A Journey of Repentance 4 – Into Life
Acts 12:1-11; Rom 6:2-14 Mar 6, 2005
Intro:
The Return of the King DVD Ch: 30 Start: 2:07:13 End: 2:08:40
(for second service, here is the description:)
Perhaps many of you are familiar with JRR Tolkien’s classic story, The Lord of The Rings. In the final chapter, war has come to the largest city of men. The city is surrounded by the evil hosts, the cause appears hopeless, they are pounding on the doors and about to break through. From the perspective of all those about to fight, it looks as though the war will only lead to horrible, violent death.
Pippin, one of the small, mostly powerless creatures called Hobbits, is just inside the door, sword in hand. He looks up to Gandalf, the mighty, wise, powerful wizard, in despair. “I didn’t think it would end this way,” he says, with fear and hopelessness.
Gandalf looks down, and a quick look comes over his face. “End?” he says. “Oh, our journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path. One we all must take." He pauses, then says: “the grey rain curtain of this world rolls back and it all turns to silver glass. And then you see it.”
“See what, Gandalf? See what?”
Gandalf has a far away look in his eyes as he says, “White shores. And beyond, a far green country, and a swift sunrise.”
Pippin considers, then a slight smile crosses his lips and he says, “That isn’t so bad...”
And Gandalf, his smile now full of hope and peace, agrees: “No, no it isn’t.”
Context:
Death is not an end point for us, as Christians. Physical death is not, and neither is spiritual death. As we have been journeying together through this lenten season of repentance, we have together walked through 3 steps thus far: Step 1: Join the Journey – decide that you will try this road out, that you will be open to discovering the difference between repentance and confession, and that you will walk through the difficult things because of the incredible promise of God on the other side. Step 2: Surrender Control To Jesus – in other words, make Jesus truly the Lord of your life, kneel before Jesus as your King, and declare your allegiance and your intention to live life in obedience and service to God. Last week we talked about Step 3: Through Death – where we explored the Biblical themes of dying to self, of the “old, sinful” self dying with Jesus. There were two things I wanted to emphasize last week, first that this death has already happened on the cross (remember the past tense in Romans 6:2-14), and second that this death is something we step through. We step through death into new life.
Backing Up:
Out of several conversations this week, I want to step back into the idea of dying to self for just a moment and clarify: We are talking about both something that has already happened – “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death” (Rom 6:4), and yet also something that we must continue to participate in – “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” (Col 3:5, among others). Our part is to make room for God, to create space in our lives where God can speak and mold, to create habits that “keep our eyes fixed on Jesus” and that “take every thought captive”. It is already completely finished by Jesus on the cross, yet it is something which we must embrace and act on if it is to truly become a reality in our lives. Every time a sinful action or attitude creeps up, we must cooperate with God in putting it to death, and live differently.
Peter and Prison (Acts 12:1-11):
Perhaps a story will help make this a little more clear (with thanks to Pastor Fred Harter for reminding me of this last week). It is Acts 12, and the church in Jerusalem is under some pretty heavy attack. On of the apostles, James, is killed by Herod, and that goes over so well that Herod decides to do the same thing to Peter. He grabs him up, and throws him in jail, and sends 16 Roman soldiers to guard him, 4 at a time, 2 chained to his arms, two on guard at the cell door, behind 3 separate gates which are also each guarded carefully. Peter is there for several days, after which Herod has full intentions of killing Peter just like he had James.
But the night before, we find Peter fast asleep, which is interesting in and of itself. “The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. 7Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.
Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. 9Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.
11Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.” (Acts 12:6-11)
Freedom Comes As We Trust And Act:
Two significant parts of the story that make the point – first, although it isn’t super clear in our translation, what the original languages suggest is that Peter’s chains fell off as he gets up. They don’t fall off first, they fall off as Peter believes the angel and obeys the command. Second, and similarly, as they walk up to the 3rd gate, it opens. Again, as Peter trusts and follows, he is set free.
Do you catch it? It is the same with us – Jesus has already accomplished everything at the cross, it is done, and yet we must trust and act. We must stand up, we must walk towards freedom even when it looks like the gate is tall and insurmountable and heavily guarded and difficult and dangerous.
We must die to self, so that we can live.
Stepping Through Death:
I like how Gandalf puts it – through death, we see “it”. Glorious freedom, a place of love, and joy, and peace, and an end to struggle. Now hear this carefully – the promise of Jesus is that that paradise begins now. It begins in this life, it is supposed to be ours today. This is what we find when we choose to step through death to self – we find life. We find freedom. We find, put simply, God. And we find it here, now, even today.
As we ended last week, I shared a little bit from my own journey this Lent season. I shared about how God brought me to a place where I turned to Him in prayer and said, basically, “ok Lord, I am willing to die.” Now, I have been touched by the care and concern of those who took that a little more literally than I intended, and so let me clarify that no, I am not suicidal, I am not and was not contemplating physical death. Rather, I am talking about the Biblical truth of death to self – of having the old, sinful self “crucified with Christ”, of taking everything that I am and handing it over to God to be tested in the fire, to be purified, so that everything that remains would be pleasing to God.
I wish I could tell you that I got to that point because I am so spiritual, and so in love with God that I craved nothing more than God and God alone, “Like a deer, panting for streams of water”, but that would be a lie. God brought me to that point through discouragement. Through feeling helpless and inadequate and weak and frustrated. And so I came to God in prayer and gave it all over to Him. I promised to tell you what happened next…
Through Death, Into Life:
As I stepped through that “death to self”, I found life. I was discouraged, wondering what God was doing, wondering about what other careers I could possibly explore, and then I went to visit Gloria and Brett Polowy. Gloria shared in corporate prayer last week about how she had asked us to pray the Sunday previous for her arthritis, and for the great pain that she had been in, and how that afternoon God healed her – the pain was gone. Even more encouraging than that, I got to know them a little bit and see their love for God and for each other and their children. Gloria also said last week during corporate prayer how they feel like they have found a church home here. The neat part for me is that all of this was completely God’s doing, and completely God’s timing.
That was Thursday night, and on Friday morning I had a phone call from someone who had been thinking about how they could serve God here at Laurier, and thought they might have found the perfect place. A few minutes later, two people dropped in to see me because they wanted to get involved in a significant ministry here at Laurier – they saw and heard an area of need and want to step in and help meet that need. 2 other people stopped by with a very generous offer of help this coming week as Joanne and I move houses. 3 of those people said they wanted to become members here at Laurier. Then I left and attended a funeral service in Wetaskiwin for Rev. Bert Moriarty – Bob Moriarty’s dad – who had been a faithful and effective pastor for more than 52 years, and I was incredibly encouraged by his faithfulness and endurance in ministry. Plus, I had a companion for the trip who was also an incredible encouragement to me. To top it all off, when I arrived back at the office pastor Andrea was here and wanted to share about an incredible conversation she had had with a group of teens the day before, where they had been talking deeply and personally and passionately about their love for God and their desire to obey Him, several by being baptized.
Do you see? Through death, God brought me into life. Abundant life! Vibrant life!! Encouraging life!!! Out of all those stories, which by the way occurred in less than a 24hr period, the most significant thing to me is that they were all God’s doing. I couldn’t take credit for any of it, I couldn’t take pride or be prideful about any of it, none of it was because of my effort or my activity or my gifts, but I got to experience it and I got to see it and I got to be incredibly encouraged by it. It was life, it IS life, but it is the life of God and the life of the Holy Spirit and the life that Jesus promised.
Life From Death:
And it is the life that Paul talks about through Rom 6:2-14. We’ve shared from this passage each week on our journey of repentance, and we need to finish it this week. Last week I pointed out how the passage calls us to death (more accurately, “through” death): “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? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin– 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.”
This week, notice this: “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? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin– 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.”
The Final Step
I want to encourage you this morning. The final step along the journey of repentance is the step into life. Into the life of God, into the fullness of God, into being continually filled with the Spirit of God and with the gifts and opportunities to be a part of the most amazing thing imaginable – love for God and love for one another. True, deep, abiding, purposeful, transforming love.
I don’t know where you are at on your journey of repentance, but let me encourage you to continue. Other paths look easier, they look like they are full of pleasure, but they are full of false promises and disappointment. The road is narrow, but it leads to life. Next week a couple of other pilgrims are going to share a little about their journey, and about what God has been doing in their lives. My prayer is that you will have the courage of Peter, that you will stand up and see the chains fall, and that as you walk toward the gate you will see it open and you will walk through to freedom.
