One Extraordinary Life
God in Five Weeks, part 4
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
10/15/2006
My head is filled with songs about Jesus from the hymns and choruses I learned growing up in the church. “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know. Fills my heart with longing – keeps me singing as I go.” “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.” “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak, but he is strong. “Jesus, name above all names. Beautiful Savior, glorious Lord. Emmanuel, God is with us, Blessed Redeemer, Living Word.” “I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold; I’d rather be His than have riches untold; I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands; I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand. Than to be the king of a vast domain, Or be held in sin’s dread sway; I’d rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today.” And then of course there’s my personal favorite.
We’re going to look at Jesus this morning and I have to tell you that as a preacher, sermons about Jesus are my favorite. I’d rather talk to you about Jesus than about prayer, about heaven, about living godly lives, about faithfulness to our spouses (although I’m a big fan), about anything. There’s nothing higher, nothing purer, nothing more praiseworthy or admirable than the life of Jesus. No life was ever lived like his, and no life ever will be again. I can’t begin to imagine how many people have died with His name on their lips. Jesus’ life was one extraordinary life, wasn’t it?
I want to make four points to you today. First I want to show you that Jesus believed He was God, and knew at the same time that He was God’s Son. In other words, Jesus believed in Himself as God the Son. That’s what we’re dealing with here in our series on Trinity isn’t it? God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Second, Jesus’ life accomplished what no other life has ever accomplished. Third, Jesus’ death accomplished what no other death has ever accomplished. And fourth, Jesus’ death and resurrection presents you with a choice.
Let’s begin with what Jesus believed about who he was.
John 10:31-38 (NLT)
31 Once again the Jewish leaders picked up stones to kill him.
32 Jesus said, "At my Father’s direction I have done many things to help the people. For which one of these good deeds are you killing me?"
33 They replied, "Not for any good work, but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, have made yourself God."
34 Jesus replied, "It is written in your own law that God said to certain leaders of the people, `I say, you are gods’!
35 And you know that the Scriptures cannot be altered. So if those people, who received God’s message, were called `gods,’
36 why do you call it blasphemy when the Holy One who was sent into the world by the Father says, `I am the Son of God’?
37 Don’t believe me unless I carry out my Father’s work.
38 But if I do his work, believe in what I have done, even if you don’t believe me. Then you will realize that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father."
In this one passage we can see the following things:
Jesus 1) enjoyed an intimate connection to God the Father (the whole passage)
2) was sent by the Father into this world (v. 36)
3) believed himself to be holy (36)
4) was understood by those around him as believing he was God (v. 33)
5) believed he and the Father were one (v. 38).
Now Jesus didn’t doubt who he was. The religious leaders around him at the time didn’t doubt who he was. Clearly each of us has to decide for ourselves whether Jesus was who he believed himself to be, but it’s clear that this is what he believed and what he claimed. To me it could not be more clear who Jesus believed he was, and this is only from looking at one passage. Remember, I studied 90 New Testament passages preparing for this series and I assure you nothing you read in any of those other passages will indicate in the slightest way that Jesus did not believe himself to be both God and the Son of God.
On to point two, which is that Jesus’ life accomplished what no other life has ever accomplished. Jesus lived a life unlike any ever lived before in history, and unlike any that will ever be lived. Somehow a poor carpenter from Palestine managed to:
1. Convince a significant number of people he was God (ever tried that? That’s a tough one)
2. Convince many people to give up their lives and fortunes to follow him
3. Fulfill a huge number of Old Testament prophecies about things as uncontrollable as his place of birth
4. Launch a brand new religion that would become the dominant religion in the world in terms of numbers of followers.
5. Equip a handful of committed followers to carry on his legacy so that it spread all over the world
6. Attract startling numbers of followers.
7. Perform miracles that astonished those around him.
8. Bring brand-new teachings to the world. “God loves the poor.” “Pray for your enemies.” “Turn the other cheek.” “Your heart matters as much as your behavior.” “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” “Your money doesn’t make you valuable to God.” “God loves sinners.” All these and more were things no teacher had ever taught before. Many of Jesus’ teachings became a foundation for philosophy, for medicine, for Western civilization, and for the basic principles of justice and compassion we hold dear. In fact without the teachings of Jesus, there would have been no philosophy, no line of thinking, that ever could have led to the formation of a country like the United States of America. Christian or not, nearly all our founding fathers acknowledged that.
9. Put these brilliant teachings into a form so simple that children can enjoy and understand them, using everyday objects and ideas like camels, needles, pigs, money, bread, water, sheep, farming, and seeds.
10. Confront the most powerful people of his time without flinching, never hesitating to speak the truth
11. Do all the above not with arrogance and pride, but with such a spirit of humility and love that the poor, the rejected, the sick, and the oppressed flocked to him and wanted to be in his presence.
12. Accomplish all of these things in 3 ½ years. The world you live in today is Jesus’ world, and it’s a world he formed in 3 ½ years. I’ve said it before, even skeptics, atheists, and agnostics are living their BC lives in an AD world. There’s no turning back the clock. What other life has ever made that kind of impact? What other human being has even come CLOSE? Now what other human being has even come close in such a short period of time? We think of Gandhi as one of the holiest men who ever lived, but remember that before choosing Hinduism, Gandhi considered Christianity. Gandhi saw himself as a person who was below Jesus Christ. In fact, the greatest contribution of Gandhi’s life – that of non-violent resistance to oppression – came straight from his understanding of the teachings of Jesus. So even the revolutionary life of Gandhi was only revolutionary insofar as this Hindu holy man applied the teachings of Jesus. I’m not sure you get much better than that in our world than to be able to serve as a teacher and role model for Gandhi.
My third point this morning is that Jesus’ death accomplished what no other death has ever accomplished. Let’s think about that. What do most human deaths accomplish?
1. The severing of all ties with loved ones and the forcing of permanent goodbyes.
2. The permanent extermination of the life of the individual.
That’s it. For most human beings there is nothing in death but endings – endings to relationships, and endings to life and vitality.
But just as the life of Jesus was unlike any other life, so his death was unlike any other death. What exactly did the death of Jesus accomplish?
1. A way to deliver you from the permanent goodbye
2. A way for your sins to be forgiven.
3. A way for you to be able to know God.
In a few moments we’re going to take communion. For Christians, what is communion? It is a memorial not to the life, but to the death, of Jesus. Think of it – Christians regularly commemorate and celebrate the death of the founder of their faith! Why, because we are cruel haters of life? No, but because we understand Jesus’ death as having accomplished something that never could have been accomplished any other way. Indeed we see Jesus’ death not as an ending, but as a beginning, not as cause for losing hope but for finding it.
Hebrews 2:13-15 (NIV)
13 …again he says, "Here am I, and the children God has given me."
14 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--
15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
“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.”
Through his death, Jesus freed us from the permanent goodbye. Death isn’t the end anymore. Death has been robbed of its power because it doesn’t have to mean the end of our existence. Because of the death of Jesus, you can have life that never ends. And that’s not something that begins in the afterlife, after you die. This eternal life begins now – it springs to life inside of you spiritually even in this world while you still live in your body. It changes your mind, changes your heart, changes your behaviors, changes your attitudes. And unlike the life of your body, this life never ends. Ever.
This can happen because in his death, Jesus made atonement for your sins and mine. To atone means “to make amends for.” Jesus made amends with God for your sin. This had to be done because Jesus knew it was true that:
Romans 6:23 (BBE)
23 For the reward of sin is death; but what God freely gives is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Understand this this morning. Sin kills. Sin does not kill because God arbitrarily one day said, “Let’s see, I’m looking for a list of attitudes and actions that I will make lead to death. Hmm, what’s fun that I can put on this list? Adultery? Death! Lust for power? Death! Gossip? Death! Jealousy? Death! Fits of rage? Death! Stealing? Death!
Sin is not sin because God has decided that certain things are sin and certain things are not. God is God. God has a certain nature. God is holy and righteous and pure and because of that God cannot stand sin. Sin is everything that violates, or falls short of, God’s perfect holiness. If God would not gossip, then gossip is sin. If God would not cheat on someone, then adultery is sin. If God would not lie, then lying is sin. Sin is whatever violates God’s nature. And my friends, this is not God’s decision. God’s nature is God’s nature. Toleration of certain things is not in your nature. How long could you stay in the room while your spouse made love to someone else? How long could you keep a secret you knew would eventually destroy your best friend if you didn’t tell them? How long could you stand watching an adult physically or psychologically abuse a child? Not long. Something in you reacts, and so it should. For you not to react to these things would not indicate patience or mercy, but something sick and impure about you. God cannot stand sin. Something in God reacts, and so it should. For God not to react would not indicate patience or mercy, but something sick and impure about God.
God is disgusted by all sin and it would not be a character strength for God to find sin acceptable. Sin accumulates in our spirits and over time puts us to death spiritually. No one sin puts us to death instantly and by itself. That’s why when someone says, “Will I go to hell for [insert sin here]?” I would say, “It depends.” It does not depend because it’s okay to sin once or twice, it depends because no one sin will put you to death spiritually. Sin is a cumulative disease. No one cancer cell will kill you, but how many cancer cells do you want hanging around in your body? The correct answer is zero. Cancer kills. Sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, but it kills for sure. You cannot make peace with it and you cannot tolerate living alongside ANY of it. Sin is the same way. All sin kills, spiritually. Some kills quickly. Some kills slowly. But all of it kills, and you should not willingly tolerate any of it in your life. Because eventually the “reward” for a life of sin is spiritual death – complete separation from God and his holy character. Why? Because God thinks it’s groovy to let some into heaven and keep others out? Because God isn’t forgiving? Completely not, but because God cannot be in the presence of sin.
So the reward of sin is death. Live a life of sin, you die spiritually. And just like eternal life begins now, so does eternal death. What causes eternal death? Sin. Those who end up in eternal spiritual death (which Christians call “hell”) aren’t sent there arbitrarily by a cruel God. They work themselves toward that destination as they put their own spirits to death by choosing a lifestyle of sin moment to moment, all their lives long.
I’ve gotten away from Jesus, but only so that I could return. The reward of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through the death of Jesus. In dying for you, Jesus provided a way for your sins to be forgiven, paid the price that sin extracts, and allowed you to slip through the noose.
Some say, “Died for me? I didn’t ask Jesus to die for me. What kind of choice is that – either accept Christ or go to hell?” Christianity does not teach that Jesus’ death for you forced this choice upon you. Christianity teaches that you would have gone to hell with absolutely no choice had Christ not provided a means of escape. All Christ did was make it possible for you to not have to pay the ultimate price for your sin. So yes, it seems like a terrible choice for some. Accept Christ or go to hell. But the Christian understanding of this is that if Christ hadn’t died for us, there would have been no choice at all – just spiritual death – eternal separation from God – what we call hell for everybody.
Jesus understood himself to be both God and God’s Son. Jesus lived a life unlike any other life, and died a death unlike any other death. And the death (and resurrection) of Jesus DOES present you with a choice. Without Christ you could not avoid the penalty for your sin. Because Jesus made amends for your sin by paying the price for you, it is possible for you to avoid this penalty. Because of God the Father’s choice to send Jesus to pay for your sin, and God the Son Jesus’s willingness to do it, you have a choice.
I want to invite you to choose life this morning. Choose life. Yes, the life I’m asking you to choose results in eternity in heaven with God, but that’s just the endpoint of a journey that begins now. Sure, rejecting this life I’m asking you to choose results in eternity in hell away from God, but that’s just the endpoint of a journey we are all on until we ask God to have mercy on us and pardon us from our sin through the death of Jesus – a death that accomplished what no death has ever accomplished. Because Jesus did not stay dead and he waits for you now to grasp what he did for you and throw yourself on his mercy. He wants to extend it to you.
2 Peter 3:9 (NLT)
9 The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise to return, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish, so he is giving more time for everyone to repent.
Would you pray with me this morning? Pray this along with me in your heart if you mean it.
Father God, I choose life this morning. I choose to lay down my old ways of doing things and learn God’s ways. God the Son, Jesus – thank you for making it possible for me to begin living eternally today – at this moment. I am sorry for how I have lived without you, and I turn away from my sin. God the Holy Spirit, I invite you to make your home inside of my heart. Help me do what pleases You and avoid what grieves You, and to know the difference. Amen.
