Most of us long for a better world –a world free from conflict and war, lying and cheating, corruption and injustice. We long for a world where there is justice and peace. But the reality is that in various ways and to various degrees, we become caught up in the ebb and flow of human conflict and injustice. ‘Can anyone be trusted?’ we ask. And indeed, because these human failings seem to have become endemic, we become cynical about law-makers, the opinion-makers, and the traditional church.
Where in the world today do we look for hope – to lawmakers, educators, or the courts? All these institutions can do great things, but if we’re honest we know they can only do so much. I want to suggest that because our real problem is our broken relationship with God, there is no real answer apart from the events of Good Friday and Easter day that we have touched on over the last weeks.
Consider the charge he left his disciples that we read about in Acts 1:8: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. These words go to the heart of The Acts of the Apostles which we can sum up with the phrase: ‘The Hidden Rule of Christ’. Two things stand out: the limited agenda of the disciples, and the global agenda of Jesus.
The limited agenda of the disciples: Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel? they asked. Jesus had been speaking about how the new age of God’s Messiah had dawned and how the promises of the prophets were being fulfilled. The disciples were excited about this and began thinking that at last Jesus was going to reveal his true power and position as Israel’s rightful king. They spoke of Jesus restoring the kingdom. Clearly they were thinking in political categories – the restoration of the monarchy.
They also referred to the kingdom of Israel. They were thinking in nationalistic terms: the power and position of Israel as a nation. They questioned whether this would happen soon. They were thinking that now Jesus was risen from the dead, his coming in kingly power and glory would soon take place.
We need to consider this.Many have thought in much the same categories as those first followers. Events in the Middle-East, especially if they involve Israel, always stir some people to open up the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation in the New, with a view to making predictions concerning the end times.
But look at Jesus’ response: He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. His words are a rebuke: ‘Friends,’ he is saying, ‘That’s not for you to know. That’s ‘Top Secret’! We need to remember this when people are getting excited with predictions about the end times: ‘You’re not to worry about that,’ says Jesus. ‘I have something much more important for you to do with your time and energy.’
Consider his agenda: You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Yes, it’s another agenda, but it’s his action plan for his followers. Their vision is short-sighted and parochial – limited to the nation of Israel. Jesus wanted them to lift their eyes to the needs of the world. ‘Listen,’ he is saying, ‘you’re being nationalistic and territorial. Come with me and see the big picture. The account and the implications of my death and resurrection must be told – first, here in Jerusalem, then in Judea and Samaria, and finally to the ends of the earth.’
It is easy for us to be like the disciples and put all our energies into working at political solutions for the world’s ills. Yes, politics have their place, but God did not send a politician to rescue the world. He sent a Savior. What is more, the Savior, Jesus Christ, now calls us into partnership with him in his agenda that is spiritual in its focus (men and women need God’s gospel to touch and change their minds and souls), global in scope, and far-flung in time.
Yesterday’s New York Times (May 5, 2015) carried an article by Nicholas Wade, ‘A New Order to Life’s Origins’. The article focuses on a hypothesis of Dr John Sutherland, a chemist at the University of Cambridge, England, that life on earth has its origins in an asteroid bombardment from Jupiter and Saturn some 13.8 billion years ago. However, the article notes that other eminent scientists have serious questions about Dr Sutherland’s hypothesis.
My purpose here is not to discuss the merits or otherwise of the thesis (I am not a scientist), but to observe once again the scientific recognition of the extraordinary complexity that we find in the universe and in life on earth. Yet despite the disagreements amongst scientists, the opinion-shapers in the world of academia and in the social media consistently dismiss the Bible’s account of the origins and meaning of life. The public voice has been persistent: the Genesis account of creation must be dismissed – no further questions. What is overlooked is that Genesis makes no claim to be a scientific explanation. It is not interested in the ‘How’, but ‘Who?’ So, Psalm 19 speaks into our world with, The heavens declare the glory of God.
When we come to the New Testament it is significant that every outreach presentation is undergirded by the statement that Jesus rose physically from the dead. If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith, writes Paul the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 15.
Jesus’ resurrection is extraordinary.
But unusual things do happen. G.K. Chesterton applied words of Lord Byron to Christianity, Truth is stranger than fiction, he said, for fiction is the creation of the human mind and therefore congenial to it.
In Corinthians we read: He (Christ) was buried,… he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and… he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living…1 Corinthians 15:3ff
Christianity didn’t start because a group of fanatics had invented a story about their hero. It didn’t start because a group of philosophers had come to the same conclusions about life. And it didn’t start because a group of mystics shared the same vision about God. It began with a group of eye-witnesses – a company of very ordinary men and women who saw something very extraordinary happen. In a word it began with history.
The tomb of Jesus of Nazareth was empty, not because the body had been stolen, or because the disciples had removed it, or because Jesus had come out of a coma in the cool of the tomb, but because of a divine intervention. The late Dr. Pinchas Lapide, an eminent Jewish theologian, said this about Jesus’ resurrection: …In my opinion the resurrection belongs to the category of the truly real… A fact which indeed is withheld from objective science, photography, and a conceptual proof, but not from the believing scrutiny of history which more frequently leads to deeper insights.
Jesus’ resurrection is not a mythical story. It was the real God, breaking into real history at a particular place and a particular time. This is what makes Christian faith with all it says about God, you and me, and the meaning of life, credible. Christianity is real because it has the evidence of eye-witnesses.
Prayer
Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give humble and hearty thanks for all your goodness and loving kindness to us and to all people. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your amazing love in the redemption of the world through our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us that due sense of all your mercies, that our hearts may be truly thankful, and that we may declare your praise not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.
One of the significant disagreements within the Christian Church over the last five hundred years has been over the sacraments. The Catechism in the English (1662) Book of Common Prayer defines a sacrament as
an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us, ordained by Christ Himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof.
It is a sign, a means, and a pledge.
It is a sign in that it represents or points to something beyond itself. While it is not the thing itself there is a similarity or a similitude between the sign and the thing signified. In the Lord’s Supper the similitude is in the nourishing, in that as bread nourishes our physical body, so Christ’s body broken feeds our soul.
Also, as the bread we eat in the Lord’s Supper is a sharing in one loaf of bread (we usually forget this today), so we who eat are one body in Christ – as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:17.
Furthermore, as we eat the bread and drink the wine, Christ through his Spirit, draws his people into his presence and into fellowship with him in heaven. It is something we can’t verbalize, but we partake of all the benefits he has won for us when his body was broken and his blood was shed at Calvary.
SACRAMENTS
The sacraments are linked to God’s Word. Without this they would be dumb signs. The sacraments visibly present the promises of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ which we have heard. The sacraments make visible what is preached. Christ himself authorized this when he added his teaching and his promises, his word, to the physical elements of the bread and the wine in the Lord’s Supper, thus transforming the bread and the wine into a sacrament.
The sacrament is a means of grace. When, and only when, we believe the promise of the gospel do we spiritually benefit as we partake of the Lord’s Supper. In this instance, believing is seeing since we see the word of God’s promise as a visible word in the sacrament. The Lord’s Supper is an outward and visible guarantee or pledge of our faith in Christ. To paraphrase Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s words: ‘As the bread, which is only a signification and figure, is eaten, our souls are fed and nourished with the spiritual benefits of Christ’s flesh and blood to eternal life.
The sacrifice for sin is complete. None of this means the physical substance of the bread and wine changes (transubstantiation), nor does it mean that Christ is physically present in the elements. As God-man, he is in heaven. This is the reason we exhort each other to ‘Lift up our hearts’ – we are to lift them up to where Christ Jesus is, in heaven. Furthermore, the Letter to the Hebrews is clear that the priestly and sacrificial work of Christ has been completed once and for all time (Hebrews 10:11-14). There is no need, indeed it subverts the meaning of Jesus’ death at Calvary, to repeat, re-present, or re-offer the sacrifice of Christ in the Communion.
In his second prayer book (1552), which stands behind the English 1662 BCP, Thomas Cranmer was keen to remove all ambiguity and set out clearly God’s gospel. So he took out words calling out for the Spirit to come upon the elements (the epiclesis). Appropriately, a prayer for the Spirit to come upon God’s people is at the beginning of the service. He also removed words that gave any impression of our offering anything for our salvation.
When we come to the Lord’s Supper we remember with grateful hearts what Jesus did on our behalf when he was crucified. We benefit now when, by faith, we are nourished spiritually by Christ, being drawn into his presence and into a conscious and joyful fellowship with his people. Furthermore, as we eat the bread and drink of the cup we look ahead to the day when we shall eat and drink with Christ and his people when he comes in the glory of his kingdom.
No wonder Paul the Apostle commands us to prepare before coming to the Lord’s Table: Let everyone examine themselves, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup (1 Corinthians 11:28).
Research presented at the Anglican Connection Conference held at Beeson Divinity School last October revealed that average church attendance in the United States is less than twenty percent. This is less than half what research had indicated fifteen to twenty years ago. And indicators point to an ongoing downward trend over the next decade. One interesting statistic that emerged is the increasing number of people who profess to be Christian yet who see no need of church. How contrary this is to the picture we find in the Bible.
In 1 John 4:7 we read:
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
The phrase, love one another threads through the following verses. In verse 7 we are exhorted to love one another; in verse 11, we have a duty to love one another; and in verse 12, it becomes a test, ‘if we love one another…’ It echoes Jesus’ new command that all who follow him should ‘love another’ (John 13:34).
Why is it so important that we love one another? Why, by implication, should we be involved with others who profess to be Christian? Indeed, why should we be involved in church? John’s answer is bound up with the subject of last week’s Word – ‘Love’. ‘God’s love’.
AUTHENTIC CHRISTIANITY
John is saying in verse 7 that anyone who does not practice love in their relationships, especially their relationships with God’s people, does not know God. It is not enough simply to say we know God. Authentic Christianity is about living out the love of God within us.
Evidence of God’s love is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, John tells us. And he goes on to draw out the implications of this in 4:11: Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. The gift of God’s love lays an obligation on us.
No one who truly responds to what Jesus Christ did for them when he died on the cross can go back to a life dominated by Self. The implication is that just as God has made such a costly sacrifice for us, so too his people should be willing to make costly sacrifices for one another.
In this remarkable chapter John tells us why we are to love one another and, by implication, why we need to be involved in and committed to a church. God’s love that originates within himself, was supremely revealed when Jesus Christ, through his death, provided an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Further, God’s love is brought to perfection when it bears fruit in his people – in our relationships with one another: If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. Truly an amazing statement.
AUTHENTIC COMMUNITY
In this little passage we are challenged to ask to what extent God’s love is reflected in our relationships with others at the church we attend? Do we take a genuine interest in one another – including those who may not be the intelligent, the beautiful and the successful? God welcomes everyone. The question is, do we? Do we pray for and support one another, do we truly welcome newcomers, not just on their first Sunday but over the following weeks? Do we go to church thinking not about what we can get, but what we can give? To take up two Greek words translated by our English word love, eros won’t serve others, but agape will.
Church alive. Significantly, churches where these principles are taught and practiced are churches that come alive. They are churches that people want to attend, churches where people want to bring their friends. One of the big challenges of life today is loneliness – people are looking for genuine community. Will they find it at your church?
We often hear the words, ‘God is love’, but what do they really mean? I ask this because too often our understanding of God’s love is shaped more by our culture rather than the Bible. In 1 John 4:10 we read, In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
The New Testament was originally written in Greek. Our English word ‘love’ is used to translate four different Greek words – words for friendship (phileo), for parental and filial, family love (storge or philostorgos as in Romans 12:10), emotional love (eros), and a love that springs from decision within, from the will (agape). This is the word we find in 1 John 4:10.
What is interestingis that eros is a word that could have been used by the New Testament writers to speak about our relationship with God. Plato, for example, used eros to describe the irresistible attraction for the supernatural. Later, the mystery religions in Greece used eros to speak about the ecstatic religious experience they felt. Pagan religions have long had an interest in eros as part of the mystical experience of the supernatural. Indeed one form of yoga exploits sexual intercourse as a technique for achieving spiritual enlightenment.
John’sand, indeed, the New Testament’s choice of the word agape is significant. Agape is a practical and unemotional love. When John says ‘God is love’, he is not referring to an ecstatic experience, but to Jesus on the cross. He speaks of a love that is willing to make sacrifices for the good of others. Eros is a word that seeks self-gratification; it is a demanding, craving love. Agape is about self-forgetfulness. It is a generous, sacrificial love that is more interested in the welfare of the one who is loved. Eros wants to take. Agape wants to give.
John’s language about God sending his Son, indicates that God’s Son has always existed. Here we see that God’s love is seen not so much in the Son’s coming, but in the death his Son died. This was the action of a holy and just God whose love found a way to forgive, rescue and restore men and women who had shown no love for God. God, in his love, was willing to make extraordinary sacrifices for us. Tragically, we too easily miss the significance of this.
In our age of ‘tolerance’ we overlook the reality of our broken relationship with God. We treat God more as a glorified Santa Claus who is always there when trouble strikes. We ignore the fact that, in our natural state, none of us can look God in the eye and expect to see his love. Our lives simply don’t measure up for we are more interested in serving Self rather than God.
It is only when we stop and consider what Jesus’ death meant that we begin to understand. For in Jesus’ suffering we see the outpouring of God’s fierce and just anger, being met in equal measure by the power of God’s love. To use Paul’s words in Romans 3:25, instead of showing his horror of sin by judging us according to his law, God has displayed the same horror, the same pure justice, by putting Jesus to death in our place.
No, Jesus’ death was not child abuse, as some will opine. In John’s Gospel we read that Jesus laid down his life of his own accord (John 10:17-18). He volunteered. Jesus death is, ‘the one perfect sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world’ (BCP, 1662).
Before you go to bed tonight will you consider your response to God’s love: Honesty and humility – thatJesus Christ died the death you deserve? Gratitude – that God was willing to sacrifice his only Son so that you might be forgiven? Love – remembering that God in his love has now made you at peace with him? Loyalty – inspired afresh by God’s unswerving love, will you offer your life afresh to him in love, loyalty and service?
A letter turned up in The Australian newspaper last weekend, reiterating in just a few lines that ‘religion is the problem’ with the world. The myriad cynical voices around us today may tempt us to doubt the truth of God’s gospel. How important it is, not just to be able to remind others of the millions put to death at the hands of ruthless, unbelieving rulers last century (Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, and Idi Amin come to mind), but to focus on what it is we do believe.
Central to our faith is that we are not here simply by chance but that we are all personally accountable to the creator God. Tragically, following our own desires and devices, we have turned away from God. Such is the consequence of our decision that we are incapable of doing any thing good enough to restore, or even contribute to restoring, this most precious of all relationships:
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
The wonderful and unique news of Christianity is that God who is rich in mercy, has stepped in and done what we could not do. As Paul puts it in Romans 3:21,
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law,…
One of the biggest mistakes we make about Christianity is that it is easy for God to forgive. It isn’t. The reason is tied up with the words, the righteousness of God… God is not just awesome in his power, he is not just wise in the way he deals with his world, he is also just in all his ways. His character defines what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong.
God’s righteousness. If God overlooked evil, calling what we say or do to one another, misdemeanors, he would be saying that there’s no such thing as good and evil. But he can’t allow that. It is essential for the preservation of morality in his universe that God’s righteousness is evident, that justice is done. Deep down we know how true this is, for when we see injustice we cry out for justice. If this matters to us, how much more will it matter to God. If he didn’t care, if he didn’t stand against it, goodness itself would lose its meaning.
How then does God uphold the good? One way is to be a judge. The problem here is that God would have to condemn us all. But, there is another way that God can uphold the good and offer forgiveness and reconciliation, and that’s what Paul writes about in Romans 3.
In Romans 3:21 he says, But now… Following the tragic events of Genesis 3 when men and women first turned their backs on God, another side to God’s character emerged— mercy. God did not cut off Adam and Eve; he did not even kill off the Babel tower builders. Rather, with his promises to Abraham he set in motion a plan that makes reconciliation possible.
JUSTIFICATION
Now in Romans 3:21 Paul tells us that something has happened that provides new hope for a world hopelessly in the grip of its own wickedness. ‘There is a righteousness of God apart from the law,’ Paul is saying, and Romans 3:22 tells us that this has come, through the faith of Jesus Christ. Our translations imply that Paul is referring to our faith in Jesus Christ. But it fits the syntax and suits the context better to translate this, through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.
The righteousness of God has come, not by means of the law, but rather through the perfect obedience of Jesus to the mind and will of God. Jesus is the one person who has kept God’s law. His relationship with God remained pure, and because of this he introduced a new way whereby God could reconcile us to himself. God is both just and the justifier, Paul says in 3:26.
How can God justly do this? Romans 3:25-26 is the key:
God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left sins committed beforehand unpunished – he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
We are justified by faith in Christ alone. Article XI of the 39 Articles says,
We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by Faith, and not for our own works or deservings: Wherefore, that we are justified by Faith only is a most wholesome Doctrine, and very full of comfort, as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification.
