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Apostle's Creed 04_19.08.2012
| 21.08.2012, 20:25 | |
| Rev. Tatiana Cantarella Psalm 130; Isaiah 53:1-6, 12; John 3:13-21; 1 Corinthians 15:17-28; John 11:25-26 Series of sermons on the Apostle's Creed 04: "I believe …in Jesus Christ, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead” Last week we began exploring what Scriptures say about Jesus Christ and learned that God Almighty Himself left His heavenly glory and came in human flesh to become one of us and to bring us back to God. We read that only Jesus – fully divine and fully human – could become for us the Way, the Truth and the life, revealing God and His will for us. For "No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known” (Jn. 1:18). We learned that Jesus was the Messiah that the people of Israel awaited for many centuries to bring salvation according to the promises of God. And according to the Gospels, Jesus went around Palestine proclaiming the Kingdom of God was finally near. And not only with His words but with His actions He testified to the fact that the ancient prophecies were being fulfilled and God Himself is intervening and acting to save His people and to set the world right. But the way God was about to do it was remaining unclear for many because almost from the beginning of His ministry Jesus said, "the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again” (Mk. 8:31). That’s not exactly what Jesus’ disciples expected. They considered Jesus to be the Messiah of Israel, the Anointed of the Lord, the king that was so long expected. They expected that He would lead the people again the enemies of Israel – the gentiles, that he would restore the Temple and strengthen his royal position and the kingdom of Israel. They believed that Messiah will become the representative of God to Israel and of Israel before God. And that’s why His words about His coming suffering and death didn’t really fit into the expectations of people about Messiah. But Jesus understood that the real enemy was not the gentiles who prevented Israel from being faithful to God. The real enemy is the power of evil that stands behind the pride and violence of people. The true enemy is the sin that creates bigger and bigger chasm between God and the people. The true enemy is death that destroys God’s creation, sucking the life out of it. The Scripture says: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). It says that people "offered yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness” and became "slaves to sin” and "What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!” (Rom. 6:19, 20, 21), for the "wages of sin is death” (6:23). The essence of evil is rebellion again God and idolatry as the result. Human beings were created to be a wise God’s administrators in the created world but instead they turned away from their Creator and began worshiping things instead of God. And those things for a while help them feel more powerful and bring satisfaction and pleasure. But the result is death because when humans cease worshiping God they turn to the things that have no life in them and thus can rip only death. Have you noticed how the Creed immediately moves from the birth and incarnation of Jesus to His suffering, crucifixion, death and resurrection? It says nothing about His miracles, about crowds of people that followed Him, about healings or what He said or taught. By doing that the Creed is trying to tell us that Jesus was born to suffer and die. He didn’t come in hopes that He somehow can teach us the right way and when that didn’t work He went to the cross. His death wasn’t a plan B. He came to lay His life down. One of the most common myths of our time is the myth of progress that believes that this imperfect, full of hatred and deceit world has a chance of getting better if only people choose the way of progress, education and culture. And because many people believe this myth, politicians are so successful in offering their projects and preaching faith in progress and modernization. They say: "vote for me and things will get better! We will make everything better through education and hard work.” And such conviction doesn’t really have a place for God. Things will get better on their own as long as we work hard and progress. But people who think that way are like the people in the boat that row really hard towards the shore while a strong tide carries them away further and further into the open sea. But they don’t see that their efforts are futile and that they will perish whatever they do and so they call others to follow them: "c’mon, the earth is near!” And such is the state of humanity sunk deep into sin and moving towards destruction, unable to save itself no matter how it tries to convince itself that it can if it tries hard enough. And until we understand that we will never understand why Jesus had to come. The problem of "progress myth” is that it doesn’t solve the problem of evil in the world, the evil that seems to grow along with the progress. Think how often progress not only brings the good but also gives birth to evil. Remember Hiroshima? Think how along with progress rose Auschwitz and Apartheid, slavery and children abuse… And the problem of evil in this world will never be solved by straight forward movement of humans to the light but only by God the Creator coming down into the darkness of this world to save every human being and the whole creation that is in trouble and have become slaves of their own sin that will eventually kill them. Jesus knew what He came to do and from the very beginning He was set upon Jerusalem where He ended up (not by chance) at Passover. Do you remember what was celebrated at Passover? The exodus of the people of Israel from the Egyptian slavery and the beginning of their journey to the promised land (see Exodus 3). Jesus knew: now God is about to do an ultimate Exodus that will lead the people of Israel and the whole world, every person out of the bondage of sin and into the new promised land, the land of new creation, renewed relationship with God and live in Him. He knew that His teaching, healings and miracles He did will not change anything in the world and in people. Prophets spoke to people about God and good for many centuries but people kept choosing sin and turning away from God. During that last Passover Jesus gathered His disciples around the table. He gave them the bread and called it His body that is being broken for His friends because Jesus will take upon Himself the whole burden of sin so that it will not crush their own heads. He called the Passover cup of wine His blood because He was about to shed His blood voluntarily and take upon Himself their sin and guilt and punishment. The time has come when God will finally free his people and the whole world not just from some enemies but from evil itself, from the enslaving power of sin. Some one once imagined a conversation between God the Father and God the Son as they decided how to save their perishing creation. "You know, Son, so many times I have asked my children to take care of my creations and to bring the good fruit of righteousness and justice, to live in my presence, to love mercy, to walk humbly before Me. But they kept getting it wrong, I told them that I desire mercy, not sacrifice; desire their acknowledgement of Me and not burnt offerings, I desire justice. I sent them prophets, Son, but they did not listen to them. I looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress. Son, I am afraid that the only thing I can do now is send You". And the Son answered, "Yes, Father, and I will go". And when the time came the whole evil of this world fell on the One who had no sin in Him, Who had perfect love for God and for all people, the only One who deserved not to die but volunteered to die in our place. He allowed to be arrested and tried for the crimes He did not commit, He was condemned to death and nailed to the cross on Calvary. The tears and the pain of all of world history came together at Calvary where God responded to them all. The sorrow of heaven came together with the suffering of earth, the forgiving love of God was poured down onto this world and broke the bondages of sin and death giving this world another chance. A 30 minute film came out in 2003 that is called "The Bridge”. Its film-maker using real events is trying to demonstrate a difficult choice a loving father needs to make: letting his son die he saves the lives of many people. Let’s see a short video that is based on that film and this true story. (Most of it will be clear and the captions you will see there say the following: There was a man…and he had a son that he loved very much…This man was a bridge operator working at the railroad…his son loved to watch trains…and the travellers…some were lonely…some were bitter…some narcissistic…some hurt…some addicted…then a tragic mistake…put him before a difficult choice…to allow all the train passengers die…or to pull the lever letting the bridge crush his own son…salvation of all required the sacrifice of the One…the most precious…the sacrifice of One gave hope for the future… "For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life” (John 3:16). When I watched that video on the internet I was amazed at the variety of responses and comments to it. Some people were able to see the depth of the father’s love who made a decision to save many with the price of his own son’s death. But others were spitting insults and wrote very negative comments, full of hatred and misunderstanding. Many were offended that the father sacrificed his son for these druggies on the train who don’t care neither for him nor for his son, others wrote with pride that unlike this idiot they would save their own son and they would not give a *** about the people on this train that they didn’t even know. I was getting sick reading these angry comments because it was demonstrating once again how sinful human being is, how selfish, how unable to see beyond one’s own needs and desires. And these commentators not even for a second paused to realize that they are not really some objective observers or critics of this situation and of this father, they are among those people on the train called "life”, they are those "lonely, hurt, despairing, addicted, indifferent, angry, narcissistic” people. And Christ showed his love for them and for us by dying for us and for them, for all the sinners (alcoholics, haters, slanderers, liars etc) when we didn’t care, when we were going around doing our own business. He did it because He didn’t want any of us to perish and gave us a chance. And these sufferings and death He considered worth it especially when seeing people who woke up and accepted that sacrifice, turned away from their sin and began living and new life (like that young lady in the film). And of course, this video is an imperfect illustration of what God did for us in Christ. It shows that sacrificial love with which the Father loved us and the Son as well as He gave Himself for the people who didn’t deserve such love. But if that was the end of the story, then the death of Christ would be the greatest blind tragic accident. But the Bible proclaims that unexpected by everybody Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, demonstrating a powerful victory of God over evil that couldn’t keep hold of the One who had no sin. And that’s what testified to the final victory of God over sin, God who broke the bondage of death. The Creed is not by chance describes Christ’s death in so many words, saying that Jesus "suffered, was crucified, died and was buried, and descended into hell” – the Creed wants to undercut any doubts and shows that Jesus really was killed, was very much dead and not just beaten and bruised and perhaps fainted. No, He gave Himself into the hands of death, gave Himself voluntarily but death couldn’t hold Him and God raised Him from the dead, trampled death by death. And with resurrection of Jesus out of that tomb came out the new creation, a world full of new opportunities was born. We, fallen and enslaved by sin people were lifted up, were put back on our feet and we began breathing and new air and entrusted with going into the world to bring it that new creation and the message about it! Believing in the resurrecting of Jesus is not a matter of a strange 1st century event but a question of hope for the 21st century. The Bible says that Christ was crucified for us, His death washed away our sins and He trampled death with His death and having risen from the dead he offers us life. This is the point of Christianity. So, do you believe that Christ died? Died for you and rose from the dead to the glory of God the Father? If so, there is only one appropriate answer to that amazing truth: to confess your sin, your fallen nature, that for so long we’ve tried to live independently, to act as if we owned our lives. We need to trust Jesus and to give Him our whole life, to surrender, to ask for forgiveness, realizing that we were going the wrong way and being ready to start a new life, to start anew, from the basics. This is what Christians call repentance and when we do repent – God who is faithful and just forgives us our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness (1 Jn. 1:9). Praise be to God for His love, for Christ’s sacrifice and for the empty tomb. | |
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