Sunday
09/08/19 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “How important is Jesus to you?”
(“The Realities of Faith and Life”
Series – Part 2 of 5)
Old Testament
Scripture: Jeremiah 18:1-11
New Testament
Scripture: Philemon 1-21
Gospel Lesson: Luke
14:25-33
Friends,
brothers and sisters, welcome once again on this the Thirteenth Sunday after
Pentecost. Thirteen Sundays after the Holy Spirit moved on the day of Pentecost
in Jerusalem, nearly two-thousand years ago. On that day, the Christian Church
was born, and we are a part of that great chain of witnesses.
Last week I started a sermon series called, “The Realities
of Faith and Life”. In this sermon series I am looking at some of the real
realities that we as Christians have with our personal faiths and the larger
faith of the whole church. Further, I am looking at some of the realities that
we face in life in general. How are we to respond to the very struggles that we
have with our own faith, the faith of the whole church, and the realities of
our lives? Are we to abandon God? Are we to redefine God to fit us? Or do we
seek God amidst it all?
In this sermon series, I am going through just five
different areas of “The Realities of Faith and Life”. Last week I addressed the
question of “Why is there so much suffering in the world?’ From the moral end,
the human to human end, I argued that most human suffering occurs because of
our sinful and fallen nature. From the natural end of things, hurricanes,
tornadoes, and etc., I argued that bad things just happen sometimes. We can decide
that because God did respond in the way that we want God to respond to us that
there is no God. Yet, if we believe that evil is alive and well in this world, then
we can only know what evil is by knowing what good is. If goodness does not
come from God, then we are left to decide for ourselves what is good and what
is bad. The result of this, is a culture that can’t seem to agree on much of
anything.
Further, while we live in a broken and a sinful world, and
while our sin and wickedness is the cause of so much human suffering, sometimes
bad things just happen. God intervene sometimes, but sometimes not. We have an
eternal promise from Jesus Christ that he will be with us for eternity if we
turn to him. We should seek to do everything that we can to make this world better,
knowing that is broken. Knowing that none of us can escape the tragedy of
humanity. Our task on earth therefore, is to pursue God, to love Jesus, to be
filled with the Holy Spirit, and to live and share that love all over the world.
In doing so, we will indeed make the world much better and transform it, but
until Christ returns to earth in final victory, we will never have a perfect
world. The world is broken because of us, and because it is a dangerous place.
God is good even when bad things happen, because God is the source of all goodness,
and moral law giver of humanity.
Last Sunday, while I attempted to address the brokenness,
sinfulness, and the suffering of this world, I want to talk about another issue
that is part of “The Realities of Faith and Life”. This issue, this person, is
Jesus Christ.
Our faith is called “Christianity”. We call ourselves
“Christians,” or for some “Followers of Christ”. This would assume in the name,
I would think, that Jesus Christ is important in our faith. I mean his name is
in the title. It is the equivalency of going to Pizza Hut and being shocked
that they have pizza. Christ, Jesus Christ, is the name in our faith. So
significant is Jesus, that the biggest and the grandest stained glass window in
this whole church depicts Christ with the Clarkes. I’m still looking for the
gospel passage where Christ meets this nice founding couple of this
congregation, but clearly Jesus is significant. So significant in fact, that
among all of the stained glass windows that we could have put here, we put
Christ and the founders of this congregation.
The question that I want to look at this morning then, is
“How important in Jesus to you?” I mean
his name is the title of our faith? We are “Christ” “ians”. Called to me “mini-Christ’s,”
or “Christ followers”. Clearly there is some major significance in the person
and deity of Jesus Christ.
As many of us know, the unique claim made by the Christian
faith, is that God took on flesh, walked among us, loved, healed, forgave, died
for our sins on a cross, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and will
return to earth one day in glory. Since by our natures we have goodness within
us, but we are also prone to sin. As a result, none of us can live up to
perfect standards of God. God therefore, sent his son to die for us, and his
son was named Jesus Christ.
While we believe as Christians, in the Triune God, of Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus though, is the person of God who came to earth to
die for us. God the Father created the universe, Jesus saved humanity, and the
Holy Spirit fills us and guides us.
So Jesus is the person of God that came among us, died for
us, and taught us a radical new way to live and love. So much so, that our
entire faith tradition is named after him, as we are “Christians”. The Apostle
Paul said in Romans 5:8:
“But God proves his love for us in that while we still were
sinners Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8, NRSV).
The Apostle
Paul writes in Romans 10:9:
“because if you confess with your lips that Jesus
is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will
be saved” (Rom. 10:9, NRSV).
It says in 2
Corinthians 5:17:
“So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation:
everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2
Cor. 5:17, NRSV).
In the Book of
Acts 11:26 it says:
“and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch.
So it was that for an entire year they met with the church and
taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first
called “Christians.” (Acts 11:26, NRSV).
The Apostle
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4:
“Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good
news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which
also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to
the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that
Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he
was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the
scriptures,” (1 Cor. 15:1-4,
NRSV).
Jesus
Christ is the person of God who came among us and died for us, and therefore,
is the centralizing figure of our faith as “Christians”.
In
our reading from this morning, from the Book of Jeremiah, once again, the
prophet Jeremiah discusses how God shapes us like a potter makes a pot or a
vessel. God wants us to follow him, but we always fall short. Jesus came to
take our brokenness and our sin, so that God, the potter, can truly shape us
and create us into what he has called us to be (Jer. 18:1-11, NRSV).
In
the New Testament reading that we have for this morning from the Apostle Paul’s
Epistle or Letter to Philemon once again, we have 21 verses of a literal 25
verse letter. Paul’s letter to Philemon is one chapter, 25 verses, and we have
21 of them. Some of us have maybe never read the Apostle Paul’s letter to
Philemon, which is not the store Filenes. Philemon is a disciple of Christ, and
Filenes Basement is a clothing store. The purposes of this letter deals with
themes of forgiveness and reconciliation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistle_to_Philemon).
In this letter, Philemon owns a slave named Onesimus, but the Apostle Paul encourages Philemon
to free Onesimus and make him an equal and not a slave.
In the Apostle Paul’s letter to
Philemon, among other things, Paul writes, possibly with help from Timothy:
“I pray that the sharing of your
faith may become effective when you perceive all the good that we may
do for Christ” (Phil. 1:7, NRSV).
Know Christ, love Christ, live for Christ, love like Christ,
and change the world for Christ. Accept Christ into your heart, share Christ,
and transform the world. Let Christ change you, move towards becoming like
Christ, live like Christ lived, love like Christ loved, and serve like Christ
did.
These beliefs are very different than living under a brutal
dictatorship. Instead of having faith in the dictator or their government, you have
faith in God through Jesus Christ. You then as a result of this faith, have to then
live differently, so that you love, serve, heal, and forgive. Since Christ died
for you, you must serve him as Lord. How far are we willing to go with this? Or
to put it another way, “How important in Jesus to you?”
The last time I checked, unless it has changed, in 52
countries in this world it is illegal to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ,
distribute Bibles, or proclaim Christ as Lord. In all of these countries, like
North Korea, there are underground and illegal churches. These people are
risking their very lives to follow Christ. Why would they do this?
Clearly, they believe that Jesus Christ and his gospel are
the hope of the world. So much so, they are willing to stand up to a dictator,
like some stood up to Cesar, and proclaimed Christ. Is Jesus Christ this
important to us?
Christianity is growing like wild-fire in places like China
and Vietnam, despite efforts in many such countries to stop the gospel. I have
seen videos from China of churches being demolished or destroyed with
explosives. What is so scary about the gospel of Jesus Christ anyway?
The answer is this, the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ
is rooted in God coming to earth and saving us. We follow him, not a dictator.
We love, we heal, and we forgive, even if our government tells us that we can’t.
The scripture does say in Romans 13 to follow the law of the land in which we
live, but first and foremost live for Christ.
If you are the dictator of North Korean, Kim Jung Un, do you
want your people to live for you or for Christ? In Christ we are a new creation,
he is our sovereign Lord, and no one can take his place. Further in the Bible,
and in the gospels, Jesus has given us the blue print of how to love, to live,
and how to build a better a world.
Are some dictators terrified of the gospel of Jesus Christ
then? You bet they are, and they should be, because Jesus Christ and his gospel
are the hope of the world. If you are a brutal dictator that leads by fear, the
last thing that you want is your people to have hope, and to follow God over
you. So brothers and sisters, “How important in Jesus to you?”
If Christianity became illegal in the United States, and if
we were required to renounce our faith in Christ or be killed, how many of us
would do that? In 52 countries in this world, the last I checked anyway, faith
in Christ is something that changes you and frees you. It also might be the
thing that gets you killed on this earth. “How important in Jesus to you?”
Some people we may know, maybe some family members, and
certainly people in world will mock our faith. They might want us to live
differently, or live in ways that Christ called us to not to live like. As a
result, to be a Christian means in many contexts to be persecuted, hated, and or
oppressed. “How important in Jesus to you?”
In our gospel of Luke reading for this morning, once again, Jesus
invites us to follow and live for him. He saves us, loves us, and is with us. Yet
he tells us this morning once again, the price of following him. Once again the
gospel reading for this morning says:
“Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and
said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife
and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my
disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and
estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when
he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin
to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’
Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down
first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who
comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is
still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So
therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your
possessions” (Lk. 14:25-33, NRSV).
In the beginning of this reading, Jesus
is saying that we must follow and serve him as our Lord and savior. We must
metaphorically pick up our crosses daily and seek to serve and follow him. Jesus
is saying that choosing to follow him is a decision that we should really deeply
consider. Brothers and sisters, “How
important in Jesus to you?” Would you renounce Christ to save your own life?
I remember watching horrific video clips of ISIS killing
brutally Christians in Iraq for following Christ. “How important in Jesus to
you?” Jesus then compares following him to building a tower or waging war against
another king. He asks us if we think about and plan to build the tower and plan
to go to war with a king, or if we just do it? Jesus is telling us, there is a
cost in following me. Jesus then says to sell all and follow him. Giving up all
we have is a unique Christian calling that monks, nuns and others have, but it is
not for all of us. Jesus is speaking specifically to his disciples when he says
this. Some Christians call this “a vow of poverty”.
So, “How important in Jesus to you?” Where the church is
growing the fastest, it often the most persecuted. This is the case because it
means everything to be a Christian in these places. It is more than just an
hour on Sunday morning, it is the very identity of those people. They are
willing die before they will denounce the one who died for them. How many of us
would be willing to suffer, to pick up our cross for Christ?
I believe that this has been, is, and will continue to be, “A
Reality of Faith and Life”. To love and serve Christ, means some will hate you
and your faith. Do you abandon you faith, or do you stand firm in the Lion’s Den,
like the Prophet Daniel did?
People have asked me, “Pastor Paul, why in the United States
and Western Europe, are so many churches shrinking rapidly”? Among the various
reasons for this, I believe that one of the strongest reasons for this, is that
for some us, our faith has become nominal. It has become common and not central
to our lives. It is cultural, but not central to who we are. When Christ is the
center of our lives, and is at the center of our church, like our main stained
glass window, then the church is alive. If Christ truly is our Lord, then our
faith will overflow, thereby overflowing the church, and transforming Sidney
and the world.
I want to leave you this morning, with a quote from the great
St. Augustine. This quote is:
“Christ’s martyrs feared neither
death nor pain. He triumphed in them who lived in them, and they, who lived not
themselves for Him, found in death itself the way to life” (Quotable
Wisdom, The Saints, pg. 93).
So friends, brothers and sisters, “How important in Jesus to
you?” Amen.
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