Theme: Unity in diversity
Text: Exodus 34:4-9; 2 Cor. 13:11-13; John 3:16-18
There are three questions that are asked in every age and generation and that is where do I come from, who am I and where am I going? The answer to this question is very important as it gives a person an identity and enables him or her to discover the purpose and meaning of life. Many people, however, have no answers to these questions because they are searching for answers in the wrong places. It is only the Scriptures that can provide the right answers. Psychologists tell us that not knowing your roots easily results in an identity crisis - a crisis which manifests itself in broken relationships, drugs, alcohol, suicide, crime and violence. Such a life is not the will of God for us. God wants us to live in a way that glorifies Him and we can only do this when we know who we are. God wants us to know our identity and has therefore placed within every human heart something valuable to witness about Him and confirm our identity. Helen Keller is remembered the world over as a woman who had overcome great adversities. Having lost her sight, hearing and sense of smell to an illness at age two, Keller learnt to speak and read and earned a college degree. When told that God had in His love sent Christ to die for her sins, she responded with joy, saying that she always knew He was there, but didn’t know His name. She knew who she was because she knew her Creator. Knowing Christ is to know our identity and our identity ensures unity in diversity.
There is more to knowing God than the mere fact that He exists. Creation declares that there must be a Creator. Philosophers and scientists tell us something about His works - that the universe is one of order and design held together by immutable laws. Nature shows God as a Creator of beauty and infinite variety. Nevertheless, science and nature can reveal little about the moral nature of God. They cannot tell us that He is a loving Father or that He is a holy God who hates sin. This knowledge can only come by revelation through the Holy Scriptures. The Scriptures declare that God chose to create the world and man because love is best expressed toward something or someone else. So the Creation of the world and people is an expression of the love of God. The world has known many people who are said to be great lovers, but, without doubt, the greatest lover of all is God Himself. The love of God was so great that He gave man authority and dominion over all His Creation. God loves us because of who He is rather than because of who we are. He offers to be our God not because we are lovable, but because He is loving. He offers to care for us not because of our goodness, or even because of our effort or good intentions. He loves us because that is the kind of God He is. Human love is variable whereas Divine love, God’s love, is unchanging, unchangeable and everlasting. According to Ralph Waldo Emerson human love is as subject to wear as the chocolates and cards, flowers and jewellery we use to express it. God loves every person in the world equally.
God wants every one to live eternally in fellowship with Him. He loves us enough to give us the freedom of choice, freedom to obey His commands or to disobey, but also enough to take our decisions seriously. To have no choice is to be less than human and to cease to exist in the likeness of God. Man chose to disobey God and this sin has separated him from God. Some may not recognize themselves as sinners, but we all agree that there is sin in the world. One only needs to read the newspapers with their pages filled with reports of murders, rape, drugs, crime, bribery and corruption to know that there is something wrong with society. Unfaithfulness in marriage, divorce, juvenile delinquency, drunkenness and other vices are all on the increase. As the Scriptures declare “there is none righteous, no not one…. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Love prompted God to make the greatest possible sacrifice so that man could be saved. There is a story of a devout Hindu who immigrated to England and was once confronted with the claims of Christ. He believed that a cow, an insect or a cobra was sacred but he could not understand the Christian concept that God actually visited this planet in the flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. One day as he walked through the fields wrestling in his mind with this concept of God, he came across an anthill with thousands of ants. He then noticed that the anthill was in the path of a farmer ploughing the field. Since ants were sacred to him, he was gripped with a concern for them that we would have for thousands of people trapped in a burning building. He wanted to warn them of their impending destruction but could see no way to do this. He could shout to them but they would not be able to hear. He could write in the sand, but they would not be able to read. He could see no way to communicate with them when he suddenly realized that if only he were an ant while retaining the nature of a man, he could warn the ants before it was too late. By being an ant he would be able to communicate with them and by remaining a man he would be able to continue to clearly assess the problem. Suddenly he understood the Christian concept. God became a man, Jesus Christ, but remained God in order to save mankind from destruction. Jesus gave up eternity to come to a hostile earth so that we could be reconciled to God and experience peace. It is often assumed that if God loves us, He is the one person in life we do not have to worry about. Bertrand Russell on his deathbed declared that God would forgive him, as that was His job. This renowned mathematician-philosopher conveniently overlooked the other half of the equation, which is that for anyone to know God’s forgiveness, that person first had to repent.
Love caused God to give us His Son. “This is my beloved Son,” said God the Father about Christ and no earthly father could love his son so much. But He was prepared give Him to pay our penalty for sin. “God commends His love in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” “God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son.” Men have tried every method apart from God to bring humanity back to the perfection of Eden, but none has ever succeeded. Man has sinned and cannot save himself. Sin is an inward spiritual attitude of rebellion towards God, which is expressed, in outward acts of disobedience. We are all sinners in this way, and by our sinful lives we rob God of the glory due to Him. Christ came to save us from our sins. He alone could pay the penalty. He alone was qualified to be the substitute to take the sinner’s place. To conquer temptation, He must be tempted in all ways as we are. Since the wages of sin is death, Christ experienced the sinner’s death. He had to die as the sinner died, forsaken of God. When Jesus cried out on the cross “My God, my God why have you forsaken me” God in a mysterious way took our sin, our death and our judgement and put them on Christ.
Conflicting opinions about the love of God are more than a symptom of our times. Confusion about whether God cares about us can be traced all the way back to the OT. Even then, some of the most religious people in the world were wondering how they could believe in a God who said He loved them while acting as though He didn’t. How can we take comfort in the love of God if we don’t feel loved? What if circumstances seem to say that God is ignoring us, that He has abandoned us to our own pain, and that He is deliberately withholding from us what He could so easily grant? Why is there so much suffering in the world, sickness, wars, poverty, hate, loneliness, emptiness, violence and suicide when God is a God of love? “I have loved you,’ says the Lord. But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?” Many of us have read about the battle of Britain when in 1940 Nazi Germany tried to conquer Britain. France and other countries in Europe had already fallen and it seemed at the time that all was lost. Many said that nothing could save England from the German Air force. Nevertheless, something did happen that saved the nation. It was the young men of the Royal Air force who went up in the Spitfires and engaged Hitler’s planes which were sweeping over Britain on their missions of destruction. The young men in desperate combat turned back the deadly bombers, and the nation was saved. Nevertheless there was a price to pay. Before the Battle of Britain was over, many Royal Air force pilots had been killed. They died that others might live. Britain did not take lightly the sacrifice of these pilots. The nation realized that they owed a debt of gratitude that could never be repaid and Winston Churchill, in his immortal words expressed it best: “Never did so many owe so much to so few.” There is however one exception. The whole world owes its chance of salvation to one Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He met the enemy single-handed, and saved the day when all others failed. It is through Him that we have hope of salvation. Through His shed blood we have forgiveness of sin and pardon from eternal death. Let us receive this new life by faith and begin to evaluate all that happens from an eternal perspective.
Whoever receives Christ need not perish. Some people question whether there is a place called hell. The Scriptures, however, teach that Sin is followed by three main consequences: first, inward spiritual death or alienation from God; second the physical death of the body; third, final and eternal banishment from the presence of God to a place of darkness and torment. When we receive Christ we are restored to the presence of God and receive eternal life. This is God’s life embodied in Christ given to all believers now as a guarantee that they will live forever. God loves even the worst of men and Salvation is a free gift through faith in Jesus. To believe is more than intellectual agreement that Jesus is God. It means to put our trust and confidence in him that He alone can save us. It is to put Christ in charge of our present plans and eternal destiny. Believing is both trusting his words as reliable, and relying on him for the power to change. If you have never trusted Christ, let this promise of everlasting life be yours.
A famous evangelist once told the story of how he was arrested for a minor traffic offence. He pleaded guilty and was told to pay a fine. As he was about to pay, the officer in charge recognized him, and he began to return his wallet to his pocket believing he would not have to pay the fine. The officer after a moment’s hesitation said that he still had to pay the fine but he would pay it for him. The law had been broken, the penalty assessed, and the fine had to be paid. In this case, as in the case of God versus mankind, a substitute came forward and volunteered to pay the fine. It didn’t cost the officer much to pay the fine, but the cost to God was the death of His Son, Jesus Christ, in our place. Christ came to save us from our sins. Himself without sin, He took our sins upon Himself, died in our place, and rose again from the dead, that we might be forgiven and receive eternal life. This divine exchange proceeded out of the unimaginable love of God and can only be received by faith. None of us has ever done anything to deserve such an offer, and none of us can ever do anything to earn it.
The love of God has made salvation available to everyone. If someone puts a million dollars in the bank for you, it won’t do you any good unless, first of all you know about it and secondly you draw upon it. A minister was called to a very poor home to see a very sick man. After their conversation the poor man brought out an envelope and gave it to the minister. He told him it was all that the mother had left him. The minister opened the envelope and realised that it contained a will leaving the man a lot of money. He had all the money in the world but was living in abject poverty because he did not even know it was a will and what was in it. God has given us an inheritance and the facts are simply that no matter how sinful our lives have been when we repent and trust Christ as Saviour we die to the old life and are born again to a new one. The problem is that many people do not think of themselves as sinners. Like the Pharisees they consider themselves righteous. But the greatest sin is not murder, theft, or committing adultery, wicked as these sins are. The greatest sin is the rejection of Jesus Christ as Saviour. Christ forgave the murderer; He forgave the prostitute, and He will forgive you. But He requires from us repentance and a whole-hearted surrender of one’s life to Christ. It is not enough to be a member of a Church, give money to the Church, and support its activities. It is finished. God’s plan of salvation is completed. There is nothing more to do. There is no way we can improve on it by good works. Salvation is ours simply through our personal faith in Christ because it is a finished work of redemption at Calvary. Salvation is ours when we acknowledge our sins and repent and receive Christ as our personal Saviour and Lord. God is offering you the greatest possible gift, eternal life in Christ. How can you reject or neglect so wonderful a gift? Amen!
