A mind focused on Jesus

 July 25 2021

Ephesians 2:11-22

         Well, it is hard to believe but we have reached the mid-point in our summer series called Confident. As I have said many times, the series title comes from something that Jesus told his disciples on the night he was betrayed. As Jesus stood before his disciples knowing that within a day all of these loyal followers of his would be scattered, their faith severely shaken, he wanted them to in their sorrow and affliction reach deep within themselves and know that although what they had witnessed seemed like the worst defeat it was instead the greatest victory because on that cross Jesus had overcome the world. We have to imagine that they were just as confused about what Jesus had told them as people are today when they hear Jesus speak words that tell us about overcoming the world. What does that even mean? I mean just what is this world that Jesus speaks of and just why was it so important that through his death and resurrection this world had been overcome because it is what Jesus has done that is to be the source of our confidence, our source of our unshakability in a world that often trembles. You see, as we look at our articles of faith that we the people of the Church of the Nazarene adhere to, what we are supposed to come away with is that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has come as one of us in our flesh and through his life, death and resurrection everything has changed whether you and I realize it or not. Everything we state is a part of our faith hinges on that very fact. It is Jesus who has revealed that the God we place our faith in is a God of three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and we know the Father and the Holy Spirit only in and through their relationship with Jesus. We also know that Jesus came to fulfill the Law which can be summed up as doing to others what we would want done to us. This is what we should know to do but of course, we fail to do, and this is why we all stand in need of a Savior. As are article on sin states, we all commit sins and we at the same time are under the power of sin, what is known as original sin. To fully understand this being under sin we also said that this also means that we stand in need of a Savior. Jesus came and shed his blood and died because we were at one time weak, unholy, sinners, and as Paul states it, the very enemies of God.  The only way out of this mess that all of us find ourselves in is through Jesus, the very Son of God leaving his Father’s side and coming to take on our flesh and die upon the cross so that through his blood we might be cleansed and so that Jesus might become for us the mercy seat where we who were unholy people might at last be able to be in the presence of a holy God. This affect that the death and resurrection has had on our world is called the Atonement and as we said we now have peace with God and we are able to enter into the grace, the favor and welcome of God.  It is because of all the Jesus has done for us that we can now rejoice in the hope of  the glory of God. This glory of God is, as we said, God’s self-sacrificing love which was so clearly demonstrated for us upon the cross. This same love is the love which the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts.

         Now, the reason why we must keep all that Jesus has accomplished always front and center is that when we begin to see how it is a person comes to saving faith, the power that accomplishes this is what Jesus has already completed through his death, resurrection and ascension. This is what we learned about the grace that comes before our decision of faith, what our church calls Prevenient Grace. God, in his grace chose each of us before the foundation of the world because from even before creation the Son of God has always planned on taking on our sinful and corrupt flesh, so that through his death on the cross, sin in the flesh might forever stand condemned. Through this act of self-giving love Jesus has made peace with everyone, binding himself to everyone’s life. So, whether we were aware of it or not, God has always been part of your life and my life. It is when we hear the gospel that we then become aware of the grace of God. This gospel message is this, that God loves us so utterly and completely that he has given himself to us in Jesus Christ       his beloved Son, and has thereby pledged himself for our salvation. In Jesus Christ, God has made real his unconditional love for us in our human nature in such a once-for-all way, that he cannot go back on it without undoing the Incarnation and the Cross thereby denying himself. Jesus died for us precisely because we were sinful and unworthy of him, and has thereby already made us his own before and apart from our ever believing in him. God has bound himself to us in such a way that he will never let us go, for even if we refuse him, his love for us will never cease. When we hear this word of truth we are made aware of the immense grace of God, that he has always been in our life, steadfastly with us through all the highs and all of the lows. Then as we contemplate this faithful presence of God we also become aware that if God in Christ has always been with us where we are at then it surely follows that we will be where he is,  ascended to the very presence of God. This is the new hope, a certain hope unlike so many of the other worldly treasures we seek to place our hope in.

         So, with all of that in mind we come at last to our eighth article of faith which we will be thinking about today, the act of repentance. Here is what we read in the Manual of the Church of the Nazarene. Article Eight:Repentance. We believe that repentance, which is a sincere and thorough change of the mind in regard to sin, involving a personal guilt and a voluntary turning away from sin, is demanded of all who have by act or purpose become sinners against God. The Spirit of God gives to all who repent the gracious help of penitence of heart and hope of mercy, that they may believe unto pardon and spiritual life.

         So, with this article of faith we come to one of the most misunderstood acts that a Christian is called to do. Most Christians might assume that repentance is an attempt by preachers to produce a conviction of sin through the fear of judgment. Through fear, the preacher would attempt to get the sinner to repent of their sin, to renounce their wrongdoing so that they might receive forgiveness and hear the comforts of the gospel message. In doing so, the preacher uses the fear of hell and the hope of heaven to drive the Christian life. So, what ends up happening is that the person of Christ and the person of the Holy Spirit become utilities, things to be used instead of persons to love, on a persons personal venture to escape hell and get into heaven. Ultimately, what is lost is all assurance of one’s  salvation.

         With all that being said, I hope when that understanding of repentance is laid out that it becomes pretty easy to see just how very flawed it really is. For one, there is nothing a person can do to get God to forgive their sins because ones sins have already been forgiven on a day called Good Friday. Jesus proclaimed from the cross that it is finished for a very good reason that being that it really is finished. Also, if anyone tries to motivate a person’s spiritual journey using fear they are unwittingly leading that person into sin for as Paul teaches us, anything that does not proceed from faith is sin. So, needless to say, it is best if we leave that false version of repentance behind and go on to discover the real Biblical repentance that is grounded on what Christ has already accomplished for us.

         The place where we start is where we ended in our talk about Prevenient Grace which was that through this grace that comes before, we come to place our hope in heaven, and at last understand that Christ within us is our hope of glory. Now, what we must remember is that the same Prevenient Grace in our life is the same exact grace in every person’s life. In other words, God is bound to each and every person on the planet no matter how vile and evil we might think that they are; its good to ponder on that. So, if Christ has bound himself to us and Christ has bound himself to everyone else, than we can also say that we are all bound together because of being bound to Christ. This is the conclusion that Paul came to and it is this amazing idea that is behind our scripture for today. There, Paul writes that the people in all of the nations outside of Israel, these were people who Paul writes about in very negative terms; they were at one time separated from Christ, they were separated from God’s people, they were strangers to the covenants that ensured God’s promise, in other words they had no hope, and ultimately they had no God. Into this very bleak scenario comes the words, “But now…” because now something amazing has happened, these people who had nothing going for them had found themselves bound to Christ. Even though it seemed like they were a million miles away from ever being on God’s radar, here they were in the very presence of Christ all because his blood had been shed. So, Christ not only was the mediator between us and God but he was, at the same time, the mediator between all of the people of the world.

         As we go further in our thinking about what Christ has accomplished what we have to understand is that this unity that Jesus Christ has made possible through his blood is what is meant by our hope of glory. We mentioned before that God was glorified when Jesus was crucified upon the cross because it was there that the world saw the greater love which was Jesus willing to lay down his life for those he loved. This love was a self-sacrificial love and it was this love that brings glory and honor to God. So, the love which binds us to Christ is supposed to be the love which binds us all together because as Paul writes in the fifth chapter of Romans, it is this self-sacrificial love which is to be poured in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. With all of this in mind listen to what Paul writes in the first chapter of Ephesians; In Christ, that is being bound to Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us. So, here we have the assurance that Christ has indeed forgiven all of our sins, past, present and future so we don’t have to let anyone manipulate us using guilt as a motivator. Further, Paul writes, that he has given this grace, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which our Heavenly Father has set forth in his Son, Jesus Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. So, Jesus has not only bound us to himself thereby binding us all together, but he has also, because he is perfectly God as well, as perfectly human, bound us as Paul tells us to the Father through the Spirit. So, all those who at one time felt very estranged from God no longer have to feel that way because now those who were strangers have become full fledged citizens of God city. They have become holy people, and they can know themselves as welcome in the house of God. Can you catch the beauty of this glorious vision which Paul describes, of people becoming united together all the while they are united together with God? You see, the Biblical story is one where heaven comes in a mighty way down to us instead of how we normally think of it, our going up to heaven.

         Now, one more thing to take away from what Paul has written in our scripture for today and that is that Paul does not write as if this uniting of people together with each other and with God is not just some prophetic vision which is a future we can look forward to; no, what Paul writes about is something that is already happening. I’m sure that Paul’s certainty of this unity first became evident to him when, on the road to Damascus, he encountered the risen Lord Jesus who thundered at Paul as to why it was that Paul was persecuting him? Now, it had to sound pretty strange to Paul’s ears because he had been persecuting people who followed the way of the Rabbi Jesus, the one who had been crucified. Yet, here was the one who had been crucified who spoke of a unity with those who followed him. What Paul had done to the followers of Jesus turned out to have been done to Jesus as well. It was one thing to persecute misguided people who appeared to be blaspheming God; it was quite another to be persecuting the risen Son of Man. It was at this moment, I believe, that Paul began to contemplate just how it was that the death of Jesus had bound everyone to himself and in doing so, had bound everyone together. This vision which had been a future hope had suddenly become a present reality.

         Now, after laying out all of what Christ has accomplished you are probably wondering just when will I address this idea of repentance? The answer is that we have to know this ideal that Christ bled and died to create in order for us to understand just what it is that we must change our minds about, just what is it that we must turn away from. You see, most people think that repentance is just uttering a laundry list of sins they have committed and promising to never do them again. The only problem is without understanding what Christ has accomplished first, the root of all of their sin is never addressed, so their repentance is like removing stems and branches from weeds which continually grow back. So, if we understand that Christ bled and died to bring people near to him in order that through his binding together people and God in unity, then we have to develop the mindset that the unity is more important than our individual selves. This is found in the heart of the teaching of Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, found in the fifth chapter of Matthew, where Jesus tells an interesting story about a guy who gets up one morning, ready to worship God and he is so moved by his love of God he feels led to give a sizable gift as well. So, as he is there, so fully involved in worship, it comes to him that he and his neighbor had got into a bit of a shouting match over the new fence that he was putting up. Now, Jesus says what this guy should do is to stop worship immediately, go hop in his car and see if he can mend his fences, so to speak. That’s rather weird advice don’t you think? It is a bit strange but it makes sense when we know that the unity is more important than the self. We see this in the next teaching Jesus gives that looking at a woman with a desire to have her all to yourself is just as bad as committing adultery. How can this be possible? The answer, again is that here one is thinking only about themselves and not giving any consideration as to what affect such unbridled passion is going to have on the unity, the unity of his family, and the unity of his community. This is the same reason Jesus comes out against divorce because his concern is the destruction of the unity, the bonds Jesus is bringing together that end up getting torn apart. This also explains the next teaching Jesus gives about swearing oaths. At first blush it is hard to figure out what swearing oaths has to do with unity until you come to the point Jesus is making which is let what you say be simply “Yes” or “No”. In other words, be a person of integrity, let their be unity between what is in your heart and what comes out of your mouth. It just makes sense that a person who is not unified within themselves is going to be a person unable to keep from destroying the unity outside of themselves. After this teaching, Jesus goes on to tell us to keep the unity even in the presence of the evil which is trying to tear it apart. If that means that one slaps you on the right and the left cheek, then so be it. If that means you give someone your shirt after that have taken your coat, by all means let them have it. Go the extra mile every time in order to preserve the peace. This means that you love and care for those who oppose you, who persecute you and hate you without a cause because its about the unity Christ is creating; it’s not about you. All of this is summed up in the central teaching of Jesus that those who follow him must every morning tell themselves, it is not about me, its all about the unity because this is what is meant by us carrying our cross, day by day.This is the repentance that we are compelled to do because the unity Christ  has brought together through his blood, not thinking of himself, this unity is our only sure and certain hope. To God be the glory! Amen