Bob’s Blog

God calls Jesus-followers to a race worth running where we daily face the temptation to walk off the track and hang up the spikes.

This is Sr. Adult Sunday. It is a great opportunity to show our appreciation to our older generation of Jesus-followers who stay in the race of life. If it were not for the ongoing life and ministry of our Senior Adults over the years at Christ First, the advancement of the work of Christ would certainly be handicapped, if not existent.

Several years ago in the Boston Marathon, a woman by the name of Ruiz cheated. Or at least many people feel she cheated. As she crossed the finish line a Boston reporter stuck a microphone in her face and said, “Ma’am, you’re either the fastest runner in the world, or you’re a fraud. Can we talk?”

Do we ever feel like a fraud? If we don’t then there is a great occupation for us. We should be a preacher or a teacher in the church. Why? Well, There are times when I come to the lectern and know all too well what I have been wrestling with during the week. Battling temptations, mostly winning, but sometimes sinning! Like all of us, I praise God for his grace that allows me to continue, often times in spite of myself.

Let’s ask another crucial question on this Senior Adult Sunday.

Have you ever felt like walking off the track and hanging up the spikes?

This question is not just directed to our Senior Adults. At times, all of us are tempted to walk off the track and hang up the spikes. Young or old, sometimes it seems the track is eating us up rather than the other way around. Sometimes, it just feels like we’re getting nowhere fast. Our best attempts at following Jesus just don’t seem to be working. Do we feel like this? Our worship with God’s people is a bit sluggish. Our prayer life is basically on a “need to have it now, Lord” basis. Our Bible study is limited to a new year’s resolution to read through the Bible in a year. Our service for Jesus has lost its passion and excitement. Sharing our faith has become something of an embarrassment because we’re not sure we have anything to offer, because we feel a bit empty.

There is a story about the man who had a sick mule. He called in a vet and after examining the mule in the barn, the vet said, “You give him one of these white pills. This is a truly amazing pill—miraculous. When you give the mule this pill, he’s going to get well. I’ve seen it happen over and over again. But if that doesn’t work, although, I’m sure it will, then give him this red pill. You give him the red pill and it will cure almost anything.”

Two weeks later the vet saw the farmer and said, “How’s your old mule?” The farmer said, “Doc, you wouldn’t believe it. I gave him that little white pill and that old mule jumped up off the floor and knocked down the barn door. He jumped over 3 fences, knocked down the fourth and just took off across the fields. Doc, if I hadn’t had the presence of mind to take that red pill myself, I never would have caught up with him!”

We live in a medicated society. In fact, we are known to medicate before we meditate. Pill consumption is rapidly increasing, especially for Senior Adults. We take all kinds of pills—white, yellow, brown, orange, and yes, even red pills!

We’re going to be offered 4 red pills that will help us to run the race before us all the way to the end. To run it so well that when the words “I quit” and “I give up” crop up in our minds, we know what to do and how to do it.

A Race Worth Running

The metaphor at work here is of a race. A picture of the Christian life as a race, and we’re in it! The starting blocks are when we surrendered to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and the finish line is the last breath exploding from our lungs as we stride across the finish line into the arms of Jesus. This race worth running is described in Hebrews 12:1-2:

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

The writer to the Hebrews motivates us to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles” in order to run the race with endurance. When we are tired and feel like dropping out of the race, seeing Jesus will help us to keep running. When we even want to turn back, focusing on Jesus will reassure us that the glory ahead is well worth the present pain.

If those days come when we feel like walking off the track and hanging up our spikes, we must remember these 4 red pills; they’re just what the Great Physician ordered!

We look up when we are in need of encouragement

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses…

The author paints for us that we’re the contestants, not armchair quarterbacks. We’re in the race. The crowds are those who have gone on before us, who have already finished the race, who are urging us on, cheering us on. They’re shouting our names. They’re standing as we fly by them. Their cheers echo off the stadium walls. They’re in our corner. They want us to win.

When the race is long and our lungs are gasping for air, and we have a stitch in our side, we look up. We look at the stadium, and even though we can’t see them with mortal eyes, they’re there. They’re pulling for us. We can almost hear their shouts of encouragement.

Perhaps we’ve heard about the young boy who was taught at Sunday school that Eve was formed from the rib of Adam. She was made to be his wife. The boy was so excited by the story that he ran all the way home to tell his mom and dad. As he was running, his side began to hurt and ache. As he arrived home his mom asked him if there was something wrong. The boy, anxiously holding his side, was heard to say, “I think I’m about to have a wife.”

We can be like that here at 200 N. Second. We can be each other’s cheerleaders. Determining when someone feels defeated, when they’re down in the dumps, when they feel like a fraud, that we love them and we’re in their corner. We’re cheering them on and pulling for them. We need each other to be cheerleaders. We need to know there are those who are praying and pulling for us.

Let’s listen to one of the passages of Hebrews that needs to be practiced at 200 N. Second….

Hebrews 3:13-14
But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. ¹⁴ We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold firmly till the end our original conviction.

“Pastor Bob, are these needs really being overlooked?” I don’t know. Who have we singled out this last week to encourage in the Lord? Who have we called to say, “I’m praying for you this week”?

Friends, if we’re feeling defeated today, perhaps even sensing that we’re a failure in the Lord, these people are in our corner. But they’re going to have to let us know.

When we’re feeling like walking off the track and hanging up our spikes, we look up!

Are we ready for the second red pill?

We lighten up when we are in need of movement

¹ let us throw off everything that hinders…

We are to remove any kind of weight that would impede our progress in our race. Sometimes it refers to extra body weight the athlete sheds during training. Athletes carry nothing with them when they run. Now, we must not blush, but during the times we’re currently talking about, they barely even wore clothes. This seems to be what the Hebrew author wants us to consider. No, not running naked, but traveling through life lightly.

Friends, not everything that can weigh us down is sinful. There are many good things that might be cluttering up our mind with worry, anxiety, and frustration, that are not in themselves sinful. But, we’re feeling the weight of them anyway.

What in life is beginning to weigh us down and affecting our walk with the King? Does the weigh come from our job, the mortgage payment, our debt load, a relationship, or all the extra things we’re involved in? All of which may be good things, but they’re keeping us from ministry, from devotions, from prayer, even from worship attendance, where we know God really wants us to be.

The advice from the book of Hebrews is to throw off these things—lighten up. Obviously, there are some things we can get rid of and other things we’d probably better hang on to. If our spouse is hindering our walk, we don’t go home today and toss them in the street and say Pastor Bob told me to—especially, if they’re bigger than I am.

This is easy to tune out, and if I were listening rather than preaching, I might be tempted to tune it out as well. Why? Because we’re not in the habit of getting rid of stuff. We’ve been trained to want more and more and better and better.

When running cross-country as a freshman in college I remember those hateful, ankle weights and those bulky, sweat clothes we wore at the beginning of track season. They literally weighed us down. It took forever to make the loop. Each step was a burden. It just plain hurt. Those ankle weights and sweat clothes were never worn during the race. No way! The coach encouraged us to get rid of them before the race. That’s the way it is in our Christian race. Things, like those ankle weights and sweat clothes hold us back, discourage us, disappoint us, and sap our energy, to the place where we begin to feel like walking off the track and hanging up our spikes. I quit a hundred times a day during track season. But what made me feel good at the end of practice, on the final lap before we hit the showers was when the coach told us to take off the weights and sweat clothes. Wow, we flew! We moved! We were hot! We ate up the track!

The same is true in our Christian race. We remove the clumsy weights and bulky sweat clothes, we toss them aside, and we’ll fly down the track! What needs to be tossed aside in our lives to get moving down the track, the final laps, that lead into the arms of Jesus?

When we feel like walking off the track and hanging up your spikes, we look up and we lighten up!

And then there’s a third red pill.

We loosen up when we are in need of enhancement

¹ let us throw off…the sin that so easily entangles.

We not only have to lighten up the load, but toss aside the baggage we carry that’s described as sin. Sin entangles us and hinders our run. Sin is like a monstrous hurdle on the track that we can’t leap. There may be some areas in our life we’ve hidden from one another. But we know and God knows that they’re there. They have to be dealt with, because they’re draining our spiritual energy in the race.

God’s not asking for us to be perfect. God’s not suggesting we won’t find ourselves sinning. God’s asking for honesty. We recognize the sin, realize what it’s doing to us, and remedy the situation by loosening up. Let’s consider the following story.

An older man came into the office of his pastor and shared that he had a drinking problem and that he couldn’t help it. The pastor responded, “Do you mean your family or friends tie you down and make you take a drink?” “Well, no, not exactly?” “You mean they put a gun to your head and take you out to buy alcohol and then make you drink it?” “No, that’s not it.” “I’ve got a suggestion for you? Why don’t you stop?” “Nobody ever told me to do that before.” “Since they’re not forcing you to do it, then stop man.” The older man came back a few weeks later and told his minister, “You know what, I’m going to AA. I don’t have to drink alcohol anymore!”

We must not be naive enough to think every sin is going to be dealt with as simply as this one. But friends, it’s a start. Whether it is alcohol, drugs, or pornography, we recognize we have a problem, we ask for help, we take the advice and we claim our victory!

The story is told of a group of teens that decided on a warm summer night to sneak into the hotel swimming pool around the corner. They climbed over the fence at 3:00 a.m. They planned on having a wonderful time in the pool. They were having a great time when Bobby got on a three meter diving board, sat on the inner tube, and jumped into the water. When the tube hit the water it sounded like an explosion. Lights went on everywhere. The hotel manager came charging out. They were over the fence and to their car before they realized Bobby was not with them. One of the guys ran back, looked over the fence, and there was Bobby with an inner tube stuck to his posterior trying to get over the fence. He yelled, “Bobby, get rid of the inner tube or you’re going to be in real trouble!”

Good advice. Sounds like, let us throw off…the sin that so easily entangles. When we feel like walking off the track and hanging up our spikes, we look up, we lighten up, and we loosen up!

There’s one final red pill.

We lift up when we are in need of advancement

¹ And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

Jesus once said, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32). We lift up our eyes. We fix our eyes on Jesus. Every runner has to have something to fix their gaze upon—the finish line, a post, the markings on the track, the hurdles. In our case, since we’re in a spiritual race, one that we must win, our gaze is to be focused on Jesus!

Moffatt says of this passage that we should have, “no eyes for anyone or anything except Jesus.” And isn’t it true, that when our focus is off, that we can lose our way? How many times have we fallen asleep at the wheel while driving? Or reached over to tune the radio, or just for a moment took our eyes off the road and before we knew it, we were either in the other lane or on the shoulder?

We must remember that great passage tucked away in what Luther called the straw epistle?

James 4:8
Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

What a promise. Why not today decide to act upon this promise? Whatever the next step in our walk with God should be, why not take it? If we’ve been thinking about walking off the track and hanging up the spikes, frankly, we have nothing to lose if we attempt to get closer to God. If we’re enjoying our walk with God, well, we keep growing, we keep taking the next steps.

We look up. There’s a great cloud of witnesses shouting our names.

We lighten up. We don’t allow the things of this world to weigh us down in this race.

We loosen up. Let’s fight on in the struggle with the sins that entangle us.

We lift up. We lift up our eyes to Jesus. We gaze into his wonderful face.

There’s a great story to close this message. We may find it helpful as we seek to draw closer to God, and as we get back on the track and lace up our running shoes.

During the Civil War a Union solider lost a father and two brothers at harvest time. His mother was the only one left at home. The soldier wanted to be discharged so he could go home and help his mom with the harvest. He talked with the Captain of his unit who gave him a furlough to go to Washington to ask the President of the United States for a discharge. The young man went to Washington. On the steps of the White house he met a guard. He told the guard he needed to talk to the President. The guard told him the President was a busy man and to share the story with him. The guard listened and then told him, “This is war, we don’t get everything we want. You go back to your unit.” Devastated, the soldier turned and began the long walk back to his regiment. As he walked, tears were streaming down his face. A young boy saw the troubled soldier and asked, “Mister, what’s wrong?”

He didn’t see anybody else around, and he really needed to unburden his heart, so he poured out his woeful tale to this young boy. When he was finished the young boy took his hand and said, “Mister I think I can help, come with me.” They made their way back through the streets of Washington, up the steps to the White House, past the guard, and right into the Oval Office where President Lincoln said, “Yes, Todd, what is it you have in mind?” When Todd told his father about the man’s problems, the President granted the soldier’s request.

Whether we are young or old, we may be entangled in sin or with just stuff from the world. Jesus would take our hand and say, “Friend, I think I know someone who can help.” And Jesus takes us right into the presence of God!

Ronald Reagan, the 40^th present of the United States said, “My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose - somehow we win out… Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.”

Let’s remember and take the 4 red pills that our Great Physician orders for us. Let’s get back on the track. Let’s lace up and keep on those spikes. The race is wrapping up, hey, we might even be on the final lap! Amen!

What’s funny is that the typical new dad admits this transformation to himself roughly six months after it becomes obvious to the rest of the world.  So let’s look at some telltale signs, beyond the aforementioned longing for reliable babysitters that a man has crossed over into fatherhood. We can think of it as an early-warning system, an indicator that it’s time to accept our full-fledged dad-i-tude before somebody has to take us aside at a party and set us straight.

Signs of Fatherhood…You know you are a dad when…

You spend 45 minutes sweating and grunting in the backseat of a car. You are alone; when you are finished, the car seat is installed.

You have actually read the manual for said car seat, instead of just looking at the thing, guessing what the makers had in mind, and setting it up in some approximation of its actual function. This method, which has served you well for everything from Betamax to MP3 players, suddenly strikes you as unacceptable.

Out: Sponge baths with wife.
In: SpongeBob with children.

For the first time in your life, the vomit you are covered in is not of your own making.

At birthday parties you start assessing which little boy or girl seems like a good catch for your pride and joy. That you are doing this based on their ability to stack blocks fails to strike you as ridiculous.

As another pair of khaki shorts gets splattered with Starbucks, you curse the idiots who can’t make a decent aftermarket baby-stroller cup holder.

You finally read all the information your company sends you about retirement plans and life insurance.

Old favorite decorating theme:
Mission.
New favorite decorating theme: Primary-color plastic.

You’d rather go to Babies “R” Us than B.J’s, and your new idea of a “happy hour” involves your little darling going down easy for a weekend afternoon nap.

You let your precious universal remote — $79.99, plus more than 10 hours of setup time to finally get it running perfectly — be pressed into emergency duty as a pacifier/hand toy for an inconsolable infant. This happens after your cell phone doesn’t do the trick.

Your little boy or girl falls asleep on your bare chest, all softness and need, and you understand that for all your sacrifice and changes, there is no better place in the world for a man to be.

Let’s take fatherhood to another level. As Americans prepare to honor their own fathers on this special Father’s Day Sunday, we would do well to remember how important fathers are to the health of our society as a whole. The social science evidence continues to pile up indicating that children raised with fathers have both better emotional health and better cognitive abilities. Fathers are more likely than mothers to encourage their children to try new things and to be assertive and independent.

In addition, fathers provide a model of appropriate relations between men and women to both their sons and their daughters. Unfortunately, too often fathers remain devalued in our society. Some women actively choose single motherhood, depriving their children of a father. When marriages tragically fail, too often fathers are shortchanged in child custody and support arrangements. And fathers who try to train their children by biblical standards are too often stereotyped as brutal dictators. But a recent book by University of Virginia sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox has demonstrated that faith-filled fathers are actually more sensitive to the emotional needs of their wives and children. Being a father is one of the greatest blessings that a man can enjoy.

 With today being Father’s Day, men face a real challenge. Let’s listen to how Garrison Keillor puts it:


“Manhood, once an opportunity for achievement, now seems like a problem to be overcome. What you find is terrible gender anxiety, guys trying to be Mr. Right; the man who can bake a cherry pie, go shoot skeet, come back, toss a salad, converse easily about intimate matters, cry if need be, laugh, hug, be vulnerable, perform passionately that night, and the next day go off and lift them bales onto that barge and tote it. Being
perfect is a terrible way to spend your life, and guys aren’t equipped for it, anyway.”

We know the reality that there are far too few men in this church who can easily fit that bill, and as Keillor says, we are not equipped for perfection, anyway. But do we know what men ARE equipped for?   What has God, our Creator, actually equipped us for as dads?  God has equipped us to make a difference not only in the health of our society, but most importantly, in the nurturing of our family.  Tom Landry, the late and certainly great former coach of the Dallas Cowboys once said, 


“Most successful football players are free to perform at their best only when they know what the expectations are, where the limits stand. I see this as a biblical principle that also applies to life, a principle our society as a whole has forgotten; you can’t enjoy true freedom without limits.”

While we as men are not equipped for perfection, we ARE equipped to be faithful. And on this day set aside to recognize fathers, let’s issue a challenge to men, to begin living up to the standards and expectations that God has set for us.  When carpenters build an exceptional house, they put much forethought into the plans and the foundation because they know that all that comes later (framing, flooring, roofing, plumbing, electricity, heating, and air conditioning) is made easier or more difficult depending on how thoroughly the plans and foundation were conceived. Those plans also come under a standard of measure.  Each house is built with a standard tape measure—one foot equals twelve inches.  We can rest assured that problems will arise in the building of the house.  But taking time to build carefully upon the standard is important.   People look at the outward appearance,                                                                               but the LORD looks at the heart.”–1 Samuel 16:7. Taking time to build fatherhood is important.  In that process God measures the heart.  We look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. Let’s accept the challenge as godly men to experience the freedom to be what God wants us to be, but to experience that freedom with appropriate limits.  God looks for standards in a faithful father.  How does God measure the heart of a father?  A TAPE MEASURE OF FAITHFULNESS 

A faithful father is given a standard tape measure upon which to build the family. This tape measure is God’s Word. Taking the time to develop a plan built upon God’s standards can save us much grief later.

Tucked away in the first century, Paul writes a letter to the church of Ephesus using a Father-pattern which is likened to a tape measure for understanding the true likeness of a father.  We may think that God calls himself “Father” after us, to give us an illustration of what God’s like.  No way, God decides to call us “father” after him, to give us an illustration of what we’re to be like as a father-copy.

God’s the original, the prototype.  God’s the number-one Father of all things.  Out of God derives everything—everything—in heaven and on earth.  Paul says that God measures the heart of a father by showing us how to function by following the original.

A PRAYER FOR DADS—EPHESIANS 3:14-19

¹⁴ For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Paul prays for the enablement of the father in these verses.  Even though the original purpose of Paul was not to describe the role of a father in the family, there is room for us to apply his words along those lines.  There is a sense in which all men in general, and Jesus-followers in particular, share in the fatherhood of God. 

 ¹⁴ For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.   

Paul states that “every family in heaven and earth derives its name” after the divine Father.  The word family can be translated “fatherhood.”  The Greek for family (patria) is derived from the Greek for father (pater).  Every fatherhood in heaven and on earth gets its origin and name from the Father. What are we to be like in our fatherhood? 

There are four requests in Paul’s prayer, but they must not be looked on as isolated, individual petitions.  These four requests are more like four measurements to calculating the faithfulness of the heart.  One request leads into the next one, and so on. 

Paul petitions for every father to faithfully follow these four measurements, by which God in turn, measures the heart.

 Measurement 1: An unhindered heartiness  ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being. 

The first measurement appraises the presence of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the faithful father.  The company of the Holy Spirit in the life is evidence of salvation; but the power of the Spirit is enablement for Christian living, and it is this power that Paul desires for every father.  This power is available for the “inner being” in every believing father.  This means the spiritual part of a father where God dwells and works.

It has been said, “If God took the Holy Spirit out this world, most of what we Jesus-followers are doing would go right on—and nobody would know the difference!”  This is a heartbreaking report, but true.  So if God took his Spirit out of every believing father, would anybody know the difference?

What does it mean for Christian fathers to possess an unhindered heartiness?  It means that their spiritual faculties are controlled by God, and they are faithfully exercising them and growing in the Word.  It is only when fathers yield to the Spirit and let him control their inner being or heart that they succeed in living to the glory of God and to the good of their family.  This means feeding the heart the Word of God, praying and worshipping, keeping clean, and exercising the senses by loving obedience to God.

 Psalm 27:14Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.  Measurement 2:  An unselfish deepness ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love… 

The second measurement assesses the spiritual depth in the heart of the faithful father.  Paul uses three pictures here to convey this idea of spiritual depth, and the three pictures are hidden in the three verbs: “dwell,” “rooted,” and “established.”  The verb dwell in Greek literally means “to settle down and feel at home.” The verb rooted in Greek literally means “to draw nourishment and constancy.”  The word established in Greek literally means “to be grounded.”  Paul desires for Christ to settle down and feel at home in the hearts of believing fathers—not surface relationship, but an ever-deepening fellowship.  This relationship is depended on drawing nourishment and stability from Christ, being grounded with a strong foundation.

It has been said, “When it comes to the relationships of most people, they are a mile wide and an inch deep, instead of being an inch wide and a mile deep.”  This is a sad commentary, but accurate.  So if the world would look at the relationships of believing fathers today, would they see them pursuing a limited number of commitments with ever-deepening relational depth?

What does it mean for Christian fathers to acquire an unselfish deepness? It means that their relationships must go deep before they can go high.  The trials of life test the depth of their experiences.  When fathers experience disagreements in home and family, the trial only deepens their fellowship as they seek to solve their problems.  The storm that blows reveals the strength of their roots in Christ.  

 Psalm 37:4Take delight in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Measurement 3: An unparallel reasonableness ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge— 

The third measurement considers the spiritual resources in the heart of the faithful father.  The English words grasp and know both stem from the Latin word which literally means to “apprehend and comprehend.”  Our word grasp suggests laying hold of it for yourself; while know carries the idea of mentally comprehending something.  It is possible to understand something but not really make it our own.  Paul’s concern is that believing fathers lay hold of the vast expanses of the love of God.  Paul wants fathers to live in the love of four dimensions: width, length, height, and depth.

It has been said, “Most Jesus-followers today know that a banquet table of fine foods is available in Christ, but they don’t grasp their abundance—they choose to live on cheese and crackers!”  This is a distressing account, but accurate.  So if the world would look at the resources available to believing fathers, would they choose to live on the meagerness of cheese and crackers or desire the richness of fine foods?

What does it mean for Christian fathers to apprehend an unparallel reasonableness? It means that their spiritual resources are adequate to meet the demands of life.  These demands most often affect their family, friends, work and leisure. If they pray for spiritual strength and spiritual depth, they will be able to apprehend—get their hands on—all the resources of God’s love and grace. They will be able to comprehend the riches of Christ that cannot be calculated even with the most sophisticated computer. Heads are meant to be more than a hat rack; they’re meant to grasp and know God’s love.

 Psalm 49:3My mouth will speak words of wisdom; the meditation of my heart will give you understanding. 

And what is the result of spiritual strength, spiritual depth, and spiritual resources?

  Measurement 4: An unlimited productiveness¹⁹ …that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

The fourth measurement evaluates the spiritual completeness in the heart of the faithful father.  Paul wants every father to experience the fullness of God.  It is tragic when Christian fathers use the wrong measurements in examining their own spiritual lives.  They like to measure themselves by the weakest Jesus-followers that they know, and then boast, “Well, we’re better than they are.”  Paul tells fathers that the measure is Christ, and that they cannot boast about anything.  When they have reached God’s fullness, then they have reached the limit.  True productiveness is not gained by working foolishly on things that fail to satisfy.

It has been said, “Nature detests a vacuum.”  This is a sobering fact, but realistic. This explains why air or water will automatically flow into an empty place.  The divine nature of God also detests a vacuum.  God wants believing fathers to experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and the measure of that fullness is God himself.  So if life flows automatically into an empty place, what is flowing into the unfilled hearts of fathers—God’s divine fullness or the world’s material emptiness?

What does it mean for Christian fathers to achieve an unlimited productiveness? It means that they are made full in Christ.  Positionally, they are complete in Christ, but practically, they enjoy only the grace that they apprehend by faith.  The resources are there.  All Christian fathers need to do is accept them and enjoy them.  Though fathers today cannot contain God’s fullness, they can receive it to the full measure of their capacity and to the degree of their yieldedness.

 Psalm 73:26My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. One Christian said, “Truly faithful Christian fathers experience the fullness of Christ.  And with that fullness they show up for dinner, help with homework, lead the rituals of bedtime and park their butts in the bleachers when their kids are in action. They are heavy on training, but also eager to praise. They have been known to discipline their children, but they are also more likely to hug them. They tenderly display their love to their children’s mother.  They certainly take their families to church — early and often.”In Max Lucado’s book, Just Like Jesus, he tells a story that demonstrates how important it is for fathers to keep a heart of faithfulness in order. A lighthouse keeper who worked on a rocky stretch of coastline received oil once a month to keep his light burning bright. Not being far from the village, he had frequent guests. One night a woman needed oil to keep her family warm. Another night a father needed oil for his lamp. Then another needed oil to lubricate a wheel. All the requests seemed legitimate, so the lighthouse keeper tried to meet them all. Toward the end of the month, however, he ran out of oil and his lighthouse went dark, causing several ships to crash on the coastline. The man was reproved by his superiors. “You were given the oil for one reason,” they said, “to keep the light burning.”

Sometimes the good can become enemy of the best in a Christian’s father desire to keep the light burning for his family.  The main purpose for Christian fathers is to see that their families are healthy spiritually—that they know God intimately through Jesus Christ.  All other needs that scream for attention, important though they may be, are secondary to a family’s spiritual needs.  There are advantages and remarkable opportunities available if the heart of the father is firm and steady in allegiance to principle and loyalty to God.

So God measures the heart of a father by showing us how to function by following the original.  It is measured by a commitment of faithfulness. It’s a commitment to an unhindered heartiness, unselfish deepness, unparallel reasonableness, and unlimited productiveness.   All of these commitments rest in the heart of the faithful father.  Amen!

This is Children’s Sunday at Christ First.  We set apart this special Sunday to highlight the importance of Christian parenting, and how we can train up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 

A group of expectant fathers were nervously walking the floor in a waiting room, while their wives were in the process of delivering babies.  A nurse came in and announced to one man that his wife had just given birth to twins. “That’s quite a coincidence” he responded, “I play for the
Minnesota Twins!”  A few minutes later another nurse came in and announced to another man that he was the father of triplets. “That’s amazing,” he exclaimed, “I work for the triple A Auto Club!” At that point, a third man fell to the ground and lay down on the floor. Somebody asked him if he was feeling ill. “No,” he responded, “I happen to work for the 7-up Company!”

A child is…

– Someone who can wash his hands without getting the soap wet                                                                                 

– Someone that follows trouble because when they’re not being a lump in your throat, they’re being a pain in your neck

– Like wet cement. Whatever falls on her makes an impression

– A person who can’t understand why   someone would give away a perfectly good kitten 

Children’s Sunday affords us a great opportunity to greet our special guests from our First Baptist School.  Parents and grandparents, we welcome you!  We set apart this special Sunday to highlight the importance of Christian parenting, and how we can develop and nurture our children in Jesus Christ.  We believe at Christ First that every child is full of promise, potential, and possibility.  Kids can be assured that with God’s help, they can do anything.  However, it is up to Christian parents to support this “I can do anything” spirit.

Deals and Promises

Now anyone who has had experience as a parent will recognize later that there are two choices, two covenants we can choose between in training our children: there are deals and there are promises. A deal made with children is a two-party agreement; responsibility and consequences are agreed on ahead of time.  Deals can be both positive and negative.  Let’s consider a positive deal: “If you do your homework I will read you a story.”  An example of a negative deal could be: “If you don’t eat your peas you can’t have dessert.”  But in either case each side has a responsibility.  An agreement is made ahead of time, with certain consequences to follow. So, we can say to our children, “Deal or no deal?”

“Promises” are also a way by which life is transmitted to children.  But a promise operates differently.  A promise is based on a one person commitment: the parent expresses love from his or her heart to the child.   

I live in Southern California, one of the tourist capitals of the world.  I have always liked Disneyland.  I remember saying to my girls when they were barely old enough to understand what I was talking about that I intended to take them to Disneyland at the earliest opportunity.  I made that promise to them because I loved them.  No conditions were involved: they did not have to do anything; they did not have to contribute anything to help me keep my promise.  Based on my love for them and my desire that they experience Disneyland as I had in my life, I promised them that I would take them to the magic kingdom.

It is strange that children can tell the difference between deals and promises.  Even preschoolers can tell the difference between deals and promises!  They react with a sense of outrage if you try to change a promise into a deal. Having once promised to take our children to Disneyland, we cannot later add conditions to that promise.  For instance, conditions such as, “We are not going to go to Disneyland unless you pass the second grade.” They will very quickly remind us, “No, you promised we could go. You promised.”

The Scriptures are rich in understanding when it comes to the training of children through promises and not deals.  Child training works! A properly trained child will honor God and live a wise and righteous life as an adult. An untrained child will not honor God or live a wise and righteous life as an adult. Only a miracle of grace can undo poor child training. God is faithful. God’s Word is true. We must not question God’s promises. Exceptions do not alter the rule. We believe it! We do it!  

There is no secret or mystery here. Listless parents hunt for special methods to train their children. They are always looking, reading, buying books, and attending seminars, but they are hardly ever training. These resources are not bad in themselves, but practice is more important than procedure. Consistency is more important than intensity. We need to stop looking for an easier or smarter way to develop the lives of our children. We get busy!

One such promise in the training of children is found in the book of Proverbs. 

Start [Train] children off on the way they should go,

and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

–Proverbs 22:6.

This proverb is a requirement, not a request.  It is a promise, not a deal.

Christian parents trust this rule as much as any other verse. They are not intimidated by the task before them; they trust in the Scripture, and they get to work, now!

Solomon said, “Start.” The meaning of the Hebrew word is train. He did not say raise. We raise vegetables, but we train children. Feeding children nutritious meals, providing warm clothing, giving them their own bedrooms, and kissing them good night is not training. Most every species of animals does these things for their young. Training a child is calculated instruction and discipline to form long-term character and wisdom in reverence of the Lord and knowledge of Scripture.  

We “start children off on the way.”  This describes the period from birth to maturity. Training can begin immediately, as infants can be taught a feeding schedule and that not all crying gets immediate attention. It progresses from a control stage to an instruction stage, then to a counseling stage. It continues through puberty and a whole new set of issues. It continues to maturity, when a young adult creates a new home and starts the process again.

We start them “on the way.” Parents cannot train every step, but they can train the way (Genesis 18:19). God gives them to us with a blank slate for a mind. We fill that mind with godly knowledge and wisdom. As Scripture does not dictate every step of our lives, allowing us much individual liberty, so we train them in the way of godliness.

They are to be started on the way “they should go.” It cannot be the way they want to go. Each child defaults to foolishness and sin from our first parents. Without training against that default instinct, they will grow into committed and hardened sinners. No training is default training—we will have fools for children (Proverbs 29:15). The way they should go is the way of righteousness laid out plainly in Scripture (Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Ephesians 6:4).

When they are “old,” they will follow the training. Here is a promise to be believed, but it also allows for possible difficulties during adolescence, or the teenage years, before they are “old.” Properly trained as a child, the teenage years do not have to be difficult. If trained consistently, they will revert to that training as an adult. We believe it! We count on it!

What is not child training?

Child training is not based upon deals with two-party agreements.  We don’t demand that our children fulfill their responsibility by jumping through hoops or sitting up on stools like animals.  Simply, we don’t wish to see our children perform before us or others.

·        Yelling is not child training.

·        Sending them to a Christian school is only a part of child training.

·        Browbeating or nagging them is not child training.

·        Spurts of rules and punishment are not child training.

·        Sending them to their room is not child training.

·        Sesame Street is not child training.

·        Giving them an allowance without responsible labor is not child training.

What is child training?

God’s Word commands Jewish parents in the Old Testament Law about the training process they need to embrace with their children.  The commandment is based on a promise from God.  Three basic ways of developing that are still useful today for training lifestyles in the family are illustrated in Deuteronomy 6:4-7…

⁴ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. ⁵ Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.1.  Child training is modeling

⁴ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. ⁵ Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

The first stage of training is teaching by example.  Parents must have a willingness to set a godly example before their children.  Modeling is simply “the willingness to go first.”  We do not expect our children to live in ways that are contrary to our own lifestyle.  Therefore, parents must experience the love this commandment requires with all their heart, soul and strength before they can teach it to their children!

2.  Child training is molding ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children.

The second stage of training is teaching formally.  After the example comes the explanation.  This commandment is not automatically transferred from one generation to another.  Parents must have a definite and diligent plan for communicating God’s Word into the lives of their children.  Home is where life makes up its mind.  Molding is simply “a systematic time period.”  Therefore, parents place the commandments from God upon their hearts.  Then God says we can impress them on our children!

3.  Child training is moving⁷ …Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

The third stage of training is teaching informally.  After the explanation comes the engagement.  Parents must spend quality and quantity time with their children.  Moving is simply anticipating “the teachable moment.”  Training from parents goes beyond the lesson to a continual way of life.  A variety of teachable moments is given to help parents saturate their children with these important commandments.  Therefore, parents are accessible to their children when they sit at home and when they walk along the road, when they lie down and when they get up! 

Child training is…

·        A consistent example of righteous living that the child can first feel and then observe as they grow up.

·        Teaching the existence of God and the absolute authority of the Bible.

·        Enforcing God’s rules and parental authority fairly, firmly and friendly.

·        Teaching by reproof, correction, and training in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16-17).

·        Teaching by repetition throughout the day.

·        Using both positive and negative reinforcement for behavior.

·        A very open relationship with children, allowing them to know us and learning them well.

Previous generations grew up on farms observing the training of animals. If they did not train certain animals, they would either starve or be severely handicapped. Child training was easy after watching colts broken and mules trained for the plow. There is no rocket science here, and the search for new or creative techniques misses the boat. Any parent can train their children, if they will flush their selfishness and slackness and get busy! It is a shame that seeing-eye dogs can be trained, but children cannot!

Many of the children of this generation are a mess. They are arrogant, foolish, ignorant, immature, lazy, profane, rebellious, selfish, and wasteful.  There is an obvious cause for their personal and social dysfunction. Their parents were too busy, selfish, and lazy to train them.

In fact, there is even Property Laws of a Toddler: Some might say that this is evidence of Original Sin—a self-centered and self-seeking generation.

1. If I like it, it’s mine.
2. If it’s in my hand, it’s mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it’s mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it’s mine.
5. If it’s mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.
6. If I’m doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.
7. If it looks just like mine, it’s mine.
8. If I saw it first, it’s mine.
9. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine.
10. If it’s broken, it’s yours.

When the 10-year-olds in a Sunday school class expressed their views of “What’s wrong with grownups?” they came up with these complaints:

1. Grownups make promises, then they forget all about them, or else they say it wasn’t really a promise, just a maybe.
2. Grownups don’t do the things they’re always telling the children to do–like pick up their things, or be neat, or always tell the truth.
3. Grownups never really listen to what children have to say. They always decide ahead of time what they’re going to answer.
4. Grownups make mistakes, but they won’t admit them. They always pretend that they weren’t mistakes at all–or that somebody else made them.
5. Grownups interrupt children all the time and think nothing of it. If a child interrupts a grownup, he gets a scolding or something worse.
6. Grownups never understand how much children want a certain thing–a certain color or shape or size. If it’s something they don’t admire–even if the children have spent their own money for it–they always say, “I can’t imagine what you want with that old thing!”
7. Sometimes grownups punish children unfairly. It isn’t right if you’ve done just some little thing wrong and grownups take away something that means an awful lot to you. Other times you can do something really bad and they say they’re going to punish you, but they don’t. You never know, and you ought to know.
8. Grownups are always talking about what they did and what they knew when they were 10 years old–but they never try to think what it’s like to be 10 years old right now.   

When parents make the commitment and effort to set an example and train their children consistently in the nurture of the Lord, the consequences are generations of wise and responsible children, which will create more children who will not turn from God’s way. Our nation’s future is susceptible to a gloomy future, not because of the politics in Washington, but because of foolishness in parents that refuse to train their children.

So this verse warns us of a promise, not a deal.  If we allow our children to follow their own inclinations and do not apply discipline and instruction they will turn out to be wayward, off the path, inconsiderate adults.  They will follow their own way which they think is right, but which is the way to death. We can translate: “Train (start) children on the way, and when/even as they grow old they will not turn from it.” 

Amy Carmichael was one of God’s chosen missionaries who cared deeply for children. She served the Lord in India for fifty-six years as God’s devoted servant without a furlough. More than a thousand children were rescued from neglect and abuse during Amy’s lifetime. To them she was known as “Amma,” which means mother in the Tamil language. The world often was dangerous and stressful. Yet she never forgot God’s promise to “keep them in all things.”  She wrote the following poem.      

“Father, hear us, we are praying.  Hear the words our hearts are saying.  We are praying for our children.  Keep them from the powers of evil, from the secret, hidden peril.  Father, hear us for our children.  From the worlding’s hollow gladness, from the sting of faithless sadness, Father, Father, keep our children.  Through life’s troubled waters steer them.  Through life’s bitter battles cheer them.  Father, Father, be thou near them.  And wherever they may bide, lead them home at eventide.”                                                                                                              

On this Children’s Sunday, let the righteous arise! Godly parents should seize this proverb as their own and get to work

Start [Train] children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.           –Proverbs 22:6

Godly and wise descendants are one sentence away (with a little regular effort)! We give a reasonable and consistent effort, and trust the Lord for the rest (Psalm 127:1-2).  The Lord can take the children into his arms, place his hands on their heads and bless them. The Lord can bless our efforts to bear the fruit of righteous children, who will make glad our hearts. There is no reason to be defeated! There is every reason to be elated! Lord, help us to make promises, not deals!  Amen!

On this Memorial Day weekend we commemorate the memory of our honored dead. Webster’s Dictionary describes the word in the following way:

 Memorial =

 “something that keeps remembrance alive”. 

Memorial Day (or Decoration Day as it was formerly called) is a patriotic day to honor American Soldiers who have given their lives for their country. In the church we honor those saints who have passed on to glory in their Lord.  It is a legal holiday in most states. Flowers and flags are placed on graves of soldiers. Many organizations march in military parades and take part in special programs. Memorial Day originated during the Civil War.

 The story is told of a young boy named Alex who was staring at the flags representing the branches of our military in the narthex of the church.  The pastor came along and stood by the boy for a few minutes.  After a period of silence, the boy asked the pastor what the flags represented.  The pastor replied, “Well, Alex, these flags are in memory of the men and women who died in the service.”  The little boy tensed up for a moment, and fearfully asked, “In which service did they die—the
9:00 or 10:45?”A short time ago, we as a nation witnessed our first state funeral in many years as Ronald Reagan, our 40th president, was laid to rest. During his funeral in the National Cathedral, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor read these words, which Newsweek set on images from the day: “We must delight in each other; make others’ conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body. For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. Thee eyes of all people are upon us.”

These words were first spoken by John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, in his famous A Model of Christian Charity. The colonists that Winthrop addressed had fled persecution in England. He was reminding them that they had made a covenant with God. They knew were being watched; they knew they were attempting something never done before; they knew it could only be done with God working through them.

It’s interesting that President Reagan chose these words for his funeral. They were originally spoken before the separation of church and state in this land. Winthrop intended them for the Christian community. They were members of the same body, the body of Christ. That community’s single purpose was to be a city upon a hill; that community’s single purpose was to bring glory to God. And the world was watching. Winthrop’s words have been true of our nation in the past, but they must be true of the Christian church today.

Let Your Light Shine

Winthrop drew the inspiration for his words from Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount.  In the verses that follow Jesus talks about being light. Jesus says in Matthew 5:14-16,

¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Because light is so readily available to us through the simple flip of a switch, we take it for granted. But it wasn’t so in Jesus’ day. Light had to be carefully protected. It made no sense to take the light of a simple lamp and hide it under a basket. Light was too valuable, too important. Jesus tells his followers that they are the light of the world. They are like a city set on a hill that can’t be hidden. As John Winthrop reminds us, as Jesus-followers we’re being watched. To know one is being watched raises the stakes; it increases a sense of duty to live one’s life with integrity.

I remember in the first church I served as a Youth Pastor preparing to preach my first sermon. I was the rookie.  My pastoral colleague, Jack, knew the perfectionistic pressure I put on myself. One of the traditions at that church was for the preacher to kneel on the chancel near the large pulpit during the hymn before the sermon. Because it was my first sermon I definitely felt the desperate need to pray. It was a very special time.  Jack, knowing how nervous I was, came up behind me while I was kneeling. He put his hands supportively on my shoulders. Jack leaned down and whispered in my ear: “Don’t mess it up.” I’m sure the congregation wondered why I had such a big smile on my face when I started preaching that morning. When we know that we’re a city on a hill, that we’re being watched, there’s certainly a sense of responsibility that we feel not to mess up, to live lives of character because of who we represent.

But even more importantly, being a city on a hill means that as Jesus-followers we’re to get engaged and involved with our world, to make a difference, to shine a light in the darkness. Jesus says, “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”  Shining the light of Christ means doing the good work of Christ in the world. But we must not miss the motivation . . . we’re to let our lights shine; we’re to do good deeds, so that God will be glorified.

For John Winthrop and the early puritans, it wasn’t about success or failure as a church; it was about the glory of God. We shine our light not so that people will look at our church and say, “Wow, what a remarkable church. Look at what they’ve done.” No, we seek to allow God’s light to shine through us so that people will say, “Wow, what a remarkable God — look at what God has done!”Let Your Light Shine as a Church

What might it mean for us as Christ First to shine in this world for God’s glory? Because this question is so important, let’s survey for a moment a number of things. Crucial points will ultimately be made.

Perhaps there’s nothing Americans hold dearer than freedom, than liberty. And the first freedom in our bill of rights is the freedom to exercise religion, whatever religion one chooses. What does freedom of religion mean? On a bronze plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty are these words: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”  We notice once again the image of a light shining in the darkness. These words strike us with what it means to let our lights shine. As much as these words have been true for our nation in the past, they must be true for the church today.

As a church we’re free, free to throw open our doors, to let God’s light shine, to welcome and to serve the tired, the poor, the huddled, the wretched, the homeless, the tempest-tossed. We are free to welcome and to serve everyone, no matter who they are, no matter what their race or creed or color . . . everyone . . . everyone.

Not long ago an article in Christianity Today talked about the state of Christianity in India. By all accounts, God’s at work in India, the church is growing, and there’s talk of revival. And yet, seldom has the church been as persecuted as it is today, especially in rural parts of India. A number of Indian states have passed laws that are called “freedom of religion” bills: what they mean is that only Hinduism is free to practice religion. In those states both Christianity and Islam are under heavy persecution. Is that what freedom of religion means to us? Brian McLaren tells a wonderful story about his church in Baltimore. In the aftermath of 9/11 it was a difficult time to be Islamic in America. The local mosque in Baltimore had received numerous angry threats. Brian decided to drive over to the mosque to see if there was anything he could do. When he drove up he noticed the mosque was in the process of setting up a chain link fence around their property. As Brian walked onto the property the local cleric, or imam, tried to shoo him away. But Brian assured him that he only wanted to help. He and his church tried to reach out in friendship. One of the things the Islamic women were most afraid of was going shopping in public after 9/11. So the women of Brian’s church gave the Islamic women their cell phone numbers and offered to go shopping with them, to help remove the burden of fear.

Part of what it means to let our light shine as Jesus-followers is to break down walls and tear down fences so that others might enjoy the freedom we do. To let our light shine as a community is to reach out in compassion and servanthood to everyone, even those who might never believe.

We must not be mistaken. As a Christian church we believe that there are two kinds of freedom. There is the freedom to practice one’s religion that is at the bedrock of our nation’s constitution. But we also believe in the freedom that comes from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We believe that nothing compares to the freedom from guilt, from brokenness, from sin, from hopelessness and despair that we experience as followers of Christ.

But to shine a light in our world means that we will serve others no matter who they are and give them the freedom not to believe what is so dear to us. To let our light shine means reaching beyond these walls. To let our light shine—to give God the glory—is why we open our facilities seven days a week to several groups and ministries: Chinese church, preschool, Cody’s courtyard, women’s bible study fellowship, al anon, regional board meetings, harvest festivals, music camp and vacation bible school. To let our light shine, to give glory to God, is why we’re sold out for kids, youth, and adults. People of God, freedom of religion means freedom to let our light shine, freedom to serve everyone in the name of Christ.

Let Your Light Shine as Jesus-followers

And so, letting our light shine is something we believe God has called to do as a church. But it’s also something God calls us to do as individual Jesus-followers. And again, the primary purpose isn’t so that others will see our light and our good deeds, but so that through us they will be drawn to give glory to God.

Many children, youth, and adults have been baptized recently.  They come from different faith experiences, but they all witness to the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord of their lives. In essence, we are saying to them the very words of Jesus, “Let your light shine before all people so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Those who follow Christ have the privilege and the calling to let Christ’s light shine through us. The difference God can make through just one light is amazing.

I’d like to end this message by sharing a story I read in Sports Illustrated. Now I know some of you think that all I read is magazines like SI but that simply isn’t true. But I was profoundly moved by Gary Smith’s article called Higher Education.  I’m going to read the condensed version written by Pastor Dan Brunner in order to do the story justice.The story took place in Berlin, Ohio, a small, sleepy town in the heart of the largest Amish settlement in the world. If you weren’t Amish in that part of the world you were Mennonite.  The story began with Charlie, a coach who completely turned around the basketball program at tiny Hiland High. Basketball was everything in Berlin and Charlie was the best coach in three states. But just before the 1984 season, Charlie quit. His assistant took his place, a man named Perry Reese, Jr. Perry, known simply as coach, was unmarried and Catholic and black, the only black man in that county. The town folk didn’t know what to do with him, though, for some reason, the players really liked him. But the town wasn’t sure. The landlord, who’d agreed over the phone to a lease, saw the man’s skin and suddenly remembered that he only rented to families. Cars drove slowly by his house shouting threats in the darkness. Rumors began to spread, like he’d been sent by the feds to keep an eye on the Amish or that he was part of a conspiracy to bring blacks into the county. But coach wasn’t going anywhere and slowly, through his straightforwardness, he began to win them over. And it didn’t hurt that the Hiland Hawks were cleaning clocks on the basketball court. The winning bought him time.He survived one bad season, when they started calling for his job, but never had a losing season again. Coach ran his runnin’, gunnin’ offense and full-court pressure defense from buzzer to buzzer and he did it all with an annual litter of runts, of spindly, short, close-cropped Mennonites. Their tiny gym was likened to a telephone booth with hoops. The games sold out year after year with fans jammed in shoulder to shoulder. Even some Amish boys and men came, Lord save their souls, tying up their horses and buggies and slinking into the gym. And when they couldn’t come, they’d listen on the radio stashed in the hay of their barns.And slowly the people had reality dawn on them: this black man’s values were the same as theirs. Coach was humble. Coach was unselfish; most of his salary somehow made its way into the kids’ hands. Coach was reverent; no church ever prayed the Lord’s Prayer with the energy his team did both before and after each game. Coach loved family; when Chester Mullet, star guard only hugged his mom on parent’s night, coach told him to give her a kiss or be benched. Coach’s work ethic was off the charts. Here was this black man; he out-Amished the Amish, he out-Mennonited the Mennonites.Somehow coach had a way of bringing the whole community together. One of his best friends was Willie. When Willie’s dad died, coach was right there, kneeling beside the coffin, crossing himself, putting his arm around Willie’s mom — she’s Amish and she never forgot it. Parents, who swore their sons would never be coached by a black man, saw the difference he made in kids lives and proudly let their boys become Hawks.But about seven years into his coaching, their community was rocked when someone broke into the hardware store and stole some merchandise. Rumors pointed to six boys on the basketball team; the boys denied it and coach defended them. You see, coach was more than their coach. His home was their home. Parents trusted him completely. He took the boys to tiny Amish schoolhouses to read and shoot hoops with wide-eyed kids who’d never get to see them play. Coach took them to each other’s churches, and even to his own church, St. Peter’s in Millersburg. Coach introduced them to Malcolm X, five-alarm chili, Martin Luther King, Jr., BB King, and Cajun wings. Mostly, coach taught them that their lives were filled with possibility; he was often the lone voice telling the boys to go places, get a degree, reach out, and take chances. And more and more they did just that — thanks to coach.But now coach was looking one of the boys straight in the eye, “Kevin, tell me the truth about the hardware store.” “I did it, coach. We did it. I don’t why.” The community gasped. How could this happen? Coach resigned. He took responsibility for his “sons.” The administration begged him to stay. After much thinking, coach came up with a solution. He’d let the boys back onto the team. First, they’d spend two weeks in a detention center to know what jail was like. Staring at cinder block walls they were as lonely as a Mennonite could be. But coach came each day, making his rounds to all six boys. At the first pep rally, Kevin walked to the microphone to make a public apology to the school and the town. Randy, the ring-leader, had to live under coach’s roof for four months.Redemption didn’t come easy for those boys, but in the process the whole team became closer than ever before. And man, could they play basketball. Ultimately it was that team that won the only state championship Hiland would win under coach, even coming back from a 7-point deficit with 38 seconds left in the semi-finals. They figured coach would take a higher profile position somewhere else, but he stayed; for ten more years he coached at Hiland, pouring his life into his boys, into his students, into that community.And then late one night, two of coach’s best friends found him shivering at home in a blanket, glassy-eyed, mumbling nonsense. Their worst fears were realized. Coach had a brain tumor. Malignant. Inoperable. Four to eight months to live. Players wouldn’t leave his bedside. Former players dropped whatever they were doing and flew back or drove six hours. The whole hospital became a waiting room. A thousand people attended a prayer vigil in the gym, begging for a miracle, demanding a miracle. Steroids shrank the swelling so coach could go home.Peg Brand had divided the whole community into six-hour shifts, 24-hours a day. When coach found out he sobbed. His days of giving were over — all he could do now was receive. Coach knew it was his time. He initiated a scholarship fund and started it rolling with his $30,000 life savings. On November 22nd, 17 years after he’d walked through the doors, coach died. Hiland High went into shock. Six pastors and three counselors roamed the halls, ministering to kids huddled in hallways, to teachers sobbing in bathrooms, to secretaries who just couldn’t bear it.And what was changed because of coach? The scholarship fund began to swell. But there was bigger stuff. Kevin Troyer decided that rather than teach and coach around Berlin he would teach and coach with black kids in Canton, where coach was from. Five white families adopted between them ten black children. And everywhere people went they would ask the question, “What would coach do?” And they’d do it.At the funeral, just before communion, Father Ron Aubry gazed across St. Peter’s Catholic Church. He knew he could get in real trouble, but he also knew coach, and so he did it. He invited everyone to come to communion. The Mennonites looked at each other, uncertain what to do. Willie said, “What would coach do?”Author, Gary Smith, ends his story with these words, “So they rose and joined all the black Baptists and white Catholics pouring toward the altar, all the basketball players, all the Mennonites young and old. Busting laws left and right, busting straight into the kingdom of heaven.”

That’s what can happen when one man let his light shine!

When the church welcomes and serves the tired, the poor, the huddled, the wretched, the homeless, the tempest-tossed, our light shines and God is glorified. When the church tears down walls and fences that keep us needlessly divided, our light shines and God is glorified. When the church gathers for Holy Communion in unity and in love, our light shines and God is glorified.  Communion keeps our remembrance of Christ alive! Amen.

Our Christian life is shaped by communion with Jesus in the taking, blessing, breaking and giving to satisfy our spiritual hunger and sustain spiritual life.

Ernest Gordon was a well-known preacher in Scotland who wrote a book called Through the Valley of the Kwai, about his experiences as a prisoner of war during World War II. The book was made into a hit movie in the ’60s called The Bridge Over the River Kwai. Recently the book was republished and another movie made with the title, To End All Wars. The first part of the book describes in vivid detail just trying to survive while being forced to build a railroad through the jungle. Prisoners were fighting to the death over morsels of food. It was truly every man for himself. Care for the sick was grossly inadequate. The mood of hopelessness permeated the death camp.
One day a prisoner named Angus did an unheard-of thing. He gave his only blanket to a wounded prisoner, and he also gave his own meager ration of food. Angus even risked his own life to get some medicine for the other prisoner. Then Angus died, partly because of his sacrifices. But his wounded friend lived. The story of Angus spread throughout the camp. Soon other prisoners began sharing their blankets and food. They began to organize Bible study groups. They set up a little altar and held worship services. They all began caring for one another, especially for the sick. They fashioned crude, artificial limbs for the amputees out of any material they could find. The atmosphere of the death camp changed dramatically. When new prisoners would arrive, they were immediately caught up in the spirit of new life and hope.

When the camp was liberated at the end of World War II, the Allied forces wanted to execute the captors and the guards right on the spot. But the prisoners themselves asked for mercy and forgiveness for their enemies. In his book, Gordon raises the question, “What was there that made it possible for that situation to turn around as it did?” His answer was simple: “The prisoners became the church. They simply became a community of Christ.”

What is the community of Christ? How do we experience communion with him and with one another? What does this look like? (show pictures of the congregation later in the message).Let’s think about a double image of the Christian life—one from Scripture, and one from our worship. Jesus gives us a word picture of himself as the Bread of Life. Bread must be eaten to sustain life, and Christ must be invited into our daily walk to sustain spiritual life and community. And communion gives us an action picture of the character of the Christian life. We want to combine these images today to give us a picture of the Christian life. This is what communion with Jesus represents.

Jesus did not work independently of God the Father, but in union with him. His purpose was to commune with God and do his Father’s will, not to satisfy his human desires. People eat bread to satisfy physical hunger and to sustain physical life.
Let’s note how we can satisfy spiritual hunger and sustain spiritual life by a right relationship with Jesus as recorded in John 6:35-40…

³⁵ Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶ But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. ³⁷ All whom the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. ³⁸ For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. ³⁹ And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰ For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

We can observe three of Jesus’ great sayings served together, like a three-course meal, in this passage. Each of them ought to be a source of spiritual nourishment to every true Jesus-follower. All taken together, they form a banquet feast; into which all Jesus-followers that hunger never need to be hungry.

1. Jesus speaks about himself

³⁵ Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

We have, first, in these verses, a saying of Jesus about himself. Jesus would have us know that he himself is the appointed food of a person’s soul. The soul of every person is naturally starving and famishing through sin. Jesus is given by God the Father, to be the Satisfier, the Reliever, and the Physician of our spiritual need.

With what divine and perfect wisdom this name is chosen! Bread is necessary food. I remember as a boy my mom served bread at every meal. In fact, she served Wonder Bread. She made sandwiches in my lunch box with Wonder Bread. She put spam, baloney, and tuna between my Wonder Bread. Sometimes she made a sandwich that I wondered what was between the Wonder Bread! We can manage tolerably well without many things on our table, but not without bread.

So is it with Jesus. We must have Jesus, or die in our own sins. Bread is food that suits all. Some cannot eat meat, and some cannot eat vegetables. But all like bread. It is food both for the prosperous and the pauper. So is it with Jesus. He is just the Savior that meets the needs of every class. Bread is food that we need daily. Other kinds of food we take, perhaps, only occasionally. But we need bread every morning and evening in our lives. So is it with Christ. There is no day in our lives but we need his blood, his righteousness, his intercession, and his grace. Well may Jesus be called, “The bread of life!”

Therefore, Jesus is the essential of life; he may be described as the Bread of Life. The hunger of the human situation is ended when we commune with Jesus and through him have communion with God. The restless soul is at rest; the hungry heart is satisfied.

Do we know anything of spiritual hunger? Do we feel anything of craving and emptiness in conscience, heart, and affections? Let us distinctly understand that Jesus alone can relieve and supply us. We must come to him by faith. We must believe on him, and commit our souls into his hands. So coming, Jesus pledges his royal word we shall find lasting satisfaction both for time and eternity. It is written, “Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

2. Jesus speaks about those who come to him

³⁶ “But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. ³⁷ All whom the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.”

We have, secondly, in these verses, a saying of Jesus about those who come to him. What does “coming to Jesus” mean? It means that movement of souls which takes place when those feeling their sins, and finding out that they cannot save themselves, hear of Jesus. They apply to Jesus, trust in Jesus, lay hold on Jesus, and lean all their weight on Jesus for salvation. When this happens, any person is said, in Scripture language, to “come” to Jesus.

What did Jesus mean by saying–”I will never drive away“? Jesus means that he will not refuse to save all who come to him, no matter what they may have been. Their past sins may have been very great. Their present weakness and infirmity may be very great. But do they come to Jesus by faith? Then Jesus will receive them graciously, pardon them freely, place them in the number of his dear children, and give them everlasting life.

Over the years I have been near the bedside of those who are close to death. These are golden words indeed! They have smoothed down many a dying pillow, and calmed many a troubled conscience. Let them sink down deeply into our memories, and abide there continually. A day will come when flesh and heart shall fail, and the world can help us no more. Happy shall we be in that day, if the Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we have really come to Christ!

3. Jesus speaks about the will of his Father

³⁸ “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. ³⁹ And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰ For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

We have, lastly, in these verses, a saying of Christ about the will of His Father. We are taught by these words that Jesus has brought into the world a salvation open and free to everyone. Jesus draws a picture of it, from the story of the bronze serpent, by which bitten Israelites in the wilderness were healed. Every one that chose to “look” at the bronze serpent might live. Just in the same way, every one who desires eternal life may “look” at Jesus by faith, and have it freely. There is no barrier, no limit, and no restriction. The terms of the Gospel are wide and simple. Every one may “look and live.”

Eternal life requires an infinite resource to sustain it and faith in Jesus will give us the spiritual resources (bread of life) that will sustain us for eternity. All other sources of power will fade away or be limited in some way. All complexity requires maintenance, or it falls into decay - and life is complex! So God sustains the believer through Jesus who works in us for our good.

Therefore, we are taught that Jesus will never allow any soul that is committed to him to be lost and cast away.Jesus will keep it safe, from grace to glory, in spite of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Not one bone of Jesus’ mystical body shall ever be broken. Not one lamb of his flock shall ever be left behind in the wilderness. Jesus will raise to glory, in the last day, the whole flock entrusted to his charge and not one shall be found missing.

Let the true Jesus-follower feed on the truths contained in this passage, and thank God for them. Jesus is the Bread of life—the Receiver of all who come to him; Jesus is the Preserver of all believers—for every person who is willing to believe on him; and Jesus is the eternal Possession—securing all who so believe. Surely this three-course meal is satisfying and its good news!

Let’s look at this picture of Jesus today through the lens of the Lord’s Supper. It must strike us as we read this passage that the life of Jesus—who described himself as “the Bread of Life”—is parallel to what is taking place in the Lord’s Supper. There are four actions we take with the bread. These symbolize the life of Jesus, and they give us a great image of our own Christian life as well.

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.” –Mark 14:22.

First, the initial action in communion is the TAKING of the bread. Jesus took bread at the Last Supper; we take the bread every time we share communion. In the same way, Jesus took on human form to show his love for the world, his unity with the human condition, and his humility. Jesus took on our nature so he could offer us salvation. The church fathers said, “What he has not assumed, he cannot save.” Jesus took the plunge into human nature to rescue us. So in response to what Christ has done, we take Jesus. We have to take on Jesus, to make a decision that he will be our Lord and Savior and that we will follow him. We take the name of Jesus; we take his yoke upon ourselves. We claim the name of Christian.
There is no doubt that the best team in baseball over the years has been the New York Yankees. Yankee dynasties stretch back over the length of the last century. They have an almost mystical tradition in baseball. Bill Hybels tells about one of the Yankees managers of a bygone era who used to give a speech to the rookies on the team every year. He would say, “Boys, it’s an honor just to put on the New York pinstripes. So when you put them on, play like world champions. Play like Yankees. Play proud.”
Paul’s words in Philippians 2:5-11 describe for us what Jesus took on in his life, death, and resurrection. Taking on Jesus is like putting on the uniform of a champion. It’s an honor to identify ourselves with the One who gave up his heavenly glory, took on the form of a servant, died a horrible death on the cross, and was exalted by God in the Resurrection. It’s wonderful to know that one day, at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on the earth and under the earth; and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father. It’s a privilege to be a part of this team.

Second, after the taking comes the BLESSING. On the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread and blessed it. At the Last Supper, in the Passover ritual, there was a prayer of thanksgiving, a blessing said over the food, just like most of us do now. When Jesus took on human form to become our Savior, when he became the Bread of Life, his Father blessed him. After his death on the cross, he was exalted again to his heavenly glory as Lord of the universe. It was not an easy road—we’ll get to that in a moment—but the outcome was certain. He was victoriously and abundantly blessed!
Aren’t we blessed when we take on Jesus as our Savior? When we live in communion with Jesus, we have a life we couldn’t know otherwise. It’s a life filled with hope and love and joy and peace. It’s a life that gives us strength for our trials and courage for our challenges. It’s a life that will never end because our destination is exaltation, to follow our Lord Jesus into his heavenly kingdom. It’s good to be a child of the King! How blessed we are to make the connection with Christ and his family!

Third, after the blessing comes the BREAKING. After he took the bread and blessed it, Jesus broke it. We repeat the symbolic action every time we gather at the Lord’s Table: “This is the body of Christ, broken for us.” We remember that we have the blessing of a relationship with God only because Jesus let himself be broken for us. Without the sacrifice of Jesus, we have no plea for our sins, we have no way to find forgiveness, and we have no hope of eternal life.
If we follow Jesus, if we seek to live his life in community, we have to allow ourselves to be broken as well. We have to become powerless before him so he can fill us with his power. This is a hard lesson to learn. We love to think we’re in control, that we’re self-sufficient, and that we’re rugged individuals capable of facing any challenge. But true spiritual transformation doesn’t happen until we face a crisis of confidence and we realize that we’re not in control, that we’re not capable, and that all our resources aren’t sufficient to meet the challenge in front of us. At that point there’s a choice to make. We can either crash into despair, or we can admit to God that we’re utterly and absolutely dependent on his help. Have we been there? Sure we have. We have to let go, surrender, and become “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20).

One of the first devotional books I read as a young Jesus-follower was Mrs. L. B. Cowman’s wonderful book, Streams in the Desert. She wrote, “Throw yourself helplessly at his feet. Die in his loving arms to your own strength and wisdom, and rise…into his strength and sufficiency. There is no way out of your difficult and narrow situation except at the top. You must win deliverance by rising higher, coming into a new experience with God. …There is no way out but God.”

In the same light, Oswald Chambers wrote in his devotional book, Still Higher for His Highest, the disasters of communion with Jesus. “There are disasters to be faced by the one who is in real fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. God has never promised to keep us immune from trouble; God says ‘I will be with you in trouble,’ which is a very different thing. If you are experiencing the disasters of fellowship, don’t get into despair; remain unswervingly and unhesitatingly faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ and refuse to compromise for one second.”
When we’re facing a crisis of brokenness, remember Moses. He started out as a basket case. When we get to our wit’s end, we’ll find God lives there!

It’s the God who brought us to this crisis of brokenness who will lead us through it. With God we will emerge victorious on the other side, because God lives on the other side. We’re to be broken before God, and he’ll give us what we need.
Fourth, the last action of communion is GIVING. Giving is a two-way street. Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to his disciples. When we take Jesus as our Savior, receive the blessing, become broken before him, God gives us life so we can give to others.

Jesus gave his life on the cross. He gives life to the world—to you and me—through his resurrection. We give our lives in response to his gracious gift. We respond in gratitude for all God has given. We’re in communion with Christ and one another when we give.

In 1994, there was a genocidal massacre in Rwanda in which 800,000 people were killed simply because they belonged to the wrong ethnic group. The story is told of a pregnant Rwandan mother of six whose village was destroyed by the massacre. She was shot first, buried under the bodies of each of her six slain children, and left for dead. She dug herself out, buried her children, and subsequently bore her seventh child. Soon thereafter, she chose to adopt five children whose parents had been killed in the same massacre. She expressed her belief that her life had been spared so that she might care for these orphaned children after losing her own.

We don’t know if that woman was a Christian. But we know she made a Christlike decision. Out of radical brokenness—the destruction of home and family—she could so easily have spent the rest of her days in hatred and bitterness. But she made the decision for life; she gave herself so others—orphaned children—could live better.

So what does the community of Christ look like? We’re a visual people. We need to see some pictures to make it real. This is what the community of Christ looks like. (show pictures of community in Christ at Christ First). This is what communion with Christ means: taking Jesus’ name as the fundamental expression of our being, blessing of a relationship with him, breaking like a loaf of bread before the awesome power of God, and giving ourselves to God for others. This is the picture we see in Jesus Christ. This is the picture we see in the church, when it’s being the church. This is a banquet feast at its finest. This is the Bread of Life. This is our only hope. Amen!

This Lenten message series continues to focus upon the transformed life from the Gospel of Mark.  Lent is not about drudgery; it’s about drama—the drama of bonding with Christ on the
Calvary road toward a spiritually empowered encounter with God.  It is a three-act drama of remembrance, release, and renewal.  The Christian life is about Christ at work in the Jesus-follower.  The Holy Spirit lives inside all Jesus-followers and causes them to be set apart for God’s use.  The Holy Spirit empowers Jesus-followers for righteous living.  The Christ—empowered life is more than seriousness and solemnity. Like faith itself, it’s a journey from sacrifice to celebration—an adventure beyond the ordinary!

This weekend marks the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem—the beginning of the holiest week for disciples of Jesus as we contemplate the salvation God has provided for us in Jesus Christ. As we survey that week, how easy it would be to interpret Jesus’ death as victimization: wooed by an impression-hungry crowd; betrayed by a close friend; caught in the political tug-of-war between Rome and Jerusalem; cast to the will of a mindless mob; crushed on a cross by the world’s greatest power!  However, Jesus was able to overcome this rejection. 

The New Testament never speaks of Jesus as victim.  Jesus is silent before his accusers because his silence judges them. His life is not taken from him; rather he lays down his life as a free gift. The cross is not thrust upon him but is embraced by him.  Though facing rejection by people, Jesus never felt victimized.  Why? Because Jesus experienced God’s immeasurable love for him.  Jesus was even able to move through the rejection of his heavenly Father on the cross.  This is not weakness or victimization, but love in its fullest, strongest and deepest measure.

What is the fear of rejection? Fear of rejection is “the irrational alarm that others will not accept me for who I am, what I believe, and how I act.”  When hit by rejection, it is uplifting to know we are not alone. Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Zip-A-Dee-A, my oh my, what a wonderful day. Plenty of sunshine heading my way. Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Zip-A-Dee-A. We don’t always have “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Days.”Everybody suffers rejection at some time or another in their lives. It is vitally important that we learn to handle rejection.  We must recognize that rejection is a necessary part of our private and professional lives. No growth in life is achievable without encountering rejection of some form along the way. It encourages us to hone our skills and hearten our faith.

Let’s begin by exploring this thought with the following examples of those people who could spring back to effectiveness after facing a major blow:

• A teenager’s low popularity convinced her that she was not attractive. She became a top fashion model, hailed by many as the most beautiful woman in the world. All those who had ignored her are now boasting that they had gone to school with Claudia Schiffer!  She is one of the most beautiful and visually stunning women in the world; tall, blonde and rich. As world standards go, do we really need to know anything else?

·        Rejected as too awkward and clumsy to be a ball boy in a Davis Cup tennis match, Stan Smith went on to become the officially ranked number one tennis player in the world (1972-1973). ·        Would-be crime novelist John Creasey received an unbroken succession of 743 rejection slips. Over sixty million of his books have now been published. ·        ‘What will they send me next!’ said Edmund Hillary’s gym instructor of the puny school boy now known as the man who conquered Mount Everest. ·        ‘Balding, skinny, can dance a little,’ they said of Fred Astaire at his first audition. ·        Beethoven’s music teacher declared him ‘hopeless’ at composing. ·        Albert Einstein’s parents feared he was sub-normal. ·        As Billy Graham preached, a missionary’s daughter battled an almost uncontrollable urge to run out of the meeting. It was his future wife, and it wasn’t conviction that made her squirm. It was her response to what she considered appalling preaching. ·        An invitation was extended to witness one of humanity’s most historic moments – the Wright brothers’ first flight in their heavier-than-air machine. Five people turned up. ·        H. B. Warner of Warner Brothers fame scoffed at the notion of ‘talkies.’ No one would want to hear movie actors talk.

If only we could laugh in the midst of our trial. Coping with rejection and apparent failure is a serious matter.  Many of us have stifled our lives by heeding some misguided critic who implied we were not good enough. Few things in life are certain. But rejection is. Though spineless people-pleasers try hard, no one totally avoids rejection. Being right doesn’t help. Neither does loving everyone, or being perfect. The world crucified the only One with these qualities. Everything Jesus did upset someone. He was rejected even by friends, family and religious leaders. Twenty-one centuries later, with the advantage of hindsight, he is still slandered.

We will discover in the text of this message, how Jesus enters Jerusalem with cheers from a celebrative crowd that would soon turn into jeers from an angry mob.  His Triumphal Entry points to God’s servant ministering in the official role of Servant-King.

PROTEST MEETS PASSION—MARK 11:1-11

¹ As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, ² saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³ If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’ ” ⁴ They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, ⁵ some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?”    ⁶ They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go.  ⁷ When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it.                       ⁸ Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. ⁹ Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, “Hosanna!^]” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” ¹⁰ “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”  ¹¹ Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

Mark continues to demonstrate an action-oriented Jesus.  His urgency to tell the story of Jesus and alert his community to the gospel message of Christ before it was too late is well known. It is evidenced in the brevity of his words and the repeated use of “immediate” language throughout his accounts. The Palm Sunday passage is no exception. The demand to find the colt is insistent, and Jesus gives instructions to the disciples who may encounter questioning.

Like branches at his feet, everything falls into place just as if he had meticulously planned the whole procession down to the most minor detail.  Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem would later prove the triumph of a Servant-King.  It would point to a spiritual and not a military triumph.  Jesus’ triumph would be the victory of love over hatred, truth over error, and life over death.  After looking into the temple area at the end of the day, Jesus returns the next day.  No doubt Jesus spends time in prayer with his disciples, seeking to prepare them for the difficult week where passion would turn into protest.

The Triumphal Tragedy

Based on events relating to the trial, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Passion Week enacts the central drama of the Christian faith.  The “passion” comprises the very last week of Jesus’ life on earth.  It begins on Palm Sunday and concludes on the morning of Easter Sunday.  It is likened to a play with seven distinct acts:  (1) royal entry; (2) Temple refinement; (3) intimate feast; (4) intense request; (5) rash disloyalty; (6) severe anguish; (7) regal outcome.

Several years ago a young man named Jerry went out to the lake with his wife and parents for a day of recreation on the water. As things worked out, Jerry was water skiing behind one boat while his wife and parents were in another. The ski boat pulling Jerry made a loop close to his parent’s boat, and as he passed by them, his wife and mother waved excitedly. Jerry waved back, thinking nothing of it.  As Jerry skied off into the distance, he left behind a tragedy he knew nothing about. His father had been operating their craft and in the manipulation of a turn one of Jerry’s younger sisters had fallen overboard. The father quickly turned around headed the craft close to her, killed the engine, and as the boat drifted alongside, Jerry’s dad jumped into the water to save his daughter. Unexplainably, both the father and the daughter began to go under. And as they did so, the boat with Jerry’s wife and mother drifted further and further away, and neither of the women knew how to operate the craft. It was just at this moment that Jerry skied close by. Their waves were not just a casual, friendly gesture, but a desperate plea for help. It was not until some time later that Jerry learned that his father and sister had drowned, almost before his eyes, and yet unknown. Things are not always what they seem. Such was the case with the so-called Triumphal Entry of Jesus as described by each of the four gospels. On the surface, it was a time of rejoicing and celebration but as that week drew to a close, it was seen in full view as the great tragedy of recorded history.

Let’s rename Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.  Let’s call this unusual entrance of Jesus the Triumphal Tragedy, for it is not really a triumph at all. When we study all of the gospel accounts we learn that no one but our Lord grasped the full significance of his actions. The scribes and Pharisees perceived it at the moment as a devastating defeat of their efforts to turn the crowds against Jesus (John 12:19). The multitudes grasped the event as a possible entrance into the kingdom age, but failed to comprehend the kind of King the Messiah was to be at his first coming, and the nature of his kingdom (Luke 19:11). The disciples did not understand the meaning of these events either (John 12:16).Things are not always what they seem to be. What appears on the surface to be a hearty welcome is, in fact, a forerunner of warning. More than this, we have already noted that the Triumphal Entry (so-called) was not thrust upon Jesus by his disciples or the crowds; it was a deliberate act of his volition to precipitate the final events of his earthly life, as foreordained from eternity past. 

Mark describes Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem into two distinct phases:

1.  The preparation for the Servant-King

¹ As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, ² saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³ If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’ “4They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, ⁵ some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?”    ⁶ They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go.  ⁷ When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it.

Even if we’ve set out on the Lenten pilgrimage on Ash Wednesday and taken every step in penitence and prayer through Mark’s Gospel, we are still not prepared for the arrival. Neither were those who joined Jesus in Galilee and made their way up to Jerusalem. For many it was an annual pilgrimage, this Passover. Others, having to travel greater distances, saw the Holy City through the joyful tears of those who know they will never make the journey again. But in one particular year, the pilgrimage was a once-in-a-lifetime experience because it was made in the company of Jesus of Nazareth. For him too, Jerusalem was the end of a pilgrimage.

The portion of the journey to which Mark draws our attention goes from Bethany, a town just east of the Mount of Olives, to Jerusalem. It is difficult to listen to Mark describe the scene because the event has been elevated into a major Christian celebration, Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday, and celebrations tend to draw upon all the available resources in order to enlarge the drama. Matthew contributes the children, John the palms, and all the Evangelists except Mark describe the pilgrimage as going into the streets of the city. Only Mark speaks of the procession going to the entrance of the city, and says that Jesus went alone into Jerusalem.

Were the preparations for Jesus’ triumphal entry a part of God’s providential care or a fluke? Paul Harvey’s, The Rest of the Story, gives the account about the West Side Baptist Church in Beatrice, Nebraska. Normally all of the good choir people came to church on Wednesday night to practice, and they tended to be early, well before the 7:30 starting time. But one night, March 1, 1950, one by one, two by two, they all had excuses for being late.   Marilyn, the church pianist overslept on her after-dinner nap, so she and her mother were late. One girl, a high school sophomore, was having trouble with her homework. That delayed her, so she was late. One couple couldn’t get their car started. They, and those they were to pick up, were subsequently late. All eighteen choir members, including the pastor and his wife, were late. All had good excuses. At 7:30, the time the choir rehearsal was to begin, not one soul was in the choir loft. This had never happened before.   But that night, the only night in the history of the church that the choir wasn’t starting to practice at 7:30, was the night that there was a gas leak in the basement of the West Side Baptist Church. At precisely the time at which the choir would have been singing, the gas leak was ignited by the church furnace and the whole church blew up. The furnace room was right below the choir loft! 

Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is not a fluke, it is a divine plan preordained by God.  The preparations are prophesied from the Old Testament prophet Zechariah (9:9), even down to the Savior riding a colt that had never been ridden upon. In fact, if we follow closely Jesus’ life, God preordains a number of preparations for Jesus.  All of these preparations are borrowed like the colt Jesus rides upon into Jerusalem.  Some of these preparations are: a manger, a boat, a lunch, a feast, a cross, a tomb.  God is preparing our lives as Jesus-followers through preparations.  They are not flukes, but intended plans to help us become more like Jesus!2.  The parade for the Servant-King⁸ Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. ⁹ Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, “Hosanna!^]” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” ¹⁰ “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”  ¹¹ Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

The journey from Bethany to Jerusalem is for Mark an impressive parade. There is the large and loud crowd.  A crowd that follows Jesus from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem merges with the crowd out of the city that comes to meet him at the Jerusalem’s gates.  Two crowds: the faithful followers and the distant onlookers.  Garments and branches pave Jesus’ way, and the bursts of praise and blessing ring out in antiphonal celebration.  The multitudes thought in terms of earthly prosperity and freedom from Rome. So they cried, “Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11:10). “Hosanna,” which means “Lord, save us now!” Yet a few days later, the shouts of the crowd become: “Crucify Him!” (Mark 15:13). So as we sometimes have early warm weather called “false spring,” so it is possible to observe a “false Easter.” Those who keep the last Sunday of Lent as Passion rather than as Palm Sunday avoid the problem.

Whatever may have been in the minds of the crowds, whatever may have been in the minds of the Twelve, the reader knows there is more going on than a parade honoring Jesus. We might describe the event as a protest march.  The stakes are higher now — Jesus is no longer in the villages and open country of his home province. This is the capital and the seat of religious and civil authority, where chief priests and elders have power. To what extent the crowds of pilgrims or the residents of Jerusalem supported his protests is not fully clear. The crowds are “spellbound by his miraculous works,” and Jesus’ popularity with them causes his opponents to fear the crowds.

The final Sunday of Lent is therefore marked by a celebratory parade, which is also a protest march. Only Jesus knows that the same event is also a funeral procession. The Twelve should have known; on three occasions Jesus tells them of his approaching death in Jerusalem. Their response after each prediction makes it evident, however, that they do not comprehend his words. It is painful to read of their continuing claims of adequacy for what lies ahead and of their divisive competition for seats of favor in the coming kingdom.

But we must not rush to judgment. The Twelve spent much time with Jesus listening and observing, it is true, but that time together lay on the other side of the cross and the empty tomb. After the resurrection they remembered — and for the first time, they understood. To their credit, they regrouped. Records subsequent to Mark testify to faithfulness in continuing the work of Jesus, even in the face of rejection as strong as any Jesus himself had to endure.

Mark concludes this passage as Jesus alone enters the temple.  ¹¹Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.  Jesus enters the Temple not to occupy it, not to cleanse it, but to survey it, and then to leave it and the city, retiring with the Twelve to Bethany. Simply put, Mark’s account is not only brief; it is restrained and without the claims about Jesus found in the other three Gospels.A Case Study of RejectionInstinct leads the people along the way to break forth with a natural three-fold response to the entry of a king—garments are scattered on his path, palm leaves are plucked and waved, and an impromptu choir begins its antiphonal chant.  However, to be precise, the error of the crowds was at least a three-fold rejection. 1.  Motivated by miracles“What have you done for me lately?”  The crowd’s acclaim is almost totally based upon and motivated by the miracles which Jesus had performed (Luke 19:37; John 12:9). It was not his words (his teaching and doctrine), but his works that motivated many to receive Jesus as Messiah.  We need to be careful today as Jesus-followers that our passion for Jesus is not motivated by what Jesus will do for us, rejecting the very words of Jesus.  We also need to be prepared to face people who will reject us because we can’t perform up to their expectations placed on us. 2.  Stimulated by success “What have you awarded to me lately?”  The crowd failed to grasp the proper priorities for the coming kingdom. Ultimately, the Messiah would establish a physical, earthly kingdom, but primarily this kingdom was based upon a spiritual renewal. The cheering crowds thought only of the material dimensions of the kingdom to the exclusion of the spiritual; only the external aspects and not the internal. We need to be cautious today as Jesus-followers that our desire to follow Jesus is not stimulated by attaining success through material possessions, rejecting the spiritual dimensions of our faith.  We also need to be ready to encounter people who will reject us because we can’t materially award them the good things of life.3.  Prompted by power“What have you given to me lately?” The crowd was completely in error as to how the kingdom was to be established. They thought it would be accomplished by military might, power and revolution, rather than by rejection, suffering, and a humiliating death for the Messiah, who was to die as the Lamb of God for the sins of his people (cf. Isaiah 52:13–53:12).  We need to be watchful today as Jesus-followers that our identification with Jesus is not prompted by power and revolution.  We also need to be ready to experience people who will reject us because we can’t give to them the power and prestige they desire.   G. Campbell Morgan, one of the greatest preachers and bible teachers of the 19^th century, was one of 150 young men who sought entrance to the Wesleyan ministry in 1888. He passed the doctrinal examinations, but then faced the trial sermon. In a spacious auditorium that could seat more than 1,000 sat three ministers and 75 others who came to listen. When Morgan stepped into the pulpit, the vast room and the searching, critical eyes caught him up short. Two weeks later Morgan’s name appeared among the l05 REJECTED for the ministry that year. Jill Morgan, his daughter-in-law, wrote in her book, A Man of the Word, “He wired to his father the one word, ‘Rejected,’ and sat down to write in his diary: ‘Very dark everything seems. Still, God knows best.’ Quickly came the reply: ‘Rejected on earth. Accepted in heaven. Dad.’” In later years, Morgan said: “God said to me, in the weeks of loneliness and darkness that followed, ‘I want you to cease making plans for yourself, and let Me plan your life.’” Rejection is rarely permanent; as Morgan went on to prove.

We must cease making plans for ourselves as we enter this holiest of weeks. We allow God to plan our lives. We must not see ourselves as victims. For even in this life, circumstances change, and ultimately, there is no rejection of those accepted by Christ.

Whether we see ourselves as gifted or geek, indispensable or inadequate, depends entirely on the frame of reference we choose. From God’s frame of reference—the life’s work he has chosen for each of us—no one is as perfectly endowed as us.  If that seems like soppy idealism, we have not thought it through. If we do so, it will become a treasured source of strength and inspiration.

We can choose any person and fill volumes with what he or she cannot do or is hopeless at, but that’s of no more concern than the fact that a video recorder cannot fly, quench thirst, tie shoelaces, and prevent tooth decay. Besides the endless list of things a video recorder cannot do, many of the things it can do, it does poorly. It’s an inferior paperweight, straightedge, and bookend. We could use it as a fly-swatter – once.  Such lists miss the critical point: anything skillfully designed is ideally equipped – and usually solely equipped – for the specific and commendable purpose for which it was made.

Of course we cannot do everything. That was never God’s intentional design.  But to imagine that our Creator will not fashion us with perfection for our reason for existence, is to accuse God of impotence and incompetence. Let’s face facts: everything God does is impressive. For the exact role that he created us, we are superbly endowed. Like Jesus, all we need do is yield to him.

On this Passion Sunday, it is important for Jesus-followers to remember that we know the end of the story and view the whole through an empty tomb. This realization checks our impatience with those who walked with him from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem. But this realization is also a burden, a burden of knowing. How solemn and heavy is the joy of being admitted into the circle of those who now understand, at least in part. “To whom much is given, much is required.”

Therefore, Jesus’ triumphal entry is perhaps the defining moment of Jesus’ ministry. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” The defining moment of our ministry may afford us blessing, but also leaves us feeling rejected too. It comes when we, like Jesus, realize we are near the end of our journey; and we finally face up to evil, bringing nothing in our hands but what he had: peace and truth and love.

 Let’s ask ourselves some closing questions as we deal with rejection in our own lives:

·        How has God led us to this point in our lives?·        How do we handle the rejection our culture places upon humility and suffering?·        How will we grasp eternity by allowing God to make plans for our lives?This Lenten season, however reeling from rejection, we tell ourselves that through the power of Christ’s indwelling presence; we can identify with Jesus’ suffering and humility.  We have the power to handle rejection.   We have been accepted by Christ. As we live the forty-days of adventure from Lent to Easter with them, they have much to teach us about the journey from sacrifice to celebration.  We tell ourselves we can handle rejection!

Prayer for Passion SundayChrist-empowered Savior: Shallow and inadequate is our love for you, blessed Lord, compared with the height and depth and length and breadth of your love for us.  From the perspective of  Passion Week we see you entering into the energy and fatigue, the challenge and crisis, the dignity and tragedy of the human struggle.  Apart from you our lives are empty, a chasing after the wind, a meaningless accumulation of years.  We confess that, in the pressures of the daily grind, we allow the demands of the moment to take priority over knowing you and making you known.  We come to you to reorient our thinking, that we might not be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of our minds.  Though we can never be worthy of your gift of mercy, teach us to be thankful, and empower us to live in attitude and action that our thanksgiving might be expressed, not only in word but also in deed.  In the face of rejection you endured the cross to say you also need us, that your life, as ours, finds its highest fulfilllment in serving one another.  You come to us on this Passion Sunday as the world’s liberating Savior and saving Liberator.  Help us to face rejection knowing that by turning to you in faith, we turn away from doubt and fear, from negativity and shame.  Thank you for washing us in your blood, for setting us free.  Amen.