New Creation: Can These Bones Live? (Ezekiel 37.1-14)

Introduction

Are you are glass half-full or a glass half-empty person? Those who say “the glass is half-full” we call optimists. Those who say “it’s half-empty” we call pessimists. Those who say “Exactly 50% of the volume of this glass is occupied by H2O” we call realists (or maybe scientists – or perhaps just bores who should get out more). Those who say “The glass is twice the size it needs to be” are pragmatists. And while everyone is just standing around talking about this, those who pick the glass up and drink the contents we call opportunists.

So - glass half-full or a glass half-empty?

If you’re a pessimist, I have the perfect gift for you.

If you can’t read it at the back… you should sit further forward. No, seriously, it has a line mid-way down the glass and says ‘This glass is now half-empty.’

This is from a website called despair.com whose slogan is “Welcome to the cure for hope.”

Believe it or not, there’s a company that runs this site called “Despair Inc” that sells depressing t-shirts, cheerless calendars and discouraging poster designs that they call demotivators.

In fact, at Despair Inc create soul-crushingly depressing Demotivator designs, so you can skip the delusions that positive products induce and head straight for the disappointments that follow!

Here’s an example of a Demotivator poster. Here’s what looks to be a long distance race and again in case you can’t see at the back (and for the benefit of those listening on the website) - the strap line says “Defeat: For every winner there are dozens of losers. Odds are you one them.”

Here’s another one of a pencil sharpened down to about two inches in length. It says “Retirement. Because you've given so much of yourself to the company that you don't have anything left we can use.”

And here’s one more. The picture is of a canoeist at the top of some fairly treacherous looking rapids. And it says “Believe in yourself. Because the rest of us think you're an idiot.”

What do you think Despair Inc. would make of Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones?

Hope to the Hopeless

But Ezekiel’s vision, which is supposed to be the most wretched, most hopeless, most unpromising and depressing of bleak outlooks imaginable, is just the opposite of all those Demotivator posters. It’s about hope to the hopeless, life to the lifeless and a future for those who had none. God is in the business of doing that.

A friend of mine in Southampton conducted a funeral service on Thursday in which he talked about the woman who had died in his eulogy. At the end of the service the woman’s daughter was kind enough to thank him for his words, saying that he’d described her very accurately. She said, “You really brought mum back to life!”

Well, not quite. But in Ezekiel’s vision the dead do come back to life.

Some situations in life do appear to be completely and utterly hopeless don’t they? Can you think of one in yours?

A spouse you’ve prayed for over many years and who shows no signs of interest in spiritual things - even though others come to faith?

A problem with your health that you have battled with and that is no better despite much prayer and frequent ministry - even though others are gloriously healed?

Debts that just seem eternally unpayable - even though others manage to pull themselves into the black? Or whatever?

The Hand of the Lord

Ezekiel 37.1-2 says this. “The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.”

The picture here is of the nation of Israel. England has a lion, Wales has a dragon, the USA has an eagle. Israel, at this point in its history is just a whole pile of dry bones. Why? Because the nation has been forced out of its own land into exile, into captivity, in a far off place called Babylon.

The capital Jerusalem is smashed to rubble. The land is laid waste. The leaders have been deposed or executed. The villages have been depopulated. And God, who is supposed to be on their side, has not stopped it. The nation is defeated, scattered, and lifeless with no future - just like these old bones strewn across the killing fields. Surely there is no way back from this. It is over!

You look at a situation like this and faith just drains out of you. But v1 says this; “The hand of the Lord was on me…” If the hand of the Lord is on you, no matter what your situation looks like, there’s still hope.

One afternoon a man was walking his dog when he came across a children’s football match. He saw a boy all dressed up in his kit on the bench so he asked him what the score was. The boy said, “We’re losing 16-0.” “Well,” says the man, “I’m sorry to hear that, you must be really devastated.” The kid turns and looks up at him and says, “No! Why should I be? It’s not even half-time. And in the second half, I’m coming on as a sub! This game’s not over yet.”

Some of you this morning need to hear this word: There are no hopeless situations. There are only people who have grown hopeless about them.

I want you to see how destructive pessimism and moaning can be. The Israelites had grown hopeless. Look at v11; “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.” Now listen carefully. “They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’”

But if the hand of the Lord is on you there’s hope.

If all I had to read were newspapers, I would become quite disheartened. I would probably begin to wonder if there was any hope at all for our nation and for the world.

But I do read something else every day and that’s the Bible. And because of what I read here, I know there is hope for the future. The Bible tells me that I live in a world that is marked by evil and violence. God’s word is realistic about that. But it tells me the end as well and, in the end, Christ is going to put evil under his feet.

There is no greater state of hopelessness than of a man or woman without Christ. If you are living without Christ this morning, let me tell you that God loves you, and wants you to know him. And he has made that possible through Jesus Christ. Everybody is separated from God because of sin, but through his death on the cross Jesus made it possible to be right with God and start a new life. Don't ignore the spiritual side of you, but put your life into Christ's hands today and begin to follow him.

So the hand of the Lord was on Ezekiel.

Prophesy to These Bones

What happens afterwards is very instructive. God asks “Can these bones live?” What do you think?

Is there any possibility that this desperate state of affairs could somehow turn around? Think once again about your life’s most hopeless situation. “Any hope?” What do you say?

I love the way Ezekiel sits on the fence. (“Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”) In other words, “If I’m being really honest, they do look a bit pasty. I’ll leave that one with you, Lord.”

Whenever we are faced with hopelessness or impossibility we usually do one of two things. Either we give up and say “it’s beyond the pale” or we pray about it. “Lord, you see this hopeless situation, please do a miracle and change everything round.”

Praying in desperation is better than giving up. But there’s a third option; one we don’t often take or even think about.

Often - and in particular when a situation is especially hopeless - God wants us to do something else entirely and we have an example of it here.

Verse 4: “Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones and say to them, Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!’”

“This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

Sometimes God calls us to take authority and prophetically speak out his Word into the hopelessness. This is what he asked Ezekiel to do.

Jesus said to do this as well. “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.” (Matthew 17.20)

Notice what Jesus doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed pray about the mountain.”

You speak to the mountain. I don’t think Jesus was talking about literal mountains. In fact, I’m pretty sure he wasn’t.

I was out shovelling a large pile of gravel with yesterday at Preston Primary School as part of Love Stockton. And I mentioned this verse to Linda Errington, saying it would save my back just to speak to the pile of gravel in faith and tell it to move 30 feet to the left. So I did. And nothing happened - which didn’t really surprise me. It’s not about literal mountains, it’s about immovable problems. It’s about hopeless situations.

So I ask again. What’s the mountain in your life?

I mentioned a few earlier. Here are some others. A long-term illness? A marriage that is going wrong? A son or daughter drifting away from God? A fruitless search for a job? A salary that just isn’t meeting the bills? Speak to it. Say “Hear the word of the Lord.” And proclaim truth to it in faith and with authority.

Even Christians who know the Bible well are not always familiar with all this.

But when Peter and John met a crippled man in Acts 3 they didn’t close their eyes and say “Father, we just pray that this man will get better.” They spoke to the mountain. They opened their eyes, looked straight at the man and said, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!” That’s prophesying to the bones. That’s telling the mountain to move.

Here’s another example, there are many. In Acts 19, Paul is preaching a sermon on the third floor of a building. The Bible says “he talked on and on.” You can probably relate to this story… And the sermon is so long and so boring that a man called Eutychus, who is sitting by an open window, dozes off, falls out of the window and lands dead below. Again, Paul doesn’t close his eyes, put his hands together and pray about the tragedy. He prophesies to the bones, he speaks to the mountain. “He’s alive!” he says and the young man revives.

Most of Jesus’ healings and miracles are like this. Look it up. Read the gospels through.

To a crippled woman: “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.”
To a deaf man he puts his fingers in the ears; “Be opened.”
To Jairus’ dead daughter; “My child, get up!”
To a leper; “Be cleansed.”
To the storm on the Sea of Galilee; “Be still!”
To the paralysed man; “Get up, take your mat and go home.”

Speak to the mountain! Prophesy to the bones!

I’m learning to do this in prayer ministry now. I try to avoid long-winded prayers about an illness or situation and instead I try to remember to use the authority I have as a child of God to speak God’s word to a situation in faith. Because it’s the truth that sets people free.

Ending

Back to Ezekiel. Verses 7 and 10; “So I prophesied as I was commanded.” And the bones come together. And tendons, flesh and skin appear. And breath enters them.

Here’s the meaning; v14; “I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land.”

And they did. 70 years after entering exile, against all odds, the Israelites did return to their land and became a nation again. Historical records in Babylon and elsewhere confirm what the Bible says. The word of the Lord came to pass.

May it come to pass in situations of hopeless desperation around you. May the hand of the Lord be on you as you take authority in faith and prophesy to the bones and speak to the mountains.


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 20th May 2012

New Creation: Everything New (Romans 8.18-30)

Introduction

Just a quick announcement before we begin, from the Lost Property department, if I may. If you have lost a wad of £50 notes, bound together by a rubber band ...well, someone’s handed in the rubber band!

You might recognize that as a line from Spider Man 2. And if you’ve seen that film, you’ll know it’s all about a young man named Peter Parker who has special powers and who uses them to double up as Spiderman in his spare time.

In fact, Spiderman 1 and Spiderman 3 are pretty much about the same sort of thing. But in the second film of the trilogy Peter Parker starts wondering about his true identity.

Does he still want to be this amazing hero of New York City, jumping from building to building, rescuing damsels in distress and foiling the evil plots of evil psycho terrorists? Or would he prefer a quiet life, where he can date his heart throb, Mary-Jane and settle down? There is a pivotal scene in the film where he looks at himself in the mirror, confused and demoralized. “Who am I?” he asks.

Even if you’re not currently needing to sort out your issues with your superhero alter ego, the question “Who am I?” is one of the most important you can ask yourself. It’s one of life’s basic questions, what we call existential questions, that self-aware human beings occasionally ask themselves.

Your Portrait in Christ

If you were to look in a special mirror, that God held up in front of you, in which everyone sees themselves inside and out as they really are, what would you see?

If you are a Christian believer here this morning, because of Jesus, you would see the image of someone for whom there is no guilty verdict for the sins of your past. No condemnation.

You would see somebody completely set free from the tyranny of sin and death.

You would see someone able to be led by the Holy Spirit.

You would see someone loved from all eternity, a child of God, adopted to be an heir with Christ of all the riches of heaven.

Looking closer, you would see that God has given you all you need to be sure that you belong to him. Your eternal security is anchored in him, stretching back into eternity past, before time began - and before you existed.

So you would see someone foreknown by God, predestined by God and chosen by God from before the creation of the world to be like Jesus.

You would see that God himself is on your side and that, therefore, nothing can bring you down.

You would see the image of someone whom God has declared to be inseparable from his love and more than an overcomer.

The Bible says all that about you. This is a true portrait of who you are in Christ - and all of that is from the magnificent chapter of the Bible we call Romans Eight. And there are the references.

Believe it. Embrace it. Live and breathe it. This is the source of true and real self-esteem. This is the one eternally unshakeable foundation for your life.

But it’s not the full portrait. Romans Eight doesn’t just say that the resurrection of Jesus Christ changed the state of your heart or your soul’s future. That’s too small a thing.

Yes, what happened to you when you come to faith and were baptized with the Spirit was life changing. But salvation is bigger than souls getting right with God.

Look at Romans 8.23; “We ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly wait for our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.”

In other words, we all grumble a bit as we grow old and become wrinkly, go grey, lose our teeth, go deaf, can’t read a thing without reading glasses and get stiff joints.

Two old men, Sid and Stan, are talking in a nursing home. Sid says, “I’m 85 years old and I feel awful. My arms are so weak I can hardly lift a cup of coffee. My cataracts are so bad I can't even see my toothbrush. The arthritis in my neck is so bad I can't turn my head. My blood pressure pills make me dizzy. But thank God for small mercies; at least I can still drive! How do you feel Stan?”

Stan says, “Even though I’m nearly 100, I feel like a new-born baby.” “How can you feel so good at your age?” says Sid. Stan says “Look, I’ve got no teeth, I’ve got no hair, I can’t sleep through the night, and I’m back to wearing nappies.”

But the Bible says this: “We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4.6).

We are, by faith, a new creation; new men, new women. You might say, “Well I don’t feel like I am after a week of rain and the kids were sick on the new settee” but it’s the truth, bear with me! Bottom line; God says on the inside, you're all getting younger every day. Isn't that good news?

So much for your portrait in God’s mirror, which is nice and detailed, but what about the background?

In other words, Scripture is clear about what’s happening to you. But what is happening to the universe around you?

The Bible says that Christ is making all things new. It started with the resurrection of Christ but it doesn’t stop there. He is actually going to transform and eventually completely renew everything - from the physics of subatomic particles to the dynamics of that vast expanding void we call deep space. God is creating a new earth and new heavens.

1) The Frustration of Old Creation

In a little section right in the middle of Romans 8, from verse 18-25, there’s a significant change of focus. This short section is a bit like a camera that suddenly shifts from a close up shot through a zoom lens to a wide angle panorama view.

Up till verse 17, the focus of Romans 8 is on your heart and what God has done in your life. But then it pans out so you see what is happening in you against the backdrop of massive change to the whole of the created order. What’s happening? What we see is this;

Verse 19: “The creation waits in eager expectation...” Verse 20: “The creation was subjected to frustration…” Verse 21: “The creation will be liberated from its bondage to decay…” Verse 22: “The whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”

What’s all that about? I’ll give you some examples.

Cosmologists tell us that our sun has already consumed over half of its hydrogen and helium fuel and one day it will burn out completely, making life on earth impossible. Stars die every day. (Don’t worry too much about that; there are still about 3.5 billion years to go before that happens).

Closer to home and right now, our oceans are becoming more and more polluted as we continue to dump more and more waste into them.

Every year hundreds of square miles of good land are lost to the advancing desert.

The protective ozone layer in the upper atmosphere is punctured with huge holes.

Our consumption of fossil fuels and our demand for cheap rainforest timber puts carbon into the atmosphere and takes oxygen out of it resulting in a greenhouse effect. The earth is warming up rapidly.

The icecaps at the poles are melting at a record rate. Ocean levels are rising. The behaviour of currents and winds is changing. As a result, we are noticing that the weather seems to be getting more and more extreme, and every week dozens of species become extinct.

That’s what we mean by frustration, groaning, decay, corruption and curse. Science has been giving us the data for decades now. But God was telling us about this millennia ago, before modern research was even conducted, let alone analysed.

More than that, God has told us why.

Genesis 3 tells us, very vividly, that human disobedience towards God had, not just personal, but global consequences.

The earth became a corrupted, dysfunctional, out of order and broken planet from the time the first humans disobeyed God. And this is why, after the fall, God said to Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of you.”

Sin messes up everything.

2) The Promise of New Creation

But the Bible teaches that God is the Chief Executive of a universal recycling company. God is going to transform planet pain into planet paradise.

The prophet Isaiah saw a vision of this and he described it in these terms; “The wolf will live with the lamb… and a little child will lead them… and the lion will eat straw like the ox… and young children will put their hands into the viper’s nest.”

In Romans 8.21 God says that our entire messed up creation (including the punctured ozone layer, shrinking rainforests, toxic oceans, dwindling raw materials, chaotic climate patterns, the struggle against extinction and the inevitability of human death) - all that will be liberated from its bondage to decay. It is going to be a thing of the past.

That’s what Jesus means in Revelation 21.5 when he says, “I am making everything new! Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

So when you look in the mirror, be positive; not just about what God has already done for you, but also about what he’s going to do everywhere; make all things new. That is the sure Christian hope.

Did you know that hope is a very important factor in how healthy you are?

I read a report a few years ago about a study conducted among 122 men who had recently suffered their first heart attack. Of the 25 individuals ‘most pessimistic about their condition’ 21 died within five years.

Of the 25 most optimistic patients, only 6 died in the same timescale! According to that study, hopelessness causes a 300% increase in mortality rate.

More than any other medical factor (including BMI, pulse, diet, exercise, blood pressure and cholesterol levels) hopelessness, according to this research, was the greatest factor in premature death.

The author of the report ended by noting that maybe it’s better to cheerfully eat full English breakfasts than pessimistically eat broccoli!

“Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed!” You have every reason to be the most optimistic, most positive, most confident people on earth.

What About the Environment?

Maybe there’s a question arising in your mind that sounds something like this: If the world is decaying (because of sin) and God is going to make it all new again anyway, (because of the resurrection) why should we be concerned about pollution and global warming and climate change and other environmental problems?

Isn’t God going to sort everything out in the end? Well, he certainly is.

But we need to listen to the other things God says to us about the earth.

The Bible says that God made the heavens and the earth. “The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it.” It all belongs to him, not to us; but we have been entrusted with the task of looking after it.

It’s when we forget that the earth is the Lord’s that we end up abusing and neglecting it.

By the way, as a bald man my environmental credentials are impeccable; low shampoo use and no need of a hairdryer. As comedian Larry David says, “Walking around with a full head of hair is like driving an SUV or dumping toxic sludge into a river. It's irresponsible. Hey, you hair people, shame on you!”

But seriously, what do you think are the top three reasons people are so careless about the way they treat the world? Forgetfulness? Laziness? Lack of awareness perhaps?

Is it a coincidence that some of the world's worst systemic environmental damage was done by the old atheist states in Eastern Europe?

The root cause of environmental damage is because people ignore God and forget that this is his world to tend - not ours to trash. Things go wrong when we act as if we are the center of the universe. We end up not even thinking about the problems we’re leaving for future generations.

And so the greatest need of humanity is to have the heart changed from within so that God is at the centre of our vision and not us - and that can only happen when we give our lives to Christ.

If you have never done that, turn your life over to Christ today and ask Him to come into your heart. God loves you, and life's greatest joy is knowing him. If you don’t believe me just ask someone who does know him.

Conclusion

As we close then, look again in the mirror – God’s mirror.

While people watch the deterioration of our natural world and fear the worst, and look at themselves aging and get depressed, God offers us another perspective.

Look in the mirror. See a background world that belongs to God, that he will make new from top to bottom.

Look in the mirror. Yes, you’re looking older than you did five years ago - but look at the inside – where you’re getting younger every day.

Look in the mirror. See a precious child of God, made righteous in Christ, forgiven of all sin, adopted into his wonderful family, delivered from the tyranny of sin and death and on your way to eternal glory.

Let’s stand to pray…


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 13th May 2012

Let Your Light So Shine... (Matthew 5.13-16)

Introduction

Have you ever seen Napoleon Dynamite? It’s a cult film about a teenage nerd from a nowhere town in the Midwest. Napoleon Dynamite is a geek with a wretchedly limited sex appeal. Girls pray he won’t invite them to the high school prom. Amazingly, his name is not in fact the weirdest thing about him. Napoleon Dynamite stands out from the crowd.

One of the problems we have in the church in this country at this time is that many people think it’s only needy losers like Napoleon Dynamite who’d ever want to have anything to do with a church.

They’re wrong of course, but few people know that because only a few ever actually find out for themselves. But the church does have an image problem. Listen if somebody landed at Durham Tees Valley airport and got into a taxi and said to the driver, “Drive me to where the action is,” how many cab drivers would put their foot on the gas and head straight for the local church? Not all that many…

But listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 5.13-16.

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Jesus says, “You have got to stand out from the crowd, and for the right reasons.” What we’re going to do tonight is unpack the two images of salt and light and build up a picture of the counter-cultural movement Jesus is calling you to be part of.

Salt: Flavouring, Preservative, Fertilizer and Disinfectant

Have you noticed that we talk about reliable people as ‘worth their salt’. We take random people with a pinch of salt. But if you ask anybody what salt is for, you will tend to get two answers. In fact, this week I asked five people what they thought salt is most useful for and every time I got the same two word answer - in the same order. Food without salt not only tastes horrible, it goes off quickly too. So we use it for seasoning (or flavouring) and for preserving.

Salt is used for flavouring and Jesus said “you are the salt of the earth.” If you and I are true to our calling as Christ’s followers we will make our communities better and less dull places to live.

The biggest complaint from teenagers about church is… what? “It’s boring.” But God’s idea is that churches are put on the earth to brighten up the monotony of life without God! You are the salt of the earth. Your mission is to make what is boring appealing. How did the church in our generation ever pull off the almost impossible feat of making the world even drearier than it otherwise was!

Salt adds flavour to unappetising food, but it also stops it going off. Cured meat like Parma ham, which has had coarse salt rubbed into it, can keep virtually forever.

When Jesus talks about salt he means that the world is decaying. It is going rotten; it is on its way to purifying and stinking. Jesus does not think that the world is basically OK, and that Christians can make it even nicer. Jesus doesn’t think that the world needs improving. He thinks it needs saving.

So it was a Christian called William Wilberforce who worked tirelessly, and in the end successfully, to abolish the slave trade in this country. It was a Christian called Martin Luther King who campaigned against, and finally achieved the outlawing of, racist segregation in the USA 50 years ago. 60% of AIDS relief programmes in Africa today are run by churches. You are the salt of the earth.

Ask yourself this: “Does the rottenness of sinful structures in the UK leave me unmoved? Does the erosion of godly moral values in my city leave me indifferent?” If so, ask the Lord to change your heart! You are the salt of the earth.

But, even though Jesus possibly had seasoning and preserving in mind when he talked about salt, (and they were uses for it in 1st century Galilee) it’s more likely he was thinking of two other uses.

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus’ words are expanded slightly, and the fuller version says this;

“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure heap; it is thrown out.” (Luke 14.34).

Jesus is talking about two other properties of salt; ones you would probably not guess. When he talked about salt he actually meant salt as a fertiliser (for the soil) and as a disinfectant (for the manure heap).

What they called salt in those days was, in fact, an unrefined, coarse mixture you still find today washed up on the shores of the Dead Sea. It’s rich in sodium chloride, but it also contains traces of potash and other minerals. You have to dilute it a bit but when you do, it is excellent for the soil and it favours the strong growth of healthy crops.

But if you dilute it too much, it loses its properties, and it becomes useless. That’s why Jesus used the expression “salt of the earth” and not salt of the kitchen. Can you see now what he meant when he said “if salt loses its saltiness”?

Listen, Jesus calls you “the salt of the earth” because he expects you to be in the growth business, actively promoting the increase of his government and peace.

Many of his parables are about growth; the yeast, the mustard seed, the sower, wheat and the tares... In Colossians 1 Paul says, “All over the world the gospel is bearing fruit and growing… and we pray… that you may bear fruit in every good work.”

So let me ask you, are you growing? Are you bearing the fruit that Jesus has commissioned and appointed you for? Are you a giver? Are you promoting faith and joy around you? Are you an encourager? Are you a catalyst for love and good works around you? You are the salt of the earth but, says Jesus, salt can lose its saltiness.

So salt is useful for seasoning, preserving, fertilizing and finally sanitizing. It was a disinfectant, an antiseptic. “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness… it is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure heap.” There were no drain systems in those days. So people threw salt on the dung hill downwind from the village and it fumigated it, to keep away flies and rats. “You are the salt of the earth.”

The might of the gospel and the power of Christian love can decontaminate even the most pernicious and evil environment.

When insurgents attacked St George’s Church in Baghdad, they had to start holding church services in the safe compound. Andrew White ran Alpha courses in the Iraqi Prime Minister’s office complex.

Many came to faith in Christ, and they even baptized new converts in Saddam Hussein’s palace swimming pool! In the midst of suicide bombings, hijackings, kidnappings, beheadings and general anarchy the church in Baghdad grew and God did amazing things. Salt is a disinfectant.

Jesus expects you to be part of his programme of change for all that is bland and putrid.

Light: Visibility and Distinctiveness

Jesus also says “You are the light of the world.” Be visible; don’t hide away, he says. God expects his church to be a beacon in its community. If we are invisible we are as useful to God as a pocket torch with a flat battery.

The world is used to images of Christians talking amongst themselves in religious buildings. On the whole, let’s be honest, it is not impressed and it’s no surprise that it has little inclination to join in.

Here’s a question for you; how much of what we read about Jesus in the gospels finds him situated outside a religious building? Answer: about 95%. It is time to be a church without walls and get out on the streets where the action is.

Just two weeks from now, Christians from nine different churches in our town will be out and about meeting people on the streets and in their homes. We call it Love Stockton Mission.

From next week, flyers will go out to homes all over Stockton, Eaglescliffe and Long Newton offering practical help; DIY, gardening, filling in forms, debt counselling, litter picking, walking the dog, shopping and so on.

We will be contacting the BBC and the local press, so pray we’ll get good media coverage as well.

Why are we doing this? Because Jesus said in v16 “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

We did this last year in All Saints’ and we found that, as we engaged with people practically with random acts of kindness, God opened up doors to engage with them spiritually.

Here’s an example of what that looks like. Two weeks ago, a man came into the centre in my church grumbling about his back pain. The easiest thing in the world would have been to say, “Ah, well I hope you’re feeling better soon.”

But someone said to him “Well, would you like us to pray that God will heal you?” They laid hands on him, (Do you know, I’m not even sure if they waited for his answer!) They asked God to take away the pain. “Ooh,” said the man, “You know what, I can feel heat on my back pain as you pray.” By the time they had finished praying the pain had all gone. He phoned up later to say “It’s still better, it’s amazing.”

Do you know what I’m finding? God doesn’t do amazing things every time I step out in faith and pray. I wish he did. But that’s his business. But the more I step out in obedient faith, the more amazing things God does.

Light is only effective insofar as it is distinctive from the environment around it. When I read the display on my mobile in a dark room it’s a lot easier than when I try to read it on a sunny day outside. There’s no point in limiting our light shining to church buildings.

I was talking to someone recently and he was telling me how he met his girlfriend. It wasn’t in a church context, it was at work. But he knew she was a Christian. She wasn’t wearing a WWJD wristband, or a cross necklace or have a fish sticker on her car. She didn’t whistle Matt Redman tunes as she worked, or read her Bible in front of everyone at coffee break.

He saw that there was something about her that so reminded him of Christ that he guessed she must be a Christian, and he guessed right. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”

Now I don’t want to embarrass you, but I want to ask you six questions. I am simply going to ask you to raise your hand if what I say is what you think. And I hope you won’t find that awkward. Here we go.

Firstly, would you please raise your hand if you are confident that you will be admitted to heaven when you die.

Secondly, hands up if you believe that Jesus was really raised from the dead.

Third question, raise a hand please if you think that studying the Bible is beneficial.

Fourthly, hands up if you believe that sending missionaries to lands that know nothing of Jesus Christ is a good thing.

Fifthly - and I’m not taking notes - hands up if you think that Christians should give a generous proportion of their income to the Lord, to support Christian causes and to alleviate suffering in the world.

One last question, raise a hand if you think lay people should have a say in the way the church is run. Thank you.

Jesus said, in v20, a few verses on from our passage tonight; “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Please listen carefully now, here’s the link. We know from the Gospels that the Pharisees and teachers of the law would have raised a hand to all six questions I asked just now - and yet Jesus said you’ve got to do much better than them to enter the kingdom of heaven.

The Pharisees were committed to obeying every aspect, every detail, of God’s word, no matter how trivial it seemed to be.

But they criticised sinners instead of making life easier for them. They looked down on others who were struggling but they didn’t lift a finger to help them. They were all mouth, no action. Don’t let the Pharisee spirit raise its ugly head in your life.

Conclusion

So, as I close, can you hear God’s voice calling you to be like salt; bringing a taste of heaven to Stockton, encouraging the growth of his kingdom here and sanitizing all that is foul? Can you hear Jesus saying, “You are the salt of the earth”?

Is he speaking to you about being more visible as a Christian? “Nobody sticks a lamp under a bowl” he says. Is your light hidden away between the four walls of your church?

Has the time come to shine more brightly, to speak out more, to take a risk, to go for it, to be a beacon? When are you going to shine like you know you want to? Can you hear Jesus saying, “You are the light of the world”?

Let’s stand to pray…


Sermon preached at Stockton Baptist Tabernacle, 29th April 2012

New Creation: Beyond Suffering (2 Corinthians 6.1-10)

Introduction

I was sent a link this week from the New Wine website. It was a report about a 23 year old man called Ulrik who was travelling to Stockholm on the train after a training day on healing.

Unknown to him, a well known Swedish actress and singer, who I don't think would call herself a Christian, called Pernilla Wahlgren, was in the same train carriage typing away a new post for her blog on her laptop computer - and this is a translation into English of what she wrote down:

I’m sitting on the train on my way home to Stockholm, and something very unusual just happened in the seats next to me … a young guy is sitting next to an elderly lady and I can’t help but hear how he is telling her about his faith in God. With great feeling he explains how he can really sense that God lives in him and how much God loves everyone. The lady tells him a little about herself and how the pain in her shoulders is so strong she can’t even blow-dry her own hair.

Suddenly the guy asks if he can say a prayer for the lady! She says yes – even though I can hear from her voice that she’s a little hesitant. So he puts his hands on her shoulders and starts praying. He prays that she will feel God’s love and that the pain in her shoulder will disappear. When he’s finished he asks whether she can feel any difference. ‘You mean now?’ says the lady, somewhat bewildered. ‘Yes’, the guy says. Try to lift your arms up now! So she does. And this is when the really strange thing happens. Because the lady, very surprised, lifts her arms high up above her head and doesn’t really seem to understand how it happened. ‘I haven’t been able to lift my arms this high in many years’, she says.

The post continues…

I don’t want to stare at them, but I must say I am fascinated by the whole scenario! After a little while the guy stands up from his seat and offers to pray for everyone in the carriage who feels sick or is in pain. He can feel a ‘tingling’ in his hands, and apparently this is a sign from God that there is someone there who needs help. However, it seems that no one chronically ill is present. Or maybe they just don’t dare to let people know because we’re a little afraid of anything ‘Christian’ in this country aren’t we?

Just 24 hours later that post had attracted 120+ comments, after which Pernilla added these thoughts:

Thank you so much for all your comments! It’s great to read about the way you look at things like this, and God is a very big subject that you could discuss forever really! But I got a lot of positive energy from your stories! And it was so nice that the believing guy’s mum apparently also read my blog post! Sometimes the world is very small! And to those of you who thought the whole thing was a ‘set-up’, I can just say that it was definitely not! It was just a very nice experience that I was fortunate to watch!

How many of you are encouraged by that?

The Encouragement of Testimony

We Christians are good at sharing encouraging testimonies. We like to speak up about the great things God is doing amongst us. We had a lovely testimony on Easter day about a prophetic word during prayer ministry here about expecting a baby which came true. We had a couple of uplifting testimonies at our APCM service last Sunday.

It’s right for us to do this because there is so much in our culture and media that grinds down the morale of our faith. And therefore we need to be reminded again and again that the kingdom of God breaks through into our reality when we leave our comfort zones and step out in faith. It strengthens our faith to celebrate God’s great and wondrous deeds amongst us.

In fact, the Bible actually says that we become afraid and we lose our confidence in the Lord when we stop remembering his mighty acts. Did you know that?

Psalm 78.9-11 says that the men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle [because] they forgot what God had done, the wonders he had shown them.

So we remember God’s amazing acts and we tell one another what he is doing in our midst.

The Reality of Suffering

But we need to be honest and acknowledge also that our lives, as Christians, are not one long unbroken line of exciting and extraordinary miracles.

If you are told that that is what living as a Christian should be like all the time, and you discover it isn’t, you might end up terribly disappointed. You might wonder if you are really a proper Christian. You might even run the risk of eventually abandoning your faith completely disillusioned and disheartened. I’ve seen it happen.

Let’s take a look at Scripture. How did obediently following Jesus work out for the Apostle Paul?

Here’s how he sums up his CV in 2 Corinthians 11:

“I have frequently been in prison, been flogged severely, and exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, from bandits, from my own people, from Gentiles; in the city, in the country, at sea; and from false believers. I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and exposed.”

Well that’s what you get when you fly with Ryan Air… Actually, it sounds like he should have checked the fine print before signing up for that New Wine camping holiday!

But seriously, it’s a shocking list isn’t it? It reminds me of what Theresa of Avilla said when she was going through a particularly rough patch in her life. Falling off her horse into a muddy puddle she looked up at the sky and said, “Lord, if this is how you treat your friends, it’s no wonder you haven’t got very many!”

But I want you to notice this, it’s very important: at no stage does Paul ask “Why do bad things (like this) happen to good people (like me)?” Or “If God is all-powerful, why doesn’t he do something about this?”

These questions don’t even arise. Paul takes it as read that God does allow all this to happen to him and he doesn’t see anything untoward.

In other words, God is still in total control. None of this casts any doubts on his sovereignty. He is God. He is not taken by surprise by any of this. Not one raindrop falls to the ground without him knowing about it and being able to stop it. “All things work together for good for those who love him and are called according to his plan.”

Paul seems to have a completely different worldview to the one we grow up with.

People sometimes ask me, whenever something bad happens to them or their loved ones, “Why? Why is God allowing this?”

It’s a natural human response and you can understand the question, but it’s not one we find in the pages of the New Testament.

Unfortunately, sometimes people are given the impression when they get converted that becoming a Christian will make life easier for them. Were you given that impression?

Well, when Paul became a Christian they told him the truth. Acts 9.16 says that the day Paul was converted, a man named Ananias was sent to show him how much he was going to [not be blessed] but suffer for the name of Jesus.

Can I just make it totally clear in case there’s still any confusion? Not one verse in the Bible, not one, ever holds out the promise that life will become easier for you once you are converted.

So, if this is what being a Christian is about after all, why would anyone want to bother becoming one?

If you’re not yet a Christian and you’re thinking of becoming one, it doesn’t look like there’s much in it for you does it? What’s the point?

Christianity Is True

There are two basic reasons why you should be a Christian. The first reason is that Christianity is true.

Why am I a Christian? Basically, and first of all, because I believe the gospel makes sense of the world around me like nothing else. As C.S. Lewis once brilliantly said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

In other words, the Gospel offers the most coherent and most satisfying explanation there is about life, the universe and everything.

So, at the risk of a little detour, let me set out in four very brief bullet points why I think Christianity is true.

Firstly, God exists. The overwhelming scientific consensus on the origins of the universe is that everything that exists came into being, from nothing, about 13.5 billion years ago in what we call the Big Bang.

There is a law in science that says that whenever anything begins to exist it has a cause. The universe exists, therefore the universe must have a cause. And, frankly, what is easier to believe - a) that God made everything that exists from nothing or b) that nothing made everything that exists from nothing? That’s why I think it is reasonable to believe in the existence of God.

Secondly, sin is real. You can travel all over the world and come to the same conclusion; nobody lives a perfect life. We all have within us the tendency or inclination to do what we know is wrong. The human heart, even from the youngest age, seems to be turned away from God towards self. Sin is like a congenital disease - a spiritual disorder that weakens us and keeps us from doing what we know is right. What the Bible says about sin seems to me to be true. We are all guilty of sin and need a Saviour.

Thirdly, Jesus saves. Only someone who was completely without sin would be in a position to save us from our sins. Jesus lived a life just like us but never sinned. Even his enemies admitted they could find no fault in him. And when Jesus was on the cross, the Bible says all our sins were transferred onto him, and he took upon himself the judgment we deserve. You don’t need to carry your burden of sin and guilt any longer, if you open your heart to Christ and trust him alone for your salvation.

And fourthly, Jesus lives. The Bible makes it clear that the resurrection isn’t just a symbolic story like Baloo the bear or Aslan the lion. It actually physically happened! The soldiers who crucified him certified he was dead when they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb. But on the third day that tomb was empty, no one could explain it, and later hundreds saw Jesus alive.

He’s still alive today. That’s why people get healed on the train to Stockholm. Jesus is alive. That’s the first, and fundamental, reason why you should be a Christian. The gospel is true.

Christianity Works

The second reason you should be a Christian is that, even though Christians do suffer as much as non Christians do (and in some countries much more) all that is transformed by the resurrection life God gives to all who believe.

“If anyone is in Christ there is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.”

The second reason that it’s worth being a Christian, whatever happens, is that Christianity works.

Here’s what I mean; life with God is not trouble free (as we’ve seen) but life with God is trouble proof.

If my watch is water proof it doesn’t mean it never comes into contact with water; it means water cannot damage it.

If my life is trouble free it means I never have problems. If my life is trouble proof it means that whatever happens to me, however tough life gets, however much I suffer, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

And this is what Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 6.4-10, the reading we had earlier.

Paul gives another inventory of the hardships he endured. Endurance, troubles, hardships and distresses, beatings, imprisonments, riots; hard work, sleepless nights and hunger, dishonour, bad report, regarded as impostors, regarded as unknown, dying, beaten, sorrowful, having nothing.

Was his life trouble free? No. With such a wretched list of circumstances we might expect Paul to talk about discouragement, powerlessness, dismay, worry… but just look at the attitudes Paul inserts into that long list of woes:

But look what comes out of the resurrection life of faith: “In purity, in understanding, in patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit, in sincere love, in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left.”

Then look at all the ‘yets’. “Dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”

If you are a new creation in Christ everything bad about that list in 2 Corinthians 6 looks different. Hardship and trouble is transformed by faith.

Listen, for every bit of grim news the devil throws at you, for every discouragement you face, for every body blow you take from the school of hard knocks, God gives you a “yet.”

What ‘yets’ do you need to speak out, in faith to what you are going through today?

Sick yet never subdued, running on fumes yet not running on empty, unemployed yet never unoccupied, depressed yet not despondent, tired yet not tetchy, always giving out yet never giving in, down yet not out. What’s yours? Speak it out in faith.

And finally, there are some of you today who need to hear and receive this word from the Lord:

If you never felt pain, then how would you know that I am your Healer?
If you never had to pray, how would you know that I am your Deliverer?
If you never had a trial, how could you ever become an overcomer?
If you never felt sadness, how would you know that I am your Comforter?
If you never made a mistake, how would you know that I am your forgiver?
If you were never broken, how would you know that I can make you whole?
If you never suffered, how would you know what I went through for you?

Ending

So, as we come to the Lord’s Table this morning, remember that as we share the one bread and the one cup, it is a participation in the Lord’s sufferings.

If you never suffered, how would you know what I went through for you?

Bring your sorrows and trials and disappointments to God, who alone can make something new out of them, who alone can transform them - and transform you.

“Dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 29th April 2012

I Am a New Creation (2 Corinthians 5.17 and Luke 8.49-56)

I had a dream last night that the Grim Reaper came for me, but I beat him off with a vacuum cleaner. Talk about Dyson with death… (Have you heard that one before?)

Scary dream with a happy ending…

Bishop Tom Wright, said something really insightful about happy endings after death in this year’s Lent book on the Gospel of Mark. In the reflection for Easter Sunday, he was talking about the empty tomb and what the angel said: “You are looking for Jesus. He is not here; he is risen.” And Tom said, “Easter is meant to be a surprise. It is certainly not a ‘happy ending’ after the horror of the cross, though, sadly, some churches treat it like that. Mark 16 doesn’t read like a ‘happy ending’. It reads like a shocking new beginning.”

What we’re going to be exploring together over the next few weeks is just that; how the new shocking beginning of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead impacts all of us. One of the ways the New Testament speaks of this risen life of Christ in us is “new creation.” It’s a recurring theme. We are an Easter people and we are being made new.

The book of Genesis says that God created the heavens and the earth in six days, and on the seventh day he rested. The fact that Jesus was raised on Sunday, the first day of the week, is significant. It means that God has finished resting. He’s gone back to work! The new creation has started. He is at work today bringing new things into being in Christ.

If you are a Christian, you are a new creation. Christians are brand-new people on the inside. You might say, I don’t feel it this morning, but it’s true. You tend to really feel the difference when you are a new Christian. There’s a surge of joy. There’s a sense that you’ve come home. You feel brand new. You feel cleaned up and that life suddenly has a whole new purpose and meaning. That’s the Holy Spirit at work in you. It’s what we call the excitement of first love (and in fact becoming a Christian does feel a bit like being in love).

But new Christians don’t always stay full of joy. In fact, the euphoria usually wears off. Why? Does it mean that you have lost your salvation because you don’t feel like you did when you were converted? Does it mean that you aren’t a new creation anymore? No. It just means that you are not filled with the Holy Spirit anymore and you need to get filled up again.

But you are a new creation in Christ. You are a new person on the inside. The Holy Spirit has given you new life. You are not the same as you were.

Being a Christian doesn’t just mean that you are reformed or rehabilitated or re-educated or rebranded. It’s much more than that. It’s not about just turning over a new leaf or having a quick life makeover.

You have been recreated. The Bible says you are a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come. You have begun a new life.

I love the story we had read to us from Luke’s gospel and that we saw so beautifully portrayed in the little film clip.

A little girl is terribly unwell. Anyone who has had a very ill child knows just how worrying it is. You just feel sick with anxiety. Most parents would happily trade places with their little ones when they are seriously ill.

So we all know how Jairus felt don’t we? His little girl has been ill for some time. And she just keeps getting worse. He pays the best doctors. Nothing works. He gets a second and third opinion. No improvement…

He is afraid – afraid of losing her, afraid of death, afraid of the unknown.

He is confused; Why her? Why us? Why isn’t she getting better? What’s wrong? Why can’t the doctors fix her? Why isn’t God answering my prayers?

And as he watches her getting weaker and weaker, paler and paler, all the life draining out of her, he feels without hope. “It’s no good. Nothing is working. There’s nothing I can do now.”

Jairus finally goes and seeks Jesus to ask him to intervene. It’s his last shot. Why do we so often turn to Christ, turn to prayer, last of all?

Jesus, of course, agrees to go and see her but he gets a bit sidetracked on the way. And while he is delayed, the little girl dies.

By the time Jesus gets to Jairus’ house, there is an almighty racket going on. This doesn’t really come out in the film clip the way it would actually have been in real life. Loud weeping and emotional wailing were customary when anyone died in the Middle East. And when you look at the news you notice it is still the same today.

A minute’s dignified silence and discreet wiping the tears when someone dies are what we do here. But that is seen as terribly disrespectful and bad-mannered in that culture. In Britain today we pay Funeral Directors to ensure a bit of decorum at a time of bereavement but in those days and in that land you hired women to wail and howl and beat their chests and play mournful pipe music. So as Jesus arrives there’s all this going on.

That’s why, incidentally, they find it really easy to stop crying and they begin to laugh when Jesus says “Stop wailing. She is not dead but asleep.” The fact is they were not emotionally involved – they were just hired mourners.

They laugh. You know how that feels, don’t you? We all know people who just roll their eyes and laugh at what Jesus says, which seem ridiculous to them. Most, if not all of you, have put up with a bit of mockery when people have found out that you are a Christian.

If that hasn’t happened to you yet, by the way, or if it hardly ever happens to you, you’re probably not witnessing enough. But whenever you are ridiculed for believing in Jesus by people who imagine they are more sophisticated than you, just remember – they laughed at Jesus too.

Jesus’ words to Jairus in the middle of the biggest crisis of his life must speak to us as well. Hear the Lord say to you this morning, “Don’t be afraid, just believe. Don’t be afraid, just believe.”

You see, in Jesus’ mind, there is hope, there is promise, there is power, there is always the possibility of grace breaking in and changing everything.

The next time you feel utterly powerless and without hope or afraid or anxious, or confused or bewildered – and especially if that’s where you are today – try and look at your problem from Jesus’ point of view. Try and see your life with Jesus’ eyes. It’s a great viewpoint.

Jairus didn’t come to Jesus for help until his daughter was dead. It was too late for anyone else to help. Have you ever had that sinking feeling that you’ve left something too late? That you’ve blown your last chance?

But Jesus simply goes to the girl and raises her! It’s never too late to ask the Lord to do something new in your life. Even when it seems too late for anyone else to help, the Lord can change everything with a word.

He brings healing in broken relationships that seem beyond repair (and indeed are beyond repair without a miracle from God). I’ve seen it, many times now. For example, about 6 years ago a couple come into my office in Paris, having been away from God for ages, their marriage in tatters. “We’re desperate. Can you help?”

Listen, any two people can find reconciliation and love again as long as they are willing together to put God first. They got back together, they renewed their covenant, they even had another child even though the doctors told the wife there was no chance. They’re still together today and God has blessed them.

If anyone is in Christ there is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.

God brings profound release from addiction where all rehabilitation programmes fail.

Jackie Pullinger works amongst drug addicts, gangsters and prostitutes in Hong Kong. In her book about her work called Chasing the Dragon she writes this, “I prayed in tongues 15 minutes a day asking the Holy Spirit to help me intercede for those he wanted to reach. After about six weeks of this, I began to lead people to Jesus without trying. Gangsters fell on their knees, sobbing in the streets. Women were healed. We opened several homes for heroin addicts and all were delivered from drugs painlessly because of the power of the Holy Spirit.”

If anyone is in Christ there is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.

God brings forgiveness and restoration to heal the deepest and most distressing emotional scars.

Remember Gram Seed; never knew his father, in and out of jail for numerous crimes, addicted to drugs and alcohol, living on a bench in Middlesbrough town centre, in a coma and about to have his life support machine switched off. Now a husband, father, evangelist, holding down a regular job and driving a fancy car that he hasn’t even nicked!

If anyone is in Christ there is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.

Name a situation that looks hopeless to you. It’s not hopeless for God. Nothing is impossible for God. He just says a word and great galaxies, with billions of stars, light years across, appear from nowhere and have their being. He laughs at his enemies.

And the gates of hell start to shake when Christian people, his new creation, gather together and pray with faith.

Our reading from Luke’s gospel probably represents the thing we feel most powerless to stop; death. We all know really that you can’t really fend it off with a vacuum cleaner can you?

Some people I know just cannot cope with the thought of death. They just want to change the subject as soon as it comes up. They live in denial. But death is inevitable, and it doesn’t away just because you ignore it.

But we are a new creation, and death has no stranglehold over us - because Jesus Christ has conquered it.

Death came into the world because people rebelled against God - which is what the Bible calls sin. But by his resurrection Christ smashed the chains of sin and he broke down the doors of death. We don’t need to fear death any longer; Christ has overcome it! The Bible says, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Some people say to me, “Well, I don’t believe in life after death. As far as I’m concerned this life is all we’ve got, and once it’s over that’s it. We might as well enjoy life while we can, and stop kidding ourselves that we’ll be happier once we die.”

Woody Allen is an atheist. But his fear of death is well known. He once said, “I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve immortality by not dying.”

What do you say to someone who says that when we die that’s the end? Maybe that person is you?

Well, last Sunday, millions of Christians all over the world celebrated the one event in human history that assures us that there is life beyond the grave: the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Jesus said, “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14.19).

Think of it this way: How could you ever know - really know - that death is not the end, but that there is something much better after we die? The only way would be for someone to die - and then come back to life and tell us what awaited us after death. This is what happened with Jesus.

Many hundreds, perhaps thousands, witnessed His death on the cross outside Jerusalem, and watched as his body was taken down, after which it was placed in a sealed and guarded stone tomb. But on the third day, the tomb was empty, and during the next 40 days hundreds of eye witnesses saw him alive.

Their lives were totally and thoroughly changed, because now they knew that when they died they would be in God’s glorious presence forever.

Don’t go through life living only for the moment and never understanding why God put you here.

Instead, discover the joy that only comes from knowing Christ. Turn to him in faith and invite him to come into your life. Please don’t leave this building until you have settled that with God!

If anyone is in Christ there is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.

Let’s pray…


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 15th April 2012
Acknowledgement: Billy Graham's 'My Answer' for some of the material near the end.