2 Corinthians 1:15-22
“God’s Unconditional ‘Yes’”
By: Ken Sauer, Pastor of East Ridge United Methodist Church, Chattanooga, TN eastridgeumc.org
Whether it be in politics, business, or ministry, there have always been crooked people.
But today, it seems like everywhere we look, trust is not merely being violated, but shattered.
Sure the “Big Ones,” the Enrons, Worldcoms, and Adelphias get our attention, but perhaps even more
corrosive to our willingness to trust are the hundreds of little promises that we hear each day, which almost by a
knee jerk reaction, we refuse to believe.
Promises like:....
... “I’m not trying to sell you anything”...
... “Lose 20 pounds in 20 days” ....
... “This will only take a minute of your time” ...
... “This won’t hurt a bit”...
... “There is no risk or obligation” ...
... “You can’t miss it”...
... “If I’m elected, I will” ....
... “Read my lips, No New Taxes!”
We have been conditioned to disbelieve...and with good reason!
We are jaded and skeptical.
The word “promise” has been thrown around so lightly that there is even a brand of margarine named
Promise!
Too many promises have been broken.
Is anyone trustworthy?
Is there anyone who will keep his or her word?
Broken promises wound our spirits...
...they leave us a little wiser and a little less trusting.
They may even break us inside.
But promises that are kept give us life and hope!
They are the catalysts for realizing our most joyful and even wildest dreams.
So, can we get beyond the jaded skepticism of our day?
Can we step out in faith--holding onto a promise?
As soon as we ask that question, we realize that our faith is only as good as its object.
People, in spite of their best intentions, will fail us, but God never will.
In our Scripture Lesson for this evening, Paul is addressing a broken promise.
He had intended to visit the Christians at Corinth, but the situation had become so bitter that he postponed
his visit.
Paul’s opponents used his change of plans, to accuse him of being the kind of person who says “Yes, yes” out of one side of the mouth and “No, no,” out of the other side.
Paul doesn’t spend too much time defending himself before he points us toward the real issue.
He points us back to THE PROMISE.
The One that makes a difference.
The only truth that matters.
The One that gives life.
Jesus is described in Scripture as “The Promised One.”
Jesus Christ is God’s great “Yes!” to the world.
Though our experience with people may cause us to be leery, our experience with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit strengthens our hearts, giving us hope that we can trust God fully, without reservation.
The story is told of a pastor who visited an old man who was confined to his chair because of arthritis, but he had his Bible open in front of him.
The minister noticed that the word “proved” was written continually in the margins.
This man had taken God’s Word and written his own experience in the margin.
Beside each promise...
...as he found it to come true in his own life...
...he had written the word “proved.”
That would be a pretty cool thing to do, especially since our memories fail us so easily.
It would be an excellent reminder when things aren’t going so good and seeds of doubt threaten to kill our joy.
God keeps all God’s promises, and God has fulfills every one of them in Jesus Christ!
The pages of the Old Testament are studded with promises from God as the night sky is with stars.
And for over a thousand years Israel had lived on those promises, trusting that the God Who had called Israel to be God’s people would lead them forward, and accomplish in the end what God had planned.
And Jesus is the Messiah, the culmination and crown of Israel’s long story, the answer to all Israel’s hopes and prayers, the fulfillment of all the promises.
God had said “Yes,” and said it so loudly through Jesus’ Resurrection that it was now echoing all around the world!!!
Through Jesus Christ, the love of God becomes so clear--to those who dare to lay hold of it by faith--that
we can actually get a glimpse of it.
A young man was condemned by a jury to die.
He hated everyone, even his mother.
His mother came before the judge and pleaded with him for her son.
But the judge could do nothing.
He said, “Why don’t you let him alone? There’s nothing you can do. He doesn’t love you.”
“I know,” said the mother, “but I love him.”
This is how God loves us...unconditionally.
We too have been sentenced to die...
...but God loves us too much to allow that to happen.
The Bible tells us in 1st John: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as
an atoning sacrifice for our sins...We love because he first loved us.”
The world is full of “Yes’s” that turn into “No’s.”
Many of us have been disappointed and heartbroken so many times that we fear putting any more trust in
anyone or anything.
Paul’s broken promise to the Corinthians caused some of them to think that the message he preached to
them was a broken promise as well.
But Paul reassures them and us that, even if humans who will inevitably fail and let us down at some point
or other, do indeed say “Yes,” and then “No.”....
....the message of Jesus Christ is not a “Yes” and then “No”.... “in him it has always been ‘Yes.’”
“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ.
And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.”
The Hebrew or Aramaic word for “Yes” is “Amen.”
“Amen” is one of the Hebrew words spoken around the world today.
When someone says a prayer, and other people want to associate themselves with it, they say “Amen” at the end.
It means “Yes” or “I agree” or “That’s what I want to say, too!”
But Paul goes further.
When we pray to the One true God, and give Him glory, Paul says, we say the “Amen” through Jesus Christ.
When we say “Amen” today we are continuing a tradition that was already well-established when Paul was writing this letter, just 25 years or so after the death and Resurrection of Jesus.
And this has continued unbroken
ever since.
The One true God has fulfilled His promises through Jesus Christ, and when we pray to God, the right way to pray is through Jesus Christ—God’s Bridge to us!
Or God’s “Yes” to us.
Through God’s “Yes” God is reaching out to us today.
And what we need, if we are followers of Jesus and learning what it means to belong to Him, is to grow up “into” Him so that what is true of Jesus is true of us!!!
Paul even declares that God has “anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”
To be God’s “anointed” means that we are marked out by God, just like a king or a priest might have been.
We are called to be God’s ambassadors by being Christ to this world.
We are called to proclaim God’s “Yes” to the lost, the hurting, the hungry!
And God has stamped us with God’s seal.
Until comparatively modern times people who sent important letters would seal them with wax, into which they would press a stamp so that whoever got the letter would know who it had come from.
God has marked us with God’s Spirit so that the world will see in us Jesus Himself.
For it is God Who owns us.
God has purchased those who believe with the blood of Christ, shed on the Cross.
The “Yes” of God reveals to us true Reality.
Christ purifies our desires.
Christ causes us to want the things that God is waiting to give us...
...and Christ awakens the spiritual hunger that He came to satisfy.
An Arctic explorer who had gone through eight months of slow starvation was asked whether, during
those months, he and his companions had suffered much from the pangs of hunger.
“No,” he answered, “we lost them in the sense of abandonment, in the feeling that our countrymen had
forgotten us and were not coming to the rescue.
It was not until we were rescued and looked into human faces that we felt how hungry we were.”
I remember when I was given the gift of faith, and made the decision to give my life to Christ....
....suddenly I realized how empty and unhappy I had been without Him.
I can remember walking up to a friend and saying, “You know, life is actually worth living after-all!”
Jesus Christ came, died for us, rose again, and placed His Holy Spirit within those who believe as a down payment and as a guarantee.
Christ has literally invested Himself in us!
And God does not make any bad investments.
God doesn’t waste God’s resources on Junk bonds, God doesn’t ‘cook the books’, or inflate the value of corporate assets.
But God does do this: God knows our true worth.
God knows our infinite value.
God looks at us and God says “Yes!”, “Yes!”... “You are my priceless creation! I have sent my One and Only Son to you in love...so that you might believe in Him and be saved.”
Yes, the world is full of things which cause us to doubt, but when we look to Jesus...our reasons for
doubting should disappear.
Jesus is indeed our Savior, Redeemer, Helper, and Friend.
He is God’s great “Yes!” to us and to everyone who puts their hope in Him.
He is not only God with us, but He is God for us!
Let us pray: God of compassion and forgiveness, help us to overcome the barriers that keep us from trusting
completely in You. Enable us to put our full trust and hope in You...the God of Yes! We praise You for your unconditional love!!! In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
