Today's message I'm preaching, in the stead of our pastor:
We live in a confusing world. Only in our world could the words bough, cough, dough, rough all end in same four letters and not rhyme.
(the following from the Web)
Maybe its because we like to make things more difficult than they need to be. For example:
• There's no egg in eggplant
• No ham in hamburger
• No apple nor pine in pineapple.
• English muffins weren't invented in England
• French fries don’t come from France.
• Quicksand can work slowly
• Boxing rings are square
• Guinea pigs are neither from Guinea nor are a pig.
Maybe it’s because we just can’t get on the same page with even simple concepts:
• If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
• People recite at a play and play at a recital
• Ship by truck and send cargo by ship
• We have noses that run and feet that smell?
• Park on driveways and drive on parkways ?
Maybe it’s because we just can’t make up our mind:
• A slim chance and a fat chance are the same
• A wise man and a wise guy are opposites
• Overlook and oversee are opposites
• Quite a lot and quite a few are alike
• When the stars are out, they are visible
• When the lights are out, they are invisible.
Things are just as confusing in church, too. One respected web site on world religions arranges Christianity into 4 primary groups with 17 families and over 1,500 denominations. We live in an age where non-denominational churches have become their own denomination, and interdenominational churches are the new non-denominational. If you do an internet search for “community church,” you’ll find churches for:
• Baptists
• Southern Baptists
• Assembly of God
• Bible Church
• Presbyterian
• Lutheran
• Mennonite Brethren
• Calvary Chapel
• Church of God Reformation movement
• United Church of Christ
• Christian Church
• Independent Catholic
• The Apostolic Catholic Church of America
• The Evangelical Covenant Church
• Pagan
• Non-sectarian, human-centered congregation
• Gays and Lesbians
And this was just in the first 50 of 167,000 congregations! I tell you this…if you go looking for “a community church,” you better go in with your eyes wide open, because you literally do not know what you’re going to get.
So within the church today there is much confusion about why we do certain things the way we do, why we don’t do things, why things are done differently from other churches or other denominations. I think it is fair to say that today, because of the confusion that is rife within the universal church, some people who are desperately seeking God are staying away from the church because they don’t think he can be found there.
So my message today is a simple one. Not necessarily a short one, but it is a simple one!
If you will open your Bible to the book of 1st Corinthians, chapter 15, we’ll get to the central text today. Interesting, though, as you find your way there, is the context of the Scripture in focus. The church in Corinth could well-identify with the confusion of the church today. This church existed in a cosmopolitan city where people of different cultures co-existed and intermingled. Romans, Greeks, and Jews all had sizeable populations there. The city was wealthy, and its citizens had been exposed to several different belief systems. Temples were erected worshipping various gods, and many trades and businesses had adopted these gods as the local benefactors over their industries. It was in this environment where the apostle Paul established this church for 18 months, some 20 years after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. A few years later, while Paul was on another missionary journey, Paul wrote this letter to the church because they were a church in confusion. They were a church struggling because they had forgotten to keep the main thing the main thing, and instead got side-tracked by a litany of distractions. In doing so, they lost their way.
In fact, the “meat” of Paul’s letter begins with reminding them of essential doctrine. Then in chapter 5, he tells them of their need to be cleansed from immorality. In chapter 6, he tells them to avoid litigation. Then over the next few chapters, he clarifies Christian doctrine regarding everything from the sanctity of marriage to partaking in the Lord’s supper to eating food sacrificed to idols, to social customs and matters of dress. This takes us to chapters 12 to 14. Chapter 13 is perhaps the greatest description of love in human history. Apparently, this church was so confused that it needed to be reminded to love others, and gave a how-to on meeting that requirement. What I find so compelling about this instructional guide is that it is book-ended by 12 and 14, two chapters on orderly worship. I’m sure that’s another sermon for another day, but it intrigues me nonetheless. So here we have a church – a young church, but an established church – in total disarray. They are a church in need of help, and Paul has gone to extraordinary lengths to give pastoral leadership and direction to it. That counsel culminates with the text we read at the beginning of chapter 15:
1Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
Here we are at chapter 15, and after a long, detailed explanation over everything that was troubling this church, Paul culminates his exhortation to them by reminding them to keep as first importance the very simple message that Christ has died for our sins! This simple message is captured in three brilliant snapshots of history (from the Web):
Thomas Aquinas, the famous Catholic theologian who, upon completing the massive Summa Theologica, “All that I have written seems to me as so much straw.”
Karl Barth, the famous Swiss theologian who wrote the 12 volume work “Church Dogmatics”, was once asked by a seminary student to share the most profound theological thought from his writings. After thinking silently for a moment, Barth replied in these words, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
Blaise Pascal, the renowned French philosopher and thinker who wrote the famous work entitled “Pensees,” was found after his death to have sewn a piece of parchment into the lining of his jacket. On this paper, Pascal had described an encounter he had with the Lord in 1654. Following is a part of what he wrote:
“Monday, November 23rd, year of grace 1654, from about half past ten at night to about half an hour after midnight:
FIRE
God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of philosophers and scholars.
Certitude, heartfelt joy, peace.
God of Jesus Christ.
God of Jesus Christ.
My God and your God (Jn.20:17)
He can only be found by the ways that have been taught in the Gospels.
O righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you (Jn.17:25)
Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (Jn.17:3)
Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
I am separated from him; for I have shunned him, denied him, crucified him.
May I never be separated from him.
He can only be kept by the ways taught in the gospel.
Complete and sweet renunciation.
Total submission to Jesus Christ…
I will not neglect your Word. (Ps.119:16) Amen.”
As these three men have demonstrated, the simple message that Jesus Christ has died for our sins, clears away all the muck and clutter that can obstruct and distract from keeping our focus on the most important reality that God wants each of us to understand. So in our time today, let us look closely at this spiritual reality, so that God may have His way with us, and do His will within us.
First, I’d like us to explore the reality that in this simple message, we see that Christ planned for us. Verse one declares this to be the gospel, so clearly explained in verse 3. Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures. This is the good news for all people. The gospel message is that Christ has died for our sins. This is God’s plan. The gospel is not about keeping 10 Commandments. It isn’t about remembering the Lord’s prayer, or in whether you come to church on Saturday nights or Sunday mornings. The good news is that Christ has died for our sins, according to the Scriptures. This was the plan of God from before time began, and Jesus Christ has fulfilled that plan, according to the Scriptures.
In this, there are two aspects worth highlighting. The first is that Christ took your place. The simple message says that Jesus has died for our sins. Not for his own. Jesus died for my sins. Jesus died for your sins. A sin is a mistake, a wrong-doing. The Bible says a few things about sins. First of all, it says that we all fall short of the glory of God. That means that we all sin. Some of us sin a little bit, and some of us sin a lot. But the Bible says we all fall short of God’s glory – or heaven – because of that sin. So it doesn’t matter if you fall short by just a little bit, or by a whole lot….if you fall short, the end result is the same.
Here’s something else the Bible says about sin. It says the wages of sin is death. That means that the consequence for the mistakes you make, whether you tell one little tiny lie, or if you spend your whole life being a dirty, rotten scoundrel is the same. If you fall short, when you die, you die apart from God, having fallen short of his glorious heaven.
So here’s the interesting thing about what the Bible has to say about that…in the book of Ephesians, God tells us that you and I have redemption through the sacrificial death of Jesus, which is the forgiveness of our sins. Let’s talk about redemption for a moment. To redeem something means to make an exchange. For example, if you buy a Wednesday night meal ticket today, on Wednesday you can show up at 5:00 and redeem that ticket for a meal. You exchange the ticket Janice Coulter gives you for dinner. Sandy does that because she knows that when you give her a ticket, it means you have paid the price to receive the meal. Now, Ephesians 1:7 is saying that Jesus has redeemed your soul by his death on the cross. This means that he has paid for your sins – your mistakes – because you couldn’t do it yourself. He paid the price so that you could be forgiven. So if you are “in Jesus,” as the Bible says, then God knows that he can give you the gift of heaven in exchange for the price that Jesus has paid for you. So when you read in 1 Corinthians 15, and see this incredible reminder, and simple reduction that Jesus has died for our sins, you can know that Jesus took your place.
You can also know that Jesus keeps his promises. Look at what this says in verse 3 – that Christ has died, according to the Scriptures. Go ahead and read verse 4, too. That he was buried and that he rose again, according to the Scriptures. This little repeated phrase “according to the Scriptures” is a reminder to the church in Corinth, and also to us that Jesus keeps his promises.
The Scriptures that Paul is pointing to are the numerous Old Testament prophecies that were written hundreds, and even thousands of years before Jesus was born. These were statements that God himself gave to his people about the person, ministry, and life details of his Messiah so that they could know with certainty who He was when he came. Here, Paul references two aspects of those promises….first that he would die, according to the Scriptures. Look at what the Scriptures promised about the death of the Messiah:
• Psalm 41:9 said he would be betrayed by a friend. Jesus was betrayed by Judas.
• Psalm 69:22 says he would be offered vinegar to quench his thirst. The gospels record this was in fact what was offered to him.
• Psalm 22 said he would die on a cross, even though crucifixion had not yet been invented, and that stoning was the typical death sentence for those accused of blasphemy. Yet, history records that Jesus was crucified.
• Psalm 22 also says that he would be mocked and taunted, and that lots would be cast for his clothes. Both of these things took place.
• Exodus 12:46 said he would be executed without having a bone broken. John 19 confirms that no bone was broken with Jesus.
• Isaiah 53 says that God’s Messiah would die for our transgressions, beaten, bloodied, abused and battered. And history concurs that this was how Jesus did, in fact, die.
This is far from an exhaustive list, but in the interest of time, there are also several Scriptures referenced in verse 4, about the burial and resurrection. Some of those include:
• Isaiah 53:9 said he’d be buried with the rich, cut counted among the wicked. This was fulfilled when he was taken down from the criminal’s cross on Golgotha and buried in the borrowed tomb of Joseph of Arimithea.
• Psalms 16, 17, & 73 all prophecy of his resurrection. Jonah 1:17 mentions how the prophet was in the giant fish for 3 days, and in Matthew, Jesus himself declares he too will be like Jonah. Three days following his burial in the stone-covered tomb, he was resurrected!
These are just a sampling of a few of the Scriptures that have been historically determined to be accurately fulfilled. What are the odds of such a thing?
Here’s something you should know about odds, for a little perspective. If you take a coin, you have a 1:2 chance it’ll come up heads. Every single time, 1:2. However, if you are trying to get heads twice in a row, the odds aren’t 1:2 anymore, they’re now 1:4. The odds become exponentially more difficult. So, heads three times in a row is 1:8, and heads 10 times in a row is 1: 1024. That means if you tried 1024 times to get 10 heads-up in a row, you might accomplish it 1 time. One big-brained statistician took the 8 most commonly accepted fulfilled prophecies of Jesus and determined the odds of 1 person being able to fulfill all 8 of those promises, even coincidentally. His figure was that there was a 1:1017 chance that one person could do it. That’s 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000 (1 in 100 quadrillion). What does this mean? It means that just thinking of the 8 prophecies this guy was counting, Jesus alone defied the odds to a miraculous level to fit the bill. He couldn’t have manipulated these, to make himself “fit the bill.” He couldn’t control where he was born, when he would die, how he would die, what the Romans would do to him, say to him, and do with him after he was dead…unless, of course He was God and foreknew it from before time, foretold it in the Scriptures, and fulfilled it in his life.
One scholar said there are over 300 prophecies about the Messiah that are fulfilled in Jesus. To not believe that Jesus died for your sins is to deny the evidence and disregard the good news that Jesus took your place and kept his promises! This takes more faith, albeit eternally misplaced faith to trust that Jesus is wrong than to trust in this good news.
Here’s one final detail…it’s been said that for every 1 fulfilled prophecy of Jesus’ life on earth, there are 6 waiting to be fulfilled on his return. Jesus has proven himself to be trustworthy. He has demonstrated that he keeps his promises, and that he took your place, because Jesus planned for this. Surely, he won’t change that plan now.
Now, the first point in this simple message is that Jesus planned, and the Scripture in 1 Corinthians 15:1-3 show that you have a response to make in this plan. That response is that the good news of Jesus allow you to stand. Look at what verses 1-2 say about this gospel that Paul received and shares with us…that Jesus died for our sins…that we can stand in it, because this truth is what saves us!
This has two implications. First, if you are to stand in the blessing of the gospel, you have to live in the spiritual reality. To trust in the gospel requires you to deny what you observe about physical reality and in exchange trust in the spiritual reality. Our physical reality is constantly at odds with the spiritual reality because, as the Bible says, the physical reality has been given to the enemy for a time and is under his authority. Likewise, Satan will use everything in his disposal to deceive you, trick you, undermine you, and to utterly destroy you. The physical reality says that when you die, your life is over, and your body decomposes. The spiritual reality declares that Jesus has defeated death, and when this life ends, eternal life begins. Spiritual reality says that your new life is experienced in a body that will not decompose, deteriorate or disintegrate. Physical reality says that this life is all that matters, so do what feels good, put yourself first and do what it takes to get to the top and stay there. The spiritual reality has said that the only way to be first is to be last, the only way to get true life is to give it up, and the only way to see heaven is by trusting that Jesus’ provision was solely sufficient in doing so. This is why both God tells us in both the Old and New Testaments that “the just shall walk by faith, and not by sight.”
Living in the spiritual reality is the only way you can live in this second implication, of standing (or persevering) in the faith, which is to live in the Savior’s redemption. Now, there will be times in your life where you don’t feel very saved. There will be times where you will look at all the evidence around you, and you will not feel like you’ve been redeemed by God. There will be times, and you will think to yourself, “I’ve just sinned. I cannot seem to stop sinning. I can’t seem to keep away from the bad things, and it seems like I never want to be involved in the good, godly things.” There will be times where you want to doubt whether or not you have really been redeemed because you evaluate the physical evidence and you might suspect that if you really have been redeemed by Jesus, you wouldn’t be doing the things you are doing.
To feel this way is completely understandable, but I want to encourage you that it is also completely unbiblical. Paul wrote all about this mystery of not “feeling saved” in Romans 6-8. He talked about that very struggle of seeming to continually disappoint himself and God. Yet, in the fact of despair that lead him to cry out, “What a wretched man I am, who will save me from this body of death?” he answers affirmatively just a few verses later when he declares, “the spirit of life has set me free!”
The reality is that your salvation is not based on your feelings, nor is it based upon your performance. It is based solely, exclusively, on the person of Jesus Christ. Christ died for your sins, according to the Scriptures! He died so that you could live. If you want to stand, then you must live in the spiritual reality, and you must live in the Savior’s redemption.
This is what the Bible says about your redemption. Ephesians 1 says that your redemption is secure. If you trust in Jesus, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit has sealed you. The word picture there is that of a letter or scroll that has been sealed with a wax stamp that can only be opened by one who is worthy and authorized to do so. You are sealed! The same passage also says you are guaranteed for redemption. The word picture here is that of an estate transaction where earnest money is put down as a guarantee that a future transaction will be completed. The Holy Spirit of God is the guaranteed earnest that the redemption you hold to by faith will be completed at your day of redemption! So you are sealed and guaranteed. It is in this reality that you can live in the Spiritual reality of life’s temptations, and in the reality of the Savior’s redemption, and that you can claim for yourself the promises or Romans 8 that say that nothing…nothing….nothing can separate you from the love of God.
We close today this simple message of what happens next. The Scripture says in verse 3 that he delivers what he received…that Christ died according to the Scriptures. This tells us that Christ planned, you stand…now…expand.
Paul was faithful to share what he knew. He is saying here, I’m telling you what was told to me. Now, that church in Corinth, and this church in Grapevine…has the responsibility to do the same. Paul exhorts elsewhere in his epistles for believers to imitate him as he imitates Christ. He is faithfully telling others exactly what he received, so they, in turn, would tell others.
This point is reduced to a simple, rhyming three-word process. My hope and prayer and expectation is that you will remember it, and you will repeat it in your own life. First, to recap…you must believe. The Bible says that if you call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, you will be saved. God’s word declares if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will not be put to shame, and that you will receive heaven and eternal life. That is God’s invitation to you today.
Next, you must cleave. This word cleave is remarkable because it has a dual meaning, and in this context, both meanings apply. Cleave means both to separate from, but also to adhere to. So, when you believe, then you must cleave to your belief – adhere to it, by faith, and also separate from your old beliefs…what you know by sight. This is the idea of repentance. You are separating from your sin and your self…turning away from it. But at the same time, you are turning to and trusting completely in Jesus.
When you have cleaved to Jesus, only then can you relieve. What I mean by this is to fulfill Christ’s purpose for you, which is to use you to expand His kingdom. It means to use you to advance his gospel…which is….that Christ died for our sins! And in doing this, you will bring relief! I think about some of the people I have been blessed to see relieved by the gospel that Christ died for our sins and I praise God that His Spirit has given freedom and hope to so many. I think about the relief that I feel because I know heaven is my eternal home and I want to share the good news of that opportunity with others. In a world that is lost, hurting, dying, and largely going to hell, the gospel is the good news, the only simple message that will bring relief.
And this is the truth…you, too, have been called to share this gospel. You may never have shared with anyone the hope that lives within you. You may be intimidated that you don’t know all the answers, or maybe any of the answers. You may be scared that you don’t remember Scripture very well, or that you can’t remember if the Psalms are in the Old Testament or the New. You may be worried that your Muslim neighbor or LDS co-worker or Wiccan niece or atheist dad may know the Scriptures better than you. You may not feel like you are ready to have a discussion about the differences between Catholics and Protestants, or Baptists and Methodists, or even Baptists and Baptists. That’s okay! The point is this….the gospel isn’t about all that. The gospel is simply, Jesus has died for our sins! If you can share your story about how you placed your trust in Jesus, because he keeps his promises and he took your place, then you can stand and you can expand!
Jesus planned so that you can stand…Now, expand. That is the simple message today. To this message, I offer an invitation that has three responses. The first is if you have never believed, today is the chance for you to do so. You have been given the gospel, that Jesus has died for your sins. You have been given overwhelming evidence that Jesus is God’s Messiah, and that his death, burial, and resurrection fulfilled hundreds of promises, each one given so that you could know that he died for you. The Bible says that today is the day of redemption, and that if you today believe, today you will be saved.
The second response to the invitation is that you will cleave. God is calling some of you to stand in the belief that you profess. God is calling some of you to join this church family, and identify with this body of believers. God is calling others of you to leave behind the things of the world that have been holding you back…the temptations, the pitfalls, the junk of life. Come today, pray with a counselor, share with another what the Holy Spirit is saying to you.
Finally, you are invited to relieve. God is calling you today to put feet to your faith and to share the gospel with others. Whether you need to join a discipleship class so you can learn more, or if you need to use the training you’ve already received through Faith, or Becoming a Contagious Christian, or Brother Jack’s excellent 1 hour training, or even to begin spiritually courting someone as has been encouraged through the Fission emphasis. Today is the day to obey.
Believe, Cleave, Relieve. When the music begins, you come forward in prompt obedience to the Holy Spirit.
October 2, 2005 10:37 AM