Sermons
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Sermons |
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Sermon preached by John Cooper at Christ Church on 11/8/02. It was on the topic of 'Extraordinary birth' and was given at the morning service. The day's Bible reading was from chapter one of the gospel of Luke and reading from verses 57 to 80.
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themes: Every so often I get a chance to preach on a 'big' passage - an important passage. Today is such a day! The year 2002 was the year of 'Lord of the Rings' for me. It started with me seeing the film at the cinema. Then I read the book for the second time. Next I listened again to the superb BBC radio serialisation. This week I bought and watched the DVD. Now I am looking forward to the next part of the film coming out at Christmas. You see I like truly epic stories. I have read 'War and Peace' and 'Les Miserables' and thrilled to the camel charges in the film 'Lawrence of Arabia'. In music I am stirred by Wagner. But there is a very real epic which we are all part of and has been millennia in the making: God's plan of salvation for His world. I do not think that all Christians grasp the magnitude of this epic. Christianity is seen as something we do in church and we still have our petty squabbles with the very people Jesus told us to love. Worship and praise are seen merely as chorus singing. But worship is being part of the epic. It is to have a world vision of well-behaved children who will never go hungry; where nobody is lonely; elephants are not killed for their teeth; the sordid holds no interest and Creation praises the Creator. We are part of that epic and we have to play our part in bringing it about. Just as Abraham was told to get up and go, and in obedience he went, so we must strive to see the plan of God working out in this needy world. Look at verses 64 and 65: 'Immediately [Zechariah's] mouth was opened....and the neighbours were all filled with awe'. Is there a message for you and me in those few words? If our tongues were loosened would wonderful things happen? It is an incredible thought but God has no physical voice other than ours! If we remain silent so does He. Like Zechariah we suffer from spasmodic dysphonia. Surprisingly the body of Zechariah's message is about Jesus rather than his son (verses 68-75). What is his message? It is to say that God has been working on His epic of salvation. He used King David (v69), the prophets of long ago (v70) and Abraham, the father of the Jewish people (v73). And God was using Zechariah and would use his son, John the Baptist. And what was God doing? He was going to redeem His people by offering them salvation (v69). And then they would serve Him fearlessly and in holiness and righteousness (v74-5). God was going to come into our world in human form, as Jesus, so that we could relate to Him more closely and He was going to save us from the effects of our moral failure by taking our punishment with His death. In C. S. Lewis' book 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' Jesus, is thinly disguised as Aslan, a lion. When He is about to lead the attack on the evil witch, Aslan says to a normal lion to join Him in the frontal charge. This lion then starts running around saying, 'Did you hear what Aslan said: 'us lions will lead from up front'?'! David and Abraham and the prophets and Zechariah and John the Baptist and you and me are part of that attack on a fallen world. Zechariah's message to his unborn son, John the Baptist, comes as rather an anticlimax. But notice what he is to do: give the 'people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins' (v77). What an incredibly important role! But hold on a minute, is that not what we should be doing in the pulpit? Preaching is the most important job anyone can do. But it does not make the preacher any more important than anyone else. In fact when we lose our humility we lose the very message we are trying to get across. This is what the Apostle Paul wrote: 'Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also the interests of others' (Philippians 2:3-4) Now I accept that not everyone is called to be a preacher but I do believe that every Christian has a role in God's plan for salvation. We should ensure that everyone has enough knowledge to be saved. But do we take all the opportunities we are given? How many non-Christians have we explained what we believe to? Perhaps we do not know any non-Christians. Speaking personally I am glad Jesus got to know me some 36 years ago. And He used Christian friends as His emissaries. At our voice workshop Olga (Christ Church Youth and Children's Worker) said that I had a nice voice. It has rather gone to my head! So I would like to finish by reading some of my favourite verses which I think can be a very rousing call to arms for Christians. (It is just a shame that today's service is not a Communion Service.) We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he today that sheds His blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition: And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accurst they were not here; [And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon St. Crispin's day.] Henry V Act 4, Sc.3 ref: 02/5
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Web page last updated 24 Oct 2006 |
