Grace
and Peace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Recently, for a
variety of reasons, Marie and I have made a commitment to live a healthier
lifestyle. We have made goals for
ourselves, and we have big challenges to overcome. We knew that although we ate healthy, we’d
have to be more intentional in what we put in our bodies and how much. Even though I already had a gym membership,
I’d have to take my exercising more seriously and be dedicated to a regular
routine. We have set our minds, and our
bodies, to this task and have given up a lot of our freedoms in food selections
and free time to serve this cause.
Today
is the second to last Sunday in the Epiphany season. We have slowly been peeling back the layers
to see Christ for who He truly is.
First, we’ve seen it with others.
We’ve seen the Magi travel from distant lands to come and honor a
newborn king. We’ve seen John, baptizing
in the wilderness and witnessing to the coming Light. Then, we’ve seen it with Christ Himself. We’ve seen Jesus come to the Jordan to be
baptized while a dove descended upon Him and a voice boomed from heaven, “This
is my beloved Son!” We’ve seen Christ
using His divine foreknowledge and calling together His disciples, declaring
that they will become fishers of men. Last
week we saw Christ teaching with an authority of His own and casting out demons
from among the people. Today, we see
Christ healing many and continuing to cast out demons as He preaches throughout
Galilee.
The
deeper we get into the Epiphany season, we see the Light of the world glowing
brighter and brighter. Christ coming to
oppose the darkness that has settled upon the earth. This is the purpose of Epiphany; that we see
Christ revealed to the World, but this purpose is twofold. First, that we see Christ revealed through
Scripture, as each event points more and more at His divinity until, finally,
as we will see next week, His transfiguration fully reveals to us His divine
identity to us. Yet Epiphany is also
about the revelation of Christ in our world today. In Epiphany we are given the opportunity to
stop and ask, how is Christ being revealed?
How is Christ being revealed to our family and friends? How is Christ being revealed to our neighbors
and co-workers? How is Christ being
revealed to the teenage girl down the street who just had an abortion? How is Christ being revealed to that teenager
at school who is struggling with his homosexual feelings? How is Christ being revealed to that man
sleeping under the overpass? How is
Christ being revealed to that woman who is selling herself on the street
corner?
In
our Epistle today, Paul boasts that he is able to preach the gospel
freely. Paul boasts that he is able to
become all things to all people so that some may be saved for the sake of the
gospel. Paul was zealous in his mission,
desiring to share the gospel with anyone and everyone he could. He tells us that to the Jews he became a Jew,
to those who placed themselves under the old covenant he submitted himself to
the covenant, and to those apart from the covenant he became like one apart from
the covenant. Paul understood the
freedom and blessing that the gospel gave him, and he made full use of his
freedom by becoming a servant to all. He
knew that the only Law he was under was the Law of Christ, and being under
grace he could meet people where they were, to share with them the love of
Christ and all that He has done for us. So
I’ve got to ask you a question: when was the last time you forsook your pride
so that you could be all things to all people?
When was the last time you reached out to that teenage girl and told her
that in Christ her sins are forgiven, even abortion? When was the last time you walked beside that
teenager at school and told Him He has been given a new identity in Christ and doesn’t
have to be defined by his feelings? When
was the last time you asked that man to come with you to lunch and told him
about the treasure he has in Christ.
When was the last time you went to that street corner and told her that
she has been bought with the blood of Christ?
When was the last time you became a servant of all so that you might win
some?
Paul makes it
look so easy. I’m often convicted when I
see the lengths to which he went in order to win people over to Christ. As for me, I always find myself boiling with
rage and having to restrain my tongue and not say what I want to in reply to
those who insult me and my faith. I
always find myself looking at someone and thinking, “They’ll never trust in
Christ,” or “They won’t understand,” or “They’ll only mock and ridicule
me. So why even bother?” I continually find myself piling excuse upon
excuse of why I don’t have to go out there and do that. I know it’s not only me; I hear it from you
as well. I hear people say that they
aren’t equipped and don’t know what to say, or that they don’t know how to
bring it up and don’t have an opportunity.
I know your excuses because they are my own as well. We’re so afraid of being made to look like a
fool or of being rejected that we are unwilling to put ourselves on the line,
much less put ourselves in submission to others.
And we know that
our prize does not hang on the line; in the Gospel we are free. It does not matter one bit to our salvation
if we go out into the world spreading the word of Christ or stay at home,
comfortable in our recliner. We know
that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, so why
would we walk out into a world that is eager to swallow us up? We know that the doing of God’s Will and the
coming of Christ’s kingdom does not depend on us. We are free to do whatever we want to do, and
we’re even free to do nothing. So why in
the world would we go out there, why would we go outside of our comfort zone
and get our hands dirty?
Thankfully,
Christ did not feel the same way. We owe
our freedom to Him. God could have
rightfully looked at us and said, “Well, they brought it upon themselves. Let them lay in the bed they made.” He not willing to be content with that,
however. The Father’s love compelled Him
to send His Son, and the Son’s love compelled Him to come down and get His
hands dirty. Christ, the Word of God,
God Himself, wrapped Himself in human flesh.
He submitted Himself to the Law like those who were under the Law. He fulfilled the law perfectly in our place,
and He, who knew no sin, became sin, so that we might become the righteousness
of God. Not only did Christ come down to
earth to be among sinners, but He Himself became sin so that He could stand in
our place and receive our punishment. He
loves us so much that He was willing to go through the pain, the agony, being
forsaken by God and literally experiencing Hell on that cross, so that we could
be reconciled to the Father. It was that
love that compelled Him, and it’s that same love that compelled Paul, and that
same love that compels us. So, why should
we get our hands dirty?
Paul gives us
his answer in our Epistle: “I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I may
share with them in its blessing.” Paul
is free to do whatever he wants to do, but in his freedom Paul has chosen to
run the race as if there was only one prize, so that he can share with them in
its blessing. He has chosen to
discipline his body and exercise self-control so that he himself is not
disqualified, so that he can share with them in its blessing. Paul knows that no matter what He is going to
get the prize, his salvation is not on the line, but he also wants to reap the
benefits of that blessing here and now.
Marie and I made
the decision to live healthier so we could live a higher quality life, so we
have sacrificed our freedom in what we put in our bodies and our time so that we
can work towards our goals, one of which is to have the energy to keep up and share life with Levi. When we
aren’t disciplined, we lose sight of the goal, of those benefits that we can
have now. In January I saw gym
attendance explode to the point where I had to wait in line for a
treadmill. Here, only a month later,
over half the people have already disappeared.
They know they are free, but if they do not put in the work and the
effort they will not partake in the benefits here and now. As some of you know, Marie started a new
business venture last month, and she is free to run that business however she
would like. If she does nothing there is
no penalty, but if she disciplines herself, if she puts in the hard work and
makes those phone calls and follow ups she will reap the benefits here and now. But she disciplines herself because she wants to share with others her love of books and joy in reading.
This is very
similar to our lives as Christians. If
we do not discipline ourselves, we will lose out on the benefits here and now,
and all we will be reduced to desperately waiting for Christ to return so we
can finally live in a state of blessedness.
But we don’t have to wait, for Christ has given His Kingdom to us
now. Today, we experience the eternal
blessings by living in Christian fellowship here and now, and the more that are
added to our numbers, the more we experience the sweetness of the Gospel in
this life. Paul disciplined himself to receive
the benefits of the Gospel by living in Christian love and fellowship here and
now. Remember, when we pray in the
Lord’s prayer, “Thy Kingdom come” and “Thy Will be done,” we of course know
that God’s kingdom and will are established even without us, but we pray that
it too might be done in, though, and among us so that we can experience the eternal
blessings of God here and now with each other.
In just a few
moments, we will experience of those blessings, so now, let us now prepare
ourselves to gather around Christ’s table, a foretaste of the feast to come. Let it strengthen our faith as we cling to
that promise. Let it motivate us and
give us the strength and the confidence to go out into the world and proclaim
His love to others. And let it give us
the peace and assurance in the Gospel of our own salvation.
And now may that
same pace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard our hearts and minds
in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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