SPACE TRAVELERS

#511                                               SPACE TRAVELERS

Scripture  I Peter 3:18 NIV                                                                                      Orig. 8/4/1968

                                                                                                                             Rewr. 11/22/1988

Passage: For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.

Purpose:         Sharing anew the Biblical steps to God’s abundant  life in Christ.  

Keywords:                  Christ as Saviour                   God’s Love                 Separating from Sin

                                    Cross                                       Revival                       Plan of Evangelism

Timeline/Series:         Any

Introduction

            A new interest in outer space came about a few years ago with the marketing of “E.T.”  A fantasy spoke to some need in people to believe that there may be someone else out there.  The homesickness of the small alien touched a vital chord that all of us share.

            The interest in the worlds beyond this planet are genuine.  Efforts are already underway to break the bonds that tie us to earth.  We are not doing a very good job maintaining what we have here, but that drive is galactic.  What we don’t know about what is out there compels us forward.

            A recent article in National Geographic depicts what is ahead.  Plans are already being made for a serious venture toward Mars.  Imagine going to a  place where it will take seven to eight months to reach your destination, a delay of well over a year for the kind of planetary alignment that will make return possible, and then another seven or eight months making the swing toward home. 

            The article discussed some of the specifications required as an agenda for Mars nears.  Can you imagine the difficulties involved in such gigantic plans?  Things get pretty complicated over at our house when we are only making plans to have family in for Thanksgiving.  The logistics of hosting family and friends for a few days is formidable indeed.

            Fortunately, when God formulated the agenda that would bring us to Himself, He didn’t complicate it with insurmountable detail.  We don’t have to be overwrought about food reserves, and time differentials.  There is a way to reach out across time and space, and any other such mediums, to the place where God is.

I.          The First Step is Accepting  God’s Goal of an Abundant Life.  “To bring you to God.”

            This abundant life begins with a knowledge of God.  David’s last, best advice to his son Solomon concerned this knowledge: I Chronicles 28:9 “If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever” (NIV).  Job raised a question that has furnished a dilemma for many: “Canst thou by searching find out God?”  But Jeremiah resolves it for us: Jeremiah 29:13 “Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye search for me with all your heart,”

            Such knowledge comes not of the flesh but of the spirit.  First, the eternal Spirit of God.  John 14:16 “I will pray the father, and he will give you a comforter that he may abide with you forever.”  To know God is to know what He wishes to make known.  We are to be willing receptors.  It is then of the human spirit.

II.         The Second Step is the Admission of a Problem.  “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust.”

            It addresses the reality of sin; it accepts responsibility for one’s own will; it acknowledges God’s transcendence.

            All are created for this “abundant” life.  A sense in which some are elected but none are denied.  Irving Stone, in his biography on Michelangelo The Agony and the Ecstasy1 tells about Michelangelo’s David.  At the quarry he purchases a column cut and blocked for another sculptor, but marred.  Others had looked and rejected, but from this stone of flaws, he sculpted his 17’ statue.  God is able to work His miracle in any life.

            All are free to choose or to deny.  Look at any Biblical believer, he had the freedom to reject.  Any who denied, could have believed.  Isaiah 53:6 “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” 

            The Biblical concept of original sin says only that Adam’s disobedience was placed in circulation, and none of us have managed to protect ourselves from its debilitating influence ever since.  We have not escaped it unscathed, nor can we.

III.       Thus, the Third Step of Accepting God’s Remedy—the Cross.  “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust.”

            Conscience is perceived by many as the criterion for human good.  It did not protect Adam.  The Hebrews were not protected from their Egyptian lords.  It did not prevent serious abuses of power during the middle ages.  It offered no redress to the victims of the wars of this 20th Century.

            When I was a teenager my family lived just a couple of miles from a place on the Tallapoosa River called Horseshoe Bend.  For a lad who had never seen the Mississippi, that was an awesome spectacle.  On a bluff just to the east of the river, the railroad had been laid.  Every spring the talk would turn to the river undermining the railroad.  After the track finally gave way, a reinforcing abutment was built.  Conscience is like the dirt of the bluff that for years kept the river at bay.  But clearly, of itself alone, it just wasn’t enough.

            The solution, the one solution to man’s sin problem, is the cross.  Conscience is a vital ally for good.  But conscience breaks down. In this vein, the cross is the powerful abutment to our conscience.

            We must have confidence in atoning factor.  Thinking of church membership doesn’t help.  Reassurance from perception is no proof.  But a vital relationship with Jesus gives resolve.  I Peter 1:18f  “For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. . . .  24 For all flesh is as grass, . . . but the word of the Lord endureth.”

IV.       The Final Step, then, is to Receive Christ as Saviour.  “That He might bring us to God.”

            The completed action of the cross is defined for us.  In v21 Peter goes on to speak of “the good conscience toward God.”  It is explained in terms of the “resurrection of Jesus.”

            It raises the pertinent question as to which side of the cross we are on.  On the one side is sin and separation.  On that side we stand alone.

            But seeing the cross as we must, from God’s vantage point:  Conscience is not our only ally nor our enemy.  We discover God’s earnest attempt in our behalf.  We know that we do not stand alone.  I Peter 4:1 “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind:  for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.”

Conclusion

            The story is told of a stranger who walked into a great London Cathedral while the organist was at practice.  The organ [was] reputed to be one of the world’s finest.  The stranger listened for some time and then asked to be allowed to play.  The organist of course refused.  The console was sensitive. It could be ruined.  The stranger, however, was insistent, finally identifying himself as Felix Mendelssohn.

            The organist, recognizing the name, stepped aside and listened as his genius poured through the keys.  People came in to listen.  As [Mendelssohn] stood to leave, the organist said more to himself than to others gathered, “Oh, the Master was here.  What if I had not let him play?”

1Stone, I.  (2001.) The Agony and the Ecstasy. (Reprint.) Random House.

Stone:  https://www.amazon.com/Agony-Ecstasy-Irving-Stone/dp/0099416271/ref=monarch_sidesheet_image

THE LAMB OF GOD

#227                                                                   THE LAMB OF GOD                                                                                          

Scripture  John 1:29-34                                                                                                                                   Orig. 4/4/1968

                                                                                                                                                                           Rewr. 12/14/1988

Passage: ²⁹ The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰ This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ³¹ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”

³² Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. ³³ And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”^[a]

Purpose: To preach a Christmas message relating the birth of Christ to the salvation offered.

Keywords:  Christ as Saviour        Lord’s Supper                    Communion                       Christmas                            Salvation               

Timeline/Series:               Nature of Christ                Revival                  Christmas

Introduction

                The Book of Exodus tells us the story of the Hebrew Passover.  Thus, we learn the story of the place of the LAMB in the traditions of these ancient people.  In fact, Passover is the oldest, continuously observed festival known to mankind.  (N25p77).  It commemorates the occasion (14 Nisan-M./A.) when, “at midnight, by the light of a full  moon, the Israelites were able to leave Egypt,” “free at last.”

                The lamb (sheh: sheep/goat) played a vital part.  On 10^th Nisan the lamb was acquired, kept with family  until the day of the 14^th.  It was then killed.  It furnished a meal for the family, and blood was to be placed on the outer door of the family dwelling.  It would be this blood that the death (Passover) angel would use in assessing the faith of the family residing within.  When  there was no blood, the first-born sons of those homes were smitten.

                Imagine the consternation of the children within those  homes.  Lambs were brought among the family.  For three days they were like pets.  Abruptly, they were taken and slaughtered for food and sacrifice.  The father would, of course, try to help the children understand that the lamb must die to protect the integrity of that family in relation to God.  Don’t lose sight, however, that this was a means to finalize the release of the Israelites from Egypt.

                Thus, John’s opening chapter does not describe the birth of Jesus.  He presents Christ, full-grown, but still, “the lamb.”  John will later record that the crucifixion takes place about 3:00pm  on the day of preparation, the eve of 14^th Nisan, when the lambs for Passover were dying.  So the LAMB, born to sinlessness, come to cleanse, strong to save, is now on the scene, no longer a forlorn hope, but a very present reality. See G. Campbell Morgan.

I.             Born the Lamb, the Sinless Jesus: “The Lamb of God.”  Galatians 4:4 “God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law.”  Hebrews 4:15, “. . . but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

                The first guideline for the selection of a lamb was “without blemish.”  Not much care is given to such concerns.  People are more picky about Christmas tree.

                The need for such a perfect sacrifice stood in human sin.  The creature has denied the sovereignty of the Creator.  There is the factor called “original sin.”  Romans 5:19 “As by one man’s offense, many were made sinners.”

                But of greater consequence is the sin of commission.  Romans 3:19 “What the law says, it says to those under the law, that . . . all the world may become guilty before God.”

                Man’s sin has violated the righteousness of God.  Do we presume that righteous, holy God will do nothing?  Parents are expected to admonish and punish their children.  Honesty testifies that we learn more from applied punishment.  It becomes abuse only when administered without a potential to learn.  God’s purpose is not vindictive, but that we may learn.  Should He then overlook the travesty of sin?  We generally think not until it is our own sin in question.  When the moral order violated is godly perfection, the punishment must match the offense,

                Thus, only a perfect sacrifice for such wrong can bring restoration.  Hebrews 10:12 “But this man, after he had                offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.”  The depth of man’s sin is plumbed.  The height of God’s righteousness is vindicated.

                The manner of appeasement is God’s own Son.  Electronic devices are used today, but in the old country store we could see this application writ large every day. Goods were bought in bulk, measured against a weight of certified volume.

II.            Born the Lamb, Come to Cleanse:  “The lamb of God that taketh away sin.”  The picture of the lamb is so accommodating.  Sin seems almost to have us in its power.  We are as vulnerable to the wolf of sin as the lamb to the wolf of flesh.  Child can’t put back what they tear down.

                Jesus played out in so many real ways this condescension to humanity.  Romans 8:3 “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.”

                Thus it is that Jesus speaks to the need in all of us:  The lamb who takes the cares of the world upon himself; the lamb, to whom a learned Hebrew came seeking His wisdom; the lamb, to whom sailors on a foundering ship came, seeking His buoyancy; the lamb, who at a Samaritan well offered His living water to a thirsty soul; the lamb, down from the mountain, who puts His hand where none would and cleanses the leper.

                He who would cleanse must be himself clean.  He was the lamb who knew the gnawing hunger of destitution. (Forty days in the wilderness.)  He knew what it was to seem to be weary, alone, without hope. “He was bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh.”  He was the lamb, cast aside of men, but taken up of God. He was the lamb who faced the terror of God-forsakenness, that we might not.

III.           Born the Lamb, Strong to Save: “The lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” 

                A salvation unique in all the world, imputed by God Himself: it will never be deserved, it cannot be reversed.  Ephesians 2:8f “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”  Titus 3:5 “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.”       It is a transaction of grace given impetus  by the love of God.

                A salvation that is of Christ.  Man’s standing before God is the problem.  Consider Matthew 5. Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit/ they that mourn/ the meek/ those who hunger and thirst after righteousness/ the pure in heart/ the peacemakers/ those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.  “You are the salt of the earth” v13. “You are the light of the world” v14.  “Your righteousness must exceed the scribes and pharisees” v19-20.  Taking a life is sin, but so are anger and hard-heartedness v21.  Not only adultery but lust v27.  They are admonished (v38) to go the “second  mile” in v43 “to love their enemies,” and in v48 counselled to “be perfect, . . . as their Father in heaven is perfect.”

                Thus come the options  we are given.  In Christ, by grace through faith, earned by the merit of perfection.  Romans 4:4f “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.  But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,”

Conclusion

                So, in the fullness of time, God brought the sacrificial lamb, Christ, into His own house.  For a brief time, He made His presence known.  The children of faith were drawn to Him, loved Him.  But the Father, to provide meat of spiritual nourishment, and blood to stay the hand of the avenging angel, had to take the lamb and slaughter it.  It is so simple it is almost complicated.  The blood must be placed above the door of the human heart.  Have you done so?  Do it now!