OPEN: The year was 1905. There was a baseball game between the Rhyolites and Beattys in Salt Lake City. The batter stepped up to the plate and hit a ground ball toward First Base - but it struck a small rock and shot off at an angle. Fortunately the 1st baseman (William Giffiths) easily fielded the ball and beat the runner to first. Not wanting the rock to effect the game again he went over and picked it up meaning to throw it off the field. But when he took he took a closer look at it… he put it in his pocket. Later that night he returned to the ball park with a lantern and spent an hour picking up most of the rocks on the field and putting them in a bucket. The next day, he took the bucket to the assay office and the man there told him that he’d found what he thought he had – GOLD! So he called 2 friends and they quietly bought the ball park… and became very wealthy men. The name of the mine they dug? First Base Mine. (The Saturday Evening Post July/Aug 2000 H. Allen Smith and Ira L. Smith)
Now, how did this man become rich? He found something others hadn’t noticed, and when he found it he knew what he had. And it made him very well-off!
(PAUSE)
In our text today, Paul tells us WE have found something others may not have noticed, and he says that it is important that we KNOW what we have found, because WHEN we know what we have… it can make us very well-off.
Paul told the Christians at Ephesus “REMEMBER that (before you’d become Christians, you had been) separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel & strangers to the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:12-13
Paul’s saying: REMEMBER WHAT YOU HAVE! And that is the purpose of Church/Sunday School and Bible Studies etc.- to help us REMEMBER what we have! Because if we forget, we may be tempted to drift back to the old way of life - the way things were or might have been if we hadn’t become Christians. So, this morning we’re going to REMEMBER what we have.
And the first thing (and most important thing) we need to remember … is that we have Jesus. “… now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:13). In other words - ALL that we have and all that we are is because of the blood of Jesus! That is so critical for us that Jesus asked us to remember that in our worship. What part of worship would that be? That’s right, the Lord’s Supper. It’s HERE – every week at the Communion table - that we take of the cup and bread the remind us of the body and blood Jesus gave so that we might be forgiven of our sins. Without that we have nothing.
(PAUSE) But, if we NEED to remember Jesus, is it possible that Christians ever forget Jesus? Well… yeah. And the reason Christians might forget Jesus is if they start loving something else more than they love Him.
ILLUS: I read the story of a man in Egypt who asked some visiting preachers to pray for his son. It seems his son had fallen in love with a Muslim woman… and was determined to marry her. However, in order to marry her, he’d have to abandon his faith in Christ and embrace Islam. What bothered the father was this: DID HIS SON LOVE THE GIRL MORE THAN HE LOVED JESUS? (Philip Young, Evangelist, Oblong, IL)
Jesus said: Whoever LOVES father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. (Matthew 10:37-38) If you love something else MORE THAN Jesus – you’ve got a problem! Because (if love something else) that “something else” will always compete with your love for Him!
WHY is that important. Well, because (as Jesus said): "If anyone loves me, he WILL KEEP MY WORD, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me DOES NOT KEEP MY WORDS...” John 14:23-24
There’s a lot of people who “go” to Church and follow the rules and go thru the motions… but they do it out of obligation, not because they love Jesus. And when that’s true (where they do what they do out of obligation) -when that “something else” comes along and grabs their attention - well it’s not a big deal to just shift over to that OTHER THING.
So, we need to REMEMBER what we have in Jesus because, if we don’t … we might drift away from His love. And that would not be a good thing!
2ndly we need to remember that WE BELONG! Paul reminded the Gentile Christians at Ephesus that - at one time they were “alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise” (Ephesians 2:13) They weren’t part of Israel/ and they didn’t have ANY promises! THEY DIDN’T BELONG!!!
(PAUSE) But because of the blood of Jesus - they DID now!
Over the years I’ve learned that most people want to BELONG somewhere or to someone or to something. They like to know that they’re part of something, and that’s why peer pressure is such a powerful force. Peer pressure is especially strong when we’re young, but it controls us even when we grow up.
Do you remember how it was in school? Only the sports kids could be part of the group of the sports kid, only the cheerleaders could hang out with the cheerleaders, inly the partiers were accepted into the party crowd. IF you didn’t FIT IN… you didn’t belong. And I never did. I was never part of the in-crowd when I was in School and I remember how much I WANTED to be accepted/belong… but I never was. And that’s how things are in this world, if you don’t fit in, you’re not accepted. You don’t belong.
ILLUS: Years ago, the TV show 20/20 had a segment dealing with a company that sold baby chicks. Their cameras showed the chicks being transported along on a conveyor belt as workers chose the chicks to be put into their boxes. These baby birds were chosen by sex, size, general appearance and plucked from the conveyor belt to be boxed for shipping. But the chicks that were not chosen - they continued rolling on down the conveyor belt until it reached its end. And there they fell to the floor... and died.
You see, that's the way of this world. If you don't fit into the box, you’re not accepted/ you won’t belong.
But with Jesus, that’s all changed for us. It doesn’t matter how good looking you are, or how smart or how successful. All that matter is that you are willing to let Him become your Lord and Master. With Jesus we ARE accepted and we do belong. Colossians 1:13 says God “has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves” And so “… you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” Ephesians 2:19
In Christ - we are accepted, and we do belong!!! So, we need to remember that we have Jesus and because we have Jesus we belong to something that’s more exciting (fulfilling) than anything this world can offer.
And (in addition to that) we now have HOPE! Paul told the Ephesians that at one time they were “without hope.”
Hope? Hope in what? I puzzled over that as I was working on the sermon, and then a I this story from Acts 26 where Paul answered that question. He was on trial before King Agrippa and said “I stand here on trial because of my HOPE in the promise made by God to our fathers, to which our twelve tribes HOPE to attain, as they earnestly worship night and day.”
And what’s that hope? Paul answered with this statement: “Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?” Acts 26:6-8
That was his HOPE that God would raise the dead! You see, without Jesus, there is no hope for life after death. Death is a scary thing… because death IS a scary thing. It’s inevitable and it’s so PERMANENT.
ILLUS: One famous atheist described death this way: “The life of man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach and where none can tarry long. One by one, as they march, our comrades vanish from our sight, seized by the silent orders of omnipotent death. Brief and powerless is man's life. On his and all his race - the slow, sure doom falls, pitiless and dark. Blind to good and evil, reckless of destruction - omnipotent matter rolls on its relentless way. For man - condemned today to lose his dearest, tomorrow himself to pass through the gates of darkness - it remains only to cherish, ere yet the blow falls, the lofty thoughts that ennoble his little day.” Bertrand Russell
ILLUS: When I was 5 years old, my grandfather died. And I remember going to the cemetery and looking down into that 6 foot hole in the ground he’d be buried in. And I turned to my mother and asked “How’s Grandpa ever gonna get out of there?” I didn’t know. And without Jesus… you don’t either. But OUR HOPE IN CHRIST and it is a hope of a physical resurrection and eternal life.
Hebrews 2:14-15 declares: “Since… the children share in flesh and blood, (Jesus) himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” We don’t have to fear death… because Jesus has already conquered it. He broke the chains of the power of the grave so that we WILL have the HOPE of eternal life!!!
Lastly we need to remember that we have a God. And not just any God… we have the REAL THING! Paul told the Ephesians that at one time they were “without God.” But what does that mean? The Ephesians had all kinds of pagan gods. In fact, Ephesus was the center of worship for the goddess Artemis, and they had an elegant and beautiful temple they’d built for her. It was the gem of the city and people came from miles around to worship there. So the Ephesians had gods… but Paul said they were “without god.” They were without a God who could do anything. Their gods were worthless and powerless.
Back in the Old Testament God made fun of the pagans who worshipped gods they’d made from metal and wood. “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. (But) their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have MOUTHS, but do not speak; EYES, but do not see. They have EARS, but do not hear; NOSES, but do not smell. They have HANDS, but cannot feel, FEET, but they cannot walk…” Psalm 115:3-7
In other words these gods made of silver and gold were worthless, They had no power. And could offer no help. (PAUSE)
Now, in our modern age we think that we’re more intelligent than that. We no longer worship the pagan gods of the past. We don’t bow down to pagan idols. But the truth is our generation has they’ve merely swapped gods. We have new gods. And amongst those new gods is ME! And YOU. And THEM Some have called this new religion = human-ism. That the religion where HUMANS are the new gods. John F. Kennedy said it this way: “Our problems are MAN-made, therefore they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants.”
Those who heard Kennedy say those words undoubtable applauded and praised his wisdom. It sounds so encouraging and comforting. But a famous philosopher revealed the darker side of this religion of humanism:
“Man can COUNT ON NO ONE but himself; he is ALONE, ABANDONED on earth in the midst of his infinite responsibilities, WITHOUT HELP, with no other aim than the one he sets himself, with no other destiny than the one he forges for himself on this earth.” Jean-Paul Sartre
If humanism is true - if man is HIS OWN god - then we’re all alone, we’re abandoned on earth, and we’re without any help. But the Bible says – that’s not true! We’re not all alone. When you become a Christian, you have a REAL GOD with real power. And that REAL GOD that we have…He has given His power to us
We have a song we sing that goes this way: “The same power that rose Jesus from the grave. The same power that commands the dead to wake. Lives in us, lives in us. The same power that moves mountains when He speaks. The same power that can calm a raging sea, lives in us, lives in us.
Did you know that song is based on Romans 8:11? “If the Spirit of him WHO RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”
In other words the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you and me!!! And because that is true -because we are now a people who have Jesus, who belong to His kingdom, who live by His hope and who live in the power of our God - we can echo the words of sermon someone preached years ago, because … this is who we are!!!
“I'm part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I’m a disciple of His. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away… or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I'm finished and done with LOW living, SIGHT walking, SMALL planning, SMOOTH knees, COLORLESS dreams, TAMED visions, MUNDANE talking, CHEAP living and DWARFED goals. I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotion, plaudits, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith. And I lean on His presence. And I walk by patience. I’m lifted by prayer, and I labor by power. My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, But my Guide is reliable, and my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won't give up, I won’t shut up and I won’t let up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, and preached up for the cause of Christ. FOR I AM A DISCIPLE OF JESUS. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach TILL all know, and work till He stops me. (PAUSE) And when He comes for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me for my banner will be clear!” CAN I HEAR AN AMEN?!! (from a book by Robert Moorehead “Words Aptly Spoken" c. 1995 – modified by me to help me preach it easier)
That’s the kind of life we can live if we REMEMBER what we’ve found and what we’ve got in Jesus. But if you don’t have Jesus, you won’t have that.
INVITATION
