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“Repaid
at the Resurrection”
a sermon by
Thomas L. Jenkins
Text: Luke 14:1, 7-14
“And you will be blessed...for
you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS what we are being shown this morning is that
when we come to the time when we are brought completely into our eternal
life with God, we will experience the love of God being given to us
within the neediest areas of who we are; what we may not even be able to
imagine at this time in our lives.
It is ours and we may hope in it.
At the end of the passage we just read, Jesus is teaching that when we
give, out of our own hearts, to the poor, the crippled, the lame, and
the blind, even though they cannot pay us back here and now, we will
have already been paid pack in the most marvelous way during the
resurrection.
St. Paul, within his letters of the New Testament had a fascinating
vision of our truth, presently, in relationship to heaven.
Paul was not some religious, bored, old man.
He was absolutely passionate about the most astonishing truth
ever heard. Her saw what
had already been accomplished in Jesus Christ.
In the letter to the Ephesians, he wrote, “Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in
Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places…”
That is written in the past tense.
May we hear this too: we have already been blessed, in Christ,
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
We may all say yes to this in a spiritually fascinating way.
And, yes, we do all need to pray to God, “Yes Lord, I hear and
believe this, but I do need learn what it means in my life.”
Still, it does read, “…who
has blessed us in Christ…”
Paul also wrote, in 1 Corinthians (15:47) “The
first man was born from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from
heaven. As was the man of
dust, so are those who are of the dust; and is the man of heaven, so are
those who are of heaven.” There
are two Adams, the first Adam and the second Adam.
The first man was born out of dust and so are we, because we come
from him. That is our thinking and certainly that is true.
We come from him.
Were we born from the earth because we prayed and asked God to make us
born from the earth? No!
That was God’s choice.
The same thing is true about our being born from heaven.
The answer is the same to the same kind of question.
Were we born from heaven because we prayed and asked God to make
us born from above? No!
That too was God’s choice.
The most famous passage in the Bible about being born again, or more
literally, being born from above, was when Nicodemus, a leader of the
Jews came to Jesus during the night to talk to him.
(I’m not going to take the time to read the whole passage right
now. But, if you want to
read it this afternoon; it’s in John 3.)
Basically, what Nicodemus is asking Jesus is, “Who in the world
are you?” And Jesus is
answering Nicodemus, “Nic. you need to be born from above.
That is who I am. I am your birth from above.
You are born again in me.”
That is the astonishing gospel that St. Paul is seeing.
We do not have to pray and ask God to make it happen to us; we
are spiritually free to say, think, believe, and feel “YES” to this
truth.
And, it is in this Spirit that we find ourselves in heavenly pride and
humility, not in worldly pride and humility.
We can all relate to the parable Jesus was using to describe worldly
type pride, and even worldly type humility, where we manipulate our
humble actions in order to receive the kind of praise we would like.
I remember a private school I taught in, many years ago.
And there was a very politically prominent person who presented a
gift of $10,000 to the school. And
he was brought on stage, was applauded and praised by us all.
I don’t know that what was later said to me is true. But, a leader parent from the Parent Teachers Association
came up to me and said, “He actually owed that money as tuition from
last year.” Sometimes
when we try to sit down in a place of honor, we may be moved, in
disgrace, to a lower place.
There is a heavenly humble heart that we may truly have as we hear the
gospel truth. That is, that
in the presence of God, I have nothing to offer, that I can be
accredited for, in order to make myself right with God.
And, there is a heavenly proud heart that we may truly have as we hear
the gospel. God has come to
you, me, and each and every one of us in Jesus Christ.
And God has done and is doing everything for us that we cannot do
for ourselves. We have
already been born from above in Jesus Christ.
We have been judged by God in Jesus Christ.
We have already been raised from the dead and seated in the
heavens in Jesus Christ. Everything
has already been accomplished for us in Jesus Christ.
Here is a picture of your judgment, being repaid in the resurrection of
the righteous. Jesus Christ
is going to walk you right up to God the Father, and in the Holy Spirit,
put his arm around you and say, “Here is you child, Father, just the
way you have always desired.” God
the Father is going to be so proud of Christ for what he has done for
God and for you and me.
Let us pray…
Amen
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