DATE: Sunday, 27 March 2011
TEXTS: John 1:1 - 5, 9 -14 & 16 - 18; Romans 8:12 - 17 & Hebrews 2:5 - 18 [ESV]
TITLE: “ Brothers & Sisters of God’s Only Son ? ”
Pastor: Let us hear the Word of God!
JOHN 1:1 - 5, 9 - 14 & 16 - 18
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. . . .
. . . 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. 12 But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. . . .
... 16 And from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, Who is at the Father's side, He has made Him known.
ROMANS 8:12 - 17
12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.
HEBREWS 2:5 - 18
5 Now it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 6 It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the Son of Man, that you care for Him? 7 You made Him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned Him with glory and honor, 8 putting everything in subjection under His feet.”
Now in putting everything in subjection to Him, He left nothing outside His control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him. 9 But we see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.
10 For it was fitting that He, for Whom and by Whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the Founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For He Who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why He is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying, “I will tell of Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise.”
13 And again, “I will put My trust in Him.” And again, “Behold, I and the children God has given Me.”
14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that He helps, but He helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore He had to be made like His brothers in every respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.
RESPONSE:
Pastor: This is the Word of the Lord!
People: Thanks be to God.
SERMON: “ Brothers & Sisters of God’s Only Son ? ” Pastor Stuart
Brothers & Sisters.
Popular wisdom tells us that adoption is a terrible, though sometimes necessary, practice that rips children away from their natural parents and leaves them forever bruised and scarred emotionally, socially and spiritually.
We've heard the horror stories about adoption on TV magazines, seen it portrayed in numerous made-for-TV movies and mini-series, and read more of the same in news magazines. Usually, these stories tell us of the tragic emotional tug-of-war felt by adoptees who search for long-lost biological parents, of the trials and tribulations of adult adoptees who feel worthless because they don't possess their own family histories, or of those made to feel inferior or second-class to natural children born into the same family.
And even when we hear positive stories about happy adoptive families with normal well-adjusted children, we must face the fact that adoption and adoptive children still face a certain social stigma. The practice makes people feel funny and the children are often told verbally, or in practice, that they are “damaged goods,” unwanted and unworthy of real families.
Statistics and biographies of individual kids provided by social service agencies, adoption services and national foundations all indicate that it is quite difficult to place orphans with prospective families and that the working definition of “hard-to-place and special needs” children is basically: “any non-white child over two years old or any orphan with siblings.”
Many of us have probably seen TV interviews and appeals with Wendy's's Restaurant founder and adoptee Dave Thomas. Thomas, who founded and leads one of the nation's foremost adoption foundations, regularly promotes that cause on the morning and afternoon talk-show circuits and spends incredible amounts of time every year actively seeking willing adoptive families for some of these “hard-to-place” or “special needs’ kids.”
According to Thomas and others, adoption is apparently as thorny an issue among Christian families as it is among non-Christian and utterly unchurched families. We, as a community of believers, seem unwilling to take in orphans and give them love, nurture and shelter.
This fact is both odd and sad.
It is odd because we, as a community and body of believers, are called by our Lord and Head to take in and care for the widow and the orphan. It is sad because it shows our community’s refusal to return the favorable treatment we have all received as a body and as individuals.
You see, all Christians are adopted into a new family other than the ones into which we were born. God the Father, who has only one true-born Son, adopts all of us as His own children and invites us to partake of life in a large and loving family.
This is the great truth and mournful irony presented by our opening illustration, our Scripture Lessons and Heidelberg Catechism Questions for this morning.
Those two questions clearly present the issue as they ask us:
[1] Why is Jesus called God's "only son" when we also are God's Children?
[2] Why do we call Jesus "our Lord"?
All three of these lessons show us the absolutely essential understandings of who we are in Christ, what this identity means for us and what it must mean for the community around us if we really believe its truth. And these understandings are especially important for us during this Lenten season as we examine and meditate upon Christ's work, ministry, death and Resurrection and their meaning in our lives.
In our first lesson, we find John's classic words describing the creation of the universe, the place of Jesus Christ within that creation and the meaning of His life for humanity. John opens his gospel by giving us a five-verse summary of the Genesis 1 creation account by telling his readers that the Messiah and Savior Whom he is about to introduce to them is no less than God, the Creator and Sustainer of all that exists.
The first references and introduction we receive of Jesus are the mentions of Him as the “Word of God” Who is Himself God and the life and light animating and sustaining all people. And as we search more deeply into the meaning of these words, we find John saying that Jesus “the Word of God” is both present and active in the spoken words of command and creation uttered in Genesis 1 by God the Father. He possesses the full power, light, life and meaning of God and supplies these qualities in varying measure to the things He creates.
Christ, the Son and Word of God, is the exact essence and substance of His Father and radiates the same glory, power and majesty onto the creation. The universe, and its creatures all bear the unmistakable stamp and authorship of the Messiah who created all things.
These verses also give us a clear, if incomplete, impression of the Trinity. They describe for us the Son’s integral, abiding and unbreakable relationship to the Father while also showing us that the Father and the Son are — and always have been — separate persons of the God head, but that they are united in substance, purpose and will.
We then discover in Vv . 9-18 that this eternal “Word of God” becomes fully human and lives in order to share with us the joys, pains, trials, and temptations that populate human existence. He became like us in all things except sinfulness so He could share our human-ness and deliver to us the light and new life that are give to us when we live lives of faith in obedience to Him and to His Father.
This Light and New Life are the justification and sanctification we receive from Christ when, through God's grace, we have faith in Him. These are themes we've seen played-out in the last several weeks as we reviewed Jesus' life, ministry and work as prophet, priest and king.
Unfortunately these scripture lessons, and our lessons and catechism questions for today all show us that we humans, the very ones Christ came to seek and save, have largely rejected Him, His work and His message.
There is Good News, though. Those who receive Him, His grace and His work through the gift of faith do receive acceptance, joy and forgiveness from God. But beyond this, there is still something else that we receive through Christ's sacrificial death and Resurrection that we haven't discussed yet. It is something equally fundamental, but more amazing than the knowledge that God forgives and transforms us.
John tells us that in addition to the other things God provides for us, He also gives us the right to claim a relationship to God and call Him our Father. We receive this right because we have been re-born through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit at work in us and have become new creatures in Christ through faith.
And it is this new and right relationship with God that Paul tells us about in his letter to the Church at Rome. Paul affirms and strengthens John's assertions and doctrine by plainly and boldly telling us that we are no longer mere physical creatures born of the flesh, blood and the desire of our parents.
Rather, through our faith in Christ we are given the gift and strength of the Holy Spirit Who enables us to “put to death” our old behavior as He so heals and transforms our lives and character that we are re-made as new creations who live and work as integral parts in Christ's Body.
As these new creatures, we are a people redeemed through the pain of Jesus Christ, the Suffering Servant, Who died and was resurrected to make us free from sin and death and acceptable to God. He became one with us in our humanity. He is our Older Brother Who shares our trials, perfects our nature and adopts us as His own brothers and sisters.
He then insures that we are equipped with and clothed in those qualities of truth, life, light and righteousness we need to sit in God's presence as His children.
In V. 15, Paul tells us of our release from slavery and captivity to sin and death and of the adoption that we receive through Christ. He loudly proclaims that Christ doesn't buy us from our slavery only to make us slaves again to fear and death. When He releases us, we are indeed released.
The apostle is refers to the ancient Jewish concept and practice of kinsman redemption in which one bought relatives out of their slavery in debtor’s prison at great personal expense so that his relatives' good standing in the community is restored. Paul then carries the symbolism a step further by describing the Roman practice of adoption in which one was adopted, generally by a wealthy or aristocratic family, and became the Heir to all of the family's titles, honors and possessions. This person's past life and family were gone to him and he would become the fully accepted legal heir.
Christ is our Kinsman Redeemer. He paid the incalculably high cost of our freedom from sin and death through His suffering and death of the cross. The Resurrected Christ then announces to His Father that He has not only bought our freedom, but has adopted us as His own siblings and co-heirs with Him in the Father's Kingdom.
Because of His work as Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer and the transforming presence and action of the Holy Spirit in our lives we are enabled to call God “Abba - Father” just as naturally as Jesus does, or as we do when speaking with our biological parents.
There is no second-class relationship here. We aren't unwanted or damaged goods that God is reluctant to take as His own. He planned from eternity to redeem and re-claim us — even at such a high personal cost — because He loves us so intensely. We are the chosen and very much loved adopted children of the Eternal Parent.
This is also the clear and abiding message of our lesson from Hebrews. Here, we find that our “adoption records” refined and sharpened and take on a fuller and more personal clarity than what we find in even the preceding two passages.
Here we see that God makes us in His own image, crowns us with incredible glory and honor as His image-bearers and places all things under our control and for our use as His good gifts. He then commissions us to be the stewards over that creation and honors us with rights, duties and privileges unlike those given even to angels.
What's more, He places such high value upon the image of Himself resident in human beings that He willingly sends His own beloved Son and Heir to us as a the perfect human redeemer, king and priest who makes the perfect self-sacrifice needed to atone for our sin and evil and to settle our accounts and make us whole, sin-free and righteous.
This passage tells us that it had to be this way. Christ had to share our human nature fully so He could justify and sanctify us through His priestly atoning sacrifice of Himself. And it is as our human brother that Christ sympathizes with us in our pain, trials and temptations and is able to help and heal us.
And in sending His Only-begotten Son and Word to become the perfect human and eternal high priest, God makes certain that sin and death are overcome and uprooted by Christ's Resurrection from death. In this way, humanity gains victory and Lordship over sin and death.
This means that our Older Brother is the Lord over creation who became Man in order to make us righteous before His Father in order that we may also claim God as our Father, and thus, be proclaimed openly and publicly by Christ as “His brothers and Sisters.”
We have become God's own children because Christ, God's only-begotten Son and the Lord of Creation, has made us righteous before His Father and brings us to the foot of the Father's throne, in effect saying, “Father, these people whom you have given to me, I now claim as My own kin. They are My siblings and Your Children.”
This means that we, as those who have been adopted into another person's family, must value and honor the great gift we are given. We must, therefore, always be willing and ready to take up the “family chores” assigned to us by our Father through our Older Brother.
He commands us to mind after our human brothers and sisters, taking care of them and sharing the incredible news of our adoption with them. We are then commanded to tell them that they too may share our good fortune and be adopted by God the Father through faith in Christ and His completed work.
For us, here at the corner of Franklin Street and Highland Avenue, this means we continue to be good neighbors, friends and relatives to those around us. We must continue to offer aid, comfort and healing as we received them through Christ. We will continue to work with the Feed My Sheep Food Cupboard. We will keep demonstrating love and leadership in and through the borough and townships. We will continue to engage both local and wider-church mission projects and to work with our own kids and those in the community who are spiritually rootless and confused.
But our adoption also means that we continue sharing our faith with all the "hard-to-place" kids around us because they are our own brothers and sisters. We will carry the message that Jesus Christ sacrificed His own life to redeem us from slavery to sin, death and the constant power and temptation of Satan so He may present us before His Father as much-loved brothers and sisters. In all of these things we are faithful and we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and enable us to live as the much-loved and quite-loving and well-adjusted children safely lodged at home in the Body of Christ, Who is our Older Brother and our Lord.
Amen.
This sermon covers Question & Answer 33 & 34 From the Heidelberg Catechism for Lord's Day # 13. The Heidelberg Catechism was originally designed and written as Reformational preaching catechism.
Q33] Why is He called God's “only Son” when we also are God's children?
A33] Because Christ alone is the eternal, natural Son of God. We, however, are adopted children of God adopted by
grace through Christ.
Q34] Why do you call Him “our Lord”?
A34] Because not with gold or silver, but with His precious blood He has set us free from sin and from the tyranny of
the devil, and has bought us, body and soul, to be His very own.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
"What Is My Only Comfort?" --- Lord's Day 1 Sermon from the Heidelberg Catechism
DATE: Sunday, 2 January 2011
TEXT: Psalm 8:1 - 9; Matthew 10:26 - 33 & Romans 8:18 - 39 [ESV]
TITLE: “What Is My Only Comfort?”
Psalm 8:1 - 9
1 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!
You have set Your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
You have established strength because of Your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which You have set in place,
4 what is man that You are mindful of him,
and the Son of Man that You care for Him?
5 Yet You have made Him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned Him with glory and honor.
6 You have given Him dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under His feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is Your name in all the earth!
Matthew 10:26 - 33
26 “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. 28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. 32 So everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father Who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny before My Father Who is in heaven.
Romans 8:18 - 39
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him Who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And He Who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, Who was raised — Who is at the right hand of God, Who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Heidelberg Catechism Questions & Answers:
Lord's Day 1
Q1] What is your only comfort in life and in death?
A1] That I am not my own, but belong body and soul, in life and in death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.
He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven: in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.
Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.
Q2] What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort?
A2] Three things: first, how great my sin and misery are; second, how I am set free from all my sins and misery; third, how I am to thank God for such deliverance.
Sermon:
TEXT: Psalm 8:1 - 9; Matthew 10:26 - 33 & Romans 8:18 - 39 [ESV]
TITLE: “What Is My Only Comfort?”
✠ ✠ ✠ ✠ ✠
Psalm 8:1 - 9
1 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!
You have set Your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
You have established strength because of Your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which You have set in place,
4 what is man that You are mindful of him,
and the Son of Man that You care for Him?
5 Yet You have made Him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned Him with glory and honor.
6 You have given Him dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under His feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is Your name in all the earth!
Matthew 10:26 - 33
26 “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. 28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. 32 So everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father Who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny before My Father Who is in heaven.
Romans 8:18 - 39
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him Who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And He Who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, Who was raised — Who is at the right hand of God, Who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
✠ ✠ ✠ ✠ ✠
Heidelberg Catechism Questions & Answers:
Lord's Day 1
Q1] What is your only comfort in life and in death?
A1] That I am not my own, but belong body and soul, in life and in death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.
He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven: in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.
Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.
Q2] What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort?
A2] Three things: first, how great my sin and misery are; second, how I am set free from all my sins and misery; third, how I am to thank God for such deliverance.
✠ ✠ ✠ ✠ ✠
Sermon:
Our sermon title for this morning comes from Question and Answer 1 of the Heidelberg Catechism, a German Reformational teaching tool written in the 1560s, and a part of the Presbyterian Church [USA]’s own Book of Confessions. That first question asks, “What is my only comfort in life and in death?”
The answer to the question is, by our contemporary standards, quite long, but also quite good. It is one that goes along with the rediscovery, or re-emphasis, made during the Reformation by Martin Luther, John Calvin, Thomas Cranmer and others; that rediscovery was of the Doctrine of Grace. The answer to the question, then is, “That I am not my own, but belong body and soul, in life and in death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. . . .” The answer then goes on to either cite, or allude, to parts of virtually every one of our passages for this morning, plus a great many others. Had I used all of these passages this morning, I’d still be only half-way through the Scripture readings; so, I settled for the three I chose as being among the most representative.
The central message for this morning, though, is one that we can never forget or lay aside because it is nothing less than the essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We are not our own! We are bought for a price — and a high price, at that. We belong body and soul, in life and in death not to ourselves, but, in fact, to our faithful savior Jesus Christ.
And, as we think about that, we must recognize and realize that this is essential.
It is so significant, in fact, that I not only picked the question as my title, but you’ll see on the title-art for the sermon slide on the worship screen that I chose the classic Christian symbol, the fish — filled in with Greek letters and topped with an “Alpha”, “Omega” and a crown. The main symbol, called the Ichthus, which is Greek for “fish”. Who here this morning has not seen this symbol done in chrome on the trunk lip or back bumper of many cars? In fact, many of us probably own one.
Now, we need to break down those Greek letters inside the fish:
∙ Iota = the first Greek Letter in Ieseus, the Greek for JESUS.
∙ Chi = This is the first letter in Christos, the Greek for Christ.
∙ Theta = This is the first letter in Theos, or God.
∙ Upsilon = This is the first letter in Whious, or Son.
∙ Sigma = This is the first letter in Soterios, or Savior.
∙ When put all together, what you have is “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior” in the of a Greek acronym that spells out “fish”.
Both Church history and legend tell us that this was a code symbol used by early Christians to identify themselves to each other in the earliest days of Roman persecution — the days when Emperor Nero liked to use Christians as lawn torches at his garden parties. If a believer met someone on the road, for instance, whom he suspected might also be a believer, then he would scrawl an arc in the dust with his toe or with a stick. If the other “believer” actually was a believer, then he would draw an intersecting arc to form the fish’s body.
Now, on top of the fish, you’ll see the “Alpha” and “Omega” that represent the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet — that the Resurrected and Ascended Jesus uses to identify Himself to John at the beginning of Revelation, when he says, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last.”
Finally, between the “Alpha” and the “Omega”, you’ll see a crown which signifies that Jesus is the “King of kings and Lord of lords” from Isaiah 9.
Moreover, this is a message that Jesus, Himself, took quite seriously as He basically tells His listeners in Matthew 10, “Don’t worry, God has you in the palm of His hand because He cares for and loves you. He worries about you and takes time with you. If He takes care of the birds in the sky, and you are worth many times more to Him than the birds, then He’ll take care of you as well.”
And we have those glorious words from Psalm 8 that we looked at this past summer: “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! . . ,” and going through this great litany, asking the question, “What is man that what is man that You are mindful of him, and the Son of Man that You care for Him? Yet You have made Him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned Him with glory and honor,” referring to us humans with respect to our Savior — God’s own Son, Who was Himself fully human. And because of that, we have a kinship with God. We’re not just creations. We are not merely clay pots made to be molded and then broken upon the rocks. We are not merely paper upon which doodles are written, and which are then wadded and crumpled up and thrown into the waste bin or burned in the fire.
No. We are God’s own creation. And He does care! And He does ransom us from the very body of death and then leads us through our sufferings!
And I like the way Paul phrases this in Romans 8:18 - 39: “For I consider that these present sufferings are nothing to be compared against the glory that will be revealed to us” — and some translations render this as “the glory to be revealed in us.” Now, stop to consider just how magnificent that is.
And this is so very significant because there’s a frank, flat acknowledgment that suffering will, and does happen; but this suffering does not have to be definitive. How many of us have met people who seemingly can’t get beyond one particular trauma in their lives? We all have those traumas in our lives that are deadly serious and difficult to deal with — the death of a loved one, or some particularly severe reverse that we’ve suffered, crippling pain or a chronic malady we’ve endured (there could be any one of dozens to consider here). But we slog through. Not always well. Frequently with great discomfort — but we slog through, nonetheless. There’s a frank acknowledgment here that we can.
Paul’s looking at a situation in which he’s only a couple of years removed — literally as well figuratively, since Nero decided to remove Paul’s head from his shoulders, if church tradition and history are to be believed — from severe persecution of the Church. He sees people persecuted on a daily basis, some of them even killed. He sees them being crucified. He sees them being fed to the lions and used as Tiki torches on Nero’s front lawn. And in the face of all of it, he can still say, “That’s NOT all there is.”
There are days when I’m just having a grumpy day — a fit of the “sweltering grumpies”! I “got up on the wrong side of the bed”, and it’s not getting any better, and I want to declare the day a total disaster about 40 seconds after my feet hit the floor. And yet, Paul, looking at the very real possibility of a short, brutal and ugly life and death, and in the face of that, and can still say, “I consider these present sufferings as nothing to be compared against the glory to be revealed in us.”
That’s amazing!
It means that there is something there that fundamentally changes us and then holds us up and supports us in our gravest extreme. I found it interesting that this passage is one selected for Carolyn Hundertmark’s funeral down in Bakerstown. And these were words from which Carolyn derived enormous comfort and hope because she could look at what she was enduring with her ultimately terminal cancer — and she knew that all of you were praying for her, and she’d gotten all of your cards and letters — and she knew that even more than your presence, she had God’s abiding presence with her every day. He had neither left nor forsaken her. What she was enduring had a purpose, if it if was not one she could discern; she was satisfied that those answers would come.
In all of this, and far, far worse, these are abiding words of hope. They are words that tell us that we are not stuck on some eternal “hamster wheel” doomed eternally to chase our own tails to no purpose. That is so incredibly important!
It is important because, if we do not see this order, purpose and hope engendered by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, then we are highly susceptible to the notion that, somehow, God’s grace and mercy are quantities to be bought, earned or merited. When we do that, we lose sight of what it is that God has given to us. We act, at that point, as though somehow we are giving something to God. We come to act as though somehow He depends on our generosity rather than we relying on His incalculable grace and mercy. But when we understand afresh that it is God Who has already called us out, Who opens our eyes by the gift of the Holy Spirit, that we can come to faith in the One Who transforms us by faith in His Son’s death, Resurrection and Ascension. It is He Who makes us new people and transforms us at a core level so that we are able to do those things that we could not do before.
How many of you have seen that “sock-puppet” commercial for the “Debt Monkey”? Sin is like that Debt Monkey: it hangs on; it clings on; it grabs you around the neck and tries to put you in a choke-hold — constantly trying to convince you that you are not good enough and will never be good enough — and that everything you ever try to do or accomplish will be sub-standard, and that you will never be acceptable. So you might as well just give up.
But this is the “great deception”. It is the deception that seeks to keep our eyes from the truth. It is the deception that seeks to keep our eyes from the slave’s chains that bind us while simultaneously trying to convince us that we are free when, in fact, we are already chained. But, in fact, we receive our true freedom when we acknowledge that we are owned by Christ — “body and soul, in life and in death.” He brings us the freedom we have because He brings us into the family.
God the Father adopts us as His children in order that His Son “might be the firstborn among many brethren”. Because of this we share a kinship with God Almighty and are very much His beloved children.
Again, this was another theme that shone so powerfully, like a beacon for Carolyn Hundertmark. Every time she heard those words, that we are adopted so that He might be the firstborn among many brethren, she cried in joy. We’ve all met her two young granddaughters, Grace and Hope, both adopted from China, both very much loved, both very much within and members of that family, and never regarded as anything other than firmly rooted in that family, and Carolyn knew that she, too, was regarded as being a member of God’s household by adoption through Christ Jesus.
We, too, are members of God’s household. And as members of that household, we are family members, not servants, not cleaning staff, not cooks or butlers or back-stairs staff.
“What is man that He is mindful of us, or the Son of Man that He cares for Him?” We are the brothers and sisters of the King, and the Father has high regard for us because of Him. And this is “our only comfort in life and in death”, that He has — and this is a promise in which I always place great stock — “even the hairs of our heads numbered,” (for some of us, that’s easier than for others!). He has the days of our lives marked out and measured out; He knows them from beginning to end. He knows our trials, temptations, tribulations and walks through those difficulties with us, never letting go of our hands.
The whole of Scripture, from beginning to end, is an prefigurative enactment of that eternal Gospel:
It’s a change at our very core.
Grace is free, but it costs us everything we have and are because we belong, fundamentally, to God. And yet, it IS free, and it’s extended to us because of God’s great bounty, and mercy, and His love and His grace. Grace upon grace, stacked up, packed together, shaken together and overflowing. Let us cling to that with all that we have and all that we are.
Truly this Gospel is “our only comfort in life and in death! Amen.
The answer to the question is, by our contemporary standards, quite long, but also quite good. It is one that goes along with the rediscovery, or re-emphasis, made during the Reformation by Martin Luther, John Calvin, Thomas Cranmer and others; that rediscovery was of the Doctrine of Grace. The answer to the question, then is, “That I am not my own, but belong body and soul, in life and in death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. . . .” The answer then goes on to either cite, or allude, to parts of virtually every one of our passages for this morning, plus a great many others. Had I used all of these passages this morning, I’d still be only half-way through the Scripture readings; so, I settled for the three I chose as being among the most representative.
The central message for this morning, though, is one that we can never forget or lay aside because it is nothing less than the essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We are not our own! We are bought for a price — and a high price, at that. We belong body and soul, in life and in death not to ourselves, but, in fact, to our faithful savior Jesus Christ.
And, as we think about that, we must recognize and realize that this is essential.
It is so significant, in fact, that I not only picked the question as my title, but you’ll see on the title-art for the sermon slide on the worship screen that I chose the classic Christian symbol, the fish — filled in with Greek letters and topped with an “Alpha”, “Omega” and a crown. The main symbol, called the Ichthus, which is Greek for “fish”. Who here this morning has not seen this symbol done in chrome on the trunk lip or back bumper of many cars? In fact, many of us probably own one.
Now, we need to break down those Greek letters inside the fish:
∙ Iota = the first Greek Letter in Ieseus, the Greek for JESUS.
∙ Chi = This is the first letter in Christos, the Greek for Christ.
∙ Theta = This is the first letter in Theos, or God.
∙ Upsilon = This is the first letter in Whious, or Son.
∙ Sigma = This is the first letter in Soterios, or Savior.
∙ When put all together, what you have is “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior” in the of a Greek acronym that spells out “fish”.
Both Church history and legend tell us that this was a code symbol used by early Christians to identify themselves to each other in the earliest days of Roman persecution — the days when Emperor Nero liked to use Christians as lawn torches at his garden parties. If a believer met someone on the road, for instance, whom he suspected might also be a believer, then he would scrawl an arc in the dust with his toe or with a stick. If the other “believer” actually was a believer, then he would draw an intersecting arc to form the fish’s body.
Now, on top of the fish, you’ll see the “Alpha” and “Omega” that represent the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet — that the Resurrected and Ascended Jesus uses to identify Himself to John at the beginning of Revelation, when he says, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last.”
Finally, between the “Alpha” and the “Omega”, you’ll see a crown which signifies that Jesus is the “King of kings and Lord of lords” from Isaiah 9.
Moreover, this is a message that Jesus, Himself, took quite seriously as He basically tells His listeners in Matthew 10, “Don’t worry, God has you in the palm of His hand because He cares for and loves you. He worries about you and takes time with you. If He takes care of the birds in the sky, and you are worth many times more to Him than the birds, then He’ll take care of you as well.”
And we have those glorious words from Psalm 8 that we looked at this past summer: “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! . . ,” and going through this great litany, asking the question, “What is man that what is man that You are mindful of him, and the Son of Man that You care for Him? Yet You have made Him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned Him with glory and honor,” referring to us humans with respect to our Savior — God’s own Son, Who was Himself fully human. And because of that, we have a kinship with God. We’re not just creations. We are not merely clay pots made to be molded and then broken upon the rocks. We are not merely paper upon which doodles are written, and which are then wadded and crumpled up and thrown into the waste bin or burned in the fire.
No. We are God’s own creation. And He does care! And He does ransom us from the very body of death and then leads us through our sufferings!
And I like the way Paul phrases this in Romans 8:18 - 39: “For I consider that these present sufferings are nothing to be compared against the glory that will be revealed to us” — and some translations render this as “the glory to be revealed in us.” Now, stop to consider just how magnificent that is.
And this is so very significant because there’s a frank, flat acknowledgment that suffering will, and does happen; but this suffering does not have to be definitive. How many of us have met people who seemingly can’t get beyond one particular trauma in their lives? We all have those traumas in our lives that are deadly serious and difficult to deal with — the death of a loved one, or some particularly severe reverse that we’ve suffered, crippling pain or a chronic malady we’ve endured (there could be any one of dozens to consider here). But we slog through. Not always well. Frequently with great discomfort — but we slog through, nonetheless. There’s a frank acknowledgment here that we can.
Paul’s looking at a situation in which he’s only a couple of years removed — literally as well figuratively, since Nero decided to remove Paul’s head from his shoulders, if church tradition and history are to be believed — from severe persecution of the Church. He sees people persecuted on a daily basis, some of them even killed. He sees them being crucified. He sees them being fed to the lions and used as Tiki torches on Nero’s front lawn. And in the face of all of it, he can still say, “That’s NOT all there is.”
There are days when I’m just having a grumpy day — a fit of the “sweltering grumpies”! I “got up on the wrong side of the bed”, and it’s not getting any better, and I want to declare the day a total disaster about 40 seconds after my feet hit the floor. And yet, Paul, looking at the very real possibility of a short, brutal and ugly life and death, and in the face of that, and can still say, “I consider these present sufferings as nothing to be compared against the glory to be revealed in us.”
That’s amazing!
It means that there is something there that fundamentally changes us and then holds us up and supports us in our gravest extreme. I found it interesting that this passage is one selected for Carolyn Hundertmark’s funeral down in Bakerstown. And these were words from which Carolyn derived enormous comfort and hope because she could look at what she was enduring with her ultimately terminal cancer — and she knew that all of you were praying for her, and she’d gotten all of your cards and letters — and she knew that even more than your presence, she had God’s abiding presence with her every day. He had neither left nor forsaken her. What she was enduring had a purpose, if it if was not one she could discern; she was satisfied that those answers would come.
In all of this, and far, far worse, these are abiding words of hope. They are words that tell us that we are not stuck on some eternal “hamster wheel” doomed eternally to chase our own tails to no purpose. That is so incredibly important!
It is important because, if we do not see this order, purpose and hope engendered by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, then we are highly susceptible to the notion that, somehow, God’s grace and mercy are quantities to be bought, earned or merited. When we do that, we lose sight of what it is that God has given to us. We act, at that point, as though somehow we are giving something to God. We come to act as though somehow He depends on our generosity rather than we relying on His incalculable grace and mercy. But when we understand afresh that it is God Who has already called us out, Who opens our eyes by the gift of the Holy Spirit, that we can come to faith in the One Who transforms us by faith in His Son’s death, Resurrection and Ascension. It is He Who makes us new people and transforms us at a core level so that we are able to do those things that we could not do before.
How many of you have seen that “sock-puppet” commercial for the “Debt Monkey”? Sin is like that Debt Monkey: it hangs on; it clings on; it grabs you around the neck and tries to put you in a choke-hold — constantly trying to convince you that you are not good enough and will never be good enough — and that everything you ever try to do or accomplish will be sub-standard, and that you will never be acceptable. So you might as well just give up.
But this is the “great deception”. It is the deception that seeks to keep our eyes from the truth. It is the deception that seeks to keep our eyes from the slave’s chains that bind us while simultaneously trying to convince us that we are free when, in fact, we are already chained. But, in fact, we receive our true freedom when we acknowledge that we are owned by Christ — “body and soul, in life and in death.” He brings us the freedom we have because He brings us into the family.
God the Father adopts us as His children in order that His Son “might be the firstborn among many brethren”. Because of this we share a kinship with God Almighty and are very much His beloved children.
Again, this was another theme that shone so powerfully, like a beacon for Carolyn Hundertmark. Every time she heard those words, that we are adopted so that He might be the firstborn among many brethren, she cried in joy. We’ve all met her two young granddaughters, Grace and Hope, both adopted from China, both very much loved, both very much within and members of that family, and never regarded as anything other than firmly rooted in that family, and Carolyn knew that she, too, was regarded as being a member of God’s household by adoption through Christ Jesus.
We, too, are members of God’s household. And as members of that household, we are family members, not servants, not cleaning staff, not cooks or butlers or back-stairs staff.
“What is man that He is mindful of us, or the Son of Man that He cares for Him?” We are the brothers and sisters of the King, and the Father has high regard for us because of Him. And this is “our only comfort in life and in death”, that He has — and this is a promise in which I always place great stock — “even the hairs of our heads numbered,” (for some of us, that’s easier than for others!). He has the days of our lives marked out and measured out; He knows them from beginning to end. He knows our trials, temptations, tribulations and walks through those difficulties with us, never letting go of our hands.
The whole of Scripture, from beginning to end, is an prefigurative enactment of that eternal Gospel:
- Whether it’s Noah and his family — the eight of them on that ark: God leads them onto the ark. Does He take them out of the midst of the flood? No. He protects them in the midst of it and walks them through it, and then guides them through to the other side.
- Moses and the Israelites: They didn’t levitate across the Red Sea. They had to go through the Sea (granted, they went through it dry. But, they went through it, nonetheless) and a “sea of troubles” to their deliverance on the far side. Israel had to go into captivity for 430 years. And when they are delivered from that captivity, it’s for another 40 years of learning hard lessons. Yet, it is always with God’s direct presence literally in their midst as He “tabernacled” among them.
- The Babylonian Captivity: Israel had to go into another 70 years of captivity in Babylon to be broken — to remember Who God is and their relationship with and allegiance to Him.
It’s a change at our very core.
Grace is free, but it costs us everything we have and are because we belong, fundamentally, to God. And yet, it IS free, and it’s extended to us because of God’s great bounty, and mercy, and His love and His grace. Grace upon grace, stacked up, packed together, shaken together and overflowing. Let us cling to that with all that we have and all that we are.
Truly this Gospel is “our only comfort in life and in death! Amen.
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