Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2006 : June 25, 2006

Theme: God Has Ways of Making You Talk

Church year occasion: Pentecost 3

Picture yourself in World War II. You're on a secret mission behind enemy lines, and you're captured by the Germans. After refusing to give out any information, you're put in a dark, cold, musty cell. Hours go by that seem like years. Then you hear footsteps coming down the corridor to the door of your cell. The cell door creaks open, and in walks an imposing figure that you assume must be the leader of your enemies. The imposing figure says, "There is no sense in resisting. But since you will not cooperate, we have ways of making you talk." Then he takes a torture device and places it on the table next to you. It makes your skin crawl just thinking about what that torture device might be and what it will do.

But then you recognize the torture device -- it's a cross, like the one that Jesus was crucified on. Then you look at the imposing figure that you assumed was your enemy, and it is actually your loving God, who was your enemy, but who forgave all your sins in Christ's blood. You see, God does have ways of making us talk, and talk, and talk -- in fact, as Peter and John said when they were captured by their enemies -- "We can't help speaking about what we have seen and heard." (Acts 4:20)

This morning, the Apostle Paul offers three compelling reasons to make us talk about our faith in Christ:

He turned death into life,
He turns troubles into glory, and
He will turn time into eternity.

God has ways of making you talk.

The Christians in Corinth were suffering. They were a minority people in a huge cosmopolitan city. Imagine being an Arab in this country and you might get an idea of some of the things they were going through back then as Christians. They were looked down on, as many Arabs are here; they were easy scapegoats and targets, as Arabs are here; they were different, so many saw them as a threat. Could you imagine trying to share your faith in such circumstances? Paul knew what the Christians in Corinth were facing, so he offered encouragement, and also compelling reasons to continue to talk to others about their Savior.

The first reason Paul gives of why God can make us talk about Jesus is that he has turned death into life. Paul says, "We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence." The resurrection is such a comfort to Christians. In fact, it changes everything for us. Paul said in his first letter to Corinth that if Christ has not been raised, then our faith is futile and we are still in our sins. Many other religious leaders promised things just like Jesus. They promised their followers life after death in some shape or form. But none of them could deliver. They all died, and -- believe it or not -- they stayed dead. They had nothing to offer regarding life after death because they were powerless against death.

But Jesus was different. He was a great speaker and leader like every other religious leader, very charismatic, and gathered a great number of followers like them as well. But Jesus was different. He was God. Death doesn't control him. Death doesn't rule him. He rules over death. In order to save us, he let death rule him for a time, but only so he could take our place and suffer and die in our place. Then he showed who the boss really was and always would be. He broke the chains of death on Easter morning, and the world has been different ever since. The Apostles knew that full well. That's why they lived in the resurrection. Jesus was "declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead." (Romans 1:4) Without the resurrection, Jesus would have been like every other founder of a religion -- wrong, dead wrong. But his resurrection confirms that he is God's Son and our Savior. And when you are at the grave of a fellow Christian, you know where they are -- in heaven, which is where we all want to be someday, body and soul. And we will be, but in God's time. Until then, we spread the message. And that's not hard, either. Sometimes we make it out to be this huge, difficult thing. No -- Jesus dying on the cross, on that torture device -- that was a huge, difficult thing. All we're doing is pointing out to others who he is what he did there for them as well. After all, he turned our death into life.

We have an opportunity to point that out to others in the next few weeks. We are having our Day Camp on July 6 and 7. There'll be lots of games and fun and crafts and food, even a big bear named Kody -- everything a kid could want. But throughout those two days they will also hear a story that will knock their socks off. They'll hear about Jesus died for them so no sin could ever condemn them. And Jesus came back from the dead to prove it. If you're a kid, think of ways you can get your friends to come. If you're an adult, you can tell your neighbors with kids, and you can help at the Camp as well. Why would you do that -- why would you talk about your Savior? Because Jesus turned death into life for you and for them.

Paul gives another way of how God makes us talk about our Savior -- by turning our troubles into glory. "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." Even though it might seem that the struggles and burdens in life are insurmountable, they aren't when our strength comes from Jesus. We might feel like a little sailboat being pounded into the rocks. We can see the safety of shore, but wave after wave pummels us, and we have no control over where our life is going. Or do we sometimes get tired of living for our Lord and spreading his message? Do you get discouraged if it seems like you are doing so many things for our Lord and nothing comes from it? Of course! Do you then start losing your resolve to serve God and say, "I've done enough! Let someone else do it for a change!" I've done that, and you have, too.

But then we compare our lives to God's selfless love in Christ. The cross says it all, doesn't it? There we see the agony that our Savior endured for you and me, the hell he paid for us in our place, though we deserved every bit of it. There we see the righteousness that is ours because he said, "It is finished." Then we go to passages like Isaiah 1:18: "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow," and Psalm 103:12: "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us," and Romans 3:21: "Now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known...This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe." Then Paul says we are renewed. It's an ongoing thing, an everyday thing. Every day we sin; everyday we receive the assurance that our sins are forgiven from his gospel. Suddenly, the waves that keep coming at us, all the suffering and discouragement this life can dish out, seem pretty small compared to God's amazing love in Jesus. In fact, with Christ's strength and the power of his resurrection guiding us, the waves we face in life that would deluge most people and have them struggling to stay afloat, are ripples to us, even a blessing that encourages us to turn more and more to Jesus, who is our Strength in any storm. It's like Popeye the sailor. He always seemed beaten down, but then he gets his spinach. With the Christian, our spinach, our source of strength, is the gospel of Jesus. Then we see with Paul that "our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." (Romans 8:18)

That picture of heaven puts everything in perspective for us, doesn't it? How can we not speak to others of the comfort of sins forgiven and heaven waiting for us! That's Paul's final reason that God has of making us talk about Jesus -- by turning death into life, by turning troubles into glory, and finally by turning time into eternity.

Paul says, "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." We can't help but focus on our final redemption -- eternal life in heaven. After being pummeled by the troubles and pain of this world, we see the end of suffering and pain and turmoil. We see heaven with tunnel vision. Then even if our whole life is 100 years of pain and misery and full of being ridiculed for our faith, yet what is that compared to eternity? Nothing! If you would try to weigh it on a scale, our troubles and hardships are like a grain of sand being weighed against Mt. Everest, or even against the weight of the entire universe. And even that can't compare! But our entire lives aren't that bad, are they? Oh we might try to convince ourselves of that every once in a while, but they aren't. Is it really painful living for Christ after what he's done for us? Is it that horrible to give of our time and abilities and offerings for the Lord's work? Is it so terrible telling others about your Savior and theirs? Sometimes it might seem like it, but that's when we've fixed our eyes on this world, not on Jesus and the heaven that awaits us. You are here to give glory to God and to tell others about your Savior. And when you're done, you'll go to heaven that Jesus won for you. It's as simple as that.

God certainly has ways of making us talk and talk and talk about our Savior-God. When we see what Jesus did for us -- turned death into life, what he continues to do for us now -- turns troubles into glory, and what he will do for us -- turn time into eternity, how can we stop speaking of what we have seen and heard? Paul sums it up simply: "We believe; therefore, we speak." Amen.