May 24, 2020                                                                  Text:  1 Peter 4:12-19; 5:6-11

Dear Friends in Christ,

            What is the great scandal of Christianity?  The great scandal of Christianity is in its insistence on exclusivity.  There is only one truth, only one way to salvation.  Therefore, other religions are misleading and pave the way to hell.  Some then see Christians as not friendly or understanding and it then causes some churches to compromise the tenets of faith with the hope that it will result in more stability and peace in society.  But it never works that way.  The more Christians water down the Gospel the more non-Christians want to take.

            When we look at the history of the Church we see the suffering that many have gone through to preach the faith, teach the faith, learn the faith.  It is a serious issue that makes it a matter of life and death.  Shallow Christianity that is mostly fluff and little substance is doomed to provide nothing to the redeemed.  We are being pushed to the front lines as the enemy inches closer.

“CAN WE STAND THE SUFFERING?”

            Let’s make a distinction right away.  We are focusing on suffering for the faith in our text for this morning.  Yes, we suffer sickness and personal problems and financial difficulties and other types of suffering.  Peter narrows the focus to what happens or can happen when we proudly bear the name “Christian.”

            It has been asked if the Christian has suffered for the faith these last few months?  How would you answer?  We haven’t been able to meet together but worship has still continued.  The Word of God has been heard and preached.  Do you look at it like I do?  Just 23 years ago I was in on this cutting edge technology known as the Internet.  Shocked, aren’t you?  The church I was serving at the time sent me to seminars to learn about this new technology making its way into our daily life.  I used this experience to set up the church’s website and outreach.  There would have been no way to stream worship back then.

            By the mid 2000’s the Lord brought about the platforms we have been using to get this worship to your homes.  Our Lord has seen to it that the resources are there to allow worship to take place where it could not have just a few short years ago.  I pray we see the blessing in that.  Yes, this has been a setback, but be careful what we view as suffering compared to our brothers and sisters in hiding for the Gospel.

            As sufferings come they allow us to share in Christ’s sufferings.  Some in the Church expect the crown without the cross.  There is no depth to their confession and no endurance to their faith.  Some around them may not even see them as Christians.

            Some in the Church expect the crown because of the cross.  But they are not bearing the cross of Christ but their own suffering.  They confuse Christian suffering with worldly suffering. 

            But others in the Church know that they must expect the cross to come before the crown.  They know that Christ teaches that the world will hate those who follow Him.  They are not willing to compromise the truth of God’s Word for unity and less confrontation.  In doing this it can lead to their persecution.

            Not all suffering is alike.  Suffering the consequences of our sin is not Christian suffering.  Suffering the persecution of those we sin against by our meddling and gossip may lead to broken relationships and hurt feelings, but it is not suffering for the sake of Christ.

            Christian suffering has to do with Christ and our relationship to Him.  We are blessed if we are insulted.  We are blessed if we suffer for Christ.  Do not be ashamed.  Stand firm in your suffering.  You will be blessed in the judgment.  The Christian will rejoice and be glad when Christ’s glory is revealed.  We may suffer for a “little while” but we have been called to an “eternal glory” in Christ.  The world may rejoice now but will suffer unending torment in the world to come.

            God rewards Christian suffering.  Humbly submitting to His will gives us His promise of exaltation.  He cares for us in our anxieties.  We can stand firm in our suffering for the faith in the face of the roaring lion.  God blesses the final outcome.  He will restore you.  He will confirm you.  He will strengthen you.  He will establish you.

            If you fail to confess Christ at a critical time and make a shipwreck of your faith, there is still forgiveness for you.  Return to your baptism.  As churches start worshipping again what an opportunity the Lord is giving us.  We can witness to the power of the Word and what it means to confess it as one body of Christ in this place. 

            We have wanted to make these last weeks into a sprint.  The Christian life is a marathon.  Look back over what you have lived through before this event came into your life.  Christ has risen and conquered death so that no matter what happens He is the triumphant victor and by your association and faith in Him so are you.  Can you stand the suffering?  You are already doing it through Christ – to Him be the dominion forever and ever.

                                                Amen.         

May 17, 2020                                                                                    Text:  John 14:19-21

Dear Friends in Christ,

            A fellow by the name of Ralph Larson observed this, “We poor humans boast of our freedom, then exhibit our shackles of material enslavement.  We insist that nobody can tell us what to do – but the clanking of our chains gives our plight away.” 

            “Nobody can tell us what to do.”  I don’t know about you but I have never been good about being told what to do.  These last few months have not been easy in that respect.  How about you?  “The clanking of our chains gives our plight away.”  What are some catch words used during the pandemic – enslaved, quarantined, house arrest, freedom restricted, tied to our home.  For some in nursing homes it has been even worse – they use words like “imprisoned in my room.”

            We are shackled to this world.  Why has there been all this fear and anxiety?  It really comes down to one word – death.  People do not want to die.  We have flipped our lives upside down to avoid the question prevalent since two people were tossed out of the Garden of Eden – “What happens to me when I die.”

            For the Christian the direction is a little different.  Let’s use our text to find some answers . . .

“WE ARE SHACKLED TO LIFE (ETERNAL)”

            We start with a big concern on many of our minds.  It’s rooted in Jesus’ words of verse 21, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.  And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

            We love the commandments or so we should.  They bring order to life.  We also know that we do not keep them perfectly.  We fall short.  The greatest work is to believe that Christ is the One who came to keep the commandments perfectly in our stead, suffer and die in payment for our sin and be raised to eternal life so that we would be assured of eternal life.  And remember this, it is the Holy Spirit who works faith in us so that we can believe.

            That brings us to verse 19, “Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me.  Because I live, you also will live.”

            Recall these words of Jesus:  “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live…” (John 14:25a)  “Though he die.”  We can’t stop the process.  I recall this scene from the TV show MASH.  Henry Blake, played by Bloomington’s own McLean Stevenson, was asked about death by a fellow surgeon.  This was his reply.  “In command school, they taught us two rules.  Rule #1, in war young men die.  Rule #2, doctors can’t stop Rule#1.”  There will be no human cure for death or dying.  No vaccine will come along that will prevent our hearts from eventually stopping.  There is though a heavenly cure:  Christ paying for our sin.  Christ declaring victory over the grave.  Didn’t we just sing it confidently:  “Jesus lives!  The victory’s won!  Jesus is my confidence!”  “Yet shall he live.”  Not life tied to earth, but heavenly eternal joy and light.

            Jesus says, “Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:26)  The day will come when the body shuts down – an accident, a disease, aging – but the promise is unchangeable:  Whoever believes in me, though he die (to this world), yet shall he live.  That is a promise we can take to the grave.

            Years ago this story came out of Buenos Aires, Argentina.  There was man who feared the pain he was going to have because of bunion surgery.  It read:

            “He requested a general anesthetic.  Tragically, the general anesthetic led to a heart attack.  The physicians opened his chest and massaged his heart and revived him.  But later he suffered a stomach contraction resulting in the rupture of the stomach…Then while being carried on a stretcher, he tumbled off, broke a leg and collarbone and injured his heart further.  At the end of his ordeal the unfortunate man had a breathing tube in his throat, a drainage tube in his stomach, a leg in plaster and an arm in a sling.  He still had not had the bunion removed.”

            Welcome to life in this world, right?  We have so many unknowns.  We have the mountaintop moments and then we experience the valley happenings.  Then death occurs.  Paul Eldridge wrote, “We free ourselves from the womb, but there is no knife sharp enough to cut the umbilical cord which binds us to our grave.”  On the contrary, there is a knife that can cut the umbilical cord to our grave.  It is our resurrected Lord Jesus Christ who has overcome sin, death, and hell for us.

            Hear the promise again:  “Because I live, you also will live.”  Hang on to this comforting thought as you navigate the unknown day-to-day.  The Savior says to you, “Whoever believes will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)  This is unending joy and comfort and peace.  No more being shackled to this life.

            Lastly this quote, “what death did to Jesus is nothing compared to what Jesus did to death.”  We can say, in Christ Jesus We Are Shackled To Life . . . Eternal!

                                                                                                                                    Amen.