Enter the Mystery (Sermon - September 27, 2009)

Scripture Passage:  Ephesians 3     http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+3&version=NIV

One of our pastoral interns, Mike Weaver, preached the sermon this Sunday.  He reviewed for us some of the themes we had discussed so far in the book of Ephesians.  The first theme was about God’s grace.  This grace is free.  We can’t earn it all we need to do is receive it through faith.  The second theme is about our inheritance as the children of God.  We are co-inheritors with Christ as sons and daughters of God.  With this inheritance comes responsibility – to spread the Gospel, to help unify the church, and to show God’s glory in all we do.  “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph. 2:10)

The third theme in the book of Ephesians is mystery, which was the focus of Mike’s sermon. God’s revelation to us through the Bible helps the mystery to unfold.  Mike talked about three aspects of this mystery.

First, the kingdom of God is open to everyone.   In the Old Testament God chose a people, the Israelites, to be His chosen people, to follow His laws, to show His glory and receive His blessings.  After Jesus came, God expanded His chosen people to include everyone who believes, whether Jew or Gentile.   This is part of the mystery revealed in the New Testament.  This may not be such a hard concept for us today.  But in the first days of the church this was a difficult truth to swallow.  The Jewish people were use to being the only chosen ones.  Peter struggled with this especially.  Do you ever struggle with thinking that only certainly kinds of people should become Christians?  Do you see how this could affect your desire to witness to people who are different than you?

The second mystery is that God can use anyone to accomplish His purposes.  Mike told a true story of a little girl who was shy and hated the crowded Sunday school class that she attended at church.  The pastor told her they would be building a new church school when they had enough money.  The little girl started saving her pennies.  She later died of a childhood illness but left her savings of 57 cents to the church.  This story inspired others to give and they did build a school named Temple College which later became Temple University.  God even used this child to achieve something that lasted well beyond her years.  This reminds me that God’s ways are not our ways and His perspective is much broader than ours.  I’m sure that the little girl could not see what difference her contribution could make.  She died without ever knowing.  However, she still felt compelled maybe even called to save her money and give it to the church.  We have to understand that God’s purposes cannot always be understood by us at the time.  We have to do what he asks of us regardless of whether we see the results or not.  

The third mystery that Mike discussed was that Christ lives in us.  We are reborn when this happens and we become like a new person.  That is an amazing thing to think about.  After we become believers, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell inside of us.  This gives us access to power, discernment, wisdom, etc., beyond our abilities.  Sometimes we might feel stuck and need the help of others.  God can give us that help that we need.  Wesley would say that through Christ we are saved from the guilt of sin and the power of sin.   The key to this is not to work harder or to dig deep to find the power to change within us, but to let the Holy Spirit dwell in us and give us that strength.   Through this process, Christ can give us that feeling of completeness or fullness as we mature in our faith.  

Now, there may be some people who are reading this blog who have no idea what the words in the previous paragraph mean.  They have not had an experience where God has empowered them beyond their abilities and they don’t know how to tap into that power.  I would explain it in this way:  first you have to become a believer.  What I mean by that is that you have to accept that there is more to this life than just what we see in the here and now.  There is a greater power than you – as they say in the AA world.  And in the Christian world we would say that you need to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  We are all sinners, you included, and you can’t do it on your own.   Because God loves us and wants to help us overcome that sin, He sent his son to earth as Jesus.  Jesus came to be an example of how to live.  Because God is just and can’t have wrongs go un-righted, he sent his son to be the sacrifice for our sins.  We do things wrong and Jesus takes the punishment for us.  This is the way that God shows us His unfathomable love.  All we have to do is accept this system.  We get forgiven of our past sins, we ask God to help us to do better and we submit to his way of living as an example of how not to hurt others or to get hurt ourselves. 

So the next step in being empowered by the Holy Spirit is to accept God’s rules for our lives and the authority of scripture as the best way to live.  You have to learn about the rules as written in the Bible and not substitute your own judgment for God’s judgment.  So from a practical point of view the way this works is that when you have an issue, you find out what scripture says about it.  If you study and memorize scripture sometimes the verses will just come to you.  Then you pray and consider what to do differently to align yourself with God’s ways.  If you can’t do this alone you go to your Christian friends who can help you discern what the right way is.  They also encourage you to keep trying and just love and encourage you no matter what!  So you continue to pray and then you do what you feel God is telling you to do.  You step out – hoping you are hearing the right thing.  And then things change.  And you know that God was telling you to do that all along.  And you feel more confident the next time.

A great example of this process I witnessed this week in a heart-breaking situation.  I have a friend who has been struggling with her daughter for a number of years.  You see her daughter was a recovering addict.  She had been in and out of rehab and jail during her teenage years.  Many of us have been praying for her for years.  She was doing better and then recently started to slip again.  Last week she was killed in a car accident – that was her fault.  She drove across a grass median and hit a box truck driving in the oncoming traffic.  So I went to the funeral and listened to the stories of those who loved this girl and would miss her.  And the pastor did a great job of talking about this girl’s love for Christ, but at the same time her struggles with real world temptations.  Something we all do to varying degrees.  But the part that was truly Holy Spirit filled and empowered was the parents of this girl, who despite their tears and their heart-brake stated that they were going to praise God in this storm - just as scripture tells us to do.   They thanked all of us for loving this girl unconditionally and told us that she felt that love and had commented on it many times.  They realized that most people never feel that kind of unconditional love no matter how old they are.  They chose songs for the funeral and sang them loudly – trading their sorrows for the joy of the Lord and praising God in the storm.   How does a parent get through the funeral of their beloved 21 year old daughter?  By the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of them – not by their own strength.  And by seeing God surrounding you with people to help you through.  God even sent a man, a believer, who was in the car behind their daughter, a witness at the scene, to be with their daughter as she died.  She didn’t die alone but instead was offered the prayers and the presence of a stranger, a believer, to stay with her until the end.

So how is this working out in your life?  Have you been in situations that you thought you could not do on your own but God empowered you to do?    If so, please comment and share your experiences with all of us.