Sermon for CATM - January 5, 2020 - “Following the One with 2020 Vision”
Welcome to the year 2020 AD. We made it! And we have so much to be thankful for. It’s the first Sunday of the first year of a new decade.
And it’s not a bad time to give God thanks for his love and faithfulness to us for the past, say, 10 years! God has been good, we have received his grace over and over again.
We have heard his voice when we have attuned ourselves to his presence.
When we have gone off the path, he has come for us, to rescue, to reclaim, to revive, to enliven again. Aren’t you glad that we serve a God who leaves the 99 in order to find the one who has strayed off the path.
We should be glad, because at any given time, one among us is likely struggling or straying, and at some point, that person has been us.
We serve a God who leads us through mountain and valley, and He leads us to still waters so that our spirits might be revived.
And when the way forward has been murky, has been riddled with doubts; when our next steps have been unclear, we have hopefully learned something about our limitations.
And perhaps the most important lesson, our most important limitation, is our greatest blessing.
That’s because the truth is that we cannot see what’s coming in the future, we sometimes can’t even trust our best instincts as to how to prepare for tomorrow.
But here’s the thing, and if you hear only one thing in this message, I really hope it is this: we have the joy of following the one who sees ahead with perfect vision.
We have the joy and privilege of following the one who knows where we are going, who knows what’s coming, who is completely prepared for all things, who sees the future with 20/20 vision.
And this one, this Jesus who sees with perfect vision is good. How good?
“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you. Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, LORD. They rejoice in your name all day long; they celebrate your righteousness. For you are their glory and strength, and by your favour you exalt our horn. Indeed, our shield belongs to the LORD, our king to the Holy One of Israel.”
??Psalms? ?89:14-18? ?NIVUK??????
So since this is true, how should we approach the coming year?
Do you want to approach it with your eyes open? Do you want to approach it with growing faith in Him? Do you want to hear His voice?
Do you want to grasp in a fuller and deeper way just how much God loves you?
Just how much God wants to love the world around you TO Him? Do you want to remain in Him?
Let’s talk about these things, because these things are what really matter.
Moving forward, as we follow Jesus, May we See Him
If you think for just a moment, it won’t be hard to think of what Jesus has done for you. Think of your life up to now.
It won’t be long before you recall how gracious and kind and patient he has been with you.
If you’re like me you’ll be able to identify many things, many good things that are in your life because of Jesus: friendships, peace, and genuine hope. All kinds if great and small things
But we do need to be careful.
Pastor Jeff Strite tells the true story of a professor who was teaching a class called “Jesus of Nazareth.” On the opening day of the class he gave a standardized psychological test, the same test, to all his students.
The first part of the test was all about Jesus.
It asked students to imagine Jesus' personality with questions like, "Would Jesus prefer to go his own way rather than act by the rules?"
And "Was he a worrier?" The second part of the test asked the same questions of the students. But instead of "Was he a worrier?" it asked, "Are YOU a worrier?"
The prof said the results were phenomenal. The test revealed that most people tend to think Jesus is like THEM. Introverts thought Jesus was introverted (for example), and extroverts thought Jesus was extroverted.
These students hadn’t fixed their eyes on the Jesus who WAS. They only saw the Jesus who was like them, and who agreed with them.
Jesus wasn’t the measure of who THEY should be. Instead, THEY were the measure of who Jesus should be.
That’s what happens if we’re not careful to fix our eyes upon Jesus. It gets kinda dangerous.
If we take our eyes off Jesus, we can potentially cripple our faith. Do you remember the story of Jesus walking on the water? Peter sees Jesus walking on the water and asked to be able to come out to him - and HE walked water!
All was good until he took his eyes off of Jesus and he started looked at the wind and the waves. Then he sank into the water and cried out for Jesus to help him. When Jesus got him back in the boat He said: “O you of little faith. Why did you doubt?”
Looking away from Jesus caused Peter to doubt, it crippled his faith.
But if you have had a vision, seeing Jesus as He really is, experiences can come and go, but you will endure “as seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27).
In Exodus the big story is about Moses leading the people of Israel by God’s hand, out of Egypt and into a great unknown. The book of Hebrews comments on this briefly, saying this:
27 By faith (Moses) left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.
So we need to see Jesus, we need a vision of Jesus which aligns with what the Bible says.
We need to recognize and be thankful for His goodness in our lives, but we also need to see His love for all of humanity, His passion for every soul to come to Him.
And when we see Jesus clearly, we will also understand our own lives better.
Your life is meant to be a prism through which others can see, if they are looking, something of the goodness and loveliness of God in Christ. May we see Jesus as He is and may He be seen in us!
As we follow Jesus, May we Believe Him
John 6:29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
When my brother came to trust in Jesus about 4 years after me, he did so in part because he had embarked on an effort to ‘unconvert’ me.
He read the Bible, he read about Jesus, he read a lot of books very critical of the church and very critical of Jesus. But the end result was that he gave His life to Christ. Hallelujah!
But then he began to focus on works. ‘We need to do the work in order to be real Christians’, he would say.
Now the book of James, which we begin studying together next Sunday does say that faith and actions work together and cannot be separated, so he wasn’t wrong there, but he still thought it mattered more to do good works than to have faith.
And then he read this passage: “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” This hit him hard, but it helped to align Him with the whole counsel of Scripture.
Pleasing God begins with believing in Jesus Who God has sent. Elsewhere, the Bible drives this home: Hebrews 11:6 ...Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him”.
Did you know that it’s possible to be in the church and to be super religious, in the sense of thinking you need to follow all kinds of rules, and at the same NOT believe in Jesus? That’s sobering.
We need to actually believe and to continually do those things that reinforce and strengthen what we believe - coming to church, worshipping, reading our Bibles, studying our Bibles in-depth, praying for others and for ourselves.
So as we follow Jesus, may we believe in Him.
And may we have the courage as well to say to Jesus what the father of the mute and epileptic boy in Mark 9:4 said after Jesus healed his son.
He said: I believe. Help my unbelief”. So no, seeing is not believing. It’s possible to see marvelous miracles and still not believe.
The pharisees witnessed Jesus’ miracles and they responded by plotting his death.
We need to believe. And even when we do believe, we need to understand that belief is not static. We need to say to Jesus: I believe, help my unbelief.
May we Hear Him (John 10:27)
On another occasion when Jesus was dealing with those who wouldn’t believe despite seeing the evidence, this happened:
24 The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
What does it mean to be a sheep in the sense that Jesus is speaking of here? It is to know the sound of the voice of the shepherd. Do you know His voice?
He is the truth and He speaks only the truth. Do you know the sound of truth when you hear it? Do you listen for His voice?
How do we discern the voice of Jesus? The answer is by the Holy Spirit and by the Word of God, the Bible.
The Holy Spirit within us leads us to the truth, the Bible communicates that truth. Can we hear the voice of Jesus and at the same time NOT listen? Of course!
Every time we read something that we don’t like in the Bible, something that challenges the way we think, something that challenges our lifestyles;
every time we become aware of a truth in the Bible that we would rather not be there, and then choose to not take it in, choose to not conform our lives to it, align our way of life with what we hear, we are not listening.
We are shutting our ears to the voice of God. And if we do this habitually, we may cease to be able to recognize His voice.
But Jesus’ sheep listen for His voice, and when they hear it, they don’t dispute it. They don’t ignore it or try to make it mean something other than what it says. That’s not the behaviour of a sheep of God.
Jesus’ sheep listen to His voice. And to His sheep He promises eternal life. He promises that if they accept him as Master and Lord, if they became members of his flock,
all the littleness of earthly life, all of the many pains and sufferings of this life would come into perspective as they would know the splendour and the magnificence of the life of God.
Jesus promises a life that knows no end. Death is not the end but the beginning; Jesus’ sheep would know the glory of indestructible life.
And to Jesus’ sheep He promised a life that was secure. Nothing could snatch them from his hand.
This would not mean that they would be saved from sorrow, from suffering and from death;
but that in the sorest moment and the darkest hour they would still be conscious of the everlasting arms underneath and about them.
Even in a world crashing to disaster they could know, they would know the serenity of God.
So may we listen to the voice of Jesus and may the Holy Spirit within us convict us, that our hearts might turn back to the Way of Jesus.
May we realize how much we're Loved by Him (John 3:16, 16:27)
As a church we are moving together into this next decade.
And as we move forward together, we are able to do that because we are each, in our own lives, walking with Jesus, getting connected, staying connected to Jesus.
We are meeting next week after a shortened service to discuss what moving forward together might look like.
What God is calling us to; what is within our ability to do now, and how God may increase our capacity to step up to do what He is calling us to do as a fellowship of believers.
You are very welcome to join us for that congregational meeting.
But whatever God is saying to us, however we discern what being and remaining faithful to Jesus looks like in the coming year and years, we do so with a growing understanding of the love of God.
How much we are loved by God and how deeply He cares for us. How close He walks with us, closer than our own breath.
You know this passage: John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Can you put your own name in there? Can you insert yourself into this promise?
“For God so loved me (name) that He gave His one and only Son, that as I (name) believe in Him, I shall not perish but have eternal life”.
Ponder the love of God. Ponder the love of God. There are different ways that Christians do this. Some focus on how good God is despite their sinfulness and wickedness.
Despite being sinners, God saved us through Jesus. That’s one way to do it.
And it’s true we were sinners lost in darkness and on our way to a Christ-less grave, without the ability to save ourselves and without faith that someone would stand in the gap for us.
Then while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.
This shows us clearly how great God’s grace is, in that while we were completely undeserving, God did come for us in Christ to rescue us.
5
So that’s not wrong, and it’s actually helpful to remember how we have been saved and from what we were saved.
But it’s also true to say, in reflecting on the love of God, that when I wandered away from the sheepfold, Christ left the 99 and came to find me, to bring me home.
It’s also true to say that when I, like prodigal son, wandered off and squandered my inheritance, God welcomed me back not just with open arms, but He ran to meet me and embraced me and kissed me, because His heart rejoiced that I had finally come home.
Whichever way we choose to ponder the love of God (and maybe we consider all these and other biblical pictures), we need to know that we are loved.
Say it again: “For God so loved me (name) that He gave His one and only Son, that as I (name) believe in Him, I shall not perish but have eternal life”.
May we Remain in Him
15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
So as we embrace this new decade, its challenges, its joys, the hills and the valleys that will come, let us do so determined by His grace to remain in Him. Remaining in the One who has 20/20 vision, the one who is capable of seeing what is coming with clarity and understanding. Remaining in Him in part means learning to do only those things that help us grow in Him.
We have the joy and privilege of following the one who knows where we are going, who knows what’s coming, who is completely prepared for all things, who sees a future with perfect vision.
And as we remain in Him, we do so by saying goodbye to lesser things and choosing to say “yes” to Jesus, “yes” to the One whose name is above every name."
Let us be more like this. “What delight comes to the one who follows God’s ways! He won’t walk in step with the wicked, nor share the sinner’s way, nor be found sitting in the scorner’s seat. His pleasure and passion is remaining true to the Word of “I Am,” meditating day and night in the true revelation of light. He will be standing firm like a flourishing tree planted by God’s design, deeply rooted by the brooks of bliss, bearing fruit in every season of his life. He is never dry, never fainting, ever blessed, ever prosperous.”
??Psalm? ?1:1-3? ?The Passion Translation??????
The Word of the Lord. Amen.
