Reformation Sunday 2011 | Galatians 3:10-14 | Josh Feil

This is a topical sermon preached by relief-preacher/seminary-student/Resolved-leader-in-development Josh Feil, as part of The Resolved Church’s Reformation Sunday.  This sermon was originally preached on October 30th, 2011 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church | www.theresolved.com

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All Rights Reserved © The Resolved Church

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The Resolved Church
John Feil
October 30th, 2011

When Strivings Cease: The Law and the Gospel

1) Work and Wages: the Letter that Kills – Gal 3:10-12

2) Redemption and Reformation: Resting in Jesus  Gal 3:13-14

Good morning Resolved church.  It is always a high honor to stand before you with the duty of preaching the word.  And I am especially excited today because tomorrow, October 31, is reformation day.  What is reformation day?  It’s the day we remember and reflect on the reformation.  Kind of like Columbus day or secretary’s day, but a lot more important.  Back in 1517, a German monk named Martin Luther was starting to come up with some pretty radical and controversial observations and criticisms of the church, especially the selling of indulgences, which were basically pieces of paper you could purchase from the church that would get rid of some of the time you were supposed to spend in purgatory after you die.  He had 95 points of criticism or “theses” against the church.  That’s pretty impressive.  95 points.  When we complain about the church, usually we stop before we get to 10.  Luther had a lot of thoughts.  And good ones.

So we pick this date, because, well we have to pick a date.  The Reformation didn’t happen only on this day in 1517, but that’s what we look to as the big catalyst.  This was Luther pushing the big boulder down the cliff.  So what was the reformation?

The protestant reformation was a period during the 1500s in which the great truths of the Bible were recovered, most notably the gospel: that we are sinners saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone according to Scripture alone to the glory of God alone.  These are the great solas of the reformation.  Sola is a Latin word that means “alone.”  See, the definition of the gospel had slowly deteriorated away from faith in Jesus to essentially faith and faithfulness.  So in Luther’s day, how is someone saved?  By faith and faithfulness.  Jesus did his part, now you do yours.  He was faithful, now you be faithful.  This distortion of the gospel is what Luther thundered against.  That’s why the solas were so important.  They weren’t just saying what we believe, they were saying what we don’t believe.  These were the core principles of the reformation, and have been the core principles of protestant church ever since including here at the Resolved.  We see ourselves not as a new kind of church or trying to reinvent the wheel.  The reformation is simply part of our family history.  These biblical doctrines permeate everything we do here at the Resolved.  If you want to know what we’re about, this is the short version.  Grace, faith, Jesus, Bible, God’s glory.  There’s a lot more than that, but there isn’t less than that.  There cannot be less than that.

In a nutshell the Reformation, based on the solas, overcame 100’s of years of corruption in the church and helped Christians get back to the Bible and the true gospel.  It’s a great story of a fat little german monk who turned the world upside down.  But there was a lot that had to change in him before that infamous date in 1517.

We all experience things that change us pretty dramatically, just like Luther.  Has there ever been anything in your life that has completely and totally changed the way you think or act?  Something that has changed you as a person?  Maybe an event you attended, a book you read, a person who knew you, a crisis, a loss, a great triumph or a great failure that has left lasting impact on you?  Something where if you look back over the last year, 5 years, 10, 20 30 years you can point to it and say “that changed me.”  Not just changed your circumstances, like a decision to move or take a job, but something that deeply and profoundly changed the way you think and act?  In the sense that your heart and mind work differently now?  Something that has reformed you?  Can you think of something?  We all have things that have changed us.  Some big, some small.  But we all have them.

While you’re thinking about what that might be in your history, I want to share a little bit of mine with you.  I was born in a Christian family with Christian parents and grandparents on both sides.  By God’s grace I don’t really remember a time when I wasn’t a Christian.  Growing up I went to Sunday school, home school, private school and public school, basically every type of school there is.  Then I came down to San Diego for college.  I got involved with this Christian group on campus, did leadership there and had a great time.  I was a music major, started to feel a call to the ministry, so I changed my degree so I could graduate faster.  I met my wife and we got engaged our senior year.  Picture perfect, right?  But here’s the thing: My faith had become so much about doing the good moral thing and using rules to stay far away from the bad thing, that the main thing, Jesus, had effectively gotten muscled out of my life.  In my mind, I had Christianity figured out: read your Bible, pray, don’t mess up, and God will be happy.  So I tried really hard to do those things.

But my senior year of college, something happened.  I read a book called Christless Christianity and it blew me apart.  Christless Christianity is basically a critique of the modern American church, pointing out her moralism, legalism, her anemic theology and the prevalent teaching of Jesus as life coach, but not savior.  I couldn’t believe it.  That was me.  He was describing my life.  I was a moralistic, legalistic and anemic Christian.  I was convinced that I was a good person because I had been trying to be good for a really long time.  My theology was that if I perform for God, he will perform for me and Jesus will help me out along the way.  Faith and faithfulness.  Jesus as lifecoach.  That’s it.  I know it’s cliché to say that I felt like the author of the book was speaking to me, but I really did.  I felt like I had been punched in the gut but more than that I felt like I had taken a breath of fresh air after being bed ridden for days.

And here is why I felt that way.  Because I was beginning to understand what I would say is the most important distinction one can understand when reading the Bible, a distinction that will save you from all kinds of errors, set you free from despair, deliver you from guilt, open your eyes to the grace of God.  A distinction that Luther called “the height of all knowledge in Christendom”: the difference between law and gospel.  The difference between law and gospel.

That is the subject and focus of our reformation day sermon this year:  The distinction in scripture between the law and the gospel.  The great reformation, or as I like to say Biblical principle that there are two messages in scripture: a message of law and a message of gospel.  The law tells me what I have to do, the gospel tells me of something that Jesus did.  The law is a command, the gospel is an announcement.  The law requires obedience, the gospel declares Jesus obedience and sacrifice for us.  We’ll flesh this out more as we go.

The text that I will be referencing is Galatians 3:10-14, so you can open your Bibles to it.  If you need a Bible there are some at the table in the back.  If you are new to the Bible, Galatians is in the New Testament, right after the big letter 2 Corinthians and before Ephesians.  The study of Galatians was a milestone in the works of both Luther and John Calvin.  In it they rediscovered the beauty of the gospel.

READ GALATIANS 3:10-14.  This is the word of the Lord.  Thanks be to God.

My main objective today is to convince you that the law condemns but the gospel gives life.

To do that I have just two points this morning:

1) Work and Wages: the Letter that Kills – Gal 3:10-12

2) Redemption and Reformation: Resting in Jesus  Gal 3:13-14

What we are going to talk about first is that the law promises life but only give death.

One of the cool things about the church is that there is so much diversity in the type of gifts we have and the things we do.  I mean in our church we have molecular biologists, financial advisors, school teachers, graphic designers, mothers, web developers, mechanics and many more.  We could probably run our own little city.  Even if you are unemployed right now, there has been a time for all of us when we have worked for payment of some type, usually in the form of dollars. You provide a service, you get paid for it, that’s generally how work works.  And many of you are good at what you do.  Maybe you’ve been promoted at your job because you straight up good.  You do good work.  And that’s a good thing.  We’re supposed to do everything to God’s glory.

But our work, just like everything which was intended for our good, has been affected by our sin.  We tend to take the principle of work, which is a good thing, and apply it to our standing with God, trying either to pay him off or pay him back, which is a bad thing.  In some form, we try to put God in our debt.

What the Reformation would say to us and what Galatians is saying to us is that no matter how hard we work, no matter how hard we try to make God happy, if we are trying to do that through the law, through doing the right thing and not doing the wrong thing, it won’t work.  In fact, it will do just the opposite.  If you look to the law as your advocate, as your friend and helper, it will turn its back on you.  It cannot deliver on its promises of life and happiness, only death and despair.

This was really the whole idea behind Luther’s 95 Theses.  If you can literally pay the church money to remove some of your punishment for sin, what is the implicit message in that transaction?  Try harder next time.  Just put a little more effort into it.

Let’s look at that.  Take the ten commandments for example.  Just 10.  That’s it.  10 laws that God wanted Israel to follow.  Here’s a sample: [1]

“You shall have no other gods before me.

“You shall not murder.

“You shall not commit adultery.

“You shall not steal.

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Let’s pick one from the list and see if we measure up.  How many thieves do we have here today?  How many liars?  Any coveters?  Anybody ever wanted something so bad that you were tripping over yourself to chase it?  Here’s the point: it doesn’t take long for us to realize that we are law breakers.  What’s worse is that after God gives the 10 commandments to Israel, He says to the people, “Do this, and live.”  And what do the people say?  “All these things we will do.”  Worst possible answer!  In over their heads immediately.

If you want an example of how much we love to try and follow the law, just look at the debate that has been raging for some time over the presence of the 10 commandments in schools, courthouses and public places.  People have said that if the 10 commandments were posted in the courts and read in the schools, it would have a positive effect on public morality.  But I think it’s the exact opposite.  The Bible seems to say that the law makes our situation worse, not better.  Paul says in Romans 7 that “The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.” (Rom 7:9 ESV)

So it’s clear from scripture that we aren’t faithful in keeping the commandments.  But here’s the even worse part: Jesus comes on the scene and says that if you have ever lusted after a man or woman or hated someone in your heart, you are just as guilty as if you actually committed it.  Having the desire in your heart is equal to having the bloody knife in your hand.  It’s worse than we thought.  Not only am I judged based on my actions, but even the intentions of my heart bear witness against me.

The bad news is that we are bad people.  We’re not bad people because we violate God’s law, we violate God’s law because we are bad people.  And we hate to hear that.  We don’t think in those terms.  We think we are good people.  How do I know?  Because when I cut off someone on the road, I never think it’s my fault when they honk at me.  Because when I’m sitting in those chairs I do what most of you just did: you hear someone tell you that you’re bad and you jump to your own defense.

See, the law is like a swift kick to the gut of a sleeping dog that arouses the animal to bark and bite.  The law only creates sin in us.  It does not and cannot create life.

There’s an old comic strip called Calvin and Hobbes.  It’s about a mischievous little boy named Calvin and his tiger doll named Hobbes that comes to life in his adventures.  One of the recurring themes in the strip is a scene where Calvin and Hobbes are racing down a snowy hill on a sled and this is kind of a vehicle for Calvin and Hobbes to have serious conversations about deep philosophical topics.  In this particular scene, Calvin asks Hobbes if he thinks that people are basically good with a few bad tendencies, basically bad with a few good tendencies, or just plain crazy and who knows why they do anything?  Before Hobbes can answer, Calvin crashes his sled into a tree and Hobbes says from under the snow, “I choose crazy.”

I love the strip, but I think that Hobbes is only partly correct.  Listen to what the apostle Paul says in Romans 3:

“None is righteous, no, not one;

no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

According to this we are cursing, murderous venom filled dead men.  Not a pretty picture.  But this is the curse we are under, according to Galatians 3.  “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law and do them.”  This is the curse we need saving from.

I think the non-comic strip real Calvin, John Calvin is helpful here.  Calvin says that because of our sin and wickedness of heart and hands, we are “overwhelmed by an unavoidable calamity” and that our nature is “utterly lost.”  What is the unavoidable calamity?  The just judgment of God against sinners like you and me.    That is our curse.

If you are sitting there thinking to yourself, “this guy is a total bummer, I thought he was going to talk about the reformation and something about law and gospel.  This sucks and is depressing.”  I agree.  We’re all bummers, Jesus isn’t.  But I wanted to pause here and say that we are talking about the law.  I’m talking about the results of living under the law.  You might be thinking, ok I get it, it’s the law’s problem.  But it’s not the law’s problem.  It’s ours.  The curse of death is the curse we live under when we try to make ourselves better, fix our flaws and adjust our behavior.  We do so many things, yet we never really address the problem: that at our core we are sinners in need of saving.  We need to be saved from ourselves.

And yet we see in Scripture that God wants us to follow his law.  That it’s good for us.  David says as much in Psalm 19:

The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;

⁸ the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;

⁹ the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.

What is David saying?  That living in God’s world according to his good law is the best thing for us.  It revives the soul and opens our eyes.  We ought to obey God and pay attention to the ways that we need to grow in obedience.  We need to repent of our sin and seek to live under God’s gracious laws.

This is where I think we run into a little bit of a snag.  Because it seems like the law drives us down into the ground, but then David here is telling us that God’s law revives his soul.  If we are honest, the law rarely does this for us, it rarely creates feelings of rejoicing and eagerness.   If we are honest, it seems like the law only exists to be a downer, make us feel bad about being bad and then just leave us to judgment.  But that’s not its only purpose!

Let me be perfectly clear: God’s great purpose for the law is not only to make you look within and see your failure, but to look beyond yourself and see your need for a savior.  The law is meant to be our guide to Jesus.

That’s why Paul says in Galatians 3:24-26 he says that “the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.  But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”

The law was their guide to show them their need for Jesus, and indeed it functions the exact same way for us.  The whole Bible is about Jesus, especially the law.  So why does the law exist?  So that we might look to Jesus and be justified by faith!

What we all need, what we’re all longing for is for someone who keeps the law.  Someone who doesn’t mess up.  Isn’t that the story, the desire in sports, movies and novels?  Someone who perseveres? Someone who crosses the finish line?  Someone who isn’t wandering aimlessly?  Someone who will do what we could not?  Someone to be our advocate.  Someone to grab us, and shake us back to life!  Someone to rescue us from our lawlessness and set us on the path of righteousness.  We need Jesus!

This is what the reformers realized.  I mean just think about it.  If salvation is really just about me doing a pretty good job at life, then I don’t really need Jesus to be anything more than a life coach or counselor. In that medieval system of faith and faithfulness, Jesus eventually becomes little more than the GPS lady, reciting monotone instructions to make sure you don’t take a wrong turn.  The reformers thundered NO!  I don’t need Jesus to make sure I keep the law, I need Jesus because I DON’T KEEP THE LAW!  I rely on the works of the law and I am under a curse, according to Galatians 3.  I need someone to take that curse from me.  I need Jesus to deliver because the law promised life and it didn’t follow through.  And it cannot.

Have you ever felt the sting of the law?  Today?  This week?  Have you ever looked to your morality and good behavior for life and realized that it cannot deliver on its promises of life and hope?  Have you ever built your own system of laws and expectations and felt it collapse in on you?  And have you ever known what it feels like to turn and look to Jesus, who has carries that burdens for you?  It is a sweet feeling and we need to feel it again this morning.

Well that brings us to our second point here on Reformation Sunday.

Redemption and Reformation: Resting in Jesus

Here’s where we are.  We said in that first section that the law promises life but only give death.

The Bible is clear: we are all sinners, the wage for our sin is death, and the law doesn’t make our problem better, it makes it worse.  It doesn’t give us what we need or want.

But here’s the problem with starting there, starting with the law.  It gives you a warped, unbiblical perception of God.

Why is that?  Because it’s not where God starts.

Here’s what I mean.  Remember the law of Moses at Mount Sinai from earlier?  The 10 Commandments?  They are demanding right, when you start to seriously examine your obedience to them?  I might be wrong, but I think that most of the time, when we think of God, we tend to think of him first as lawgiver.  Like a cosmic policeman.  Like a cold-hearted accountant, merciless and frigid.

But if we do that, if we start with God as lawgiver, then this whole law/gospel thing gets thrown off course.  Why?  I’ll show you.

Stick with me here, this might be the most important aspect of understanding this whole idea of law and gospel.  The whole purpose of the law/gospel distinction.

The God of the Bible is a covenant making, covenant keeping God.  Think of a covenant like a blood oath.  It’s a serious promise.

What God did with Moses and Israel after they got out of Egypt, giving them the law, the 10 commandments, that was a covenant.  We can’t get into all the details, but basically God gives the law, makes the covenant and the people promise to obey.  The people are bound under threat of death to keep their end of the deal through obedience to the law.  We call this the covenant of works.  Why?  Because the covenant is predicated on the faithful obedience of the people.

But there is an earlier covenant, one that came before Moses.  It’s the covenant God made with Abraham.  In it, God promised to make Abraham a great nation, that his family would be huge and that through his family line, all the nations would be blessed.  That through Abraham’s line, God would provide a redeemer.  God makes a promise and seals the covenant, but this one is different.  He doesn’t bind Abraham to keep his end of the deal.  God actually binds himself.  God basically says, “I will accomplish all that I have promised.”  We call this the covenant of grace.  Why?  Because the covenant is predicated on the faithful obedience of God alone.

My point is this: if we start with the law, the Bible becomes about us and how we are doing.  But, if we start with a God who is gracious, who makes a covenant to keep his promises, to provide a redeemer for his lost people, that changes everything.

The law is about Jesus just as much as the gospel is about Jesus.  They both direct us to him.  That’s the whole point.

Jesus is our redeemer.  He is our advocate.  He is our representative.   He does for us what we cannot do for ourselves: keep the law perfectly.  And he does it on our behalf.

This is why Galatians 3:13-14 says that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.  So that what?  So the blessings of Abraham might come to us, the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.  The blessing of Abraham is God’s grace.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the law.  It points to him.  And the gospel tells us of what he has done in order to fulfill it and provide the salvation that God long ago promised to his people.

This is the gospel:

That Jesus left his heavenly home and came to earth as a human baby

That he grew in wisdom and maturity

That he was perfect, sinless and obedient in every way

That he went to the cross, and on the cross he suffered and paid the penalty we deserved and accomplished salvation for his people.  That he paid for our sin once and for all.

That he died, was buried and rose again 3 days later to give us new life and hope.

That he is our advocate, substitute, representative and savior.

He does not hold the sins of his people against them.  He is quick to forgive and in Jesus he removes our sin and makes us clean.  We are so clean, so united to Christ that God does not see our sin, but only Jesus righteousness in our place.

Paul makes it clear for us in Romans 8:1-4

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ² For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. ³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

(Rom 8:1-4 ESV)

And now because of what Jesus has done, we are able to follow the law and obey God’s commandments.  The gospel doesn’t discourage obedience.  It actually allows us to be obedient out of gratitude for what God has done.  Now as Christians, the law becomes our joy and delight, because it please God when we follow him.  Just remember that it cannot give you what Jesus gives.

Say with the psalmist that “As for you, O LORD, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me! (Psa 40:11 ESV)

My friends, there is no greater distinction to make than the one between the law and the gospel.  In an age that desires to steamroll distinction and difference in the name of unity and tolerance, we cannot afford to lose this one.

This is the distinction:

The law cries out “do this and live.”  The gospel whispers, “Jesus has done it all, and he gives it freely.”

The law reminds me of my imperfection, the gospel proclaims that Jesus was perfect for me.

The law suffocates me with its requirements and demands, the gospel tells me of how Jesus met them all, including death, and was resurrected so that I might have life.

The law magnifies the sin in my flesh, the gospel tells me that Jesus took on flesh to pay for my sin.

The law calls me a criminal, the gospel tells me that Jesus was crucified as a criminal for me.

The law does not let me forget my sins, but the gospel tells me that as far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed my transgressions from me.

The law tells me that I am cursed because of my sin, but the gospel announces that Jesus became a curse in my place.

The law torments my blemished conscience, the gospel tells me I’ve been washed white as snow.

The law tells me of the coming judgment, the gospel tells me that Jesus was already judged in my place.

The law tells me I’m an enemy of God, the gospel tells me I’m his child.

The law tells me I can never get to God, the gospel says that Jesus came to me.

The law is for the proud and confident, the gospel is for the weak and broken.

The law is attractive to the prideful and arrogant, the gospel is water for the parched and weary.

The law is for the upstanding citizens, the gospel is for the repeat offenders.

The law is for those who strive and never stop, the gospel is for those who gave up a long time ago.

My friends, Jesus offers you salvation today.  Not the opportunity to be saved, not the chance to be saved if you believe hard enough, but actual real salvation.  Believe on Jesus, put your faith in him, your great substitute and advocate.  He does not make impossible requests, but comforts us and holds us in our weakness.  He calls us to himself, not with the burden of the law, but with the sweet aroma of grace.  The law says, “Do this and live.”  But Jesus says “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Mat 11:28 ESV)

We all need the gospel.  We need the gospel just as much as we needed it the day we first believed.  So for believer and unbeliever alike, would today be the day that you look to Jesus.  Let us pray.

Listen 
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The Resolved Church | www.theresolved.com
(619) 393-1990 | contact@theresolved.com
All Rights Reserved © The Resolved Church

Permissions: you are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material provided you not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee. For web posting a link to this document is preferred.

The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
December 20th, 2009

War, Work and the World to Come
Fighting and Farming
Galatians 6:7-10

Introduction

Well today is the first Sunday of the New Year, 2010.

For some, the New Year is an exciting thing…not just the friends and family and parties and the days off work that come with it, but in the looking ahead into the coming year and seeing opportunities and knowing of some good things that should be coming your way.

For others, the New Year is a difficult time. Reflection on the past year, whether it’s just nostalgia or regret can bring one down and then there is the look into the New Year and maybe it’s not a good look but one filled with a lot of fear and anxiety.

Depending on who you are, where you are at in life, and what is going on in your life right now, the year probably hits you differently. And it hits churches differently too. If you’re an older established church then you experience a spike in attendance and growth during Christmas and if you’re a newer church, like us, you experience a little bit of a fall out. And for all churches, the New Year is sort of this time between the time. We push real hard and work on a number of things together all up through Christmas and then it’s almost like there is a little slack time at the beginning of January and then we start to push real hard again.

So we’ve got some cool things going on until we swing back into full force here. Next week, we’re having a special song and stories service where we’ll worship with music a little more than normal and we’ll hear from a few different individuals about how the gospel has been transforming their lives. Then, the week after that I’ll give a sort of practical vision sermon for us as a church in the upcoming months. What I want to do today is give a personal vision sermon for us to help provide some perspective and motivation for each of us individually as we embark on the New Year.

So today’s sermon is called, “War, Work, and the World to Come” and we’re going to look at Galatians 6:7-10. I titled it that because I believe that in this next year there is going to be war on our own soil and that this is going to be the hardest year of work that we have ever known.

We hear about war all the time, for most of us it’s just what happens somewhere else in the world a long long ways away. I’ve never personally been in a real war but from what I understand I guess it’s pretty intense.

We are also constantly hearing about work. Jobless claims, job hunting, and job security. From the sounds of it we all need a job I guess or something.

Now don’t worry…I’m not going wacko and turning into some sort of crazy cult leader making doom and gloom prophesies about actual troops from another country ending up here in California and us all ending up as slaves. What I am calling for is for us to look into the coming year as a year for great personal spiritual growth. And for that to take place we are going to have to participate in some very real war in the soil of our hearts and we are going to have to labor and work to see our lives transformed by power of God’s work in us through the gospel of Jesus Christ. So today’s sermon, as we’ll see, is really about fighting and farming.

With that let’s read Galatians 6:7-10 and get into it.

Galatians 6:7-10 “7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

Okay, so this is from the book of Galatians…it’s not really a book but a pamphlet sent as a letter addressed to all the churches in Galatia from the Apostle Paul. Galatia, at the time was a region that included a bunch of cities. Sort of like a state, like the state of California…just not as big and with not as many cities.

If you read through the book of Acts we find that during the apostle Paul’s missionary journeys he went to at least four of these cities and started churches there. In each the Galatia cities mentioned there a positive response to the message of Jesus from Paul.

Paul first goes to Antioch and get to preach to almost the whole city. A solid church gets started there and years later Apollos becomes a Bible teacher there. Then Paul goes to Iconium and Acts 14:1 says a “great number” there believed. After that Paul goes to Lystra and people there are so impressed by him and his friend Barnabas that they think they are gods. And then he goes to Derbe, and Acts 14:21 says that a large number of people there became disciples.

So basically all this good stuff went down…people hearing the good news about Jesus and becoming Christians and churches getting started. By the time Paul writes this letter we’re reading a little section from it’s years later and he writes because he didn’t want to the good things that happened to die out…he wanted the people and the churches to continue to grow and flourish.

That’s what we’re stepping into here. And it’s not a whole lot unlike us and our situation here at The Resolved Church. I’m sure they had some people at the churches in Galatia who had been around awhile and I’m sure there were people newer to the church. For us, this will be our 5th year as a church, we started in 2005. And we’ve got some people who have been here since the beginning and a lot of other newer ones of you around and that is super exciting.

The section that we’re looking at today comes in at us on a personal level because if you are a Christian, what you experience with becoming a Christian is something you experience with everything when it is new and that is that there comes a time when it’s not new anymore. There may be a New Year, but your faith is not new and where does that leave you? How do you move forward?

The passage we’re looking at today will say we do that by spiritually considering ourselves both as soldiers and as farmers. Notice that first, that what we are talking about here is a spiritual thing, it’s an us and God thing.

Don’t Mock God

Look at verse 7 with me. “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” What does that mean, “God is not mocked”?

Surely this isn’t saying God is never made fun of or jeered at. You’d have to be a fool to think that. All you have to do is watch an episode of South Park and listen to Carmen talk and you’ll usually get a good dose of mocking God…making fun of him. God is probably more at the butt end of people’s jokes more than any other person. No, God is mocked. For sure. So it cannot be saying that people do not treat God with contempt and blaspheme His name. We know that happens. God is often mocked.

Look a little closer at it with me. What comes before “God is not mocked”? “Do not be deceived.” That means there is a deception or a lie that we buy into about God which causing the mocking of God. And being deceived is something that happens internally, inside, in our heart and in our thought process. We hear something or get an idea and then there is a buying into it and we begin to believe it. So then, the mockery here isn’t just jesting, making jokes…but an internal dismissal of the truth of God.

And not just the trust of his existence, but really the truth of his justice. That’s why the words right after God is not mocked says, “for whatever one sows, that he will also reap.” The issue is our own personal internal dismissal of God’s justice for what do or don’t do in this life, what we sow or reap.

So bring it together and feel the full force of this. Do not be deceived. Do not buy into a lie in thinking that you will be able to get away with anything. God is not mocked. He keeps the books and knows not just the things that we do or don’t do but the inner thoughts and attitudes and intentions of our hearts…and will grant us that which we desire most…him and all of his goodness or hell and all of his justice.

There is a fictional story about a man who was browsing in a store when he made a shocking discovery that God was behind a sales counter. So the man walked over and asked, “What are you selling?” To which God replied, “What does your heart desire?” The man said, “I want happiness, peace of mind, and freedom from fear…for me and for the whole world.” God smiled and said, “ I don’t sell fruit here, only seeds.” Another man in the store was also amazed that God would be there behind one of the sales counters. So he walked over and asked, “What are you selling?” To which God replied, “What does your heart desire?” The man said, “I want money, power, and an endless vacation.” With a look of sadness and worry God said, “I’m sorry, I don’t sell fruit here, only seeds.”

You see it is impossible for us to escape God on any level, whether we are talking about God’s existence or his relevance…God is an irremovable part of the discussion. And we all know of his soul piercing reality deep down. God cannot be outwitted, outsmarted, tricked, or trapped so that we end up getting away with ourselves and our sin. He knows it all. He knows us.

Hebrews 4:13 says, “No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” God sees all the secret things…the things that matter most to us and the things no one else may know, God knows. God knows and he will not be mocked. He will not just sweep our sin and evil under the rug and pretend it isn’t there or that it doesn’t bother him…he will deal with it because he will not be mocked.

So, don’t mock God. Take your life seriously. Take this year seriously. Be intentional.

Fighting Like a Solider

The way Paul encourages us to do that here is in his mixing of two different metaphors, one of war and one of work. Let’s talk about war and fighting like a solider first.

Look at verse 8 with me. “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” Notice the contrasting here of the flesh and the Spirit. This is part of an ongoing theme Paul has been discussing here in Galatians.

Just 15 verses earlier Paul says this, “16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.” Do you hear the wresting or battling tone in his words?

In couple of Paul’s letters he comes right out an says it, Ephesians 6:10-12 “10 Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” And so in 2 Timothy 2:3 he says, “Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”

The point is for us to realize that when we became Christians we entered a spiritual battle where as soldiers with a wartime mentality, we must war by sowing to Spirit and not to the flesh.

What is the flesh? Flesh here is a very vivid word. Yes, in one sense it does refer to the very physical make-up of our bodies…our bone, skin, facial features and inner organs. But when the Bible uses the word “flesh” it uses it to describe what some translations call, a sinful nature. It is a word that describes the fact that just as real as our skin etc…is a bend within us toward evil. Just as surely as our bodies get hungry do human bodies crave sin. We have all chosen and inherited an appetite for sin.

So we are not to sow to the flesh but to the Spirit. What is the Spirit? The Spirit here is not some sort of inherent goodness within you. The Spirit is the Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. It is the presence and power of Jesus at work in those who love him and believe in him. The Bible teaches that all who believe in Jesus receive his Spirit (1 Cor 10:13). When we receive his Spirit there is then a new force and desire and ability that we are given which compels us to live for and love God.

The old power, the old force of the flesh is still there but it is no longer the only thing at work. There is a new and greater power in us, God himself at work in our hearts and our lives and he is greater than all. These two powers are against each other, opposed to each other. They are at war in the midst of a conflict.

Within every believer in Jesus and lover of God there is a war going on within his or her being. And the fact that we experience this war is in reality a true a sign that we are Christians.

Theologians have wisely pointed out that before you are a Christian there is not really much of an internal battle. You just do what you want. You might feel bad about some thing at various times but there is not a deep personal conflict over your desires and temptations and a wrestling and fighting against them. That only happens in the Christian who truly loves Jesus and knows when that is in conflict with something else.

At the beginning of the message this evening I said that this next year was going to be a year of war. If you are here and you are a Christian then you must look at this next year as a year of war and get ready to fight… there are going to many different battles but the good news of the gospel is that Jesus has won the war on the cross…what is left is skirmishes and territories of our hearts that have yet to learn the good news.

Not to long ago I got an email from a dude who doesn’t live here but regularly listens to all of our podcasts and reads the stuff we put out from the church. He emailed me and wanted to know how you practically live out being at war. I won’t read you all of what I wrote him but here’s part of wrote him.

First, I have five main resolutions framed on the wall in front of my desk, which I regularly read and strive to live my life by.

1. I Resolve to Pursue Happiness with All My Might
2. I Resolve to Live in Light of Eternity
3. I Resolve to Consider Life on Earth War
4. I Resolve to Take Risks for the Gospel
5. I Resolve to not Waste My Life

Second, I am committed to the daily discipline of prayer and reading the Bible. Sometimes the biggest battle is to do this when you don’t feel like it or have time for it.

Third, I attempt to seize whatever Biblical means of grace might work or minister to my soul when I feel weak, tempted, attacked. Such as taking communion, listening or playing uplifting music, reading a theological book, listening to a sermon, preaching to myself, waiting in silence, fasting from food and drink, going on a retreat, journaling, confessing sin and my smallness, and calling to mind God’s past goodness.

And fourth, in the most intense times of war I do a lot of posture prayer, getting down on my knees or laying down on my face, and screaming, crying, praying and reading Scripture out loud…basically getting brutally honest with God.

I’m sure there are other things but those are just a few things I have come up with in my life in how to live out being at war and fighting as a Christian solider.

Farming like a Farmer

What is interesting about the passage we are looking at is that he takes these words of war, the flesh and the Spirit and recasts them into a botanical analogy of farming saying that what we are really doing is sowing seeds and that depending on what seeds we sow will determine a certain kind of result.

That’s why 2 Timothy not only calls us soldiers but also calls us “hardworking farmers (2 Tim 2:6). We have taken on the hard work of cultivating our character every single day of our lives as farmers laboring in the land of our hearts so that we might reap a harvest.

Let’s read verses 8-9 again, “The one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

Sowing and reaping. Sowing and reaping. Sowing and reaping. Now most of us are all city kids and don’t know much about farming. I have never been a farmer. In the 16 years that I have been working I have worked about 20 different jobs but I have never been a farmer.

In preparing for this sermon I wanted to talk to a farmer so I decided to call Amy’s uncle. His parents were farmers their whole lives and he has been a farmer for the last 35 years. He primarily grows peach trees. In talking to him I found out some very interesting things about farming.

Farming is hard work. It’s no desk job. It’s hard, grueling, dirty, long, physical labor. Farmers do not work 8-hour days but work 12-hour days from sun up to sun down.

There are a ton of things a farmer does in that time. First, all the soil has to be turn at least 8 inches deep. Then proper irrigation has to be set in place and maintained. Then depending on what they are growing, they will hand plant seeds or sticks. To do this they walk up and down fields and fields planting and planting, sowing and sowing….for hours and hours over acres and acres of land. And then they wait.

One thing about farming is that no farmer can reap in the same season he sows. He has to wait. He waits and waits. During this time the farmer carefully watches and takes care of his crop for there are all kinds of potential dangers that can ruin the whole thing.

There are all kinds of insects that can ruin a crop from worms to mites all different kinds of bugs. One called the caddydid, a microscopic grasshopper bug, can wipe out an entire crop in just 2 days. So some farmers will spray to keep those pests out. Others who don’t use chemicals will release predators into their crop which our good bugs that eat any of the bad bugs that start to show up.

The farmer has to carefully watch his crop watching out for fungus or brown rot. He goes through crop several times and prunes the trees so they continue to grow well. He cuts out any dead wood or fallen branches.

The farmer also consistently fertilizes the crop so that it can continue to grow and be healthy. After doing this for about 2 or sometimes three years a tree will finally have grown and begin to bear forth fruit and it is time for the harvest.

My uncle-in-law said the thing he loves about farming the most is the harvest. He said it is the most rewarding thing when you get a good crop full of beautiful fruit. During the harvest they go through the crop, get up on ladders with big baskets and pick all the best fruit. They go through each field three or four times until all the fruit is gathered.

Hearing all of this really brought to life what the Bible is envisioning with sowing seeds. You see the Christian life is a lot like farming. It is sowing and reaping.

It is hard, hard work. We don’t work just 8 hours, we don’t even work 12 hours but we work from the time we get up until the time we go to bed and we are constantly sowing seeds. We often will not reap at the same time we sow but we have to wait and water. We water and fertilize the crop of our spiritual life by spending time with God, reading his word, praying, singing to Him, going to church, and loving people.

But we have to watch our crop carefully for there are all kinds of potential dangers. There are all kinds of sinful insects that can come in and wipe out our crop. Some may work little by little slowly eating away at the places we have given to God. Others can sins can wipe out our entire walk with the Lord in just one day, in just one moment.

Like the farmer who has to spray or release predators to protect his crop we can protect our crop by releasing Godly men and women to have a part in our lives to help stamp out our sin. Like the farmer who has to watch for fungus or brown rot and has to cut out dead wood we need to watch for places in our spiritual life that become dark or dead and get rid of them. And just as the farmer prunes his trees we can prune and shape our spiritual lives, fine tuning them so that we look more and more like Christ.

You and I are farmers so how are our crops? Maybe in the work of last year, your crop has had some trouble? Maybe you planted some bad seeds? Maybe you have not watered and fertilized your crop properly? Maybe insects of sin have eaten away at your soul? Maybe there is some dead wood or bad and rotten fruit that needs to be removed?

Maybe the thing you struggle with most is your feelings. Verse 9 has been so encouraging to me at so many different times in my life, the part that says not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

Sometimes I think we so easily just operate according to our feelings and do not know how to live for God and keep pursuing Jesus when our affections are low. We need to have a long-term vision for our lives, to look forward to and expect what God will do in us as we trust him.

When you don’t have any feeling sometimes that the time when it matter most, when our true colors show. It’s relatively easy to live for God when you are feeling spiritually stoked but when you feel nothing, just apathy, or even worse, when you’re feeling down and out that’s when the rubber meets the road and you find out what your really made of.

The encouragement of verse 9 is the simple promise not to give up. Just keep waiting. Just keep holding on. The harvest will come. God will not be mocked. He will prove his goodness to us if we trust him.

When I talk to older godly grandmas and grandpas of the Christian faith who have gone before us, it doesn’t seem like they were so feelings obsessed like we are. It seems like more than previous generations is one primarily driven by our feelings, which we all know are so up and down.

I believe the more mature we get as Christians the less and less instability we experience and the more we learn how to really walk in faith and not by sight or constant perpetual feelings. The more we fight and war and practice with our weapons the better we get at using them and the less your feelings really have the ability to rock you, because we see ourselves as farmers and can wait it out.

I mean real life farmers have to wait 2 sometimes 3 years before a crop and even then there is a good chance of too much rain or a bug or rot wiping out an entire crop and my uncle in law said he’s had that happen. Do you have a faith that is looking a year ahead? Two years? Three years? One that can make it through and fight off attacks on your crop? One that has its sights set on eternity?

What is your vision for the crop you want to yield? What do you want to sow into next year? Where do you want Jesus to work in you?

Conclusion

We’re farmers, working in the soil of our hearts. We’re soldiers, fighting in the trenches of our souls. And we’re Christians and because of that, the truth is all of the fight and all of the work has really already been done for us.

That’s the gospel. That Jesus is the chief farmer and Jesus is the chief solider. We could never fight hard enough to defeat the sin in our life. But Jesus has done it for us. We could never sow enough seeds and care for them well enough to reap a harvest. But Jesus has done it for us.

So our fighting and our farming really all boils down to various forms of looking to Jesus and trusting Jesus and having Jesus work in us.

So as we conclude today I want to call us to Jesus. Let’s not be deceived into thinking that we don’t need salvation or that we could be our own savior. Let’s not buy into the lie that the next year will be a better one is we just do things differently and try a little harder. God will not be mocked in that way.

Jesus was dressed up in a robe and forced to wear a crown of thorns and was mocked because he claimed to be the divine king of the world. He allowed himself to be mocked in that way so that through him we might reap eternal life and be saved and changed by him more and more with each passing year.

Only Jesus was strong enough warrior not to retaliate to such mockery and instead go to war on the cross and die a death he didn’t deserve in the place of ones who deserve all of it and more. Only Jesus was patient enough to sow the seed of salvation with his blood and bury three days in the ground so that new life might be born in us.

Only Jesus. May he work in us today and work through us in our city.

Let’s pray.

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December 2nd, 2007
Pastor Duane M. Smets

Advent: The Prophecy Candle – Galatians 4:4-5
“The Hope of Jesus”

Galatians 4:4-5 “4 When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

Introduction

Greetings everyone. Who said it was always sunny in San Diego! So differenent than Oregon where I spent my high school years. There it would rain not just for one day but for twenty. Sun becomes this rare commodity like

Read text and pray.

Advent

Well Happy New Year! I was impressed when I turned on my phone yesterday morning and noticed that I had received a text message at midnight. Let me explain.

Advent. Advent is a weird word meaning: “appearing.” The Son of God appeared. He came into our world. As Christians we believe Jesus isn’t just a figment of our imagination but is a real person who is alive and currently is sitting on a throne awaiting an appointed day when he will come back. So each year that we await for the day when he will appear again is a new year and that begins at Advent, the season of Christmas.

Maybe all that just seems a little too fantastic to and where you are at right now if you are not a Christian or if you are a Christian but are not really sure about a lot of “Christian things.” That’s okay. That’s one of the reason I believe God designed us to be people who are part of church where we can learn and grow in our understandings and talk about the real questions of life that everybody thinks about.

So advent is the appearing of Jesus Christ. The creator God looks in on humanity and sees that things are not right. We all know there is something wrong with us but we just always figure the problem is something outside of us rather than something inside, something that is part of our nature something that spreads across our whole race. So God does something about it and enters the world, taking humanity upon himself. Not as a detraction of deity, but a full entering into our human experience, and lives as a perfect example and more than example but he lives to die for us and provide an answer to our deepest problem, our sin that seperates us from God, which reeks havoc and disappointment and frustration and confusion and guilt upon us. That is sort of an introduction to our text today, now let’s look at it a little deeper.

Chronos

Notice the first phrase in our text “fullness of time had come.” This word for time is interesting, our english word is so vague, not so in Greek, which the Bible is written in. The word here is “chronos” but chronos is not the only word from “time” in Greek. Tthere is another word in Greek for time which means season. This word, our word here in Galatians is different, chronos is a fixed period of alloted days, hours or minutes that follow one after another. It is where our english word, “chronology” comes from…that there is an order to things.

This is huge. Look at the phrase, “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son.” God in the Bible here stand overs and above and outside of space and time but has intimate direct knowledge of it because he made it and orders it. God plans time…the fullness of time. and God can intersect time…he sends his Son into it.

God is a big God. Too often we think of him detached from life but his eye roams too and fro throughout the earth watching the goings in and goings out of our life (2 Chr 16:9). God plans and orders the days in which we live. Acts 17:26 “he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.” He determined for each of you the day you were born. My daughter Adina was born 3 weeks and two days ago and God determined the day and the hour she would be born. And the most important person to be born in all of history is Jesus Christ, God’s Son.

So Advent is the season which celebrates the appearing of God’s Son Jesus Christ. We call it Christmas, the appearing of Christ into human history. The Christian worldview, what we believe about time and life is that it isn’t all pointless, that the world isn’t just spinning out of control and there is no way of knowing what is may happen at all and there is no meaning or purpose. We believe that history is ordered by God and that the peak of all of history is the coming of Jesus Christ, God himself entered into the world. I had a conversation with a friend this week who was very upset about life and the way it has gone for him and we got into a conversation about God and he said, “I just wish that God would come down and tell us how it is and then everything wouldn’t be so confusing.” My response to him was, “Maybe he did. I think that is what happened in Jesus.”

Prophecy

This first week in Advent is called the prophecy week. The reason for that has to do with phrases like this one in Galatians that are in the Bible which say things to the effect that events which occur are planned. So let me just say a couple things about prophecy.

Now first of when you say the word prophecy these days in southern California, for most people in our culture I think you almost automatically stir up all these crazy associations. Things like psychics and ghost hunters and UFO conspiracies and psychics. You know prophecy in our town sort of falls within that category of hocus pocus. Which a lot of people are apparently into.

I live a few blocks away from Adams Ave and there is a section on Adams that has like three different bookstores devoted to this kind of stuff, the metaphysical astrological psychic type of stuff. In San Diego there are over 150 thriving psychic, palm reading, tarot card centers. I’m sure even within this room there are a few of you you have tried it, even if just out of curiosity. San Diego in many ways is a very “spiritual” city. This sort of interest tells me something. One it tells me that people have a sense that there is something more to life than just what we can see, feel, taste, touch, or hear…there is a spiritual element to life. The other thing it tells me is people are looking for answers.

My problem is I think most of that stuff is bogus. Maybe not all of it. The Bible is clear that there is a spiritual realm and that there are spiritual forces at work. And there are some of you who have experienced that in very real and vivid ways. But for most of us we haven’t experienced things we can’t quite fully explain or understand and when supposed “psychics” use the skill known as the power of suggestion and convince people to think they are actually talking to their dead dog, I’m like, “Are you kidding me, fluffy is not looking down on you and watching over you and telling you he loves you…he’s a dog…and he’s dead!”

So my problem with the word “prophecy” is I’m not into dead dogs talking to me and I don’t want to get thrown into that camp. In the Bible prophecy is not something that has to do with a vague unknowable mystery, it’s actually the opposite. Prophecy means two main things: forthtelling and foretelling and both are concerning with issues of truth and meaning. Forthtelling is telling like it is. It’s being straight and open and honest about things and having a correct understanding about them. Many have recognized that the Bible has a way of reading you rather than you reading it. It knows and explains and understands the depth of our souls in a way that far exceeds our ability to figure out ourselves on our own.

Here’s an example of forthtelling. You might have heard the story of David and Bathsheba in the Bible. Bathsheba is this super hot model and she is married to this dude named Uriah. David is the King at the time and he is out on the roof of his palace looking around over the edge of the wall and he’s looking down across the city and sees a light on in one window not too far away and there is Bathsheba getting naked and taking a bath. David watches her for who knows how long and decides he’s got to have her. So he’s sends his servants to bring her to him and the Bible says, “She came to him, and he lay with her (2 Sam 11:4).” You know what that means. And you thought the Bible was boring.

But then there is a problem. Because her husband has been off to war and it turns out that Bathsheba got pregant. David is like “crap!” But he’s the king, so he has the commander of his army send her husband off to battle and put him on the front lines to fight and then at a certain point withdraw from him so he’s killed. David essentially has him executed but figures if he somehow doesn’t pull the trigger himself, he’s okay. Then David goes and hooks up with Bathsheba and takes her as his wife. Super shady right?

Here’s the forthtelling. A dude named Nathan comes to King David. Nathan is a prophet. Nathan comes to David and tells him a story. He says David there is this guy who is super rich, he owns like 4,000 sheep and then there is this other dude who only has one sheep and on top of that he super loves that one sheep. A traveler dude came through town and stayed with the rich man but the rich man didn’t want to kill one of his own sheep to serve his guest dinner and so instead he went out and had the poor man’s sheep taken and killed. When David hears the story he is pissed and yells at Nathan, who is this guy I want to talk to him! Then Nathan forthtells. He says King David, you are that man. God has blessed you richly and you have had man killed and you need to repent.

That’s forthtelling, telling it like it is. Jesus is the chief forthteller. Consistently all throughout his ministry he’s doing that. He meets a woman at a well and she tries to make herself look good and Jesus tells her about the state of her heart that is covering it up and seeking her own salvation in the satisfaction of a different man every year, when the satisfaction she longs for is only found in his forgiveness and grace.

So that is one aspect of prophecy, forthtelling. That’s the second part of our verse in Galatians, the part that says, Jesus came to redeem us, that’s telling us some factual truths but we’ll talk about that in second. The other aspect of prophecy is foretelling, which is what the first part of verse is about, the fullness of time when God planned to send his son into the world.

This kind of prophecy in the Bible too has to do with exactness and truth and is when God informed certain men in history, either through dreams, visions, audible commuication, or written words or angelic messengers, he informed them certain details about things that were yet to happen…foretelling. Now to be sure, this is not God’s normal way, but the sending of his son Jesus into the world was the most signficant thing he ever planned to do so it makes sense that he would highlight it with this kind of phenomenon. And it is no joke.

There are over 300 foretelling prophecies about Jesus Christ in the Bible. And no other literature compares. Sometimes people talk about prophecies from guys like Nostradomous but if you ever actually read Nostradomous it is some of the most vague stuff you have ever read. The stuff about Jesus is alarmingly specifc. Let me just give you an example.

This is the prophet Micah, written around 700 years before Jesus came on the scene. This is Micah 5:2-4 “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth.”

Jesus was born in Bethelehem and there has not ever risen out of Bethelehem who has been considered a ruler and a shepherd of Israel who brought brothers together and has been considered great to the ends of the earth. Only Jesus. This kind of prophecy is amazing. We are talking about the naming of a specific town and Bethelehem was a small insignificant town. People who are into statstics and stuff say the chances of this kind of specific prophecy is like the chances of a tornado hitting a junkyard and out coming a 747 or of a hurricane ripping through a lumber yard and out coming an apartment complex. You can ‘t just write it off as chance!

So this week of advent is called the prophecy week because Jesus was the long awaited fulfillment of prophets like Micah who said a savior like Jesus would come. I think our reaction to this should be one of awe and security. Awe because we recognize that there is something very unique and special and supernatural to Jesus…but this supernatural spirirtual thing having to do with him is the real deal, there is security in believing in this. This thing isn’t hocus pocus. It is verifiable and testable. If there is a God and if he really did send His son into the world, then this is the kind of way you would expect him to set it up if it was really to be for all people across all time.

Those words in Micah are so telling, that his dwelling or you could say his appearing, his advent, would be secure because he shall be called great to the ends of the earth. There is none greater than Jesus Christ. There are more books written about him than any other person in all of history. Jesus has had more covers of Time and Newsweek magazine than any other person. More people have pointed to Jesus as being the most significant factor for change in their life than any other thing. There is no question to the truth and the reality of Jesus when it comes down to it. He really lived and died and rose, the real question is what that means for you and for me.

Redemption

So the last thing I want to talk about today is the second part of this verse we are looking at in Galatians, the forthtelling part, the part that tells us what it means for us that Jesus came into the world. Look at it again, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” The purpose and the meaning is found in that word “redeem.”

We can’t spend time today talking a ton about law and about adoption. But those are very important words and concepts in the thought of Paul, the author of Galatians. They are so important that I have devoted whole series to both of them, you can listen to them on iTunes: one is called “Law and the Gospel” and the other is called “The Jesus Family Series.” So for our last point today I want to talk about what redemption means.

Redemption is a popular word and a popluar theme. Easily more than half of the movies that are made are about redemption. It’s part of what makes a good movie, when a character gets a second chance and really changes the second time around. There is a heavy metal band called “Redemption.” Several novels titled “Redemption” including one by Leo Tolstoy. There is a Terminator 3 video game called “Redemption.” “Redemption” is the opening theme song of Rocky 2 and you might have seen “The Shawshank Redemption.”

Redemption. It has to do with a buying back something that is already yours. Like the word “ransom” we talked about last week it has to do with a price that is paid, a money analogy. But with this word there is a buying back of something that used to be yours.

There is a good story about a boy who loved sailboats which illustrates redemption well. This boy used to sit and watch sailboats for hours. And then he got into making model sailboats. So he saved up his money and bought materials and began developing the skill needed to make real, to scale, sailboats. He spent months on his first sailboat and finally when every last detail had been covered, he went to go test it out and set it down in the bay. When he set it on the water, sure enough it floated and the sun shone on the boat and he could see the all the details and time he had put into it…the paint, the carving of the wood, the strings holding the mass…and the young boy was overjoyed. But then something happened. A gust of wind came along and carried the boat too far out beyond his reach. He sat waiting and waiting and following it hoping it would come back to shore…but it never did and it got too dark and he could no longer see it. The young boy was devasted. A number of years went by and one day the boy now a man who owned a company that made big boats happened to find himself in an antique store and he saw sitting on the shelf a model sailboat. As he walked closer he began to notice certain details and realized that it was his sailboat, the first boat he ever made. He took it to the counter and paid the money as he walked out the door thought to himself, this boat is now twice mine. Once because I made it and once because I bought it back.

And that is a picture of the redemption found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are God’s. He made us all. My favorite thing to do these days it to sit and hold my daughter and to just look at her. Amy says I am like an inspector because I look at everything. Her hands and fingers and toes and the two dimples on her cheeks and her gums inside her mouth that I can see when she cries and I notice they don’t have any teeth yet. And it is amazing to me. The intricacy and the design. The fingerprint of God, the Creator who designed and formed her in the womb.

We are God’s but we are estranged from him. He is what we long for and what we need more than anything in our lives. We don’t know him as Father, which why we need redemption which adopts up back into the family. And redemption is in Jesus, in his blood on the cross. Ephesians 1:7 says, “In (Jesus) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of (God’s) grace.”

We are all estranged from God. Each of has turned aside and gone our own way and we find ourselves falling into that trap many many times. But Jesus paid the price for us in his blood, so that we might find forgiveness from God and might know the depth of his love. This is what makes his coming into the world so great. That he came and he came to die and because of that we can have real hope. Not wishful hope, but a secure hope that Jesus really can change us.

Conclusion

Let’s conclude. Some of you know I’m a big Bob Dylan fan. He wrote a poem once, which is one of my favorite poems, it’s called “Last Thoughts on Woodie Guthrie.” It’s found on one of those bootleg albums. I won’t read the whole thing but just a part. He says,
   ”You need something special all right. You need something special to give you hope. But hope’s just a word that maybe you said or maybe you heard on some windy corner ’round a wide-angled curve. But that’s what you need man, and you need it bad. And yer trouble is you know it too good cause you look an’ you start getting the chills cause you can’t find it on a dollar bill… (So) where do you look for this hope that yer seekin’? Where do you look for this lamp that’s a-burnin’? Where do you look for this oil well gushin’? Where do you look for this candle that’s glowin’? Where do you look for this hope that you know is there and out there somewhere?”

Bob Dylan has this amazing way of saying things that illustrate the longings of our heart and the failure of our longing to find what they are looking for in money or anything else. I believe that is because it is only found in Jesus Christ.

The prophecy candle is sometimes called the hope candle because the assurance of the prophecy of Jesus coming into the world is intended to give us a great sure hope for the stuff of our lives. All of us come here on Sundays and I’m not sure how many of us really know each other…know the people you see here…what they do for work and what fills their days. And more than that, the things they struggle and wrestle with. Maybe there are things that beat you up and nobody here knows about it and you feel alone and you feel stuck. Beneath each of us is this layer of our hearts, and that it is the thing which drives us and messes us up at the same time and Jesus came to redeem our hearts.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is one that can truly minister to you. It has ministered to me time and time and time again. The gospel says, yes your problems are real and they are big. But Jesus paid a price big enough to take care of them all. He spilled eternal, divine blood on the cross that can minister to your soul and can change your heart and your life.

So I urge you today. Put your faith in Jesus Christ and his work on the cross. Jesus is God’s advent gift to you and He is enough. Jesus is enough for all of your needs. He is a sure and living hope. You can trust him with your life. God has acted in history in sending Jesus for you. Be redeemed.

Let’s pray.