Once Upon a Time:
You and Me in the Story of Redemption
By Roger Pryor,
Heartland Community Church
Jesus’ resurrection is the hinge
pin of history. Mel Gibson was asked why he ended his movie The
Passion of the Christ with the empty tomb. He said, "Without
the resurrection, our faith is dead. The story's not complete
without it." To Jesus’ followers, the resurrection
signaled the beginning of the last chapter in God’s story of
redemption. He had fulfilled His promise as the Lamb of God to be
the once-for-all sacrifice to pay their moral debt, and now they
expected Him to fulfill His promise to be their king and overthrow
the Roman oppressors and rule the world from Jerusalem.
They thought all the other chapters
of God’s story, but the last, had been written. Most of the
prophecies made by all the Old Testament prophets had been fulfilled
in Jesus. Jesus’ resurrection proved beyond a doubt that He had
the authority, credentials and character to be KING! It was a
slam-dunk. There was no need to wait. Everything was prepared and
ready for Jesus to become king.
One of Jesus’ followers asked Jesus
point blank, "Is this the time you’re going to establish your
kingdom on earth?" And Jesus surprised His followers by
basically saying, "No, not yet. I have more preparations to
make before I become King. I have an additional chapter to write in
My story of redemption before the final chapter. You’re going to
have to patiently wait."
WAIT!!!
We all hate to wait. And so did Jesus’
followers. No wonder they were confused. It was kingdom time—the
time for Jesus to set up His earthly kingdom. Nothing in the Old
Testament even alluded to an additional chapter in the story. So
what was this extra period of preparation that caught Jesus’
followers totally off guard?
Jesus explained to His
followers in Matthew 16:15–18, "'Who
do you say I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah,
the Son of the living God.’
Jesus replied, ‘You are blessed, Simon son of John, because
my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this
from any human being. Now I say to you that you are Peter, and upon
this rock I will build my church,
and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.’"
Jesus’ followers must have looked at each
other and said, "A what? A church? What is that? You’ve got
some explaining to do." Up until this point, God had related to
His prodigal people through a family (Abraham), then a nation
(Moses), and finally through a kingdom (kings). But now He was going
to relate to His prized creation through a church. For the first
time, Jesus announced how even you and me would play a major
role in God’s story of redemption in the context of a church—a
gathering—all based on a prophecy Jesus made 2,000 years ago.
Jesus was going to build something
unimaginable that even the powers of Hell couldn’t stop. And Jesus
was right. Here we are 2,000 years later, and millions today are
gathering to worship God and celebrate Jesus’ resurrection.
Persecution, poverty, prosperity, technology, governments,
education, even boring preaching haven’t squelched it because
Jesus said, "I will build my
church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it."
The awesome news is that every Christ follower
has been written into this chapter of God’s story of redemption.
We’re a part of God’s preparation for the kingdom. And just as
significant as Abraham, Moses, David, the prophets and Mary and
Joseph were to God’s story of redemption, so are we. What an
opportunity, privilege, and responsibility!
Jesus made it very clear that He would relate
to the church in a very different way than He had to families,
nations, or kingdoms. According to the New Testament, the church
would relate to Christ and to each other like a physical body. The
church would be called the body of Christ.
Colossians 1:18 says, "Christ
is the head of the church, which is his body. He is the first of all
who will rise from the dead, so he is first in everything."
Ephesians 1:23 tells us, "And
the church is his body; it is filled by Christ, who fills everything
everywhere with his presence."
The church wasn’t going to be a
bunch of individuals or lone rangers, doing their own thing. It wasn’t
going to be a building. Similar to a physical body that has many
parts with different functions, this spiritual body or gathering
would experience God’s presence as they shared their time,
talents, and treasures with each other and the world around them.
So what is the church—Christ’s
body—supposed to look like? What are we, who are a part of this
new chapter in God’s story, supposed to be doing? What does it
mean to be the church? It’s the Apostle Paul who gives us four
characteristics in Colossians 2 as to what it means to be the
church. He writes to the church and says in verse 2, "My
purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart."
1. Be the church by encouraging
one another. For the
church to be the church, we must encourage hearts. To encourage
someone literally means, "to give someone a new heart."
Ephesians 4:29 says, "Don't
use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and
helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who
hear them."
A preschool boy at Sunday school kept
slapping the teacher’s rear end. Eventually, the teacher put the
boy in time out until the parents arrived. When the teacher
mentioned the problem to the dad, he offered some insights on the
problem. "My son picked up this habit while watching football
on TV where the players slapped each other’s rear ends. I told my
son that they were telling each other what a good job they were
doing." I might suggest that rather than slapping each other on
the rear end, maybe we should do as Paul suggested and offer words
of encouragement instead. Be an encourager. By doing so together, we
will be the church.
Paul goes on to say in
Colossians 2:2, "My
purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love."
2. Be the church by being a loving community. We become a
community by caring for each other; sticking up for each other; and
serving one another. We notice and pay attention to each other—knitted
together in love. Jesus said in John 13:34–35, "Love
each other. Just as I loved you, you should love each other. Your
love for one another will prove to the world that you are my
disciples."
Two young brothers were greatly impacted one
Sunday by the preacher’s sermon on "turning the other
cheek." The minister stressed that no matter what others do to
us, we should never try to "get even." That afternoon the
youngest boy came into the house crying. Between sobs he told his
mother he had kicked one of his brothers, who had kicked him in
return. "I'm sorry you're hurt," his mother said.
"But you shouldn't go around kicking people." To which the
tearful child replied, "But the preacher said he isn't supposed
to kick me back." Be the church, not by kicking each other, but
by loving one another.
3. Be the church by fulfilling God’s
purpose that He has for you in this world. Colossians
2:2 says, "My
purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love,
so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in
order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom
are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." One
of God’s great privileges for us in life is to know Jesus fully in
all His wisdom and knowledge, and to pass that knowledge and
understanding on to others. That’s what it means to be the church.
Forty days after Jesus’
resurrection and just before His return to heaven, He told His
followers exactly what they should be about until He returns. It’s
recorded in Matthew 28:18–20, "Jesus came and told his
disciples, ‘I have been given complete authority in heaven and on
earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have
given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the
end of the age.’"
Having been given all authority by
God, Jesus commanded His followers (all Christ followers) to go and
make disciples—to make learners and followers of Jesus throughout
the earth. And as they went to fulfill this purpose, Jesus promised
to join them in the endeavor—to show up and be with them during
this next-to-last chapter of history. So if you want to get in on
what God is doing, you must embrace His purpose to introduce people
to a personal relationship with Jesus.
4. Be the Church by being
committed to God’s truth.
Colossians 2:4 says, "I tell you this so that no one
may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments." From the
beginning of time, there have been those who have twisted or
distorted the truth about God and His story. For instance, Dan
Brown, who wrote the ultimate conspiracy novel—The Da Vinci
Code—has created a brilliant mix of fact and fiction about the
origins and claims of Christianity. Part of what it means to be the
church is that we separate fact from fiction.
Clearly, the book is fiction, but
sadly many readers have walked away believing that the Church has
conspired to hide the true identity of Jesus and cover-up the
inconsistencies in the Bible. Join us in a few weeks as we unpack The
Da Vinci Code in light of God’s truth—the Bible.
There are sites on the Internet that
will translate English into whatever language you want. Type in a
phrase and push a button, and it will translate what you typed into
French or Spanish or German or whatever. I've always been curious:
How do you know the translation is good?
A guy had a similar question and did
something fun. He took the song "Take Me Out to the Ball
Game," typed it into the computer, and translated it into
German. Then he translated it back into English to see if anything
got lost in the translation. Well, something got lost in the
translation. It sounds a little militant, like a page out of Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s book.
Execute me to the ball play.
Execute me with the masses. Buy me certain groundnuts and
crackerstackfusig. I'm not interested if I never receive back.
Let me root, root, root for the main team. If they do not win,
it is dishonor. For there are one, two, three impacts on you at
the old ball play.
Something got lost in the
translation. The same is true about God’s story. Something through
the centuries gets kind of lost. I don't mean the translation of the
Bible; I'm talking about the way people perceive God’s unfolding
story that climaxes in the resurrection and coronation of Jesus.
Often God’s story gets twisted and categorized as a fairy tale.
Friends, it’s more than that. It’s our only hope for eternity.
There is no other story to fall back on. Embrace God’s story. Don’t
rewrite it.
We are in the next-to-last chapter of
God’s story of redemption. What a time to be alive. What an honor
to be chosen by God to be a part of His story. He has entrusted us
with the good news of Jesus Christ. It’s very possible that we
could be just one page away from the final chapter. We’ll talk
about the last chapter of God’s story next week.
Until then, let’s be the church and
play our part in God’s next-to-last chapter of history by
encouraging one another, living in loving community with each other,
fulfilling God’s purpose in this world, and standing solidly on
God’s truth. The world will take notice. They will sense God’s
presence and will want a personal page of their own in God’s story
of redemption.
So which of these four things do you
need to work on in order to play your part in being the church? For
some of you, the first step is to write yourself into the story by
placing your trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior. Acts 16:31 says, "Believe
on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved."
Let’s be the church and join God in
writing this next-to-the-last chapter of His story of redemption.
Remember. It’s the story of you and me.
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