The Great escape
Genesis 1:26-29 New International Version (NIV)
24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds:the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.”
And God saw that it was good.
God blessed them
As a child I loved escape stories from world war two.
My favourite though was the true story of the Wooden horse - Dreaming of a modern Trojan Horse, the prisoners constructed a gymnastic vaulting horse largely from plywood from Red Cross parcels. The horse was designed to conceal men, tools, and containers of dirt.
Each day, the horse was carried out to the same spot near the perimeter fence and, while prisoners conducted gymnastic exercises above, from under the horse a tunnel was dug. At the end of each working day, a wooden board was placed back over the tunnel entrance and re-covered with surface dirt. The gymnastics not only disguised the real purpose of the vaulting horse, but the activity kept the sound of the digging from being detected by the microphones.
For three months three prisoners –in shifts of one or two diggers at a time, dug over 100 feet of tunnel using bowls as shovels and metal rods to poke through the surface of the ground to create air holes. No shoring was used except near the entrance.
One evening in October 1943, Codner, Williams, and Philpot made their escape. And eventually returned to Britain.
These three men escaped the evil world they were in and returned to their starting point in the free world!
In the Genesis reading this morning we discover our starting point - And God saw that it was good.
But there came a moment in a time called the Fall – Where Adam and Eve were deceived into allowing sin to come into the world. The creation was good but sin tainted everything. It’s impact grew so exponentially that all of history was, and is, tainted by it. What was once good and beautiful became distorted and horrible until in this modern world we live in we find ourselves in a prison camp – surrounded by cruel guards who present lies as truth and who mock the truth and call it lies.
How then shall we escape?
2000 or so years ago – God provided an escape route through the cross of Jesus Christ – so that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life.
What I wanted to explore this morning was to consider, what is available to the person who accepts Jesus as Lord and Saviour – If we have escaped this world through Jesus then, what does the landscape look like for the Christian who returns to the spot where it is good?
1. They escape loneliness. Scientist Albert Einstein wrote, "It is strange to be known so universally, and yet to be so lonely."
Writer Ernest Hemingway wrote, "I live in a vacuum that is as lonely as a radio tube when the batteries are dead and there is no current to plug into."
2. Marilyn Monroe said, "Sometimes I think the only people who stay with me and really listen are people I hire, people I pay."
But we escape loneliness through friendship with Jesus:-
Jesus said -Matthew 28:20-Remember, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Assembly Of God:-
There is a Clip from final scene of "Shrek"
Fiona: "I was supposed to be beautiful"
Shrek: "But you are beautiful"
Unconditional love. It’s the deepest longing of our hearts, because each of us harbors deep inside the fear that if others really knew us, that they would want nothing to do with us. In the passage where Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well. with Jesus, a woman with a past meets up with Jesus and finds that here is someone who loves her even though he knows her deepest darkest secrets.
2 –Escape from powerlessness!
Receive the Holy Spirit as a help and companion in your life
“However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” John 16:13. Dr. Paul Brand was speaking to a medical college in India on Matthew 5:16: “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” In front of the lectern was an oil lamp, with its cotton wick burning from the shallow dish of oil. As he preached, the lamp ran out of oil, the wick burned dry, and the smoke made him cough. He immediately used the opportunity.
“Some of us here are like this wick,” he said. “We’re trying to shine for the glory of God, but we stink. That’s what happens when we use ourselves as the fuel of our witness rather than the Holy Spirit. Wicks can last indefinitely, burning brightly and without irritating smoke, if the fuel, the Holy Spirit, is in constant supply.”
“Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” Romans 8:26.
3 – We escape being defeated by sin!!!
Receive victory over sin and all the things that make you miserable
All the misery in the world is a result of sin. As Christians, we are called to get victory over all conscious sin. In other words, we can be free from everything that makes us miserable!
Impatience, anger, lust, jealousy – these are not pleasant things to experience We need to acknowledge the awesome power of indwelling sin. As Paul cried in Rom.7:18ff. “When I would do good evil is right there with me.” #2nd- We need to discover that we can rely on the much greater power of the Holy Spirit. So, every day we need to decide who is in control of our lives—Christ or self, flesh or spirit, the old nature I was born with or my new nature I am born again with. And Praise God, “Greater is He who is in us than he that is in the world”(1st John 5: 4).
4. Escape the fallen nature and be transformed into His image
Recently I received a card from a young man who used to attend this church. In the twenty to thirty years he came and went he never got transformed in fact he became an atheist..
But recently he found Christ and what really struck me was his family observing his complete transformation. He as a completely different and nicer person. 2 Corinthians 5:17 King James Version (KJV)
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
He wrote to me recently and commented the lessons I learnt at church in Riversdale and Waikaia have put me in good stead for church life here.
Tadpoles become frogs – caterillars turn into butterflies and coal turns into diamonds - bullfrogs and butterflies and diamonds. What about you and me? Does Jesus’ promise that we shall not die, but simply be transformed from one form of life to another hold a message of hope for us?
Yes it does - and it is this hope that has sustained Christ’s church throughout the centuries. Christian people know, as they look upon this sin-darkened world, that we were all created for better than this. We also know that this life is not meant to be the sum total of our existence. We know because the Bible tells us so, and the lessons of nature corroborate it. In Philippians 3:20, we read, “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they are like His glorious body.
Transformation, metamorphosis, resurrection, - a permanent change is in store for you and me
5 – WE escape from misery in the earthly life.
Everywhere you look people are wondering what the formula is for a happy life. It is a universal goal yet very few have come up with the answer. But as Christians, a happy life is promised to us!
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11.
It was never God’s intention that we should be miserable on the earth for 80 years and then become happy in heaven. God has thoughts of peace towards us – He wants us to be happy now! And as long as we align our will with God’s will for our lives, then of course that is what is going to happen.
Part of escaping then is understanding the presence of God in difficult circumstances including suffering. WE are happy – yes – but happy in the midst of a broken world. Light can shine beautifully through a piece of broken glass and God’s beauty and peace often shine into difficult circumstances.
Verse 12: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you.”
It isn’t strange. It isn’t absurd. It isn’t meaningless. It is purposeful. It is for your testing. Look at verse 19: “Let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator.” “According to God’s will.” Suffering is not outside the will of God. It is in God’s will. This is true even when Satan may be the immediate cause. God is sovereign over all things, including our suffering, and including Satan.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn had long been impressed with the patience and longsuffering of Russian believers. One night in prison in Siberia Boris Kornfeld, a Jewish doctor, sat up with Solzhenitsyn and told him the story of his conversion to Christ. The same night Kornfeld was clubbed to death. Solzhenitsyn said that Kornfeld’s last words were, “lay upon me as an inheritance . . . It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good . . . Bless you, prison, for having been my life.”
We have strong hope, therefore, that the sufferings of our own day will bring purity and life to many. Suffering is not surprising, it is purposeful.
Evidence of Union with Christ
Keep on rejoicing because your suffering as a Christian is an evidence of your union with Christ.
Verse 13a: “But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing.” In other words your sufferings are not merely your own. They are also Christ’s. This is cause for rejoicing because it means you are united to Christ.
Joseph Tson, a Romanian pastor who stood up to Ceausescu’s repressions of Christianity, wrote,
This union with Christ is the most beautiful subject in the Christian life. It means that I am not a lone fighter here: I am an extension of Jesus Christ. When I was beaten in Romania, He suffered in my body. It is not my suffering: I only had the honor to share His sufferings. (undated paper: “A Theology of Martyrdom”)
Keep on rejoicing, because your sufferings as a Christian are not merely yours but Christ’s and they give evidence of your union with him.
6 – WE escape from restlessness and worry.
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28.
The world is a very uncertain place. Natural disasters, financial insecurity, economic crises – how can anyone possibly find rest in such a tumultuous time?
But it is written that “all things work together for good to those who love God.”This means that no matter what happens in the world, God takes care of His children. Come what may, God will take care of those who love Him. Nothing can happen to us that isn’t for our absolute best.
7 – We escape from fear of the future and the fear of death.
Death is the greatest “unknown” in life. Fear of death can be the cause of much worry and anxiety. But Christians can go through life with the hope and certainty that they will always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
We get an eternal life in heaven, living forever in peace and happiness as Jesus’ bride! Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life, He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” John 11:25-26. Max Lucado wrote: “Let one child consent to be dressed in righteousness and begin the journey home and heaven pours the punch, strings the streamers, and throws the confetti...when a soul is saved, the heart of Jesus becomes the night sky on the Fourth of July, radiant with explosions of cheer.” (Just Like Jesus, by Max Lucado, p. 143) Let me share with you WHY heaven rejoices over a single person who repents.
“They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 7:16-17.
This list of escapes is only a glimpse of what Christ has provided. I fear many Christians get John 3 verse 16 - John 3:16 King James Version (KJV)
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
And to some extent fail to realise fully what they have escaped from.
What is grabbing your attention right now?
Some family issue – personal problems – loneliness - some opposition?
Jesus has provided an escape from that for you – The list is far longer than what we have discussed today!
You truly can escape backwards where: And God saw that it was good.
God blessed them
