January 13, 2008

"The Comfort of Belonging to God, Who Is Three, Yet One"

Romans 8: 1- 14; Matthew 28: 19- 20

I remember when I was a young boy, probably about 10 or 11 years old, I was reading my Bible and became convicted of my sins-really convicted.  And I remember coming into the kitchen where my parents were sitting and telling them about it.  And we prayed together.  For the next several days I felt like a new person.  I tried hard to listen in school and to get my work done.  I tried hard to obey my parents, not tease my sisters, and to do all my chores to the best of my ability.  But then, I slowly began to slip back into my old ways.  And after a while my life wasn't all different than it been and I became so discouraged.   Does my experience sound familiar to anyone here?  It certainly wasn't the last time this happened in my life.

A few days ago I listened to Don's message that he preached here on December 30.   lvetica,sans-serif">A few days ago I listened to Don's message that he preached here on December 30.   Maybe you remember it too.  Don said that Jesus and his kingdom should be number one in our lives and that our failure to make Jesus our priority is damaging the faith our young people.  I think all of us know that he was right.  Yet, how many of us really make Jesus our top priority?  Or, think about some of our other weaknesses and sins? How much progress have we made controlling our tempers or our gossip, or our filthy talk, or our laziness?  Or do we have to admit with Paul,

¹⁹For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing.

Are we nothing but failures?  Are we condemned to living destructive shameful lives that hurt and bring sadness to others and to ourselves?  Yes, we know we are forgiven, but how can we keep trying to reach a goal that seems so unattainable?  How can we keep trying to walk on water when we sink every time?

Our text contains what is often referred to as "The Great Commission," Jesus' command to his disciples to go and make disciples everywhere.  Notice that Jesus doesn't just say, "Make believers;" he says, "Make disciples."  What are disciples?

We often say that disciples are followers of Jesus.  Yet, that really doesn't explain much.  Unlike the twelve we can't follow Jesus as he walks from to town.  The Greek word for disciple is mathetes, which comes from the Greek verb mathano, which means to learn.  Disciples are learners.  And what are we learning? Paul gives us the answer in Romans 12

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.

We are learning to obey the will of God.  Learning to be what God would have us be and do what he would have us do.  That's why Jesus commands his disciples to "teach them to obey everything I have commanded you."

But, notice that before the disciple can new teach new disciples what God wants them to be and do what he wants them to do, they must first baptize them.  And what is baptism?  It is God's sign and seal that we belong to him.  We cannot please God until we first belong to him.  Baptism is God's way of showing us how our sin and guilt have been washed away by what Jesus did for us on the cross. 

Have you ever noticed that baptism involves each person who make up the one God?  The disciples are told to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Each person of the Trinity has put his mark on us and claims us as his own.  And not one will let us fall until we are all that God saved us to be.

What does it mean that God the Father claims us?  We find the answer in Ephesians 1: 4- 5,

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will

Notice that our scripture for today ends with our crying "Abba Father" to God.  Baptism in the name of the Father is God's promise that he chose us to be his children before he made the world. 

And the same God who chose us determined before he made the world that we would be holy and blameless before him.  Yes, we have a role to play.  We must try to be holy and blameless.  But, he has already predestined the outcome.

I think of all the athletes that train for Olympics.  No matter how highly they are rated they cannot be certain they will win.  But they try their hardest anyway.  They do all that for a better possibility of winning.  Now, what if they could know for sure that if they tried their hardest they would  win?  Would they do it? 

The Father assures us of victory if we trust in Jesus to cleanse us from our sin.  But, don't forget that trusting in Jesus also means that we give our lives to him.  In a sense, it does mean trying our hardest to be what Jesus saved us to be.  Even if along the way we fail.  As long as we get up and try again and again, again, and again, we will win. He has predestined the outcome.

Before God made the world, he already knew that we would dead in our sins and unable to be his children.  So way back then, he already had a plan to set us free from the power of sin and death and to make holy and blameless.  And that plan involved his one eternal Son.  We are baptized into the name of the Son.  So what does that mean?  Paul gives us a clear answer in Romans 6

¹What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ²By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

It means that we died to sin-not just to guilt, but to sin.

Look at verses 3- 4 of our scripture,

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

  Note the words, "he condemned sin." The Greek word for condemn is katakrino, which literally means to decide or judge against.  When Jesus died on the cross all that was sinful and evil about us died with him.

I remember that a combined Good Friday service in Iowa I preached on 2 Corinthians 5: 21, 

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

In front of our church we had huge cross made of four by fours.  To illustrate this text I and the pastor of the other church who was there took strip of paper representing our sins and nailed them to that cross.   And we called out specific sins as we nailed them there. 

Our sinful nature and our sins cannot control our destiny.  Their power over us is gone.  God has passed judgment on them and they were nailed to the cross with his Son. 

And yet we struggle?   Why?  In their book, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, Dr. Paul Brand and Phillip Yancey tell of a strange phenomenon that can best those who have had limbs amputated.  They call it the sensation of a "phantom limb."  In their words,

"Somewhere locked in [these patients'] brains a memory lingers of the nonexistent hand or leg.  Invisible toes curl, imaginary hands grasp things, a "leg" feels so sturdy a patient may try to stand on it." 

That's a picture of sin in life of a Christian.  Doctors often amputate limbs, because they pose a danger to the life of the patient.  I remember a man in my former church whose finger became infected and so the doctors had to remove it.  If they didn't he would have died.  Our sins were destroyed on the cross.  They can no longer condemn us to death.  But, they can still plague us and cause us pain. 

And that is why is so comforting to know that we are also baptized into the name of the Holy Spirit.  Look at verses 5- 6

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace

Sadly some Christian brothers and sisters would have us believe that we must receive a separate baptism in the Spirit before we receive his power in our lives.  Such an idea is flatly contradicted by Paul in the last half of verse 9 and verse 10.  Listen

And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness

Clearly Paul, as inspired by the Holy Spirit, is telling us that all true Christians have the Holy Spirit.  And he is living in us to guide us.  That's why Jesus, even though he has ascended into heaven, could promise his disciples,

"I am with you always to the very end of the age."

 Remember that to be a disciple is to be a learner.  Who are we learning from?  Jesus tells us the answer in John 14: 6,

But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

Now teaching us all things includes teaching us how to live according to God's will.  But verse 16 points to something else,

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

R.C. Sproul in his book The Hunger for Significance writes a moving story about one of his students

"I had a college student who was a victim of cerebral palsy. He was able to walk, but with great difficulty as his legs and arms would fly in all directions, out of control of the motor impuls­es which make walking a normally simple task. His speech was slurred, slow and agonizing, demanding great concentration on the part of the listener to understand. There was nothing wrong with his mind, however, and his sparkling personality and spon­taneous smile were an inspiration to his classmates and to all who encountered him.

One day he came to me vexed by a problem and asked me to pray for him. In the course of the prayer, I said something rou­tine, with words like, ‘Oh, God, please help this man as he wrestles with his problem.' When I opened my eyes the student was quietly weeping.

I asked him what was wrong and he stammered his reply, ‘You called me a man-no one has ever called me a man before.'"

No one has ever called me a man before.  His disease and the frustrations caused by it made this man think that that he was less than he was.  Sometimes our sins and failures can also do that.  Sometimes we become so frustrated with them that all we can see is that we are sinners.  But, God's Spirit quietly reminds us, "No, you are the Father's child. You have a home in heaven." 

¹⁷Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Beloved in the Lord that is what you and I were made to be.  That is the future that the Father has planned for us; that is why the Son died to redeem us; that is where the Holy Spirit is guiding us.

Therefore, brothers and sister, we have an obligation-but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it.  For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,  because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us!!!  Amen.