Imagine for a moment that you are an astronaut aboard Apollo 13. You have just taken off from the launch pad and are racing toward the moon as fast as a speeding bullet. The whole world, including your home, your family, your friends-- literally everything is at your back. Before you is the dream of walking on the moon. Surrounding your dream is infinite nothingness and eternal darkness.
Suddenly, violently, your space capsule shakes. An explosion has occurred. Warning lights are sounding off all around you. Precious oxygen is spewing into outer space. Carbon monoxide levels in your cockpit are rising to toxic levels. Communication with mission control is breaking up. Your spacecraft is losing power while spinning uncontrollably into space. For the first time in your life, you realize that there is absolutely nothing you can do to save yourself. You realize that you are at the mercy of God and circumstances beyond your control.
"Houston, we have a problem."
We don’t easily enter into that Apollo 13 moment. For us, everything is okay. There are no warning lights sounding off around us. We have an abundant supply of oxygen. We are not in danger of drifting off into outer space. We are surrounded by friends and family. We are healthy. We have control over our environment.
Very little is threatening our existence. There is not this immediate sense that we are at the mercy of God, or that anything could possibly be wrong with our lives.
"Houston, we have no problem."
For many, any idea of needing a savior or needing to be saved is quite foreign. What do we need to be saved from? What could Jesus Christ possibly do for us that we cannot do for ourselves? Why bother having a relationship with Jesus Christ? In his book What Was God Doing on the Cross? Alister McGrath invites us to consider a series of images that express our need for Jesus Christ.
The Cross and the Battlefield
On the battlefield only one thing really matters. That is total victory over the enemy. In 1 Corinthians 15:26 (NIV) the Bible says that, "The last enemy to be destroyed is death." Whether or not we dwell on it, all of us are in a struggle against death. Death is a formidable foe, and we don’t like to be reminded of its many faces.
When I was sixteen I remember coming to school one day with a particular memory. On a typical day the hallways were alive with activity. Students shouting. Lockers slamming. But on this day everyone was sitting down on the floor in front of their lockers. The silence was deafening. There was no movement. My first thought was that I had wandered into a hostage situation, or that a teacher had scolded everyone. As I approached my locker a football player slammed his fists into a locker door.
And then several girls broke the news to me. Shortly after leaving baseball practice, a popular student had been involved in a fatal car accident. Everyone was stunned. I had just been lifting weights with that student a day earlier. Death was so final and so irreversible. And that is how death is. It is a formidable foe.
The Cross and the Courtroom.
In the courtroom there is only one thing that really matters; being found innocent. In James 2:10 (NIV) the Bible says, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it." Who among us has not stumbled on at least one point of God’s holy and perfect law?"
Romans 3:23 (NIV) says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:20 (NIV) says, "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin."
Romans 2:15 (NIV) describes how even ungodly people think. "Since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them." You don’t have to be a Christian to live with a guilty, burdened conscience. We all carry this sense of guilt for sinning against God.
In 2 Corinthians 1:9 even the apostle Paul speaks of feeling the sentence of death. He feels the very judgment of God on his life for all the sins he has committed. So, we our taunted by death daily. Our consciences are heavy and we are burdened with guilt.
The Cross and the Rehabilitation Clinic.
In the clinic there is only one thing that really matters. Relationships must be reconciled, extending forgiveness, making peace, and restoring that which was lost! In Colossians 1:21 (NIV) the Bible describes us as being alienated from God. "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior."
In other words, we are not at peace with God. We have been rebelling against his lordship. We have been showing contempt for his goodness and kindness. God asks one thing, but we consciously choose another.
The issue is not our willingness to brush aside all our offenses against God. At issue is whether God should have us back and whether God should forgive us our sins. I hope we all realize that God doesn’t have to take us back. He is just and correct in condemning us for our sins and rebellion. He is just and correct in leaving us in our guilt and shame. He isjust and correct in letting death have the ultimate say over our lives.
The Cross and the Prison.
In prison there is only one thing that really matters; being set free. In Romans 7:14 (NIV) the Bible describes us as, "sold as a slave to sin." The Bible speaks of how we are held captive to sin and are held captive to doing the devil’s will.
When we sin we think we are acting with total freedom. But in reality we are enslaved to our passions and appetites. We cannot tell ourselves "no". We cannot choose righteousness. We lack the self-control and self-discipline to follow God’s way.
Think about the last time you attempted to make a deep change in your life without involving God. Why weren’t you successful? Why didn’t the change last? Why couldn’t you muster enough willpower to sustain the change over the long haul? Anyone who has made a serious attempt at living a moral life realizes how quickly one comes to the end of his own resources.
The Cross and the Hospital.
In a hospital there is only one thing that really matters; being healed. In 1 Peter 2:24 (NIV) we are described as wounded people in need of a healing. "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed." We certainly need physical healing, but I am also talking about spiritual healing. I am talking about emotional healing. I am talking about relational healing.
There is a reason why the mental health sector is flourishing. People are turning to psychologists and counselors to find healing. We need to be healed of anger, bitterness, jealousy, lust, and vindictiveness. We need to be relieved of stress, anxiety, and hypertension. People want to feel whole again. We want to live life to the fullest, but we are as empty and broken as ever. Where do we go these days to find healing? Who has the answers? Which television program? Which book? Which doctor? Which medication? Which home remedy?
When you consider these five images, the battlefield, the courtroom, the rehabilitation clinic, the prison, and the hospital, which images best describe your life right now? Do you find yourself fighting on the battlefield of life and death? Do you find yourself in the courtroom, being found guilty on all counts? Do you find yourself in the clinic, struggling to reconcile with God and others? Do you find yourself in prison, a slave to sin and destructive habits? Do you find yourself in the hospital, wounded and broken from sin?
You know, you can start punching buttons and pulling levers, but it's only going to get worse. There are some things Jesus Christ can do for us that we simply cannot do for ourselves.
From defeat to victory.
On the battlefield of life and death Jesus can take us from total defeat to total victory. 1 Corinthians 15:54 (NIV) tells us that, "Death has been swallowed up in victory." 1 Corinthians 15:57 (NIV) says, "But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." John 3:16 (NIV) says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
From guilty to not guilty.
In the courtroom Jesus can absolve our guilt and declare us innocent of all charges. Romans 8:1 (NIV) says, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:33 (NIV)asks, "Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?" Colossians 1:22 (NIV) says that through Christ, God will present us, "holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation."
From rebellion to reconciliation.
In the clinic Jesus can take us from alienation to complete reconciliation with God. Colossians 1:19-20 (NIV) says, "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Christ), and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross." 2 Corinthians 5:17-19 (NIV) says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation."
From prisoner to free.
In the prison Jesus can take us from complete slavery to complete freedom. Galatians 5:1 (NIV)says, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Romans 6:22-23 (NIV) says, "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
From brokenness to healing.
In the hospital Jesus can take us from brokenness to complete healing. Speaking of Christ, 1 Peter 2:23-25 (NIV) says, "When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
On the banners behind me are the four words we will be talking about over the next several months. If you have been to one of our vision meetings in recent weeks, you already know what each of these four words represent. This morning, we are concerned only with the first banner: Growing.
Growing represents our relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ gives us everything we need for life. He gives us victory over death. He declares us innocent in God’s sight. He reconciles us to God. He frees us from the power of sin. And he brings complete healing into our lives. He saves us from death, our guilt, our rebellion, our sins, and our brokenness. Jesus is the whole reason for our assembly, for our church, and for all that we do together. 1 John 5:12 (NIV) says, "He who has the Son has life; but he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
At Lakeside, Jesus Christ is the focus of our passion and our worship. There is no relationship in our lives more important than our relationship with Jesus Christ. In our lives and in our worship, Christ must become greater and we must become less. He must become central to our identity. Together, we have the privilege of helping one another grow deeper into the victory, forgiveness, reconciliation, freedom, and healing that Christ provides.
In the coming weeks we will unpack some ways in which God wants us to help one another grow deeper in our relationship with Jesus Christ.