It Is Finished

Sermon March 24  Palm/ Passion Sunday   IT IS FINISHED

IT IS FINISHED! What is finished? The ultimate price was paid.  The perfect lamb was slaughtered.

Alcoholism is finished .  Drug addiction is finished.  Lust and prostitution and all forms of sexual abuse is finished. These are the big ones that we talk about all of the time. How about Guilt is finished. Sadness is finished. Hopelessness is finished. Unfaithfulness is finished. Rejection is finished. Backsliding is finished. Unforgiveness is finished.   When Christ hung his head and offered his spirit back to God he said It is Finished. The work he came to do was finished. Salvation was paid for on that day at Calvary.

Jesus didn’t come just to get us into heaven.  He came to break every curse that’s blocking the blessings that have been paid for by the blood of the Lamb. He came to give you  LIFE and that Life more abundantly. Before you can have that life, you must learn how to break the curse.

Many people don’t get it. They have sat in church for years and years and years and still don’t get it. Many will remain “old wineskins.” But, IF you DO get it, you have decided to be a new wineskin, then  God has hand picked you. God uses the most unlikely because they are sure to give Him all the praise and glory.

Moses was  murderer.  Jacob was a deceiver. David was a murderer and adulterer. Most of the disciples were unlikely characters. Paul was even a murderer and was selected to write over 2/3’rds of the New Testament. Folks there is hope for everyone sitting on the pews in this building. Regardless of what you have done in the past or what you are doing now if you want what God is offering all you have to do is Ask, Believe, and Receive.

Isaiah 50:4-9a

This text in Isaiah is one of the Suffering Servant Songs, which Christians often read as prefiguring Jesus Christ- particularly Jesus’ own suffering on the cross and his obedience to the will of his Father. (Remember Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.”). It is no surprise, then that this text should show up in the lectionary during the Liturgy of the  Passion, the time when Christians meditate on Christ’s suffering for us and his willingness to be crucified for our sin.  In much traditional Christian interpretation, Jesus Christ is the Suffering Servant sent by God to bear the burden –indeed to die- for human sinfulness and disobedience to God.

The promise revealed to us in this passage of Isaiah: the world can be a dangerous and evil place, and suffering will come, BUT we can be assured it is not at the hand of God. Instead,  God is at work in our lives for good, for peace, for justice, and for love. Even though we cannot always see the fruit of God’s labor, our hope in the Lord will not be disappointed in the end.

Psalm 31

 BE Gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress……   A grieving Soul.  Like the musical traditions of the Blues and Country music, the Psalms are the songs of life.  They express the highest joys and the deepest sorrows of life, often within the same, single psalm.  The Psalms express the painful truths of the human condition, while simultaneously declaring the most profound hopes of the human spirit.  They declare the human spirit’s longing for the blessing of the divine presence to shield us against grief and terror.

The psalm cries out from the depths of a grieving soul.  Although few people are unaware of the stages or cyclical understandings of grief, too many are unaware of the devastating experience of grief.  Grief theories tend to focus on symptoms and overlook the distorting effects of grief upon the soul.  There tends to be a lack of understanding regarding the way grief has the power to redefine life as a bottomless pit.

Philippians 2:5-11

Jesus’ final days, death, and resurrection are acts of humble service that reveal his true vocation.  Likewise they are our true vocation.  As Paul confronts issues in the church in Philippi, he calls Christians to their vocation, that is, to have the Mind of Christ.  This is the mind of Christ – a commitment to serving others, with an unwillingness to seek personal gain.  These verses are not a morality lesson leading us to think that if we humble ourselves, then we become exalted.  Such was the expectation of Jesus….Jesus was simply living out his vocation.  Therefore, for a community of faith that had become preoccupied with its own discord, and for individuals who were more concerned with their own self-righteousness, the hymn sang of Christ’s true vocation as a reminder of who we are and how we are to live together. Remember who you are!

What part of your own mind-set would you have to let go of in order to have Christ’s mind? What would change if you let go of your own mind-set, instead of wishing for others to let go of theirs?

How do we as Christians learn to put our minds into a state of trust in God’s faithfulness?

Luke 23: 1-49

“Certainly this man was innocent”….(the Roman Centurion at the foot of the Cross).

The cross is still a stumbling block, both in its horror and in the fact that a crucified innocent man was made the center of our faith.  This form of execution was reserved for the worst offenders: revolutionaries against the state, violent criminals, and low class thieves.  Roman citizens could be crucified ONLY for high treason.  No more hideous fate could be imagined.

No wonder Paul called the cross “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (I Cor. 1:23). Justin Martyr, defender of the faith in the century after Paul, said, “ They say that our madness consists in the fact that we put a crucified man in the second place after the unchangeable and eternal God.”

The Roman statesman Pliny wrote about the “perverse and extravagant superstition” of Christians--- that a man honored as God would be nailed to a cross as a common enemy of the state.

Preaching the cross ponders how God is redeeming the world in the darkest and most shameful of places.

When Jesus asked who do YOU say that I AM?  Peter said, YOU are the Christ.  Jesus responded to Peter: “Blessed are you  (Blessed means now you are anointed from heaven.)  Flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but MY Father, who is in heaven.”

In Hebrew there is no one smart enough to teach the revelations of God; no one smart enough to understand the revelations of God.  If you “get it,”  God has hand picked you to be an example of his Favor and blessings.

Jesus said ON THIS ROCK I will build my church. Not on the Rock of Peter (as some proclaim)…..but on the Rock of the revelation that Jesus is the Christ.  If your beliefs are built on sand, the storms will wash away the foundation.  But Jesus said, “On this Rock (of revelation) I will build MY Church. And the gates of Hell, even satan himself, will not be able to come against it.

Why do people backslide?  Most people backslide when the storms hit.  Religion won’t support you.  Just saying you believe in Jesus won’t do it.  But if you build your faith on the Rock of Revelation of Jesus the Christ, it will stand forever.

Building your faith on the rock that Christ is the burden removing ,   yoke destroying Messiah. Knowing that He will not only forgive every sin….Did you hear that?  He will forgive every sin and knowing that He died on the cross to remove the curses, for cursed is He who hangs on a tree.  He will forgive every sin, and break every curse that is on YOU, your family, your children, your grandchildren, your finances, your health or whatever mess you get your self into. 

The gates of hell will not be able to stand against you.  He does this everyday, but on Yom Kippur, it is the most anointed day of the year, and He will break every curse and release every blessing.  If you understand this, you can break the curses from every area of your life. If you don’t understand what I am talking about you need to go back and read the TORAH. (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy).

The TORAH is the beginning of the Bible. IF you want a new beginning I would suggest going back and reading this part again and again and again and Ask God for the Revelation.

The church does not understand everything that Jesus taught. BUT, Everything that Jesus taught came from what the Church calls The Old Testament.  Everything he teaches comes from the revelation of the shadow of things to come.

God says in this world is life and death. He says in this life there are blessings and curses.  God doesn’t leave us; WE LEAVE GOD and go into a world full of curses.

Jesus said, “ Peter, I give you the keys to the kingdom.” Jesus doesn’t have the keys.  YOU have the Keys. On the Cross he shouted :  “IT IS FINISHED.”

At the close of the Gospel of Mark JESUS said:   YOU go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned (cursed). 

And these signs shall follow them that believe;  In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing; it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. (Church did you hear that? It is for YOU)

As Jesus declared and shouted.   IT IS FINISHED!!!!

This is the Day that the Lord has Made!!!!!

A Special Gift

 

Sermon March 17

Old Testament- Isaiah 43:16-21

Israel’s present languishing in exile is, in the poet’s imagination, sandwiched between the memory of the exodus from Egypt and the hope of a new exodus from Babylon.

The Lord says: “I am about to do a new thing: now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”

God has done so many wonderful things in your life. Yet, when you are going through that dark trial or storm it can be hard to remember the good times because you are so surrounded by the darkness. Yet, you can read a word from scripture, or someone can say something that brings hope. That is the message we want to focus on this morning, Hope.

Psalm  126

Psalm 126 is a psalm of two moods.  It begins (vv.1-3) in happiness, with the people of Israel looking back at the good old days, when it seemed that their dreams had finally come true.  After years of loss and exile, God made a way for them to come back home – Home!  God restored them to a land they loved and had lost, to livelihoods and neighborhoods.  Restoring their city walls and structures was like restoring their very sense of community.  People pulled together then.  They remembered, and laughter and shouts of joy filled their mouths, filled the air, and floated like helium balloons carrying the message far and wide.:  “God has done great things for us!”  Surrounding nations, though they worshiped other gods, were drawn into Israel’s rejoicing and said in response: “The Lord has done great things for them” v.2.

Epistle- Philippians 3:4b-14

If Lent is, among other things, a time to reconsider – a time to set aside distractions in order to focus on our relationship with god and with Christ’s church a time to let the Holy spirit work on us in order to remold us into the image of God as individuals and as the body of Christ – then the passage from the letter to the church in Philippi brings the season to its peak.

This passage encourages us to make a life assessment, creating a ledger as to “losses” and “gains”.

While there are social, cultural, economic, political, familial values to be cultivated and refined, during lent we discover other values that outrank those we work so hard to attain.  During Lent we look again at what shapes our identity and gives us security and against which we are held accountable.  Such Lenten reconsiderations have brought us to this text on the Fifth Sunday of Lent and to the reality that we count as “loss” all that we have striven to achieve, because of the surpassing worth of Knowing Jesus Christ.

As Paul so wonderfully states it:  Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

 

Gospel -)  John 12:1-8

Nothing will begin a conversation like an extravagant gift.The setting is: “Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany” “There they made him supper” Who?  Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.”

This was after Lazarus resurrection. The one whom Jesus wept for. The one whom Jesus raised from the dead (after 3 days in the tomb). Surely Lazarus was still trying to figure out how to live the rest of his resurrection life. 

Then there was Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus. Wanting to absorb every word the Master said. Then she took the extravagant costly oil and anointed Jesus feet and wiped them with her hair. An extravagant act of devotion. The fragrance filled the room. Sort of like EsteLauder if you have ever smelled that perfume.

Tension enters when Judas objects…..His sanctimonious attitude is noticed. Because we know what he does later.

I know of a church where a family was burned out across the street from the church. They took an offering of $150 to give to the family. (But they are sitting on  over $50,000 of CDS just gathering dust.. )

Extravagance…..such as Mary’s love for Jesus. Think about it.  A life without such extravagance, a life dominated by caution, careful calculation, and cost-benefit audits, is terribly sad and constricted – actually the word that comes to mind is constipated.

How can we hang around Jesus for very long and not catch the spirit of reckless abandon?  Jesus called the Zebedee boys away from their boats, nets, and family –and they went!

Jesus counseled the ardent young man to sell all his possessions, revolutionize his life, and follow Jesus – but “prudent calculation” stopped him.

Jesus offered the honor of his company to the swindler Zacchaeus (instead of to any honorable folk), and Zacchaeus responded by promising to pay back fourfold whatever he had cheated anyone of (which was going to leave Zacchaeus with little).

Jesus was warned that Herod was gunning for him, but Jesus immediately dismissed the warning and stayed his course.

A fews days after accepting and Praising Mary’s lavish gesture of love, Jesus gave his disciples his last commandment – to love one another in the same manner that he had loved them, and indicated that the measure of that love is to lay down one’s life.

Over the top!  Always over the top!  How can we be under the influence of Jesus and not be extravagant.?

Prayer:

Father, as human beings we are up and sometimes we are down. When we are in the downward spiral it seems we always turn to you and when we are up we neglect to do that.  Help us to stay steady on the course that you have set for us. Forgive us for being wishy washy and open our hearts and minds to hear what you are telling us to do. In Christ name we pray.

March 10, 2013  The Prodigal Son

Joshua 5:9-12

God is always saving people, leading them into new places and new possibilities.  Our passage in Joshua details how the forty years of wilderness wandering for the Israelites are coming to an end.  Moses has led the people this far, but in this new place they have a new leader named Joshua. They have been wandering for forty years, having escaped the oppression of the Egyptians.

Folks its time to get out of the wilderness and move forward. It s a time for a New Beginning. Onward and upward. (It is time to get out of the pigpen)

Psalm 32

Happiness is high on most people’s list of priorities. Hunger for happiness drives much of our lives. The ambitions we pursue, the relationships in which we engage, the professions we enter, the hobbies we love; the clothes we wear, the food we eat, and even the way we observe Lent reflect individual beliefs about what brings fulfillment and happiness.

In Psalm 32, happiness comes from being forgiven.  It comes not from being important, accomplished, organized, optimistic, or busy. Instead, being happy is a matter of being righteous, and according to Psalm 32, righteousness is not a matter of being sinless. It is about the ego-bruising work of Lent: acknowledging sin, accepting forgiveness, vigilantly attending to God’s teachings, trusting God more than self, and then being happy in the ONE who steers us toward paths of utter fulfillment.

Think about it: Resurrection Sunday is just around the corner. What a grand and glorious time is upon us. Spring is near. Soon Winter will be over.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Peter never gets credit for his intelligence.  The Gospel writers go out of  their way to make him into an idiot. Perhaps that is what happens when you associate with Jesus. You are never the smart one.  As far as I am concerned , Peter delivered the definitive line about Paul’s letters when he wrote, “There are some things in them hard to understand” (2 Peter 3:16).

Today we have an example from the Second Letter to the Corinthians on the Fourth Sunday in Lent: “ So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away, see, everything has become new! (5:17).

Not only is this statement hard to understand, it is hard to swallow once you do ----once you can handle Paul’s cosmology, once you comprehend how he thinks the world collapsed in Christ’s coming and a whole new one sprang up in its place.

“If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.” It is a beautiful statement – almost impossible to preach.  The trouble hangs on the “anyone”. If anyone is in Christ; there is a new creation – a whole new creation.  Everything old has passed away; everything has become new – if anyone is in Christ.

For instance let us now look at the prodigal Son…..

 

Luke 15: 1-3 and 11b-32

II. THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON. Luke 15 V11-24

A. Here was a man like us all. He desired the world and what it offered.

1. He thought it would bring pleasure and good.

2. So he took all he had and went after it.

3. For the man, woman boy or girl who seeks after the world...it cost you everything.

4. It was clearly a mistake, his father knew it, but he did not interfere. God gives a will and will not violate yours.

B. He paid a great price for his pleasure.

1. Cost him his home and family.

2. Cost him any of his true friends.

3. Cost him all his pride.

4. Cost him all his material possessions. (what a paradox that is)

5. Cost him his inheritance.

6. Cost him all his grand plans for his life.

Yes, it was very expensive. He thought he was doing right, he thought he was all right....but he was blind to the reality of what the course of life he had taken would bring.

C. His good times were short lived. Sure they were fun while they lasted....but the problem was they never last.

D. He still tried to help himself....went to the hog pen. That's where it always winds up. Eating with the hogs.

1. We think money solves problems...no it makes them worst. The money people are a proud lot, and most are self seeking. You need not but turn on the TV to see the life style the rich and famous live. Most die early, of AIDS and diseases brought on by a live or abuse of their bodies. That had a ball killing themselves. Url Brinner, died of lung cancer, but before he died he recorded and aired on TV an appeal to folks not to smoke.

2. He did all he could, yet he was still hungry!!

3. Have you ever been truly hungry? He was starving to death.

Spiritually, the world is starving for satisfaction, peace and for fulfillment. Yet, most take the road that leads to the garbage pile, and the hog pen. Most can not see that far...but God does and warns in his Word.

Yet, God seeks to tell men everywhere of His love and mercy. There is peace in knowing and being a child of God. That is the only place it is found.

III. PRODIGAL SON --- HE REMEMBERED HOME!

A. Sure he had failed. Sure he was ashamed.

1. But his failure..made reality clear.

2. He was no longer under the delusion that the world gave peace and satisfaction.

3. His mind was swept clear of the deception that Satan places there...

4. He realized how precious is home and abiding in his fathers house.

B. With his thinking now cleared...he arose from the hog pen...came home to his father.

VI. CONCLUSION.

1. What did his father do? Scold him? Rebuke Him?

2. No He with open arms rushed to him, hugging him and kissing him. How happy was the father!!!

3. The son confessed...Father he said, I've sinned against heaven and you. I'm not worthy to be called a son.

4. What was the father's second reaction? Bring the best robe, put it on him, put on his finger a ring and sandals on his feet, kill the fatted calf and let us rejoice and be happy.

"for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found"

Are you tired of wandering?  Are you tired of being in the pig pen? It is time today for a new beginning. It is time for us to go back to the Father that has been waiting all this time with open arms ready to receive us back.