June 3, 2012 Scripture Readings Romans 8:35-39 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Matthew 16:13-23 13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say the Son of Man is? 14 They replied, Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. 15 But what about you? he asked. Who do you say I am? 16 Simon Peter answered, You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. 17 Jesus replied, Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. 21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. 22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Never, Lord! he said. This shall never happen to you! 23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns. Page 1 of 10
Morning Message More Than Conquerors On August 23, 1973, Jan Erik Olsson, out on parole from prison, attempted to hold up a bank in Stockholm, Sweden. When the police showed up, Olsson took four people as hostages. A stand-off between Olsson and the police lasted six days. At one point during the standoff, Olsson called Sweden's Prime Minister to say that he would kill the hostages. He put one of the hostages, Kristin Enmark, on the phone. She said to the prime minister, "I am very disappointed in you. I think you are sitting here playing with our lives." Despite Olsson's threats to kill her, Enmark had decided she felt safer with the bad guy than the police. In fact, she wasn't the only one. Other hostages actually resisted rescue attempts and later refused to testify against their captor. Some even raised money for his defense! Today, whenever a hostage identifies more with their captors than their rescuers, their condition is referred to as the Stockholm syndrome. Many years after the incident in Stockholm, Kristen Enmark described what she experienced this way: "It's some kind of a context you get into when all your values, the morals you have, change in some way." Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/stockholm_syndrome, mod. Today, I am convinced that the world can have the same effect upon Christians as people suffering Stockholm syndrome. It may take longer to develop but it often does, as the world slowly turns our eyes from a new life Page 2 of 10
of freedom in Jesus our rescuer, and back to an old life defined by worldly captivity. Although the Apostle Paul exhorts us in Romans 12:2 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God s will is his good, pleasing and perfect will... in reality, when we fail to actively engage our faith; trusting in God in all things, keeping our eyes on Jesus and following the promptings of the Holy Spirit, living in the world will take those joys of new life and crush them with the weight of human brokenness. I know this because it has happened to me at times in my life, and I see it happening to Christians all the time. Life no longer is defined by the Gospel of God s love and grace but by the brokenness of the world. Rather than living as the redeemed Children of God; - we become a people hopelessly controlled by corrupt politicians or bankers - we become fatalities of rude neighbors and bad teachers - we become victims of life s misfortunes, - we become longsuffering parents of children who refuse to grow up. - we become a medical diagnosis. How easily we lose the joy of new life in Christ and our identity as Children of God when we allow the struggles of this world to redefine our life; to cause us to identify more with our captors than with our rescuer. Consider your own story. Can you remember the day you first understood and embraced new life in Jesus? Page 3 of 10
- Can you remember feeling God s love for you when you first understood that He sent his Son to die for you so that you would be His for all eternity! - Can you remember the weight that was lifted from your conscience; that God had wiped your slate clean; that all the consequences of bad things you ever did and all the good things you failed to do were gone, gone forever? Do you remember that feeling? Do you remember the freshness of life; the reality of a life makeover, literally a new-life that was no longer evaluated by law, but defined by God s grace revealed in Jesus? DO YOU REMEMBER THAT FEELING? Joyful. Buoyant. Untroubled. Now here s the real question: Do you still feel that way? While I believe that there are a few here today who continually experience that feeling of new life in Christ; my guess is that many of us do not; certainly not to the extent that we once did. Why is that? Stockholm Syndrome. We re living is a world that is continually challenging our identity in Christ. God has kept us in this world for a reason, even though the world is not a safe place to live. We are here to better the world and bless others by proclaiming the Gospel; telling others about God s love, grace and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. We are here to tell the world that in Christ we become the children of God. But, as we go about influencing the world for the better; furthering God s Kingdom of grace and love, the world is trying to influence us. And the sad reality is, if we re not influencing the world for Page 4 of 10
Christ, then the world is influencing us; eroding our new life in Christ until it neither resembles or feels like it once felt. But today s verses from Romans 8 wakes us up; they slap us in the face and bring us back to a truth that can free us from our captors influence, and restores the life that God our rescuer offers us in Christ. For while the world would have us define life in the caldron of human brokenness, through Christ we live a new life defined by faith, hope and love. Faith, hope & love. do you remember those three qualities combined else ware? While we find those three terms often paired by the Apostle Paul, it is in 1 Corinthians 13, after Paul exhorts the Church to keep a perspective on all their gifts and talents, he writes that when all those things pass away: 1 Corinthians 13:13.. these three remain: faith, hope and love. I think that these three qualities can help us discover & rediscover the new life in Christ we were created to experience: 1. Faith When Christians live by faith we are able to see things in this world others cannot. We re not talking about blind faith based on personal wishes; - I believe the economy will rebound fully in the coming year! - I believe that I ll win the Powerball Lottery next week! Page 5 of 10
Rather, to live by faith is to trust in God s promises; not human promises which often get broken, but the promises of a God whose promises are always kept. That s why we re here worshiping God; He is faithful; He is a promise-keeper 100% of the time. So, as we live by faith, we see what others cannot see because we trust in God s promises. And when we do, the struggles of living in this world are put into a correct context that will totally affect how we live life. Earlier in Romans chapter 8 the Apostle Paul reminds us that we are God s children and His heirs of all that awaits us in Christ. He concludes that thought with this perspective on life: Romans 8:18 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Do you understand new life in Christ? It means that we can live in the faith-based reality, so that no matter what life throws our way; trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword.. sickness, poverty, humiliation, disappointment, scandal, sorrow no matter what we experience in life, God s promises tell us that He is with us and that in the end we win! In the end, we win; we will be the conquerors. In fact, as Paul wrote, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Romans 8:37 We are more than conquerors because what we have been given in Christ affects how we live even today, before God brings all things to himself. So what does new life in Christ feel like? Page 6 of 10
It s like watching the Super Bowl, or the final game of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the NBA Finals or a gold-medal round in the Olympics. And though your favorite team is losing, and though your best player is hurt and has to come out, and you re just about ready to give up hope, you remember. oh Yeah, I m watching a delayed broadcast.. and you already know that your team pulls out a win in the last few seconds! That s what new life in Christ feels like. While those who don t know the final score may experience worry, fear, anger, frustration. you re free to go make popcorn, tell a joke, breathe deeply, relax. You might even enjoy the game, throw a compliment to the opposing team s players and laugh at the bad calls by the referees; all because you know the final score, and you ve won!. Life is different when faith allows you to see what others cannot. New life in Christ lets us experience the struggle which is all around us much differently than those who do not have faith in God s salvation in Jesus. Have you lost that difference that comes by faith? You can feel it again when you live by trusting in God s promises. 2. Hope In many ways as we ve thought about faith we ve also addressed hope. The late Thomas Smail, a Scottish theologian in the Anglican tradition parsed out these two characteristics of faith and hope into a trust in God that is immediate and a trust which which is long-term. He wrote: When the prayer made in faith is not answered, and the healing for which many have sought does not come, we are not to look for someone to accuse of failure in faith. Rather we are to remember that besides faith Page 7 of 10
there is hope. Hope has to do with God's promises that are still future and hidden, just as faith has to do with God's promises that are here and now. To the person who has believed for today but has not seen the answer come today, there comes the call to hope. Hope says, "Tomorrow also is God's. Enough has happened already to assure you that the rest is on the way." Thomas Smail, quoted in Ken Blue's Authority to Heal (InterVarsity Press), p. 49 To put it in practical terms, our prayers of faith that God does not answer today need not discourage us because we have hope. And our hope is in a God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, righteous and just. We may not understand God s ways, just as Peter did not understand Jesus the Messiah s need to die on a cross, but thanks to His self-revelation in His Word and in Christ we can have hope because of who God is. And when we live in hope we live differently than those without hope. Not long ago a disturbing report hit the news about a little Chicago boy permanently disabled in a drive-by shooting. That fact alone is awful enough, but the reporter went on to say that everyone in the neighborhood knew who the shooter was, but no one came forward to identify him. The boy's mother even acknowledged that she drove by the shooter's house every day on the way to work. An insightful Chicago educator identified the situation well: "That's what happens when people lose hope. You don't think things will get better, so you just give up." Ken Hutcherson, Hope Is Contagious (Zondervan, 2010), p. 16 Page 8 of 10
And sadly, the longer we live in this world, the more hopeless we are of earthly solutions. And without hope, life just gives up trying. But, when our hope is in an all-powerful, all-knowing, righteous and just God, we live differently; we have a new life in Christ. I love a description offered by Dallas Willard in one of his most recent book: Christian hope isn't about looking around at the state of things now and trying to imagine where it's all going. It's not about trying to calculate the future from the present. It's about breathing now the fresh air of the ending, tasting the spices and sipping the wine of the feast to come. Dallas Willard, editor, A Place for Truth (InterVarsity Press, 2010) Life in this word makes us feel increasingly hopeless. New life in Christ is hopeful. 3. Love And finally, while the new life we have in Christ is defined by a God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, righteous and just God; it is also based in a God who is love, and who has changed our lives forever through the love He has demonstrated toward us through Jesus death. Again, it is Paul who asks in Romans 8: Romans 8:31b-32 If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Page 9 of 10
What is it like to live life in the knowledge that God loves you so much that Jesus died for you? While the momentary troubles of this world are a real part of human existence, what would you call a life lived in the reality of God s unconditional love for you? We call it new life in Christ, and today I invite you to accept it, or to remember it if the world has caused you to forget it; and to embrace this new life as you live in faith, hope and love. AMEN THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2010 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide Page 10 of 10