OPEN: One of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous paintings was called “The Last Supper.” It was painted on the wall of the Sistine Chapel, and Da Vinci was sure that the unique painting style he used would create a masterpiece that would last forever. It didn’t quite work out that way. The painting began to crumble - even during da Vinci’s own lifetime - and over the centuries more and more damage occurred that nearly destroyed the painting he’d worked so hard to create. For example, over the years, the building was used as a stable for horses, a prison, and it even suffered the results of flood damage. During the French revolution, French soldiers threw stones at the painting and climbed ladders to scratch out the eyes of the Apostles. Perhaps the worst catastrophe occurred when an Allied bomb fell on the building in 1943 and caused the roof and one wall to collapse. The painting survived, but it was exposed to elements for months before the space was rebuilt.
In 1979, Italy commissioned their #1 art restorer (Pinin Brambilla Barcilon) to bring the painting back to life. She spent the next 20 years removing the deposits of dirt and mold and the clumsy efforts of past restoration efforts. This famous art restorer explained that retouching the painting was “extremely simple. You just scratch until you reach the real Leonardo.” The only difficulty laid in knowing exactly when to stop. (https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,818411,00.html)
But even after 20 years of skillful efforts the results were met with mixed reviews. Some praised her work… but others didn’t. Many felt that she’d gone too far - took too many liberties, and many experts were highly disappointed with what was done. Some went so far as to say that – the final product had little (if any) resemblance to the work that Da Vinci had completed in 1497.
Now as I read about all this, it occurred to me that even the finest restorer couldn’t bring this painting back to its full vibrancy. Only the Master could restore the masterpiece to its original beauty. Only Da Vinci could do… what others could not.
(PAUSE) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and void. And over the next 6 days God filled that void with beauty and grandeur. And every day, when God finished that part of His creation for the day, He’d say: “That’s GOOD”. But then God completed His masterpiece by making man in His own image. Male and female He created them, and He didn’t say “that’s good.” He said “IT IS VERY GOOD!” And for days and perhaps weeks afterward, God walked in the garden and spent time with his masterpiece and it was all… “very good.”
But then (PAUSE) disaster struck. Adam and Eve did the unthinkable and suddenly the most beautiful thing that God had ever created became marred and disfigured… almost beyond recognition. And when the dust cleared, God gave Adam and Eve the damage report. “To the woman he said, ‘I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.’ And to Adam he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’” Genesis 3:16-19
The masterpiece that God had created had once been a canvas filled with Hope, Peace, Satisfaction and Life. But now it was filled with Brokenness, Emptiness, Despair… and Death. The final product bore little (if any) resemblance to what God had created.
(PAUSE) Now (at this point) - as I was preparing the sermon – I started to get frustrated, because – the theme of this sermon series is “Reversing The Curse”. But I struggled with… this question: When did God reverse the curse? … or … HAS He reversed the curse? And the more I thought about it the more I began to realize - God hadn’t!!! The curse was still in place. The curse still exists! Women still experience pain in childbirth; Folks still earn their living by the sweat of their brow; Men and Women still struggle in their relationships; and people still get sick… and DIE.
This world is filled with trouble, and Jesus said as much: “In THIS WORLD you will have trouble….” (John 16:33). THIS WORLD that we live in, is a fallen world. And as long as we live in this world we WILL experience pain and sorrow, and heartaches and grief, and disease … and even death - just like everyone else.
In THIS WORLD we will have trouble. Jesus said that! But then Jesus said “Take heart! For I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) You see – THIS WORLD is a world that has been cursed by God, and we live here.
We face the same “blow back” from this world’s curse as like everybody else does. But we have an edge. We have Jesus, and Jesus HAS OVERCOME the world. And HE is our Lord and Savior.
The question of course is… what advantage does Jesus give us? If the curse is still in force, if women still experience pain in childbirth, and people still earn their living by the sweat of their brow, and people still get sick and die… why would think we have it so good? Why is Jesus such an “advantage” for us?
The answer to that question is illustrated in a book about how Christianity grew to become the world’s largest religion. An author named Rodney Stark pointed out that what Jesus gave us (as Christians) was more powerful than what ROME (the world’s most powerful nation of the day) gave to its people.
In 165 A.D. a plague struck the Roman Empire. And over a period of 15 yrs., between a 1/4th to 1/3rd of the entire population of the Roman Empire died. Then a century later, there was another plague, with similar results. But, in both plagues the mortality rate amongst Christians was far lower than among non-Christians.
Why? Well, when people started dying from the plague, the healthy left town. “[W]hen their first symptom appeared, victims often were thrown into the streets, where the dead and dying lay in piles.” Non-Christians “deserted those who began to be sick, and fled from their dearest friends. And they cast them out into the streets when they were half dead, and left the dead like refuse, unburied.”
But a lot of Christians didn’t do that. Instead of leaving town… many Christians stayed and took care of the sick and the dying. Most of those they helped were fellow Christians, but they also tried to help many of their pagan neighbors.
Why would they do that? Well… there were 2 reasons. 1st – in the pagan world, and especially among the philosophers, mercy was regarded as a character defect and pity was seen as a pathological emotion: mercy and pity involved providing unearned help or relief, it is contrary to their view of justice. In other words - why help the helpless… they don’t deserve it. To the pagans in Rome, there was no obvious reward, there was no incentive to show mercy and pity to others. So when people were dying people responded by saying “Not my problem!”
By contrast, unlike the Romans (who saw mercy was a character flaw), Christians saw mercy as exactly what Jesus had called them to do. Jesus taught that at the judgment He would tell His sheep “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” And His sheep responded, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” And He would answer, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:34–40).
And Jesus not only taught mercy… He lived mercy. He healed the sick and the lame, and He even touched lepers and healed them. And ultimately, He laid down His life to heal us of the sin in their lives. So the Christians stayed with the sick… like knew Jesus would want them to. And they cared for the dying.
This morning I got a text from another preacher who works along with me on this sermon series. He read the sermon I sent to him and he texted: "You mention the mortality rate of Christians responding to the plagues You have 'the mortality rate amongst Christians was far lower than among non-Christians'. Is that correct? Seems to me the mortality rate would be higher because they stayed to care for the sick".
That was a good question - and the answer is: Yes, that's exactly what the author of the book said. But why would Christians survive at a higher rate than non-Christians? They survived precisely because they did care for each other. Bear in mind, they had no medicines, no hospitals, no Doctors, or nurses. All they had was food and water and compassion. But that made all the difference for the sick. It is entirely plausible that the Christians who nursed the sick in the plagues would have reduced mortality amongst those they helped by as much as two-thirds. Pagans simply threw the dying into the streets - no food, no drink, no one to care for them... and the dying often died for the lack of those basic kindnesses. Yes, Christians still died from the plague, but they died as a much lower rate because they had people who cared for them when they couldn't take care of themselves.
But how could Christians care for the sick in the face the very real prospect of death? Well, while the pagans feared death, the Christians didn’t. The pagans feared death - that’s why they ran away from those who were dying of the plague. The non-Christians expected that (after death) they would face oblivion or, at best, a drab existence in a shadowy underworld. And they were no hurry to go there!
By contrast, the Christians didn’t fear dying. As one author put it: “Christians believed that, by the merciful grace of God in Christ, they would be raised from the dead to a glorious new life, when ‘this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality,’ and so death had lost its sting (1 Corinthians 15). So Christians believed that if they died from disease contracted while caring for the ill, the result for them would be glorious – and so they were able to overcome their fears. And so they stayed and they nursed the sick and dying and their witness was so powerful that the pagans of their day… noticed.” (“The Triumph of Christianity:How the Jesus Movement Became the World’s Largest Religion” by Rodney Stark)
Now my point is this: Jesus said He came so that we might have life… and life more abundantly (John 10:10). Granted - we DO live in a fallen world. We DO live in a world that has been cursed. And yet – we are NOT the victims here - we are overcomers. And what gives us the power to overcome this world is our faith. 1 John 5:4 declares “everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”
It’s our faith in Jesus, and our faith in His power IN us, that gives us advantage. And because we have Jesus our life has value and meaning. Because we have Jesus 1 Corinthians 15:58 tells us “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” If you do work for the Lord it will matter. It’s going to make a difference, and it you will make a difference in the lives of people around you.
IN addition, because we have Jesus, we have no need to be afraid. We don’t even have to fear death because Jesus has a home waiting for us in eternity. “For the Christian, Heaven isn’t simply a destination; it’s a motivation.” (Warren Wiersbe) In THIS world we will experience trouble. This world is cursed - but we wait for the NEXT world to come.
Romans 8:18-25 says it this way: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.… For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we WAIT eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we WAIT for it with patience.”
WE HOPE FOR… WE WAIT FOR… the glorious coming of Jesus and our home in heaven. WE WAIT FOR the glory that is to be revealed. And that’s why the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us. And when that happens, Revelation 21:4 says “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”
You and I are a masterpiece of God’s. We were created in His image - but sin has damaged the beauty of the original. Only the Master can restore what was lost over the years, and it God’s goal to make sure that you and I will ultimately reflect His glory and become what He created us to be. Jesus came to repair what was damaged in our lives because of our sin.
Thus, we have become overcomers in a fallen world. Victorious in spite of the evils of the curse. The way we lay hold of what Jesus offers us is faith - faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that He has the power to all this for us. Faith that we can't do this by ourselves. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We need to change our lives. We can't live like the world around us. We need to repent of the things of this world that we know bring shame to our God. And we need to confess that Jesus will now be our Lord and Master. He's going to own us! He has total possession of us, so He can now do what He wants to do. And lastly we need to allow ourselves to be buried in the waters of baptism, and rise up from those waters a new creature in Christ. It doesn't get any simpler than that. But you've got to decide that its the decision YOU need to make in your life.
INVITATION
