Sermons
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Sermons |
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Sermon preached by John Cooper at Christ Church on 3/2/02. It was on the topic of preparing for repentance and was given at the morning service. The day's Bible reading was from chapter six of the Gospel of Mark and reading from verses 1 to 13. |
Bible Reading: Main
Themes: How do you see the Christian life? I see it as a journey [1], a quest. Other religions see the goal of their spiritual journey as being personal forgiveness before God. But Christianity is different. Our forgiveness is the starting point. We do not need to earn it. It is freely given by Jesus. But what then is the goal of our quest? I would suggest it is to serve Christ until we die and go to Him eternally. Unfortunately I think a lot of Christians do not grasp this. Rather than accepting freely-given forgiveness [2] they are always thinking there are conditions attached. For example is it a necessity to have a daily quiet time or to sing choruses emotionally? Do we gain extra spiritual points if we can compare the Synoptic Gospels or be able to discuss the Canaanite Early Bronze Age? Of course not! Now please note I am not saying that there is anything wrong with any of these things but they are not what Christianity is primarily about. We have the difficulty that after becoming Christians we still fall prey to temptation [3]. Plainly we are not perfect. Listen to Frodo's temptation to put the evil Ring on his finger in 'Lord of the Rings': "Frodo was hardly less terrified than his companions; he was quaking as if he was bitter cold, but his terror was swallowed up in a sudden temptation to put on the Ring. The desire to do this laid hold of him, and he could think of nothing else. He did not forget ... the message of Gandalf; but something seemed to be compelling him to disregard all warnings, and he longed to yield. Not with the hope of escape, or of doing anything, either good or bad: he simply felt that he must take the Ring and put it on his finger. He could not speak. He felt Sam looking at him, as if he knew that his master was in some great trouble, but he could not turn towards him. [Frodo] shut his eyes and struggled for a while; but resistance became unbearable, and at last he slowly drew out the chain, and slipped the Ring on the forefinger of his left hand." Page 191 As time went on the Ring became more and more of a burden [4] for Frodo. But finally he was able to get rid of it and everything changed. In Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress' the character Christian carries his sin around with him as a burden on his back. But then he drops the burden and it rolls away into the tomb of Christ never to be seen again. The Apostle Paul said: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation - the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5 v17). This has led to a frequent misunderstanding among Christians of the new nature that Christians receive on conversion. Some believers think that they can start from scratch in every area of their lives. It is as if the Holy Spirit cleans the slate of our personalities instantaneously wiping off everything that corresponds to our past. This way of thinking reflects more an urgent emotional desire for change than a mature longing for Christ's likeness. Continuing temptation [5] can really eat into us and it can make us guilty and despondent. But have you asked yourself why? Jesus knows that His disciples are sinners and yet He still loves us and still calls us [6]. He did not say that we have to be incapable of sin to serve Him. As Christians our sins are forgiven and we should not be worrying about it. We just need to sincerely ask for Christ's forgiveness [7]. It is interesting that when I hear Christians give their testimonies it is usually about how they became Christians. It is not about how God has worked in them since [8]. Onesimus' church in Uganda was very different (Onesimus is a friend of Christ Church). Christian after Christian got up to say how God had been revealing Himself to them during the week. In our passage Jesus sent out six missionary teams and they were not composed of perfect people. Because Jesus was only one person they could multiply the work He was doing. But they had to make a start. We sing a chorus saying 'a mighty army will arise'. The trouble is that it does not. Think about it - if all the Christians were to mobilise it would be the biggest army the world has ever seen. But instead we have little effect [9]. We bemoan the fact that society is losing its Christian values but then how much do we influence society? How many non-Christian friends do we have? (By far the majority of converts are made because a Christian has befriended them.) Are we politically concerned? Are we seen to go that extra mile at work to help others? Personally I think modern Christianity is too introverted. Primarily it is concerned about its own house-keeping rather than being a force for change in the world. As an aside I notice that Jesus sent His disciples out in pairs. A lot of Christian work seems to depend on the unmarried person - as though they had more time than anyone else! I suspect it is socially much easier for married couples to befriend people. After all most people, Christian or not, are married. And there are two of them to help if the conversation becomes stilted! What could be better - a married couple sharing the same vision and concerns for some Christian project of their own. But modern Christianity seems bent on dividing couples. Rarely do they share a task in church and how often is one whisked away from the other to attend some church meeting? Perhaps Tolkien (a Roman Catholic) in 'Lord of the Rings' understood our spiritual journey [10] when he wrote: "The Road goes ever on and on Down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, And I must follow, if I can, Pursuing it with eager feet, Until it joins some larger way Where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say." Page 35 (Like Tolkien I do not know what heaven will be like!) So let me sum up: The journey is one Christ has called us to undertake. He wants to send each one of us out [11] into a needy world just like He did with His disciples in this passage. But to be His messengers something has to happen first. Our guilt has to be dealt with. For that he died upon the cross and thus made our 'slate' clean before God. But that is only the start of the journey [12]. The Christian life starts from that point on. The Apostle Paul uses the comparison of a race that we embark on. The trouble for a lot of Christian is that the forgiveness of their sins [13] is all they see of the Christian life. They only see the bread and milk but they never face up to the real meat of their faith. We do not have to make ourselves perfect before we embark on the journey [14] of serving God. ref: 02/1
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Web page last updated 24 Oct 2006 |
