A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on April 13, 2008 at St. Mary's Medical Center Convent Chapel, based on Nehemiah 9:6-15
Fill in the musical blank as I sing:
My dog’s bigger than (your dog).
My Dog’s bigger than (your’s).
My dog’s bigger ‘cause he eats (Kennel Ration).
My dog’s bigger than (your’s).
Remember that from the 60’s? Let’s be a little impertinent and turn this around and ask:
How Big is your God? …
Is your God the One who made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their angelic hosts, the earth and all that is on it? Does your God preserve the sea and all that is in it? Does the host of Heaven bow down and worship your God?
Does your God make Covenants with people and does He keep them forever? Does he perform signs and wonders for His covenant people and lead them through deep waters - set pillars of cloud and fire to guide them through the desert, and then give them food from heaven to eat?
Is your God Gracious and Merciful, slow to anger and abounding in Steadfast Love, keeping faith with his people even when they lose faith and turn to worship other Gods? …
Is He?
Does He lead you beside still waters and restore your soul? Is He with you even in the shadow of Death?
Does He prepare a table before you in the Presence of your enemies? Does he anoint your head with oil and make your cup overflow?
Could you identify the sound of your God’s voice?
If someone was trying to imitate your God and disguised their voice to sound like His, could you tell the difference? Do you trust that voice enough to follow it wherever it leads you?
And would you willingly give up something precious for your God if that thing or person was leading you away from your God?
Would you?
If not, your God is too small and you need a bigger one to follow.
The Big God of Scripture
You need the One found in the pages of Nehemiah and Psalm 23 and John 10 and Acts 7 – a God who is Big enough and powerful enough to command the universe, but One who is loving enough to care for you and to desire a close personal relationship with you.
You need a God that you are willing to die for but One that you are willing to Live for as well - A God that speaks to you personally and a God that demands your allegiance because he made you – a God that is High and Lifted up – but one who stoops to help you in your weakness.
Friends, do you have a God like this?
Discovering the True God of the Bible
In our lesson from Nehemiah today, we pick up the story mid – way through - after Nehemiah had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon and reconstructed the walls around the city despite the opposition of the surrounding peoples. A census had been taken of all the returned exiles and on a great day of dedication, the people had stood from early morning to until mid-day as the Book of the Law of Moses was read out in their hearing. They wept when they heard the law, and then they celebrated a Holy Day with feasting.
They constructed booths out of branches and lived in them for seven days while they were listening to the word and its explanation. And on the eighth day they confessed their sins before God and worshipped Him.
The Levite priests (be thankful you didn’t have to read their names today) told the people to Stand up and bless the Lord because His name is exalted above all blessing and praise. He’s a big God and He deserves all the praise we can muster before him.
The people praised God and recounted his actions in history towards them – and they confessed their sins very specifically – for a long time, a quarter of a day.
And then they made a written covenant with this God and sealed their names upon it. They solemnly swore to observe the Law he had given to Moses, to not allow intermarriage with the people of the surrounding areas, to observe the Sabbath and the year of Jubilee, and to bring the firstfruits of their labor to the Lord for the maintenance of the temple worship, saying “We will not neglect the house of our God.” (Neh 10:39).
Because Jerusalem’s walls had been torn down, it wasn’t safe to live there for many years, so after the new wall was completed the peoplecast lots and chose 10 % of the population to live there, while the rest of the people lived in smaller outlying towns. They dedicated the wall they had built and began daily temple worship, offering ‘great sacrifices’ with great joy – all because they were serving a great God.
Nehemiah’s Reforms
And then Nehemiah sets about cleaning house. He separates out from Israel all of foreign descent. No Ammonites or Moabites welcome –because their people did not help the Israelites and hired Balaam to curse them.
But then Nehemiah goes back to Babylon for several years. When he returns, he finds things have fallen apart. He discovers that the corrupt priest Eliashib had created a nice little crib for his homey Tobia in the temple – and he throws them both out on their ears and cleanses the place, returning it to its sacred storehouse function.
He discovers that the Levites had not been given their portion and they had had to go out and work in the fields instead of worshipping God. Nehemiah restores the tithe and the people bring in their first fruits to the Lord.
The observance of the Sabbath had gone by the boards, and he restores it – by force.
And then comes the coup de grace: Nehemiah learns that the Jews had married women of Ashdod, Ammon and Moab and that half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, not Hebrew. Listen to how he handles this situation:
“And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God” …that they would not intermarry with the surrounding peoples! (Wow!)
The last thing he does is to chase off the son-in-law of Sanballat, who had caused so much trouble to the people.
And Nehemiah closes his book by asking God to remember him for God because he had cleansed everything foreign.
Now, is your God as big as Nehemiah’s?
For the sake of your God, are you willing to cleanse out of your life anything that displeases God? Are you willing to attempt big huge projects on behalf of your God because you love Him and the Law he has set before you? Are you willing to bring him the first and the best of all you have to offer?
And are you willing to stand up for righteousness and confront God’s people when they stray? ( Can you imagine Nehemiah at General Conference 2003?...!)
Are you? If you are, it’s because you have caught a vision for a God that is High and Lifted up, worthy of honor, much to be feared and obeyed as the absolute, sovereign Creator.
The Rest of the Story….
But this is only half the story about our God. The rest of it (as Paul Harvey says) is that God is a God of love, who desires an intimate relationship with you, the sheep of his hand.
Our Big View of God must include his power and righteousness. Without this we are impoverished as people. But our big view also has to include fact that Jesus died on the cross for us and has wiped away our certificate of debt before God the righteous judge.
This same God has sent His Holy Spirit to live inside of us and to have intimate fellowship with us. When Jesus said, in Rev. 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock, If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me”, he wasn’t talking to non -believers, He was talking to the lukewarm church at Laodicea, trying to reprove and discipline them so that they could enter in to this close, loving relationship with God and eventually share the very throne of God with Him!
God, our God, Loves you and wants to spend time with you! This is the most amazing thing in the Universe! Surely there can be no higher privilege than to Hobnob with the Most High!
So let me challenge and encourage you to do some things:
1) Repent of your obtuseness in the Face of a Holy and Awesome God. He is your maker and he deserves the very best you have to offer, even if you don’t understand Him or what He’s doing in your life.
2) Love Him and spend time with him every day! This Mighty God of ours also cares about each hair on your head. He has an infinite amount of time for you – and for me too. No problem is too small for Him. “Cast your burden upon the Lord – for he will sustain you…” (Ps. 55:22).
3) Don’t fall prey to Benjamin Franklin’s quip that “God helps those who help themselves.” It’s cute, but it ain’t right. God emphatically helps those who call upon Him for wisdom and then do what He tells them to do. This is the opposite of self-sufficiency.
4) Give Him yourself – it’s the best and only thing you really have to Give Him.
I’d like to close with this prayer of dedication that we usually pray during our Celtic Eucharist
Prayer of Dedication
Each thing I have received,
from YOU it came.
Each thing for which I hope,
from YOUR love it will come.
Each thing I enjoy,
it is of YOUR Bounty.
So I am giving YOU offering with my
whole thought.
I am giving YOU Love with my
whole heart.
I am giving YOU affection with my
whole devotion.
And I am giving You my soul,
O God of all Gods.
AMEN.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Sunday, April 06, 2008
PEFT for the World
A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on April 6, 2008 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV.
A couple of years ago on a weekend trip to visit my parents, I had a sudden epiphany about my mother’s Mission in Life. For several weeks previous to our visit, Mom and Dad had been having trouble with a raccoon which had been raiding their trash and garden. The night before we arrived at their home, my father had trapped this huge raccoon in a ‘Have a Heart” cage, intending to drive it far out into the country and drop it off in a new home.
About an hour before Dad and I were to make our little trip into the country, my mother announced that she was taking some cat food out to the raccoon, allowing as it was probably hungry! At that very moment I realized that despite whatever other roles she had played in life: wife, mother, teacher, church member, etc, her REAL Mission in life was “To feed living things”. It mattered not what species – neighborhood dog, stray cat, foraging deer – even fat raccoons – they all fell under my mother’s Divine Mandate to feed living things. At that moment it also became clear to me why she had majored in Home Economics and why I was 20 years old before I realized that breakfast is not necessarily a four-course meal! It was all beause of my mother Mission in Life to feed living things!
Thesis:
Today I would like to suggest to you that Jesus has a similar mission in our lives: To make himself known to us and the world in the breaking of bread.
We could perhaps restate this by saying that Our Worship, Fellowship and Outreach as Christians is based around Companionship – being those who break bread together.
Scriptures:
In our Gospel lesson from Luke 24:13-35, we find Jesus walking with two of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, talking with them about the recent events, “But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” V. 16. After extensive discussion about the Christ being prophecied in Scripture, they all sit down to a meal. And “when he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.” vv. 30,31
Here we can see what has been called the Four-Fold Eucharistic action. Jesus:
Took Bread
Blessed it
Broke it
Gave it to them.
Each Sunday we re-enact this pattern in our Worship. If my mom were here today, she’d be very happy, because it’s all about feeding living things!
Basis for Fellowship
In Acts 2:42, 46, we see a similar pattern for something we could call Eucharistic Fellowship: V42 And they devoted themselves to:
the apostles' teaching and
the fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and
the prayers.
46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts…
So the people were going to church and eating together, receiving their food with thanksgiving, or “Eucharistically” .
I’ve taken the liberty of categorizing the four basic actions in these two passages into an acronym: PEFT. Both in their worship and their fellowship the early Christians did these four actions;
P ray
E at
F ellowship
T each
At the center of it all was eating – either eating the body and blood of Jesus, or having a so-called ‘Agape’ or fellowship meal.
Basis for Evangelism.
The result was Evangelism. The message about Jesus was spread abroad:
“…Then they told [the others]what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.” Lk. 24: 35.
“And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” ACTS 2:47
I grant you that it’s too simple to say that the church grew because people worshipped and ate together. There’s also this amazing testimony from Acts:
43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. …47 praising God and having favor with all the people.
Signs and Wonders and community living also had a huge impact on the spread of the Gospel early on.
But as a local church, if we think about our strategy for reaching out to others, what could be simpler than a four fold plan:
Pray
Eat
Fellowship
Teach
Application:
In other words, invite people to come and eat with you. Go to lunch with them, invite them to your homes for dinner or to your small groups.
Get to know people through the fellowship you have with them over a meal.
Offer to pray for them – for their healing, for their businesses, for their family lives, for their salvation.
Then Teach. Teach through studying the Bible together. Teach what you’ve learned through your life experience: older ones mentor younger ones. Teach new believers how to worship God in Spirit and in Truth. Help them to know how to order their lives in a way that would be pleasing to God and profitable for them.
In light of all this, I’m thinking about a popular slogan: ‘The Gospel is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread”.
I’m also thinking that maybe my Mom is on to something. Maybe the Gospel is really all about Feeding Living Things.
Based on today’s lessons, I think that might be the case. So I say, “Pass the bread and Eat up!” Let’s Pray:
O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
A couple of years ago on a weekend trip to visit my parents, I had a sudden epiphany about my mother’s Mission in Life. For several weeks previous to our visit, Mom and Dad had been having trouble with a raccoon which had been raiding their trash and garden. The night before we arrived at their home, my father had trapped this huge raccoon in a ‘Have a Heart” cage, intending to drive it far out into the country and drop it off in a new home.
About an hour before Dad and I were to make our little trip into the country, my mother announced that she was taking some cat food out to the raccoon, allowing as it was probably hungry! At that very moment I realized that despite whatever other roles she had played in life: wife, mother, teacher, church member, etc, her REAL Mission in life was “To feed living things”. It mattered not what species – neighborhood dog, stray cat, foraging deer – even fat raccoons – they all fell under my mother’s Divine Mandate to feed living things. At that moment it also became clear to me why she had majored in Home Economics and why I was 20 years old before I realized that breakfast is not necessarily a four-course meal! It was all beause of my mother Mission in Life to feed living things!
Thesis:
Today I would like to suggest to you that Jesus has a similar mission in our lives: To make himself known to us and the world in the breaking of bread.
We could perhaps restate this by saying that Our Worship, Fellowship and Outreach as Christians is based around Companionship – being those who break bread together.
Scriptures:
In our Gospel lesson from Luke 24:13-35, we find Jesus walking with two of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, talking with them about the recent events, “But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” V. 16. After extensive discussion about the Christ being prophecied in Scripture, they all sit down to a meal. And “when he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.” vv. 30,31
Here we can see what has been called the Four-Fold Eucharistic action. Jesus:
Took Bread
Blessed it
Broke it
Gave it to them.
Each Sunday we re-enact this pattern in our Worship. If my mom were here today, she’d be very happy, because it’s all about feeding living things!
Basis for Fellowship
In Acts 2:42, 46, we see a similar pattern for something we could call Eucharistic Fellowship: V42 And they devoted themselves to:
the apostles' teaching and
the fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and
the prayers.
46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts…
So the people were going to church and eating together, receiving their food with thanksgiving, or “Eucharistically” .
I’ve taken the liberty of categorizing the four basic actions in these two passages into an acronym: PEFT. Both in their worship and their fellowship the early Christians did these four actions;
P ray
E at
F ellowship
T each
At the center of it all was eating – either eating the body and blood of Jesus, or having a so-called ‘Agape’ or fellowship meal.
Basis for Evangelism.
The result was Evangelism. The message about Jesus was spread abroad:
“…Then they told [the others]what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.” Lk. 24: 35.
“And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” ACTS 2:47
I grant you that it’s too simple to say that the church grew because people worshipped and ate together. There’s also this amazing testimony from Acts:
43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. …47 praising God and having favor with all the people.
Signs and Wonders and community living also had a huge impact on the spread of the Gospel early on.
But as a local church, if we think about our strategy for reaching out to others, what could be simpler than a four fold plan:
Pray
Eat
Fellowship
Teach
Application:
In other words, invite people to come and eat with you. Go to lunch with them, invite them to your homes for dinner or to your small groups.
Get to know people through the fellowship you have with them over a meal.
Offer to pray for them – for their healing, for their businesses, for their family lives, for their salvation.
Then Teach. Teach through studying the Bible together. Teach what you’ve learned through your life experience: older ones mentor younger ones. Teach new believers how to worship God in Spirit and in Truth. Help them to know how to order their lives in a way that would be pleasing to God and profitable for them.
In light of all this, I’m thinking about a popular slogan: ‘The Gospel is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread”.
I’m also thinking that maybe my Mom is on to something. Maybe the Gospel is really all about Feeding Living Things.
Based on today’s lessons, I think that might be the case. So I say, “Pass the bread and Eat up!” Let’s Pray:
O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Why Are You Here?
A Sermon Given to All Saints Anglican Church on Easter 2008 @ the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV.
Why are you here today? …. Is it because Easter is a cultural Holiday and you feel that you are expected to go to church before eating a meal with your family and having an Easter egg hunt with your kids? Is it because Christmas and Easter are two religious holidays that you can’t avoid – and so you must make an effort to attend so that God isn’t perturbed with you?
Or …. Do you come in order to recognize that the event we celebrate today actually happened and has changed Human existence more than any other religion or philosophy in the World?
I would suggest that for most, if not all, of us, it is the latter. We’re here because we have come to recognize that Jesus arose from the grave and this singular fact has changed our lives forever.
Jesus rose from the Dead. The grave is empty! This fact was noticed by the Roman soldiers who were charged with guarding the tomb against Jesus’ followers who were thought to be plotting to steal the body for their own purposes.
The Disciples noticed that the grave was empty and thought it was significant enough to turn the world upside down as they spread the News.
You and I have noticed that Jesus is not dead – and it has changed every area of our lives: how we think about ourselves, how we treat others, how we spend our money, and how we spend our Sunday mornings.
When we say that Jesus arose, this also entails several other things logically; namely, that Jesus actually existed! You might think this is a silly point to bring up – but there are those who have tried to say that Jesus never existed as a real historical person. There are those who say that he didn’t actually die on the cross, but swooned and was later revived, going on to get married and have a family with Mary Magdalene. People say all kinds of things about Jesus other than what the Bible says – because they don’t like the central focus of Jesus’ mission – to shed his blood on your behalf and mine.
You see, people don’t like to be told they have inherited the original guilt and stain from Adam and Eve, and that the natural condition of humans is to be alienated from God – even as ‘innocent’ children. We don’t like to hear that what we really deserve is death like the thieves on the cross, not peace and prosperity.
The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. (Rom. 3.23). That doesn’t mean that you have a good heart and just lack a few things to be perfect. No, that means that there is an infinite gap between your human goodness and the absolute perfection of God – a gap that is unbridgeable by human effort.
Our problem as humans is not that we are unenlightened, that we just need better self-esteem, or that we just need to clean up our act somewhat before God can accept us fully. The problem is that the Sin we inherit by being human fatally separates us from God.
It’s like on your computer when you se a message that says: “A Fatal error occurred and your computer must shut down”. Sin has shut down the human race and humans have no religious I.T. techs to get them started again via natural means. It’s not in our original software!
The only thing that will bridge the gap between us and God is Blood Sacrifice. This is what separated Able’s sacrifice from Cain’s. This is whey God set up the elaborate rituals for animal sacrifice in the Jewish Temple. This is what Jesus came to offer God on our behalf. And this is what the world objects to.
This past week I got a news letter from Lynn and Karen McAdams, who were dear friends of ours at Trinity and have served as missionaries in Germany for the last 25 years. Writing about the future of the church in Germany, Lynn quotes TV pastor Jurgen Fliege, who asserts,
“The church should offer a more positive picture of Jesus and not be continually talking about suffering and death…Jesus was a master of happiness. If the church keeps repeating that ‘Jesus died for me and my sins,’ that’s lie a dark cloud which hangs over people … Instead, we should learn from statements like ‘plants can teach us something.’ This is not esoteric, but a lesson from creation, as tress and plants are ‘the oldest siblings of mankind.”
Don’t get me wrong, I’m convinced that some of my teachers in school were actually plant life -- But you see, this statement tells us what the world wants: A religion that helps them to feel good about themselves and to realize that you’d be much happier if you just thought about your leafy siblings – and stopped thinking about Sin, Death, and Blood all the time. It’s just as CS Lewis said, “Christianity is not the kind of religion you would make up on your own…” It’s too bloody, too messy, and too difficult to believe. Easier to believe that “Plants are your friends”…
But friends I am here today to tell you that the only reason we are here today is to affirm and celebrate the uncomfortable facts of the Gospel: Jesus was a real Human being who was also real God at the same time. He came down from Heaven to live a perfect life and to teach us about God – but more importantly to die for us and to open the way to Heaven for us.
Jesus was the perfect Lamb of God who offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice. His blood is the only way to God. There is none other, and no other Name under heaven by which we can be saved. You can make up your own religion and sell it on TV all you want – but without the blood sacrifice you will not satisfy the necessary condition to bridge the gap between yourself and God.
It was because Jesus offered his own blood on Friday that we celebrate the empty tomb on Sunday. It’s the Blood of Jesus that we celebrate and re-present to God every Sunday in Thanksgiving. It’s the Blood of Jesus that Cleanses, not just covers Sin. And it’s the blood of Jesus that separates Christianity from all other religions.
If you’re here today because you have placed your faith and confidence in the blood of Jesus – I welcome you as a brother or sister in Christ. If you have never trusted the blood of Jesus to cleans you from sin and present you spotless before God, I challenge and invite you to do so before you leave this place today.
Make your time here today eternally meaningful by turning away from your own feeble attempts to be good, and trust in the shed blood of Christ. Come now and give yourself to Him. Now is the Time. Amen.
Why are you here today? …. Is it because Easter is a cultural Holiday and you feel that you are expected to go to church before eating a meal with your family and having an Easter egg hunt with your kids? Is it because Christmas and Easter are two religious holidays that you can’t avoid – and so you must make an effort to attend so that God isn’t perturbed with you?
Or …. Do you come in order to recognize that the event we celebrate today actually happened and has changed Human existence more than any other religion or philosophy in the World?
I would suggest that for most, if not all, of us, it is the latter. We’re here because we have come to recognize that Jesus arose from the grave and this singular fact has changed our lives forever.
Jesus rose from the Dead. The grave is empty! This fact was noticed by the Roman soldiers who were charged with guarding the tomb against Jesus’ followers who were thought to be plotting to steal the body for their own purposes.
The Disciples noticed that the grave was empty and thought it was significant enough to turn the world upside down as they spread the News.
You and I have noticed that Jesus is not dead – and it has changed every area of our lives: how we think about ourselves, how we treat others, how we spend our money, and how we spend our Sunday mornings.
When we say that Jesus arose, this also entails several other things logically; namely, that Jesus actually existed! You might think this is a silly point to bring up – but there are those who have tried to say that Jesus never existed as a real historical person. There are those who say that he didn’t actually die on the cross, but swooned and was later revived, going on to get married and have a family with Mary Magdalene. People say all kinds of things about Jesus other than what the Bible says – because they don’t like the central focus of Jesus’ mission – to shed his blood on your behalf and mine.
You see, people don’t like to be told they have inherited the original guilt and stain from Adam and Eve, and that the natural condition of humans is to be alienated from God – even as ‘innocent’ children. We don’t like to hear that what we really deserve is death like the thieves on the cross, not peace and prosperity.
The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. (Rom. 3.23). That doesn’t mean that you have a good heart and just lack a few things to be perfect. No, that means that there is an infinite gap between your human goodness and the absolute perfection of God – a gap that is unbridgeable by human effort.
Our problem as humans is not that we are unenlightened, that we just need better self-esteem, or that we just need to clean up our act somewhat before God can accept us fully. The problem is that the Sin we inherit by being human fatally separates us from God.
It’s like on your computer when you se a message that says: “A Fatal error occurred and your computer must shut down”. Sin has shut down the human race and humans have no religious I.T. techs to get them started again via natural means. It’s not in our original software!
The only thing that will bridge the gap between us and God is Blood Sacrifice. This is what separated Able’s sacrifice from Cain’s. This is whey God set up the elaborate rituals for animal sacrifice in the Jewish Temple. This is what Jesus came to offer God on our behalf. And this is what the world objects to.
This past week I got a news letter from Lynn and Karen McAdams, who were dear friends of ours at Trinity and have served as missionaries in Germany for the last 25 years. Writing about the future of the church in Germany, Lynn quotes TV pastor Jurgen Fliege, who asserts,
“The church should offer a more positive picture of Jesus and not be continually talking about suffering and death…Jesus was a master of happiness. If the church keeps repeating that ‘Jesus died for me and my sins,’ that’s lie a dark cloud which hangs over people … Instead, we should learn from statements like ‘plants can teach us something.’ This is not esoteric, but a lesson from creation, as tress and plants are ‘the oldest siblings of mankind.”
Don’t get me wrong, I’m convinced that some of my teachers in school were actually plant life -- But you see, this statement tells us what the world wants: A religion that helps them to feel good about themselves and to realize that you’d be much happier if you just thought about your leafy siblings – and stopped thinking about Sin, Death, and Blood all the time. It’s just as CS Lewis said, “Christianity is not the kind of religion you would make up on your own…” It’s too bloody, too messy, and too difficult to believe. Easier to believe that “Plants are your friends”…
But friends I am here today to tell you that the only reason we are here today is to affirm and celebrate the uncomfortable facts of the Gospel: Jesus was a real Human being who was also real God at the same time. He came down from Heaven to live a perfect life and to teach us about God – but more importantly to die for us and to open the way to Heaven for us.
Jesus was the perfect Lamb of God who offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice. His blood is the only way to God. There is none other, and no other Name under heaven by which we can be saved. You can make up your own religion and sell it on TV all you want – but without the blood sacrifice you will not satisfy the necessary condition to bridge the gap between yourself and God.
It was because Jesus offered his own blood on Friday that we celebrate the empty tomb on Sunday. It’s the Blood of Jesus that we celebrate and re-present to God every Sunday in Thanksgiving. It’s the Blood of Jesus that Cleanses, not just covers Sin. And it’s the blood of Jesus that separates Christianity from all other religions.
If you’re here today because you have placed your faith and confidence in the blood of Jesus – I welcome you as a brother or sister in Christ. If you have never trusted the blood of Jesus to cleans you from sin and present you spotless before God, I challenge and invite you to do so before you leave this place today.
Make your time here today eternally meaningful by turning away from your own feeble attempts to be good, and trust in the shed blood of Christ. Come now and give yourself to Him. Now is the Time. Amen.
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