of Christ than to share your food and resources with someone who needs help in their lives
-- I’ve printed out a list for you of two things that you can take with you today -- one is a list of Christian relief agencies who are actively working in Japan right now and who could use your financial assistance if you feel so led -- the other is a list from FEMA of basic supplies that everyone needs to have on hand to prepare for disasters or unexpected situations
-- lastly, you trust -- it is too easy in our day and age to get overwhelmed with life and the things around us -- the overwhelming message of this Psalm is that we should trust in God -- we should rest in His arms and in His grace and let His peace that surpasses all understanding lift up our hearts in the midst of uncertainty and despair
-- trusting God to take care of you demonstrates a depth of faith rarely seen these days -- by trusting God in the midst of trouble we proclaim to the world that our God saves -- that our God cares -- that our God loves
-- Jesus called us to go forth and proclaim His word to this world and to carry His message of good news to all -- what better message can we give an anxious world than to rest and trust in the arms of our Maker?
-- In his book, “If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil,” author Randy Alcorn tells the story about a friend of his who had to have a double mastectomy because of breast cancer -- Two months after the surgery, her doctors discovered that the cancer had spread -- and that more radical treatments would be needed just to save her life -- in the midst of this devastating diagnosis, one of her friends asked, “How do you feel about God now?” -- after spending some time reflecting on that question and the trial that she was facing, Alcorn’s friend offered up the following response:
-- As I sought to explain what had happened in my spirit, it all became clearer to me -- God has been preparing me for this moment -- He has undergirded me in ways I've never known before -- He has made himself increasingly real and precious to me -- He has given me joy such as I've never known before—and I've no need to work at it, it just comes, even amidst the tears.
-- He has taught me that no matter how good my genes are or how well I take care of my diet and myself, he will lead me on whatever journey he chooses and will never leave me for a moment of that journey.
-- And he planned it all in such a way that step by step, he prepared me for the moment when the doctor dropped the last shoe … God is good, no matter what the diagnosis or the prognosis, or the fearfulness of the uncertainty of having neither.
-- The key to knowing God is good is simply knowing him."
[Randy Alcorn, If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil (Multnomah, 2009), p. 399]
-- that is the message of this Psalm -- in the midst of our trials and troubles -- when we try to learn how to live in this tsunami world -- the answer is simply to know that God is good and to trust Him with our lives and our hearts and our souls
-- as I close now, I want us to remember our families in Japan -- our brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering through this devastating natural disaster -- and I want us to consider our response to their plight
-- and, I want to invite you to lift up to God your own worries and anxieties -- to leave these burdens at the cross -- and to trust that He will see you through
-- if anyone would like me to pray with them or if you feel a need to respond to God’s word in some other way -- please either come up as the last song is playing or meet with me after the service
-- let us pray
20 March 2011
I. Introduction
-- turn in your Bibles to Psalm 121
1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
-- as I’m sure everyone in here knows, on March 11th at 2:46 pm the nation of Japan was rocked by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake that hit off its northeast coast -- the fourth largest earthquake recorded in the world since 1900
-- this quake along the Pacific tectonic plate generated a massive tsunami that sent 30-ft waves roaring onto Japan -- devastating coastal towns and causing damage as far away as California and Hawaii -- and resulting in the deaths of over 10,000 people in the small island nation
-- in addition to the wholesale destruction of homes and communities along the coast, the massive tsunami also severely damaged nuclear plants in northeast Japan -- and for the past week the eyes of the world have been watching as Japan’s scientists and engineers desperately tried to cool the nuclear material in these plants and prevent the catastrophic release of radiation at levels exceeding that of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl
-- while people in California and along the United State’s western coast scrambled to buy iodine tablets and Geiger counters -- and as our TV screens were filled with the horrific images of the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami and of the race against time to rescue survivors and to restore order in a devastated country which was trying not only to survive a natural disaster but also the complete meltdown of a nuclear reactor -- we looked at the situation and felt hopeless and wondered if anyone would be able to help us out of this disaster
-- how often in recent years have we experienced these same feelings of hopelessness and helplessness? -- in the last decade, we have seen unprecedented natural and man-made disasters of increasing magnitude -- from the horrific events of 9-11 and the 2004 tsunami that killed over 230,000 people in Indonesia -- to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and earthquakes in Haiti, Tibet, Chili, and New Zealand -- to catastrophic flooding in Europe and South America
-- we have witnessed economic and financial collapses -- seen the dollar decrease in value against other national currency -- and watched as home foreclosure rates and unemployment reached all-time highs
-- and, just this morning, we open our papers to read of military attacks against the nation of Libya as our country expands the war effort from Afghanistan and Iraq and Pakistan to yet another region of the world while unrest and civil protests rage throughout Bahrain and Iran and other Arab countries
-- events such as these cause us to do just as the Psalmist does here and turn our eyes to the heavens and ask the questions, “How do we live in such a world? -- How do we survive in the midst of total chaos and devastation and destruction? -- Where do we look for answers and hope and help?”
II. Scripture Lesson -- Psalm 121:1-8
-- we are unsure who wrote this Psalm -- the scriptures do not tell us who the author is -- some scholars think it was King David and that this Psalm was written as he fled from Saul and his armies or later in life as he fled Jerusalem after his son usurped the throne
-- but, regardless of who wrote these words, they resonate in our hearts -- because we have felt the same emotion -- we have experienced the same doubt and despair and uncertainty -- and we know, as we read the heart-cry of this Psalmist, that we could have written these words ourselves
-- while we don’t know exactly the situation that led to this Psalm, we do know this -- the Psalmist who penned these words was in the midst of chaos -- perhaps surrounded by enemies who sought his life -- perhaps seeking answers in the midst of a natural disaster
-- he had little hope left of surviving -- and everywhere he looked, he saw danger and death and destruction -- he asked himself, “How do I live in this world?” -- and then he gives us the answer in this Psalm
-- look back at verse 1 and see what he wrote
1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
-- Corrie ten Boom -- the great Dutch evangelist who was sent to a German concentration camp for hiding Jews in her home during World War II -- once wrote, “Look around and be distressed -- Look within and be depressed -- Look at Jesus and be at rest”
-- the Psalmist looked around and was distressed -- he looked within himself and didn’t see any hope there -- so he lifted his eyes to the hills -- he lifted his eyes to heaven -- wondering where help would come from
-- verse 2
2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
-- the Psalmist makes it clear here -- our help does not come from charismatic presidents or politicians -- it doesn’t come from bank presidents or generals leading armies -- it doesn’t come from scientists or engineers
-- our help comes only from the Lord -- from the maker of heaven and earth -- and that’s true, whether we’re talking about being surrounded by enemies or if we’re talking about natural or economic disasters or if we’re talking about the state of our soul -- our hope rests only in God -- our Savior can only be God
-- verse 3
3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
-- when I read these verses, I am reminded of the great battle of faith on Mount Carmel when the prophet Elijah confronted the false prophets of Asherah and Baal -- if you remember this story, Elijah proposed a test of faith whereby the nation would see who the true God of Israel was based on which God could supernaturally light the fire on the altar
-- the false prophets went first, and no matter how loud they wailed and cried out -- no matter how much they cut themselves and offered their souls to their gods -- nothing happened -- and Elijah mocked them and said, “Cry louder -- perhaps your god is asleep and cannot hear”
-- the Psalmist here reminds of the great truth that our God doesn’t sleep or slumber -- the Bible tells us that God is with us always and will never leave us or forsake us
-- God wasn’t asleep when the earthquake hit off the coast of Japan last week -- He wasn’t slumbering when the tsunami roared ashore -- He wasn’t surprised by what happened -- He was there, in the midst of His people, ministering to them in their despair
-- some might ask why God didn’t stop the tsunami -- why He didn’t stop the earth from quaking or the tectonic plates from shifting -- but answers to questions like that are above our understanding -- God is God and His purposes and His ways are higher than ours
-- but, I do know this -- without winter, we can never enjoy the beauty of spring -- without sickness, we can never rejoice in health -- without pain and death, we can never realize the blessing of life
-- why do bad things happen? -- why does God allow bad things to happen? -- we don’t know -- but, we do know that He is there in the midst of our pain and suffering -- ministering to our hearts and spirits and giving comfort to our souls
-- the Psalmist gives us the promise that God will never let our foot slip off the path of salvation -- He will never let our faith waiver -- no matter what we may experience -- no matter the tragedies we may faith -- He will hold us firm and keep us on the straight and narrow because our God never sleeps -- He never slumbers -- but He is always there to lift us up and to bring us hope and help wherever our feet may trod
-- verse 5
5 The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
-- I don’t know about you, but these verses here speak to me in a special way -- I don’t know how many of you have spent sleepless nights worrying about things in your life -- about your family -- about your work -- about school or tests or friends -- but I know the feeling of being wide awake at 3:00 in the morning -- worrying and anxious about things to come
-- some have done that with this disaster in Japan -- others have stayed up and worried about finances and jobs and other things -- but these verses say that we don’t have to worry -- that whether it’s in the middle of the day or in the middle of the night, God is with us and He is watching over us
-- they remind us of the truth of that quote that gets passed around on e-mail and on the internet -- “Why take your worries and troubles to bed with you? -- Give them to God -- He’s going to be up anyway!”
-- Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. -- And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
-- all the worrying in the world won’t make the slightest difference in the situation in Japan -- staying up all night and fretting about your family or your job or your friends won’t change the situation in the slightest
-- worry is actually the opposite of faith -- worry says that the problem is too great for God and that we must come up with some answer on our own to fix the problems in our lives and in this world
-- but, the Psalmist reminds us that it’s not up to us -- it’s up to God -- the Lord is with us and He watches over us -- regardless of whether we slumber or sleep or whether we stay up all night worrying and fretting -- God watches over us and He keeps us from all harm -- not only now but in the future as well
-- but what about those in the tsunami? -- what about those in the flood? -- God didn’t keep them from all harm, did He?
-- the thing to remember is that God’s focus is on eternity and not on this world -- Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
-- Jesus didn’t die on the cross so that we would live a life free from trouble and pain here on earth -- He didn’t die on the cross so that our 401Ks would be full and that we would enjoy a peaceful and secure retirement in the sunset of life -- no, Jesus died on the cross so that we might have eternal life with Him
-- God’s focus is always on the eternal and on bringing glory to Himself -- when the Psalmist says here that God will not let our foot slip and that He will keep us from all harm, he is not referring to life here on earth -- he is referring to eternity
-- the message of this psalm is that our trust and our faith should be on the God who sees past the immediate -- who sees past the worry and stress of the crisis -- to the great eternity we will share with Him in heaven
III. Closing
-- so, what do we do with disasters such as the one in Japan? -- how do we live in a tsunami world?
-- Hudson Taylor -- the great missionary to China and founder of what is today known as the Overseas Missionary Fellowship -- gave this excellent advice in regards to worry and anxiety -- he wrote: "Let us give up our work, our plans, ourselves, our lives, our loved ones, our influence, our all, right into [God's] hand -- and then, when we have given all over to Him, there will be nothing left for us to be troubled about."
-- in other words, Taylor suggests that we work to meet the immediate needs of those affected by these disasters and that we show the love of God by being His hands and feet to those most in need of His presence
-- if you are looking for tangible steps you can take to survive in this world, let me give you this advice
--first, when trials and troubles come our way -- when things arise that give us pause and that cause us anxiety and worry -- the first thing we should do is to look to the hills -- we should turn to God in prayer and ask for His hand and His grace to be in the situation -- ask Him to take away your worry and anxiety and to replace it with His peace -- and rest sure in the knowledge that He is with you no matter what is going on around you
-- second, you can prepare -- Jesus gave us the parable of the man who built his house on the foundation of rock and who was ready when the storms came -- we know that troubles are going to come our way -- we know that trials and natural disasters will occur -- and we should prepare for them by having on hand ample supplies of food and water and medicine
-- third, you serve -- we have been called to be Christ’s hands and feet in this world and to share His love with others -- physically, materially, and spiritually
-- and, granted, we may not be able to respond physically to the crisis in Japan or in other parts of the world, but we can serve in other ways -- we can send our financial resources to Christian relief organizations already present in the country working to help those affected by the disaster -- we can send blankets and food or other items to relief agencies -- we can write notes of hope and encouragement and share the love of God with them
-- one reason I encourage people to prepare for disasters is so that we are able to respond to those around us in their time of need -- what better way to show the love of Christ than to share your food and resources with someone who needs help in their lives
-- I’ve printed out a list for you of two things that you can take with you today -- one is a list of Christian relief agencies who are actively working in Japan right now and who could use your financial assistance if you feel so led -- the other is a list from FEMA of basic supplies that everyone needs to have on hand to prepare for disasters or unexpected situations
-- lastly, you trust -- it is too easy in our day and age to get overwhelmed with life and the things around us -- the overwhelming message of this Psalm is that we should trust in God -- we should rest in His arms and in His grace and let His peace that surpasses all understanding lift up our hearts in the midst of uncertainty and despair
-- trusting God to take care of you demonstrates a depth of faith rarely seen these days -- by trusting God in the midst of trouble we proclaim to the world that our God saves -- that our God cares -- that our God loves
-- Jesus called us to go forth and proclaim His word to this world and to carry His message of good news to all -- what better message can we give an anxious world than to rest and trust in the arms of our Maker?
-- In his book, “If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil,” author Randy Alcorn tells the story about a friend of his who had to have a double mastectomy because of breast cancer -- Two months after the surgery, her doctors discovered that the cancer had spread -- and that more radical treatments would be needed just to save her life -- in the midst of this devastating diagnosis, one of her friends asked, “How do you feel about God now?” -- after spending some time reflecting on that question and the trial that she was facing, Alcorn’s friend offered up the following response:
-- As I sought to explain what had happened in my spirit, it all became clearer to me -- God has been preparing me for this moment -- He has undergirded me in ways I've never known before -- He has made himself increasingly real and precious to me -- He has given me joy such as I've never known before—and I've no need to work at it, it just comes, even amidst the tears.
-- He has taught me that no matter how good my genes are or how well I take care of my diet and myself, he will lead me on whatever journey he chooses and will never leave me for a moment of that journey.
-- And he planned it all in such a way that step by step, he prepared me for the moment when the doctor dropped the last shoe … God is good, no matter what the diagnosis or the prognosis, or the fearfulness of the uncertainty of having neither.
-- The key to knowing God is good is simply knowing him."
[Randy Alcorn, If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil (Multnomah, 2009), p. 399]
-- that is the message of this Psalm -- in the midst of our trials and troubles -- when we try to learn how to live in this tsunami world -- the answer is simply to know that God is good and to trust Him with our lives and our hearts and our souls
-- as I close now, I want us to remember our families in Japan -- our brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering through this devastating natural disaster -- and I want us to consider our response to their plight
-- and, I want to invite you to lift up to God your own worries and anxieties -- to leave these burdens at the cross -- and to trust that He will see you through
-- if anyone would like me to pray with them or if you feel a need to respond to God’s word in some other way -- please either come up as the last song is playing or meet with me after the service
-- let us pray
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