Podcast Powered By Podbean
Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts
be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
The hymn we just finished singing
is one of my favorites. One of the reasons I like it is because to sing it I
can drop my voice into one low bass note and just keep singing. The fewer notes
I have to hit, the less time I spend singing out of key. More than that of
course, the lyrics fill me with a sense of joy that I cannot explain. These
simple words written nearly 200 years ago say what I have spent years
proclaiming from the pulpit.
What wondrous love is this? O my
soul, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this, O my
soul!
What wondrous love is this which caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the heavy cross for my
soul, for my soul
To bear the heavy cross for my
soul.[1]
You’ll notice an asterisk, star
key, in the last couple of lines. This notice tells us that the original text
didn’t say “heavy cross.” It said “dreadful curse.” I can’t tell you why the
committee that put together the hymnal decided to make this change. This I will
say: If it were not for the dreadful curse of sin which only Jesus could bear,
he would not have needed to bear the heavy cross for my soul.
What kind of love is it that bears
the heavy cross for my soul? What kind of love is it that bears the dreadful
curse for my soul? It is the love of God who so loved the world that he gave
his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have
eternal life. It’s as easy as that.
I guess I could wrap up the sermon
with that and we could sing some more songs, but I haven’t clued Georgia or Al[2] in
on that plan and I do have something to add.
Our call to worship began with a
declaration of Thanksgiving to the Lord our God. This snippet from Psalm 107
begins, “We give you thanks, O God, for you are good; your steadfast love
endures forever.”[3] This
“steadfast love” has a special translation. Actually, the Hebrew word “ds,x,”
(pronounced hesed) cannot be directly translated in English.
The word means “love,” that’s for
certain. But it means much, much more. Other translations use the words phrases
like “steadfast love” or “faithful love.”[4]
Others use words like “lovingkindness”[5] (yes,
as one word) and “mercy.”[6]
Still others don’t bother to say anything more than simply “love.”
But this word can also mean things
like faithfulness, goodness, and graciousness. This kind of love points to the
proof of God’s mercy.[7]
Other sources say it points to evidence of God’s grace.[8]
Just looking at the witness of translation and interpretation, this love, this ds,x,,
is truly a wonder of God.
Paul’s words to the Ephesians say
more about the scope and wonder of God’s love. Paul writes that while we were
dead in transgressions, to sin, God who is rich in mercy made us alive in
Christ. It is by grace that we are saved. There is nothing we can do to earn
this salvation. It’s funny; I’m of the opinion that whenever we try to earn our
salvation we invariably do things that actually thwart God’s work in the world.
So much for what I think, let‘s get
back to Paul’s epistle to the people at Ephesus.
While we were dead in
transgressions, Christ raised us to new life, eternal life. This is not a life
to be lived after we pass from this world. No, there is still sin in this
world-this is true, but Paul says the life in Christ is here for us today.
Through the grace of God, we were
made alive together with Christ and raised up with him and seated with him in
the heavenly places. This is done to show the incomparable riches of God’s
grace expressed in his kindness to us through Jesus. It is by grace through
faith and not by ourselves that we have been saved.
That last sentence is something
that needs to be remembered, “It is by grace through faith and not by ourselves
that we have been saved.” We have been saved. It’s not we will nor is it we
were. We have been. By the actions of the Father and the Son, events that
happened two-thousand years ago, we have been saved. The actions taken in the
past have repercussions into the future. A future that is our present and a
future that is still our future.
The world is set for us to do God’s
good works through the power of the Holy Spirit. By the work of Christ this
power is available to us to do what Paul’s calls, the good works God prepared
in advance for us to do.
Friends, this is the reason for our
salvation. This is the reason for the Gospel. To respond to our salvation,
freely given by Christ on the cross, we are called to do the good works which
God prepared in advance for us to do.
To God and to the Lamb, I will
sing, I will sing,
To God and to the Lamb I will sing,
To God and to the Lamb who is the
Great I AM,
While millions join the theme, I
will sing, I will sing,
While millions join the theme, I
will sing,
We sing unto the lamb because he
came so that all who believe may have eternal life. Being saved through grace
gives us something to sing about. We don’t have to work to earn the love of the
Heavenly Father, the promise of God’s love has been with creation since the
beginning and was shown in full flower on the cross. This leads us to something
important, God’s work on the cross was not human work; it was God’s work. Even
death on the cross was not human works, it was God’s. Indeed, God did not send
his Son into the world to condemn it but to save it.
So know this, this may be one of
the most difficult principles of scripture, God did not come to condemn the
world. God did not come to condemn you or me. God came to save us all. God came
to reconcile the Holy Triune Lord with all of creation. This is important for
at least three reasons I can think of.
For one, if you listen to some
folks they’ll tell you that you don’t deserve God’s love. It doesn’t take long
watching the wrong folks on TV before you can believe that God wants nothing
more than to smite your very being from the face of the earth because of your
sin. Well if that was the way it worked then the only person on earth would be
a carpenter from Nazareth
Again, we can’t earn God’s love. We
don’t deserve God’s love. That’s what makes it a gift. By God’s work on the
cross we have all received the gift. The only question that remains is whether
we’re going to open and enjoy the gift or not.
Next, we tend to not believe it. I
get this one, I understand this one more than you can imagine. I have had a lot
of trouble in this life believing God’s love is for me. Sure, I see other
people bathe in God’s love, but there were days when I wondered if that love
was meant for me too. And on too many days I concluded the answer was “no.”
This is another lie. God’s love is
meant for you and for me too. I don’t believe I’m so different from some who
will hear and read this sermon. Some people will say to themselves, “Maybe for
you, but God’s love is not for me.” Trust me, it’s true, God’s love is for us
all.
On the other hand, don’t trust me.
As a man, I can only point to works and as we’ve said, works can be worthless.
Works can be misunderstood even in the easiest times. Open yourself to God’s
saving grace, the grace that you have already been given. Not believing is like
taking a shower in a raincoat. You may be in the midst of the cool, refreshing,
cleansing water, but you aren’t going to get wet.
Finally, we don’t seem to act like we
have been reconciled with God from time to time. There are times in traffic
that we offer gestures featuring only 20% of our fingers when we wave our
hands. There are times when we insult one another because we don’t understand
one another. There are incidents of genocide which prove we don’t live fully
into the gift we have been given.
But those who do what is true come
to the light. We don’t live in it perfectly, and won’t on this side of glory.
Still, we are called to do what is true so that it may be clearly be seen that
our deeds are done in God.
There are some things that are
unavoidable for the preacher. John 3:16 is one of them. Since I have been in the pulpit, I have
preached this piece from John’s gospel three times. Today makes four. So now
for the fourth time, I share this thought on this most beloved of all bible
passages. Page ten of the current edition of the Gideon Bible contains this in
the introduction:
“There is a verse in the Bible which has been translated into more than
1,100 languages. It tells of One who
loved us with an everlasting love. The
verse is here recorded in 27 languages of the world which are understood by
more than three-quarters of the earth’s population. That verse is John 3:16.”[9]
The introduction continues with this verse translated into
languages ranging from Afrikaans to Vietnamese.
These simple words have a tremendous impact on people everywhere. “For God
so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in
him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
Some call this “the
Gospel in a nutshell.” Others call it a
confessional summary of the Gospel.
Believers and unbelievers alike have a special connection to this verse. For many, this verse is seen as the answer. It is an answer, the answer to the question
of what God’s steadfast love looks like, and one of the things it looks like is
shown in our responses.
I have been asked about doing a
good old fashioned altar call in worship. Well, I must admit I am not comfortable
with that. A part of it is my upbringing. Part of it is my training. Part of it
is our polity which requires session approval of baptisms. Part of it is that
it is not in our practice to have water in the font every Sunday.
Part of it is that we Presbyterians believe what Paul
teaches the Ephesians, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were
called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one
God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all”[10]
so the baptized don’t need multiple baptisms.
So if I’m not going to have an altar call today, if I’m
not going to invite folks to come down to the river, there is something I will
do. I invite everyone here today to dedicate themselves to respond to John 3:16,
the “gospel in a nutshell,” with John 3:21. I ask everyone here today to
dedicate themselves to do what is true so that it may be clearly seen. I ask us
all to do good deeds that all will know are done in God.
If you want to say, “I’m too old,” I say to you that the
wisdom of your walk with the Lord has not gone out of fashion. If you want to
say “I am too young,” I say to you in a couple of months you’ll have your
chance to lead worship. You will have your chance to read scripture or song or
read in worship. If you want to say, “I’m too busy,” I say to you “Really?”
What is more important than serving God? Yes, some of us are very, very busy,
but is anyone too busy? Is it impossible to spare an hour? To be too busy for
God is to be too busy for eternal life.
And when from death I’m
free, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on,
And when from death I’m
free, I’ll sing on,
And when from death I’m
free, I’ll sing and joyful be
And through eternity
I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on
And through eternity
I’ll sing on.
Speaking of eternal
life, to be free from death is to live fully. To be free from death is eternal
life. It is meant to begin in this world and continue to the next. Through
eternity let’s all sing on.
[1] “What
Wondrous Love is This” set to the tune of “Wondrous Love.” Lyric from Walker
[2] Our
pianist and song leader respectively.
[3] Kirk,
James G., “When We Gather, A Book of Prayers for Worship, Revised Edition, For
Years A, B, and C.” Louisville ,
KY
[4] New
Living Translation
[5] New
American Standard Bible
[6] Jerusalem
[9] Holy
Bible, King James Version, Gideon International, page 10.
[10]
Ephesians 4:4-6
No comments:
Post a Comment