Isaiah Twelve
Thank God, the Day is Finally Over
Rev. Eddie Bromley Grace Church 26 March 2008
__________________________________________________________
In an article entitled, Heart to Heart, Pamela Curry writes:
Every night my 6-year-old, Julie, and I thank God for one thing about the day. One evening Julie was breaking out in chicken pox, I had the flu, and my husband was out of town. As I tucked Julie into bed, she said, "Mommy, I can't think of anything to thank God for today. It was a horrible day." We thought for a while more and she finally said, "I know. We can thank him that the day is over."
So we did. "Thank you, Lord, for the gift of life. No matter how difficult it is, we take comfort knowing you are there to help us make it through horrible days."
Pamela Curry, San Rafael, CA, Today's Christian Woman, "Heart to Heart."
Have you been there? Have you had a day in your life, or a night, or a period of time, that when it had pasted, the thing you were most thankful for was that it was over? There are times in our lives that we are just thankful to have it past us, to have it behind us.
Looking ahead prophetically, Isaiah was telling his people what God would do when the night they were now entering was finally over. The night was setting. Internationally pressure was building for the people of God. The prophet Isaiah had gone to the king, king Ahaz, to tell him that God would see the king through it all, if he, the king would just trust the Lord.
King Ahaz considered this option, but the current trends seemed to be going with the Assyrian Empire. They were the coming power of the Middle East, and King Ahaz decided to throw his lot in with them.
When times get tough, many choose to go the way of the world; considering it a safer bet than staying with the Lord.
With many discussing the possibility of a recession in 2008 and beyond, where are the people likely to turn for help? "When storm clouds gather over the economy, people often seek shelter in a glass of whiskey, a pack of cigarettes, or the green blaze of a roulette table," says Thomas M. Anderson in Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine. "That's why many financial advisors are telling clients to invest in sin as a bulwark against a possible recession."
Tobacco, alcohol, and gambling have long been called "sin stocks" or "vice funds"—when the economy takes a downturn, historically these stocks have held up in the market. During the recession of 2000–2002, the Standard & Poor's index showed that broader stocks tumbled 47 percent as casino and gaming stocks grew 115 percent.
"Investing: The virtues of vice," The Week (2-11-08), p. 33
But God warned the king of this mistake. Trusting Assyria was like trusting your wallet to a thief, or your child to a registered sex-offender. Assyria would sooner or later turn on Israel and destroy her. And this was the darkness of night setting over the people of God.
But the prophet Isaiah could see past the coming night, to the morning of God’s new mercy. And in that day, the people of God would be able to praise God that it was all over. After running away from God, and breaking themselves upon sin, God would restore them to Himself.
Notice three things about that coming morning:
I. God initiates our salvation
“In that day you will sing: “I will praise you, O Lord! You were angry with me, but not any more.
Your anger has turned away. Now you comfort me.” - Isa. 12:1
Literally, the Hebrew says, “He, the Lord, has turned back His anger.” It is God who takes the initiative to set things right. We were condemned sinners and enemies of God, “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” Romans 5:8
God takes the initiative to bring back his people. He doesn’t wait for them to take the initiative or make things right. God Himself seeks us out. “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:19
So, the people are able to say,
“See, God has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid. The Lord God is my strength and my song; he has given me victory.” Isa. 12:2
God has done everything necessary for our salvation. Our part is to respond accordingly. The first step of course is to “trust and not be afraid” (verse 2). God has not asked us to save ourselves, but to trust his work of salvation on our behalf. Verse four tells us, a proper response also includes praise, prayer, and witness.
II. Praise
Praise is about celebration. It is about celebrating who God is and thanking him for what he has done. It is about Joy with a capital J. Do you know this joy? Do you realize how good of news the gospel really is? If you realized what God has done for you, you would never be able to stop singing his praise. You would never be able to stop thanking him. His joy would be a constant reality in your life.
Are you proving that the Christian life is a joyful, happy thing? Do you look glad that you are a Christian? Does your life radiate joy and enthusiasm? Check yourself carefully on this before you teach it. Make the Christian life contagious.
Henrietta Mears in Dream Big: The Henrietta Mears Story. Christianity Today, Vol. 40, no. 5.
Isn’t this what people are looking for? Haven’t we something to share with the world? Don’t we have a real reason for joy?
“The modern world has had far too little understanding of the art of keeping young. Its notion of progress has been to pile one thing on top of another, without caring if each thing was crushed in turn. People forgot that the human soul can enjoy a thing most when there is time to think about it and be thankful for it. And by crowding things together they lost the sense of surprise; and surprise is the secret of joy.”
G. K. Chesterton in More Quotable Chesterton. Christianity Today, Vol. 40, no. 7.
II. Prayer.
Prayer is about intimacy with God. Prayer flows right out of trust and praise. Realizing who God is and what He has done for us, we want to grown in our relationship to God, and this desires leads us into the depths of prayer.
Unfortunately, many of us, having forgotten the joy of our salvation, and having forgotten we have grown cold in prayer. This is because, having forgotten how good God has been to us, we have begun to take God for granted.
John Piper Says,
The burden that I want to bring to you this morning is this: God is an important person, and he does not like being taken for granted.
Suppose you ask a man, a president of a company, "Who, under God, is the most important person in your life?"
He says, "I guess it would be my vice-president for marketing."
You say, "What about your wife?"
He says, "Oh, of course, I just assumed that. I just take that for granted. It goes without saying."
A few people would assume that his abounding love and respect for his wife caused him to forget her. Most of us probably would assume that the reason she didn't come to mind is because she's not uppermost in his affections.
The wife wouldn't say, "I am so honored that I'm like the air he breathes. He never gives me a thought."
There is in most people's minds no direct correlation between taking something for granted and showing its value as a treasure. We can be certain the wife would say, "If I don't come to your mind when you're asked about your life's priorities, then it's because I'm not important to you. And if you think that I am honored by being taken for granted, you're wrong!"
It's possible to take important things like oxygen for granted. If you're taken for granted, you might feel indispensable. But not treasured or honored.
God is an important person; he does not like being taken for granted .
John Piper, "God Is an Important Person," Preaching Today, Tape No. 125
God desires an intimate relationship with us. He desires it so much, he sent his son to die for us on the cross. He took the initiative. And when we realize, we remember the great love God has for us; when we remember the great news of his salvation, joy will rise up within us, and we will be driven to prayer out of a passionate love for God.
And this passionate love for God expressed in prayer, will lead to a love for others. And this love for others will lead naturally to witness.
III. Witness
John Oswalt, in his NIV commentary on Isaiah, writes, “In the 1940s when the Indian constitution was being debated, an article prohibiting proselytization was proposed. But one legislator, who was not a Christian, rose and said that would involve them in self-contradiction. Whey asked why, he pointed out that they had already adopted an article guaranteeing freedom of religion and said that Christians had to seek converts; it was part of their religion! The article prohibiting proselytization failed.
If God is who He says he is; if Christ has reconciled the world to himself and opened to us eternal life in relationship to God, how can we keep from spreading this good news!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Assuring Grace
God’s Grace Six
Assurance of Salvation
Rev. Eddie Bromley Pleasant Hill Parish 27 February 2004
1 John 5:1-12
Historically, there where four distinctives in early Methodist preaching:
1. All must be saved; 2. All can be saved; 3. One can know they are saved; 4. One can be saved to the utter-most.
Today I am talking about assuring-grace, the grace of assurance of our salvation. As I preach this sermon, I am thinking of two types of people.
1. Is the overly sensitive, overly consciences. These folks walk in love and obedience to God, and yet, they never feel sure of their relationship with God. They feel tremendously guilty over any little imperfection they see in their lives. 2. The other type of person I have in mind is someone who haas had a salvation experience, they have gone down to the altar, have said the sinner’s prayer, have invited Jesus into their lives, asked him to forgive them of their sins, and now, they believe that it doesn’t matter how they live from this point forward.
I can say for myself with confidence, that if I died today, I would be in heaven with Christ. I say this, not out of self-confidence, but out of confidence in Jesus. I hope that by the time you leave here today, each of you will have the same confidence for yourself; that you will have assurance of your salvation, that you will experience God’s assuring grace.
There are three Biblical components to understanding and experiencing assuring-grace.
I. Trusting God’s Word.
We believe the message of Scripture is fully reliable. We believe that God always keeps his word. And, God has made several promises as regarding our salvation. What are some of these promises?
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” - Romans 10:9-13;
“If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” - 1John 1:9
“This is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.” – 1 John 5:11-13
There are many people we cannot trust. Experience has shown us that there are some people you cannot take at their word. These are the kinds of folks we try never to do serious business with. Others we are not so sure about. Sometimes we can trust them. Sometimes we cannot. These are the kind of folks that if we enter into a business agreement with we feel pretty good about but we are going to make them sign a contract.
But there is a select few, at least I hope you know a few people, whom if they say something, if they give their word you can count on it. God should be one of these select few for us. God always keeps his word. If he has said these things to be true, we can trust him. The first part of experiencing assuring-grace is taking God at his word.
II. Trusting the witness of God’s Spirit.
The Witness of the Spirit is talked about in Romans Eight:
1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power[a] of the life-giving Spirit has freed you[b] from the power of sin that leads to death. …4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
Paul is saying, the moment we became a Christian, the Holy Spirit took up residence in our lives. And by doing so, has set us free from slavery to sin, and He, the Spirit of God is the one now leading us. Has this happened? Who is now setting the direction for your life, sin or the Spirit of God? I am not asking if you have become perfect in following the Spirit, the Lord knows I have not, but I am asking if He is the One leading? This is part of what it means to have the testimony of the Spirit.
Paul goes on.
5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them (in us) do not belong to him at all.) …
12 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. (In other words, we as Christians will from time to time still struggle with the desire to sin, but because of the Spirit of God living in us, we still have a choice about whether or not to give into this desire)
15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children.[ Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”
So, some of you are asking, “Do I have the testimony of His Spirit?” Answer yourself. Is the Spirit leading and guiding you. Does His Spirit live in you? Does He urge you to call out to God as Father? Has he given you new life and a new power to begin living victorious over sin? Can you sense His presence? Now, I am not talking about pure emotions here. At times, we are emotionally drained and cannot feel anything. I am asking, when you look at your life, can you see evidence of God’s Spirit being a resident in your life?
Again this is more than our emotions. Do the things of God matter to you? Do you think about your salvation? Who do you think put those thoughts there? The Spirit moves to guide, urge, encourage us, and stir the conscience.
This is where I want to talk to those with the very sensitive conscience. Your struggles with guilt and shame, your obsessive worry over not being perfect is not what God wants; don’t worry, the day you become callous and uncaring is the day you need to worry, and even then, when you realize the fact, that will be a sign that God has not given up on you. Keep before your eyes, not how you are doing, but what the Holy Spirit is doing in your life.
III. Listen to the testimony of your own spirit. Romans 8:16 “For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.” But what is the testimony of our own spirit?
Look at 1 John 3:21-24 with me: “Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him. And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.”
Here is where I need to talk to the other folks, not the ones with the overly sensitive consciences, but the ones who believe that making a one time commitment to God, exempts them from having to live a holy life.
If your one of these folks, chances are you don’t feel guilty when you purposely disobey God. This is not the type of guilt-free living that 1 John is commending. He is commending folks who do not feel guilty because they are striving to live in obedience to God and in love to other people. These folks know they are probably not always doing so perfectly; but they are confident that God is please with striving for it nonetheless.
Here is where the testimony of our spirit comes in. Let your spirit tell you the truth about your current spiritual condition. Do you have living faith in God? Are you striving to live in love and obedience to God? Is there evidence of the fruit of God’s Spirit in you? Do you have being developed in your character, the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? We are not talking about perfection here. But are these things a reality in your life? If so, your spirit will witness to you that along with the witness of God’s Spirit, and the promises God has made in His word; based on these things you can have assurance of your salvation.
You might be saying, “Well I used to have these things in my life, especially just after I got saved.” The Apostle Paul will tell you in Colossians 1:23 that used to have is not good enough: “You must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News.” Otherwise, your spirit will tell you, there is not much ground for having assurance of your salvation.
How Can You Have Assuring Grace/Assurance of Your Salvation?
1. Place your trust in Jesus, surrendering your life to Him. Trust, that Jesus will give you eternal life and new identity as a child of God. Trust that Jesus will forgive you of yours sins, if you only ask.
2. Upon placing your trust in Jesus and surrendering to Him, He will give you the gift of the Spirit. The Spirit will begin setting the direction for your life. Keep your heart sensitive to His leading. As long as you do, His Spirit will remain with you. This is not based on perfect obedience, but upon a humble, open, and loving heart of obedience and faith.
3. Let your spirit be honest with you. If you are open to living in love and obedience to God, you know it. If you are not, you may fool others, but unless your heart has grown completely callous to God, you know this as well.
If we trust his word, are open to His presence and guidance in our lives, willing to learn how to love others and how to live more like a child of God, we can live with confidence in the assurance of our salvation.
Assurance of Salvation
Rev. Eddie Bromley Pleasant Hill Parish 27 February 2004
1 John 5:1-12
Historically, there where four distinctives in early Methodist preaching:
1. All must be saved; 2. All can be saved; 3. One can know they are saved; 4. One can be saved to the utter-most.
Today I am talking about assuring-grace, the grace of assurance of our salvation. As I preach this sermon, I am thinking of two types of people.
1. Is the overly sensitive, overly consciences. These folks walk in love and obedience to God, and yet, they never feel sure of their relationship with God. They feel tremendously guilty over any little imperfection they see in their lives. 2. The other type of person I have in mind is someone who haas had a salvation experience, they have gone down to the altar, have said the sinner’s prayer, have invited Jesus into their lives, asked him to forgive them of their sins, and now, they believe that it doesn’t matter how they live from this point forward.
I can say for myself with confidence, that if I died today, I would be in heaven with Christ. I say this, not out of self-confidence, but out of confidence in Jesus. I hope that by the time you leave here today, each of you will have the same confidence for yourself; that you will have assurance of your salvation, that you will experience God’s assuring grace.
There are three Biblical components to understanding and experiencing assuring-grace.
I. Trusting God’s Word.
We believe the message of Scripture is fully reliable. We believe that God always keeps his word. And, God has made several promises as regarding our salvation. What are some of these promises?
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” - Romans 10:9-13;
“If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” - 1John 1:9
“This is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.” – 1 John 5:11-13
There are many people we cannot trust. Experience has shown us that there are some people you cannot take at their word. These are the kinds of folks we try never to do serious business with. Others we are not so sure about. Sometimes we can trust them. Sometimes we cannot. These are the kind of folks that if we enter into a business agreement with we feel pretty good about but we are going to make them sign a contract.
But there is a select few, at least I hope you know a few people, whom if they say something, if they give their word you can count on it. God should be one of these select few for us. God always keeps his word. If he has said these things to be true, we can trust him. The first part of experiencing assuring-grace is taking God at his word.
II. Trusting the witness of God’s Spirit.
The Witness of the Spirit is talked about in Romans Eight:
1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power[a] of the life-giving Spirit has freed you[b] from the power of sin that leads to death. …4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
Paul is saying, the moment we became a Christian, the Holy Spirit took up residence in our lives. And by doing so, has set us free from slavery to sin, and He, the Spirit of God is the one now leading us. Has this happened? Who is now setting the direction for your life, sin or the Spirit of God? I am not asking if you have become perfect in following the Spirit, the Lord knows I have not, but I am asking if He is the One leading? This is part of what it means to have the testimony of the Spirit.
Paul goes on.
5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them (in us) do not belong to him at all.) …
12 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. (In other words, we as Christians will from time to time still struggle with the desire to sin, but because of the Spirit of God living in us, we still have a choice about whether or not to give into this desire)
15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children.[ Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”
So, some of you are asking, “Do I have the testimony of His Spirit?” Answer yourself. Is the Spirit leading and guiding you. Does His Spirit live in you? Does He urge you to call out to God as Father? Has he given you new life and a new power to begin living victorious over sin? Can you sense His presence? Now, I am not talking about pure emotions here. At times, we are emotionally drained and cannot feel anything. I am asking, when you look at your life, can you see evidence of God’s Spirit being a resident in your life?
Again this is more than our emotions. Do the things of God matter to you? Do you think about your salvation? Who do you think put those thoughts there? The Spirit moves to guide, urge, encourage us, and stir the conscience.
This is where I want to talk to those with the very sensitive conscience. Your struggles with guilt and shame, your obsessive worry over not being perfect is not what God wants; don’t worry, the day you become callous and uncaring is the day you need to worry, and even then, when you realize the fact, that will be a sign that God has not given up on you. Keep before your eyes, not how you are doing, but what the Holy Spirit is doing in your life.
III. Listen to the testimony of your own spirit. Romans 8:16 “For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.” But what is the testimony of our own spirit?
Look at 1 John 3:21-24 with me: “Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him. And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.”
Here is where I need to talk to the other folks, not the ones with the overly sensitive consciences, but the ones who believe that making a one time commitment to God, exempts them from having to live a holy life.
If your one of these folks, chances are you don’t feel guilty when you purposely disobey God. This is not the type of guilt-free living that 1 John is commending. He is commending folks who do not feel guilty because they are striving to live in obedience to God and in love to other people. These folks know they are probably not always doing so perfectly; but they are confident that God is please with striving for it nonetheless.
Here is where the testimony of our spirit comes in. Let your spirit tell you the truth about your current spiritual condition. Do you have living faith in God? Are you striving to live in love and obedience to God? Is there evidence of the fruit of God’s Spirit in you? Do you have being developed in your character, the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? We are not talking about perfection here. But are these things a reality in your life? If so, your spirit will witness to you that along with the witness of God’s Spirit, and the promises God has made in His word; based on these things you can have assurance of your salvation.
You might be saying, “Well I used to have these things in my life, especially just after I got saved.” The Apostle Paul will tell you in Colossians 1:23 that used to have is not good enough: “You must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News.” Otherwise, your spirit will tell you, there is not much ground for having assurance of your salvation.
How Can You Have Assuring Grace/Assurance of Your Salvation?
1. Place your trust in Jesus, surrendering your life to Him. Trust, that Jesus will give you eternal life and new identity as a child of God. Trust that Jesus will forgive you of yours sins, if you only ask.
2. Upon placing your trust in Jesus and surrendering to Him, He will give you the gift of the Spirit. The Spirit will begin setting the direction for your life. Keep your heart sensitive to His leading. As long as you do, His Spirit will remain with you. This is not based on perfect obedience, but upon a humble, open, and loving heart of obedience and faith.
3. Let your spirit be honest with you. If you are open to living in love and obedience to God, you know it. If you are not, you may fool others, but unless your heart has grown completely callous to God, you know this as well.
If we trust his word, are open to His presence and guidance in our lives, willing to learn how to love others and how to live more like a child of God, we can live with confidence in the assurance of our salvation.
Regenrative Grace and the Second Birth
God’s Grace Five
Regenerative Grace and New Birth
Rev. Eddie Bromley Pleasant Hill Parish 6 February 2004
John 3:1-15
The moment we respond to God’s grace in Jesus Christ by faith, two things happen: 1.We are forgiven of our sins and set right in our relationship with God. This is called justification. And, 2. We are spiritually recreated or reborn. This is the regenerative grace of God, or the new birth. I want us to look today at the conversation that took place between a religious man, named Nicodemus and Jesus.
Nicodemus came to Jesus in the night, presumably because the Pharisees where not yet sure they wanted to publicly endorse Jesus’ ministry. But, they were impressed with the mighty acts of grace that seemed to be taking place in and through the ministry of Jesus. So, Nicodemus said to Jesus, “Look, we know that these kinds of things simply do not happen apart from the presence of God.” To which Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, one cannot see the Kingdom with being born again.” Whatever this means, being born again is obviously a prerequisite to rightly perceiving and participating in the Kingdom of God.
Nicodemus was confused by Jesus’ words. Was Jesus talking about some kind of reincarnation, or what? A man simply cannot choose to be born, let alone, cause himself to be reborn. And this is exactly the point. We spiritual-leader types have a tendency to believe that we are the ones who orchestrate the movements of God’s Spirit. Thus, Jesus says to this religious leader, the one thing required for participating in God’s Kingdom, is the one thing a person cannot do for themselves; even a religious leader. A child has no say in being conceived and born. They are simply along for the ride. This gift of life and birth is just given. Like our first birth, the second birth is not something we can do for ourselves.
But, the second birth is also different from the first birth. Jesus says one must be born by water and the spirit. By water, Jesus is referring to a common way people of that time thought about physical birth. Water refers to the fluids associated with giving birth; or a mother’s water being broken. You can tell that this is what Jesus is referring to, by looking down a little further in the passage. Jesus makes the contrast, saying, “What is born of flesh is flesh. What is born of spirit is spirit.”
Jesus says, it is not enough to be born once. Every one comes into this world through the breaking of water. This is not enough. One must also receive spiritual birth, and thus be delivered into the spiritual presence of God.
We cannot birth ourselves. Neither can we make ourselves spiritually alive. One must simply receive this gift of God, through living faith in Jesus. At least three things are true of the second birth.
I. The second birth is centered in faith in Christ
John 3:15 says, whoever believes in Jesus has eternal life. Now remember the Biblical notion of belief or faith. It is more than nominal belief or mental assent to an idea. It is not just about agreeing with someone or something. It is about living trust and commitment to something or someone. In the case of spiritual life, it is about a trust in Jesus. Spiritual life is about knowing Jesus Christ.
II. The second birht gives us a new identity as the children of God
Now I want you to listen closely to this point. We often hear people say, or perhaps we even speak of, all people being God’s children. By this, we mean that all people are valuable, that their lives are sacred, and that all people should be accorded dignity and respect. All of these things are true. But, this is not because all people are God’s children. All of these things, believing all human life to be sacred, that all are due respect and the recognition of dignity, flow out of the biblical idea that all people are created in the image of God, the Imago Dei. It is on the basis of our common humanity, in being created in the image of God, that we treat people as the priceless, irreplaceable beings that each is. In this sense, we are all brothers and sisters, by way of our common humanity.
But when the Bible speaks of people being the children of God, it is something entirely different. The Bible never speaks of all people as being children of God. And, here’s why: only Jesus is by nature the Son of God. That is why the Bible speaks of him as the only begotten son of God. By begotten, the Bible means, by nature Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is unique in this way. We come to share in this privileged position of a child of God, only through spiritual adoption, which takes place in our spiritual birth. We are children of God, by way of Jesus.
Ephesians 2:3 says, before we accepted the gift of grace, “We were by nature, children of wrath.” We were children of wrath or enemies of God, because of our sinful nature.
But all of that changed, in the coming of Jesus. John 1:12 says, “To all who received him, who believed (in the name of Jesus), he gave the power to become the children of God.” The moment we place our faith in Jesus, our relationship with God changes, as does our spiritual nature.
Romans 8:6 and following: “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace…But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Sprit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him…For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, Abba! Father, it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.”
Spiritually speaking, only those who have new life in Christ, the Spirit of God dwelling in their lives, are the children of God. This is a privileged position, not earned, but given when we place our faith in Christ. Being a child of God is not the common condition of humanity, but the gift of God, through faith.
Romans 9:8 says, “This means that it is not the children of flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise who are counted as descendents [of God’s people]. This means, one does not qualify for this gift through religious actions, or being good, or by being the child of a Sunday school teacher, but by faith in Christ.
1 John 3:1 says, “See what love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the children of God.”
III. The second birth can be a subtle or startling experience.
For some, the experience of rebirth can be quite a startling, emotionally dramatic event. It was for the Apostle Paul. He was an enemy of the church. He believed Jesus was a false-messiah, and he had purposed in his mind to stomp out the Christian church. But it was on the way to stomp out the church that he encountered Christ. The transformation and the turnaround in Paul’s life were incredible. He became one of the Church’s greatest missionaries, helping to spread Christianity throughout the Roman Empire.
For some, the experience of new birth is like Paul’s. There is a dramatic contrast between the life before Christ and the life after receiving Christ. Conversion comes as a radical transformation for some, with very pronounced changes in lifestyle, belief and attitude.
In other cases, new birth happens in a more subtle way. One of the Biblical examples is Paul’s young protégé, Timothy. Timothy, we are told, was raised in the faith. His grandmother and mother taught him to live a godly life. In his story, we have no sudden moment of conversion. And yet, in Timothy, we find as deep a living faith as we see in his mentor Paul.
Billy Graham was radically converted to Christianity during his teen-age years, while his wife, a life-long Presbyterian, can never remember a time in her life when she did not love Jesus. The issue is not whether or not you have had a dramatic experience. The issue is do you have living faith in Jesus? Is his love shed abroad in your heart? Have you been forgiven of your sins and received the Holy Spirit? It doesn’t matter if it was a sudden, radical moment, or if you were gradually nurtured into such faith. The only issue is whether you have such faith. If so, then you have been born again. If not, no amount of good works, religious duty, or good thinking will bring you into a right relationship with God, and make you spiritually alive. You must be born again.
Regenerative Grace and New Birth
Rev. Eddie Bromley Pleasant Hill Parish 6 February 2004
John 3:1-15
The moment we respond to God’s grace in Jesus Christ by faith, two things happen: 1.We are forgiven of our sins and set right in our relationship with God. This is called justification. And, 2. We are spiritually recreated or reborn. This is the regenerative grace of God, or the new birth. I want us to look today at the conversation that took place between a religious man, named Nicodemus and Jesus.
Nicodemus came to Jesus in the night, presumably because the Pharisees where not yet sure they wanted to publicly endorse Jesus’ ministry. But, they were impressed with the mighty acts of grace that seemed to be taking place in and through the ministry of Jesus. So, Nicodemus said to Jesus, “Look, we know that these kinds of things simply do not happen apart from the presence of God.” To which Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, one cannot see the Kingdom with being born again.” Whatever this means, being born again is obviously a prerequisite to rightly perceiving and participating in the Kingdom of God.
Nicodemus was confused by Jesus’ words. Was Jesus talking about some kind of reincarnation, or what? A man simply cannot choose to be born, let alone, cause himself to be reborn. And this is exactly the point. We spiritual-leader types have a tendency to believe that we are the ones who orchestrate the movements of God’s Spirit. Thus, Jesus says to this religious leader, the one thing required for participating in God’s Kingdom, is the one thing a person cannot do for themselves; even a religious leader. A child has no say in being conceived and born. They are simply along for the ride. This gift of life and birth is just given. Like our first birth, the second birth is not something we can do for ourselves.
But, the second birth is also different from the first birth. Jesus says one must be born by water and the spirit. By water, Jesus is referring to a common way people of that time thought about physical birth. Water refers to the fluids associated with giving birth; or a mother’s water being broken. You can tell that this is what Jesus is referring to, by looking down a little further in the passage. Jesus makes the contrast, saying, “What is born of flesh is flesh. What is born of spirit is spirit.”
Jesus says, it is not enough to be born once. Every one comes into this world through the breaking of water. This is not enough. One must also receive spiritual birth, and thus be delivered into the spiritual presence of God.
We cannot birth ourselves. Neither can we make ourselves spiritually alive. One must simply receive this gift of God, through living faith in Jesus. At least three things are true of the second birth.
I. The second birth is centered in faith in Christ
John 3:15 says, whoever believes in Jesus has eternal life. Now remember the Biblical notion of belief or faith. It is more than nominal belief or mental assent to an idea. It is not just about agreeing with someone or something. It is about living trust and commitment to something or someone. In the case of spiritual life, it is about a trust in Jesus. Spiritual life is about knowing Jesus Christ.
II. The second birht gives us a new identity as the children of God
Now I want you to listen closely to this point. We often hear people say, or perhaps we even speak of, all people being God’s children. By this, we mean that all people are valuable, that their lives are sacred, and that all people should be accorded dignity and respect. All of these things are true. But, this is not because all people are God’s children. All of these things, believing all human life to be sacred, that all are due respect and the recognition of dignity, flow out of the biblical idea that all people are created in the image of God, the Imago Dei. It is on the basis of our common humanity, in being created in the image of God, that we treat people as the priceless, irreplaceable beings that each is. In this sense, we are all brothers and sisters, by way of our common humanity.
But when the Bible speaks of people being the children of God, it is something entirely different. The Bible never speaks of all people as being children of God. And, here’s why: only Jesus is by nature the Son of God. That is why the Bible speaks of him as the only begotten son of God. By begotten, the Bible means, by nature Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is unique in this way. We come to share in this privileged position of a child of God, only through spiritual adoption, which takes place in our spiritual birth. We are children of God, by way of Jesus.
Ephesians 2:3 says, before we accepted the gift of grace, “We were by nature, children of wrath.” We were children of wrath or enemies of God, because of our sinful nature.
But all of that changed, in the coming of Jesus. John 1:12 says, “To all who received him, who believed (in the name of Jesus), he gave the power to become the children of God.” The moment we place our faith in Jesus, our relationship with God changes, as does our spiritual nature.
Romans 8:6 and following: “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace…But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Sprit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him…For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, Abba! Father, it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.”
Spiritually speaking, only those who have new life in Christ, the Spirit of God dwelling in their lives, are the children of God. This is a privileged position, not earned, but given when we place our faith in Christ. Being a child of God is not the common condition of humanity, but the gift of God, through faith.
Romans 9:8 says, “This means that it is not the children of flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise who are counted as descendents [of God’s people]. This means, one does not qualify for this gift through religious actions, or being good, or by being the child of a Sunday school teacher, but by faith in Christ.
1 John 3:1 says, “See what love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the children of God.”
III. The second birth can be a subtle or startling experience.
For some, the experience of rebirth can be quite a startling, emotionally dramatic event. It was for the Apostle Paul. He was an enemy of the church. He believed Jesus was a false-messiah, and he had purposed in his mind to stomp out the Christian church. But it was on the way to stomp out the church that he encountered Christ. The transformation and the turnaround in Paul’s life were incredible. He became one of the Church’s greatest missionaries, helping to spread Christianity throughout the Roman Empire.
For some, the experience of new birth is like Paul’s. There is a dramatic contrast between the life before Christ and the life after receiving Christ. Conversion comes as a radical transformation for some, with very pronounced changes in lifestyle, belief and attitude.
In other cases, new birth happens in a more subtle way. One of the Biblical examples is Paul’s young protégé, Timothy. Timothy, we are told, was raised in the faith. His grandmother and mother taught him to live a godly life. In his story, we have no sudden moment of conversion. And yet, in Timothy, we find as deep a living faith as we see in his mentor Paul.
Billy Graham was radically converted to Christianity during his teen-age years, while his wife, a life-long Presbyterian, can never remember a time in her life when she did not love Jesus. The issue is not whether or not you have had a dramatic experience. The issue is do you have living faith in Jesus? Is his love shed abroad in your heart? Have you been forgiven of your sins and received the Holy Spirit? It doesn’t matter if it was a sudden, radical moment, or if you were gradually nurtured into such faith. The only issue is whether you have such faith. If so, then you have been born again. If not, no amount of good works, religious duty, or good thinking will bring you into a right relationship with God, and make you spiritually alive. You must be born again.
Isaiah Eleven: The One True King
Isaiah Eleven
Glorious Hope
Rev. Eddie Bromley Grace Church 20 July 2005
Isaiah 11:1-16 and Revelation 11:15-16
Though the LORD had given him an opportunity to act in faith, king Ahaz failed to trust the Lord and brought disaster on the house of David. Judah was now like forest that had been leveled, and the great dynasty of David was like the barren stump of a great fallen tree. But, God will not allow this disaster to be the last word.
Though all former signs of life and vitality are gone, by God’s grace there is still the spark of hope. Chapter eleven gives us the story of a new beginning. The story of this new beginning is, of course, the story of the Messiah, Jesus our Lord.
Almost 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to find the source of the Missouri River, and from there to discover a relatively easy water route west to the Pacific. Such a waterway, they discovered, doesn't exist.
But they did succeed in mapping the Northwest and, 15 months after they began pushing themselves upstream, they found, near today's Montana-Idaho border, the source of the mighty Missouri.
Lewis's journal records that on August 12, 1805, a member of the expedition, Private Hugh McNeal, "exultingly stood with a foot on each side of this little rivulet and thanked his God that he had lived to bestride the mighty and heretofore deemed endless Missouri."
The Missouri at its source looks a lot different than the powerful current that flows into the Mississippi River near St. Louis!
And in the Kingdom, too, many great things start out small.
Citation: Marshall Shelley, "Broader Pastures, More Breeds," Leadership (Fall 2000)
Let’s look at some of what this passage tells us about the Messiah and about his work to restore all things to the LORD.
I. Notice his unique identity.
Verse one: “Out of the stump of Jesse.” Notice that the Messiah is referred to as being from Jesse’s family – Jesse, of course, was king David’s father. After David, no one else in the entire Bible is referred to as being Jesse’s offspring. What we see about the Messiah is that he isn’t just going to be another king, in a long succession of kings. He is going to be another David. He is going to be a King with a capital K.
If you look at verse one, he is called a stem, or sapling growing from the stump. But, if you look at verse ten, he is called the root of the stump. The Messiah’s role is unique in this dynasty. Not only does he come from the family of Jesse, he is root cause and creator of Jesse and his family.
Not merely one in the line, but the cause of the line. The Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End!
God acts within history to bring about the Kingdom through a Divine King.
Verse 2: This is the verse that places the title Messiah on this king. Literally this title means “anointed one.” By anointing, the Scriptures mean that this One will be endowed with God’s own Spirit. In the Old Testament, being endowed with God’s Spirit meant the person was being given and important work of task to do.
II. Notice his unique work
Look at verses 3-5: Judah had seen its share of kings. Most of them had failed in one way or another. If it had not been a moral failure, like we see in king Mannasah, it was a failure of leadership, or a tragic end to a young life, like we see in Josiah. But this King’s character and rule will be in total harmony. There will be nothing left undone. There will be nothing missing. There will be no incongruities or inconsistencies. What this King does will be done right.
Verse 5 says he will be clothed with fairness and truth. Literally, the word for clothing here means, the inmost garments – the underwear. Isaiah is telling us, when you strip away everything else, all of the outward appearance, what you will find at the heart of who this King is, is a concern to do what is right. Righteousness and faithfulness are at the heart of who he is.
This knowledge, this intimacy with the heart and character of God, will be the knowledge by which he will judge. He will judge by the unchanging standard of God.
And the result will be Shalom. Shalom is not just be the absence of hostility, but the presence of God’s fullness and the well being and wholness it brings.
Vacationing in the British Virgin Islands with his family, magazine editor William Falk found himself longing for a simple life. Gazing across the water, a little island caught his attention. He learned that the population was known for enjoying a carefree lifestyle. Falk decided that's where he wanted to go.
He confessed:
I have no real wants; if anything, my life is too full. "That's precisely the problem," author Gregg Easterbrook says in his new book, The Progress Paradox. Most Americans enjoy a higher standard of living than 99.4 percent of the 80 billion human beings who've ever lived. Yet we're not content. "Our lives are characterized by too much of a good thing." Easterbrook says, "excess at every turn." We're surrounded by so much food that obesity has become a national crisis, are tempted by so much entertainment and information and stuff to buy that we sleep three hours a day less than our grandparents. At times, it leaves you staring at a four-mile-long island on the horizon, wondering what it would be like to chuck it all.
Citation: William Falk, The Week (3-26-04); submitted by Ted De Hass, Bedford, Iowa
Messiah is going to purge from our systems, and lives all that keep us from experiencing God’s fullness. He will gives us the things that make for peace.
III. Notice the unique results of this King
Verse 9 says, “Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. And as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord.” Or literally, the earth will be filled with the intimate knowledge of God. Literally there will be no room for hostility, because earth will be filled to capacity with the knowledge of God. Or, as the book of Revelation says, “The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of God and of his Messiah.”
Verse15 says that God will again make a path through the Red sea. In other words every obstacle to the divine plan will be gone. Whatever you imagine being the biggest hindrance to God’s plan to renew all things, it will be swept away, or even used as a bridge. Pharaoh wasn’t just taken out of the picture. He was actually used to bring about the Exodus.
The Messiah is going to bring about a new Exodus. Through him, God’s people will be set free to be who they were always meant to be.
Conclusion:
Jesus is King with a capitol K. He deserves our full allegiance. He is the beginning or origin of the story; and he is the end or the final goal of the story. Our lives make sense, only within the context of a loving and faithful relationship to Him.
He is the only one capable of fulfilling God’s plans in our world. He is the only one capable of fulfilling God’s plan in our lives. Let Jesus be King over your life. Give him your life, and see what he can do with it.
Glorious Hope
Rev. Eddie Bromley Grace Church 20 July 2005
Isaiah 11:1-16 and Revelation 11:15-16
Though the LORD had given him an opportunity to act in faith, king Ahaz failed to trust the Lord and brought disaster on the house of David. Judah was now like forest that had been leveled, and the great dynasty of David was like the barren stump of a great fallen tree. But, God will not allow this disaster to be the last word.
Though all former signs of life and vitality are gone, by God’s grace there is still the spark of hope. Chapter eleven gives us the story of a new beginning. The story of this new beginning is, of course, the story of the Messiah, Jesus our Lord.
Almost 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to find the source of the Missouri River, and from there to discover a relatively easy water route west to the Pacific. Such a waterway, they discovered, doesn't exist.
But they did succeed in mapping the Northwest and, 15 months after they began pushing themselves upstream, they found, near today's Montana-Idaho border, the source of the mighty Missouri.
Lewis's journal records that on August 12, 1805, a member of the expedition, Private Hugh McNeal, "exultingly stood with a foot on each side of this little rivulet and thanked his God that he had lived to bestride the mighty and heretofore deemed endless Missouri."
The Missouri at its source looks a lot different than the powerful current that flows into the Mississippi River near St. Louis!
And in the Kingdom, too, many great things start out small.
Citation: Marshall Shelley, "Broader Pastures, More Breeds," Leadership (Fall 2000)
Let’s look at some of what this passage tells us about the Messiah and about his work to restore all things to the LORD.
I. Notice his unique identity.
Verse one: “Out of the stump of Jesse.” Notice that the Messiah is referred to as being from Jesse’s family – Jesse, of course, was king David’s father. After David, no one else in the entire Bible is referred to as being Jesse’s offspring. What we see about the Messiah is that he isn’t just going to be another king, in a long succession of kings. He is going to be another David. He is going to be a King with a capital K.
If you look at verse one, he is called a stem, or sapling growing from the stump. But, if you look at verse ten, he is called the root of the stump. The Messiah’s role is unique in this dynasty. Not only does he come from the family of Jesse, he is root cause and creator of Jesse and his family.
Not merely one in the line, but the cause of the line. The Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End!
God acts within history to bring about the Kingdom through a Divine King.
Verse 2: This is the verse that places the title Messiah on this king. Literally this title means “anointed one.” By anointing, the Scriptures mean that this One will be endowed with God’s own Spirit. In the Old Testament, being endowed with God’s Spirit meant the person was being given and important work of task to do.
II. Notice his unique work
Look at verses 3-5: Judah had seen its share of kings. Most of them had failed in one way or another. If it had not been a moral failure, like we see in king Mannasah, it was a failure of leadership, or a tragic end to a young life, like we see in Josiah. But this King’s character and rule will be in total harmony. There will be nothing left undone. There will be nothing missing. There will be no incongruities or inconsistencies. What this King does will be done right.
Verse 5 says he will be clothed with fairness and truth. Literally, the word for clothing here means, the inmost garments – the underwear. Isaiah is telling us, when you strip away everything else, all of the outward appearance, what you will find at the heart of who this King is, is a concern to do what is right. Righteousness and faithfulness are at the heart of who he is.
This knowledge, this intimacy with the heart and character of God, will be the knowledge by which he will judge. He will judge by the unchanging standard of God.
And the result will be Shalom. Shalom is not just be the absence of hostility, but the presence of God’s fullness and the well being and wholness it brings.
Vacationing in the British Virgin Islands with his family, magazine editor William Falk found himself longing for a simple life. Gazing across the water, a little island caught his attention. He learned that the population was known for enjoying a carefree lifestyle. Falk decided that's where he wanted to go.
He confessed:
I have no real wants; if anything, my life is too full. "That's precisely the problem," author Gregg Easterbrook says in his new book, The Progress Paradox. Most Americans enjoy a higher standard of living than 99.4 percent of the 80 billion human beings who've ever lived. Yet we're not content. "Our lives are characterized by too much of a good thing." Easterbrook says, "excess at every turn." We're surrounded by so much food that obesity has become a national crisis, are tempted by so much entertainment and information and stuff to buy that we sleep three hours a day less than our grandparents. At times, it leaves you staring at a four-mile-long island on the horizon, wondering what it would be like to chuck it all.
Citation: William Falk, The Week (3-26-04); submitted by Ted De Hass, Bedford, Iowa
Messiah is going to purge from our systems, and lives all that keep us from experiencing God’s fullness. He will gives us the things that make for peace.
III. Notice the unique results of this King
Verse 9 says, “Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. And as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord.” Or literally, the earth will be filled with the intimate knowledge of God. Literally there will be no room for hostility, because earth will be filled to capacity with the knowledge of God. Or, as the book of Revelation says, “The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of God and of his Messiah.”
Verse15 says that God will again make a path through the Red sea. In other words every obstacle to the divine plan will be gone. Whatever you imagine being the biggest hindrance to God’s plan to renew all things, it will be swept away, or even used as a bridge. Pharaoh wasn’t just taken out of the picture. He was actually used to bring about the Exodus.
The Messiah is going to bring about a new Exodus. Through him, God’s people will be set free to be who they were always meant to be.
Conclusion:
Jesus is King with a capitol K. He deserves our full allegiance. He is the beginning or origin of the story; and he is the end or the final goal of the story. Our lives make sense, only within the context of a loving and faithful relationship to Him.
He is the only one capable of fulfilling God’s plans in our world. He is the only one capable of fulfilling God’s plan in our lives. Let Jesus be King over your life. Give him your life, and see what he can do with it.
Isaiah Chapter One: Religion that is Pleasing to God
Isaiah One
The Kind of Religion Acceptable to God
Rev. Dr. Eddie Bromley Grace Church 26 March 2008
Introduction
The first five chapters of Isaiah stand as an introduction of sorts to the book. These chapters tell us about the spiritual situation at the time when God called Isaiah into the prophetic ministry. In fact, it is because of the spiritual climate, that God called and empowered people like Isaiah to take up the prophetic mantle. Isaiah one this tells us what the spiritual climate was like when Isaiah was called into ministry. None of the kings under whom Isaiah ministered were fools politically, militarily, or economically. They were very competent politicians. But in spite of all their success, the country was dying spiritually. The social fabric was unraveling at an alarming pace. Society was falling apart in spite of the fact that a large portion of the population in Isaiah’s day was religious. And so, Isaiah begins his introduction by showing us the problem with many of the religious folks of his day.
We all know what it's like to still have some growing to do.
Jeanne Olsen, a mother of five from Illinois, took her daughter Kirsten, age 9, out for a mother-daughter breakfast. During their meal, Jeanne courageously asked her daughter, "How do you think I could be a better mom?"
Kirsten thought for a moment. "Well, you do yell a lot. I know you've been praying about that, but it isn't really working yet."
Citation: Kevin A. Miller, Wheaton, Illinois
I. Biblical religion has to be grounded upon God and rooted in soil of every day life.
In other words, Biblical faith is only valid when it impacts the way we live. Verse 3 says that “even a donkey knows its master but the people of God do not know their Lord.” The word for “know” in Hebrew means to be intimately acquainted. Even an animal knows its master’s routine; when its master feeds it and when the master is coming. Even an animal can come to know the timing and habits of its owner. But the people in Isaiah’s day showed no familiarity with the ways of God. They may have known a lot of religious facts, but they were devoid of showing any evidence of God’s character in their lives. To know God is to allow his character to begin imprinting our own.
In verses 5-7 God grieves at the inability of the people to draw the right conclusions about their own brokenness. Holiness is at the heart of what it means to follow God. God calls us to holiness, not to be bossy but because he loves us and God knows that his own holiness is built into the grain of the universe. To move against the grain of the universe is to get splinters. Seeking God according to biblical principles is about learning to live in a way that reflects God’s character. But the people of Isaiah’s day persisted in their rebellion, bringing more and more sorrow upon themselves. Like a parent watching, as an adult-child persists in a pattern of self-destruction, God grieves at the waywardness of his own people.
“Yes,” the people might have said, “but we are such a religious people.” And indeed they were, sort of. The people did all of the rituals and sacrifices that God had commanded them to do. They observed all special holy days the Law had set. But God says in verse fourteen, “I hate all your festivals and sacrifices. I cannot stand the sight of them.” “But God, isn’t this what you ask us to do?” The problem was these folks thought they were doing God such a favor by showing up to worship, by reading the Bible, and by saying prayers. They really believed God should be pretty grateful for their spirituality and that it really ought to gain them a few points of favor with the Almighty.
But the Law and the rituals of Scripture were never meant to be use for getting right with God. God gave the Law and rituals after he gave Israel their redemption. The Law and the rituals were given to help nourish and maintain the relationship with God. Spiritual practices should flow out of and be practiced because of our relationship with God. But they can never substitute for a relationship with God.
God rejected the way they were going about it. They were doing all kinds of things, some things which were even pretty good, but there was no evidence of God’s holiness being formed in their lives. They did religious things but showed no evidence of a godly life. God said, “Do you want to impress me? Show that these spiritual exercises mean something. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the orphan. Fight for the rights of widows”. This is the kind of evidence you find in people who really love God.
Other wise, our religion amounts to psycho-babble, gnostic-mysticism that might make us feel good, but is devoid of any real substance. What is “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father?” James 1:27 tells us it is this: “to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and keep oneself unstained by the world.”
In Mark chapter eleven Jesus, judges the Temple. For all the religious efforts and work going on there, the Temple was not producing godly-lives. The same judgment might potentially be leveled at many of our churches and church people. For all our efforts and work, do we find the fruit of godly lives being developed?
Verse 15 says their prayers lacked power because they were not grounded in an authentic, living faith.
Biblical faith is always grounded upon a relationship with God, with its roots firmly planted in real life. This is what Biblical faith is.
Author Phillip Yancey wrote of a friend of his named Susan, a Christian who told Yancey "that her husband did not measure up and she was actively looking for other men to meet her needs for intimacy":
When Susan mentioned that she rose early each day to "spend an hour with the Father," He asked, "In your meetings with the Father, do any moral issues come up that might influence this pending decision about leaving your husband?"
Susan bristled: "That sounds like the response of a white Anglo-Saxon male. The Father and I are into relationship, not morality. Relationship means being wholly supportive and standing alongside me, not judging."
Citation: Jeremy Lott, "American Gnostic," Books and Culture, November/December 2002; p. 37
II. In a rebellious state of being, we can claim no part of God’s promises.
God longs to bless his people. But he will not bless us in our disobedience. We in the church often talk about a desire for true revival. And God desires to give revival to the church. But we need to be clear about what real revival looks like. Real revival always results in social reform. True revival begins with the people of God getting right with God.
Many of us think we would really be experiencing revival if the church was crammed packed, if people were shouting and having a good ole time in worship. Now there’s nothing wrong with whooping and hollering for the Lord. If it wouldn’t offend some of you, I might even get up and dance a little. But as John Wesley was fond of saying, “I don’t care how loud you shout on Sunday, but how straight you walk on Monday”. Real Biblical religion always has a real impact on the way we live.
Micah 6:8 “What ole mortal does the Lord require of you: To do justice, love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”
Verses 9-10: Isaiah marvels at God’s mercy toward his people, even in their rebellion; saying, “If the Lord had not left us a few survivors we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah”. In other words, if God had allowed them to experience the full consequences of their sins, there would have been no one left. “If the people of Israel think they are immune from judgment because they are God’s chosen people, they must think again. If their behavior is no different from that of the world, their fate will be no different either”. – Oswalt, in his NIV Application Commentary. -This is true of those of us in the church as well.
God will judge sinful behavior, even when it occurs in God’s own people.
III. God desires for judgment, even well deserved judgment, to be a means of redemption.
Let me be clear about this. If an individual persists in sin, saying, “No” to God over and over again; eventually God will say, “Fine. Have it your way.” If we persist in disobedience, God will allow us to spend eternity in hell. Speaking of God’s redemptive purposes, Isaiah says in verses 27 and 28, “Zion shall be redeemed and those in her who repent, but rebels and sinners shall be destroyed.”
But notice this: God never desires for judgment to be the last word. The desired purpose of judgment is to purify and correct the people of God. Even in God’s judgment, we see his merciful character. The pain of judgment can have redemptive results if we respond in repentance.
Pain can serve a definite purpose in our lives. Dr. Paul Brand of Carville, Louisiana, one of the world's foremost experts on leprosy, describes how "leprosy patients lose their fingers and toes, not because the disease can cause decay, but precisely because they lack pain sensations. Nothing warns them when water is too hot or a hammer handle is splintered. Accidental self-abuse destroys their bodies."
Citation: Cited by Philip Yancey in "Pain: The Tool of the Wounded Surgeon," Christianity Today, March 24, 1978
Though God’s judgment and correction may seem awful, its design is to remove the contaminating presence of sin from our lives, in the same way dross must be removed from silver in order for it to shine.
When I was a baby, I could not turn my head to one side. The physician sent my mother home with the instructions to do a serious of exercises with me. Several times a day she would turn my head in the desired direction, until she felt a certain amount of resistance. According to my mother, I would cry and cry during the therapy. To a casual onlooker, this therapy could have been interpreted as a rather insensitive thing to do to a baby. But had my mother not had the emotional strength to do it, she would have been resigning me to a much more cruel future.
The fourth stanza of that great hymn, How firm a Foundation reads: “When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie, my grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply; the flame shall not hurt thee; I only design they dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
God wants us to be healthy, happy, and holy. But he is willing to sacrifice happy and healthy to make us holy; because in the end, he knows which will do us more good.
Conclusion and Invitation
Verses 16-18 hold out an invitation to the people of Isaiah’s day and to us. They had a superficial religion that did not impact their lives. They were a broken people, choosing behaviors and patterns that were wrecking their lives and tearing a way the fabric of society and the moral order.
“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; (How?) Cease to do evil, (if you are going the wrong way, you cannot get turned around in the right direction until you stop gaining distance in the wrong direction.) So, our first word from Isaiah chapter one is, if we realize we are not walking in the way of the Lord. If we are headed in the wrong direction; stop. Learn to do good. In other words, with God’s help, start heading in the right direction. Seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow”.
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they can be like snow; though they are red like crimson they shall be like wool” (Isa. 1:18). God can cleanse us and make us new. He can give us a new beginning. He can set us on the right path. It matters not how bad we have been or what we have done, or what we have become; we can be new creations, through the love and mercy of God.
1 John 1:9 says, If we confess our sins before God, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
2Corinthians 5:17 says if any one be in Christ they are a new creation. The old has gone. All has become new.
The Kind of Religion Acceptable to God
Rev. Dr. Eddie Bromley Grace Church 26 March 2008
Introduction
The first five chapters of Isaiah stand as an introduction of sorts to the book. These chapters tell us about the spiritual situation at the time when God called Isaiah into the prophetic ministry. In fact, it is because of the spiritual climate, that God called and empowered people like Isaiah to take up the prophetic mantle. Isaiah one this tells us what the spiritual climate was like when Isaiah was called into ministry. None of the kings under whom Isaiah ministered were fools politically, militarily, or economically. They were very competent politicians. But in spite of all their success, the country was dying spiritually. The social fabric was unraveling at an alarming pace. Society was falling apart in spite of the fact that a large portion of the population in Isaiah’s day was religious. And so, Isaiah begins his introduction by showing us the problem with many of the religious folks of his day.
We all know what it's like to still have some growing to do.
Jeanne Olsen, a mother of five from Illinois, took her daughter Kirsten, age 9, out for a mother-daughter breakfast. During their meal, Jeanne courageously asked her daughter, "How do you think I could be a better mom?"
Kirsten thought for a moment. "Well, you do yell a lot. I know you've been praying about that, but it isn't really working yet."
Citation: Kevin A. Miller, Wheaton, Illinois
I. Biblical religion has to be grounded upon God and rooted in soil of every day life.
In other words, Biblical faith is only valid when it impacts the way we live. Verse 3 says that “even a donkey knows its master but the people of God do not know their Lord.” The word for “know” in Hebrew means to be intimately acquainted. Even an animal knows its master’s routine; when its master feeds it and when the master is coming. Even an animal can come to know the timing and habits of its owner. But the people in Isaiah’s day showed no familiarity with the ways of God. They may have known a lot of religious facts, but they were devoid of showing any evidence of God’s character in their lives. To know God is to allow his character to begin imprinting our own.
In verses 5-7 God grieves at the inability of the people to draw the right conclusions about their own brokenness. Holiness is at the heart of what it means to follow God. God calls us to holiness, not to be bossy but because he loves us and God knows that his own holiness is built into the grain of the universe. To move against the grain of the universe is to get splinters. Seeking God according to biblical principles is about learning to live in a way that reflects God’s character. But the people of Isaiah’s day persisted in their rebellion, bringing more and more sorrow upon themselves. Like a parent watching, as an adult-child persists in a pattern of self-destruction, God grieves at the waywardness of his own people.
“Yes,” the people might have said, “but we are such a religious people.” And indeed they were, sort of. The people did all of the rituals and sacrifices that God had commanded them to do. They observed all special holy days the Law had set. But God says in verse fourteen, “I hate all your festivals and sacrifices. I cannot stand the sight of them.” “But God, isn’t this what you ask us to do?” The problem was these folks thought they were doing God such a favor by showing up to worship, by reading the Bible, and by saying prayers. They really believed God should be pretty grateful for their spirituality and that it really ought to gain them a few points of favor with the Almighty.
But the Law and the rituals of Scripture were never meant to be use for getting right with God. God gave the Law and rituals after he gave Israel their redemption. The Law and the rituals were given to help nourish and maintain the relationship with God. Spiritual practices should flow out of and be practiced because of our relationship with God. But they can never substitute for a relationship with God.
God rejected the way they were going about it. They were doing all kinds of things, some things which were even pretty good, but there was no evidence of God’s holiness being formed in their lives. They did religious things but showed no evidence of a godly life. God said, “Do you want to impress me? Show that these spiritual exercises mean something. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the orphan. Fight for the rights of widows”. This is the kind of evidence you find in people who really love God.
Other wise, our religion amounts to psycho-babble, gnostic-mysticism that might make us feel good, but is devoid of any real substance. What is “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father?” James 1:27 tells us it is this: “to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and keep oneself unstained by the world.”
In Mark chapter eleven Jesus, judges the Temple. For all the religious efforts and work going on there, the Temple was not producing godly-lives. The same judgment might potentially be leveled at many of our churches and church people. For all our efforts and work, do we find the fruit of godly lives being developed?
Verse 15 says their prayers lacked power because they were not grounded in an authentic, living faith.
Biblical faith is always grounded upon a relationship with God, with its roots firmly planted in real life. This is what Biblical faith is.
Author Phillip Yancey wrote of a friend of his named Susan, a Christian who told Yancey "that her husband did not measure up and she was actively looking for other men to meet her needs for intimacy":
When Susan mentioned that she rose early each day to "spend an hour with the Father," He asked, "In your meetings with the Father, do any moral issues come up that might influence this pending decision about leaving your husband?"
Susan bristled: "That sounds like the response of a white Anglo-Saxon male. The Father and I are into relationship, not morality. Relationship means being wholly supportive and standing alongside me, not judging."
Citation: Jeremy Lott, "American Gnostic," Books and Culture, November/December 2002; p. 37
II. In a rebellious state of being, we can claim no part of God’s promises.
God longs to bless his people. But he will not bless us in our disobedience. We in the church often talk about a desire for true revival. And God desires to give revival to the church. But we need to be clear about what real revival looks like. Real revival always results in social reform. True revival begins with the people of God getting right with God.
Many of us think we would really be experiencing revival if the church was crammed packed, if people were shouting and having a good ole time in worship. Now there’s nothing wrong with whooping and hollering for the Lord. If it wouldn’t offend some of you, I might even get up and dance a little. But as John Wesley was fond of saying, “I don’t care how loud you shout on Sunday, but how straight you walk on Monday”. Real Biblical religion always has a real impact on the way we live.
Micah 6:8 “What ole mortal does the Lord require of you: To do justice, love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”
Verses 9-10: Isaiah marvels at God’s mercy toward his people, even in their rebellion; saying, “If the Lord had not left us a few survivors we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah”. In other words, if God had allowed them to experience the full consequences of their sins, there would have been no one left. “If the people of Israel think they are immune from judgment because they are God’s chosen people, they must think again. If their behavior is no different from that of the world, their fate will be no different either”. – Oswalt, in his NIV Application Commentary. -This is true of those of us in the church as well.
God will judge sinful behavior, even when it occurs in God’s own people.
III. God desires for judgment, even well deserved judgment, to be a means of redemption.
Let me be clear about this. If an individual persists in sin, saying, “No” to God over and over again; eventually God will say, “Fine. Have it your way.” If we persist in disobedience, God will allow us to spend eternity in hell. Speaking of God’s redemptive purposes, Isaiah says in verses 27 and 28, “Zion shall be redeemed and those in her who repent, but rebels and sinners shall be destroyed.”
But notice this: God never desires for judgment to be the last word. The desired purpose of judgment is to purify and correct the people of God. Even in God’s judgment, we see his merciful character. The pain of judgment can have redemptive results if we respond in repentance.
Pain can serve a definite purpose in our lives. Dr. Paul Brand of Carville, Louisiana, one of the world's foremost experts on leprosy, describes how "leprosy patients lose their fingers and toes, not because the disease can cause decay, but precisely because they lack pain sensations. Nothing warns them when water is too hot or a hammer handle is splintered. Accidental self-abuse destroys their bodies."
Citation: Cited by Philip Yancey in "Pain: The Tool of the Wounded Surgeon," Christianity Today, March 24, 1978
Though God’s judgment and correction may seem awful, its design is to remove the contaminating presence of sin from our lives, in the same way dross must be removed from silver in order for it to shine.
When I was a baby, I could not turn my head to one side. The physician sent my mother home with the instructions to do a serious of exercises with me. Several times a day she would turn my head in the desired direction, until she felt a certain amount of resistance. According to my mother, I would cry and cry during the therapy. To a casual onlooker, this therapy could have been interpreted as a rather insensitive thing to do to a baby. But had my mother not had the emotional strength to do it, she would have been resigning me to a much more cruel future.
The fourth stanza of that great hymn, How firm a Foundation reads: “When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie, my grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply; the flame shall not hurt thee; I only design they dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
God wants us to be healthy, happy, and holy. But he is willing to sacrifice happy and healthy to make us holy; because in the end, he knows which will do us more good.
Conclusion and Invitation
Verses 16-18 hold out an invitation to the people of Isaiah’s day and to us. They had a superficial religion that did not impact their lives. They were a broken people, choosing behaviors and patterns that were wrecking their lives and tearing a way the fabric of society and the moral order.
“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; (How?) Cease to do evil, (if you are going the wrong way, you cannot get turned around in the right direction until you stop gaining distance in the wrong direction.) So, our first word from Isaiah chapter one is, if we realize we are not walking in the way of the Lord. If we are headed in the wrong direction; stop. Learn to do good. In other words, with God’s help, start heading in the right direction. Seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow”.
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they can be like snow; though they are red like crimson they shall be like wool” (Isa. 1:18). God can cleanse us and make us new. He can give us a new beginning. He can set us on the right path. It matters not how bad we have been or what we have done, or what we have become; we can be new creations, through the love and mercy of God.
1 John 1:9 says, If we confess our sins before God, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
2Corinthians 5:17 says if any one be in Christ they are a new creation. The old has gone. All has become new.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Vision
VISION
Rev. Dr. Eddie Bromley Spiritual Life Retreat/Kenlake 07 March 2008
2 Corinthians 5:11-17 and Luke 24:13-35
_____________________________________________________________
- 2 Corinthians 5:11-17
11Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Luke 24:13-35
13Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles[a] from Jerusalem. 14They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16but they were kept from recognizing him.
17He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?"
They stood still, their faces downcast. 18One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?"
19"What things?" he asked.
"About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see."
25He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26Did not the Christ[b] have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" 27And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
28As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. 29But they urged him strongly, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them.
30When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"
33They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34and saying, "It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon." 35Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
INTRODUCTION
We are blessed to be together, here at Kenlake this week. We are blessed to be together, that we might be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith - and that our souls might be nourished by teachings of Dr. Knick. And since my sermon today is only a small part of the retreat, I have a very modest agenda for this morning’s message. In Ephesians chapter one we read these words: “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.”
My agenda this morning is to encourage each of us to pray this prayer for ourselves and for our sisters and brothers, who are here this week.
PRAYER
Lord, open the eyes of our hearts, that we might have spiritual vision; that we might rightly see Jesus, ourselves, and our world.
We’re talking about vision this morning. I was in seventh grade when my mother discovered that I needed eye glasses. I had probably needed them for some time, but it did not become apparent until one night at the bowling alley. My mother was sitting at the little table where score is kept. I was standing a few feet back. I asked my mother to tell me her score, to which she responded by saying, “Read it yourself. I’m busy here.” After I said that I couldn’t see it, my mother realized I might have problems with my eye sight.
My mother and father immediately got me on appointment with an optometrist and soon I was wearing corrective lenses. My mother asked me a few days later why I had never said anything before. My reason for not having told her earlier about my vision was that I thought I was seeing things normally. I thought you were supposed to have to walk up to a picture hanging on a wall to see what it was a picture of. I thought you were supposed to have to sit right on top of the TV to watch a program. In short, I had thought my vision was correct vision, because I had not known anything different.
In our 2 Corinthians 5 text, Paul says much the same thing about the way he had been seeing things. He had been unable to see the significance of Christ because he had been seeing him through distorted vision. Paul had been unable to see how God was working in Christ, because Paul had needed some corrective lenses for his spiritual eyes.
I. When our spiritual vision is out of focus, we can miss where God is at work around us.
This was Paul’s problem. He had previously been able to see Christ only from a human point of view, or from the point of view of the flesh.
Sometimes you will hear Biblical scholars explain this verse by saying, “At one time Paul had been a man of historic facts and data; but he had now left that behind. He no longer cared about historic facts, like the life of Jesus. He now cared about spiritual matters.”
Paul, they’ll say, was a man of the Spirit, who was not worried about the historic roots of the faith. Often they will cite Galatians 1:11-12, where Paul says, “I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.”
It is true, Paul did not get his commissioning from human sources, and it was not text books, or historical witnesses who first made him aware of who Christ is. Neither did Paul’s authorization come from other people. In these ways and more, Paul was a man of the Spirit. But, Paul, this man of the Spirit, is also quick to tie his direct personal experiences back to the historic roots of the faith, saying in verse 18 “Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days.”
Why are both parts of chapter one important here? Paul is making it clear that he too is a divinely appointed Apostle; as much as Peter, James, or John. He is an emissary of Christ not of the Apostles. He wants to be clear that he is not under their authority, but under Christ’s authority. But, he also being careful to show how his gospel is not something different from or foreign to the gospel being preached by the other apostles. What Paul received directly from Christ is the same historic faith the other Apostles received directly from Christ.
All this is to say, for Paul, the historic facts were not the problem of his previously bad vision. The facts were not the reason he had not been able to rightly understand Christ. The problem had been his inability to look at the facts and to draw the right conclusions from them, because he had not been looking with spiritual vision. With his natural eyes, all Paul saw in Jesus was another crucified Jew. And with his natural eyes, all he could see in Jesus’ followers were some dangerous, misled fanatics. With his natural eyes, these were the only kinds of conclusions he could draw from the data. What changed was his vision.
On the road to Damascus, Christ temporarily closed Saul’s natural eyes, that he might for the very first time open his spiritual eyes. And when his spiritual eyes had finally learned to focus, he was never able to look at the historic facts the same way again. Where once he had been unable to see how God was at work in Jesus, now when he looked upon the man from Galilee, he saw the fullness of God dwelling bodily. He saw the Lamb of God dying on the cross and being risen as Lord, to reconcile all things to Himself.
Until we are given the ability to see with our spiritual eyes, we too will be in danger of missing where God is at work around us.
II. When our spiritual vision is out of focus, we tend to reduce in our minds the value of people.
In Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season 1 episode 17: titled, “Home Soil,” the faithful crew of the Star Ship Enterprise encounter a life form unlike anything they have encountered before. “Big deal,” you may be saying to yourself. “The Star Trek crew was always encountering something weird in their journeys. Weird is what drives a show like Star Trek.”
But if you will indulge a Trekie for just a few moments, I want to tell you about the life form encountered in the episode, “Home Soil.” This life form was not carbon-based. It was also not humanoid. Instead, the life form was a crystal life form. Not only did the crew of the Enterprise find the encounter strange, so did the crystal life form. The people aboard the Enterprise had never encountered anything like this crystal life form; and, the crystal life form had never encountered something like us.
Once the crew of the Enterprise finally learned how to communicate with the crystal life form, they heard it refer to them, as
"Ugly giant bags of mostly water"
- The crystal lifeform, describing Humans
From the point of view of the crystal life form, that is what the crew of the Enterprise was; ugly bags of mostly water. While “ugly bags of mostly water” may describe the physical components that make up our bodies, I think we would agree that there is more to people than simply being a bag of water. But unfortunately, this was about all the crystal life form could see when it looked at people. The crystal life form had a problem with vision.
When we are looking at people without our spiritual eyes, we have a tendency to reduce their value in our minds. The tendency is to base people’s worth upon what they can do, or how they can further our own agendas, or how fond we are of them. This of course ends by making people into things, reducing them to cogs in the machine, or commodities to be owned and used.
Since Paul was no longer looking at people from a merely natural or physical point of view, our passage reflects the opposite of treating people as things.
“For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” –verses 14-15
Notice how Paul’s understanding of Christ compeled him to see all people as people for whom Christ died. This of course is not always how Paul had seen people. Before his conversion to Christ, Paul had seen Jewish Christians as problems to be dealt with. Presumably, he saw gentiles as God’s enemies and perhaps viewed them as unworthy of salvation. All this had changed. Spiritual vision had shown Paul the great worth of all people.
The crystal life form, on the other hand, is the perfect illustration of what happens when we view the world through the lens of philosophical materialism or radical logical-positivism. Through these lenses, life is reduced to its physical components and the beauty of a person or a thing is lost.
In C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, this point is made through the innocent remarks of a child, named Eustace. Eustace has the surprising discovering of learning that the stars in the sky over Narnia are living beings.
“In our world,” Eustace [says], “a star is a huge ball of flaming gas.” To which another character in the story replies, “Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is but only what it is made of.”
When our spiritual vision is out of focus, we have the tendency to miss where God is at work around us; the tendency to reduce in our minds the value of people and the things in our world. And…
III. When Your Spiritual Vision is out of focus, you tend to miss the significance of a moment.
Our story from Luke shows us two unnamed disciples, who for the longest part of the story were missing the significance of the moment. In their grief, they were not able to stay focused on God, and so they were in real danger of missing His very presence.
But of course, there is some saving grace in this story, for them and for us. God gives us some means of grace, for helping us to keep our spiritual eyes focused. It is in the breaking of bread that Jesus reveals himself to them. He still reveals himself in the breaking of bread. He still reveals himself to us in communion.
Now, I want to know, do you have any folks in your church who have a low view of communion? Do have any folks, who when you start having more frequent communion, start moaning and groaning, saying, “Not this again.” They say to us, “Don’t you know that if you start doing this too often it will loose its meaning?” For them, this activity is all symbol and no substance. For them it is just eating a little bread and sipping a little juice. Having no ability to see in communion anything more, they miss the significance of a sacred moment.
Oh, but we Wesleyans would never do that. We would never miss the significance of communion. We believe that Jesus is present in this act and that he gives himself to us through the bread and cup. So, we would never be guilty of missing the significance of this sacred moment.
We would never get ourselves in such a hurry that we would start thinking about what we had planned after the service, instead of keeping our spiritual eyes focused on the sacrament. We would not focus on what others around us were doing. We would not be worried about what others might be thinking about us. We would let none of these or other distractions take our spiritual eyes off of God. Would we?
As we come to the table, let us pray; asking the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of hearts, giving us clearer vision. Let us ask Him to help us see how God is at work around us. Let us ask Him to help us see the significance of other people and the beauty of this world. Let us ask Him to help us see the significance of each moment
Rev. Dr. Eddie Bromley Spiritual Life Retreat/Kenlake 07 March 2008
2 Corinthians 5:11-17 and Luke 24:13-35
_____________________________________________________________
- 2 Corinthians 5:11-17
11Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Luke 24:13-35
13Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles[a] from Jerusalem. 14They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16but they were kept from recognizing him.
17He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?"
They stood still, their faces downcast. 18One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?"
19"What things?" he asked.
"About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see."
25He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26Did not the Christ[b] have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" 27And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
28As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. 29But they urged him strongly, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them.
30When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"
33They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34and saying, "It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon." 35Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
INTRODUCTION
We are blessed to be together, here at Kenlake this week. We are blessed to be together, that we might be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith - and that our souls might be nourished by teachings of Dr. Knick. And since my sermon today is only a small part of the retreat, I have a very modest agenda for this morning’s message. In Ephesians chapter one we read these words: “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.”
My agenda this morning is to encourage each of us to pray this prayer for ourselves and for our sisters and brothers, who are here this week.
PRAYER
Lord, open the eyes of our hearts, that we might have spiritual vision; that we might rightly see Jesus, ourselves, and our world.
We’re talking about vision this morning. I was in seventh grade when my mother discovered that I needed eye glasses. I had probably needed them for some time, but it did not become apparent until one night at the bowling alley. My mother was sitting at the little table where score is kept. I was standing a few feet back. I asked my mother to tell me her score, to which she responded by saying, “Read it yourself. I’m busy here.” After I said that I couldn’t see it, my mother realized I might have problems with my eye sight.
My mother and father immediately got me on appointment with an optometrist and soon I was wearing corrective lenses. My mother asked me a few days later why I had never said anything before. My reason for not having told her earlier about my vision was that I thought I was seeing things normally. I thought you were supposed to have to walk up to a picture hanging on a wall to see what it was a picture of. I thought you were supposed to have to sit right on top of the TV to watch a program. In short, I had thought my vision was correct vision, because I had not known anything different.
In our 2 Corinthians 5 text, Paul says much the same thing about the way he had been seeing things. He had been unable to see the significance of Christ because he had been seeing him through distorted vision. Paul had been unable to see how God was working in Christ, because Paul had needed some corrective lenses for his spiritual eyes.
I. When our spiritual vision is out of focus, we can miss where God is at work around us.
This was Paul’s problem. He had previously been able to see Christ only from a human point of view, or from the point of view of the flesh.
Sometimes you will hear Biblical scholars explain this verse by saying, “At one time Paul had been a man of historic facts and data; but he had now left that behind. He no longer cared about historic facts, like the life of Jesus. He now cared about spiritual matters.”
Paul, they’ll say, was a man of the Spirit, who was not worried about the historic roots of the faith. Often they will cite Galatians 1:11-12, where Paul says, “I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.”
It is true, Paul did not get his commissioning from human sources, and it was not text books, or historical witnesses who first made him aware of who Christ is. Neither did Paul’s authorization come from other people. In these ways and more, Paul was a man of the Spirit. But, Paul, this man of the Spirit, is also quick to tie his direct personal experiences back to the historic roots of the faith, saying in verse 18 “Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days.”
Why are both parts of chapter one important here? Paul is making it clear that he too is a divinely appointed Apostle; as much as Peter, James, or John. He is an emissary of Christ not of the Apostles. He wants to be clear that he is not under their authority, but under Christ’s authority. But, he also being careful to show how his gospel is not something different from or foreign to the gospel being preached by the other apostles. What Paul received directly from Christ is the same historic faith the other Apostles received directly from Christ.
All this is to say, for Paul, the historic facts were not the problem of his previously bad vision. The facts were not the reason he had not been able to rightly understand Christ. The problem had been his inability to look at the facts and to draw the right conclusions from them, because he had not been looking with spiritual vision. With his natural eyes, all Paul saw in Jesus was another crucified Jew. And with his natural eyes, all he could see in Jesus’ followers were some dangerous, misled fanatics. With his natural eyes, these were the only kinds of conclusions he could draw from the data. What changed was his vision.
On the road to Damascus, Christ temporarily closed Saul’s natural eyes, that he might for the very first time open his spiritual eyes. And when his spiritual eyes had finally learned to focus, he was never able to look at the historic facts the same way again. Where once he had been unable to see how God was at work in Jesus, now when he looked upon the man from Galilee, he saw the fullness of God dwelling bodily. He saw the Lamb of God dying on the cross and being risen as Lord, to reconcile all things to Himself.
Until we are given the ability to see with our spiritual eyes, we too will be in danger of missing where God is at work around us.
II. When our spiritual vision is out of focus, we tend to reduce in our minds the value of people.
In Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season 1 episode 17: titled, “Home Soil,” the faithful crew of the Star Ship Enterprise encounter a life form unlike anything they have encountered before. “Big deal,” you may be saying to yourself. “The Star Trek crew was always encountering something weird in their journeys. Weird is what drives a show like Star Trek.”
But if you will indulge a Trekie for just a few moments, I want to tell you about the life form encountered in the episode, “Home Soil.” This life form was not carbon-based. It was also not humanoid. Instead, the life form was a crystal life form. Not only did the crew of the Enterprise find the encounter strange, so did the crystal life form. The people aboard the Enterprise had never encountered anything like this crystal life form; and, the crystal life form had never encountered something like us.
Once the crew of the Enterprise finally learned how to communicate with the crystal life form, they heard it refer to them, as
"Ugly giant bags of mostly water"
- The crystal lifeform, describing Humans
From the point of view of the crystal life form, that is what the crew of the Enterprise was; ugly bags of mostly water. While “ugly bags of mostly water” may describe the physical components that make up our bodies, I think we would agree that there is more to people than simply being a bag of water. But unfortunately, this was about all the crystal life form could see when it looked at people. The crystal life form had a problem with vision.
When we are looking at people without our spiritual eyes, we have a tendency to reduce their value in our minds. The tendency is to base people’s worth upon what they can do, or how they can further our own agendas, or how fond we are of them. This of course ends by making people into things, reducing them to cogs in the machine, or commodities to be owned and used.
Since Paul was no longer looking at people from a merely natural or physical point of view, our passage reflects the opposite of treating people as things.
“For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” –verses 14-15
Notice how Paul’s understanding of Christ compeled him to see all people as people for whom Christ died. This of course is not always how Paul had seen people. Before his conversion to Christ, Paul had seen Jewish Christians as problems to be dealt with. Presumably, he saw gentiles as God’s enemies and perhaps viewed them as unworthy of salvation. All this had changed. Spiritual vision had shown Paul the great worth of all people.
The crystal life form, on the other hand, is the perfect illustration of what happens when we view the world through the lens of philosophical materialism or radical logical-positivism. Through these lenses, life is reduced to its physical components and the beauty of a person or a thing is lost.
In C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, this point is made through the innocent remarks of a child, named Eustace. Eustace has the surprising discovering of learning that the stars in the sky over Narnia are living beings.
“In our world,” Eustace [says], “a star is a huge ball of flaming gas.” To which another character in the story replies, “Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is but only what it is made of.”
When our spiritual vision is out of focus, we have the tendency to miss where God is at work around us; the tendency to reduce in our minds the value of people and the things in our world. And…
III. When Your Spiritual Vision is out of focus, you tend to miss the significance of a moment.
Our story from Luke shows us two unnamed disciples, who for the longest part of the story were missing the significance of the moment. In their grief, they were not able to stay focused on God, and so they were in real danger of missing His very presence.
But of course, there is some saving grace in this story, for them and for us. God gives us some means of grace, for helping us to keep our spiritual eyes focused. It is in the breaking of bread that Jesus reveals himself to them. He still reveals himself in the breaking of bread. He still reveals himself to us in communion.
Now, I want to know, do you have any folks in your church who have a low view of communion? Do have any folks, who when you start having more frequent communion, start moaning and groaning, saying, “Not this again.” They say to us, “Don’t you know that if you start doing this too often it will loose its meaning?” For them, this activity is all symbol and no substance. For them it is just eating a little bread and sipping a little juice. Having no ability to see in communion anything more, they miss the significance of a sacred moment.
Oh, but we Wesleyans would never do that. We would never miss the significance of communion. We believe that Jesus is present in this act and that he gives himself to us through the bread and cup. So, we would never be guilty of missing the significance of this sacred moment.
We would never get ourselves in such a hurry that we would start thinking about what we had planned after the service, instead of keeping our spiritual eyes focused on the sacrament. We would not focus on what others around us were doing. We would not be worried about what others might be thinking about us. We would let none of these or other distractions take our spiritual eyes off of God. Would we?
As we come to the table, let us pray; asking the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of hearts, giving us clearer vision. Let us ask Him to help us see how God is at work around us. Let us ask Him to help us see the significance of other people and the beauty of this world. Let us ask Him to help us see the significance of each moment
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