Sunday next before Lent – Sermon 1

13th February 2011 Off By Derek Buckthorpe

 

Bible References

Evensong – ASB

6.30pm  – 18th February 1996

 

Prayer to start

May the Lord be in our hearts and may every word and thought be graciously received for the Glory and Honour of His Name.
AMEN

Introduction

Its likely that if we carried out an opinion pole of non-church goers and ask them what they think Christians are like – we might get answers like do-gooders, people who think they are good.

After all they go to church have coffee mornings, jumble sales, and do things for charity, help people in the community, they seem to be involved in everything – probably don’t work for a living like ordinary folk, must have plenty of time on their hands otherwise they wouldn’t be able to do what they do – would they?

Well we know that being a Christian is not about these things – its about knowing Jesus personally – trusting our lives to Him – having faith in Jesus – depending on Him for forgiveness and eternal life.

Jesus is not just a friend of those who are good – He came to be a friend of everyone especially those who know they are not good. He came to help those who are willing to admit that they have something to learn from Him.

He came to be a friend of sinners.

First Point

But what do we mean by friend? Is it the right word to use to describe Jesus’ relationship with us?
A friend in today’s society is someone we might know very well, someone who we spend time with, someone we have a bond with. Does that sound like our relationship with Jesus?

In the Bible God tells us that everyone is our neighbour and our friend but do we really think of them that way? Do we really think of everyone as friends? Well perhaps not everyone, not straight away anyway, we have to get to know them first don’t we, over a cup of coffee or a pint in the pub, break the ice a bit, lower the barriers, before we can start feeling comfortable with them, after all its human nature to feel uneasy about talking openly to someone we have just met.

Is it the same with Jesus?

Well you’d expect to feel apprehensive at first – so we need to talk to Him in a friendly atmosphere, maybe here in church or in house or Lent groups. We need to get to know Him. Then our defensive barriers will begin to come down and we can start to trust Him and start to believe.

He showed us how we can get to know Him – How to talk to Him through prayer. We need to have a proper conversation wit Him not just a quick thank you at mealtimes and before we go to bed. As the advert says – it really is good to talk – and you don’t need a telephone link to do it. What you get back far out ways the time that you put in.

We can also get to know Him and fin out more about Him by reading our Bibles. We can find out how He lived His life and how He deals with difficult situations – the same sort of situations we might find ourselves in. It may have been 2000 years ago but its very relevant today.
These are necessary and important steps that we have to take in order to know what Jesus is like – but we don’t expect it to be all one way. Its just as important to be quiet and listen to find out what Jesus is telling us. We have to keep on praying and reading the Bible because there is an awful lot to find out. We are learning throughout the whole of our lives.

We know from or friendships that they all have to start somewhere and they deepen as we share experiences with each other. As we get o know Jesus and read about Him so God’s love for us will be come clear to us an we will start to respond to that love.

In this evening’s Psalm 103 God’ compassion for His people is vividly described – in verse 8 – “The Lord is full of compassion and mercy and slow to anger and of great goodness” and in verse 11, “For as he heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy over those that fear Him” – He also has a compassion for our human frailty – verse 14 – “ For He knows of what we are made, He remembers that we are but dust….”

God’s love a perseverance and His saving grace touches our lives in many way, in forgiveness, in healing, and we receive many benefits from God’s justice. God’s steadfast love is immense, eternal and unchanging. He knows our human frailty and understands and forgives.

Our first lesson is from a time during the last days of the northern kingdom of Israel (called Ephraim) when six kings reigned over a period of 25 years. Disaster and destruction is predicted for Israel and exile at the hands of the Assyrians, because Israel is worshipping idols and corrupting God’s worship. They are about to pay for what they have done, but even though God has been betrayed, laughs at and openly mocked – He still isn’t going to desert them. There is still hope for the future and Hosea as pleading for the people to repent. He was telling them that even though Israel could not escape God’s judgment, God’s compassion and love for His people was such that He would not let them go completely. In verse 4-8 God promises healing and an out passing of His gracious love if His wayward Son Israel will now be completely converted away from worshipping Idols (Baalism). God’s compassion calls for repentance , for a rebirth to a new life. Everyone must change and return back to God.

Point 2

Jesus did not come to call the righteous but to call sinners back to repent.

Jesus is the friend of all sinners, no matter what they have done before. When they openly come to meet and trust in Jesus they are treated as real friends. N Matt 11 v19 – Jesus is talking to a crowd about His ministry. He is telling them that He is accused of mixing with a bad lot, the undesirable end of society. He says to them that the Son of man came eating and drinking and they say 2look at Him! a glutten and a drinker, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” Yet God’s wisdom is proved right y results’.

Tax collectors were some of the most hated and lonely people of His time and hated by the Jews because they lied and cheated and took too much money, lining their own pockets. Yet Jesus made friends with Tax Collectors. He even asked one of them called Levi 9Matthew) to be one of His closest followers. He spoke out against the sins they were committing but He still loved them. Jesus is telling them that I is God that sent Him to o this and God’s way will be prove right in the end.

Jesus has the authority to forgive sins. He demonstrated this when He healed the paralysed man – Matt 9: 2-6. Jesus announced that the man’s sins were forgiven but this shocked the people watching “only God can forgive sins” – they said. So He demonstrated His authority to forgive sins by performing this miracle. The paralysed man got up and walked. Forgiveness of sins is therefore forever inked with Jesus.

We might think that some sins are not as important as other. W might think that admiring our neighbour’s new car and secretly wanting it for ourselves is not nearly as bad as something like stealing or committing violence. Not in our eyes perhaps – but sin is falling short or rebelling against the divine standard set by God.

Paul reminds us in Rom 3 that we are all in the power of sin, we are all sinners, and it is not until we compare our lives against God’s standards that we become aware of our guilt. If we measure sin by what it means to others then we fall well short of God’s standard.
When we don’t live up to God’s standard we are separated from Him.

So we are sure about God’s love – we are sure our sins are forgiven – but there is a price to be paid, a penalty has to be paid for our sins – God sent Jesus to pay for our sins to die on our behalf so that we can be led back to Him.

Jesus’ friendship and love for sinners was demonstrated in the ultimate act at Calvary. Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. So that if we believe in Him we are made free by our faith and obedience to Him – and we begin again renewed and reborn from within. When we begin to respond to God’s love our heart is made clean again s the God’ standard become part of our character.

Jesus wants us to turn to Him, to begin again. Its not enough to want forgiveness, we must be prepared to put our past sins behind us. Jesus wants to b our closest friend and to be part of us – we have o rely on Him and not ourselves and listen to the Holy Spirit who will guide us. We need to respond to Him in love.

Jesus’ sacrifice demonstrated that He loves each one of us – and because of His love we will want to respond by trying to live our lives as He wants us to.

Point 3

But its not just up to Jesus to love sinners.

The first commandment tells us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our strength. The second commandment tell us to love our neighbour as ourselves. Jesus said there are no other commandments greater than these.

Jesus wants us to love others a we would love ourselves – we must help our fellow sinners, the people who Jesus has put in our path, no matter what they have done or who they are. If we are unsure of what we must do then we should pray to Him for help and ask for the Holy Spirit to guide us.

As Christians we should care for others – God has placed the highest value on every individual person – everyone matters even though sometimes it may be hard for us to believe, that’s why He tells us that everyone is our neighbour and friend and we are to respond to the needs of every person we come into contact with.

In Paul’s letter to Philemon, Onesimus was a runaway slave and a thief, a sinner but his friendship with Paul helped him become a Christian. He friendship of Jesus was working through Paul such that His life was changed and he turned to Jesus. But Paul knew that Onesimus’ transformation would not be complete unless he surrendered himself completely to God and this meant he had to stop running away from his past and go back to answer the crimes he committed.

It might be costly for him because Under Roman Law the masters of runaway slaves were permitted to beat or even kill their slaves if they caught them and Onesimus had also stolen from Philemon.

Paul loved Onesimus like a father, he also loved Philemon like a brother. He wanted Philemon to accept Onesimus back to do the work of the Gospel, not as a slave – more than that –as a dear brother (verse 16). In other words he didn’t just want Philemon to forgive him for what he had done, he wanted more than that, he wanted him to treat him as he would a brother of Christ, to allow him to come and go as any other member of the local church.

He wanted Philemon to accept him just as Jesus would accept him, to begin afresh, with a clean slate. Paul even offered to pay for Philemon’s loss although he didn’t expect him to accept his offer. It had to be Philemon’s decision.

In the same way Jesus wants us His church to accept people wit open arms, to assume the best of others, not to be prejudice by barriers of race r class and position or whatever article of clothing they are wearing, whether their hair is bright purple or gray (which is the case for most of us). Those that come to Him are renewed by Him and should be free to perform His work wherever He sends them. As Paul says they should not be treated as they were before they have changed, now that thy have Jesus working in them and we have not to put any barriers in the way of Christ’s work.

Conclusion

Jesus loves us no matter what we have done. We know He has the authority to forgive our sins.

He did for our sins so that we an return to Him and start to do what He wants us to do. He can renew us and give us a new beginning. Our past sins are forgiven, but we must surrender ourselves completely, no half measures –we have to pray to Him and read our Bibles to help us.

A His church we should accept others as Jesus does, no put barriers in His way, remember He is working in other people.

We have to let Jesus in to our lives, and try to be like Him, to begin again an on Jesus’ terms not ours. And we have to keep on doing it everyday

Prayer to Finish

O most gracious Lord, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ who came to forgive our sins and show us that if we begin again and turn to Him we can have a new start and a new freedom in Christ our Lord

AMEN