Broadway Christian Church · Columbia, Missouri
Morning Worship · March 08, 2009
Second Sunday in Lent
Prayer of the Day
Most Holy and Gracious God, as we speak of your covenant love, help us to love one another. As we praise you for all your gracious care, help us to show tenderness to each other. Give us thankful and generous hearts that are full of love. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Scripture
Mark 8:31-38
Then Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all of this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Message
Acting As If Jesus Is Lord
Larry Gallamore
It isn’t easy for us to know that Jesus was doing all the right things and still lost his life. Some of you have had similar situations in your life. You do all the right things, and you end up in a difficult situation. In our Scripture lesson for today, Jesus is preparing his disciples for what lies ahead. Jesus was so focused on his mission that his disciples were concerned about him. They often spoke up, especially Peter. Jesus had to remind them that he was focused on divine things, not human things.
Jesus really believed what he taught and so completely lived his teachings that he was able to demonstrate them. He knew that in the final analysis of things everything was going to work out, and it did.
Jesus was so connected to God that he knew where the truth laid. This is why he said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” He calls us to this incredible way of life even when it means taking up a cross. Jesus knows how hard it is sometimes just to keep going. It was hard for the early disciples. They had no idea what was about to happen. It’s hard to believe when times are tough, when all looks dark, and all you have is a promise. What’s one to do when every day calls you to despair, to give up, or to an endless life of wondering why this or that is happening?
Jesus was a master at offering hope. With Jesus, things always seem to work out. What he was telling his disciples, in this Scripture, was more than they wanted to hear. He is talking about everyone’s least favorite subjects, suffering and death. He is preparing them, telling them they are going to have to live like him – to adopt his philosophy for living.
Have you ever known anyone who lived like Jesus? I’ve known many. The first person I encountered living like Jesus was my grandfather, Henry. Looking back, I didn’t know what I had discovered. I was only seven-years-old when I started to have more contact with this Christ-like person, a person who knew the secret of living. He looked upon life with a radiant expression. He had a cheerful enthusiasm with a receptive mind. He felt everyone in the world was for him, and they were. He always believed everything would come out right in the end. He had an inner conviction that things were fundamentally right with the world.
Do you have any idea how much influence that kind of person can have on a person, especially a seven-year-old? Looking back, I realize he had a great impact on everyone he encountered. Some of you have known people like this; others are not so fortunate. Some of you have had the opposite experience with people who surrounded you who were anything but Christ-like.
If you’ve had Christ-like people around you, you realize how important it is for you to be Christ-like. If you have not had such people, you realize how much you may have missed, and you are determined to be more Christ-like to others. You know that anyone can grow, change, and learn. All of us can grow to be more Christ-like.
I read a wonderful story a few days ago that illustrates what I have just said. The author, Ron Lee Dunn, tells the story of two altar boys. One was born in 1892 in Eastern Europe. The other was born just three years later in a small town in Illinois. Though they lived very separate lives in very different parts of the world, these two altar boys had almost identical experiences.
Each boy was given the opportunity to assist his parish priest in the service of communion. Ironically, while handling the communion cup, they both accidentally spilled some of the wine on the carpet by the altar. There the similarity in their stories ends.
The priest in the Eastern-European church, seeing the purple stain, slapped the altar boy across the face and shouted, “Clumsy oaf! Leave the altar.” The little boy grew up to become an atheist. His name was Josip Tito – dictator of Yugoslavia for 37 years.
The priest in the church in Illinois, upon seeing the purple stain near the altar, knelt down beside the boy and looked him tenderly in the eyes and said, “It’s alright, son. You’ll do better next time. You’ll be a fine priest for God someday.” That little boy grew up to become the much-loved Bishop Fulton J. Sheen.
We owe it to ourselves and those around us to act as if we can change and improve, to act as if we all deserve another chance, and to live as if God is the Great Parent of all of God’s children. When we love others as Jesus did, we are immersed in God’s Spirit. We find a way of life that helps us to be a blessing. In turn, God blesses us more and more. We are always moving forward in life from one success to another. We are positive about life. We believe in life; we believe in God; and we believe the best about others.
Perhaps some of you are asking, “How do we get to this plane of living?” You start as Jesus recommends. You start where you are. You take up your cross and start following Jesus. You start standing on God’s promises, stepping out in faith, hoping, trusting, and believing; knowing that God will show you the way. God will turn your darkness into light, your doubt into belief as you courageously face the unfaceable. You’ll overcome problems you never imagined overcoming. You’ll go forward with God’s Spirit in spite of all circumstances. You’ll become more than a conqueror. You’ll become one of God’s disciples living in the 21st century. It sounds exciting, doesn’t it? It is. Good things will start flowing into your life.
Now I know none of you want a cross to bear. Nevertheless, there will be crosses to bear in your life. What Jesus is saying is pick up your cross, walk alongside the One who was crucified. Let God give you strength; let God bless you. Let God comfort and reassure you. New life comes when you bear your cross, stand with Christ, and face the reality of life.
Some of you are, no doubt, asking what about this expression in today’s Scripture that says, “Those who would save his life will lose it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?” Truly this text is highly misunderstood. What does it mean? Does it mean God demands that we give up or lose everything? Of course not! To suppose that God wants us to be limited is to contradict the divine nature of God. God only wants us to be obedient. What we need to give up is our desire to live apart from God. Whatever we have to give up will not be good for any human being in the first place. What we need to lose is the idea that we can make it on our own, the idea that causes us to isolate ourselves from God and from others, the idea if we are left alone we can find our own way.
Isn’t it amazing that people have tried their own way and failed, but they keep trying? In failure after failure, they do the same thing over and over again and boast “I did it my way.” That’s the life we need to lose.
Real life, successful Christian living, is living the teachings of Jesus. We are connected to God, to life, to hope, to faith, to everything good in the universe. We are God’s children living beyond our doubts.
Have you ever noticed that the life of a child is lived in natural goodness? In their little minds there are no doubts. Kids can do anything. Anything is possible for most children and most teenagers. It’s when we become adults that we set up all kinds of limitations.
At the turn of the last century, a Methodist bishop by the name of Wright declared that humans would never fly. Care to guess the name of his two sons? Yes, it was Orville and Wilber Wright.
When we start getting a little older, the wall of false experiences soon build themselves into barriers, shutting out the light and causing us to trust more and more in our own abilities and less and less in God’s ability. We soon lose that sense, that inner guide that seems to direct us. We start to believe we are self-made, we pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, we believe we can make it on our own. Life hands us cross after cross. We try to carry them but end up on our knees. That’s why the Bible says, “Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord.”
We have to go back; we have to come home just like the prodigal son. We have to come to ourselves and go back where God has control of life, where we trust God like a little child. We know that this kind of life is good. We know God can be trusted. We know God has solutions to our problems.
This is the life that Jesus says we’ll find. You have to lose that old life and discover a new one. With your new life, you’re not ashamed of God. You are not ashamed of God’s Word. And you’re not ashamed that you can’t make it on your own. In fact, like the prodigal son going home, you’re happy to know that God is still your Father. Let me assure you – God is happy you are coming home. The glory and the gifts of God are awaiting you.
This morning, I’m telling you there is a dream life. There is a promise of a better life for you when you act upon it. It’s a life that God is eagerly waiting to give you.
So be it. Amen.
Benediction
Lord of our lives, there will be times when we do not understand the plan. There are times when we feel like Peter, and want to deny what is painfully true. The divine truth is that you have given us life in offering your own. In love, we turn to you to say, “Thank You,” and we offer ourselves in service and devotion. Take us, mold us, use us, and fill us. Amen.
