His first petition for us, and the church universal, was that we would be one. This is a hard truth especially in our world where the church of Jesus Christ seems so divided. Having left Europe where following the Reformation whole nations would adopt one form of Christianity over another; the Germans were Lutheran, the English Anglican, the Scottish Presbyterian, the list goes on. As people from these countries began to migrate to America they brought their forms of Christianity with them. Add to this the many splinter groups that have arisen, the reasons that are too numerous to mention in one sermon, and you have the state of Christianity that we have in our country at this time. Add the world situation and the state of the world church and things just get more complicated. The world looking on seems to thing that the church is divided and in many ways our behavior in the past has strengthened this idea.

We come now to Jesus High Priestly Prayer and we read that he prayed that his people would be one as he and the Father are one. So we have a dilemma. There are certainly differences in our various beliefs and these are not to be minimized. We do not all see every doctrine in Scripture the same way. There are many reasons for that. The Scriptures are filtered through our unique cultural eyes, or traditions were the result of addressing particular problems and put emphasis on certain things in God’s word to the exclusion of others. This has lead to each group having both strengths and weaknesses. Each sees certain things clearly and focuses on them while other things are viewed through a dim glass as Paul reminds us. Yet Jesus prayed that we would be one as he and the Father are one.

What is riding on the unity of the church; anything? Is unity just a desire that Jesus had? Is it just a Rodney King, “Why can’t we all just get along,” idea, or is there something else at stake?

Remember that the redemption of God has to do with the reversal of the effects of the fall. When sin entered the world we were cut off from God and where driven from his presence. Death entered the world for the first time and we have been dealing with that reality ever since.

But something else happened as well. We were cut off from relationships with each other. This reality is also with us. Friendships break down, families fall apart, racism rears its ugly head, and wars ravage the planet because we just can’t seem to get along.

In a way to turn this all around God the Father took action. Looking down upon the mess our disobedience has created the heart of God was moved to compassion. God so loved the world that he took on flesh and made his home among us. The Incarnation, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection and the Ascension of Christ were God’s redemptive response to our sin. All who believe in Jesus would be adopted into the family of God and we would all be new creatures in Christ Jesus, called together as to declare his glory to the lost around us.

The problem is that we still await the full redemption of Christ. We wait for his return when we will be fully redeemed. When we will be like Christ because we will see him as he really is. So the question remains, what is at stake in the pray of Jesus?

The prayer of Jesus is an evangelistic one. Jesus prays for the unity of the church so that the world looking on would know that the Father sent the Son. We are not here to win doctrinal arguments but to shine forth the glory of God. The world is watching,

The world we live in is a complex one. The more I like into sociology and anthropology the more I realize how hard it is to communicate with others who come from different places. We are all influenced by our unique cultures and histories. The way we view time and use language, the spoken and unspoken was we communicate as well as our varied presuppositions complicate the communication process.

When we were all from basically the same place and shared the same values and view history through the same lens it was easier to agree and from a unified front. That is no longer the case. Each of us works with the assumption that we are right and we see the world clearly. We hold to the idea that everyone else sees things exactly as we do. The problem, when there is conflict is that the other person, who knows what to do, has chosen to do the wrong thing. Unity will only be attained when I can convince you that my way is the right way and you fall in line.

The world is more complicated than that. Paul reminds us that we see through a glass dimly. The history of the early church is a history of conflict resolution. The Aramaic speaking Jews neglected the Greek speaking ones. No one like the Samaritans and every Christian Jew initially hated the Gentiles. At every point God had to teach the church toward greater understanding and unity. Thought they often kept their distinctiveness they could still come together as one and this is the challenge before us.

There are certain doctrines that designate us as Christians, things the entire church agrees upon. We all, in order to be indentified as Christian must believe in the diety of Christ, the incarnation, the death and resurrection of Jesus. We must be Trinitarian in our understanding of God; God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We must believe that the Holy Spirit is the Lord and give of life. We recite the creeds each week because believing those things gives to us the designation of Christian. In the essentials there must be absolute unity.

In other areas things are not so clear. Each of us takes a position but with the understanding that to fully understand God is beyond our ability to comprehend. The infinite God cannot be grasped by our finite minds. We can’t all agree on all things and no one really expects that. No two people agree completely on anything yet we walk in unity with others on lots of issues.

While holding to the uncompromising truths of the gospel we must learn to walk together with our other brothers and sisters in Christ. The world is watching. Admitting that we might not have complete understanding in all things is a humbling position to take but it is the only one open to us. If we see only partially we must be open to learn from others who are walking after Christ as we are.

We cannot be afraid to interact with different ideas that challenge our thinking because Jesus has prayed for our unity. He is the one who has asked the Father to bring us together in unity as a family. The diversity of our backgrounds and cultures are God ordained. At Babel God confused the languages so that we cannot unify against God and see ourselves as gods. At Pentecost understanding began to take place. People called into the family of God began to live out their faith together. There were struggles to work it all out as peoples understandings grew but internal disagreements were kept in perspective.

The world is watching and what is at stake is their understanding that the Father has sent the Son to redeem the world. We cannot let sibling rivalries with in the body of Christ destroy the reputation of our Savior in the eyes of the world.

I would call upon you this morning to add to your prayers the well being of the church in this city and throughout the world. Though we will not agree on every point of doctrine our enemies are not the Baptist or the Presbyterians but the world. Grow in grace and your understanding of your faith as defined by our traditions and spiritual heritage but no that out side of the essentials we hold our faith open before the Father. The very fact of the Reformation informs us that we can all err. Love those who love Jesus and walk in grace together with them.

Prayer is one of those topics of conversation that come up often in Christian circles. It is our link to the almighty. It is through prayer that we touch the hand of our eternal Father. Prayer links us to God.

Conversations about prayer tend to go all over the map. Does prayer really change things just because we ask? Should prayers be spontaneous or written down and composed? Is pray a time to ask God for stuff that we need? Who exactly do we pray to; the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit? What exactly happens when we pray? Do we change the mind of God? How often should we pray? Does God wait until we have prayed a certain length of time before he answers us? If so how long should we pray? Does time matter?

I have heard and participated in many such conversations. Add to that the idea of speaking in tongues and the whole issue can go off in many directions many of which are interesting but few are really helpful. Let me though my ideas into the mix and see if lead to some understanding.

I believe that all life is relational. The redemption of God is about rebuilding the community that God intended from the first. Before anything that we know was God existed and he existed in community. We understand God to be triune; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The three are present in the beginning at creation. We see the Father, the Word, and the Spirit in the act of creation. When we get to day six God says to himself, “Let us make man in our own image and likeness.”

God creates man to be in fellowship with him. In the cool of the evening God would come down and walk with Adam in the garden. Communal relationship was at the center of creation. Looking down at what he made God understands that it is not good for man to be alone and so he makes Eve to be a helpmate, a partner, a sharer in the cultural mandate.

Then sin happens. Mankind disobeys God and the fellowship between them is broken. There is a break in the relationship between the man and the women and we see that being played out all around us. There is a longing to be together but sin keeps causing breaks in the relationships. Cain kills Abel. We are separated from God and one another and as a result we have no peace. St Augustine rightly understood that our hearts are restless until they find rest in God. We long to be a peace with one another but sin keeps raising its ugly head.

Mankind continued throughout history to try to bridge the gaps and rebuild community. We find the biblical story of Babel where they unit together to build a tower to the heavens and then they would be unstoppable. Through out history there are records of communal experiments that never work out because it is a sin question.

When we get to the story in our text Jesus is winding down his earthly ministry. Jesus had been speaking about his death. He tells them that when he returns to them, risen from the dead though they don’t yet quite understand, they will have joy. The relationship would be once again restored. From the position of a restored relationship they, we, will be able to ask anything from the Father in Jesus name and he will answer our prayers. And so he tells them ask.

If we are in relationship with the Father and ask nothing of him are we really in relationship with him? If we are needed and God is the answer to our greatest need and yet we ask nothing of him are we really in communion with him?

Jesus tells them there is nothing new here. He has been telling them these things all along but he has been using figures of speech because they could not yet understand but at the cross everything changes. Post resurrection we can go to the Father in Jesus name and our conversation will be direct. Jesus will not ask the Father in our behalf we have access to the Father ourselves. And here is the key verse; “for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me (Jesus), and have believed that I come from God.” The Father himself loves you. Our heart has no rest until it finds rest in God and at the cross the door was open and the relationship restored.

Jesus came from the Father into the world and then left the world to return to the Father with the express purpose of restoration of all of creation with God. This is the summation of the history of redemption. The disciples think they have finally gotten it. “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.”

Jesus response, if I might paraphrase, is, “Oh, really.” In a few days they would all be scattered, Jesus arrested and executed. Don’t worry Jesus assures them because he is not alone, that the Father is with him. This will all work out he assures them. Their redemption is secure. He tells them that he wants them to know that so that they might have peace.

Prayer is about peace and not about stuff. Do you pray because it is evidence that you have peace with God or do you pray for stuff? Certainly we are encouraged to bring our needs before the Father but that is not the significance of pray. That is a side benefit if you will. We pray to God because we can and I mean that in the most profound way possible.

When Jesus died the curtain in the temple that separated the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place was torn in two from top to bottom. The Holy of Holies was the place where the presence of God came down and rested in the midst of the people. Only the High Priest could enter into God’s presence and he could do it only once a year. He would have to make sacrifice for himself first and then for the sins of the people. He had bells tied around the hem of his garment and a rope tied to his ankle. As long as the bells were heard ringing from behind the curtain the people know everything was all right. If the bells stopped ringing they knew there was a problem. The High Priest had entered into the presence of God in an unworthy manner and dropped dead. Since no one could enter into the presence of God but the High Priest the rope around his ankle was there so they could pull the dead body out. God was serious about his holiness.

But Jesus died and cried up just before the end that, “It is finished.” At that point God ripped the curtain and the way into his presence was open to all who would believe on his Son. At that moment the curse of the Fall had been reversed, the relationship restored and finally our hearts could find rest as we rest in God. In a word we have peace.

So why is prayer important. The stuff is the extra blessing. Prayer is important because it is how we experientially enjoy the peace with God that was purchased for us on the cross.

Relationships are experiential. If you don’t spend time with someone you have no relationship. If you never commune with a person there is no relationship. Relationships are built on face-to-face encounters. With God those encounters take place when we pray. The victory of the cross is the presence of God. The hope of the church is that we will spend eternity in the presence of God. The eternal presence of God, until the return of Jesus, is best experienced in times of prayer. In the world you have trouble, but on the cross Jesus overcame the world. We can now pray.

Racial profiling was a big issue in the early church. We like to think that they had gotten it under control and that we are the recipients of their enlightened understanding. After all we are new creatures in Christ Jesus and in the body of Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female, we are all one big happy family. The church is heaven on earth.

Our read from the book of Acts this morning is the retelling of the story of Peter’s encounter with Cornelius the Gentile and his family. This is such an important story that Luke recounts the whole story twice so that we understand how significant it is and how important this event is in the history of racial reconciliation in the church.

Ethnic differences were a problem in the church from its very inception. There was the disagreement over aid to the widows. The Aramaic speaking widows, Jews from Judea and Palestine verses the Greek-speaking widows from the Diaspora, those from outside of the nation of Israel. Location has always mattered. Where you are from determined how you were viewed. Manhattan verse the rest of the city, the city verse the Island, New York verses New Jersey, the north verse the south, you get the idea. Place matters in peoples thinking. The widows’ controversy was an in house Jewish thing.

Then there was the Jewish verse the Samaritan issue. Philip preached the gospel to the Samaritans and they got saved. Could have breed Samaritans become Christians. Samaritans were at least in part descended from the Jewish line. Again God said yes they could.

Finally we come to this story of Cornelius. He is a Gentile. No Jewish blood, no shared culture, in fact the Jews and Gentiles hated each other. The problem arose when Cornelius, who was drawn to the religion of the Jews’ started breaking down the dividing walls between the two groups by giving aid to the Jewish people and contributing to their synagogue. Than he got really radical and he started to pray to their God, the maker of heaven and earth. Guess what? God heard and answered his prayer. He told Cornelius to get Peter and he would explain the way of salvation to him.

Peter as of yet had no idea that he was going to be used by God to break down walls of prejudice and hate. He was napping one day on the roof of the house where he was staying and he had a vision from the Lord; a sheet was let down and in it were all kinds of clean and unclean animals. God tells Peter to kill and eat them. Peter is repulsed. It goes farther then Peter defending his religious beliefs. Peter was sickened by the animals God was telling him to eat. Someone compared it to one of us being told to kill and eat dogs and roaches. God was preparing Peter to deal with deep seed prejudice. God told him not to call unclean that he had made clean. God was getting Peter ready to deal with Cornelius as a brother in Christ.

The hatred of the Jews toward the Gentiles is found throughout the Scriptures and especially in the New Testament and even in the Gospels. Do you remember the story of the Gentile woman who approached Jesus while he was eating and asked him to heal her daughter? Remember Jesus told her that healing was for the children and not Gentile dogs? Did you notice that no one at the table seemed shocked that Jesus called the woman a dog? You know why? They had no problem with that label. Gentiles were dogs in their minds. Peter was at that table. Peter who often spoke up when he had a problem with what was going on remained silent because Peter hated Gentiles. He wouldn’t eat with them nor would he have anything to do with them. Salvation is of the Jews and Peter being a Jew was good with that. Jesus wasn’t good with that and he commends the woman’s faith and heals her child. He was getting Peter and the others read to have their world turned upside down.

Peter ends up going to Cornelius’ house and witnessing the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them. Seeing God was calling even Cornelius the Gentile into the kingdom Peter baptizes them. Don’t call unclean what God calls clean.

Peter will struggle with ethnic issues for the rest of his life. In Galatia he is fine with the Gentiles until Jews from Jerusalem show up and then he separates from them and Paul has to rebuke him. Our deep seeded prejudice dies hard.

Peter, by his associations, had determined within himself who was savable, who was worth of the gospel. We are no different. We predetermine who is kingdom worthy and we act accordingly. God has commissioned us to take the message of salvation to the whole world be we only share it with people like ourselves. I witness it in church so I am sure it happens outside of church all of the time.

When someone like us visits the church they are warmly welcomed. Shared experiences make the encounters easy. When someone a little different visits the dynamics change. Fewer people approach them. We feel a little uncomfortable. We are not sure we want them to get to comfortable around us. Now we don’t come out and say that. It is more than likely unconscious on our part. We just feel a little out of place around them and so we don’t reach out.

I am not saying we will overcome those feelings easily. What I am saying is don’t call unclean what God has called clean. God does his greatest work among the least desirable people. It is the downcast and the outcast that God is drawing to himself. Paul tells us to look around. In the kingdom there are not many rich, not many beautiful, not many wise. God calls the poor, the despised of this world, those who are viewed as foolish into his kingdom.

Jesus often speaks out against the religious of his day. Those who thought they were on the inside with God were really outside of the kingdom. James warns us that we need to be careful whom we show favoritism too. Don’t give the best seats in the church to the wealthy and shun the poor. It is the rich who Jesus warns will have a hard time getting into the kingdom. Do we really believe that?

Peter was asked over and over again to serve the least. He was to be fair to the Greek-speaking widows who were neglected by the church. He was to open the kingdom to the Samaritans when they received the gospel of hope. And Peter was to reach out to Cornelius the Gentile and baptize them into the kingdom.

God has not changed. We are called to reach out to the undesirables in our city. We are called to serve them. The Jews rejected, hated the Gentiles. The church was called to bring them in on an equal footing. There are many outcasts in our society. Honestly we share our cultural distain for them if we will be honest with ourselves. Remember that white Americans, dominant culture people never have to think about racial issues. Well off people, who are employed never have to think about where the next meal is coming from or how to pay the rent. White middle class Americans just live their lives and never think about having to fit in. There are a lot of people who don’t share that privilege.

The Gentiles could only get into the kingdom if Peter the insider opened the door for them. We will only truly become a church of all nations if the you the body begin to wrestle with your own presuppositions and invite the cut off of society into our midst. The goal is not to make them like us but to serve them and embrace them as they are and love them into Christ.

We don’t like to talk about this topic. It makes us all uncomfortable, but that is the purpose of the gospel. Jesus was a friend to sinners. Are you?

As Christians we are left with a number of burning questions that are theological in nature. We are in the season of Easter where we are celebrating life. Jesus rose from the dead to conquer death and give us life and yet we are confronted with by death. Not the expected death that comes at the end of a good life. Not even the death that comes after a long illness both of which are hard to face. Instead we are confronted with senseless death; a freak accident and mass murder from deranged individuals who were on some kind of mission we can’t possible understand.

On the one hand we ask the question, where is the loving God we worship? The one who cares for his children and for all of creation? And on the other hand in order to try and avoid the first question we blame shift and ask, whose fault is this? What did these people do to deserve what happened to them?

These are not new questions. It’s just that we only think about them when confronted with disasters. But as difficult as these questions are they are the real questions we are forced to face all the time. They are the questions of life.

The foundation of our questions lies in the fact that we live in a fallen world. Sin is the pool in which we swim. From the first act of disobedience the world has been cut off from intimate fellowship with God and everything is tainted by sin. Death reigns in this life.

The history of the world centers around the fact that God is reconciling the world back to himself. Our story is the story of redemption. God is in Christ Jesus seeking to be reconciled with creation. All of creation is groaning, await the redemption of all things. We, people created in the image of God are lost until we find our hope and fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

Because of sin and the fact that we have not yet fully experienced the redemption of God, we await the second come of Jesus when he will restore all things, we see through a dark glass. We see something’s relatively clearly but most things are shadowy, incomplete. We are left with unanswered questions, dilemmas that beg for answers.

The problem with the explosion in Texas is the God is in control of all things. We are not Deists. We do not believe that God created the world and set all things in motion and then stepped back. He is not a spectator on the sidelines watching the events of the world unfold with no say in the mater. Nor do we hold to the idea that, whatever will be will be. We are not fatalists.

For the Christian God is in control of all things. He is omnipotent, has all power at his disposal and can do all things. He is omniscient; he knows everything. And he Omnipresent; he is everywhere at once. So if I believe this about God I am left with a few questions.

If God is all knowing, all powerful and everywhere present why did he allow the plant to explode and why did he let those two men plant the bomb. Why did he not keep people away and protect them from being hurt and killed. Why allow the accident that he could have prevented and why did he let the plans of the evil men bring the city of Boston to its knees? He knew about the events before hand, he was present at each one and he had the power to stop them? He didn’t.

You have only a few choices in answering these questions. They can be proof that God does not exist. If there is a God why does he allow evil to happen to innocent people? If God does exist the question is does he really care what happens to us? Is he really a loving God or does he not care at best or does he derive some kind of pleasure in our suffering? After all we have rejected him. Or are we left with a simple, we don’t know and must trust in the nature of God as revealed to us?

There is a religious response to these tragedies. It’s the one the disciples asked Jesus when confronted with man who was blind from birth and the one the friends of Job used to comfort him. It’s a simple question that gets us off the hook and frees us from having to deal with the serious doubts these events cause. Whose fault is this? What have these people done to deserve what happened to them? Is the plant explosion the judgment of God upon that town? Is the bombing in Boston the just desert for a city that has turned its back on God? After all God rewards the just and punishes the wicked so what did they do to deserve this?

The more spiritual among us are quick to point out that believers who die in these tragedies go right to heaven and so these events are actually blessings in disguise. Though this is true it’s a bit cold hearted if you ask me and comes off insensitive.

Our only hope in situations like these is to rest on the nature of God as revealed to us in Jesus. The loss of life was never a trivial event for Jesus. He never said, “Don’t worry, eternal life awaits and everything will be fine in the end.”

At the death of Lazarus Jesus cried, he wept. Death is a sad thing that is our present reality because of the sinful world in which we live. Death is always a sad reality and something we must all face and something that we all on some level fear. When Jesus was entering Jerusalem for the last time before his execution, as we was coming over the top of the mountain he caught sight of the city and was moved to tears because of their sin and the fact that they rejected him their only hope.

God is not sidelined by the events of this world. He’s attitude is not that the people are getting what they deserve. He is not unmoved by our struggles. But neither is he caught off guard.

He knew both of these events before they took place and though he could have stopped them he did not. We need to face that reality or we are not dealing with the God of the Bible. God’s ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts. This is a humbling reality that we must come to grips with.

When the disciples asked Jesus whose fault it was that the man was born blind, his or his parents they were looking for an excuse to cover for God. They were trying to reconcile a loving God with a situation that they had no answer for. This week we are looking for the same answers. How could God allow this to happen it must be somebody’s fault because if not we don’t know what to do with God?

Religion seeks to take God as it understands him and then makes excuses for what is not understood. If something happens that does not fit our preconceptions of God we make excuses for God to relieve our internal struggles with unanswered and at times unanswerable questions.

Jesus answer to them is profound. “It is neither the man’s sins nor his parents but this situation exists for the glory of God.” Now don’t though this out as a quick answer for a hard question.

This is Easter and it is in Easter that I believe that we begin to see some resolution to our concerns. Sin exists in the world and God in his infinite mercy lets sin play out in his plan for reconciliation. We right sin off, down play it, redefine it but the events of the past week cause us to face it. The Boston events were clearly evil. These two men sought the harm of innocent people for their own reasons. There sin is clearly before us. The Texas event reminds us that all of creation struggles because of the fall. Accidents were never a part of the garden experience. Nature and mankind are in a battle and this tragedy is a part of living in a fallen world.

On one hand God let these and other events take place. Let us not forget that these events are not unique to our history they are just the one’s we are experiencing in the present. God allows sin on a certain level to run its course to keep our attention, but the focus must be turned to the glory of God.

In a very real sense God has addressed both of these events and here is where our theology must touch life or it is of no value to us. God’s answer to sin is not to address every situation, to prevent every evil from occurring, to rush in and divert ever evil from taking place. God has chosen to root out evil, to destroy it at the root. The answer to Texas, and to Boston and to every fear and doubt that you have is the cross. It is on the cross were the all knowing, all powerful, ever present God addresses sin once and for all.

The wages of sin is death and we have seen it in all off its ugliness this week. But the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus and that is the Easter story. Jesus died to pay for the sins of the world. Jesus died so that my miserable life with all of its sins and shortcomings could find rest and hope in him. The hope is offered to all who will believe. Texas and Boston should drive us into the arms of God. I am not offering quick trite answers to hard questions. I am inviting you with all of your doubts and fears to look to Jesus the author and finisher of your faith.

What we know is that this that we have experienced is the aberration and not the norm. They are the results of life in the fallen world. As Christians our hope is in the resurrection. We walk this world in sorrow at the effects of sin. We are left with many questions. Faith points us to the cross. It is there that we see the heart of God.

Jesus was identified in the abundance of the catch. After a night of futility the disciples were so caught up in their lack of success, they were so distracted that they didn’t recognize Jesus standing on the shore.

I am not sure why they listened to this apparent stranger who told them to try again. Some times in desperation you will follow any suggestion given you. They fished all night and came up empty, but who knows. One more try can’t hurt. The cast their nets and immediately the nets were full. At that point John’s eyes were opened and he turned to Peter and said, “It’s the Lord.” Peter immediately recognized Jesus as well.

In the obedience to the word of Jesus, Christ was revealed to them. Jesus is met in the experience of obedience to his word.

The fishing metaphor is an important one in the gospels. At the beginning of his earthly ministry Jesus called his disciples from their family fishing business to follow him. In Mark 1:17 Jesus invited them to, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” Now at the end of his time on earth, before leaving his disciples we find them all back where it started on the side of the lake fishing.

Jesus was not so interested in the disciples having a successful fishing business, but he did want them to be successful at catching people for the kingdom. It was not just a call for the disciples, but also a call for each of us who name the name of Christ. The Great Commission sends us all into the world to share our faith and make disciples for Jesus. We are all called to be fishers of people. Christianity was never meant to be a spectator sport.

We are taught that knowledge is something you acquire through reading books and taking classes. Knowledge is something you are taught. Now trust me I am a firm believer in the importance of reading books and reading extensively. Study is an important part of gaining an understanding of life. But much information is absorbed though habit and experience. The disciples learned know Jesus through walking in obedience to him. There knowledge of who Jesus was happened over time by spending years with him during his earthly ministry, but also spending time with the risen and ascended Christ. Paul who didn’t know Jesus in the flesh speaks of growing in the knowledge and grace of Christ. Knowledge is gained as one walks with the Lord.

When the disciples heeded the words of Jesus and cast their nets on the other side of the boat the nets filled up and upon seeing that John recognized Jesus. In obedience to his word Jesus was revealed.

We have seen that happen in our mission group in Brooklyn. The people who gather each week all loved the Lord and were disciples of him from the start of the group, but over the last year and a half something has happened, and don’t take my word for it, ask those who have attended. As we started to push each other to obey the Lord, as we started to speak to our neighbors and co-workers about Jesus and as we began to pray for one another we began to recognize Jesus in many different areas of our lives. Jesus was recognized in obey his word.

The word of the Lord to us this morning is cast your nets. Well we can certainly argue that we have been casting nets for years. We have been working hard at doing the ministry. Sometimes we haven’t see the success we had planed for. The disciples didn’t row out into the lake that net just for a boar ride. They were looking to catch some fish. They were professionals who knew what they were doing. Yet they were discouraged and ready to pack it in when the word of the Lord came to them and said cast your nets again.

They disciples could have argued that they had tried all night and are tired. They could have reasoned that left side, right side makes no difference. What they did was cast their nets. They cast them against all reason. They were the experienced fishermen. They cast them in spite of the fact that they were tired of working all night. They cast their nets because Jesus told them to.

This morning Jesus is telling us to cast our nets again. We can argue that we have tried and tried. We can say that after reading book after book on the many ways to evangelize we are out of ideas. We can say we have availed ourselves of the best programs the Atlantic District has to offer and we are tired. We can make excuses, even theological one’s like salvation is the work of the Holy Spirit so we don’t really have to do anything but be here. We can make excuses but the word of the Lord has come to us today and that word is, Cast your nets.”

Tonight we start or Manhattan Mission Group in an effort to take what is working in Brooklyn and establish a base here in Manhattan. The plan is a simple one built around a few questions: What is God saying to you from his word? How is he messing with your life? Who has he brought into your life for kingdom purposes? How is the conversation going?

What is God saying to you from his word? To hear from God you must be in his word. We want to hold each other accountable for reading the word of God not just as a routine but also with the purpose of listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit. If Christianity is a relationship with Jesus relationships involve interaction. So what is God saying to you?

How is God messing with you? This is a phrase my friend Greg Finke uses and it is a good one. If the Holy Spirit is active in your life and is working to conform you to the image of Jesus than your life can’t just go on. You can’t continue to live after the ways of this world. God is challenging you to live differently. How is that taking place? We want to pray for one another and help each other see how God is moving.

Who is in your life for kingdom purposes? We are to make disciples as we go through life. Israel was to be a kingdom and draw the nations to God. The church, us are to go out into the world and make disciples. What does that mean? In order to do that we need to see who God has brought into our lives for the express purpose of witnessing to them what God is doing to and with us so that they might be drawn to him.

And then a practical question, how is the conversation going? Most people want to witness for Jesus but either don’t know how or are afraid and need a push. We want to make this group the gentle push to encourage ourselves to do what we know we are called to do.

The final and most important thing we will be doing is praying for each other. We want to pray for each other’s personal struggles and we want to pray for the success of our personal ministries. Prayer changes everything. Some of the changes we have made in our service regarding prayer have been the result of discussions and prayer that has taken place in the Brooklyn group. We have opened up our corporate prayer time in the service for you to pray for your needs and concerns and we started a prayer box in the church for neighbors to leave their concerns for prayer.

God is on the move. He has not stopped working in midtown Manhattan. He is not finished with us. After the resurrection the disciples went back to the things as they were; they returned to fishing. Jesus came along and reminded them that he had called them to something else. We can just go along and hope for the best. Or we can make excuses for why nothing ever changes. But Jesus is standing by and he has a word for us this morning, “Cast your nets again.” Come join us as we continue to fish for people in this city where God has called us.

Thomas wasn’t always a doubter. He wasn’t always the one who said show me first and then I will believe. In fact at one point Thomas was an encourager of trust in Jesus.

In John 11 Jesus and his disciples get word that Lazarus was very sick. Jesus and the twelve had recently left Judea because the rulers there were conspiring to arrest Jesus and put him to death. Upon hearing of Lazarus’ condition Jesus does nothing for the first few days. The disciples think it is because Jesus was a wanted man and he feared returning to Judea. This shows how little they understood about Jesus. Fear was never a factor in his decision making process.

Final Jesus turns to his disciples and tells them it is time to attend to Lazarus. Their first reaction was, “we just left there Jesus, don’t you remember they wanted to stone you when we were in Judea?”

Jesus tells them they must go because brother Lazarus was sleeping. Jesus meant he was dead, but they disciples thought he was taking a nap. “If he is asleep he will wake up and be fine,” was their response.

Jesus became real clear. “Lazarus is dead.”

Only one voice rises to the occasion and encourages following Jesus no matter what the cost and that voice belongs to Thomas. “Let us also go that we may die with him.” Now I understand that this is not a striking example of strong, thought out faith yet Thomas, thinking that this was the probably the end of his life he was willing to follow Jesus.

Jesus was alive and standing with Thomas. Thomas was so in love with Jesus that he was willing to go with him anywhere even if it cost him his life. No doubting Thomas at this point.

This situation though difficult was understandable to Thomas. Jesus was a great man in his eyes. Thomas had been with the twelve since the beginning. He saw the miracles and experienced first hand the power of Jesus. This was a difficult call, but I can see Thomas getting this one right. There are certain situations that we find ourselves in that even though they are difficult we understand them and know what it is we should be doing.

There have been numerous times in my life where I just knew that the Lord was leading me to do something that was clear and though it required faith to trust him still the path was clear. Coming to this church was one of those moments. Everything point to the fact that God was calling me to this church. That is not to say there were not moments of uncertainty. I had been out of the Lutheran church for over 30 years. Coming back and having to go through the steps to make that happen were not difficult but they were a bit unsettling. Having to travel to St. Louis to meet with the colloquy team to defend my beliefs to see if I was clear on Lutheran doctrine was a bit unnerving. A number of people before me were asked to take some classes to bring them up to speed. I never attended a Lutheran seminary. It was my acquired knowledge through my own reading, my non-Lutheran seminary education and the Holy Spirit. If God had called me, which I believe that he had, he would have to get me through. There was a clear path before me, I believed that Jesus was calling me to follow him down that path, and the path was understandable.

Thomas was uncertain of the outcome, but he know that he was with Jesus and whatever happened it was okay because he was going with him.

We meet Thomas again in John 14. It is a very familiar passage. I used to pastor a church with a cemetery attached to the building and for a while I did a lot of funeral. This is a popular passage at funeral services. “Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are man rooms. If it were not so would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”

Jesus had been speaking to the disciples about what was to come to pass shortly. He spoke about the means of his death. Jesus told them he would be with them for a little while and then he would be gone, but he would return again. After washing the disciples feet and dismissing Judas he makes this statement. Here we are at the end of Jesus’ earthly life, the disciples have been with him for three years and still they don’t know what is going on.

Thomas’ reply to Jesus saying that they know the way was, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” After three years in the school of Jesus Thomas still doesn’t know what is going on with Jesus.

Can you relate, I can. After walking with the Lord for forty years I still get those moments where I am not sure what is going on and what Jesus is doing in my life. To Jesus call to follow me I respond with the question, where are we going?

Like Thomas I have my moments of confusion and to be honest the longer I walk with the Lord the less clear things seem to be. The more I know and learn about Jesus just reveals to me how little I really do know about him and his plans for my life.

So we see Thomas as a man of faith and we see him as one unaware of what God is doing in his life. He comes to us as someone we can relate to.

The next time we meet Thomas is after the resurrection. Up until now Thomas, though a disciple, is a man steeped in this world. He is one of us.

Jesus, after the resurrection, appears to his disciples, who are locked in a room fearful of what the Jewish authorities well do to them. Thomas is not with them. After Jesus leaves them they run into Thomas and tell him what had taken place. Thomas, a man of this world who did not get the idea of Jesus preparing a place for his disciples in the future kingdom was not ready to believe that Jesus rose from the dead. Not so sure I would either given the circumstances.

Thomas has moved from a world he understood to one that was beyond his comprehension and this is where faith gets more difficult to grasp. When it was a matter of going to Judea and face possible death at the hands of the Jewish leaders Thomas could comprehend the situation and even though the future was understandable it required faith that God was in control. But now he stands on new territory. The man Jesus he had grown to love and trust was put to death and laid in a tomb, it was common knowledge. Now he is being asked to believe that that same Jesus who was dead and buried was now alive and meeting with his disciples. Thomas’ response was, show me.

Before you start pointing fingers take a look in the mirror. How often are you faced with uncertainty and Jesus asks you to trust him? Are you in a situation now that you have no control over and is Jesus saying, trust me?

How often do we ask God for proof before we will believe him? Life in the Christian world is often grey. Jesus gives us just enough for us to hold on to and then he says trust me. Even when we have a clear word from the Lord, often times we doubt.

We live in a world of science. We ask for proof of everything and as knowledge increases our understanding of the world deepens. The very nature of scientific exploration is based on testing what we have and seeing the results. The problem is that science can only work with what we already can know, touch and feel. It takes the reality we understand and tests it to come to new and better conclusions. God is outside of our understanding and therefore his existence cannot be tested scientifically. Therefore science cannot prove God and we are left with faith. Not blind faith for we base our faith on the revealed will of God. But even that is the work of the Holy Spirit within us.

Thomas like us was asked to believe in what was beyond our natural understanding. So he asked to see before he could believe. But ultimately like us Thomas was asked to believe the word of God. Jesus told him that he would die and rise again. That was the moment of faith for Thomas and to be honest the other disciples. They in fact all had to see before they believed. We don not get that opportunity. We are blessed because we believe without seeing.

Be kind to brother Thomas he is just like you and I. Learn from him. What God reveals to us in his word is true. We are simple asked to believe with the promise we will see later.

The history of the world from the biblical perspective is the story of creation (and God said it was very good), the fall (mankind rebelled against God, which is the world we see all around us), and redemption (the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come).

In his letter to the Corinthians Paul in one sentence lays out our dilemma and our challenge. We are in the world but not of the world. We live in a body that is in steady decay and we have eternal life flowing through our veins. We are green card holding citizens living on this plant but our citizenship is in the city whose builder and maker is God.

There was a popular statement going around a number of years ago that even if heaven did not exist it is worth it to serve Jesus anyway. This is not Paul’s perspective. If Christianity is a set of moral principles, then serving Jesus in the here and now might have some value. If the purpose of religion is to make us good people, to teach us moral values, and to make us good citizens than it has its place. That is the argument of the people of this world who say that all religions teach the same truths. The feel good politically correct, who want to offend no one try to lump all religions together because if they are followed and all you need to do is pick one, any one the world would be a better place. This is the liberal (religious not political sense) understanding of the role of the church.

If you ask a person if they are saved and there response is, I hope so, they are more then likely participating in religion because they long to be a good person. This, I believe is the basis for the argument that we are declining as a society because we took prayer out of the public schools, or that they are trying to take one nation under God out of the pledge, that by the way was not in the original version. It’s the idea that religion makes us better people here on earth.

If making us better people was the sole reason for Jesus coming than he died in vain. If his purpose was to teach us moral truth the resurrection has no meaning. That is why people believe they can hold Jesus up as a good man and not hold to the resurrection. A religion that teaches that Jesus was a good man and if we follow his teaching we too will become good people is anti-Christian at best.

Here is Paul’s take on the morality of religion debated. “If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” You want to know why the world has no place for our God; he is irrelevant. If I can remain the same in my life without dealing with the sin question, if I come to church to find self-esteem and validation of my humanity why bother. It sounds like a good idea to open the doors to everyone with out requiring any change, and it will work for a while, but if that is the whole reason for church the reality is that it has nothing to offer.

Paul doesn’t say that if our hope of Jesus is only in this world we are misguided but there is still some value. No, he says if our hope in Jesus is only in this world we are to be pitied, and I would argue we are receiving just judgment by the world.

This is Easter; we have come through the long week of the Passion. Jesus has been betrayed but a friend, arrested and falsely convicted, deserted by all of his followers and put to death. This day, the first day of the week we gather to celebrate that when they women went to the tomb to complete his burial the tomb was empty. The angels asked them. “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” Jesus was alive and this is the hope of the church. Jesus is the first fruits of those who have died. When he burst forth from the tomb he led the way for all who have died in faith.

This event started the beginning of the end. Jesus defeated sin and death when he got up that first Easter morning. When he got up the age of the dominance of the sin of end came to an end. We are living in the time between. The death and resurrection reality must take place in each individual. We are all born dead in our trespasses and sin but because of Easter there is hope. All who call upon the Lord shall be saved. Everyone born in sin has the choice to accept Jesus and enter into newness of life. One by one the kingdom manifests itself and will continue to do so until the return of Jesus when he will finally make all things right.

Our hope is not to fix this world by making dead people play fair. Our hope is in the resurrection that makes dead people live again. When Jesus got up he started the process that will end when he comes again in glory to take us to himself. It is the beginning of the end.

But it is the beginning for all who have faith in Jesus. Now following Jesus will cause us to improve the way we live but lets be honest there are unsaved people in the world who live better lives than some of us in the church. Resurrection life moves us into eternity based solely on God’s grace. Believing sinners get to heaven not good people.

So for those of us who are born again we are in the unique situation of living eternal life here and now. Our hope is not in this world but in the world to come. Our charge it to take the message of the gospel to the lost all around us. That is a decidedly different thing than hope to change the world through good moral teaching.

Moral teaching has no power. Sin is all-pervasive. This is why political correctness can never work. We can pretend to avoid peoples’ shortcomings but they don’t go away because we will them to. They have been many studies showing that our prejudices are deep within us. Often we act instinctively in ways that we contrary to what we say we believe. To try and teach people to just get along doesn’t work. That is why we have laws. The Civil Rights struggle in this country is a good example. From the founding of this country blacks have been oppressed and it wasn’t until there were law put in place to stop certain behavior did we see any change. But what didn’t happen was that people learned to like each other. Laws forced the end of unjust behavior it did not change attitudes. Though there is has been great strides forward we are still in many ways a divided nation because the nature of sin still prevails. When you make salvation, change, dependant on making good moral decisions you leave people frustrated because sin makes all such efforts futile.

Resurrection is a different thing entirely. When you make salvation dependant on the defeat of sin there is hope. When Jesus rose from the dead he defeated sin. It no longer has power to hold us. It does not promise us bliss in this life, in fact Jesus tells us just the opposite. The saved shall suffer persecution in this life but we rest assured in hope of the life to come.

The world might hate us for our message if we declare the coming kingdom but there is no basis for pity. The early church faced persecution willingly because they believed in the world to come. Even Jesus endured the cross for the glory that was set before him. We believe that the resurrection of Jesus is the first fruit of the resurrection of all those who believe in him.

Don’t get caught up in trying to make people good. Declare the gospel message and the hope of eternal life and lead people to salvation.

What is the kingdom of God like? It is a question that is often asked and one that Jesus continues to answer in parables. It almost has to be that way because the kingdom is something we both experience and in some ways is beyond our understanding. We live in this world but are not of it and we live in the kingdom in the here and now but we wait for its coming. So Jesus tells us about things we understand so that we can get a glimpse of what we cannot understand.

In our text this morning we are given two parables about the kingdom. The first is about a farmer who scatters seed and the second is about the nature of a mustard seed. These are both relevant parables for us as we seek the growth and nurture of the kingdom here on earth.

“The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.” In this opening line we are giving our job description. We have been sent into all the world to declare the kingdom. What does that mean? How is that done?

I have a feeling that most people think it involves some kind of strategy, some marketing plan. We need a program, good material, the right environment, etc. Everything needs to be in place in order to spread the kingdom. So we read books on marketing, we set goals and objectives, we read more books and make more planes. Nothing happens the way we plan it and we get discouraged. We count numbers and seek to quantify and qualify our results. In the end not much gets done.

Now don’t get me wrong. Planning is a good thing. Using all the gifts and talents available is a responsibility that we have before God. All I am saying is that we tend to make it more difficult than it is and we take what belongs to God and put it on ourselves. God prepares the heart of the receiver. You and I cannot. We can’t convince people to believe in Jesus and we can’t make them come to Christ; that is the work of the Holy Spirit. So than what is our job description?

The kingdom is like a man scattering seed. Our job is to through seeds of the kingdom wherever we go. The farmer walks into his field and starts scattering the seed. We want to pot our seeds. We think of evangelism as getting a pot nurturing the soil, putting in one seed and watching it day by day. Kingdom planting is not houseplant tending. The farmer scatters the seed. He has fertilized the soil and done what he could but when he plants he scatters the seed everywhere. In another parable Jesus will talk about the different soils the seed will land upon but for us this morning the word is scatter the seed. As you go, wherever you go, in word and deed spread the kingdom. Let kingdom talk flow easily from your lips and let kingdom action become a natural part of who you are.

Notice what Jesus says next. The farmer goes to bed. His work is done until the harvest. He goes through his life doing what he does and the seed does what it does. The farmer has no control over the growth of the seed. Once the seed grows he is responsible for the harvest but the growth of the seed is another matter.

We fret about the things we are not responsible for and avoid doing the very thing we were called to do. We have been given the job of scattering the seeds. When I get into conversations about church people always want to know numbers and to be honest I too tend to ask how large is the persons church. We have been programmed to count heads. On some level that is important. But from a kingdom perspective, based on our job description maybe a better question is, how many seeds have you scattered today. How many people have been touched by the kingdom through you today?

Success needs to be measured by contacts more than attendance. People in attending church have a different set of needs but that is for another time. If the kingdom is to grow we have to get seeds into the ground. You can plant one seed in a pot and nurture it and watch it grow. If you care for it you will yield a crop but that is not what we have been called to. Kingdom growth is the work of the Holy Spirit. We have been called to scatter seed. Part of our motivation is governed by our expectations. Do you want one perfect plant, maybe, or do you want to see the multitudes come to Jesus.

People complain about the city but we are to be salt and light. We are the instruments of change. Our tool for change is the kingdom. The means of change is our declaration of what we believe. We are not given the privilege to sit back and enjoy the kingdom while we point fingers and talk about how bad the world is getting. We are to take what we have and share it around, liberally, to everyone, everywhere, all the time. But than are not to worry and fret. I get tired of the good old days discussions. Who cares, we are here and now. Whatever soil we have, we are to scatter seeds. In God’s time there will be a harvest.

The second parable talks about the seed not the farmer. Another presupposition we have is that everything must be big. People get freaked out that the average church membership in the Atlantic District is fewer than 60 people. That used to concern me. Why aren’t our churches bigger? That leads to church growth program questions. Maybe 60 members is a good size for a church and maybe just maybe we need a whole lot of 60 member churches. That leads to different questions like how to scatter more seeds and form more churches.

We are called to do little things. That’s a humbling idea isn’t it? I want to do big things, have a big name and be known for big accomplishments. But we are called to do little things. We scatter seeds and it turns out the seeds that we scatter are little seeds. A few fish and loaves of bread feed 5,000 people. A little offering blessed by God feed a multitude.

The farmer scatters the seed and goes about his business. The small mustard seed falls to the ground and God goes to work. A large plant results, so large that birds can nest in it. The big part is up to God.

We have been called to this place to make disciples. I must admit it is a bit overwhelming to minister here. Everyone has a plan to reach this city but in fact there are more failures than successes. The whole culture stands in opposition to the mission of the church. Big plans get squashed. Yet God is at work in this city. There are small opportunities that present themselves everyday. Situations at work, in school, on the steps of the church before service or during the week, in the building you live in or the neighborhood you move in. God is at work creating opportunities, preparing soil to receive seed. So if I think you can turn this town around with your superior plan you will probably experience defeat. Ministries come and go in this town. But if you decide that today you will share the love of Jesus with someone, you will scatter some seed you might be surprised at what God grows.

The little mustard seed grows into a very large bush. A little gospel seed might grow into a huge kingdom branch. Don’t despise small beginnings; in fact embrace them. We have not been called to do big things. Jesus chose 12 insignificant laborers to turn the world around. Don’t think that what you do in unimportant just do it. God will do the rest.

Go out and scatter many little seeds. Do it with abandon. I am sure that God who loves the people of this city more than you do will cause fields of mustard trees to grow.

Jesus is arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high council. When they could not agree to the charges they brought Jesus to Pilate. They accused him of misleading the nation. How so? He allegedly forbad them to give tribute to Caesar, which is something they loathed doing anyway. But didn’t Jesus tell them to render unto Caesar that which was Caesars and to God that which is God’s. They were arguing for arguments sake. This is not about truth but about getting a conviction. There is no conflict really. The accusation was false and Jesus could have defended himself and gotten off. He doesn’t. The trial proceeds.

Pilate asks Jesus if he is he is the king of the Jews to which Jesus replies, “You have said so.” No self defense, no reasoning with Pilate, just a “whatever”. The leaders of the Jews had no real power to deal with Jesus. The right defense and Jesus walks.

Pilate wants nothing to do with Jesus. Finding out he is a Galilean he ships him of to Herod who was over Galilee. Herod is thrilled. He has heard about Jesus and wanted to see him perform a few miracles for his amusement. Jesus refuses to answer his questions. The leaders of the Jews stand by and accuse him, but Jesus refuses to defend himself. Herod takes pleasure in humiliating Jesus who just sits back and takes it.

Does anyone find this story inspiring? If Jesus is God why does he take it? It would be one thing if he defended himself and was still unjustly condemned. Do you really find this story compelling? Everything in my wants to scream, speak up, say something. Be a man. This takes us back to the wilderness temptation. In the wilderness Satan offers Jesus all the kingdoms of this world if he will bow down and worship him. Here Pilate gives Jesus the opportunity to state clearly if he is the king of the Jews. In the first instance Jesus refuses to bow down to Satan, he takes a stand. But here he just blows Pilate off. With Herod he says nothing.

Neither Pilate of Herod found anything wrong with Jesus. Pilate confronts the leaders of the Sanhedrin. He threatens to punish Jesus and let him go. The crowd calls out, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

The end result is a criminal goes free and Jesus the innocent gets condemed. Jesus is hauled of and crucified. The on his way he tells the women not to mourn for him but for themselves.

From the cross Jesus prays for the forgiveness of those who nailed him to the cross. He forgives the sins of one who hung next to him. Jesus hangs until he dies. This is the story of our Savior. He ends up being buried in a borrowed tomb.

Is this the story that you would tell? Is this a story that inspires you? Would this be the story you would write?

Paul tells us that the Jews look for a sign and the Gentiles look for wisdom. What is it that you look for in a savior? Our heroes are the self-made individuals, the entrepreneurs. We long to follow success. It is the strong who get our attention. Put this Jesus, not so sure if he fits the bill.

Now part of the problem is that we compartmentalize or faith. Believing in Jesus has little to do with how we live our lives. It has almost no impact on our values. In an article I read this week it stated that fifty present of white Christians agree with the statement: The idea of America where most people are not white bothers me.” Though this idea is totally contrary to the values of the Gospel, when you compartmentalize your faith you can fool yourself into thinking that it’s okay for your beliefs and your actions to be contradictory because they are not brought together in your mind.

Jesus calls us to follow him and he means it. Over and over again we are reminded that our Christian journey takes us through the cross. We are to take up our cross, the instrument of our death, daily and follow Jesus. If we keep our live we lose it but if we lose it for Jesus sake we find it. We are compared to a seed that must fall to the ground and die if we are going to see new life. We do not have the luxury to declare faith in Jesus and then to go off and live however we want to. That kind of disconnect is no faith at all. We do what we believe.

So we are confronted with this unbelievable story about our savior who willingly goes to death without defending himself. The picture we are left with is that Jesus is a loser. The Son of man while alive didn’t have a place he could call his own. The people who followed him, especially his close disciples, were outcasts, misfits, working class stiffs. He accumulates on fortune, he writes no books, and he essentially dies alone. He is hated and despised by this world. From this position he calls to us, “Come follow me.”

This story only makes sense if Jesus is God. If Jesus is just a man than he fails at his mission and is not worthy of our attention. Give him no thought. But if he is God everything changes. God’s ways are not our ways. In God’s economy the weak overcome the strong. In death we find life. Evil is overcome by good.

The wages of sin is death. There is no way around that fact. In order for sin to be dealt a final blow a sacrifice must be made and the sacrifice must be pure. God takes on flesh and lives among us and his name is Jesus. Jesus lives the perfect life and then offers his life a ransom for many. This story than takes on new meaning; it is not one of defeat but of victory.

Jesus doesn’t defend himself because he is willingly going to the cross to die for your sins and mine. It is not so sick suicide plan on his part. Jesus is sentenced to death, by those who oppose the will of God. Jesus walk to death willingly but here is the twist.

If this is not a story of lose but rather of victory it changes our perspective on what is taking place. That being the case we are called to determine our actions based on our understanding of this story. You see from the cross Jesus bids us follow him. If this is victory than it is the road we are called to walk down. What does that mean?

We are no longer our own. We belong to Jesus, set apart as children of God. Our decisions now must be made in the light of the cross. What does it mean for you in your situation to follow Jesus. James warns us that we can no longer say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.” Our future is not ours to decide. We are now concerned about what the Lord’s will is.

The church is a missional community. We have been placed here to spread the kingdom of God. The kingdom is our top priority. Where we live and work and what we do must be centered around the will of God. We understand that God calls us to our vocation but what we do is still about God’s calling and not our decisions. We don’t decide and ask God to bless our decision. Rather we pray not my will but thy will be done.

This is a prayer that we pray often but do you understand what you are asking? Luther tells us that when we pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we understand that God’s will is always done but we are asking that it be done in us, that we consciously participate in the will.

Lent is a time of reflection so I would ask you to take this thought home with you today. Do some self-reflection about the direction of your life. Are you consciously pursuing the will of God in your life? Are your decisions up for grabs? If God asked you to make a change in your life could you, would you? Or are you making plans and asking God to bless what you have decided to do?

When Jesus said die to self he meant it. When he said your life is not your own but belongs to him, he meant it.

Jesus is headed to the cross. This Friday is Good Friday when we remember the death of Jesus for our sins. But remember he calls us to follow him in death so that we can rise with him in new life. Will you?

When we had our pre-school I used to laugh when parents would call up to put their child on a waiting list for the school. I would ask them how old their child was and they would tell me they weren’t expecting for six months. They had educational goals for their child before they had a child. Where the child went to pre-school would determine where they went to college was the thinking of some of these parents to be. Parents plan for the education for their children, saving early on so that they can afford to send them to college.

We also do that as individuals. We are asked early on in high school to choose our career path. Children are asked what they want to be when they grow up. Once on the job we make decisions about our advancement and start planning for our retirement. It seems like we are always looking forward to something else that lies ahead and never dealing with life in the moment. We are either looking ahead to what might be or looking back at the choices we made. It is the way we are put together. It separates us from the rest of creation.

Goals are very important. A person without goals gets little or nothing done. Setting goals allows us to attack life rather than letting life attack us. The question we must ask ourselves is who determines the goals we set. There is pressure all around us to be conformed to this world. Some people have our best intentions at heart, but not everyone. We have an enemy who will steer us in the wrong direction if we are not careful.

Paul has a slightly different take on things. Paul is certainly a planner, a goal setter. The places he chooses to go to preach are well thought out and prayed about. From early on we see Paul as a man who is on a mission to get something done.

Paul, then Saul was a Pharisee who was deeply steeped in his religious world. When he saw the church as a threat to his world he set out to stop its spread. He was calling his own people to holiness as he understood it and he was doing all in his power to stop the church that he saw as a threat, by having its leaders arrested.

We get caught up in our past. Regret is a big issue for older people. It is the foundation of middle age crisis. You get to a certain point in life and looking back you begin to question all your past decisions. Did I do the right thing, make the right choices or follow the right career path. Paul was a man who could have been paralyzed by regret.

But the thing about the past is that it cannot be reclaimed. Whatever choices you made have been made and you can’t go back. In my teenage years I did a lot of running around outside of the will of God. Wasted years that I cannot reclaim. I struggled for my whole life dealing with my shortcomings and the sin that can so easily grab hold of me. I am sure I am not alone in this.

Paul is clearheaded on this point. Do you think you wasted much of your time coming up? Maybe you feel you are wasting your time now and would like to see some change. Paul said he counted everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus. The reality is that everything in the past, good and bad is pretty worthless compared to knowing Christ Jesus as Lord. Even the good that we do doesn’t add up to much before Jesus. Even our righteousness is filthy rags before the Father.

Your efforts to improve your life can’t bring about the anticipated goals you desire. Cleaning up one’s life by one owns strength is an effort in futility. That being said we have not been given a license to sin.

I believe our problem comes down to the goals that we set for ourselves. To often we are legalists at heart. We set goals to be better people, to change our behavior, to put an end to bad behavior. The focus is all about the self. It is an ongoing effort to manage our lives that becomes overwhelming and eventually ends in defeat.

Paul’s goal unlike many of ours is not to be a better person. There is a myth floating around that having religion makes one a better person. Unfortunately the facts bear out the truth that many truly religious people have done some horrible things and stood on the side of injustice in the name of god. Paul doesn’t say I have done something’s in the past that I am refusing to deal with but have determined to do better in the future. That is moralism. It is the effort to do the right thing. The problem is on my own I can’t.

Paul says he has no control over the pass so he moves on and forgets about it. It is water under the bridge. He doesn’t have a righteousness of his own that comes from keeping the law. The law does not make one righteous because we cannot keep it. What the law does is show us we are sinners, lost, and without hope.

Here in lies the strength of Paul’s argument. His righteousness comes from faith in Christ Jesus. Paul’s righteousness and ours is a gift from God. Fait allows us to know Jesus and the power of his resurrection. Paul’s faith lets him share in the sufferings of Christ so that his old nature could die. You see we are to die with Jesus. All our works good and bad are to die with Jesus. All of our past is to die with Jesus. All our efforts to self improve has to die with Jesus so that we can rise with him in newness of life.

Here is the strength and the essence of what Paul is calling us too. First he admits he still has not attained. That should be a word of comfort to each of us. The great Apostle Paul was still working on his relationship with Jesus. You never get it totally right in this life. He wasn’t perfect and neither are you. Knowing that you will always come up short is a freeing truth if, and here is the catch, your goal is Jesus.

Paul states that even though he comes up short he continually presses in. He wants to make the truth of Christ his own. Why is this so important? Jesus made Paul his own and so Paul strives to make Jesus his own.

What do you do with the cross? On it Jesus purchased your life and made you his own. That being said what is the purpose of your life? Do you seek personal glorification or do you seek to make Jesus and all that he stands for your own?

Again Paul states that he has done nothing on his own. But he does one thing and that is having put his past behind him he presses toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Forget to past and press for the goal. Not just any goal, but press for the upward call, or as translated in other versions, the high call of God in Christ Jesus.

Setting goals is good. Through out our lives on many different levels we are called to set goals. The question this morning is what is your ultimate goal. At the end of your life what is it that you want people to say about you. Paul was a tent maker and I would bet a pretty good one, but know one remembers the great tents that Paul made. Paul is remembered as a follower of Jesus. He was willing to face arrest and even death for the knowledge. What about you?

Are you known as a follower of Jesus? Is the most important goal of you life to know Jesus? Goal setting changes behavior. If I want to be a master plumber I apprentice myself to someone who can teach me the trade. If I want to be a good teacher I find a mentor who can instruct me and I read all I can about the latest teaching methods. To be good at something means I must learn all I can about the subject from wherever I can get the information. If your goal is to be Christ like you must do the same thing.

How are you spending your time? What are you reading? Are you known as one who spends time with Jesus?

I am pushing ahead with establishing more mission groups. We have one on Tuesday night in Brooklyn and starting in April there will be one here on Sunday nights. If you are serious about your walk with the Lord joining a group is important. To attain Jesus requires that you surround yourself with like minded people, that you learn for those who have gone before you whether alive or gone to be with the Lord. It means being in the word and prayer.

You can get stalled by your past; regret can bring your life to a halt. You can get sidetracked but trying to straighten out your life on your own; moaralism doesn’t work. Or you can reach out in faith, encouraged in your journey by others on the same quest to press on the goal of attaining Jesus. Come lets walk together reaching for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.