There is a popular video on YouTube of this athlete competing in a race where he stops running midway. Shortly after the race starts, he clutches the back of his thigh and goes down on one knee. His face is written with agony and he knew what was wrong. He tore his hamstring.
If you’ve watched or played any kind of sports, you know a hamstring injury can be bad because it puts you out on the sidelines.
I see sin like that sometimes. It’s like an injury that puts you out on the sidelines. Especially something as debilitating and guilt inflicting as the sin of pornography use. Considering its addictive nature and how it affects us, pornography use is bad for the Christian.
It affects us not only physically but emotionally and spiritually too, and there are three ways I think it does that:
1) It affects, firstly, our sight towards God’s beauty. The Bible speaks of the beauty of God, his character, his attributes, his infinite nature, his power, his majesty and his love through Jesus Christ. The sun, moon and stars all declare the glory of God. Porn use blinds us and inhibits our capacity to enjoy and appreciate this God.
2) It makes us selfish. Porn use brings with it the inevitable guilt and shame. While we’re dealing with these avalanche of emotions, we tend not to look beyond our current predicament, but inwards. This affects all our relationships including relations with our brothers and sisters in Christ. As an important part of the local body of believers (our church), we are needed.
Porn use makes us selfish where we’re hiding ourselves from others, either to prevent exposing the sin or to try to deal with it privately.
3) A third insidious effect of porn use is how we look at women. Our sinful tendency to lust after women, in real life and on screen, is amplified with porn use. Porn shows women as objects to be taken advantage of or as nothing beyond flesh and bone that wants to have sex.
Unbeknown to us, our thoughts are trained to objectify women the more we use porn. This is tragic when we do this to our sisters in Christ and fellow image bearers of God.
Using porn is a serious sin and a problem. However, it’s not all doom and gloom for the Christian. There is hope.
Hope for the Christian
Yes, as born again followers of Jesus, we have hope. The strength to overcome this sin was made available when Jesus died on the cross, for it says in 1 Peter 2:24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”
When Jesus died and rose again, and after we put our faith in him, we died to our former ways and are now alive with Christ to live a life of righteousness and purity.
With this new identity as children of God, we can now pursue him. And we ought to pursue him with all our might. God has chosen a few disciplines to follow in order for us to “live to righteousness”, and these disciplines are both private and public.
1) The private disciplines to pursue God is through reading and meditating on the Bible and through prayer. We must be hearing this for the umpteenth time but let me share something that I’ve been told by someone who’s been discipling me: Bible and prayer is meant to help us know and love Jesus.
Bible study and prayer is done to grow in love and appreciation for Christ. It’s through this that God reveals himself, shapes us to be like him, confronts our sin and reassures our heart. Make this a habit. Even if the Bible and prayer hasn’t been making sense, don’t skip it, it’s too precious.
2) The public disciplines would be to participate actively in the life of the church. This means being there for Sunday morning services, being part of small groups, being discipled and discipling someone and reaching out to those who don’t know Christ.
How does following all this help? We get to hear God’s Word being preached, sing songs to him, be involved in the lives of fellow church members, build life-giving friendship that provide a place for accountability, gives us the chance to help another grow in Christ and help to reach a world that needs Jesus. The need for all these public disciplines cannot be reiterated enough.
These private and public disciplines don’t save us, of course, but it is God’s appointed means for us to pursue him and kill sin.
The Fight Goes On
I’ve been hamstrung by porn far too many times than I can count, and I’ve been affected in the same ways that I wrote about. Yet the God who sanctifies is faithful and has shown me grace through the same disciplines I mentioned.
If we are in Christ, we are never out of the boundaries of God’s grace and forgiveness.
Let us make it our aim – as we fight on to overcome and kill this sin – to worship and behold God like Paul did: “To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Timothy 1:17)
We just completed our sermon series on a topic called ‘Abiding Faith’, and
what the series primarily taught us is to hold on to our Faith in times of
sufferings and troubles.
The church of Thessalonica taught us how to remain steadfast in our Faith
by continually searching our hearts against sinful patterns and believe in the
saving grace of our saviour Jesus & depend on the Holy Spirit.
The next series we are preaching is called “Faith in Action”, I
believe this will be a continuation of what we just taught. We will be looking
at one of the most powerful letters written by James, the brother of Jesus, to
the Christian Jews who left their hometown because of the persecution and are
now scattered in unknown territories, among strange people.
The verse is James 1:1 is what we will look at today, where James writes
“James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve
tribes in dispersion”
The word ‘dispersion’ means to be in exile, the state of being barred from
one’s native country.
What I want to do as we begin with James is to give you a context into this
people group and help us see similarities with our context in Mumbai, India,
and also answer an important question, which is “Why should our Faith be
seen in action?”.
As we read through this letter and look at the issues, James is addressing
we learn a couple of things about this group.
The first thing we get to know from James 1:2-4 about these people is that
they were going through all kinds of trials in this new land.
Maybe the new culture is not suiting them the way they lived back in their
home town. Perhaps the people in this new land is not welcoming enough and
therefore facing a lot of resistance and rejection affecting their family life,
work-life and social life. Maybe the weather isn’t suitable for their skin and
bodies and hence having physical discomforts, or perhaps they are always living
under threat and danger to their lives.
When we read James 1:9-11; 2:1-7 & 5:1-6 we see a second problem facing
them is wealth & poverty, because of the resistance, looks like some of
them are not able to find good jobs, maybe they are restricted from pursuing
any business ventures, the rich seem to be controlling the government and the
economy, and therefore these brothers and sisters are lacking all the good
things in life.
On the other hand some who were already rich among them have other heart issues, where instead of accepting, loving and caring for their fellows brothers & sisters they are now looking down on them because of their poverty-stricken life. In those days, people who were poor where considered as less favoured by God, therefore they were treated indignantly.
Thirdly, because of the above two reasons, they also seem to be struggling
with their faith.
In 1:22-23 James writes “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only,
deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he
is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.”
They are failing to live a godly life, not able to walk in obedience, not
able to show love and care to the community in the way should show, in doing so
James says they were deceiving themselves.
Some of them even seem to have lost their faith, trusting and depending on
God for their everyday need looks like a difficult thing to achieve.
Fourthly, their prayer life seems to have gone for a toss, where they
needed wisdom the most they were failing to go to God in prayer and ask for
help.
James 1:5-8 he writes “5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who
gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let
him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of
the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not
suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded
man, unstable in all his ways.
Fifthly, we also see bitterness in their hearts against others. Even among
their own brethren where now they have no control over their tongue and instead
of using their speech to uplift one another and glorify God, they are using
their words to destroy each other’s confidence and faith in Christ.
1:19 he writes “19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be
quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger”
Sixthly, after knowing & receiving the Lord and His saving grace, they
are now slipping into worldliness and seeking the pleasure of the world.
4:4 “You adulterous people![c] Do you not know that friendship with the
world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world
makes himself an enemy of God.”
Instead of seeking the face of Christ and drinking from the living water
that only Christ offers, instead of resting in Christ they are now depending on
their own self-efforts to make their lives better by indulging in worldly
friendships.
And finally, we see how pride has taken over their hearts and humility
crushed under the pressure of the circumstances, failures and rejection.
3:3-15 “13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let
him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter
jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the
truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly,
unspiritual, demonic.”
Brothers & sisters, could we take a moment here and think of our
circumstances, failures, sufferings, abundance, rejections and loses, and
evaluate it against our responses to them?
How do we respond when we face trials of all kinds, when our unbelieving
family, friends & community constantly nag us, taunt us, persecute us,
reject us, show partiality and stop us from growing in life?
How do we respond to circumstances when we lose our jobs, get salary cuts,
when promotion are taken away, when there is not enough money to live in a good
house, to buy new clothes, to buy good food?
And on the other hand, when God blesses us with riches what does that do to
our heart, do we start looking at ourselves as highly favoured children of God
and look down on others?
How do we respond to circumstances when we don’t feel good about our faith,
the happy feelings we experienced during the time of our conversion seems
diminished and gone forever, when our sinful patterns and habits are showing up
again, and this time in a big way, where we are constantly filled with guilt
and condemnation all the time stopping us from progressing in life?
How do we respond when our prayer life seems powerless, monotonous &
ineffective? Do we go to God in prayer, ask for wisdom when we need it the
most?
How do we respond when our heart is continuously bitter towards others
because of what they do and said to you?
How do we respond when the world, the worldly pleasures, the worldly ways
of doing things looks more promising and desirable?
Brothers & Sisters, let me tell you this, it is in these moments that
our faith is tested. The testing of our faith is Gods way of purifying and
sanctifying our lives, where he also separates the weeds from the wheat, the
unfaithful from the faithful, the children of the kingdom from the children of
the world.
But the good news, as written in 1 Peter 5:10 “After you have suffered for
a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in
Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.”
And my prayer for all you today, as you go through difficult times, listening to my words, is may God find each one of you faithful, may God be merciful to you and grant you His grace in abundant measure so that you all stand out victorious with you names written in the book of Life.
To those of my friends listening to these words for the first time, let me tell you that God, the creator of the universe who made us in his image and likeness, through the life, death and resurrection of His son Jesus has offered us an amazing privilege to turn back from our sinful ways and receive an eternal crown that will save us from our wretched heart.
If you feel your heart is responding and desiring to be closer to God, our loving, gracious & merciful Father, to receive this new and abundant life I’m talking about, a life that even through the darkest moments of our life on this earth will shine brightly and fill our hearts with hope. All you have to do is repent of your sinful lives you have lived thus far, openly confess it to Jesus in prayer and put your trust in Him & it will be sealed in heaven forever. And if you wish to talk to someone we are always available for you, to counsel you, comfort you and lead you to this salvation.
Now, coming to our question “Why should our faith be seen in action too?”
Firstly, remember, we don’t produce the action ourselves, it is our faith that produces the action. In James 2:2 James writes “You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected”
True Faith automatically produces action, that’s an inbuilt nature of faith. And when the action is unseen it is not because Faith is unable to produce the action but it is the hardness of our heart to believe the truth, to believe that God is able – it is our unbelief that suppresses the effects of faith from producing the action.
Faith is not just a feeling, but it is also this power that pushes us to act in obedience in a way that is seen and experienced by others in our life. If someone says yes, I am a Christian but can’t forgive and love my brother, then I would question that faith, because genuine faith in the saving grace of Christ will open your heart to love and forgive your brothers and sisters just as Christ loved and forgave us.
And so James through this letter is telling us that true faith should be
seen in action in three major areas.
It has to be seen in our deeds
It has to be seen in our speech &
It has to be seen in our conduct
And that is what we will explore in our new series called “Faith in
Action”.
But, here’s what I want you to take home today.
Let’s go back and evaluate our hearts in the light of the Gospel, where do
we stand at this moment as we learned about the context of these Christian
Jews? How hard or easy is your life and circumstances in comparison to these
Christians? What is the greatest challenge you are facing in your life at this
current moment and what has been your response so far? Do you believe that God
is speaking to you today, what is He saying, what sinful responses of your
heart is he exposing to you? How do you think your responses and actions to
your circumstances is affecting the people around you? & Are your deeds,
speech & conduct glorifying God and displaying his work in your life?
Brothers & sisters, no matter how good or bad you are at this point in
life. If you are a child of God, you are already forgiven and already given an
abundant measure of grace to lift yourself from your miserable state. All you
have to do is repent, confess and put your faith back in God and He will
deliver you.
As a church we’ve been going through a series called “Abiding faith” from 1 Thessalonians. Today’s we are going to see how this kind of abiding, enduring, long lasting faith produces holiness.
“Escaping sexual sin” is the title of the message. But some of us may ask, “how relevant is a message on escaping sexual sin during this time of a pandemic and a lockdown? People can’t even go outside!”
Even in the letter to Thessalonians so far, Paul has spoken about suffering and love and concern, why suddenly shift gears and talk about holiness especially in the area of sexuality? One of the reasons could be due to the challenging context of the Thessalonian believers.
After all they were living in a trading centre, commercial hub, progressive city like Thessalonica. It had easy accessibility to a lot of stuff which also has its downside – sexual immorality was open and prevalent.
In the midst of severe suffering and isolation, the believers could be tempted to let their guard down by saying to themselves deceiving things like:
i) “I’m going through so much pain and loneliness right now. Sexual sin allows me to escape & forget what I’m going through now”. ii) “Paul who is my spiritual father in the faith – he shared the good news about Jesus to me for the first time is not here right now. He’s far away in another city. So no one will even get to know if I mess with sexual sin”. iii) “So far I think I’ve been doing great spiritually. In fact all over the Christian world, churches are talking about my faith and radical testimony. I probably can take it easy spiritually. Take a break from my spiritual life”.
And even as we’re hearing this, we realize that this is not too distant from our experience in this COVID-19 pandemic with social distancing and lockdown imposed in many parts of the globe.
We are in no way exempt from these thoughts and temptations. And it’s in the midst of this context, that Paul earnestly pleads the church & us to strive for holy living unto God all the more! It’s almost like he’s saying “It’s not the time to take it easy. It’s not the time to let your guards down.
Now more than ever you need to pay attention on how you’re living your life”.
Why should we do all the more?
V3 For this is God’s will for you -> your sanctification.
Sanctification means being purified to be used by God. God’s will for us is purification so that we can be used by Him. One of the key areas that requires purification in our lives is our “Sexuality”.
That’s why he follows that up with – that you abstain from sexual immorality. That word “sexual immorality” comes from the Greek word “pornea” which describes every kind of sexual sin that we engage in outside of the commitment of marriage – fornication (sex before marriage), adultery (sex outside of marriage), lustful thoughts, homosexuality, incest, bestiality etc. God’s will and command for us is that we abstain from sexual immorality!
I remember that this was one of the first bible passages that I read when I started following Jesus some years back. At the time I thought this area of sexual sin was only something I had to deal with only for a few years.
Little did I know and expect that this was going to be something to fought against throughout my lifetime. Brothers and sisters, if you can relate or if you’re experiencing despair or hopelessness in your fight with sexual sin, I’d invite you to look at the “help” that is made available for us in this passage.
We’ll look at the commands off course, but also spend some time trying to understand what is the “help” that God provided for us & I’ll close with 3 applications at the end. The first help available for us:
New Desires God’s given us “new desires for Him”. (v4, 5)
4 that each one of you know how to control his own body[c] in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;
In these two verses, Paul is contrasting believers of Jesus with those don’t believe in Him. He is saying that believers “can and should control their body in holiness and reverence” while Gentiles/people who don’t believe in Jesus are incapable of doing that because they are controlled by their sinful desires.
What’s the difference here? Because believers in Jesus Christ “know God” and have a new relationship with God, they also have new desires for God.
Some years back while having a conversation with a brother in Christ on this topic, and he said something that I thought has been immensely useful. He said what helped him was questioning his heart “do I love Jesus more or do I love this sin more?”
That’s an important question we need to constantly ask ourselves because that determines our responses to temptations.
In Genesis, we are told an account of Joseph while he was at Potiphar’s house. God had given Joseph favour in the eyes of his master and he became the overseer & in charge of everything he had.
Now Potiphar’s wife had her eyes on him and Scripture says “day after day she tried to lure him by telling him to lie with her”. But he refused her repeatedly. Now to the world this might seem stupid.
“She’s throwing herself at him day after day! Joseph is a fool & an idiot. Here’s an open opportunity that no one would’ve even come to know of”.
But we know why he refused repeatedly in his response to her. Joseph said “how then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” At the point of his vulnerability and utmost weakness, his desire for God is what kept him from falling.
Many times we get into that thought process thinking that sexual desire is so strong that we have no option but to succumb to it. That’s an absolute lie and the deception of sin!
John Piper has this saying “if the stakes are high like someone threatening to kill you at a moment of great sexual desire or the reward is great like someone giving you a $1 million cheque at a moment of great sexual desire, from somewhere or the other you will muster the strength to control yourself because of the greater emotion of fear or greed controls you”.
And this is just an example at a physiological level. How much more will we be able to control our bodies in holiness and honor, because God has replaced our dead desires with new desires for Him!
New name (v7)
7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.
God “calling us” gives us the image of God the Father calling and inviting us into fellowship with Him – God calls us by a new name – a better name.
Obviously, I’m not talking literally changing our human names. It’s not as though God literally puts the word “saint” in front of our name for ex. By putting St. in front of my name that I become “holy”!
What I mean by God giving us a new name & better name is that he doesn’t look at us and refer to us as “unholy sinners” or “impure enemies” but instead He calls us His very own children who like Him reflect holiness!
But how can we be considered as His holy children? We might assume – “Well it must be my best efforts and my good works. The sum of all the righteous things that I do in this life is what makes me holy.” Isaiah 64:6 tells us that “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”!
So if we were to put together the best of our works, they would at the most qualify as soiled and dirty rags. Why because? The standard of measurement of holiness is not among ourselves but with God.
So how then does God give us a new name “calling us His holy children”? He does that by sending His perfect and pure Son into the world (Jesus).
In the history of the world there has been only one person who by God’s standard has lived a 100% holy life and that is Jesus.
Two weeks back we remembered Jesus’ suffering and death on Good Friday – why did the only person who lived a holy life then die brutally on a Roman cross? It’s because He willingly and lovingly took on the punishment by dying for our lust, our abuses and our immorality.
Three days later he rose from the grave to give us a new name so that whoever who turn from their sins and themselves and would turn toward Jesus and what He did for them, they would now receive the gift of a new name as His holy children!
John 1:12: Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
And this name is a permanent name because it no longer based on my failing performance but on Jesus’ perfect performance. This new and permanent name is the key motivation to living holy lives.
I once heard a pastor mention of how his parenting radically changed over the years as he grew in his understanding of God’s grace. Initially whenever he needed to discipline his son, he would tell him – “Don’t do this. You’ll be a bad boy if you do this”.
Now for many of us this is a normal statement. But when you think about it – in essence what it communicates is that what the boy did (good or bad) defined who he was and defined his relationship with the parent.
Over the years as the pastor understood God’s grace deeper, it started impacting his parenting as well. Now every time he disciplines his Son, he tells him “Son, I don’t want you to do this because you are my Son and because I love you”.
Just think about it – this will actually motivate the boy to do what the father wanted him to do because he is so secure in the committed love of his father. Similarly, and in a much greater measure, is God’s committed love toward us.
Through Jesus, He has given us the assurance that nothing will change the relationship equation – nothing will make God say to us “you are not my son or daughter” – “I’m taking your name of my name”. And that’s such a powerful motivator to help us live holy lives.
And that’s a powerful motivator to helps us with repentance! When we realize that God has given us a permanent name, it allows us to run back to him and repent sincerely.
This is not taking grace lightly. I’m not talking about regret where we feel guilty about the consequences of sin but genuine repentance where we grieve over what we’ve done against God and others & find healing because as His children we desire a relationship with God. We don’t want to live away from Him. He is our Father and He has given us a new name.
His Spirit
8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
There is serious weight and authority in this instruction but also it provides us with help & hope by telling us that we’ve been given the Holy Spirit! In a sense, God is trying to tell us that He is so serious about making us holy that He has literally poured out His Spirit on us.
Ezekiel 36:26,27 – 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.[a]
The Holy Spirit that is placed within us will “cause us to walk in obedience to God in a manner that pleases Him”. Brothers and sisters –I want you guys to know that as I’m preaching on this topic, I’m not preaching from a standpoint of being a perfect believer who is preaching down on people.
I’ll be honest to say that I’ve seen and experienced the brokenness of this sin struggle myself in my thoughts, my actions and the way I’ve related with people. But from being in a place where I thought I was always going to live a defeated Christian life, God through His Spirit has brought me to a place where I see myself fighting today.
I’m by no means a finished product but I say this to testify on how the Spirit has been working especially in this arena of sexual sin and that’s why I’m passionate to help people who are struggling in this area.
I want to close by sharing 3 final applications which I hope can encourage anyone who is currently in a place of struggle:
• This temptation is not unique to us –
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. (1 Cor 10:13). For the longest time, I always thought I was alone in this struggle and that’s why I kept myself isolated and this sin hidden.
But when the Spirit opened my eyes to see that it isn’t unique, it allowed me to open up and be vulnerable to my brothers and sisters in Christ who would actually call me to repentance and remind me of the gospel when I need to hear it the most.
• Jesus faced every temptation that we’ve faced –
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Heb 4:15,16)
The Spirit opened my eyes to see that Jesus faced every temptation we’ve faced which includes sexual temptation yet without sin. And because He understands what I face, He can perfectly pray to the Father for me and also send the mercy and grace that I need.
• Spiritual disciplines are means of grace –
There was a season in my life when I erroneously assumed that if I practiced spiritual disciplines then I was a legalist and not living by grace.
The Spirit opened my eyes so that I could see that reading Scripture, prayer, having someone keep my life accountable with other believers and paying attention to what I watch and read were not so that God can measure my good or bad performance.
Rather these were gifts from God to know Him better and live in the freedom that He intended for me.
During this lockdown situation especially where we are being and being socially distanced from others – lets remember it is a ripe field for temptation.
But the good news is that God hasn’t left you alone.
He has actually provided you with the help you need – he’s given you new desires, he’s given you a new name and he’s given you His own Spirit which can help you fight sexual sins and live in holiness unto God!
Last week Jinson
helped us understand the circumstances under which Paul was writing this letter
to the church in Philippi. We learnt that Paul was imprisoned for his faith in
Christ and for sharing the Gospel, he was suffering and going through hardships
for the sake of Christ as he is waiting for justice.
The man didn’t harm
anyone but was still convicted and was going through extreme pain and anguish.
And even in such harsh circumstances, at the end of verse 18 he says “Yes,
I will rejoice”.
In Philippians 1:19 we
see he is so full of hope, confident that he will never be ashamed, and that at
the end, Christ will be honoured in his body, whether he is alive or dead,
there is absolutely no fear or doubt in his mind, fully prepared even to die.
I’ve met a lot of
people in my life who go through tough circumstances and some even going
through hardships right now, some due to sickness in their body, some because
of pressure at work, some because of unfavourable conditions where people have
taken advantage of them, hard life, abuse, cheated close family etc. But it is
scarce to hear people use such words of hope and confidence as Paul is
expressing here.
Most people in such
circumstances go into depression and sorrow and end up blaming God or blaming
others for their circumstances.
And therefore, I find
Paul’s confidence and hope so amazing. And I’m sure a lot of people would
desire that they would also live a fearless life just like Paul with faith and
hope, responding in the same manner when facing hardships.
As easy as it sounds,
I realized that this kind of response is not something a person can manufacture
it. We can say these words with our mouth, but our hearts can be all messed up.
Here are some of the
advice people commonly give to us when we are facing hardships.
They ask us to do Positive thinking
Get drunk and forget your sorrows
Indulge in fleshly pleasures, and you forget all the worries in life
Some religious folks will ask you to repeat prayers and mantras to attain peace
Leave the world and go on a pilgrimage
Some will advise you to intake drugs
But as we all know
these solutions only give us temporary relief and joy, once the effect is over,
we all go back to the same feelings of sadness, loneliness, depression etc.
And as we continue to
read Paul’s letter, who is a follower of Christ we realize that there is
something deeper that’s going on in his heart because of which he can respond
the way he is responding. He is not drunk, or even hallucinating but is
speaking from a clear conscience and a steady mind.
What we learn in these
passages is Paul’s outlook towards life itself that is helping him rejoice and
stay hopeful in all circumstances.
Every situation in our
life is ultimately about survival and death. The best thing about life is
staying alive, and the worst thing is to die and leave this earth.
Some enjoy their
present life but dread the thought of death, and others hate their life so much
that they want to kill themselves because they want to get rid of all their
earthly sorrows and misery.
Paul seems to be fully
prepared and satisfied in both these scenarios. He says “For me to live is
Christ, and to die is gain”.
Paul, a Christian,
looks at both life and death and finds both of them fascinating and joy-filled.
In fact, he says it is difficult for me to choose which
one is better.
22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
Today I want to focus
on Paul’s statement ‘to live is Christ, and to die is gain’ and discover what
did he mean when he said that.
Paul was not always a
hopeful and fearless person as he is at this moment in life. He worked for the
Roman empire and was recruited to find and kill all followers of Jesus. But his
life changed when he was travelling on the road Damascus as he was looking for
Christians in the other town, Jesus appeared to him and opened his heart and
mind to see and understand the truth about life and death.
Friends, there is a
reason why we live in brokenness and despair. The world we live in was not
meant to be corrupt, sinful, dark, selfish and full of hatred. It was supposed
to be a beautiful place. The Bible says, when God made the world, animals &
birds, mountains and trees, lakes and rivers, and human beings, it was pleasing
in his eyes. Man lived in perfect harmony with God and with nature. And
everything God made was meant to exalt him and glorify him.
And when God made man
and woman, he gave us a unique gift, and the gift was the free-will to
choose between good and evil. And He gave it to us so that willingly and out of
own choice, we would worship Him and honour Him, the one who created us in His
likeness and His image.
But, we misused our
free-will and are still misusing it daily.
But instead of using
our fill-will to choose Him and worship Him, we ended up choosing ourselves and
pursuing our selfish desires by disobeying his holy laws and commandment. If
the world is broken and dark, it is not because God made it that way; it is because
we chose to make it that way. And when our fore-father and mother,
Adam and Eve disobeyed God, it affected all of us.
It’s like a baby in a
mother’s womb. If the mother, while carrying a child in her womb, chose to
intake drugs or any poison, it automatically affects the baby who is in her.
Babies who are born to drug addict mother are called broken babies because they
end up having some deformity in the body when they are born.
When Adam and Eve
sinned, we were in them, as the baby in a mothers womb, and therefore we too
committed the hideous crime against our creator God, which is why our
relationship with God is broken. And according to God Holy law, the punishment
for sin and rebelliousness against him is only death.
We lost our peace and
joy. The peace and joy people in this world are seeking by doing good works,
going on a pilgrimage, beating themselves up, chasing the world and its
pleasure like a crazy man will never pay for the penalty of our sin we have
committed against God.
But the good news is,
about which Paul who encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus writes in Romans
5:6-11
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
On the road to
Damascus, when Paul met with Jesus, he realized the one whom he hated was
Christ, the Son of God, who paid the penalty of his sins by dying on the cross,
who rose again on the third day and is now sitting at the right hand of God and
is interceding for us, who is the only one through whom he can achieve
salvation, through whom he can be restored into a relationship with God the
creator and not end up in hell but enter heaven.
And to attain this
salvation, all he had to
do was
repent of his
sins and believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ, with all
his heart, mind and
soul.
And therefore, for
Paul to say ‘to live is Christ is to live a completely restored and free life,
one without condemnation, without fear of death, with full of hope and joy. And
for him to say ‘death is gain’ is because he knew his end would be glorious, in
heaven, he will ultimately meet Christ and spend his eternity in heaven. And he
is not able to decide which is better.
The extent of his joy
and gratefulness was so large that he saw everything else in the world rubbish
in comparison to Christ. In Philippians 3:7-8
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
Friends, it is one
thing to say we know about Christ and it’s a totally another thing to say we’ve
experienced Christ and His saving power in our lives.
A person who has
genuinely experienced Christ and His love, who has understood this glorious
Gospel, he is a changed man. The Bible says when we sincerely repent of our
sins and believe in Jesus, our old self dies with him and we are born again.
And the person who
is genuinely born again treasures Christ more than all
the things and
the pleasure of
this world because he is convinced that in Christ
he has found everything his soul needs.
A person who is truly a believer in Christ lives in freedom, has hope in heart that no matter what happens in life, whether hardships or calamities or sickness or pain, he believes everything will ultimately work out for his good, and that Christ will be glorified in his body, whether in life or in death.
If we say we are
Christians and even after years, we are still not experiencing freedom and joy
in life. If we are not fully treasuring Christ more than the
worldly things and its pleasure. If we are living hopeless lives falling back
into depression and feelings of loneliness. If we are still living as our old
self, we have to question our faith.
It’s time that we turn
to Christ, not just in our mind, in our knowledge but our heart and our whole
being. All you have to do is repent of your sin and put your faith in Jesus.
To be a Christian
doesn’t mean that you are born in a Christian family. To be a Christian doesn’t
mean that we are coming to church every Sunday. To be a Christian doesn’t mean
we know all the Christian songs. To be a Christian doesn’t mean we know the
Bible.
To be a Christian
means to experience Christ and his life-transforming power in our daily life.
Please do not be fooled. Don’t just be satisfied that you know about Jesus but
seek to experience him and his saving grace in your life on a daily basis.
If you think you are that person that claims to know Jesus but haven’t experienced his life-transforming power in your life, you may want to consider committing or maybe re-commit your Life to Christ today.
Feel free to reach out to us if you wish to speak to one of us. We would love to hear from you and pray with you.
Today’s sermon is part of a series called
‘Gospel Renewal’. Last two Sundays we covered topics on Prayer & Humility.
And today we’re going to talk about Repentance.
Through these sermon series, I believe we are
discovering how to consistently live all of life under the influence of the
gospel. And as we do that one of our greatest needs in gospel-centered living
is to understand repentance accurately and biblically.
Firstly, I want to begin by defining the
word Repentance, because it seems many of us have a different understanding of
the word.
The word Repentance in Greek is the word ‘metanoia’, and ‘metanoia’ essentially means ‘change in mind’.
The full biblical definition of repentance is a change
of mind that results in a change of action.
It’s like leaving your home to go to the
market, instead on the way, you change your mind and decide to walk towards the
mall.
It is impossible to truly change your mind without
that causing a change in action.
That is why John the Baptist called people to “produce
fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8).
A person who has truly repented of his sin and
exercised faith in Christ will give evidence of a changed life .
The passage I want us all to look at today
is 1 John 1:5-10
This is the message we have heard from him
and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie
and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we
make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
First of all, remember, John is writing
this letter to the believers in Ephesus. What John is saying is that when you talk
about having fellowship with God & practicing the truth, you need a ‘change
of mind’. You need to Repent.
Here’s what he is saying…
If we say we have fellowship with God
while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
As we hear these words of John, and think
about the application in our lives, let me give you a mental image of where our
Christian is with regards to this particular situation that John is talking
about.
When we were born in this world, we were
born sinful and wicked. And no matter how cute and pretty the new born babies
look, the truth is, their heart is disconnected from God.
The reason we are born sinful is because
as humans, when we were first created by God in His image to worship Him – We
were given the freedom to choose the right thing, we misused our freedom and
willfully chose what was against God.
Our disobedience not only disconnected us from having a healthy relationship with God, but it also invited his wrath and anger. And since we were all born out of the first humans Adam and Eve, we all inherit their sinful nature, and a broken relationship with our creator God & are worthy of his wrath and anger.
Romans 3:23 – For all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Romans 6:23 – For the wages
of sin is death – which is what we deserved
John 3:16 – But God so loved the us that he gave his one and only
Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal
life.
Romans 3:24 – all are justified freely by
his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:24 – but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jesus came to earth and lived the perfect life in our place, took the penalty of our sins and paid the price on the cross, and in return gave his righteousness to us.
He took our dirty unrighteous garments and gave us his righteous garments.
Now when God looks at us, he is looking
through the filter of His son, claims us back from the world, embraces us and
calls us his own.
Brother & sisters, when we are
confronted with this truth, there is a transformation that happens in our
heart. For the first time we truly repent of our sins, believe in the gospel
& eventually make a public declaration of our faith through Baptism.
Do not be mistaken – When this happens, God forgives all our past, present & future sins. We stand justified before him forever.
He says nothing can separate us from his
love – neither physical death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, [39] Nor height, nor depth, nor
any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:38-39
But, a lot of people think that we only
repent of our sins & believe in the gospel once for all and there is no
need to repent & believe again and again.
People who think that way forget that even
thought our soul is set free from eternal condemnation, we still continue to
live in our flesh and in this corrupt world. Our bodies are trapped here until
we die or until Jesus returns.
We also forget that as we continue to grow in our faith, there are two things happens in our heart & mind. We grow in the awareness of God’s holiness and we grow in the awareness of our sinfulness.
And if we don’t walk in daily repentance,
we can go into two different directions. Let me explain.
When we focus only on the Holiness of God, we easily get into a performance mode. And when we only grow in realization of our sinfulness, we get into a pretending mode. And both these places are harmful for us.
They stop us from experiencing a spirit
filled Christian life.
In our passage today, John is talking to
believers who are bent towards the pretending mode. People who are pretending
to have fellowship with God and walking in the light but are in darkness and
unwilling to admit that they are drowning in sin.
Listen carefully as I read the passage
again.
This is the message we have heard from him
and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie
and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
And here’s the solutions John offers
If we confess our sins, he
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness.
To bridge the gap between God’s holiness
and Our sinfulness, the only way we can do it is when we live a lifestyle of
repentance by confessing our sins to God & believing in the Gospel.
Here’s what happens when we do that daily. We grow in appreciation of what Christ has done for us on the cross. Our heart grows bigger and bigger each day.
God performs chemotherapy on us, killing
the bad cells of our sinful nature and producing new ones. Changing our stony
heart into a heart of flesh.
Biblical repentance frees us from our own devices
and makes a way for the power of the gospel to bear fruit in our lives.
We never stop needing to repent and believe.
And as we do that, there are two reasons they happen.
The first is, we express the genuineness of their faith. The second reason is,
we maintain a close relationship with the Father in heaven.
Amen
Finally, as I close, let me highlight three things about repentance one gain.
As Christians, we don’t repent daily because we fall
off and become unbeliever again as we sin. The first time when we truly
repented of our sins, he fully accepted and has given the entry pass to his
Kingdom.
As Christians, we repent so that we daily grow in
appreciation of what Christ has done for us on the cross.
We repent and confess our sins because we have the
confidence that God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness.
If you’re
like me, you probably had a rough last couple of days. It could be because of
frustration and stress at work, or because of a rough patch in a relationship,
a sickness in the family, failure in your studies, a sadness due to unanswered
prayers, or you’ve been cheated by someone, or you are struggling with sin that
you’re not able to get rid of.
And you
are here this morning, all dressed up for the Resurrection Sunday, with smiles
on your faces, joy in your demeanour and a twinkle in your eye. But inside, you
are broken, joyless, you’re in despair, in pain, feel hopeless, feel lonely,
feel hurt & angry.
If you
are in this state of mind this morning, then I want to talk about what does the
Resurrection of Jesus mean to us in our present situation and how should we
respond so we can enjoy the full benefits of what Christ has achieved for us on
the Cross of Calvary.
We are in
Mark 16 where Jesus is dead and buried, and there is a sadness in the air. If
you’ve ever experienced a sudden death of a loved one in your family, you know
what that feeling is.
Everything
around us moves in slow motion, we go through a period of disbelief, we
question the meaning of life, everything we do seems meaningless and less
important, we lose all our energy crying, and there is no more joy left in us.
We wish this world would end soon.
I assume
that is the exact feeling all the disciples and followers of Jesus were going
through at this moment.
And then
Mark tells us that after the Sabbath, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James
and Salome, along with other women brings spices to anoint the body of Jesus.
As they
are walking towards the tomb, they are worried about how to roll away the stone
from the entrance of the tomb, but when the women reach the tomb, they see the
stone has already been rolled back.
And
entering the tomb they find a man sitting on the right side, the other gospel
writers mention it was an angel who met them at the tomb. The angel gives them
the news that the Jesus they buried is not here; He has Risen.
The angel
tells them to go and say the news to the disciples, but instead, Mark says they
were afraid and did not speak a word.
When we
read the account of the Resurrection of Jesus, even within the four Gospels, we
see a lot is happening there, and the account of each of the Gospel writers
seems to contradict each other. The sceptics often use these contradictions to
the point that Jesus’s Resurrection, it never happened.
But as I
read, studied & investigated these accounts I did find the answer to the
contradictions and was able to rest my heart.
But my
goal today is not to clear the doubt surrounding the contradictions but to
highlight and speak about the main event that happened, which is “Jesus had
Risen from the Dead.”
Jesus’s resurrection
was an unlikely event that happened, most people in that time never experienced
or heard news like that. None of them even expected such a thing to happen.
It is
crucial for us to know that what was happening there was a fulfilment of a
prophecy that was made many years ago which appeared in the book of Isaiah
written in the 8th century BCE.
Isiah
writes, God himself, left his heavenly throne, lived among us, bore our griefs,
carried our sorrows, pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our
iniquities, offered himself to die on our behalf as a sacrifice for our sins,
to reconcile us back to Him.
When God
made the world, a beautiful and perfect one beyond our imagination, the 9 to 10
thousand species of birds, 1.2 million species of animals, 34,000 recognised
species of fish, the trees, the mountains.
The bible
says he also made man in His own image, with around 78 organs in one single
body, the most dominant, complex and powerful species that live on earth.
He
created us like Him to commune with Him on his level, we were just like Him and
enjoyed the most beautiful relationship that ever existed. But the whole idea
was to live on Gods terms, under His rule and dominion, but what did we do?
We
rejected His rule by disobeying His commands and devaluing His authority.
And
according to God’s law, the penalty of disobedience is death. Just like it is
when we break the rules that govern a country.
The only
entity that could pardon our sins and save us from death was God himself. And
that is why Jesus, the beloved Son of God, who was God himself came down to
earth, lived a perfect life in the sight of God on our behalf and took the
penalty of our Sins and died on our behalf.
But
sadly, for most of the people in this world, the story of Jesus ends right
there. And why not, isn’t that the image of Christ we often portray to the
world. The image of Jesus hung on the cross, helpless, dead, displayed in
churches, carried by Christians…. But isn’t that just a half-told story.
What the
world often fails to recognise and believe is the fact that Jesus didn’t just
die but also he also defeated Sin and satan, and on the third day he rose
again.
Without
the Resurrection of Jesus, our story is incomplete.
In this
context, here’s why Jesus’s resurrection is essential and what should mean to
us.
1. The Resurrection affirms our death to Sin
When we
were not in Christ we were slaves to Sin, Sin ruled in our mortal bodies.
Knowingly, unknowingly we lived a life of disobedience to God. But the day we
heard about our saviour Jesus, and our hearts responded with repentance and
faith, we also proclaimed to the world through the waters of baptism.
Romans
6:4 says “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order
that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we
too might walk in newness of life.”
Romans
6:8 – “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with
him.”
Romans
6:10-11 “For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he
lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and
alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
To those
who’ve been struggling with sin in the last few days, filled with guilt and
shame, unable to walk in the light, holding yourself back from fellowshipping
with other believers, holding yourself back from confessing your sin to God, to
one another asking for forgiveness.
My
encouragement to you is to remember that you are no more slave to the sin you
are struggling with, in Christ you are a new creation. Do not let the devil
trick you from believing that God will not accept you.
Take
courage like the prodigal son and return to the Father who loves you and will
embrace you if you genuinely repent and is willing to put your faith in his son
Jesus.
2. The Resurrection gives hope for the future
Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy,
he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead.
Brothers
& sisters, you may be going through a tough circumstance, one that you
think is beyond your capacity to handle. But remember, we are not a people
without hope. Through the Resurrection power of Jesus, we have been born to a
living hope.
We can
call unto him for help, and he will answer us from His Holy Hill. His promised
that he will never leave us and never forsake us. Even though we walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, he is with us. His rod and his staff, they
comfort us.
Do not
put your hope in man.
And even
if we die on this earth, our life story will not end. We will spend eternity in
heaven with Christ, in his glory.
Therefore,
my encouragement to you is to always lift up your eyes unto the Lord, from whom
our help comes. Set our minds on the heavenly things and not on the earthly
pain.
And
remind yourself of the glorious future we have in the heavenly Kingdom of God.
We don’t need a passport or a visa to enter his Kingdom, the blood of Christ on
us is the proof that we belong. No guard or security can stop us.
Because
of the Resurrection of Christ, we are people of hope.
3. The Resurrection strength our witness in Christ
1 Cor
15:17 – 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are
still in your sins.
The fact
that Jesus indeed rose from death is the evidence of our faith. The Gospel is
incomplete without Resurrection. The world needs to know that Jesus isn’t
always hanging on the cross, but that he has risen from the dead and is seated
on the right hand of the God the Father, interceding from you and me.
The story
of Resurrection ought to be told to every man and women because if they don’t
hear the complete full story, they will never respond, they will leave the
earth and end up in hell without knowing that there was a way for them to save
themselves from hell.
Along
with redemption from sin, and eternal hope, we are also called to be
ambassadors of this good news. The day we received Christ in our hearts and was
adopted into the family of God, we also took up the responsibility to join the
Fathers business which is to preach the good news to the ends of the earth.
Let us
not be like the women who were afraid and didn’t go out to tell the news to
others.
The Bible
says as children of God we are co-heirs with Christ, and there is a reward
waiting for us in heaven.
Remember,
as we share this good news with others, don’t forget to tell the Resurrection
story, because without the Resurrection of Jesus our faith is futile, our story
is incomplete.
Good morning church! I’m humbled with every opportunity I get to share from the Word because unlike any other skill set – when we preach we also preach to ourselves as we preach to the church. I know I need these truths from God’s Word like all of you. So it’s humbling! As a church we have been studying the gospel of Mark over the last year.
We are on the last few passages of this gospel and as we arrive at the closing passages of this gospel, we see themes of abandonment – disciples abandoning Jesus, we see betrayal – Judas, we see humiliation in the manner of torture and mocking, we see injustice where Jesus is being chosen as more deserving of death than even a murderer, and finally we see the death of the Son when he is hung on the cross. And we find ourselves today in that in between time – those three days between Jesus’ crucifixion and His Resurrection. Let’s turn to Mark 15:40-47 [Read]
I know for
most of us we are probably very excited about the Resurrection story. And we
want to jump right to it as quickly because we might wonder “how can a passage
like this encourage me?” And so even as I prepared my notes, I kept asking this
question “What can the story of burial tell me about Jesus?” Because all of
Scripture is talking about Jesus so what can we learn. What is the hope
mentioned in this passage? The title of my sermon is 3 Lessons from the Grave.
Christ invites unlikely people to follow Him
V40 & 41 : Mentions the names of Mary Magdalene (Mary from Magdala), Mary the mother of James the younger (the mother of James son of Alphaeus) and Salome (who was the mother of James and John the sons of Zebedee) along with many other women who were followers of Jesus. Now we might think that’s normal but it wasn’t normal for women to have that kind of participation in ancient Jewish culture. It was a patriarchal and oppressive culture.
A woman’s place in society was to be only at
home, responsible for bearing children and taking care of them. Men were not
greet women in public. Women had very little access to property or inheritance.
Whatever a woman earned would go the husband. Men were allowed to legally
divorce a woman for any reason by just handing out a written notice of divorce,
however a woman couldn’t divorce a man. Even in terms of religious practice –
men were encouraged to pray certain prayers daily and study Scripture while
women were not permitted to do the same.
In fact so bad was the situation that an
unfortunate prayer that men would pray would be on the lines of “Praise God
that he has not created me as a woman”. Women were not given the kind of
dignity and freedom and opportunities as men. It was very oppressive.
It’s in
that context we see Jesus totally flip things around and interact with them
with dignity and love. Something that women never experienced in their time and
culture. How did these women experience love?
He showed Compassion: Mary from Magdala was actually a
demon possessed woman at one time. Mark 16 and Luke 8 mention that she was
cured of evil spirits by Jesus. Seven demons came out of her! She was in a
terrible condition when Jesus found her and yet Jesus showed her great
compassion by delivering her from the demonic spirits.
He revealed His Transforming power: Mary – the mother of James son of
Alphaeus and Salome mother of James and John were mothers of disciples of
Jesus. I really think it was the changed lives that they saw in their children
that drew them to Jesus. Parents know about their kids inside out. And if
anything changes about them, they are the first to notice that too. Similarly,
you can imagine what it would’ve been for them to see their sons change up
close.
He gave them the Privilege to serve:
Women had a very
low status and place in society. If a group or organization was made, they
wouldn’t necessarily approach women to join it. And here we see Jesus inviting
them to follow Him, get to know Him and also “minister” to Him! Luke 8 says
they provided for Jesus out of their means. They were given an opportunity to
serve the Son of God. And it’s not because Jesus couldn’t help Himself. He is
the Son of God! But He allowed them to participate in serving Him so that they
could experience the joy of fellowship with Him and the privilege to serve Him.
We see how
Jesus’ interactions with women was counter-cultural at the time. They were the
unlikely ones but they were still invited to follow Him. When I think about my
testimony…I grew up in a Christian home and we went to church regularly but it
was mostly to satisfy the social norms and my parents. By the time I reached my
teens I began questioning if church was really important to me.
I thought I
knew the gospel – I thought Jesus died for us in general – I assumed for the
good people especially but my life changed when I realized that He died for me!
Really? Me? I’m the worst! I’m so unlike what a good Christian should be? I
don’t even look like a proper Christian? And He died for me!!! Astonishing. And
that’s true of every believer seated here.
How many of
us knew that we were going to believe in Jesus someday? How many of expected
that to happen? How many of us looked like the perfect person going to church
and had the perfect life? None of us could’ve ever imagined but yet Christ
invited unlikely people like us to follow Him.
This
changes the way we look at the people in our neighborhoods and our colleges and
our workplaces. One of the verses that brother reminded us last week on prayer
was 1 Tim 2:1 – which tells us to pray for all people! Which means that even
the ones that annoy us, hate us, frustrate us…the ones which we consider are
“hopeless cases” are the unlikely people who Christ invites to follow Him. Why?
Because it’s not their efforts but His grace and power to save them.
For some of here who don’t know Jesus yet
because you think that you are an unlikely choice…you think that you don’t look
like or behave like a so called Christian, let me tell you that Christ invites
and he infact pursues the unlikely people and candidates. You are in the right
place to follow Jesus!
Christ produces willing sacrifice by
knowing Him
In verses 42-46 we are told of a man named
Joseph of Arimathea. What do we know about him? He is a respected member of the
Jewish council. He’s a wealthy, high standing, leading member of the council. And
it also tells us that he was looking for the kingdom of God.
Which meant
that he was looking forward God bringing His heavenly reign on people’s hearts
and minds. He believed that God was going to do something to bring His rule and
reign over all of us. In a similar account in Matt 27, it refers to him as a
disciple of Jesus. And we see him do something that the other famous disciples
of Jesus didn’t do…
He
took courage and asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now we might think – oh,
because he was an influential man he could talk to Pilate and exert some
influence. But we forget that the death of Jesus was a public event that was
seen and promoted by all of the Jewish leaders. Joseph was risking his
reputation by asking for Jesus’ body. Not just that but he was also risking his
life…because he was declaring his allegiance and friendship to the man they
killed. It’s with reason that the writer mentions that “Joseph took courage”.
It was a big deal.
We
also see him wrapping Jesus in an expensive linen shroud and then placing Jesus
in a newly cut tomb. What I also read was that rock cut tombs were quite
expensive in those days – people would purchase that for themselves and their
family and he uses that very same tomb to bury Jesus. Why? Because I think he
knew Jesus as much more than a Teacher or Leader…he knew him as family! Jesus
knew him and had close fellowship with Joseph. Jesus had invited him into a
familial relationship – way deeper than just friendship or acquaintance.
Because if he knew Jesus only superficially, he would never willingly sacrifice
his reputation, his expensive shroud, or his expensive tomb or even his life. It
was that relationship that mattered at that point.
I was
reading the story of CT Studd yesterday. In the 1800’s, he came from a very
wealthy family with a huge empire and at the same time he was a budding English
cricketer. Some people compared him as the Andrew Flintoff of that time. He got
saved when a visiting preacher came home one day and shared the gospel. Right
then “peace and joy entered his soul….the Bible which he thought was very dry
to him before became everything”.
A few years
after he got saved, his brother George became seriously ill. And it was at that
time that he was confronted with this question “What is all the fame and
flattery worth…when a man comes to face eternity?” He actually admitted that
the last six years of his salvation was in a backslidden state. It’s at that
point where he said he knew cricket and honor would not last, and nothing in
the world would last but it was worthwhile living for the world to come”.
So he gives
up his cricketing career and becomes a missionary to China. After his father
died, he sold off his inheritance worth 24K pounds at that time and gave it to
various charities and mission organizations. Some people might see this and be
like “Are you crazy? Why are you wasting your life? Why are you wasting your
inheritance?” His famous quote was “If Christ be God and He died for me, then
there’s no sacrifice too great for me to make for Him”.
Those are
the words of a man who knew Jesus up close. Sometimes we get into this zone
thinking…oh – but if I need Jesus, then I’ll need to give this up and it’s so
hard. And we always think in terms of what we are going to lose instead of who
we are to gain. The reason why we struggle to give up is because we don’t enjoy
close fellowship with Jesus. Let this truth stir up our hearts once
again…unless we know Jesus and love him and enjoy obedience, we will always
struggle to give up stuff…we will always think about what we are to lose.
Christ enables holiness when we die
with Him
V44-45
tells us that after enduring 6 hours on the cross, Jesus breathed his last and
died. He didn’t faint on the cross neither was his body exchanged at the last
moment before his crucifixion – two worldly theories out there…Jesus died and
his corpse was given to Joseph on his request.
What is the
significance of Jesus’ burial for us as believers? Jesus’ death on the cross
meant that he bore the full wrath of God and the full payment was made for your
sins and mine. But what his burial means is that the position of your sin and
your old life in the sight of God is “Buried”! Who get buried? A dead person. That
burial tomb is a reminder of where your sin & your old way of life lies.
That famous
verse in Romans 6 asks this question “Are
we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!” How can we who died
to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been
baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (Our baptism is a
picture of our union with Christ) 4 We were buried therefore with him by
baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by
the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For those
people who think that grace is an excuse to continue in sin, how does Paul
remind them of the gospel? He points to the fact that when they believed in
Jesus, they were united to his death and burial – which means that your old
life and my old life has been buried! That’s the position. That’s where it
remains.
Christian,
you are no longer the same person! You may be in the same body but if you’ve
believed and surrendered your life, that old person has been buried and now you
have a new life in Christ. And so the picture of the tomb for a believer isn’t
a discouragement but rather an enablement – enabling you to live a holy life
unto God. God’s grace enables us to live in holiness. We aren’t living in
holiness for God’s grace rather we experience God’s grace which results in
holiness.
It’s like a
thief who stole a huge sum of money and got caught and landed up in jail. Due
to the enormous amount he stole, he deserves lifetime imprisonment. Now there’s
a really kind wealthy businessman in the city who hears about this thief and
has compassion on him. He decides to pay the full penalty of the thief and
release him out of jail. Now he’s no longer viewed as a thief or because he has
been set free.
The wealthy businessman takes him in and gives
him a new life. The man sometimes comes to the businessman and tells him how he
has temptations of stealing again and other times it’s the guilt of the past.
Guess what the businessman does? He pulls out the receipt of the payment that
was made on his behalf with the seal that says “Penalty is fully paid. He is
Free”. Will that discourage him or enables him to live honestly? It enables him
to live honestly.
Brothers
and sisters, our time with the Word – especially gospel passage like Romans 6
and others. Being part of a Gospel Community where other believers are telling
you this is vitally important. Why because we tend to forget that we are not
thieves anymore and so we need to be reminded “Penalty is fully paid. You are
free”…Here is the receipt. And that will bolster our spiritual lives and our
walk!
Good morning Gathering!
It is a joy to be with you this morning to celebrate the gospel, and it’s a
privilege to open the Word of God together. Our prayer this morning is that the
Lord would conform us to the image of Jesus.
If you have a Bible,
I’m going to ask you to turn with me to Mark chapter 15. We’re going to read a
pretty big portion of scripture this morning that details the events of Jesus’
crucifixion. We’ll look specifically at verses 21-39. If you’ve been following
along with us in this series, you know what has transpired over the last 24
hours or so.
Jesus has been betrayed; He’s been abandoned; He’s been arrested and bound. He’s been denied; He’s been falsely accused; falsely tried and falsely convicted. He’s been beaten, spat upon and ridiculed. He watched as Barabbas, a known criminal, was set free as He was sentenced to die. He was derided, mocked and scourged so badly that He would have been unrecognizable at this point. And now we come to the account of His death. Let’s read this together. Mark 15:21-39
If you’re like me,
you’ve probably read that text (along with the accompanying crucifixion
passages in Matthew, Luke & John) many times before. I’ve probably read
this text 100 times or more. But there’s something that occurred to me as I was
studying it over the last couple of weeks that hadn’t occurred to me before.
There’s this little phrase in verse 24 that jumped out at me. It says, “And
they crucified Him…”. That’s all Mark really says about the the details of
the actual crucifixion.
So then I went and read
the other accounts in the other 3 gospels, and Matthew, Luke & John were
equally brief. They all talk about some things that Jesus says on the cross.
They talk about different interactions with people who were there and other
details like that. But, when it comes to the crucifixion itself (what actually
happened physically), they all pretty much just say, “He was crucified…”
Here’s why that grabbed
my attention. We tend to focus our thoughts on the physical pain & torture
of the crucifixion of Jesus. And with good reason. This was a horrible way to
die. The Romans had mastered an exceptionally cruel way to kill someone. Where,
with your feet placed together (one on top of the other), they would drive a
large spike through both of your feet & into the wood.
They would then drive
spikes though each one of your hands, likely near the joint, so that your
weight could be supported as you hung. And they were careful in the placement
of the spikes. They didn’t want to hit any major arteries that would give the
victim the luxury of bleeding out. In fact, some people hung there for days
before their heart would give out or their lungs would fill with fluid, to the
point that they were no longer able to breathe.
Our minds tend to go
there because of the brutality and the physical pain that would have been
involved. We think of images from a move like, “The Passion of the Christ” and
we shudder at what Jesus would have endured physically that day.
But the question I
found myself asking is, “Is that really where our minds should go?” “Is that
where Mark and the other gospel writers intended for us to dwell in our
thoughts?” The reality is that this was a common way for people to die. There
were 2 other men that suffered physically that day as well; one on Jesus’ left
and one on His right. In fact, 10’s of thousands of people had suffered that
same death throughout the history of the Roman Empire.
So, it’s not the
physical pain that was unique about what Jesus endured that day. I think that’s
why the gospel writers don’t give us much detail about the physical torment.
They just say, “And they crucified Him…”. But they do give a lot of other
details. And I think Mark’s intention is that we would focus on another aspect
of what Jesus endured that day.
Here it is; I’m just
going to give it to you up front. This is our main idea for this morning, and
it’s summed up in 1 word: SHAME. I don’t
think that Mark is directing our attention to the PAIN of the cross, but to the
SHAME of the cross. Just think about the details that we’ve been studying over
the last several weeks. I’ve already said this in our recap, but let me repeat
it so we can see the flow of these things.
Jesus is rejected,
despised and ridiculed by almost everyone. The Ruling Council and the soldiers,
mocking Him, spitting on Him and busing Him. He was in such bad shape that
someone had to carry His cross for Him. Then they strip Him & crucify Him.
And there He hangs, with no dignity. The ONE who created every person there (in
His image), being hung (unrecognizable) by the ones He created.
We see Him harassed and
ridiculed by the crowds passing by as they lob obscenities at Him, deride Him
and throw His sayings back in His face. “I thought you’d destroy the Temple
& rebuild it in 3 days. How about instead you get yourself off that Cross?
Oh — you can’t!” The Chief Priests & Scribes got in on the ridicule of
Jesus: “He can heal the sick, but can’t help Himself.” Shame, upon shame, upon
shame.
This theme of
abandonment & rejection, starting with Judas’ betrayal of Jesus. Through
his friends falling asleep in His moment of need. Through them fleeing at His
arrest & then Peter’s denial of Him. Through the false trial; the false
accusations; he false imprisonment; the beatings; the flogging; the ridicule;
the abuse; the rejection from nearly everyone. Shame, upon shame, upon shame.
This is where I think Mark wants our minds to be drawn.
Let’s understand that
this is the exact opposite of what Jesus deserved. When you look at His life
& ministry, He loved perfectly; He served perfectly; He healed; He
restored; He brought life; He brought value & worth to everyone He
encountered. He infused hope where there was no hope. He mended things that
were desperately broken. All that He was and all that He did was good &
right. And yet, here He is suffering the worst SHAME imaginable. So, what can
we learn from this and how can that drive us deeper into the gospel & cause
our lives to look different?
Here it is church (and
we all desperately need to hear this truth):
Jesus didn’t just bear your sin on the cross, He also bore your SHAME. I
want to say that again because it’s important. Jesus did bear our sin on the
cross, to be sure. But He also bore our SHAME on the cross. I want you to think
about your life right now, as it relates to shame. Shame for your past. Shame
for your current failings & struggles.
Shame because of what
other people think of you (maybe what your family thinks of you because you
decided to follow Jesus). Shame for what you think of yourself; that you’re not
good enough or you don’t measure up. Shame for any number of reasons. Shame is
a crushing burden. It’s not just a feeling, or a way of thinking, it’s an
experience. Where you’re experiencing yourself as defective, empty, worthless
and trashed.
What I’m saying is that
Jesus took all of that on Himself, on the cross, for you. To the point where I
can say with confidence this morning that if you are experiencing shame in your
life on a regular basis, you’re not experiencing the gospel the way that God
intends for you to. Because you will know the truth, and the truth will SET YOU
FREE. The gospel brings freedom from sin and all of its effects, and that
includes our shame.
But the truth is that
most of us do deal with shame in varying degrees. So how do we see the gospel
applied to our lives in a way that drives out shame and replaces it with the
truth that we are fully accepted & approved by God in Jesus Christ? That’s
the question I want us to wrestle with in these next few minutes.
And, here’s how I think
we can get at it. I want to walk you through this and show you how it works
with the hope that, if we’re able to see clearly how the enemy works, and what
Christ has done to defeat it, we can put on right belief this morning and walk
in that. So, to understand this, we have to go all the way back to the garden
(Genesis chapter 3) and the fall of man.
You don’t have to turn
there, because you know the story. I can just recap this for us a bit. You have
Adam & Eve living in perfect communion with God. They’re with Him; they’re
in His presence; they’re worshipping and enjoying God the way we were all
created to. And we get a picture of this spiritual freedom because of the fact
that they were naked, and they were cool with that!
That’s a horrifying
thought for us now, isn’t it? We have actual nightmares about that; about being
naked in public places. But, it wasn’t like that for Adam & Eve in the
beginning because there was no sin & there was no shame. God was enough for
them, until He wasn’t. You know the story.
They’re tempted by the
Serpent, they didn’t trust God, but instead they went their own way and ate
fruit from the tree that was forbidden by God. And sin entered the picture. And
what did they immediately do after sin enters the picture? They cover
themselves & they hide from God. That’s how we know that shame entered with
sin, because that’s what you do when you’re ashamed; you hide.
And, when that
happened, separation from God happened. Adam & Eve were driven from the
Garden and man no longer had direct access to God. That’s why we see the
concept of a mediator introduced and then portrayed throughout the Old
Testament. It’s why this thick curtain separated the Holy of Holies from the
rest of the Tabernacle.
It symbolized the
separation that sin brought between us & God. And this is what makes the
gospel so glorious and so beautiful. Jesus is our mediator. Jesus is our
substitute. Jesus is our prophet, priest & king. Jesus died in our place,
with our sin upon His shoulders. And, when He did, He severed the root of
shame. 1 John 3:8, “The devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason
the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” Jesus came to
destroy Satan, sin and death. And that includes the shame that exists in us, as
a result of sin.
So here’s the tension
that we feel. We still give ourselves over to sin, don’t we? Of course we do. 1
John 1:10, “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is
not in us.” So, when we sin, we feel that sense of shame return. And that makes
sense because sin is shameful; it’s disgraceful. But, it’s not like it was
before Jesus came. The paradigm has completely changed. Jesus bore our SIN
& our SHAME on that cross.
And, in doing that, He
has taken them from you and given you His righteousness. This is why, as we
just read, the curtain was torn in two when Jesus completed His work on the
cross. No more separation! No more shame! No more needing to hide from God!
Jesus has completely reoriented how we see sin & shame in our lives. Now,
we don’t have to hide from God anymore. Instead of running into the bushes, we
can run into His because Jesus has made a way.
In fact, let me work
toward closing our time by continuing to read this passage in 1 John. This is
chapter 2, verses 1 & 2. If you’d like to turn there, that would be great.
I really want for us to key in on what John is saying here. “My little
children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if
anyone does sin, we have an ADVOCATE with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous. He is the PROPITIATION for our sins.”
For the Non-Christian:
Jesus is the only way for you to have sin & shame removed from you, and
have righteousness (right standing) before God. People will spend their entire
lives trying to earn something that can only be obtained by grace & through
faith. They will spend their entire lives trying to find joy, peace,
satisfaction & fulfillment in things that will never bring them. Those
things are found ONLY IN CHRIST.
For the Christian: The
only way to live in freedom from sin & shame is for you to continually
allow the gospel to wash over your heart and believe that these things are true
of you. We must learn to preach the gospel continually to our hearts and battle
unbelief with the truth of the gospel. When the enemy comes to you with guilt
and shame, tell him to go measure how far the east is from the west and get
back to you, because that’s how far God has removed your sin and shame.
Good morning church! It’s a pleasure to be sharing the Word with you. As a church we have been reading through the gospel of Mark. Right now we are in Mark 14 and as we are turning to today’s text let me share a small context.
The setting
is right at the home of the high priest. Jesus has been arrested and is on
trial. All of his disciples have abandoned him. Jesus is all alone as He is
being insulted, accused, beaten and humiliated as He reveals His identity as
the Son of God. And in the midst of that we have a passage on Peter that
totally transforms his life! Let’s look at v 66-72.
I still
remember how amazing the first week was after I surrendered my life to Jesus
Christ. Everything was so great! I enjoyed fellowship with God – reading the
Word and prayer. I had brand new desires to grow in holiness. I wanted to grow
with other believers. But I quickly realized that I became more and more aware
of the sin in my life and some sin patterns were repeated and frequent. I
started going back to God asking for forgiveness.
First time, second time, tenth time…by the
time it reached the hundredth I began questioning if it was possible for me to
lose my salvation. Surely God has lost patience by now. And that left me really
insecure for some time because I thought it was up to me to keep my commitment
to Jesus. It was around that time –
alongside other believers and a weekly bible study that I where my whole
understanding of the gospel changed drastically. What is it that holds our
relationship with Christ together? What happens when our best efforts and
intentions fail in our relationship with Christ? Today’s passage helps us
answer this:
We are prone to be unfaithful to God
This
incident of Peter denying Jesus is mentioned in all 4 gospels. We know that the
gospel writer Mark was mentored by Peter, so the account in the gospel Mark is
through the lens of Peter. Why would Peter mention such an embarrassing story?
If we were to write an autobiography, we would probably exclude the bad and
embarrassing stories about ourselves. Why mention this? I think the first
reason is to show how we all are prone to be unfaithful to God. Peter, even
though he was a key leader among the disciples of Jesus was unfaithful to God.
We see that displayed in:
False promises (v29-31):
29 Peter said to him, “Even though they all
fall away, I will not.” 30 And Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very
night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” 31 But he
said emphatically, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” And they all
said the same.
Peter
seemed quite confident that he will never deny Christ even to the point of
death. Now we know that Peter is known for being impulsive. During the
transfiguration, he sees Jesus standing in glory with Moses and Elijah and he
tells Jesus that he’ll make three tents for each of them.
We know he is impulsive but before we quickly
make our judgments, let’s realize that he isn’t too different from us. He is a
reflection of what goes on in our hearts. I’m sure he had the best intentions
when Peter made the promise but his promise ultimately turned out to be false
and empty.
How many of
us have ever promised after a Sunday sermon – “I will do better next time. I
will pray more from tomorrow onwards. I will spend more time in the Bible from
tomorrow morning. I will cut off a particular sin pattern from my life”? I’ve
done this myself.
Even though we say we know the gospel, isn’t
it true that our responses sometimes to a sermon on a Sunday morning is
self-help? And what we don’t admit a lot of the times is that we make a lot of
false promises to God. Even as we are singing some of the songs we do, do we
make false promises? “I’m coming back to the heart of worship…it’s all about
you…it’s all about you Jesus”. Is it really about Him? Even our best intended
promises turn out to be false.
Fearful Heart
54 And Peter had followed him at a distance,
right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he was sitting with the guards
and warming himself at the fire. (v54)
In some
verses earlier we see that guards were right next to Peter as he was being
confronted by the servant girl. And Peter saw what happened to Jesus. He was
beaten, spat at, humiliated and pronounced guilty of death.
Associating
himself with Jesus would mean inviting the very same consequences. Even though
he gave Jesus a very bold assurance a few verses earlier, when it came down to
the actual moment he was overcome by fear. He wasn’t ready to be beaten,
humiliated and to die for Jesus.
In our
current situations in life – be it at work or home or personal life – do we see
ourselves more often than not operate out of fear or faith? Big question I
know. But let’s ask ourselves – are we more likely to make choices and
decisions in our lives based on fear of consequences and people or do we make
choices out of faith in Christ?
Failing loyalty
67 and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked
at him and said, “You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus.” 68 But he denied it,
saying, “I neither know nor understand what you mean.”
69 And the servant girl saw him and began again
to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.” 70 But again he denied it.
And after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, “Certainly you are
one of them, for you are a Galilean.” 71 But he began to invoke a curse on
himself and to swear, “I do not know this man of whom you speak.”
In these
three denials, we can see a failing loyalty to Christ. Peter was one of the
closest people to Jesus. He was one of the three in the inner circle. He spent
3 ½ years with Jesus seeing Jesus do marvelous things for people & teach
with authority & live an impeccable life. But at this very moment, when he
was asked about being with Jesus – he disowned Jesus. He rejected knowing him.
He refused
to accept any association with Jesus. That’s because it revealed what he truly
valued and treasured in his heart. He had to chose between the idols in his
heart and Jesus and he chose the idols. He chose himself over Jesus.
Have we
ever seen this failing loyalty in our hearts? Calvin said that our heart is a
factory of idols. We are regularly churning out more and more idols that are
competing for the affections of our heart. And when do we see our idols? On a
stressful day, what or whom do we turn to for relief? When we are sad and
upset, what do we turn to comfort us? When we are bored and idle, what or whom
do we turn to automatically? And if we are being absolutely honest, we’ll admit
that we will see a failing loyalty. We don’t always say that Jesus is better.
The famous
hymn “Come thy fount” has an interesting line in one of its verses which says
“Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love”. What I’m
trying to say is that we can’t rely on our promises, or our heart, or our
loyalty to sustain and keep this relationship. Why? Because our promises are
false, our hearts are fearful and our loyalty is failing.
Whenever we come before the throne of God, we
need to admit that we are prone to be unfaithful. Even our best intentions and
our best efforts to keep up our commitment will end up in being unfaithful. Our
position after listening to God’s Word cannot be “I will do better” but rather
a humble position “I don’t know what’s going on in my heart. I know I’m prone
to be unfaithful. Lord, help me!”
But if we are only left with this truth that we are prone to be unfaithful, we will be left in despair. But the best truth is that:
Christ still remains faithful towards us
27 And Jesus said to them, “You will all fall
away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be
scattered.’ 28 But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.”
Already in
verses 27,28 along with Jesus’ prophecy on the denial and abandonment, He
already spoke about meeting with them after He is raised up!! Even though we
are prone to be unfaithful, Christ will still be faithful to us.
Christ’s faithfulness is not based on our
faithfulness. He will remain faithful irrespective because He cannot go against
His character. And He upholds this relationship and commitment. But what does
that look like tangibly in a relationship where I am prone to be unfaithful?
Christ desires repentance by revealing our sin
72 And immediately the rooster crowed a second
time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows
twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept. [j]
The purpose
in Jesus telling Peter that he would deny him 3 times before the rooster crows
twice was not to insult him or tell him “Aha…I told you so” or to condemn him.
But the purpose was to draw Peter to repentance by revealing his sin.
Prior to
this incident, Peter probably thought he was the most committed guy to Jesus.
But this whole incident revealed the opposite because of the idols in his
heart. Because Jesus treasures the relationship He has with us, He will always
bring to light areas in our life which will need to be repented of.
And we see
the repentance being reflected in the sorrow Peter showed over his sin. Imagine
this… think about a close relationship that you have. Married people – think
about the relationship with your spouse. Unmarried people – think about the
relationship with someone in your family. If you’ve done something to offend
them and deeply hurt them, wouldn’t you feel sorrowful over what you’ve done?
You couldn’t just sit and be normal.
When you know that you’ve hurt someone you
love, it will grieve you. So even in our relationship with Christ, when the
Holy Spirit brings to light areas of sin in our hearts, if we are truly
genuinely repentant we will mourn over our sin. I’m not saying you need to
manipulate your tears but respond as you would to any close relationship.
2 Cor 7: 9
says For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without
regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
Christ produces faithfulness by redeeming our lives
Few weeks
after this very same incident, we see Peter boldly preaching on the Day of
Pentecost before a large crowd. The Word says that they were cut to the heart.
And they asked him “What must we do to be saved?” And Peter said to them
“Repent and be baptized everyone of you in name of Jesus for the forgiveness of
sins”.
Sometime
after that – Peter and John are called in by the Sanhedrin in Acts 4. These are
powerful religious authorities. They
charge them to stop teaching in the name of Jesus. What do Peter and John say?
“You judge for yourselves if it is right in the sight of God to listen to you
or obey God for, we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard!”
What
brought about such a drastic change? I think it was Peter realizing that His
loving Savior died & rose again on the third Day for him even though he
rejected and refused to associate with Him. Peter realized how Christ was
faithful to Him despite His unfaithfulness. And that stirred up his heart in
repentance. I hope you see the two sides of repentance: one is the mourning
over sin the other is the turning away from sin – both being motivated by the
unlimited kindness and faithfulness shown toward you.
Brothers
and sisters, what is hope for all of us who see ourselves failing in our
commitment? It’s not based on our intentions, our promises, our heart and
emotions, our loyalty but it’s based on Christ’s faithfulness toward us.
Do you want to truly repent today? Ask God to
reveal your sin so that you can mourn over what offends God. And then ask God
to fill your heart with so much love in what Christ has done so that you can
turn away from unfaithfulness.
In this sermon, we will be looking at a somewhat tricky as well a relevant passage. Let me warn you that this is not one of those passages that brings comfort to the soul. Instead, this passage will disturb us, convict us but at the same time also bring hope and assurance of God’s love and his faithfulness.
If I were a prosperity preacher I wouldn’t have preached from this passage because there is nothing in this passage that gives a prosperity feeling; instead, it gives us goosebumps and makes us uncomfortable.
I’m thankful that we choose to preach through the books of the Bible, and that we’ve stumbled upon this important passage this morning.
Let us come to God with an open mind and a humble spirit as we read from our passage today which is Mark 13:14-27
[READ]
The context of this passage is that as Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” 2 And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
Our later passages reveal that Jesus was, in fact, talking about the destruction of the temple.
And as Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives, a couple of disciples privately asked him “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?”
In response, Jesus warns them against Counterfeits, Calamities & Persecution. Brother Jinson, in his last sermon, explained to us what our faithful reaction should be when we encounter counterfeits, calamities & persecution.
In our passage today Jesus continues his conversation and points the disciples to two events.
The first event is the destruction of the temple that was supposed to happen in their generation and to those people as per the prophecy made by Daniel which is recorded in the book of Daniel chapter 9. And the second event is the final day when Christ, the son of God will appear in heaven.
As per bible scholars, the destruction of the temple occurred in the year 175-64 B.C when a King Antiochus who ruled Palestine treated Israel with violence and contempt. When the people stood against him, he came with his forces, entered the temple, stopped the regular sacrifices, set up an idol of Zeus on the altar. This is an abomination because it is idolatry, and it brings desolation because it defiles the holy place at the heart of Israel. This act was the abomination “of” desolation, the abomination “causing” desolation.
And the second event, which Jesus talks about is his return, which is yet to be fulfilled. Which means, for us today, on a timeline we are somewhere right in the middle of these two events.
For those of you who are wondering about the difference in time between these two events, 2 Peter 3:8-9 tells us that a 100 years is like a day for God. Which means according to God’s calender it just been 2 days.
And for those who want to know when are the end times. The answer is we are in the end times. The end times began right after Jesus was ascended to heaven.
If I have to use a military analogy, then we are right now in the enemies camp where Satan is the god of this world. (2 Cor 4:4) We are living in an era where suffering, persecution, false prophets, false preaching of the Gospel is rampant.
We live in a world where world peace is just a dream. No matter which political party or leader arise to make this world a better place. We will never see that accomplished until the coming of our Lord Jesus.
Satan is ruling the hearts and minds of many and the people he hates the most is the elect children of God.
According to a report published by an organisation called Open Doors in Jan 2018, 1 in 12 Christians all over the world live in a place where Christianity is illegal, forbidden or are punished.
We all are under the schemes of the enemy, either physical, mental or spiritual where he is using every possible tool to take away our affections for God and erect an idol in our heart, mind and soul.
But there is a day coming when Christ our saviour will return to his chosen people, and take us out of this earth. It is written in 1 Cor 15:52, in a twinkle of an eye, we will be taken up with Christ.
Remember, this promise is only for those who’ve genuinely put their faith in Christ.
We were once in the enemies of God, born in sin, lived sinful lives, destined to die the eternal death. But God in his great mercy sent his son Jesus to rescue us from this wicked world by taking our punishment and dying in our place. And it is only when we repent of our sins and put our trust in Jesus that we are called his elect.
I want to urge you, therefore, If anyone in this room who haven’t repented of their sins and hadn’t honestly put their faith in Christ, I want to urge you to do so without delay. So that you may also be rescued from this wicked world and taken up in heaven when our saviour Jesus comes.
This morning, my intention is not to spend time predicting the events and dissecting the prophetic fulfilment. But I want to focus more on what does all this mean to us today and how do we live our lives in the midst of all this.
I want to share 4 practical instructions I see in the text that can help us navigate our journey in this period of suffering, persecution and trouble.
1.We have to be well informed & alert
4 “But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
Jesus to telling “let the reader understand”
A reader is someone who is a well-informed person. And then he says “When you see the Abomination of Desolation standing, run to the mountains.”
Tell me. What happens in a war when people are stuck in the enemies camp and they are totally lost and unaware of what’s happening around them? They die.
In a battle, the enemy will do anything to keep our minds distracted, so that, when we are attached we are clueless.
1 Peter 5:8 says “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. “
We need to identify areas in our life where the enemy is keeping us occupied & distracted?
For some of you, he’s kept you distracted with the pleasures of this world
For some with all kinds of personal problems (within the family, within the church, etc)
For some with great Career aspirations
For some with the lust of the flesh
For some with pride of Life
And because of our distracted pursuits apart from living out the plan and purpose of God in our lives we’ve put ourselves in situations and in places that are danger zones.
In Colossians 4 Paul writes “Pray diligently. Stay alert, with your eyes wide open in gratitude. Use your heads as you live and work among outsiders. Don’t miss a trick. Make the most of every opportunity.”
Brother and sisters, in this battle, if we do not stay well-informed & alert, we will get injured, and we will die in the hands of the enemy.
A well informed Christian is one who is reading and meditating on the scriptures day and night. Looking for clues and answers to difficult circumstances and finding ways to tackle them in Godly ways.
We have to be aware of our own weaknesses and how to protect our lives from our own self.
We have to know the truth of God’s word in its entirety so that we are not swayed away by false prophets, wrong doctrines and false gospels.
2. We have to take careful steps
The second instruction I see in the passage is to take careful steps and flee when the enemy comes to destroy our soul and erect an Idol in place of God.
It is not enough for us to be well-informed, but we also need to be obedient and take necessary actions to flee from evil.
The meaning of the word Abomination of Desolation is the Establishment of an Idol in place of God that has the potential to bring destruction.
By idols, I just don’t mean the physical structures made out of mud and sand but also the hidden idols in our hearts that take away our place of affection for God.
It could be a person in your life
It could be a thing in your life
It could be a desire in your life
Our job can become an idol
Our children can become our idols
Mark 13:14-18 Jesus
“But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 Let the one who is on the housetop not go down, nor enter his house, to take anything out, 16 and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. 17 And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! 18 Pray that it may not happen in winter.
Jesus is saying when you see the sign of the Abomination of Desolation, his instruction is to flee.
When we are in places, in relationships, in circumstances where the enemy is trying to erect an idol in our heart, we have to flee from it.
Paul often uses the words ‘flee’ in his letters to help us draw near to God.
1 Corinthians 10:14
Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
2 Timothy 2:22
So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
1 Corinthians 6:18
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
If we have to survive, don’t let the enemy construct an idol in your heart, a place where God dwells and take necessary action whenever it is required.
To the extreme where Jesus said in Matthew 5:29 “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.”
3. We have to depend on the Master’s providence
V20. And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days.
What this verse suggests is that even in times of trouble, suffering and persecution, the Lord’s grace & providence is always upon us.
He works everything for the good of those who love and trust in him.
When we are in the battle, there will be temptations to trust in our humanly instincts and abilities which can lead us to more trouble. But instead, we have to always trust in God’s providence for the moment.
Whether we face people who threaten us, situations that seem dangerous, temptations that push us to the limits. Always trust in God’s providence and his grace.
We see Paul’s dependence on God’s providence as he writes in 2 Cor 12:10 “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong”.
In his weakness, he knows he can trust in God’s strength.
And our greatest comfort comes from the presence of the Spirit of God dwelling among us. So trust in God’s providence and not on our strength.
Ask more for his Holy Spirit and Pray diligently at all times. And he will guide us at every step of our lives.
4. We have to wait for the Master’s return
And finally, we have to spend your days waiting for the Master to return and take you with him without losing hope.
24 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
In the light of the latter event of our Lords coming back for us, we have to be like the 5 virgins mentioned in Matthew 25:1-13 who kept their lamps burning until they saw the bridegroom arrive.
We can’t give up, no matter how badly we are injured. No matter how secluded our life has become while living in the enemy’s territory.
We have to hope in the Lord and his promises.
A day will come when our Lord, our saviour will come to take us with him. Even if we are dead physically, our bodies will rise and meet with our Lord and saviour.
We ought to live with hope in our hearts, that we will one day enter into his presence with joy and satisfaction.
Conclusion
As I conclude, let us examine our lives. Have we been living all these days carelessly?
Distracted with the things of the world and uninformed of the truths. Are we failing to take careful steps and make wise decisions for our lives? Are we failing to depend on the providence and grace of God? Are we living without hope?
