Two Journeys - One Hope

Dr. Bradford Reaves

Crossway Christian Fellowship

Hagerstown, MD

www.mycrossway.org

Introduction

We are coming into one of the teachings of Jesus that today’s pastors and churches widely ignore, but one that every person should read and study until they understand everything Jesus is conveying through this parable. Before we look at that passage, I want to take a moment and revisit my message from next week and connect the two Scriptures. I don’t have enough time to fully examine it. I would need 3 or 4 Sundays for us to break it down, but I think this passage has significance in what we’re doing today. So, after we are done examining it, I want to connect it to our mission work and the team leaving this afternoon for Guinea-Bissau.

Let me first say this: being a Christian is about self-denial. It’s not about preservation, it is not about your safety, it is not about living your best life now. Being a Christian is not about filling your life with blessings, it is not measuring your blessings as a means of measuring your relationship with God. Christianity is about denying the self on the basis that there is no hope in the constructs of this world. The paradox of the Christian life is that as a result of this self-denial, we live without fear of this life or the next. That’s an interesting thought and I need you to grasp this because we have no fear in life and no fear in death. In fact, there are 365 verses in the Bible telling us not to be afraid.

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. (John 14:27)

The world is full of fear: fear of not having enough money or possessions, fear of governments, fear of life, fear of losing our health, and fear of death. The world’s fear is the existential threat of loss of control. There is fear because there is no assurance of hope and we need hope because no one can predict the future. There is one full assurance of the future for every living person on this earth and that is death.

“And do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)

The question that cannot be answered by the world or any religion is what happens after we die. No one, no religion, nothing has the assurance of that answer except the Bible because the Author of the Bible is the Author of life and the Author of death, and there holds the answer you need and the hope you need for your eternity. I think the worse thing that can happen to anyone is to go through your entire life on the assumption that heaven awaits you when you die only to come to the realization that is not the case.

I. Send Me!

If you will allow me, I want to revisit my message with you from last week. I want to revisit it, as to preach it again, but to use it as a comparison to what I want to say this week. Last week, we visited with the Prophet Isaiah in the throne room of heaven as he described to us in Chapter 6:

1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is Yahweh of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory.” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called out, while the house of God was filling with smoke. 5 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of hosts.” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7 And he touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is atoned for.” 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:1–8)