GOD HAS CALLED YOU INTO NEW LIFE
Stephen H. Becker, M.Div., ULLM
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church—Elk Grove
January 20th, 2007—2nd Sunday after Epiphany
As Christians, how often have you heard people refer to us—or maybe even we ourselves call ourselves—as “born again.” A great dialogue we find in John’s Gospel is that of the Pharisee Nicodemus. Jesus tells this guy that unless he is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus’ reply is great because it clearly shows that he doesn’t get what Jesus is saying; Nicodemus answers, “How can a man be born again when he is old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into the womb to be born!” But that’s not the birth that Jesus is talking about—in fact, our first, physical birth was into a sinful world where we are all destined to continue to sin and sin. No, Jesus is talking about being born a second time. Being born again. And so that’s what I want to talk about today as we look at Paul’s teachings to the believers at Corinth. My friends, God has called us Christians into a new life. But does this mean all of sudden, all of our troubles are over? I mean, when you accept Jesus, does that suddenly mean that you will never get the flu again, that you’ll never break a leg again, that you won’t get into arguments with other people? Is it suddenly guaranteed that you’ll never get cancer? Or if you do, that it’s going to be cured by a miracle? See friends, it’s like Jesus says, “flesh gives birth to flesh,” meaning our flesh will eventually one day die, but then Jesus says, “the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” That’s the second birth Jesus is talking about! And it’s the Spirit that gives us an amazing power to know that one day, we will have an everlasting body, free of hurt and pain, just as Jesus showed us at His resurrection. “So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” Let’s open with prayer…
Paul’s first letter to the Church at Corinth was a letter written about 2,000 years ago. Of course, this makes the letter sound ancient, but this letter—or Epistle—is one that still is so upbeat and full of the Good News of Jesus Christ—the Gospel of Jesus Christ—that it is amazingly useful to you and me as Christians today. See in this letter, Paul knows who we all are: we are sinners, we live in a sinful world, but yet as Christians, we are like fish out of water—we want to cling to the Good News of Jesus Christ while constantly being surrounded by un-Christian things and ungodly people. We want to live as Jesus showed us, but there is temptation and sin ready to pounce on us, all the time. So here in this letter, Paul is re-affirming to us believers the Good News of Jesus Christ. He is saying that Jesus showed His Glory to many people. Jesus led many people to saving faith through Who Christ is and what Christ has done for each believer—and this isn’t just people 2,000 years ago, but it includes every believer alive today. And what’s Jesus’ goal in all this? Why did Jesus bring Grace and Peace—gladness and healing to His people? To strengthen their faith and grow their faith closer to God, all the while telling them that they are secure in their salvation through Him.
You know we might think it was easier for those people who witnessed the many wonderful miracles of Jesus or even those who maybe never saw Jesus, but lived in that same time, to accept what Paul is saying here. But we live in a crazy, fast-paced, multi-media world—the 21st century “rat race” as it were, a world where it’s sometimes is easy to dismiss or forget Jesus’ miracles and wonders from so many years ago. You know if I’ve recently been diagnosed with a disease that means that I’ll probably have to have surgery, like maybe having a leg removed or getting chemotherapy and feeling violently ill for month after month, it can get pretty hard to remember that Paul said to us “you have been enriched in every way.” At that moment, Jesus’ miracles really seem 2,000 years away. You know, as a minister of the Gospel, this is a particularly hard challenge for me. And you know, as Christians, especially as Christians who want to witness to others about the Good News of Jesus Christ, we all have that exact same challenge. We want to share the Good News of Jesus with others, but how do we overcome the huge barrier of this sinful, painful, wicked world? It’s hard to teach the Gospel to someone who is suffering, first-hand, the pain and difficulty of this fallen world.
So Paul’s letter, here in First Corinthians, is really helpful to us in such a situation because you know, Paul was facing a similar situation with Christians there in Corinth. See, instead of focusing upon what Christ had done for them, these folks at Corinth were busy committing sexual sins, they were suing each other in court, or arguing that one group was better or more righteous or was doing a better job worshipping Christ than another, others were getting drunk before coming to Church and celebrating the Lord’s Supper—or even getting drunk at the Lord’s Supper; and sadly, there were some who were starting to doubt Jesus’ real resurrection and so were even doubting their own future resurrection—these Corinthians were openly rebelling against the Gospel message that Paul had brought to them, and these folks lived during the time of the Apostle Paul; they knew him! So what about you and me today, some 2,000 years away from the early ministry of Jesus? 2,000 years away from Paul’s personal ministry?
The Apostle Paul was an amazing Pastor. But he’s dead; he’s home with Christ now, and no one alive today has ever him preach. Paul never wrote a letter that we might call the 1st or 2nd Epistle to the Elk Grovians. So how does Paul’s writing here to Christians in the large city of Corinth some 2,000 years ago help today? How does Paul’s reminding them that through Jesus’ work and miracles, they can have the assurance of gladness and healing and how does that same message apply to us today so that our faith can grow and grow, like the miracles helped their faith so many years ago, to grow? I mean, how do you see the miracles of Jesus Christ in your life when you are just about to have your leg amputated? When you learn that you have type-II diabetes, or maybe that you have congestive heart failure that is only going to keep getting worse, or when a loved one recently dies suddenly and unexpectantly? Friends, the temptation for us today is dismiss these miracles of Jesus—2,000 years ago—as a special event for that generation—Paul’s generation.
But listen to Paul’s words here in verse 2: “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours…” To be honest, I don’t know if Paul ever thought that his private letters to the churches would one day be called Epistles in the Holy Bible; I’m not sure that Paul ever realized that he was writing Scripture. At that moment, Paul was a pastor writing a personal letter to his church. In any event, under the direction of the Holy Spirit talking to this Apostle, he wrote letters to these churches for many reasons. Sometimes to uplift them, and sometimes to correct them. Here Paul is doing both. Here Paul is saying, don’t worry about this insane world that is going nuts around you, because you may live here, but through your faith in Jesus, you are already a citizen of heaven. Through Jesus, you are holy. So listen again to this great Apostle, this man who used to be the greatest persecutor of Jesus, but who personally met Jesus in a miraculous event and is now a true Apostle of Jesus, “To those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere”—who? “all those EVERYWHERE who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours…” Paul is talking here to all believers, in all centuries and all times—even to us some 2,000 years later.
And what’s he telling all believers? Verse five: “For in him you have been enriched in every way” Hmm. Well, how do I tell a person who is about to lose their leg or has just lost a loved one that they have been enriched in every way? How do you tell your friend, especially a friend who says that they believe in Jesus as their Lord, that they have been enriched in every way as they go in for chemotherapy? It’s in times like those, at least on the surface, that Jesus’ presence, Jesus’ miracles and Jesus’ healing seems 2,000 years away from the needle that delivers the medicine that might heal us. See friends, Paul knows all about suffering. When Luke tells us about Paul in the Book of Acts, he describes him as a powerful preacher, but in his letters, Paul laments about his weak physical condition. In the second letter he writes to the Corinthians, Paul talks about a “thorn in his flesh,” which we don’t really know much about, but do know from Paul’s writings that it was a physical condition, that God did not take away, and that it tormented Paul. I’ve heard a lot of theories about what Paul’s physical ailments were. And they’re just that—theories. The Bible doesn’t tell us. I’ve heard that Paul suffered from multiple sclerosis. A little further on in 1 Corinthians, chapter 2, Paul is again talking about his own physical limitations and fear when he says, “I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.” I’ve heard others suggest that Paul suffered from epilepsy, from malaria, Malta Fever, and speech impediments. But they’re just theories. The fact is of course that Paul suffered physical pain. The fact is so do you and I. The fact is that because of our sin, each one of us will die a physical one day. History has proved that.
Yet here is a great man and a great Apostle boldly telling us that “you have been enriched in every way!” How can we understand this in the midst of our suffering? Especially when Paul continues on in verse seven: “Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.” Friends, God is faithful. And through His amazing grace, earned by Jesus on the cross, that faith given to us by faithful God Himself, we are made to be new creatures; in faith, we are a new creation, a new man, a new woman, a new boy, a new girl. The day you were baptized, the Lord worked a true miracle in you. That day God said of you, “you are mine. I claim you for my own. Through the blood of my Son Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven.” And friends, with our sins forgiven, we are a new creation. So who says that Jesus only worked miracles 2,000 years ago? Moreover, all Christians, according to Paul, were baptized “into Christ,” meaning not just into a local church like here at St. Peter’s or whatever church you usually attend, but instead all who are baptized into Christ together form part of ONE spiritual body, together we make up the body of believers. In baptism you have been united with Christ, united into His death on the cross so that your sins are dealt with, once and for all on that cross of Christ, and then you are united with Christ as He rose that Easter morning, leaving behind an empty tomb of death, moving forward to rise with Jesus in His resurrection and like Paul says in Romans 6 (3-5), to “walk in the newness of life.” All believers—in Corinth and Rome, in Jerusalem and Ephesus, in Elk Grove and Wittenberg, all believers everywhere, together, have died with Christ and have been raised with him. When Jesus appeared to his apostles after His resurrection, Jesus wasn’t bleeding, Jesus wasn’t hurting from having been crucified, He wasn’t limping from having a nail driven through His feet, nor was He bleeding from His side. Yet Jesus still rose in the same body He died in. We know this because His apostles recognized Him; Mary Magdalene recognized Him just outside of His tomb. But in His resurrection, Jesus was healed from His physical wounds. And my dear friends in Christ, that is our promise as well. That is how Paul can say “For in Him you have been enriched in every way…” And that is how Paul can promise that we “do not lack any spiritual gift” as we await Jesus’ return. “He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” So yes, we hurt right now. Yes, even as Christians, we still suffer physical and mental ailments living here in a world full of hurt. But through our faith in Jesus Christ, we we are a new creation. Through His Son, Jesus Christ, through Jesus’ own baptism, death and resurrection, God has promised all believers a new body, just like He did for Jesus. Yes, one day we will each die. But friends, one day the faithful will be resurrected, just like Jesus! And this promise is for all who believe. And so suddenly, knowing God has promised to heal me of all hurt, has promised to give me a perfect body, one whose bones will never again break, a body that will never again get cancer, never have a heart attack, never lose a leg again,…knowing this, suddenly that promise to us through Paul’s letter to the Corinthians 2,000 years ago suddenly becomes very personal, very real to you and to me right now. “God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.” Amen. Let’s pray…
Now may the true faith…
