And the Impossible Became Possible
Adapted from And the Angels Were Silent, Max Lucado—Chapter 9, Courage to Dream Again
Scripture Ref: Isaiah 43:18-19 2 Timothy 4:7-8
2 Corinthians 5:17 Hebrews 2:14-15
Revelation 3:15-16 Matthew 11:28
Genesis 18:23-25
Job 19:25-27
Other Ref.: The Bible Knowledge Commentary
The Nelson Study Bible
1. Introduction
a. How good are you at dreaming? How big are your dreams? What limits do you place on them?
b. Over the years I have dreamed of being a famous concert pianist, a world-renowned opera singer, and the pastor of a church. Today, I stand here before you, the evidence those dreams coming true.
c. They did not come true on the scale in which I envisioned them. They came true in a way much larger than I ever dared hope.
(1) While not a famous concert pianist, with only piano lessons to my credit, I have been pianist, organist, or choir director at almost every church I have ever attended. My meager talents have been employed in serving God my father, and appreciated just as much by those who heard me as they would have been by a huge crowd.
(2) While not a world-renowned opera singer, I have been choir member and soloist, singing to and for the greatest and most important audience ever conceived—Jehovah, Addonai, El Shaddai, Elohim, God. And, I have been compensated in far greater ways than a throng of adoring fans paying large amounts of money to be in my presence ever could. The one closest to my heart, is the memory of the young man at a small country church in Louisiana, much like this one, who said he gave his heart to God because of the message in song I brought there on Saturday night.
d. Let me give you an example of another dreamer:
Hans Babblinger of Ulm, Germany, wanted to fly. He wanted to break the bond of gravity. He wanted to soar like a bird.
Problem: He lived in the 16th century. There were no planes, no helicopters, no flying machines. He was a dreamer born too soon. What he wanted was impossible.
Hans Babblinger, however, made a career out of helping people overcome the impossible. He made artificial limbs. In his day amputation was a common cure for disease and injury, so he kept busy. His task was to help the handicapped overcome circumstance.
Babblinger longed to do the same for himself.
With time, he used his skills to construct a set of wings. The day soon came to try them out and he tested his wings up in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps. Good choice. Lucky choice. Up currents are common in the region. On a memorable day with friends watching and sun shining, he jumped off an embankment and soared safely down.
His heart raced. His friends applauded. And God rejoiced. (And the Angels Were Silent, Max Lucado, Chapter 9)
2. The Impossible becomes Possible
a. Why would God rejoice? He always rejoices when we dare to dream the seemingly impossible. He is the ultimate expert on making the impossible possible.
b. You want assurances or proof positive, check His record.
(1) 100-year-old husbands with 80-year-old wives don’t typically choose to start a family or dream of parenting a nation…but don’t tell that to Abraham and Sarah.
(2) 80-year-old shepherds rarely take on Pharaohs with huge armies at their disposal…but don’t tell that to Moses.
(3) Pre-pubescent shepherds, as a rule, aren’t willing to confront giants…but don’t tell that to David.
(4) Back-shift shepherds rarely get to hear the hosts of heaven singing and see God in a stable…but don’t tell that to those who observed it in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago.
(5) And certainly don’t tell that to God. His specialty is conversion—impossible to possible.
c. Read Isaiah 43:18-19—“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
(1) We are told to forget the past. Forget about our past and its limitations. Rather, look to the future and the great new things we will be able to do through Him. Dream to achieve the impossible.
(2) In this passage, the Jews are told of how God would provide for them. They would be traveling through desolate lands and God would provide water and streams in abundance. He would provide food in a land incapable of supporting agriculture.
d. If He can do this to the earth, He can certainly do it to you.
(1) Read 2 Corinthians 5:17—Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
(2) If any man could lay claim to this promise it was Paul! He changed from a persecutor of Christ to a proclaimer of Christ.
(3) To be in Christ means to become a new creation. God’s creative work in us begins on the day we accept Him, continues as we grow, and will one day be consummated on a universal scale.
(4) The new life we have in Him means a life of devotion to Him, a life with new attitudes and new actions.
3. Are We A Meringue Cookie?
a. My least favorite cookie is the meringue cookie. When I think of the word cookie, certain images come to my mind—warm, soft, sweet, gooey and chewy, or firm, crisp, and full of flavor. When I bite into a meringue cookie, my body does not experience any of the images I associate with a cookie—there is little flavor and certainly no substance. It is like biting into air.
b. Christ encountered his own meringue cookies in a fig tree and in a church.
(1) Read Matthew 21:18-22
(2) Here we find Jesus on the road to Jerusalem after spending the night in Bethany. He was hungry and saw a fig tree on the side of the road.
(a) The tree had leaves, but not fruit.
(b) Fig trees bear fruit either just before the leaves appear or at the same time. So this fig tree was false advertisement, for it had no evidence of fruit, past or present.
(c) The tree gives the illusion of food, but offers nothing. It is all promise, but no performance.
(d) Jesus cursed the tree and it withered and died.
(e) The fig tree was a meringue cookie—it was not what it represented. It advertised one thing and did something completely different.
(3) Let’s consider an explicit example of this in the church.
(a) Read Revelation 3:15-16—I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
(b) The church was wealthy and self-sufficient, but it had a problem—it had all the show of a church, but it didn’t have the fruit of a church.
(c) The literal translation of spit in this passage is vomit. The body vomits because certain substances are incompatible with it and that is the body’s way of rejecting what it can’t handle.
(d) The point is that God can’t tolerate lukewarm or insubstantial faith.
(1) Religion that is all show and no substance makes Him made.
(2) This is the same religion that He faced during his last week on earth and the religion He faced throughout His ministry.
(3) Despite all He did and accomplished, the church complained. What about you say?
(a) His disciples ate on the wrong day.
(b) He healed on the wrong day.
(c) He forgave the wrong people.
(d) He hung out with the wrong crowd and had the wrong influence on children.
c. As it were, the crowds told Hans Babblinger the same thing. Continuing our story about Hans.
Seems the king was coming to Ulm and the Bishop and the citizens wanted to impress him. Word had gotten out about Hans flying feat, so they asked him to do a loop for the king. Hans consented.
They wanted one change, however. Since the crowd would be large and the hills were difficult to climb, could Hans choose a place in the lowlands in which he could fly?
Hans chose the bluffs near the Danube. They were broad and flat and the river was a good distance below. He would jump off the edge and float down to the water.
Poor choice. The updraft in the hills was nonexistent near the river. So in front of the king, his court, and half the village, Hans jumped and fell like a rock straight into the river. The king was disappointed and the Bishop mortified.
Guess what the Bishop preached the next Sunday—“Man was not meant to fly.” Hans believed him. Imprisoned by a pulpit he put his wings away and never again tried to fly. He died soon after, gripped by gravity, buried with his dreams.
(1) The cathedral of Ulm wasn’t the first church to ground a flyer. Through the ages, pulpits have become quite proficient at telling us what we can’t do.
(2) They told Christ, they told Hans, and today they tell us. You can be sure it is just as nauseating to God today as it was yesterday.
d. How good are we at giving people their wings? Setting people free? What about…
(1) The friend who offended you and needs your forgiveness?
(2) Your co-worker or neighbor who is mortally afraid of death and the grave?
(3) The family member burdened with the weight of yesterday’s failures and the grim reality of tomorrow’s future.
e. The message of the fig tree is not that we should all have the same fruit. The message is for us to have some fruit. For some it is the fruit of caring for the sick, for some it is the fruit VBS, for some it is the fruit door-to-door witnessing. The point is, the fruit is the evidence of the health of the tree.
f. You are probably thinking, “easier said than done!” I say, “yes!” Jesus knows that. Ask Him if the fruit of the cross was easy.
4. See That Mountain Over There?
a. The common bond in all of this faith. But faith in what?
(1) Yourself? No. Religion? Hardly!
(2) What then? Faith in God. Let’s look at some examples.
b. Read Genesis 18:23-25—Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
(1) Abraham was convinced there were righteous people in Sodom—he did not pray merely for Lot—so he appealed for Sodom on the basis of God’s justice.
(2) He believed there were righteous people in Sodom and had faith God’s ability and willingness to respond accordingly.
c. Read Job 19:25-27—I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!
(1) Job’s soul is torn with anguish because of all he has lost and all he has been subjected to. Yet he has faith in God—faith that he will see God with his own eyes.
(2) He not only has faith he will see God, he yearns for the day his eyes will behold Him in person!
d. Read 2 Timothy 4:7-8—I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
(1) Paul, in this passage, believes he has little time left to live, yet his faith and courage remains strong.
(2) It not just a faith for himself, but also a faith for those who have the same faith as him.
(3) The center of that faith is not his parents, not his best friend, not even the church—his faith is planted firmly in the Lord.
e. Who is this Jesus, this God that Paul has invested his life in?
(1) He’s the shepherd searching for his lost lamb. With scratched legs, sore feet, and burning eyes he travels far and wide, cliffs, fields, and caves. He cups his hands to his mouth and calls a name—yours.
(2) He’s the housewife searching for the lost coin. It makes no difference that He has nine others; He won’t rest until he finds the tenth. He: searches the house, moves furniture, pulls up rugs, takes off sofa cushions, digs through the garbage can. Only one thing matters and He won’t stop until he finds the coin he seeks—you.
(3) He’s the father pacing the porch with eyes wide with His quest. He hurts. He seeks his prodigal, longing for the familiar figure. His concern is the child who bears His name, who bears His image—you.
5. Possibilities Loom on the Horizon
a. God’s dreams for us are bigger than our conceptions, bigger than promotions and proposals.
b. Possibilities loom on the horizon. He wants us to fly—free of yesterday’s guilt, free of today’s fears, free of tomorrow’s grave.
c. Read Hebrews 2:14-15—Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
(1) We were once held captive by our enemy, Satan. Since we are human, God had to become human that He might be subject to everything we have been, and that as a human He might overcome all that we struggle with.
(2) For too long Satan used our fear of death as a means to trap and make us slaves to his will. We often make wrong moral choices out of our intense desire for self-preservation.
(3) This passage reminds us that we are no longer subject to his slavery and that we can face death with the same confidence in God that Christ did.
d. Read Matthew 11:28—Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
(1) Christ gives a clear call to all who are tired from the hard work of existing without His support.
(2) He gives clear instructions where we are to fly—directly to Him.
6. Summary
a. What dreams do you still have hanging on there in your minds? What great aspirations are unfulfilled? Do you long to fly?
b. If your fellow man were asked to describe you as a cookie, what would he say? Would you be a meringue cookie or would you be an Outrageous Oatmeal-Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip or Ginger Snap?
c. One final word about the church of Ulm. It’s empty. Today, most of its visitors are tourists. And how do most of the tourists travel to Ulm? They fly.
6. Invitation
