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“LIFE
And death”
a sermon by
Thomas L. Jenkins
Text: John 11:1-45
“I
am the resurrection and the life.”
DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHRS we are two weeks away from Easter Sunday, and
no matter how far up we are in Christ’s faith, most of us would
probably still want to learn more about the resurrection in our lives
here and now from God’s Word, than to choose, or even be told that we
are going to pass away before Easter Sunday, where we would actually
experience the soul’s part of our own resurrection in Christ.
St. Paul wrote to the Philippians, “For
me, living is Christ and dying is gain.”
And then he went on and explained one of the decisions he was
dealing with. He liked
living in this would where he knew he had to commit to fruitful labor in
order to keep his life going on. Though,
when he thought totally about himself, he did want to pass away and go
be more with Christ. But,
he actually chooses to keep living here so he could continue sharing the
gospel with other people, for their good.
That’s a fascinating part of true Christian wisdom and faith.
Paul wanted to go ahead and do what we call “dying” because
he knew that it would take him to experience fully who he truly is, a
brother of Jesus, and the Son of God the Father.
But, and like Jesus, he chose to give the gifts he was blessed
from God with to teach, preach, explain, and be an example so that other
people could experience the same everlasting love God has for them; and
Paul wanted them to experience it in their lives here. But, still it is
amazing to hear, that based in his faith, he really couldn’t wait
until he died.
One of my professors in seminary used to tell us that the Apostle Paul
of the New Testament was, personally, his best teacher, his best pastor,
his best preacher, his best counselor.
When he was looking for something he thought he needed regarding
faith, he always concentrated on Paul’s writings.
We have read, this morning, two fascinating passages about God bringing
the dead back to life, here in this world.
And that story of Ezekiel being led by God to a valley filled
with dead bones all over the place, and when he obeyed God’s
instructions regarding his prophesying, then all these Israelite people
were brought back to life. The
first sermon I ever preached, in1989, was on this passage.
In the passage we read from Paul’s letter to the Romans he shared some
of his teaching about life and death.
According to St. Paul, to have ones mind all caught up in the
flesh is the way to death. What
does it mean to have ones mind all caught up in the flesh?
Well, before we even look into the answer of this question, we first
have to know that the death he’s writing about here is not the same
form of dying that he looked at as the greatest gain to his life.
The death he is writing about here has to do with all the real
kind of life actually disappearing.
One of my friends who is a psychologist, one time asked his son, who was
in the sixth grade, “Do you know what evil is?”
His son said, “Yes, Dad, it is ‘live’ spelled backwards.”
Now, Paul did say that to have one’s mind caught up in the Spirit of
God is the way to life. So,
once again, let’s hear what this is about before get to the meaning of
what it is to be caught up in the flesh.
Before there was any aspect of our created universe, God was living in
eternity, as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of love and communion within the
Father and the Son. Before
God created the heavens and the earth, our universe, God made an eternal
decision. That decision was that on the earth God would create all
kinds of breathing creatures, but out of them all, there would be one
creature, whom the Son would pass through the heavens, to be born as the
main one of these human creatures.
Then he would return to God the Father as a human being, so that
faithful humans could be really included in their relationships.
Now, what do you think was the Spirit in God’s heart when this
decision was made in eternity? What
a fascinating, joyful, answer in our hearts as we think of this.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit in God’s heart when these
decisions were made in eternity, before creation.
So, now, what it means to have ones mind all caught up in the flesh, is
for us to make decisions in these times, where we do not allow what we
have just heard about the Spirit of God, to have it’s influence on our
decisions.
L. Nelson Bell was the father-in-law of Billy Graham. He was a Presbyterian medical missionary in China.
His wife’s name was Virginia, and after decades in China as
missionaries, they moved back to the United States, in Montreat, N.C.
After a few years, Virginia became very sick.
And Dr. Bell was spending most of his time taking care of his
wife. One morning Ruth
Graham, their daughter, walked in their front door, early in the
morning, and saw her Dad carrying her Mother down the stairs in her
wheel chair. And she asked
her Dad, “Dad how can you do all this?”
Guess what he said? “Honey,
this is the greatest blessing of my life!”
He made this decision with his mind and emotions really
influenced by the Spirit of God, not just caught up in the flesh.
Now, as Christians we are both in the flesh and in the Spirit.
We are all already forgiven for any fleshly decisions we might
make. However in this time of Lent one of the self-disciplines we may
certainly apply is that before we make any important decisions, let’s
keep in our hearts, in our faith and imagination, the Spirit in God’s
heart, when he decided to bring us into His family.
This story about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead is also one of the
great miracles told in the Bible. Jesus
knows that this whole event is to bring glory upon God and to show the
world that He is the Son of God. Jesus
says, “I am the resurrection and
the life.”
In our Bible translation, The New
Revised Standard Version, which I love, the verse which reads “Jesus began to weep”, in all the other main versions before ours,
this used to be the shortest verse in the whole Bible: “Jesus wept.”
His weeping had to do with life and not with death. Jesus new that the enemy he was here to be victor over was
death. All these people
where crying because of the pain caused in their hearts by death. And Jesus cried with them, but it was not over death for them
or him; it was simply that he hurt with them, sharing in their
suffering.
Eternal life is the life of God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, and God
the Son. And it can be
placed down into our souls here and now.
When Ruth Graham, Virginia Bell, and L. Nelson Bell had the
experience we heard about, God gave them a taste of their eternal life.
We are adopted into the family of God.
We are the church of Christ.
And as we grow in having our mind’s caught up in the Spirit of
God, we are going to have experiences of our eternal life, here in these
days, before we gain by dying.
Let us pray …
Amen.
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