This sermon was delivered to St Oswald’s in Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland on the 30th October 2016; This is a Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries.
The readings for today are: Acts 5:27-32 Psalm 118:14-29 Revelation 1:4-8 John 20:19-31
Acts 5:27-32
When the temple police had brought the apostles, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, saying, "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man's blood on us." But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than any human authority.
The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him."
Revelation 1:4-8
John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail. So it is to be. Amen. "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
“Please join me in a short prayer”, “Father I ask that the words I speak are your words and not my words; that they speak for you, and glorify you. Amen.
Introduction
This morning we are going to look at today’s readings in reverse order, starting with Revelations and ending up in the book of Exodus. You may think, you cannot do that, because everything works in chronological order, and you cannot start with the end before the beginning, but God can. God is omnipresent, and time means nothing to him as “He is the great alpha and omega; the first and last; the beginning and the end”; the great “I am”.
Rev 1 4:8
In revelations this morning, we heard the verse, “All praise to him who always loves us and who set us free from our sins by pouring out his lifeblood for us.” God, through Jesus has freed us from our sins; and I believe that is past, present and future sins, but today I want to talk about being free from our past sins; in the way God has promised us.
Acts 5: 27 32
So from the book of Acts this morning we read the apostles say “We are witnesses of these things, (that is the death and resurrection of Jesus), and so is the Holy Spirit, who is given by God to all; who obey him.” By taking communion we are obeying Gods command by becoming his body: by the eating of His flesh we receive his atonement; by drinking his precious blood we receive forgiveness because we allow the Holy Spirit to enter and take control of our lives.
The disciples were boldly proclaiming in this verse that they witnessed the death and resurrection of Jesus, and by doing so, they could not help but preach the good news; that is the gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone, regardless of circumstances. … You see, the disciples knew and felt the power of Jesus, and could do nothing to contain there excitement. Could you imagine how that felt, they were afraid of nothing, and busting with excitement. They just could not contain themselves, regardless of consequences.
Moving back further to John 10, “My sheep recognize my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one shall snatch them away from me, for my father has given them to me.”
In plain language, we belong to Jesus, and he is keeping us for himself, letting no one near us to snatch or take us away. I find this very comforting, as this verse is saying, we belong to Jesus, He is all powerful, and He is always looking after us.
I know it does not feel like it at times, but that is what the bible tells us, and we can be forgiven for thinking that the “biblical theory” and “life reality” are totally disjointed at times.
I do not know about you, but I certainly have had more that my share of problems this winter. So under these circumstances, how can I proclaim that God is looking after us, and is always with us?
Well to start with, I think we all agree that He is God and an all powerful God at that; otherwise he would not be God. If he was a God of hate and destruction, we would worship Him, but fortunately He is a God of love. In fact, “God is Love, and we are His children”.
Secondly we all acknowledge that we are His; we belong to him. Jesus paid the price for us at Calvary. If do not belong to God, why are we here this morning. We have given ourselves to Jesus Christ, and according to the bible, we belong to him. I think we can agree on that as well, but now here is where we can part company; why are bad things happening to us good people, and where is God while all this is happening.
There is no way I can answer that question, however, I will give it a go. … To start with, the bible tells us that God never leaves our side, because he loves us so much because of Jesus, and because God is Omni present; he is everywhere, but more importantly He is beside us, (or in us), in the form of the Holy Spirit. We do not feel his presence at all times because we have our own spirit, with our own agendas and feelings, and God will never interfere with our own free will. In fact it says in Ecclesiastics 15:14, “God made man from the beginning, and left him in the hand of our own counsel.”
But sometimes, well many times, these two spirits part company, and God has to bring them back together somehow.
Now, there are many many reasons why these two spirits part company, but one major reason they part company is over past sin, that is, what we did wrong in the past.
How many of us have been hindered by our past sins, how many of us are ashamed of them? How many of us are afraid that someday, somebody will point them out when we are at our least able to defend ourselves?
These past sins are therefore no good to God, and because of them, we cannot perform in ways God want us to perform; that is one reason he sent his son Jesus to pay the price of our sins, so we can be free to live as God has intended us to live. To live as God wants us to live. Are you with me now? Our past sin has been dealt with on the cross at Calvary 2000 years ago.
If it was not, is Jesus going to come back to earth, live and die again so that we maybe forgiven again. No. Our sins were dealt with 2000 years ago. Our shameful past with God has gone. God does not see it because of Jesus. Jesus took that sin away from us, even though we did not deserve it. And that is grace.
Now, we do not escape our past, but we escape the power of our past sins; or rather, we escape the power our past sins have over us.
This power must be broken; otherwise it will chase us for the rest of our lives. We cannot break it, only God can do it for us, and normally this is done through hard times of trials and tribulations, or as some people call it times of testing.
Zacharias 13:9
The trials and tribulations we Christians go through are extremely painful, and from where I have been, they seam to be far worse than anything my non Christian friends have endured. However, I am not them; but I am a completely different person from what I was because of such hard times, and knowing God was in control of my life. God moulds and re-moulds us through his fire as written in the book of Zacharias 13:9 “And I will refine them as silver is refined: and I will try them as gold as tried. They shall call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say: Thou art my people: and they shall say: The Lord is my God.”
We boldly say, the Lord Jesus Christ is our Lord. So far, we have all been tried, but to varying degrees, and so far we have come through. We are better for it, but I just wish this could be done less painfully.
Anyway, when we break free from something that keeps trying to recapture us, (like past sin), it's crucial to get victory over it, and away from it: otherwise we can not move forward and enjoy the blessing God has in mind for us.
Exodus 10
Let us now go all the way back now to Exodus 10 where Pharaoh chased the Israelites across the red sea. Remember, it was God who permitted Pharaoh to pursue the Israelites, because God could have stopped Pharaoh at any time. So why did he allow Pharaoh to chase them?
I can think of two reasons really: the first is given in Exodus 10:1 '...that I may show (you) these signs of Mine...’ God wants us to see that when we put our trust in Him, obstacles and opposition mean absolutely nothing to him. He wants this experience to be a 'landmark memory' or victory for us, so we can draw faith from, for when sadly; we face our next problem.
How many times have we said “how am I going to get through this”, and then add, “I did it before”. You see we draw from our past experiences, (and faith), and we use that to defeat our present problems; which you will agree, are often much harder and more difficult, but necessary to strengthen our faith.
Basically God wants us to strengthen our faith, but He wants us to put our trust in him, and He wants to help us. We must therefore let him do it for us, as we cannot do everything ourselves.
The Second reason God permitted Pharaoh to pursue Israelites all the way to the Red Sea is as written in the next verse of Exodus '...that you may tell... [your children]... the mighty things I have done...'
We do not have to live under Pharaoh’s, (or Satan’s rule), any more. (By the way, Pharaoh is a term often interchanged for Satan). Like the Passover, when the blood of Jesus was applied by faith to the doorposts of our hearts, our status had changed. We are no longer a slave, but a child of God. The generational curse is broken, and our children can now grow under God's blessings.
Abuse, alcoholism, ambition, anger, drugs, greed, sex, selfishness, spiritualism, violence and many other horrible vices as well, may have been our story of our past; but it's no longer the truth about our future. Is it?
God can solve our problems in different ways, but sometimes He takes us `through the Red Sea so that when we get to the other side we can look back and see Pharaoh and his armies 'dead on the seashore'. Then we know the battle is over, and we are truly free!
Amen.
Let us pray,
Father we thank you for Jesus, we that you that he died all those years ago to save us from ourselves.
Father we thanks you that we are free, free from this world, free from our selves, and free to worship you.
Father, grant us that surety this morning, that you are with us every step of the way, that you want us, and that you are working your purposes out in us, least we know.
Father, this world is hard, we struggle at times, so please be with us, let us feel your presence, let us feel your protection, let us feel that everything is going to be good as you say in your word.
Father we ask in Jesus name, Amen.
