9 May 2010
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Isaiah 49:14-16
14. But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me."
15. "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
16. See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.
-- have you ever been lost in a crowd? -- have you ever felt forgotten and abandoned? -- like no one knew who you were? -- like no one knew you existed? -- like no one really cared about you?
-- I think we've all felt like that before -- I know I have -- I can still remember what it felt like the first time I moved away from home and started college
-- I had grown up in a very small town and I think a lot of you can relate to that -- when you grow up in a small town, you have a sense of belonging -- you grow up knowing just about everybody there -- you know their names -- you know where they live -- you know their families -- and they know the same thing about you
-- I think that's one of the reasons why small towns have less trouble and crime than other places -- because you know you can't get away with anything -- everybody knows who you are
-- I remember one night when I was a teenager, a whole bunch of us got the idea to roll another kid's house -- if you don't know what I'm talking about, we went out and bought a whole bunch of toilet paper and we were going to cover the whole yard in streams of toilet paper
-- we parked our cars on the street and we snuck in under the cover of darkness and we started throwing the toilet paper into the trees -- and within moments, lights came on and the front door opened, and this kid's parents came running out into the yard, yelling at us -- we all took off running and jumped into our trucks and headed for home, planning on pretending like nothing had ever happened
-- well, when we got home, all of us found our parents waiting for us -- the kid's parents recognized who we were, called our parents, and the next day we were out there cleaning up his yard
-- kind of like that song from the old TV show "Cheers" -- small towns are places where everyone knows your name -- but, that's a good thing, because there's a sense of belonging -- a sense that you have a place in the universe -- a sense that you are known and remembered
-- we have the same thing in our families -- I know, growing up, one of my fondest memories is that of family -- our family -- even our extended family -- was very close-knit -- we were always there for each other -- it didn't matter where we were -- it didn't matter what was going on -- our family was always there -- for birthdays -- for anniversaries -- for times of trouble -- you could always count on your family remembering you and being there for you
-- I guess that's why things were so hard on me when I left Adel and moved down to Gainesville to go to the University of Florida -- I moved from a place where everyone knew me -- from a place where I was surrounded by family and friends -- to a big city where no one knew my name -- where no one cared about me -- where no one remembered the important events in my life
-- to this day, I still remember what it felt like the first time I had a birthday away from home -- birthdays were always big days in our household -- they were big events -- but, when I woke up that morning in Gainesville, no one cared -- I went to school -- I went to work -- no one seemed to notice
-- I felt more alone and more insignificant at that moment than at any time before -- I went home to my empty trailer that I lived in there near the campus -- and enjoyed a birthday dinner by myself -- about 8:00 that night, the phone rang -- and it was Mama -- just calling to say "Happy Birthday" -- just calling to say that she remembered
-- it's important to be remembered -- it's important to know that someone cares -- and it's not a good feeling when you think you've been forgotten -- when you think you've been abandoned -- when you think you're all alone in the universe
-- that is exactly how the nation of Israel was feeling in this passage here in the Book of Isaiah -- that may be how some of you are feeling this morning
-- look back at verse 14 with me if you would
14. But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me."
-- the nation of Israel was God's chosen people -- but throughout their history, they continually strayed away from God -- turning away from His love and from His commands -- until they found themselves suffering the consequences of their sins
-- at the time that Isaiah wrote this, many of Israelites were exiled from Jerusalem and from the Promised Land and served as slaves to their captors -- they found themselves in the middle of trials and troubles and suffering in Babylon and Assyria
-- they looked back at the promises that God had made to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob -- they looked back to the promises that God had given them to always be with them -- the promise that He would be their God and they would be His people -- that they would live in the Promised Land -- the land of milk and honey and enjoy the blessings of His providence
-- but, what they were experiencing now was certainly not what they expected -- what they were experiencing now in the midst of their exile and captivity was not what God had promised
-- and, so, in the midst of their suffering -- in the midst of their pain -- they cried out to God, "Why is this happening to us? -- Have you forgotten us? -- Have you forgotten your promises to us?"
-- look at the Lord's response here in verses 15-16
15. "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
16. See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.
-- today is the second Sunday in May -- Mother's Day -- the day we set aside one time a year to remember our mothers and to thank them for taking care of us
-- when we think about our mothers, we are reminded of their love and compassion -- we are reminded of their faithfulness -- we are reminded of the fact that even if the whole world has forgotten us -- that even if the no one else in the world knows our names -- our mothers still do and still care and still remember
-- so God answers the cries of the Israelites here by reminding them of the faithfulness of their mothers -- "Can a mother forget her baby and have no compassion on the child that she has borne?"
-- the overwhelming answer is, "No" -- a mother cannot forget
-- I know the younger generations may not know this song, but most of us here remember that great hit that Tony Orlando and Dawn had -- "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole' Oak Tree" -- remember that song? -- do you remember the story of that song?
-- it was supposedly based on a true story -- a young teenager had run away from home -- they had gotten mad at their parents and had left and had not spoken with them or communicated with them in years -- but, finally, after getting sick of the way they were living -- after getting fed up with the drugs and the alcohol and life on the street -- they wanted to come home -- they wanted to come back to the place where people knew who they were -- where people cared about them -- but they didn't know if that place still existed or not
-- and so they sent a letter to their parents and told them that they would be passing by on a bus on this certain day -- and that if the parents remembered them and wanted them to come home, they were to tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree that was in the front yard
-- and, as the story goes, when the bus came into town that day, the teenager looked out the bus window and saw that, not only was there a yellow ribbon on the old oak tree, but that there was a yellow ribbon around every tree in their yard
-- such is the love of a mother for their child -- such is a love that never forgets
-- but, God says here, even if a mother could forget their child -- I could never forget you
-- even though your family and friends may forget you and let you down and not take care of you -- I will never forget you -- I will never leave you or forsake you
-- God says, "you are so important to Me, that I have engraved you on the palms of My hand" -- I don't know if you did this when you were a kid or not, but when I was a kid and had to remember something, I would tie a string around my finger -- and then, later in the day, when I looked down and saw that string tied around my finger, it reminded me of what it was I had to do
-- God is telling the Israelites -- and us -- that we are so important to Him that He is not going to just tie a string around His finger to remind Him to love us -- He is not going to use a string that will rot away -- He's going to do something permanent -- He's going to engrave our name on the palm of His hand -- it is a permanent reminder to Him that He has promised to take care of us and to love us and to never, ever forget us
-- I think that's something that we really need to understand and accept in our hearts -- in our modern age, it's easy to get lost in the crowd -- with I-Phones and I-pods and all of the other gadgets, it's just too easy to wrap yourself in anonymity and to just find yourself alone -- it's just too easy to think that no one knows you or remembers you
-- but God's promise for us here is that even if all the world forgets us -- even if our family and friends forget us -- even if our very own mothers forget us -- He will not -- He will always remember us and think about us and love us
-- as I was studying this passage in preparation for today's message, I was really struck by verse 1 in this chapter -- verse 1 says, "Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name"
-- do you know what I thought of as I read that? -- I thought of a father who has just had a baby and who is so proud of it that he's showing off his baby's picture and talking about his baby to everyone he meets -- even perfect strangers
-- a girl in our office just had a baby -- and, so it's been just like that around our office for weeks -- every day, I'm getting pictures of baby Madeline in my e-mail inbox -- or I'm getting messages from her mother telling me what Madeline did that day -- and I'm not the only one -- she's sending these messages out to everyone -- she is making mention of her baby's name to everyone she comes into contact with, even strangers at the grocery store
-- I heard someone once say that if God had a wallet, your picture would be in it -- this passage tells us that, not only would your picture be in it, but God would be pulling it out and showing it to others and telling them about you
-- the world may forget us -- our own mothers may forget us -- but God never forgets -- His love for us is so deep and so real that we occupy every moment of His existence -- even before we were born, He knew us and He longed for us and He waited for us -- and now, as we have moved on into this life, He is interested in everything that we are doing and He is always there for us
-- He will never forget us -- He will never leave us -- He will never forsake us -- He will always be there with us -- we are in the palm of His hand, and nothing can ever separate us from the love of God that He has for us in Christ Jesus
-- I want to share with you the chorus of a song by the group, "Third Day" -- it's a chorus that I think really sums up the love of God for us and why He never forgets -- why He remembers and loves us always
“…And I know that you don't understand the fullness of my love
How I died upon the cross for your sins
And I know that you don't realize how much that I give you
And I promise I would do it all again
Just to be with you I've done everything
There's no price I did not pay
Just to be with you I gave everything
Yes I gave my life away
I gave my life away
Just to be with you” (Third Day)
-- Jesus engraved our name on the palms of His hand with the nails on the cross of Calvary -- and no matter where you are this morning -- no matter how loved or unloved you feel -- no matter how accepted or lost you may feel -- He wants you to know that He has not forgotten you -- that He loves you with a love that cannot end -- and that He will always be there for you
-- let us pray
Saturday, July 24, 2010
SERMON: GOING THROUGH THE CHANGES
2 May 2010
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Matthew 4
12. When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee.
13. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali--
14. to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:
15. "Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles--
16. the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned."
17. From that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."
-- this morning, we are finishing our series on the "how's" of revival by looking at the third of the four criteria that God gave us in 2 Chronicles 7:14 -- as you remember, we started this series by asking the question, "Yes, but how?" -- Yes, we want to see revival in this land -- Yes, we want to see healing and forgiveness in America -- Yes, we want to see God restore our country and our churches and our homes -- Yes, we want all of God in our lives -- but how? -- How can we make this happen?
-- in 2 Chronicles 7:14, God Himself tells us how -- He said, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land"
-- this is the path to revival -- this is the answer to the question, "Yes, but how?" -- God tells us that we are to do four things to see revival -- we are to humble ourselves, pray, seek God's face, and turn from our wicked ways
-- over the past two weeks we have talked about what it means to humble ourselves before God -- to humble ourselves means that we see ourselves as we truly are
-- we talked about seeking the face of God -- seeing God as He truly is -- seeing His goodness and righteousness and holiness and power and recognizing that He is the only One capable of healing this land and forgiving our sin
-- today we are going to look at the third step in seeking revival -- repentance -- turning from our wicked ways and turning to God
-- by understanding what repentance is and by actively turning away from our sins and turning to God we will prepare our hearts and our souls to truly come before God on Thursday at the National Day of Prayer as we join with 100 million other Christians to pray for this nation and our churches and ourselves
-- prayer alone will not suffice -- we must also take responsibility for our actions and actively turn from our sin if we want to see God in America again
II. Defining Repentance
-- Jesus Himself told us that -- here in this passage in Matthew we read of the one message that Jesus had for every person He spoke to -- "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."
-- Jesus was the master communicator -- as God, He was able to see past the masks that people put on -- He was able to see past their image and into their heart -- and He always spoke directly to the need that they had
-- when Nicodemus -- the member of the Jewish Sanhedrin -- one of the leaders of the Jewish faith in the temple in Jesus' day came to Jesus at night and tried to impress Him by saying that he knew that Jesus was a holy and righteous man and hoped that Jesus would say the same -- Jesus swept all that aside and got right to the point and told Nicodemus it wasn't about being good but about being born again
-- when the rich young ruler came to Jesus and wanted to follow Him as a disciple, Jesus looked into his heart and saw the greed and the covetousness that was there and told him that if he wanted to follow Him, that he should give away all his money first
-- and when the expert in the law came up and tried to test Jesus concerning the greatest commandment, Jesus looked at the pride hidden in his heart and told him to humble himself and to start loving his neighbor as himself
-- it didn't matter if someone came to Jesus seeking to follow Him as a disciple or for healing or for some other reason, Jesus always spoke directly to the heart of that person -- tailoring His message and giving them the word that they needed to hear
-- but, no matter what each person's specific need was, the heart of Jesus' message was always the same for everyone -- "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near"
-- Jesus' command to repent was for the rich and the poor -- for the great and for those less in life -- for the faithful and for the backsliders -- this command to repent was for everyone -- and it is for us today
-- before we can begin to discuss what is involved in repentance, the first step would be to know what repentance is -- let's turn over to Joel Chapter 2 and we'll continue on there
-- as you are turning there, let me define repentance for you
-- repentance is the complete turning away from sin in our lives -- repentance is a change of mind leading to a change of life -- before we change our lives, we must first of all have a change of mind about what we have done
-- I heard a good story about repentance the other day -- a minister was speaking to a group of children -- in opening his talk he asked the question, "What is meant by the word repentance?" -- a little boy raised his hand, "Well, it's being sorry for your sins" -- "That's a good answer," he said
-- about that time, a little girl on the back seat raised her hand, "What do you think repentance is?" the preacher asked -- "I think," said the child, "repentance is being sorry enough to quit."
-- that's a good definition of repentance -- repentance is more than saying you're sorry -- repentance is more than just feeling bad about what you have done -- repentance is feeling bad enough to quit -- repentance is sorrow with action
-- last week, when we were talking about seeking the face of God, we looked at the transfiguration of Jesus and I told you that the Greek word that is translated as "transfiguration" is the same word that we get the word "metamorphosis" from -- "meta" meaning "to change" and "morphosis" meaning "form" -- so, metamorphosis is a complete change in form from one state to another
-- the Greek word that we translate as repentance is very similar -- it is actually "metanoia" -- "meta" -- "change" -- and "noia" -- mind -- so, repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change of life -- it is a decision on our part to turn away from sin -- to turn from our wicked ways -- and to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to keep us away from sin in the future
-- true repentance actually involves three things -- it involves our intellect, our emotions, and our actions -- look with me now at Joel 2:12
12. `Even now,` declares the LORD, `return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.`
13. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
14. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing-- grain offerings and drink offerings for the LORD your God.
-- the first step in repentance involves our intellect -- it is recognizing that we are sinners -- it is knowing that we have sinned against God
-- you cannot repent of your sins unless you first are aware of them -- you cannot turn from your wicked ways unless you first acknowledge that you have wicked ways
-- all of us have sin in our lives -- all of us are sinners -- but, sometimes, it's hard for us to see that -- that's why the first two steps in 2 Chronicles 7:14 are so important -- as we humble ourselves and seek God's face, we see ourselves as who we truly are compared with God's holiness and righteousness -- we see ourselves as sinners separated from God -- and that makes us aware of the sin in our lives
-- we like to think that we're doing o.k. -- we like to think that we're just good old boys and good old girls and we're really not that bad -- but, when we compare ourselves to Jesus -- when we look at our hearts and our souls and our minds as compared to God -- we can see just how sinful we are -- as 1 John 1:8 says, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."
-- even if we are Christians -- even if we have been saved since we were little kids -- we still sin and we still have sin in our lives that needs to be taken care of
-- the first step in repentance is knowing that we are sinners
-- the second step involves our emotions -- the realization that you are a sinner -- the knowledge that you have done wrong and disobeyed God -- naturally causes you to feel bad about it
-- Joel says here in verse 12 that the knowledge of our sin leads to fasting and weeping and mourning -- you feel sorrow over your sin
-- the Hebrew word for "mourning" here is the same word that the Old Testament uses to describe someone mourning for the dead -- when we know that we are sinners -- when we begin to understand the depth of our sin -- we realize that we are dead -- separated from God -- out of fellowship with Him -- and Joel says that we mourn as someone mourns for the loss -- we weep for who we are and for who we can be
-- when the prophet Isaiah appeared in a vision before the throne of God and saw his own sorry state compared with that of God, Isaiah cried out in mourning, "Woe to me! I am ruined!"
-- the second step in repentance is mourning over our sins and what we have allowed ourselves to become
-- the final step in repentance involves our action
-- repentance does not stop with knowledge and emotions -- repentance does not end with us just feeling sorry for what we have done -- true repentance involves not only a change in mind, but a change of heart -- a change of behavior
-- verse 13 tells us to "Return to the LORD your God" -- that word, "Return," is an action word -- it implies, not only a change of mind, but a change of behavior
-- "repentance is turning from sin and doing what God wants us to do -- Repentance is a turning from being and doing what we want to be and do -- to being and doing what God would have us be and do -- Repentance is making Jesus both Lord and King of our lives -- living in total submission to Him through the word"1
-- repentance is a change of mind -- a change of heart -- and a change of position
-- I don't know if you've ever thought about it like this or not, but when you sin, in essence, you are turning your back to Jesus -- you are taking your eyes off of Him -- you are not listening to Him, but to your own desires -- you are not following His commands, but doing what you want to do
-- when you repent, you turn around -- you turn away from the world -- away from your desires -- away from your wants and wishes -- and you follow Jesus and do what He tells you to do
-- now, before we close, let me share with you a few cautions on what repentance is not -- now that we know what repentance is, let me tell you what it is not
-- first, repentance is more than just feeling sorry
-- a lot of times, we just want to cover up our sins -- we don't want to go the whole way to repentance -- we know we've disobeyed God -- we know we've done wrong -- and we feel sorry for what we've done -- we are truly sorrowful for our actions
-- and so we go to God and we confess our sins and we tell Him, "Lord, I'm sorry for what I've done -- I'm sorry that I did this -- I'm sorry that I sinned against you" -- but then we get up off our knees and go right back and do it again
-- we're not finishing the act of repentance -- we're only go through two of the three steps
-- to truly repent, you have to go all the way -- you have to turn completely around and let the Holy Spirit empower you to leave that sin behind once and for all
-- second, repentance is not just making a change in your life
-- at the start of every year, people make new year's resolutions -- they resolve to make a change in their life -- they resolve to turn around and do something different
-- some people stop smoking -- some stop drinking -- others lose weight or spend more time with their kids or whatever
-- the point is that these changes are not the same as biblical repentance
-- changes like this are man-centered and world-centered -- they involve only a change in behavior and not a change of heart
-- true biblical repentance is a change of life -- body, mind, and spirit -- true biblical repentance involves not only changing some behavior, but changing your mind and your spirit, as well -- true repentance is not just turning our behavior around, but turning ourselves over to God -- true repentance is the total and complete submission to Jesus
-- true biblical repentance gets to the heart of the matter and deals with the sin in your life -- not just the effects of sin -- new year's resolutions are like putting a band-aid on a fatal wound -- it can do some good, but it can't fix the problem -- repentance heals a broken soul
-- lastly, repentance is not merely believing
-- repentance is not the same thing as having faith -- it is not the same thing as believing and trusting in Jesus for salvation, although it goes hand-in-hand with it
-- Repentance is acknowledging our sin and rebellion against God and changing our mind about sinning against God -- Faith is trusting the finished work of Christ for forgiveness -- Repentance and faith are the two aspects of man’s response to God’s offer of salvation
-- in other words, you trust and believe through faith and you turn away from sin through repentance
III. Closing
-- when I'm channel surfing, occasionally I'll run across this show on the Style Channel called, "Clean House" -- it's a show where experts in cleaning, organizing, remodeling, and painting go to people's houses that are just cluttered beyond belief to help the people get their life in order and to make their homes more comfortable and attractive
-- The experts on this show go in and face the challenges of clothes strewn across the floor -- drawers filled to overflowing -- closets so full you can't open them or everything falls out -- counter tops so covered that you can't tell what they are -- kitchens and bathrooms and living places just completely filled up
-- the first thing they do is take an inventory of all the "stuff." -- and then they force the home owners to make a decision about what they are going to get rid of and what they are going to keep -- they put three tarps out in the yard -- one for yard sale -- one for charity -- and one they can keep
-- and the rule is, if you put one thing in the keep pile, you have to put one thing in both the yard sale pile and the charity pile
-- once all the initial sorting is done, the family leaves and the experts go to work -- they clean out the rooms -- they put in cabinets and storage areas -- they set aside places for everything -- and completely transform the homes -- and when the family returns, the difference is astounding -- it literally is a life-changing event
-- this show is a lot like repentance in the spiritual realm -- there comes a time when we all have to take inventory of what's in our heart -- there comes a time when we realize that we need to get rid of some things -- when we need to change our minds and our hearts and our behaviors -- when we need to turn back to Jesus -- and let the Holy Spirit come in and repair and remodel our lives and set everything right
-- this is the heart of repentance -- and this is something all of us need to do -- not just before the National Day of Prayer -- but every day and every time we find ourselves giving in to that same old sin time and time again
-- repentance is letting go and letting God -- it is making a U-turn in our lives and turning our face and our wills and our minds and our hearts towards Jesus
-- repentance is the path to true revival in our lives and in our country
-- so, as I close now in prayer, please join with me in a time of taking inventory and letting go and turning around so that we might follow Jesus with all our hearts and minds and souls and so that we might see our sins forgiven and our nation healed
-- let us pray
1. Randall Caselman -- http://www.churchofchristusa.com/Archives/old%20sermons/Genuine%20Biblical%20Repentance.htm
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Matthew 4
12. When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee.
13. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali--
14. to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:
15. "Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles--
16. the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned."
17. From that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."
-- this morning, we are finishing our series on the "how's" of revival by looking at the third of the four criteria that God gave us in 2 Chronicles 7:14 -- as you remember, we started this series by asking the question, "Yes, but how?" -- Yes, we want to see revival in this land -- Yes, we want to see healing and forgiveness in America -- Yes, we want to see God restore our country and our churches and our homes -- Yes, we want all of God in our lives -- but how? -- How can we make this happen?
-- in 2 Chronicles 7:14, God Himself tells us how -- He said, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land"
-- this is the path to revival -- this is the answer to the question, "Yes, but how?" -- God tells us that we are to do four things to see revival -- we are to humble ourselves, pray, seek God's face, and turn from our wicked ways
-- over the past two weeks we have talked about what it means to humble ourselves before God -- to humble ourselves means that we see ourselves as we truly are
-- we talked about seeking the face of God -- seeing God as He truly is -- seeing His goodness and righteousness and holiness and power and recognizing that He is the only One capable of healing this land and forgiving our sin
-- today we are going to look at the third step in seeking revival -- repentance -- turning from our wicked ways and turning to God
-- by understanding what repentance is and by actively turning away from our sins and turning to God we will prepare our hearts and our souls to truly come before God on Thursday at the National Day of Prayer as we join with 100 million other Christians to pray for this nation and our churches and ourselves
-- prayer alone will not suffice -- we must also take responsibility for our actions and actively turn from our sin if we want to see God in America again
II. Defining Repentance
-- Jesus Himself told us that -- here in this passage in Matthew we read of the one message that Jesus had for every person He spoke to -- "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."
-- Jesus was the master communicator -- as God, He was able to see past the masks that people put on -- He was able to see past their image and into their heart -- and He always spoke directly to the need that they had
-- when Nicodemus -- the member of the Jewish Sanhedrin -- one of the leaders of the Jewish faith in the temple in Jesus' day came to Jesus at night and tried to impress Him by saying that he knew that Jesus was a holy and righteous man and hoped that Jesus would say the same -- Jesus swept all that aside and got right to the point and told Nicodemus it wasn't about being good but about being born again
-- when the rich young ruler came to Jesus and wanted to follow Him as a disciple, Jesus looked into his heart and saw the greed and the covetousness that was there and told him that if he wanted to follow Him, that he should give away all his money first
-- and when the expert in the law came up and tried to test Jesus concerning the greatest commandment, Jesus looked at the pride hidden in his heart and told him to humble himself and to start loving his neighbor as himself
-- it didn't matter if someone came to Jesus seeking to follow Him as a disciple or for healing or for some other reason, Jesus always spoke directly to the heart of that person -- tailoring His message and giving them the word that they needed to hear
-- but, no matter what each person's specific need was, the heart of Jesus' message was always the same for everyone -- "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near"
-- Jesus' command to repent was for the rich and the poor -- for the great and for those less in life -- for the faithful and for the backsliders -- this command to repent was for everyone -- and it is for us today
-- before we can begin to discuss what is involved in repentance, the first step would be to know what repentance is -- let's turn over to Joel Chapter 2 and we'll continue on there
-- as you are turning there, let me define repentance for you
-- repentance is the complete turning away from sin in our lives -- repentance is a change of mind leading to a change of life -- before we change our lives, we must first of all have a change of mind about what we have done
-- I heard a good story about repentance the other day -- a minister was speaking to a group of children -- in opening his talk he asked the question, "What is meant by the word repentance?" -- a little boy raised his hand, "Well, it's being sorry for your sins" -- "That's a good answer," he said
-- about that time, a little girl on the back seat raised her hand, "What do you think repentance is?" the preacher asked -- "I think," said the child, "repentance is being sorry enough to quit."
-- that's a good definition of repentance -- repentance is more than saying you're sorry -- repentance is more than just feeling bad about what you have done -- repentance is feeling bad enough to quit -- repentance is sorrow with action
-- last week, when we were talking about seeking the face of God, we looked at the transfiguration of Jesus and I told you that the Greek word that is translated as "transfiguration" is the same word that we get the word "metamorphosis" from -- "meta" meaning "to change" and "morphosis" meaning "form" -- so, metamorphosis is a complete change in form from one state to another
-- the Greek word that we translate as repentance is very similar -- it is actually "metanoia" -- "meta" -- "change" -- and "noia" -- mind -- so, repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change of life -- it is a decision on our part to turn away from sin -- to turn from our wicked ways -- and to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to keep us away from sin in the future
-- true repentance actually involves three things -- it involves our intellect, our emotions, and our actions -- look with me now at Joel 2:12
12. `Even now,` declares the LORD, `return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.`
13. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
14. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing-- grain offerings and drink offerings for the LORD your God.
-- the first step in repentance involves our intellect -- it is recognizing that we are sinners -- it is knowing that we have sinned against God
-- you cannot repent of your sins unless you first are aware of them -- you cannot turn from your wicked ways unless you first acknowledge that you have wicked ways
-- all of us have sin in our lives -- all of us are sinners -- but, sometimes, it's hard for us to see that -- that's why the first two steps in 2 Chronicles 7:14 are so important -- as we humble ourselves and seek God's face, we see ourselves as who we truly are compared with God's holiness and righteousness -- we see ourselves as sinners separated from God -- and that makes us aware of the sin in our lives
-- we like to think that we're doing o.k. -- we like to think that we're just good old boys and good old girls and we're really not that bad -- but, when we compare ourselves to Jesus -- when we look at our hearts and our souls and our minds as compared to God -- we can see just how sinful we are -- as 1 John 1:8 says, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."
-- even if we are Christians -- even if we have been saved since we were little kids -- we still sin and we still have sin in our lives that needs to be taken care of
-- the first step in repentance is knowing that we are sinners
-- the second step involves our emotions -- the realization that you are a sinner -- the knowledge that you have done wrong and disobeyed God -- naturally causes you to feel bad about it
-- Joel says here in verse 12 that the knowledge of our sin leads to fasting and weeping and mourning -- you feel sorrow over your sin
-- the Hebrew word for "mourning" here is the same word that the Old Testament uses to describe someone mourning for the dead -- when we know that we are sinners -- when we begin to understand the depth of our sin -- we realize that we are dead -- separated from God -- out of fellowship with Him -- and Joel says that we mourn as someone mourns for the loss -- we weep for who we are and for who we can be
-- when the prophet Isaiah appeared in a vision before the throne of God and saw his own sorry state compared with that of God, Isaiah cried out in mourning, "Woe to me! I am ruined!"
-- the second step in repentance is mourning over our sins and what we have allowed ourselves to become
-- the final step in repentance involves our action
-- repentance does not stop with knowledge and emotions -- repentance does not end with us just feeling sorry for what we have done -- true repentance involves not only a change in mind, but a change of heart -- a change of behavior
-- verse 13 tells us to "Return to the LORD your God" -- that word, "Return," is an action word -- it implies, not only a change of mind, but a change of behavior
-- "repentance is turning from sin and doing what God wants us to do -- Repentance is a turning from being and doing what we want to be and do -- to being and doing what God would have us be and do -- Repentance is making Jesus both Lord and King of our lives -- living in total submission to Him through the word"1
-- repentance is a change of mind -- a change of heart -- and a change of position
-- I don't know if you've ever thought about it like this or not, but when you sin, in essence, you are turning your back to Jesus -- you are taking your eyes off of Him -- you are not listening to Him, but to your own desires -- you are not following His commands, but doing what you want to do
-- when you repent, you turn around -- you turn away from the world -- away from your desires -- away from your wants and wishes -- and you follow Jesus and do what He tells you to do
-- now, before we close, let me share with you a few cautions on what repentance is not -- now that we know what repentance is, let me tell you what it is not
-- first, repentance is more than just feeling sorry
-- a lot of times, we just want to cover up our sins -- we don't want to go the whole way to repentance -- we know we've disobeyed God -- we know we've done wrong -- and we feel sorry for what we've done -- we are truly sorrowful for our actions
-- and so we go to God and we confess our sins and we tell Him, "Lord, I'm sorry for what I've done -- I'm sorry that I did this -- I'm sorry that I sinned against you" -- but then we get up off our knees and go right back and do it again
-- we're not finishing the act of repentance -- we're only go through two of the three steps
-- to truly repent, you have to go all the way -- you have to turn completely around and let the Holy Spirit empower you to leave that sin behind once and for all
-- second, repentance is not just making a change in your life
-- at the start of every year, people make new year's resolutions -- they resolve to make a change in their life -- they resolve to turn around and do something different
-- some people stop smoking -- some stop drinking -- others lose weight or spend more time with their kids or whatever
-- the point is that these changes are not the same as biblical repentance
-- changes like this are man-centered and world-centered -- they involve only a change in behavior and not a change of heart
-- true biblical repentance is a change of life -- body, mind, and spirit -- true biblical repentance involves not only changing some behavior, but changing your mind and your spirit, as well -- true repentance is not just turning our behavior around, but turning ourselves over to God -- true repentance is the total and complete submission to Jesus
-- true biblical repentance gets to the heart of the matter and deals with the sin in your life -- not just the effects of sin -- new year's resolutions are like putting a band-aid on a fatal wound -- it can do some good, but it can't fix the problem -- repentance heals a broken soul
-- lastly, repentance is not merely believing
-- repentance is not the same thing as having faith -- it is not the same thing as believing and trusting in Jesus for salvation, although it goes hand-in-hand with it
-- Repentance is acknowledging our sin and rebellion against God and changing our mind about sinning against God -- Faith is trusting the finished work of Christ for forgiveness -- Repentance and faith are the two aspects of man’s response to God’s offer of salvation
-- in other words, you trust and believe through faith and you turn away from sin through repentance
III. Closing
-- when I'm channel surfing, occasionally I'll run across this show on the Style Channel called, "Clean House" -- it's a show where experts in cleaning, organizing, remodeling, and painting go to people's houses that are just cluttered beyond belief to help the people get their life in order and to make their homes more comfortable and attractive
-- The experts on this show go in and face the challenges of clothes strewn across the floor -- drawers filled to overflowing -- closets so full you can't open them or everything falls out -- counter tops so covered that you can't tell what they are -- kitchens and bathrooms and living places just completely filled up
-- the first thing they do is take an inventory of all the "stuff." -- and then they force the home owners to make a decision about what they are going to get rid of and what they are going to keep -- they put three tarps out in the yard -- one for yard sale -- one for charity -- and one they can keep
-- and the rule is, if you put one thing in the keep pile, you have to put one thing in both the yard sale pile and the charity pile
-- once all the initial sorting is done, the family leaves and the experts go to work -- they clean out the rooms -- they put in cabinets and storage areas -- they set aside places for everything -- and completely transform the homes -- and when the family returns, the difference is astounding -- it literally is a life-changing event
-- this show is a lot like repentance in the spiritual realm -- there comes a time when we all have to take inventory of what's in our heart -- there comes a time when we realize that we need to get rid of some things -- when we need to change our minds and our hearts and our behaviors -- when we need to turn back to Jesus -- and let the Holy Spirit come in and repair and remodel our lives and set everything right
-- this is the heart of repentance -- and this is something all of us need to do -- not just before the National Day of Prayer -- but every day and every time we find ourselves giving in to that same old sin time and time again
-- repentance is letting go and letting God -- it is making a U-turn in our lives and turning our face and our wills and our minds and our hearts towards Jesus
-- repentance is the path to true revival in our lives and in our country
-- so, as I close now in prayer, please join with me in a time of taking inventory and letting go and turning around so that we might follow Jesus with all our hearts and minds and souls and so that we might see our sins forgiven and our nation healed
-- let us pray
1. Randall Caselman -- http://www.churchofchristusa.com/Archives/old%20sermons/Genuine%20Biblical%20Repentance.htm
Saturday, May 01, 2010
SERMON: SEEKING THE FACE OF GOD
25 April 2010
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Matthew 17
1. After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
2. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.
3. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
4. Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters--one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."
5. While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"
6. When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified.
7. But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don't be afraid."
8. When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
-- this morning, we are continuing in our series on the "how's" of revival by looking at the four criteria that God gave us in 2 Chronicles 7:14 -- as you remember, in this verse God told us that when we are confronted with trials and troubles -- when plagues and famines and hardships come upon us because we have turned away from Him -- that if we return to Him, that He will bring healing and restoration and revival on our land
-- this verse reads, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land"
-- last week we talked about what it takes to humble ourselves before God
-- this week, we are going to be talking about what God means and what we are to do when He tells us to "Seek His Face" -- we'll talk about this more, but in a real, general sense, seeking the face of God means that you see Him as He really is -- it means that we brush aside all of our perceptions and illusions and doubts and that affect our vision and that we see the real and true God standing before us
-- as the old song says, "I can see clearly now the rain is gone" -- that's the heart of seeking the face of God -- getting rid of everything that is blocking our vision so we can see the Son
-- you know, I've always had poor vision my whole life -- I got glasses when I was in the third grade and I wear contacts now, but I never really considered my vision a problem until lately -- wearing glasses or wearing contacts was just something I had to do -- and when I put them on, I could see as good as anyone else -- better, in fact, than some people who refused to admit they had a problem
-- wearing glasses never hampered me from playing sports or hunting or fishing or anything else -- I was able to participate in every activity my friends did -- it never slowed me down
-- but recently, especially over the last year, I have been having issues with my vision that I do call a problem -- all of you out there who are over 40 years old probably know exactly what I'm talking about -- I just cannot see things close up and it is about to drive me crazy
-- I was trying to thread a hook the other day and I couldn't see the eye of the hook to put the fishing line through it -- I was trying to read something and I had to keep pushing it farther and farther away from my face until it cleared up -- most recently, I have found I have a problem seeing the hymnal up here -- I have to hold it way down in order to read the words -- it is just frustrating to not be able to do something -- to not be able to see something -- that I used to be able to see without a second thought
-- I used to get upset when I'd go to Walmart and these little old ladies would park their buggies right in the middle of the aisle and block it and stand there looking at the shelves for what they were buying -- I'd complain to myself as I squeezed by them about them being the in the way and I'd think to myself, "Why won't they get closer to the shelf and make room for everybody else?" -- but I think I understand them a little better now, because I caught myself doing the same thing just yesterday -- I think they have to stand that far back in order to read the labels -- they are having a problem with their vision
-- vision problems are things that people start to experience as they get older -- I asked my eye doctor about my problem seeing close up -- he said the technical term for it is "presbyopia" -- the first part of that word, "presby" means "old man" or "elder" -- the second part, "opia" means "eye" -- so, he told me, presbyopia just means your eyes are getting older and you can't see as well as you did when you were younger
-- but just wait, he said, there's other problems you can look forward to as you get older that can cause degenerating eyesight -- cataracts, glaucoma, astigmatisms, or just increasing problems with near- or far-sightedness -- it just comes down to this, he said, when you get old, you just can't see as clearly as when you are young -- and that's very true
-- I've got a couple of nieces who have just recently reached the age where they are ready to get driver's licenses -- one of them is 17 and has been driving now for a couple of years and the other one just turned 15 and just went and took her tests so that she could get her learning permit
-- and, if you've had a license for a while, you might not remember how stressful it was to get your first license -- you had to study and study and study so you could pass the written test and then you had to take the driving test with that evaluator just sitting there watching your every move
-- but there's one part of that test that my nieces didn't worry about at all -- the vision test -- because they're young, they can see -- they have no problems seeing -- they have great vision
-- but the next time you go to renew your license, watch the older people in the room -- they're not worried if they get asked about their driving ability -- they're not worried if someone asks them what a particular rule of the road is -- they've got a lifetime of driving experience -- but when they face that vision machine, they get worried -- because they know that their eyes are older and they can't see as well as they used to be able to and if they can't pass the vision test, they will lose their right to drive
-- vision problems are, indeed, something to be concerned about -- but our concern shouldn't just be about our physical vision problems -- but also our spiritual vision
-- I have been pondering the meaning of God's command to "seek His face" in 2 Chronicles 7:14 over the last several weeks -- and, you know, I never really understood it -- it seems like that phrase "Seeking My Face" is nothing more than a general term for all that we do in the church
-- I mean, when I read that verse, doesn't that one command, "Seek My Face," seem a little redundant? -- isn't that what we're already doing? -- God tells us in this verse that if we want revival -- if we want healing and restoration -- then we are to humble ourselves and pray and turn from our wicked ways -- wouldn't those three things really just mean that we are seeking His face?
-- but God must mean something more here -- He must mean something different -- just like His call to us to humble ourselves and pray and turn from our wicked ways meant that we had to change something that we had been doing to get right with Him -- seeking His face must also mean that we have to change something that we have been doing -- the question is "what?"
-- and here's where I think the spiritual vision part comes in -- just like with our physical vision, as we get older, our spiritual vision starts to degenerate -- it starts to get a little worse -- we just can't see as clearly as we once did because we have let years and years of life and experience and religion cloud our vision
-- remember when you were first saved? -- you didn't care so much about denominations -- you didn't care so much about conservative vs. liberal theology -- you didn't care so much about what type of music we sang or what version of the Bible we used or anything else that is so important now -- all you cared about was Jesus -- He was the most important thing -- He was your all in all -- He was all that you saw
-- but, over the years, we let religion and life and experience cloud the way we see Jesus -- instead of seeing the real Jesus clearly like we used to, we have revisioned Jesus in our own fashion -- liberal churches see Jesus as liberal -- conservative churches see Jesus as conservative -- contemporary worshipers see Jesus as breaking the mold -- traditional worshipers see the traditional Jesus that was in our Sunday School pictures -- everybody in the church sees Jesus in a different way -- we all claim the name of Jesus -- we all speak the name of Jesus -- but, when we do, we're all talking about somebody different -- somebody that only we see because He has been filtered through our clouded vision
-- but God doesn't want us to see Him through our filters -- God doesn't want us to see Him as we have made Him out to be -- God wants us to see Him as He is -- and, so, when God tells us to seek His face, He is commanding us to clear our vision -- to remove the layers of film left by years of religion and experience and life and to see Him as He truly is -- to see His real face -- to see the real God
II. Scripture Lesson (Matthew 17:1-8)
-- in this passage in Matthew 17, we read of an experience that three of Jesus' disciples had when they saw Jesus as He truly was for the first time in their lives
-- don't fall into the trap of thinking that when the disciples first saw Jesus -- that when Jesus first called them to follow Him -- that they looked up and saw a blinding light and a halo around Jesus and they immediately knew He was God and they jumped to their feet and followed Him
-- Isaiah 53:2 says that Jesus had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. -- in other words, when Jesus' disciples looked at Him, they didn't see God in physical form -- they just saw a man like themselves -- someone that they lived with and followed and listened to because He had insights into God's teachings that were new and had life
-- it wasn't until later that they began to realize that there was more to Jesus than just another gifted rabbi -- it wasn't until later that they began to see Jesus for who He was
-- the only time Jesus let them see Him as He truly was was during the transfiguration that Matthew tells us about here in this passage -- let's look back at this again and think about it in terms of seeking God's face
-- look back at verse 1 in this passage
1. After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
-- Jesus had 12 disciples, but He only took three of them with Him to this mountain -- there's a lesson there for us -- we can all be in the presence of Jesus, but only those who come to Him with eyes wide open -- only those who come to Him without preconceived notions -- will see Jesus as He truly is
-- the call to seek God's face is to go with Jesus to the mountain -- to put aside the filter and the cloud of life and religion and experience -- and to see Him in His glory
-- verse 2
2. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.
-- Matthew tells us here that Jesus was "transfigured" -- the Greek word that is translated here literally means "metamorphosis" -- a change in form -- while we read that Jesus' face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light, there's obviously a lot more going on here than Jesus just changing His clothes
-- what happened on this mountain was that Jesus was transformed -- He took on another form -- He changed from being just a man to appearing in His glorified form -- Peter, James, and John witnessed this man that they knew becoming something else -- for the first time in their lives, they saw Him as He truly was
-- at that moment, all that they thought they knew about Jesus was stripped bare -- no longer was this just the Galilean carpenter and rabbi that they knew -- no longer was this just a fellow first century Jew -- no longer was this just the man who shared their fire
-- everything about Him was changed -- His clothes -- His features -- His appearance -- His very being -- they no longer looked at Jesus the man -- they looked at Jesus the God
-- their vision had been cleared and they would never look at Him the same way again
-- verse 3
3. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
4. Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters--one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."
-- Matthew tells us that Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus on the mountain and that Peter, James, and John saw them standing there talking with Him -- the question is, "Why?" -- Isn't the real issue the fact that Jesus was now standing before them in His transfigured, glorified form -- who cares about Moses and Elijah?
-- they're there for a reason -- Moses represents the law and Elijah represents the prophets
-- for Peter, James, and John, their former vision of God was based on these two things -- their idea of who God was and what God was supposed to do and how God was supposed to act was based on the law of Moses and the revelations revealed to God's prophets
-- over the years, the true image of God revealed in the law and the prophets had gotten blurred as life and experience and religion changed who the people saw -- why do you think the Pharisees missed seeing Jesus as Messiah when He was on earth?
-- because the Jesus they saw was not the Messiah they were looking for -- they had made up in their minds who the Messiah was and how He would look and what He would do, and when Jesus showed up, He didn't fit their image -- He wasn't who the Pharisees were looking for, and so they rejected Him
-- the significance of Moses and Elijah appearing with Jesus at the Mount of Transfiguration is to demonstrate to the disciples that who they are seeing now -- this Jesus who is standing before them glorified as King of Kings and Lord of Lords -- is the real Messiah -- the real Jesus -- the real God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
-- verse 5
5. While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"
6. When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified.
-- as if to punctuate the lesson here for the disciples, God the Father descends upon the mountain, enveloping it in a cloud like familiar passages in the Old Testament, as He pronounces to the three terrified disciples -- "This is My Son"
-- in other words, the Father was making sure Peter, James, and John got the message -- this Jesus who was standing before them was the real Jesus -- the true Jesus -- the Jesus stripped of all worldly affectations
-- this was the Jesus that they were supposed to follow -- this was the Jesus they were supposed to preach -- this was the Jesus that they were supposed to worship
-- this was Jesus, not the man they thought they knew -- not the image of the Messiah they had been taught to look for -- this was the real deal -- and this was who they were to see when they looked on the face of Jesus from now on
-- verse 7
7. But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don't be afraid."
8. When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
-- for us, this morning, the heart of this passage comes at the end of verse 8 -- "they saw no one except Jesus"
-- all the layers of life and religion and experience that had clouded their vision had been removed -- their eyesight had been restored -- and they saw no one and nothing other than the real Jesus
-- this is the heart of the commandment that God gives us in 2 Chronicles 7:14 when He tells us to seek His face -- we are to see nothing but Jesus -- we are to look past the things that blur our vision -- the trappings of our man-made religion -- the experiences of life that have jaded us to the truth of God in our midst -- the cynicism and doubt that comes with age -- we are to clear our vision and see nothing but Jesus
-- that is what God means when He tell us to "Seek His Face"
III. Closing
-- since 1541, from the moment he completed his painting, "The Last Judgment," the name Michelangelo has been synonymous with The Sistine Chapel
-- for the past 450 years, travelers from around the world have gone to Rome and visited the Vatican just to see this remarkable painting by Michelangelo on the ceiling of this chapel just north of St. Peter's Basilica
-- but until recently, no one really knew what a masterpiece it was -- you see, in the intervening 450 years, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel has been coated with the grime of life -- wax and soot from candles burned over the years -- crystalline accretions of salt that had leaked through the roof and outer walls -- dust and dirt -- oils and animal fats and old cleaning solutions from years gone by -- all of this obscured from vision the true picture that Michelangelo had painted
-- you could see it -- you could make it out -- but it wasn't as clear or as vivid or as sharp as when Michelangelo first painted it
-- beginning in 1980, the Vatican took steps to restore the painting to its former glory -- using modern, professional techniques, experts took decades to painstakingly restore and renew the original painting -- in the process, they revealed colors and details -- angels and other spiritual beings -- that had been covered for years by grime
-- now, for the first time in 450 years, visitors to the Sistine Chapel can truly see what Michelangelo painted
-- when God commands us to "seek His face," He is commanding us to undergo a spiritual restoration in our hearts and in our vision -- He wants us to remove the grime of religion -- the soot of life -- the crud of experience -- so that we can see Him as He truly is
-- we do this through His word -- we do this through His Spirit -- we do this by spending time with Him alone
-- just as Jesus had to carry His disciples up on the mountain, away from the crowds, in order for them to see Him in His glory, we need to remove ourselves from the trappings of this world and spend time with God if we are see Him as He truly is
-- a god of our making will never bring revival -- a god of our making cannot heal or forgive or restore -- it is only when we seek out the true God of the Bible that we will see healing and restoration and revival in our land and in our homes and in our churches
-- as we close today, I want to encourage you to commit yourself to spending some time alone with God this week -- just you and His word and no one else -- no commentaries where others tell you what they think it means -- no religious texts that explain the passages in light of denominational understandings -- just you and God, alone on the mountain -- with open eyes and an open heart and a willingness to put aside your preconceived notions of who God is so that you can experience the real God in your life
-- let's pray
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Matthew 17
1. After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
2. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.
3. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
4. Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters--one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."
5. While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"
6. When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified.
7. But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don't be afraid."
8. When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
-- this morning, we are continuing in our series on the "how's" of revival by looking at the four criteria that God gave us in 2 Chronicles 7:14 -- as you remember, in this verse God told us that when we are confronted with trials and troubles -- when plagues and famines and hardships come upon us because we have turned away from Him -- that if we return to Him, that He will bring healing and restoration and revival on our land
-- this verse reads, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land"
-- last week we talked about what it takes to humble ourselves before God
-- this week, we are going to be talking about what God means and what we are to do when He tells us to "Seek His Face" -- we'll talk about this more, but in a real, general sense, seeking the face of God means that you see Him as He really is -- it means that we brush aside all of our perceptions and illusions and doubts and that affect our vision and that we see the real and true God standing before us
-- as the old song says, "I can see clearly now the rain is gone" -- that's the heart of seeking the face of God -- getting rid of everything that is blocking our vision so we can see the Son
-- you know, I've always had poor vision my whole life -- I got glasses when I was in the third grade and I wear contacts now, but I never really considered my vision a problem until lately -- wearing glasses or wearing contacts was just something I had to do -- and when I put them on, I could see as good as anyone else -- better, in fact, than some people who refused to admit they had a problem
-- wearing glasses never hampered me from playing sports or hunting or fishing or anything else -- I was able to participate in every activity my friends did -- it never slowed me down
-- but recently, especially over the last year, I have been having issues with my vision that I do call a problem -- all of you out there who are over 40 years old probably know exactly what I'm talking about -- I just cannot see things close up and it is about to drive me crazy
-- I was trying to thread a hook the other day and I couldn't see the eye of the hook to put the fishing line through it -- I was trying to read something and I had to keep pushing it farther and farther away from my face until it cleared up -- most recently, I have found I have a problem seeing the hymnal up here -- I have to hold it way down in order to read the words -- it is just frustrating to not be able to do something -- to not be able to see something -- that I used to be able to see without a second thought
-- I used to get upset when I'd go to Walmart and these little old ladies would park their buggies right in the middle of the aisle and block it and stand there looking at the shelves for what they were buying -- I'd complain to myself as I squeezed by them about them being the in the way and I'd think to myself, "Why won't they get closer to the shelf and make room for everybody else?" -- but I think I understand them a little better now, because I caught myself doing the same thing just yesterday -- I think they have to stand that far back in order to read the labels -- they are having a problem with their vision
-- vision problems are things that people start to experience as they get older -- I asked my eye doctor about my problem seeing close up -- he said the technical term for it is "presbyopia" -- the first part of that word, "presby" means "old man" or "elder" -- the second part, "opia" means "eye" -- so, he told me, presbyopia just means your eyes are getting older and you can't see as well as you did when you were younger
-- but just wait, he said, there's other problems you can look forward to as you get older that can cause degenerating eyesight -- cataracts, glaucoma, astigmatisms, or just increasing problems with near- or far-sightedness -- it just comes down to this, he said, when you get old, you just can't see as clearly as when you are young -- and that's very true
-- I've got a couple of nieces who have just recently reached the age where they are ready to get driver's licenses -- one of them is 17 and has been driving now for a couple of years and the other one just turned 15 and just went and took her tests so that she could get her learning permit
-- and, if you've had a license for a while, you might not remember how stressful it was to get your first license -- you had to study and study and study so you could pass the written test and then you had to take the driving test with that evaluator just sitting there watching your every move
-- but there's one part of that test that my nieces didn't worry about at all -- the vision test -- because they're young, they can see -- they have no problems seeing -- they have great vision
-- but the next time you go to renew your license, watch the older people in the room -- they're not worried if they get asked about their driving ability -- they're not worried if someone asks them what a particular rule of the road is -- they've got a lifetime of driving experience -- but when they face that vision machine, they get worried -- because they know that their eyes are older and they can't see as well as they used to be able to and if they can't pass the vision test, they will lose their right to drive
-- vision problems are, indeed, something to be concerned about -- but our concern shouldn't just be about our physical vision problems -- but also our spiritual vision
-- I have been pondering the meaning of God's command to "seek His face" in 2 Chronicles 7:14 over the last several weeks -- and, you know, I never really understood it -- it seems like that phrase "Seeking My Face" is nothing more than a general term for all that we do in the church
-- I mean, when I read that verse, doesn't that one command, "Seek My Face," seem a little redundant? -- isn't that what we're already doing? -- God tells us in this verse that if we want revival -- if we want healing and restoration -- then we are to humble ourselves and pray and turn from our wicked ways -- wouldn't those three things really just mean that we are seeking His face?
-- but God must mean something more here -- He must mean something different -- just like His call to us to humble ourselves and pray and turn from our wicked ways meant that we had to change something that we had been doing to get right with Him -- seeking His face must also mean that we have to change something that we have been doing -- the question is "what?"
-- and here's where I think the spiritual vision part comes in -- just like with our physical vision, as we get older, our spiritual vision starts to degenerate -- it starts to get a little worse -- we just can't see as clearly as we once did because we have let years and years of life and experience and religion cloud our vision
-- remember when you were first saved? -- you didn't care so much about denominations -- you didn't care so much about conservative vs. liberal theology -- you didn't care so much about what type of music we sang or what version of the Bible we used or anything else that is so important now -- all you cared about was Jesus -- He was the most important thing -- He was your all in all -- He was all that you saw
-- but, over the years, we let religion and life and experience cloud the way we see Jesus -- instead of seeing the real Jesus clearly like we used to, we have revisioned Jesus in our own fashion -- liberal churches see Jesus as liberal -- conservative churches see Jesus as conservative -- contemporary worshipers see Jesus as breaking the mold -- traditional worshipers see the traditional Jesus that was in our Sunday School pictures -- everybody in the church sees Jesus in a different way -- we all claim the name of Jesus -- we all speak the name of Jesus -- but, when we do, we're all talking about somebody different -- somebody that only we see because He has been filtered through our clouded vision
-- but God doesn't want us to see Him through our filters -- God doesn't want us to see Him as we have made Him out to be -- God wants us to see Him as He is -- and, so, when God tells us to seek His face, He is commanding us to clear our vision -- to remove the layers of film left by years of religion and experience and life and to see Him as He truly is -- to see His real face -- to see the real God
II. Scripture Lesson (Matthew 17:1-8)
-- in this passage in Matthew 17, we read of an experience that three of Jesus' disciples had when they saw Jesus as He truly was for the first time in their lives
-- don't fall into the trap of thinking that when the disciples first saw Jesus -- that when Jesus first called them to follow Him -- that they looked up and saw a blinding light and a halo around Jesus and they immediately knew He was God and they jumped to their feet and followed Him
-- Isaiah 53:2 says that Jesus had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. -- in other words, when Jesus' disciples looked at Him, they didn't see God in physical form -- they just saw a man like themselves -- someone that they lived with and followed and listened to because He had insights into God's teachings that were new and had life
-- it wasn't until later that they began to realize that there was more to Jesus than just another gifted rabbi -- it wasn't until later that they began to see Jesus for who He was
-- the only time Jesus let them see Him as He truly was was during the transfiguration that Matthew tells us about here in this passage -- let's look back at this again and think about it in terms of seeking God's face
-- look back at verse 1 in this passage
1. After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
-- Jesus had 12 disciples, but He only took three of them with Him to this mountain -- there's a lesson there for us -- we can all be in the presence of Jesus, but only those who come to Him with eyes wide open -- only those who come to Him without preconceived notions -- will see Jesus as He truly is
-- the call to seek God's face is to go with Jesus to the mountain -- to put aside the filter and the cloud of life and religion and experience -- and to see Him in His glory
-- verse 2
2. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.
-- Matthew tells us here that Jesus was "transfigured" -- the Greek word that is translated here literally means "metamorphosis" -- a change in form -- while we read that Jesus' face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light, there's obviously a lot more going on here than Jesus just changing His clothes
-- what happened on this mountain was that Jesus was transformed -- He took on another form -- He changed from being just a man to appearing in His glorified form -- Peter, James, and John witnessed this man that they knew becoming something else -- for the first time in their lives, they saw Him as He truly was
-- at that moment, all that they thought they knew about Jesus was stripped bare -- no longer was this just the Galilean carpenter and rabbi that they knew -- no longer was this just a fellow first century Jew -- no longer was this just the man who shared their fire
-- everything about Him was changed -- His clothes -- His features -- His appearance -- His very being -- they no longer looked at Jesus the man -- they looked at Jesus the God
-- their vision had been cleared and they would never look at Him the same way again
-- verse 3
3. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
4. Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters--one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."
-- Matthew tells us that Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus on the mountain and that Peter, James, and John saw them standing there talking with Him -- the question is, "Why?" -- Isn't the real issue the fact that Jesus was now standing before them in His transfigured, glorified form -- who cares about Moses and Elijah?
-- they're there for a reason -- Moses represents the law and Elijah represents the prophets
-- for Peter, James, and John, their former vision of God was based on these two things -- their idea of who God was and what God was supposed to do and how God was supposed to act was based on the law of Moses and the revelations revealed to God's prophets
-- over the years, the true image of God revealed in the law and the prophets had gotten blurred as life and experience and religion changed who the people saw -- why do you think the Pharisees missed seeing Jesus as Messiah when He was on earth?
-- because the Jesus they saw was not the Messiah they were looking for -- they had made up in their minds who the Messiah was and how He would look and what He would do, and when Jesus showed up, He didn't fit their image -- He wasn't who the Pharisees were looking for, and so they rejected Him
-- the significance of Moses and Elijah appearing with Jesus at the Mount of Transfiguration is to demonstrate to the disciples that who they are seeing now -- this Jesus who is standing before them glorified as King of Kings and Lord of Lords -- is the real Messiah -- the real Jesus -- the real God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
-- verse 5
5. While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"
6. When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified.
-- as if to punctuate the lesson here for the disciples, God the Father descends upon the mountain, enveloping it in a cloud like familiar passages in the Old Testament, as He pronounces to the three terrified disciples -- "This is My Son"
-- in other words, the Father was making sure Peter, James, and John got the message -- this Jesus who was standing before them was the real Jesus -- the true Jesus -- the Jesus stripped of all worldly affectations
-- this was the Jesus that they were supposed to follow -- this was the Jesus they were supposed to preach -- this was the Jesus that they were supposed to worship
-- this was Jesus, not the man they thought they knew -- not the image of the Messiah they had been taught to look for -- this was the real deal -- and this was who they were to see when they looked on the face of Jesus from now on
-- verse 7
7. But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don't be afraid."
8. When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
-- for us, this morning, the heart of this passage comes at the end of verse 8 -- "they saw no one except Jesus"
-- all the layers of life and religion and experience that had clouded their vision had been removed -- their eyesight had been restored -- and they saw no one and nothing other than the real Jesus
-- this is the heart of the commandment that God gives us in 2 Chronicles 7:14 when He tells us to seek His face -- we are to see nothing but Jesus -- we are to look past the things that blur our vision -- the trappings of our man-made religion -- the experiences of life that have jaded us to the truth of God in our midst -- the cynicism and doubt that comes with age -- we are to clear our vision and see nothing but Jesus
-- that is what God means when He tell us to "Seek His Face"
III. Closing
-- since 1541, from the moment he completed his painting, "The Last Judgment," the name Michelangelo has been synonymous with The Sistine Chapel
-- for the past 450 years, travelers from around the world have gone to Rome and visited the Vatican just to see this remarkable painting by Michelangelo on the ceiling of this chapel just north of St. Peter's Basilica
-- but until recently, no one really knew what a masterpiece it was -- you see, in the intervening 450 years, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel has been coated with the grime of life -- wax and soot from candles burned over the years -- crystalline accretions of salt that had leaked through the roof and outer walls -- dust and dirt -- oils and animal fats and old cleaning solutions from years gone by -- all of this obscured from vision the true picture that Michelangelo had painted
-- you could see it -- you could make it out -- but it wasn't as clear or as vivid or as sharp as when Michelangelo first painted it
-- beginning in 1980, the Vatican took steps to restore the painting to its former glory -- using modern, professional techniques, experts took decades to painstakingly restore and renew the original painting -- in the process, they revealed colors and details -- angels and other spiritual beings -- that had been covered for years by grime
-- now, for the first time in 450 years, visitors to the Sistine Chapel can truly see what Michelangelo painted
-- when God commands us to "seek His face," He is commanding us to undergo a spiritual restoration in our hearts and in our vision -- He wants us to remove the grime of religion -- the soot of life -- the crud of experience -- so that we can see Him as He truly is
-- we do this through His word -- we do this through His Spirit -- we do this by spending time with Him alone
-- just as Jesus had to carry His disciples up on the mountain, away from the crowds, in order for them to see Him in His glory, we need to remove ourselves from the trappings of this world and spend time with God if we are see Him as He truly is
-- a god of our making will never bring revival -- a god of our making cannot heal or forgive or restore -- it is only when we seek out the true God of the Bible that we will see healing and restoration and revival in our land and in our homes and in our churches
-- as we close today, I want to encourage you to commit yourself to spending some time alone with God this week -- just you and His word and no one else -- no commentaries where others tell you what they think it means -- no religious texts that explain the passages in light of denominational understandings -- just you and God, alone on the mountain -- with open eyes and an open heart and a willingness to put aside your preconceived notions of who God is so that you can experience the real God in your life
-- let's pray
SERMON: STEPPING DOWN FROM THE PEDESTAL
18 April 2010
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to 2 Chronicles 7
11. When Solomon had finished the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the LORD and in his own palace,
12. the LORD appeared to him at night and said: "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.
13. "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,
14. if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
-- this morning we are going to be continuing in the series that we started last week which we began by asking the question, "Yes, but how?"
-- "Yes, we want all that God has to offer" -- "Yes, we want to become the people who God uses" -- "Yes, we want more of God in our lives"
-- all of us are painfully aware that we need a revival in our land and in our homes and in our churches like never before
-- just this week, we saw a federal judge rule that the National Day of Prayer was unconstitutional -- the message that is being broadcast from the halls of Congress to the White House to the courts of justice is that we should look to the Government for answers and for life rather than the God of our forefathers
-- every decision -- every new Government program -- every new restriction on our religious freedom is making us more and more dependent on man and encouraging us to trust in the Government instead of the God who created us -- the answer is obvious -- now, more than ever, we need God again
-- in this familiar passage in 2 Chronicles, King Solomon has just completed building the temple in Jerusalem -- his father, David, had originally desired to build a home for God in Jerusalem, but God had refused because David had been a man of war -- instead, God chose to gift Solomon and to build the temple through him
-- and after years of toil and labor, the temple has finally been finished and consecrated as a holy place in Jerusalem -- as the place where the people of Israel could meet God and offer their sacrifices and themselves in service to Him -- as the place that declared to the world that this nation followed God and no one else
-- that very night, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a vision and gave him this promise that stands for all of God's people -- God told him that there would be times when disasters would come on the people -- that there would be times of trouble and trial -- of plague and pestilence -- that would come because the people had turned away from Him
-- "but," God said, "the people may have left Me, but I have not left them -- the people may have turned from Me, but I have not turned from them
-- and when all of this happens -- when the trials and troubles become too much to bear -- when My people -- the people who are called by My name -- are ready to return to me -- if they will do these four things -- if they will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land
-- so, if our desire is to see our nation healed -- if our desire is to see America restored -- if our desire is to see God glorify Himself and His people in this country once again -- if our answer is "Yes" -- then these four things are the "how" -- these four things are the path to revival -- the path to restoring life -- the path back to God
-- regardless of what the courts say, the National Day of Prayer is still scheduled for the first Thursday in May -- May 6 -- the Government can do a lot of things, but they can't stop prayer -- and they can't stop God -- and they can't stop us from doing what God has called us to do
and, so, for the next three Sundays leading up to May 6th, we are going to prepare ourselves to return to God -- I am going to lead you in three sermons through these steps to revival so that on this National Day of Prayer we might fulfill the fourth requirement as we join with the rest of God's people in this land -- in defiance of the court decision but in obedience to the God who created us -- and cry out in prayer for His hand to move and to hear our prayers, to forgive our sins, and to heal our land
-- but, first, we have to prepare ourselves -- so let's begin this morning by seeing what it means to humble ourselves before our God -- if you would, turn over to Philippians 2 and let's start our study there
II. Humbleness
-- as you're turning there, let me ask you a question -- what does it mean to be humble? -- what does a humble person look like?
-- the dictionary defines humbleness as not proud or arrogant -- as being submissive or lower ranking than another person -- and both of those definitions are right on the mark -- those are exactly the attributes that God wants us to seek in our lives
-- look at verse 5 in this passage in Philippians 2
5. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
-- your attitude -- your mind -- should be the same as Christ Jesus
-- humbleness starts in our minds -- it starts with our attitude -- it starts with a choice on our part -- if we are to be humble people -- if are to humble ourselves before God as He tells us to do in 2 Chronicles 7:14, then we have to choose to do so -- we have to choose to humble ourselves so that God might be exalted
-- but, this goes against our very nature -- our natural tendency is not to be humble, but instead to be filled with pride -- in fact, we are encouraged to be prideful from the moment we're born -- we're told to take pride in our accomplishments -- to be proud of our work -- proud of our heritage -- proud of our country -- proud of everything that we do -- and for those kids who don't quite get it, we even have self-esteem classes so that they can learn how to become prideful in their own lives
-- to be proud means that we exalt ourselves and our accomplishments and our lives -- to be proud means that we put ourselves on the throne of our lives -- to be proud means that we can make it on our own without anyone else's help
-- did you know that the very first sins recorded in the Bible were pride?
-- in Isaiah 14, we read how pride was Satan's downfall -- Satan started out as Lucifer, God's anointed cherub -- ordained with every precious stone -- beautiful in all his ways
-- but in his heart, he was prideful -- he desired more than he had -- and he said, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High."
-- Lucifer's pride led him to try to become higher than God -- to take God's place -- and so God cast him down from heaven and he became Satan
-- and, then, in the Garden of Eden, it was Adam and Eve's pride that made them take the forbidden fruit and disobey God -- just like Lucifer, they desired to become like God -- to know what God knew -- to be equal to Him -- and they took the fruit and ate it and brought sin into the world
-- it has been said that pride is the root of all other sins because pride makes us want to be God in our own lives -- that's why we read in the Bible that God hates pride so much -- in Proverbs 8:13, we read, "I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech" and in James 4:6, we read that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble
-- God's desire is for us to be humble -- to have the attitude and mind of Christ and to choose to humble ourselves so that God might be exalted
-- verse 6
6. Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7. but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
-- if any one person had a right to be prideful, then it was Jesus -- we can never forget that Jesus was not just a man, but He was God incarnate -- God in the flesh -- if any person had a right to exalt Himself on earth, then Jesus was the one -- but He didn't
-- these verses tell us that Jesus made Himself nothing -- in other words, the God of all the universe -- endowed with all glory and majesty and honor -- put all that aside and humbled Himself and came to earth for us
-- even though He was God, Paul writes, He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped -- He willingly stepped down and took on the role of a servant and became one of us
-- when Jesus walked among us, He showed us what it meant to live a humble life -- born in a manger to a poor Jewish carpenter's family -- He never had any position of honor in life -- He didn't have fame or fortune -- in Luke 9:58, Jesus said, ""Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." -- the God who created all things didn't even have a home
-- He lived as one of us -- He ate and slept as one of us -- He lived life as one of us so that we might learn what it meant to humble ourselves before God and submit to Him in all our ways
-- from Jesus, we learn that to be humble is not to pretend that we have no gifts or talents -- from Jesus, we learn that to be humble is not to pretend that we are nothing or that we have nothing -- from Jesus, we learn that to be humble is not to walk through this life saying, "Woe is me"
-- no, to be humble means that we are making a choice -- we are choosing to step down from the throne of our life -- we are choosing to not be in charge but to let God be in charge -- and we are choosing to use the gifts and talents that He gave us for His glory and not our own
-- verse 8
8. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!
-- in this verse we read of the ultimate act of submission -- Paul tells us that Jesus humbled Himself and was obedient to God and willingly went to the cross
-- Jesus did not do what He wanted to do -- in the Garden of Gethsemane, it was clear that Jesus did not want to go to the cross -- who would? -- what man would willingly go and suffer such a painful, excruciating punishment as that and die for something that they had not done? -- you can see in His prayers and in His actions that night that Jesus did not want to go to the cross, but yet He prayed, "Not my will, but thine be done" -- and He humbled Himself and accepted God's will for His life and His death and went to the cross and died for us
-- to be humble means that you put aside your own wants and wishes -- your own goals and plans -- and you submit your will to God's -- you step off the throne and put God on the throne -- and you do what He wants you to do and not what you want to do
-- to be humble means that we are letting God be God in our lives -- "humility is an honest and objective reflection of our real relationship to God" -- by choosing to live as Christ and to humble ourselves before God, we are demonstrating the truth of the fact that we are dependent on God -- our life -- our being -- our very existence depends on Him
-- as someone once said, "All that we have comes from God -- our lives, our salvation, our hope, our Christ. God has given all; nothing is our own. God gives; God will take away; God will give again."
-- when we recognize that we are not and cannot be in control of our own lives and we live in that understanding, then we are finally submitting ourselves to God and paving the way for Him to work in our lives -- that is why humbleness is the first step towards revival
III. Closing
-- The story is told of two ducks and a frog who lived happily together in a farm pond -- these three animals were the best of friends -- they would spend the whole day playing together in their waterhole -- but, when summer rolled around, the pond started to dry up -- and as it got smaller and smaller, it soon became apparent that the three friends would have to move.
-- This was no problem for the ducks, who could easily fly to another pond -- But the frog was stuck -- he had no way to leave this drying waterhole and go to another place to live -- so they thought and thought and finally, the frog came up with a brilliant idea -- he told the ducks to find a stick and put one end in each of their mouths so the frog could hang on to the middle with his mouth as they flew to another pond -- they tried it and the plan worked well--so well, in fact, that as they were flying along a farmer looked up in admiration and saw the frog suspended on the stick between the two ducks and said in amazement, "Well, isn't that a clever idea! I wonder who thought of it?" -- The frog said, "I did..." -- and that was then end of that
-- that's the way of pride -- the Bible tells us that pride goes before the fall -- and as soon as you open your mouth and exalt yourself, you find yourself falling flat on your face before God and everyone else
-- pride is insidious -- it is so hard to get rid of -- as Mac Davis put it, "Oh, Lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way" -- but, if we are going to follow God -- if we are going to live for Him -- if we are going to see revival in our lives and in our homes and in our country, then we are going to have to put our pride aside and submit ourselves in humility to God
-- humbleness is the essence of Christianity -- it is following the example of Christ -- it is letting God be God and recognizing that we are not in control and He is
-- as I close this message and leave you with the first answer to the question, "Yes, but how?" may we join together to pray in the words of Thomas Merton -- "Give me humility, in which alone is rest, and deliver me from pride, which is the heaviest of burdens."
-- for, as James tells us in James 4:10, "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."
-- let us pray
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to 2 Chronicles 7
11. When Solomon had finished the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the LORD and in his own palace,
12. the LORD appeared to him at night and said: "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.
13. "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,
14. if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
-- this morning we are going to be continuing in the series that we started last week which we began by asking the question, "Yes, but how?"
-- "Yes, we want all that God has to offer" -- "Yes, we want to become the people who God uses" -- "Yes, we want more of God in our lives"
-- all of us are painfully aware that we need a revival in our land and in our homes and in our churches like never before
-- just this week, we saw a federal judge rule that the National Day of Prayer was unconstitutional -- the message that is being broadcast from the halls of Congress to the White House to the courts of justice is that we should look to the Government for answers and for life rather than the God of our forefathers
-- every decision -- every new Government program -- every new restriction on our religious freedom is making us more and more dependent on man and encouraging us to trust in the Government instead of the God who created us -- the answer is obvious -- now, more than ever, we need God again
-- in this familiar passage in 2 Chronicles, King Solomon has just completed building the temple in Jerusalem -- his father, David, had originally desired to build a home for God in Jerusalem, but God had refused because David had been a man of war -- instead, God chose to gift Solomon and to build the temple through him
-- and after years of toil and labor, the temple has finally been finished and consecrated as a holy place in Jerusalem -- as the place where the people of Israel could meet God and offer their sacrifices and themselves in service to Him -- as the place that declared to the world that this nation followed God and no one else
-- that very night, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a vision and gave him this promise that stands for all of God's people -- God told him that there would be times when disasters would come on the people -- that there would be times of trouble and trial -- of plague and pestilence -- that would come because the people had turned away from Him
-- "but," God said, "the people may have left Me, but I have not left them -- the people may have turned from Me, but I have not turned from them
-- and when all of this happens -- when the trials and troubles become too much to bear -- when My people -- the people who are called by My name -- are ready to return to me -- if they will do these four things -- if they will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land
-- so, if our desire is to see our nation healed -- if our desire is to see America restored -- if our desire is to see God glorify Himself and His people in this country once again -- if our answer is "Yes" -- then these four things are the "how" -- these four things are the path to revival -- the path to restoring life -- the path back to God
-- regardless of what the courts say, the National Day of Prayer is still scheduled for the first Thursday in May -- May 6 -- the Government can do a lot of things, but they can't stop prayer -- and they can't stop God -- and they can't stop us from doing what God has called us to do
and, so, for the next three Sundays leading up to May 6th, we are going to prepare ourselves to return to God -- I am going to lead you in three sermons through these steps to revival so that on this National Day of Prayer we might fulfill the fourth requirement as we join with the rest of God's people in this land -- in defiance of the court decision but in obedience to the God who created us -- and cry out in prayer for His hand to move and to hear our prayers, to forgive our sins, and to heal our land
-- but, first, we have to prepare ourselves -- so let's begin this morning by seeing what it means to humble ourselves before our God -- if you would, turn over to Philippians 2 and let's start our study there
II. Humbleness
-- as you're turning there, let me ask you a question -- what does it mean to be humble? -- what does a humble person look like?
-- the dictionary defines humbleness as not proud or arrogant -- as being submissive or lower ranking than another person -- and both of those definitions are right on the mark -- those are exactly the attributes that God wants us to seek in our lives
-- look at verse 5 in this passage in Philippians 2
5. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
-- your attitude -- your mind -- should be the same as Christ Jesus
-- humbleness starts in our minds -- it starts with our attitude -- it starts with a choice on our part -- if we are to be humble people -- if are to humble ourselves before God as He tells us to do in 2 Chronicles 7:14, then we have to choose to do so -- we have to choose to humble ourselves so that God might be exalted
-- but, this goes against our very nature -- our natural tendency is not to be humble, but instead to be filled with pride -- in fact, we are encouraged to be prideful from the moment we're born -- we're told to take pride in our accomplishments -- to be proud of our work -- proud of our heritage -- proud of our country -- proud of everything that we do -- and for those kids who don't quite get it, we even have self-esteem classes so that they can learn how to become prideful in their own lives
-- to be proud means that we exalt ourselves and our accomplishments and our lives -- to be proud means that we put ourselves on the throne of our lives -- to be proud means that we can make it on our own without anyone else's help
-- did you know that the very first sins recorded in the Bible were pride?
-- in Isaiah 14, we read how pride was Satan's downfall -- Satan started out as Lucifer, God's anointed cherub -- ordained with every precious stone -- beautiful in all his ways
-- but in his heart, he was prideful -- he desired more than he had -- and he said, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High."
-- Lucifer's pride led him to try to become higher than God -- to take God's place -- and so God cast him down from heaven and he became Satan
-- and, then, in the Garden of Eden, it was Adam and Eve's pride that made them take the forbidden fruit and disobey God -- just like Lucifer, they desired to become like God -- to know what God knew -- to be equal to Him -- and they took the fruit and ate it and brought sin into the world
-- it has been said that pride is the root of all other sins because pride makes us want to be God in our own lives -- that's why we read in the Bible that God hates pride so much -- in Proverbs 8:13, we read, "I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech" and in James 4:6, we read that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble
-- God's desire is for us to be humble -- to have the attitude and mind of Christ and to choose to humble ourselves so that God might be exalted
-- verse 6
6. Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7. but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
-- if any one person had a right to be prideful, then it was Jesus -- we can never forget that Jesus was not just a man, but He was God incarnate -- God in the flesh -- if any person had a right to exalt Himself on earth, then Jesus was the one -- but He didn't
-- these verses tell us that Jesus made Himself nothing -- in other words, the God of all the universe -- endowed with all glory and majesty and honor -- put all that aside and humbled Himself and came to earth for us
-- even though He was God, Paul writes, He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped -- He willingly stepped down and took on the role of a servant and became one of us
-- when Jesus walked among us, He showed us what it meant to live a humble life -- born in a manger to a poor Jewish carpenter's family -- He never had any position of honor in life -- He didn't have fame or fortune -- in Luke 9:58, Jesus said, ""Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." -- the God who created all things didn't even have a home
-- He lived as one of us -- He ate and slept as one of us -- He lived life as one of us so that we might learn what it meant to humble ourselves before God and submit to Him in all our ways
-- from Jesus, we learn that to be humble is not to pretend that we have no gifts or talents -- from Jesus, we learn that to be humble is not to pretend that we are nothing or that we have nothing -- from Jesus, we learn that to be humble is not to walk through this life saying, "Woe is me"
-- no, to be humble means that we are making a choice -- we are choosing to step down from the throne of our life -- we are choosing to not be in charge but to let God be in charge -- and we are choosing to use the gifts and talents that He gave us for His glory and not our own
-- verse 8
8. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!
-- in this verse we read of the ultimate act of submission -- Paul tells us that Jesus humbled Himself and was obedient to God and willingly went to the cross
-- Jesus did not do what He wanted to do -- in the Garden of Gethsemane, it was clear that Jesus did not want to go to the cross -- who would? -- what man would willingly go and suffer such a painful, excruciating punishment as that and die for something that they had not done? -- you can see in His prayers and in His actions that night that Jesus did not want to go to the cross, but yet He prayed, "Not my will, but thine be done" -- and He humbled Himself and accepted God's will for His life and His death and went to the cross and died for us
-- to be humble means that you put aside your own wants and wishes -- your own goals and plans -- and you submit your will to God's -- you step off the throne and put God on the throne -- and you do what He wants you to do and not what you want to do
-- to be humble means that we are letting God be God in our lives -- "humility is an honest and objective reflection of our real relationship to God" -- by choosing to live as Christ and to humble ourselves before God, we are demonstrating the truth of the fact that we are dependent on God -- our life -- our being -- our very existence depends on Him
-- as someone once said, "All that we have comes from God -- our lives, our salvation, our hope, our Christ. God has given all; nothing is our own. God gives; God will take away; God will give again."
-- when we recognize that we are not and cannot be in control of our own lives and we live in that understanding, then we are finally submitting ourselves to God and paving the way for Him to work in our lives -- that is why humbleness is the first step towards revival
III. Closing
-- The story is told of two ducks and a frog who lived happily together in a farm pond -- these three animals were the best of friends -- they would spend the whole day playing together in their waterhole -- but, when summer rolled around, the pond started to dry up -- and as it got smaller and smaller, it soon became apparent that the three friends would have to move.
-- This was no problem for the ducks, who could easily fly to another pond -- But the frog was stuck -- he had no way to leave this drying waterhole and go to another place to live -- so they thought and thought and finally, the frog came up with a brilliant idea -- he told the ducks to find a stick and put one end in each of their mouths so the frog could hang on to the middle with his mouth as they flew to another pond -- they tried it and the plan worked well--so well, in fact, that as they were flying along a farmer looked up in admiration and saw the frog suspended on the stick between the two ducks and said in amazement, "Well, isn't that a clever idea! I wonder who thought of it?" -- The frog said, "I did..." -- and that was then end of that
-- that's the way of pride -- the Bible tells us that pride goes before the fall -- and as soon as you open your mouth and exalt yourself, you find yourself falling flat on your face before God and everyone else
-- pride is insidious -- it is so hard to get rid of -- as Mac Davis put it, "Oh, Lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way" -- but, if we are going to follow God -- if we are going to live for Him -- if we are going to see revival in our lives and in our homes and in our country, then we are going to have to put our pride aside and submit ourselves in humility to God
-- humbleness is the essence of Christianity -- it is following the example of Christ -- it is letting God be God and recognizing that we are not in control and He is
-- as I close this message and leave you with the first answer to the question, "Yes, but how?" may we join together to pray in the words of Thomas Merton -- "Give me humility, in which alone is rest, and deliver me from pride, which is the heaviest of burdens."
-- for, as James tells us in James 4:10, "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."
-- let us pray
SERMON: WHAT A DIFFERENCE
11 April 2010
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Acts 4:23-31
23. On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.
24. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.
25. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: "`Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
26. The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. '
27. Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.
28. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
29. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
30. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."
31. After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
-- what a difference a week makes! -- just last week, our stores and homes and churches were filled with the signs of Easter -- bright spring colors -- big Easter bunnies -- chocolate candies -- dyed eggs -- colorful new dresses
-- families and churches came together to hunt Easter eggs and to share time together -- we got up early to watch the sun rise and to worship God -- and many of us enjoyed the various Passion Plays that were presented throughout our communities
-- our churches were actually filled as members and friends who rarely darken our doors lined the pews to spend Easter with their family in the house of God to remember and to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus
-- you know, out of all the doctrines of the church -- out of all the foundational beliefs that we have as the people of God -- none are more important than the resurrection of Christ -- in fact, in 1 Corinthians 15:14, the Apostle Paul wrote that "if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith." -- in other words, the resurrection is so important that our very faith and belief system rises and falls with the truth that Jesus died and was raised from the dead on the third day
-- if Jesus did not rise from the dead, Paul writes, then we are wasting our time -- but, we know that Jesus did rise from the dead -- the Bible tells us so -- the eyewitnesses of the resurrection tell us so -- even other writers hostile to Christianity in the first century make note of the fact that Jesus rose from the dead -- and the Holy Spirit confirms it in our own hearts
-- so, what does that mean to us? -- it means that it's still Easter! -- last Sunday -- Easter Sunday -- was only the beginning of the season, not its climax -- it was only the beginning of a new way of life, not a one-day holiday
-- because Christ rose from the dead, we have hope of eternal life -- because Christ rose from the dead, we have been empowered with the Holy Spirit -- because Christ rose from the dead, we have been sent forth as His ambassadors to share the good news of salvation and power over sin and death to everyone we meet
-- we should be standing on the street corners shouting the good news to everyone -- our churches should be filled with jubilant worshipers -- our homes and our lives should be demonstrating the power of the risen Christ -- we should be seeing lives changed and hearts transformed and people growing more like Jesus everyday
-- that is what Easter Sunday was all about -- that is what Jesus' life and death and resurrection were all about -- but, oh, what a difference a week makes!
-- already, the Easter decorations have been taken down -- the eggs eaten -- the chocolate candies a fond memory -- the stores have moved on to the next holiday -- and the people who were here last week have moved on -- today is traditionally the Sunday with the lowest church attendance all year long -- it's like Easter never happened
II. The Resurrection Life
-- which begs the question -- if Jesus did rise from the dead, then why aren't we seeing Easter year-round? -- if Jesus did rise from the dead, then why aren't we seeing a difference in our homes and in our families and in our churches? -- if Jesus did rise from the dead, then why aren't we seeing a change?
-- certainly, Jesus' resurrection made a change in the early Christians -- it certainly had an impact on the disciples -- it was their experience with the risen Christ that led the disciples from being fearful followers of a dead rabbi into being sold-out believers who turned the world -- the religious -- the cultural -- and the political world -- upside down through their teaching
-- it was the resurrection of Christ that grew the church from a handful of followers on Good Friday into over 3000 saved souls on Pentecost -- it was the resurrection of Christ that gave Peter and John and James the boldness to stand up to the crowds and to the religious leaders and to proclaim forgiveness of sins through Jesus -- and it was the resurrection of Christ that gave feet to the Apostle Paul, leading him to carry the message of Christ to the far-flung reaches of the Roman empire
-- this same resurrection that we celebrated last Sunday should be empowering us and leading us onward to do great things for God, too -- as Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:4-6 -- "There is one body and one Spirit-- just as you were called to one hope when you were called -- one Lord, one faith, one baptism -- one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."
-- if we have the same body and Spirit as the early church -- if we have the same hope as the early church -- the same Lord -- the same faith -- the same baptism -- the same God and Father -- and have been touched by the same resurrection as the early church, then we should be living lives that are sold-out for Christ -- we should be making a difference in this world, just like them -- and we should be seeing the same fruit in our homes and our lives and our churches as they did
-- this call of Christ is not just for those people back then -- it's for all of us here and now -- in the places and among the people that we live and work with every day -- it's a mission of making sure the poor get good news -- of releasing captives and welcoming them back into our communities of faith -- it's a mission of healing and restoring the sick, the lame, and the blind -- of rebuilding the broken and making it better -- of witnessing to and joining the work of God's kingdom whenever and wherever it may be found -- and of declaring God's saving love and power that brings us eternal life through Christ -- both with our words and with our actions
-- that is what we should be experiencing -- that is how we should be living -- that is what Easter is all about
-- I read a story one time about a man who borrowed a book from a friend -- as he read through it, he found a bunch of places that his friend had underlined -- that had obviously spoken to him as he read -- and out in the margin next to each of those underlined passages were the letters "YBH"
-- when he returned the book to his friend, he asked him about those letters -- What does "YBH" stand for? -- his friend replied, "Yes, but how"
-- this Sunday, those three letters should be written on our hearts and our souls -- "Yes, we should be living life as the early church -- yes, we should be going forth and ministering in Christ's name -- yes, we should be living sold-out for Christ and should be seeing fruit in our homes and in our churches -- yes, we should be doing all that the early church did -- yes, but how?"
-- Easter was about the "Yes" -- Easter was about experiencing the risen Christ -- Easter was about recognizing and receiving the call of Jesus to go forth in His power to minister to others in His name
-- for the next several weeks, I want us to talk about the "How" -- how did a ragtag group of believers in the first century with no visible power -- no prestige -- no influence -- no religious or political standing -- how did they turn this world upside-down for Jesus? -- and how can we do the same? -- how can we see revival in our homes and in our lives and in our churches? -- how can we start living up to the call that Jesus has given us?
-- I think the best way to begin to answer those questions is to start at the beginning -- to see how the early church fulfilled the call of Christ so that we might share in their experiences, as well
III. Scripture Lesson (Acts 4:23-31)
-- so, let's look again at this passage from the Book of Acts -- and before we dig back into these scriptures looking for the "How," let me give you the context to let you know where we are at in the story
-- this passage occurs on the heels of the resurrection -- as you know, Jesus stayed with the disciples for 40 days following that first Easter -- teaching them and discipling them and preparing them to take over His ministry -- and 10 days after His ascension, we read of the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came to indwell believers and to infuse them with His sanctifying power
-- this passage occurs after Pentecost -- after the church has begun to grow -- Peter and John have been preaching and teaching throughout Jerusalem -- and after healing a crippled beggar at the Gate Beautiful leading into the Temple -- they were arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin and warned to stop preaching in the name of Jesus -- this passage opens up immediately after they were released by the Sanhedrin and gives us one very clear picture of the "How" that we are looking for
-- so, if you would, look back with me at Acts 4, starting at verse 23
23. On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.
24. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.
-- the early church has just received its first experience with persecution -- ever since the crucifixion and the resurrection and Pentecost, the disciples had been left alone -- no where do we read that they were persecuted or harassed at any turn
-- but now, as the power of God is being made manifest within the walls of the Temple -- as the ministry of Jesus continues to threaten the established order of things -- we see the start of persecution
-- the issue that really faced the early church was how to respond to this persecution -- this was the first real test of the early church
-- Luke tells us here that when Peter and John were released from jail, they went back to their own people -- in other words, Peter and John went to church -- this speaks to the purpose of the church -- we exist, not merely to gather together on Sunday to worship God -- we exist to encourage and strengthen one another in our trials and in our failings and in our triumphs
-- Peter and John had just been arrested by the same people that had killed Jesus less than two months before -- certainly, they should have been in fear for their lives -- remember what happened the first time their lives were threatened -- the disciples all fled the Garden of Gethsemane and left Jesus there -- Peter denied three times that he knew Jesus
-- but, this time, rather than shrinking away in fear, they went to their own people -- they went to the church -- to encourage and to be encouraged -- to strengthen and to be strengthened
-- the first thing to do, then, when we're trying to answer that question, "Yes, but how?" is to turn to the church -- but, in order to do so, we have to first be the church
-- Luke tells us that after Peter and John reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them, that the church raised their voices together in prayer to God
-- the second thing that we are to do when we're trying to answer that question, "Yes, but how?" is to turn to God through corporate prayer
-- notice that it says that they lifted up their voices "together" -- they were in one accord -- they were in unity with each other -- and this is key
-- when we are faced with the issue of persecution -- when are faced with the issue of living out God's commands in our homes and in our churches -- then we must come together as one to pray for God's guidance
-- but, honestly, our churches are rarely like that, are they? -- the one complaint I hear more from unchurched and dechurched people is that the church is divided -- that factions in the church argue with one another -- and that is true -- church can be a very divisive place if people rely on their own wisdom and understanding -- if people put their own agendas and goals ahead of God's
-- the issue is not what I want or what you want or what any group in the church wants -- the issue is what God wants -- and the message here is that the church should come together -- in one accord -- to seek God's will and direction and purpose for everything that goes on in the name of Christ
-- if we could just learn this one lesson, then we would really start seeing God's power made manifest in our churches
-- let's look at their prayer -- look back at the second part of verse 24
24b "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.
25. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: "`Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
26. The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. '
27. Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.
28. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
-- it should be noted here is that the Greek word that we see translated here as "Lord" or "Sovereign Lord" in this passage is not the usual one that we see translated as "Lord" throughout the New Testament
-- usually, we see the Greek word "kyrios" translated as Lord -- this is more a title -- it signifies majesty or deity -- it was used by the early church to affirm that Jesus was the Messiah -- that Jesus was God
-- but, the Greek word that we see here is used to denote one who rules over others -- it was applied to the highest magistrate or officer -- it denotes authority, power, absoluteness in ruling -- it stood for authority or absolute rule
-- what this tells us is that when the early church first experienced persecution, they appealed to God -- not on the basis of His deity -- but on the basis of His absolute rule -- of His sovereignty
-- in other words, the church humbled themselves before God -- they recognized His authority, not only over them, but over everyone and everything -- on other words, in this prayer they were recognizing that God was in total and complete control of the situation they were in as they faced persecution from the Romans and from the Jewish leaders
-- there's a song on the radio right now that says, "I am a friend of Christ" -- and that is true, but that is not the relationship that the church in this passage is considering -- they are bowing to the authority and sovereignty of God -- they are recognizing that He is in charge of everything -- He is in charge of the Romans -- He is in charge of the Sanhedrin -- He is in charge of the church, and so they come to Him in humbleness, seeking His face and His will for them as their absolute and divine ruler
-- the third thing that we are to do when we're trying to answer that question, "Yes, but how?" is to recognize and submit to God's authority
-- the fourth thing that we are to do when we're trying to answer that question, "Yes, but how?" is to stand on the promises of God
-- how many times do we stand and sing that song, "Standing on the Promises," but fail to do that which we have just proclaimed?
-- in this prayer, the church looked back to the prophecy that God had given King David in Psalm 2 -- God had told them that opposition would come -- that the nations would rage against Him -- that the people would speak against the Messiah -- that the kings and rulers would take their stand against Jesus"
-- God knew that this would happen -- He knew what they were going through -- and He said He would take care of it -- this Psalm that the church quoted in their prayer goes on to say, "The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them -- He rebukes them in His anger and terrifies them in His wrath"
-- so, in other words, the church prayed the promise of God -- they asked Him to fulfill His words and His promise through them -- they were affirming their trust in God's ability to see them through the storm
-- there are so many promises in Scripture that we are failing to see come to pass in our lives and in our churches -- not because they are not true -- but because we doubt their truth and we fail to stand on those promises as the fulfilled word of God -- if we are going to be the church who lives in the resurrection power of Christ, then we are going to have to stop just mouthing the words with our lips and start standing on the promises in reality
-- verse 29
29. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
30. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."
-- the last thing that we are to do when we're trying to answer that question, "Yes, but how?" is to actually do the Lord's work in the world and fulfill His call with our lives and with our churches
-- notice how the church closes its prayer here -- they don't just ask for protection from evil, but they ask that God would be glorified through the evil and the persecution -- they pray for boldness to press on and to speak His word to others -- they ask that He would work through them to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders -- they prayed that God would do great things for the kingdom through them
-- you sense in this closing of the prayer an echo of Christ's words in the Garden of Gethsemane -- "Not my will, but thine be done" -- the church came together here to pray, not for themselves, but for God -- to pray that God's word and message would go forth -- that others would hear it and that lives would be changed and hearts and minds transformed through the power of the resurrected Christ
-- the empty tomb does not bid us to gather together on Sundays and to preach to the choir -- the empty tomb and the risen Christ bid us to go and make disciples -- to do God's work -- to minister in His name, even in the midst of trials and troubles -- even in the midst of persecution -- so that, through us and the power of Christ, others might live
-- verse 31
31. After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
-- prayers like this shake the world -- when the church was finished praying, God answered their prayer by showing them His power -- He shook the room where they were meeting to let them know that He was going to shake the world through them
-- their prayer was answered -- they were filled with the Holy Spirit -- and they were empowered to go forth and proclaim the word of God boldly, even in the face of persecution
IV. Closing
-- so, what does this mean for us? -- it means that God did not quit working when the Bible was written and the binding put on the book -- it means that God still changes hearts and transforms lives -- it means that God still wants to use His church to further His kingdom in this world
-- God wants us to be His hands and feet -- He wants to use us to be dynamic agents of change in our world -- but we can only do that if we allow Him to work in us and through us and if we actually get up and go out and do what He has told us to do
-- we began this message looking for the "how" -- in this passage, we saw five ways that the early church lived out the call of God in their lives:
-- first, we have to be the church and turn to the church for encouragement, enlightenment, and empowerment
-- second, we have to turn to God through corporate prayer, praying in one accord
-- third, we have to recognize and submit to God's authority
-- fourth, we have to stand on the promises of God
-- and, fifth, we have to actually do the Lord's work in the world and fulfill His call with our lives and with our churches
-- our goal when we meet together should be to take the promise of Easter and make it "yes" in our lives and our world -- these steps are the starting point to make that happen
-- so, as I close in prayer, I want to ask that you would prayerfully consider where we are today in this church -- are we the dynamic, powerful church that we see portrayed in Scripture -- are we living the "yes" of Easter?
-- if not, then let's come together in one accord and ask God to give us wisdom and direction as we seek to fulfill His call in our lives
-- let us pray
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Acts 4:23-31
23. On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.
24. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.
25. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: "`Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
26. The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. '
27. Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.
28. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
29. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
30. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."
31. After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
-- what a difference a week makes! -- just last week, our stores and homes and churches were filled with the signs of Easter -- bright spring colors -- big Easter bunnies -- chocolate candies -- dyed eggs -- colorful new dresses
-- families and churches came together to hunt Easter eggs and to share time together -- we got up early to watch the sun rise and to worship God -- and many of us enjoyed the various Passion Plays that were presented throughout our communities
-- our churches were actually filled as members and friends who rarely darken our doors lined the pews to spend Easter with their family in the house of God to remember and to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus
-- you know, out of all the doctrines of the church -- out of all the foundational beliefs that we have as the people of God -- none are more important than the resurrection of Christ -- in fact, in 1 Corinthians 15:14, the Apostle Paul wrote that "if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith." -- in other words, the resurrection is so important that our very faith and belief system rises and falls with the truth that Jesus died and was raised from the dead on the third day
-- if Jesus did not rise from the dead, Paul writes, then we are wasting our time -- but, we know that Jesus did rise from the dead -- the Bible tells us so -- the eyewitnesses of the resurrection tell us so -- even other writers hostile to Christianity in the first century make note of the fact that Jesus rose from the dead -- and the Holy Spirit confirms it in our own hearts
-- so, what does that mean to us? -- it means that it's still Easter! -- last Sunday -- Easter Sunday -- was only the beginning of the season, not its climax -- it was only the beginning of a new way of life, not a one-day holiday
-- because Christ rose from the dead, we have hope of eternal life -- because Christ rose from the dead, we have been empowered with the Holy Spirit -- because Christ rose from the dead, we have been sent forth as His ambassadors to share the good news of salvation and power over sin and death to everyone we meet
-- we should be standing on the street corners shouting the good news to everyone -- our churches should be filled with jubilant worshipers -- our homes and our lives should be demonstrating the power of the risen Christ -- we should be seeing lives changed and hearts transformed and people growing more like Jesus everyday
-- that is what Easter Sunday was all about -- that is what Jesus' life and death and resurrection were all about -- but, oh, what a difference a week makes!
-- already, the Easter decorations have been taken down -- the eggs eaten -- the chocolate candies a fond memory -- the stores have moved on to the next holiday -- and the people who were here last week have moved on -- today is traditionally the Sunday with the lowest church attendance all year long -- it's like Easter never happened
II. The Resurrection Life
-- which begs the question -- if Jesus did rise from the dead, then why aren't we seeing Easter year-round? -- if Jesus did rise from the dead, then why aren't we seeing a difference in our homes and in our families and in our churches? -- if Jesus did rise from the dead, then why aren't we seeing a change?
-- certainly, Jesus' resurrection made a change in the early Christians -- it certainly had an impact on the disciples -- it was their experience with the risen Christ that led the disciples from being fearful followers of a dead rabbi into being sold-out believers who turned the world -- the religious -- the cultural -- and the political world -- upside down through their teaching
-- it was the resurrection of Christ that grew the church from a handful of followers on Good Friday into over 3000 saved souls on Pentecost -- it was the resurrection of Christ that gave Peter and John and James the boldness to stand up to the crowds and to the religious leaders and to proclaim forgiveness of sins through Jesus -- and it was the resurrection of Christ that gave feet to the Apostle Paul, leading him to carry the message of Christ to the far-flung reaches of the Roman empire
-- this same resurrection that we celebrated last Sunday should be empowering us and leading us onward to do great things for God, too -- as Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:4-6 -- "There is one body and one Spirit-- just as you were called to one hope when you were called -- one Lord, one faith, one baptism -- one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."
-- if we have the same body and Spirit as the early church -- if we have the same hope as the early church -- the same Lord -- the same faith -- the same baptism -- the same God and Father -- and have been touched by the same resurrection as the early church, then we should be living lives that are sold-out for Christ -- we should be making a difference in this world, just like them -- and we should be seeing the same fruit in our homes and our lives and our churches as they did
-- this call of Christ is not just for those people back then -- it's for all of us here and now -- in the places and among the people that we live and work with every day -- it's a mission of making sure the poor get good news -- of releasing captives and welcoming them back into our communities of faith -- it's a mission of healing and restoring the sick, the lame, and the blind -- of rebuilding the broken and making it better -- of witnessing to and joining the work of God's kingdom whenever and wherever it may be found -- and of declaring God's saving love and power that brings us eternal life through Christ -- both with our words and with our actions
-- that is what we should be experiencing -- that is how we should be living -- that is what Easter is all about
-- I read a story one time about a man who borrowed a book from a friend -- as he read through it, he found a bunch of places that his friend had underlined -- that had obviously spoken to him as he read -- and out in the margin next to each of those underlined passages were the letters "YBH"
-- when he returned the book to his friend, he asked him about those letters -- What does "YBH" stand for? -- his friend replied, "Yes, but how"
-- this Sunday, those three letters should be written on our hearts and our souls -- "Yes, we should be living life as the early church -- yes, we should be going forth and ministering in Christ's name -- yes, we should be living sold-out for Christ and should be seeing fruit in our homes and in our churches -- yes, we should be doing all that the early church did -- yes, but how?"
-- Easter was about the "Yes" -- Easter was about experiencing the risen Christ -- Easter was about recognizing and receiving the call of Jesus to go forth in His power to minister to others in His name
-- for the next several weeks, I want us to talk about the "How" -- how did a ragtag group of believers in the first century with no visible power -- no prestige -- no influence -- no religious or political standing -- how did they turn this world upside-down for Jesus? -- and how can we do the same? -- how can we see revival in our homes and in our lives and in our churches? -- how can we start living up to the call that Jesus has given us?
-- I think the best way to begin to answer those questions is to start at the beginning -- to see how the early church fulfilled the call of Christ so that we might share in their experiences, as well
III. Scripture Lesson (Acts 4:23-31)
-- so, let's look again at this passage from the Book of Acts -- and before we dig back into these scriptures looking for the "How," let me give you the context to let you know where we are at in the story
-- this passage occurs on the heels of the resurrection -- as you know, Jesus stayed with the disciples for 40 days following that first Easter -- teaching them and discipling them and preparing them to take over His ministry -- and 10 days after His ascension, we read of the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came to indwell believers and to infuse them with His sanctifying power
-- this passage occurs after Pentecost -- after the church has begun to grow -- Peter and John have been preaching and teaching throughout Jerusalem -- and after healing a crippled beggar at the Gate Beautiful leading into the Temple -- they were arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin and warned to stop preaching in the name of Jesus -- this passage opens up immediately after they were released by the Sanhedrin and gives us one very clear picture of the "How" that we are looking for
-- so, if you would, look back with me at Acts 4, starting at verse 23
23. On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.
24. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.
-- the early church has just received its first experience with persecution -- ever since the crucifixion and the resurrection and Pentecost, the disciples had been left alone -- no where do we read that they were persecuted or harassed at any turn
-- but now, as the power of God is being made manifest within the walls of the Temple -- as the ministry of Jesus continues to threaten the established order of things -- we see the start of persecution
-- the issue that really faced the early church was how to respond to this persecution -- this was the first real test of the early church
-- Luke tells us here that when Peter and John were released from jail, they went back to their own people -- in other words, Peter and John went to church -- this speaks to the purpose of the church -- we exist, not merely to gather together on Sunday to worship God -- we exist to encourage and strengthen one another in our trials and in our failings and in our triumphs
-- Peter and John had just been arrested by the same people that had killed Jesus less than two months before -- certainly, they should have been in fear for their lives -- remember what happened the first time their lives were threatened -- the disciples all fled the Garden of Gethsemane and left Jesus there -- Peter denied three times that he knew Jesus
-- but, this time, rather than shrinking away in fear, they went to their own people -- they went to the church -- to encourage and to be encouraged -- to strengthen and to be strengthened
-- the first thing to do, then, when we're trying to answer that question, "Yes, but how?" is to turn to the church -- but, in order to do so, we have to first be the church
-- Luke tells us that after Peter and John reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them, that the church raised their voices together in prayer to God
-- the second thing that we are to do when we're trying to answer that question, "Yes, but how?" is to turn to God through corporate prayer
-- notice that it says that they lifted up their voices "together" -- they were in one accord -- they were in unity with each other -- and this is key
-- when we are faced with the issue of persecution -- when are faced with the issue of living out God's commands in our homes and in our churches -- then we must come together as one to pray for God's guidance
-- but, honestly, our churches are rarely like that, are they? -- the one complaint I hear more from unchurched and dechurched people is that the church is divided -- that factions in the church argue with one another -- and that is true -- church can be a very divisive place if people rely on their own wisdom and understanding -- if people put their own agendas and goals ahead of God's
-- the issue is not what I want or what you want or what any group in the church wants -- the issue is what God wants -- and the message here is that the church should come together -- in one accord -- to seek God's will and direction and purpose for everything that goes on in the name of Christ
-- if we could just learn this one lesson, then we would really start seeing God's power made manifest in our churches
-- let's look at their prayer -- look back at the second part of verse 24
24b "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.
25. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: "`Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
26. The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. '
27. Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.
28. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
-- it should be noted here is that the Greek word that we see translated here as "Lord" or "Sovereign Lord" in this passage is not the usual one that we see translated as "Lord" throughout the New Testament
-- usually, we see the Greek word "kyrios" translated as Lord -- this is more a title -- it signifies majesty or deity -- it was used by the early church to affirm that Jesus was the Messiah -- that Jesus was God
-- but, the Greek word that we see here is used to denote one who rules over others -- it was applied to the highest magistrate or officer -- it denotes authority, power, absoluteness in ruling -- it stood for authority or absolute rule
-- what this tells us is that when the early church first experienced persecution, they appealed to God -- not on the basis of His deity -- but on the basis of His absolute rule -- of His sovereignty
-- in other words, the church humbled themselves before God -- they recognized His authority, not only over them, but over everyone and everything -- on other words, in this prayer they were recognizing that God was in total and complete control of the situation they were in as they faced persecution from the Romans and from the Jewish leaders
-- there's a song on the radio right now that says, "I am a friend of Christ" -- and that is true, but that is not the relationship that the church in this passage is considering -- they are bowing to the authority and sovereignty of God -- they are recognizing that He is in charge of everything -- He is in charge of the Romans -- He is in charge of the Sanhedrin -- He is in charge of the church, and so they come to Him in humbleness, seeking His face and His will for them as their absolute and divine ruler
-- the third thing that we are to do when we're trying to answer that question, "Yes, but how?" is to recognize and submit to God's authority
-- the fourth thing that we are to do when we're trying to answer that question, "Yes, but how?" is to stand on the promises of God
-- how many times do we stand and sing that song, "Standing on the Promises," but fail to do that which we have just proclaimed?
-- in this prayer, the church looked back to the prophecy that God had given King David in Psalm 2 -- God had told them that opposition would come -- that the nations would rage against Him -- that the people would speak against the Messiah -- that the kings and rulers would take their stand against Jesus"
-- God knew that this would happen -- He knew what they were going through -- and He said He would take care of it -- this Psalm that the church quoted in their prayer goes on to say, "The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them -- He rebukes them in His anger and terrifies them in His wrath"
-- so, in other words, the church prayed the promise of God -- they asked Him to fulfill His words and His promise through them -- they were affirming their trust in God's ability to see them through the storm
-- there are so many promises in Scripture that we are failing to see come to pass in our lives and in our churches -- not because they are not true -- but because we doubt their truth and we fail to stand on those promises as the fulfilled word of God -- if we are going to be the church who lives in the resurrection power of Christ, then we are going to have to stop just mouthing the words with our lips and start standing on the promises in reality
-- verse 29
29. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
30. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."
-- the last thing that we are to do when we're trying to answer that question, "Yes, but how?" is to actually do the Lord's work in the world and fulfill His call with our lives and with our churches
-- notice how the church closes its prayer here -- they don't just ask for protection from evil, but they ask that God would be glorified through the evil and the persecution -- they pray for boldness to press on and to speak His word to others -- they ask that He would work through them to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders -- they prayed that God would do great things for the kingdom through them
-- you sense in this closing of the prayer an echo of Christ's words in the Garden of Gethsemane -- "Not my will, but thine be done" -- the church came together here to pray, not for themselves, but for God -- to pray that God's word and message would go forth -- that others would hear it and that lives would be changed and hearts and minds transformed through the power of the resurrected Christ
-- the empty tomb does not bid us to gather together on Sundays and to preach to the choir -- the empty tomb and the risen Christ bid us to go and make disciples -- to do God's work -- to minister in His name, even in the midst of trials and troubles -- even in the midst of persecution -- so that, through us and the power of Christ, others might live
-- verse 31
31. After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
-- prayers like this shake the world -- when the church was finished praying, God answered their prayer by showing them His power -- He shook the room where they were meeting to let them know that He was going to shake the world through them
-- their prayer was answered -- they were filled with the Holy Spirit -- and they were empowered to go forth and proclaim the word of God boldly, even in the face of persecution
IV. Closing
-- so, what does this mean for us? -- it means that God did not quit working when the Bible was written and the binding put on the book -- it means that God still changes hearts and transforms lives -- it means that God still wants to use His church to further His kingdom in this world
-- God wants us to be His hands and feet -- He wants to use us to be dynamic agents of change in our world -- but we can only do that if we allow Him to work in us and through us and if we actually get up and go out and do what He has told us to do
-- we began this message looking for the "how" -- in this passage, we saw five ways that the early church lived out the call of God in their lives:
-- first, we have to be the church and turn to the church for encouragement, enlightenment, and empowerment
-- second, we have to turn to God through corporate prayer, praying in one accord
-- third, we have to recognize and submit to God's authority
-- fourth, we have to stand on the promises of God
-- and, fifth, we have to actually do the Lord's work in the world and fulfill His call with our lives and with our churches
-- our goal when we meet together should be to take the promise of Easter and make it "yes" in our lives and our world -- these steps are the starting point to make that happen
-- so, as I close in prayer, I want to ask that you would prayerfully consider where we are today in this church -- are we the dynamic, powerful church that we see portrayed in Scripture -- are we living the "yes" of Easter?
-- if not, then let's come together in one accord and ask God to give us wisdom and direction as we seek to fulfill His call in our lives
-- let us pray
Saturday, April 10, 2010
SERMON: THE CURSE OF THE CHEESE TOUCH
Easter Sunday Worship
4 April 2010
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Romans 3
Romans 3:23. for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
-- one of the most popular series of books over the past several years has been the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" -- this story has just been made into a movie that is currently playing at theaters in town
-- the various stories in the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series are actually comprised of the journal entries of a middle-school student named Greg Heffley -- the first book opens as Greg is getting ready to start middle school -- even though his older brother tells him that he is not likely to survive past the first day, Greg is determined not only to survive, but to position himself at the top of the popularity food chain -- so, Greg does everything he can to try to keep from moving down the popularity ladder
-- however, out of everything that he does to improve his social standing, nothing is more important than avoiding the terrible Cheese Touch -- an invisible disease that infects a person when they touch this moldy piece of cheese that has been sitting on the basketball court since spring
-- the Cheese Touch is social suicide -- Greg records in his journal that a kid named Abe Hall got the Cheese touch in April, and nobody would even come near him for the rest of the year. -- once you have the Cheese Touch, your social life is over -- it is the closest thing to death for a middle school kid
-- there's only one way to get rid of the Cheese Touch -- you have to touch another kid and pass it on to them -- so, when someone catches the Cheese Touch, they go out and try to pass it on to someone else
-- there's only one way to prevent yourself from catching the Cheese Touch and that is to keep your fingers crossed when someone touches you -- for that reason, Greg taped his fingers together his first year in school so that they stayed crossed the whole time and he could never get infected
-- now, you might be sitting there this morning and thinking, "Why in the world is he talking about a kid's book on Easter morning?" -- but, when you think about it, the story of the Cheese Touch in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid is really what Easter is all about
-- not that we catch some invisible disease that causes us to get cooties and causes our social standing to fall -- no, it's something much more worse than that
-- we catch an invisible disease that causes us to die
-- let me explain -- if you remember the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, then you probably remember that they were living in Paradise on earth -- they had the best of everything -- everything was new -- everything was perfect -- everything was good -- they were living in the lap of luxury and were even personal friends with God Himself -- God would come down from heaven and walk with them in the garden in the cool of the day
-- Adam and Eve had it made -- God had given them everything and put them in charge of His garden -- and there was only one rule -- God told them that they could eat of the fruit of any of the trees in the garden except one -- they couldn't eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
-- but that tree was just like that piece of moldy cheese on the basketball court in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid -- they just couldn't leave it alone -- they just had to go and look at it -- they could have gone anywhere else in the whole garden -- anywhere else in the whole world, for that matter, but on that one day -- that one fateful day -- the serpent met them at the tree -- and he spoke seductive words to Eve
-- he convinced her that it wouldn't be wrong to disobey God just this one time -- that it was actually a good thing, because if she ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil -- she would be just like God -- she would know things just like he did, and how could that be wrong?
-- so she ate of the fruit -- and her eyes were opened -- and she realized that she had disobeyed God -- she was now cursed -- not with the curse of the Cheese Touch -- but with something worse -- Eve had introduced sin into the world
-- and, just like in the Diary of the Wimpy Kid, Eve evidently thought she could get of her curse by passing it on to Adam -- so, she handed Adam the fruit and he ate it, too -- but instead of getting rid of the curse, all Eve did was infect Adam -- so that now both of them were infected and they would pass this curse on to all of their children and their descendants
-- because of Adam and Eve's sin, we are all born sinners -- you know, a lot of people think that we become sinners when we sin -- when we disobey God -- but that's not right
-- we are sinners because we are born that way -- we sin because we are sinners -- in other words, we sin and disobey God because of the curse that is hidden deep in our very being -- as that verse in Romans 3:23 said, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God"
-- "All" have sinned -- each and every one of us -- there is not a person in this room -- there is not a person in this world -- who has not broken one of God's laws -- who has not disobeyed Him and who has not sinned against Him -- in fact, each of us could honestly rephrase verse 23 and say, "I have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"
-- so, what does that mean? -- what's the consequence of sinning against God? -- what's the consequence of disobeying Him? -- flip over to Romans 6:23 and let's look at the first part of that verse
Romans 6:23a. For the wages of sin is death
-- that's what God told Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden -- He said that if they were to disobey Him and eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then they would surely die
-- now, we know that all people die -- everyone who ever lived has died -- I'm going to die -- you're going to die -- 150 years from now, every person in this room will have experienced physical death -- but that's not what God is talking about -- God was talking about spiritual death -- God was talking about paying a penalty for breaking His law
-- spiritual death is separation from God -- Isaiah 59:2 says, "your iniquities -- your sins -- have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you" -- Adam and Eve's sin caused them to be cast out of the Garden of Eden -- out of God's presence -- and into a world cursed through their actions -- our sin puts a barrier between us and God and casts us out of God's presence
-- to be separated from God is to be separated from life -- to be separated from God is to be separated from love -- it's like when you cut a flower and put it in a vase -- it looks good for a while, but in reality, it's dead because it has been cut off from it's life source -- that's what spiritual death is like
-- but there more consequences to our sin than just that -- we have to pay the consequences of our sins here on earth -- there is always a price to sin -- for one moment of indulgence, we amass a fortune in debt that has to be paid
-- all we have to do is look around us or to look at the news to see the consequences of sin in our lives -- broken homes -- hurting families -- addictions to alcohol and drugs -- crime -- violence -- despair -- the signs of sin are all around us -- and it exacts a heavy price on our bodies and soul
-- Josh McDowell put it this way -- "We are guilty of bringing the contamination of sin into God's perfect universe -- of causing pain and ruin to God's creation and to our selves -- God in His perfect justice and holiness cannot be called good if He allows sin to remain in His universe -- Therefore, we, the agents of sin, are under the doom of His perfect judgment -- We are guilty and we deserve condemnation -- That is our dilemma"
-- because we sinned, we broke God's law -- because we sinned, we face God's justice -- because we sin, we are guilty and deserve His punishment -- and that punishment is death and eternal separation from God
-- look back at verse 23 again
Romans 6:23. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
-- the Apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, put a little three-letter word in that sentence that makes all the difference -- that word is "but"
-- yes, the wages of sin are death -- BUT -- the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus
-- you see, because we are all sinners, we have to pay the price -- we have to be punished -- and that punishment is death -- but God didn't want us to die -- He wanted us to live with Him forever
-- but because God is holy and just, He couldn't just wipe away our sins -- He couldn't just pretend they didn't happen -- because His law was broken, someone had to pay the price -- someone had to take the punishment -- and God knew that we couldn't do it because we were sinners
-- it would have to be someone else -- someone holy -- someone perfect -- someone who had never sinned who could take our punishment for us -- who would take our place and give up their own life so that we might live -- Paul tells us here that someone was Jesus
-- God sent His own Son to earth to take our place -- to die for us on the cross and to pay the penalty for our sins -- so that we might live forever with Him
-- let me share with you a little story that kind of explains what God did for us -- there was this teacher who was trying to make a point in his class about salvation and Jesus' death on the cross -- so he picked out this star athlete in the class -- a kid named Steve -- and asked him if he would mind helping with a little demonstration -- but, to do so, Steve would have to do pushups in front of the whole class
-- Steve said it wasn't a problem since he usually did 200 pushups every day -- the teacher said he needed him to do 300 in sets of 10 -- and Steve said he would try
-- the next day, Steve got to class early and sat in the front of the room -- When class started, the teacher pulled out a big box of donuts -- Now these weren't the normal kinds of donuts -- these were like Krispy Kreme good -- the extra fancy BIG kind, with cream centers and extra frosting
-- the teacher went to the first girl in the first row and asked, "Cynthia, do you want a donut?" -- Cynthia said, "Yes." -- the teacher then turned to Steve and asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so that Cynthia can have a donut?" -- Steve said, "Sure," and jumped down from his desk to do a quick ten -- when Steve got done, the teacher put a donut on Cynthia's desk and then went to the next student in the row
-- "Joe, do you want a donut?" -- Joe said, "Yes." -- the teacher asked, "Steve would you do ten push-ups so Joe can have a donut?" -- Steve did ten push-ups -- Joe got a donut.
-- And so it went, all the way down the first aisle, Steve did ten pushups for every person before they got their donut -- the teacher went to the second row, same thing -- until he came to Scott -- the teacher asked Scott, "do you want a donut?" -- Scott's reply was, "Well, can I do my own pushups for them?" -- the teacher said, "No, Steve has to do them." Then Scott said, "Well then, I don't want one" -- the teacher then turned to Steve and said, "Steve, would you do ten pushups so Scott can have a donut he doesn't want?"
-- Steve started to do ten pushups, but Scott cried out, "HEY! I said I didn't want one!" -- the teacher said, "Look, this is my classroom, my class, my desks, and my donuts -- Just leave it on the desk if you don't want it." And when Steve got done with the ten pushups, the teacher put a donut on Scott's desk.
-- Now by this time, Steve had begun to slow down a little. -- He just stayed on the floor between sets because it took too much effort to be getting up and down -- the teacher started down the third row, but now the students were beginning to get a little angry because the teacher was forcing Steve to do these pushups so that they could have a donut
-- more and more students began to say "No" to the teacher and there were all these uneaten donuts on the desks -- Steve was also having to really put forth a lot of effort to get these pushups done for each donut -- There began to be a small pool of sweat on the floor beneath his face -- and his arms and brow were beginning to get red because of the physical effort involved.
-- the teacher went on to the next person and the next and the next -- Near the end of that row, Steve was really having a rough time -- He was taking a lot more time to complete each set -- as the teacher was finishing up on the last row, Steve's arms really began to shake with each pushup as he struggled to lift himself against the force of gravity -- Sweat was dropping off of his face and, by this time, there was not a dry eye in the room.
-- The very last two girls in the room were cheerleaders and very popular -- the teacher went to Linda, the second to last, and asked, "Linda, do you want a doughnut?" -- Linda said, very sadly, "No thank you." -- the teacher asked Steve, "Steve, would you do ten pushups so that Linda can have a donut she doesn't want?" -- Grunting from the effort, Steve did ten very slow pushups for Linda.
-- Then the teacher turned to the last girl, Susan. -- "Susan, do you want a donut?" -- Susan, with tears flowing down her face, asked the teacher, "can I help him?" -- the teacher, with tears in his own eyes, said, "No, he has to do it alone. Steve, would you do ten pushups so Susan can have a donut?"
-- As Steve very slowly finished his last pushup, with the understanding that he had accomplished all that was required of him, having done 350 pushups, his arms buckled beneath him and he fell to the floor.
-- the teacher turned to the room and said. "And so it was, that our Savior, Jesus Christ, took our place on the cross and paid the penalty for our sins that we couldn't pay -- and when He had done everything that was required of Him -- when He had shed His blood and given His body to pay the price for the forgiveness of our sins, He collapsed on the cross and died -- And like some of those in this room, many of us refuse to accept His sacrifice and leave His gift of salvation on the cross just like all of the uneaten donuts on our desks"
-- so, how do we receive this gift of God? -- how do we receive this sacrifice of Jesus? -- flip over to Romans 10
9. That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
11. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."
12. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,
13. for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
-- that's all it takes -- confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved
-- the Bible calls this "justification" -- it's a fancy theological word that just means that the penalty has been paid -- that the punishment has been received and that justice has been served -- another way to think of justification is to think of it as being "just as if I never sinned" because Jesus died for me
-- when Jesus died on that cross at Calvary on that first Good Friday over 2000 years ago, He paid the price for all your sins -- 1 Peter 1:18-19 says that we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ -- He shed His blood to cover all our sins -- I don't know if you've ever thought about that before or not, but here's what Jesus did for us on that Friday so long ago
-- when they placed that cruel crown of thorns on His head and the blood flowed down over His ears, He forgave you for everything that you had heard that you shouldn't have
-- when the blood flowed down His head and into His eyes, He forgave you for everything that you saw that you shouldn't have
-- when He was beaten and His mouth filled with blood, it took away all the things that you ever said but shouldn't have
-- when His hands and feet were nailed to that cross, His blood covered all the sins from all the things that you ever did with your hands and for all the wrong places that you ever went
-- When they pierced His side with their spear and His blood flowed out, it covered all the sins for the things we ever took inside our body
-- and when the blood flowed from His beaten and scourged back, it covered all the sins for every time we ever turned our back on Him and denied Him as our Lord and Savior
-- Jesus' blood covered all our sins -- every single one -- the Bible tells us that all of our sins were nailed to the cross in Jesus that day, and that the penalty was paid for them when Jesus died in our place
-- but Jesus did more than just die for us -- He also rose from the dead on the third day -- on that first Easter morning -- by rising from the dead, Jesus gave us new life -- He made us new creations and took away our old curse from the Garden of Eden and replaced it with His righteousness and His holiness
-- that is what the cross is all about -- that is what Easter is all about -- it's about life -- it's about redeeming the curse -- it's about receiving this free gift of God that we have in Jesus
-- as the Scriptures tell us, this gift is for all of us -- all we have to do is receive it -- so, right now, as we close our service, I want to invite you to do just that
-- if you have never received Jesus as your Lord and Savior before -- if you have never asked Him to forgive you of your sins and to come into your heart and to be your Lord and Savior -- then I want to invite you to do so right now -- this morning -- before you leave -- you'll have that opportunity as I close in prayer and as the last hymn is played
-- if you have received Jesus as your Lord and Savior before -- then I want to invite you to rededicate your life to Him again this morning -- Easter is about new life and about rising again -- all of us -- even those of us who have been Christians for years -- all of us sin and fall short of God's glory time and time again -- and we all have need to come again to the cross -- to ask Jesus to forgive us and to cleanse us from our sins -- so that we might rise in new life with Him and live as the people He has called us to be
-- if that is your situation, then I invite you to pray with me as we close and to make that change in your life right now
-- I'm going to pray now, and as the last hymn is played, if any of you would like to come forward to make a decision or just to pray at the altar, I would encourage you to do so
-- let us pray
4 April 2010
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Romans 3
Romans 3:23. for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
-- one of the most popular series of books over the past several years has been the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" -- this story has just been made into a movie that is currently playing at theaters in town
-- the various stories in the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series are actually comprised of the journal entries of a middle-school student named Greg Heffley -- the first book opens as Greg is getting ready to start middle school -- even though his older brother tells him that he is not likely to survive past the first day, Greg is determined not only to survive, but to position himself at the top of the popularity food chain -- so, Greg does everything he can to try to keep from moving down the popularity ladder
-- however, out of everything that he does to improve his social standing, nothing is more important than avoiding the terrible Cheese Touch -- an invisible disease that infects a person when they touch this moldy piece of cheese that has been sitting on the basketball court since spring
-- the Cheese Touch is social suicide -- Greg records in his journal that a kid named Abe Hall got the Cheese touch in April, and nobody would even come near him for the rest of the year. -- once you have the Cheese Touch, your social life is over -- it is the closest thing to death for a middle school kid
-- there's only one way to get rid of the Cheese Touch -- you have to touch another kid and pass it on to them -- so, when someone catches the Cheese Touch, they go out and try to pass it on to someone else
-- there's only one way to prevent yourself from catching the Cheese Touch and that is to keep your fingers crossed when someone touches you -- for that reason, Greg taped his fingers together his first year in school so that they stayed crossed the whole time and he could never get infected
-- now, you might be sitting there this morning and thinking, "Why in the world is he talking about a kid's book on Easter morning?" -- but, when you think about it, the story of the Cheese Touch in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid is really what Easter is all about
-- not that we catch some invisible disease that causes us to get cooties and causes our social standing to fall -- no, it's something much more worse than that
-- we catch an invisible disease that causes us to die
-- let me explain -- if you remember the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, then you probably remember that they were living in Paradise on earth -- they had the best of everything -- everything was new -- everything was perfect -- everything was good -- they were living in the lap of luxury and were even personal friends with God Himself -- God would come down from heaven and walk with them in the garden in the cool of the day
-- Adam and Eve had it made -- God had given them everything and put them in charge of His garden -- and there was only one rule -- God told them that they could eat of the fruit of any of the trees in the garden except one -- they couldn't eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
-- but that tree was just like that piece of moldy cheese on the basketball court in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid -- they just couldn't leave it alone -- they just had to go and look at it -- they could have gone anywhere else in the whole garden -- anywhere else in the whole world, for that matter, but on that one day -- that one fateful day -- the serpent met them at the tree -- and he spoke seductive words to Eve
-- he convinced her that it wouldn't be wrong to disobey God just this one time -- that it was actually a good thing, because if she ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil -- she would be just like God -- she would know things just like he did, and how could that be wrong?
-- so she ate of the fruit -- and her eyes were opened -- and she realized that she had disobeyed God -- she was now cursed -- not with the curse of the Cheese Touch -- but with something worse -- Eve had introduced sin into the world
-- and, just like in the Diary of the Wimpy Kid, Eve evidently thought she could get of her curse by passing it on to Adam -- so, she handed Adam the fruit and he ate it, too -- but instead of getting rid of the curse, all Eve did was infect Adam -- so that now both of them were infected and they would pass this curse on to all of their children and their descendants
-- because of Adam and Eve's sin, we are all born sinners -- you know, a lot of people think that we become sinners when we sin -- when we disobey God -- but that's not right
-- we are sinners because we are born that way -- we sin because we are sinners -- in other words, we sin and disobey God because of the curse that is hidden deep in our very being -- as that verse in Romans 3:23 said, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God"
-- "All" have sinned -- each and every one of us -- there is not a person in this room -- there is not a person in this world -- who has not broken one of God's laws -- who has not disobeyed Him and who has not sinned against Him -- in fact, each of us could honestly rephrase verse 23 and say, "I have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"
-- so, what does that mean? -- what's the consequence of sinning against God? -- what's the consequence of disobeying Him? -- flip over to Romans 6:23 and let's look at the first part of that verse
Romans 6:23a. For the wages of sin is death
-- that's what God told Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden -- He said that if they were to disobey Him and eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then they would surely die
-- now, we know that all people die -- everyone who ever lived has died -- I'm going to die -- you're going to die -- 150 years from now, every person in this room will have experienced physical death -- but that's not what God is talking about -- God was talking about spiritual death -- God was talking about paying a penalty for breaking His law
-- spiritual death is separation from God -- Isaiah 59:2 says, "your iniquities -- your sins -- have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you" -- Adam and Eve's sin caused them to be cast out of the Garden of Eden -- out of God's presence -- and into a world cursed through their actions -- our sin puts a barrier between us and God and casts us out of God's presence
-- to be separated from God is to be separated from life -- to be separated from God is to be separated from love -- it's like when you cut a flower and put it in a vase -- it looks good for a while, but in reality, it's dead because it has been cut off from it's life source -- that's what spiritual death is like
-- but there more consequences to our sin than just that -- we have to pay the consequences of our sins here on earth -- there is always a price to sin -- for one moment of indulgence, we amass a fortune in debt that has to be paid
-- all we have to do is look around us or to look at the news to see the consequences of sin in our lives -- broken homes -- hurting families -- addictions to alcohol and drugs -- crime -- violence -- despair -- the signs of sin are all around us -- and it exacts a heavy price on our bodies and soul
-- Josh McDowell put it this way -- "We are guilty of bringing the contamination of sin into God's perfect universe -- of causing pain and ruin to God's creation and to our selves -- God in His perfect justice and holiness cannot be called good if He allows sin to remain in His universe -- Therefore, we, the agents of sin, are under the doom of His perfect judgment -- We are guilty and we deserve condemnation -- That is our dilemma"
-- because we sinned, we broke God's law -- because we sinned, we face God's justice -- because we sin, we are guilty and deserve His punishment -- and that punishment is death and eternal separation from God
-- look back at verse 23 again
Romans 6:23. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
-- the Apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, put a little three-letter word in that sentence that makes all the difference -- that word is "but"
-- yes, the wages of sin are death -- BUT -- the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus
-- you see, because we are all sinners, we have to pay the price -- we have to be punished -- and that punishment is death -- but God didn't want us to die -- He wanted us to live with Him forever
-- but because God is holy and just, He couldn't just wipe away our sins -- He couldn't just pretend they didn't happen -- because His law was broken, someone had to pay the price -- someone had to take the punishment -- and God knew that we couldn't do it because we were sinners
-- it would have to be someone else -- someone holy -- someone perfect -- someone who had never sinned who could take our punishment for us -- who would take our place and give up their own life so that we might live -- Paul tells us here that someone was Jesus
-- God sent His own Son to earth to take our place -- to die for us on the cross and to pay the penalty for our sins -- so that we might live forever with Him
-- let me share with you a little story that kind of explains what God did for us -- there was this teacher who was trying to make a point in his class about salvation and Jesus' death on the cross -- so he picked out this star athlete in the class -- a kid named Steve -- and asked him if he would mind helping with a little demonstration -- but, to do so, Steve would have to do pushups in front of the whole class
-- Steve said it wasn't a problem since he usually did 200 pushups every day -- the teacher said he needed him to do 300 in sets of 10 -- and Steve said he would try
-- the next day, Steve got to class early and sat in the front of the room -- When class started, the teacher pulled out a big box of donuts -- Now these weren't the normal kinds of donuts -- these were like Krispy Kreme good -- the extra fancy BIG kind, with cream centers and extra frosting
-- the teacher went to the first girl in the first row and asked, "Cynthia, do you want a donut?" -- Cynthia said, "Yes." -- the teacher then turned to Steve and asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so that Cynthia can have a donut?" -- Steve said, "Sure," and jumped down from his desk to do a quick ten -- when Steve got done, the teacher put a donut on Cynthia's desk and then went to the next student in the row
-- "Joe, do you want a donut?" -- Joe said, "Yes." -- the teacher asked, "Steve would you do ten push-ups so Joe can have a donut?" -- Steve did ten push-ups -- Joe got a donut.
-- And so it went, all the way down the first aisle, Steve did ten pushups for every person before they got their donut -- the teacher went to the second row, same thing -- until he came to Scott -- the teacher asked Scott, "do you want a donut?" -- Scott's reply was, "Well, can I do my own pushups for them?" -- the teacher said, "No, Steve has to do them." Then Scott said, "Well then, I don't want one" -- the teacher then turned to Steve and said, "Steve, would you do ten pushups so Scott can have a donut he doesn't want?"
-- Steve started to do ten pushups, but Scott cried out, "HEY! I said I didn't want one!" -- the teacher said, "Look, this is my classroom, my class, my desks, and my donuts -- Just leave it on the desk if you don't want it." And when Steve got done with the ten pushups, the teacher put a donut on Scott's desk.
-- Now by this time, Steve had begun to slow down a little. -- He just stayed on the floor between sets because it took too much effort to be getting up and down -- the teacher started down the third row, but now the students were beginning to get a little angry because the teacher was forcing Steve to do these pushups so that they could have a donut
-- more and more students began to say "No" to the teacher and there were all these uneaten donuts on the desks -- Steve was also having to really put forth a lot of effort to get these pushups done for each donut -- There began to be a small pool of sweat on the floor beneath his face -- and his arms and brow were beginning to get red because of the physical effort involved.
-- the teacher went on to the next person and the next and the next -- Near the end of that row, Steve was really having a rough time -- He was taking a lot more time to complete each set -- as the teacher was finishing up on the last row, Steve's arms really began to shake with each pushup as he struggled to lift himself against the force of gravity -- Sweat was dropping off of his face and, by this time, there was not a dry eye in the room.
-- The very last two girls in the room were cheerleaders and very popular -- the teacher went to Linda, the second to last, and asked, "Linda, do you want a doughnut?" -- Linda said, very sadly, "No thank you." -- the teacher asked Steve, "Steve, would you do ten pushups so that Linda can have a donut she doesn't want?" -- Grunting from the effort, Steve did ten very slow pushups for Linda.
-- Then the teacher turned to the last girl, Susan. -- "Susan, do you want a donut?" -- Susan, with tears flowing down her face, asked the teacher, "can I help him?" -- the teacher, with tears in his own eyes, said, "No, he has to do it alone. Steve, would you do ten pushups so Susan can have a donut?"
-- As Steve very slowly finished his last pushup, with the understanding that he had accomplished all that was required of him, having done 350 pushups, his arms buckled beneath him and he fell to the floor.
-- the teacher turned to the room and said. "And so it was, that our Savior, Jesus Christ, took our place on the cross and paid the penalty for our sins that we couldn't pay -- and when He had done everything that was required of Him -- when He had shed His blood and given His body to pay the price for the forgiveness of our sins, He collapsed on the cross and died -- And like some of those in this room, many of us refuse to accept His sacrifice and leave His gift of salvation on the cross just like all of the uneaten donuts on our desks"
-- so, how do we receive this gift of God? -- how do we receive this sacrifice of Jesus? -- flip over to Romans 10
9. That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
11. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."
12. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,
13. for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
-- that's all it takes -- confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved
-- the Bible calls this "justification" -- it's a fancy theological word that just means that the penalty has been paid -- that the punishment has been received and that justice has been served -- another way to think of justification is to think of it as being "just as if I never sinned" because Jesus died for me
-- when Jesus died on that cross at Calvary on that first Good Friday over 2000 years ago, He paid the price for all your sins -- 1 Peter 1:18-19 says that we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ -- He shed His blood to cover all our sins -- I don't know if you've ever thought about that before or not, but here's what Jesus did for us on that Friday so long ago
-- when they placed that cruel crown of thorns on His head and the blood flowed down over His ears, He forgave you for everything that you had heard that you shouldn't have
-- when the blood flowed down His head and into His eyes, He forgave you for everything that you saw that you shouldn't have
-- when He was beaten and His mouth filled with blood, it took away all the things that you ever said but shouldn't have
-- when His hands and feet were nailed to that cross, His blood covered all the sins from all the things that you ever did with your hands and for all the wrong places that you ever went
-- When they pierced His side with their spear and His blood flowed out, it covered all the sins for the things we ever took inside our body
-- and when the blood flowed from His beaten and scourged back, it covered all the sins for every time we ever turned our back on Him and denied Him as our Lord and Savior
-- Jesus' blood covered all our sins -- every single one -- the Bible tells us that all of our sins were nailed to the cross in Jesus that day, and that the penalty was paid for them when Jesus died in our place
-- but Jesus did more than just die for us -- He also rose from the dead on the third day -- on that first Easter morning -- by rising from the dead, Jesus gave us new life -- He made us new creations and took away our old curse from the Garden of Eden and replaced it with His righteousness and His holiness
-- that is what the cross is all about -- that is what Easter is all about -- it's about life -- it's about redeeming the curse -- it's about receiving this free gift of God that we have in Jesus
-- as the Scriptures tell us, this gift is for all of us -- all we have to do is receive it -- so, right now, as we close our service, I want to invite you to do just that
-- if you have never received Jesus as your Lord and Savior before -- if you have never asked Him to forgive you of your sins and to come into your heart and to be your Lord and Savior -- then I want to invite you to do so right now -- this morning -- before you leave -- you'll have that opportunity as I close in prayer and as the last hymn is played
-- if you have received Jesus as your Lord and Savior before -- then I want to invite you to rededicate your life to Him again this morning -- Easter is about new life and about rising again -- all of us -- even those of us who have been Christians for years -- all of us sin and fall short of God's glory time and time again -- and we all have need to come again to the cross -- to ask Jesus to forgive us and to cleanse us from our sins -- so that we might rise in new life with Him and live as the people He has called us to be
-- if that is your situation, then I invite you to pray with me as we close and to make that change in your life right now
-- I'm going to pray now, and as the last hymn is played, if any of you would like to come forward to make a decision or just to pray at the altar, I would encourage you to do so
-- let us pray
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