ID10T - December 14th, 2014 sermon

by Pastor Greg

          I was having trouble with my computer. So I called Harold the computer guy, to come over. Harold clicked a couple of buttons and solved the problem. He gave me a bill for a minimum service call. As he was walking away, I called after him, "So, what was wrong?" He replied, "It was an ID ten T error." I didn't want to appear stupid, but nonetheless inquired, "An 'ID ten T error'? What's that? Ya know, in case I need to fix it again?" The computer guy grinned, "Haven't you ever heard of an 'ID ten T Error' before?" "No," I replied.  "Write it down," he said, "and I think you'll figure it out."  So I wrote out

I D 1 0 T

I used to like Harold.

One of the conundrums of becoming a Christian is learning what a sin is, and trying to stop doing those things that are sinful.  We know that certain thoughts about other people are wrong.  We know that lying is wrong.  But we end up doing them anyway.  What does that make me?  What does that make us?  Does it make us an idiot?  Perhaps, but according to the Apostle Paul it simply means we are human.

The Apostle Paul calls himself a slave to sin.  He confesses that nothing good lives within him.  And he cries out “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?” (Romans 7:24).  Isaiah writes, “It’s your sins that have cut you off from God.  Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.” (Isaiah 59:2)  He echoes the cry of all humanity when he writes, “For our sins are piled up before God and testify against us.  Yes, we know what sinners we are.” (Isaiah 59:12).  We, like Paul and like Isaiah realize that we are far too human.  There is far too much sin within us.  It’s not an ID10T error.  It’s a sin issue.  And that sin keeps us separated from God.

A long time ago an old man by the name of Eli said something to his sons that reveals the one truth all of us must face.  He said, “If someone sins against another person, God can mediate for the guilty party. But if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede?” (1 Samuel 2:25).  And Eli’s question rings true for all of us.  His question begs an answer.  Indeed, who can intercede for us?  Since we humans sin against God and even sin against each other, who would be willing to stand before God and plead for such a sinner?  Who is even worthy to stand before God?  It’s not that God didn’t look for someone.  He did, but, “He saw that there was no man, and was astonished that there was no one to intercede;” (Isaiah 59:16a).  See, that’s the real problem, isn’t it?  All of us are just as guilty as the next person, and there is no one who can intercede.  What was God’s solution?  His solution was to take the matter into His own hands.  “So He himself stepped in to save them with His strong arm, and His justice sustained Him”. (Isaiah 59:16b)

So God made a promise to redeem Israel, to set them free by paying a price.  He promised that “The Redeemer will come to Jerusalem to buy back those in Israel who have turned from their sins,” (Isaiah 59:20).  This was the promise that was on the lips and the hearts of all Israel for generations.  Father’s told it to their children.  And the children told it to their children.  God would deliver.  God would redeem.  God would send a Savior; someone to intercede between Man and God.  This is the same proclamation made by an aged Temple Priest names Zacharias. (Read Luke 1:67-79)

Zacharias, who was the father of John the Baptist, exclaims that at last God had sent the One who would redeem (vs. 68), the One who would rescue (vs. 69-71), and the One who would provide the remission of sin (vs. 76-77).  At last a person will be able to serve God without fear, and at last a person will be able to stand before God in holiness and righteousness all their days, for as long as they live.

This is Christ the King, the One who would redeem His people.  “For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. ¹⁹ It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. ²⁰ God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but he has now revealed him to you in these last days.” (1 Peter 1:18-20)  This is the One who would rescue His people from the adversary.  “For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins”. (Colossians 1:13-14)  And this is the One who would provide the remission of our sin.  “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” (Psalm 103:12).

This is the Baby we sing about during the Christmas season.  The Child resting on Mary’s lap is Christ the Lord; the long awaited Messiah, the Savior and Redeemer of humanity.  However, Christmas becomes more than a story; more than simply a song or a celebration once we fully understand the question.  Remember what Eli asked?  Who can intercede when someone sins against God?  The only reason a Savior is needed in the first place is because our sins are piled up before God.  Our sins have cut us off from God.  The Child we talk about at Christmas, the One who is our Savior, is God’s answer to Eli’s question.

          Eli asked who can intercede.  God’s answer was Jesus.  On those days when we act far too human (when we behave as idiots), Jesus becomes out Advocate.  I John 2:1 says that he is our Advocate.  If anyone sins, Christ is in heaven pleading on our behalf.  He turns to the Father and says, “I know he behaved like an idiot, but I love him anyhow.  He is one of mine”.  Yes, my friend.  If you, as a believer, behave in a way that is contrary to the teachings of God (if you sin), Christ becomes our Advocate.  Rather than allow those sins to become piles up between us and God, Jesus takes them upon Himself, pointing to the cross.  This is why Paul, who in anguish cried out, “who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death”, was able to rejoice.  He found his answer.  It answers Eli’s question, and it answers our own question.  What happens to us when we, as a Christian, sin against God?  Paul gave us the answer.  “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25).  He is not just our Savior.  He is our Advocate as well.  

Thirty Feet - December 7th, 2014 sermon

By Pastor Greg

Two hunters hired a pilot to fly them into the far north for elk hunting. They were quite successful, bagging six big bucks. When the pilot returned, he objected and said, "The plane can only carry four of your elk. Those other two will weigh the plane down too much. You'll have to leave two of them behind." The hunters were insistent. They said, "Last year, we shot six elk and the pilot let us put them all on a plane that was the exact same model." Reluctantly, the pilot finally agreed. Rolling down the grassy runway, the plane was not able to take off, crashing into the wilderness. Climbing out of the wreckage, one hunter said to the other, "Do you know where we are?" "I think so," replied the other hunter. "I think this is about thirty feet from where we crashed last year!"

*sigh*. Only thirty feet. Only thirty feet.

I know all about thirty feet. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I intend to do great things for Jesus. In the morning I’m am optimistic. “Today I will not sin. Today I will spend more time praying. Today I will begin reading my Bible”. But by lunchtime all I have gained is a mere thirty feet. There are days I feel like I’m getting nowhere. I work and work and pray and pray and where do I find myself? Only thirty feet from where I started. Dealing with the same old sins and the same old issues over and over again. For all my years of study and all my years of walking with Jesus, I still feel like a broken mess. Who would want some old broken down failure of a man that can’t seem to make the right choices? Who could love a man that continues to disappoint; that continues to fail?

Jesus would.

Yes, you heard me. Jesus would. He did. He already has. Time and time again Jesus demonstrated that He loves those who are broken. He loves those who know all about their failures. He loves those who climb out of their wrecked lives; those who face their thirty feet day after day, year after year.

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat. 37 When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. 38 Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them. 39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!” (Luke 7:36-39).

“She’s a sinner”, Simon proclaimed. Even Simon knew about her measly thirty feet. Yes, she was a sinner. Probably a prostitute. The Alabaster Jar contained expensive perfume. To open the bottle it had to be broken and the perfume was sprinkled upon the bed. But this time it is the woman who becomes broken. And in her brokenness she pours out the tools of her trade at the feet of Jesus. How did Jesus react? How did He respond to this woman who obviously had failed to live a good and holy life? He looks at this broken woman and forgives her sins. He loves that which is broken.

Jesus takes the time to talk with a woman who had had seven husbands. And the man she was living with at the moment was not her husband. If anyone knew about thirty feet, this woman sure did. And yet Jesus goes out of His way to speak with her and show her respect, tenderness, and concern. The story about the woman at the well in John 4 demonstrates that Jesus loved those who were broken.

He spent time with Zacchaeus, a man everyone knew was a notorious sinner. Everyone knew about his thirty feet. Yet Jesus takes this broken-down failure of a man and forgives (Luke 19:9). He loves. He rejoices in this tax-collector turned believer.

The Apostle Peter knew all about thirty feet. He, who had walked with Jesus and who had pledged his life for Jesus (John 13:37), would lie three times before the rooster would crow in the morning. Oh, Peter knew all about thirty feet. He had broken a promise once again. He climbed out of the wreckage of his life to find himself right back where he had started. This is why Peter decides to go back to fishing (John 21:3). Since the three years he had spent with Jesus obviously didn’t change anything, Peter decided to back to Galilee, find his old fishing buddies, and return to the life he had promised to leave behind.

That’s what thirty feet will do to a person. It will drive you back to where you first began. If you are no better today than you were yesterday, then why bother pretending? Why pretend to be a Christian when you certainly can’t live like one? But don’t you see? That’s the whole point. The whole point in being a Christian is to admit that you can’t be a Christian. The whole point is in admitting you are broken; in admitting you are a failure. I tell you the truth, only when we are broken can we know who Jesus truly is. Only when we admit failure can Jesus do what only Jesus can do. He looks past our measly thirty feet and shows us love. He shows us grace.

Just who is Jesus? Jesus looks tenderly at those who are broken. He listens to the prayers of those who shake their head in remorse for their measly thirty feet. But brokenness is a word many of us refuse to embrace; a word that stumbles awkwardly from our tongue. Like Peter, we’d rather go fishing than come to terms with our thirty feet. We’d rather wallow in our failure than give it back to Jesus. Perhaps we refuse because we don’t truly understand who Jesus is. Perhaps we have no idea what Jesus does with broken people.

“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ “I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:10-14.

Brokenness. God uses broken things. It is the broken alabaster jar that gives forth perfume. It is the broken Peter that Jesus commissions to feed His sheep.

Across a charcoal fire Jesus confronts Peter the fisherman a second time. The same Peter that lied. The same Peter who wrecked his life once again. The same Peter who found himself right back where he started. The same Peter who was ashamed of his thirty feet. But rather than remind Peter of his thirty feet, Jesus tenderly says, Now come and have some breakfast (John 21:12). Jesus takes this broken man and says “Feed My sheep” (John 21:17).

Have you ever had one of those days when you feel like a broken mess? Have you ever felt hopeless; like all of your effort to live a good and holy life was a waste? Have you ever found yourself dealing with the same sins and the same destructive attitudes day after day? Then you know all about thirty feet – living a wreck of a life and getting nowhere. You know how the woman with the Alabaster Jar felt. Broken. Worthless. Helpless. You know how the woman at the well felt – the outcast who no one loved. You know about the pain Zacchaeus faced day after day. Everyone knows about your mistakes. You know how Peter felt. Rejecting Jesus and now there is no coming back. You know how it feels to let that thirty feet stand between you and Jesus.

May I just remind you who Jesus is? May I simply remind you what Jesus has done in the past? He will do it again because that’s who Jesus is. Jesus loves those who are broken. Jesus forgives those who are broken. Jesus uses those who are broken. He does this because that’s who Jesus is. He knows all about your thirty feet.

But He loves you anyway.

Firstborn From the Dead - November 30th, 2014 sermon

By Pastor Greg

          Johnny was coming home from church one Sunday morning with his mother. His mother noticed he had a serious look on his face. "What's on your mind, Johnny?" she asked. "Is it true what the preacher said about us all coming from dust and turning back to dust?" "Why, yes, it is, Johnny," she said. "Why do you ask?" "Well”, he answered, “when we get home you better look under my bed because someone's either comin' or goin!"

          Some of the most fragile times in our lives are the coming and the going.  But coming doesn’t seem to be as traumatic as the going.  It seems few of us remember the coming.  But we certainly are concerned about the going.  Recently someone said they don’t worry about being dead; it’s the process of dying they’re not too fond of.  However, birth and death are not the only stages we will face in our existence.  For the redeemed, there is another.

          To the Colossian Christians, Paul writes “He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.”  (Colossians 1:18).  As Paul continues to lift up Christ to the Colossian Christians, he reminds them that Jesus is the head of the Church and that He is Firstborn of the dead; indicating that there is yet another step in store for those who call Jesus Lord.  Men and women and children who have been ransomed from the fire owe their life to Jesus.  By accepting Jesus as Savior, the Church (those who are “Born Again”) have been granted eternal life (John 3:16).

Jesus speaks to Nicodemus about being born of the Spirit (John 3:6).  And being born of the Spirit speaks of a moment when we become filled with God the Spirit because of our belief in God the Son.  And God the Spirit accomplishes many things in our lives while we live here on earth; for example, gifting us for ministry, helping us connect to God the Father, and convicting us of sin.  We call this being "Born again".  But according to Paul there is another rebirth as well; a lesson the Colossian Christians needed to hear.

Remember their fixation on angels and spirits (Colossians 2:18).  The great false teaching at this point in history was that the physical world was wicked and sinful, but the spiritual world was good and pure (called Gnosticism).  This is why Paul speaks often about the physical body in which Christ lived (For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body - Colossians 2:9).  Trying to correct a common-held misunderstanding, Paul points out that the greatest thing God the Father can do for us is not to kill the body so the spirit can be freed from sin, but to give humanity the gift of the resurrection; and Jesus is the “Firstborn of the Dead”; the first of many who will one day be reborn from the dead.

Gnosticism taught that death freed the spirit; and when free, a person would live eternally as a spirit no longer confined in a sinful, physical body.  Yet the Gospel writers all point out that Jesus rose again with a body.  He could be touched.  He could eat.  He could be seen.  And Paul says that the resurrected Jesus is just the beginning.  As the head of the church, Jesus has become the first of many who will be resurrected.

Resurrection is different than being brought back to life.  The truth is we do not die.  We continue to live even though the body in which we live dies.  So when Christ talks about the resurrection, He isn’t taking about the reanimation of our bodies (like Lazarus, for example), but recreating something new; something like the old, but not the same.  We see this in the resurrected Jesus.  His new body was like the old, but so much more.  It was similar, but not the same.

In pursuit of a bigger Messiah, Paul reminds us that Jesus is not just Lord over life and Lord over creation, but He is also Lord over death.  And as Lord (head), He will take the Church with Him.  This is what Paul means when he says that Christ is the Head; the Firstborn from the dead.  He implies that others will follow; meaning The Church.  Just as He holds all things together in this life, so too will He hold all things together in the next.

Read 1 Corinthians 15:35-56. There, Paul mentions that one day death will be overcome.  But how can there be victory if only our spirits live?  They are already eternal.  Death has laid claim to the physical, so victory over death can only be claimed when it becomes a physical victory; which is exactly what Jesus accomplished by leaving death behind and walking out of the grave.   Death is defeated not just spiritually but physically as well.  Paul stresses quite clearly that even though our present bodies may pass away, a new immortal body will be given to all who call Jesus Lord. “These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever”. 

Christ does what no other could; He rises from the dead so that the church might also rise to life.  Christ does what none other has.  He leaves behind an empty grave.  And the best part of this is that you and I are already halfway there.  We have won half of this victory by being born of the Spirit.  Total victory over sin & death will one day be ours when mortality puts on immortality.  For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. ² We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. ³ For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies (2 Corinthians 5:1-3). 

Without the resurrection of Jesus there would be no resurrection.  If Christ had not been flesh and blood, there would be no physical resurrection, only a spiritual release from creation.  But since Jesus is Lord of Creation and Lord over Creation, and since Jesus will receive a glorified creation as an inheritance, then there must be more than simply a “spiritual” world up there somewhere; a place where we exist as angelic creatures with wings and halo’s over our head.   If Jesus is the “First fruits” of the resurrection, then it seems to make sense that what He has become, we will become as well.

It is not ashes and dust that awaits us.  Our future is not one where we become angel-like waiting to win our wings, but a future where we become like Christ; for He is the head, the firstborn from the dead.  On that day when we are reborn we will not become angels, but we will receive our resurrection gift; a glorified body that shall never die.  And as the Bride (the Church) is given to Christ, the angels will stand back and sing praises to what God the Son has done; that through Him and by Him and For Him all Creation is glorified.